#based of that one scene in madam secretary

[child-of-icarus]

[rosekiller babysitting Harry and Luna]

Evan: You need to tell Reg and James about the incident. Or James, at least

Barty: It wasn’t an incident, it was an accident. Just a sprained ankle

Evan: Incident or accident, it was still your fault, Bee

Barty: For the last time, it was not my fault

Luna: You’re in denial uncle Bat

Harry: [on crutches] Totally your fault

Barty: You just said you were fine

Barty: And it was NOT my fault

...

Barty: Oh my god this was my fault wasn’t it

Evan: Yup

Barty: Oh fuck Reggie’s gonna kill me isn’t he

Evan: I’m sure he won’t—

Barty: I BROKE HIS KID ROSIE, HES GONNA MURDER ME

[londonhalcyon]

Witchy coworkers! I was going through some of my old docs, and I found a tiny handful of unfinished Merula & Kathy snips that I had written just for fun. They have a delightful relationship behind the scenes.

* * * *

[July 1996]

“Sometimes,” she said, her voice a detached calm, “I want to burn the whole world down.”

Merula asked, “What’s stopping you?”

Leigh turned her head towards her. She blinked, as if seeing through a fog—however temporarily. “There are still some good things. Or one, at least.”

“Yeah? And when you lose that one good thing?”

“‘When’?”

“Good things don’t last.”

“I won’t let that happen. Not to this one.”

“Won’t make a difference.”

“I won’t.”

“Bad things happen regardless of what you want. Madam Bones—”

Leigh grabbed Merula’s tie, yanking her closer. Eyes fierce, her nails dug into Merula’s skin through her clothes. The whiskey was strong on her breath. “Don’t.”

Merula didn’t flinch. She didn’t fight back. There was nothing to fight. The girl was drunk and weak. She was a tiny bundle of reeds that barely reached Merula’s eye level. She wasn’t a duelist; she was a secretary. And she was grieving.

“If I have nothing else to live for,” she said hoarsely, “what good will the rest of the world do me?” She released Merula, and then she raised her wand. “Incendio.”

She said the word so calmly, in that same detached manner as before. A jet of flames shot to the nearest training dummy. Those flames burned white hot, so intense Merula could feel the heat from where she stood. And they kept growing hotter.

Leigh’s detached expression didn’t change once. Not as the dummy cracked and popped, spitting burning wood. Not as molten metal dripped onto the training mat, searing black holes through the fabric. Not as Merula began to tug at her collar, sweating uncomfortably beneath her robes. Not even as those flames flared a pure, vivid, brilliant blue.

Merula had only ever managed to make the base of her Fire-Making Spells blue—while sober, and that was at the peak of her concentration…or the peak of her rage. And Leigh was standing there, motionless, expressionless, while pure scorching blue flame reduced the dummy to a melted, charred stump.

She was panting when she stopped, beads of sweat rolling down her face. She wiped her upper lip with the back of her hand. Merula hadn’t been sure the girl was breathing until now.

Merula said, “Bugger me.” Now, she thought, might just be one of those rare—extremely rare—moments to reevaluate her prior assumptions. This woman could kill her, given the right motivation. Merula was certain of that.

* * * *

[A little over a year later, talking about their time in the Frog Choir]

“I have a little sister,” Kathy said, sounding congested. She wiped her nose. “You weren’t unfamiliar.”

“I was a monster,” Merula said, only half-joking.

“Oh, please. You were nothing more than a child. Temperamental, certainly, who’d had the misfortune of being taught that kindness is conditional and attention must be sought. You were insufferable, not incomprehensible. Hardly what I would call a monster.”

“You still had to suffer me.”

“Yeah, but it’s easy to forgive you for it now. You’ve grown up into someone bearable.”

* * * *

[Part of the same conversation; I have no idea what Merula says before this]

“That’s what my therapist says.”

“You have a therapist?” Merula asked.

“My brain is held together by Spellotape and antidepressants. She prevents it from being more banjaxed than it already is, bless her.”

[serena-waldorf]

Fan Fiction I would write if I could actually get my sh*t together:

Some kind of Tegan and Annalise fics based on Sleepover by Hayley Kiyoko and Hey, I'm Just Like You by Tegan and Sara (so cliché I know 😂)

An angsty Tegan and Annalise story where Annalise tells Tegan the entire story about the car accident and losing the baby.

I have so many random ideas/headcanons for Tegan and Annalise fluff but no cohesive story ideas lol. But I have random snippets and images in my mind of Tegan and Annalise celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas together, and travelling the world together, salsa dancing together, and chilling/having fun on the beach together after Tegan takes the millions she got from orchestrating the hit on Jorge, retires early and buys a beach house for her and Annalise in the Dominican Republic 😂

I'd finish My Madam Secretary WIP where Stevie gets pregnant from 5 years ago? I'd have to check but I think the last time I updated it was in 2015 lol. I was FLOORED when I got a review on it a few months ago. Someone must have been bored in quarantine lol. I got over my Madam Secretary hyperfixation but still have vague ideas and memories for what I wanted to do with that one and how I wanted to finish it.

I have another Madam Secretary idea for an AU that I'll probably never write where Elizabeth has a much younger cousin who she is estranged from who drops by the state department unexpectedly one day and ends up staying with the McCord's for a time but she's very irresponsible, rebellious and flighty. She causes all kinds of problems and wreaks havoc on the McCord family during her stay.

I don't think I will write this but I did have a funny headcanon of Bill and Hillary Clinton watching 90 Day Fiance by accident (or like coming across it somehow) and getting sucked in during quarantine and then getting addicted to it like the rest of the world 😂😂😂 But it would have to be a VERY crack-y, slightly unrealistic and fluffy fic I think lol.

I have another Billary idea I've had for YEARS and never written a word of that is kind of similar to my current WIP but not really? It would be a post 2016 election AU where they have another daughter a few years younger than Chelsea (so she's in her early thirties) and she's the complete opposite of Hillary and Chelsea in personality and career and life choices. She's closer to Bill in personality but she's an actress so she's more of a creative type compared to the rest of the family. And she's dating a rapper (at least at the beginning of the story). She gets along with Bill but her relationships with Hillary and Chelsea are more strained at first. But this fic would probably be VERY self indulgent lol and I worry that it would become more the OC's story and less of a Billary fic so idk if people would be interested? Let me know. Maybe I'll attempt to write it or start it somehow one day and see how it goes. You never know.

This is more of an original fiction idea that might work better as a TV show than a story BUT I have an idea for something Grace and Frankie and Dead To Me esque. A thirtysomething actress has it all. Her career is finally going in the right direction, she's engaged to a fellow famous actor and musician and they just moved into their dream home (Person A and B). However the fiancé's less successful younger brother (Person X) is a struggling musician trying to break into the industry. He asks to move in with A and B when his mom kicks him out of her basement so A and B are generous enough to let him stay with them until he can figure out a better situation. But PLOT TWIST, his new girlfriend (Person Y) wants to move in too and the girlfriend is an older 40something year old trophy wife who just got out of a VERY high profile relationship with either a politician or an actor. She has nowhere else to go after her marriage broke up because she was cheating on her husband with Person X. X and Y are in love with each other so X asks A and B if she can move in too and knowing that Y's ex husband is abusive trash, they allow it even though A knows Y and Y knows A from around the Hollywood scene and their respective reputations. And they HATE each other but have to come together and find at least a grudging mutual respect for each other for the sake of their spouses if they're going to be living under the same roof. And maybe it eventually turns into more than just respect and friendship between the two ladies...

(the original fiction idea makes more sense in my head than it does on paper lol)

[elianabwrites]

100 Days of Posting

Hello Everyone! I know I have been gone for a long time with so many “I’m Back!” posts with no follow through but with this challenge I am going to try to get back into a posting schedule! Now, for my version of the 100 Day challenge I am going to have a few different topics to touch up on since I have so much time in a day to be productive. I will be posting about my writing, and I am still working on the same fantasy series that I have been for years and I’ll talk more about my process with that below! I will also touch upon my hobbies, interests, and interesting topics I am learning about in school. I’m not one to shy away from what other people think are controversial topics and I hope to open up conversations on here! Also, I will be posting about the day before so as to incorporate the entire day into my post and share the most that I can. If you want to do the challenge with me (please do, I would love to hear about what you’re learning/interested in) then please tag your posts with #EB100DaysChallenge and I will do my best to check up on them every day and interact with the community! 

If you don’t feel liking reading the whole thing at least reply with your thoughts/experiences/etc!

What forms of media do you like best? Which ones help you get motivated and why?

For my witches - What called you to your craft and how did you get started? What type of witch are you? and what do you wish the general public knew about witchcraft/Wicca/etc?

If you’re writing a book or series what are some blocks you faced and how did you overcome them?

What is your story about? Brag about it please!

How do you envision your scenes? Do you share any of my ways of imagining and connecting with them?

What are you majoring/minoring/ studying right now? Why did you choose that particular field of study? and what is the most interesting thing you have learned recently and how do you feel about it?

Day 1 of 100 - 04/08/2020

Today was such a low energy day and since my sleeping pattern has been so messed up recently I am up at all hours of the night and sleeping all day. Between public health issues and politics I have been so very distracted and have been having a hard time getting into my school work, writing projects, hobbies, and other interests. 

I’m breaking down this post into these topics:

Miscellaneous & Media

Writing

MISCELLANEOUS & MEDIA

Because of all of this I took most of the day to relax and recharge. I watched Madam Secretary on Netflix (for the 400th time) and listened to some of my favorite albums and songs (Hamilton was definitely in there) and cuddled with my dog. What are some of your favorite forms of media? I love Madam Secretary because it really reflects a lot of what I want to do in my career and I simply love the main character and her family. As for Hamilton, well, not to sound cliche but I really relate to the main character because I feel like I’m always writing (~non-stop~) and I think I have a revolutionary, humanistic way of looking at the world which I believe he had as well. Anyway, I usually try to use these forms of media to get into my school work and personal interests.

I’ve also been getting into learning about witchcraft, not the fantastical version, but rather the spiritual practice. Although not all witches/witchcraft are Wicca it is an example of a belief system that practices it. I am not even a baby witch in my opinion because my journey has only just begun but the thing I find I love most about witchcraft so far is that it is really based on learning. You learn about herbs and the earth, you learn new spells and different forms of magick, there is so much history and diversity to uncover - It is just amazing! Also, the inclusiveness is so refreshing considering as a member of the LGBT community I find it hard to fit in other belief systems.

WRITING

Okay, so, like, I have no excuses. I kind of suck at actually writing this book of mine but it is okay because I have not given up yet (well, I have but I always come back to it!). 

If you don’t know, or don’t remember because let’s be honest its been at least 3000 years, I am writing a series that I have been referring to as Blood Will Run. I have been rather stuck in the plotting and world building stages but I am hoping to finally, FINALLY, move on to drafting it in its entirety soon. 

I would consider myself a rather reflective person and naturally have thought and reflected far too much about why I have been so stagnant in my writing and I came to these conclusions:

I have been so caught up in writing the perfect story, with the perfect characters, writing devices, syntax, plot, etc.

I have been too focused on reading and researching any and all writing advice I can find.

I have lost the feeling of my story and, like many writers have been discovering lately, I think I have been forcing myself into being a plotter when I think I would be far happier as a partial discovery writer, at least for my first draft. 

I want my series to mean something, similar to Fahrenheit 451, Harry Potter, 1984, and Catcher in the Rye to name a few. This is, of course, a tall almost unattainable order which is very discouraging.

So, in an attempt to reclaim my story from my incredibly high standards I am returning to my old way of writing, even though I am deeply embarrassed by it. I am going to imagine my scenes, act them out from my characters different points of view, and write without thinking of how it could be better. Although, because I am trying to write a series I need to do a little more plotting (aahhh I hope I don’t fall into the plotting trap again) so as to understand where each of my books start and end and the pace that they necessitate. I’ll write more details and such about my story in my next post so stay tuned if you’re interested!

Also, if anyone needs help with plotting I love working out plot lines, backstories, and everything related to world building! Send me a message, if there’s enough people maybe we can start a little group!

