#from Argentina with love

[harleiquina]

"May siblings be together, for that is the first law. May their union be true in anytime, because if they fight each other they'll be devoured by those outside" (José Hernández, "Martín Fierro").

So, today I found out that there was going to be a picket to support the WGA strike in my country (Argentina) and relatively close home. I wish I knew it sooner, I would've liked to join... but

I'm not a guild member (reason why I never received any kind of news about it) because...

Technically I'm not a writer (a professional, I mean. The ones that get paid to write) which leads me to...

I have a job that I hate and I can't just skip a random day because...

Even If they pay me very little, I am the breadwinner at home and every little cent counts... since...

My country's economy is a bloody mess that could be solved in over 50 years, if we are lucky.

So, here I am, making a post in solidarity to the Strike while waiting for the calls to start to ring. This might be a lenghty (and personal) one.

My journey into writing:

It was hard to answer the old question "what do you want to be when you grow up?" as a child because I wanted to be everything (except Doctor and Vet. I still don't like the idea of inflicting any kind of pain to heal someone -yes, I do know that anesthesia is a thing but it does wear off, did you know that? And painkillers too!).

At school I absolutely hated writing as homework, however I always ended up telling stories (my grandfather's folk tales) in the schoolbus for a limited audience. It wasn't until 7th grade that I realized that I was able to have original ideas and put them on paper... then I started to love writing and I would put my best effort into it. Yes, those were silly little stories usually prompted by whatever paragraph or sentence our teacher gave us (twice my aunts laughed at something I was proud of and I won't lie, it did hurt back then. Probably I would laugh now too). Still, coming up with something new was exciting.

In my senior year of Highschool I had "Applied writing" a subject that, supposedly, was there to teach us how to make our resumes, formal letters and other stuff that is "useful" in the work place or life itself. But that's not what I've learned.

I had Marcela Bullentini as my teacher. Someone that was quite scary with her desire for us to speak properly (eliminating the 'sh' sound from our bonaerense accent that changes words like "lluvia" -rain- to make it sound "shuvia", or our usual "perdón" -forgive me- instead of "lo siento" -I'm sorry- EVERYTIME she would answer with a mighty "only God forgives" to remind us that we were using the wrong term). After a few months of trying not to get on her bad side, I started to like her because I could tell that she loved writing and reading. And that's why she never gave us those boring lessons the other classroom's teacher (and school Principal, mind you) gave her students. She taught us the basics tools to write news, anecdotes, opinions and scripts for audio-drama (podcasts weren't a thing in 2009) and even TV (we did had to shoot a short film by the end of the year. Yes mine does suck). She is the reason why I considerated making a living out of writing. When the school year was coming to an end and it was time to enroll in College or the University and my classmates would ask "what are you going to study?" I answered them "I would like to be a Movie Director or Script writer". Guess what was their response... "Why?" usually followed by "that's too easy"

Too easy.

Too easy? How come? Why the Arts are "easy"? Why do you think that your dream of becoming a Sport's Journalist is better than mine wanting to tell stories? You'll still have to write something, you idiot!

Still, I did not followed my passion because making a living off the Arts is quite hard in here. You have to know someone who can "get you in" or beeing a professional boot-licker or work in the worst things ever, beeing completely stepped over and then you might ✨️MIGHT✨️ have a chance to do something true to yourself. And I wanted to be the argentinean Tim Burton, I knew nobody would've backed me up. So my aunt gave me an idea "why don't you try with Advertising? Many movie directors and writers began with Ads". So... off I went to Advertising School.

For those of you that don't know, Advertising is divided in 3 major branches: Accounting (the bridge between the Clients and the Agency), Media (the ones in charge of the budget and with the contacts to publish/play the ads everywhere) and Creativity (the ones that make the ads). I belong to the 3rd group and guess what? We're still thought off as an afterthought... as if making or writing for an ads campaing is something that is "easy", something that anybody can do. That we, the creatives, are just lazy people that every now and then receive a task, like anybody else would toss a bone to a dog, to "do something". To be fair, since I've never worked at an Agency I do not know if this kind of behaviour is present in them too... but all my classmates had this attitude and if they were meant to be the future of this profession, then I'm better off doing anything else but working as a Copywriter.

