#but style savvy was the only game that had all of these in one package PLUS a super cute style

[sddirectoryblog]

MKA RC (Mary-Kate and Ashley RealCeleb)

On May 4th of 2007, Stardoll introduced two new RealCeleb dolls to the game; famous fashion pioneers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. During this time, the global fashionsphere was swooning over the twins and their chic, savvy style - and their reception on Stardoll was no different. 

RealCeleb dolls were essentially a celebrity infused package of content on Stardoll, allegedly orchestrated by the celebrities themselves. Each RealCeleb would be stacked with a classic dress up game, a promotional page, and their very own account on Stardoll, complete with a fully furnished suite and wardrobe stocked with items inspired by their "real" style.

Typically, the items found exclusively in the closets of RealCelebs were not available to purchase for your average players, however, this all changed with the Mary-Kate and Ashley RealCeleb clothes. Originally, they were obtainable through a contest wherein players had to style the twins in a fashion forward look and enter their ensembles to be in with a chance of winning furniture items from the twins RealCeleb suites - however, the two winners (*Abercrombie99* and iloveHD) not only won the furniture items, but also the entire closets of Mary-Kate and Ashley - this would soon become a catalyst for one of Stardoll's biggest scandals.

View all of the MKA RC fashion items here

Months went by, and what was now known simply as "MKA RC", the duos RealCeleb items became some of the most coveted in the game, with players fawning over the minimalist chic garments gatekept by only two dolls on the whole of Stardoll. But this was now 2008, and the infamous loophole had appeared - certain dolls had discovered a way to "copy" items and distribute them to others through the new StarBazaar - and of course, MKA RC was what everybody wanted. Suddenly, the closets of the elites and those well connected were flooded with MKA RC, each racking up items in plain sight. RealCeleb items that were originally never meant to leave the closets of their respected owners were now littered throughout the game, causing quite the stir across the community.  

As well as the MKA RC fashion items, a collection of posters were also released, sporting the iconic twins both together and separately in colour and black & white. These posters were technically "hidden" and only obtainable through entering a link into your browser, which many blogs at the times shared.

View the MKA RC posters here.

In July of 2008, Stardoll also accidentally released an MKA RC item; Ashley scarf into the StarPlaza, however it was not able to be purchased. 

In October of 2008, there was a competition to win a phone call from Mary-Kate Olsen herself! During this competition, players who sent a friend request to MK received a free exclusive poster.

Eventually, Stardoll tacked on to the illegal black market buffoonery and cut the MKA RC scandal at it's roots by making all items no longer sellable through the Bazaar, which finally put an end to this saga and made MKA RC an infamous topic for years to come - with users even going as far to purchase accounts which contained the items, now more desired than ever. 

In July of 2015, chaos ensued when one of the rarest and most wanted MKA RC items; Ashley bag was released in the 45th issue of Callie's Picks. This was the first instance of an MKA RC item ever being re-released under a different brand, but it wouldn't be the last, as on April 1st 2020, an Archive collection was released in the StarPlaza, containing almost every single piece. Many users (including myself) were in disbelief, and upon hearing the news were convinced it must be a practical joke given the date! However, our eyes did not deceive us, and the holy grail of Stardoll rares was sitting right there in the StarPlaza for us all to snatch. This shocking re-release essentially devalued the worth of the originals by a large margin and marked the end of an era - MKA RC was now widely available for all, but today scarcity remains as neither the original or Archive versions are sellable.  

The tale of MKA RC is one almost as old as Stardoll itself - spanning over 13 years, full of scandal, scarcity, and still to this day, mystery. But the MKA RC items still remain as some of the most examplary of Stardoll's golden age.

[izanori]

idk who needs to hear this, but if it hasnt already been done i want to clear up some things

Fashion Dreamer is not Style Savvy. BUT. It’s created by Syn Sophia, just like Style Savvy was. So, if you’re still holding out for a title that’s specifically called Style Savvy it’s time to give up, because it’s very safe to assume that Fashion Dreamer is meant to be Style Savvy’s spiritual successor. This may be due to influencers and other internet personalities being way more popular than wanting to run a store among children these days.

so… yea. ^_^

[sweetiecenter]

Fallout, Borderlands, and how a Medium Compliments a Theme.

Fallout, Borderlands, and how the Theme can serve the Medium well, and vice versa. A small essay by me about two of my favorite game series.

2K Games and Bethesda are industry giants. Both of these studios have built their companies on the backs of extremely successful game franchises.

In the case of 2K, they built their franchise around sports, as well as Sid Meier’s RTS, Civilization, as well as delving into many other genres. It wasn’t until 2K started to delve into RPGs like Bioshock, from the creators of System Shock 2, that they started to develop their formula.

For Bethesda, they got their massive start a bit earlier with id software with games like Doom and Wolfenstein, which almost singlehandedly popularized the FPS genre.

Both of these industry giants are responsible for thousands of hours of love and enjoyment, and Bioshock 2 is singlehandedly responsible for growing my love of video games, and their writing.

There are two franchises from these respective companies that are both known for being notable open-world, first person RPGs: Borderlands and Fallout, and both series were published by their respective companies around the same time, with Borderlands 1 entering development in 2005, and Bethesda being commissioned to work on Fallout 3 in 2007, which later turned into Bethesda buying the rights and absorbing Interplay. Fallout 3 was released in 2008 on October 28, with Borderlands coming out almost exactly a year later.

As time has gone on, both companies have paid mutual respect to each other, particularly in regards to these FPSRPG games; Borderlands 2 even has a gun called thre dog in reference to the infamous Three Dog from Fallout 3. The similarities between the themes and playstyle of these games has led to many comparisons, but I would just like to take the time to talk about how each respective game does justice to the themes of their stories and the medium they use.

So what are the themes of these games, really?

The more unique taglines and themes of these games would be “war never changes” and “everyone is the hero of their own story” for Fallout and Borderlands, respectively. The underlying themes that go unspoken (mostly), seem to be anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism.

The anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism arguments are where it gets interesting.

First, let’s look at how both games use American culture and atmosphere to their advantage and to get their point across.

We can all agree that governments are, at their core, made to protect folks, right? That is their stated job. It is in their job description. Especially in America, the idea is that you should never, ever have your rights taken from you. We are surrounded by people who believe in the government, and if not in the government, then in your country itself. Patriotism has its own dedicated holiday! This is why Fallout has such a huge focus on how the government of their universe shifted away from protecting people, and how they have become imperialistic, jingoistic, and xenophobic. Even if you hate the military, the world of Fallout is intended to make you go “shit, at least we aren’t THAT bad”.

And this tone helps to set the theme for the Fallout games. Everywhere you turn, you are completely let down by the people you rely on. Looks are deceptive, and yet they aren’t. The dark and gritty atmosphere of the games are constantly screaming at you that the world has already ended, even as Ron Perlman tells you it is only the beginning. Happy endings are nonexistent in almost every case, with the sole exception of perhaps the Courier... but then, the Courier is the only one with no ties to a Vault. No delusions of grandeur, no expectations.

It should be noted that in the dialogue choices as the Courier, you are the most aware of everything that has happened. Instead of being shocked that someone shot you in the head, you are apathetic at best and mostly want the package back; even if you roleplay your courier as a revenge-driven mailman, they are never surprised. Disappointed? Oh, almost certainly.

The first time I booted up the original Fallout and saw the Overseer start talking, my first thought was:

“This is it. Humanity has degenerated into ridiculous blue cavemen.”

I think the design of the Overseer was very intentionally made to be odd, and to showcase that the people have changed. Then you step out into the wasteland. You see the disconnect between the Vaults, the only remnants of pre-war society in the first game, and the rest of the world.

The discovery that the government willingly let all these experiments happen only adds to our disgust as we piece things together, piece by piece. You become jaded and cynical, and in your quest to save everyone, you truly have changed. Sure, the Overseer exiling you because “you’re different” may seem weird and a flimsy excuse to keep the experiment going, but it has a hint of truth to it. You’ve changed. You’re knowledgeable. You can no longer be controlled by the propaganda you had taken as the truth, that all Vault residents had taken as the truth. This disconnect between reality and the Vaults is further explored whenever you reach a new Vault.

Finding out the horrifying truth about what the Vaults were, what they were made for, never gets any easier. The game’s sound design is always made to harken back to something behind you, in some way. The base game’s sound design usually invokes paranoia and fear, while the radios that constantly play music from a bygone era invoke a general feeling of “nothing will ever be the same”.

All in all, Fallout does a fantastic job of setting the basis of its universe. Worldbuilding is a massive part, and their is little to nothing left unknown for a savvy player, should you be willing to listen to exposition. The overall tone is tragic and bleak, in order to juxtapose itself with the pre-war propaganda.

Which brings us to Borderlands.

Borderlands does not ask you as a player to think. It does not ask you to feel. The main focus has never been the story, and yet it is still a beautiful aspect of it, in the way of all the things that go left unsaid. How did the sirens come to be? Who knows. How did all the Eridians die out? Who knows. Why is it so much god damn fun to shoot a vertically challenged man in a gas mask and watch his head explode? Who knows.

Borderlands never gives you enough time to reflect on the overarching theme of the series. Compared to Fallout the game is much more fast-paced and linear, but if you take the time, you can see everything fall apart as the story progresses. You have no choice. Nothing you do ever matters, especially in the face of corporate overlords. All these bandits you’ve been fighting? They were normal people once. Convicts, sure, but they were also taken advantage of, brought to this strange alien planet and used as slave labor. Fresh off of the heels of Fallout, you could ask yourself, “what sick government would do this?” The answer is it isn’t a government. It is a corporation that styles itself as a government.

There lies the sick joke of the Borderlands series. This isn’t some far fetched, awful alternate reality. This is the future, where corporations continue down the same path they are on now - unchecked, allowed to ruin the worlds, contracted by governments - and nobody did a god damn thing. These guns you buy? Produced by Atlas. The clothes you’re wearing? Probably Hyperion fashion. The planets you come from? Owned almost completely by corporations. Atlas has an iron grip on Promethea, and Mister Torgue literally blew up an entire PLANET, even if it is played for laughs.

Just like in Fallout, nobody is on your side - and yet you know this. You embrace futility anyway; you buy Atlas, you buy Hyperion, and you buy Maliwan because at the end of the day, they are more powerful than any Vault Monster you could hope to kill. The bright tones and dark humor of the Borderlands are a direct result of embracing futility. The fun does not lie within facing your oppressors, it lies within killing them over and over. The thing that makes Borderlands so celebrated is its replayability; in Fallout, everything you do is permanent. Borderlands has next to no permanence. No matter how many Hyperion soldiers you kill, you won’t put a dent in them. These corporations span six whole galaxies.

Borderlands doesn’t need to set an atmosphere to make you immerse yourself in the story. We already know corporations are horrible. Jeff Bezos spends his money on space while Amazon employees die of exhaustion.

The horror of these two games directly correspond with each other. Fallout is horrifying because of past deeds, because of what could have come to pass. Borderlands is horrifying because of what still could happen.

Both of these game series have, in many’s opinion, fallen off in recent years, but I personally will always have a special place in my heart for these wonderful games and their storytelling.

Thank you for reading.

[artificialqueens]

Five People's Thoughts on Adore and Bianca: Laganja Estranja (2/5) (Biadore-ish) - doctor bitchcraftt

Yes gawd mawma, it’s finally time to hear from Laganja, okurrrr?  

1. Courtney Act

2. Laganja Estranja

3 & 4. Raja & Raven

5. Trixie Mattel

A/N: Laganja isn’t a character I’ve written before, and I wanted to avoid reducing her to a caricature of her own behavior by exploring the deep insecurities exposed by her Untucked outbursts and her version of calculated competition.  She’s the quintessential unreliable narrator, and I hope that comes through properly.

Xoxoxoxo, bitchcraftt

********

Laganja had been pleased to find Adore in her group for Drag Race, both as a friendly face and a known quantity: good, but not going to outshine her in the end (she didn’t even cinch).  They’d gotten on well before the show, and she couldn’t wait to kiki with her on camera.  More importantly, she wanted to find a moment to ask if she’d managed to stash anything for later since her nerves had been buzzing for hours already.

Striding into the workroom, she landed a perfect death drop that hopefully would capture the fans’ attention once the episode aired.

Sizing up the rest of the competition proved more challenging.  She almost immediately dismissed Vivacious (what the fuck was that on her head anyway?) and cautiously considered the likelihood that BenDeLaCreme would turn out to be playing the long game behind her sweet persona.  Laganja weighed the potential benefit of establishing Gia as an ally, felt a twinge of envy for April’s showy costume and Latin charm, and came up suspiciously neutral in her impression of Kelly Mantle.

After the photo shoot and gleefully celebrating her first win, she sat back and waited for the other queens to arrive, ignoring how much she really wanted to light up to calm her nerves.

Kelly hadn’t lasted long anyway.  One queen down, and six new bitches to add to the mix.

********

The first thing she noticed when the second group walked in was how much older Darienne and Courtney looked in person (although she had to begrudgingly admit that Courtney’s fishyness was impressive).  Courtney was pretty, but her makeup wasn’t drag-worthy.  As for Darienne, well, a queen who couldn’t wear high heels wasn’t a queen at all in her book.

Joslyn seemed genuinely nice, although probably not savvy enough to last long.  On the other hand, she would definitely make Laganja seem even more polished by comparison, so maybe she would be worth keeping around for a couple of weeks.

Trinity had faded into the background, and Laganja figured she would stay there.  Part of her empathized with the air of someone struggling with their own inner issues, but she couldn’t afford to play nice.  Trinity didn’t seem likely to pose a threat, and it was probably safe to leave her to her own devices.

Most of all though, the last two who came through the doors set off alarm bells in her head.  

Milk looked like a demented marionnette wrapped in organza, but the sheer outlandish energy coming off her might be a problem as the challenges progressed.  She also wondered if Milk had any dance background, watching her assured movement in and out of drag.  So far no one else seemed to be able to match her for flexibility and ability to tear up the floor, but she planned to keep an eye on the bearded wonder.

Last across the threshold and sporting neon eyeshadow that badly needed blending, Laganja recognized Bianca Del Rio.  The queen had to be pushing forty (Alyssa had mentioned her a few times, calling her ‘established in the business’), but her padding and wig line were flawless.  Beyond the packaging though, she recognized the sharp eyes of a fellow competitor.  Combined with her sharp tongue, Laganja might actually have some serious competition.

********

Scream Queens

After the first acting challenge, when Laganja found herself laughing along with Bianca’s cutting retort to Adore, she wondered if the other queen might actually not be as much of a problem as she’d anticipated.  If she was going to devote energy to taking down all of the girls verbally, then it was less to focus on everything else.  Adore rarely played well with other queens in her experience, so why should Drag Race be any different?  It meant that Laganja ought to have her undivided support, at least until she was sent home.  

Bianca didn’t appear concerned with playing to the camera outside of the challenge, nor did she make an effort to capture airtime in the workroom.  Moreover, she didn’t make any attempt to showcase her slender legs (nice, but not as nice as Laganja’s) to take attention away from her overdrawn face, which could only be a serious tactical error.  And while the old Hollywood glamour admittedly flattered her petite figure, it wasn’t edgy or exciting for someone who claimed to be a costume designer.  

The oversized rhinestoned collar was actually impressive.  Not as imaginative as her butterfly fascinator, but definitely interesting.  

Laganja had studied the looks on Bianca’s garment rack, and while a part of her coveted the craftsmanship (apparently Bianca made everything herself), her overriding impression was that the queen was stuck too far in the past.  People like Laganja, and Adore, were the new face of drag, outside of smoky clubs and bars.  

Also, the obsessive neatness and organized rows of identically styled wigs made her supremely uncomfortable.

********

Shade: The Rusical

In the Gold Bar, she struggled to contain her tears when a message from her parents played.  Everything was finally coming together, and she could picture the crown on display in Alyssa’s dance studio for everyone to know that Laganja Estranja of the Haus of Edwards was a true winner.

Sniffling, she turned her attention back to the other girls, waiting for their separate conversation to end so they could finish validating her experience.  It started out well, and even Bianca was complimentary towards her parents.  Who would have thought she had it in her?  (She was half convinced that Bianca spent every night off set thinking up ways to insult everyone else.)

And then, right as Laganja felt safe in relaxing just a little, Bianca cut across her moment with a joke.  It wasn’t the joke itself - she couldn’t care less what the bitter bitch thought of her - but then all of the other girls laughed and started another conversation without her.  Worse, they seemed to be laughing at her, which wasn’t fair at all.  The prickling sense of doubt came roaring back full force, and she couldn’t afford to let anyone see it, especially not here.    

How could they be so insensitive?

…how dare they?

“This was my moment!” she sobbed, not even hearing what was said after and barely conscious of the words coming out of her mouth.

This couldn’t be happening.

****      

Later, when she was calm again and Adore was disappointed in not winning the main challenge, Laganja found herself torn between annoyance on her behalf (Courtney Act was so *pitchy*) and being secretly relieved that one more episode was complete without the judges being drawn under Adore’s charming spell.  

The thing about Adore, was that her powerful voice wasn’t going to make up for her thrift store drag budget.  Her punk rock rebel schtick was only going to go so far, especially in comparison to queens with professionally made looks.  Laganja hated to think it, but Bianca Del Rio’s unclockable hairline next to Adore’s messy shake-and-go Party City closeouts was a point in her favor.

