#filming starts in early summer it takes 6-7 months to film plus about a year of post production

[charlieswebb]

idk how i’m supposed to survive another one and a half to two years till the next season comes out…

[papermoonloveslucy]

MEET THE PRESS

August 3, 1969

You are clued into the frank and tough talk to come by the way Lucille Ball swipes away with her handkerchief at the flies threatening the hors d’oeuvres The kerchief almost snaps like a wet towel. 

The scene is the pool patio of her home on Beverly Hills’ Roxbury Drive and a cocktail party is in progress for visiting television editors. 

Lucy has just emerged from the main house. She wears a powder blue double-breasted slack suit and saucer-sized sun glasses. In the blazing sun her orange hair has the color intensity of hot coals. 

She has counted heads. Husband-producer Gary Morton is there. So are Desi Arnaz IV her son, and Lucy her daughter. And her TV side-kick Gale Gordon with his wife. Plus a half-dozen of her staff and CBS emissaries. There have been introductions all round to the newspaper types. It is time, she announces, to talk and she waves everybody into the big and comfortable pool house. A table has been positioned so that she can sit there presiding as she used to do at the stockholders’ meetings of the old Desilu Studios. 

Almost immediately some wag fields her the question: “Lucy do you run the show?” She flashes him that big innocent TV look of hers. A staff member jumps up “Let’s all answer that one for her” There is a resounding “YES” from family-and-cast. Everybody laughs uproariously.

Very few questions are required to prime the pump. Lucy, it seems, has some matters of personal irritation on her mind and as far as she is concerned they come tumbling out without any prodding from her would-be interrogators. 

First of all, she asks rhetorically, what’s all this business about whether she would retire? “I never said I wanted to quit or retire. There was a time when I was willing to quit but nobody asked me. Now I’ve set a date when I’ll retire” 

A lot of ears perk up Somebody asks slyly — when? She’s waiting for that. Her answer is smilingly emphatic: “When I drop dead in my tracks.” 

She turns then without anybody’s questioning to the matter of her longevity in television. This is her 18th year on the tube and it used to be talked about that she traded her popularity to CBS in return for its buying other shows produced by her company. This evokes an almost visible jet of steam out of the top of her carrot locks. “I never at any time sold any of the 20 shows our company produced on the basis of my returning each season. I’ve said that literally hundreds of times and nobody believed it.” 

She went on to make it clear that she also dislikes the “big business” image which has adhered to her over the years. “I never like to talk about big money. I make my deal and that’s all. It’s been mostly a matter of legal procedures.” 

As the star wades into these fiscal subjects your eye roams over the assemblage. Young Desi in tennis togs impassively studies the smoke curling up from a cigarette. Young Lucy clutches her hands around her knees and stares intently at her mother. Husband Gary sitting on a ledge at the back of the room swings his legs and smiles. 

There has been no mention of Desi the elder the former husband Lucy’s co-performer and co-founder of Desilu Studios (now sold). Earlier this writer had chatted briefly with young Desi. He said he saw his father off and on and spends his summers as a rule at the father’s beach home at Delmar, south of Los Angeles. 

The youngster asked if I knew his grandfather Dr. Desiderio Arnaz who lives in Coral Gables.  (1)

But back to Lucy She’s telling us how many years it took to realize that as Lucille Ball she had attained V.I.P. status.

She reviews the years she spent trying to make it in show business, first on the stage, then as a model, and finally in the movies. Much of the time she says she stagnated. Until television came along. 

“I never had any sense of importance. I was very pliable always willing to do what I was told It wasn’t until one day I saw in print somewhere some actress described as a ‘Lucille Ball type’ that I knew suddenly I was somebody and a part of the business.” 

From there on the interview jumps from subject to subject. 

I ask her whatever happened to the project Dean Martin’s producer Greg Garrison had for starring Martin, her, and Jackie Gleason in a revival of the musical “Guys and Dolls.”  (2)

“I never said I would do it. Garrison kept publicizing it, but he never cleared it with me. I do still want to do ‘Diamond Jim’ with Jackie It’s just a matter of finding the time.” (3)

A lady editor wants to know how Lucy keeps her sinuous figure. 

“I don’t particularly like food. I’m not very fond of meat, for example, except in the morning.” 

Which brings a snort of disgust from her husband. “Can you imagine what it’s like to have to watch her eating corned beef or hamburger at 6 o’clock in the morning?” 

The questions now go to the children. What are Desi’s plans? Does he want to make acting his future? “I want to be an actor for awhile but I don’t think I ever want to be one certain thing.” 

Young Lucy, who, at 18, is two years older than her brother, is more sure of her future “I’ll go to college for awhile but I like acting. I’ll stay at it if I can.” 

Would she somebody asks join the campus protest and carry a sign? Only if it says ‘wet paint’ quips she. 

Lucy now introduces her cast veteran, Gale Gordon. He pays her extravagant compliments and talks a bit about his radio and early television days. 

The interview’s late arrival is venerable George Marshall, who is now the show’s director. Lucy introduces him as “our sexy senior citizen.” Marshall goes back to the dawn of movies and is filled with fascinating anecdotes about his years in the business. (4)

The conversation turns to TV’s talk shows. Somebody suggests to Lucy that she would be a highly likely guest for Merv Griffin’s new show starting on CBS Aug 18. (5)

Lucy's answer comes lancing back “That’s what you think. I don’t like him.” Which rocks everybody back. Why not? “Because he doesn’t know how to interview. He’s rude to his guests and he monopolizes the conversation.” 

She doesn’t wait for the next question. “I’m wild about Dick Cavett (on ABC) I think he’s great And I told Bill Paley (board chairman of CBS) he should have him on our network. But Bill said ABC got him first and we’re out of luck.” (6)

Everybody is suddenly distracted by three teen-age girl fans leaning over a fence way up front. They’re begging to be allowed on the grounds. Morton jogs forward to shoo them away. 

“This happens all the time,” says Lucy. “My God they used to picnic right in front of the house until our police department stopped them. Jimmy Stewart, who lives up the street, finally told me how to keep them away. Turn on the lawn sprinklers.” 

Morton returns and takes everybody for a tour of their luxurious but very lived-in home. Lucy tells us a funny story about how Jack and Mary Benny had once been their next door neighbors sold their home then asked her to try to mediate a re-sale of the place back to them. Then we take our leave.

#    #    # FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) Dr. Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y Alberni II (1894-1973) was a Cuban politician and the father of Desi Arnaz. He graduated from the Southern College of Pharmacy in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia. Desiderio Arnaz II was the youngest mayor of Santiago de Cuba (1923–32). When president Machado was overthrown in August 1933, Arnaz was arrested and jailed. Six months later, he was allowed to go into exile. He married Dolores "Lolita" de Acha y de Socias in 1916 and had one son, Desiderio "Desi" Arnaz III. He later had a daughter, Connie Arnaz (1932), with Anne M. Wilson, whom he married in 1941.

(2) Guys & Dolls was a 1950 stage musical by Frank Loesser, based on the stories by Damon Runyon starring Robert Alda, who appeared on several episodes of “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy”.  It was filmed by MGM in 1955. During that time, Lucy and Desi were also under contract to MGM, so they prevailed upon “I Love Lucy” to insert a clip from the film into “Lucy and the Dummy” (ILL S5;E3). After its initial airing on October 17, 1955, the clip was removed from the film print, and for legal reasons, has never been restored. It is unclear whether Garrison’s project with Martin, Ball, and Gleason would have been a film revival, or a stage production. Whatever it was to be, Lucy wanted to have no part of it, perhaps remembering the rigors of performing on stage in Wildcat (1960). During her film career, Ball was in two films based on Damon Runyon material, The Big Street (1942), a film she claimed as her favorite, and Sorrowful Jones (1949). She also did a radio version of Runyon’s “Tight Shoes” in 1942. Ball and Gleason would have been cast as Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit, while Dean Martin would have played Sky Masterson, the romantic lead. Those roles were played by Vivian Blaine, Frank Sinatra, and Marlon Brando in the film. Obviously, the project never came to be. 

(3) “Diamond Jim” was a project that Lucy dearly wanted to make with Gleason. He would play Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917) to her Lillian Russell. Ball even went so far as to have a script written to further grab Gleason’s attention. Despite their best intentions, Gleason and Ball’s schedules never allowed for enough time to make the film. 

(4) George Marshall (1891-1975) had directed Lucille Ball in Valley of the Sun (1942) and Fancy Pants (1950).  He was considered an expert at location shooting, so when “Here’s Lucy” wanted to spend the first four episodes of Season 2 on location, Marshall was hired as director. He stayed on for seven more episodes of the sitcom before bowing out. 

(5) Despite Lucille Ball’s rather harsh public assessment of Merv Griffin (1925-2007) at this August 1969 press party, Ball appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” four times between 1971 and 1980! During her first appearance, the aforementioned George Marshall was also a guest! 

(6) Lucille did seem to enjoy doing the talking to Dick Cavett, although she only got to do his chat show once, on March 7, 1974, in conjunction with her press tour for Mame. 

[lovabletomholland]

The Beach House - Chapter 7

Tom Holland Imagine (Tom Holland x Reader)

Word Count: 2,014

Warnings: Language, Angst, Fluff, Sexual Content (NOT Smut)

Summary: You spend the last couple days you have with Tom with him and are surprised to learn Harry is leaving as well. Now it is back to school and talking to Tom becomes less and less. You are grateful for the time spent with him and hey there is always next summer.

A/N: I know! I am so sorry that this is so late. Things have been pretty rough lately and I just haven’t had the time. Things are looking better now so I am hoping to get back into tumblr! Anyways, thank you all so much for the feedback and the support! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Only one chapter and the epilogue is left! Sad to see it coming to an end.

Previously- Chapter 6

He's not just yours and he can never be just yours. His talents belong to the world. Which is something you wish you hadn't forgot about. "Oh," you say again feeling numb. "I'm sorry, love. I should have told you sooner. I know that. I just didn't want to ruin the fun time we were having." You feel his arms wrap around you in a tight embrace. Your arms slowly go around his waist and you bury your face in his chest, trying to hold back the tears. You will not cry. Not over this. You are stronger than this, you knew eventually summer would end and you two would have to go your separate ways. It just came on sooner than you thought. "Not gonna lie, this sucks," you mumble against his chest. "It does," he kisses the top of your head, "we still have two days together, lets enjoy them, okay?" "Okay," you pull back and smile weakly at him. You lay on the bed as Tom packs what things he can. When he is finished he puts his suitcase in the floor and crawls on the bed next to you scooping you up into his arms, making you giggle. He kisses your jawline, your cheek to your earlobe where he nibbles gently and you bite your bottom lip, enjoying the feeling of his lips on your skin, your eyes close in bliss. That's when you feel him pull away, "It drives me crazy when you do that." "Hmmm?" You open your eyes to see him hovering over you. "Your lip biting, it drives me crazy. I don't even think you realize you're doing it half the time," his eyes roam your face and stops on your lips. You chew on your bottom lip a little longer before smiling at him. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull his lips down to yours, "Just kiss me," you mumble against his lips. It's not long until it's gotten really heated between you two. His shirt is somewhere on the floor. His hands are under your shirt, sliding over the bare skin of your stomach, leaving goosebumps. You feel him tug on your shirt and you know he is asking permission to take it off so you nod. You pull away long enough for your shirt to get pulled over your head and then you are kissing him again feverishly as his hands roam over your stomach and breasts once your bra is off. He pulls back and looks down at you. You look away unable to meet his eyes as they move back up to your face. "You're so beautiful," he whispers and your eyes slowly meet his, you can feel the warmth on your cheeks. You see nothing but love in his eyes as he looks at you which makes you smile. "You're sweet," you whisper as your eyes scan his exposed torso, "and extremely handsome." It is a little intimidating, you have to admit. You wrap your legs around his waist to bring him closer, your lips meeting his again. You let out a soft moan as he kisses down your neck and as he is kissing your collarbone that is when his bedroom door suddenly opens. You spring apart grabbing the duvet to cover yourself and Tom keeps himself in front of you, to shield you from view of the person who just walked in. "Oh, uh… sorry." Harrison mumbles and you peek around Tom to see him as he turns around to walk back out, "Please remember that I have to sleep in that bed tonight too," Harrison says as the door closes behind him. You pull the cover up over your face in embarrassment. However, you are happy Haz interrupted. You are not ready for that and it was quite possible that you would have got carried away just now. "Darling, you okay?" Tom asks, concern in his voice. You uncover your face to look at him, "Yeah I am good. Where is my bra and shirt?" Tom gets up and grabs them for you. "Here," he says handing them over. "Thanks," you take them, making sure to keep yourself covered as you try to put them back on. Even though he saw you a second ago with them off. Tom doesn't say anything about it though, which you are grateful for. "You wanna watch a movie?" You ask once your bra and shirt is back on. "Sure," Tom smiles and settles in the bed next to you. You snuggle into him, getting comfy as he puts a movie on the TV. *** The next two days are wonderful but go by way to quickly for your liking. As you are hugging Tom goodbye you are surprised to see Harry walk by with his bags. You pull away quickly and look at Harry. "Wait, you're leaving too?" You ask him sadly. You thought you'd still have him and Sam. "Yeah. Tom and I are working on a script together. I thought he told you?" "No," you pout at both of them, "is Sam going too?" "No, you're stuck with me." Sam says walking up behind you and that makes you smile. "Well at least you care enough to stay with me," you say to tease the other two who whine at you. "That's not fair Y/N. You know I have to go," Tom complains. "I know. I'm only teasing," you wave him off and hug Harry tightly. "I wish you would have told me you were leaving too," you whisper. You would have evened out your time between him and Tom but because you didn't know you mostly hung out with Tom. "Hey, don't worry about it. We can get together another time," Harry said giving you a squeeze before pulling away. "I'll hold you to that," you grin at him. Things have become more normal between you two which you are thankful for. You still wonder what was going on with him though you are pretty sure you know what it was about. Which makes you sad, you never wanted or meant to hurt him. He has always been like a brother to you. Everyone else says their goodbyes and before you know it Tom and Harry are gone. "So you are staying even though Tom has left?" You ask Harrison. He nods, "Yeah. A few more days, then I have to get going as well." You spend some time with Harrison until he eventually leaves too. The rest of your time at the beach house is spent with Sam and your brother but mostly Sam. When you are back at home, and later when you visit your dad, you and Tom facetime as much as possible but it proves difficult with the time difference. He is in the US while you are in the UK. It only becomes more difficult when you move back to the dorms and get back to classes once summer is over. You and Tom talk less and less as the days go by. You are sad about it at first but soon you are too busy with exams to have much time to think about it or him. You’re sure he is super busy with filming and such as well. You guys haven't officially broken up but you are sure it is over between the two of you. Summer is definitely over.

***

About four months back into classes you got the call that you expected. Tom called and explained that he has been busy and that it would be best that the two of you just remained friends. You agreed, of course and although you were a little sad at first because it was officially over now you are just grateful for the experience and the time you spent together. It's been a year now and summer vacation is back so of course that means it’s back to the beach house. You are excited about that and a little nervous. You haven't seen Tom since last summer but you also don't think he will be there. Last time you spoke to Harry he said Tom has been extremely busy which you knew of course. He has filmed two more movies after Spider-Man 3, not to mention press tours and the charity work he has been doing. You know Tom is doing a press tour now for Spider-Man 3, the world premiere for that movie is just two days away. "You sure you don't want to go to the premiere?" You ask Harry, who you're on the phone with as you finish packing for the beach. "I mean you usually go to all the premieres with him, right?" "Sort of but he is okay with me missing this one. Harrison and Tuwaine are with him. Plus he has Jacob and Zendaya at the premiere as well since it's their movie too. He will be fine without me," Harry says, "besides, I haven’t seen you since I visited you on campus in like December. I've seen Tom basically every day. So clearly you come first," he chuckles. You giggle, "Well I'm glad. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" You say your goodbyes and put your phone up to finish packing for the trip. You barely sleep that night because you're so excited and early next morning you are at the airport with your mom and brother. When you get to the beach you run up to Nikki and hug her tightly. She giggles, hugging you back "It's good to see you too sweetie," she pulls back and looks you over, "you get even more beautiful every year," she smiles at you. "Oh stop, like my mom your opinion is biased but thanks anyways," you giggle as you grab your bags and head inside. Nikki yells after you, "They are not!" Which makes you giggle more as you walk upstairs. You put your bags down in your bedroom then you walk over to the twin’s door. You knock on the door and hear an "It's open!" Come from the other side. You gently push the door open and are met with the beaming faces of Sam and Harry. "Well at least you two are awake this time," you tease as they rush over. You are sandwiched between them as they hug you tightly. You spend some time with them catching up and then the three of you go down to the beach for the day. When you come back up the sky is starting to get dark and you sit at the table to eat dinner which is when you notice something. "Where is Paddy?" you ask Nikki. "He wanted to go to the premiere. Him and Dom should be here in a couple days," she smiles and you nod. After dinner you go up to your room to unpack but you end up falling asleep instead. Guess the flight and staying on the beach so long wore you out. *** A week passes quickly as you spend time with the twins, your brother, and Paddy. At the moment you are spending some alone time by the pool while the boys are down at the beach. It is exactly what you needed. You put your earbuds in your ears and start your music as you let the sun dry you off and work on your tan. You're laying on your stomach when someone pokes your side. "Stop Harry," you mumble without opening your eyes. Your side gets poked again and you swat the hand away. "I'm serious Harry," you say more firmly still keeping your eyes closed.  That's when you feel a weigh sit on the edge of your lounge chair and you open your eyes to see a torso that is way too muscular to be Harry’s. You pull out your earbuds as you turn around on your back to face Tom. "Wasn't expecting to see you here," you say and are happy to hear that your voice is even because your heart is trying to pound out of your chest. 