So here I am today, working as an Over the Phone Interpreter with over 20 stories locked in my head (and scribbled across many notepads and documents in my PC), too tired to write after work and trying not to sit on the computer on my free time because I spend the whole day, 5 days a week sitting in front of it. Still, sometimes I do get things done. My brain doesn't stop just because I have no time or because I'm tired. I know I'll get things done... eventually.

But Laurita, what does this have to do with anything?

This is my blog, I write what I want.

Context was needed.

As I said the whole "writing stories isn't serious enough" "it's too easy" "you can do something better" has been plaguing my life since day one. I was even able to see a glimpse of my favourite teacher's hopes and dreams for me crash in his eyes when I told him that I was studying to become an Advertising Creative. (I'm pretty sure all my teachers thought I would become one of them, or a doctor, or a lawyer, maybe even a scientist).

People!... Telling stories is important!

I dare to say that ours is the oldest profession (not the other one 😏) because whenever a lesson had to be taught, or something needed explanation, there was someone ready to tell a story about it.

Telling stories was never just entertainment. People seems to forget that even the silliest fairytale was meant to leave something behind with their audience. For ages my family and I wondered about the Magic Fish, a russian folckloric tale (a very lazy young man goes fishing in the ice for once in his life and catches the magic fish that promises that if he lets him go, he'll grant any wish he has. The guy ends up living in a palace made of gold and marrying a princess) and then it hit me: it was not the story itself... but the posibility of making many kids go fishing in the ice hoping to catch the Magical Fish that will grant them any wish. Well done, slavic people, well done 👏🏻👏🏻

I do not understand the constant dissmissal of our craft. Well... yes I do. People think it is easy because we make it easy for them. What's the point of creating something inaccessible? Why would anybody need to have a Post Doctorate in whatever field to understand a comic, a joke or a novel? We turn dozens (if not hundreds) of different concepts that fly through our minds into something understandable to anybody.

I watch Cinema Therapy where both hosts analize the psychology behind stories and characters. It is all in plain sight, we all know that Indiana Jones is resiliant, that Aragorn is a non-toxic man... but do you know how my family reacts when I tell them about any of their videos? "Isn't that reading too much into things? It's just a story, it's fantasy!"

It is a story, it is fantasy... but in order for it to work it has to be grounded in reality. Otherwise no-one would feel a thing for any of them!

And who does the dirty work? We do. We have to come up with real non-existent people so their fantastical escape is a good one. One that will make them forget their worries, one that might break their heart in a thousand pieces but carefully put it back with the warmest and stickyest-sweet glue you can find.

Oh! You know who killed the victim before the detective? That's because we feed you the clues so you can participate too.

Whenever my teammates in college had a "creativity attack" and started shooting ideas for ads, I'd step in to tell them why it would be impossible for us to use them (or at least why they didn't worked at all). They would get angry, of course, so I'd suggest them to do it themselves and what was their answer? "You do it, you are the creative one" So you make up your mind, buddy, either you trust me or not. You cannot have it both ways.

People doesn't realise the power that we hold, they think that we just come up with anything off of thin air. They ignore our investigations, how we observe the world and learn from it. They ignore our minds but get surprised even with the most obvious plot-twist (as it happened to mom, I told her something that was going to happen on her soap opera -so the bar was very low- and when it did happened she was like "how did you know?" I was tempted of answering with a "I'm a writer, I see what they are doing" but I just said "because it was obvious" If I actually tried to explain to her how I came up with that she would've thought that I needed help 😵‍💫). We accumulate knowledge like a dragon hoards gold. Anything is useful, anyone is useful. Don't make us turn you into a villan for our book or movie.

But still... we always get short-handed, stepped on, underappreciated.

We are the weirdos, the ones that live with their heads in the clouds, the "lazy" ones that spend their whole day on the computer "doing nothing" and can't close deals or use brute strenght to do their job. The ones that make up imaginary things hence things that have no value.

We know that it's not true. We know that we deserve better.

We had enough of that.

That's why we strike.

