#flynn friday imagines series

[laststandx3]

training is easy - the real job it’s much harder

[nomunamuinmybrain]

Happy Birthday to our Jiminie🐥

Hello guys! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Summary: Sometimes our thoughts get the best of us. Sometimes depression gets the best of all of us. Too oblivious to realise that we are surrounded with love. This is a story about learning to receive love, learning that you deserve love. A fun group of friends and their lives as they gradually change and grow. Sometimes bitter other times sweet much like chocolate such is life.

FLUFF WITH A SPRINKLE (or so) of smut/Slow pace

words: 969

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Chapter 2/

It was already passed 11pm and I was washing the dishes after devouring the gorgeous dinner I made, spicy chicken stew, when my phone started blowing up. A series of messages and calls almost cause my phone to vibrate off the counter.

"Hoseokaaaa! Come for a minute please! I can't get my phone and it's ringing!"

He unlocked my phone and his eyebrows shot up to meet hairline almost and then he made a face, a weird face.

"What?! Who is it?! Is it a client?! Let me see."

Wiping my hands on my shirt I pry the phone out of his hand. He starts cackling.

"Oh, it's a client. THE client."

With a loud smack across his shoulder I make an exit from the kitchen and land on my bed.

What could he possibly want? Did he change his mind about working with me? I mean it could just be an update or something. Won't know unless I check, right. Maybe he was thinking about you, a little voice whispered in my head. Nah. I don't think so. The phone starts ringing again in my hand, I look down and its him. Again.

"Hello..." I answer confused

"Hey! Hi. How are you?" he said with low giggle

"HIIIII Y/N!!! How ARE you? HOW IS HOSEOKIII?" My ears ringing from the screaming. But I can't help myself and laugh so hard my belly hurts.

"Jimin? Are you? Are you drunk?"

"That he is. Sorry for all the calls and messages. He fell, broke his phone, then took mine and started randomly calling and messaging people. I apologise for disturbing y-"

"COME OVER AT THE STUDIOOOO! WE ARE HAVING DRUNKS!" I could hear Namjoon trying to get his phone back, trying to get Jimin to sit down and I kept laughing like an idiot. Unsure of whether I should hung up or not Namjoon tells me he will call me back.

Now, I'm not the kind of person that gets their hopes up easily, or at all, but would I be lying if I told you that there was a knot at the pit of my belly waiting for him to call. To hear his husky voice through the phone calling my name. Talking to ME! With a sigh I burry my face into the mattress. The little voice in my head from earlier drowned by the other side of me, the rational one, as it scolds me, don't be stupid you are not enough for him.

Forty minutes later I am already showered clean, swallowed up by the cosiness of my bed. I was reading a book hoping I wouldn't fall asleep early cause I've been really wanting to finish up this chapter. A few pages in my phone starts buzzing.

Its him.

Okay. No big deal.

"Hello..."

"Hey, sorry if I woke you up. Did I wake you up? I am sorry-" the remorse in his voice was eminent.

"No, no. It’s okay. I was still up, catching up on some reading."

"Oh, nice. That's nice. What are you reading?" he sounded relieved and that put me at ease.

"Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn."

"Is it a thriller? I think I've heard of her before."

"Probably. She blew up after Gone Girl. Maybe you've watched the movie."

"I've definitely heard of it. Never watched it surely. Not much free time you see."

"Always busy, I get it."

"Not so much anymore. You've taken a load of my shoulders and for that I ought to be thankful." his voice sweeter than honey sliding through my ear.

"I'm just doing my job. How's Jimin by the way?"

"I will probably kill him tomorrow. He came in got to drinking with my partner, Yoongi and got absolutely wasted and all hell broke loose."

"Hahahaha. Always the same. I swear he'll always be trouble that one."

"Yeah... I've been meaning to ask you something but I have been a bit of a coward."

"You can ask me anything."

"Okay. Not tonight. Friday. We're still on for Friday, right?"

"Of course. As scheduled."

"Would you mind if I make a minor change?"

"Not at all."

"Okay then, could we meet at my place? On Friday?"

His pleading tone has left my head empty. I remind myself that this means nothing.

Nothing at all. Its only work.

"Sure. Whatever you like."

"Whatever I like...All right then. I'll leave you to your books companion. Sweet dreams y/n."

His lingering over the words, whatever I like, oh my. If I wasn't laying down, I would have fallen to the floor.

"Good night Namjoon."

Can someone explain to me what just happened?! Why meet at his place? Should it mean anything? Does it mean anything. It’s all in your head, a voice screams. Hoseok would smack my head and call me stupid if he was here. The truth is my imagination has gone haywire crafting scenarios out of plain air. No matter what my friends say they are my friends. They wouldn’t be as straightforward as I am with myself. As I should be. There is nothing going on. There is no way in hell that he could be interested in me in that way.

In an attempt to distract myself, I pick up my book only to put it down seconds later, frustrated. As if it wasn’t enough to have his face in my thoughts, his voice had to infect what little was left of my brain. I find myself biting my lip again. My fingers trace from behind my ear down to the nape of my neck, his words ghosting gently in my ear. My eyes are shut and I feel nothing but the bass of his voice as he tells me sweet dreams. If he’ll be in them, they sure will be.

[mychemicalimagines]

Imagine Requests Are Open! Marvel and Horror!

This is kinda long because I have been watching a lot of movies to be able to make this. Marvel is listed first. I am Sorry but I will not WRITE LOVE imagines for Peter Parker (Spiderman) unless it is for Adult Peter. I will write sibling fics for him though. Fake Social Media and AU Memes are still open for him and Tom Holland. I just don't feel comfortable WRITING fics for a ‘teenager’. 

For Horror I have listed some most people haven’t seen. There is the ‘killers’ of the movies and the ‘hero’s’ we wish didn’t die or we wish weren’t even there.

Requests are open for the following Marvel Characters: Steve Rogers-Captain America Tony Stark-Iron Man Clint Barton-Hawkeye Bruce Banner-The Hulk Thor Odinson- Thor: God of Thunder Loki Laufeyson (Odinson)- Loki: The God of Mischief  Scott Lang- AntMan Bucky Barnes- The Winter Solider T’Challa-Black Panther Eric Killmonger (Stevens)-Golden Panther M’Baku- Jabari Leader Peter Parker-Spiderman-Sibling Fic or Friend Fics only. 

Requests are open for the following Horror Characters Killers: Thomas Hewitt-Leather Face- Texas Chainsaw Massacre Michael Myers-The Shadow- Halloween Series Jason Voorhees-Camp Crystal Lake Killer- Friday the 13th Bo Sinclair-House of Wax Vincent Sinclair- House of Wax Billy Loomis-Scream Stu Macher- Scream

Heros Eric Hill-Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Dean Hill-Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Nick Jones-House of Wax Dalton Chapman-House of Wax Randy Meeks-Scream Dewey Riley-Scream Paul Gardener-Urban Legend Damon Brooks-Urban Legend Chris Flynn-Wrong Turn

Request are also open for American History X. Derek Vinyard Danny Vinyard 

[zacharylevisource]

Zachary Levi on Becoming a ‘Refreshing’ DC Hero in ‘Shazam’ and a Possible Cameo by Gal Gadot (Exclusive)

Zachary Levi is living his dream.