SCHOOL

I know, I know. School is not everyone’s favorite thing to talk about but I am the biggest nerd and I love it so so SOOO much! I am going into my Junior year of college and am studying criminal justice with a concentration in international and transnational crimes. I absolutely love my major and reading my textbook is as fun as reading Percy Jackson was when I was younger. I chose this major because I hope to one day work for an organization such as UNICEF, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Rescue Committee or anything along those lines. I have always had a need to help people, specifically children and at an international level.

Recently, I have learned that the United States is the only country within the UN member states that has not ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of a Child which is the most comprehensive human rights treaty in the world. Also, in the United States victims of child human trafficking are often those under the governments purview such as foster children as well as children that have slipped through the cracks of society and are homeless and hungry. Although the topics can be rather depressing I love learning about it because it means I am one step closer to, and a little more capable of, and more passionate about helping the world in whatever way I can. I am also very interested in learning about different cultures and how to help them without enforcing my own way of life upon them as a means to further develop their society. Every day I worry about and diligently work against perpetuating the infamous white savior complex and hope that I can avoid it in my future professional pursuits.

I really love talking about schools, majors, minors, and everything related to college so if anyone out there needs any advice or just wants a non-judgmental sounding board for ideas my messages are open to you!

I think I’ll wrap it up here as I’m not too confident with writing posts like this yet. I hope I wasn’t to terribly boring and that at least someone read to this part of the post and if not than I suppose I have 99 more days to entice you to read past my title. I hope you are all happy and healthy and staying inside as much as possible!

[iowagirlwrites]

TWW - Season 1, Episode 3: A Proportional Response

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes of The West Wing.

Why?

Because this is the episode where we meet Charlie Young (Dulé Hill).

If forced to pick a favorite character on the show I would struggle and then probably pick Charlie. I have had a crush on Rob Lowe most of my life but Charlie is the truest character. He’s kind. He’s loyal. He’s brilliant. He’s selfless in the way he cares for his sister.

The first moment you meet Charlie you can tell he’s uncomfortable. He knows he’s in the wrong place. He applied for a mailroom job, but you immediately know that he is meant for more than the mailroom. His awkward interview with Josh which leads to Josh expressing concern about the optics of a young black man opening the door for a white president is understandable but also infuriating. Someone worth of a job shouldn’t be prevented from it because of the optics. 

So much happens in the episode. We learn about the value of a proportionate response. Something that as a political junkie I have heard a number of times from talking heads on TV, in the political books and memoirs I read regularly, and from just about every other politically based TV show. I recently watched all of Madam Secretary for the first time and the same debate about a proportionate response takes place in that show as well. 

Side note - if you don’t watch Madam Secretary add it to your Netflix queue. It’s a brilliant show with a different vantage point on DC politics than The West Wing. I have been reading Ben Rhoades book “The World As It Is” and consuming episodes of Pod Save the World more because a show centered completely around foreign policy is trying to help me forget about the fucking shitshow going on in Washington right now. I was sick today and spent most of the day in bed with CNN on. Listening to Attorney General Barr and Secretary Mnuchin testify before different committees was nauseating and infuriating -- thank god for Maxine Waters!

Okay...back to The West Wing.

There is more about Sam and the callgirl in this episode which honestly is a storyline that I never enjoyed. I thought she was a good character but it just fell flat with me. It’s not like they were ever going to end up together romantically so it was just a scenario in which Sam tried to play savior for a woman who clearly didn’t need him to do that.

The scenes in the oval with Charlie for the first time are my favorite. Bartlet furious because he can’t find his glasses and Charlie using his deductive reasoning skills to immediately know where they are but feel as if he’s done something wrong because Bartlet is stressed and emotional at the loss of his friend. Josh trying to tell him that it’s okay and that it’s just been a rough day in the West Wing as Charlie gets called back in. The fact that the President learned the story of Charlie’s mother being killed in the line of duty as a police officer in DC, did research on it and asked him to join them in the fight to remove the specific weapon and bullet that killed his mother from circulation and sale is a moving scene. My favorite relationship throughout the entire show is that of President Barlet and Charlie. It’s the father/son relationship neither of them got to have. It’s emotional, touching, and shows such a genuine love between two people who are very different from each other while stilll sharing so much common ground. 

I just watched the scene where Barlet offers him the job. I was a little behind on these blogs because I decided mid-way through the third episode to write them and didn’t finish the third episode until just now. I stopped writing, looked up at the TV at the interaction and felt the tear stream down my face that does every time. The feeling of being in the Oval may never get old to the staff and the feeling of watching this show and being so inspired by the characters never gets old for me either.

Season 1, Episode 4: Five Votes Down

And hopefully some sleep becuase it’s 2:35 am and despite nearly falling asleep at 10:45 reading “Becoming” by Michelle Obama I am now wide awake because I feel sick again, which is a bummer because I was going to go see Captain Marvel tomorrow which I should’ve done a month ago. It’s one of the shitty parts of dealing with chronic illness and massively debilitating anxiety. Movie theaters and I aren’t friends. But I need to see this so I can see Endgame at the end of the month. 

[bright-molina]

2018 in review

Rules: answer the questions about 2018 and tag some people!

Tagged by: I saw bellameblake do this and thought it looked fun and why not spread a little positivity? 

Top 5 films you watched in 2018:

Christopher Robin; I cried guys I grew up with Winnie the Pooh and watching this movie made me so happy :’)

Antman and the Wasp; this movie deserves all the love and that’s that

Ralph Breaks the Internet; so in case you hadn’t realized, I watch a ton of kids movies cause of my brothers lmao but this one I would definitely go see again cause it was honestly so good

Avengers Infinity War; do I even have to say anything? 

Dumplin’; I know I just watched this movie yesterday but guys this was so movie is so cute and we could use so many more like it 

Top 5 TV shows in 2018

Reign; I’m a ho for period pieces and in case yall didn’t see I quickly became obsessed lmao

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; watch this for Nick and you won’t be disappointed and also hella girl power courtesy of my fav witch

Madam Secretary; so it isn’t a particularly new show but season 5 is airing now and guys I love this show so much! My mom's friend recommended it to her and let me just say Elizabeth is definitely who I want to be

Any nature documentary series on Netflix; these are so cool and sometimes gross yet mesmerizing I kid you not my brothers and mom and dad and I will spend all day watching nature shows (mainly the animal ones!!!) 

The 100; I had stopped watching after season 2 mainly because I was watching it on Netflix and it was between seasons so I kinda forgot but guys I binged the rest of the seasons in like a couple weeks with my mom and brother and oh my god

Top 5 songs of 2018

the entire Youngblood album by 5 Seconds of Summer; I’m so sorry but I will forever be obsessed with this album I’m so proud of my boys :’)

High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco; I love this song so much it is my hype song I listen to it several times a day lol 

Psycho by Post Malone; I tried to not listen to Post but honestly he is so chill and his songs are high key really good

Youth by Shawn Mendes feat. Khalid; this song is so chill and the meaning behind it is so powerful I love it so much 

Polaroid by Jonas Blue feat. Liam Payne and Lennon Stella; this song is so catchy and adorable I love it (it also makes really good fic material)

Top 5 Books you Read in 2018

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern; technically it’s a re-read but oh well guys I love this book and Marco and Celia are the cutest

Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli; aka the book Love Simon was based on, both are adorable but the book gives so much more detail than the movie and it was Simon obsessing over Blue and the scene with their first date was so cute

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard; also a re-read, READ IT FOR THE PLOT TWIST I screamed guys oh my god! 

Magnus Chase; like the whole series lol, I started it this year (I think?) and I love it as much as I loved the other books! 

do fics count? 

Five Good/Positive things that happened to you in 2018

We moved into a new house earlier this year and it’s right in between the rest of my family’s houses so we’ve started seeing each other more often again 

We went to visit my dads family in Mexico for the first time since I was in 6th grade (which was forever ago, mind you) and it was amazing

I loved talking to my favs on here!!! I love yall so much omg you know who you are <3

I went to a few concerts this year! I took one of my brothers to his first concert and it was also the first concert my mom had been to since I was born. I also saw 5 Seconds of Summer with my cousin and it was so great! 

I believe I have genuinely become a better person than the one I was a year/year and a half ago. Maybe. Hopefully. 

Tagging: @blog-lady-vi @merrygraysons @askhaylieooc @roankomspacekru @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla and @ anybody who wants to do this <3

[kateanddevinreview]

London Has Fallen

In which Kate and Devin write a porno

Devin: Okay, so this movie is just Gerard Butler being a badass right? Is this the one with Denzel Washington? Or are neither of those things right.

Kate: It’s something like that.

Devin: Well, Butler showed up in the credits, but so did morgan freeman?

Kate: It’s a trifecta!!

Devin: Or maybe I'm just racist and mixed them up.

Kate: Or maybe it’s the two of them being badass together.

Devin: I made some comment the other day about minorities being underrepresented at the oscars or something and they asked what actors I think should win instead and I blanked on literally every minority actor I knew.

Kate: Hahahah. It’s still true though. And to be fair, could you name any white actors?

Devin: My brain got stuck on Tom Hardy and forgot literally every other actor on earth

Kate:I think he’s on tv now anyway. So far this movie is starting a bit slow. Do you think someone is going to be shot soon?

Devin: I find it weird that we are in....India?

Kate:  I think we’re at an Indian wedding. Terrorist’s daughter is getting married

Devin: This is set up for motive?

Kate: Probs

Devin: The Phantom of the Opera and Harvey Dent go for a jog

Kate: Why are politicians always running? I don’t think they do that much

Devin: I think cause DC? it's an easy excuse to pan around the lawn

Kate: Ok well fine, coming at me with movie reasons. Wait, is this a sequel?

Devin: Is it? Was the last one just called "London"?

Kate: I was thinking Gerald saved a president in the last one?

Devin: She has crazy eyes

Kate: She does but she’s pregnant

Devin:  I'll forgive it if we get through this movie without her vomiting.

Kate:  She’s in like her third tri already so she really shouldn’t

Devin:  Google says this is a sequel, to Olympus Has Fallen. Lots of stuff falling apparently

Kate: Knew it!!! I’ve seen that one too

Devin: Really? I'm guessing last time he saved President Harvey Dent from terrorists, wooed or impregnated his wife, and got hired for secret service or unfired from secret service

Kate: Unfired, if it’s what I’m thinking of

Devin: This time he'll save the Prime Minister from terrorists, see his kid born, and...uh. Be knighted? That's my guess

Kate: Seems like a totally logical guess to me. I’m betting he discovers the Prime Minister was murdered. I don’t think people are expected to attend state funerals?

Devin: I think it's cause his vice isn't available? I think normally this is the kind of thing they send him for. But I am basing that on episodes of Madam Secretary so who knows

Kate: New guess!! President is killed and Butler has to protect Freeman

Devin: Hmmm. Maybe. Is Freeman the Vice?

Kate: Yes. He said “Hello, Mr VP”

Devin: I'm missing like half of this dialogue, idk how

Kate: Cause it’s boring

Devin: I want splosions!

Kate: This baby melodrama music is not my favorite. Once again I feel like writing is letting us down?

Devin: Yeah. Be better hollywood!

Kate: Also important people shouldn’t just sign shit without looking at it

Devin: is this the fringe guy? No. Who is he? He's someone

Kate: I think? No?

Devin: Fringe guy is similar but different. Oh! The Magicians? Magicians teacher guy?

Kate: No, definitely not him

Devin: IMDBing....

Kate: “Most protected event on earth”= everyone will die

Devin: Yup. This cast listing order is stupid. Do we know British Gerard Butler's name?

Kate: You mean the head of the British security? Also no. Also I think they’re going to use kids?

Devin: Yes, British guy. Mr. Sands! From Limitless. Thanks wikipedia, for your superior cast list

Kate: Limitless. That’s right, I never watched much of that

Devin: I really liked the main guy and all the arts and crafts in that show. I'm sad it was cancelled. Also we should add the movie to our review list

Kate: Yes!