Chapter 8 - coming soon

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If your name has a line through it, it means I can’t tag you.

[crowdvscritic]

round up // MARCH + APRIL 21

March and April were a whirlwind of vaccines and awards shows! A full year after we starting staying at home, the end of this weird chapter in recent history seems like it might finally be coming to a close, and this pop culture awards season—typically a time full of fun and glamour—captured our moment weirdly well. (Emphasis on the weird.) This month’s recommendations is filled with more Critic Picks than usual, so without further delay, let’s dive right in...

March + April Crowd-Pleasers

Double Feature — 2018 Action Thrillers: Bad Times at the El Royale + Den of Thieves

In Bad Times at the El Royale (Crowd: 9/10, // Critic: 8/10), Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, and Dakota Johnson are staying at a motel on the California-Nevada state line full of money, murder, and mystery. In Den of Thieves (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6.5/10), Gerard Butler takes on some of the best bank robbers in the world. Whether you like your action with a dose of mystery or the thrills of plot twists, these will fit the bill.

Double Feature — ‘80s Comedies: Caddyshack (1980) + Splash (1984)

In the mood for pure silliness? Take your pick between a mermaid and a gopher! Five years before The Little Mermaid, Tom Hanks fell for Daryl Hannah’s blonde hair and scaly tail, and John Candy was his goofy brother in Splash (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10). And four years before Ghostbusters, Bill Murray was the goof on a golf course full of funny people like Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, and Ted Knight in Caddyshack (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10).

Double Feature — 1980s Coming-of-Age Films Starring Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, and Challenging Brother Relationships That Influenced Stranger Things: Stand by Me (1986) + The Lost Boys (1987)

Believe it or not, I had no idea these two ‘80s classics had so much in common when I chose to watch them back-to-back. In Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Stand by Me (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10), four kids (Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, River Phoenix, and Wil Wheaton) are following train tracks to find a missing body. In The Lost Boys (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10), Corey Haim and Jason Patric move to a small California town and discover it’s full of ‘80s movie star cameos and…vampires? One is a thoughtful coming-of-age story and one is just bonkers, but both are a great time.

Spaceman by Nick Jonas (2021)

My love for the Jonas Brothers is well-documented, so instead of going down the rabbit hole I started digging at 15, I’ll talk about how Nick Jonas’s latest solo album will likely appeal to a wider audience than just the fans of the brothers’ bombastic pop records. It’s full of catchy tunes you’ll play on repeat and an R&B-influenced album experience about the loneliness we’ve experienced in the last year and how we try to make long-term relationships work.

Ted Lasso (2020- )

I love stories about nice people crushing cruelty and cynicism with relentless kindness, and Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is the warmest, most dedicated leader this side of Leslie Knope. Be sure to catch up on these witty and sweet 10 episodes before season 2 drops later this summer.

Double Feature — Tony Scott Action Flicks: Enemy of the State (1998) + The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

Tony Scott’s movies have got explosions and excitement in spades. I love a good man-on-the-run movie, and in Enemy of the State (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10), Will Smith is running through the streets of D.C. after getting evidence of a politician’s (Jon Voight) part in a murder. I also love a tense story set in a confined space, which is what Denzel Washington is dealing with in The Taking of Pelham 123 (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 7/10) after a hammy John Travolta takes a New York subway train hostage.

Double Feature — Baseball Movies: The Natural (1984) + Trouble With the Curve (2012)

Sue me—I love baseball movies. Robert Redford plays a fictional all-time great in the early days of the MLB in The Natural (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10), and Clint Eastwood plays a fictional all-time great scout in his late career in Trouble With the Curve (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7.5/10). If you love baseball or actors like Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, and Justin Timberlake, these movies are just right here waiting for you.

Nate Bargatze: The Greatest Average American (2021)

Sue me—I enjoy Netflix standup comedy specials that are safe enough to watch with your whole family. That’s exactly the crowd I laughed with over Easter weekend, and while the trailer captures Bargatze’s relaxed vibe, it doesn’t capture how funny he really is.

The Mighty Ducks (1992)

I thought somewhere in my childhood I’d seen at least one of The Mighty Ducks movies, but after watching all three, I think my memories must’ve come from previews on the VHS tapes for other Disney movies I watched over and over again. The original still holds up as an grown-ups, which is why even my parents got sucked in to this family movie while just passing through the living room. Bonus for ‘80s movies lovers: Emilio Estevez is basically continuing Andrew Clark’s story from The Breakfast Club as an adult. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

Double Feature — New, Dumb Action on Streaming: Godzilla vs. Kong + Thunder Force (2021)

If you want something intelligent, go ahead and skip to the next recommendation, but if you’re looking for something stupid fun, these are ready for you on HBO Max and Netflix. Thunder Force (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6/10) follows Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer as they train to become superheroes who take on superhuman sociopaths wreaking havoc on Chicago, and alongside Jason Bateman, they do it with a lot of laughs. Godzilla vs. Kong (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 5/10) is, um, exactly what it sounds like, so I’ll skip a plot summary and just say it’s exactly what you want from this kind of movie. #TeamKong

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

All you need to know is Russell Crowe is an outlaw, and Christian Bale is the guy who’s got to get him on the train to prison. I also watched the 1957 version, which is also a solid watch if you love classic Westerns. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10

Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

Marvel’s newest series isn’t nearly as inventive as WandaVision, and it may not land every beat, but it’s worth a watch for the fun new gadgets, Sebastian Stan’s dry joke delivery, and its exploration into themes of what makes a hero and what governments owe their citizens. It’s a pretty satisfying entry in the MCU canon, but I’d also recommend re-watching Captain America: Winter Soldier and Civil War—the canon is getting expansive, and it’s getting trickier every year to keep up with all the backstory.

March + April Critic Picks

Best of 2020 Picks

As per usual, the months leading up to the Oscars becomes a binge period for potential Oscar nominees. In March and April, I watched many of the films that made my Top 20 of 2020, including Boys State, The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Let Them All Talk, Minari, Nomadland, On the Rocks, One Night in Miami…, Promising Young Woman, Soul, and Sound of Metal. You can read how I ranked them on my list for ZekeFilm, plus reviews of The Father, Minari, Promising Young Woman, and Soul.

Bonus: If you loved On the Rocks, don’t miss this feature and beautiful photography starring Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, and Rashida Jones for W Magazine. 

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

What would you do if you started hearing a voice who narrated your every thought and move? If you’re Will Ferrell, you’ll seek out a literary professor (Dustin Hoffman), fall in love (with Maggie Gyllenhaal), and track down the voice (Emma Thompson) who’s making ominous predictions about your future. Stranger Than Fiction is funny thought-provoking, and an unusual but welcome role for Ferrell. Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

All the Royal Family News

Speaking of stranger than fiction, it’s been a busy few months for the Royal Family. We’ve celebrated 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the 3rd birthday of Prince Louis, and the 10th anniversary of Will and Kate’s marriage. We also lost Prince Philip, and we watched the drama of Harry and Meaghan’s interview with Oprah. No matter what happens to their Crown, I don’t think we’ll ever get over our fascination with the Windsor family. A few pieces worth reading from the last few months:

“In Meghan and Harry’s Interview, Two TV Worlds Collided,” Vulture.com

“The Queen’s Man: Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Dies,” TIME.com

“Obituary: HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” BBC.com

Goodfellas (1990)

One of my film opinions that makes me feel like a phony is that Martin Scorsese just isn’t my cup of tea. He’s brilliant, but his films tend to be long and dark, two qualities that are never my first choice…and somehow Goodfellas still worked for me? Maybe it was the TV edit graciously toning down the violence or maybe it was that Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci were firing on all cylinders, but for some reason this ‘90s classic didn’t suck the joy out of my evening like Scorsese often does. (Bonus: For a Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro I don’t really recommend, head to the last section of this Round Up.)

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021)

Her voice has only matured, so Taylor Swift revisiting her old albums is like upgrading a blast to the past. Plus, the six new tracks make me feel like 15 crushing on that boy in Spanish class again, and her Grammys performance (just before her third Album of the Year win) was magical and folklore-tastic.

Double Feature — ‘60s Action Classics: The Guns of Navarone (1961) + Planet of the Apes (1968)

The Guns of Navarone (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) follows Gregory Peck and David Niven as they destroy Nazi weapons in the Mediterranean. Planet of the Apes (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) follows Charlton Heston as he attempts to escape from, well, a planet full of apes. The pacing of ‘60s films doesn’t always hold up, but that’s not the case with this pair. Both are still full of suspense, and you can’t go wrong hanging with casts like these.

Let Him Go (2020)

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play a farming couple who unexpectedly help raise a boy who lost his biological father—sound familiar? But instead of a superhero origin story, they’re part of a thrilling Western with performances nuanced (Costner and Lane) and showy (Lesley Manville). If I’d watched this before completing my Best of 2020 piece, it likely would’ve been on my list. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

The Oscars

I’m a ride-or-die fan of the Academy Awards, but I’ll admit even I found this year’s ceremony odd. Instead of focusing on what wasn’t so hot, I’ll recommend a few moments you don’t want to miss:

Emerald Fennell giving a shout-out to Saved by the Bell

Daniel Kaluuya acknowledging his parents’ sex life during his acceptance speech (??)

Yuh-Jung Yoon flirting with Brad Pitt and acknowledging she’s just “luckier” than her fellow nominees

Glenn Close dancing to…”Da Butt”?

You can also read about the historic wins and nominations from this year’s Oscar class and why the Golden Globes were an even stranger production weeks earlier.

Trailer-palooza!

Movies are on their way back, y’all! I’m counting down the days until I can get back to a theatre, and even if some of these movies are duds, I’m planning to see all of them on a big screen if possible:

Those Who Wish Me Dead (May 14)

Cruella (May 28)

In the Heights (June 11)

Space Jam 2 (July 16)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 3)

West Side Story (December 10)

Also in March + April…

To add to the Oscars love, you can listen to a conversation about what we learn about family, community, and society in some of the year’s biggest nominees on the Uncommon Voices podcast. I join regular hosts Michael and Kenneth in this episode, and I recommend all of their thoughtful discussions on their “What’s Streaming” episodes.

I’ve previously recommended the Do You Like Apples weekly newsletter, so I’m proud to share I contributed twice in March! I wrote about Love and Basketball, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and one of my all-time favorite Julia Roberts rom-coms, Notting Hill. (I also tied to win their Oscars pool, but I suppose that’s less exciting for you than me.)

It was a busy couple of months on SO IT’S A SHOW! New logo, new email list, new Instagram, and a host of new episodes about a flop of a Madonna flick, a Swedish children’s TV show, an urban legend turned into a horror movie, one of the best films about journalism ever, and a Martin Scorsese movie about a real boxer.

Most of what I wrote for ZekeFilm in March and April was mentioned in Best of 2020 recommendations…except for The Nest, a film that couldn’t figure out what genre it wanted to be.

Photo credits: Nick Jonas, Royal Family. All others IMDb.com.

[wild-aloof-rebel]

Hey, I often read that the timeline doesn't always makes sense in sc and now I'm curious! Do you have some examples??

oh absolutely. i’ve discussed it with various others in various posts across my blog, but let’s see if i can get most of the highlights in one post.

most of the confusion centers around the timeline of s4, including david’s birthday (and thus the start of his relationship with patrick), a couple throwaway comments about summer, and jocelyn’s pregnancy, so let’s start with that.

this discussion nearly always starts with david’s pin in “moira’s nudes” because he indicates that he uses his birthday as his pin. what he types into the atm is 1282, which would make his birthday either jan 2 1982 or feb 1 1982 depending on whether that’s month-day-year like in the u.s. or day-month-year like most of the rest of the world. HOWEVER, what he tells the teller is 7283, which would make his birthday either jul 2 1983 or feb 7 1983. she does tell him before that that he needs to pick a new pin, so you could assume that 7283 is the new pin and not his birthday, but after he says it out loud, johnny says “what about my birthday?” which implies that what david just said is indeed his own birthday. (plus, i trust a number written into the actual dialogue—and therefore officially part of the script—to be more accurate than whatever dan happened to punch into the machine while filming.) anyway, the point is that we’re already starting from a place of confusion, where we have four potential options for david’s birthdate. so which one is it?

we know from “grad night” that david’s birthday is on the same day as alexis’s high school graduation. in canada, the school year ends in late june, so it would then make sense for “grad night” to take place in late june/very early july. three of the options for david’s birthday are in january and february, which leaves us with july 2 as the only birthday option that makes sense to be on the same night as alexis’s graduation. okay, cool. that means david’s birthday–and thus david and patrick’s first date–is on july 2. we’re getting somewhere.

in “pregnancy test” jocelyn finds out she’s pregnant. it’s clearly been long enough for her to have noticed and thought she was maybe going through menopause instead. david and patrick have presumably been dating for at least a week or two at this point, though possibly a bit longer. either way, this is most likely still in july (or possibly very early august), and jocelyn is likely about 2 months pregnant at this point.

in “asbestos fest” alexis says “is this the number? it’s the middle of summer.” middle might be a stretch, but feasibly yes, this can certainly still be summer.

in “open mic” jocelyn and roland find out the sex of the baby, which typically happens around 4 to 5 months. that puts us about 2 to 3 months after “pregnancy test” which would mean that the open mic night is taking place in probably late september or into october. so far so good.

“the barbecue” rolls around, and it’s david and patrick’s four month anniversary. that makes it november. weird time of year for a barbecue, and they’re clearly having unseasonably warm weather, but alright, climate change etc etc. we can make this work at a very long stretch.

stevie says david waited “a full week to forgive [patrick]” which means “the olive branch” is a week after rachel shows up. however, stevie also says “you’re wearing a leather sweater in the dead of summer,” which… what?? that can’t be anywhere close to true.

after that is jocelyn’s baby shower, which is typically around the 6 to 8 month mark of a pregnancy. if she was 4 to 5 months in open mic, that puts us somewhere between november and january for the shower.

“singles week” rolls around and jocelyn goes into labor “a few days early” according to johnny. therefore it’s been pretty much a full nine months now. if “pregnancy test” was in july, that puts jocelyn giving birth in about february. which would be fine except…

roland jr. is clearly no more than a few months old in “merry christmas johnny rose.” this definitely can’t be the following christmas or he’d be closer to 10 months old (there’s no way the baby in the carrier is that old). but it also can’t be the preceding christmas because there’s no way he was born then. 

since that doesn’t work, let’s say we shift everything back to david having a january birthday instead, which pushes everything up by six months. that means roland jr. is born in august, which makes the christmas stuff work out a bit better. it also makes stevie’s comment about the leather sweater in the dead of summer better because now it would be taking place in may, when it could theoretically be hot enough out to be considered summer. but then you’ve got the issue of alexis somehow graduating in january, which doesn’t work at all, and you’ve got asbestos fest taking place in february or so, which is by no means “the middle of summer” as alexis says.

the only way that both asbestos fest and david’s olive branch can both take place in summer is if one is at the start of the summer and the other is at the end. if we say then that “the olive branch” takes place in august, that puts david’s birthday and his first date with patrick in april. that gives us roland jr being born around november, which works with the christmas special sort of okay. this is probably the timeline that works best, but it only works if you completely ignore the whole pin situation because NONE of those indicate that david’s birthday could be in april.

everything about the timeline works like this. you have to pick and choose what aspects of it to ignore to make the rest work. david can be born in july if you ignore stevie’s comment about summer in “the olive branch” and roland jr. somehow being born before christmas. david can be be born in january if you ignore asbestos fest taking place in summer and the timing of alexis’s graduation. david can be born in april if you ignore alexis’s graduation and “moira’s nudes” which means ofc assuming that he doesn’t know his own damn birthdate.

i think we’ve collectively mostly decided from that to stick with july 2 even though it causes issues (as all options do) because a) it’s the pin that david actually says aloud, b) it really is the only one that works with “grad night," and c) since it’s the one he actually says aloud, that means it’s [presumably] what was written into the script

that same principle applies elsewhere too. like moira’s career.

she says in “ronnie’s party” that she had a 6 ½ season television career.

in “wine and roses” johnny mentions her being on seasons 3, 4, and 5. that puts her on the show somewhere between seasons 1 and 9. if she started in s1, she was on it through part of s7; if she started in s3, she was on it through part of s9. (all of that is presuming that her seasons were consecutive, of course.)

in “rock on!” we see a training video that was clearly made in the 80s where moira is looking for a tape from s21 of sunrise bay. if we say the training video was made in ‘89 at the latest with s21 having aired that same year, that puts s1 as taking place in 1968 and thus moira having acted on the show somewhere between 1968 and 1977.

in “a whisper of desire” moira says she was cast in cabaret in 1979 at the age of 17 (david says she was not actually 17, and therefore she was probably at least a few years older). either way, this seems to be her first acting job (or at least before she hits it big in any way) as she says she was working at a gas station at the time. but if her big break came in 1979, she definitely couldn’t have been on sunrise bay prior to that. to compound on that, even if she was a few years older than 17 at that point, that would still make her a teenager during at least part of 1968 - 1977 and from what she’s said about the plots on sunrise bay, it seems unlikely that she was a teenager when she was filming it (she played her own father, for instance). that means she must have been on sunrise bay sometime after 1979, but then there’s no way that s21 would have happened sometime in 1989 or earlier OR moira was not on s3, s4, and s5. 

just to throw an extra wrench into all of it, in “rip moira rose” they also indicate that she was projected to be nominated for 12 daytime emmys, which doesn’t really work with only having been on the show for 6 ½ seasons. (some of those could be for guest star work on other shows perhaps, but that’s a whole lot of guest roles to be nominated for, especially since nothing else she’s ever said about her career indicates that she did that at all)

just like with all the stuff with david’s birthday and roland jr., you can make some of that work together, but you’re gonna have to pick and choose what to ignore in order to get there. that’s the kind of stuff we mean when we say the timeline is a mess. in the broadest of strokes, if you squint, it all kinda comes together. but when you start looking at the details of it, you can’t get all of it to fit neatly into place

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

August Picks

And so we’re back for another end of month wrap up! Looking back I feel like I didn’t watch too many new things; I finished a few shows that I talked about last month (the 100, Blood & Treasure to name a few). I guess it’s good I watched less-maybe I went outside more? 

