#hashtags are really just room for funny commentary

[flowerg0ddess]

I posted a blog a while back on having an open relationship with my boyfriend. I mentioned that I wanted to explore the world of opportunities a bit, but since then my attitudes have changed. Sometimes I’ll have a moment where I’ll think, “well I wonder what ___ is like in bed,” but for the most part I really am happy with just my boyfriend. He’s amazing in every way, in and out of the bedroom. Not that I did much exploring before, but I definitely don’t think I’ll be doing much if any now. They say humans aren’t meant to be monogamous and maybe they’re right. Maybe I’m just not human

[readymades2002]

ch 2 thoughts.....giggle

i think.....maybe this one goes over better for noelle enjoyers but i don’t really care about her </3 so sorry...there’s nothing objectively bad about her she is perfectly fine and nice and cool i just find that kind of panicky Useless Gay crush to be irritating in characters especially wuhluhwuh ones (and its usually wuhluhwuh ones. For Some Reason) and xmas themed shit is SOOOO.....BORING TO ME i think the main story of this game is just never gonna click for me. which is kind of a bummer! it seems like itll be interesting it is just not my thing. also delt of rune having a lot of like...xtian imagery in it is still so weird to me its not OBJECTIVELYYYYYYY bad but it is. um. i’m not interested ^_^

also berdley getting a storyline is the most baffling decision i’ve ever seen in my life. that is a burgerpants character! that is a character that makes you go wow this guy sucks but his expressions are really funny and i don’t have to see him that often so i can stand him. that is NOT a character that gets a hashtag gifted kid storyline fhdskjd what the fuck WAS that!!!!!!! i do think berdley bemoaning how stupid he feels and how he’s let everyone down in a room full of people who have been abandoned by everyone because they’re The Bad Kids is a good representation of that discourse but like. whyyyy did this happennnnn

the queen is the best character in all of fiction obviously. her final boss battle was kind of a pain in the ass and i’m really baffled by her like...whole Internet story i guess. i mean there are interesting things to say about the internet and The Algorithm and using it to try and escape your own misery and i think that that dovetails REALLY nicely with the actual characters!!! between the exploration of escapism and the evolution of the bosses as “sometimes you just need to kick someone’s ass, you can’t always talk it out”, it feels like we’re shaping things into a story about How To Deal With Being In The World That We Are In. maybe not a how-to, necessarily, but i think that that’s a really fascinating story for this one to be! i just think some of the representation of the internet stuff is, perhaps, maybe, a LITTLE bit corny. a little bit oddly done. i think the attack where she says “drama” and makes the whole feed angry is a bit eyerolly. maybe i am just wrong about that, though, i am wrong about things often. i don’t really find meta commentary on the internet or of social media very funny. i don’t laugh at the vague idea of “tumblr drama” either. its just not funny to me

storywise this chapter was kind of a letdown but the world itself is like CANDY to me i am SOOOOO OBSESSED with the aesthetic of the cyber world and the characters in it i love robots i love viruses i love old internet. hypnospace is my favorite game so naturally this is designed exactly to worm its way into my brain and keep me there. also the robots are named after a homestar runner bit. i love it. I Love It

actually jumping back to the best characters in all of fiction. kris and susie but especially kris for the moment. i think kris is a really compelling character and i think that if Certain Game Developers would stop playing off their possession shit as some creepypasta bullshit then we could go further with that! i mean at least this time its not like. the stupid fuckin ending chapter one had (i know it was a fakeout but it also took two? three? years for that to be revealed and i'm pretty cross about it). i think it was almost really good! if it hadn't included the red text part or toriel literally calling the cops which is like. WHY are there cops in deltarune there was no fuckin need for it. but if it hadn't done all that then i think it would've actually been an EXCELLENT portrayal of kris's Whole Deal. kris tearing the player's soul out and throwing themselves out the window to slash toriel's tires before coming back inside and washing their hands and resigning themselves to being posessed again is REALLY compelling!!! kris and the player both having no input during the entire "maybe this world IS better" sequence leaving their own reaction to it a mystery is great, and it makes them opening another fountain SO FUCKING GOOD because they have all the information and decide to go through with it anyway.