Devin: Splosion! I didn't think those guards were supposed to have real guns? Then again EMTs should definitely not have rocket launchers

Kate: Hahaha, yeah, those cops are definitely plants. It’s clearly a very well orchestrated attack

Devin: Pretty sure only america gives their cops guns. Also, rocket launcher

Kate: Wow I don’t care how this movie ends the world would not recover from this

Devin: Yeah Kate, it's fallen. Show. Us. The. Egg. It's not London unless I see the big glass egg and the ferris wheel

Kate: How did they know that one president wouldn’t leave on time?

Devin: Trackers? Or they caused the traffic?

Kate: No, he decided?

Devin: Motorcycles, a car's only weakness

Kate: Nice driving!

Devin: Don't injure civilians!

Kate: Ummmm, Devin. I think that ship has sailed.

Devin: He rammed the bad guy into a non bad guy car!

Kate: Oh fuck. Ok so who is the black lady? Is she the First Lady?

Devin: Voight buddy, you could have moved. He's the driver, she's the head of secret service

Kate: He was driving! It was a bullet! Give him some credit. Is she?

Devin: Yes. According to wikipedia

Kate: She’s not doing much. And she hunkered with the president?

Devin: Right? Stop flailing. Where is your gun, woman?

Kate: Oh god. That was brutal

Devin: That was very brutal

Kate: Why didn’t they park closer to the chopper?

Devin: Crashing in 3...2...oh ok nvm

Kate: Hahaha

Devin: He's got a cane so you know he's evil

Kate: So true

Devin: Moral of this movie: don't trust the handicapped

Kate: And yet, they didn’t detect a plan of this magnitude

Devin: Uh, did those people just have labels?

Kate: Yes. NSA and something else

Devin:  Like, movie? Movie. We do not care

Kate: I’m assuming it will be important later?

Devin: Why is the lady not doing anything?

Kate: Nice, flares! I like flares. Why are they flying so low anyway?

Devin: I got distracted googling the secret service

Kate: Anything pertinent to share?

Devin: Apparently the director just does the boring shit, so idk why she's even here

Kate: Ummmm, I think the movie should end here?

Devin: Yes they all died. The End

Kate: No way anyone survived that. I call bullshit

Devin: Also, I assumed presidents would have like one guy their whole time in office? But apparently they hire someone new a lot. Oh she dead.

Kate: For the secret service?

Devin: As director. Like Obama had 2

Kate: I mean, that’s four years for each

Devin: Trump has already had 2. The first guy for like 2 months? 1 month?

Kate: Well, Trump does that a lot. He’s had like 8 communication directors

Devin: I just wonder if they choose to leave or if the president purposefully swaps them out

Kate: Also working for the president is really intense, so maybe you just burn out and have to leave

Devin: Makes sense. The local biker gang is here

Kate: I don’t think bikes make that noise. That is dumb

Devin: Yes. Also no one checked the wreck

Kate: At least we know from earlier scenes they are fast runners!

Devin: This looks like he put his manifesto on youtube

Kate: What point is there in entertaining this phone call? Also why does he care about one president?

Devin: Imagine if he called before they watched the video! Like 5 minutes earlier

Kate: Right? He should take the uniform too

Devin: 

"Who is this?"

"It's...seriously? You didn't see my video?"

"h/o googling it"

"It's on youtube"

"yeah one sec, gotta sit through this 50 shade of grey trailer"

Kate: Ahhhhhhh Being hunted by motorbikes!! Oh no

Devin: Sure, that's subtle. Also this is a regular subway

Kate: I like that he was able to loot the body for weapons. Very practical

Devin: Jesus Gerard Butler. WTF? You went from zero to torture in no time

Kate: I know, little intense. Definitely running on adrenaline

Devin: This is the most 'murrican fucking movie. You cannot convince me that huge squads of racists didn't come out of this movie going "rah rah ‘murrica"

Kate: Oh god. Unfortunately yes

Devin: Although these talky bits suck. I'd rather have more fighting. Oh, thanks label, I really cared what time it was

Kate: Everyone is dead, that’s what this discussion is. I mean surrender and then ambush. How many people do they think there are? You’re not going to be professional right now? Weird

Devin: Blah blah blah. Bitch it was a wedding. Of course his family was there

Kate: How did you not know his family was there? It was a wedding. So dumb

Devin: What even is the point of that dialogue? There better be drugs in his water or something

Kate: What kind of shoddy intel are you all operating on? This is dumb. Do criticize if necessary. You have to teach them. Also off color jokes?

Devin: "You know what's most important Mike? Children. That's why we are never going to spend time with ours in any subsequent movie."

Kate: Of course it’s not your delta team.

Devin: Yeah why was that message not in code?

Kate: Zoom in!

Devin: Enhance! Your safe house has a fucking skylight!?

Kate: Seems like a pretty lame safe house. Oh this is gross

Devin: This movie is very gratuitous with its gore

Kate: It really is. And president you should not have done that. You are not almost out of this by any long shot

Devin:  There must be a porno of this where they fuck right then

Kate:  Did all of MI6 just die?

Devin: I'm not going to lie, that weird pirate porno you made us watch that one time is better than this movie

Kate: Haha! Oh pirates. Also my taste is terrible because I still enjoy this

Devin: I don't believe the hackers would make this basic of a mistake

Kate: No, me neither

Devin: Also driving seems like the quickest way to be spotted?

Kate: They kept everything under the radar but you didn’t notice this earlier?

Devin: Ok I guess at least the car is bulletproofed

Kate: How many of these terrorists are there supposed to be?

Devin: It's just the same 4 guys, they're really fast. They keep healing when they're off screen

Kate: Seems like an infinite supply. Mutants!! Also Mike is still somehow always faster

Devin: Now I want an action movie where 3/4 of the way through you realize he's been re-killing the same 5 guys over and over and surprise! it's really a fantasy/horror movie!

Kate: That would be so good. Change the whole game. I do oddly think this would make a good porno with very very little change

Devin: It's cause there's so much standing really close while breathing heavily and the plot is basically just as thin

Kate: Yeah pretty much. It’s a male romance novel

Devin: Also there have been.....5 women? in this entire movie. 6, I guess. Wife, mother, secret service director, beehive, assistant cop, MI6

Kate: Assistant cop?

Devin: Black lady?

Kate: I don’t remember her

Devin: She was in the bullpen with not!Fringe guy

Kate: Ok sure

Devin: Oh, ok, and random lady who had a text label I didn't read

Kate: There was the turning 30 woman and one lady head of state.

Devin: Still, none of these people shooting right now? There's like 20 guys in this scene!

Kate: Nope. Can’t have women in harm’s way unless they don’t have a choice. Also no lady terrorists

Devin: Only lady terrorists allowed are dead motivation ones

Kate: Also I’m subbing lady because it’s faster to type than woman

Devin: Agreed

Kate: Omg. Whispered “Mike.” Straight out of a romance novel

Devin: What? Are you ahead of me or did I miss it?

Kate: Maybe? The president whispered it

Devin: No! I must have missed the Mike whisper

Kate: He should be really tired by now. He didn’t have dinner!

Devin: "Hear that? My boyfriend is coming"

Kate: He really should just kill the president. It doesn’t make sense not to

Devin: There is so much manly eye contact and face holding

Kate: So much

Devin: Like I'm pretty sure almost this exact sequence happened in Outlander

Kate: In the porn there would be a scene where the president seduced him, Mike walked in on it, and then they have a threesome

Devin: With the bad guy?

Kate: Yup

Devin: That seems like it would be out of place plot wise. Would the bad guy turn himself in or something?

Kate: No. Just random sex that doesn’t make sense

Devin: Weird. The sex should make sense!

Kate: It’s for real a thing that happens in porn, you get whiplash. Oh god. This is lame. Really?

Devin: One punch where he runs all the way across the screen. So stupid

Kate: Did we learn who the brit mole was?

Devin: Nope. They hacked the police station I think? Damn! Wheelchair guy didn't even get to make a speech about how bad America is. This movie is not even pretending to care about America's mistakes

Kate: Why didn’t he just shoot everyone?

Devin: Out of bullets?

Kate: He hasn’t run out of guns until now

Devin: What even is this dialogue right now?

Kate: Really dumb

Devin: "You fuck with America? OH HELL NO. WE BAT SHIT. WE WILL FUCKING MURDER ALL Y'ALL."

Kate: America’s not even 500. Witty banter!

Devin: "EVEN OUR PRESIDENT WILL PICK UP A GUN FOR MURDER TIME"

Kate: Also he’s not dead because you haven’t killed him?

Devin: Yeah you just punched him a bit and talked nonsense

Kate: Once again, another thing they wouldn’t have survived.

Devin: I feel like the porno version of this has them go back to their wives at the end with lots of meaningful looks and sly smiles between the two main dudes. Like "yeah, we'll do this again next mission"

Kate:  Oh no! But yes probably. Why was there a lock in an elevator?

Devin: Is the president the only one alive from this whole thing? They would definitely make out in this elevator

Kate: I think one other world leader survived? There was a missing link to the terrorist?

Devin: I guess?

Kate: Who sent a fucking video?

Devin: Honestly this plot is stupid Yeah he's def the mole. Also he's running away? Like he obviously did it

Kate: Are we supposed to care about him or her? Because I do not

Devin: They would have had sex earlier in the porno

Kate: Yeah. It would have made more sense. Just kill him already

Devin: Also she would have just arrested him. I feel like the porno would have less murder

Kate: It’s weird that normally I complain about too much sex? But this would just be better as a porn

Devin: Yeah our review is basically "this would have made a better porno"

Kate: How would you have found him?

Devin: Who hears "look out your window" and looks up at the ceiling? Oh maybe that's what the missing link was?

Kate: Also the VP does not have the authority to call that type of strike

Devin: What is this 10 angled shot explosion? Ok, we've got a baby

Kate: So it’s been at least a few weeks

Devin: No prime minister but I didn't realize it was his funeral so I feel like the president is close enough. Now knighthood

Kate: Sure. They don’t know how emails work? Re: is for replies

Devin: "Many people would say this is our fault, but we're america so fuck those people. we'll kill those people."

Kate: “Commence spending no time with my kid”

Devin: In the porno version we end instead with a mirror of the earlier DC lawn scene, with them sitting on a bench watching their wives/kids, and the pres saying something like "still want to quit?" and Butler saying "and leave you, sir? Never." And then meaningful eye contact. Roll credits.

Kate: Hahahah

Devin: Okay, so scores

Kate: Yes. Scores.

Devin: 3/10 for the movie, 6/10 for the porno

Kate: I go a little higher movie? Like 4.5 for the movie.  6 for porno though. I think we can agree that no porn should ever rank higher than 7

Devin: Yeah. Like, even amazing porn is still porn

Kate: Ummmm tropes? So many, “family as our motivation”

Devin: “America is terrible and we never learn anything”?

Kate: Which is so hypocritical

Devin: “One man assumes command of literally every other character without argument”

Kate: Hahahaha. So like 7 on the tropes? They all fit the plot really well

Devin: Yeah, I mean it had a very particular niche and it played to it

Kate: Exactly

Devin: I'm going to give the title an 8/10. Catchy and accurate

Kate: I can agree. Thematic

Devin: London did pretty much fall. Like an old lady in a Life Alert commercial

Kate: Better than Olympus has fallen

Devin: Yeah, plus how fucking pretentious is it to call the white house "olympus"?

Kate: Exactly

Devin: What would the porn title be? I feel like they're usually puns?

Kate: Pun for sure. London may fall but our guys stay up

Devin: kind of long

Kate: It could be the tagline?

Devin: Oh yeah, good tagline. My brain gave me "Banging Private Ryan" which does not fit but is almost certainly a movie that exists

Kate: Hahahahaha. Banging president something? Whatever his name was

Devin: No idea, I called him Harvey Dent the whole movie. London Goes Down?

Kate: London laid down? Cause laid. Get it?