The 37-year-old actor has become beloved by fans throughout his nearly two decades in Hollywood with roles like Chuck Bartowski on Chuck and Flynn Rider in Tangled, but it’s only recently that he’s reached a point in his career where he feels he’s really made it.

“This business is a really gnarly one, and you put yourself out there and work hard, and a lot of times, that's not enough,” he told ET over the phone on Friday, while promoting the season finale of Tangled: The Series. “You know, you have these moments that kind of are blessings or luck, or whatever you want to call it, that kind of drop into your lap, and all of a sudden, your entire life changes. And I feel like this is that.”

Levi -- fresh off the success of Tangled: The Series, which was renewed for season two nearly a year ago, before the premiere of its first season -- is referring to his latest role as the titular character in DC’s Shazam!, which he’s currently filming in Toronto.

“When this movie comes out in April of 2019, that will be 20 years to the month that I started auditioning in Hollywood, and that's a really crazy thing to reflect on,” he shared. “So, it's all very humbling, and the script is great and the cast is great and I love our director, David F. Sandberg.”

Shazam!, of course, follows Billy Batson, a boy who can transform into an adult superhero by uttering “Shazam,” an acronym of the ancient gods from which he derives his powers in adult form. Levi’s signature enthusiasm made him the perfect choice for the role when his casting was announced in October. Three months later, it’s clear he hasn’t lost it.

“I can't tell you much, as you can probably imagine, but what I can say is I am just out of my mind excited!” Levi expressed. “I get to do my version of Big, basically. It’s like Superman meets Big, and that’s just so fun.”

“I get to be a superhero that’s excited about being a superhero, and I think that’s refreshing,” he continued. “It’s not glum, and like, ‘Oh, I have to save the world again.' So I think it’s all really gravy.”

As for which DC hero he’d like to see make a cameo in his movie, that answer couldn’t have come easier: “Wonder Woman, because she's awesome.”

“I think getting a cameo from anybody would be super cool, but I just think Gal Gadot is so effervescent. She has such a charm. And she seems like a really cool broad. Like, she was in the Israeli army. She's a mom. And I'm like, 'You seem like you're grounded and cool, and you're Wonder Woman, and you rock,’” Levi exclaimed. “And I think it would be really funny to have the 14-year-old Billy Batson inside of Shazam that's really awkward around this beautiful Amazonian. I just think that would be really awesome.”

For now, Levi is focusing on Tangled, which he describes as “the gift that keeps on giving.”

“Being a huge Disney fan, and then getting cast as a Disney prince in a musical where I get to sing Alan Menken music opposite Mandy Moore, and then the movie does well, and it's the 50th film, and then we sing at the Oscars. The whole thing was so crazy, and then out of nowhere, Mandy and I get a call saying, 'Hey, we want to turn it into a series.' And now we just get to go have fun, like, on a regular basis and bring these characters to life and give them so much more depth,” he explained. “It’s so surreal.”

“[We’re] getting into the intricacies of Flynn and Rapunzel, and this season comes full circle with her starting in a place where she's feeling trapped and being told what to do as a princess, and now she's like her own woman,” Levi described. “And she and Flynn have gone through their ups and downs and learning to trust one another and rely on one another.”

“It's still something that kids watch and love, but adults can still watch and love it too, and there's great lessons to be learned from it,” he shared. “It's a really awesome, awesome thing to be a part of."

The season finale of Tangled: The Series airs Saturday, Jan. 13, at 8 a.m. on Disney Channel.

[ao3feed-garcy]

by UnUnpredictableMe (DraejonSoul)

A Timeless x ER AU series of imagine posts where Garcia Flynn and Luka Kovac are long-lost twins, and the Kovacs are part of the Time Team.

This is part of the main #Flynn Friday imagine series, this part dedicated to the Disaster Twins Garcia Flynn and Luka Kovac.

Words: 9626, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of #Flynn Friday Imagines

Fandoms: Timeless (TV 2016)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Garcia Flynn, Lucy Preston, Rufus Carlin, Jiya (Timeless), Luka Kovač, Abby Lockhart, Wyatt Logan, Denise Christopher, Connor Mason

Relationships: Garcia Flynn/Lucy Preston, Garcia Flynn & Lucy Preston, Rufus Carlin/Jiya, Luka Kovač/Abby Lockhart, Garcia Flynn & Wyatt Logan

Additional Tags: garcy, riya - Freeform, Luby, platonic MurderVision, platonic flufus, platonic Flogan, Platonic Relationships, Luby joins the Bunker gang!

[thistleandthorn-rpg]

OC INFORMATION:

Name/Alias: Lo Preferred pronoun: She/Hers Age: 26 Timezone/Country: GMT RP Experience: Lots :) Activity Level: 6/10 Have You Been in this RP Before: I am currently part of this RP. This is a revamped, reset application for Eric Anderson.

IC INFORMATION:

Name: James Oakley Anderson Designation: Dominant Age: Twenty-Two Faceclaim: Darren Criss Birthday: July 7th Orientation: Bi-Sexual Kinks: Impact Play, Pain Play, Humiliation, Electro-Play, open to discuss writing other kinds not listed. Anti-Kinks: Infantalism, Mutilation, Scat, Vore, Gore.

BIO:

Unbeknownst to Pam and Charles Anderson, Cooper, their oldest son, convinced them to name the first of his newborn brothers James after the incompetent and foolish villain on his favourite television show. Cooper Anderson wasn’t quite ready to have his parents’ attention divided and so before he met his unborn siblings, he saw them as the enemy. Cooper’s stance changed very quickly when he met his new brothers; tiny, red-faced and snoozing, the oldest Anderson had quickly fallen in love. However, it was too late to change their names.

It became a running joke growing up that James was cast in the villain role in his older brother’s life. As it turned out, the two of them had a great deal in common – they both commanded attention and had an early affinity for being on the stage. Acting only. James wasn’t, and would never be a musical performer. Although jealous at first, this shared love proved to bond the two oldest Anderson boys together and they often could be found running lines together, advising the other and in James’ case, writing scripts that involved all the brothers getting involved. There was rarely a Friday night to be had in the Anderson home that didn’t involve some kind of entertainment,

Throughout his teenage years, James actively sought auditions. He decided early on that he wanted to be an actor, and Cooper’s difficulty in launching his career did nothing to deter him. He won bit parts here and there; local commercials and radio jingles to start. He voiced a character in a new cartoon when he was fifteen but the series wasn’t picked up for a second season so his excitement didn’t list. His big break came when he was sixteen. He convinced his parents to let him audition for a new show, expected to begin filming in the Summer. Pam and Charles were nothing if not supportive of their childrens’ wild pursuits and James had more than proven he was dedicated to this passion. It was agreed that James would fly out to Los Angeles and stay with Cooper for a week, allowing him to audition and attend a callback if he were so lucky. He was that lucky. The role was a small one but it was a featured role nonetheless.