Spoilers....

DERRY GIRLS SEASON 2

You all already know how much I love this show, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m starting with it I was SO EXCITED to hear that season 2 was coming to Netflix August 1st and I tried my best to drag out watching the episodes. But it’s really really hard when there’s only 6 of them (a half hour each) and they’re just SOO GOOD! So I finished in about a week, but I guess that’s better than a day. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I enjoyed season 2 more than season 1. I laughed so hard (and got a little teared up in the last episode-especially afterwards when it was over and I discovered that next season won’t start filming until 2020!) I LOVED the stories this season and how the adults got more of a major plot-line in each episode. At times I laughed harder at them (at the movie theater, Gerry making the sandwiches at the funeral). More people seriously need to check out this show. It’s hilarious and a quick watch that you won’t want to end. 

KRYPTON SEASON (SERIES) FINALE

Syfy’s Krypton ended a few weeks ago, but I was holding off watching it until last week. I know I had said this in my last review, but this season was tough for me to get into, but once I did then I was really enjoying it. However, once we got to the last couple of episodes I was losing interest again. Plus, hearing that the show was cancelled made it harder to finish. SPOILERS! So, we knew they had to defeat Zod and it made sense that he is now under the Black Mercy (like Lyta was), but obviously this is only a temporary fix. He’ll definitely find his way out; he’s smart. Then Brainiac and Doomsday are still an issue, so while things are safe for now things didn’t exactly get settled. Now I get they thought they’d get a third season so things would have to be resolved later, but this still feels like a lot. Of course I’m upset that we won’t see Jor-El getting rescued AND the next season build up with Brainiac taking him to Earth to create his very own “Superman” seems really interesting. But we won’t see it. Meanwhile Nyssa is off world and Lobo is back (he was funny so I was happy to see him again). Like I said, I’m not surprised the show got cancelled, but I think a third season would have been good. What do you think?

CATCHING UP 

ARROW

It might have been MONTHS in the making, but I FINALLY caught up and finished Arrow season 7. I was only 3 episodes behind, but it took me a very long time to complete. My main comments on this season was that the beginning was good and the rest was eh. I liked Oliver in the prison and while I was done with Diaz very early on I was happy to see that story-line resolved. Now, while I did take a very long time to watch this season in entirety (and that might be the main reason I feel this way), Oliver being in the prison feels like A LONG time ago (and a completely different season). When I look back on this season I really just think of him and Emiko who I was not a fan of. We lose Thea and welcome another half-sister who we learn knew about the sinking of the Queen’s Gambit before anyone else. The constant back and forth of trying to save Emiko got very repetitive and while I know Oliver as the hero could not give up on her fully, I wanted him to. I was also not a huge fan of the flash forward this year. At times I did like it, but I think the show did fine that one season when there was no added plot-line. The ending to this season was a disappointment. I was very curious how things with Felicity would end seeing as how she is not going to return for the final season. But overall it felt very much like a SERIES finale, which makes me worried for the last season. Will it just feel like a filler? How many people will return? Will we even be in Star City? Taking Oliver away like that sucked and I really hope he gets reunited with his children.

THE FLASH

As a big fan of all the CW Arrow-verse shows this past season I had a hard time getting into most of them and got VERY behind on episodes before just giving up on watching altogether. While Arrow was one that I was just a couple episodes behind for most of the year and Legends of Tomorrow I binged all at once the Flash and Supergirl dropped off my watch-list. This was sad for me because I had enjoyed these shows a lot, so now at the end of summer we’re giving it a second go! This month I began the 5th season of the Flash and am currently on episode 5? I only remembered the first 2 episodes, which shows you how long ago I stopped watching. I remember not being a huge fan of Nora West-Allen and this is mainly because they are making the actress seem a lot younger than she is. The mistakes she makes and her overall attitude feels better suited for a pre-teen/young adult rather than someone in their twenties. I’m still holding out hope that this changes as the episodes progress. I really love this idea of having Barry and Iris’ daughter in the past (because it feels very much like something Barry would do) and how they are still addressing the headline of the Flash’s disappearance. I feel like maybe as we uncover more about Nora’s past I will enjoy her character more. This season I like the return to the CCPD and Iris’ blog. Sometimes the alter-ego jobs get pushed aside and I am happy to see the return of Barry and Iris in the field as themselves. With this addition to her character plus the fact that Nora is being completely rude to her, I feel this is the most I’ve like Iris in a very long time. I love how she stands by her decision of keeping Nora’s powers a secret even though she hasn’t done so yet, and the fact that Barry is with her. I’m glad they’re finally taking her character to places outside of STAR Labs. I think Caitlin’s story-line of finding her father is really interesting as well as the origins of Killer Frost. This reincarnation of Wells will take some getting used to, but I already like his dynamic with Ralph (baby giraffe) and of course Cisco. (They are always the best.) I’ll continue watching and see if my feelings change, but I do feel that I’m getting invested again, which makes me happy. 

MOVIES

Descendants 3

Should I be embarrassed that I am putting Descendants 3 on this list and I am a lot older than the intended audience? Nope. While this DCOM came out at the beginning of the month, it has replayed on Disney Channel dozens of times already so I feel I have watched it fully or in clips many times. Out of the entire series this movie is one of my favorites. I like the songs and the overall plot. The idea of having one of the hero’s kids become a villain was genius and really said something about people’s innermost character. My main problem with this part of the movie was that I wanted more repercussions for Audrey. In the end she almost dies and they bring her back and everything is good because she apologies. But her intentions seemed real at the start of the movie. Could they vanish that quickly? (Now I know what you’re thinking...this is a kid movie. Of course she needs to learn what she did was wrong. But I think it would be even more interesting if she didn’t or struggled with it. Either way she should have had some sort of punishment. I don’t think they should have welcomed her back so fast.) I really liked meeting new characters from the Isle of the Lost, the new addition of VKs in Auradon and Hades. I wish all the new VKs would have gotten more screen time as well as Hades. From the promos leading up to the film he seemed really important and the actual BIG BAD of the movie. I would have liked to see a little more of that. But I did really like learning he is Mal’s dad. I loved seeing Uma, Harry and Gil working with the Auradon group. Again, this drove the message home about working together now matter what your background. There’s probably a lot more I could talk about but these are really the main moments that stuck out to me/my main concerns. I know I’ll be singing the songs for a very long time.  

Miss Austen Regrets

As a Jane Austen buff, it is probably very surprising to hear that I had not watched Miss Austen Regrets (2008) until last week. I knew about it, but am always cautious when it comes to a film adaptation of the author’s life; especially after Becoming Jane (which yes is a great movie, but not 100% accurate). It took learning that Tom Hiddleston was in the film to make me watch it. (I know, but just look at him. He’s got such a baby face.) :)

But a young and always good looking Tom Hiddleston should not be the only reason to watch this film (although it is a great reason). The movie focuses on Jane’s later years as she completes Emma. She visits her niece Fanny who is deciding who she loves and how to know what love is. In her early twenties, Fanny seeks advice from her aunt as to how to spend the rest of her life. Should she settle? Or wait for the man of her dreams? But what if he’s right in front of her? Her aunt, the author of romances, should have the answer, but in fact she believes she doesn’t. You get a little insight into some of Jane’s past loves and lots of echoes to Persuasion (one of the novels published after Austen’s death). I had just finished reading Persuasion for the second time and watching this film so closely behind it mirrored that tale of maturity, friendship and romance very well. Taken from the remaining letters between Austen and Fanny the movie feels authentic. Of course nothing can be 100% but I think Miss Austen Regrets does a very good job. 

BINGEING

THE WALKING DEAD

And so the summer binge continues on. Gotta say that I feel pretty obsessed with this show now. You know you are watching a lot when you start to have dreams where you are fighting walkers. (And yes, that recently happened to me.) Currently I’m in season 5. Just finished season 4 this week, which I think might be my favorite so far. I really enjoyed their time in the prison and while I thought the episodes with the illness dragged at times, once the Governor returned it really picked up again. (Although I didn’t love the stand-alone episodes focused on him.) Then watching the group be separated and anticipating the reunions between them all was great. Terminius definitely seemed too good to be true and I am happy that (right now at least) it seems to be resolved. Now we are heading to Washington. I like seeing the new characters that I know will be a part of the regulars. It does make me nervous about some of the originals. Losing Hershel was tough. I’m not ready to lose too many more. 

[anonymouscatt]

My traditional New Years Fandom meme! Under the cut, if you’re interested:

1. Your main fandom of the year: Did I… even have one? There was a lot of stuff I liked and followed this year but not one main thing I was into. I watched Doctor Who, and the finale of the Good Place, and got into some new fandoms with Friends at the Table and The Mandalorian, but… no main fandom. Just freaking out with the rest of the internet about the state of the world in general.

2. Your favorite film this year: Does the film release of the musical Hamilton count? LOL the loss of theatres and theatrical releases means I can’t really think of any other movies I saw this year. Soul was okay but not Pixar’s best imo, and I never even watched Mulan because I heard it wasn’t very good at all. The release of the Hamilton recording was a boon this summer, it was something for my family to look forward to and it felt like an Event in a year that had very few of those. And the music and choreography really is excellent; it was awesome to see the original cast perform! I hope it sets a pattern for other Broadway shows.

3. Your favorite book this year: The Illuminae Files Series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff! I discovered this series in the early months of quarantine, and it was some of the most engaging content I’ve read all year. Relationship drama, fighting big corporations, a deadly virus (-_-) and a murderous AI that is somehow the most compelling character… IN SPACE! I loved it, and the unique format the series was written in was extremely cool. Although I read them all on kindle, so some of the formatting did not translate the way it should… these books were made to be read in physical format, and it shows. It didn’t keep me from really enjoying the story and becoming really attached to the characters though; what a great read. I also read the novel-length Murderbot book Network Effect, and it did not disappoint! It was great to follow Murderbot and friends on a full-length adventure, with hints of more to come.

4. Your favorite album or song this year: Maybe Jodie Whittaker’s cover of Yellow by Coldplay… I don’t have a good reason except I liked it and I didn’t listen to a lot of music this year either. Sad to say I didn’t really “get” Taylor Swift’s Folklore or its sequel, though I think it’s pretty cool to release so much new music in one year. She clearly had a lot of time on her hands, lol.

5. Your favorite TV show this year: The Mandalorian! After the huge disappointment of Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy, this show was an unexpectedly welcome return to the galaxy far far away. It’s engaging, it’s fun, it has moments of humor and drama and found family, and I love it. It’s also refreshing to see a Star Wars story that isn’t centered around Skywalker Family Drama, the cameo in the S2 finale notwithstanding. And even that cameo was so fun, a return to form for a beloved character… I’m eager to see where the show goes in the future.

6. Your favorite tumblr moment this year: Listen… nothing is going to top the evening of November 5th, 2020. Nothing. The moment Destiel went ‘canon’ and the internet lost its shit is going to be memorialized in the tumblr hall of fame for all time.

7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year: Friends at the Table! I was thinking about trying another tabletop podcast after listening to The Adventure Zone, and when quarantine hit and I suddenly had tons of free time and the need to go for daily walks, it seemed as good a time as any to start a new one. It was kind of slow-going at first, but I’m glad I started at the very beginning and listened to the team grow and change- you can tell they’ve gotten a lot better at actually role-playing as their characters instead of summarizing what action they take, plus I catch all the little in-jokes from previous seasons. The style and tone is very different from TAZ but I like it a lot and I think Austin Walker is a fantastic GM. Like, the amount of detail and planning that goes into it… mind-boggling. And I love that he comes up with, like, mini-games and writes new game mechanics for them, like when characters are exploring a new place or defending a town… I’m just in awe. FatT has saved my sanity during this hell-year and I am eternally grateful.

8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: Thinking it’s going to be Doctor Who for the Timeless Child plot, or The Outer Worlds for being, not terrible but kind of a mediocre game in a year when I desperately needed a new RPG to get lost in when… wait, what’s this? IT’S SUPERNATURAL WITH A STEEL CHAIR! I haven’t been invested in the show for YEARS and tapped out around season 10 with literally no expectations for this dumpster fire of a narrative, and then 15x18 shows up with a legit LOVE CONFESSION from Castiel that sends him straight to Turbo Hell?!? How are they possibly going to resolve this?! I (and indeed the entire internet) was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen… and the answer was nothing. It didn’t go ANYWHERE. Like, you’re on tumblr, you already know this, and really what else would you expect from Supernatural of all shows… but they still managed to get me to watch the finale LIVE out of curiosity only for it to be senseless death and boring montages and NO SIGN OF CAS.  I was OUT and they baited me back with the promise of resolution for Cas and then they BROKE that promise and I should not be surprised but somehow I am. Wow.

9. Your favorite male nonbinary character of the year: Can’t think of any male characters I was really into this year, so let’s just nominate Murderbot, with a return to form in Network Effect. It’s snarky and relatable and I love it very much, and the new installment included plenty of juicy character moments to sink my teeth into.

10. Your favorite female character of the year: Kady Grant from Illuminae. She’s so determined even up against impossible odds, and the way she learns to trust AIDAN and build that relationship only to be betrayed… heartbreaking. And fascinating.

11. Your biggest squee moment of the year: Possibly when they announced Omniblades in the Dark, the Mass Effect/Friends at the Table Crossover I never expected but enjoyed very much!

12. Your most missed old fandom: Dragon Age? It doesn’t feel old but like. I’m so ready for the next installment. And I know it’s a ways away and I don’t want to rush the devs or drive them to crunch. Crunch is bad! But I’m so ready to play in that universe again and it’s been six years since the last game and I miss it. They released a collection of short stories from Thedas teasing at new developments in the world and those stories were awesome, plus the new trailer… I’m worried the new game will be a disappointment, doubly so if they rush it to release, and yet. I want it. :(

13. Your fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to: I WAS going to play Cyberpunk 2077, but, well. What with the epilepsy controversy, general glitchyness, and just the sense that it’s not my kind of story, I don’t think it’s on the table anymore. Can’t think of anything else… anyone want to rec me something?

14. Your biggest anticipation of the New Year: Literally just. Anything good. Anything better than the year we just had. 2021, the bar is so low. Whatever happens though there is another new Murderbot novella set to be published in spring so that’s something.