Devin: H/o I have to see if there is a real porn title for this. NSA people monitoring my internet searches, I'm really sorry

Kate: Gives them some spice! A story to take home

Devin: Top result for "London Has Fallen Porn Title" is:

"London Has Fallen movie condemned as racist 'terrorsploitation' "

"London Has Fallen is gun-barrel porn"

Kate: Whelp. Yep. I feel bad for enjoying it?

Devin: "London Has Fallen Is The Worst Film About Our City Ever"

Kate: Oh no it was a piece of shit for sure. Super fucking racist

Devin: “Blowing London.” That's my official submission

Kate: Nice! “Blowing London” is great. I thought you’d actually found it.

Devin: Ok, any parting words?

Kate:  It was a dumb racist movie that I feel guilty for enjoying anyway? Which means we should have more action movies made with better plots and motivation. And female representation!

Devin:  Or more action movies that are just porn

Kate:  Or that. What about you? Parting words?

Devin: If you want to see a movie where Gerard Butler brutally murders everyone, this is it. Or, you know, go watch 300, it is less awful.

Kate: So true.

[blackkudos]

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer and narrator. Freeman won an Academy Award in 2005 for Best Supporting Actor with Million Dollar Baby (2004), and he has received Oscar nominations for his performances in Street Smart (1987), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Invictus (2009). He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Freeman has appeared in many other box office hits, including Glory (1989), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Seven (1995), Deep Impact (1998), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012), The Lego Movie (2014), and Lucy (2014). He rose to fame as part of the cast of the 1970s children's program The Electric Company. Morgan Freeman is ranked as the 4th highest box office star with over $4.316 billion total box office gross, an average of $74.4 million per film.

Early life and education

Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere; 1912–2000), a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died on April 27, 1961, from cirrhosis. He has three older siblings. According to a DNA analysis, some of his ancestors were from Niger. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi. He moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois. When Freeman was 16 years old, he almost died of pneumonia.

Freeman made his acting debut at age nine, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, a building which serves today as Threadgill Elementary School, in Greenwood, Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to enlist in the United States Air Force and served as an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman, rising to the rank of Airman 1st Class. Freeman's service portrait appears in his character's funeral scene in The Bucket List.

After four years in the military, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he took acting lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse and dancing lessons in San Francisco in the early 1960s and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles City College. During this period, Freeman also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group. He acted in a touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film The Pawnbroker. Freeman made his off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in The Nigger Lovers (about the Freedom Riders during the American Civil Rights Movement), before debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of Hello, Dolly! which also starred Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway.

He continued to be involved in theater work and received the Obie Award in 1980 for the title role in Coriolanus. In 1984, he received his second Obie Award for his role as the preacher in The Gospel at Colonus. Freeman also won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as a wino in The Mighty Gents. He received his third Obie Award for his role as a chauffeur for a Jewish widow in Driving Miss Daisy, which was adapted for the screen in 1989.

Career

Acting career

Although his first credited film appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera Another World and the PBS kids' show The Electric Company (notably as Easy Reader, Mel Mounds the DJ, and Vincent the Vegetable Vampire[clip]).

During his tenure with The Electric Company, "(i)t was a very unhappy period in his life," according to Joan Ganz Cooney. Freeman himself admitted in an interview that he never thinks about his tenure with the show at all. Since then, Freeman has considered his Street Smart (1987) character Fast Black, rather than any of the characters he played in The Electric Company, to be his breakthrough role.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in many feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters. As he gained fame, he went on to bigger roles in films such as the chauffeur Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, and Sergeant Major Rawlins in Glory (both in 1989). In 1994, he portrayed Red, the redeemed convict in the acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption. In the same year he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival.

He also starred in such films as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Seven, and Deep Impact. In 1997, Freeman, together with Lori McCreary, founded the film production company Revelations Entertainment, and the two co-head its sister online film distribution company ClickStar. Freeman also hosts the channel Our Space on ClickStar, with specially crafted film clips in which he shares his love for the sciences, especially space exploration and aeronautics.

After three previous nominations—a supporting actor nomination for Street Smart, and leading actor nominations for Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption—he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Million Dollar Baby at the 77th Academy Awards. Freeman is recognized for his distinctive voice, making him a frequent choice for narration. In 2005 alone, he provided narration for two films, War of the Worlds and the Academy Award-winning documentary film March of the Penguins.

Freeman appeared as God in the hit film Bruce Almighty and its sequel, Evan Almighty, as well as Lucius Fox in the critical and commercial success Batman Begins and its sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. He starred in Rob Reiner's 2007 film The Bucket List, opposite Jack Nicholson. He teamed with Christopher Walken and William H. Macy for the comedy The Maiden Heist, which was released direct to video due to financial problems with the distribution company. In 2008, Freeman returned to Broadway to co-star with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher for a limited engagement of Clifford Odets's play, The Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols.

He had wanted to do a film based on Nelson Mandela for some time. At first he tried to get Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom adapted into a finished script, but it was not finalized. In 2007, he purchased the film rights to a book by John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. Clint Eastwood directed the Nelson Mandela bio-pic titled Invictus, starring Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.

In 2010, Freeman co-starred alongside Bruce Willis in Red. In 2013, Freeman appeared in the action-thriller Olympus Has Fallen, the science fiction drama Oblivion, and the comedy Last Vegas. In 2014, he co-starred in the action film Lucy.

In 2015, Freeman played the Chief Justice of the United States in the season two premiere of Madam Secretary (Freeman is also one of the series' executive producers).

Other work

Freeman made his directorial debut in 1993 with Bopha! for Paramount Pictures.

In July 2009, Freeman was one of the presenters at the 46664 Concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's birthday at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Freeman was the first American to record a par on Legend Golf & Safari Resort's Extreme 19th hole.

Effective January 4, 2010, Freeman replaced Walter Cronkite as the voiceover introduction to the CBS Evening News featuring Katie Couric as news anchor. CBS cited the need for consistency in introductions for regular news broadcasts and special reports as the basis for the change. As of 2010, Freeman is the host and narrator of the Discovery Channel television show, focused on physics outreach, Through the Wormhole.

He was featured on the opening track to B.o.B's second album Strange Clouds. The track "Bombs Away" features a prologue and epilogue (which leads into a musical outro) spoken by Freeman. In 2011, Freeman was featured with John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged reenactment of Perry v. Brown, the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. Freeman played Attorney David Boies. The production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

In 2015 Freeman directed "The Show Must Go On," the season two premiere of Madam Secretary.

Personal life

Family

From his early life, Freeman has two extramarital children; one of them is Alfonso Freeman.

Freeman was married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from October 22, 1967, until November 18, 1979.

He married Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984. The couple separated in December 2007. Freeman's attorney and business partner Bill Luckett announced in August 2008 that Freeman and his wife were in divorce proceedings. On September 15, 2010, their divorce was finalized in Mississippi.

Freeman and Colley-Lee adopted Freeman's stepgranddaughter from his first marriage, E'dena Hines, and raised her together. On August 16, 2015, 33-year-old Hines was murdered in New York City.

In 2008, the TV series African American Lives 2 revealed that some of Freeman's great-great-grandparents were slaves who migrated from North Carolina to Mississippi. Freeman discovered that his Caucasian maternal great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, Freeman's African-American great-great-grandmother (in the segregated South, the two could not marry legally at the time). A DNA test on the series stated that he is descended in part from the Songhai and Tuareg peoples of Niger.

Religious views

In a 2012 interview with TheWrap, Freeman was asked if he considered himself atheist or agnostic. He replied, "It's a hard question because as I said at the start, I think we invented God. So if I believe in God, and I do, it's because I think I'm God." Freeman later said that his experience working on The Story of God with Morgan Freeman did not change his views on religion.

Properties

Freeman lives in Charleston, Mississippi, and New York City. He owns and operates Ground Zero, a blues club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He formerly co-owned Madidi, a fine dining restaurant, also in Clarksdale.

Flying

At age 65, Freeman earned a private pilot's license. He owns or has owned at least three private aircraft, including a Cessna Citation 501 jet and a Cessna 414 twin-engine prop. In 2007 he purchased an Emivest SJ30 long-range private jet and took delivery in December 2009. He is certified to fly all of them.

Car accident

Freeman was injured in an automobile accident near Ruleville, Mississippi, on the night of August 3, 2008. The vehicle in which he was traveling, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, left the highway and flipped over several times. He and a female passenger, Demaris Meyer, were rescued from the vehicle using the "Jaws of Life". Freeman was taken via medical helicopter to The Regional Medical Center (The Med) hospital in Memphis. Police ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash. Freeman was coherent following the crash, as he joked with a photographer about taking his picture at the scene. His left shoulder, arm, and elbow were broken in the crash, and he had surgery on August 5, 2008. Doctors operated for four hours to repair nerve damage in his shoulder and arm. On CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight he stated that he is left handed but cannot move the fingers of his left hand. He wears a compression glove to protect against blood pooling due to non-movement. His publicist announced he was expected to make a full recovery. Meyer, his passenger, sued him for negligence, claiming that he was drinking the night of the accident. Subsequently, the suit was settled.

Beekeeping

After becoming concerned with the decline of honeybees, Freeman decided to turn his 124-acre ranch into a sanctuary for them in July 2014, starting with 26 bee hives.

Activism

Charitable work

In 2004, Freeman and others formed the Grenada Relief Fund to aid people affected by Hurricane Ivan on the island of Grenada. The fund has since become PLANIT NOW, an organization that seeks to provide preparedness resources for people living in areas afflicted by hurricanes and severe storms. Freeman has worked on narrating small clips for global organizations, such as One Earth, whose goals include raising awareness of environmental issues. He has narrated the clip "Why Are We Here," which can be viewed on One Earth's website. Freeman has donated money to the Mississippi Horse Park in Starkville, Mississippi. The park is part of Mississippi State University and Freeman has several horses that he takes there.

Politics

Freeman endorsed Barack Obama's candidacy for the 2008 presidential election, although he stated that he would not join Obama's campaign. He narrates for The Hall of Presidents with Barack Obama, who has been added to the exhibit. The Hall of Presidents re-opened on July 4, 2009, at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Freeman joined President Bill Clinton, USA Bid Committee Chairman Sunil Gulati, and USMNT midfielder Landon Donovan on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, in Zurich for the U.S. bid committee's final presentation to FIFA for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. On day 4 of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Morgan Freeman provided the voiceover for the video introduction of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Comments on racism

Freeman has publicly criticized the celebration of Black History Month and does not participate in any related events, saying, "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history." He says the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it, and he notes that there is no "white history month." Freeman once said in an interview with 60 Minutes's Mike Wallace, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." Freeman supported the defeated proposal to change the Mississippi state flag, which contains the Confederate battle flag. Freeman sparked controversy in 2011 when, on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, he accused the Tea Party movement of racism.

In reaction to the death of Freddie Gray and the 2015 Baltimore protests, Freeman said he was "absolutely" supportive of the protesters. "That unrest [in Baltimore] has nothing to do with terrorism at all, except the terrorism we suffer from the police. [...] Because of the technology—everybody has a smartphone—now we can see what the police are doing. We can show the world, Look, this is what happened in that situation. So why are so many people dying in police custody? And why are they all black? And why are all the police killing them white? What is that? The police have always said, 'I feared for my safety.' Well, now we know. OK. You feared for your safety while a guy was running away from you, right?"

Filmography

Awards and honors

On October 28, 2006, Freeman was honored at the first Mississippi's Best Awards in Jackson, Mississippi, with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his works on and off the big screen. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts and Letters from Delta State University during the school's commencement exercises on May 13, 2006. In 2013, Boston University presented him with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. On November 12, 2014, he was bestowed the honour of Freedom of the City by the City of London.

Wikipedia

[storytime-reviews]

Madam Secretary Review-North to the Future

After last week’s disappointing episode, I was so relieved that this episode was so good. But it was not simply good, it was an incredibly entertaining episode, particularly due to the introduction of Kat Sandoval. Furthermore, Jay seems to finally be getting the hang of his new job. 