More importantly, she was relieved to unload her frustration at being dismissed on a friendly ear.  Adore might be a little slow, but she definitely stuck up for her friends.  Bianca wouldn’t catch her off-guard again, and not with Adore now aware of her awful behavior.      

********

Snatch Game

Laganja woke up feeling peaky and drained.  She panicked for a moment, thinking about the cameras catching her looking tired.  The only solution, as Alyssa had taught her, was to put on her biggest wig and blow the other bitches out of the water.  Digging in her suitcase, she located her pièce de résistance: a high braided turban that was sure to deflect from anyone noticing the bags under her eyes.

Her tactic seemed to be working, because the other queens were staring with impressed expressions as she showed off her flexibility for the camera.

Crisis averted.

Unsurprisingly, Bianca was the first one in full face and wig while the other queens were still baking and contouring.  She moved around the workroom purposefully, offering to help DeLa with her old lady face and brushing out Trinity’s wig.  When her black-clad form (why did Bianca suddenly look so tiny?) appeared behind Laganja in the mirror, she steeled herself for more negativity.

“Want me to help?”

Laganja blinked, certain that she’d heard wrong, and tried to continue.

Bianca watched her fumble with her highlight for a few seconds before holding out her hand.

“Give it to me, queen.”

Laganja froze, brush in midair and compact clenched in her other hand.

Rolling her eyes, Bianca made a ‘come here’ gesture before plucking both items out of her hands and tugging her shoulder until she turned around.  Gripping her chin gently, Bianca started moving with quick, precise strokes.

“It’s easier if you start near your hairline, and…"  The rest of what she said was lost as Laganja’s mind spun into overdrive.  There didn’t seem to be any ulterior motive, yet here she was helping her competition.

She zoned back in as Bianca set down the brush and highlighter, and nodded briskly.  

"Let me know if you want me to show you how to do it next time.”

As she walked away, Laganja could almost understand why Trinity and Adore seemed to love Bianca and talked about her being great.  Sometimes when the cameras weren’t rolling, she even felt a sense of camaraderie.  It never lasted long enough to convince her that it was real, because the moment filming started and her anxiety rocketed upwards, everything that came out of her mouth seemed to annoy the older queen.

****

She left the Snatch Game set nearly in tears.  Rachel Zoe was an easy part of her repertoire for her friends, but everything had felt so off today.    

It took a trip to the bathroom and a five-minute private mirror pep talk before Laganja felt ready to take on the Night of 1,000 RuPauls.  What she really needed was to get away from everyone and smoke, but that hadn’t been an option for weeks.  

Staring into her own eyes, she tongue popped for luck and resolved to slay it on the runway.

Bianca gave her a curious look when she breezed back into the workroom.

”Everything all right, queen?”

Laganja steadfastly ignored the attention.  

Halfway through gluing her lace down, she realized that Adore was no longer perched on the chair beside her.  Looking around the room, her heart dropped when she located her friend.

Instead of lingering at her station like usual to keep Laganja company and her mind off her nerves, Adore was off in the corner.  Off in the corner with Bianca, who had paused in the middle of piling hair on her head to lace her into a cincher.  Bianca’s cincher.  

Bafflingly, she was actually being nice to Adore and not sabotaging her, because as far as Laganja could tell, there wasn’t anything wrong with the garment and she had seemed genuinely concerned that Adore was comfortable and happy with the final product.

She didn’t understand Bianca at all.

****

The fragile sense of calm that she’d achieved on the main stage crumbled the moment Adore pointed at her and Gia as being in the bottom.

Hearing Adore laugh at DeLa’s naive question about Rachel Zoe hit like a bad death drop and for a moment Laganja couldn’t breathe.  

She scrabbled for something to defend herself with.  Bianca was an automatic target - after playing nice with her makeup, she had turned right around and messed with her in the Snatch Game.  Laganja wasn’t buying her “I hate everyone equally” excuse this time, not when she was obviously trying to come for her.

Looking across the lounge, she was overwhelmed by the sense of betrayal as Adore claimed that Bianca wasn’t singling her out for attack.  

It felt like the floor was slowly collapsing under her feet.  Not only had her friendship with Adore been far less of a stabilizing force than she’d expected, but Adore had actually joined forces with Bianca against her.  

It wasn’t the only thing, but that was the last heave it took to upend the cart of her control.

“Did you or did you not come for me today?” she snapped, hoping that someone else (Gia? Joslyn?) would stand up for her.  

“…hold up girl, I’m not trying to create a moment -“

Her heart pounded in her ears, and she badly wanted to grab the stupid pillow off of Bianca’s lap and throw it at Adore’s bitchface.  

“I’m not saying you came for me but I do feel a little shafted by you today.”

The words were spilling out and Laganja gave up trying to hold in all of her frustration and hurt.

”I don’t remember the exact comment you said, but earlier I do feel like you were saying -“

Her breathing was too shallow, but all she could see was Adore’s newly cinched waist.

“I don’t even know, but I felt a little hurt by you earlier,” she finished lamely, unable to articulate the pain and panic welling up in her chest.

She no longer recognized her rebellious good time party girl, always a few steps behind.  Adore wasn’t even trying to support her, just offering empty words as she she spent her time cozying up to Bianca.  While the person on the other side of the table looked like Adore and spoke in Adore’s voice, she might as well have been a stranger.  

Laganja shied away from Bianca’s touch on the way back into the hall.  Not five minutes after coming for her, Bianca had to be mocking her with her ‘advice’.  

She couldn’t trust anyone here, not anymore.

Why didn’t anyone else see what was going on?

********

Oh No She Better Don’t

“Miss Laganja Estranja. Next time you death drop, reverse that and drop dead.”

Adore’s read felt like a stab in the back and Laganja didn’t even bother to try to smile.  Everyone was laughing at her, Bianca’s cackle rising above the others.  

********

Glamazon by Colorevolution

Surveying the others, Laganja was certain that her black and white runway look would win the judges over - no one else had anything as edgy.  Even Adore was wearing a Forever 21 sweater and a miniskirt, but she could forgive her friend the look because their commercial had gone amazingly well.

Joslyn looked like an extra from a porn about magicians, and Courtney…well, that weird sparkly tuxedo thing was a look.  Courtney was blathering on about someone called Clause No Me (whoever that was), but it wouldn’t matter if she was wearing Dior, because her boy legs were on full display.  Not to mention, the giant pile of hair that DeLa was pinning up made her think of a butt plug.  Laganja was surprised that Darienne hadn’t made any catty comments about it given the palpable tension between them.  She started to move closer, but was distracted by the activity in Bianca’s alcove.

Still in pantyhose and corset with her skunk-striped hair, Bianca was helping Trinity zip herself in.  The domino dress was well-made, although she ought to be carrying drinks in Monte Carlo in it.  Laganja admitted she might even ask Trinity where it came from.

As for Miss Perfect herself, Laganja once again grudgingly had to give her credit for the ensemble as Bianca started to get dressed.  The enormous ball gown skirt seemed to materialize from nowhere in a cloud of tulle.  How the hell had she fit that in her duffels?  It wasn’t even creased, and it must have contained miles of crinoline.  Laganja had barely been able to close her five suitcases, but Bianca’s luggage all seemed to be under the maximum amount.  Not to mention, she’d only unpacked a bag and a half of wigs.

She started to pace anxiously, balance thrown off after the high of performing.  Her feet carried her to Adore’s table, hoping to mend their friendship, but once again Adore was busy talking to Bianca.

********

It wasn’t fair.  She had to keep her chin up, because the road to success was never easy, but it also shouldn’t have been this hard.  

She’d promised her parents and Alyssa that she’d bring home the crown.  Her parents seemed to finally be at peace with her drag, and it would be everything she’d ever wanted to validate following her dreams.

Laganja just had to hold on a little longer, prove to Ru that she deserved to be America’s next drag superstar.

********

Queens of Comedy

The comedy challenge was a disaster.  

After seeing Adore perform with shaky insecurity, Laganja’s confidence had risen.  All of the other girls were trying for a ten, but she was going to dial her personality up to one hundred.

Except instead of howling with laughter, the old people in the audience stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language.  She dug deep for the best jokes that never failed to entertain her usual crowd, but nothing worked.

Barely keeping her angry tears in check, she slumped back into her seat and watched the rest with a stony stare.

Witnessing Bianca Del Rio effortlessly work the audience was awful.  Every laugh she drew from them hit her like a punch to the stomach, reminding her of how inadequate her jokes had been.  

Worse, seeing Adore’s rapt attention made her physically ill.  Bianca was now the recipient of the same wondering smile that Adore used to give her when she performed.

Nothing made sense.

Without heels, Laganja towered over Bianca; she couldn’t understand how the queen could still make her feel insignificant without even saying a word.

She was sick to death of Bianca’s clever insults and her perfect white teeth.  She hated her stupid dimples and how her voice grew soft when she spoke to Adore.  

Adore was her friend, or at least she used to be.  If Bianca had to pick someone to be nice to, why did it have to be Adore?  

This was supposed to be her moment.

[uniform-company-in-dubai]

Uniform Company In Dubai

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The acceptance of a more casual uniforms company Dubai in corporate culture has finished the uniform sector what it's for each other portion of the promotional garment industry - awakened a requirement for more unique, creative, detail-oriented style uniforms. Wisely, manufacturers of uniform companies apparel have taken a cue from these casual fashion trends and have emerged with a refreshingly relaxed, festive, unique look to their pieces.

Company Uniforms Dubai

Evolution aside, though, the "new" company uniforms Dubai market continues to satisfy an equivalent crucial role for those within the hospitality business looking to reinforce their brand recognition and image. Restaurants, hotels, airlines, theme parks, and other such service industries believe company uniforms in Dubai quite ever to finish their branding package of logos, colors, and graphical images. These are visual representations of their uniform company that appear on everything from letterhead to mugs.

Knowing the market's current viability, the question becomes one among how you'll differentiate yourself from the growing swell of promotional apparel suppliers when selling custom company uniforms Dubai. Service, the timing of delivery, and an understanding of their customers' markets is what sets high selling promotional apparel vendors aside from the pack.

Yet, so as to supply the type of service customers require, vendors must not only be ready to meet deadlines and accommodate their clients' schedules but also must have a solid understanding of the unique industries they're serving. Any successful attempt at cracking a replacement niche begins with research. uniform company Distributors in Dubai actually need to know the precise niche they're targeting, to be ready to provide it with appropriate garments. Approach each institution with the thought of supplying all their company uniforms need, from the hotel desk clerk to restaurant server to cook. repeatedly, a simple sale is lost because a distributor is just too focused on selling one item to a hotel or restaurant, instead of watching the large picture.

Consider trying to find a uniform company in Dubai for long-term contracts that provide repetitive business. Find the parent uniform company of the local chain restaurant, and make contact with the person responsible for ordering their company uniforms. Though selling locally has its merits, promotional apparel distributors should attempt to maximize the interconnectedness of the hospitality industry and to foster relationships with the larger players.

Smaller and fewer marketing-savvy companies are typically in greater need of selling assistance and, hence, bring easier sales targets. Many such companies may even look to uniform promotional apparel distributors and companies for tactics to upgrade their current uniform company in Dubai program, as against larger uniform companies who do much of their promotional marketing internally company uniforms Dubai.

When targeting new establishments, small businesses, or the otherwise uniform-challenged, emphasize the importance of uniforms to a company's brand recognition. Cite one among the various marketing studies that show how adding a consistent program where there wasn't one already can boost sales, it's one among the simplest sales pitches. For those that already buy company uniforms, she recommends offering ways to enhance their current program. Visiting your target hotels or restaurants for uniforms to review their color schemes, logos, and overall image may be a good way to get creative ideas to present to a possible client.

For your client especially for the uniform company in Dubai that is vying for recognition in an over-crowded, media-blitzed marketplace, image is everything. Whether with catchy slogans, colorful logos, or unique promotional apparel, finding creative marketing solutions is usually the difference between a company's success or failure. Fortunately for promotional apparel distributors looking to explore a replacement market niche, many companies within the hospitality game have turned to uniforms as a part of this solution, generating a requirement for unique, specialized and sometimes retail-oriented company uniforms Dubai apparel.

[fayewonglibrary]

FAYE ACCOMPLI (2000)

With a new album and a younger beau, Faye Wong again is the centre of media attention. She talks to Life! about her family, daughter, and the paparazzi

By YEOW KAI CHAI

FAYE WONG is a curious, unique and fascinating phenomenon in the Chinese entertainment scene.

Hers is one lit by sacred mystery, slavish fan-dom and marketing savvy – a kind of meteorite which makes an impact on pop consciousness that is felt years later.

Just last week, several incensed Faye-natics wrote to Life! to complain about the less-than-positive review of her latest album, Fable. The letters burned with an unbridled intensity reserved normally for matters of life and death.

Faye is a diva, and divas are infallible even when they falter, these correspondents insisted.

While the bigger Western pop market has always loved its fair share of staunch, individualistic visionaries, ranging from loose cannons like Courtney Love to weird, elliptical New Age daughters like Tori Amos, the East had preferred its female singers decked out uniformly in pretty frills, smiling coyly and oozing saccharine.

The entry of Faye changed all that.

THIS EMPRESS DOES HER OWN THING

A*MEI can belt better, CoCo Lee can shake her bon-bon with more fervour, but Faye – who moves very little on stage, makes scant eye-contact, and banters very poorly – is Queen. Or Empress, if you go by her Chinese name, Fei.

She is the Anti-Entertainer made good, the kind of gauche, strangely-riveting drama unfurling on stage.

Faye as a proposition came at the right time in the Internet era, a child of the global village, where the twain finally met.

As Life! music columnist and “I’ve-never-stopped-being-angry” singer and DJ Chris Ho once told this writer, he fancies the “idea” of Faye Wong, somebody who does her own thing without a care in the world for social approval – never mind whether her songs are good or not.

How many of Singapore’s unloved “indie” rockers would love to have that kind of clout.

Here is a goddess who subsists on both flaws and gifts alike – her lousy media relations, superb style sense, and her talent in out-copycatting her Hongkong counterparts in choosing smarter, more revolutionary musicians to filch from.

All these add up to an irresistible package.

Last weekend, on the popular Taiwanese variety show Super Sunday on the TVB-S channel (Ch 54), Faye was the guest.

She was gorgeous and smiling all the time, but was otherwise in typical Faye mode. She did not play to the crowd, or banter needlessly. She just spoke when she needed to.

Tellingly, the usually-riotous team of Harlem Yu, Huang Chi Jiao, A Liang and premier veteran compere Chang Hsiao-yan wound down their antics and became less irreverent.

They kept calling Faye tian hou (Heavenly Queen), and spoke to the 31-year-old, 1.72-m tall singer in clearly deferential tones.

The more senior Chang, usually quick and particularly ruthless, even gave way to her guest in a contest.

The singer, on her part, looked bemused by the surrounding plebeian inanities, a placid self orbiting at her own pace.

A COOL ONE FOR GENERATION NEXT

THE name Faye, at the cusp of the new millennium, has become synonymous with Attitude and Coolness personified for Generation Next.

Just last month, an impressive turn-out of 500 journalists from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore flew to Shenzhen. Faye, as part of a promo tie-up with Head &Shoulders Shampoo, was scheduled to emerge from a helicopter in a golf buggy and perform three songs from Fable on an aircraft carrier.

Alas, due to rain, the gig was brought indoors, and she stayed for only about 15 minutes to field questions from the disgruntled press before being whisked off.

It was all in a day’s work on Planet Faye.

MEANING BEHIND THE SONGS

FEELINGS: A diva speaks

On the lyrics of her songs “(Lyricist Lin Xi said) it is to do with the various love stages and incarnations. Sounds very deep…’

On a message to her listeners ‘No, there is no special message. For this album, it’s basically an expression of certain moods.’

On the paparazzi "There has to be a decent limit. I feel it’s immoral for the paparazzi to snoop.’

On negative news reports "I just treat the reports as if they were about someone else.’

On movies she enjoys "I like to watch movies from which I can get some enlightenment or inspiration.’

SO, OF course, we didn’t get the one-on-one interview or even a phone interview with this elusive mystery. But we were given the privilege of faxing her a list of questions. And here we have Faye’s answers, recorded on tape.

We cannot tell you what her facial expressions were, or what she was wearing, or what Singaporean make-up designer Zing had painted on her face.

We hear only the Beijing native’s mellifluous, Northern-accented Mandarin, punctuated occasionally by a peal of laughter.

She has ignored some of the more probing questions, preferring to spend precious reel on giving us a very detailed run-down on the mystical meanings of the first five songs, which she says are "all about love and its complexities, from the beginning of creation to modern times”.

Oh, okay. But which songs in Fable mean the most to her?

“The five songs I wrote are the songs I like more,” she declares, not very diplomatically.

“I asked lyricist Lin Xi what they mean and he said it is to do with the various love stages and incarnations. Sounds very deep, but that’s what he was writing. Anyway, people don’t really have to really listen to the lyrics. They can listen to the music.”

On the whole, what message does she want to convey to her audience with this album?

“No, there is no special message. For this album, it’s basically an expression of certain moods,” she offers in a typically-obtuse manner.

“When people hear the songs, they should be able to feel the moods. I only write lyrics and music when I am inspired. I won’t write for the sake of writing. I hope that people can find some form of emotional empathy. No big pronouncements.”