[ieltsxpresscom]

IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 1

You are advised to spend 20 minutes on Questions 1-14. First, read the text below and answer Questions 1-8. A Filling the reservoir Your iron is designed to function using tap water. However, it will last longer if you use distilled water. – Always unplug the iron before filling the reservoir. – Always empty the reservoir after use. B Temperature and steam control Your Moulex iron has two buttons which control the intensity of heat produced by the iron. You can, therefore, adjust the temperature of the iron and the amount of steam being given off depending upon the type of fabric being ironed. – Turn the steam control to the desired intensity. – Turn the thermostat control to the desired temperature. Important: If your iron produces droplets of water instead of giving off steam, your temperature control is set too low. C Spray button This button activates a jet of cold water which allows you to iron out any unintentional creases. Press the button for one second. D Pressing button This button activates a super shot of steam which momentarily gives you an additional 40g of steam when needed. Important: Do not use this more than five successive times. E Suits etc. It is possible to use this iron in a vertical position so that you can remove creases from clothes on coathangers or from curtains. Turning the thermostat control and the steam button to maximum, hold the iron in a vertical position close to the fabric but without touching it. Hold down the pressing button for a maximum of one second. The steam produced is not always visible but is still able to remove creases. Important: Hold the iron at a sufficient distance from silk and wool to avoid all risk of scorching Do not attempt to remove creases from an item of clothing that is being worn, always use a coathanger. F Auto-clean In order that your iron does not become furred up, Moulex have integrated an auto-clean system and we advise you to use it very regularly (1-2 times per month). – Turn the steam control to the off position. – Fill the reservoir and turn the thermostat control to maximum. – As soon as the indicator light goes out, unplug the iron and, holding it over the sink, turn the steam control to auto-clean. Any calcium deposits will be washed out by the steam. Continue the procedure until the reservoir is empty. Questions 1-4 Match the pictures below to the appropriate section in the instructions. Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

Questions 5-8 Answer the following questions on the Moulex iron using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS. Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet. 5. What sort of water are you advised to use? 6. What factor makes you decide on the quantity of steam to use? 7. What should you do if your iron starts to drip water? 8. What could damage your iron if you do not clean it? Now, read the information below and answer Questions 9-14. CLASSIC TOURS – coach break information Luggage We ask you to keep luggage down to one medium-sized suitcase per person, but a small holdall can also be taken on board the coach. Seat Allocation Requests for particular seats can be made on most coach breaks when booking, but since allocations are made on a first come first served basis, early booking is advisable. When bookings are made with us you will be offered the best seats that are available on the coach at that time. Travel Documents When you have paid your deposit we will send to you all the necessary documents and labels, so that you receive them in good time before the coach break departure date. Certain documents, for example air or boat tickets, may have to be retained and your driver or courier will then issue them to you at the relevant point. Special Diets If you require a special diet you must inform us at the time of booking with a copy of the diet. This will be notified to the hotel or hotels on your coach break, but on certain coach breaks the hotels used are tourist class and whilst offering value for money within the price range, they may not have the full facilities to cope with special diets. Any extra costs incurred must be paid to the hotel by yourself before departure from the hotel. Accommodation Many of our coach breaks now include, within the price, accommodation with private facilities, and this will be indicated on the coach break page. Other coach breaks have a limited number of rooms with private facilities which, subject to availability, can be reserved and guaranteed at the time of booking – the supplementary charge shown in the price panel will be added to your account. On any coach break there are only a limited number of single rooms. When a single room is available it may be subject to a supplementary charge and this will be shown on the brochure page. Entertainment Some of our hotels arrange additional entertainment which could include music, dancing, film shows, etc. The nature and frequency of the entertainment presented is at the discretion of the hotel and therefore not guaranteed and could be withdrawn if there is a lack of demand or insufficient numbers in the hotel. Questions 9-14 Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet. 9. If you want to sit at the front of the coach A ask when you get on the coach. B arrive early on the departure date. C book your seat well in advance. D avoid travelling at peak times. 10. Your air tickets A will be sent to your departure point. B must be collected before leaving. C will be enclosed with other documents. D may be held by your coach driver. 11. If you need a special diet you should A inform the hotel when you arrive. B pay extra with the booking. C tell the coach company. D book tourist class. 12. It may be necessary to pay extra for A a bathroom. B boat tickets. C additional luggage. D entertainment. 13. Entertainment is available A at all hotels. B if there is the demand. C upon request. D for an additional cost. 14. With every booking Classic Tours guarantee you will be able to A request high quality meals. B take hand luggage on the coach. C use your own personal bathroom. D film if you want to. You are advised to spend 20 minutes on Questions 15-29. Questions 15-21 Look at the article Clubs for Students below. Which club would you contact for each of the requirements below? Write the appropriate letter A-G in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet. You may use each letter more than once. The first one has been done for you as an example. Example- you wish to go swimming at 7am every morning. Answer-G 15. You would like to take Spanish classes. 16. You want to join a club that has international branches. 17. You would like an opportunity to speak in public. 18. You would like to take part in amateur theatrical productions. 19. You want to visit some famous sites with a group of other students. 20. You are interested in finding out about part-time work. 21. You want to meet some English people who have started their careers. CLUBS FOR STUDENTS There are a variety of Clubs which provide social and cultural activities for those wishing to meet others with similar interests from the same or from different national backgrounds. A Commonwealth Trust Organised discussion meetings, learned talks, cultural events excursions to places of interest and invitations to major British diary events Open to overseas visitors and students. B Charles Peguy Centre French youth centre providing advice, support and information to young Europeans aged between 18-30. Facilities include an information and advice service regarding education, work placement and general welfare rights. Moreover the centre holds a database of jobs, accommodation and au pair placements specifically in London. Members may use a fax machine a copier and computers for CVs. Hours Monday: 14.00-17.00 Tuesday-Friday: 10.00-17.00 Membership: £35 per year, plus £5 per month. C Kensington Committee of Friendship for Overseas Students KCOF is the society for young people from all countries. Each month there are some 40 parties, discos, visits to theatres, concerts, walks and other gatherings where you will be able to meet lots of people. A new programme is sent each month directly to members (£5 to join in October, less later in the year). Events are free or at low often reduced prices. Office open 10.30-17.30 weekdays only D Royal Overseas League Open 365 days per year, this is a club with facilities in London and Edinburgh with restaurants, bars and accommodation. There are branches around the world and 57 reciprocal clubs world-wide. Quarterly magazine, literary lectures, annual music and art competitions, and summer and winter programme of events for members. Membership fees overseas students aged 17¬24 £47 per year + initial joining fee £23.50; others £70 per year + initial joining fee £35 (half price after July). Further information from the Membership Secretary. E YMCA London Central Facilities include photography art drama, pottery, language courses, badminton, squash, exercise to music, circuit training, sports clinic, fitness testing and other activities. Hours weekdays 07.00-22.30, weekends 10.00-21.00. Membership fees: aged 16-17 £25 per year plus attendance charge of £1 30 per visit; aged 18-19 £213 per year; aged 20¬25 £366 per year F London Inter-Varsity Club (IVC) IVC is an activities and social club with a varied range of events, from cycling and drama to windsurfing and yoga. Most members are young English professionals, but overseas visitors are welcome. The club arranges restaurant meals, dancing and parties, weekends away around Britain, plus a weekly club night in a Covent Garden bar. There are usually over 25 different events every week run by IVG members for IVC members. To find out more, telephone the club or write (Freepost) to the office. G Central Club Provides accommodation and club facilities. No membership fee. Coffee shop open for all meals swimming pool (open 06.00), multi¬gym, hairdressing salon. Questions 22-29 Read the article on International Students House and look at the statements below. In boxes 22-29 on your answer sheet write TRUE                                   if the statement is true FALSE                                 if the statement is false NOT GIVEN                      if the information is not given in the passage Example The club is for overseas students only Answer- False The first one has been done for you as an example. 22. The club has long-term dormitory accommodation. 23. Membership must be renewed monthly. 24. The club provides subsidised restaurant meals. 25. The club is open to non-members on Tuesday evenings. 26. STA Travel help finance the Students Adviser. 27. The services of the Students Adviser are free to all club members. 28. You must make an appointment to see the Students Adviser. 29. There will be a surcharge for accommodation over the Christmas period.   INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS HOUSE International Students House is a unique club and accommodation centre for British and overseas students in London. It is located in the heart of London’s West End and is close to all public transport facilities. ACCOMMODATION * comfortable accommodation for up to 450 people in single, twin, 3/4 bedded and multi-bedded rooms * 44 self-contained flats for married students and families * long and short stays welcomed MEMBERSHIP Club membership is open to all full¬time students, professional trainees, student nurses and au pairs. Membership costs are kept to an absolute minimum to enable the widest possible access. You can join for as little as one month and for up to one year at a time. Membership entitles you to use the various facilities of the House. It has: * restaurants * student bars and coffee shop * study rooms * clubs and societies * aerobics and fitness training * discos, dance, jazz and cinema * travel and excursions and much more! The best way to check out all we have on offer is to drop in any Tuesday evening between 7.15 pm and 8.30 pm for Open House in the Club Room. This is an opportunity for you to meet the staff and other club members, enjoy a free cup of coffee and find out all about what’s going on. You can take advantage of special membership offers. (Useful tip: bring along 3 passport size photographs if you wish to take out membership.) ADVICE SERVICE Thanks to the support of STA Travel and in association with LCOS (the London Conference on Overseas Students) International Students House now provides the service of an International Students Adviser. This new welfare service is open to all students at London’s bona-fide academic institutions. It aims to provide welfare support to help students overcome any personal or practical difficulties they may be experiencing whilst studying in Britain. One of the key features of the Advice Service is that the Adviser can be seen during the evenings until about 8 pm, Monday to Thursday. CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR Unable to get home for Christmas? How about joining in the fun at International Students House! Check out our special programme of activity taking place over the Christmas period. Even come and stay – the House will be offering reduced accommodation rates for students wishing to spend a few days in London over Christmas. We’ll also have an exciting New Year’s Eve party so come and join us and ring in the new year in the spirit of internationalism. Reading passage 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 30-41 which are based on the reading passage below. PAPER RECYCLING A Paper is different from other waste produce because it comes from a sustainable resource: trees. Unlike the minerals and oil used to make plastics and metals, trees are replaceable. Paper is also biodegradable, so it does not pose as much threat to the environment when it is discarded. While 45 out of every 100 tonnes of wood fibre used to make paper in Australia comes from waste paper, the rest comes directly from virgin fibre from forests and plantations. By world standards this is a good performance since the world-wide average is 33 per cent waste paper. Governments have encouraged waste paper collection and sorting schemes and at the same time, the paper industry has responded by developing new recycling technologies that have paved the way for even greater utilisation of used fibre. As a result, industry’s use of recycled fibres is expected to increase at twice the rate of virgin fibre over the coming years. B Already, waste paper constitutes 70% of paper used for packaging and advances in the technology required to remove ink from the paper have allowed a higher recycled content in newsprint and writing paper. To achieve the benefits of recycling, the community must also contribute. We need to accept a change in the quality of paper prod¬ucts; for example stationery may be less white and of a rougher texture. There also needs to be support from the community for waste paper collec¬tion programs. Not only do we need to make the paper available to collectors but it also needs to be separated into different types and sorted from con-taminants such as staples, paperclips, string and other miscellaneous items. C There are technical limitations to the amount of paper which can be recycled and some paper products cannot be collected for re-use. These include paper in the form of books and permanent records, photographic paper and paper which is badly contaminated. The four most common sources of paper for recycling are factories and retail stores which gather large amounts of packaging material in which goods are delivered, also offices which have unwanted business documents and computer output, paper converters and printers and lastly households which discard newspapers and packaging material. The paper manufacturer pays a price for the paper and may also incur the collection cost. D Once collected, the paper has to be sorted by hand by people trained to recognise various types of paper. This is necessary because some types of paper can only be made from particular kinds of recycled fibre. The sorted paper then has to be repulped or mixed with water and broken down into its individual fibres. This mixture is called stock and may contain a wide variety of contaminating materials, particularly if it is made from mixed waste paper which has had little sorting. Various machinery is used to remove other materials from the stock. After passing through the repulping process, the fibres from printed waste paper are grey in colour because the printing ink has soaked into the individual fibres. This recycled material can only be used in products where the grey colour does not matter, such as cardboard boxes but if the grey colour is not acceptable, the fibres must be de-inked. This involves adding chemicals such as caustic soda or other alkalis, soaps and detergents, water-hardening agents such as cal¬cium chloride, frothing agents and bleaching agents. Before the recycled fibres can be made into paper they must be refined or treated in such a way that they bond together. E Most paper products must contain some virgin fibre as well as recycled fibres and unlike glass, paper cannot be recycled indefinitely. Most paper is down-cycled which means that a product made from recycled paper is of an inferior quality to the original paper. Recycling paper is beneficial in that it saves some of the energy, labour and capital that goes into producing virgin pulp. However, recycling requires the use of fossil fuel, a non-renewable energy source, to collect the waste paper from the community and to process it to produce new paper. And the recycling process still creates emissions which require treatment before they can be disposed of safely. Nevertheless, paper recycling is an important economical and environmental practice but one which must be carried out in a rational and viable manner for it to be useful to both industry and the community. Questions 30-36 Complete the summary below of the first two paragraphs of the Reading Passage. Choose ONE OR TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. SUMMARY Example From the point of view of recycling, paper has two advantages over minerals and Oil in that firstly it comes from a resource which is (30) ……………………. and secondly it is less threatening to our environment when we throw it away because it is (31) ……………………. Although Australia’s record in the re-use of waste paper is good, it is still necessary to use a combination of recycled fibre and (32) …………………… to make new paper. The paper industry has contributed positively and people have also been encouraged by (33) ……………………. to collect their waste on a regular basis. One major difficulty is the removal of ink from used paper but (34) ……………………. are being made in this area. However, we need to learn to accept paper which is generally of a lower (35) …………………….than before and to sort our waste paper by removing (36) …………………….before discarding it for collection. Questions 37-41 Look at paragraphs C, D, and E and, using the information in the passage, complete the flow chart below. Use ONE OR TWO WORDS for each answer.

Show Answers  

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[papermoonloveslucy]

THE ELVES

September 2, 1949

“The Elves” is episode #52 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on September 2, 1949.

This was the first episode of the second season of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND which concluded on June 25, 1950.  

Synopsis ~ Liz and George arrive home from vacation to find that someone has been ordering strawberry ice cream from the milkman every day, and the pink trail leads to the doorstep of their new neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Wood, and their ten children.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper.  The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury, Liz’s Best Friend) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury, George’s Boss) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on "Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) does not appear in this episode

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Mr. Wood, New Neighbor) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64.

Conried plays Mr. Wood in several other episodes. His first name is Benjamin, and his wife - who we never meet - is named Gertrude. They were both only children and want to make up for it by having a large family. 

Frank Nelson (Mr. Stevens) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”.  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs. His trademark was playing clerks and other working stiffs, suddenly turning to Benny with a drawn out “Yeeeeeeeeees?” Nelson appeared in 11 episodes of “I Love Lucy”, including three as quiz master Freddy Fillmore, and two as Ralph Ramsey, plus appearance on “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” - making him the only actor to play two different recurring roles on “I Love Lucy.” Nelson returned to the role of the frazzled Train Conductor for an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1963. This marked his final appearance on a Lucille Ball sitcom.

Anne Whitfield (Joanne Wood, Nearly 7) is best remembered for her signature role as the younger daughter of Phil Harris and Alice Faye on their hit radio show.  Although she never appeared on screen with Lucille Ball, she did a 1962 episode of Desilu’s “The Untouchables.” She is best known for playing Susan in the 1954 film White Christmas. She was 11 years old in 1949 when this episode of “My Favorite Husband” was broadcast. As of this writing she is 82 years old and living in Washington state.

Joanne Wood is one of the many children of the Coopers neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Wood. She will also appear as Joanne Wood, without Conried, but with Nelson, in “Liz’s Superstitions” in October 1949. 

THE EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on lazy little Sheridan Falls, the hometown of the Coopers, we find many signs that summer is over. The leaves are turning red, the Coopers are turning their faces toward home after summer vacation, and Liz is hoping that all her friends will turn green when they see how she’s turned brown. Let’s pick them up as their drive into town...”

Liz is anxious for people to see her summer tan. She spots the Atterburys and wants to stop the car to talk.  They also just got back from vacation at Moosehead Lodge.  Every time Liz tries to talk about her sunny stay, Iris and Rudolph interrupt about their Lodge at the lake.  Liz and Iris tug at her blouses and slacks to reveal their tans.   Mr. Atterbury tells George that he may be getting a promotion.  They say their goodbyes.

LIZ: “Goodbye, Paleface!” IRIS: “See you later, Snow White!”

The Paleface was a Bob Hope / Jane Russell film released at the very end of 1948 and still in cinemas at the time of the broadcast. The Paramount western also featured future “Lucy” cast members Iris Adrian, Iron Eyes Cody, Olin Howland, Nestor Paiva, George Chandler, Fred Aldrich, Oliver Blake, George Bruggerman, Dick Elliott, and Bert Stevens. 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a 1937 animated Disney film based on the classic fairy tale. It featured the voices of future “Lucy” cast member Pinto Colvig and Moroni Olsen. 

Upon arriving home, the Coopers notice that their porch has been painted white. Upon closer inspection, they realize it isn’t paint - but milk.  Their ‘milk card’ has been tampered with to order strawberry ice cream while they were away - yet none is found.  