As luck would have it, the show would be filming that Summer in Atlanta; a ninety minute flight from Cincinnati which would allow him to travel home easily enough on his days off. Pam flew down with him; it was Summer vacation and she refused to let her now seventeen year old son live alone. It was everything James could have imagined and more. Shoots were long, press was brutal but it was enriching, and exciting and he knew with complete confidence, he was exactly where he was supposed to be. His character, Flynn Hawthorne, became a fan favourite and thus he was promoted to a series regular. It took a lot of frank discussion between James and his parents for them to sign off on this; it was made clear that his education came first and the moment his grades started to slip, there would be consequences. But that never happened. James perfected the balancing act and the show went on to run for four successful seasons. It provided him with incredible insight into the business, it made him a household name in any house that contained teenagers and it set him on the path he hoped to follow for the rest of his life.

The show finished filming it’s final season at the beginning of October and after taking a few weeks off, James decided it was time to put his career on hold. Temporarily. Blaine and Elliott had both been enrolled in an institute for over a year – Blaine already had a claim, for goodness sake. He needed to manage his private life before he could commit to another show and Lima Heights was the only place he considered doing it.

BIO QUESTIONS:

What are your feelings about the mark you have received?

I’ll be honest I’ve had a lot of time to wrap my head around it. Because I took my time getting here, both my siblings have received their marks so this wasn’t a surprise for me. I feel good about it though. The responsibility was a little daunting at first but I’ve always anticipated this mark. It is the one that evidently fits me best.

How do your feelings on the system compare to your parents’ feelings on it?

We have a very similar view. My parents enjoy the system, and have always encouraged us to abide by the laws. There are a great deal of aspects about the system that I enjoy, that I believe work and are beneficial. However, there are aspects that I think could be improved on – the laws around slavery ought to be refined in my opinion and I think there should be changes made when a claim is lost due to death, particularly when there are children involved.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  

In ten years, I fully expect to have at least one Oscar under my belt. I know, big dreams for the teen TV show kid but I’m determined to prove I’m not a one trick pony. I know I have the hard work aspect there and so far, when I’ve needed a little luck, it’s come my way. In my personal life? I don’t know. I don’t want to manifest that too much because I think what will happen, will happen. I expect I’ll have a claim but I don’t know what they’ll be like. I don’t think anyone really knows what their perfect match will look like until they meet them.

Describe what terrifies you the most.

That’s a bit of a heavy question, isn’t it? Is this information to be used against me somehow in the future? It’s not slavery. I’m fairly confident that’s not on the cards for me and so it’s not a future I fear. Loneliness, I suppose. It’s not as bad as it was growing up – fear of being alone caused me to end up in more than one bad relationship – but I think it’s a always lingering type of fear.

[devilsmagic]

butterflies around a flame (chapter one)

His plan to save his family is starting to come together, but Flynn can’t help but to be intrigued about the woman who wrote his journal. Deciding to kill two bird with one stone – learn more about Lucy and American history – he starts to attend her lectures. He knows he should stop, but he can’t help coming back.

Lucy is Rittenhouse royalty, although she doesn’t know what that means just yet. Her life is one monotonous day after another, until she spies a mysterious man sitting in on one of her classes.

[Set pre-series. Basically Timeless meets Romeo & Juliet, but our trash ship lives to tell the tale.]

AO3 link

It was a normal Friday afternoon on a normal week in a normal month. Lucy was standing at the front of the auditorium, conducting a lecture on the events surrounding the establishment of the Civil Rights Act. Her students were enraptured – well most of them were; some typing away at their laptops or tablets, while others couldn’t take their eyes off of the front of the room, at her passionate eyes and motioning arms. Of course there were the slackers, those only in it for the class credit, but Lucy counted roughly two-thirds of the room who were listening attentively, and that was more than enough for her.  

This was her favourite part of the day. The hours she spent with her classes, sharing her love for history with her students. Detailing how events years, decades, centuries in the past had shaped and moulded their reality. American wouldn’t be what it was without the American Revolution, President Kennedy’s assassination, the moon landing.   

It was during a particularly entertaining class discussion on the introduction of the Pill into American society and its effect on the Civil Rights Act amendment (never let it be said that Lucy’s lectures were dull) that she first noticed him. 

He wasn’t a student in her class, or at least he hadn’t attended the first two months’ worth of lectures, but he sat at the back of the room as if he belonged there. His eyes were glued to her, bodying leaning heavily towards the front of the room – towards her. Lucy got the sense that the subject matter wasn't the only thing that held his interest.

She could feel him analysing her every word, her every move. Suddenly she felt self-conscious in a way that she hadn’t been since her very first year of teaching. She cleared her throat before intervening in what was quickly becoming a very heated debate between a mansplaining hipster and the college’s head cheerleader, bringing the class back to focus on the topic at hand. She decidedly ignored his side of the room, refusing to look at the man again. Yet still she could feel his heated gaze on her skin.   

----  

That night, she inserted her key into her parents’ front door and let herself in. Throwing her keys onto the rack beside the door, she pulled out a Snickers bar from her handbag and hid it behind her back. Retracing her childhood steps, she made her way to the far end of the corridor where her parents were in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on their habitual Friday night family dinner.  

Her father sat at the island, tossing a salad with his special homemade vinaigrette while her mother stood before the stove, sprinkling a handful of chopped coriander on top of the perfectly cooked bolognaise sauce.  

“Hi,” Lucy announced as she walked into the room.  

Her parents echoed her greeting with smiles. She leant over to give her father a kiss on the cheek and then hugged her mother tight from behind. Lucy bit back a smile as she brought out the Snickers bar from behind her back and presented it to her mother.  

Carol laughed at the sight of her favourite candy bar dancing in front of her. “You’re spoiling me.”  

“You deserve it,” Lucy replied, giving her mother a quick peck on the cheek. “I’ll set the table.”  

She had just begun to prepare the cutlery when her father spoke. “Actually, there’s something we need to discuss with you, Lucy.”  

Lucy looked up in time to see her parents share a pointed look. “Is everything okay?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.  

“Everything’s fine sweetie,” her mother leaned over and ran a hand through Lucy’s hair with a soft smile on her face. “It’s time we talked to you about something, that’s all.”  

“Okay,” Lucy shot her parents a look before grabbing the plates and cutlery and taking them into the dining room.  

They were well into their dinner before the subject was brought up again. Lucy had finished her meal and was eyeing the leftovers, trying to decide whether to serve herself a second helping of pasta. She grabbed her glass of wine and took a small sip instead.  

Her parents shared a secret look and Lucy sighed.  

“Alright, out with it. What did you want to talk to me about?”  

Her parents looked at each other again. Lucy’s stomach twisted in response and she was suddenly had she had decided against seconds.

“Your father and I,” he mother paused, “we’re part of an organisation.” 

“Okay?”  

“It’s an old organisation,” Ben took over, “we’ve been around since the late 1700s.”  

“Are you trying to tell me you’re part of the Illuminati?” Lucy deadpanned.  

