#did i base this off of the recent photo on ryan's instagram?

[outrunningthedark]

Did she just logged into his account and mass liked every damn post? Lol. I’m convinced she lurks around on tumblr, it’s just too many coincidences where she does exactly what we talk about to prove something.

I mean, that's the theory, lol, especially with that weird incident where he posted the (older) photo of him and Mateo at the softball/baseball game he does for a hobby despite never reposting anything she does with their kids or showing them off after the birth of G...and it was deleted soon after...🧐 I've had people on other blogs and in my inbox get bent out of shape about the possibility of those two knowing what goes on around here based on how quickly we've said some things and then stuff happens - probably because they don't want to think about Ryan finding their explicit fics by accident or something, idk - but I will say that a lot of the same convos happening here happen on instagram (because the groups overlap) and we've seen more than once, including just recently with the deleted comments, that she stays plugged in to what others are saying so they don't "tarnish" the product (that's still what this is, a sell job) she's trying to put out.

[brentbennett]

Umm I'm also a huge fan of your writing and ghost!Shane is everything to me, so if you feel like writing another prompt, I was discussing this idea with a fellow Shyan fan and would love to see it brought to life! Basically Ryan is a paranormal detective investigating a very famous paranormal hot spot, and Shane is a ghost who just wants some attention. Hijinks ensue. Bonus points if Shane argues about ghosts while he's a ghost ("it's just the wind," his disembodied voice says 😂)

tysm i’m a huge fan of YOUR writing as well!!! thanks for this prompt!!! i LOVED it lmao. also this is like, a pre getting together fic?? i didn’t want to make it too long lol. also, shout out to @faequill for coming up with the idea of shane being a park ranger, a headcanon i 100% support :)

“It’s okay, Ryan, you’re gonna be okay, ghosts can’t hurt you,” Ryan says to himself. He’s shaking, and it’s not from the wind; even though Philadelphia is cold, Ryan’s trembling stems from being scared shitless in this jail cell. Ryan’s gonna have a word with whoever sent him to Eastern State Penitentiary if he ever gets out of here.

“I mean, ghosts can’t hurt you physically… but emotionally? I can insult you all I want,” a voice says. Ryan turns around, shining his flashlight every which way in an attempt to find the source of the noise.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the wind! Ghosts aren’t real,” the voice continues.

“Who’s there?” Ryan calls, mustering up all of his bravery. He shines his flashlight near the bars of the cell, but he doesn’t have very much room to move because of the lack of space.

“Oh you know, Al Capone,” the voice says with a strange lilt. It’s almost like the voice is mocking Ryan.  

“Where are you?” Ryan asks. The panic is settling it at this point. He figures it’s best if he knows his proximity to (Al?) whatever this thing may be. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to ask, especially since this ghost seems so chatty.

“Right in front of you.” Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a translucent manifestation of a person is standing right in front of him.

“No offense, but you look nothing like how I imagined Al Capone to look,” Ryan says, lowering his flashlight. The ghost laughs, and Ryan’s fear slowly ebbs away. A ghost wouldn’t laugh at his joke if it had malicious intent, right?

“Thanks,” the ghost says dryly.

Ryan shines his flashlight right up to the ghostly figure’s face. It’s a very nice face. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m living out the rest of my existence in this shitty cell. Or at least, I was, until you came along. Who are you, anyway?” the ghost asks him.

“My name’s Ryan. I’m a paranormal detective,” Ryan answers. The ghost perks up at that.

“Wait, can you bring me back?” the ghost asks. It sounds….desperate?

“What do you mean, bring you back? Like, bring you back to life?” Ryan replies. He’s shocked; does he have that ability? Is that even possible?

“No, like bring me back a soda. Yes, bring me back to life,” the ghost says, exasperated. Ryan just raises an eyebrow.

The ghost steps closer to him, hands on Ryan’s shoulders. They get colder the longer the ghost has his hands on Ryan, but Ryan is too stunned to move. He’s no longer afraid of this ghost; why would a ghost be pleading with him? A part of Ryan really wants to hear this ghost out.

“I wasn’t supposed to die,” the ghost continues. “When I was alive, they locked me up in here, but I was innocent! I was framed!” The ghost sounds slightly hysterical.

“Dude, that sucks,” Ryan says, backing away from ghost to get away from the cold. He doesn’t know what to do or how to help.

“Nah, I’m just joshing you. I’ve gotta work on my acting skills if I’m ever gonna make it in Hollywood, you know?” the ghost replies.

Okay, what? First this ghost scares Ryan out of his mind, and then he lies about being framed? What is going on here? Nothing in his research is making sense with what the ghost is telling him, except for Al Capone, but even then, Hollywood has nothing to do with anything.

“Uh, I don’t know what’s going on here but I’m gonna leave,” Ryan says, backing away slowly.

“But Ryan!! Pay attention to meeee,” the ghost says, whining.

Ryan just sighs. “Ghost, look -”

“Call me Shane.”

Ryan sighs again. “Shane, look, I’ve got a job to do. I know you’re dead and that really freakin’ sucks but man, I’ve gotta investigate!”

“Let me help you, then. I haven’t been out of this cell in centuries,” Shane says.

“Uh, alright, I guess,” Ryan says. “Lead the way.”

The ghost goes through the cell bars, which makes Ryan smile. That is, until the cell bars get stuck, which results in a mini freak out until he manages to get the bars open.

They walk down a long hallway, Ryan jumping every so often at whatever peculiar sounds reach his ears. He hears a rat scuttling across the floor, he hears footsteps above him, and he freaks out. Shane, however, is largely unresponsive. He just waits patiently until Ryan is done freaking out, and then they venture forth into the heart of the jail.

“So, uh -” Whatever Ryan was going to say next is interrupted by a force slamming into him. He falls to the ground, the flashlight falling out of his hand and rolling away. “What the fuck, what was that?” he asks, but Shane’s on it immediately.

“It’s a demon, but relax,” Shane says, gearing up to fight the creature.

“What do you mean relax?” Ryan shouts. He watches, terrified, as Shane somehow fends the demon away. Ryan looks at him incredulously.

“What? I’m a supernatural being, Ryan, don’t look so surprised!” Shane says.

“But you can fight off demons? I’ve never ever heard of a ghost doing that,” Ryan says. He picks himself back up and dusts himself off.

“Maybe I’m just magical. I’m the first magical ghost in existence, tell that to your team! I’m sure you and other paranormal investigators will love to hear it,” Shane replies.

Ryan narrows his eyes. Magical ghost or not, there’s something decidedly….different about Shane. Maybe it’s the fact that his ghost is only semi-transparent, like he doesn’t fully belong in this world…

“Tell me the truth this time. Who are you?” Ryan asks.

“Wow, not even a thank you? I saved your life and you’re still interrogating me? How rude! I guess I’ll just leave you for dead next time,” Shane says with a smile.

Ryan just rolls his eyes. “If you’re not going to be serious then I’m leaving.”

“No, wait, I’m sorry, I’ll tell you,” Shane says. “I used to work here before I died, and I’m a park ranger on the side. There was some kind of accident at work, I don’t really remember. One minute, I was doing my park ranger duties, and the next, I’m here in this musty old prison. Guess I died on the way to hospital, or something.”

Ryan shakes his head. “There’s been no recent deaths reported here or in the surrounding area,” he replies, going through the facts in his head. He would’ve known if someone would’ve died here, his team would have told him. Unless there was a lapse in judgement or someone forgot to cross reference sources, that is, but usually the research department is pretty thorough.

“But, I’m sure I died! I’m almost positive that’s how I got here,” Shane says. Ryan just nods, thinking. Maybe Shane isn’t dead after all! Maybe he has just enough supernatural energy to fend off demons, but not enough to completely pass onto the other side…

“Do you know what hospital you were taken to?” Ryan asks. Shane shakes his head. “Well, looks like I’m going to be visiting every hospital in town until I find you.”

“Oh, so you’re just going to leave me here? Alone, in this dank ass cell? With no one to talk to or give me attention? I’m honestly offended,” Shane’s ghost hollers, getting louder as Ryan leaves.

Ryan goes to the general hospital first. He figures that there will be less people, but then again, he doesn’t know how badly Shane’s injuries are. If he gets there in time, though, maybe he can reconnect Shane’s body and his spirit! Not that he knows how to do that, of course, but there’s a first time for everything and there’s probably plenty of articles online for him to look at.

Thankfully, Ryan’s right the first time. There is in fact a Shane at the hospital he visits, and he’s let into Shane’s hospital room almost immediately. He pulls up a chair and starts talking, a little bit awkward.

“Hey, so my name’s Ryan. I met your ghost at the Penitentiary and, well, you weren’t the happiest of ghosts out there. Sarcastic, sure, but there was something off about you. Thanks for saving my life, by the way. That was nice of you…” Ryan trails off, unsure. “Uh, I know you can’t hear me, because your nurse told me you’re in a coma, but I just came by to tell you to stay strong and, uh, I hope your ghost gets out of jail.” He’s silent, then, listening to the steady beep, beep, beep, of the heart monitor.

“I, uh, wanted to try to connect your spirit back to your body but I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to pan out, so bear with me?” Ryan fumbles for his phone and starts looking up how to reconnect a spirit to it’s body and then he performs the necessary rituals, which are a lot simpler than he thought they were.

When Shane doesn’t immediately respond, Ryan is pretty dejected, but at least he could say he tried. With a sigh, he exits Shane’s hospital room.

Shane’s eyes open the same instance the door closes.

[washymylifeaway]

SunaOsa fanfic recs,,, well writer recs LOL

HI! Can you tell I’m excited? Well I’m very excited! I have been stuck in SunaOsa hell for the longest time and I enjoy it very much down here :D Come join me, you won’t regret it LOL. But seriously, I love SunaOsa and I meant to do fics, but then the sheer number of writers I had compelled me to make a post for them ahahah.... I’m here to finally prove to everyone that I am actually in love with SunaOsa and that I have not been lying to you all LOL (ik no one actually cares, but it’s an important matter to me). LEGGO!

As always, pls check WARNINGS, TAGS, and SUMMARIES for fics before reading and make sure you’re taking care of yourselves (since mental health is key!) Stay healthy loves <3

Each author is DIRECTLY linked to their SunaOsa works LOL. I actually didn’t think about this until now, and I didn’t know it’d work but here we are LOL. Whooooh internet :D Also, ignore that some of these writers have like less than 3 fics for SunaOsa,,,,,, I like their writing, okay? :’))))

I’m gonna preface this with I love all of these writers (if I didn’t, they wouldn’t be here) but I can only come up with so many ways to say I WOULD DIE FOR THIS WRITER and THEY WRITE BEAUTIFULLY so to save you from recursion, preface.

LINK TO MY SUNAOSA ML :D

DeathBelle // one I haven’t recommended and this one also got finished semi-recently, An Inconvenient Espionage by DeathBelle (E) 26.6k // a SPY AU! Where Osamu and Atsumu are separated due to necessity over anything else really, and both absolutely hate their partners :) I love their interactions as the fic progresses and how do you accidentally fck somebody? READ TAGS AND WARNINGS, SMUT!

tookumade // because I really can’t rerecommend the same mf fic for the 2384230 time (and cause this one deserves some love), colours in the dark by tookumade (G) 1.3k // an injury recovery fic :D The focus on the fic is on the recovery and the relationship more than anything, but I just love it so much! This is such a comfort fic, and I love their back and forth banter (but it’ll make you feel really single LOL).

rosegoldwriting // sjdkhjdslhf I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVEN’T RECOMMENDED THIS ONE ANYWHERE WHAT come on with the rain by rosegoldwriting (T) 6.5k // SOULMATE AUUUU! I love my soulmate AUs and this was no exception :D Also I love singing in the rain (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but ik it’s a great movie), and ngl I agreed with Suna,,,, kissing in the rain just feels like it’ll be wet... Regardless, I love the ending and I love this fic too so :) (also ryan gosling cameo LOL)

bastigod // A COLLECTION OF FICS cause I love them and I haven’t recommended this yet :0, i've got you in the end i wish i had you from the start by bastigod (T) 8.2k // this is a collection of 7 one shots for sunaosa week! I loved the prompts for that week, and I loved each and every single fic on this list :D They’re all so freaking good and my favorite chapter was ch 3 hands down ljdfadjsf it’s GREAT :D

pancake_surprise // CAUSE CHOCOLATE and honestly the dove wrappers are say some stupid things sometimes like who’s writing these LMFAO, Melt with You by pancake_surprise (G) 2.8k // Osamu is doing what any sane person does with dove chocolate advice, he follows it. Not that it has any good advice, but I mean ig it worked? Trust the process? Anyway, I agreed with Atsumu in this (LOL) but hey it ended cute and I think that’s all that matters :’)

badreputation // OKAY THERE’S ONLY TWO BUT I LOVE BOTH WHAT YOU GONNA DO? FIGHT ME?????? (pls don’t, I’ll lose) Take a hint by badreputation (T) 5.4k // UGH I LOVE THIS ONE! One of the first SunaOsa fics I read and one I keep rereading! I absolutely agree with the fact that Osamu is a Neanderthal and I love food as a love language (feeding me would make me swoon over you, however, if you WERE flirting with me, I would not know LMFAO).

minie_ai // again, only two but like I said what you gonna do about it >:( And I'll Feed You Again by minie_ai (G) 7.3k // MYTHOLOGY cause Suna is a cute fox who causes problems LOL. Also, I love the setting it’s in (ik random, but I wanted to put it out there :D). And SPAM NUMBER made me laugh (maybe my humor is a little too broken) but idk I just thought it was really funny akjshflkjasd.

miyarinnnn // PLEASE not everyone clowning them,,,, someone smack off the stupid grin I have on from reading it :)))) Call it passive or aggressive by miyarinnnn (T) 10.4k // OMG this fic was so much fun to read!!!! I loved how there was the Osamu + Omi bonding moment and the BONUS AT THE END AOSFJOIAS,,,,, There’s like a slight smut scene, but other than that, Osamu is the sappiest man ever. Yeah, it was really funny and cute and I had a great time reading it :D

sketchedsmiles // honestly, I have no words because I was like no way this would happen, but then the a/n and yea anyway double vision by sketchedsmiles (T) 18.3k // I do wanna know how this worked irl, but that’s beside the point LOL. This is why communication is key, but I mean ig I can’t really blame Suna LMFAO. The situations are just tailored so well to misunderstandings and every time is a near miss :’))))). But also shout out to beer pong king Osamu LOL.

sieges // parallax if you want some hanahaki, the art of keeping up by sieges (T) 12.3k // I actually did watch this movie (though you don’t need to in order to read this LOL) and I was really surprised cause I didn’t think anyone would’ve made a fic based on it! Honestly, I don’t think I would ever be able to agree to help my crush write a love letter to their crush, so props to Suna (lol maybe I’m just lame like that okay?) :’D

sifuhotman // even if you don’t wanna read it, go look at the photo at the very end, Paint by Numbers by sifuhotman (T) 5.3k // jealous Osamu because Suna stares at Atsumu LOL. BUT the discount combee comment make me cackle because I CAN SEE IT AJFKAFFJSA (esp with the picture provided, it’s been burned onto my brain). I like this fic because it has some cute twin moments and I love their relationship! (BUT THE COMBEE AFIOJOD.)