[sugawara--san]

when oikawa calls argentina v japan a family quarrel but at least they're still his family

[bellcza]

lionel messi for copa américa 2024

[batsplat]

Chad reed on always the entourages creating the drama. I cannot believe that is what caused rosquez downfall but also given the level of Vale's celebrity and the way he carried himself, I can totally believe that it was the entourage (iPad stand I'm looking at you) that brought the end

(about reed's 2020 quotes in this) yeahhh I mean the downfall was caused by a whole bunch of factors, not just any one thing... like all great tragic narratives, it feels inevitable from a global perspective and yet thoroughly preventable in its specifics, with loads of points where you think, 'oh, if things had just gone a little bit differently'... there's this tension in how, in the end, maybe it would've always gone wrong, but a lot had to come together for it to go wrong in quite such a spectacular fashion

reed's definitely correctly identified one of the factors - the entourages, and valentino's entourage specifically. though fwiw, I did cut off the article before reed predicted the marc/fabio rivalry was headed a similar way (this was from 2020, obviously before the arm injury):

for better or for worse, fabio has skipped the villain arc to head straight to the depressed frenchie arc

regardless of whether this rift would have happened or not, the idea that marc would have gotten a new appreciation for the situation valentino found himself in is at least an interesting one. though if anything, the rivalry with fabio would have more closely paralleled valentino's with the other aliens (new talent coming through, but with the previously dominant rider still a regular winner). now is the time marc's learning what it feels like to come back from a prolonged absence from being competitive at the highest level - and of course with a new superstar simultaneously making his debut

so yeah, anyway, tragedy, you can point to all sorts of strains and pressures and tension inherent to professional sport that were exacerbated by the personalities involved and the influence of the media and the passage of time etc etc. but never mind all that, let's get back to entourages! I know you mention everybody's favourite b-list shakespeare villain, but I'm going to basically mostly ignore him because it's well-trodden ground. yeah, it does help to have one guy who's whispering poison into your ear for a prolonged stretch of time before showing up at your motorhome doorstep with a bunch of telemetry and a dream. and yeah, there were people in valentino's entourage definitely encouraging this path to doom. but what I'm also interested in is the flip side - why nobody stopped him

I would like to submit into evidence this passage detailing the thoughts of vale's mechanic alex briggs. now briggs in this excerpt blames two groups for how things went down in 2015:

the yamaha side (specifically the press group) for not talking him down from the ledge before the presser

the crew chief and other assorted italians on the team for being too "yessy" and not standing up to him

let's briefly (for a given value of the word) focus on the first one. if you're a random yamaha pr person and you see the valentino rossi run to a press conference (given he was late) with a bunch of papers in his hands (well, he's not actually holding the papers in those gifs, but presumably somebody's got them), it's probably a tough ask to expect you to hold up the valentino rossi and ask him what exactly he's intending to do with those papers. also, is he really going to back off because you, random yamaha pr person, have asked him to please not accuse the competition of sabotage? added context is that some at yamaha were aware of what valentino thought about the race at phillip island (which we'll get to in a sec), but god knows if the pr people did. unless he confided in anyone on the yamaha side what the plan was, a lot of them would have been blindsided too - which does come back to the problem of how big a deal valentino is and how maybe you're a little more cautious about questioning what he's about to do with those papers than you would be with somebody else. it does feel like perhaps a bit too much to expect for them to have launched some last-minute intervention, or to even know what kind of intervention they could have gone for beyond low-level comedy hijinks to stop him from even getting to that room. why did nobody from yamaha place a banana skin in his path

but we do know that at least some in yamaha were aware of valentino's great big phillip island sabotage theory, because lin jarvis has very helpfully told us as much (from the post-sepang media scrum):

Q: Do you think it was a mistake for Valentino to [provoke?] Marc so much on Thursday with a very personal and hard attack? Jarvis: There are always many different ways of addressing different problems - Valentino chose to do it in that way. Perhaps that is what provoked Marc into being quite aggressive on the track. I really don't know, you need to ask Marc not me about that. Every action has a consequence. That's life. Q: And did you know before that Valentino was going to be so aggressive with Marc in the press conference? Did you know before? Did you discuss with Valentino about this decision or you didn't know until it happened? Jarvis: Personally, I was not aware of that. I was aware of Valentino's opinion of the race in Australia, but I was not aware... but I was not aware that he would - Q: Don't you think because Valentino at the end of the day is an employee of Yamaha he should discuss before with you about such an important decision, to attack a rider of another factory in such a heavy way [...]? Jarvis: You can't control every incident, everything that happens and you know, generally we have a very good [...] relation, connection with our riders, we talk to them before about things before, but anyway I think this is something Valentino felt strongly about and it was his decision and that's it.