No big pronouncements. Such a casual statement of nothingness can only come from supreme confidence. Faye has come a long way since 1987, when she was an 18-year-old who had left Beijing for Hongkong, to take singing lessons.

Two years later, her singing teacher introduced her to Cinepoly, which released her first three albums, and marketed her as a cookie-cutter balladeer.

At the time, she went by the plain name of Shirley Wong Jin Man.

She was not happy. She was getting famous, but she was an introvert and she did not like the attention brought by fame.

She took a sabbatical and flew to America, where she attended some singing and dancing lessons.

The trip was an eye-opener. In New York, people in the streets dressed the way they wanted, and acted the way they wanted.

It proved to be the turning point in her life. She returned to Hongkong in 1992, more assertive and ready to steer her own ship. She reverted to her own name, ditched Shirley for Faye, and decided to record Mandarin albums instead, save for one or two novelty Cantonese tracks on each CD.

She made an about-turn away from the chart-friendly pop route and transformed herself into a canny alternative popster who spoke her mind and followed her heart. She dressed the way she wanted, and acted the way she wanted.

She struck gold.

Musically, the 1990s was an experimental era which gave free rein to Faye, who borrowed the fine (some say bad) points blithely from the leading female originals of the western pop hemisphere – Bjork’s sartorial and follicular sensibility; Sinead O'Connor’s nuanced vocal styling; and Liz Fraser’s unintelligible phrasing.

She covered the Cranberries, and mimicked Dolores O'Riordian’s yodelling. She even worked with the Cocteau Twins.

On the media front, she was no PR merchant, happily dissing reporters who dared ask her about her marriage/divorce to mainlander Dou Wei.

She would deflect intrusive questions with mystical monosyllables, which, depending on your ardour or the lack thereof, was either intriguing or just plain rude.

In short, she turned the rules of the game upside down. It was shocking, baffling – enchanting. She stood out.

The media and public, thrilled or repulsed by such blatant insouciance, lapped it all up. They trailed her every move, her elusive relationship with Nicholas Tse, who is 11 years her junior, and second-guessed her every new image overhaul.

It was a beneficial media-celebrity relationship for both parties: fuelling her cool, defiant stance and adding grist for publicity.

PAPARAZZI SUCH A HEADACHE

SO WHAT does she really think of the media, especially the paparazzi? How does one maintain the line between one’s public and private selves?

“Of course, I don’t like the gouzai dui (paparazzi)”, is her calm, candid answer.

“The paparazzi make the task of separating work and private life very difficult. There is absolutely no way for me to protect my own privacy. It is a headache!

Although I understand that as a public personality, my private life would be an issue of interest, I still think there needs to be some restraint. There has to be a decent limit. I feel it’s immoral for the paparazzi to snoop.”

As for the “negative reports” in the tabloids, Faye, a devout Buddhist, professes she has transcended frustration.

“Now, they don’t affect my state of mind that much. I just treat the reports as if they were about someone else. The report and my life are two different matters. I wouldn’t be bothered.”

It does seem that she has become less irascible, more at peace with her life and its inconveniences.

Asked what kind of movies she enjoys, she ponders, then offers, most beguilingly, “the kind of movies I don’t like”.

“War movies, period movies, I don’t quite like. Things that are distant from my present lifestyle, I’m not so interested in. I like to watch movies from which I can get some enlightenment or inspiration.”

To her credit, Faye thinks that Fable could have been better produced.

“The mixing for this album was done in England. We worked with an English mixer – I don’t know whether people who heard the album could tell that. I heard the CD, and it wasn’t as good as I had expected, but it has its fine points.”

For the next album, she will work again with longtime collaborator, arranger-producer Zhang Yadong, and find some famous European arranger/producer to arrange and mix the album, she says.

Unfortunately, as the singer points out, “the more famous producers are usually very expensive, and we have yet to settle the copyright issue”.

“It’s a headache, but I hope the plan will work out,” she adds, laughing.

HER SUCCESS AND ITS DOWNSIDE

REFRESHING it is to hear Faye, often typecast as wilful and artistic, considering a serious business matter.

At this juncture of her life, she may have achieved equanimity. She has learned how to enjoy success, and dealt with its downside.

Indeed, slavish adoration may come and go, but Faye has one basic guiding principle on how to live her life.

“My parents’ biggest positive influence is on my character. They are very upright people. They have integrity, and they are not fake or insincere.”

If all else fails, there is always her darling daughter. So, has Dou Jingtong inherited Mummy’s talent?

“Yes, she is sensitive to anything that has rhythm. She is acutely sensitive to music. I don’t think it’s all hereditary though. Maybe she was a musician in her previous life!”

As if surprised at her own elucidation, Faye chuckles, sounding truly embarrassed. And for a second, you think you hear beyond the Superstar, the Hype and the Fable, the wide-eyed girl who once marvelled at the things she had seen for the first time.

Fable is out in stores.

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

SOURCE: THE STRAITS TIMES / LIFE

[elee-thesis]

:Sweats Nervously:

The Concept Notes Part

Just kidding! I’m not that nervous.......yet. For week 15, I just wanted to add a bit of concrete direction to my previous post, since I feel like that post really contains the MEAT of the newest direction my project is going in.

As per my most recent blog post, I've been leaning into creating tools that allow users to subvert the oppressive system engineered into their tech, and provide space to explore the materiality of this technology, by pushing at the boundaries set in place. One thought I had: I realized that it might make most sense to create a google chrome extension that contains my final suite. After doing a bit of research on what exactly is allowed in the Google Chrome store, I noticed that apps can only have "one function" or if several functions they all must pertain to one main function. My "suite", of course, in no way meets that rules, so I’m guessing there's no way I can publish it on the app store. While this may initially seem like a disappointment I'm actually feeling pretty good about it having to be distributed via zip file and then uploaded as a "package" in the Developer Tools section of folk's Chrome Extension library. It creates kind of an interesting dynamic because enabling developer mode and loading a package from there opens up a ton of vulnerabilities to someone’s computer. This means that the person that want to have their _own_ suite *must* trust me... this is definitely something I’d like to think more about.

I also read a bunch of "The New Dark Age" by James Bridle this weekend and found an excellent quote:

"We have been conditioned to think of the darkness as a place of danger, even of death. But the darkness can also be a place of freedom and possibility, a place of equality. For many, what is discussed here will be obvious, because they have always lived in this darkness that seems so threatening to the privileged. We have much to learn about unknowing. Uncertainty can be productive, even sublime"

Using the darkness as a metaphor for the subversion let's say, or the chaos created by my tool set, allows for the opening up of this beautiful liminal space. Those that are familiar with these spaces, I hope, will recognize it as a home. I'm not entirely sure if this is how my project will be perceived, but it's something to work on never the less.

I also talked to a bunch of folks over the age of 55 about technology this weekend to glean some info about what their interactions are like with their computer/phones/etc. I heard a lot about trying to interact with a computer that is constantly evolving, and just when they felt that they had a grasp on the "latest" feature, etc, things would change again. Specifically, my mom, who happens to be pretty internet savvy said she feels badly when she sees all these folks on twitter enjoying memes or other online tomfoolery, and she wishes she could be more ~*~in on it~*~*. She said something about missing out on having online friendships. She said this feeling of sadness always turned inward; "is there something wrong with me?". I had never really talked to folks who felt alienated by technology because of their age, and especially when as of late, it’s become a point of contention with younger folks. So, I'm now a little nervous about my suite pushing people who share these feelings further into the shadows. I ended up showing these folks what I had been working on, though, and most of them found it conceptually interesting and also said how some of the "effects" of the tools I had created replicated ways in which they would "accidentally mess something up” something, which I thought was interesting. Specifically someone commented that the “click” chrome extension that I created that slid words of the page really looked like something he had accidentally done once. I'd definitely like to think more about their feedback...after all my projects doesn't have to do something for everyone so I'm hoping this doesn't add too much pressure. 

The Form Notes Part

SO for form: I'm thinking that I'd like to ultimately have a sort of "tool bar" at the bottom of my screen that pops open a box and provides a bunch of "tools" that folks can choose from. I'm not sure if this should become something that I continuously add to or not, but in the meantime this is my running list:

Cursor as Medium

Having bits of data from past browsing history that is "summoned" by one's cursor

Browser Shimeji

Aka Tamagotchi for your computer that roams around your screen and is cared for by browsing activity (TBD)

Shy Cursor

Having the cursor hide when you move too quickly (it seems that the shy hyperlinks prototype was wonky, but might be more effective with the cursor)

Blur/replace faces

OpenCV is my friend!!!!!!!!!!!! It might be ridiculously intensive to load in each image on a computer, detect a "face" and cover it… this might end up looking more like my mad face "click"

Random intervals of touching your computer for its warmth

Connecting with your computer and feeling how hard it's worked

Illustrate one's journey online

Visualize a little map of each link you've visited

Though I haven't actually made something like this yet, I *think* it'll be easy-ish to implement…

Close Button Death

Implement the naming and formalization of a ritual surrounding closing tabs

Word FLIP

Flipping words around on a page. I'd like to change how this currently functions because I think it might be interesting to parse each word from a sentence and reorder them (?) Something to play with

Reorder google search

There's so much blatant oppressive tactics surrounding the order in which google searches are revealed, I'd like to work on creating a randomizer that randomizes the links presented. I have no idea if this is feasible so we'll have to see :')

Ugly!

I'd like to work to mess with CSS styling and randomize what a page's style could look like.

SO my game plan is so mock up the above (most of them are already actually functional), or if it's easy enough, create real solid versions of them. Easy Peasy! Bring on the final presentation ;) I am feeling a little anxious about what I'm creating but also feeling fairly good about it all. We'll see how I'm feeling in a week!

Check out some mocks of the form below:

Before clicking!

After clicking! 

Version 1 of the tool set all laid out

Version 2 of the tool set all laid out

[emulateharry]

Story of my life

Chapter 11

A/N  Thank you to my dear Alex (@niallandharrymakemestrong​) and Mel (@melissas173​),  I could not do this without your support and superb editing skills.  If you are reading this story–please take a moment and give me a like or a comment (all comments are welcome).  If you particularly like it, consider reblogging.  Thanks!

After a late night celebrating the end of the OTRA tour with Harry and the rest of the band and crew, Kacey was awakened on November first by Harry pressing soft kisses to her eyes, cheeks and finally her lips.  

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said, his voice raspy.

“Mmmm.  Is it morning already?  What time is it?” she asked sleepily.  

“It’s time to celebrate your birthday.  Do you have anything special you’d like to do today?”  he asked, kissing her temple.

“Hmmm…I think I’d like to…do you,” she said huskily, a crooked smile on her lips.

“I think that can be arranged.  Or, perhaps I could do you, hmm?” he smiled at her, one eyebrow raised.

“Why don’t we just do each other?” she suggested diplomatically.

“Good idea,” he trailed off as his mouth found hers.

* Kacey had just finished drying her hair when the smell of coffee hit her.  She wandered back into the room to see Harry holding out a cup from Starbucks. She accepted the proffered drink and sighed with satisfaction as she took the first sip.  Harry had ordered breakfast and it was set up on the table in the corner of the room.  There was fresh fruit, muffins, Devon cream, and poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise on a bed of asparagus.  Fresh flowers and several beautifully wrapped packages completed the table.  

“Wow…this is wonderful,” Kacey breathed.

“Let’s eat.  We have a lot to do today,” Harry said, smiling enigmatically and kissing her cheek.

Kacey allowed him to lead her to the table and sat as he held her chair.  He sat next to her and offered her the Devon cream for her muffin.  She spread some on and took a bite, eyes closed at the gorgeously smooth, buttery taste.

“Oh, Harry, this is heaven!” she gushed.

Harry took his napkin preparing to wipe the corner of her mouth where a drop of the cream had deposited but then thought better of it and kissed it off instead.  Kacey beamed at him and kissed him back.

“Kassidy…stop looking at me like that.  I’ve made plans for us today and if you keep that up we’ll never leave this room,” he admonished.

“You started it,” she pretended to grumble, smiling despite herself.

As they finished their breakfast Harry asked eagerly “Ready for presents?”

Kacey smiled at his excitement and placed her napkin on the table.  “I’m ready,” she replied, enthusiasm edging into her voice.  Harry bought her gifts often; he got so excited giving them to her, like a big kid, and always watched her reaction closely.  He brought her something from every city the band played in.  His gifts were never overly expensive but they were always thoughtful.  

Harry reached for a rectangular package and handed it to her.  Kacey tore into the wrapping and pulled out a box.  It was an iPhone 6 plus.  A tiny twinge of worry nibbled at the back of her neck.  This was expensive.  This newest model had only been out for about 6 weeks and there were huge waiting lists to get one.  She knew money was not an issue, Harry was seriously wealthy.  It was just…maybe a little too much?  She didn’t feel completely comfortable having him spend money on her.  She was a multi-millionaire in her own right, thanks to her books and Laura’s stock market savvy, but chose to live simply.  Her main indulgences were her homes, which also happened to be good investments.

“Oh Harry!  This is amazing but I’m afraid it’s too much…” she began, but saw his face fall. Quickly she finished “technology for me! Will you show me how to use it?”  His grin returned, this time accompanied by dimples.   Oh, thank goodness—it was a good save.  The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt him.

“Of course, I will.  Yours hasn’t worked properly since you dropped it at the pub.  I don’t want you to be stranded with a phone that doesn’t want to work,” he explained.  Kacey kissed him.

“Thank you! It’s really cool—and you got it in red!  How did you manage that?” she asked, impressed.

“It’s a secret,” he grinned.  Leaning a bit, he grabbed another box and passed it to her.   This one was even larger than the first, but not as heavy.  Kacey, once again, tore into the paper.  Inside the box, wrapped in tissue, was a silk scarf.  She recognized it immediately.  It was a vintage Gucci floral scarf with a pink border that she had saved to her Pinterest page.  She looked up at him wide-eyed.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I’ve seen you looking at this several times.  It wasn’t hard to guess that you really liked it,” he said with a dismissive little wave of his hand.  

“I love it.  It’s even prettier than I imagined. Thank you!” she admired, stroking his cheek.

Harry reached for the last package and a colored envelope.  Handing her the package with a grin, he said “This kind of goes with the scarf.”

Kacey tore into the last package to find a small box.  Removing the lid, she gasped.  Inside was a brooch with two large, round rubies hanging from gold stems with marquise cut emerald leaves; cherries on stems.  It was stunning.  Kacey looked up at him with tears forming.  “Oh Harry, it’s beautiful!” she whispered.

Harry’s face was joyous. “I thought you needed a symbol for your Order,” he explained.

She laughed, and sniffed.  “Thank you.  This is all so wonderful.  Best birthday ever.”

In a humorous game show host voice Harry intoned “But wait!  It isn’t over yet!” and handed her the envelope.  

With trembling fingers, she pulled the envelope open.  It was a pink card with “Happy Birthday Beautiful” on the front.  Inside was a note telling her the he had booked them a stay at Middlethorpe Hall, an 18th century manor house that had been converted into a hotel and spa.  She looked up at him, amazed.  

“We have celebrating to do:  the tour is over, our album is coming out, and you have just sent your third best seller to the publisher,” he said smiling at her.  “We could use some relaxation and I know how much you love the old homes and castles.”

“It’s all perfect.  Thank you. This has already been the bestest birthday and it isn’t even noon!” she giggled.   * They spent four days in the Garden Cottage suite at Middlethorpe Hall, most of that time snuggling next to the fire or walking the twenty acre grounds.  Harry had scheduled a full spa day for them and they indulged in massages, manicures, pedicures and facials.  Kacey laughed at Harry and tried to take a picture of him, covered in the face mask with his hair in a towel turban style, but he stared her down.  She giggled about the image for the rest of the day until he threatened to spank her.  That led to a challenge which resulted in Harry chasing her until he caught her in the sitting room of their suite.  He flipped her over his lap and whacked her bottom a few times before they found the whole situation too erotic and wound up taking care of business on the cottage floor in front of the fireplace. The end of their stay came far too soon and they reluctantly packed up to head back to London.  

Harry was starting album promo in a few days and Kacey had a meeting with her publisher to discuss timelines.  In six weeks the band’s hiatus would start and they would have more time to spend together.   Kacey could hardly wait. * Kacey sat in the corner of the room two chairs away from Julie the Modest! agent.   It was a press day and Harry had asked if she wanted to tag along.  She agreed with alacrity, always taking advantage of any opportunity to spend time with him.  The 1D guys were split up with Harry and Niall taking the first shift of reporters to be followed by Liam and Louis in the afternoon.  Kacey was impressed with their press skills, answering the same tired questions over and over but seemingly excited to do so each time.  Of course, they had thousands of interviews under their belts so it was almost automatic.  She was chatting quietly with them while the next team of cameraman and interviewer got set up.  Julie signaled that they were ready and Kacey went back to her chair.