SilverMoonT // I love his cat, atypical confession by SilverMoonT (G) 15.5k // I’ve said this before, but I’m not a big fan of body switching fics. HOWEVER, I am a big fan of this,,, say what you want idc idc it’s a good fic. I love the Suna Akaashi best friend agenda in this, and I fully support it :D

spiritscript // I almost sent you all to angst town ahahah,,, maybe I should LOL,,,, two drinks by spiritscript (T) 4k // I saw the instagram post and then OF COURSE I had to come read the fic itself! And like the panic ordering is hilarious as well as the misunderstandings LOL. It’s a wild ride with a lotta coffee Suna doesn’t like LOL. BUT THE ENDING IS CUTE and no kiss kiss cause consent is important :)

lunarins // YES I LOVE THIS ONE JKASJD you taste like strawberries on a summer evening by lunarins (T) 4.4k // I LOVE THIS ONE! I adore all the character cameos that happen (POOR SHIRABU) and THE ENDING AJHFKSJA. I love the ending. Also the food explanation by the writer was really cute and creative!!! (and I love how Osamu tells us what love taste like JADSJK!)

unrequitedangst // 3 fics but I love them all, working backwards till it rhymes by unrequitedangst (T) 4.2k // I love this fic, like loveeee. The plot is funny (I love pushing in the right direction to figure things out) and the way they plot against Atsumu is hilarious. Like gotta make sure that this makes him angry, yes.

sunablinks // there’s also only 3 fics so you should read all three :D, Cherry Bomb by sunablinks (T) 5.4k // CHECK TAGS AND WARNINGS cause they drink a lotta alcohol! But this fic is just Osamu being a mess and everyone makes some very bad decisions. Also, poor Meian san having to dead with their poor decision making skills LOL.

Surprisingly enough this didn’t take that long...... Like I think this is the fastest I’ve ever made a list,,,, Anyways, revelations aside, I had a lotta fun making this list cause like I’ve been saying, I’m in love with SunaOsa. They also definitely have some of the MOST tooth rotting fics I’ve ever read before (physical pain because of the fluff), so if you’re into that, you don’t have to look too far :)

Also sorry for not being super active in terms of new content, but this might continue through next week cause I’m getting busier :( Hopefully not though!

[ericdeggans]

Tom Hanks, Fox News and Me: Life at the Center of a Media S#@tstorm

When you write a column that puts you in the middle of a media crapstorm, it is one of the oddest places to sit in modern life.

This happened most recently last week, when Fox News decided to misrepresent a column I wrote urging Tom Hanks to bring antiracist action to his work as a film star, executive producer, writer and all-around upstanding guy in Hollywood.

Their hysterical, inaccurate insistence that I was trying to cancel Hanks turned the column into a massive flashpoint for reaction on social media and otherwise. Unfortunately, it seemed people were often reacting to the column Fox News pundits wish I had written, instead of the measured piece I actually did write.

NPR’s weekly podcast Consider This did an amazing, 16-minute bonus episode featuring me discussing my ideas and conclusions after a couple of days at the center of a Fox News-fed media cyclone. Host Audie Cornish was sharp and insightful, as always, and we covered a lot of the ideas I could only hint at in a longish essay.

But I also came away with a few more observations about trying to talk about race, media and representation in today’s media environment. Here’s a few ideas:

Observation 1: In today’s toxic media culture, if an opponent doesn’t make the argument they want, some media outlets say they did it anyway. Nowhere in my essay does the word “cancel” appear. So how did Fox News and other conservative media outlets get the idea that my column was invoking or part of “cancel culture?”

Newsmax TV ran a segment headlined “NPR writer cancels Tom Hanks.” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said “cancel culture (is) coming for one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars.” A segment in Fox News’ America’s Newsroom program featured a photo of Tom Hanks with the word “cancelled” plastered across his face. A commentator for The Daily Wire who I do not know and haven’t met said that I must believe “white people are villains” and “this is a man who simply hates white people and can't contain it.”

But I wrote in my column, “These stories of white Americans smashing the Nazi war machine or riding rockets into space are important.” The biggest thing that bothered me about them – and Hanks, who admitted as much in his own essay – was that Black people’s stories were too often left out of those tales. They define a type of American mythos that erases Black people’s presence, and that should change.

These outlets wanted to have a one-sided argument about the unfairness of “cancel culture” – with an added side benefit of demonizing me and NPR. So they pretended my column said something that it did not. They took aim at a fictional version of my work which was much easier to criticize. Just another example of all the ways in which Fox News and some of ideologically focused news outlets often broadcast reports which are not fair, balanced or accurate to serve their political agendas.

And, in an odd aside, none of these outlets contacted me for comment or tried to ask me any questions or asked me to come on their shows to debate what I had written.

Observation #2: It feels weird, as a black person, to say something relatively mild and get accused of acting violently or in an extreme way. It’s something that is already an odd feature of the stereotypes Black people contend with; that sometimes, expressing resistance or a contrary opinion is perceived as more hostile and threatening than it really is.

My column had some pretty mild criticisms of Hanks – mostly that he’s helped shape white-centered history narratives, has the power to correct that situation and should have said so in his own guest essay. But the headlines reporting on my column made it sound like I’d advocated running him out of Hollywood with pitchforks and torches.

The American Conservative’s piece was headlined “Shaming Private Ryan.” Breitbart.com’s piece noted, “NPR TV Critic Hits Tom Hanks…” MRCTV’s story said “Sorry Forrest: NPR Blasts Hanks…” Something called American Ground Radio put up a clip on YouTube called “NPR’s TV Critic…Attacks Tom Hanks…”

The less said about the response I got on social media, the better. But there were emails with the n-word and worse; messages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook filled with insults and hysteria. The overreaction was knee-jerk, often vulgar and completely out of proportion to the measured tone of both my column and Tom Hanks’ essay.

Part of this, I think, is habit. We are used to talking about controversial race issues in combative ways, for many reasons: the stakes are often so high and getting people to think outside their comfort zones sometimes requires a jarring example to get attention. So conversations about racial oppression are centered on when a calamity has happened – something terrible has happened and now we’re going to try and talk about one of the most combustible subjects in American society.

And there are people who don’t want this conversation to be measured. They want to convince others that change to produce equality will somehow destroy what they have or threaten what they love. For these people, when we all argue about equality rather than discuss opportunity, they have a ready-made example for turning away from progress.

There’s a dynamic in racial issues, particularly in America, called “attributional ambiguity.” It’s the idea that, when ambiguously insulting or negative things happen to non-white people in white-dominated settings, people of color have a tough time judging whether racism is playing a part.

Seeing so many, mostly white pundits accuse me of doing something so much more aggressive than I actually did left me awash with this feeling. Sure, some of it was just ideologues doing what they do. But it felt like that wasn’t the only thing going on here.

Observation #3: It was odd to see so many pundits acts as if a Black media critic had no right to suggest how best to address the suppression of Black stories in Hollywood. So many of the negative reactions I got to the column supposedly looked at the issue from Hanks’ point of view, assuming that he would be put off by being told by a Black writer that he hadn’t done enough to combat the erasure of Black stories from history-based works.

There’s always people who say I am revealing bias and shouldn’t express my opinion, somehow missing the job title which indicates that critical opinion is pretty much the central element of my job. And conservative ideologues are always trying to absolve their followers of trying to address racial inequity by saying that liberals will never be happy with anything they do.

But ultimately, I realized what bugged me the most about these criticisms: A Black critic, who has written about race and media for decades, made suggestions about how to solve the erasure of Black stories from Hollywood, and was told he had no right to start that conversation.

It reminded me of something I learned when I did a lot of reporting and talked to tons of experts about antiracism last summer. Sometimes, when people of color step forward and say what they would like to see in the effort to fight racism, the best thing a white ally can do is listen and help lift up their voice.

Listen. And help lift up their voice.

So often, in today’s always-on, always broadcasting, always reacting media culture, that is the toughest thing to do.

[bountyofbeads]

Trump Clears Three Service Members in War Crimes Cases https://nyti.ms/2CPN4qu

Trump is once again abusing his authority and presidential authority, signaling to those who defy Congress or break the law, that he'll pardon them. THIS IS SHAMEFUL AND DISGUSTING!!!

Trump Clears Three Service Members in War Crimes Cases

The moves signaled that as commander in chief, Mr. Trump intends to use his power as the ultimate arbiter of military justice.

By Dave Philips | Published Nov. 15, 2019 Updated 7:44 PM ET | New York Times | Posted November 15, 2019 |

President Trump cleared three members of the armed services on Friday who have been accused or convicted of war crimes, overruling military leaders who had sought to punish them. All three have been championed by conservative lawmakers and commentators, who have portrayed them as war heroes unfairly prosecuted for actions taken in the heat and confusion of battle.

In a statement released by the White House late Friday, Mr. Trump announced that he was ordering the full pardon of Clint Lorance, a former Army lieutenant, from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where he is serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of two civilians.

He ordered the full pardon of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer who was facing murder charges for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban bomb maker.

And he reversed the demotion of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a lesser offense in a high-profile war crimes case over the summer.

“The President, as Commander-in-Chief, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the law is enforced and when appropriate, that mercy is granted,” the White House statement said. “As the President has stated, ‘when our soldiers have to fight for our country, I want to give them the confidence to fight.’”

The moves signaled that as commander in chief, Mr. Trump intends to use his power as the ultimate arbiter of military justice in ways unlike any other president in modern times.

Top military leaders have pushed back hard against clearing the three men. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy have argued that such a move would undermine the military code of justice, and would serve as a bad example to other troops in the field, administration officials said.

Mr. Trump’s actions were first reported by The Washington Post. They were previewed last week on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends” by one of the hosts, Pete Hegseth, who said he had spoken to the president and described him as having “fidelity to the war fighter.”

“The president looks at it through that lens, a simple one, and important one,” Mr. Hegseth said, adding, “The benefit of the doubt should go to the guys pulling the trigger.”

A Navy official said SEAL leaders first learned of the plans from the Fox News broadcast, and since then have lobbied against clearing Chief Gallagher.

The three men have been portrayed in conservative media outlets and social media posts as dedicated warriors battling enemies who wear no uniforms and follow no laws of war, only to be unfairly second-guessed by military lawyers and commanders far from the scene of battle.

Mr. Trump echoed their frustration on Twitter in October, saying about Major Golsteyn, “We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!”

Experts were unable to name any other recent case of a member of the American armed forces receiving a presidential pardon for a violent crime committed in uniform, except for one granted by Mr. Trump in May. And it was strikingly unusual, they said, to clear a soldier of murder charges before the case is tried.

“I’m not sure it’s ever been done,” said Gary Solis, a retired military judge who served as an armor officer in Vietnam.

Referring to the only soldier convicted in the gruesome My Lai Massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War, Mr. Solis said: “People think Nixon pardoned Lieutenant Calley, but he didn’t. Calley was paroled.”

Presidents all the way back to George Washington have granted pardons to tens of thousands of American troops, but nearly all were young men who deserted or who evaded a draft, and received clemency after the fighting ended.

While the new pardons are a stark departure from tradition, they are in line with Mr. Trump’s many statements during his campaign and in office, arguing that to beat unconventional enemies like the Taliban and ISIS, the American military should loosen the reins on how troops behave in conflict zones.

“You have to play the game the way they are playing the game,” he told NBC News in 2016.

The specific circumstances of the three men’s cases defy easy characterization. In one, a decorated captain admitted to a killing in a job interview. In the other two, platoon leaders’ illegal actions were reported not by superior officers or Pentagon lawyers, but by their own platoons.

Troops who testified in those two cases, against Lieutenant Lorance and Chief Gallagher, voiced disappointment and disbelief over Mr. Trump’s plans for clemency before they were announced.

“The tragedy of pardoning Lorance isn’t that he will be released from prison — I’ve found room for compassion there,” said Patrick Swanson, a former Army captain who was Lieutenant Lorance’s company commander in Afghanistan. “The tragedy is that people will hail him as a hero, and he is not a hero. He ordered those murders. He lied about them..”

Mr. Lorance was a rookie Army lieutenant who had been in command of a platoon in Afghanistan for two days in July 2012 when he ordered his troops to fire on unarmed villagers who posed no threat, killing two men. He then called in false reports over the radio to cover up what had happened. He was immediately turned in by his own men.

Mr. Lorance, whose story is the subject of a new documentary series, was convicted of second-degree murder by a court-martial in 2013, and he has been in prison since then, serving his sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Major Golsteyn was charged in 2018 with premeditated murder over a killing that took place in 2010, when he was a captain in the Army Special Forces leading a team during Operation Moshtarak, one of the biggest combat operations of the war in Afghanistan. He admitted in a job interview with the C.I.A. the following year that, during the battle, he had killed a suspected bomb maker who had been captured and released, saying he had done so to protect civilians and his own men.

An initial Army investigation resulted in a reprimand but no charges. However, after Major Golsteyn publicly admitted the killing during a 2016 interview on Fox News, the Army reopened the case and charged him with premeditated murder.

Chief Gallagher was charged by the Navy in 2018 with shooting civilians in Iraq, killing a captive enemy fighter with a hunting knife, and threatening to kill fellow SEALs if they reported him, among other crimes. The charges stemmed from a 2017 deployment in Iraq when he was a chief petty officer leading a SEAL platoon.

After a tumultuous trial, he was acquitted by a military jury in July of all charges except one minor count: bringing discredit on the armed forces, by posing for a photo with the corpse of the captive he was accused of killing.

Though Chief Gallagher could have been demoted to the lowest rank in the service as a result, the top admiral in the Navy decided in October to demote him by just one step, to petty officer first class.

Mr. Trump had already intervened in the Gallagher case, ordering him moved to less restrictive confinement to await trial, and has posted supportive messages on Twitter. The Gallagher family has repeatedly urged the president in social media posts to step in again.

“Given his service to our Nation, a promotion back to the rank and pay grade of Chief Petty Officer is justified,” the White House statement said.

The Navy had been planning additional punishment for Chief Gallagher. Timothy Parlatore, one of Chief Gallagher’s lawyers, said the chief was told to appear before SEAL commanders on Nov. 1 at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego so they could remove his Trident pin, signifying that they were officially kicking him out of the SEAL teams. Navy leaders also planned to take away the Tridents of three officers who knew of the platoon’s allegations against Chief Gallagher but did not report them.

But Chief Gallagher waited all day at the base while commanders sought approval for the action from top Navy officials and the White House, which never came, according to a Navy official briefed on the meeting. Plans to punish all four of the SEALs are now on hold, the official said.

Mr. Parlatore welcomed the president’s intervention.

“It shows leadership,” he said, because SEAL commanders had become “so blinded by their unhealthy fixation on Eddie Gallagher, and it was time for an adult in the room to stand up and say, ‘Enough.’”

The White House initially made preparations to issue more pardons on Memorial Day but held off after encountering fierce resistance from military leaders and prominent veterans. Among them was a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who wrote on Twitter: “Absent evidence of innocence or injustice the wholesale pardon of US servicemembers accused of war crimes signals our troops and allies that we don’t take the Law of Armed Conflict seriously. Bad message. Bad precedent. Abdication of moral responsibility. Risk to us.”

The men cleared by the president offered thanks Friday. On his Instagram account, Chief Gallagher, who a year ago had been facing the prospect of life in prison, thanked his family and thousands of supporters, and praised the president.

“I truly believe that we are blessed as a Nation to have a Commander-in-Chief that stands up for our warfighters, and cares about how they and their families are treated,” he wrote. “Our military is the best in the world, and with steadfast and supportive leadership; like we have in this president, our fighting force will only get stronger.

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I Served in the Army. Trump’s War Crimes Decisions Are Not Pro-Military.

By intervening, the president undermines the moral standing of the armed forces.