and the reasons they could have for it! maybe they agree with everyone else's initial reason for it, the idea that the dark world IS better, you can make friends and meet people that don't just constantly call you a freak and a weirdo. maybe they want the world to end! they're obviously really unhappy right now and being possessed is making it worse, and it seems like the best option for the world to be consumed by darkness. or to even just have another world to defeat. anything but this stupid world where their brother is gone and their mom hates their dad and won't talk about it at all and everyone hates them! maybe it's ralsei looking like asriel, the feeling that if they stay in the dark world, they can hang out with their brother again. they might not be themself most of the time, that boat ride with ralsei and ralsei going "i think it's good that you're so You, kris" while kris has literally no input at all and hasn't almost the entire time they've known each other with the possible exception of the astral projection bits, that was fucking AGONIZING, but they certainly seem to be getting something from their adventures! they seem to like susie! why not ralsei, too!

i think the fountain move was also clearly a measured response. they slashed toriel's tires and recollected themself before getting back to possession. its like...lashing out, very obviously. doing something violent for a bit to get those feelings in order. then opening the fountain after sitting with them. i just find that very interesting. kris is such like...they're so interesting. what a fucking character. i want to know more about them and unfortunately there is literally no way to do that that is good for them because the only way there is to interface with them is through taking their will away. god...

anyway overall feelings are i am kind of disappointed by the story stuff, but the character stuff for characters that i (buzz) enjoy is excellent and the world is, as always, so delightful that i will tolerate just about anything to stay in it for a few hours longer. which is kind of the opposite of what the story is trying to convey i’m pretty sure but! ah well

oh also the music kicks ass but you could’ve guessed that

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Iruma-kun 8 - 9 | BnHA 68 - 71 | NGL 8 - 9 | ID: Invaded Sneak Preview (i.e. eps 1 - 2)

Tw: suicide for ID: Invaded, by the way (it’s only briefly in the commentary, but it’s in ep 2). Plus, ID: Invaded gets its hashtag well before its debut.

Iruma-kun 8

“Lady Redhair”? I think Amelie’s hair is orange, but you do you, Clara.

I paused at the wrong time and saw Asmodeus had bug eyes behind his glasses.

Is that the vending machine Clara attacked her bullies with…?

I wonder what rank Amelie is…

Diabolical + botany = diabotany.

Come to think of it, the Azz-Azz/Iruma relationship is similar to the Gokudera/Tsuna relationship…

So as it turns out, Clara gets her juvenile tendencies from taking care of her younger siblings. Hmm…

Aw, it’s kinda disheartening to see Clara so down. It looks a lot like Zenitsu when he doesn’t see his own abilities, or something of the sort (which I always fall hook, lin and sinker for).

I wonder what Amelie’s seduction percentage is…?

Oh, you can see Succubus-sensei in the ED…hmm.

Update: where is Clara’s dad…? *gulps if he’s passed away*

Iruma-kun 9

Azz-kun is such a proud parent…even though he’s the same age as Iruma, LOL.

Lack of ambition? Clara just proved this wrong last episode and Sabro has his own ambitions…but then again, Azz-kun wasn’t privy to such knowledge.

“Fear 1” is a pun on ikkai (first floor). (At least, that’s what I can assume from context.)

There doesn’t actually seem to be a pun when Azz mentions Execution Cannonball (shokei gyokuhou)…which, I think, is weirder than having a pun in the first place. (The later joke is that Clara says gyouki instead of gyokuhou, which is pretty far off for part of it but completely spot on for the other , so the subbers put in a phrase that matched that kind of pattern in the English as well.)

Rumour has it there’s going to be an Iruma-kun dub. I wonder how they’ll make all the puns work…?

It’s-wahahaha! It’s just dodgeball!

Huh? A high-ranking demon? Sullivan? Opera?????

LOL, you can still see the tree sprouting from one of the rooms.

The Demonitor is handing Opera the dodgeballs, LOL!

I like Opera’s nails…they’re a nice shade of purple…

Ponytail Iruma…looks a bit strange, but I’ll get used to it. I like ponytails, y’know.

Even Azz-kun’s hands are big in comparison to Iruma…

That preview was far too abrupt!

BnHA 68

The giant moving crab is actually a thing. I went and saw it one time in Ginza and again on Dotonbori, Osaka. The crab is associated with Kani Doraku, a crab restaurant.

“Amajiki” literally means something like “eats the sky”. A good name for my good boi.

The subbers didn’t even finish the word “defence”! Eesh!

Amajiki likes butterflies…? I wonder, if he ate butter, could he be a butterfly too…?