The interviewer was a woman in her late twenties with over-processed hair and under-plucked brows wearing what appeared to be a sneer.  Her obviously expensive, yet frumpy, blouse was unbuttoned one too far, her skirt a trace too short.  Her posture was ramrod straight as she leaned forward toward the boys causing her small bosom to jut out.  Kacey could smell her cloying perfume all the way across the room leaving her to wonder how Harry and Niall weren’t choking or tearing up sitting so close to the source.  Her voice was adenoidal when she introduced herself as Arabella Braxton-Hicks, journalist from a snooty little mag that Kacey avoided.  Disguising a snicker with a cough, Kacey earned herself a stern look from Julie.  She ignored her and returned to playing Words With Friends on her phone, only half listening to the interview.  Dammit.  7 consonants, one of which was a Q.  What the hell was she going to do with that?   Sounds tickled her attention; it took a moment for Kacey to realize that the voices in the room were no longer cordial.  She heard tension in Harry’s tone and looked up, frowning.  On instinct, she tapped her phone and began recording. Ms. Braxton-Hicks was pointing her pen aggressively to punctuate her next question.  

“Harry, it has been suggested that you are bisexual with a long history of both male and female lovers.  Is this true?”

Kacey, eyes wide with disbelief, looked at Harry to see his eyes tightening before responding with a careful, measured tone “Suggested by whom?”

“Oh, loads of people.”

“How does that pertain to our album, Arabella?” he asked quietly, leaning back in his chair.

“Your fans and the public want to know.  Are you going to answer me?”  she challenged, the hostility evident.

“No.”

Kacey felt her fingernails bite into the palm of her left hand and flexed her fingers to relax it, phone still recording the scene in her right.  Her pulse was rising, heat creeping into her cheeks.  Arabella turned to Niall.

“Niall, you have a history of very short romances.  Does your inability to keep a girlfriend stem from your poor relationship with your mother?” she inquired archly.

“Oh, hell no,” Kacey sputtered, practically launching from her seat and across the room. “Excuse me!  I’m sorry for interrupting.  Really.”  

Harry and Niall were looking at her with wide eyes and Julie was alarmed, not quite sure what was happening.  Kacey smiled sweetly at all of them, but Harry could see that the smile did not reach her eyes.  They were slightly narrowed and…what was with the color?  Normally an icy blue they were now, somehow, almost yellow.  

“Two minutes, I promise.” Kacey resumed, then turned to the interviewer.  “May I speak with you in private, please?”  

When she gave Kacey a smirk and prepared to decline, Kacey added in a tone so low that only she could hear “You can walk out with me or be dragged.  By your hair.”  

The interviewer’s face flushed an angry red but she stood and walked after Kacey who held the door open for her.  Before it could close all the way, the boys heard her say “Bitch! Who do you think you are…”  Harry started to rise but Niall, still staring at the door put his hand out to stop him.  They could hear Kacey’s voice, low and deliberate, but could not make out any of the words.  They just sat and watched the door.

 “Bitch! Who do you think you are…”  She barely got the last word out when Kacey turned on her.  Her voice low with a hint of menace, anger radiating out in waves that were almost palpable.

“Oh sweetie, I am not A bitch, I am THE bitch.  And this bitch has reached her limit with your rudeness, your derision, and your extraordinarily unprofessional behavior.  Actions have consequences, did you know that?  Shhh.  That was rhetorical.  That means that you don’t talk, you just stand right there and listen.  I am going to, first, call your editor and discuss your performance here today.”  Receiving only a sneer in response, Kacey went on.  “Then I am going to contact the publisher and lodge a complaint about your unprofessionalism.”

Again, only a smirk.  “Lastly, I am going to take this little video of the way you have treated them today and upload it to twitter and tumblr with provocative tags like #protect Harry and #protect Niall.”  The smirk began to fade.  “Jonathan Heaf garnered death threats for himself and his editors at GQ for suggesting that Harry was a man whore.  What do you think the fans would do to you?  Hmmm?” Kacey could see the beginnings of fear dawning on her face.

“Everyone knows One Direction fans are rabid and crazy; this video would send them into a frenzy.  They are in every corner of the world; there is nowhere that you could hide.  Those girls hack airport security cameras for heaven’s sake, you will be easy prey.”

“You’re threatening me,” Arabella said with an audible tremor in her voice.

“Oh, no darlin’, I never make threats.  I make promises. Before you leave this building, it will have started.  Unless you march your ungrateful ass back in that room and apologize, profusely and sincerely, to those lovely men giving you their time so that you can make some money.  If I ever hear a whisper about this on any website or in any publication, I will upload.  Consequences.  My two minutes are up.  Your move, wannabe,” Kacey finished in a firm tone.

She moved to the door and opened it, holding it wide for Ms. Braxton-Hicks and following her through.  Harry, Niall, Julie and the cameraman all stared at the now chastened journalist who walked in stiffly with her shoulders tight and eyes bright.  Pausing by her chair she cleared her throat and mumbled “I am…very sorry…for my behavior.  I would be grateful if you would allow me to continue.”

All eyes but hers turned to Kacey who was moving quietly to her seat.  

“Of course,” Harry responded quietly, dimples sneaking out.

Niall was grinning at Kacey, shaking his head slightly.

The rest of the interview was unremarkable and they were all relieved when it was over.  Ms. Braxton- Hicks thanked the boys then hastily packed her things and made for the door, flinching when Kacey called out after her “It was nice to meet you, Arabella.”

Harry ambled over to her kissing her forehead and hugging her to him.  “What did you say to her?”

“Oh, we just discussed actions and consequences.  Nothing big,” she replied pleasantly.

“You can be scary sometimes, d’ya know that?” * Harry had another small break before he had to fly back to North America for some television appearances and awards shows.  He asked Kacey if she would come home with him to Cheshire to meet his mum and Robin.  The idea terrified her but, seeing how important it was to him, she agreed. She was a bit relieved to hear that Gemma would be there too.  Kacey wasn’t afraid of parents as a rule but she was worried about making a good impression on Harry’s.  He valued their opinion so much and was particularly close to his mum.  Kacey knew that if Anne Twist disapproved of her, her relationship with Harry would suffer if it survived at all.  

Kacey was trying desperately to calm herself during the three-hour drive but her anxiety increased with each mile they traveled.  Harry knew she was nervous but he was also quite sure that there was no reason for her to be.  He hadn’t brought a girl home to meet his mum and step-dad since he left for the X-Factor.  He had been talking about Kacey to his mum for months and was excited for the weekend when the three most important women in his life would all be together.  He was confident that Anne would adore Kacey as much as he did.   As they pulled up to the house, the front door opened and his mum and Robin rushed out to greet them.  Harry had just opened Kacey’s door and helped her out of the SUV then turned to hug his mum.  Anne’s smile was huge as she enveloped her son in a tight embrace.  Harry hugged Robin then turned to introduce Kacey.

“Mum, Robin, this is Kassidy Day.  Kassidy, my mum Anne and my step dad Robin,” he finished formally.  

There were smiles all around as they shook hands, ‘nice to meet yous’ floating in the air.  They had turned to go inside when Gemma came bounding out the door with a large smile and a shout for Kacey.

“Kassidy! It’s been too long!” she called, rushing up to hug her.

“What about me?” Harry asked, after being ignored.  

“Meh, I’ll get to you later little brother.  Right now, I want to see your girlfriend,” Gemma retorted.  “Kassidy, I love that scarf!”

“Harry gave it to me for my birthday,” Kacey said smiling.

“Oooh! That pin is gorgeous!” Gemma exclaimed, fingering the cherry brooch. “Don’t tell me he gave you that too!  Has my younger sibling finally gained some taste?”

Kacey laughed and replied fondly “Yes, that was another gift from Harry. I love it! Rubies and emeralds are two of my favorites.”

Gemma took Kacey’s arm and they chatted as they followed Harry and his parents into the house.  Harry was telling them about the trip to Middlethorpe and funny stories about the spa day; Anne’s smile fading a bit the more they talked.  They all gathered in the lounge, Gemma finally hugging her brother before they sat on the sofa together, Kacey on his other side.  The girls talked around Harry as he sat beaming at everyone, very happy to be at home with the people he loved most.   Only Robin Twist noticed that his wife was quieter than usual.   They went to dinner that night at their favorite local restaurant and the conversation was lively.  Harry was laughing as he got caught up on the local news, asking about friends and neighbors.  Gemma and Kacey were giggling over their wine and talking about the two People’s Choice awards that Kacey had been nominated for.   “Ugh! The day the nominations were announced, Jimmy Fallon called to remind me about a bet we made at my movie premiere.  I lost so now I have to go on his show as the musical guest.  What am I going to do?” Kacey groaned. “You could always sing that song you did for karaoke…” Gemma barely got the words out before bursting into laughter.   Kacey, a little tipsy on the wine, giggled with her.  Anne watched them all as she sipped her wine. * The next morning after breakfast, Harry went to play golf with Robin at the local club.   Kacey spent some time in their room studying a script for Mortwick Murders that was shooting the next week.  She came downstairs in the afternoon and Anne called to her as she walked into the kitchen to get a drink.   “Kassidy, would you like to join me for tea?” Anne invited from the table by the window. Kacey accepted with “That would be lovely.  Thank you.” Anne had poured and offered Kacey a biscuit from the plate.  Smiling, she chose a shortbread.  Anne’s face was serious wearing a very slight frown.

“So, Kassidy,” she said conversationally but with a firm edge to her voice.  “I notice that my son has given you a lot of gifts.”

She looked pointedly at Kacey, one eyebrow raised slightly.  Anne watched as the smile slowly melted from Kacey’s face.  Kacey set her cup down gently on the saucer, expressions flitting across her face.  At last she pursed her lips slightly and settled for resigned.  Releasing a barely audible sigh, she looked Anne in the eye.  

“I don’t care about Harry’s money,” she began.  Anne’s expression conveyed her doubt.  Kacey continued “Yes, I know that sounds disingenuous.  It would be, if I didn’t have any, but I do.  I have more than enough to live very comfortably for the rest of my life.  I don’t have many needs and even fewer wants.  I don’t want him to buy me gifts but he gets such joy from giving them to me that I don’t discourage it.  When he grows tired of me, as he surely will, I’ll return them all.” Kacey paused.  “Well, all but one.  That one I’ll keep.  It’s my favorite and it was also the most expensive.  Do you want to know what it is?” Kacey continued without waiting for a reply, “One afternoon we were in my flat and Harry sang to me for over an hour.  Can you imagine?  A private concert with Harry Styles? Astronomically expensive.  It’s a memory I will always treasure.” Her voice cracked.  “Would you excuse me?” she murmured, rising quickly.

Anne sat nonplussed watching her bolt from the room.  That had not gone as she imagined.

Kacey hurried out of the kitchen and out of the house.  She walked briskly, unseeing, her breaths coming in sharp sobs.  The voice in her head ran amok ‘Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.  She thinks I’m a user, a gold-digger.  His mom disapproves of me!  What am I going to do?  OMG.  I knew this was too good to be true.  He’ll never stay with me if she dislikes me.  Oh no! I’m going to lose him!  I thought I’d have more time.  I’m not ready for this.  Please, oh please, no.  OMG.’  Her brain, focusing on a meltdown, failed to note her surroundings or the passage of time.

Slowly the exertion worked off the panic and she was able to calm down some.  A lump was still wedged in her throat and tears were barely at bay but she began to notice her surroundings. She didn’t recognize them.  She was unfamiliar with Holmes Chapel; this was her first visit and, she realized, it was probably her last.  STOP THAT.  Get a grip.  She had been so nervous on the trip here that she hadn’t paid attention until they had arrived.  Patting her pocket, she did not find her phone.  The image of it on the kitchen table popped into her mind.  Shit.  She tried to remember the Twist’s address but she wasn’t sure she had ever known it. Great.  She was lost, she had no money, no phone and no one in this tiny town would give a stranger the address or directions to Harry Styles’ house.   They would all assume she was a fan trying to get to him.  She thought about trying to find a police officer but she had no idea where the constabulary might be.  Looking around she saw a wooded area, a kind of park, but no houses.

It also dawned on Kacey that the weather was changing.   It had been mild for November and she was wearing a thin pink hoodie, yoga pants and trainers.  She didn’t know how long she had been gone but it must have been quite a while because it was the sky was darkening and the wind had really picked up. Correction, it hadn’t merely picked up, it was blowing hard.  The trees were whipping around violently and it became clear to her that she needed to find shelter of some sort.  She turned around and began walking the direction from which she came hoping that some details had registered subconsciously.  A sudden gust almost caused her to lose her balance.  She heard a loud crack followed by a thud behind her as a large limb broke in one of the trees and fell to the ground.  Kacey began to run; she needed to get away from the trees.   She stopped after about a mile, winded and trying to catch her breath; she had never been a runner. Looking around she was now in a field or maybe it was a park.  The wind was becoming even more fierce but she saw no place that would offer her shelter.  She’d gone maybe a quarter mile when the skies opened and the rain began.  Great sheets, whipped by the wind, pelted her; the drops stinging where they hit her skin.  Not far away she could make out a bench and she made for that.  Reaching it, she curled up on the seat trying to make as small a target as possible for the elements.  Shivering in the dropping temperatures, wind and icy rain, she began to cry again.

Behind her headlights appeared on the lane near the bench that she hadn’t been able to discern in the storm.  They slowed as they approached and a spotlight joined them, moving until it focused on her.  The constable got out of the car and walked quickly to her, touching her shoulder causing her to jump. “Miss?  You need to get out of this storm.  Come with me.”  He helped her up and to his vehicle.  Once inside he reached in the back and found an extra jacket giving it to her and then cranked up the heater tilting the vents toward her.  “Are you Kassidy Day?”

Kacey nodded, bewildered that he would know who she was.  The officer radioed a message that he had found her and was taking her to the Twists’.  He explained that they had received a call from ‘Mr. Styles’ that she was lost and without a phone.  

“Miss, I have to ask, do you want to go back there?  Did you run because you were in danger?” the constable watched her closely.

“Y-yes, please take me back.  I just got lost and then the storm…” she managed between chattering teeth. * Harry was laughing as he came in from golf with Robin.  They had enjoyed a day on the links but decided to stop after 9 holes when the weather began to deteriorate.  They had lunch at the clubhouse and then returned home to find Anne waiting for them.  Looking at her face, Harry immediately asked what was wrong.

“It’s Kassidy…” she began.  

“What’s happened to her? Is she okay?” he blurted out.

“She went out about two hours ago and she isn’t back yet,” his mum explained worriedly.

“Kassidy went out? Have you called her?” he asked, pulling his phone from the pocket of his golf pants.

“She left her phone on the table.  I’m afraid she left rather abruptly,” Anne said reluctantly.

“Annie, what’s going on?  What happened?” Robin asked his wife gently.

“I…I told her that I noticed you give her a lot of gifts…” she stammered, an embarrassed flush creeping into her face.

Harry took a moment to absorb what his mum had said and all that it implied. Quietly he said “Mum, I give her gifts because it pleases me to and she lets me.  Kassidy means so much to me, I just want to make her happy.”

Harry looked at his phone and dialed the police as a loud rumble of thunder shook the windows.   * The rain had momentarily relented as the police car pulled up outside the Twists’ home.  Harry was out the door before it came to a complete stop.  Hurrying to the vehicle, he opened Kacey’s door and gently lifted her out of the car before turning back to the house and heading upstairs.  She was burrowing into his chest, holding him as tightly as she could.  

“I’m so sorry!  I didn’t mean to cause any trouble!  I got lost and I didn’t have my phone–” she began to sob.

“Shhh, baby.  Shhh, it’s okay.  You’re safe now.  Come on, let’s get you warmed up” he said calmly.

Anne wanted to say something but Harry stopped her with a shake of his head. Gemma had run a very warm bath and left the room quietly as Harry entered with Kacey, closing the door behind her.  Kacey’s lips were blue and she was shivering as he carefully undressed her and lifted her into the tub.  He turned to get the shampoo but Kacey grabbed at his arm frantically.

“P-Please don’t leave me Harry.  Please don’t leave me…” she cried as tears began flowing again.  

“Oh, baby, no.  I’m not going anywhere,” he said as he stroked her hair.  

After he rewarmed the water several times (and finally undressed and climbed into the tub, and then shower, with her) Kacey managed to feel warm again.  Harry wrapped her in towels from the warmer and dried her softly.  He combed the tangles out of her hair, then helped her put on one of his t-shirts and got her into bed.  Climbing in next to her, he held her close until her breathing became deep and regular as she fell asleep.  Harry lay awake for hours in the dark before he finally drifted off.

[judefan823-blog]

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NFL Network rolls out centennial celebrations on air. Thursday marked an historic occasion as the NFL's 100th season got under way with the 2019 NFL Kickoff. NFL Media has been building up to the occasion with a slate of NFL Network series and specials that celebrate the “memories, moments and people that have made the NFL an iconic brand for 100 seasons.” The league announced that “NFL 100 Greatest” and “NFL 100 All-Time Team” would be serving as the anchor series for the full lineup of NFL 100 programming, with additional series “NFL 100 Roundtables” and “NFL 100 Sessions” also showcased across the network this fall. NFL 100 Greatest debuts September 13, rolling out over 10 weeks with two one-hour episodes airing back-to-back every Friday night. NFL Films conducted more than 400 interviews with celebrities, current NFL stars, and legends that will air across 20, one-hour episodes. “NFL 100 Roundtables” debuts September 27 as a special eight-part series that connects some of the greatest to play the game by position. It’s also worth noting that Thursday’s NFL season kickoff on NBC scored 22 million viewers, a 16% jump over last year.