“Funny, but no,” her mother replied.  

“The organisation is called Rittenhouse,” her father continued. “We’re an elite group. You can’t request to join; you have to be born into it.”  

“Born into it? So if you’re both members then I am too?” 

“In short, yes. Or rather, you will be,” her father took a sip of his own wine. 

“Why are you telling me this now? Is there something you need me to do?”  

“No. At least, not right now. It is tradition that the children of Rittenhouse members join the organisation as adults, but that doesn’t have to happen right away. We just want you to get used to the idea, to think about it.”  

“Okay,” Lucy said, trying to collect her thoughts. Her parents were making everything sound like a giant conspiracy theory. She couldn’t help but be unnerved by the entire conversation. “What exactly does Rittenhouse do?”  

“We have many aims,” Carol continued. “The most important is to help further each other’s interests; help other members to grow in the community.”   

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”  

“It isn’t. It’s a wonderful organisation with some truly powerful people. Thomas Edison was a member back in his day.”  

Lucy blinked. “Wow.”  

“But like I said,” her father moved to stack the dirty dishes, “we just wanted to tell you about it, make you aware that it exists so that when the time comes for you to join, you’re ready.”  

“Do I have a choice?”  

“It’s our family legacy, dear. You’ll see.”

----  

 That night, Lucy lay in bed, one word repeating itself over and over in her head.  

“Rittenhouse,” she said out loud, testing how the word rolled off her tongue, heavy in the air. “Rittenhouse.”  

Her head pounded with all the new information that had been crammed into it at dinner. Knowledge of a legacy older than the land she called home. A legacy she was supposed to be a part of.  

But despite everything her parents had said, she couldn’t help but wonder about what had been left unsaid. Why had her parents picked now to tell her about Rittenhouse? They’d clearly been a part of it for years, so what happened that made them want to include her? Did she even want to be part of Rittenhouse?  

Her mother’s vagueness when she asked about what the organisation did tickled at the back of her brain. She knew it couldn’t be anything terrible. Her parents were good people and there was no way she could imagine them condoning, or even being a part of, anything malicious. But still, she couldn’t help but wonder. And the wondering kept her up all night.   

----  

Coffee was the only thing on Lucy’s mind a couple of weeks later. The sun was shining but the wind was cold and she was so so sick of winter, even though it had yet to truly begin. She could practically taste the hot bitterness of the coffee; feel the warmth trail down her throat and deep into her core.  

The bell of the coffeehouse tinkled as she opened the door. It was much warmer than it was outside, and she could feel the heat blush her cheeks. She walked straight up to the counter, the café empty except for a few solitary figures huddled at their respective tables. It was still too early in the day for the morning rush, but she knew from experience that the café would get painfully busy in a few short minutes.  

She was standing at the counter, waiting for the pink-haired barista to make her double shot latte when she spotted him, the man who had been listening in on her lectures for the past few weeks. He always sat in the same spot, half in shadow, so she wasn’t able to get a good look at him. But she could tell by the way he was currently sitting, his intense gaze as he read from the notebook in his hands, that it was him. His dark hair was artfully dishevelled, longish strands falling down his forehead and obstructing her view of his face. 

It was a split second decision, but as soon as the barista placed her coffee in front of her, Lucy grabbed the cup and made her way over to his table.  

“Is this seat taken?” Lucy asked, startling the man.  

Surprise coloured his face as he quickly closed the notebook, slipping it into the large pocket of his coat.  

“Not at all. Please, sit.” He had a light accent; a trace of something Slavic coated his words.   

Lucy placed her cup on the table. Her stomach churned, angry at her impulsive decision to talk to this stranger. But it was too late to turn around and leave, and so she took the seat directly opposite him.  

“I’ve seen you in my lectures. Are you enrolled in my class?” Lucy’s head popped to the side as she studied him, her hand playing idly with the plastic lid on her cup.   

The man chuckled, dimples drawing across both his cheeks. Her heart gave a small thump and she took a deep breath trying to steady it. 

“No, I don’t attend this university.”  

“Oh? Then why have you been at the back of every single of my Friday night U.S. History classes for almost a month?”  

He shrugged casually. “I like to learn new things, and I’m very curious about the events that shaped America’s development.”  

“What you’re saying then is that you’re scamming yourself some free education?” Lucy smiled so he knew that she teasing.  

“I wouldn’t say scamming. I’m not getting a diploma out of this, am I?”  

“Touché,” she replied, taking a sip of her cooling coffee. “What made you choose my class?”  

“I like the way you teach.”  

Heat unfurled deep within her.  “And what is it about my teaching that you like?”  

The man, whose name she still did not know, smiled indulgently. “You’re very passionate. It’s clear to anyone who looks at you that you love history, love teaching it. History is important to you and you’re good at making me feel like it’s important to me too.”  

“You seem to know a lot about me,” she said, voice husky as she dug her fingers into the soft cardboard of her cup.  

“I’m very observant,” his voice lowered, as if he were sharing a secret with her.  

“And who are you, exactly?”  

The man’s face fell for a second, but the sly smile reappeared so quickly that Lucy wondered if she’d imagined it.  

“Gabriel,” he almost blurts. “My name is Gabriel Garcia.”  

A biblical name, a Hispanic surname and a Slavic accent. Pieces of a puzzle that just couldn’t quite fit together.  

“I’m Lucy Preston.”  

“I know.”  

“Of course you do.”  

Lucy was caught by his eyes, a strange grey or green, she couldn’t quiet decide. He was just as entranced with her, until he blinked and looked away, allowing her to come to her senses.  

“Well, I should get going. I have some prep work to finish before my classes today. I suppose I’ll see you on Friday, Gabriel,” she smiled as she stood, cup in hand.  

“Garcia.”  

“I’m sorry?”  

“Call me Garcia.”  

Lucy nods. “Don’t be a stranger, Garcia,” she says just before she walks out the door.

[patheticphallacy]

Another instalment of ‘how cheesy can Connie get’- MY FAVOURITE ROMANCE FILMS.

I have watched a lot of films- a large amount of them romances- so I figured I’m kind of a burgeoning expert on what romances are actually good, and which are overrated [sorry, The Notebook just isn’t as great as people like to say].

While some of these may not technically be romances straight up, the romance elements are my favourite parts, so I’ve placed an emphasis on that in this post.

Before Sunrise dir. Richard Linklater

This is the first installment in a series of films following the same couple. In Before Sunrise, a French student and an American spend a night together in Vienna getting to know each other. It’s very pretentious, but I swear, you’ll fall in love with these two without even realising!

When Harry Met Sally dir. Rob Reiner

Truly an Iconique film starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as best friends, starting from the first time they meet [making a trip to New York together after the graduate] and picking up several years later when they bump into each other again. It’s honestly very wholesome, if you ignore the weird age gap where they try to make Billy Crystal seem younger but in reality just making him seem even older. 