During the early part of the twentieth century, dairy products were usually delivered to homes, rather than shopped in a market.  The milkman was part of daily life.  Housewives would leave notes (or cards, as above) to request items outside their standing delivery order: Milk, eggs, yogurt, butter, and ice cream, were all offered.  It was not uncommon to see back porches with milk boxes and or empty bottles ready to be returned to the dairy.  This service has all but disappeared in favor of supermarkets. 

Liz and George turn into amateur sleuths to track down the trail of strawberry ice cream drippings which lead directly to... the empty house next door.  Liz notices laundry on the line and surmises that the new neighbors moved in while they were away.  

George angrily knocks on the door, which is opened by Mr. Wood (Hans Conried).  He explains that one of his children has brought home strawberry ice cream.  The elves gave it to her.  Mr. Wood goes to find his daughter to explain. 

LIZ (to George): “I think Mr. Wood has snapped his twig!” 

Mr. Wood returns, assured that Joanna, his daughter, isn’t listening.  Mr. Wood explains that he has ten children and one on the way.  Liz is shocked to find out Mrs. Wood is still alive! 

GEORGE: “Well, Mr. Wood, you’ve certainly got a lot of little splinters.” 

The rest of the children stay with relatives in the summer.  Mr. Wood calls for Joanne, who he thought was buying the ice cream from her allowance. Joanne is an imaginative child who thinks she’s a fairy queen, comes in.  She has been feeding her pet dragon, Charlie, the ice cream.  Liz tells her that dragons don’t eat so much ice cream, but Joanne insists that Charlie’s just a small dragon - a dragon-ette.  

LIZ: “Yes. I’ve heard of her sister - Jessica.”

Jessica Dragonette (1900-80) was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort. She was voted best female singer of the country 1942 and 1943.

Much to Liz and George’s chagrin, Mr. Wood let’s her daughter off without any punishment or admonishment for her ice cream thievery.  Mr. Wood offers to pay their milk bill as compensation.  

End of Part One

Bob LeMond gives listeners a Jell-O ‘dreamy’ recipe for a fluffy orange tart. 

As the second half opens, Mr. Wood has rung the Cooper’s doorbell to report that little Joanne overheard them say that their were no such things as elves. Mr. Wood wants them to pretend to be elves to console her. Liz and George are reluctant, but agree when they see her awash in tears.  

The Coopers will pretend to find Joanne’s lost dragon, Charlie. To prove that they are really elves, Joanne insists that Liz transform into a troll and George into a Brownie Princess. On the way out, Joanne picks up the Coopers telephone and it is Mr. Atterbury, who is bringing over an important client, Mr. Stevens.  Joanne refuses to tell Liz and George who was on the phone - claiming it was the King of the Elves. 

As Joanne waits outside for their transformation, Liz and George plan their outrageous outfits. As a brownie princess, George will wear his brown shoes, socks, and garters, a dried grass-skirt, water-wings, and a brown bathing cap. As a troll, Liz will wear a stocking over her face hanging down like an elephant’s trunk, red rubber gloves on her hands and feet, and will walk on all fours. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Atterbury drives up with Mr. Stevens (Frank Nelson), describing Mr. Cooper as a “dignified, sober, and conservative”.  On the porch is Joanne, who identifies herself as the Fairy Queen.  From inside, Liz bids them open the door and come in.  Liz is hopping about on all fours, spouting gibberish.  Joanne describes the men as ogres “one uglier than the other.”  

In retrospect, this storyline might have inspired the TV series “Bewitched” (1964-72), in which Darrin Stephens’ boss, Larry Tate, was usually bringing home an important client, describing Darrin to him in glowing terms, and then finding Darrin transformed due to a spell, sometimes involving his own daughter, Tabitha. Even the names Stevens / Stephens is the same!  

Liz straightens up immediately when she sees them. Liz realizes that the ‘Brownie Princess’ is still upstairs, waiting to make his entrance. Too late!  George dances on looking for his lily pad!   Mr. Atterbury fires George on the spot.  Mr. Stevens wants to hear George’s explanation. George stands up for himself - he was simply preserving the fantasy life of a child.  Mr. Stevens takes George’s side and Mr. Atterbury immediately grants George his promotion to third vice president!

 End of Episode

In the live Jell-O commercial that ends the show, Bob LeMond is singing “I’ve been working on the railroad...J-E-L-L-O!” Lucy thinks he is talking about having to take a job on the railroad, telling him that radio is a tough business and television is the future.  They both sing the song with lyrics about Jell-O.  

[ryuuichinaruhodo]

Work life limbo

I had gotten food poisoning the day before the exam for the apprenticeship, I was bedridden for over a week. That was frustrating as you could only apply for that next year. So what was I to do until then?

I had immersed myself into anime and games, attended comic con and got into manga. It wasn't until October when my dad invited me to work at my uncles restaurant as they were short staffed.

I worked there for a period of 3 months, earning £4/hr, below minimum wage. Being my first job, working 10hrs my feet were not used to the aching and tiredness and on my first day after I came back home I went straight to bed.

The prices on the menu were really cheap, 50p for a cup of tea for example, takeaway £4-5, buffet 6.30. The job itself wasn't that difficult, aside from the immense amount of chilli oil burning my hands. My ezcema flared up constantly when working with my hands. At times I would argue with my father, he was a different person when he worked. Easy to anger, stressed.

Other times I would argue with one specific customer who would get away with eating the whole buffet and getting a drink for only £2.

Working for my uncle, it's easy to see why he made millions: exploiting his employees by paying them almost nothing. He had owed my dad money for years.

End of that year the restaurant closed down, it didn't seem to be making any money. I mean the prices were really low and the customers always complained they were too high.

My next job after that was CeX, I stayed for about 4 months earning the minimum wage of 5.30. The job itself was alright, but there were management issues. At times I would have my lunch at 5pm. A full 8 hrs since I last ate and 2hrs before closing. They had employed too many young staff at one point and had cut my hours. I wasn't happy about the hours cut and the staff they hired made plenty of mistakes. One of them wasn't taught properly and gave away 2 expensive phones worth 2k.

After earning enough money to build a new pc for £1000, I left and decided to try look for an apprenticeship again.

I went to Lambeth college on the apprenticeship open day, I had the intention of looking for a digital marketing job or a construction one. In the end I went for a month coding course to see if I liked it or not.

This coding course was the wrong choice. We had to make an app from scratch, it was difficult and it still had a ton of bugs. It was unrealistic for us to make something perfect after just a month of training. But we managed and overall it was a success. However when the placements came, that's when I lost interest. I did 2 placements one at mylondonhome.

Originally there was supposed to be one other person doing the project with me, however he dropped out and I was left on my own to develop an app. So I did the best that I could, I made a prototype and thought that someone else would come in to build upon that. However they expected me to make full fledged app in just 2 weeks on my own. They only paid me minimum wage.

In the 2nd placement I did have a team to work with, but because we were all new to designing and making an app we struggled. Some of the issues we had was that we had to tether our phones to get internet to do our job. The supervisor incharge never provided us with internet and kept bouncing us between 2 locations. After about 2 weeks he told us it was shite, all that work we had put in shot down. What do you expect when you're not provided the support or the tools to do your job. The team gradually got smaller and smaller and went from 6 to just 3 people. I had enough of that stupidity and even though they were paying living wage it wasn't worth my time. I had to lead the team for some reason and in doing so felt like I was doing most of the work. All that work amounted to nothing in the end.

I took a break from working after those placements left a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone thinks I love coding, sure it's fun when you get into it but when you're first experience with something is terrible is hard to convince yourself to beat a dead horse and go back to it.

Next year my through my dad's connections I gotten a job in a high class Chinese restaurant. He said they would pay £10/hr. He was wrong it was minimum wage. I did part time - 6 days a week part time.

This job only lasted 5.5 weeks, I was treated like an outsider by the staff. They were horrible and picked on me. Whilst trying to learn how to do the job they just laughed at me for being slow. All I ever did in that restaurant was grab a cloth, wet it with vinegar and wipe plates. I asked one of the employees who worked over 2 years if he ever saw a raise. He never had gotten a raise. The manager there was the most useless person in the restaurant and made the wait staffs lives a nightmare. He couldn't do anything himself, couldn't use Excel, couldn't take orders, didn't know what the food looked like. So every 5 mins he would pick on someone to do something. It got old and annoying fast. I then started looking for another job. On my final day at the restaurant the staff started arguing with me saying I left work undone and that they helped me but that was a lie. They had to be forced by the manager when I complained for them to help me. My hours were done anyway, I was no longer part of it so they could not force me. The very fact that they lash out on my last day reaffirmed that I made the right choice to leave early.

The job I applied for seemed promising and I thought they would of accepted me for the role. But instead they opted for someone whose used to work there because they had experience. So I was left hanging .

As usual when a job has screwed me over I would take a short break. So that's what I did, I went back to playing games and watching anime.

Sometime in the summer my brother's friend was doing his own bubble tea business and was looking for a helper on the weekend. So as I usually do I thought why not. It was decent I would earn £50 for 7-8hrs work, around minimum wage. We went to a Thai festival in that year, travelled all the way to bath. My first time in bath the buildings looked like something out of a Victorian film. One of the issues with making such a sweet drink in the summer was the number of wasps that would attack you. There were issues with the job, like the menu being massive and that each drink had to be made in such a specific way, to the millimetre even. The owner also had issues with wanting everything to be perfect and that he could the job perfectly but others could not. After the summer had ended, there was no more business to be had so I was left with nothing to do for awhile.

A few months later in November and a random charity worker knocked on my door looking for people to donate to a good cause. Considering I had no job or income I wasn't able to give. However he told me if you don't have a job why dont you try this job? So that's what I did I tried yet again.

This job was a very difficult job, trying to get complete strangers to part with their money by reading off a script. I would have to knock over 150 doors each night. Being the middle or November the nights were very cold. 150 doors is alot of doors to knock but getting people to sign up to something was like a needle in a haystack. After just a short 2 days of training by reading off a script and given the procedure to get people to sign up, on my first day I had no idea what to expect, but I wasn't given all the equipment I needed to do the job. I was told it was my fault for not checking. How was I supposed to know what I needed? So I lashed out at them for their negligence. I tried for 2 weeks, I believe 99% of my training group left the job. The issue with this job is that you need a high level of fitness to knock 150 doors. We had one person who was overweight and they could not keep up. I could barely keep up myself having asthma. I had no choice but to quit after 2 weeks as that was the probation period.

I took an extended break until summer time came once again. I was ask to do the bubble tea again and I did. This time the owner had a van especially for bubble tea making. We had planned to do another event, this time about anime camping. So I went to help him out with this, even helping him receive a delivery at his house when he wasn't able to. The next day I went in the car of his friend and for about 6 hours we had a system in place that worked really well. Come 6pm we would pack up swiftly and head back. I was given £50 that day. The owner then asked me if I wanted to help him out tomorrow and so I did.

Like I said previously about the owner he had issues. When we had arrived at the venue he had managed to forget the straws! How do you forget that when you're making bubble tea? So at some point in the middle of the day he had to dip out and travel back to his house to grab more. I was left alone in charge for about an hour. I wasn't able to serve people without straws and was stuck waiting for him. After he came back he kept nitpicking everything, if a drink was slightly off he would tell me to make the whole drink from scratch, slowing the production. He said that he would finish up business by 6pm. He was still serving even at 9pm! Plus we had to pack up everything into the van after. That took a long time, we started packing at 8pm and didn't finish until 11pm. It had already been well over 12 hrs working and then he stuck around to chat to people when I was clearly tired and frustrated wanting to go home. It wouldn't be until 1am that I would get back home. After that he gave me £60 for the 'hardwork'. Wait so you're telling me yesterday I worked 6hrs and got £50, but today I worked 10+hrs and only got £10 more? What the fuck.

So I started to question him, I would like another £20. He for sure made alot of money in that event, there was no way he couldn't afford to pay me correctly after I had helped him receive supplies at his house, went out of my way to help him days in a row. Even Manning the station for an hour because of the straws. Guess what he made up a long list of excuses telling me he paid me less because I made mistakes and that he didn't even need my help. Saying that travelling in his car actually cut into my wages. Some fucking bullshit I tell you. I thought that being my brother's friend I could trust him to pay me a decent wage for my work. I started to go through his list of excuses and cut his lies to pieces, that's what my brother gave me when he saw it. Afterwards he called me up and said 'whats your problem?. That was the angriest I had ever gotten over the phone. I started going through his bullshit and he tried to say that it was justified to pay me less because I had to sit in his car. Well if I had known that I had to pay a journey fee to work for him I would have never helped in the first fucking place . Afterwards I told him he better send me the fucking money and when he did I was done with his sorry ass of a man. His girlfriend started attacking me over social media saying that it was £20 extra. No if fucking wasn't, it was the minimum wage that I had earned. It's my right to earn the legal wage.

After that ordeal I took a extended break once again until next year...

[crowdvscritic]

round up // JUNE 20

The quarantine continues, and so does my insane level of film consumption. As you’ve probably discovered in your many a Zoom call, if you ask, “What’s new?” you usually get a, “Nothing much since we last talked.” Of course, these days no news means good news, so I’ll happily confirm the same is true here at Crowd vs. Critic. In this time of no movie theatres and few new releases, I’m catching up on a lot of classics and squeezing in a yoga sesh and reading in between. Perhaps these pop culture pieces that brought me joy in June will bring you some in July!

June Crowd-Pleasers

Yoga with Adriene

Adriene is all about finding what feels good, and her yoga videos have been helping me feel good during quarantine. I’m a big fan of browsing her YouTube playlist of 20-30 minute practices and picking whatever focus sounds like it would, well, feel good on my lunch break or when I wrap up my work day. If you’re looking for a way to stay active, destressed, or stretched out, Adriene’s (and her dog Benji’s) friendly videos have become my go-to.

The World According to Jeff Goldblum (2019- )

You know those people who can make anything interesting? Jeff Goldblum is the quintessence of that kind of person. Every episode of this Disney+ docuseries covers a broad topic that happens to intrigue him, including ice cream, tattoos, denim, RVs, and jewelry. While I don’t have many questions about ice cream, per se, I’m happy to just ride along on his trips all over the US to learn more about it. He finds niche communities, game changers, and new technology I suspect most won’t be familiar with, and he finds ways to get involved, a lá giving someone a Jurassic Park tattoo or getting custom grills made for his teeth. Truthfully, I don’t care much about what Goldblum chooses to explore as long as he’s stammering and sing-song-ing his way through as only he can.

Double Feature – Historical Action Flicks: The Quick and the Dead (1995) + Troy (2004)

I told you last month I’m working on the Western genre, and The Quick and the Dead (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10) is a ‘90s entry from Sam Raimi featuring a rare female lead (Sharon Stone), the babiest of Leo DiCaprios, an evil Gene Hackman, and an epic tournament of duels. If you’d prefer your adventure several thousand years back, Troy (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10) is a star-studded interpretation of The Iliad featuring a plethora of togas, romance, and epic battle scenes.

Double Feature – Corporate Espionage Thrillers: The Firm (1993) + Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

Two unassuming guys start jobs bright-eyed and leave jaded, one a fresh-out-of-law-school attorney and the other a quit-school-to-save-the-world CIA analyst. The Firm (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10) is the critical winner of the pair, but Jack Ryan (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10) is a more satisfying action movie than its Rotten Tomatoes score would suggest. (Another example of why we should take those numbers with a grain of salt.) Bonus: Another evil Gene Hackman in The Firm!

Double Feature – New Crime Comedies: The Lovebirds + My Spy (2020)

For a family movie night in, I recommend My Spy on Amazon Prime (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10), which holds the honor of the last movie I watched in theatres before everything shut down. For date night in, I recommend The Lovebirds (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10), which made me ready for Kumail Nanjiani to become a superstar. You can read my full thoughts on this fun pair of laughs on ZekeFilm:

The Lovebirds

My Spy

Double Feature – Heist Thrillers: Now You See Me (2013) + Finding Steve McQueen (2019)

Close up magic hasn’t been as cool as Now You See Me(Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 8/10) since Houdini was escaping handcuffs. This, of course, has less to do with the magic shows and more to do with the Ocean’s Eleven/The Sting-style plot. I love a movie that pulls the wool over my eyes—Hollywood, this is your call to trick me more often! And who says “cool” like Steve McQueen? While I wouldn’t have minded another pass at the dialogue in Finding Steve McQueen (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10), this based-on-a-true-story heist targeting President Nixon looks as cool as it is funny.

Double Feature – ‘80s Comedies: ¡Three Amigos! (1986) + Coming to America (1988)

The stars of early SNL & Friends make movies! Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase bring an alternative version of The Magnificent Seven with more jokes and fewer successful heroics, and I’m surprised at how most of it (save a few moments) has aged well. (Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10) And who knows when we’ll get the sequel Coming 2 America that Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were going to star in this year, but the original sweet and silly romantic comedy about a Prince looking for love is worth revisiting so we’re ready whenever it drops. (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8/10)

Cinematic Cities: New York by Christian Blauvelt (2019)

I started this Turner Classic Movies book to prep for my first visit to New York City in March...well, we all know what happened there. Kudos to this writer and the book designers who helped me wrap my head around how the neighborhoods are connected in this city and where to find famous movie locales, plus a few off the beaten path. Now I have more places I want to see and taste and experience when I finally go, but until then, I’ve got a list of movies to watch so my vacation doesn’t feel so far away.