Nearly one-quarter of adults in the United States say they would bet on an NFL game this season if it were legal in their state, according to a recent survey commissioned by the American Gaming Association. An online poll conducted for the gambling trade association by Morning Consult last month found that 24% of adults would bet if they could do so legally, while 39% of avid NFL fans plan to bet on a game this season, legally or not. The survey also drew the now familiar correlation between betting and engagement. Three-fourths of NFL bettors said they are more likely to view a game when they wager on it, while 51% said they are more likely to watch pregame shows if they intend to bet. Based on the survey, the AGA projects that 38 million American adults will bet on NFL games this season – and you can bet the league will continue to monitor this scenario very closely.

Buffalo Wild Wings moves toward the sports gambling world alongside MGM. According to USA Today, the two giants released a mobile football game designed to let customers pick favorite NFL teams, choose weekly fantasy performers and make proposition picks. The name of the partnership is called Roar Digital, and it tries to offer a sports betting-style experience beginning with a free-to-play football game. Odds and point spreads will appear on screens at select Buffalo Wild Wings. The long term goal is to have Buffalo Wild Wings expand in states where sports betting is legal through a mobile app called BetMGM. Although there won’t be cash bets at first, players can win prizes such as trips to Las Vegas or to the Borgata casino in New Jersey to compete in the first BetMGM sports betting competition. This partnership looks to capitalize on the casual gamer and new sports bettors – a route that may find success on the back of Buffalo Wild Wings’ 1,200 restaurants across 10 countries, with abundant clientele to test the new venture.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal won the 2019 U.S. Open and his 19th Grand Slam title. Canadian Bianca Andreescu won her first Open and first Slam respectively. Both singles winners took home $3.85 million paychecks. But those winnings are a mere blip to the cash cow tennis tournament. According to Hashtag Sports, in 2018, the two-week-long U.S. Open generated $65 million in sponsorship deals alone. Tickets and broadcasting pulled in $120 million each; while concessions added $30 million. And in 2019, the annual tournament, put on by the nonprofit USTA, was on target to have the biggest year in its 51-year history. The U.S. Open is evolving, and becoming more brand-friendly, by design, and tennis is reaching a global audience at an unprecedented scale. The sponsors on the ground at Billie Jean King Tennis Center reflect the global appeal of the sport. Heineken is the official beer, not a domestic brew. Rolex replaced Citizen as the official timekeeper. Emirates is the official airline. And the spacious newly-renovated facility attracted 737,872 spectators this year, an all-time attendance record. If you build it, the brands, and the fans, will come.

In NFL stadiums, brands are activating as well, starting with Pepsi. Season 100 for the NFL will see Pepsi unveil its “Always be Celebrating” NFL campaign, a season-long campaign via Goodby Silverstein & Partners that “spotlights and honors the amazing celebrations that NFL fans and players have taken part in over the years,” and includes "two national TV ads using real footage of player touchdown celebrations set to the 'Cha Cha Slide' by DJ Casper" according to Cynopsis Sports. Also included in the campaign will be a new charitable program with United Way and the NFL, a national retail POS campaign running all season featuring 26 of Pepsi’s NFL player partners, local market kick-off celebrations in New England and Miami, and more. Pepsi also renewed it Super Bowl halftime sponsorship through 2022, and it has a separate deal dating back to 2002 that "makes it the NFL's official soft-drink sponsor." The halftime act for Super Bowl Super Bowl LIV in Miami was not revealed – but like all recent shows it will be leaked on social media before the official NFL announcement, much to the league’s chagrin. 

Other returning NFL sponsors reveal new creative as well. Pizza Hut is tackling the new season with “Buy. Play. Win.” that will the brand-new interactive NFL-themed game Hut Hut Win and offer the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime NFL experiences and millions of instant win prizes. "In our second season as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, we're taking our partnership to the next level for fans with the launch of Hut Hut Win," said Marianne Radley, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut. "Our game plan is simple – create unforgettable experiences that connect our fans to their favorite sport." Finally, Snickers enters the season by unveiling a new branded, iced-out chain created by famed jeweler Ben Baller. Each week during the NFL season, the chain will be passed from one player to another player, “who has not only shown hunger for more with a huge game or play on the field, but who is also driven to do more off the field.” Towards the end of the regular season, Snickers will invite fans to weigh in on which “Hungriest Player” is the hungriest. That player will then award proceeds from the chain to a charity of his choice.

Player deals also color the NFL’s opening week. The Cowboys last week reached an agreement on a contract extension with running back Ezekiel Elliott for six years and $90 million, ending his much-publicized holdout and making him the "highest-paid running back in NFL history," according to the Dallas Morning News. The Rams' Todd Gurley previously had the "biggest contract in the NFL for a running back with a total package" of $57.5 million. One source said that Elliott's deal includes a running back-record $50 million guaranteed. In other high-profile NFL contract news, the Rams and quarterback Jared Goff reportedly agreed to a "four-year extension" through 2024. The Los Angeles Times reported that the deal is worth $134 million with a "record" $110 million guaranteed. But the biggest headline-grabbing player saga, of course, was the journey of receiver Antonio Brown, who demanded his release from the Oakland Raiders via social media and landed with the Patriots in a one-year deal reportedly worth up to $15 million that included a $9 million signing bonus.

From an agency perspective, the NFL is moving in the right direction. Rick recently sat down with Arnold Wright, Executive Vice President and co-head of consulting for Octagon. Wright brings NFL team, league, and player deals to life for sponsors including Castrol, Delta, Bank of America, and others. “The league is obviously an incredible platform that leaps up year to year in terms of ratings and engagement,” Wright said. “The on field action is also as good as it’s ever been.” From a global perspective, Wright says, “The international piece in particular has been great for the league. You continue to see key markets like the UK, Mexico, and even Brazil growing internationally. It’s bringing other brands into the NFL ecosystem from a partner and promotional perspective.” As for the NFL’s 100th season platform, Wright says, “The league has done a lot of really great work in terms of positioning themselves, celebrating the history of the league from a player and a fan perspective. They have demonstrated a real savviness around their marketing and their connectivity to fans. The league several years ago probably would not have demonstrated that level of flexibility in terms of their marketing and what you could do with their platforms. But that’s certainly changed.”

Endeavor reported that its entertainment and sports division generated revenues of $1.33 billion during the first half of 2019, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing attributed approximately $352 million of the 46.4% year-on-year increase to the sale of media rights, primarily relating to IMG’s international distribution deals with Italy’s top-flight Serie A and La Liga in Spain, along with England’s FA Cup knockout competition. Another contributing factor was the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s new $1.5 billion rights deal with ESPN. The filing also cited the growth of IMG Arena, the company’s sports betting and content business, owned events, and sports production as reasons for the increase. The first-half revenues generated by Endeavor’s entertainment and sports division is by far the most of each of the company’s three main units. The agency’s representation arm generated $688.3 million during the first half of 2019, while Endeavor X, the company’s streaming services, brought in $57.4 million in revenue. In total, Endeavor generated revenues of $2.05 billion for the six months ending June 30, up from $1.5 billion for the same period in 2018. The latest revenue figures come ahead of Endeavor’s highly anticipated, but delayed, initial public offering. 

Disney has completed the sale of its 80% stake in the YES Network for $3.47 billion to an investor group comprising the New York Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Amazon. Sinclair acquired a majority stake in the YES Network as part of its $71.3 billion purchase of Fox assets in 2017, though it had to divest the property due to a Department of Justice order last summer, along with 21 other RSNs purchased by Sinclair for $10.6 billion. The YES Network, of which the Yankees already own a 20% share, broadcasts Yankees games and also those of the Brooklyn Nets. An announcement made by all parties on August 29 confirmed the transaction, which brings an end to a year of negotiations between Disney and prospective buyers for the 22 Fox RSNs. The networks were originally valued in the region of $20 billion, though have been sold for just over $14 billion. For Sinclair, the deal adds to its portfolio or regional sports rights while Amazon continues its push into sports broadcasting.

The NFL sees flag football as a path forward. Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement from the NFL sparked another round of debate surrounding football’s future. And a report from the National Federation of State High School Associations on sports participation indicating that nearly 71% of the 43,375 athletes who stopped competing between 2017-2018 were football players has only fanned the flames. Despite the downturn, JohnWallStreet reports that NFL COO Maryann Turcke is actively working to grow flag football participation. The barrier for entry is much lower for flag than it is for tackle because no equipment is needed, and playing will “help people to understand and love the game” – some of whom who will inevitably go on to play professionally. Turcke’s ultimate goal is to see flag football recognized as an Olympic sport in time for the 2020 Tokyo Games. She says that “making flag football a global sport will generate fandom for [the NFL] around the world.” It will also drive global revenue growth that will help the NFL reach its goal of doing $25 billion per year by 2027.

The Denver Broncos have inked a 21-year naming rights deal for their Mile High Stadium with retirement plan provider Empower Retirement. The agreement will see the team’s 76,000-seater home renamed Empower Field at Mile High until 2039. The Broncos have been on the hunt for a new stadium naming rights partner since their deal with Sports Authority came to an abrupt end in 2016 when the sports retailer went bankrupt. SportsBusiness Journal reports that Empower’s contract with the Broncos is similar to the terms the team had in place with Sports Authority, which paid a reported $6 million annually. The partnership will afford Empower significant national brand and media exposure through a mix of visibility on game days and throughout the year with signage, media placement, promotional opportunities, and hospitality. The deal further expands the business relationship between the two parties. Empower, which is based in Denver, has been a partner of the Broncos since 2015. The announcement comes ahead of the Broncos’ first game of the new NFL season, which sees them travel to the Oakland Raiders on September 9. 

A-B InBev capitalized on last year’s Browns Bud Light "victory fridge" by putting new versions of the appliance "up for sale at 'B.L. & Brown’s Appliance Superstore' in Cleveland.” According to Ad Age, the refrigerators sold for $200 for a small size or $600 for a larger one, with proceeds going to the “Browns Give Back” charity. To promote the effort, Bud Light ran an “ad on Cleveland TV starring WWE personality, The Miz.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes the B.L. & Brown's Appliance Superstore actually "doesn't exist," as it is just a "vacant store front." The refrigerators will be the "only product sold in the store." The Miz, a noted Browns fan, was given an original "victory fridge" last year that opened when the team scored its first win of the season. The fridges sold out in just under three hours after going on sale last week. Browns players Myles Garrett and Jarvis Landry were on hand for the first – and last – day of sales.

Ahead of the NASCAR regular season finale, Kevin James to lead NASCAR comedy series on Netflix. Actor Kevin James is set to star in and executive produce a multi-camera comedy that has been ordered to series on Netflix. The show, titled “The Crew," will be set in a NASCAR garage with James playing the crew chief. When the owner steps down and passes the team off to his daughter, James finds himself at odds with the tech reliant millennials she starts bringing in to modernize the team. NASCAR senior director of content development Matt Summers and chief digital officer Tim Clark will be involved as executive producers. James is a big NASCAR fan and has served as grand marshal and given the command for drivers to start engines several times by himself, as well as with friends Adam Sandler and Shaquille O’Neal. This isn't the first time NASCAR has played a starring role in a comedy, but it's now been over a decade since Talladega Nights. The league's ambitions are clear: leverage pop culture to connect with young audiences.

Oracle launches a new series of lower-tier professional tennis tournaments across the U.S. As the American leg of the global pro tennis circuit drew to a close, Larry Ellison’s company announced the Oracle Pro Series, comprising approximately 25 new women’s tournaments and 25 new men’s tournaments, with the intention of providing American players with a better route to the top-tier ATP and WTA tours. Most of the tournaments will be staged as combined events, with equal prize money and many will take place on college campuses. The prize funds will range from $25,000 to $108,000 per competition. Crucially, according to the New York Times, ATP and WTA ranking points will be up for grabs at each of the tournaments, which will enable players to step up to tennis’ elite men’s and women’s circuits. The new series is to be managed by InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the New York-based event production company founded by former World Number One player Jim Courier. Seven combined events will take place later this year in California, Florida, and Texas before the series begins in full next year. 

Top Five Tech

The NFL joins TikTok to cater to Gen Z. According to TechCrunch, just ahead of the kickoff of the NFL’s 100th season, the social media video app and the league formed a partnership to launch of an official NFL account on TikTok. The deal also includes a series of NFL-themed hashtag challenges and other marketing opportunities for brands around the NFL content. The first hashtag challenge, #WeReady, encouraged fans to show pride for their favorite NFL team while using the hashtag. Several popular TikTok creators and NFL clubs also joined the fans in the challenge. The NFL’s TikTok account already features several videos, ranging from behind-the-scenes action to highlights, to funny memes and even inspirational content. This is a big step for the NFL, a league usually hesitant to jump into new media configurations. This is the first step to the NFL’s developing a tighter bond with younger generations of fans.

DRIVE by DraftKings looks to bring together an ecosystem of athletes, entrepreneurs, investors, and sports business professionals. According to Forbes, DRIVE hopes to accelerate the movement of sports industry professionals into high-tech ventures and, additionally, to serve as a bridge for startups that want to innovate with sports, media, and entertainment. The two main components of DRIVE are its Venture Studio and Athlete Network. The first of the two will create customized programs for early stage sports tech entrepreneurs while the latter will provide both active and former professional athletes as well as Olympians with opportunities and connections to explore careers as entrepreneurs and/or investors within the sports technology space. To kick off the new venture, the DRIVE venture will launch at the DraftKings headquarters in Boston. NFL All-Pro Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald will serve on its board of advisors. The firm’s inaugural internship program has already drawn more than 25 athletes, and looks to aid those individuals who are making the transition off the court or field into their post sports life.

Manny Pacquiao creates his own cryptocurrency to sell his merchandise. The champion boxer announced his new currency, the “pac,” which behaves like a standard cryptocurrency and provides a digitally tradable token with a floating value secured by the fact that it's a visible-to-all and publicly traded value. According to The Verge, Pacquiao is launching the venture with help from the GCOX Group, a company in Southeast Asia that has developed a new model for celebrity tokens. Although Pacquiao is the guinea pig of this new form of celebrity cryptocurrency, singer Jason Derulo and English soccer star Michael Owen are reportedly also planning launches with GCOX. This will be a test to push the exchange market into other forms of trade outside of standard currencies and may work with the backing from star power such as that of the ultra-likable Pacquiao.

YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI will make their professional boxing debut. Last year, the two online sensations faced each other in an exhibition fight that generated more than 1 million pay-per-view buys on YouTube. Now they will fight each other again – this time, in an official professional fight at in Logan’s hometown of Los Angeles at Staples Center on November 9. According to ESPN, the event will be a six-round cruiserweight fight streamed on DAZN and is sure to pack the house after last year’s sold out 57-57 majority draw that happened at Manchester Arena in KSI’s hometown of Manchester, England. They are both now professional boxers, have passed their required medical exams, and will meet at a launch news conference in Los Angeles on September 14, with another news conference to be scheduled in the United Kingdom. KSI and Paul have more than 40 million YouTube subscribers between them and should bring tons of new fans to the sport of boxing, while the sport’s traditional enthusiasts can relish undercard events that will feature an assortment of more established fighters in the boxing world.

HBO Sports and NFL Films are teaming on Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching, a feature-length film about the four-decade friendship between football coaches Bill Belichick and Nick Saban. According to Cynopsis Sports, the pair grant unprecedented camera access to their annual coaching retreat, where they share conversation about their interwoven history, admiration, coaching philosophies, and more. “Bill Belichick and Nick Saban have become the modern versions of Vince Lombardi and John Wooden – symbols of success not just in sports but in life,” said Ross Ketover, Chief Executive of NFL Films. “Their lessons on leadership are an inspiration; not just for those of us who love football but for anyone who wants to thrive at whatever passion they pursue.” The film is slated air in December on HBO. Belichick and Saban have both started their 2019 campaigns off with a bang, as Alabama handily won its first two games and the Patriots obliterated the Steelers 33-3 on Sunday night.

Power of Sports Five

Cleveland Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco will donate $200 per strikeout for the rest of the season to childhood cancer research after just beating cancer himself. According to CBS Sports, Carrasco returned to the mound on September 3 for the first time since May 30 after he was diagnosed with leukemia. On top of being celebrated by his teammates for such a healthy and quick return, Carrasco came up with the new charity name to support his childhood cancer research: Punch Out Cancer with Cookie. As September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, it is only appropriate that Carrasco announced his charity during the final month of MLB’s regular season. Further, New Balance and other MLB partners play a role in donations to fight childhood cancer. The sporting goods company will even match donations made on punchoutcancerwithcookie.com to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital up to $200,000. After defeating his own form of cancer, it seems Carrasco isn’t taking any moment for granted and is already giving back to those similarly afflicted. 

Former NFL player Mike Brown is using gaming as a way to modernize philanthropy. According to Black Enterprise, the former Colts linebacker created Win-Win after he observed an overall decline in the number of people donating to charity. Win-Win tackles this problem to help pro athletes, entertainers, and anyone with influence activate their fans to support causes they care about through games in which users pick winners for upcoming sporting events. After making picks, users donate to enter the competition and unlock unique perks and prizes like dinner with their favorite athlete – the activity becomes a mixture of gambling and philanthropy for a charity cause. To push his company to the next level, Brown recently launched an equity crowdfunding campaign for Win-Win to allow for fan investments. After exceeding his initial fundraising goal, he is now building the platform and launching new partnerships. By leveraging star power and the newest forms of technology into philanthropy, Brown looks to be a leader in sports philanthropy.