By Benjamin Haas, Mr. Haas is advocacy counsel at Human Rights First | Published Nov. 15, 2019 | New York Times | Posted November 15, 2019 |

President Donald Trump on Friday cleared three military service members of war crimes, even after being reportedly advised against doing so by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Mr. Trump interceded on behalf of Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who had been charged with murdering an Afghan man; Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was convicted in connection with posing for a photo with the corpse of a fighter in Iraq; and Army First Lt. Clint Lorance, who, after nine fellow unit members testified against him, had been convicted of murdering two civilians in Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump may believe that intervening pays respect to those who have served in uniform, that it shows he’s “pro-military.” But if this is his view, he’s wrong. In reality, Mr. Trump’s meddling undermines the military’s institutional values, risks endangering American service members, and disrespects the honorable service of the overwhelming majority of veterans.

The military strives to ensure that its members adhere to the laws of war and respect human rights. Service members are trained, for example, to avoid civilian casualties by understanding rules of engagement and following the proper steps for escalation of force. They also learn the appropriate ways to treat detainees, and interrogators are trained to employ only the approved, legal methods.

During my two deployments to Afghanistan, my intelligence work helped lead to the capture of insurgent leaders. Sharing responsibility for their capture and as a recipient of the intelligence produced by their interrogations, I had a sense of moral reassurance in the understanding that my colleagues handled and interrogated the detainees humanely — just as they had been trained.

The lessons service members learn about the laws of war are not an afterthought. Rather, they are central, emphasized time and again — from training sessions and exercises, to military ethics discussions, to actual combat deployments. The Army’s official values, after all, demand that soldiers “do what’s right, legally and morally” and “treat others with dignity and respect,” making no exceptions for civilians or even enemies.

The military requires its members to operate in accordance with the laws of war for good reason. Disregarding the laws of war — which Mr. Trump has done by intervening in these cases — jeopardizes mission accomplishment and the safety of service members;  excessive civilian casualties, for example, can stimulate further violence, turn local populations against American forces, and discourage allies from collaborating with the United States. Mr. Trump should realize that the laws of war actually serve to benefit our armed forces.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Trump’s intervention on behalf of those convicted or accused of conduct falling short of the military’s crucial legal requirements and moral expectations undermines the training in which the military rightly invests so much effort. It trivializes the values the military spends so much time fostering. He could be endangering United States service members deployed to combat zones by handing their enemies propaganda and recruitment material and by degrading support among local populations.

To be sure, war is complex, and service members accordingly face difficult moral choices under extraordinary pressure. But their preparation helps them make sound decisions in these tough situations, and the military justice system considers the factual circumstances of each case and the intent of the actor.

Mr. Trump appears to be following in the unfortunate footsteps of President Richard Nixon. In the wake of Lt. William Calley’s murder conviction in connection with the Vietnam War’s My Lai Massacre, President Richard Nixon intervened on behalf of Mr. Calley. In a response to Mr. Nixon that rings true today, Capt. Aubrey Daniel, the military prosecutor in the case, wrote:

“Your intervention has, in my opinion, damaged the military judicial system. … I would expect that the president of the United States, a man whom I believed should and would provide the moral leadership for this nation, would stand fully behind the law of this land on a moral issue which is so clear and about which there can be no compromise.”

Mr. Trump, to the detriment of the United States Armed Forces, remains fixated on condoning the aberrant conduct of those convicted or accused of flouting the laws of war. He should have left the military justice system do its job. But perhaps this is not surprising, considering that Mr. Trump himself has recently advocated a war crime — the appropriation of oil in Syria.

______

Benjamin Haas served as an intelligence officer in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan twice.

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Trump issues pardons in war-crimes cases, despite Pentagon opposition to the move

Dan Lamothe | Published November 15, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Washington Post | Posted November 15, 2019 |

President Trump intervened in three military justice cases involving war-crimes accusations Friday, issuing at least two full pardons that will prevent the Pentagon from pursuing future charges against the individuals involved, according to two of their lawyers and a U.S. official.

The service members involved were notified by Trump over the phone late Friday afternoon, said the lawyers, who represent Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL. Golsteyn faced a murder trial scheduled for next year, while Gallagher recently was acquitted of murder and convicted of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq.

The third service member involved, former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, was expected to be released from the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as soon as Friday night. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013, and sentenced to 19 years in prison for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear whether Lorance will receive a full pardon or have his sentence shortened through commutation.

The calls were made at the tail end of a day dominated by impeachment hearings against Trump, and after days of efforts by some senior Pentagon officials to change his mind, according to three U.S. officials. The officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that some commanders have raised concerns that Trump’s move will undermine the military justice system.

Other U.S. officials and advocates for the service members involved have said that adopting the president’s desires in the military justice system should not be difficult. It typically has commanders overseeing the process in the military’s chain of command, with Trump serving at the top of that system as commander in chief.

In all three cases, advocates for the service members had blasted the Pentagon for its handling of their cases, detailing what they saw as questionable actions by prosecutors and investigators. Their cases have been featured on conservative media frequently in recent months, as they also prepared cases for the president behind the scenes.

Golsteyn, who went from being decorated with a Silver Star for valor in Afghanistan to facing years of investigation and a court-martial in the 2010 death of a suspected bomb maker on the same deployment, said in a statement that his family is “profoundly grateful” for Trump’s action, and that they have lived in “constant fear of this runaway prosecution” by the Army.

“Thanks to President Trump, we now have a chance to rebuild our family and lives,” Golsteyn said. "With time, I hope to regain my immense pride in having served in our military. In the meantime, we are so thankful for the support of family members, friends and supporters from around the nation, and our legal team.”

Gallagher’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, said that his client received a phone call from the president with Vice President Pence also on the line.

“He told Eddie that he had certainly watched the case and that this was certainly the right thing to do given his years of service," Parlatore said. "The president was very familiar with the prosecutorial misconduct associated with the case. I think that certainly plays into his decision.”

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[leviathangourmet]

But there’s this thing that still bothers him. It has to do with an incident last year in the computer lab. It was a Friday, near the end of the period, and Ryan waited by the exit. He began absentmindedly opening and shutting the door. This girl he didn’t really know told him to stop. When he did it again, she smacked him in the face. He smacked her back. She clawed at him, and he fell into a row of computers. The bell rang, and the girl ran off. “The teacher asked me to report it right away,” he tells me, “but I had a bus to catch.”

Ryan went home with a cut on his eyebrow, two on his forehead, and another on his ear. Tori told him to take pictures. “That girl could go home,” Ryan recalls his mom saying, “slit the whole side of her cheek with a knife, and come to school Monday and say, ‘Hey, look what he did to me.’ ” That was news to him. He’d never even been in a fight before. In middle school, he and this other kid had agreed to punch each other in the face because they wanted to know what it felt like, but when the time came, they just went home. “I guess girls sometimes just do that,” he says. “It happened once when my mom was in high school. A girl purposely broke her own arm just to get another person in trouble.”

He took photos of his face and went to the principal’s office first thing on Monday, like his mom told him to. “He was so upset,” the assistant principal tells me. “He didn’t know why he was in trouble.” Ryan spent a couple hours in the in-school suspension room. He got a ticket referring him to the municipal court, where he appeared in August. He pleaded not guilty. At a second meeting, Ryan spoke to a prosecutor. At least, “I think it was a prosecutor,” he says. “I think he felt like it was stupid that I got a ticket for this. The look on his face was kind of like, What the heck is this?” Ryan thinks that if he were a girl, he wouldn’t have been punished. “As long as I don’t get in trouble again for a year, I’m okay,” he tells me. “But I had to deal with it for a few months.” The kids in school, “they called me a woman beater. I don’t think anyone actually thought I was. They were just giving me crap. It was just a stressful time.”

The fight with the girl was just one of a long string of recent events, most of them politically tinged, that have shaken Ryan’s sense of self. “Last year was really bad,” he says. “I couldn’t say anything without pissing someone off.” He says it started around the time of the presidential election—the liberal students became enraged and the conservative students emboldened. “Lots of drama over politics,” he says. “It ruined friendships and changed social groups. People were making friends based on their politics more than anything.” Kids started advertising their beliefs by hanging flags and posters on their lockers. They wore T-shirts that promoted Hillary for president, or Trump for president, or LGBT rights, or feminism, or Black Lives Matter. The most popular opinion at West Bend seemed to be anti-Trump. Ryan, raised in Republican households, was surprised by the vitriol. “Everyone hates me because I support Trump?” he says. “I couldn’t debate anyone without being shut down and called names. Like, what did I do wrong?”

The week I visit West Bend, the front page of USA Today reads, Is What Someone Does at Age 17 Relevant? in reference to Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual- assault accusation against Brett Kavanaugh. I ask Ryan if he has discussed #MeToo in any of his classes. “I’ve heard of that,” he says. “What does it mean again?” I also ask him about Trump’s reputation as a misogynist. “He is respectful towards his wife, as far as I know,” he says. “I don’t think he is racist or sexist.” Then again, he thinks the president tries to piss people off a little too much. “Sometimes I think it’s funny,” he says, “but I guess it’s really not that funny in the end.” Seventeen is the age when we begin to make such moral calculations, according to experts I spoke with. It’s when teenagers begin to “look at the world outside of their immediate environment,” says Adiaha Spinks-Franklin, a developmental pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital. “They begin to question their own beliefs, and those of their parents and peers.” At the same time, the teenage brain is still a work in progress. “Teenagers are expected to act like adults, but their brains are not ready,” says Pradeep Bhide, director of the Center for Brain Repair at Florida State University. But they’re close: “Everything they need for moral reasoning may already be there,” he says.

This past year, Ryan ran another gantlet: social media. He does not use Facebook or Twitter, which he thinks are mostly for older people. And he has no interest in Snapchat. But he, like most everyone his age, uses Instagram. “I’d post a comment,” he recalls, “and the replies would all be the same thing: ‘You’re stupid and that’s dumb’ or ‘You suck’ or ‘You’re straight, you can’t talk about something LGBT.’ ” One time, on a post he describes as “a feminist thing that said something about what men do,” he commented, “It’s not true, and that’s really stupid to say that.” The woman who’d posted it responded with something like, “What do you have to say? You’re a white man.” Ryan is still confused by her response. “Doesn’t she promote equal rights?” he says. “What if I posted the same kind of thing but about what women do? Like, if I posted a photo of a feminist march? But wait, feminist people hate when white men talk about stuff like that. That would be the end of me.” He pauses. “I guess they think since I’m not a girl, I don’t have an opinion.”

As Ryan grappled with progressive ideas on social media, he noticed that others did, too. Last summer, James Gunn, the director of Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy, was sacked for a bunch of tweets he wrote several years ago. “He was fired because he said a shower in a hotel felt like a little kid peeing on him,” Ryan’s friend Andrew says. “Totally stupid and not worth the attention,” says Ryan. “Some jokes are pretty bad. But it depends on the context. If you’re honestly kidding, people shouldn’t get offended.

“Also, baseball,” he continues, referring to another incident from last summer, this time with Josh Hader, a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. “Just so happens that something Hader said seven years ago about hating gay people came up the day of a big game. Now he has to go to all these sensitivity trainings.” Ryan considers the leaker’s motivation. “Someone must’ve been jealous of him and said, ‘Oh, I have this message from when he was fifteen.’ It’s like, yeah, you say a lot of stupid stuff when you are fifteen.” (Later, I look up the tweets. Gunn said worse than what the boys mentioned, including, “I fucked the shit out of the little pussy boy sitting next to me!” And Hader, who was actually seventeen and eighteen when he sent his controversial tweets, used the n-word repeatedly and made an allusion to “white power.” One tweet read, “I hate gay people.” Another read, “Need a bitch that can fuck, cook, clean right.”)

Ryan began to feel like social media was more trouble than it was worth. He even thought about erasing his Instagram account. “But I haven’t said anything too bad,” he says. And more to the point, he decided it is better to engage with other perspectives than to drop out of the conversation. He now watches both Fox News and CNN. He says he’s inched toward the center politically, and so have his friends. He’s even changed his wardrobe and now avoids shirts with words or anything else, save for an American flag, that makes a statement. “It’s better to be a moderate, because then you don’t get heat,” he tells me. “We want everyone to be happy.”

[knightsarmor]

when: 30 august 2021 where: smith’s bar, manhattan, nyc who: ophelia liebowitz & oliver knight

@moiraxlibs It was an odd succession of events that had transpired that had led Oliver here to this bar. 

First, of course there was the night of the bar fight that had eventually ended with him at the police precinct, being told he was the subject of a missing persons case and that he had a sister. A sister that matched the one on the app and one that he had found on instagram. He had spent most of the subsequent day scrolling through it, learning all he could about her, making sure to do so when Moira wasn’t around. 

From what Oliver learned, she was married and had a young daughter, Leah. Oliver had scrolled through her instagram, careful to not hit any buttons to alert her to his presence (though his own instagram, being as bare as it was, would hardly give her any information or indication of who he was if he did). He learned that she was living in San Bernardino and that she had been married two years ago. Her daughter, it looked, had been prior to her getting married, but it looked like she had married the father regardless. He also learned that she was a veterinarian and the family had at least two dogs and two cats. 

He further scrolled to see pictures of what he could only assume were her parents. It was hard to tell how recent or old the pictures were. If she was posting older photos that she kept or if she was posting photos that were new and taken in the moment. It was only after scrolling through that he realized that her parents were actually his parents, too. What he was looking at was the first glimpse of his blood family he had ever had.

It was only the day after that he decided to give her a call. The conversation itself had started off awkwardly. He hadn’t known what to say, but she made sure to fill the silences, letting him know how happy she was that he had reached out. He could tell that she was trying not to cry from her voice, but she was polite and pleasant. By the end of it, they were coordinating to meet. She would fly out to New York and they would meet in the city, a bar in Manhattan. 

She worked quickly, too, agreeing to meet him just two days later. It seemed she was eager to get to know her brother. 

And so Oliver sat there, already nursing a beer and staring at the label, gently peeling off the edges as he wondered if any of this had been a good idea. Not only that, but he had yet to tell Moira what was happening. The guilt was eating him up, but he had wanted to do this on his own. He wanted to meet his sister and decide how he felt there. He had no doubt Moira would have been anything but supportive, helped him and even understood if he wanted to do that on his own, however, he also hadn’t wanted her influence. He didn’t want Moira to push him in one direction or another. He had decided that he needed to evaluate it without her, without Ben, without Ryan. It was his own thing and so, she was still in the dark and as far as she knew, Oliver had gone into the city for an in-person consult regarding some new software for a client (something she heavily protested too given how badly bruises he still was). 

Oliver was so in his own head that he didn’t realize that a women was standing by his side, not until he heard his name and his heard jerked up and he recognized her instantly. It was his sister, the one he had spoken to, the one he had already learned so much about on the internet. 

Oliver stood up, towering over her. He had never considered himself to be exceptionally tall, but she was shorter than Moira, he realized.

The phone had been awkward, but suddenly, now that they were face-to-face they both hugged each other as if it was the most natural motion in the world. “I can’t believe it,” he heard her whisper. 

“It’s really— it’s you,” she said as they broke apart. Oliver taking his seat again and gesturing to the stool beside him, where she joined him. “You’re here and you’re alive and— you look just like dad,” she whispered. She frowned next. “You look like you’ve been in a fight,” she noted. It was hard not to notice his injuries. 

“Bar fight,” he said as he waved it off. “I don’t get into them often. Or at all,” he added as the bartender walked by, eyeing him. “Some people were saying some shit to me and my— well, it doesn’t matter. You, uh, you want anything?” Oliver said, moving on.

“Yeah, just a martini,” she said. 

Olive was ordering another beer for himself and a martini for her from the bartender. 

“I— this is so surreal, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I never thought— I mean, I didn’t even know you. Mom and dad talked about you all the time, though, I hope you know. They only had you for six months, but they never stopped looking.” She opened her purse and took out some photos. Laying them out. They all featured a man and a woman and a small infant. 