New Face

We knew from all of the press releases that Kat Sandoval was going to be the new policy advisor, and whilst I was definitely looking forward to her introduction on Madam Secretary, I could not have predicted how much I would come to love her, in only one episode! Kat Sandoval was easily the best part of the episode, and I came to love her immediately from her very first scene. But even more importantly, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Kat is clearly something special. Both of these amazing women see so much that is inspirational in each other, and it is clear that they are similar in so many ways. In just this one episode, it became clear that Elizabeth and Kat work well together, and I cannot wait to see them working together closely in the future. Both of these women are out of the box thinkers, providing creative solutions to problems. As a team, I cannot wait to see what they do together. Just based on this episode alone, it’s going to be an interesting ride. Also, given Russell’s thoughts on Kat, I think it would be great to see their dynamic. I assume it would be much the same as his dynamic with Elizabeth, sometimes antagonistic, but usually working for the same team. If I haven’t emphasised it enough already, I’m really excited for the future Madam Secretary episodes with Kat, and I know she’s going to be a favourite character of mine. 

New Mole

I realise that the mole storyline at first may seem like a rehash of the mole storyline from earlier seasons, but this episode at least demonstrated that the ramifications of this one will be on a much wider scale. After all, Henry spends much of this episode contemplating the identity of the mole, and eventually comes to the conclusion that the mole must be one of the group of eight. Given the supposed seniority of the mole in this instance, I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds throughout the season. Morejon is obviously part of this group of eight, we’ve seen him in the meetings with Henry, but a big part of me believes that him being the mole is too obvious. Morejon was set up as a villain for this season in the very first episode, so him being the mole seems unlikely. After all, as we’ve seen before, part of the point of the mole storyline is to create plot twists, and if the obvious villain is the villain at the end, then there’s no plot twist. 

New Love

Personally, I found the Jason in love storyline ridiculous and pathetic, and I must admit that I wish that these scenes weren’t part of this episode. I felt it was a waste of this episode’s time, time which could’ve been used for more interesting storylines. In particular, Jason’s reactions to Henry’s concerns were absurd.  

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY GETS HER MAN

S1;E21 ~ February 24, 1969

Directed by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Fred S. Fox and Seaman Jacobs

Synopsis

Harry's old Army buddy is working in Counter-Intelligence and needs a stenographer to help get the goods on a suspected spy (Victor Buono). Naturally, Lucy gets the assignment.  

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Craig Carter)

Guest Cast

Victor Buono (Arthur Vermillion) was a character actor whose screen career began in 1959. He was nominated for a 1963 Oscar for his portrayal of Edwin Flagg in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, which he quickly followed up with Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, both starring Bette Davis. He is perhaps best remembered for playing arch-villain King Tut on “Batman” (inset). Buono died in 1982 at the age of 43.  

Buono uses a thick middle-European accent as Vermillion. According to the dictionary, ‘vermillion’ (or ‘vermilion’), describes a deep, brilliant shade of red. ‘Red’ is slang for a communist, based on the color of the communist flag, which ties into the spy theme of the episode.   

Mary Wickes (Isabel) was one of Lucille Ball’s closest friends and at one time, a neighbor. She made a memorable appearances on “I Love Lucy” as ballet mistress Madame Lamond in “The Ballet” (ILL S1;E19). In her initial “Lucy Show” appearances her characters name was Frances, but she then made four more as a variety of characters for a total of 8 episodes. This is the first of her 9 appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” She also played Isabel in “Lucy Goes on Strike” (S1;E16). Their final collaboration on screen was “Lucy Calls the President” in 1977.

Wickes only has 40 seconds of screen time at the very start of the episode.  Before Mary Jane Croft joined the show, the character of Isabel was intended to be a secretary friend of Lucy Carter’s who works in her building. Wickes only played the character twice before moving into different characters for the rest of the series.

Robert Carson (Buzzy Brock) was a busy Canadian-born character actor who appeared on six episodes of “The Lucy Show.” This is the second of his five appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Buzzy was an Army Colonel at the Pentagon during World War II. He got a Purple Heart when his desk collapsed! He is currently working with 'Counter-Intelligence'.

Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1969

This is the third spy story on “Here’s Lucy” in just five months, preceded by “Lucy's Impossible Mission” (S1;6) and “Lucy and the Great Airport Chase” (S1;E18). Spy series' such as “Get Smart” and “Mission: Impossible” were tremendously popular at the time. Craig mentions a show called “Spy Mission” and Kim talks about “Counter Agent,” both made-up TV spy programs.

Lucille Ball and Victor Buono were both featured in “Like Hep!”, a Dinah Shore special that aired a few months after this episode. In it, Ball did a variety of sketches, including one set in a speakeasy with Buono as a mob boss.  

Upon arriving at work, Lucy off-handedly says “another day behind the iron curtain.” The Iron Curtain was the name for the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The use of the term contributes to the spy nature of the story, but seems a bit precipitous considering the plot has yet to be revealed! 

Isabel calls Harry Jack the Ripper, comparing him to the famous London serial killer. There was also a character named Jack D. Ripper in the 1964 iron curtain comedy Dr. Strangelove. Could this be another vague and precipitous reference to the episode’s theme?   

After Isabel and Harry continually bump into one another going out the door (doing a sort of ‘after you’ dance) Harry calls her St. Vitus. Saint Vitus (290-303 AD) was a child saint from Sicily. In the late Middle Ages, people celebrated the feast of Vitus by dancing before his statue. The name "Saint Vitus Dance" was given to neurological disorders like epilepsy. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers.

We learn that Harry was an Army major during World War II and worked at the Pentagon.

Buzzy calls Harry 'Foamy' because he wore out twelve foam rubber cushions on his swivel chair. Clearly Buzzy and 'Foamy' (aka Harry) were desk jockeys during the war. The script doesn't specify, however, why Buzzy is named Buzzy.  

When Kim comes home from school, she asks her mother if Jerry called. Presumably, Jerry is her boyfriend. Jerry was also the name of Lucy Carmichael's son on “The Lucy Show.” She uses her childrens’ questions as a memory test for her upcoming spy assignment. 

Kim says her birthday is the 17th of next month. In real life, Lucie Arnaz's birthday is the 17th of July.  

The song Kim and Craig play for Uncle Harry, to show him what life with teenagers in the house might be like, is a jazzy version of “I Know A Place” by Tony Hatch. The song was recorded in 1965 by Petula Clark. It is here performed without lyrics with Kim dancing and Craig playing the drums. Lucy danced to the song in “Mod, Mod Lucy” (S1;E1). Clark will do a guest appearance on the series in season 5, although she will not sing “I Know A Place.” 

When Lucille Ball enters Vermillion's hotel suite at the (fictional) Crescent Palms Hotel wearing a black wig, she gets a round of applause from the studio audience.  

If the horse statue in Vermillion’s hotel room looks familiar, it is likely the same horse used later that year on the set of “The Brady Bunch” (1969-74). Both shows were filmed at Paramount Studios. Similar horses also turned up on “Bewitched” (1964-72) and in the film Bell, Book and Candle (1958) starring Ernie Kovacs. This iteration of the horse statue has its saddle and reigns painted black, but they are otherwise identical. Equine statuary was quite common in mid-century decorating. 

Vermillion, under the guise of a greeting card writer, dictates correspondence to 

Gregory Schmidt, General Delivery, St. Louis, Misery 

and another to 

Igor Shaffsky, Hotel Scimitar, Istanbul 

He eats his notes.  Is he really a spy or just really hungry? 

When Vermillion looks around the room to see that they he and Lucy are alone, the soundtrack plays “Mission: Impossible” style music. The TV score by Lalo Schifrin was extensively used in “Lucy's Impossible Mission” (S1;E6).  

Victor Buono is best known for his role in the Bette Davis / Joan Crawford 1962 horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a movie that was mentioned on “No More Double Dates” (TLS S1;E21). Lucy Carmichael rejected the film for date night as “too scary”.  Coincidentally, both shows were the 21st aired episodes aired in their first seasons!      

This is not the first time Lucy has mined humor from being sat on by a larger actor. She was underneath a tubby tourist (Audrey Bentz) in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30) and a girthy granny (Reta Shaw) in “Lucy Misplaces $2,000″ (TLS S1;E4). 

Lucy Ricardo also “wore a wire” when trying to record a confession by who she thought was a Texas oil swindler in “Oil Wells” (ILL S3;E18). Both times her urge to be wired for sound was misguided. 

Thinking they were enemy agents, Lucy Ricardo also spied on the “New Neighbors” (ILL S1;E21). Like Vermillion, the O'Briens were not who Lucy first assumed they were but they sure talked a good game! 

This is not the first, nor the last, time Gale Gordon will get into unconvincing drag without shaving off his mustache!

FAST FORWARD!

On August 16, 1971, Victor Buono and Lucille Ball were both guests on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”.  Kaye Ballard was the musical guest. 

Vermillion is not the last character to be a writer of greeting card verses... 

It would also be the occupation of Ben Fletcher (Don Knotts) when “Lucy Goes on Her Last Blind Date” (S5;E16).

Sitcom Logic Alert!  Craig just happens to own a pocket-sized miniature tape recorder. Doesn’t every teenager in 1969?

Color Blind! Vermillion tells Harry (as the Bellboy) that he “never wears blue” yet he is clearly wearing a powder blue tie. Is he just trying to get rid of Harry through intimidation? 

Product Dis-Placement!  The brand name of Craig’s drum set is partly taped over. The top loop of the ‘R’ reveals that it is made by Rogers. Founded in 1849 in Farmingdale, NJ, by Joseph Rogers, the company went out of business in 2006. 

Where the Floor Ends!  In the lower right corner of the above screen shot, viewers get a glimpse of where the Carter’s wall-to-wall carpet ends and meets the cement stage floor! 

“Lucy Gets Her Man” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

A nearly five minute scene without Lucille Ball, when Kim and Craig convince their Uncle Harry to keep an eye on their mother, is a bit awkward and too long. Mary Wickes is given virtually nothing to do in this episode. Her lines could just as well have been spoken by an uncredited day player. Lucille Ball's scene with Victor Buono, however, is quite good and Gale Gordon in maid drag (with his trademark mustache) is well worth the wait. The surprise ending actually makes sense and is very funny, if a bit abrupt.    

“Ja. Yust like mama!” 

[pyjamapolitics]

4.01 News Cycle

Prescient as always, Madam Secretary opens it’s fourth season by reaffirming it will not shy away from current and pressing real world issues. Despite talking place in an alternate universe where the President of the United States is not a giant orange moron, (or f***ing moron as his Secretary of State likes to refer to him) Secretary Elizabeth McCord is confronted with the growing threat of Fake News. When a foreign official dies suspiciously during a one on one meeting with Elizabeth at the United Nations General Assembly, she becomes the subject of a Fake News story identifying her as the murderer.

‘Fake News’ is a term that is thrown around far too often in the current political climate as a catchall to dismiss any negative story. In this episode the true definition of Fake News is well illustrated and it’s danger highlighted. Disinformation has always played a role in the body politic and the world at large, but with the advent of social media it has become a prevalent and powerful tool of bad actors and ordinary citizens alike. From the Brexit referendum to the elections in the United States, France, Germany and others, Fake News and the weaponisation of information through social media have influenced people and events on an unprecedented scale. But now Fake News has evolved to become a weapon, not only of elections, but of anyone with a message to push and a platform from which to push it. with the sole purpose of attacking truth and reason to erode trust in democratic institutions and democracy itself.  

Two of the three most important scenes in this episode are Nadine explaining the source of the Fake News story to the Secretary before her interview, and the Secretary’s interview itself.

“It began on a conspiracy mongering fringe website called Champion of Facts, it spread through social media at an alarmingly fast rate, has been retweeted and shared through countless sources. What’s not helping is the hundred plus phone calls that Mr Bento made to our office… apparently you were avoiding him because he had something on you. Then you became hysterical, revealing choice of words, so you stabbed him in the chest during an unscheduled closed door meeting with him at the UN.”