Steph and Ayesha Curry link up with PGA REACH to host their first charity golf tournament. According to NBC Sports, the first Stephen Curry Charity Classic will benefit the Currys’ "Eat. Learn. Play." Foundation and PGA REACH. On Monday, September 16, Curry will be joined by 50 teams of friends to participate in a team-based golf competition at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco with the goal to raise $1.3 million to benefit PGA REACH and his family’s foundation. The Curry’s “Eat. Learn. Play.” charity was launched earlier this year to create equal opportunities for every child by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring universal access to quality education, and enabling healthy, active lifestyles. Steph became involved with PGA REACH last year when the PGA asked him to become an official ambassador for the foundation's young pillar program, PGA Jr. League. The basketball star has his own mini-golf show, “Holey Moley,” and is backing up his new business venture with charity golf tournaments.  

Greenland is combating their country’s melting ice with the world’s first electric racing series. According to Thomson Reuters, Greenland will be one of five climate-threatened locations to host the first Extreme E championship in 2021, the pioneering all-electric off-road racing. The Extreme E races will race in five of the world's remote environments, using the global appeal of motorsports to shine a spotlight on the biggest climate threats to the planet and see electric sport utility vehicles used in the events. In a 10-part “docu-sport” package, Extreme E will showcase electric SUVs in head-to-head races in areas suffering from environmental damage or under threat. Fox Sports has signed a multi-year broadcast deal. Currently, E Extreme is scouting four additional endangered locations that are facing climate threats such as deforestation, rising sea levels, desertification, and plastic pollution and will announce the locations in the near future. This is sports, tech, and activism coming into one to save the planet.

The new Roc Nation and NFL partnership will donate $400,000 to Chicago charities. The two charities that will receive the support are the Better Boys Foundation Family Services organization and the Crusher’s Club. According to Variety, both groups are designed to present local at-risk youth with alternatives to gang violence and criminal activity. The donation is attached to a free concert in a “Songs of the Season” series that featured Meek Mill, Meghan Trainor, and Rapsody in Chicago. The three performers, along with Chicago rapper Vic Mensa, will visit the programs this week. The event is the first in a planned Inspire Change series that will make similar donations in each NFL city. Songs of the Season is an initiative that will run throughout the season in which selected musicians will create and deliver a song to be integrated in all NFL promotions each month and their songs’ proceeds will go toward Inspire Change. Although Jay-Z took heat for partnering with the NFL, it seems that through his collaboration he will be able to make a large impact on social injustices.

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Puzzle Combat Brawls Await in Puyo Puyo Champions!

  Puyo Puyo is perhaps one of the longest running puzzle franchises aside from Tetris, but it has never had an easy path to popularity and success outside of Japan. One of the first iterations of the game got renamed to Doctor Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, and releases of the series have been somewhat sporadic ever since, finding its home with maniac puzzle game fans who enjoyed a challenge and battling with their friends. 

In 2014, Puyo Puyo Tetris really helped explode the popularity of the series by bringing together the two storied puzzle franchises for the first time in a battle oriented mash-up, with players switching between their preferred style (or being forced to play both at certain intervals) and gained popularity for the quick, colorful puzzle combat that ensued. This year, Sega has released Puyo Puyo Champions, a purely Puyo Puyo based game that still leans heavily into the multiplayer puzzle battle aspects; but how does it stack up on its own, and should you get it? Well, that might be complicated, but first let’s talk a little about what Puyo Puyo Champions has to offer.

First, the Puyo Puyo Champions package is pretty barebones when you really break it down, giving you access to either Puyo Puyo 2 based rules, or the newer Puyo Puyo Fever version of the game. There’s no story mode like in previous Puyo Puyo titles (which, I’ll admit, kind of bummed me out), with each version of the game offering you either an endless battle rush to see how many CPU opponents you can beat, or letting you choose your opponents—with up to three players in Puyo Puyo 2, and four in Puyo Puyo Fever— for one-off battles. There are multiplayer modes for each as well that focus on couch play combat, and that’s about it for the offline modes of play. Online modes offer you the ability to play in ranked or unranked combat using either rule set, allowing you to pick your character of choice from the roster of returning Puyo Puyo staples, and finally there are some record keeping options, and the replay channel.

    The replay channel is an interesting feature, allowing you to keep replays of your best (or worst!) moments for further study, but it also lets you publish these clips for others to watch, and gives you the ability to watch matches that other players found to be exciting or marvelous to watch. As I was testing it, I personally got to watch a galaxy brain level combat between two Carbunkle players, and aside from my ears going numb at 2 Carbunkle’s screaming “Guu guu guu!” at one another, it was fun to be able to easily watch what other players had done, including the ability to fast forward, pause, and rewind the replay as I watched it. There are a few other options available, such as an 8 player offline tournament option, which makes this a perfect game to run Puyo Puyo tournaments with, and a training mode that can give you some annotations for improving your game.

    Aside from all of this, however, there isn’t really a lot here, and depending on how you feel about that, this may or may not be the game for you. There are some fun customization options for your avatar choices and display colors in Multiplayer, and you can also change the audio from English to Japanese, if you prefer the original voice acting. At the price point of $10, you’re getting quite a lot of bang for your buck, so it's an easy recommend from me if you’re already a huge combat puzzle game fan, especially a fan of Puyo Puyo itself, and you’re looking for new people to test your skills against. However, if you prefer slower, more methodical puzzle games, or don’t enjoy the puzzle battle genre like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Tetris 99, Puzzle League, and Puyo Puyo, I’ll say that there’s really nothing here that’s likely to change your mind in that regard. But if you’re fairly new to puzzle games, or puzzle combat games, is this the right fit for you? Well, I feel it can be, with a little help in learning the ways that Puyo Puyo operates. With all of that said, let’s start a little Puyo Puyo Primer courtesy of Professor Nicole!

If you’ve ever played Tetris in any form, you’ll find some similar elements in Puyo Puyo. Your abilities extend to dropping and rotating pieces, aligning them to your particular desires and shapes. The similarities end there, however, as Tetris focuses on shifting shapes, and Puyo Puyo instead works on building sets of 4 matching Puyos to clear them from the board. The real meat and depth of Puyo Puyo comes from the ability to arrange the Puyos in such a way that clearing them starts a chain reaction, creating bigger and bigger combos as the board clears out. Puyos can be arranged to clear in horizontal, vertical, L-shapes, and 2x2 squares; as long as 4 similarly colored Puyos touch, they’ll clear themselves from the board.

With clever planning, you can make these chains bigger, linking together larger networks of Puyos of a single color, but that strategy is perhaps not as good as it sounds! Puyo Puyo is a game that revolves around combos, not volume; starting a chain reaction of 3 or 4 combos is far better than linking together a big network of singularly colored Puyos before clearing them. This is another aspect that makes Puyo Puyo unique from other puzzle games, like Dr. Mario or Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo; where in those clearing huge amounts of the same color can be similarly beneficial to large chain combos, Puyo Puyo really wants you to focus on clearing things in a combo-focused manner.

In that regard, Puyo Puyo is an easy to learn, but difficult to master game. Since your opponent (either AI or human) are also playing at the same time as you, they may occasionally send garbage to your side of the field, messing up your combos… Or, maybe they’ll accidentally help you! See, since garbage Puyos have no color and take up space, they can sometimes offer interesting ways to build your board in order to clear a combo you didn’t have access to before. One of the great things about Puyo Puyo is that you can always potentially come back from defeat if you play smart and plan your moves, and huge comebacks are always exciting and possible!

One of the difficult things to manage in a puzzle battle game is that ability to recover from enemy attacks; one of my older frustrations with games like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo or Tetris 99 is that there are just situations in which, except for extreme, exacting play, you’re just done. In Puyo Puyo, while enemy attacks can be extreme, the game allows for some interesting recovery to take place if you’re savvy. In Puyo Puyo Fever mode, for example, matching the tempo of your enemy’s attacks can actually help you out, even if you’re only clearing small patches of Puyos at a time. Matching and countering the rythm of your opponent builds the Fever gauge, unique to that mode, which when filled sends you to a series of pre-made combo boards; clear those, and you’ll score a huge attack advantage against your opponent once Fever Mode ends!

The differences between the two modes boil down to a few distinct things: Fever mode, and various Puyo drop shapes. Other than that, the games have exactly the same rules, so it really just comes down to whether you like the “classic” appeal of Puyo Puyo 2, or the newer, tempo-based gameplay of Puyo Puyo Fever. Either way you’ll have a great time with it! That said, the game itself doesn’t have much in the way of a tutorial or training mode, but once you play a few matches against the AI, you’ll likely pick up the game quite quickly, and that will allow you to get into the real meat of this game: multiplayer battles.

Battle is easy; if you’re doing offline, just head into the Multiplayer menu. If you’re instead ready for some online play, then you can do that just as easily. I’m happy to say that, in my testing of the Switch version, I was able to pretty easily find a match and play against opponents with no connection issues or downtime while playing, meaning you can enjoy some pretty great Puyo battles on strong WiFi connections, not even considering wired connections on other systems like PS4 or PC. The nice part about online Puyo Puyo Champions is that you can select opponents based on certain criteria, such as level of skill, types of game you want to play, and other selections. I didn’t mess with these too much, but I appreciated their availability, and I think it makes the game quite accessible to players of all skill levels.  

If you’re interested in one of the premiere battle puzzle games, then I can’t recommend getting Puyo Puyo Champions enough. Fans of Puyo Puyo Tetris will find a lot to love here, although the very unique mix-up is gone, and new players or those curious about what Puyo Puyo is all about will really find a lot of bang for their buck in the multiplayer and endless battle modes against AI opponents, who really hold nothing back! If you’ve ever considered dipping your toe into this kind of game, I think you’ll find a lot to love here, and with some playtime under your belt, you’ll soon learn why Puyo Puyo has such a diehard fan base after all these years. Good luck arranging all those Puyos, and go for the best combos! It’s great to see the Puyo Puyo community growing after the success of Puyo Puyo Tetris, so hop on board and find out what all the fuss is about! You won’t regret it.

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Great puzzle battle gameplay that will keep you coming back.

+ Easy to learn, difficult to master gameplay in two very distinct Puyo Puyo modes.

+/- Not a lot of things to do other than play Puyo Puyo, but at the price point it’s a great deal if puzzle battling interests you.

-  Turn your volume down on double Carbuncle fights. Please trust me on this one.

  Are you a Puyo Puyo fan, or are you a newcomer looking to test it out? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

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Nicole is a features writer and editor for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

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Here Are All The Hidden Messages In J. Cole’s Middle Child Video

Nearly one month ago, North Carolina MC/producer J. Cole released the highest charting single of his career. "Middle Child," produced by T-Minus, opened the Dreamville founder's 2019 release calendar. Now <a href="https://ift.tt/2He2A2P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a music video</a>, the single has reached #4 on the Pop charts at the same time that Cole is also prepping the next installment of his Dreamville album series, <em>Revenge Of The Dreamers III</em>, featuring a host of Hip-Hop savvy veterans and newcomers next April. The anticipation for the forthcoming project is high, and "Middle Child" is Cole's first foray into his next chapter as the 34-year-old multi-threat delineates his perception of his position in the Hip-Hop game.

Cole's track has a smorgasbord of subliminal messaging throughout. Cole proactively calls out critics and MCs alike, but without mentioning anyone specifically by name. Just one week after his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Am55KIhzM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">performance at the NBA All-Star Game</a> near his hometown in Charlotte, Cole brought his penmanship to life with the <a href="https://ift.tt/2He2A2P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video for "Middle Child."</a> Like his prose, the imagery within the film is full of deeper meaning worth decoding.

<a href="https://ift.tt/2He2A2P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">J. Cole Is Hunting Rappers & Keeping Their Heads As Trophies (Video)</a>

One day after J. Cole posted his first music visuals of the year, <em>INSIDER</em> published a video to decrypt the hidden messages that successfully complement the Mez-directed (fka the rapper King Mez) video. The film's Creative Director, Scott Lazer, plays a major role in the filmography as well. Lazer has worked previously with Cole for his videos <a href="https://ift.tt/2tPgzUQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"ATM,"</a> <a href="https://ift.tt/2HeviAG" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Kevin's Heart,"</a> <a href="https://ift.tt/2tQTSzi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"4 Your Eyez Only,"</a> and his HBO documentary and concert series, <a href="https://ift.tt/2H9EbeJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming</em></a>. Throughout, <em>INSIDER</em> Senior Producer Alana Yzola dissects the scenes within "Middle Child," giving specific details that correlate both to J. Cole's lyricism and his Hip-Hop ideals.

In the opening, Yzola unravels the meaning behind some of Cole's most prominent sequences, including Cole's themes of hunting riddled within the video. "Throughout most of the video, J. Cole is in the middle of the screen while everything is happening around him, sort of like how kids describe their experiences being a middle child in their family. The video also wastes little time highlighting J's targets. The scene opens with Cole in the center of the screen with a silhouetted crowd behind him. When the beat drops, affluent figures from the red carpet celebrate, but aren't paying any attention to Cole's presence. The red carpet event is also in the woods. It's the first visual hint of the hunting motif that comes up throughout the entire video. When the lights fade, and the scene changes, the lively crowd lies dead in the morgue."

<a title="Permanent Link to Ari Lennox Is The 1st Lady Of Dreamville. J. Cole Helps Bring Her Biggest Song To Video" href="https://ift.tt/2tPgArS" target="_blank" rel="bookmark noopener">Ari Lennox Is The 1st Lady Of Dreamville. J. Cole Helps Bring Her Biggest Song To Video</a>

Subsequently, Yzola explains Cole's representation of the proverbial red carpet, anatomizing the idea behind his vision and his possible displeasure with publicized award shows and events. "The red carpet has been replaced with red dirt, which also covers the soles of the dead's shoes. The red bottoms remind viewers of the ever popular, high-end Louis Vuitton shoes that have quickly become a status symbol. But the fact that the soles are made from dirt make the wearers seem fake and ungenuine."

She continues, "When it comes to award shows, J. Cole has notoriously been snubbed. For the Grammy's specifically, the artist has been nominated seven times and hasn't won once. He's been bested by Childish Gambino, Ella Mai, Chance The Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, and The Weeknd. But despite this Cole has been and still is killing it. The artist who also produced almost all of his record went platinum with no features with his 2014 album, <a href="https://ift.tt/2He2B6T" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em> 2014 Forest Hills Drive</em></a>. His albums, <a href="https://ift.tt/2tPgC2Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Cole World: The Sideline Story</em></a>, <a href="https://ift.tt/2H9V6xI" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Born Sinner</em></a>, <a href="https://ift.tt/2tNvgHO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>4 Your Eyez Only</em></a>, and <a href="https://ift.tt/2He2DM3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>KOD</em></a>, also went platinum." Regardless of Cole's lack of accolades, it seems as if the St. John's alum is more comfortable coming from the mud, and the film shows it.

<a href="https://ift.tt/2tPgDE4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">J.I.D & J. Cole Are Out To Prove Dreamville Is The Most Lyrical Crew In Hip-Hop</a>

Later, Yzola dives into the true meaning behind the song's title. "The artist feels that he rests between new ages of Rap, old school and new school, and is okay with acting as a bridge between them." Cole raps, <em>"I'm dead in the middle of two generations / I'm little bro and big bro all at once."</em> She continues, "He acknowledges that he learned a lot from the legends before him, and is looking to help the next wave of 'real' artists. And the theme that sticks out in this part of the video is what it means to be 'real.' We've switched scenes from the backwoods to the supermarket, a play on the 'hunters versus the buyers.' The buyers here are the people who weren't out there hunting for their success, but passively relying on the innovation of others. Like this woman in camouflage who is literally shopping for 'The Juice.'"

This isn't Cole's first time calling out rappers for being phony in recent weeks. <a href="https://ift.tt/2He2EzB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On 21 Savage's record, "a lot,"</a> Cole calls out the fake and the faux once again. He raps,<em> “Question, how many faking they streams? (A lot) / Getting they plays from machines (A lot) / I can see behind the smoke and mirrors / Ni**as ain’t really big as they seem (Hmm) / I never say anything (Nah), everybody got they thing (True) / Some ni**as make millions, other ni**as make memes (Hmm) / I’m on a money routine."</em>

<a href="https://ift.tt/2EJVBPr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">J. Cole Saves His Best Verse Of 2018 For A Collabo With Rapsody (Audio)</a>

In finality, Cole pays homage to the strength and power of Black women. He uses their image to promote this sentiment all over "Middle Child." Yzola wraps up the conversation. "Cole has a powerful, young, all-female marching band setting the pace and the beat for the whole song. The idea of setting the pace is continued with the shocking end to the video. A white woman notices a Black woman's baby hairs and is immediately seeing shopping for a Black woman's face in the grocery store. The face had a red special sticker on the packaging. J. Cole said it best, <em>'Money in your palm don't make you real.'</em> The video shows the dangers of appropriation, how features and styles of Black women are only celebrated when they aren't on Black women."

Cole's got Heads paying attention to his visuals just like his lyrics.

The post Here Are All The Hidden Messages In J. Cole’s Middle Child Video appeared first on .

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[simon-frey-eu]

How switching my parents over to Linux saved me a lot of headache and support calls

During me being at my parents over the holidays (Christmas 2017) I had the usual IT-support stuff to do, that always happens to tech savvy kids when they are back at home.