Oliver picked them up. Years and years of not having a single baby picture of himself, and all of a sudden, he had several. “I didn’t even know I was missing.” 

“Did you never try looking for family?” she asked curiously. They were brought their drinks and she grabbed her martini. 

“No. I just, I never thought it was worth it. Either I was abandoned, unloved and unwanted in which case my looking for family would be the last thing my family would want, or I did have a family looking for me and I thought they’d just— find me. I think I figured I didn’t want to know if it was the former and if it was the latter, then things would fall into place one day,” explained Oliver. “I didn’t want to deal with the fifty percent chance where I wasn’t wanted by anyone.” 

Ophelia nodded. “I can’t even imagine growing up like that, in the system and having to be raised by people who aren’t ever going to love you the way a parent does. Better to make peace with your truth.” 

Oliver nodded. “Yeah, something like that.” He looked at her.

“So, why call me then?”

“I, uh, I actually googled you,” said Oliver. “I looked you up, found you on Facebook and instagram and everything.” He cleared his throat. “After doing some research, I guess I just decided you looked nice and what do I have to lose? Nothing, really. Just gain a sibling.” 

“And a niece and a brother-in-law,” she added with a soft smile. “But you probably knew that since you looked me up.” She looked away and took a sip from her martini. 

“Yeah. I saw,” he said. “I guess they’re back home? San Bernardino?” 

“Yeah,” she smiled. “Figured it was better for it to just be me rather than to ambush you with all of this at once. Ease you into it. Or I suppose temper expectations if you weren’t— aren’t— interested in pursuing a relationship further.” 

“No, I think— I think this is good,” said Oliver with a nod. “I, uh, I’m getting married in December. I know it’s not a lot of notice, but you are welcome to come. You, your daughter and husband, of course. It’s a small backyard wedding. Just her family that’s nearby and my friends, the family I made growing up. We can make arrangements. I can give you the details.”

“I think I can make it work,” she nodded. “So, does this mean your fiancé knows about—“ 

“No,” said Oliver quickly. “Not yet. I’ll tell her, of course. I just, when I was at the police precinct being older everything, I didn’t want her to worry and I decided that this is something I needed to do on my own first. Let her know how it all goes once— well, I’ll talk to her when the moment is right.” 

“You think she thinks you’re cheating?” asked Ophelia conversationally. 

“What? No. God, I hope not,” said Oliver as he bit down on his lower lip and his brow furrowed. “No, she knows I would never.” 

Ophelia laughed. 

“Actually,” said Oliver as he pulled out his phone, “she’s an artist. She does this webcomic. It’s really amazing, and she has thousands of people who follow her and who love to ask her about her comics, because, see they’re based on her life, but she keeps a lot of details to herself. We’re private.” He was pulling up instagram and pulling up Moira’s page. “Here, it’s really good. I’m not an artist or anything, but I think it’s amazing what she can do.” 

Ophelia gasped as she looked at his phone. “Oh, I follow this artist, yeah!” she said. “Life of Liebs. She’s really good.” She let out an even louder gasp all of a sudden. “Ohmygod.” She stared at him.

“What?”

“You’re Mystery Boots Man. Mystery boots man is my brother.” Her eyes were wide as she looked away. “This is the most amazing thing. I can’t wait to tell my friends. They’ll be so jealous.”

“Wow, so, she does have her fans,” said Oliver with a nod. “How did you— find her comic? Just out of curiosity.” 

“A friend of a friend,” shrugged Ophelia. “Just got recommended to me. Someone followed her and then mentioned that I might like it because it’s about a Jewish woman and her life and friends and so I did. Plus her art style is just so beautiful. And I love that dog and cat,” she added. “Are they real? How much of the comic is real?” 

“Yeah, Billie and Wolf are real,” said Oliver as he went ahead and pulled up his photo album to pull up pictures of the two. “And I would say the comic is pretty accurate. She pulls from her life and experiences. I can’t speak to some of the stories she’s writing about her friends from college, but everything else she’s just writing about her life and all, maybe embellishing a little for the sake of the comic, but it’s all true to some extent.” 

“Wow,” said Ophelia in silent awe. “You know, she’s up and coming in the web comic world. She’s got quite a fanbase. Has her own subreddit and everything.” 

“No shit,” said Oliver. “Gonna have to look that up later.” 

“A lot of it is speculating about Mystery Boots Man and Knight,” she waved her hand. “Which, I should have known it was you! It’s our name! I just always thought it was like, a knight in shining armor, you know?”

“Yeah, I think that’s probably why she does that,” said Oliver with a shrug. “All the names are pretty close to their real life counterpart, actually.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I— mom and dad—“ 

Ophelia looked at him with the smallest of smiles on her face. “Mom died a few years ago. Heart attack. She lived just long enough to become a grandmother and meet Leah, but she passed away shortly after that. Dad followed shortly after. I think he died of a broken heart, really. He just went to sleep one day and never woke up, really. His heart stopped. He and mom were just— the most incredible couple. They loved each other so much and I think when mom died, he just couldn’t go on without her. I promised them I would never stop looking for you, though,” she added. 

Suddenly her eyes became misty. “It just seems really unfair that you would miss them by just a few years. That they would miss you by a couple years. They just had so much hope that you were out there. They dreamed of the day that they’d be able to see the man that you grew up to become.” She shook her head. 

Oliver looked down feeling suddenly guilty. His family had been looking for him this entire time. He had family out there who had loved him and who had hoped against hope that their young son had been okay. If he had done something sooner, he might have not missed out on meeting them. If he had even just bothered with a DNA test, he might have known his parents. However, it didn’t do to dwell on the past. He couldn’t change it. It was what it was. 

“What happened? Do you know? I mean, how did I go missing?” What confounded Oliver most was the fact that he had been pushed into the system in Northern California but his parents had resided in San Diego. How had he ended up so far away from home? Had it been a kidnapping? 

“Uh, well, from what they told me, they were at the synagogue, it was during Hanukkah and there was a fire. There was just so much panic as people were running and screaming and somehow you must have fallen,” she said. “Mom says you were strapped to her in one of those slings, on her back. Since it was late, and it let her have the use of her hands, and you were sleeping anyway. But, I suppose you fell at some point and they lost you and— well, that’s all we ever knew.” 

“Oh shit,” said Oliver. “So, they still thought I was alive even though I was lost during a fire?” 

Ophelia nodded. “Mom always said she could feel it in her heart. She felt that God had protected you, that no harm would have come to you in a synagogue and during Hanukkah. Not to mention, they never found your remains. I mean, nothing was ever confirmed by the fire department. Of course, they told mom and dad that there was no way you would have survived, that you being a baby, there was a good chance you were completely cremated. Mom always thought someone found you and picked you up not knowing who you belonged to. Might have taken you up north and then let the foster care system absorb you.” 

Oliver sat back in awe. He licked his lips as he ran his hand over his face, still bruised and swollen. “Another beer over here,” he said as he called the bartender over. 

“I’m sure it’s a lot,” said Ophelia. 

“And what are the odds that we would take the same DNA test,” said Oliver. 

“Actually, I did all of the major ones. I figured, it was the best way to find you, if I was in all the databases, then you’d have access to my information no matter what. Even if you chose to not release your DNA to the police, then you would still have a way of— of connecting back to me, if you wanted to.” 

Oliver nodded, taking his third beer of the night and taking a long sip from it. It was a lot to take in. He wasn’t even sure how to feel about it all, but it was something. He was picking up the pieces slowly but surely, putting bits of his once lost identity together. It would never replace who he was now and who he had become, but it would certainly become a new facet of him. 

“So, when’s my real birthday?” 

[erhiem]

Photography thistle brown. Image courtesy of Gauntlet Cheng

Cuckoo Mess Anges D Mode! ‘What’s in fashion?’ You are welcome here. What a stylish seven days have been! This week, as of now, we’re bringing you our go-to picks on the best shows, including Matthew Williams’ double whammy, a dispatch from New York’s totally popping New York, and all you need to know about BALENCIAGA’s Instagram black-out. is required !!! Crazy, we know! Read on to find out what’s in fashion.

Photography ryan o’toole. Image courtesy of Bianca Saunders

Raise a glass to Bianca Saunders!

As you’re certainly well aware, fashion awards season is underway. Following the announcement of Matty Bowen’s double win at the International Woolmark Awards a few weeks ago, we now turn to the ANDAM Awards, great lady List of French fashion awards instituted by Nathalie Dufour. This year’s final seven were basically a hit list of some of our favorite talents – Bianca Saunders, Casablanca, Aria, Ludovic de Saint Cernan, Roch, GmbH and Grace Wells Bonner – so whoever took home the €300,000 cash from Balenciaga CEO Injections and Sal’s advice from Cedric Charbitt would have been totally deserved. Given the nature of fashion contests, though, there can only be one winner, and this year — after blown up the panel with her upcoming SS22 collection — Bianca Saunders scooped up the main gong! She said on the announcement, “I cannot express in words how thrilled I am to receive such a prestigious award and I am truly honored.” “Consulting with such a major player in the industry, as well as financial support like this, will really help me grow my business and realize my lifelong dream – establishing Bianca Saunders as a global fashion brand. ” A dream we are sure will come true. M / s

Image courtesy of Acne Studio

Acne Paper launches new book

Earlier this week, Acne Studios gave us the . took a trip down memory lane with the launch of acne paper, a book that celebrates the legacy of Acne Studios’ brief but remarkable time in the editorial arena. To celebrate the occasion, we asked Thomas Persson, the magazine’s former editor-in-chief, to tell us the stories behind some of the most iconic moments from its collection. If that doesn’t convince you to see it, we should also add that the 560-page coffee-table tome also includes a portfolio by photographer Christopher Smith and new essays by Sarah Mower, Vince Aletti, and Robin Muir. More than just a nostalgic return to the world of fashion editorials, it’s a priceless window before social and digital media took over the game. KK

Photos courtesy of Hunza G, Chromat and ISA Boulder

Designers pushing swimwear

It’s a new world, darling! And after this summer, if your wardrobe isn’t spacious, exuberant, and eco-conscious, you can’t sit with us. Luckily, these four swimwear brands; Issa Boulder, Chromat, KNWLS and Hunza G are here to redefine what it means to be ‘bikini-ready’, showing you what can actually reduce your impact on the planet while still Aa fab beach look is pulling off. From Isa Boulder’s pursuit of what it means to be “oddly sexy” to an appreciation of chromate’s curves, cellulite, and scars, to bikinis made from recycled Lycra yarn, these new jean labels are defying conventions and their own rules. are making. Read more here. KK

Balenciaga logs off

Eight years ago, Phoebe Philo said that “the best thing is when you don’t exist at Google.” Her adage still holds, although if the recent antics of some of fashion’s biggest players are to be noted, the best thing to do today is when you’re not on Instagram. Following in the footsteps of his Kering stablemate Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga has cleaned up his Instagram account! And in case that wasn’t drama enough for you, they have done so just days before the much-anticipated fashion revival of Demna!! fashion gasp!!! Unfortunately, we don’t know more from you what that means, but the timing and the fact that the account itself goes live will mean a big fucking moment is in store. And much more to keep your eyes glued to your screen fast! xoxo M / s

Alex Takes a Moody Beach Trip

Think about a trip to the beach, but make it appealing. Matthew Williams did just that to present his latest collection for 1017 ALYX 9SM’s, “BEYOND.” In a Brody movie, the American designer took us on a surreal sci-fi trip to the shores of Planet Alix and fielded a rich collection with hippie-inspired styling, futuristic textures, and oversized hoodies. A colorful bikini with matching leggings, a structured double-layered hoodie, distressed jersey, soft cotton dress with twist and knot details, and an armor-like leather moto jacket, it was a perfect synthesis of fantasy, comfort, and wearability—one that Just what we all want from a post-pandemic look! KK

Givenchy Resort in Paris Was About an American

Think your schedule is packed? Well, imagine what Matthew Williams must have looked like! Long booked and busy, these past seven days the California-based designer created the Alyx . left my latest collection for and A whole ‘Nother One for Givenchy! In his latest outing for a Parisian home, he decided to focus on the spaces he calls home. “In my collection, I always speak to living reality,” he says. “For Spring 2022, our first pre-collection runway show, I wanted to bring together my American roots and my brand new life in Paris.” Here, a sense of transatlantic cross-pollination came through strong in the pieces, suggesting a unique sense of Parisian chic – think high-collared dresses with armor-like leather sleeves and cut-out slinky evening dresses. Jacket – street and quirky with a healthy dash to American. “There is an energy to strike out for a new adventure, of creating something familiar yet completely new,” says Matthews, a key vehicle for that sense of newness is his collaboration with Seattle-born, Mexico-based artist Chito. , whose looks, accessories and even expressive graphics feature on the Rimowa suitcase. Chapeau, Matthew! Who doesn’t love an American in Paris! M / s

Photography thistle brown. Image courtesy of Gauntlet Cheng

Gauntlet Cheng takes to New York at night

New York, New York, it’s one hellish city… and it’s back! In fact, as you may have seen on your screen when all the elite fashion lesbians in town together livestreamed Madonna crawling over a bar and bubbly (we love it!), the Big Apple is alive and kicking once again. is killing. There are very few people, however, more thrilled to see life return to their streets than Esther Gauntlett and Jenny Cheng, the combined force behind — you guessed it — Gauntlett Cheng, and stylist and photographer Thistle Brown. In fact, they’re so excited that they even paid tribute to the lively night spirit of their newly-revived hometown in their recent campaign, featuring none other than Coco Gordon Moore. Here, all three of us need to know about the photos, what they missed most about New York at night, and their post-wax party essentials. M / s

hi friends! For those not familiar with Gauntlet Cheng, quickly tell us the story behind the brand, and how you work together. Esther Gauntlet: Jenny and I met about 7 years ago while interning together at Eckhaus Latta. Our first shoot with thistle was in 2018 at a love motel in New Jersey. We connected immediately and realized that he really understood our clothes and the way we work.

And for those of us not in New York right now, tell us: What’s the atmosphere like? like: It’s just honestly crazy. The roads are completely packed and there is a kind of mental energy everywhere. We shot it in Times Square on a Saturday night and I assumed it would be quiet – theaters are still closed and that was before a lot of restrictions were lifted. It was really wild though – people on ATV bikes, people everywhere and kids taking prom pictures. I feel like we were all a lot more excited and excited out there.

thistle brown: New York is definitely back, alive and kicking!

jenny cheng: Plus, it’s hot in New York right now, and we’re all reconnecting and embracing each other despite the stickiness.

Photography thistle brown. Image courtesy of Gauntlet Cheng

What is the story behind the campaign? TB: I moved back to NYC after living in New Zealand (where I grew up) for a few months. I think I leaned back on my teen melancholy albums while I was there. I couldn’t stop listening to PJ Harvey City Stories, Sea Stories. The album is a love song for NYC, it’s about being young and open to a city that treats you like an unlikely lover. When the girls asked me to shoot something, I thought we needed to shoot in the thick of it, to bring back the lights and all those vibes of Manhattan.

JC: We wanted to capture a classic New York City look, but with a sense of newness – a spring energy.

What made Coco Gordon Moore your ideal star? TB: I’ve always been inspired by Coco’s mystery, grace and spontaneity. There’s something so outspoken about her while at the same time having a delicate sensibility. To be honest, I could make a book about cocoa.

like: Coco has an incredible energy – everything came alive on her but she really looks home.

JC: Totally, Coco is a star! It was great to see the synergy between thistle, cocoa and the city. It was so magical and so energizing, especially when Coco’s curls were open.