Running All Might, I see…(it’s a parody of the Glico Running Man in Osaka.)

Basically, this is what Vigilantes was for! Woot!

I love how Kaminari charges people’s phones. That’s the sort of dumb thing heroes do with their powers, since you gotta remember they’re just young dumb boys at heart as well.

The problem with a hardening power is that it sounds lewd out of context…

I wonder what Fat Gum’s first job was…?

There’s a post-credits segment…keep watching.

BnHA 69

Centipeder has such a cute voice, albeit a distorted one.

Kirishima is voiced by Masuda, so it’s fun to hear him get such a prominent role again (after Charanko in OPM s2, Touken Ranbu and Boueibu, among other roles).

“Likes: All Might” – LOL, we knew that already though.

Nighteye is Seiya Ryuuguuin: Hero Version.

There’s a post-credits segment. Keep watching.

The manga calls the magical girl series “Preyure”, so it’s weird to suddenly have the dub refer to its dub name, “Glitter Force”.

BnHA 70

Midoriya doesn’t have any bedhead…because his hair’s already messy! LOL.

“…what’s important is what you do afterwards.”

“Maybe we can catch the League…and the Hassaikai all at once!” – Yeah…that’s not going to happen Kirishima, considering the series is still going.

Come to think of it, Eraser’s goggles are the only part of his outfit that don’t really match…no wonder the idea comes from somone else (maybe saying that is a spoiler for those only following the main series and not Vigilantes, though…?).

Swordfish will become important later on…you know Tamaki’s Quirk, so you’ll see when it’s important soon.

Another post-credits segment…keep watching.

BnHA 71

One of the reasons I like Amajiki is because of his intro. Now you can see why!

Hassaikai = Hassai Group, so calling the opponents the “Shie Hassaikai” and “Hassai Group” in the same translaton is inconsistent.

“…playing into their hands.” – You can’t say that when you don’t have hands, Tamaki…

No Guns Life 8

Well, there ain’t no metaphor like the blatant one – man is the deadliest weapon to himself…or something of the sort.

Geesh! I wanna dub for this!

Well…couldn’t Olivier light the cig and stick it in Juzo’s mouth…? Or is that not “sexy enough” for the target audience?

No Guns Life 9

I’ve noticed only the women have lip flaps now…LOL. (But maybe I’m stating the obvious because my head’s a bit fuzzy from lack of sleep…)

“Medico” appears to be the Spanish word for “doctor” (as you might be able to guess). Then again, what Spanish colonies are there in the world…? Spain, sure, and South America…*googles* Basically all of South America, dangit.

Context says “madre” = mother.

Context also says “mentira” = lie, or “you’re lying!”.

Geesh, that cup size joke was such a non-sequitur that I didn’t even find it funny…

Geesh! This Colt dude is basically Sabro (from Iruma-kun)! Update: He also looks like he came straight outta JJBA.

ID: Invaded 1 – 2 (SNEAK PREVIEW!) 

I thought I wouldn’t be able to access the preview, but by accessing Funimation’s videos…I can watch it!

Ohmygloooooooob, this “I’m in pieces, but I’m connected” concept is so cool! (But also hella freaky, which is exactly my style!...You do know that I’m a bit of a freak for body horror, right?)

You…probably shouldn’t be yelling at the person if they appear to be dead(!)  

This would make an awesome escape game, no…?

I never knew the future looked so similar to the present.

Ooh, this gets more and more interesting! There are people watching this murder mystery.

Whose ID Well is this…? If it’s Sakaido’s, then maybe he can find out more about himself through the celebs.

The code appears to be from the Windows operting system, since C: is the default hard drive. So I’d say it might be Windows Visual Basic, actually, or C (the programming language).

Hmm…maybe that’s when the episode ws being produced.

Okay, so how I’m understanding this is that Sakaido is in the world of the murderer (of Kaeru’s) mind and he has to find her murderer to get out.

Ooh, so Sakaido is also a murderer…and as it turns out, Sakaido’s perp drills holes in the heads of their victims…scary. What I was really here to say was that this reminds me of a movie called Minority Report.

I think one of the victims had part of his head missing in the ID Well, so maybe Sakaido’s missing an elbow in real life…?

The joke is that the word for “well” in Japanese is i (井) or ido (井戸) and then ID, of course, is ID and likewise id is id (but it’s ido in Japanese). Googling ID: Invaded reveals Sakaido is written with this same kanji, plus two others (酒井戸), meaning his name is part of the wordplay too.