As I am a happy Linux user for over a decade now, I asked myself if it would be a good idea to switch my parents away from Win 10 to a GNU/Linux (I will call it only Linux during the rest of the post. Sorry Richard ;) ) based system.

I did that and now 2 years later I still think it was a good idea: I have the peace of mind, that their data is kinda safe and they also call me less often regarding any technical issues with the system. (Yes, Win 10 confused them more than Ubuntu does).

In the following I would like to describe this ongoing journey and how you can follow my example.

The post is structured in three parts:

Preparation

Switching over

Ongoing improvements

Conclusion

Please keep in mind, that this setup is my very own solution and it is likely, that you need to tweak it to your needs. Disclaimer: I do not care about "FOSS only" or something.

Preparation

Background about my parents computer usage: They mainly use their machine for email and web stuff (shopping, social media, online banking,...) and are not heavily into hardware intense gaming or so.

As my parents already used a lot of Free Software as their daily drivers (Thunderbird, Firefox) I did not had to do a big preparation phase. But still I switch them (still on their Win 10) to LibreOffice so that they could get used to it, before changing the whole system.

That is my first big advice for your:

Try to not overwhelm them with to much new interfaces at once. Use a step by step solution.

So first of all, keep them on their current system and help them to adapt to FLOSS software that will be their main driver on the Linux later on.

So two steps for preparation here:

1) Sit down with your folks and talk trough their daily usage of their computer (Please be not so arrogant to think you already know it all)

2) Try to find software replacements for their daily drivers, that will work flawlessly later on the Linux machine. The ones I would recommend are:

Firefox as Browser (and maybe Email if they prefere webmail)

Thunderbird for Emails

GIMP for Image Editing

VLC as Media Player

LibreOffice instead of MS Office

So as you now did find out and setup replacements for the proprietary Windows software, you should give them time to adapt. I think a month would be suitable. (FYI: I got the most questions during this time, the later switch was less problematic)

Switching over

So your parents now got used to the new software and that will help you to make them adapt easier to the new system, as they now only have to adapt to the new OS interface and not additionally also to a lot new software interfaces.

Do yourself a favor and use standard Ubuntu

I know there are a ton of awesome Linux distros out there (Btw. I use Arch ;)) but my experience during this journey brought me to the conclusion, that the standard Ubuntu is still the best. It is mainly because, all the drivers work mostly out of the box and the distro does a lot automatically. (Because of that, my parents where able to install a new wireless printer without even calling me...beat that Gentoo ;))

On top of that: The Ubuntu community multilingual and open for newbies.

The journey until Ubuntu

Until Ubuntu we tried different other distros, all suffering at some point (Please bear in mind, that this are all awesome projects and for myself they would work 100%, but for no technical people as my parents a distro just needs to be real solid):

1) Chalet Os as it was promoted as most lookalike to Windows. As it is based on XFCE it is lightweight, but the icons and styles differ all over the UI. So you get confused because the settings icon always looks different, depending where in the system you are.

2) Elementary OS because I love the UI myself. No clue why, but my parents never got warm with it. It is just a bit to far away from what they are used to.

3) Solus OS has again a more windows looking ui and it worked better for my parents. But after all you have to say Solus is just not there yet. The package manager has to less packages and whenever you have a problem it is super hard to find a solution on the net. Plus: The UI crashed at least once a day. (IMO a driver problem with the machine, but still after hours of work we did not find a solution.)

4) Finally Ubuntu](https://www.ubuntu.com/) and that now works nice and smooth (For over 8 month now)

Nuke and pave

So you selected the distro and are now able to nuke and pave the machine. I think I do not have to explain in-depth how to do that, just two important things:

Backup all you parents data to an external hard drive (Copy the complete C: drive)

Write down upfront what software you want to install and make sure you also backup the configuration and data of those

**Cheating: ** If you want to amaze with the new system even more and the machine is still on a HDD, replace it with a SSD, so the Linux system feels even better and faster ;)

Configuration

After you installed the distro, do a complete configuration. (Yes, go trough every setting and tweak it if needed)

Now install the software your folks already used on their Windows machine and make sure it is configured in the exact same way as it was on the old system! (That will help a lot in keeping the moral up, because then their is already something that feels familiar to them)

I found, that it is best to place the shortcuts of the applications your parents use the most in bar on the left side on Ubuntu, so they find them easily

Sit down with your parents and ask them, what data the need from the old system and copy only that over. Hereby you clean up the file system by not copying over the old crap they did not use for ages and if they find out later, that there is more data they need it is stored on the backup drive.

Introduce them to the new system

After the configuration and setup is now complete you need to allocate some time for introducing them to the new system. You know you parents best so do it in the way the like it.

For me the following routine worked best:

0) Explain it to them in two individual sessions (as mostly one of them is more tech savvy then the other one and so both have the chance to ask you individually)

1) Shutdown the machine

2) Let him/her start the machine

3) Tell her/him to try to do their daily business and whenever questions come up explain how to solve the issue (Never touch the mouse or keyboard! If you take it over, it is very likely that you will be to fast)

4) Stop after 60 minutes and if there are still questions do another session the next day (Imagine yourself learning something completely new to you - maybe Chinese - are you able to concentrate more than an hour?)

Some topics I would recommend you to cover during the introduction:

How to setup a new wifi connection (especially if the machine is a laptop)

How to install new software

How to setup a new printer/scanner

How to print/scan

How to restore deleted files

How to get data from/to a USB-stick or mobile device

How to shutdown the machine (not that easy to find on Ubuntu)

Ongoing improvements

So normally now the system should work as intended and if you are lucky it saves you a lot of problems in the future. In this section I will give you some more recommendations, that helped to make the experience even better:

Linux does always ask you for your password if you are doing something that could deeply harm the system. So I told my parents: Whenever that dialog (I showed it to them) pops up, they should keep in mind, that they could destroy the whole machine with this operation and if they want they can call me first.

Show them the app store and tell them, whatever they install from there is save (so no viruses or something) and they can install everything they want as long it is from there. It makes fun to find new cool software and games, so help them to experience that fun too :D

Backups! As it is really easy with Linux you should do a automatic daily/hourly backup of their complete home folder. I use borg for that. (I plan to to write an in-depth blog post about borg in the future, it will be linked here if it is done). So now, whenever my parents call me and tell me that they deleted something or that the machine does not boot anymore I can relax and tell them, that we can restore all there data in a matter of minutes....you can't image how good that makes me feel.

It is not FOSS, but I did install google chrome as it was the easiest for watching netflix and listening to spotify.

I would recommend installing some privacy plugins and stuff into the browser your parents use, so you get them even saver.

If you have some software that does not have a good replacement, try to use wine for it. Worked well with MS Office 2007. (Sorry LibreOffice, but you still can't compete with MS here). PlayOnLinux did help me a lot with the wine setup

If possible activate the automatic update and installation of all security updates.

Conclusion

For me the switch made a lot of sense, as my parents are not heavy technical users of there systems. Should yours be into Photoshop, video editing or gaming I do not think it will be so easy to do the switch over, as Linux and its software is still not a good competitor in this areas.

I would love to get your feedback on this blog post: Did you switch your parents to Linux and how did that work out? Do you have other insights that should be added to this post? Hit me up via meet@simon-frey.eu

Thanks for reading! Simon Frey

p.S. One reason why my parents machine did not boot anymore for several times, was a plugged in usb stick and the bios tried to boot from it. So do not forget to reset the boot order to first boot of the hard drive ;)

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[perfectoremodel]

MAKE MONEY AND RENOVATE YOUR HOUSE with PerfectoRemodel corp.

MAKE MONEY AND RENOVATE YOUR HOUSE with PerfectoRemodel corp.      

        Most people would be really upset if their retirement account suddenly dropped

ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars, or more. Yet many homeowners willingly suffer

these kinds of losses without a whimper when they sell their home. And too often,

that’s because they fail to perceive their homes as an important investment as well

as shelter for themselves, their dog and goldfish.

For the vast home owning majority, building home equity is a critical component of retirement planning

and building net worth. So, it only makes sense to get

the most money possible when you sell. Those extra thousands of dollars can give

you a bigger down payment on your next home, capital for a business venture, or

money to fund some other investment.

The first (and most critical) step in selling your home for top dollar is to develop a simple plan of action

and give yourself enough time to implement it. In other words, don’t do as so many home sellers do

when they decide to sell: plant a

“For Sale” sign in the turf and wait for a buyer to come with an open checkbook.

True, this can work in a hot market—and possibly you’ll sell your home fast

this way. But chances are you’ll leave a lot of money on the table and give the buyer

something to brag about at the office.

Fortunately, there’s a different approach that will net you thousands of dollars

more than your uninformed neighbor. It’s not difficult or expensive, it just requires

paying attention to detail and implementing the plan of action.

How to determine the highest asking price for your home—

It’s often said that it’s the packaging that sells the product

get full-price offers; you may even have to mediate a bidding war among several

buyers.

 Don’t Jump into the Game Before You’ve Done Some Homework

Both Maria and Don were thrilled when he got a job offer on the West Coast. His

company had downsized and similar jobs were hard to find locally. Plus, it meant a

big salary increase. It also meant selling their home as soon as possible.

Maria had a close friend, Andrea, who had just gotten her real estate license.

Maria called her and asked if she could come by and list the house.

Andrea came that evening and told Maria and Don that they should get top

price because the home was decorated so nicely. They had upgraded the two bathrooms and replaced

the carpets and kitchen counters.

When they asked Andrea what price they should go with, she wasn’t entirely

comfortable recommending one. Don recalled that a home up the street sold about

two months ago for $290,000, but it wasn’t decorated nearly as nicely as theirs.

Marie then suggested that it would be nice to recoup the $15,000 they spent on up-

grades. They would also need about $100,000 for the down payment and closing

costs to get into another home in a much more expensive area. After kicking it

around for a while, they agreed to try $360,000. Andrea assured them it would sell

quickly because it was such a cute house.

Don took the job offer and he and Maria planned an extended weekend trip to

scout out their new city and find a home since they only had about thirty days.

The first week was hectic. Andrea put the home on the local multiple listing service (MLS), printed some

flyers for a brochure box attached to the “For Sale” sign,

and scheduled open houses for the weekend. Everyone felt sure the home would

sell the first week or two.

Buyers are more savvy than ever about home values. Many access websites like Realtor.com, forsalebyowner.com and pour over MLS printouts before they start to look at neighborhoods and homes for sale. As a result, if you’re overpriced, they know it and you end up helping the competition sell their homes.

 Four weeks went by and nothing much happened. Although Andrea refilled the

brochure box several times, there were few calls from the flyers or other Realtors

on the MLS. “Maybe it’s just slow getting started,” Andrea told Maria, during one

of her many phone calls.

By the end of the sixth week, showings from agents picked up, but time was

running out and Don had to leave for his new job. It was decided that Maria would

have to stay behind until the house sold.

Two months passed and the stress was intense. It was exhausting keeping the

home in showing condition, baking cookies to make the home smell good, and

wondering why the home wasn’t selling. Maria was getting tired of Andrea’s ex-

cuses: the market was cooling off, interest rates were going up, and so on. It was

fast becoming a panic situation.

One afternoon, when an agent brought some buyers to see the home, Maria

was running a little late leaving. As she walked to the garage, she overheard the

agent telling his clients that the home was clearly overpriced and that he had a similar home for sale two

streets over for $40,000 less. The agent also told the buyers

he was only showing them the home so they could see what a good deal the others

on the list were.

Maria was shocked. Then reality slowly dawned. Agents were using her home to

sell other homes. All those showings . . . Anger replaced shock as Maria called

the real estate office number on the lawn sign. She tried to remain civil to the

receptionist, but when the broker picked up the call, she lost it.

Luckily, the broker was a professional and listened until Maria ran out of steam

and calmed down. By that time, she had Maria’s file in front of her and explained

that she was not personally familiar with the hundreds of listings the company had.

But she promised to look into it and get back to her before the end of the day.

After calling Andrea into her office, the broker realized that her agent had not

done a comparative market analysis (CMA) and this was her first listing. In fact,

Andrea was clueless about how to work up an accurate CMA.

Normally, the broker would have assigned a seasoned agent to help out a green

agent on their first listing, but somehow that had fallen through the cracks.

Early the next day, Maria’s listing was assigned to Brad, one of the companies

top agents, to salvage the situation and see what could be done to sell the house.

The first thing Brad did was pull up all the similar homes that had sold in the area

the past sixty days as well as all homes that were now on the market—in other

words, the competition.

It became apparent immediately that the home was overpriced by $40,000 to

$45,000 and the yard needed some landscaping work to bring up the curb appeal.

Don and Maria hired a landscaper to improve the yard and reduced the price

$47,000 to stimulate a fast sale. As a result, the home sold in about two weeks.

What Should You Do?

1. Do some pricing homework on your own first, even if you plan on going with an

agent. It’s important to have an accurate idea of what your home is worth. This

entails looking at similar homes on the market in the area, stopping by open

houses, checking out county recorder’s records of recent sales, or having a real

estate agent print out sold comparables from the MLS. A later section tells you

how to do this.

2. Pick your agent carefully, you have hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake.

Would you let your novice cousin manage your 401(k) or investment portfolio?

Probably not! So talk to two or three agents and go with the one who has the

best track record in your area.

3. Find out what the average days on market (DOM) is for your area and home

style. If it is thirty days or less, you’re in a hot market and can plan on a fast sale.

But if it is running sixty days plus, make your plans accordingly and don’t paint

yourself into a corner with unrealistic expectations.

4. Don’t put your home on the market before you’ve put it in top selling condition.

Follow the action plans in this book so you’ll get top dollar faster. If your home

languishes on the market more than a few weeks, you’ll attract bargain hunters

who never pay full price for anything.

5. Insist that your agent call the buyer’s agents who are showing the home to get

their client’s feedback. If you don’t get an offer from them, you want to know

why.

What Determines a Home’s Value?

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, your home is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. In a

super hot market with several buyers bidding against each

other, the value can escalate in minutes to thousands of dollars over the starting

price. In fact, buyers in some markets know they have to start thousands of dollars

over asking price just to play in the game. Buying a home can get ugly as more buyers chase fewer

properties in a market that seems to increasingly defy gravity.

In a normal market where the numbers of buyers and sellers are more balanced

and homes aren’t selling before the seller finishes pounding a sign in the turf, the

usual valuation rules apply. The five most important are:

1. Location is the most important component of a home’s value. The better the

location, the quicker a home sells and for a higher price. In many areas smaller,

older homes sell for unusually high prices because buyers can tear them down

and build much larger homes. Location is the engine the drives these “tear-

downs” and seller windfalls.

2. The condition of a home, of course, is important. The more a home tugs at the

buyer’s emotional strings, the more money a seller walks away with. Conversely,

a home that isn’t cared for will attract bargain hunters and sell for a big dis-

count.

3. How hot the local market is has a big effect on the selling game. If there are

more buyers than sellers, prices go up; the greater the imbalance, the faster

homes appreciate. It’s also a double-edged sword. If you turn around and buy

another home in the same market, you’ll also end up paying more and that

tends to swallow your big gain. On the other hand, if you were to move from

Boston to Ottumwa, Iowa you would be able to upgrade your housing lifestyle

considerably. It’s probably accurate to say that owning a home in the right place

at the right time can add a big windfall to your net worth.

4. Competition comes in many forms and can change quickly. For instance, a new

subdivision next to you may siphon off buyers; a large, congestion-causing box

store or highway re-route close to your neighborhood may lower home values.

Also, there may be more homes for sale than buyers in your area at the time you

want to sell. And there are interest rates and other economic factors outside of

your control always lurking in the background that will affect your market.

5. Of course, price is a big part of selling a home and you have to stay within your

neighborhood value range. But sometimes the gap between the lowest-priced

home and the highest-priced home in an area can be as wide as the Grand

Canyon, and that spells opportunity. It means you have more leeway to create

emotional appeal and get top dollar for your home than if all the homes were

roughly the same size and age.

Unfortunately, if a home isn’t selling, too many agents take the lazy route and

tell the owner their price is too high when a few improvements could make a big

difference. This leads to a downward price spiral until eventually the home sells

and the homeowners lose several thousand dollars they didn’t have to. Incidentally, this is the situation

this article strives to prevent in the coming chapters.