Ever After dir. Andy Tennant

Ever After is a retelling of Cinderella set in France, following Danielle [Drew Barrymore] who begins to break free from the confines of her abusive stepmother after meeting the charming Prince Henry. This is one of my all time favourite period movies, besides Pride and Prejudice, and I adore it. Put Your Arms Around Me is a BOP, and that scene where Danielle picks Henry up still gives me life. Also Leonardo da Vinci is in it? It’s dope. 

The Edge of Seventeen dir. Kelly Fremon Craig

Hailee Steinfeld KILLED me with her performance in this film. She plays Nadine, ailing teenager whose childhood best friend- and only friend- starts dating her older brother Darian, leaving her alone and struggling to find a new place for herself. Nadine has an adorable relationship develop with Erwin, whom I love and adore with all my heart, and this works perfectly for people looking for a film that examines all kinds of relationships- brother and sister, mother and daughter, friendships including those with teachers- as well as how damaging losing your loved ones can be.

Tangled dir. Byron Howard, Nathan Greno

Disney peaked when they created Flynn Rider. Rapunzel finds herself setting out of her tower to see the floating lanterns on her birthday, helped by a chameleon, a horse, a bunch of ruffians, and Flynn Rider, thief and love of my childhood self’s life. Their romance is ADORABLE.

Wall-E dir. Andrew Stanton

After Earth has been abandoned for 700 years, waste lifter Wall-E is the last robot left and, after so long alone, has developed a personality. After meeting EVE, sent on a scanning mission to find life on Earth, Wall-E follows her across the galaxy and makes an impression on everyone he meets along the way. If you didn’t cry at the final scene between Eve and Wall-E in this, you don’t have a heart!

Pride and Prejudice dir. Joe Wright

As much as I love the BBC adaptation and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this one trumps all. It’s a classic! Elizabeth Bennet [Keira Knightley] meets Mr Darcy at a ball. He sticks his foot in his mouth, repeatedly, while Elizabeth deals with her own family drama. It’s adorable, and Matthew Macfadyen is a national treasure for playing Mr Darcy as such an anxious and socially awkward guy. Keira Knightley is, as per usual, beautiful. 

UP dir. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

I can’t even write about the relationship in this without crying. I’m crying as I write about how I won’t write about it. If you haven’t watched this, watch it. I want someone to love me this much one day. 

Beautiful Thing dir. Hettie MacDonald

The reason there aren’t more LGBT+ films on this list is that I’m planning a whole recommendation series in June and July for PRIDE. This one is a special one, though. It’s the first LGBT+ film I ever watched, following Jamie and Ste, two boys who live on a council estate who fall for each other. It’s so fucking CUTE, you have no idea. Shirley and Kim from Eastenders are in it! It’s iconic and so, so British. The final scene is the reason I want Dream a Little Dream to be my dance song at my wedding one day. 

Four Weddings and a Funeral dir. Mike Newell

Who cares about Hugh Grant when there’s literally every other relationship in this film? John Hannah personally came into my home when I was 11 years old and made me sob like a baby, and continues to do so every time I watch this. It is really sad- fair warning- but it’s so moving and has some great approaches to relationships.

10 Things I Hate About You dir. Gil Junger

YOU’RE JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…………….. this is the only version of Taming of the Shrew that matters, and that includes the original play, because nobody loses sight of who they really are for the sake of romance. Bianca Stratford can’t date until her older sister, Kat, does. In comes Patrick Verona who, after being offered money, agrees to date Kat, and proceeds to falls head over heels for her. I cried so much at the English speech scene, you have no idea!

Dirty Dancing dir. Emile Ardolino

This is the only progressive sixties set movie we need. Teenager Baby goes to a resort with her parents for the summer, and finds herself growing closer with Johnny, the resort’s dance instructor. Their relationship is beautiful. It’s surprisingly healthy, considering other movies set in this era [Grease, I’m looking at you], and I love how much these characters bring each other up with their love and show each other how valuable they really are. WHOLESOME. 

+1: 13 Going on 30 dir. Gary Winick, which I literally only just watched, and adore, and I can’t believe I only watched this film for the first time aged 19! 

+2, I guess: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang dir. Shane Black, the king of all buddy cop romances, lets be real. If Harry and Gay [it’s really his name] aren’t actually dating in the final scene of this film, I’ll eat my whole hat! I dare you to watch this and say I’m imagining these two are dating the whole time. Exactly like The Nice Guys. 

  And those are my picks! I love romance, especially romance films, so I’d really dig it if you recommended me some.

Thank you for reading, and happy valentine’s day!

Film Friday//Favourite Romance Films Another instalment of 'how cheesy can Connie get'- MY FAVOURITE ROMANCE FILMS. I have watched a lot of films- a large amount of them romances- so I figured I'm kind of a burgeoning expert on what romances are actually good, and which are overrated .

[ao3feed-garcy]

by DoctorLia, UnUnpredictableMe (DraejonSoul)

Slice of life one-shots of the bunker gang, mostly when they're not chasing Rittenhouse. Genre could be anywhere from crack to mystery to fluff to the bizzare.

  CHAPTER 4: Jiya is gifted a camera and she takes full advantage of it. Taking pics of everyone around the Bunker doing various things. She even convinces Flynn to smile in a few of them.

Words: 11577, Chapters: 4/?, Language: English

Series: Part 4 of #Flynn Friday Imagines

Fandoms: Timeless (TV 2016)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Garcia Flynn, Lucy Preston, Jiya (Timeless), Rufus Carlin, Wyatt Logan, Denise Christopher, Connor Mason

Relationships: Garcia Flynn/Lucy Preston, Garcia Flynn & Lucy Preston, Rufus Carlin/Jiya, Garcia - Relationship

Additional Tags: garcy, riya - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, Not Canon Compliant - s02e11-12 The Miracle of Christmas (Timeless), Twitter roundrobin, Fix-It of Sorts, Mentions of violence but not graphic, Non-Graphic Violence, Inspired by The Twilight Zone, Fluff, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, attempts at thriller

[lazysusangallery]

NYC Phoenix Art Collective at Lazy Susan Gallery

191 Henry St, New York, NY 10002

June 18 - June 29. 2018

Artist reception: Friday June 22, 2018 6-8pm

This group show features six artists from NYC Phoenix Art Collective.

Though stylistically diverse, many of the works are tied by the keen sense of movement grounded through underlying structure, and throughout the show there is a rhythmic interplay of bright color with more tightly controlled or monochromatic schemes.

These six distinctive visual voices combine to capture the aesthetic of the moment, with nods to the visual landscape of NYC as well as current socio-political questions.

Pamela Ader's photographs support her belief in love and her belief in marriage. In agreement with the laws of the country she celebrates the legalization of same sex marriages.

Pamela Flynn’s large encaustic paintings of guns are stacked on the wall to be a redundant and a powerful reminder that gun violence is only a random step away from any of us.

Joseph O’Neill’s photographic images seek to spotlight overlooked urban buildings, to showcase details of these edifices. His work shows dynamic movement and a sense of shifting light in the sights and scenes of his world, dramatically expressed through sharp architectural forms, contrasting dark and light, as he offers each locale a life of its own.