It’s like Minecraft, except you make the world with your entire body…LOL.

Maybe that’s (takoya) short for “takoyaki”…? Just a guess. Update: I’m right.

The licence plates say “Shinagawa”. This show takes place in Shinagawa (or the car I read the plate of was obtained in Shinagawa)!

Huh? How did Hondomachi get into the well? Do they have a drive to kill as well????

These quotes have gotta mean something, so here’s the first one: “Is it ridiculous to believe that I have been given a certain role to play for this present world?”

What’s up with the numbers in the room Matsuoka is in…? (Apparently a terrible day volunteering is enough to put me on edge and subsequently make me a master detective, it seems.)

I went back to my old Honeyfeed stories recently and I rediscovered a character that I wrote about a few years ago – Yuki, after the matching character I axed from my original plot of Half-Paid Heroes (because the story I’m referring to is the Honeyfeed version of HPH) – who was partially close-shaven like Fukuda. I gave Yuki such a character design just to set up intrigue, but I didn’t think I’d ever see a similar design to it, ever. Now, here I am.

Narihisago? What a name! I checked what “hisago” means and apparently it means “gourd���.

Is this Kaeru (the one that committed suicide), perhaps, the one in Hondomachi’s head and that’s not actually the case…?

The CGI’s a bit awkward in this show.

Is “Muku” Sakaido/Narihisago’s daughter…?

I think the old guy – the head of the cop team – uses a Mac, based on his GUI.

New quote: “Wind comes in this hole and out the other, and it makes the world a little bit clearer.” This reveals the quotes are actually from the episode.

This music which acts as the ED is nice. I’m basically sold on this show, y’know.

The original work is by “The Detectives United”. I wonder what that means…?

[fourteenacross]

natasha, pierre, and the great comet of 1812 - 8/12/17, 2pm

MY LAST TRIP TO GREAT COMET :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

I wish I was going to be in town for the last show :\ It’s the day before I get back from Atlanta, but if I was going to be in town, I would 100% have moved heaven and earth to get there.

We bought these tickets awhile back, after seeing Dave in June. We had already been planning to see Oak but hadn’t settled on a date or a seat type, so we used that performance to gauge where we wanted to sit, and literally minutes after I thought, “Oh, we need to buy those tickets today now that we know where to sit” the day after, they announced Ingrid was going the cast during the time period we were looking at so...yes.

(After our third time seeing the show, I was reaching the point where I was like, “I LOVE the entire cast but I’d LOVE to see some of the understudies live!” but I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone but Brittain playing Sonya, but I love Ingrid Michaelson, so that was a nice way to ease into the idea.)

Anyway, some time later we convinced two of our other friends, @charmingpplincardigans and @chiasticbees, to join us. This was a boon for me because August is CRAZY so we were doing this trip in one day and Naomi doesn’t drive, so that would have been...a lot of driving for me. But yeah, this was all long before the drama and the show posting its closing notice, so the trip went from “Yay, we’re going to see Oak and Ingrid and maybe we’ll go again in September or October to see the OBC one last time before contracts are up” to our last time seeing the show on Broadway.

I have a lot of feelings about that, which I’ll vomit at the end.

I weighed like, five different travel options and we ended up leaving Boston around eight, driving to White Plains, parking at the train station, and taking the MetroNorth into Manhattan. I went to school outside of White Plains and the exit for the train station is not long after 15 in CT ends, so it was also just good timing/placement in the length of our trip. We made okay time despite needing to stop to pee fifty times and had enough time to grab lunch at GCT before the show.

Naomi and I sat on the Banquettes on stage right in the second row, right on the end. We’ve sat on stage with a view from basically every angle, now, which was cool, but I do wish we’d had a chance to see see it from front mezz or the orchestra, too. But, that aside, they were excellent seats which we chose in advance because Pierre stands there to sing part of “Dust and Ashes.” Unfortunately, we had THE WORLD’S WORST SEATMATES, a bunch of middle-aged and older women who were just flat out rude. There were seven of them with three seats in one row and four seats in another row and they weren’t sure which seats they had. The first two of them showed up at, like, fucking 1:55 and gave the usher a hard time, and each time a few more of them trickled in, they gave the usher an even harder time. They kept insisting she was putting them in the wrong seat and no matter how many times she told them “you do not have a ticket for the seat you’re sitting in,” they would not listen and got pissy with her. They were also pissy that they were being rushed, even though by this point the cast had come out to give out pierogis and do the pre-show “don’t put your feet in the aisles, turn off your cellphones” talk. They also talked CONSTANTLY during the show, a running commentary on their thoughts which would have been bad enough in a traditional seating arrangement, but when you’re three feet from the actors whispering “That performance didn’t do anything for me” loud enough for the whole stage to hear is just rude.