note the use of the word "personally", which does leave the door open to others within yamaha (outside of valentino's inner circle) knowing what was going to happen. jarvis, unsurprisingly, comes down pretty firmly on the side of 'well what were we supposed to do'. given that jarvis admits he knew valentino's theory and is hardly a stranger to valentino's modus operandi - after all, he was already team boss at the time of another tense press conference in sepang eleven years prior that took place in the wake of valentino accusing a competitor of messing with him - you do have to wonder whether yamaha could not have tried a little harder to stop valentino. but again, accounting for the power of valentino's status and the power of his character, I'm personally unconvinced yamaha could've done much to convince valentino to change his mind

so then: the italians. a little bit of context - briggs started working with crew chief jerry burgess in 1994 and both of them were on mick doohan's team for all of his five 500cc titles. when doohan's injuries forced his retirement, valentino inherited his championship-winning team upon moving up to 500cc. jb was vale's very first crew chief in the premier class, and him as well as briggs have been working with vale since december 1999. understandably, this is a very tightly-knit group. it is one that made the jump to yamaha with valentino - here's just a quick excerpt (also from oxley's valentino rossi: all his races) about briggs' thoughts on that move:

When Valentino decided to defect to Yamaha, he was determined to have his crew go with him. Only one stayed at HRC. "We first got to know about the Yamaha deal in Portugal, I think [September 2003]," Briggs continues. "I wanted to stay with JB, because I hadn't finished learning what I wanted to learn. "I remember a clandestine meeting in the car park at Phillip Island, about salaries and how everything was going to work. It was really exciting. When I very first started working with Honda the whole group was very much a team. Towards the end we felt like it started to become a bit us and them: the engineers and management, then the mechanics and the riders. They'd sort of got too big for their boots - they'd designed this wonderful bike, so it was like it had nothing to do with us. That made it easier to leave.

and also about the move to yamaha, from the 2020 barker biography of valentino:

But with his trusted crew chief Jerry Burgess and most of his other team members from the Honda garage agreeing to defect with him, Rossi had the crew he needed, not only to win but also to enjoy his racing. It was a heartening display of loyalty and something of a risk for all involved. ‘When I announced to the mechanics that I was going with Valentino they said, “I’m coming too,”’ Burgess later explained. ‘Some of those guys were leaving very secure jobs and taking a big gamble.’

the group also survived the move to ducati (obviously a deeply frustrating two years not just for the guy riding the bike) and the move back to yamaha. but then, valencia 2013, valentino announced his decision to fire jb in a press conference organised for the pair of them. his 2013 season had been deeply frustrating - yes, he had gotten a podium in his first race beating both marc and dani, but after that generally speaking he couldn't come close to matching the other aliens when healthy. he was comfortably the fourth best rider that year, scrapping and clawing his way through midfield battles and having to rely on misfortunes befalling the three title contenders to achieve his podiums and his sole victory at assen. he was considering retiring at the end of the 2014 season once his current contract expired, but wanted to try everything he could to see whether he could be competitive again against the world's very best. and so, he made the decision to roll the dice and get himself a new crew chief, the italian silvano galbusera

now I have to say, personally I have a lot of time for this decision (even if it was maybe not... uh, enacted in the most graceful of manners, given how sudden it was). I come from a sports background where a certain ruthlessness in personnel decisions is encouraged and generally praised - if something isn't working, you should have the courage to make a change, even if it's deeply uncomfortable (including on an interpersonal level). also, while it was a sudden departure, it's not like burgess was that keen on sticking around much longer (again from the same oxley book):

Valentino ended his collaboration very suddenly at the end of 2013. Burgess was shocked but not too much, because he already knew that he was coming to the end of his own career. "When it ended for me I'd already been doing it 30-odd years and I'd told Valentino a few weeks earlier that I wasn't going to sign any more multi-year contracts. I was 60 by then, so I'd go year by year. I'd already signed a contract for 2014, but I would've thought if we hadn't had any more success by then that there wasn't much point in continuing. I felt we would win more races but I was more doubtful about championships. "I'd read enough sporting biographies to know that sportsmen change their coaches towards the end of their careers. It can give them a spike in results but it doesn't change the overall story. Looking back, Valentino's career went on longer than I expected. He enjoyed some success but no more championships and that's what you race for. Of course he was in the unique position of being able to get a factory bike until he retired. He was very special and deserved everything he got."