Summer Stock (1950)

The plot is hackneyed and the songs are hokey, but, gee, if I didn't spend the whole time wishing we had more movie stars like these clowns, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Twice I tried to wipe the smile off my face as Gene danced, and I just couldn't do it. The corners of my mouth twitched back up because a newspaper and squeaky floor were competing with Judy for his best dance partner! 70 years later this movie still won't let someone wipe a stupid grin off her face—three cheers for camera-magnetic movie stars! Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6/10

Air Force One (1997)

Sure, it’s Die Hard on a plane, but when you nail the formula this well, I think you get more than a pass. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

June Critic Picks

The Sting (1973)

I jumped out of chronological order in my Best Picture watch because I liked Butch and Sundance so much. It’s an unusual winner, but it holds up well. Scroll down a bit for two reviews, or catch ‘em here:

Crowd

Critic

Double Feature - World War II Action Dramas: Saving Private Ryan (1998) + Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Watching this pair back-to-back makes for a poignant compare and contrast of how the United States and Russia managed their campaigns during World War II (at least as they’re depicted here). In Saving Private Ryan (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10), Tom Hanks and Co. are trying to save one soldier just after D-Day; in Enemy at the Gates (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Jude Law is a legendary sniper trying to give hope to his comrades. Compare how both armies fight against all odds, and contrast how one life matters to each country.

Anna Karenina (2012)

Joe Wright reunites with much of his Pride and Prejudice cast, and it’s as magical and beautiful as you’d hope. Keira Knightley stars as the tragic heroine alongside a stacked cast including Domnhall Gleeson, Jude Law, Matthew Macfayden, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Alicia Vikander. Fun fact: I just learned my grandfather calls Knightley “his girlfriend” because he thinks she’s so cute in Pride and Prejudice—no word yet on what he thought of the gorgeous gowns she wore in this movie, but my podcast co-host Kyla and I loved them in our most recent episode. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10

Double Feature – Humphrey Bogart: The Maltese Falcon (1941) + Key Largo (1948)

Plenty has been written about how The Maltese Falcon (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10) is the epitome of Film Noir. Now that I’ve met Sam Spade and his femme fatale (Mary Astor) and watched their hunt for a McGuffin, I’ll just join in the chorus. And now that I’ve watched all of Bogie and Bacall’s features, I’m picking Dark Passage as my favorite and Key Largo (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) my second. In their last film together, she’s a war widow and he was a soldier who knew her husband. When he comes to visit her at her hotel in Key Largo, they end up stuck inside during a hurricane with gangsters—tension ensues.

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

While Spike Lee’s latest was a little long, it’s hard to know what to cut when its updated take on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is so engrossing. Between the performances, the action, and the treasure hunt plot, it’s the rare Netflix original in which you won’t be tempted to look at your phone. I’m hoping Delroy Lindo is in the Oscars conversation come next April. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Long Gone Summer (2020)

The summer of ’98 was big for me: My sister was born, my family moved to a new house, and I turned six with a Mulan-themed party. (Yes, I was the height of cool.) It was also the summer Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa faced off in a home run battle to beat Roger Maris’s regular season record, which even then I knew was a big deal. This ESPN 30 for 30 episode interviews McGwire, Sosa, and everybody in their orbit, but the real heart is the tribute it pays to St. Louis, Chicago, and baseball as a whole. I knew baseball films make me cry, and it turns out good baseball documentaries do, too.

Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM (2020)

The sisters are back with an album made for late-night driving with the windows down, and “I Know Alone” feels like a COVID anthem.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

If you loved La La Land like I did and haven’t seen this musical, just get around to watching it already! From the colorful aesthetic to the melancholy plot structure, you can literally see Damien Chazelle’s inspiration for his modern musical. And if you can find an answer as to why the Academy found this film worthy of consideration at not one but two Oscars ceremonies, let me know—I’ve yet to solve that mystery. Crowd: 7/10 // Critic: 9/10

Double Feature – Gregory La Cava Class Comedies: My Man Godfrey (1936) + 5th Avenue Girl (1939)

I don’t think I’ve watched a film from the 1930s that isn’t about money on some level, and these two from director Gregory La Cava are no exception. In Godfrey (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Carole Lombard is a socialite who brings a homeless man in as their family’s new butler (William Powell), but there’s more to him than they know. in 5th Avenue (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8/10), Ginger Rogers befriends a lonely businessman (Walter Connolly), and though their relationship is platonic, that doesn’t mean he won’t hire her to make his philandering wife jealous. The moral of both films? Rich people be crazy, which is a great set up for comedy.

Also in June…

In addition to Anna Karenina, Kyla and teased our self-made millionaire hair and introduced our butler Max to discuss the ‘80s rom-com procedural Hart to Hart. If you enjoy detective shows, it’s a fun spin on the genre you may enjoy.

I watched and reviewed Best Picture winners The Sting (above) and the worst one I’ve watched yet, 1933’s Cavalcade. Read the Crowd and Critic reviews to know why it’s not worth your time.

I updated my Letterboxd with a list of all the movies in Cinematic Cities: New York, and my quarantine watch list is almost to 250.

Photo credits: Yoga With Adriene, HAIM. Cinematic Cities my own. All others IMDb.com.

[wumbleberry-fc]

All of them :P

1:Full name

Alexander David Walter, but please call me Pete

2:Age

18

3:3 Fears

I’ll die early and break my promise to my best fried to not die for “many, many years to come,” getting anything- even water- in my eyes or close to my eyes, my parents finding out about my beliefs and kicking me out

4:3 things I love

My best friend, my best friend, and, um, my best friend

My best friend, cuddling/hugging, and being cold

5:4 turns on

Uhh, I only get “turned on” if I haven’t ‘done the deed’ in a while, but I don’t really have any stimuli that can sexually “turn me on” consistently.

6:4 turns off

Honestly? Nakedness. And also…… gosh, I don’t know. My lack of sexual attraction is not helping me come up with an answer…

7:My best friend

My best friend is Rachel and she is a first violin in the top orchestra at my former high school and we met through a school club and we had lunch every day almost all of my senior year and she is the best and I love her

8:Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation? Asexual, or on the Ace spectrum at least.

9:My best first date

Uh, what in my life classifies as a date? I’m so ??? on everything, but….. I’m going to claim that I haven’t had a true first date with anybody. However, I did go to dinner with someone (who was forced to go with me by her parents 1/10 would not recommend at all) before the homecoming dance in my freshman year and the pasta wasn’t terrible and we did have some moments of sustained conversation…

10:How tall am I

6′ 1″ (186 cm)

11:What do I miss

My best friend, getting to eat lunch with my best friend and another of my closest friends every day at school, the high school clubs and band, marching band, my AP Gov class, playing games with people

12:What time were I born

11:55 am on a Monday

13:Favourite color

Onyx, cerulean/cobalt

14:Do I have a crush

I wouldn’t classify anything I have as a crush right now, neither romantically nor platonically

15:Favourite quote

“You’ve got opinions, manWe’re all entitled to ‘emBut I never asked

So let me thank you for your timeAnd try to not waste any more of mineGet out of here fast”

from the song “King of Anything” by Sara Bareilles

16:Favourite place

Next to my best friend. Otherwise, the city where I grew up.

17:Favourite food

A cheeseburger with an egg on it. A bun, a burger patty, american cheese (or cheddar), bacon, an over-easy egg, and lettuce. Plus, I love biting into the burger and then letting the runny yolk drip onto the fries and if I’m lucky, some cheese will also drip onto the fries over time and so I can have cheesy, egg-y fries and they just taste so good

18:Do I use sarcasm

Yeah, I would say so.

19:What am I listening to right now

The ringing in my ears from my hearing damage

20:First thing I notice in new person

Their faces (more specifically, their lips)

21:Shoe size

Men’s 11-12 Wide

22:Eye color

Blue most of the time

23:Hair color

Dirty Blond

24:Favourite style of clothing

Whatever is clean, or if not, whatever I can slip on in a few seconds. Often a T-shirt and basketball shorts

25:Kiss someone that starts with the letter “R”?

Yeah

27:Meaning behind my URL

I play the tuba and wanted to join the Jesus SquadTM

28:Kiss someone that starts with the letter “M”?

No

29:Favourite song

“She Used To Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles

30:Favourite band

Panic! at the Disco

31:How I feel right now

Unstimulated

32:Someone I love

My best friend

33:My current relationship status

Content

34:My relationship with my parents

I’m not all that open with them and don’t feel that it’s worth it at this point to let them into my personal life

35:Favourite holiday

Christmas, honestly. It’s one of the two times I get to see all of my mom’s family, guaranteed, and it’s much better than Thanksgiving

36:Tattoos and piercing i have

None, and I don’t want any either

37:Tattoos and piercing i want

Oh. Well, what I typed five seconds ago still stands, I don’t want any.

38:The reason I joined Tumblr

Uhh, I’m not going to say… Let’s say the puns, yeah, the puns…

39:Do I and my last ex hate each other?

She should hate me, but I don’t hate her. I just feel incredibly guilty…

40:Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts?

My best friend and I try to say good night every night.

41:Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?

No

42:When did I last hold hands?

Sunday

43:How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?

However long it takes to find clothes and get up

44:Have You shaved your legs in the past three days?

It’s been a good two years or so I think, but I want to do it again

45:Where am I right now?

My living room

46:If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me?

I wouldn’t be drunk, alcohol in no way tastes anywhere close to as good as root beer does

47:Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?

However loud it needs to be for me to clearly hear it, and loud if I’m trying to drown out noises I don’t want to hear (the television about once a week average)

48:Do I live with my Mom and Dad?

For 11 more days and then whenever I’m not at college, and we’ll see after I graduate

49:Am I excited for anything?

I’m going to my best friend’s first cross country meet of the season today and so I get to see my best friend today!!!!!

50:Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?

My best friend

51:How often do I wear a fake smile?

Talking about my life or the future or anything around my parents and church friends

52:When was the last time I hugged someone?

Sunday

53:What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?

I’d be really confused but I’d support and accept it

54:Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?

I only fully 100% trust one person, and I’m fairly sure the people I’ve talked to on here aren’t bad

55:What is something I disliked about today?

I once again didn’t do anything productive towards getting ready for college

56:If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

Barack Obama would be pretty neat to meet

57:What do I think about most?

My best friend

58:What’s my strangest talent?

My buddy, I have no clue. Probably making alright sounding composition things with no knowledge of theory or anything.

59:Do I have any strange phobias?

emailing people, talking on the phone with people

60:Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

I don’t like filming, but I also am not the most comfortable in front of a camera at all times

61:What was the last lie I told?

Probably something related to emailing my professor about renting a tuba for band

62:Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Video chatting online is better than talking on the phone, but both are fifth out of five methods of communicating that I detailed up yesterday for my best friend.

63:Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

No, and probably not. I do think aliens exist, but I don’t believe in aliens? Like, it’s rational to think that given the entire space, aliens have to exist, but also any thoughts we have about aliens don’t strike me as believable??

64:Do I believe in magic?

No

65:Do I believe in luck?

Yes and no, it depends, it switches back and forth. Kinda like if I believe in a monotheist God.

66:What’s the weather like right now?

Recovering from the ash from the wildfires. Also we’re transitioning from summer drought to our rest of the year “This is why Seattle has the reputation it does” weather, slowly but surely over the course of the next month before it truly kicks in mid-October.

67:What was the last book I’ve read?

The last book that I read start to finish every word was probably Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”

68:Do I like the smell of gasoline?

Not particularly, no

69:Do I have any nicknames?

(Hot) Pete, and my last name

70:What was the worst injury I’ve ever had?

Split open my head and needed a couple stitches when I was 8

71:Do I spend money or save it?

If I had any self-control or discipline, I’d be that rich teenage white boy you hear a lot in the media

72:Can I touch my nose with a tounge?

No.

73:Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me?

Same as yesterday, the stuffed animal, pillow, and folder are all still here and my hot pink tie is still in my room about 40 feet away

74:Favourite animal?

I feel uneasy around pretty much any non-human sentient being, and then most human sentient beings as well. I just… don’t know how to answer this question honestly

75:What was I doing last night at 12 AM?

I was finishing up answering the rest of the asks last night at around midnight

76:What do I think is Satan’s last name is?

Satan is just a myth to scare people into being “better” people, where “better” is just a specific lifestyle dictated by whoever managed to gain influence in the doctrine and teachings of the religion.

His origins also come from a time where surnames and ‘last names’ were not a thing, so Satan is most likely a stand-alone name, much like Plato and Zeus.

77:What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?

“She Used To Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles

78:How can you win my heart?

I’ll be the judge of that. It just… happens. Rachel, Kyle, Grae, Haley, Katie, Hot Luke, and others just……. existed, and then pretty much somehow they just became a big part of my life and I…. I just love them

79:What would I want to be written on my tombstone?

That I was a beloved friend who made a positive difference in their lives

80:What is my favorite word?

Aaaaahhhh! I know so many words, like, more than 5, and there are so many good ones!!!!!! Right now, I’m feeling music as the best word of the moment.

81:My top 5 blogs on tumblr

No. This is so rude. Why? Why must I single out a few blogs and tell the world that the interaction we’ve had isn’t enough for me and that you’re just not special enough to me? I refuse to do this.

82:If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?

“I love my best friend, gay people are amazing, fund the arts, respect the arts, respect people who work the “undesired” jobs, work to protect the environment, and try to do things that make you happy while not harming other people or sentient beings.”

83:Do I have any relatives in jail?

Not that I know of

84:I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power?

I’m firmly in the teleportation camp. I hate being late and I’m not a fan of travelling.

85:What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

Hygiene-related questions… please…. I’m working on it…. let me be…..

86:What is my current desktop picture?

The default background

87:Had sex?

No, ew.

88:Bought condoms?

Never actually seen them accept in memes and once during health class in freshman year

89:Gotten pregnant?

No

90:Failed a class?

Yeah….. and it was the second semester of APUSH too…

91:Kissed a boy?

On his hand, which I’ll count

92:Kissed a girl?

Yeah

93:Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?

No

94:Had job?

I became a CYO volleyball referee and reffed two seasons so far.

95:Left the house without my wallet?

Often, and since I’ve been driving, only twice (although one was driving up for a the campus tour at the college I ended up choosing, which was about 5 total hours of driving that day, a week after I got my license). I try to remember it when I go out because I saw a few months ago a post on here saying how valuable it is in case of an accident or something and the person has an ID, and I’ve been watching crime dramas for years and having an ID is always good.

96:Bullied someone on the internet?

Good heavens, no!

97:Had sex in public?

No! Ewwww, God that’s even worse

98:Played on a sports team?

I sooo miss volleyball, and soccer was fun too

99:Smoked weed?

I hope to be able to say no until I die

100:Did drugs?

I occasionally took my prescriptions… for like 2 months… whoops

But no, not for the intention of getting high or anything, I hate drugs, even advil and tylenol

101:Smoked cigarettes?

Fuck cigarettes (and no, I haven’t)

102:Drank alcohol?

A drop of an IPA when I was 13 and a sip of a red wine when I was 16 (with parental supervision that time), and nah, it isn’t my thing.

103:Am I a vegetarian/vegan?

Show me a well-prepared vegetable that has a decent flavor and I might be open to eating them more often

104:Been overweight?

Ever since I was like 2

105:Been underweight?

Never

106:Been to a wedding?

I think I’ve been to 5?

107:Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?

what do you think I do every day?

108:Watched TV for 5 hours straight?

So many wasted hours...

109:Been outside my home country?

Not yet

110:Gotten my heart broken?

Actually? Seriously? Like, more than just butt hurt over an infatuation? No, not really

111:Been to a professional sports game?

A couple baseball games

112:Broken a bone?

My ulna and radius, just above the wrist, on my dad’s 48th birthday back in fifth grade when I tripped over my two feet in the middle of our street and landed poorly. We didn’t go to the hospital for like 3 days

113:Cut myself?

Like, as in self-harming? No.

114:Been to prom?

No, freshman homecoming was off-putting enough for me after the aftermath…

115:Been in airplane?

Yeah! Flying is great!

116:Fly by helicopter?

No

117:What concerts have I been to?

I apparently went to two The Wiggles concerts when I was a baby, and since then it’s only been school concerts

118:Had a crush on someone of the same sex?

I think the desire was enough to elevate it past a mere infatuation, but it wasn’t like a full-on crush if you know what I’m saying.

119:Learned another language?

Not fully… I’m that kind of white person (minus the complete snobbish elitist attitude)

120:Wore make up?

It isn’t bad, but it’s too close to my eyes for me to be comfortable, and it’s wayyy too much work to do like every day just to look better than my meagerness. I’m already bad enough with basic hygiene, this would be too much (although I guess if I cared that much about it it might help this problem…). I’ll gladly wear it for a show, though.