ANYWAY, enough vitriol about them. Before the show we did a lot of soaking in of the stage and set with the knowledge that this was our last time :( And then the show started!

Denée: So good, as usual. I’ve seen Denée every time I’ve see the show and even though I really wish I could have seen Shoba’s Natasha, I can’t say I’m disappointed because she’s SO good. She’s so funny and sweet and naive and a beautiful perfect angel. I love the way she performs her narration to the audience, like we’re her confidante. “No One Else” is extra breath-taking when it’s happening a foot away from you, for sure, and “Pierre and Natasha” was just....ugh, I want to start ugly crying just thinking about it. What a star. What a presence. I hope she has a million wonderful things waiting for her in the future.

Grace: God, I’m gonna miss Grace McLean raining hellfire down on the stage. What a voice! What an attitude! Especially compared to her as...her. Like, meeting her at the stage door a bunch of times, she seems so tiny and quiet and it’s hard to reconcile her with Marya, who fills the entire room. 

Lucas: Lucas gets more over the top each time I see him and I love it. We saw Blaine as Anatole in June, and I LOVED Blaine’s Anatole, but I’m glad I got to see Lucas one last time. He’s just so MUCH and he does every part of it so well. He and Oak had AMAZING chemistry.

Amber: I stg she turned up the energy on “Charming” times a zillion. She was also hanging out in front of our section a lot and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed Helene and Dolokhov mocking the rest of the opera goers in the background, especially Marya once she starts talking to them. That way she flips back and forth between bitchy & holier-than-thou and honestly invested in her friends and family is amazing. She also is just so broken in the last few numbers, it’s heartbreaking. She collapsed basically on top of our feet. (Also, she and Grace made out like, six feet away from me and I was QUITE PLEASED.)

Nick: We saw Azudi as Dolokhov last time and he was great but, as with Lucas, I’m glad I got to see him one last time :\ Nick is like, our secret favorite because we saw him at a talkback at ART back in the day and were instantly charmed. He’s really excellent and balances being an almost maliciously amused asshole with genuine anger and regret super well. I also just love his voice and wish he had just a little more to do.

Courtney: Gelsey’s on vacation, so we saw Courtney as Princess Mary. This seems like a ridiculously hard role to understudy given all the weird vocal things that Gelsey does as Mary, but Courtney did a great job. Her Mary was a little more innocent than Gelsey’s and a little more frazzled. Gelsey plays her as already having given herself over to the knowledge that this is her sad life now, whereas it felt like Courtney’s Mary was still clinging to hope and those hopes just got dashed over and over again.

Nicholas: His Andrey is SO cold. I’ve only ever seen him as Andrey, but compared to some of Blake DeLong’s choices on the original cast album, his Andrey comes off as icy and angry, which I like a lot, but is just so sad. I was right around Bolkonsky for parts of “The Private and Intimate Lives of the House” and he was such an awful, creepy asshole. (Which is obvs a compliment XD)

Paul: A delight! He and Ingrid were right next to us during “The Duel” and it was great.

Ingrid: I was SO pleasantly surprised! I mean, I knew that Ingrid had a theatre background, but I think I wasn’t expecting to love her Sonya so much, both because Brittain is one of my favorite parts of Great Comet and because I don’t really think of her as an actress, but she was phenomenal! Her Sonya was more frustrated and betrayed and jealous in Act 2 than Brittain’s, and very visibly put out in Act 1, whereas I feel like Brittain’s Sonya just sort of lets herself get pushed around by Marya and is miffed, but goes with it. Also, her Sonya was possibly even gayer than Brittain’s? It’s hard to tell, but WOW. Her voice was beautiful, of course, but god, I’m still stuck on thinking what a fantastic actress she was. That confrontation in “Sonya and Natasha” especially. Amazing. I’m so glad I got to see her.