which, look. again, personal bias, but to me it's reasonable to part ways with somebody who doesn't think any more titles are plausible, because at that point it's just somebody who has a very different view on your career than you do and may well not stick around for much longer anyway. also, at the end of the day, jb was wrong! valentino came extremely close to winning another title, and just because he didn't, doesn't change the fact he could have. if it had rained on the 8th of november 2015 in valencia, we might be having a very different conversation. (or if they hadn't changed the bloody qualifying format post-2012.) honestly, if the 2016 and to a lesser extent the 2017 season had gone just a little differently - a working bike in mugello here and an unbroken leg there - he could have been a genuine title threat in two more seasons. in any case, what it does show is that valentino even at the end of 2013 was still as determined as ever, was ready to engage in what was a huge gamble (given how almost all his success had come with the highly decorated jb) on the off chance he might find what it took to win again. this will not have been an easy decision for valentino. here's a write-up of the presser at valencia, that stresses how uncomfortable the occasion was, how surprising a decision it was to jb, but how publicly at least there was a lack of recriminations (which, to be fair, wouldn't be much fun to do in a shared presser):

(you'll note that the phrasing in the presser about athletes attempting to extend their carrers by changing things up is echoed in what he says in that book interview where he adds that it doesn't change the overall story, again suggesting he didn't really believe valentino would be competitive. he also uses the same phrasing in ANOTHER interview that confirms as much, but I think you get the point.) valentino said at the time, "it was a very difficult decision for me because I have a great history with jeremy. he is not just my chief mechanic. he is like part of my family. my father in racing". this is somebody he'd been working with since age 21, somebody who is not only revered within the paddock for his work with several of the sport's greats but is also a man who valentino obviously has a close personal connection to. meeting for the first time when vale snuck into the honda pit to check out the bike he might ride next season, hitting it off immediately, countless rowdy dinners together, parties, jb and another older colleague sitting back when food fights started, watching valentino grow up, working with him throughout all his big manufacturer switches, all his successes and all his failures... as much as anything else, it's evidence of how strong vale's desire to win was, how determined he continued to be, to make this choice at this stage of his career. and jb was open to the idea (at least publicly) that it might end up being a smart call:

the 'dirtiest' part of the whole affair is how it was actually carried out - it's not great form to tell your crew chief the day before you end up doing a press conference together to announce your choice. for whatever it's worth, this is how valentino justified the timeline:

and lastly, which I think is the most key part, is valentino's belief. because at the end of the day, the only reason why he's doing any of this, and the only reason why what was to come was possible at all, is that he himself still thought that he could challenge for another title - as much as that belief had come under strain:

now what this piece also goes on to say is that nobody believes this will work. nobody believes that firing jb will lead to better results. people expect that this is going to lead to his retirement, quite possibly at the end of 2014. it's worth just remembering sometimes how extraordinary valentino's return to the top of the game post-2013 really was, how it went against how we expect a rider's competitive lifecycle to work, went far beyond the longevity exhibited by any top rider before or since - all while going up against riders who are widely believed to be some of the best to ever do it. valentino beat jorge in both 2014 and 2016, and remains one of two people to outscore prime marc marquez over the course of a season. not to engage in too much rossi prop here, but sepang 2015 can't really be understood without all the frustration that led up to it, to this one golden chance, this miracle that everybody had believed to be impossible (sometimes even valentino). this wasn't supposed to be happening. it was happening. and then, so so close to the finish line, valentino could feel it slipping, slipping, slipping away

but of course, we still don't know whether changing crew chiefs is the key factor that made him competitive again. maybe he just needed a bit longer to get back into the swing of things post-ducati disaster. maybe the bikes just started to suit him better. hey, maybe it was that nifty exercise regime he'd engaged in a wee spot of espionage for so that he could pinch it off his teammate. what we can say, however, is that valentino's choice both tells us a lot about his mindset, as well as (to finally bring us back to the actual point of this post) representing a massive shift in his 'entourage'. this is what briggs is referring to in his quote - the italians. the new crew chief. the people who couldn't stand up to valentino. now obviously, as mentioned above briggs had worked with jb for the better part of twenty years and can hardly be considered a neutral party. here were briggs' feelings on the matter (yeah it's from the same oxley book again, I got it new for eighteen quid which is a very generous price, would recommend):