Laura Sussman-Randall addresses social and political issues through her meticulously executed, larger than life charcoal drawings of symbolic but familiar objects, often isolated in a placeless plane of white space. The Dog Eat Dog series utilizes images of canine behavior as a symbol for imbalance and abuse of power.

Laura Westby’s paintings are both architectonic and conceptual. They are inspired by landscape as analytic geometry dealing with the movement and relationship of fields. As a result color and the inertia of shapes create the tensions and perspectives of a moment in time. My smaller paintings do not have the architectonic aspect, however, they present a silent conversation between the color and movement of shape of the individual canvases.

Color has always been extremely important to Scott Wixon, and is one of the defining elements of his work. Over the years he has developed a personal vocabulary of shapes and gestures. The current work is almost exclusively from the artist's imagination. As he puts it: "When I start a new painting, I usually have only a preliminary idea. I start to paint and my structure develops as I go along, reacting to what has come before. When I am painting, I feel confident that I can totally trust my intuition and make the right decisions."

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Friday was really bad for the Republican Party in that President Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI and there are indications that he might testify to politically damaging and possibly illegal actions by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and maybe even the president himself. But Friday (and early Saturday) was really great for Republicans in that the party took a huge step towards a goal it had long before Trump was even running for president: a huge cut in corporate tax rates that GOP leaders say will encourage American companies to increase their current workers’ pay and hire more employees. (Many economics experts strongly dispute these claims.)

The Senate voted 51-49 to pass its version of the tax bill. That does not guarantee that the provision will become law. The policies the GOP are trying to pass are unpopular with the public and have the potential to substantially increase the national deficit. The House and Senate versions, moreover, have some major differences, and getting all of the hard-to-please members and factions in each chamber (think Maine’s Susan Collins, Arizona’s John McCain and the House Freedom Caucus) all on board for the same bill won’t be simple.

But this tax bill has advanced much further than the Obamacare repeal, which stalled in the Senate, in a much shorter time period. It has a good chance of becoming law, perhaps even before Christmas. If it does, it’ll have big implications — both in terms of policy and politics.

1. Both the House and Senate versions of this legislation radically overhaul America’s tax system, mostly notably in cutting corporate taxes from 35 to 20 percent, while getting rid of many existing tax deductions in order to make up for the lost revenue. They also substantially cut taxes on certain kinds of businesses that do not organize themselves as corporations. And the bills cut some taxes that disproportionately hit wealthy people. These changes will benefit wealthy business owners like Trump.

In short, this is a full-on embrace of trickle-down economics, premised on the idea that corporations and businesses taking in more money will pass that down to workers. Once enacted, these policies will likely be difficult for Democrats to undo — much like Republicans are having a hard time rolling back the increased Medicaid spending and protections for pre-existing conditions that were key features of Obamacare. It’s just hard to imagine Democrats will find it easy to raise the corporate rate substantially in the future. Companies are likely to suggest any hike in that rate will force them to layoff employees.

2. The Senate version repeals Obamacare’s individual mandate. I expect the House to agree to include the mandate repeal, so it’s likely to be included in whatever law Trump would potentially sign. In other words, this legislation could become part of a series of moves made by Trump’s executive branch that some say amount to a “synthetic repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, even if Republicans couldn’t find the votes to kill that entire law.

3. If ultimately passed by both chambers and signed by Trump, the tax bill gives the president and congressional Republicans their first big legislative win since the start of Trump’s tenure. What does that mean politically? Well, here’s one thing it doesn’t necessarily mean: more congressional seats for Republicans. Since this bill is so unpopular, it’s hard to see this legislation helping boost the congressional Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterm elections — and it may hurt them.

It’s also not clear if this bill’s passage means congressional Republicans will rally around Trump — in general or on the Russia investigation specifically. Sure, Republicans could decide that the success of the tax bill shows that Trump is an effective governing partner, even if he behaves erratically. But Republicans on Capitol Hill could also go in the opposite direction, deciding that a tax overhaul is probably the only big bill that will pass during Trump’s presidency. Under that theory, they would begin to more forcefully distance themselves from him, perhaps even clearing the path for Trump to be impeached and removed from office if the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller shows serious misconduct by the president.

The safest bet, in terms of what the passage of the tax bill tells us about the future workings of Trump and Congress, is perhaps “maybe not that much.” Congressional Republicans are likely to continue to flail both legislatively and in terms of how they deal with an unpredictable president, defending Trump at times, attacking him at others.

But if nothing else, the enactment of the tax bill would shift Trump from a do-nothing president who can’t implement an agenda even with his party in control of both houses of Congress to the president who signed the most extensive tax overhaul in three decades. Trump will likely brag about this bill as a huge accomplishment — a big league one, he might say. He will demand that the “fake news” ” cover the bill’s passage intensely, and that coverage will never be enough for him. Trump spoke often as a candidate about “winning,” and now, after a first year full of political and policy setbacks, he is closer to a huge win as president.

[kansascityhappenings]

Moustakas ties Royals single-season HR record, KC holds off Twins 7-6

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Mike Moustakas homered for the first time since mid-August, Brandon Moss also went deep and Kansas City held off Minnesota 7-6 on Friday night.

Melky Cabrera tied a season-high with four hits for the Royals, who won for just the second time in eight games.

Jorge Polanco homered for Minnesota, which lost for the first time in five games.

Kelvin Herrera allowed a two-run single to Joe Mauer in the ninth, but Scott Alexander struck out Eddie Rosario with the bases loaded for his second save in four tries.

The Twins remain one game behind New York — which lost 4-1 to Boston — for the top AL wild card spot. Minnesota entered the night leading Los Angeles, which played at Texas, by 1 1/2 games for the second spot. Kansas City is now 3 1/2 games behind.

Royals’ starter Jason Hammel (7-10) allowed Polanco’s two-run home run in the first and a run in the third, before retiring 12 straight. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Moustakas hit a three-run, line-drive homer to right for a 5-2 lead in the third. It was his 36th of the year and first in 13 games since Aug. 15. He tied Steve Balboni for the most by a Kansas City player in a season. Moustakas is one of four players trailing New York’s Aaron Judge by one for the AL lead.

Making his fourth start of the season, Minnesota’s Dillon Gee (1-2) allowed five earned runs in 2 2-3 innings.

Moss hit a two-run home run of Tyler Duffey in the sixth to make it 7-3.

CLOSING A CAREER

Former closer Joe Nathan signed a one-day contract with Minnesota Friday to retire as a Twin.

Nathan, 42, saved 260 games for the Twins during seven seasons — including a career-high 47 in 2009. He also pitched for the Giants, Rangers, Tigers and Cubs during a 16-year career. The six-time all-star, drafted by San Francisco as a shortstop, ranks eighth on the all-time saves list with 377.

“(This was) a ride that I could not have imagined I could have gone down,” he said during an emotional new conference.

TRAINERS ROOM

Royals: LHP Brian Flynn (left groin strain) was transferred to the 60-day disabled list … RHP Trevor Cahill (right shoulder impingement syndrome) was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list.