There is quite a sensual, nocturnal energy to the images. What have you missed the most about NYC nightlife? like: I missed the ease of it. The feeling of walking on a hot summer night and you can bump into anyone, and anything can happen.

JC: I used to remember those holiday parties we would throw where we would dress up and see all our friends. Hopefully we can do another one soon.

TBI think New York nightlife is now beyond a relic, we’ve realized that the city can’t function without it. We have a lot of friends who depend on it for income too, so it’s really important that we don’t forget how special it really is.

Photography thistle brown. Image courtesy of Gauntlet Cheng

Tell us about the night Coco is going out. where is she going? Who is she looking at? like: I think there’s a certain undoing in the photos, like she’s going out and coming back from something. It feels like she sorts herself in the big city but is at home and at ease there.

JC: She doesn’t have a plan, she’s taking everything in it, taking it as it goes, feeling a little flirty.

TB: She is just doing her job, looking lost but never alone. Making moves and eventually landing the right party.

Finally, what are your top five post-pandemic New York nightlife? E: Time to wear a dress again! A bag that can fit a bottle of wine you’ll probably drink by the river. The people you love. People you haven’t seen in a long time. It’s only four, but don’t think you really need more than that…

J: Shooting hoops in the park in the evening, eating chips and walking on the river with friends, wearing beach-ready clothes, rose water mist, and feeling sexy in no time.

T: Chapstick, bike at night, showing skin, dancing in the streets or on the river, and smooching crushes you couldn’t catch before.

.

The post Balenciaga’s black-out and New York’s big return: What’s in fashion? appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

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Not to accumulate harping — angel puns consistently advised — on the backward Nora Ephron, but her air-conditioned in “Sleepless in Seattle” — bodies cackle at women for arrant over adventurous comedies while themselves bark over “The Dirty Dozen” — absent home plate.

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Guys cry over war movies, sure, because, you know, death, destruction, doom, despair. Kinda sad.

But the blessed “I appetite to go to there” (credit to the much-sharper biographer Tina Fey) complaining Ephron meant, the affectionate women dig with rom-coms — and appear on, let’s not be sexist, men breach up at love, too, abnormally back alliance is involved, admitting possibly for altered reasons, because rimshot! — absorb sports.

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Funniest bit in the agreeable and candied flick based on almost-forgotten (before the movie) history, “A League of Their Own,” involves Tom Hanks (He’s additionally partly amenable for accustomed the blurred “Sleepless” scene) as recovering-drunk drillmaster Jimmy Dugan spitting in affronted incredulity: “Are you crying? There’s no crying! THERE’S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!”

It’s agreeable from the setup: Dugan rather acclaim — for a drillmaster — chews out Evelyn (Bitty Schram) for throwing home, while the Peaches enjoyed a two-run lead, instead of hitting the cut-off, to stop the attached run from extensive additional base. Evelyn crumbles. Doris (Rosie O’Donnell) accomplish to her defense.

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Dugan snipes back: “Oh, you zip it, Doris! Rogers Hornsby was my manager, and he alleged me a talking accumulation of (expletive). And that was back my parents collection all the way bottomward from Michigan to see me comedy the game. And did I cry?”

It’s amusing because Hanks. Guy could accomplish annihilation sweet. At heart, you apperceive he’s a softie. Why, he could comedy Mr. Rogers.

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It’s additionally silly, adjoining on ludicrous, because there are floods of tears in baseball. Accept you anytime watched a Little League playoff? Or been in one? Accept you anytime been the amateur your aggregation relied on, to accomplish contact, to accompany them home — I mean, save Private Ryan, yes, TOM HANKS AGAIN ARE YOU EVERYWHERE?, but the ultimate aim in baseball, as in war, as in adventurous comedies, as in so abundant of life, is authoritative it home — and been clumsy to deliver, to save the day?

Did you anytime watch above Atlanta Braves amateur Ryan Klesko as a rookie, who cared so abundant he swung majestically every time, not aloof back the angle was fat? Did you anytime see him beating the brawl out of Cobb (no relation) County, apparently Georgia, the continental U.S. and possibly the stratosphere? Afresh you didn’t see him cry … that time.

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But alike the best affix cautiously alone 30 to 40 percent of the time. So if you anamnesis big-hearted Klesko, you apparently bethink him disturbing up afterwards every bootless attack

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[shorthaircutsmodels]

Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles - 15+ - https://shorthaircutsmodels.com/kaley-cuocos-short-haircuts-and-hairstyles/ - Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, Her cool skin her light eyes when it comes to color and Kaley go for. A champagne blonde shade ideal for selects. It fits perfectly with yellow or gold-based. Hair colours and beige-tinged shades like the one seen here. The all over colour is warm and vibrant and leaves your hair with. A silky glossy finish. He continues babbling about the wedding saying. Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, I felt like a rock star and a badass. What was incredible in that room was so loving. It was something I had never been to before and it was exactly what we wanted it to be. CU Sunday Instagram with a new boomerang video called “Cuoco "he captioned Summer ‘do' icy hair. Kaley Cuoco's Haircuts and Hairstyles Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, You have to be very careful when entering because even. If you leave, you could find blue glasses to complete the. Damaged forest but Cuoco skin tone ” laid cool colored hair for cool ringtones is perfect. Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts Kaley Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, that struck hair stylist Faye Woods bond and also a formula that protects hair dye from harsh chemicals. Most of us are not experimental when it comes to hair. We find a style that works and is loyal to it. If we don't deal with a breakup, the scissors might come out. Kaley Cuoco's Short Hairstyles Kaley Christine Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, but for the most part our hair remains unchanged. On the other side of the spectrum is Kaley Cuoco. she changes her hair all the time and she just came to the cause. Over the years, we've seen the Big Bang Theory actress with a range of hairstyles, from sherbet and icy blonde-coloured hair. Kaley Cuoco's Haircuts Kaley Christine Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, to long flowing locks and fairy cuts. But it's not over yet. Unlike most of us, Ms. Cuoco is always ready to change things. There's definitely a point. Our hair will eventually come back and grow from our style experiments. Even those who are less “successful” believe we can cut ourselves. Kaley Cuoco's Hairstyles Kaley Christine Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, like horrific explosions. The length at the top is rough and smooth and smooth to one side for a striking surface. This medium hair is a great hairstyle for those who are thin and versatile enough to shape them in different ways depending on mood and situation. Kaley Cuoco's Short Hair Kaley Christine Cuoco's Short Haircuts and Hairstyles, Before you reach the curling iron, you need to decide how to shape your beach waves. Few brides make such a drastic hair change before their wedding. Ever see Penny hiding her from a real life fairy with extensions or wigs. About eight photos from the first season and. Kaley Cuoco's Hair Mayim Bialik with Amy Farrah Fowler telling us the cut will be covered in the first episode, we know Penny will be rocking short hair on the show. But eventually Ms. Cuoco made a statement about the extreme makeup inspiration for Sweeting herself. Why did Kaley Cuoco cut her hair? See the video below from EW. Kaley Cuoco's hair journey from lob to Pixie and back again was a perfect ten for the lack of a better word. We've always wondered how it makes the transition between lengths so seamless because there are Instagram posts to back it up. Kaley Cuoco blonde hair Cuoco hasn't had a weird hair coming off the stage in years. The ends of this blonde mane swung along the mid lengths to add subtle movement to the roots and pulse body. Long blasts are shaped sideways to soften the face and complete all the looks in spectacular fashion. The product is required to bend the ends for some added texture. Are Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco still friends? When you hit a bump on the growing track you get some texturing and a curling iron and add a little twist and movement. It's like camouflage for bad hair days. See if you can spot the odd stages behind the gorgeous bedhead tissue in the photo timeline below—spoiler alert. when it comes to celebrity inspo Kaley Cuoco's hair in the foreground. Kaley Cuoco brown hair The width and volume at the edges makes this 'great' to balance a long face, and it needs the product to compress the ends to achieve a textured surface. Regular ornaments are required to maintain a healthy shape. Kaley Cuoco looks beautiful here in a simple shoulder length bob with layers throughout styled with a windy look. Does Penny grow her hair back? It's a great way to add a bob up and extra volume to high volume style jazz. Kaley has an oval face shape so it can attract a variety of looks and segments. Through the long side-swept fringe here she goes for a beachy bob which masks her high forehead well and frames her eyes. This â € do gives her locks a fun look in a general fashion that can. Kaley Cuoco hair color Be worn for day and night. Kal Yesil Yesil has a tanned complexion and green green eyes, making her best suited for golden brown and blonde hair tones. Here the California girl goes for a sunny blonde shade that completes her look. Kaley has kept her base colour in the crown which gives her hair a cool surfer-style finish. What season does Penny have short hair? For most women the hair growth process is like going through all the strange stages of puberty and the strange events that you just have to get past. Not with Cuoco. It has changed quite sensitively since its shortest point in 2020 - 2021. So he turned to his hairdresser, Christine Symonds, to find out his secret. His strategy is. Tempting Kaley Cuoco's Short Hairstyles The Kaley fairy's growing knack for Var has often been for decorating the back of her hair, allowing it to capture the front side. says. In the pictures below you can see that progress is taking place before your eyes. But it's the real secret. To mask the odd lengths and stages, we would give Kaley's hair a ton of texture, with the help of products such as a Texture Mist and a Kenra Platinum dry Tissue Spray. What illness does Kaley Cuoco have? It's not that Cuoco doesn't have strange stages, but it connects us with Symonds But Cuoco is rocking a cute lob right now, and he absolutely loves it. Best known for her role as Penny on CBS hit the Big Bang Theory kaley Cuoco seemingly needs a little change after each season. In a candid shot on her Instagram, the actress revealed she had added a cool new ingredient to her look. long hair extensions. How much is Kaley Cuoco worth? It's a style full of personality. It appears to have been put together, giving a somewhat unruly image on the surface. But actually Kaley the colorist spent a lot of time helping her look back on this laid. The hair colour consists of several shades, with dark yellow roots paired with dark balayage lowlights that look very nice in the braid. What is Kaley Cuoco's net worth? The long 'growing' fringe around Kaley's face is a very light urban chic blonde who keeps the focus firmly on her face. And there are honey blonde highlights adding wonderful depth and texture around the head. What is wrong with Sheldon Cooper? Kaley perfectly balanced her make-up with her 'processed' hair colour and avoided looking too artificial with just foundation mascara and a soft pink lipstick. Add another layer of glasses to her 'serious person' and make it very clear that she is no one's 'stupid blonde'. This braided hairstyle is perfect for oval square round faces. Kaley Cuoco hair extensions Kaley Cuoco is a bit of a hair chameleon. He likes to change his girlfriend Mane from cotton candy to pink fake balayages. The Big Bang Theory star changed her locks again this time joining the likes of karlie Kloss and Billie Lourd in a colour not usually seen during this hot summer. Beach waves don't have to be just for the beach. Kaley Cuoco natural hair color Kaley Cuoco just renewed The Big Bang Theory for three more seasons. how the tousled Sun shows us how to wear kissed waves on the red carpet. It all depends on style and makeup. Following the instant coffee nightmare, Kaley's team had put a Nespresso machine in her hotel room. Did Mayim Bialik cut her hair? Cer aaaazy was more tricked his Twitter followers into thinking joker Kaley had cut his locks in March. but it was all a funny, funny joke. Just now Kaley is not actually cutting her hair and looking nice by stylist Christine Symonds. Where is Ryan Sweeting now? We think it suits him better than long hair. Good job. The difference though is how much kaley's cut selfie easily shows off her wedding ring too. This will not be a mistake as we have already stated that Kaley loves talking about her wedding to tennis player Ryan Sweeting. Oh, no... are we going the Kaley Cuoco wedding route again. Kaley Cuoco haircut It looks like we... Kaley recently spoke to Cosmopolitan about her wedding calling az The Eighth Wonder of the world. Ooh and we thought it was a piece or maybe a baby piece, because soon there's a mini one and they don't like mini versions of things. Obviously not Kaley. The main idea of this is feminine and classic do. Kaley Cuoco hair ideas These were styled with a side part making this a great casual hairstyle to complement the middle slender locks curled and oval or triangular face. A small amount of product is required to tame fly hair, and regular fixes every 4 to 6 Weeks help prevent split ends. What movie did Kaley Cuoco cut her hair for? Kaley Cuoco looks gorgeous in a voluminous shoulder length wavy hairdo. He has a triangular shaped face with a pointed jawline high forehead and strong cheekbones that match various hairstyles. Kaley loves experimenting with her haircut from long to short but here she settled for a stylish mid-length cut. Did Kaley Cuoco cut her hair? The length and layers of this ombre are cut jagged, then worn in waves from the back and sides to give this style a playful and ornate look and feel. disorientation by giving away his messy bedhead and texture. This is a crucial piece of information for anyone struggling somewhere in between. Kaley Cuoco hair 2020 - 2021 We're all familiar with months of post-wedding haircuts and the many vitamins of growing your hair f"or this perfect wedding style. make your new friend harder fresh and often much shorter. Kaley Cuoco hairstyles short But then reality struck me. what that would mean for Penny on the Big Bang Theory. A serious cut on the one hand might make sense for Season Eight Penny given that she has embarked on an entirely new career as a pharmaceutical representative. How do I style my hair like Kaley Cuoco? She says goodbye to Surfer Girl acting is also goodbye to her hair and replaces it with a professional but cute fairy cut. It's completely logical. But reverse Penny Leonard is engaged. And while the producers have hinted that we won't see a wedding for them this season, they're still throwing a huge curveball into the hair Arena. Kaley Cuoco Hair Evolution Few brides make such a drastic hair change before their wedding. So months later a bride is growing her hair for this perfect wedding style and many vitamins are all familiar with her post-wedding haircut straight from her honeymoon to her hairdresser and jet will return.make your new friend harder fresh and often much shorter. What color is Kaley Cuoco's hair? April June April June I couldn't say I was too surprised at first seeing sweet Kaley Cuoco opting for the same post-wedding treatment of her trademark long blonde locks first with a bob cut in April then with a shorter pixie in June. Kaley Cuoco Hairstyles, Hair Cuts and Colors A serious cut on the one hand might make sense for Season Eight Penny given that she has embarked on an entirely new career as a pharmaceutical representative. she says goodbye to Surfer Girl acting is also goodbye to her hair and replaces it with a professional but cute fairy cut. It's completely logical. But reverse Penny Leonard is engaged. Did Penny really cut her hair? And while the producers have hinted that we won't see a wedding for them this season, they're still throwing a huge curveball into the hair Arena. While the 33-year-old actress is no doubt known for her golden locks her hair has undergone quite a transformation since her career began with 8 Simple Rules. Kaley Cuoco hair cut His new TV cast and crew recalled kaley Cuoco whose hair caught on fire while the flight attendant enjoyed some downtime between filming in Italy " s Rome. The star of the latest installment of her Instagram TV series The Big Bang Theory told followers she and her friends had gone out for drinks when she sat in a high-top bar and started chatting away before she started smelling something out of the ordinary. Kaley Cuoco new haircut Kaley Cuoco's short fairy hairstyles are popular among girls, especially for those who watch ‘the Big bang Theory'. The main idea for this is to make it short and spoiled. Kaley Cuoco new hair This hairstyle is perfect for those with thin and medium hair and is easy to maintain with regular trimmings every 4 to 6 weeks. Not everyone was in love with her long golden locks when Kaley Cuoco first took to the stage but she shocked fans everywhere when she entered Season 8 of 'the Big Bang Theory' sporting a very short fairy cut. Kaley Cuoco hair colour Many fans claimed they didn't like her new style, while others embraced Kaley's edgy new look. In an interview with Ellen Kaley, she stated that she always wanted to cut her hair and eventually got the chance to shoot ‘burning Bodhi'.'Since this drastic change, Kaley has rocked a series of stylish short haircuts that show off her gorgeous features and win our hearts . Kaley Cuoco's short hairstyles are a favorite by 10 people. Kaley Cuoco hair tutorial The Big Bang Theory actress made headlines on social media yesterday for sharing the instant Italian nightmare-delayed activities of jet ex Kaley after discovering that the hotel room instant coffee electric kettle and sachet ready at the so coffeemaker's 34 is a common date of nothing more than a year. Kaley Cuoco curly hair Kaley's Instagram stories were grumpy Central yesterday but that all changed. The actress is back with some fresh content and apparently some fresh coffee. She wears a sleek layered style that shows off her glowing skin and high cheekbones. Kaley Cuoco hairstyle Her slender locks have added extra volume all the roots thanks to some backcombing flipping over the tracks and waves throughout. Kaley opted for an elegant centerpiece with symmetrical waves framing the shape of her face. Keep that in mind when styling your hair. start by identifying your messy parts = messy look and using a tail comb for neaten. Kaley Cuoco bob haircut Beachy waves hint at style. after receiving waves with the help of some putty or putty textured fiber, spray a heat saver and a curling iron, rub your hands and scan your fingers through the waves to relieve them. Salt spray is also another alternative to a real beach look. What gives Kaley a glimpse into another class is her. Kaley Cuoco haircut short Highlights and low lights, which bring depth and texture to her hair. If your hair is just a shade, you won't get the full effect of waves or curls. Imagine this picture of Kaley with a single shade of blonde and you'll see what we mean. Kaley Cuoco haircut 2020 - 2021 Having beach waves is no excuse for not paying attention to your hair. Straggly ends can ruin your quest for red carpet glamour. Likewise the layers look great with tousled waves, so ask the stylist next time in the lounge. Kaley Cuoco haircut front and back Of course the whole look depends on makeup. Kaley opted for a chic but simple beauty look with a taupe and brown smoky eye and a bright light rose lip. Keeping her make-up elegant she balances relaxed beach waves. Kaley Cuoco shows off her pretty face here make it look great halfway up. Big bang theory Kaley Cuoco haircut The back of this style is pulled back and pinned into place while the layers in. Front are left outside to dusting the shoulders to create this relaxed look. The layers at the front are smooth dried with a slight curve underneath to soften. Kaley Christine Cuoco Kaley's light beige blonde colour will also need regular retouching for the best results. This is the perfect hairstyle for any occasion and needs a strong holding product to keep you going all day or night.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/inside-vsco-a-gen-z-approved-photo-sharing-app-with-ceo-joel-flory/