Oak: I am SO glad I got to see Oak as Pierre, seriously. He was fucking incredible. I mean, hashtag I love all Pierres, so I was predisposed to loving him anyway, but he really blew me away. Being two feet away from him while he did “Dust and Ashes” was like a fucking spiritual experience, for sure. His Pierre was different from all the other Pierres I’ve seen--there were parts that I liked more than some of the other guys and vice-versa. I would say that his Pierre was more...sad and longing. Groban’s Pierre is angry and Scott’s is frustrated and Dave’s is given up and despairing, but Oak’s is on his way to that Malloy-esque despair but hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. It’s such an interesting choice and I LOVED it. It added a sort of poignancy to “Dust and Ashes” in the opposite way of Malloy’s--Malloy’s “Dust and Ashes” has that poignancy because his Pierre has hit rock bottom and is seeing the light for the first time and just awed by it. Oak’s Pierre is saved from hitting rock bottom by that moment in “Dust and Ashes.” A different interpretation, but just as meaningful. He was also SO funny in “The Duel” and “The Opera.” His little thumbs-up to the audience on “No, I am enjoying myself at home this evening” was hilarious and his parts in “The Duel” were so mellow and goofy--way goofier than any other Pierre I’ve seen. I totally dug it. I will say that his “Whaaaat?”s were not QUITE up to Malloy’s and Groban’s, but they were passable. And, fucking, “Pierre and Natasha” was SO beautiful. He had such amazing chemistry with Denée in that moment and he was so obviously in over his head and reeling. I think this was the first time that “Pierre grew confused” clicked as a picture perfect reflection of the performance being given. He had such a desperate, human emotion on his face--he really wanted to connect with Natasha and was honestly upset that he couldn’t seem to do it. And his spoken lines were SO beautiful. They’re up there with Dave’s as forever favorites. “The Great Comet of 1812″ was just wonderful beyond words. The slow revelation that his Pierre is settling into was a perfect reflection of that moment in “Dust and Ashes” that he decides to live, so soft and deep in counterpoint to the frenzy of before. Those last two verses were SO beautiful, and the look on his face as he slowly lowered himself to the ground...my heart.

ENSEMBLE: 

During “The Ball” I couldn’t pay attention to Natasha and Anatole because the lady couple was dancing right next to our seats and their chemistry was crackling enough to be totally distracting to me, a person easily distracted by queer ladies.

Nick Gaswirth was over by us at the start to do some of the pre-show talk and I noticed for the first time that he has glitter in his mustache and I love him a lot.

I got a letter from Cathryn Wake who is cute as a button, tho I always feel like a creepy old lady when I say that because I think she’s like, twelve.

Kennedy Caughell was also right up in our business a lot and she’s also the cutest.

So was/is Lauren Zarkin. And Ashley Perez Flanagan and just everyone, okay? I love everyone in this 19th century Russian supper club.

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

God, I’m sure there are a million things I’m forgetting. “The Duel” is still one of my favorite things to ever happen on stage. Everything about that song makes me so happy. And I can’t believe there are people who can keep themselves from bouncing along to “Preparations”/”Balaga”/”The Abduction” because it’s all so frantic and great.

As I mentioned before, all of that careful planning to get good Pierre seats meant that we were inadvertently in the seats that Anatole sits in during “The Abduction” and I spent a looooooooong awkward moment with Lucas Steele’s arm around me as we stared unnervingly at each other and I tried not to burst into hysterical laughter.

I had like, this awful deep lovely moment at the end of the show, just staring at the comet as the discordant music swells, thinking about how this was my last time seeing the show, how there were a finite number of shows left, how so many people aren’t going to have a chance to witness this wonderful thing live. I’m still so deeply saddened by this. I know I should feel lucky that I got to see it as many times as I managed and I know I will feel lucky later, but for now I’m still stuck in feeling sad. 

This show has really been the thing that’s helped me limp through this year. The first time I saw it on Broadway was right before opening, less than a week after the election. I needed this show at that moment. I was already annoyingly crazy about it and had been evangelizing since seeing it at ART, but this was a thing that I held onto in the months to come. I wanted to have it for so much longer and I���m just so mad that the rest of the world didn’t give it a chance. It’s so weird and wonderful and strange and beautiful and there’s really nothing else like it. There’s no experience on Broadway that’s as fun as this show is, and I wish I could have escorted everyone I know into the theatre to push them down and make them listen and watch. So much of it is lost in translation from stage to audio and it’s so, so much more than what you hear on the cast recording.