When JB was out at the end of 2013 it was like losing my mechanic dad. I remember being in the garage when we found out about it. Then they arranged a kind of farewell, a kind of hodgepodge farewell. It was terrible, I didn't like any of it. I was just hiding behind one of the bikes in the garage, crying, going, what's going on here? It didn't seem right to me. I think maybe Valentino thought he would get faster again sooner, but I think it took at least a year to get the taste of the Ducati out of his mouth. I think if he'd stayed with JB we would've won the championship in 2015.

which. look. we don't have time to unpack all that. but. the point is that obviously briggs wasn't exactly a massive fan of the change within valentino's team, and his comments about the 2015 season do have to be read with that in mind. as to whether vale really would have done better in 2015 with jb at his side, your guess is as good as mine. all that being said, a part of me wonders how much losing that grounding presence enabled valentino's late-2015 spiral. maybe not in terms of talking valentino out of the great big fluctuating lap times treachery theory - to state the obvious, valentino got himself involved in plenty of drama during jb's time as a crew chief. jb himself occasionally helped add fuel to the fire in those feuds, like his infamous comment about how he would be able to fix the ducati's issues in 80 seconds that casey still brings up every three business days (the comments were poorly phrased but also somewhat taken out of context, in that jb was talking about a specific set-up problem). he's generally been pretty happy to be forthright about valentino's rivals, for instance this about casey:

My feeling at the time was that Casey probably only had one game plan, and having watched Casey over the years, he doesn't have a plan B. If it doesn't go his way from the outset, it's probably one of the weaknesses that he had through the youth that he had, through the lack of experience that he had. That's not a criticism of him per se, he was still only 22 at the time.

(this is about laguna seca 2008 and how he helped valentino win that race, including in plotting out vale's rather ruthless tactics - which casey was of course not exactly a fan of.) or these. uh. harsh comments about dani from spring 2010:

Q: Is that atmosphere or track knowledge? Is it like the Spanish finding something extra at the racetracks in Spain? JB: Well, therein we show the weakness, don't we? If you can get up on that weekend, on the technical racetracks of Spain, why can't you get up on the technical racetracks like Australia, where the Italians do? Lorenzo is a guy who will and does. Stoner has been able to get up on tracks all over the world. Unfortunately, Dani Pedrosa's into his 6th year in MotoGP, and he's won 8 races, Jorge Lorenzo's two months into his 3rd and he's won 6. It's night and day between those two, is the way I see it. Dani's an extremely fast rider, but a shockingly poor racer. Q: Were you surprised at Jerez [2010] when Pedrosa fought back when Lorenzo passed him? JB: When did Dani fight back? With two laps to go, and he didn't even get close enough to try to come back. Dani has never been a fighter in races, he's a lovely kid, don't get me wrong, but you can see that Lorenzo, having Pedrosa in front of him, it was never going to be the way he was going to finish that race. He was going to finish on the ground or he was going to finish in front of Pedrosa. That's the sort of race that we want, we had that with Biaggi and Valentino, and from history with Schwantz and Rainey. All the good riders have always had somebody they have had to put the target on the back of. It was Doohan and Gardner, and Doohan won that battle hands down, and I think Jorge Lorenzo's going to win this battle [with Pedrosa] hands down.

kind of a dick! so his attitude to valentino being valentino has generally been a) well having enemies is good, actually, with an added slice of b) good luck to his enemies :) - see also this quote (from the barker biography) in the context of the gibernau rivalry:

And that made Rossi even more dangerous, as Jerry Burgess pointed out: ‘Valentino is the sort of rider I wouldn’t want to get angry. He can take you apart on the track.’

so yes, jb is also perfectly brutal in his own right, as you presumably have to be to work alongside valentino so closely for so long. he is, however, also somebody valentino has a massive amount of respect for, somebody who helped turn him into a legend and is responsible for a lot of vale's success - not least, of course, in the pivotal move to yamaha. he was replaced by a man of a far far lesser stature in the sport, one who presumably would have been grateful to valentino for the biggest job he was ever going to get. if briggs is right and there was a shift in valentino in 2015, surrounded as he was by italians (derogatory) who could not stand up to him, who allowed valentino to insist on war and peace on the pit boards, to focus more and more on things that had nothing to do with riding... it would be going a little too far to say that valentino was missing an adult in the room given he was, in fact, in his thirties and should have been capable of being that adult. and who knows what jb would have said or thought or done about the great big childhood hero deception theory. but sepang 2015 was the culmination of a lot of things, including a pressure cooker of a season that grew more and more tense and put more and more stress on everyone involved - perhaps for none more so than valentino. maybe, just maybe, if he'd had somebody around him with fifteen years of experience in handling him, who could have just occasionally told him to knock it off, to concentrate on the racing, to keep things simple (always jb's defining philosophy), to maybe not get so wrapped up in the great big spanish collusion theory...