121:Lost my virginity before I was 18?

The concept of virginity is complete bs to oppress women and “weak” men and is only fun in the ‘sacrificing a virgin into a volcano’ trope but even then I don’t like it (again, sex is gross for me, so no)

122:Had oral sex?

I have kissed and been kissed on my lips, various spots on my face, and my hands, and that’s it.

123:Dyed my hair?

No

124:Voted in a presidential election?

No, but I registered to vote on my eighteenth birthday this year and I voted in the primary elections back in August and I can’t wait to vote in the November elections because VOTING IS IMPORTANT ESPECIALLY IN NON-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WHEN ONLY A VERY LOW PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION VOTES!!!!! LIKE, IT’S DISAPPOINTING THAT ONLY ABOUT 50% OF THE POPULATION VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, BUT THAT NUMBER DROPS TO 30-40% IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND ONLY 10-20% IN LOCAL-ONLY ELECTIONS (READ: ELECTIONS IN ODD-NUMBERED YEARS) AND THOSE NUMBERS BREAK MY HEART AND WE NEED TO VOTE MORE BECAUSE VOTING IS THE EASIEST WAY TO HAVE SOME LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS AND IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE TO BE HEARD AND IF YOU ONLY VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OR NEVER AT ALL, THEN THE PEOPLE WHO FAITHFULLY VOTE EVERY YEAR, AKA RICH OLD WHITE CONSERVATIVE MEN, ESSENTIALLY HAVE ALL OF THE VOICE IN THE ELECTIONS AND WE DO NOT NEED TO HAVE EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR GOVERNMENT DECIDED BY RICH OLD WHITE CONSERVATIVE MEN IF YOU’VE EVER READ ANY HISTORY TEXTBOOK OR REALLY ANYTHING, YOU SHOULD EASILY BE ABLE TO SEE WHY! PLEASE VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION!!!!!!!!!

125:Rode in an ambulance?

No

126:Had a surgery?

Do stitches count? Otherwise, no.

127:Met someone famous?

No

128:Stalked someone on a social network?

Too many times, sadly, and sorry

129:Peed outside?

Yeah

130:Been fishing?

No

131:Helped with charity?

I’ve volunteered with some non-profits, but I don’t think I’ve done so with a quote “charity” unquote.

132:Been rejected by a crush?

Probably? Most things were minor infatuations that I used to think were crushes, so I’m not sure. You could say that the most recent potential qualifier rejected me, but I would beg to differ given things now

133:Broken a mirror?

I was a reckless child

134:What do I want for birthday?

More time to spend alone with my best friend, more time to be with my best friend, a sudden influx of cash (and/or guaranteed financial stability), root beer and food and people to play games with

135:How many kids do I want and what will be their names?

Zero (0). However, if I do have kids, I’d probably adopt them, and I’d probably let them choose their names. Otherwise, I really like the names Luke, Pete®, James, Haley, Sara, Nicole, Alex (particularly for non-binary or female identifying persons), Rachel (though I probably wouldn’t name my kid that bc it’s too special for me), Hannah, and Emily.

136:Was I named after anyone?

My parents don’t say so.

137:Do I like my handwriting?

I’ve spent a long time crafting this efficient style, so yes. Also I have like three style to choose, my Most EfficientTM style, my All Caps (with the first letter taller than the others) style, and my fancy style with all of the tails at the end of the letters, the a like this font has it, the curls, anything I find to be   fancy   *jazz hands*

138:What was my favourite toy as a child?

Probably my little cars that I would move around on my city roads carpet along with a motorcycle that made had a brief jingle and then a simple noise that was super cool for 6-8 year old me

139:Favourite Tv Show?

Phineas and Ferb, or How I Met Your Mother

140:Where do I want to live when older?

Ideally, somewhere here in my hometown, I just love it here.

141:Play any musical instrument?

I can make a sound, but is it really playing? *suspenseful music crescendos*

142:One of my scars, how did I get it?

My Aunt re-married when I was 8 and the guy had a son a few months older than me, and we babysat him for a month during their honeymoon. Well, this boy wasn’t a good influence on me at all, but that’s beside the point. I thought he was… you know what, that actually is the point, but…. I though he was cool, and he could do things and did things that I wanted to try.

Well, one day, we laid out flat a futon and covered it with all the cushions and pillows from the couch that was also downstairs. Then, he grabbed an exercise ball, put it on the futon, got on it, rolled across the futon over the pillows, and stood up on the other side of the futon when he was done and I was so impressed, it blew my mind that he laid his midsection on the ball and rolled the ball like 6 feet and didn’t move or fall off of the exercise ball as it rolled.

So I tried it. And at the end, I slid off the ball, but not to land. I didn’t know how he stayed horizontal, and it showed, as I fell forward and slammed the side of me head into the corner of a cabinet right next to the far side of the cabinet. It hurt, and so I didn’t try a second time… until he successfully did it again a few minutes later. So I, desperately wanting to do it right and be “cool” like him, tried to do it again.

And I hit the exact same part of the side of my head on the corner of the cabinet again, almost exactly how my run went the first time. After the second hit, my head really hurt, and so I put my hands to my head, ran halfway up the stairs, and began to cry.

Also know that I was going through a phase where I loved to fake cry. I thought imitating the sounds of crying without the tears was one of the funniest things. And my mom hated it. She was a stay-at-home mom at that point, had been from a few months before I was born until my youngest sister entered elementary school with us. And so she was at home all day, every day (hence the babysitting). So, for the two months of summer by that point, my fake crying obsession was driving her up the wall.

Back to the story. Now, I’m sitting on the staircase, hands on my head because it hurts, tears forming in my eyes and my voice beginning to make all the crying sounds that I made when I was fake crying all summer so I guess my imitations were spot on. But after about a minute, I decided remove my arms from my head, and I looked at them, and there were lines of blood all the way from my fingers to my elbows and drops had fallen from my elbows onto my sock, and I shrieked.

I immediately went back down the stairs to the office where mom was on the computer, and the tears were coming almost as steady as the blood, and I was full-out crying. My mom, who was looking at the screen and thus only heard me crying, lashed out angrily, telling me to stop bothering her with that freaking fake crying. That is, until I got her to look at my arms. She took me upstairs and cleaned me up a little, but, while my bleeding slowed significantly, it didn’t stop.

After about 3 hours, my dad came home from work, and the bleeding still hadn’t stopped, and so we went to the hospital. I ended up getting 5 or 6 stitches, and when my hair is cut short enough, you can see the small white line.

That’s the only scar that I definitely know that I have. I haven’t really done anything physically risky since. That’s also pretty much when I stopped crying all that much…

143:Favourite pizza toping?

Extra cheese. Otherwise, sausage.

144:Am I afraid of the dark?

Only if I’m trying to sneak through somewhere and I can’t see where exactly I’m going

145:Am I afraid of heights?

Yeah, I would say I have a mild fear of heights. Specifically if I have to go down somewhere (like downhill slightly and there is a sharp decline on one side), or if I have to jump more than like 3 feet

146:Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad?

I’ve been reprimanded for going out for most of the day and not saying anything, just disappearing for like 6 hours on a Sunday morning

147:Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end?

I never try my hardest

148:What I’m really bad at

Emailing people I need to, cleaning, hygiene, contacting people, calling people on the phone/talking to people on the phone, doing what I need to do

149:What my greatest achievements are

I graduated from high school, I won an CYO volleyball championship in sixth grade, I won a math competition in 7th grade (by guessing better than 19 other 7th and 8th graders from two different schools), and I…….. I haven’t really done much yet, nothing truly worthwhile (except maybe hs graduation)

150:The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me

I can’t think of anything, really. Although some acquaintances of mine made anti-Semitic “jokes” in front of me during summer camp this year and it bothered me a lot

151:What I’d do if I won in a lottery

I’d buy a large enough apartment to have space to wander around (picture Castle’s apartment from the show Castle, and pretty much like that but a little less opulent and I don’t need all the ornate luxuries around. Just the space of like 5-7 medium/large open rooms with a comfortable bed and a non-cramped bathroom or two, and a nice big kitchen for all the food I’m going to have.

I’d always have root beer in stock, along with some snacks that I like, and I’d have whatever foods my friends like because my closest friends would have invitations to come at literally any time (like, this is for max 6 people), and I’d like to regularly meet up with my closest friends and I’ll treat them to nice filling dinners at the local diners, Denny’s, wherever they want, even McDonald’s or whatever, and I’ll tip really well, like at least $50 dollars because those people are always so nice, and I’ll splurge so much on my friends.

I’d also donate a bunch to all of those people who really need it that I see come across my dash, and I’ll donate a crapload to my high school band because they meant the world to me, and I’d FUND THE ARTS BECAUSE THE ARTS ARE IMPORTANT.

152:What do I like about myself

I like that I love the arts and that I play the tuba and that I am getting into writing music and that I write poetry and that I love my friends especially my best friend and I like that I try to be positive and supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and that I actively try to make the world a slightly happier place most of the time

153:My closest Tumblr friend

Katie

154:Something I fantasize about

Getting to spend long periods of time with my best friend, having a bunch of money to spend on my best friend, being happy

155:Any question you’d like?

What is your favorite video game that you own that you’ve never seen elsewhere and is likely not well-known at all?

I love the game Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the Wii, and I can play it for hours upon hours for days and not get bored. It’s a really fun game with a long storyline that is entertaining and original, and I just love playing it and have literally only ever seen it at our house since my mom somehow found it and bought it like 7 years ago.

(yes, I made that question up myself)

Thank you for asking all of these!!!!!

(when I copied and pasted it to a google doc in case the computer shuts down and I lose the whole answer, it said that I had 4825 words and it took up 17 pages. So, yeah, this is 4867 words long!)

(And I was right, the everything disappeared and so I had to post it early so I could go back and edit it, so now it’s 4900 words long in total, after editing.)

[memorylang]

Typical Day in the Training Life | #4 | August 2019

By this time next month, school’s begun, and I’m living in western Mongolia, where I’ll serve the next two years. With fewer than two weeks left where I live now, today’s blog reflects on a typical day during Training.

Outdoors

I usually wake up between 6 and 7:30, to my family’s roosters, to the sun on my face, or to the phone alarms I’ve used since the University. I sleep on top of my Peace Corps sleeping bag on the living room couch of my host family’s one-story, three-room house. Regardless of whatever I wore the night before, I toss on a shirt and shorts, unlock my door, slip on my sandals, turn right, take from beside the house door a few squares of toilet paper, turn the key since our door handle broke off, then emerge outdoors. 

Some mornings terrify me. My host family’s guard dogs often roam the yard. Some mornings begin with me navigating across the yard opposite the dogs. After the outhouse business, I creep back to the house, grateful if the dogs roamed elsewhere. I could write plenty more about the outhouse, but you surely don’t want to know. As for dogs, since this week, I’ve learned the body and verbal language to keep them away. Today I moved past five dogs in our yard!

Most mornings are lovely, with breathtaking skies. I love walking among the wildflowers of violet, blue, pink, yellow and white. They remind me of the flowers by my uni’s English building, which changed with each spring day. After the rain here, I often admire the nearby misty mountain. Recent Siberian wildfires turned our skies gray, unfortunately.

Indoors

Back inside the house, I, having washed my hands and returned to my room, may have an hour or so before breakfast. I log the night before’s peculiar dream, pray a rosary, stretch a bit, journal, read or chat with friends here or elsewhere in the world.

Breakfast usually begins when my host mom says something like, “Цай уу!” (Literally, “Drink tea,” but essentially, “Come eat.”) Breakfast ranges from some awesome bread plus jarred vegetables, a jam or hazelnut spread or either eggs on top of the bread or the bread dipped in then cooked in eggs. I’m glad these are simple to cook. I tend, during breakfast, to study my Mongolian or answer students’ questions while checking my analog watch (college graduation gift) for the time.

If I hadn’t already, I step back into my room, put on my business casual and Scheels hiking boots, then add to my pockets my Chinese phone for Peace Corps, black pen, mech pencil and blue pen, plus a lens wipe, tissues and hand sanitizer. Also, if I’m not teaching, I usually wear my wooden dove cross necklace or my wooden wrist rosary.

Leaving home with my black Táiwān Kiwanis Randoseru-looking bag strapped across me and sometimes with my raincoat on, too, I voice a, “Баяртай!” /buyr-tay/ (goodbye) to my family when they’re awake. I then walk to school along the grass and dirt paths, weathered by tire treads and rain.

School

Many mornings I reach the school early to ask our two kind instructors lingering questions. I often attribute my rigor to last summer’s suffering through the Chinese without English. Nothing’s for a grade now, anyway. But in Mongolian I need to understand others and communicate clearly. About 10 minutes before class starts, my fellow three classmates arrive. We change into our more formal shoes if we weren’t already wearing them. We enjoy four hours of lessons, with a couple breaks in between. On some days, visitors from Peace Corps Mongolia observe and participate, too!

I walk home during our lunch break, usually with my Trainee neighbor. I only need an hour to eat the typical stir-fry or soup with rice or noodles before heading back to school to lesson prep or relax. I finish my Mongolian homework, too. Sometimes I answer questions from our students if I socialize.

Some afternoons, my fellow Trainees and I co-teach next, for two of three summer classes to elementary, middle school, and occasionally high school students. Our students are lovely. Then we get feedback from our trainers. Having finished summer teaching now, today’s our celebration day! Other evenings, we receive training sessions on teaching English. I usually return home between 5 and 7. I return to casual clothes, then dinner usually involves soup or stir-fry with rice or noodles. Sometimes I get to help peel potatoes, chop vegetables or knead dough if I’m not tired. Occasionally we eat more than one dinner.

Evenings

Afterward, I often accompany my host sister to the park. On days it rained, many children play concurrently on the same court two half-court basketball games and volleyball, while full-court happens on the court beside us. Imagine dodging other sports’ balls while bumping back yours! I’ve improved a lot.

Back at home, my family often watches K-Dramas in Mongolian. From what I saw of the genre, these usually involve characters cheating, getting back together, loved ones’ deaths, dramatic cliffhangers and bittersweet endings. On Sunday nights, we watch this Mongolian singing show imitating pop culture icons. My fellow Trainees have mixed feelings about the show. Once, my host family and I saw, “Single Ladies 2,” a Mongolian film my host family called something of a rom-com. Its horror surprised me.

As a throwback to my 22nd birthday, my cohort’s trip to the city exemplified how in many ways I’d adjusted to life in Training well. That first shower in a month to use hot, running water felt refreshing but also spoiling. Shower systems really are wasteful. Glad I needn’t get used to them, though! If you want to know how I bathe three times a week with a түмпэн /tomb-pen/ basin, pan, kettle and drum, let me know. Very normal. Beyond those, I brush and floss before bed, then read, chat with friends, journal, put on music or pray a rosary to sleep. And repeat!

Up Next: New Home

By this time next month, the first day of school begins. I’m spending my final weeks since our community project of paper crane teaching and painting, now preparing my Host Family Appreciation Day speech and readying for my Language Proficiency Interview next Thursday. No more trips to Дархан. I’ll really miss my training site and this community. But I’ll make new friends soon!

Thank you to my American sister for this blog’s topic. Write to me what you care to read! Up next, maybe identity blog.

For more from my first summer in Mongolia, see here:

Summer’s Peace Corps Training Months 1 through 3 | May, June, July, August

My First Days in Peace Corps Mongolia | #37 | June 2020

Refresh Abroad as Student and Teacher | #1 | June 2019

Meeting My Mongol Host Family | #40 | July 2020

Horses and Global Adventures | #2 | July 2019

22nd Birthday! Наадам, City and Countryside | #3 | July 2019

Typical Day in the Training Life | #4 | August 2019

Farewells for 2019 Summer’s End | #41 | August 2020

You can read more from me here at DanielLang.me :)

[morganbelarus]

Do You Agree With Our Ranking Of The Top 10 Songs Of 2018? Betches

2018 is coming to a close, and is it just me, or did this year feel like forever? Songs like “God’s Plan” and “Better Now” came out this year. THIS YEAR. I could’ve sworn they came out in like…2017. But regardless, this year was filled with killer songs. Here is a list of the top 10 best songs of 2018. Obvs, we all have our own taste in music, so like, don’t @ me. But also, if you disagree, you’re wrong and I hate you.

10. Drake: “In My Feelings“

I hold a special place in my heart for Drake. Probs because we went to the same high school (many years apart, but whatevs), so he’s my motivation to believe that I can make something of myself… even if I have yet to make something of myself. But nonetheless. Anytime an online trend starts because of a song, you know it’s going to be a hit. Dancing while the car is moving beside you and your friend is filming (while driving???) is not the safest but it’s for Drake, and we love Drake.

9. Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa: “One Kiss“

The song of summer ’18. This song, with it’s ’90s music video vibes, is fun and energetic. If you need a pick-me-up, throw this one on. One kiss listen is all it takes, to fall in love with me this song (one of the catchiest and best songs of 2018). Dua Lipa is going to be huge for years to come, I’m calling it now.

8. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper: “Shallow“

Wait never mind. Any song from A Star is Born. These songs give me the chills. If you haven’t seen the movie, at least listen to the music, because it will change you. “Shallow” is constantly stuck in my head, and I sing it as if I have a voice like Lady Gaga’s (which is sooooo far from the truth). Like the entire movie, this song has an incredible message that is applicable to so many people.

7. Maroon 5 & Cardi B: “Girls Like You“

Adam Levine has the body voice of an angel, and I love a good song that appreciates a woman #feminism. This is my go-to song when I’m jamming in the car alone, stuck in traffic. Plus, the music video is equally as amazing. It features so many strong females including comedians, athletes, actors, and models. Ellen DeGeneres, Gal Gadot, JLO, and obvs, Behati Prinsloo and their daughter Dusty are among those included in the video. That’s just precious.

6. Kendrick Lamar & SZA: “All The Stars”

Part of the Black Panther soundtrack, this song is amazing. SZA’s incredible vocals contrast perfectly with Kendrick Lamar’s verses. It was released in January, just a month before the release of the movie, but it is still frequently played on the radio or my Spotify playlist, making it one of the best songs of 2018. It also scored some major nominations at the Grammys this year, because of course.

5. Bruno Mars & Cardi B: “Finesse“

The year of Cardi, I swear. At this rate, I’m not sure what she can do in 2019 to top this year. This one came out in early January and I’m not sick of it yet. In classic Bruno fashion, it’s an incredible song, with great lyrics, that sticks in everyone’s heads. Not to mention that this video is an In Living Color tribute that got the “stamp of approval” by the Wayans family.

4. Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin: “I Like It”

Cardi had a pretty great year in terms of her career and giving birth to her daughter, Kulture, in July. But as of recently, her personal life may not be going as great. No matter what, this unapologetic song lists all the things Cardi likes and TBH what I do too. We both have expensive taste, just on different budgets. It’s catchy and upbeat. What’s not to like about it?

3. Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey: “The Middle”

When this song comes on in the bar (the few times I actually go out), I get so excited, definitely earning it a spot as one of the best songs of 2018. It is such an upbeat song and I shamelessly know every word to it. Sure, it’s not the most artistic song ever, but there’s a reason it was so popular. Also, the music video is set in a Target commercial. Lol, my happy place.

2. Beyoncé & JAY-Z: “APESHIT”

This entire album is f*cking incredible and I’m not just saying that because I am a die-hard Beyoncé fan. Their music video was filmed in the Louvre. That alone makes it amazing. But this song is more than just a catchy banger, because it speaks to some important societal issues that need more attention. Beyoncé opens by pushing for wage equality, while Jay-Z calls out the NFL and the Grammys. Ugh, mom and dad, you’re incredible.

1. Ariana Grande: “thank u, next“

2018 was the year of Ariana, or at least for her career. She said, during her acceptance speech for a Billboard Woman of the Year award, “I find it interesting that this has been one of the best years in my career and one of like the worst years in my life.” I already loved her album sweetener, and then it just got better. Not only did she grace us with this killer self-love anthem, but she also made one of the most incredible music videos ever. My favorite thing to ask people I meet now is “what four movies would you choose to recreate the ‘thank u, next’ video about your life?”

Even though 2018 was a pretty terrible year in every other way, at least we got some good bops out of it. 2019, the bar is so low for you. Please do better.

Images: Giphy (6)

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

=> *********************************************** See More Here: Do You Agree With Our Ranking Of The Top 10 Songs Of 2018? Betches ************************************ =>

Do You Agree With Our Ranking Of The Top 10 Songs Of 2018? Betches was originally posted by Latest news - Feed

[blacknihilism-blog1]

1. have you ever been in love?

Yes. Twice. 

2. what are your favourite colours and why?

Black/Red. I love Black because it can typically match with any other colors and usually makes for dope color schemes. I also like darker colors more for some reason. I love bright colors as well but I’ve found that I don’t like to wear them too much or get them on items that I use often

3. who was the last person you held hands with?

If I ever hold hands it’s platonic considering I havent been in a relationship in 10 months lol. So probably one of my friends. 

4. what is your zodiac sign?

Taurus

5. how many times have you read your favourite book?

Honestly I dont know any books that were so good to me that I read it multiple times. I don’t read as often as I like.

6. what are your favourite films?

I don’t really have a lot of “favorites”. Any time I’m asked for a favorite *blank* my mind draws a blank lol.

7. what kind of weather do you like?

I love rainy weather. I love cold weather. But I don’t like cold rainy weather. At least not if i’m outside.

8. do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?

I like sunsets. Although I love to see any transition of the sun whether it be rising or setting, since I love the night time I love to see it go from a beautiful range of colors to darkness rather than a beautiful range of colors into lots of sunshine.

9. what kind of weather represents who you are as a person?

Murky rain. But out in the corner of the sky u can see a huge ray of sunshine.

10. what’s your favourite animal?

I love dogs

11. what is your favourite song right now?

“Get You” by Daniel Caesar

12. what is your favourite song of all time?

Oof what did I say about favorites?

13. do you like sunny days or rainy days better?

I absolutely love rainy days unless I have to do a lot of driving.

14. have you ever been heartbroken?

Yes

15. what does the perfect kiss feel like?

I think the perfect kiss is less about the physical kiss and moreso with the perfect person at the perfect time. As in the kiss that signifies marriage or whatever. I think that’s what the perfect kiss feels like. The realization that with this kiss, you are promising to always love and care for whoever you’re kissing.

16. what is your favourite poem?

Eh

17. who are you most inspired by?

I don’t have much inspiration as of right now. In the past it was Childish Gambino but currently I’m just eh.

18. are you spiritual?

I have an appreciation for some spiritual studies and practices but personally I’m not too spiritual. 

19. what is your favourite plant?

lmfao weed

20. what is your favourite feeling?

Being in love and content with life.

21. what is your favourite word?

Fuck

22. are you an artist?

I don’t really make any art. I’ve made a few songs and I wanna get into poetry and video making. But I don’t know if my current level of confidence allows me to call myself an artist.

23. what is your favourite flower?

Bud

24. are you happy?

Not genuinely but I have my moments.  

25. what are you thinking about right now?

Honestly I’m thinking about someone. I wish I wasn’t just because I don’t like thinking about people who don’t want me in the same way that I want them. All that does is create pain and I rather avoid feeling that confusing feeling that is love. I mean if the love was returned then it’s great but who knows, Maybe it’s better if we aren’t together. We can only let time tell.

26. what emotion do you feel most often?

Confusion/Regret. In my head I’m always trying to avoid conflict/making someone feel any sort of negative emotion. And any time I make a mistake i regret everything. And I’m always feeling confusion because I never know how I can really improve who I am as a person. 

27. what is your favourite season?

Winter. I love cold weather. TMI but honestly I sweat too much to be comfortable during any hot season. And I’m a very affectionate person so I cant hug people as much during the summer. During the winter I’m always loving on my friends lol. Plus if you’re in a relationship, those “cold-outside-but-cuddling-inside” days are lovely.

28. are you in a relationship?

No. Honestly outta nowhere like yesterday or two days ago I realized that I had some strong feelings for someone I’m close to and dated in the past. I started talking about if we were dating and I just moved way too fast. I regretted everything i said instantly and just played it off as whatever. In the moments following her telling me that I’m moving too fast I was just snapped back to reality and decided I needed to calm myself down. Looking back I did seem crazy. But it’s been so long since i had any feelings for anybody (to the point that I’d date them) and I just got excited if im going to be real. And I was also sick at the time so I’m just laying in bed picturing me with them and it seemed like we could work really well together. But it’s okay. I’m just gonna take my time. I don’t know whether I should move on or pursue her at a slower pace. So for now I’m just gonna be big chillin.

29. are you an introvert or extrovert?

Introvert. Unless it’s really some people I’m comfortable with I’m pretty timid. Even with out with some of my closest friends I’d rather just be home. 

30. do you prefer the moon or the stars?

The stars. There’s this street not too far from my friends house and me and him have driven down it a few times now. When you’re on this street, if you turn off your headlights and look up the sky has very little light pollution and it’s beautiful. The moon is rarely close enough for me to enjoy. 

31. what is your favourite scent?

I love the smell of a lot of different foods. But looking back, my favorite smell used to be the perfume that my girlfriend constantly used. I ran into one person who used the same one as her some time after we broke up and for lack of a better term, it triggered lots of memories of her. But I used to love it. Not because the scent was so good, but rather because I was in love with her and everything about her.

32. where do you feel most at home?

In my room. I used to have these black bags over my window which allowed very little light into my room and as I said earlier, I prefer darkness. But I took those down recently as a metaphorical enlightenment and symbol for how my life was headed in a brighter, more positive direction. It sort of works, but mainly I love my room because at night time I’m never bothered. And it seems like a safe space. At 2 a.m. in my room, I’m alone. My parents won’t call me for random tasks, teachers can’t pester me about random assignments, and I can just do whatever I want.

33. what scares you the most?

Honestly the last time i was seriously afraid of something, I was afraid that I had caused some major damage to someone I trust and love. So I’m terrified of hurting other people. I’ve seen so many people be hurt by so many things. I never want to see myself become the source of someone’s terror.

34. do you believe in soulmates?

God knows I do. But honestly something about soulmates that I always question is the setting of a pair of soulmate’s birth. For example, what if you weren’t born in the same location and/or time period as your soulmate. If it’s just the location, you can roam the Earth and possibly meet them if your lucky. But if you never leave your hometown, in my opinion your soulmate probably isn’t born in your hometown. I think you need to explore to find them. And I hate to be pessimistic, but i think that you aren’t guaranteed to meet your soulmate, if they do exist. So the vast majority of people don’t meet them. But I hate thinking like that. It puts me in a very nihilistic point of view.

35. what is your favourite thing about yourself?

I try hard to spread love and positivity. I have so much love in my heart.

36. what is the nicest compliment you’ve received?

Honestly i dont know. 

37. who is your favourite music artist?

Childish Gambino. I had a huge Gambino phase during early high school. I connected to a lot of his music and his personality that was portrayed through different interviews. He was mysterious to me because he doesnt use social media and just keeps to himself a lot. But I like “Camp” because i felt like a lot of that music was relatable to a “White, Black Kid” which was something i struggled a lot with in middle school. I’m fully black but people called me “white” due to my behavior. Which was basically not enforcing black stereotypes. And due to peer pressure I took on the role of the “White, Black Kid” or the “Oreo” (Black on the outside and white on the inside). 

38. what was your first kiss like?

It was for my 14th birthday. Looking back on it, it was a mess because I was hella insecure at the time. I was just nervous and asked like 3 times which ruined the mood. I was just surprised that someone wanted to kiss me period. But it was at an ice skating rink for my birthday. It was just me and a bunch of friends but I was “talking” to this girl at the time. Basically we went sit on the other side of the rink and was just talking. All my other friends were trying to look at us which also didnt help my insecurity/bad nerves. But I did it. And i was so happy for the following few days lol.

39. are you a sensitive person?

Tbh, probably. I’m very open to criticism but I also get hurt fairly easily.

40. when was the last time you cried?

A few days ago. Either out of pain from my tooth or heart ache whenever I was first told to slow it down with the girl i was into. Ik its silly to cry over something that small but idk. I’m just being honest and letting yall know the last time i cried. 

41. do you believe that love can last forever?

Yeah. That’s the kind of love I want. I want to take some time and enjoy my teenage years but then fall in love with one person and i want to be with that one person forever. I just dont trust enough people to think that we’d last forever tho. That’s why I don’t get into relationships too often. I won’t get into a relationship if I don’t see me and that person lasting. 

42. what do you think happens to us when we die?

I’m not too spiritual but I wouldn’t be surprised if Heaven and Hell existed. I’m way too simpleminded to try and comprehend what lies in the afterlife though. 

43. have you ever broken someone’s heart?

Sadly. I cried hard as hell myself afterwards tbh.

44. what do you think about when you can’t fall asleep at night?

I’m not sure if this question is asking what thoughts keep me up, or what thoughts put me to sleep. A lot of thoughts keep me up. But it’s not the thoughts themselves, but rather my inability to sleep. I don’t have insomnia but usually if i’m up, I’m up because i don’t want to go to sleep, or im in some sort of discomfort/pain thats keeping me up. And sometimes I don’t go to sleep because I’m texting someone and either im hoping we can have an “interesting” convo or i just wanna stay up and talk to em. And lately either being sick, or my unattended dental problems keep me up.

45. do you believe in aliens?

Okay, lets be honest. As big as space is, you expect me to believe that we’re the only living beings? Yeah okay. Sure. Lol

46. what is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for you?

My friend brought me medicine at work and lord knows I was so grateful because I was seriously struggling. It’s not the nicest but goddamn did I appreciate it.

47. do you find it hard to trust?

I find it hard to trust somebody with my heart. As in I don’t trust many people enough to date them. I’m actually very open which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. I see it as good because I feel that it makes me pretty approachable. But it’s bad because I leave myself susceptible to getting hurt by being open.

[amongthegraham]

Winter Came and Hit Us Hard

About a month ago, my wife and I did the impossible: We binge-watched all 60 episodes of “Game of Thrones” in a little over three weeks.

Blazing through six seasons of television may not seem like that big of a deal to some, but for working parents that devote every second to their toddler when he’s awake, it really is an astounding feat. Once the Season 6 finale ended we actually hugged one another in celebration, exclaiming “we did it!”

Reading that makes me realize just how much my life has changed since my early twenties. I am so lame now! However, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Obviously, we are late to the game (pun intended). Though my wife is a fan of “Harry Potter,” I’ve never been into the whole fantasy genre, which is why I never cared about “Game of Thrones” in the first place. Aside from Ridley Scott’s 1985 film “Legend,” “The NeverEnding Story,” and “Labyrinth,” I am quite unfamiliar with works of fantasy. I’ve never seen nor read “Lord of the Rings” and all I know about the series comes from references Led Zeppelin made in their music.

Truthfully, I did not intend on watching “Game of Thrones,” but when seemingly everyone on the planet won’t stop singing its praises you do start to wonder if you are missing out on something special.

Discovering “GOT” (as the cool kids say) happened very randomly. On a Friday night in November, we had just finished the comedy “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” and with it only being 9:00 p.m., the night was still young so my wife suggested we check out “Game of Thrones.” Though the pilot was a little slow to start, the shocking ending sunk its claws deep into us. From that moment on “GOT” ruled our free time.

“Easton is napping, ‘Game of Thrones’ time,” I would declare. Hopefully he would sleep an hour and not wake up mid-episode.

“Cue up the Roku, let’s try and watch four episodes tonight,” Kristin would say while running down the stairs after putting our son down for the night. My wife loves her sleep so the fact that she was allowing “GOT” to take precedence over getting eight solid hours should tell you just how amazing this series is.

Weekly shows began piling up in the DVR. My Netflix DVD rentals that I try and watch and return as fast as possible sat unopened on the coffee table. I took a hiatus from my three-times-a-week evening workout routine so that we could squeeze in more “Game of Thrones.” Why go on a date to the movie theater when we could watch “GOT” at home? While visiting family out of town, we went so far as to leave my in-law’s home while our son was napping and go to my sister-in-law’s house because she had a Roku and we could sneak in an episode before our little man woke up. If there was an episode of “Intervention” about “Game of Thrones” addiction we would have starred in it.

When we finally concluded our “Game of Thrones” marathon, in addition to being ridiculously impressed with our commitment, we couldn’t help but also feel a tad melancholy over no more episodes to binge. Seriously, is this what it’s like waiting for new “GOT?” It’s miserable! How do you fans that have been with the show from the start do it every year? There’s been a time or two when I wonder to myself what Jon Snow is up to and that makes absolutely no sense since he is a fictional character!

I struggled with myself over whether I wanted to make this a spoiler warning article specifically reviewing the show, or a piece that persuades others to jump on the “GOT” bandwagon. I went with the latter because “Game of Thrones” truly is one of the most entertaining shows of all time. Plus, I wanted to stress the importance of parents enjoying a little down time.

Having a child will seriously rock your world. Although you may no longer go out on weekly dates, parents should still find some way to connect even if it means not leaving your couch. “Game of Thrones” is the ideal show for couples. It’s romantic. It’s violent. The cast is full of beautiful people so there’s someone for everyone to ogle. It’s occasionally funny. It’s got dragons. It’s complicated storytelling so it leads to discussion. It’s devastating (I wish I had on film my wife’s reaction to “The Red Wedding”). Overall, it’s unbelievably satisfying. Like most of the characters in the show, you will undoubtedly lose your head for “Game of Thrones.”

“Game of Thrones” returns with Season 7 this summer so there’s plenty of time to binge. Whether it takes you three days, three weeks, or three months, just do it already.

Concert Update: Catch Cheap Trick live in Peoria on February 9, 2017 at the Limelight Eventplex. Tickets are currently available through ticketfly.com.