Fake News stories, perhaps not of this magnitude, are created in exactly the same way every single day, in an attempt to influence people on almost every issue. A small shred of truth is taken, twisted into something sinister and spread across social media. The hundred calls to the State Department, Elizabeth being Ex-CIA, an unscheduled meeting, of course she murdered him. With her bare hands or was it a cocktail glass? Leave it up to the readers of this Fake News to decide, it doesn’t matter as long as the seed of “she’s a murderer’ has been sown. Something else worth noting is Nadine’s comment that “hysterical” was a revealing choice of words, which highlights the coded language used to describe women that act as a sexist dog whistle to those who subscribe to that kind of discriminatory thinking.

Before her interview Elizabeth tells Nadine she thinks “there’s still a strong divide between legitimate news sources and fringe based hooey.” but during the interview is ambushed with a statement by Senator Morejon threatening a congressional investigation into the incident.

“This is obvious crackpot theorising, which quite possibly is the work of a disinformation campaign by a foreign power. What Senator Morejon is doing by legitimising this story is not just immoral and unethical, it undermines the stability of democratic government. Reliable information is the bedrock of any institution, be it science, government or private enterprise, if citizens can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction then the entire project of civilisation turns to dust… By bringing legitimacy to a ridiculous murder claim against me he’s using the tactics not just of dirty politics but of warfare, because it’s dictatorial, it’s autocratic and it’s un-american. Furthermore a mainstream media outlet ought to have a better understanding of it’s responsibility to the public and refuse to signal boost these kinds of outright lies.”

The mainstream media, who in our world as well as the world of Madam Secretary, largely continue to abdicate their responsibility to place the truth above all else in favour of ratings and increased advertising revenue, no longer act as the so called fourth estate. False equivalencies between the facts and blatant lies are made on almost every issue and presented as a balanced debate. There are not two sides to every issue. Framing everything as a debate and leaving the public to draw their own conclusions is a dereliction of journalism’s duty. Journalism should be objective, but not to the point that it excludes what is true and what can be proven.

One of the things that makes Madam Secretary such a refreshing show of the political persuasion is the State Department senior staff. We’ve seen relationships and bonds grow in and amongst Elizabeth and her staff for 3 seasons now, reaching a level of familiarity and comfort with their roles and backstories. The battle of the Chiefs of Staff made for a funny yet full circle moment when Elizabeth’s Chief of Staff, Nadine met the White House Chief of Staff Russell Jackson’s angry outburst with one of her own, thinking back to the first season it’s hard to imagine Nadine defending Elizabeth with such fervour yet now she is as protective of Elizabeth as Russell is of the President. It’s also hard to imagine Blake not making wonderfully pithy comments every episode, a favourite of mine this episode being “I believe that’s Mr Jackson’s knock ma’am.”

Russell does raise some important points during his dressing-down, however angrily they were delivered. “In the age of the internet a lot of nut jobs reach just as wide an audience as the Secretary of State.” with the fact that 22% of the American people believe Elizabeth is a murderer being testament to that. Elizabeth’s ability to effectively do her job does hinge on her credibility and so Nadine makes her finest point ““Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” the only way we can possibly fight this rumour is with the truth.”

The truth in this case becomes rather complicated. The deceased Mr Bento who was the assistant vice minister of Timor-Leste, a Southeast Asian nation, had been trying to contact Elizabeth to blow the whistle on the impending sale of island atoll’s to a powerful Mexican drug cartel. The cartel had infiltrated Timor-Leste’s government at the highest level, threatening it’s President into the sale to establish a shipping base, leaving Timor-Leste in danger of becoming a narco-state. The cartel poisoned Mr Bento using a rare compound that only the Russian’s and they were known to use for homicide, the State Department team managed to piece the story together from this fact.

Once the team’s theory is corroborated Elizabeth believes the situation in Timor-Leste can begin to be righted with both American and Chinese intervention. Elizabeth meets with Foreign Minister Chen to gain Chinese backing and while doing so highlights the increasing globalisation of Fake News and the need for international cooperation to combat it.

“This has something to do with everyone’s troubles in the news… this is what we’re all facing if we don’t fight back against bad actors weaponising the news, the Colima cartel is manipulating this narrative. Right now they’re focused on me, tomorrow? Could be you… even your regulations won’t stop some guy in Macedonia being paid to manufacture clickbait, we’re all going to lose this battle if we don’t stand together and call it out.”

No episode of Madam Secretary is complete without some Team McCord time. The other very serious event Elizabeth dealt with this episode is Alison leaving for college and her inability to be there to help her move in. While it started out as a sweet display of motherly fretting that she was missing this parental right of passage, we learn that Elizabeth’s feelings go deeper than that. When she tells her brother how hard she found moving into college alone by herself as an orphan, her desire to help Ali move in takes on greater significance. Elizabeth’s recollection of her own experience underscores her commitment to be as involved and loving a mother as she can be, and we know she is. When Elizabeth manages to meet Ali and Henry there the delight is palpable and made for a special Team McCord moment.

The third of what i consider to be the three most important scenes of this episode was Elizabeth coming home. The man beside the woman as Dr Henry McCord once dubbed himself, proved once again why he is the best fictional husband currently on television. Henry and Elizabeth talked out the episode’s events, with Henry informing his wife that a snap poll now showed only 12% of American’s thinking that she’s murderer and listening to Elizabeth voice her fear that “It’s scary how fast everyone jumped aboard that train, even scarier to think that a drug syndicate can use the power of Fake News to rattle a country and convince them to lose faith in their government officials.” presenting one of the biggest challenges democracy now faces. Henry promised he’s working on it then provides the perfect distraction for the beleaguered Secretary of State. This balance of communication, deep understanding, support and affection is a true representation of a healthy marriage and what makes us love the McCords so much.

The final scene, featuring a nice cameo by the episode’s director and MOFOTUS Morgan Freeman, where Elizabeth intends to warn Senator Morejon that he’s playing a dangerous game ends with him issuing his own warning.

“In this brave new world of scattered partisan media where unscrupulous outlets are desperate for any juicy new story and political plot twist that they can find, i believe i can chip away at Dalton’s approval ratings quickly and efficiently. 12% of the American public thinks that you’re a murderer Madam Secretary. I can work with that.”

The Senator hits on a key aspect of Fake News, it’s power lies in it’s ability to affect the way people think. To make them doubt and mistrust institutions, elected officials and mainstream media outlets. To sow discord and divisiveness amongst citizens. To make people question reality and replace it with a fabrication. Regardless if a story is eventually debunked or not, once those who are susceptible to Fake News believe it, they will not be convinced otherwise. Whether or not Fake News is a continuing theme in Madam Secretary, it is a dangerous daily threat to democracy and free thought in all our lives.

[fenicerinnovata]

The festivities of the Royal Madame

*Some oddities here; I don’t get it.  Machine translation problems?

I Balletti di Corte - Approfondimento 2 - Dono del Re de l’Alpi a madama Reale. Festa per il giorno natale, lo dece febraro MDCXLV. Ballato in Rivoli, manoscritto cartaceo, secolo XVII - Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, q. V. 60

Agli inizi del 1645 il Ducato di Savoia subiva ancora gli strascichi della guerra civile. Per sicurezza, quindi, il compleanno della reggente Cristina di Francia si festeggiò ancora una volta fuori della capitale, nel Castello di Rivoli. La...

\ Court Ballets - Deepening 2-Gift from the King of the Alps to Royal Lady. Feast for Christmas day, MDCXLV decides it. Danced in Rivoli, paper manuscript, XVII century - Turin, National University Library, q. V. 60

At the beginning of 1645 the Duchy of Savoy was still undergoing the civil war trials. For safety, therefore, the birthday of Regent Christine of France was once again celebrated outside the capital, in the Castle of Rivoli. The feast, designed by Count Philip d 'Agliè and represented by Prince Charles Emanuele II in honor of Madama Royal, consisted of a dinner and a dance.

The celebratory intent of the show was clear: the prince of Piedmont offered as a gift to his mother the kingdom with the approval of the provinces in which it was divided (Savoy, Piedmont, Nice Maritime and Monferrato). The reigning family, court members and ambassador of France participated in the festivities.

In order to avoid uncomfortable diners, dinner took place in four distinct rooms in each of which the tables were placed on mobile footpegs that, thanks to sophisticated machinery, could be moved at the end of each range.

Against the background of the large rooms painted the characteristic aspects of the four Provinces of the State. To this memory, the Album presents scenes depicting the cities of Chambéry, Turin, Nice and Casale respectively.

Among the characters attended the canteen are the Duchess Maria Christina, the princesses Margaret and Adelaide, Prince Thomas, the ambassador of France and other knights and ladies of the Court. The prom took part, among others, Prince Charles Emanuel II at the age of 11, Count Filippo d ' Agliè, Marquis Galeazzo Villa, Baron Pallavicino.

The Grand Ballet of the People's Habitators, theatrically and strategically arrived to pay homage to the Duchess, a ballet crowned by the superb entrance of a silver chariot on which Charles Emanuele II stood, dressed in King of the Alps.

The Album is the work of the ducal secretary Tommaso Borgogno for the calligraphic part.

The music of the arias danced in ballet, also preserved in the National Library with location q. m II. 84 A-D, includes four parts: tenor, bass, alto and soprano.

Thanks to the contribution of the European Inner Wheel Club, the code was restored in 2016 at Studio P. Chrysostomes of Rome.

In short, the conservative restoration intervention involved the following operations: dry cleaning of cards, removal of previous and inadequate restoration interventions, (((repairing the earlier repairs, always a major problem))) detachment of counter-guards, compensation for gaps, suture of cuts and rips, consolidation of the original bracelets, flattening of the block of the body of the volume, application of a new indorsing, reverting the leather blanket with waxes based on natural fat emulsified to water, consolidation of blanket quadrants, compensation for abrasions and gaps on the blanket, chromatic adjustment compensation on the blanket, repositioning the block of cards inside the blanket by gluing the counterguard, digital photographic documentation of the various phases of the intervention.

#bibliotecanazionaletorino #bnuto #pilloledibibliotecanazionaletorino #ioleggoacasa #iorestoacasa #ilmaggiodeilibri @[171645503710:274:MiBACT] @[726876577432698:274:Direzione generale Biblioteche e diritto d'autore] Translated

I Balletti di Corte - Approfondimento 1 - I codici torinesi dei balletti di corte Tredici manoscritti ‒ contenenti testi, costumi, scene e coreografie ‒ tramandano la memoria dei sontuosi spettacoli organizzati presso la corte sabauda tra il 1640 e il 1681. In particolare, dieci codici conservati presso la Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino attestano nove balletti e il dramma per musica Lisimaco; altri tre codici simili sono posseduti, sempre a Torino, dalla Bibliot...

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Court Ballets - Deepening 1-Turin codes of court ballets

Thirteen manuscripts - containing texts, costumes, scenes and choreography - pass on the memory of the sumptuous shows organized at the Sabauda court between 1640 and 1681.

In particular, ten codes preserved at the National University Library in Turin attest to nine ballets and The drama for Lysimaco music; three other similar codes are possessed, always in Turin, by the Royal Library.

The National University Library in Turin also preserves the music of two ballets (The Giubilo del Sole Alpino, music of the arias danced for tenor and bass parts, q. MII. 87 A-B and The Language Carnival, music of airs dancing for tenor, bass, alto and soprano parts, q. 85 A-C) of which no texts, scenes, costumes and choreography have been preserved.  (((Why have I never heard of this music?)))

The almost all of the illuminated tables is the work of Tommaso Borgonio, who, in addition to serving as ducal secretary, was also a designer, engraver and cartographer. The ligatures, coeves and Turin production, are in red Moroccan red decorated in gold, Savoy arms surmounted by the motto FERT.

To celebrate the birthday of Cristina, widow of Victor Amedeo I and regent for her son Charles Emanuele II, on February 10, 1640, the ballet Hercole et Amore was set up in Chambéry, witnessed by the oldest of the codes possessed by the Turin libraries (Turin, Royal Library, Homeland History 952. Music of airs danced for tenor, bass, alto and soprano parts, National University Library of Turin, q. MII. 88 A-D).