or maybe it wouldn't have mattered! maybe we're getting cause and effect all wrong here; maybe valentino was deliberately fashioning his entourage into one that was only going to give him positive feedback. maybe he would have just stopped listening to jb, maybe the very decision to fire jb makes it clear he was no longer interested in what jb had to say. it's a tragedy, after all! maybe it was always going to go like this. maybe it was always going to end like this

speaking of entourages, marc's manager played a bit of a cameo role in fanning the flames just a little further (article from marca, 26/10/2015):

alzamora obviously will be somebody valentino is familiar with, having raced him in 125cc and also having just coexisted in the paddock over the years. valentino could of course be lying, but idk, why would he? he's already made his case by this point, and what if alzamora were to contradict him? if it's true and this conversation did happen, you do have to say it's a spectacularly unhelpful intervention from alzamora. even if marc was mad at valentino, why the hell are you telling valentino this AFTER sepang 2015? what's the plan here buddy

^ 1999 world champions: alzamora in 125cc, vale in 250cc and alex criville in 500cc. people think motogp lore is complicated but if you know like, five guys, you're set for about twenty years of drama

which does get to the heart of the matter - a lot of these people have big egos and their own agendas and they love to run their mouths. they like talking a big game and getting involved in things they really shouldn't be getting involved in. is reed right that these people in the riders' entourages 'created the drama'? well, no, I think the two men at the centre of this particular tragedy were plenty capable of doing that themselves. nevertheless, you can point to how professional sports (and motogp in particular) forces you to rely heavily on a small group of people to keep you sane at the centre of the storm, and the risks that can emerge when that small group collectively unmoors itself from reality. you can point to the perils of fame, both in making your reliance on your inner circle so unnegotiable as well as in providing you with the status and power and ego to ignore anyone who might wish to change your mind. you can point to specific figures in this story who managed to incite the conflict between the two of them, as well as how the pressure cooker competitive environment they were operating within helped set up the ultimate catastrophe. you can point to how valentino lacked anyone with the power to stop him - both in the direct sense of forcing him to reconsider and the indirect sense of commanding his respect enough to make him see sense. maybe, just like in 2004, valentino had simply been "looking for an excuse" and he was always headed down this path. or maybe if somebody had just held him back a little that year, kept him focused on his riding, maybe if the right person had intervened at the right time...

maybe, maybe, maybe. that's why it's a tragedy

[akemima]

Human frank !!!! :3

[cata-strophes]

Sorry, i know these few reblogs dont go in this blog, but its my country and my life and ive been feeling like shit since yesterday.

Fascism just won in my country.

A man who plans to privatize public institutions, wants to dollarize our economy, legalize fire arms and organ trade, wants to get rid of so many rights we fought so hard for, LBGT rights, abortion, sex education. He wants to deny the vote to immigrant people.

He admires Trump and Thatcher, he denies the dictatorship that disappeared over 30,000 people and stole hundres of children from their parents hands. The dictatorship that kidnapped, killed, raped, tortured thousands and thousands of people. His vice-president is the daughter of one of the worst military men in that dictatorship.

The people voting him claim that he "won't be able to anything". He has actively said he wants to get rid of public education and public health, and they say "he never said that", or "he was taken out of context". These people lack memory, because he very much can, as so many have before. And as so many have before, we're going to have to fight for those rights again, win them all over again, go out every day to mobilize and scream and shout and cry and fight and stick together.

I've been telling myself since yesterday. We did this before, we did this in 2016, we did this in the 90s, we did this in 1976. I look at my latinamerican siblings and how they survived their own battles and I repeat to myself Brasil survived, Chile survived, Bolivia survived. We survived and will survive, and we will fight to our very last breath. But man, is it tiring to repeat this.

I know this blog is for fandom and silly drawings, but I felt the need to speak about it, I just can't be quiet about it when this is gonna set us back so many years.