Twins: CF Byron Buxton, who missed Thursday’s game with a bone contusion on his left hand, pinch ran in the ninth. . LHP Hector Santiago was moved to the 60-day disabled list. Out since July 3 with an upper back strain, he is scheduled to make his second rehab start Sunday at Triple-A Rochester.

UP NEXT

Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson (8-10, 5.59) is scheduled to face Kansas City’s Onelki Garcia (0-0, 7.94) Saturday in game two of the weekend series.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/09/01/moustakas-ties-royals-single-season-hr-record-kc-holds-off-twins-7-6/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/moustakas-ties-royals-single-season-hr-record-kc-holds-off-twins-7-6/

[20thcentutygeek]

List of 5 comics you may not have heard of that deserve a film adaptation

You will notice from the dates on the series below that I am breaking my own rules again but this is my blog so it’s ok every now and then. So, I am listing comics series that I think are underrated and would also translate the big screen awesomely.

1.    Elephantmen (2006):

In a future war a corporation has found a way to fuse Human and Animal DNA to create super-hybrid soldiers. They are programmed for war, violence and killing, the perfect soldiers for the future battle field. They fight for many years but when the war ends they are liberated, helped and rehabilitated to be useful members of society. They take on jobs and live their lives but to many they are dangerous genetic freaks, they are The Elephantmen.

The series is noir sci-fi and primarily follows Hieronymus (Hip) Flask a Hippopotamus, who works for a law enforcement agency.  Using his natural and trained skills he takes on a series of mysteries that start to centre in on the other Elephantmen. As he interacts with them we find out more about the world, how they have managed to move on, or not.

As well as being a fantastic sci-fi series in the vain of Blade Runner it challenges the ideas of what former soldiers go through when they come back to society. It also highlights the theme of what makes us ‘Human’ and whether we are victims of our nature or if we can push against it and be more.

This series would make a fantastic film franchise, especially now that the special effects have reached a level that can make Hip and the other Elephantmen so real. This could be much more than a summer blockbuster; this could do what great sci-fi always does; say something about who and what we are, using something out of this world. This could be an awesome mix of story and visuals.

Elephantmen is written by Richard Starkings and individual volumes and a Mammoth collection are easily available on line.

 2.  Blacksad (2000):

What if Disney animated an adult focused noir detective series populated by anthropomorphic animals living in 50s America? Well you would get Blacksad. Think Zootropolis written by Raymond Chandler.

The series centres on John Blacksad a private detective and black cat, as he falls into different pulp style detective stories. He is your stereotypical gum shoe, a hard-nosed detective with a heart of gold. He can’t refuse a beautiful dame or a victim in danger.

The first story is straight forward and a great homage to its many pulp sources. However the second and third stories make a shift to become more political statements. ‘Arctic Nation’ deals with the concept of racial segregation in a small town. The story doesn’t mess around and includes a racially motivated lynching near the beginning and gets even darker at times. The third story ‘Red Soul’ deals with the McCarthy era witch hunt for communists. This story has some heavy themes about how your politics and how you act on them can define you.

There have been several attempts to create an adult focused animated movie, very few of them have been successful. This series has so much potential to tell action packed important stories about who we are using Disney like characters. I am convinced in the right hands this could be amazing.

Blacksad is a Spanish comic written by Juan Diaz Canales and drawn by Juanjo Guarnido. English translations are easily available on line. 

 3.    Skullkickers (2013):

I admit I haven’t played Dungeons and Dragons; however I have enjoyed a lot of fantasy novels and films so I am well aware of the tropes and clichés that the genre is populated with; the medieval environment, swords, sorcery, dwarves and elves on and on it goes. Keep those in place and make it a madcap action adventure series written by Jim Zub and you get a refreshing take on an old story. Two nameless warrior mercenaries wandering the land looking for money and adventure, a massive muscle bound barbarian (nicknamed Baldy) and a tough as nails dwarf (nicknamed Shorty); from there we start the story.

The great thing about this series is the fact that the majority of the fantasy elements are taken seriously. The threats are serious; it’s actually our heroes that provide the comedy in the midst of the action. They are living the life they want and they are having fun doing it. There is nothing deep or thematic in the book to read into. This is designed to be popcorn fun action and it succeeds. Think Guardians of the Galaxy mixed with Tolkien.

Also the art is perfect for the series; it’s simple and bold with great character designs and excellent imagination.

Skullkickers could be an amazing action adventure franchise, a balls to the wall summer tent pole blockbuster that would rival Lord of the Rings and out do World of Warcraft. I can see Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Baldy, it would be awesome.

Individual volumes and oversized collections are available on line.

 4.    Rogue Trooper (1981):

War is hell, but what if you were created for the sole purpose of existing and fighting in that hell? On the far off planet of Nu-Earth in the distant future a war has been raging for years between two armies, the Norts and the Southers. The war has lasted so long that the atmosphere of the planet is unbreathable with poison gas. To provide a more robust army the Southers create Genetic Infantry (GI) soldiers that can breathe the atmosphere. They’re stronger, faster and more resilient; they will bring the war to an end. However, in their first major engagement in the Quartz Zone they are almost all massacred. The Norts knew they were coming and ambushed them.

Of the deployed GIs only Friday survives, left to wonder the war torn landscape not fighting for any side, just trying to survive. He is not alone in this journey; he has three others with him. Each of them dead and their personalities replicated on a chip and installed on a piece of his equipment (Helm, gunner and Bagman – the names sort of explain themselves).

Rogue trooper and has been running for 35 years and has built up a fantastic sci-fi mythology. I wouldn’t even try and touch on it here for fear of missing something out. If you want to know more I strongly suggest you check it out on line.

There are so many story opportunities in this series and so many ways they could be told. My preference would be a gritty sci-fi war story, imagine a sci-fi take on Saving Private Ryan, Platoon or Black Hawk Down.

The complete stories are being collected in volumes and available on line.

 5.    Half past Danger (2014):

The tag line for this 6 issue limited series says it all really – Dames, Dinosaurs and Danger! This is blockbuster comic making at its best. Written and drawn by Stephen Mooney, it homage’s pulp novels, serials and classic adventure tales. It wears its influences on its sleeve and parallels or comparisons can be made between characters in this book and so any others; Indiana Jones, Doc Savage and Steve Rogers.

Set during World War 2 the series follows Tommy ‘Irish’ Flynn as he is shanghaied into joining a small band of elite soldiers. Their mission is to stop the Nazi’s from capturing and weaponiseing Dinosaurs from a long lost Island.

Like I say, this isn’t particularly original but it is a whole lot of nostalgic fun with beautiful art and fun dialogue. The images could be used as story boards they are framed in such a cinematic way.

Harrison Ford it clearly too old for Indy (despite a new film being produced!). It’s time for a new adventure series to take the centre stage.

A great hardback edition is available on line.