In fact, in the ancient capital of the Duchy, Cristina had secured her children at the time of the so-called ′′ brother-in-law war ", a real civil war that saw the party of the Principists oppose the one of the Madamists.  (((This may have been the low point of the Cristina Regency, so to have a big show was pretty bold.)))

The plot of the show was a clear invitation to peace: the Piedmontese (Habitators of the Alps), struck by madness and transformed into fierce animals by Urganda (France) and Melissa (Spain), were freed from the spell by the late Victor Amedeo I , reincarnated in Alpine Hercules, and by Carlo Emanuele II, as Love.

The ballet of the Ladies of Cyprus, escorted by Princess Ludovica, finally paid homage to Madama Royal.

Also the following year, the regent's birthday was celebrated in Chambéry, where he staged the ballet The Jubilee of the Alpine Sun, from the content entirely aimed at the glorification of the Royal Madama.

In 1644 Cristina's birthday was celebrated with the ballet La Fenice Rinovata (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 63. Music of the arias danced for tenor, bass, alto and soprano, National University Library of Turin, q Good morning. mII. 82 A-D), (((does this music exist?))) represented on February 10 at Fossano Castle, where the Duchess had retired in 1643 with her son and court to find shelter, although the Treaty of Turin had placed end to the civil war, from the ongoing clashes between the Allied armies of France and Savoy and the Spanish armies.

At the beginning of 1645 the political-military situation continued to be precarious and the regent's birthday was still celebrated outside the capital, in the Castle of Rivoli, where a party with dinner and ballet entitled Gift of the King of the Alps ( Turin, National University Library, q.V. 63. Music of the arias danced for tenor, bass, alto and soprano parts, National University Library of Turin, q. MII. 84 A-D).

On June 20th of the same year, for the eleventh genetliac of the duke, Valentino was set up the carousel entitled The East warrior and celebrating (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 52). Ideator of the event was Philip d ' Agliè, but the plot, based on the clash between four teams on horseback, was suggested by Prince Thomas to recall the reasons for the ongoing dispute between Turks and Venetians around the island of Candia.  (((The notion of Thomas and d’Aglie, mortal enemies, peaceably working on a martial ballet together, that’s pretty strange.)))

On March 3, 1647 the ballet The Carnival Language Ballet was represented. The ballet Il Tobacco (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 59. 4. Music of the arias danced for tenor, bass, alto and soprano parts, National University Library of Turin, q. mII. 83 A-D), represented in a hall in the Palace of San Giovanni and designed by Philip d ' Agliè with the obvious aim of ridicule the taste of smoke, new fashion of time.  (((I’ve heard elsewhere that the point was to LEGALIZE tobacco so that it could be taxed, which seems plausible as d’Aglie himself was such a big smoker that he was buried with his favorite tobacco pipes.)))

Still in 1650, to celebrate the wedding of Adelaide Enrica, Cristina's youngest daughter, to Ferdinand Maria, Crown Prince of Bavaria, on December 15, the carousel The Hercoli taming of monsters and Tamor of Hercoli took place in Piazza Castello on December 15, 15 (Turin, Royal Library, Homeland History 949), of which scenes Francesco Lanfranchi invented.

At the end of the celebrations, in the salon of the Palazzo di San Giovanni the ballet L 'Educatione d' Achilles and Nereids his sisters in the Doro Island (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 58). The plot has the education of a young lord in whom Charles Emanuele II must be recognized, depicted as Achilles that his mother Teti (Royal Madama) entrusts centaur Chiron to give him lessons in music, painting and martial arts.

In 1653, for the last day of Carnival, Philip d ' Agliè specifically dedicated to the Duchess the ballet Il Gridelino (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 61. Music of the dances, for the recordings of soprano, high, tenor and low, qm. II. 86 / A-D). The title originates from the color gris de lin, a color between blue and purple much loved by Cristina, who while being a widow didn't love wearing black and for this reason was criticized by the court. (((Really?)))

The purpose of the representation is the praise of the gridelino, perfect color, symbol of eternal love. In February 1655, still for the last day of Carnival, Philip d ' Agliè staged The Old and Modern Bacchanals (Turin, Royal Library, Homeland History 953), whose simple storyline ironized the human extravagances impersonated by well-known characters historians.

In 1657 the Duchess's birthday was celebrated with the ballet La Primavera triumphant over Winter (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 55), probably composed for lyrics by priest Don Gabriele Orengiano and for music by violinist Francesco Farinel.  (((Not one of d’Aglie’s efforts, apparently.)))

On April 29, 1660, to celebrate the wedding of Margaret of Savoy with the Duke of Parma and Piacenza Ranuccio Farnese, Filippo d ' Agliè set up in Turin, in the Palace of San Giovanni, the great dance The Pearl Union [sic] Peregrina Margherita Royal and Celeste (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 53), with the scenic apparatus of Amedeo di Castellamonte. The music, of which Michele Chiappati was probably the author, was not preserved.

In May 1665 Charles Emanuele II married, secondly, Maria Giovanna- Baptist of Savoy-Nemours. Of the many shows organized by the second Royal Lady, there is only one testimony: The false Amor bandit, the Humano admitted and the exalted Celeste (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 62), which took place on February 17, 1667. The author of the ballet is unknown, but it is known that the dances were composed by the Turin Giovanni Carisio, known as ′′ l ' Orbino ", member of the Ducal Chapel and then music court composer.

The series of codes preserved at the Turin libraries ends with Lysimaco (Turin, National University Library, q.V. 49). Staged for the first time in 1673 in the Venetian Teatro dei SS. Giovanni and Paolo, the drama for music was set up in Turin during the carnival season of 1681 for the inauguration of the new court theater wanted by Vittorio Amedeo II. #bibliotecanazionaletorino #bnuto #pilloledibibliotecanazionaletorino #ioleggoacasa #iorestoacasa #ilmaggiodeilibri @[171645503710:274:MiBACT] @[726876577432698:274:Direzione generale Biblioteche e diritto d'autore]

(((Why did they stop?)))

[actutrends]

How TV Predicted Politics in the 2010s

And if “The West Wing” trio worked in Congressman Frank Underwood’s Washington, they may simply get shoved in front of a moving Metro train.

Of course, “Scandal” and “Home of Cards” were simply TV– few individuals on the government payroll, after all, could pay for those closets. These programs’ portrayal of the sneaking rot of Washington didn’t show up in a vacuum.

To recognize how dark TELEVISION’s take on Washington has been these previous eight or 10 years, it’s worth thinking about how reasonably sunny the view was just a years earlier.

And absolutely nothing shouted “greater calling” more than “The West Wing,” which aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006, tracking the exemplary souls who worked for President Jed Bartlet.

” The West Wing,” developed by Aaron Sorkin, was a liberal wish-fulfillment dream, however it likewise primarily imbued Group Bartlet’s conservative villains with a certain type of honor: They desired power, but in service to their causes, and with supreme regard for the system. (That point was highlighted in a 2002 documentary-style “Unique Episode” that featured gauzy interviews about the work of White Home staffers, and consisted of such Republican politicians as Marlin Fitzwater, Peggy Noonan and Karl Rove.) Despite the fact that the show premiered 7 months after President Expense Clinton’s extremely partisan impeachment trial, it was permanently optimistic about the system– positive that a couple of buddies and well-placed Sorkin-penned speeches might fix whatever ailed democracy. If there was political analysis embedded in “The West Wing,” it was the idea that the system fell short when the gamers didn’t fight hard enough for what they thought in; when they were too happy to play the sure thing rather of taking a risk for the higher good.

Then came completion of Obama’s very first term– a minute when, if you were a liberal with Sorkinesque optimism about “Yes We Can” slogans and transformative change, you might be pertaining to terms with the idea that politicians are imperfect, gridlock is pervasive and Mitch McConnell isn’t simply going to step aside to give way for your higher cause, whether it’s universal healthcare or closing Guantanamo.

And a brand-new age of political TV shows took that disillusionment one action further. Reveals like “Veep” and “Home of Cards” provided a new, darker theory: The system can never work if everyone in politics is dreadful and venal and self-serving– and the very nature of Washington makes individuals horrible and venal and self-serving.

” Veep,” a kind of inverse of “The West Wing” that premiered in 2012, was a farce about ambitious politician Selina Meyer and her marginally qualified, politically starving personnel. In the series ending, she sets him up to take the fall for a political scandal– and sees FBI representatives carry him away, out of the corner of her eye, as she delivers a nomination acceptance speech at the party convention.

” Veep” was produced by a Scotsman, Armando Iannucci, a veteran of scathing British black funnies about the ethical compromises of federal government. Like the best satire, the show has an undercurrent of sadness; Meyer is acutely aware of how much work and personal sacrifice it has actually taken to get whatever capital she has, and how much the struggle has altered her as an individual.

” House of Cards,” too, had roots throughout the pond; it was loosely based on a British political-thriller series from the 1990 s. Where “Veep” spun nihilism into farce, “Home of Cards” turned it into high melodrama. The credit sequence reveals the monuments of Washington in ominous time-lapse photography, with dark clouds sweeping overhead and shadows climbing the structures. The central characters, politician Frank Underwood and his better half, Claire, are so deeply committed to Washington power that they ‘d do anything to get it– not just the garden-variety TELEVISION fare of murders, affairs and bribery, but some truly sinister administrative relocations. In the second season, in order to blackmail a pregnant previous staff member, Claire forges medical insurance documents to reject her a drug that would help blood flow to her placenta. “I want to let your kid wither and pass away inside you if that’s what’s required, however neither people wants that,” she says, matter-of-factly.

The ruthlessness of politics was a running theme throughout the years. Even soap-opera dreams detected the concept of Washington as a force for ambition, evil and, truly, not much else. “The Oval Office, in our program, was a place that corrupted anybody who came near it,” “Scandal” creator Shonda Rhimes told press reporters before the series ending. “And the closer you came, the more corrupt it made you and the more broken it made you.” This year, Netflix’s “The Politician,” a Ryan Murphy political allegory set at a California high school, buffooned the poll-driven, values-free drive of a budding political leader and his handlers.

The most effective way that TELEVISION predicted politics in the 2010 s, though, was in its prescription for a repair: the recommendation that what Washington truly needs is an outsider to swoop in and shake things up (or drain the swamp, if you prefer).

Here, Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a mild-mannered career academic who serves as secretary of Real estate and Urban Development– but is so bad at navigating Washington politics that one early morning, he finds out that president strategies to fire him.

Kirkman takes the Oath of Workplace with no trust, no required and no concept how to do the task, though audiences certainly trust that his inner Kiefer Sutherland will come through. It does, in a mild-mannered way, as he fires secondary generals, stumbles through international crises and finds it within himself, eventually, to deliver a stirring speech. (In the 3rd season, he delivers his own State of the Union address, but goes off-script and caterwauls at Congress: “The system is broken and you individuals broke it!”) Through all of it, Kirkman is battling against a greater conspiracy: a network of corruption that wrongly thinks he ‘d be an easy mark. As other characters handle the action-adventure work, Kirkman stands his ground; it’s his unusual integrity, his un-Washingtonian Kiefer-ness, that holds the nation together.

CBS’ “Madam Secretary,” which premiered 2 years earlier, has a comparable property: Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA analyst-turned-college professor, is tapped to become secretary of State after the present one dies in an aircraft crash.

” Madam Secretary” is more like “The West Wing” in the sense that multiple characters have virtue. Still, the program’s backdrop is a Washington that’s jeopardized and divided, full of conspiracies and not worthy challengers, from deceptive bureaucrats to government moles and ambitious two-dimensional senators.

Eventually, Elizabeth barges into the hearing, takes Henry’s place at the witness table and provides an impassioned speech, saying she just broke the law since she cared about the country and didn’t understand who else she might rely on.

Of all of the political shenanigans on television this years, that 2015 scene might have been the most telling, and the most predictive of the real-life politics that were to come, not long after the episode aired.

Again, it’s just TELEVISION.

But in these 2010 s programs, the characters discover that breaking the codes of conduct and propriety will wind up taking you far. Selina Meyer of “Veep” and both Underwoods of “Home of Cards” all get to be president in the end. Elizabeth McCord, of “Madam Secretary,” ultimately becomes president, too. You understand, a great one. Long as you’re on her side.