Inside VSCO, a Gen Z-approved photo-sharing app, with CEO Joel Flory

Long before Instagram toyed with removing “likes,” VSCO, an Oakland-based photo-sharing and editing app, built a community devoid of likes, comments and follower counts. Perhaps known to many only because of this year’s “VSCO girl” meme explosion, the company has long been coaxing the creative community to its freemium platform. Turns out, if you can provide the disillusioned teens of Gen Z respite from the horrors of social media — they’ll pay for it.

VSCO is on pace to surpass 4 million paying users in 2020, up from 2 million paying users in late 2018, the company said. Approaching $80 million in annual revenue, VSCO charges an annual subscription fee of $19.99 for access to a full-suite of mobile photo-editing tools, exclusive photo filters, tutorials and more. For no cost, users can access a handful of basic VSCO filters, standard editing tools and loads of content published by other users in VSCO’s photo feed.

In recent months, the company’s Oakland headquarters has swelled to 150 employees, an increase of 50% from 2018, with a new office in Chicago expected to fit several dozen more. The company, which counts 100 million registered users to date, has also recently inked a partnership with Snap. Together, they’ve launched Analog, VSCO’s first-ever Snapchat lens, in a deal that hints at a future acquisition. Needless to say, VSCO co-founder and chief executive officer Joel Flory is feeling pretty optimistic ahead of his company’s eighth birthday.

“When you walk into a museum, you don’t see the net worth of the artist,” Flory tells TechCrunch. “You don’t see how many people have walked through the museum. There’s not a space for people to write comments and leave stickers. It’s a moment. It’s for you. You get to sit in front of a piece of work, a piece of art. And does it move you? Does it speak to you? Are you able to learn something from it? Does it inspire you to go do something? How can we create a space in which you could do that online? That was our initial insight.”

Flory, a 40-year-old former wedding photographer, wears a grey Oakland Roots sweatshirt and a black Oakland Athletics hat when I meet him at VSCO’s offices on Oakland’s Broadway Avenue in November. He doesn’t look like the Gen Z whisperer I expected to meet, and his responses to my questions about the “VSCO girl” meme paint a picture of a CEO who’s inadvertently connected with a generation 20 years his junior. “It’s a sense of caring about the environment and kind of caring about causes that have a meaning and impact,” Flory said of “VSCO girls,” who have more-oft been described as 21st century valley girls or “annoying, white hopeless romantics.”

On one hand, we were ahead of the curve. But I think we were just being true to who we are. VSCO CEO Joel Flory

Regardless of Flory’s ability to decode Gen Z, VSCO continues to be beloved by millions of teenagers and young adults worldwide. Without selling ads or customer data, VSCO has developed a sustainable subscription-based business and written a new playbook for social media businesses in a world where Facebook’s advertising-based model is king. For those fed up with platforms that have facilitated bullying and failed to prioritize privacy, VSCO may be a protective corner of the internet.

“The creator always wins, the community always wins, who’s paying us wins and VSCO wins,” Flory said. “It sounds simple, but this creates a business model in which our business is not extracting value from any one group to give to someone else. It’s this direct relationship with who’s paying us.”

VSCO CEO Joel Flory speaks to attendees while teaching phone photography class during The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Photographer: Martina Albertazzi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A sense of belonging

Hot off the heels of a rare moment in the spotlight, VSCO, reportedly valued at $550 million, is ripe for a new round of funding. Flory, naturally, remained mum on any plans to sell the company or raise additional capital. But he was ready and willing to speak to the company’s untraditional path and the unique connection it has fostered with its users.

Flory tells me 75% of VSCO’s registered users and 55% of its paying subscribers are younger than 25, giving the company a small foothold into the most coveted demographic. On top of that, the hashtag #VSCO has been viewed 4 billion times on the immensely popular video sharing app Tik Tok, again according to the company’s own statistics, and another 450 million times on Instagram. With 80 million monthly active users — Facebook had 2.45 billion monthly active users as of September, for context — VSCO is by no means a competitor to Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, Snap or Twitter. What it is, however, is a leader in the new era of social media, in which users demand more transparent, equitable relationships with social platforms.

“[Gen Z] knows what each platform is good for and what the downfalls of each are,” Flory said. “They are actively making investments in creativity and in their mental health, and they are seeking out a space where they can be who they are. And the fact that they’re even talking about mental health, anxiety, depression and compare culture — it took me so long in life to be able to articulate what I was feeling … They’re putting their money and time in brands and causes that they care about. And so for us, that’s why I think we’ve seen a lot of our growth.”

Flory and VSCO co-founder Greg Lutze, a long-time creative director-turned-chief experience officer, began building VSCO, an acronym for Visual Supply Co., in 2011. Facebook was more than six years old and mere months from hitting the 1 billion monthly active user milestone when VSCO launched its first product, a photo-editing plug-in for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Instagram, for its part, was a burgeoning photo-based social network that had launched the year before to “ignite communication through images.” Unlike Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who famously created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, or Instagram’s founding CEO Kevin Systrom, a former Google employee, Flory and Lutze had absolutely no experience in the tech or startup world. The pair banded together to build something focused around the creative community — not to construct a venture-backed startup.

“We wanted to provide the tools for you to express yourself and then a space for you to do that, one that was void of the pressures around likes and comments that create this compare culture, which wasn’t even prevalent yet,” Flory said. “Now we’re seeing this played out on a large scale. So on one hand, we were ahead of the curve. But I think we were just being true to who we are.”

The business is growing in a way that we’ve never seen before. VSCO CEO Joel Flory

After launching VSCO as an Adobe plug-in, improved camera capabilities on smartphones motivated the business to change course. In the spring of 2013, the business launched its mobile app, a free photo-editing tool with in-app purchases and an affiliated community. The app reached 1 million downloads one week later and would eventually adopt a freemium model to earn money from its power users. Since its app launch, VSCO has remained a top-five grossing photo app on Apple’s App Store.

VSCO’s Oakland offices.

New opportunities

Though seldom mentioned on the venture capital and startup blogs, VSCO is indeed supported by VC dollars. Before its subscription revenue could sustain the business, the company brought in $70 million in VC funding from Accel, Glynn Capital Management, Obvious Ventures, Goldcrest Investments and others, closing its most recent round in 2015.

Flory and Lutze never sought venture funding. The former photographer and creative director didn’t have connections to venture capitalists or an in at a particular firm. Instead, Accel partners Vas Natarajan and Ryan Sweeney approached VSCO with “a thesis around the importance of design and creativity in the future,” Flory said, and quickly formed an alliance. Today, VSCO isn’t profitable, though it has been in the past, Flory said. It did, however, operate at “near break-even” last year — an accomplishment today as startups often lose hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis. With a valuation of $550 million, which Flory would neither confirm or deny, VSCO plans to invest heavily in growth next year.

As for the “VSCO girl” meme explosion, largely a mockery of white middle-class, social-media-savvy teenagers, it provided a jolt of publicity for a nearly decade-old company lost in the shadow of the giants. Though the meme entered the internet’s zeitgeist many months ago, the company is still riding a wave of press (and likely downloads) tied to its popularity. For many, the VSCO girl was their first encounter with VSCO, while for others, the photo-editing and sharing tool has been a fixture of their home screen for years.

As Instagram explores hiding likes in a bid to promote user health and other social media companies realize the importance of safety, security and mental wellness, VSCO may see its unique identity fade. Regardless, Flory says he wants other platforms to realize the impact of likes: “I honestly hope everyone thinks about what’s good for people’s mental health and builds more products that have a positive impact than a negative impact.”

Instagram’s experiments aside, VSCO is gearing up for another banner year, packed with plans for new features and products entirely. In our chat last month, Flory mentioned video design, publishing and editing, as well as illustration, as areas of interest for the now established photo-editing tool.

“The business is growing in a way that we’ve never seen before,” Flory said. “And what it’s doing is opening all of these new areas of opportunity. We’re focused on not only how you create content and how you edit content, but ultimately, how you tell a story with that content.”

[xkaylinh]

Some Thoughts on Music: Personal Preference, Diversity, and Accountability

I first heard of Half Waif when I saw them live opening for Julien Baker in 2017. I’m not usually into electro pop but there was something about this band’s sound that really captivated me. Afterwards, I followed up by looking up their live performances on places like NPR Tiny Desk Concert and Audiotree Live, both of which I also really enjoyed. During this time, though, the band was on the periphery, as I was getting more and more obsessed with Mitski and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. I saw Half Waif again last night at their headlining show in Los Angeles. This time, Nandi Rose Plunkett performed solo, yet somehow she still managed to fill the stage with her presence. I was so blown away that I bought her album.

This morning, as I was listening to the CD, I was idly scrolling through her Instagram when I spotted a photo of her in a Sari. Wait, what?! I did some Googling and, yup, she’s part-Indian. I had no idea! This revelation filled me with Asian pride. I’m already a huge fan of her music after seeing her live the second time and listening to her album, but that made me love her just that much more.

Then I got to thinking: Is it a bad thing that I like certain artists based on their gender, race, or sexuality? I started listening to Tegan and Sara in the first place because of the novelty of them being lesbian twin sisters; I found out about Thao Nguyen as I was searching for Asian American musical artists. But with Nandi, it was the other way around, I came across her music first, then found out about her cultural identity. I do believe that Thao’s and Tegan and Sara’s bodies of work stand on their own, that I would’ve fallen in love with their music regardless of who they were. But who they were made me fall in love with them, not just as artists, but as people. I think it’s fine to want diversity in the people whose art you consume. Whether explicitly or implicitly, their experiences inform their art. Once I’d found myself rather unwittingly distanced from the music of straight white men, I’d found it kind of refreshing. It’s okay to be drawn to artists who may have shared some of your experiences, as well as artists whose experiences don’t quite mirror your own.

I wrote the following a few months ago, after seeing Thao perform live. At the time, I was reluctant to publish it for some reason. Coincidentally, in the last week or so, some news has come to light regarding Ryan Adams. I’ve never listened to his music, and now I don’t think I ever will. I’m a huge fan of Phoebe Bridgers, so it really puts a face to the issue and brings it into perspective. In light of all this, and my newfound appreciation for Nandi, I thought I should share this now:

For many years, Brand New was one of my most favorite bands. Their albums Deja Entendu and The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me were life-changing for me. I was so drawn to how depressing and self-deprecating their lyrics often were, and how experimental and challenging their sound was. I learned how to play a lot of their songs on guitar. I went to see them once, and even got a t-shirt at their show, which I would wear proudly at school for years until the color faded. I looked up to frontman Jesse Lacey as a musician, both for his vocals and for his songwriting. I never met him, though, but I’d read random accounts online that he wasn’t always the nicest with fans. The ancient beef they once had with Taking Back Sunday, and the fact that they did minimal press and interviews, only added to their alluring mystique. When they announced that their most recent album would be their last, I was heartbroken.

That is, until Jesse Lacey was faced with allegations of sexual harassment.

The band’s silence, which I once thought was cool, now looked like cowardice. Lyrics which once seemed like a guilty fantasy started to sound like a confession. I found that I was no longer able to listen to their music. I took down any covers I had recorded of their songs. I even considered burning the shirt I had of theirs, which would’ve been kind of funny because the image is of a tree on fire. I reacted a similar way when news came out about Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, and Kevin Spacey. I’d finished Louie (the show) and Master of None, regarding them as some of the best half-hour shows I’d seen, and I was two seasons into House of Cards . Now, any time I see their names and their faces online, I am filled with disgust. I can hardly go through clips of Parks and Recreation anymore, and I loved that show so much. It’s a certain kind of betrayal when someone whose work you’ve looked up to for so long is accused of such horrible things. For a while, I actually believed that you shouldn’t have heroes, because they will fail you.

In my second year of college, I was taking a class on Asian American Fiction, and it opened my eyes to the amount of literature that I was missing out on from people who looked like me and shared my experiences. I figured, if there were so many Asian American authors out there I didn’t know about, surely there were also Asian American musicians I should look out for. And so, through research, I discovered Thao Nguyen. I tried getting into her music, listening to her first album, but was initially put off by her indie/folk sound, as it wasn’t really what I was into at the time. But still, I was thrilled that someone with my last name was making it in the music biz.

Flash forward a few years, and a Mitski song is covered on Adventure Time, one of my favorite shows. I looked into Mitski’s albums and was blown away. I immediately learned every song I could of hers, and I tried getting my friends to join me in recording covers. Through her, I then discovered a bunch of other artists, some of them Asian American, but all of them female. After a while, I figured, I should give Thao Nguyen another shot. So, I did the logical thing (haha) and skipped a few albums, going from her first album straight to her most recent one, and boy was I glad I did so. As obsessed as I am with Mitski, some days the only thing I want to listen to is that new Thao album. From there, I went backwards, listening to her third album, and then her second, and I found that, hey, I like these albums a lot, too. When she tweeted out that she was playing a free show in LA, I made plans right away to go see her.