[topnotchquark]

Rosquez // Bites on My Neck, by yeule

(much thanks to @sammyche 's rosquez images series)

[ssaturnseclipse]

hey ppl so there's this pic of Brian in a press conference in japan in 1973 or smth and he looks absolutely beautiful. gorgeous. breath taking

i can only find this pic and honestly, if yall have any other more pics of him on that specific fit that specific day i would love to see them

reblog and put the pic!!

[everything-maxriemelt]

Tony Leung talks about the creative process working with Wong Kar-Wai on set of “Happy Together” (GQ interview, 2022)

[fan-de-las-tetas]

I've recentely started watching one piece, and i have obssesed with the clown, so in result now im obssesed with cross guild and bc im from argentina i now have a bunch of headcanons about this silly guys if they knew and understood for some reason music from here...

BUGGY would unironically listen to los wachiturros, las culisueltas, nene malo, and songs of heartbroken 50yr ladys with 6 divorces. also he would totally dance and sing along with his whole clussy to those. he would like to sing shit songs like leña para el carbon in front of crocodile and mihawk bc he knows they hate them. every summer the whole crew has to listen to marama, rumbai, el dipy and stuff bc he loves it. ALSO he would totally do a whole dramatic lipsync spectacle of him singing tita marelo's "se dice de mi" and it would be so flashy and awesome

CROCODILE gives el chaqueño. idc he just seems like the kind of guy reading the news at 6am with la ley y la trampa sounding in the back, also he listens and DANCES tango but nobody knows the dancing part. he also listens a lot of folklore, chacarera, and on chill saturdays he would listen to cuarteto like los palmeras and los tekis. he would surrender to the music and dance sabalero with buggy bc he just loves it and him and idk fluff happens. he just looks like he has my granpas music taste

MIHAWK looks like a rock guy, spinetta, los piojos, el indio solari, viejas locas, soda estereo, la vela puerca. all of that. he doesn't either sing or dance but he is vibing internally and thats all that matters. but i know he would sometimes find himself mumbling buggy's music and he would cringe and throw himself to the ocean or something, it happens at least twice a week

[naturallawofweirdnessmagnitism]

Here are some of my Nomad headcanons!!

I based some of his clothes on traditional gaucho fashion, mainly the belt, leather, and Poncho patterns

They always seem to be unarmed in the series, so instead of a facón, I just gave him a pouch and spare cloth

The tassels and bells make all the shaking and jingling sound effects in the show

Sometimes, their critters bring him little flowers or shiny trinkets. He loves this and has some of them pinned on his poncho

The antler stubs are there to push my similarities-to-the-otgw-beast agenda

[getting-messi]

Simply the greatest.

[millythegoat]

Hi, found your acc while checking the copa america tag. As an Argentinian, I'm sorry you guys are out of the competition, but y'all left an impression for sure. This tournament isn't an easy one and you guys were tough as nails, I was on the edge of my seat all 90 minutes.

Also,,,, why is your manager kinda...??? He was the biggest Hear Me Out in the group chat with my friends. Jesse got all of us argentinian ladies thirsting over him- [shh no you didn't hear this from me- okay bye]

i still feel bitter from that lost tbh, but damn! it's very interesting no matter what team you play against, your team always adapt to them and get on top of their own game. Also, can I kidnap De Paul and never let him see the sun again please? I just- I can't- *went manic* he's such a menace in society yknow- I just want to- *clocking a gun* AAAAACCHH *get bodied tackle from his body guard*

*takes a deep breath* okay that was so unhinged of me and I apologize. But- he deserved it! *get thrown into mental institute*

*twirling my hair, kicking my feet in the air* AWWWW..you girls/guys got the bug as well!!! I take it as my highest compliment and I feel honored to do the lord's work for youuus! 🥰🥰🥰

[jalluzas-ferney]

Oí @onicole come get your food. It’s finally my Rio Gramde do Sul gaúcho, Eduardo Monteiro‼️‼️‼️ and his wife Maria Juliana Cocenzo‼️‼️🤭

I actually love him sm look at him he’s such a gentleman yet silly guy. (You can see it in his eyes)

[princeofyorkshire]

i can’t believe piracy is such a sensitive topic on tumblr dot com i can tell you guys are not latin american

[peacemorrison]

un país swiftie está destinado a ganar el mundial 💙🤍🇦🇷

NAME A COUNTRY MORE SWIFTIE THAN ARGENTINA, I'LL WAIT