[edgysocial]

New Post has been published on http://edgysocial.com/weekend-roundup-a-new-nationalist-international-challenges-the-old-globalization/

Weekend Roundup: A New 'Nationalist International' Challenges The Old Globalization

No sooner did “the party of Davos” ― as top White House aide Stephen Bannon calls the global elite ― end its annual conclave in the Swiss Alps late last week than the “Nationalist International” was born down in the Rhine Valley city of Koblenz, Germany. All the main populist movements from across Europe gathered together there to celebrate the Brexit and Trump victories as a premonition of their own expected success in elections over the coming year. They called on their fellow Europeans to “wake up” like the Americans and British and take back control of their national destinies. 

What animates these movements for national sovereignty, and paradoxically ties them together across borders, is a double antipathy. Their revolt is against both the faceless forces of global integration represented by trade agreements or Brussels “Eurocrats” and the face-to-face presence of immigrants whom they see as despoiling their own national identities.

Scott Malcomson insightfully points out that these movements in Europe see their cultural nationalism not as intolerance of others, but as a defense of diversity in the form of their unique, familiar and cherished way of life they now see as under assault. In their conflated anxieties over Muslim immigrants and terrorism, which they share with President Donald Trump and his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, populists are demonstrating what political scientist Samuel Huntington said after the 9/11 attack by Osama bin Laden about that terrorist leader: “Just as he seeks to rally Muslims by declaring war on the West, he has given back to the West its sense of common identity in defending itself.” 

More so than in the U.S., the European nationalist’s idea of belonging bears some very worrying baggage. As novelist Elif Shafak says in an interview with The WorldPost, “I am far more concerned about the rise of populism across Europe than the rise of populism in the U.S. Here in the old continent, there is almost a visceral fear of diversity and ‘the other.’” She goes on to say that, “we need to bear in mind that this history is still alive in a fractured, fragmented and uneven continent where we do not always encounter the checks and balances that exist in the U.S. Constitution.” Mimicking the cry of the Koblenz meeting, Shafak concludes, “So, yes, it is a ‘wake up’ call. But not for the tribalists. It is a wake-up call for democrats and liberals and cosmopolitans, for anyone and everyone who holds democracy and pluralism dear. It is a wake-up call for us.”

As Nick Visser reports, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing back against the nationalist upsurge. Speaking to church leaders in Germany on Monday, she declared, “We won’t get anywhere by trying to solve problems with polarization and populism. We’ve got to show that we’re committed to the basic principles of our nation.”

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says he thinks it is Germany’s insistence on Europe-wide austerity policies that are at the root of the problem. To defeat the nationalist resurgence he proposes a “New Deal” for Europe that is an alternative to those policies which he sees as a, “gift to today’s coalition of European right-wing parties called the ‘Nationalist International.’” He continues: “Europe can survive neither as a free-for-all nor as an Austerity Union in which some countries … are condemned to permanent depression.” 

President Trump this week also took the first steps toward fulfilling his campaign promise of building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and proposed cuts in federal funding for “sanctuary cities” across the U.S.

On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto insisted once again that Mexico would not pay for a border wall ― which he said undermined the “respect” of his “sovereign nation”― and cancelled his upcoming trip to Washington. The two have since spoken by phone. 

Former Mexican president and chair of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council, Ernesto Zedillo, goes further. He said to me this week that Trump’s proposals toward his country have “defied legal and economic rationality” from the start and that now, “the time has come to admit that the actions of the new administration have cancelled, at least for the foreseeable future, any agreement stemming from dialogue and negotiation that could satisfy the legitimate interests of both parties.” Labelling the American president’s actions “aggression,” Zedillo joins the rallying cry of his countrymen: “What we reject under any circumstances is any attempt to use a single inch of our territory to build such an abominable structure. It goes without saying that all Mexicans are behind President Peña Nieto when he tells President Trump that we will not pay for his extravagant, offensive and useless project.”

In addition to his directives on Mexico, the American president also delivered on his pledge to limit Muslims entering the U.S., signing a document late Friday whose full details still remain unclear at the time of this article’s publish. Charles Kurzman argues that the the proposed limits are “absurd” and counterproductive. It is the strategy of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, he writes “to take advantage of the West’s hypersensitivity to small scale Islamist attacks.” He continues: “Since 2001, there have been zero fatalities in the U.S. by extremists from the countries on Trump’s list.”

As Trump crosses off executive order after executive order and as Syria talks sideline America yet again, many wonder if the U.S. president will go easy on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders are slated to speak this weekend, but already, Ukrainians are on edge. From Kiev, just days after Trump’s inauguration, Ian Bateson reports that many there fear the special relationship between Putin and Trump could leave Ukraine in the cold. “We have seen the rhetoric. Now we are waiting for performance,” one politician says. 

Back in America, millions of demonstrators took to the streets across the U.S. and elsewhere to protest Trump’s policies even before executive orders had been signed. Turkish journalist Ilgin Yorulmaz, who participated in the Washington march, sees a correspondence with resistance in her home country and other countries across the world. “Women (and men) share the same concerns about gender inequality and sexual harassment,” she writes, “regardless of if they live middle class lives in Manhattan or face discrimination on the subways of Istanbul.” Aykan Erdemir and Merve Tahiroglu score new moves by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to consolidate executive power. “An overly centralized polity, a weak legislature and Erdogan’s authoritarianism have brought Turkey to the brink,” they write. 

Also reflecting on the massive demonstrations, Margaret Levi reviews the experience of how social movements in American history have ultimately shifted the political agenda. These photos document the scope of demonstration that took place last weekend around the world. Hayley Miller reports that despite the Trump administration’s renewed focus on fossil fuels, a new Pew poll says two-thirds of Americans favor a path to a renewable energy future. 

Writing from Hong Kong, Li Jing reports that Chinese officials say they are prepared “to take a leadership role” in defending the Paris climate accord no matter what the new Trump administration decides to do. Following the splash of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s defense of globalization in Davos last week, Minxin Pei sees trouble for him at home as adversaries resist his anti-corruption crackdown and economic reform agenda. “2017 will be a dangerous year for Xi,” he says. In South Africa, in fact, attempts to model government off of China have already created tension among political parties, explain Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden, with one mayor taking a controversial trip to Taiwan, sparking a Trump-esque “one China” policy violation backlash. 

Looking to the far future, Deep Space advocate Mary Lynne Dittmar imagines how a full-fledged effort to settle on Mars can help us in our troubled home planet. “Why Mars?” she asks, “Why not the Moon? Simply put, Mars is the best place to develop a ‘local’ infrastructure enabling us to live on another planet, albeit one millions of miles away. In a very real sense Mars is at the far end of the infrastructure we are preparing to revitalize in this country.” 

Finally, our Singularity series looks at the moral dilemmas posed by new advances in genetic screening that further enable “designer babies” whose characteristics can be selected.

WHO WE ARE

  EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Suzanne Gaber is the Editorial Assistant of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is News Director at The Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost’s news coverage. Nick Robins-Early and Jesselyn Cook are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is World Social Media Editor.

  EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media), Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khannaare Contributing Editors-At-Large.

The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.

Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the “whole mind” way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as theAdvisory Council — as well as regular contributors — to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail and Zheng Bijian.

From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

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