For the past maybe year and a half, I’ve been listening almost exclusively to female artists, some of them Asian, some of them LGBTQ+. I would like to think that this is me being more open-minded towards the kinds of artists I am drawn to, but at around the same time this was happening, all the stuff with Brand New and Jesse Lacey went down, and for some reason, not only was I unable to listen to Brand New, I also had little interest in listening to new albums from bands I had listened to alongside Brand New, whom I associated with the same era in my life. I’d like to think this, and my current interest in female artists, is more correlation than causation. I don’t want to give him too much credit.

When Thao performed her song “Meticulous Bird” (and I honestly can’t say for sure if this was from a video or from when I saw her live), she dedicated the song to, as she put it, “survivors of all kinds,” and that meant a lot to me, not as someone who’s experienced sexual harassment, but someone who is a human being who knows other human beings who’ve posted the hashtag #metoo on social media. She performed her entire solo set with such passion and energy, it was so captivating to watch. I was very glad that I returned to her older albums, as I was able to recognize more than just songs from A Man Alive. Afterward, I saw that she was taking pictures with fans, so I decided to get in line. When I walked up to her, I told her that I am also Vietnamese American, and that it means so much to me and inspires me greatly that she’s out there making music the way she does. I asked for a picture, and then a hug, and she was so nice and said she really appreciated my comments. From then, I realized, the lesson to learn here isn’t that you shouldn’t have heroes, it’s that if your heroes betray you, find new ones. Find better ones. For every Jesse Lacey out there, there’s also a Thao Nguyen, and when you meet that new hero of yours, they’re going to be awesome.

[rafaelthompson]

10 Minutes With Hana Kaneshige

We talk to the Dallas-based ‘techucator’ at Counter Culture Coffee about barista competitions, the current moment, and more.

BY CHRIS RYAN BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Photos courtesy of Hana Kaneshige

Hana Kaneshige was always a fan of café culture—growing up in the Pacific Northwest, she would make frequent stops at local coffee shops. This familiarity with coffee helped her land a job at the campus coffee shop during college, which eventually led her to a career in coffee. After a few stops along the way, Hana ended up at one of her favorite companies, Counter Culture Coffee, where she now works in a tech/educator hybrid role. Along the way Hana has pursued several avenues to strengthen her coffee knowledge and support the community, including competing in Barista competitions and serving as a community coordinator for the Specialty Coffee Association’s U.S. Chapter. We chatted with Hana to find out more about her endeavors.

Hana has a hybridized technician/educator role at Counter Culture Coffee in Dallas.

Chris Ryan: Can you tell us a bit about your pre-coffee life? Where did you grow up, and what did you study/plan to pursue professionally before you got interested in coffee? 

Hana Kaneshige: I was born and raised in Bellingham, Wash.—about 90 miles north of Seattle and just south of Canada. The Pacific Northwest is pretty steeped in coffee, and I grew up having hot chocolates at local cafés while my mom had her latte. I went to school at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and studied Critical Theory and Social Justice (with no actual plan to use that degree, but here we are now!). I actually started working in our on-campus coffee shop my freshman year of college, and joined its team of managers my sophomore year. There was a period of time in my college life when I thought I might want to go into business consulting, but after thinking about what I loved doing, I decided I wanted to open a café/bar.  

How did you start working in the coffee world, and how did you end up at Counter Culture? 

Technically speaking I’ve been in coffee since that first year in college! But we were not making the best beverages. After graduating, I was hired to help launch the coffee program for a small market in Highland Park (Los Angeles) that just happened to be an Intelligentsia account. After a bit of training, I knew there was so much more to learn, and I applied for one of the opening barista positions as Verve Coffee Roasters was coming to Los Angeles. I was part of the opening team for the DTLA location, and ran the store for two years before moving to Counter Culture. I was a longtime admirer of CCC, and made it a point to go to just about every single Tasting at Ten in L.A., and applied for almost every position that opened up in L.A.

How long have you been with Counter Culture? What do you do there, and what are some of your day-to-day duties? 

I have now been with CCC for about two and a half years. I came in as the L.A. regional educator, and then moved to Dallas to be what I like to call the regional techucator. I sit in a hybridized technician/educator role here in Texas. Pre-COVID, the day-to-day was wild—I would still teach classes and conduct trainings, but gained a whole new set of skills as a coffee tech. I had a lot of service calls and quite a few installations; our region ranges from Oklahoma and throughout Texas to a bit of Louisiana. I’ve driven more since moving to Texas than I did in my last year in L.A.  

Hana (right) with Kathy Altamirano, Counter Culture Coffee’s regional manager for Dallas.

How have you been impacted by / had to adjust to COVID-19 in your work?

Now, the days are a bit of a mix. We have been offering online courses to wholesale partners and subscribers, and I am having service calls come up as our partners are reopening. We shifted a lot of our educational offerings online, and did a lot of material editing to make it fit into smaller chunks. On the tech side, we were able to work toward building a thorough online training program for new and current technicians—with a lot more time on our hands, we have been able to compile lots of information that will be so helpful long-term. 

You’ve competed in Barista competitions, correct? What drew you to competitions, and what do you feel like you’ve learned from them? 

I have judged and competed in the Barista competitions alternating years for the last few years. The first time I competed was almost a mistake—I happened to win Verve’s in-house competition for SoCal, and went off to qualifiers with no idea what I was in for. My main goal was to tamp all the shots and not go over time. I definitely blacked out a bit, but overall the experience made me a better barista in being able to really get to know one coffee. I judged the following year, as I moved to CCC, then competed again and made it to nationals. I did a bit of judging this past year at prelims, and it was so fun. 

Competitions and coffee events are like family reunions at this point! I love the community that goes along with the events. I love competing and judging because they make me a better coffee professional, and I have the opportunity to singularly focus on one thing over an extended period of time. It’s a challenge, and takes practice. I’ve gained coffee skills, time-management skills, presentation skills, and had a lot of fun. Judging is particularly helpful in terms of calibrating with other people and tasting a range of coffees together. 

Hana’s L.A. based co-workers at Counter Culture Coffee honor her on her last day before moving to Texas.

I know you’re also a community coordinator for the SCA’s U.S. Chapter. Can you describe why you wanted to be involved with that, and what your duties entail? 

Having been part of a few different coffee companies, and competitions, and teaching/writing material for courses at events like BGA Access, I wanted to be involved in a bigger capacity. The U.S. Chapter was focused on amplifying the U.S. coffee community, but with recent events has pivoted to work toward the following mission: “Our chapter advocates for and helps the U.S. Coffee Community to create awareness of, communicate about, and support local and regional events and education that provide value to both members and non-members.”

We are diverse, inclusive, and committed to being anti-racist. We remove barriers to participation, advocate for innovative content, and improve approachability, accessibility, and connection to resources. I’m happy to chat with people (hana@counterculturecoffee.com), or please check us out on Slack, Instagram or sca_us@sca.coffee!

Is there anything you’d like to add?

I didn’t want to leave this interview without at least acknowledging that Counter Culture has been in a pretty interesting spot the last few months. I certainly don’t speak for the company, but I believe the company is in a position that is forcing it to take a look at its own structure and systems. We are seeing the result of widespread systemic injustice on a large scale, and I know that those systems are present throughout so many organizations—Counter Culture is not alone. Systems in any given company are built over years, they don’t just pop into being.  I do believe we’re at a pivotal point, and I have a lot of hope that we will capture this moment, and create change within the company. I know that I personally am committed to pushing for and seeing a shift come into being. It’ll be hard, and challenging, and take engagement from every single person. I love the amazing humans that I work with, and want to ensure that we do the work for all of them. Personally committing to that work is all I can offer.

We have recently hired our first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion specialist, and worked with an external company to conduct an audit of our systems. It’s been a crazy few months, but I am hopeful about our progress!

The post 10 Minutes With Hana Kaneshige appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

10 Minutes With Hana Kaneshige published first on https://espressoexpertsite.tumblr.com/

[deborahaphillips54303]

The 'Bon Appétit' Test Kitchen and the Myth of the Happy Workplace

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen and its so-called "cinematic universe" has been described as follows: a "bright spot" in a "sea of garbage," the "internet's favorite cooking show," a form of "Sunday therapy," "an unstoppable force," "meme gods," and even "a Green New Deal fantasy," whatever that means.

Every night, "I check in with the chefs at Bon Appétit like I’m catching up with old friends," Louis Peitzman wrote for Buzzfeed in 2018. Another piece from earlier this year claimed the secret to Bon Appétit's YouTube success was that "everyone is just so damn likable." And having been graced with the crew's presence at the company's "Best Weekend Ever" late last year, writer and Who? Weekly host Bobby Finger recalled, "I felt not just starstruck but crazy. I mean actually deranged!"

Those are just the fawning articles. The Test Kitchen also has fan-run meme pages, an official merch store, two subreddits, and two more devoted specifically to personality Brad Leone and Gourmet Makes star Claire Saffitz. Saffitz, the kitchen's most beloved host, has been described as "the internet's collective crush," about whom people say things like "I would die for Claire" and imitate for Halloween or TikTok fame.

Man Repeller reported late last year that the channel was the fastest-growing in YouTube's food space, with more than 40 million views per month and over 5 billion total minutes watched. It currently has 6 million subscribers. As its hordes of doting fans propped the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen on the highest pedestal, the magazine's staff turned into micro-celebrities, their interpersonal dynamics became objects of obsession, and overall, the workplace was seen as a wholesome culinary ideal. What the Test Kitchen's cult of celebrity obfuscated, however, is that the Test Kitchen is just that: a workplace, like that of any other large—and therefore likely imperfect, if not problematic—institution. So honestly, what did any of us expect?

As the world found out in industry-shaking fashion this week, the reality of the Test Kitchen isn't the bastion of good that its stans have willed it to be. Last weekend, writer Illyanna Maisonet posted an exchange with Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport in which he effectively told her that Puerto Rican food wasn't trendy enough for the magazine to cover, and it read as another example of the brand's diversity problem. On Monday, after writer Tammie Teclemariam posted an old photo of Rapoport and his wife Simone Shubuck dressed in costumes centered on Puerto Rican stereotypes (in the photo, which Shubuck captioned "#TBT me and my papi #boricua," Rapoport wears a silver chain and durag), staffers blew open the door on the company's toxic culture, which has been emotionally and financially unsupportive of people of color. Rapoport—who, amid claims of brownface, maintains that he did not color his skin for the image—resigned the same day.

As assistant food editor Sohla El-Waylly wrote on Instagram on Monday, not only was she hired for her role at the rate of $50,000 per year despite her 15 years of experience (and the high cost of living in New York, where the company is located), but she was "pushed in front of video as a display of diversity" and not even paid for those appearances. Per Buzzfeed, El-Waylly and other hosts of color weren't paid for their video work, which is arranged through contracts with Condé Nast Entertainment, while white video stars were compensated. As the floodgates burst open, Twitter users soon dug up drinks editor Alex Delany's old internet history, which included a 2013 Vine of him saying the F-slur, a Confederate flag cake he'd posted to Tumblr, and a series of sexist tweets.

A damning report from Business Insider on Wednesday showed how far the brand's problems extended. From conversations with 14 former and current staffers, writer Rachel Premack concluded that BA was a "locus for exclusion and toxicity." Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, Rapoport's assistant for close to three years and the only Black woman on staff, was repeatedly denied raises from her $35,300 base salary and treated by Rapoport like "the help," in her words. "There is a big difference in terms of how they monetarily value the white employees versus the people of color," El-Waylly told BI.

On YouTube, BA's channel landed at exactly the right time. Compared to other food channels, which increasingly felt over-produced, the Test Kitchen videos were less polished; they had more personality; and they made the filming and editing processes clear. BA's videos resonated philosophically as well. Saffitz's Gourmet Makes, in which she attempts to recreate popular processed foods, is visibly an arduous and frustrating multi-day process, and at Mashable, Morgan Sung described Saffitz's series as an example of "probably the healthiest, most productive way to approach issues," while Quartz called her the "ultimate life coach."

Though the Test Kitchen's transformation into a celebrity force has been good for business, it's also set things up for exactly the reckoning that's happening now.

As with the recent situation involving Alison Roman (who got her start at BA), Chrissy Teigen, and Marie Kondo, the Test Kitchen's growing popularity and prestige outside the insular food world has complicated our ability to talk about its issues with clarity. Just as the bigger conversation about Roman and who tends to profit from cooking global food (the answer: white cooks) was largely portrayed as just a celebrity "Twitter feud," the changes at BA have been framed as the oversimplified result of a "brown face photo sparking anger" or the resurfacing of a "racially insensitive photo." The celebrity culture of the Test Kitchen begets the treatment celebrities get at gossip rags: reductive, lacking in nuance, and sounding the alarm for critics of "cancel culture." It's more than that, though.

The Test Kitchen's gargantuan online presence overrode its offline truth, as it projected and leaned into what people wanted to see, which was an Office-esque sitcom in which a friendly band of coworkers snickers behind the bumbling boss's back. As writer James Factora suggested in a tweet preceding all of this, perhaps the Test Kitchen's popularity is related to the widespread obsession with The Office. While Factora's tweet reads tongue-in-cheek, it's not wrong, and the love for the show perpetuated the illusion that a toxic workplace can be laughed at and lived with.

The Office has funny moments, but in a way, it led society astray. It suggested that a bad boss who makes clumsy, insensitive comments and makes life hard for employees can be a point of humor, instead of a toxic presence that could be booted. Who does that benefit except bosses? As BA turned the Test Kitchen into essentially its own sitcom, with each cooking star becoming an Office-esque talking head, it furthered the false notion of the perfect workplace, and people online were quick to gobble it up. The interactions between co-workers, even when off-putting, became meme fodder and pushed stans to throw their support behind their chosen star.

The idea that everything gets bad once it gets big sounds like a line ripped from Portlandia, but it is a maxim that applies to everything from emo bands to hashtags to dog breeds to cooking hosts. The higher the platform we give something, the more it can fall, and the discourse around the Test Kitchen seemed unprecedented in its fawning, at least within the food sphere. (Though we might have learned from situations like the downfall of Mario Batali.)

When we laud any product or person to this extent and make it an object of cultural obsession, it becomes easier to ignore the flaws and the parts of the conversation that don't fit what we want to see. This is true for the Test Kitchen, which could never really have met the inflated expectations of goodness that stan culture built up around it; people saw the perfect workplace because they wanted a perfect workplace. The problems at BA are institutional, but stan culture allowed people to compartmentalize the Test Kitchen as something separate and authentic.

In response to all of this, BA's parent company Condé Nast—a 111-year-old company with 6,000 employees globally at the start of this year—has announced that it will be "accelerating" its first ever diversity and inclusion report. On Tuesday, Amanda Shapiro, the editor of BA's Healthyish spinoff, became the brand's acting deputy director, and on Wednesday, the editors of BA said in a statement, "We want to be transparent, accountable, and active as we begin to dismantle racism at our brands."

Still, former staffers have identified Shapiro and other remaining BA employees as complicit in "toxic" behaviors. Despite calls for Matt Duckor, Condé Nast's head of programming for lifestyle and style, to step down over the unfair pay system and his mocking tweets about the gay community, he remains employed, as does Alex Delany. Both of them have issued social media apologies. With this new context, though, the joking tweets and fawning memes about the Test Kitchen don't hold up as well.

No surprise, Test Kitchen stans have responded to this all with even more memes and lionizing statements: "Update: we went to war for Sohla from the Bon Appétit test kitchen," reads one popular tweet. The height of the pedestal hasn't changed, though who's on the pedestal has. But as Bon Appétit changes, will its fan culture change also? To grapple with all of this new knowledge, it should.

Follow Bettina Makalintal on Twitter.

via VICE US - undefined US VICE US - undefined US via Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network

[cyberpoetryballoon]

The 'Bon Appétit' Test Kitchen and the Myth of the Happy Workplace

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen and its so-called "cinematic universe" has been described as follows: a "bright spot" in a "sea of garbage," the "internet's favorite cooking show," a form of "Sunday therapy," "an unstoppable force," "meme gods," and even "a Green New Deal fantasy," whatever that means.