The post How TV Predicted Politics in the 2010s appeared first on Actu Trends.

[viz-release-blog]

Starz Charges Up for a Second Season of the Original Series "Power"

New Post has been published on https://vizrelease.com/press-release/1962572/

Starz Charges Up for a Second Season of the Original Series "Power"

Starz announced today a season two pick up of “Power,” the New York-based drama starring Omari Hardwick. Creator, showrunner and executive producer Courtney Kemp Agboh and fellow executive producers Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Mark Canton, David Knoller and Randall Emmett will return for the sophomore season. Production is set to begin on the 10-episode second season in and around New York, as well as at its home base at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn this September.

The eight-episode first season of this visionary crime drama is set in two different worlds, the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade, and follows James “Ghost” St. Patrick as he attempts to leave his illegitimate lifestyle behind.

“I am so grateful to Chris Albrecht, Carmi Zlotnik, and everyone at Starz for their support of ‘Power.’ I am thrilled and excited to have the opportunity to create a season two that we plan to be bigger and better than the first,” shared series creator Courtney Kemp Agboh.

“‘Power’ is a project extremely close to my heart and working with Chris Albrecht, Carmi Zlotnik and the Starz team has been the perfect fit for this.Viewers may be loving the start of season one now, but season two will blow them away,” says executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

Starz retains all global distribution and home entertainment rights to the series.

“Power” tells the story of wealthy New York City nightclub owner, James “Ghost” St. Patrick, who caters to the city’s elite. He wants to build an empire, turn the club into a Fortune 500 business, but there’s just one problem: he is living a double life. When he is not in the club, he is the kingpin of the most lucrative drug network in New York for a very high-level clientele. His marriage, family and business all become unknowingly threatened as he is tempted to leave his criminal life behind and become the rags-to-riches businessman he wants to be most of all.

CBS Television Studios is one of the industry’s leading suppliers of primetime network programming, with the #1 and #2 dramas, “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” and the #1 new comedy “The Millers” which also ranks as the third most watched network comedy. The studio’s roster of popular and critically-acclaimed programs also includes the phenomenally successful CSI franchise, “Elementary,” starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, the Peabody Award winning series “The Good Wife,” starring multiple award winner Julianna Margulies, “Under the Dome,” last summer’s most watched program; “Reign,” the hit CW series, the daytime talk show “The Talk,” and BET’s #1 scripted show “The Game.” Upcoming new series include “NCIS: New Orleans,” “CSI: Cyber,” “The Odd Couple,” “Madam Secretary” and “Scorpion” for CBS and “Jane the Virgin” and “The Messengers,” for The CW in addition to the highly anticipated summer event “Extant” starring Academy Award winner Halle Berry.

[thisdaynews]

'Extremely stable genius': Trump defends his mental fitness as he tears into Pelosi

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/extremely-stable-genius-trump-defends-his-mental-fitness-as-he-tears-into-pelosi/

'Extremely stable genius': Trump defends his mental fitness as he tears into Pelosi

poster=”http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201905/445/1155968404_6040432162001_6040431188001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404″

true

white house

The speaker says he needs ‘an intervention.’ The president says ‘she’s lost it.’

Washington’s political chaos descended into farce on Thursday when the speaker of the House and the president of the United States accused one another of being mentally unwell.

Hijacking an afternoon White House event with American farmers and agriculture industry leaders, President Donald Trump began calling on his top aides to state for the public record that he was “calm” during a disastrous meeting with Democratic leaders the day before.

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“I’ve been watching her. I have been watching her for a long period of time. She’s not the same person. She’s lost it,” Trump said of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just moments after he announced $16 billion in federal aid to growers hammered by the U.S.-China trade conflict.

In a remarkable scene, the president proceeded to name-check senior White House staff and advisers in the Roosevelt Room whom he said had attended Wednesday’s session on infrastructure initiatives with top congressional Democrats — which Trump abandoned after declaring that the lawmakers could not simultaneously negotiate legislation while investigating and threatening to impeach him.

“Kellyanne, what was my temperament yesterday?” Trump asked White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

“Very calm. No tamper tantrum,” she replied before criticizing journalists’ coverage of the meeting, which Trump has complained portrayed him with a “rage narrative.”

“The whole Democrat Party is very messed up. They have never recovered from the great election of 2016 — an election that I think you folks liked very much, right?” Trump said, addressing the farmers flanking his lectern. “Well, Nancy Pelosi was not happy about it, and she is a mess.”

Not even the leaders’ families were spared from the sniping and accusations of poor physical well-being. Christine Pelosi, the speaker’s daughter, sought to defend her mother on Twitter earlier Thursday, commenting on a Washington Post report detailing how a conservative Facebook page had posted a doctored video of the California Democrat in which she appears to drunkenly slur her words.

“Republicans and their conservative allies have been pumping this despicable fake meme for years! Now they are caught,” Christine Pelosi wrote online. “#FactCheck: Madam Speaker doesn’t even drink alcohol!”

Pelosi herself on Thursday invoked the president’s wife and children in appearing to question Trump’s fitness for office, telling reporters in the Capitol: “I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”

At that same news conference, the speaker questioned whether Trump was truly in charge of his White House and seemed to jokingly reference the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows the Cabinet to remove a president from office if he can’t perform his duties.

It was a reporter’s question at the White House about Pelosi’s “intervention” remark — which Trump dubbed “a nasty-type statement” — that put the president on the defensive Thursday. He began turning to aides such as Mercedes Schlapp, the White House director of strategic communications, and pressing them for first-hand accounts of his scuttled meeting with Democrats.

“You were very calm and you were very direct, and you sent a very firm message to the speaker and to the Democrats,” Schlapp said.

Next up was Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, who said the president’s conversation with Democrats was “much calmer than some of our trade meetings,” followed by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who described the president’s demeanor as “very calm and straightforward and clear.”

But the greatest praise for the commander in chief came from Trump himself, who told the assembled members of the media during one non-sequitur: “I’m an extremely stable genius. OK?”

Minutes after the event concluded, Pelosi had already fired back a retort from the speaker’s official Twitter account.

“When the ‘extremely stable genius’ starts acting more presidential,” she wrote online, “I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues.”

The bizarre exchange of insults between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue comes amid growing pressure on Speaker Pelosi to pursue an impeachment inquiry into the president’s conduct.

At a closed-door meeting Thursday morning with her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi claimed that Trump “wants to be impeached” by the House so that he can notch a victory during a trial in the Senate, which is controlled by a healthy Republican majority.

Close associates and Republicans close to the president, interviewed in recent weeks, dispute the idea that Trump welcomes impeachment. But with impeachment talk increasingly in the air in Washington and Trump seeming to goad Democrats into moving in that direction, the president may be taking the threat more seriously now.

“In the past he’s always pooh-poohed the idea of impeachment and he always thought that they’re not really serious about it,” said a Republican close to the White House who has discussed the issue with Trump. “That this is sort of a game that they’re putting out there. Even the media, his view was, ‘They need me, I’m the biggest star they ever had and I’m helping the New York Times, MSNBC and CNN.’”

A former senior White House official said Trump doesn’t want to get impeached “in his heart of hearts,” but “the specter of [impeachment] creates that production value that’s so important to him.”

Drag-out fights with Democrats “creates the diametric choice between us and them,” the former official added. “That’s why he does those rallies. It is what motivates his base, it’s what motivates him and he’s ‘producing’ the presidency.”

Trump also sees impeachment as a political wedge he can wield against Pelosi’s newly expanded caucus, this person said: “He thinks that this is just going to rip the Democrats apart because some want to [impeach] and some don’t.”

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[bestcgart]

VFX - VFX Breakdown Reel ABC's 'Scandal'

VFX Legion Wraps Three-Years of Visual Effects Work on ABC’s 'Scandal'

The Studio Created Hundreds of Photorealistic CG Shots, Seamlessly Matching The Shondaland Production’s Live-Action Footage and Transported The LA-Based Show To A Virtual D.C. Environment

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube....bed/AXL-iVYrGdQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> The recent airing of the series finale of ‘Scandal’ on ABC capped off VFX Legion’s three-year run as the sole visual effect company for award-winning creator/producer/writer/director Shonda Rhimes’ political thriller. The Burbank studio has been the driving force behind the hundreds of computer-generated effects that the show’s viewers didn’t see each week. Currently a streaming favorite on Netflix, Legion’s team takes great pride in the fact that the photorealistic digital world they created now goes unnoticed by a new crop of fans binge-watching the groundbreaking series. 'Scandal' is shot in LA, while its story unfolds in D.C. where deception and intrigue ensue as its central character, Olivia Pope, (Kerry Washington) the staff of her crisis management firm, and the White House’s inner circle ravenously vie for power. While the episodic drama didn’t call for futuristic CG worlds, the Los Angeles-based production relied heavily on VFX Legion to create composited sequences, set extensions, full computer-generated environments and exacting digital replications of iconic buildings in D.C. that would have been too expensive, impractical, or impossible to shoot. Once ‘Scandal’ brought VFX Legion onboard, founder, creative director James David Hattin’s first order of business was to customize a new digital pipeline that optimized the efficiency and quality control of the show’s visual effects. Hattin, the architect of the studio’s state-of-the-art pipeline, designed its infrastructure to support transparent communication with each artist and enable his management team to work one-to-one, supervising every phase of the production. Nuke-based compositing facilitated collaborative workflow and streamlined ‘Scandal’s’ visual effects process. Redshift was key to completing the CG renderings on schedule, while maintaining consistently high-quality. Spearheaded by Hattin, Legion handled every facet of the visual effects process for the last 50 episodes of the series, from pre-production, budgeting, establishing shot lists and developing concepts to on-set supervision and production. VFX supervisor Matthew Lynn, on-set coordinator, Mathew Noren and support staff were on-set during shoots, working closely with ‘Scandal’s’ directors, ADs, camera crews and post teams. They provided input and gathered data on green-screen placement, the positioning of tracking markers, lighting placement, camera angles and other specs, ensuring that Legion had the information and assets needed to produce visual effects that seamlessly blended with the live-action, as well as the lighting and look of the show. “As confidence in the our capabilities grew, more ambitious visual effects were incorporated into the show,” says Nate Smalley, Legion’s head of production. "The escalation continued during season six with an exploding cabin effect integrated into a live-action scene, and then moved on to more advanced full CG environments and set extensions. Our artists built a tight computer-generated replication of Marine One that closed the season finale as president ‘Fitz’ (Tony Goldwyn) ended his term and boarded the helicopter. For this year’s final season, we created a photorealistic digital aircraft that’s indistinguishable from a practical shot of the plane when cut back-to-back, before blowing up in a fiery explosion.” The release of ’Scandal’s’ VFX breakdown reel, ‘VFX Legion Goes to Washington…In LA,’ provides a retrospect of some of the CG sequences that the studio created for the show over the last three seasons. Currently, VFX Legion is readying to begin work on its fourth season of another Shonda Rhimes series, ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ and is about to wrap this season’s finale of the CBS series, ‘Madam Secretary.’ The company is also finishing up visual effects for two feature films, award-winning Director X’s remake of the 70’s classic, ‘Superfly’ and the highly anticipated hundred-million-dollar epic film, ‘Asura.’ Credits: Project: VFX for ‘Scandal’ (Seasons 5,6,7) Production Company: Shondaland Productions / LA Production Company: ABC Studios / LA Executive Producer/Creator/Head Writer: Shonda Rhimes VFX Company: VFX Legion / LA Creative Director/Senior VFX Supervisor: James David Hattin VFX Supervisor: Matthew T. Lynn Production Manager: Andrew Turner VFX Head of Production: Nate Smalley CG Supervisor: Rommel S. Calderon VFX Coordinator: Matthew Noren VFX Coordinator: Lexi Sloan VFX Legion: CG Environments, Set Extensions, Compositing, Matte Painting, Lighting & Look Development, Dynamics, CG Modeling, Texturing, Tracking Visual Effects Executive Producers: Rajeev Dassani, Elan Dassani