All of these home-selling economic components, and many subcomponents,

are in constant play. When you put your home on the market, it’s like shooting at a

moving target;  conditions are constantly changing. Can you price it a little high or

will that slow down the sale? Will replacing the carpet help sell it or will it be wasted equity? The next

sections show how different approaches are typically used to establish a sales price.

www.perfectoremodel.com                   (516)828-1324                         (631)629-4242

[she-willnotfall]

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Also companies considering about getting Search engine marketing services should go through these types of magazines to familiarize themselves making use of the latest trends within the particular SEO and web-based marketing market to allow them to determine the assistance offered for all of them from the selected SEO companies. Mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in 2018 will likely be all regarding Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). The term SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION also describes the making internet pages easier for internet lookup engine indexing software, known since "crawlers, " to find, check out, and index your blog. I feel that technical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION mistakes that affect crawl spending budget - and also pollute Search engines with non-SEO-friendly content such because social landing pages, WordPress mass media archives, offer pages and cloned e-commerce product pages - can have an even more detrimental effect upon sites moving forward. Effective SEO lets you enhance your web​site to demonstrate up within search engines. Many of us will get into how for you to pick the best keywords intended for your business later in this specific SEO guide, but it excellent you to know how in order to use them, as they will be referenced throughout this section. Although meta descriptions are not a new ranking factor for search search engines, they do hold value with regard to your website and are component of your SEO presence. Let us speak a bit as to exactly what SEO is before we enter into the SEO article writing suggestions for people who may become new or do not very understand it. SEO stands with regard to Seo. Without the doubt, one of the greatest trends that has already started to take place and may continue well into 2018 could be the consolidation of niche MarTech gamers by larger content cloud suppliers, with the role and significance of SEO increasing significantly all through this transformation. SEO Internet marketing provides major components, which develop the particular website traffic, and top lookup engine rankings. SEO is brief for Seo, and there will be nothing really mystical about this particular. You might have heard the lot about SEO and exactly how it works, but basically exactly what is a measurable, repeatable procedure which is used to send out signals to search engines that will the pages are worth displaying in Google's index. Topic clusters have got been lauded because the future associated with SEO and content strategy, yet are widely underreported on (so now's the time to hit! ) 93% of B2B companies use content marketing. Teresa Walsh, Marketing Professional at automobile site, Cazana, forecasts that hyper organic targeting will probably increase its importance in 2019 with more location search plus more voice search. We get to the particular bottom of on-page SEO issues in order for search motors to clearly see what your own website is all about. SEO requires you to continuously become a student because of just how quickly the algorithms of lookup engine companies change. Google's punishing methods probably class pages as some thing akin to a poor UX if they meet certain detectable criteria e. g. lack associated with reputation or old-school SEO stuff such as keyword stuffing a site. Over the particular last 20 years SocialSEO offers grown to be the biggest full digital marketing firm within the state of Colorado, offering Social Media, Pay Per Click on and SEO in Denver, Co Springs, Boulder and across the particular State. Lastly, Amazon will dominate web commerce queries in 2018 via Alexa voice, touch, as well as other innovative interfaces, leaving many e-commerce SEOs in order to focus in on the content-side of their marketing. If you could use twenty times more chances for website traffic, three times better outcomes than social, and returns in investment that will only boost over time, SEO must become a priority. Since artificial intelligence search motor optimization is in its preliminary stage, the impact of synthetic intelligence in marketing is heading to be felt in 2019 and 2020. So regional businesses have to put specific effort into maximizing their SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION efforts for local visibility, which usually means doing things like customization their Google Places pages. All these types of steps are used by the particular company to provide the greatest search engine optimization services in order to its clients in Thailand, below the Thailand SEO concept. Keywords and phrases, although it is not being as important for you to SEO ranking as they after were, still play a significant function. •Social Mass media Optimization - SEO services make use of various means of social mass media optimization for clients. Lots of people are usually now asking, How will AI and Voice Search impact SEO”?

SEO & Content Marketing Software for eCommerce Business, Agencies and Enterprises. Calib Backe, SEO Manager for Walnut Holistics, writes that mobile plus voice are going to carry on their domination of importance since we rely on desktop much less and less. If much associated with your competitors has hired SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION firms to focus on 10-20 keywords within a moderately competitive industry, after that you will have to spend a small more. The Google Lookup Console may be the most essential SEO tool on the earth. No BS. In case you're done with the worn out cliches told over and above again at SEO Conferences, and then you're prepared to experience UnGagged - an UnConventional SEO in addition to Digital Marketing conference that offers real-world results. SEO is a good acronym for the phrase "search engine optimization. " Search motor optimization is focused on doing specific items to your website to operate a vehicle even more traffic to it so that will you can increase online product sales - and traffic. By 2019, the method we search might not alter completely, but these new systems will definitely change the way we all build links, engage users, plus generate leads through content advertising. Site Champion® increases site visitors by helping shoppers find your own products in search engines via increased keyword rankings using SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION automation. While link quantity is nevertheless important, content creators and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals are realizing that hyperlink quality is now more essential than link quantity, and since such, creating shareable content could be the 1st step to earning valuable hyperlinks and improving your off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. You will become introduced to the foundational components of how search engines such as google work, how the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION landscape is promoting and exactly what you can expect in the particular future. The SISTRIX Toolbox consists associated with six modules 1) SEO, 2) Universal, 3) Links, 4) Advertisements, 5) Social and 6) Optimizer. Low-quality content can severely impact the achievements of SEO, within 2018. When your own SEO starts building strong reasons, competitors can start maligning your own SEO backlinks. ” With content marketing spend likely to reach $300 billion by 2019, this statistic is worrisome. Now the electronic marketing companies know how in order to use AI for SEO, plus in coming years AI can dominate in developing the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies of the digital advertising companies. Ray Cheselka, AdWords and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Manager at webFEAT Complete, the design and SEO agency, states that in 2019 search intention will continue to become even more important. Expert writers of SEO articles will certainly take the time to study the particular industry or market market. 2 tools to help with nearby SEO are BrightLocal (for rankings) and MozLocal (for local lookup optimization). Concerning on-page SEO best practices, I usually link out to other quality appropriate pages on other websites exactly where possible and where a human being would find it valuable. It includes a favorite Routine Table of SEO Success Factors”, a 9-chapter guide to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION basics, and links to a few from the site's most useful blog posts.

This particular SEO model is called the "topic cluster, " and contemporary search engine algorithms rely upon them to connect users along with the information they're looking with regard to. Your own SEO strategy likely involves content material designed to be shared upon social media. Take this article intended for example, if you search intended for reverse engineer Google, ” seo secrets, ” reverse engineering seo, ” this informative article is on the particular first page for every associated with those search terms. Social media marketing and SEO need to be working together, sharing content material or utilizing engagement metrics because data for future article marketing and advertising. Simply put, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is marketing through an knowing of how search algorithms function combined with a knowledge associated with what human users might research for. The results furthermore underscore the value of creating new content with your SEO online marketing strategy. Whenever you create new content structured on your priority keywords, a person have several advantages with the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION marketing strategy. Both SEO and content material marketing converge in numerous places; they will do not work in seclusion. Free to go to SearchLeeds covers everything from technological SEO and analytics, to ADVERTISING, content marketing, paid media plus more. Following technical mobile SEO greatest practices (e. g., image marketing, redirects, JavaScript and CSS) will be a necessary barrier to admittance in today's digital world. Erase all duplicated articles; it will increase your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking. Long-term: as discussed over, you'll ultimately get more research traffic from better usability, also though you don't squeeze each last drop from the SEO-trick lemon. However, to accomplish all this particular, web-developers use SEO custom providers, that have long-lasting SEO Search engines rank. That being said, companies usually have little or simply no time for you to maintain up with the latest advancements in SEO techniques. Social search motor optimization is largely built on user-generated content. Keywords are at the coronary heart of SEO, but they're really not your first step in order to an organic growth play any more. Obviously, reviews are a powerful type of customer content that has massive implications for SEO and increasing Blog9T organic traffic. With right seo and with the help associated with an SEO expert however, your own website can give you a good increasing number of visitors plus exposure. Just keep in mind to pay attention to strong content creation and copywriting basic principles, engage your viewers deeply, plus stay abreast of technical developments such as backlinks, SEO health, site rate, and schema. SEOmonitor pricing is based on the particular number of websites and key phrases you track. So, We would say that 2018 is usually a challenge for Google, simply because much as it may be for SEOs. The SEO Reserve Keyword Suggestion Tool aggregates lookup data and provides volumes, associated terms, and more.

If you avoid look after SEO, you may get lost among the trillions of links out there. Heading forward SEOs have to end up being able to quantitatively show the particular value of their online marketing and advertising by identifying and implementing Essential Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can demonstrate the value added simply by their SEO initiatives. The topic cluster model is definitely your way forward in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION this year, but it's not really the only method to obtain your website content to position higher once it's been made. WIthout simple SEO in location, your business may not become a result on the research engines when a customer is usually specifically searching for your enterprise! SEO information can help improve your interpersonal efforts, and social media may help with the search rankings. Within his book Ultimate Explained Customizing Your Website, SEO and web marketing expert Jon Rognerud displays you how to construct a top of the line website and get top position on all search engines. 00: 38 SEO is usually heading towards voice search. SpyFu will be really a paid tool that will uses 11 years of traditional data to help you discover your competitors' most profitable key phrases and the keywords they've utilized for SEO and ads. The fact is that on-site navigation hackers for example search bar with smart autocomplete, internal linking with point texts or immediate customer assistance boost both UX and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Even though it is tough to assume about the alterations that might take place throughout 2019, but we know regarding sure what SEO trends involving 2018 will take greater importance in 2019. If your business does not have SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Internet marketing strategies, she or even he will need help through SEO experts. One of the particular most commonly asked questions, White colored hat SEO in layman's vocabulary is applying the right strategies along with a legal technique to boost your ranking plus increase your popularity. To help our own client's future-proof their businesses plus maximize online Return on Investment decision (ROI), we have individuals our own global partners to develop a good SEO methodology that aligns along with Google's recommended best practices. Off-page SEO will assist make your website most well-known and visible on the internet, so you can get even more traffic and users for your own website and product. You might be the proprietor of a growing and growing business, the webmaster of the dozen sites, the SEO expert within a Web agency or the DIY SEO ninja passionate regarding the mechanics of Search: this particular guide is meant for a person. On their firm blog, Demand Wave also offers a great article about 2016's tops trends in B2B electronic marketing and SEO. Let's take a explore some roles that interpersonal media plays in SEO. You will craft the SEO strategy around the key phrases that will lead customers for you to your most profitable products. Google for example, states that will the no follow link end up being taken literally as well since the link will not become followed at all however within reports done for SEO reasons it shows some conflict in order to this.

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Design Army’s Pum Lefebure: If You Have Vision, a Great Portfolio, and a Sledgehammer, Don’t Let Anything Stand in Your Way

There’s something about Pum Lefebure, cofounder of Design Army, that’s reminiscent of a D.C. superhero—the Washington kind, not the comics kind. In sequins and enormous glasses that magnify her blue-winged eyeliner, she marches over ladders and ducts at the construction site of her newest project, a photography studio and creative hub for the local artistic community. It’s not the first time Lefebure has set her sights on the capitol’s culture; Design Army has worked with Smithsonian, CityCenter DC, Washingtonian, and the Washington Ballet. Now, dwarfed by 25-foot ceilings and washed by the light from a massive window wall, Lefebure is plotting a vision for the future of greater D.C. design.

Washington and ‘creative hub’ might seem as alike as two peas in a swindler’s shell game. The name Washington rings drab government buildings, chummy lobbyist lunches, and empty pavements when everyone goes home to Virginia at the end of the day.

An arts scene here? Tell me another one.  

Design Army calls its aesthetic “bold, streamlined, witty, and to the point”. Image courtesy of © Design Army.

But Lefebure insists that the city has its own vibrant base, and it’s mushrooming. Sure, D.C. rolls through four- and eight-year cycles as Democrats and Republicans pendulum swing in and out of the White House, but there are also stable institutions holding down the fort, like the World Bank, big corporations, and international embassies. “It’s an extremely international group of people and they are smart,” Lefebure says.

Smarts, style, and a destination food scene have started to converge into a recognizable trend that usually spells massive change for a city. In the chicken and egg dance of gentrification and urban revitalization, artists and designers have been pushed out of the Northwest quadrant of Georgetown and Dupont Circle, and into new neighborhoods. The smart ones, like Lefebure and her husband Jake, embraced the change and doubled down, leapfrogging from business savvy to entrepreneurialism by investing in real estate. Lefebure now owns four properties, including the Design Army building and the new 10,000 square-foot studio a 10 minute drive from downtown. 

An entrepreneurial predisposition and vision got Lefebure where she is today. The self-described wild child from Bangkok arrived in middle of nowhere Virginia as a foreign exchange student and stayed to complete a BFA at Radford University. Based on her student Visa status, she would only have one year to get a job after graduating otherwise, “Bye bye—you are going back to Thailand,” she says. Lefebure buckled down during undergrad, designing brochures and magazines for the university.  “It was the first time that I’m totally in charge of my own destiny,” says Lefebure. “It’s up to me to make every single decision: Do I go party on a Friday night? Yes, but I will get up tomorrow and go work on a brochure.”

By the time she graduated, she had the portfolio of someone two years into the business. She spent hours designing a resume and sent it to her dream firm in D.C. Knowing it was the perfect job, she only made one copy. She told the agency she was in D.C. for spring break to nudge an interview, then drove six hours for the 30-minute talk. “You have to have a vision, a goal, and a dream,” she says. “Even though you have no idea how the hell you’re going to get from here to there.” Maybe it was her moxie, or maybe it was that Lefebure’s portfolio included professional view books and brochures made during the 20-hour work weeks that she squeezed into her undergrad career. Either way, Lefebure was hired on the spot.

The self-described wild child from Bangkok arrived in middle of nowhere Virginia, completed a BFA at Radford University, and then rose to the top of D.C. design. Photography by Jacopo Moschin.

Rising through the ranks to Senior Art Director, she met her husband, Jake. “We would work late together,” Lefebure recalls on how they fell in love, cheekily adding, “He would work less hard than me.” The power duo started Design Army at their kitchen table with Lefebure working full-time so they could have health insurance, and both staying up until 3 a.m. to get the business off the ground. When I ask Jake what his favorite thing about working with Lefebure is, she takes the mic and holds it up closer to his mouth to catch his answer. “Just one?” he winks.  They anticipated it would be two years before Design Army took off enough for Lefebure to leave her safety net job. It was four months. They credit happy clients with big mouths for the rocket launch.

A jumbled shelf of design awards—winged figures, mounted lightbulbs, bronze pencils that look like plumb bobs—from London International Awards, One Show, D&AD reminds the Design Army team that they’re in competition with Japan, Germany, Australia, Singapore. “I don’t want to be D.C. good,” Lefebure says. “I don’t want to be U.S. good. We need to be world good”.

How does Design Army stand out against world competition to win contracts with clients like The Ritz-Carlton, Bloomingdales, JW Marriot, and Pepsi? Lefebure says it’s the mix of strategy and execution that her firm brings to their design packages. Once, a real estate developer came to her to rebrand an emerging D.C. neighborhood. Lefebure reenacts the conversation: “Pum,” he said, “I need a full page ad in The Washingtonian.” To which she replied, “I think you can make a better use of time creating your own Washingtonian.” Lefebure pitched the developer a recurring print periodical called D/CITY. The publication features mom and pop shops, lists community events, and surfaces local creatives for sartorial spreads. The back page? An ad for the developer’s condos. The DNA of how a neighborhood changes is hard to trace, but certainly things are looking different now. Warby Parker has since in, along with Aesop.

Design Army avoids risk-averse clients. Image Courtesy of © Design Army.

Design Army takes aim at the underlying psychology of their clients’ problems. Cosmetic fixes don’t interest them. The design and execution has to function. If a client came to her to redecorate a bedroom, Lefebure says to illustrate her approach, Design Army would not repaint the colors in the room. “I’m going to knock down the whole wall,” she says. “We are about architecture. We are not a painter.” That’s not for everyone and Design Army says no to clients all the time, avoiding the ones who are risk-averse. “My theory is you cannot do epic stuff with basic people,” says Lefebure. “You are only as good as your client allows.”

D/CITY illustrates another of Lefebure’s business strategies: get a client hooked on the benefits of producing good content. The magazine is on its twelfth issue. In addition, she’s built an Instagram for the publication. It currently measures about a third of The Washingtonian’s audience. Social media is its own Design Army business unit with four full-time staff. The firm will launch a social channel for a client and run it in house for six months to build the brand voice. Often the client asks Design Army to continue managing the feed when the six months are up. 

At the moment, Lefebure’s focus is on Design Army’s new creative space under construction across the border in Maryland. Jake snapped up the cavernous space, perched on a hill overlooking a highway, before it went on the market—it’s down the road from the storage unit where he tinkers with motorcycles on the weekends. The tire-churned dirt courtyard is about as serene as a construction site can get—like Gatsby’s house before all the guests arrive. Lefebure envisions a glittering future of photo shoots, TEDx events, dance performances, test kitchen dinners, and free painting classes for students on the weekends. There are dressing rooms for models and dancers in an upstairs balcony, a workshop, and garage doors so cars can drive in for commercials. Lefebure is calling it At Yolk after the rich core of an egg, the genesis of creation.

“You cannot do epic stuff with basic people,” says Lefebure. “You are only as good as your client allows.” Image courtesy of © Design Army.

There are hints of Lefebure’s entrepreneurialism in this project. Revitalization is stirring in Maryland. Design Army is working with a client to rebrand another neighborhood in Maryland, much like the D/CITY initiative. They anticipate that it will take 10 years for the At Yolk neighborhood to take off. (But remember when Design Army’s timeline to self-sufficiency happened in one-sixth the time expected?) In the meantime, they plan to recoup their investment with market rate rents—adjusted based on the projects, space use, and whenever they need to pay back a favor or want to support a friend.

Our space visit runs long, and we end up speeding in Jake’s car toward Union Station so I can catch the train. Lefebure runs with me, her straight hair flying, past the buses and the businessmen, to the tracks. “Don’t stop,” she says. When I make it to the platform and turn to see her—bespectacled, be-sequined—stretched out in a Warrior I-style lunge to wave goodbye, her arm raised like a discus thrower, like a D.C. superhero.