Every night, "I check in with the chefs at Bon Appétit like I’m catching up with old friends," Louis Peitzman wrote for Buzzfeed in 2018. Another piece from earlier this year claimed the secret to Bon Appétit's YouTube success was that "everyone is just so damn likable." And having been graced with the crew's presence at the company's "Best Weekend Ever" late last year, writer and Who? Weekly host Bobby Finger recalled, "I felt not just starstruck but crazy. I mean actually deranged!"

Those are just the fawning articles. The Test Kitchen also has fan-run meme pages, an official merch store, two subreddits, and two more devoted specifically to personality Brad Leone and Gourmet Makes star Claire Saffitz. Saffitz, the kitchen's most beloved host, has been described as "the internet's collective crush," about whom people say things like "I would die for Claire" and imitate for Halloween or TikTok fame.

Man Repeller reported late last year that the channel was the fastest-growing in YouTube's food space, with more than 40 million views per month and over 5 billion total minutes watched. It currently has 6 million subscribers. As its hordes of doting fans propped the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen on the highest pedestal, the magazine's staff turned into micro-celebrities, their interpersonal dynamics became objects of obsession, and overall, the workplace was seen as a wholesome culinary ideal. What the Test Kitchen's cult of celebrity obfuscated, however, is that the Test Kitchen is just that: a workplace, like that of any other large—and therefore likely imperfect, if not problematic—institution. So honestly, what did any of us expect?

As the world found out in industry-shaking fashion this week, the reality of the Test Kitchen isn't the bastion of good that its stans have willed it to be. Last weekend, writer Illyanna Maisonet posted an exchange with Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport in which he effectively told her that Puerto Rican food wasn't trendy enough for the magazine to cover, and it read as another example of the brand's diversity problem. On Monday, after writer Tammie Teclemariam posted an old photo of Rapoport and his wife Simone Shubuck dressed in costumes centered on Puerto Rican stereotypes (in the photo, which Shubuck captioned "#TBT me and my papi #boricua," Rapoport wears a silver chain and durag), staffers blew open the door on the company's toxic culture, which has been emotionally and financially unsupportive of people of color. Rapoport—who, amid claims of brownface, maintains that he did not color his skin for the image—resigned the same day.

As assistant food editor Sohla El-Waylly wrote on Instagram on Monday, not only was she hired for her role at the rate of $50,000 per year despite her 15 years of experience (and the high cost of living in New York, where the company is located), but she was "pushed in front of video as a display of diversity" and not even paid for those appearances. Per Buzzfeed, El-Waylly and other hosts of color weren't paid for their video work, which is arranged through contracts with Condé Nast Entertainment, while white video stars were compensated. As the floodgates burst open, Twitter users soon dug up drinks editor Alex Delany's old internet history, which included a 2013 Vine of him saying the F-slur, a Confederate flag cake he'd posted to Tumblr, and a series of sexist tweets.

A damning report from Business Insider on Wednesday showed how far the brand's problems extended. From conversations with 14 former and current staffers, writer Rachel Premack concluded that BA was a "locus for exclusion and toxicity." Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, Rapoport's assistant for close to three years and the only Black woman on staff, was repeatedly denied raises from her $35,300 base salary and treated by Rapoport like "the help," in her words. "There is a big difference in terms of how they monetarily value the white employees versus the people of color," El-Waylly told BI.

On YouTube, BA's channel landed at exactly the right time. Compared to other food channels, which increasingly felt over-produced, the Test Kitchen videos were less polished; they had more personality; and they made the filming and editing processes clear. BA's videos resonated philosophically as well. Saffitz's Gourmet Makes, in which she attempts to recreate popular processed foods, is visibly an arduous and frustrating multi-day process, and at Mashable, Morgan Sung described Saffitz's series as an example of "probably the healthiest, most productive way to approach issues," while Quartz called her the "ultimate life coach."

Though the Test Kitchen's transformation into a celebrity force has been good for business, it's also set things up for exactly the reckoning that's happening now.

As with the recent situation involving Alison Roman (who got her start at BA), Chrissy Teigen, and Marie Kondo, the Test Kitchen's growing popularity and prestige outside the insular food world has complicated our ability to talk about its issues with clarity. Just as the bigger conversation about Roman and who tends to profit from cooking global food (the answer: white cooks) was largely portrayed as just a celebrity "Twitter feud," the changes at BA have been framed as the oversimplified result of a "brown face photo sparking anger" or the resurfacing of a "racially insensitive photo." The celebrity culture of the Test Kitchen begets the treatment celebrities get at gossip rags: reductive, lacking in nuance, and sounding the alarm for critics of "cancel culture." It's more than that, though.

The Test Kitchen's gargantuan online presence overrode its offline truth, as it projected and leaned into what people wanted to see, which was an Office-esque sitcom in which a friendly band of coworkers snickers behind the bumbling boss's back. As writer James Factora suggested in a tweet preceding all of this, perhaps the Test Kitchen's popularity is related to the widespread obsession with The Office. While Factora's tweet reads tongue-in-cheek, it's not wrong, and the love for the show perpetuated the illusion that a toxic workplace can be laughed at and lived with.

The Office has funny moments, but in a way, it led society astray. It suggested that a bad boss who makes clumsy, insensitive comments and makes life hard for employees can be a point of humor, instead of a toxic presence that could be booted. Who does that benefit except bosses? As BA turned the Test Kitchen into essentially its own sitcom, with each cooking star becoming an Office-esque talking head, it furthered the false notion of the perfect workplace, and people online were quick to gobble it up. The interactions between co-workers, even when off-putting, became meme fodder and pushed stans to throw their support behind their chosen star.

The idea that everything gets bad once it gets big sounds like a line ripped from Portlandia, but it is a maxim that applies to everything from emo bands to hashtags to dog breeds to cooking hosts. The higher the platform we give something, the more it can fall, and the discourse around the Test Kitchen seemed unprecedented in its fawning, at least within the food sphere. (Though we might have learned from situations like the downfall of Mario Batali.)

When we laud any product or person to this extent and make it an object of cultural obsession, it becomes easier to ignore the flaws and the parts of the conversation that don't fit what we want to see. This is true for the Test Kitchen, which could never really have met the inflated expectations of goodness that stan culture built up around it; people saw the perfect workplace because they wanted a perfect workplace. The problems at BA are institutional, but stan culture allowed people to compartmentalize the Test Kitchen as something separate and authentic.

In response to all of this, BA's parent company Condé Nast—a 111-year-old company with 6,000 employees globally at the start of this year—has announced that it will be "accelerating" its first ever diversity and inclusion report. On Tuesday, Amanda Shapiro, the editor of BA's Healthyish spinoff, became the brand's acting deputy director, and on Wednesday, the editors of BA said in a statement, "We want to be transparent, accountable, and active as we begin to dismantle racism at our brands."

Still, former staffers have identified Shapiro and other remaining BA employees as complicit in "toxic" behaviors. Despite calls for Matt Duckor, Condé Nast's head of programming for lifestyle and style, to step down over the unfair pay system and his mocking tweets about the gay community, he remains employed, as does Alex Delany. Both of them have issued social media apologies. With this new context, though, the joking tweets and fawning memes about the Test Kitchen don't hold up as well.

No surprise, Test Kitchen stans have responded to this all with even more memes and lionizing statements: "Update: we went to war for Sohla from the Bon Appétit test kitchen," reads one popular tweet. The height of the pedestal hasn't changed, though who's on the pedestal has. But as Bon Appétit changes, will its fan culture change also? To grapple with all of this new knowledge, it should.

Follow Bettina Makalintal on Twitter.

via VICE US - undefined US VICE US - undefined US via Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network

[carolrhackett85282]

The 'Bon Appétit' Test Kitchen and the Myth of the Happy Workplace

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen and its so-called "cinematic universe" has been described as follows: a "bright spot" in a "sea of garbage," the "internet's favorite cooking show," a form of "Sunday therapy," "an unstoppable force," "meme gods," and even "a Green New Deal fantasy," whatever that means.

Every night, "I check in with the chefs at Bon Appétit like I’m catching up with old friends," Louis Peitzman wrote for Buzzfeed in 2018. Another piece from earlier this year claimed the secret to Bon Appétit's YouTube success was that "everyone is just so damn likable." And having been graced with the crew's presence at the company's "Best Weekend Ever" late last year, writer and Who? Weekly host Bobby Finger recalled, "I felt not just starstruck but crazy. I mean actually deranged!"

Those are just the fawning articles. The Test Kitchen also has fan-run meme pages, an official merch store, two subreddits, and two more devoted specifically to personality Brad Leone and Gourmet Makes star Claire Saffitz. Saffitz, the kitchen's most beloved host, has been described as "the internet's collective crush," about whom people say things like "I would die for Claire" and imitate for Halloween or TikTok fame.

Man Repeller reported late last year that the channel was the fastest-growing in YouTube's food space, with more than 40 million views per month and over 5 billion total minutes watched. It currently has 6 million subscribers. As its hordes of doting fans propped the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen on the highest pedestal, the magazine's staff turned into micro-celebrities, their interpersonal dynamics became objects of obsession, and overall, the workplace was seen as a wholesome culinary ideal. What the Test Kitchen's cult of celebrity obfuscated, however, is that the Test Kitchen is just that: a workplace, like that of any other large—and therefore likely imperfect, if not problematic—institution. So honestly, what did any of us expect?

As the world found out in industry-shaking fashion this week, the reality of the Test Kitchen isn't the bastion of good that its stans have willed it to be. Last weekend, writer Illyanna Maisonet posted an exchange with Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport in which he effectively told her that Puerto Rican food wasn't trendy enough for the magazine to cover, and it read as another example of the brand's diversity problem. On Monday, after writer Tammie Teclemariam posted an old photo of Rapoport and his wife Simone Shubuck dressed in costumes centered on Puerto Rican stereotypes (in the photo, which Shubuck captioned "#TBT me and my papi #boricua," Rapoport wears a silver chain and durag), staffers blew open the door on the company's toxic culture, which has been emotionally and financially unsupportive of people of color. Rapoport—who, amid claims of brownface, maintains that he did not color his skin for the image—resigned the same day.

As assistant food editor Sohla El-Waylly wrote on Instagram on Monday, not only was she hired for her role at the rate of $50,000 per year despite her 15 years of experience (and the high cost of living in New York, where the company is located), but she was "pushed in front of video as a display of diversity" and not even paid for those appearances. Per Buzzfeed, El-Waylly and other hosts of color weren't paid for their video work, which is arranged through contracts with Condé Nast Entertainment, while white video stars were compensated. As the floodgates burst open, Twitter users soon dug up drinks editor Alex Delany's old internet history, which included a 2013 Vine of him saying the F-slur, a Confederate flag cake he'd posted to Tumblr, and a series of sexist tweets.

A damning report from Business Insider on Wednesday showed how far the brand's problems extended. From conversations with 14 former and current staffers, writer Rachel Premack concluded that BA was a "locus for exclusion and toxicity." Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, Rapoport's assistant for close to three years and the only Black woman on staff, was repeatedly denied raises from her $35,300 base salary and treated by Rapoport like "the help," in her words. "There is a big difference in terms of how they monetarily value the white employees versus the people of color," El-Waylly told BI.

On YouTube, BA's channel landed at exactly the right time. Compared to other food channels, which increasingly felt over-produced, the Test Kitchen videos were less polished; they had more personality; and they made the filming and editing processes clear. BA's videos resonated philosophically as well. Saffitz's Gourmet Makes, in which she attempts to recreate popular processed foods, is visibly an arduous and frustrating multi-day process, and at Mashable, Morgan Sung described Saffitz's series as an example of "probably the healthiest, most productive way to approach issues," while Quartz called her the "ultimate life coach."

Though the Test Kitchen's transformation into a celebrity force has been good for business, it's also set things up for exactly the reckoning that's happening now.

As with the recent situation involving Alison Roman (who got her start at BA), Chrissy Teigen, and Marie Kondo, the Test Kitchen's growing popularity and prestige outside the insular food world has complicated our ability to talk about its issues with clarity. Just as the bigger conversation about Roman and who tends to profit from cooking global food (the answer: white cooks) was largely portrayed as just a celebrity "Twitter feud," the changes at BA have been framed as the oversimplified result of a "brown face photo sparking anger" or the resurfacing of a "racially insensitive photo." The celebrity culture of the Test Kitchen begets the treatment celebrities get at gossip rags: reductive, lacking in nuance, and sounding the alarm for critics of "cancel culture." It's more than that, though.

The Test Kitchen's gargantuan online presence overrode its offline truth, as it projected and leaned into what people wanted to see, which was an Office-esque sitcom in which a friendly band of coworkers snickers behind the bumbling boss's back. As writer James Factora suggested in a tweet preceding all of this, perhaps the Test Kitchen's popularity is related to the widespread obsession with The Office. While Factora's tweet reads tongue-in-cheek, it's not wrong, and the love for the show perpetuated the illusion that a toxic workplace can be laughed at and lived with.

The Office has funny moments, but in a way, it led society astray. It suggested that a bad boss who makes clumsy, insensitive comments and makes life hard for employees can be a point of humor, instead of a toxic presence that could be booted. Who does that benefit except bosses? As BA turned the Test Kitchen into essentially its own sitcom, with each cooking star becoming an Office-esque talking head, it furthered the false notion of the perfect workplace, and people online were quick to gobble it up. The interactions between co-workers, even when off-putting, became meme fodder and pushed stans to throw their support behind their chosen star.

The idea that everything gets bad once it gets big sounds like a line ripped from Portlandia, but it is a maxim that applies to everything from emo bands to hashtags to dog breeds to cooking hosts. The higher the platform we give something, the more it can fall, and the discourse around the Test Kitchen seemed unprecedented in its fawning, at least within the food sphere. (Though we might have learned from situations like the downfall of Mario Batali.)

When we laud any product or person to this extent and make it an object of cultural obsession, it becomes easier to ignore the flaws and the parts of the conversation that don't fit what we want to see. This is true for the Test Kitchen, which could never really have met the inflated expectations of goodness that stan culture built up around it; people saw the perfect workplace because they wanted a perfect workplace. The problems at BA are institutional, but stan culture allowed people to compartmentalize the Test Kitchen as something separate and authentic.

In response to all of this, BA's parent company Condé Nast—a 111-year-old company with 6,000 employees globally at the start of this year—has announced that it will be "accelerating" its first ever diversity and inclusion report. On Tuesday, Amanda Shapiro, the editor of BA's Healthyish spinoff, became the brand's acting deputy director, and on Wednesday, the editors of BA said in a statement, "We want to be transparent, accountable, and active as we begin to dismantle racism at our brands."

Still, former staffers have identified Shapiro and other remaining BA employees as complicit in "toxic" behaviors. Despite calls for Matt Duckor, Condé Nast's head of programming for lifestyle and style, to step down over the unfair pay system and his mocking tweets about the gay community, he remains employed, as does Alex Delany. Both of them have issued social media apologies. With this new context, though, the joking tweets and fawning memes about the Test Kitchen don't hold up as well.

No surprise, Test Kitchen stans have responded to this all with even more memes and lionizing statements: "Update: we went to war for Sohla from the Bon Appétit test kitchen," reads one popular tweet. The height of the pedestal hasn't changed, though who's on the pedestal has. But as Bon Appétit changes, will its fan culture change also? To grapple with all of this new knowledge, it should.

Follow Bettina Makalintal on Twitter.

via VICE US - undefined US VICE US - undefined US via Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network