I don’t know. I cried at the end, like I always do, and I cried during “Sonya Alone” and “Dust and Ashes” and then, as we were walking out, I started crying again realizing that I was leaving the Imperial as it currently stands for the last time. Something about that set, that theatre, is comforting and has been since last November. All wrapped up in red velvet and beautiful lights, it feels small and cozy and comfortable. It feels, I think, the way Mimi wanted it to feel--like an escape from the world outside, a pocket of music and life and exuberance and peace hidden away from everything going on in the larger world. Show aside, just being in that theatre felt safe, in a weird way, and even when the show tours I doubt they’ll be able to replicate that feeling. 

I’m making myself sad thinking about this again. I know I’ll always have those memories to fall back on (more or less, depression has largely ruined my memory and regularly punches holes even in experiences that are dear to me), but I’m selfishly depressed that I’ll never be able to run away to 19th century Russia again.

Anyway, thanks to the cast, to Dave and Rachel, to Mimi and Bradley and Paloma and Sam, to ART, to everyone who brought this thing to life and gave it to me. I won’t forget it.

[ceruleanvulpine]

the wide window: asoue commentary continues!

For Beatrice-

I would much prefer it if you were alive and well.

The understatement of this dedication relative to the other ones makes me cri everytiem.

This illustration makes explicit the reference that I was only aware of because of my Dresden-steeped youth; thanks Brett. 

Mr. Poe was kindhearted, but it is not enough in this world to be kindhearted, particularly if you are responsible for keeping children out of danger.

hashtag VFD and their noble intentions, but also just generally accurate

your Aunt Josephine lost her husband recently

..... RECENTLY??

There was a clothing store called Look! It Fits!, which appeared to be undergoing renovations.

WOW i thought they invented that name for the show

"It's the off-season," the cabdriver said. He was a skinny man with a skinny cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and as he talked to the children he looked at them through the rearview mirror. "The town of Lake Lachrymose is a resort, and when the nice weather comes it's as crowded as can be. But around now, things here are as dead as the cat I ran over this morning. To make new friends, you'll have to wait until the weather gets a little better. Speaking of which, Hurricane Herman is expected to arrive in town in a week or so. You better make sure you have enough food up there in the house."

I ALSO THOUGHT THE “CAT I RAN OVER THIS MORNING” LINE WAS NEW FOR THE SHOW BUT NO

Anyway, I started writing a fucking dissertation on the taxi Lemony theory but probably I should save that for 12. For now, just: If PP taxi guy is Lemony then this guy probably also is, and he doesn’t sound like our Mr. Snicket at all. 

And out beyond the dock was the inky blob of Lake Lachrymose , huge and dark as if a monster were standing over the three orphans, casting a giant shadow below them. For a few moments the children stared into the lake as if hypnotized by this enormous stain on the landscape.

This is astoundingly ominous.

"Actually," Klaus said, "I've read quite a bit about electricity. I'm pretty sure that the telephone is perfectly safe."

Aunt Josephine's hands fluttered to her white hair as if something had jumped onto her head. "You can't believe everything you read," she pointed out.

something something how this relates to VFD philosophy something something

“Never use the doorknob. I'm always afraid that it will shatter into a million pieces and that one of them will hit my eye."

Approximately half the adults in ASOUE are personifications of maladaptive anxiety, but Josephine always makes me feel the most personally called out. >.>

Aunt Josephine smiled, but she didn't look at Violet, as if she were talking more to herself than to the Baudelaires. "Yes," she said, in a faraway voice, "he was my husband, but he was much more than that. He was my best friend, my partner in grammar, and the only person I knew who could whistle with crackers in his mouth."

The fact of Josephine becoming a useless, terrified wreck of a person after her true love, who could whistle with crackers in his mouth, died in a horrible accident and/or murder also makes me feel personally called out. On Lemony’s behalf. 

None of them had ever heard of a person who was frightened of realtors.

There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational-or, in simpler terms, fears that make sense and fears that don't. [...] Being afraid of a monster under the bed is perfectly rational, because there may in fact be a monster under your bed at any time, ready to eat you all up, but a fear of realtors is an irrational fear.

Monster comment aside, there’s a coalition of evil realtors mentioned in one of the later books, LEMONY

"He was very cruel to us," Klaus agreed, not adding that being forced to cook had been the least of their problems when they lived with Count Olaf. "Sometimes I still have nightmares about the terrible tattoo on his ankle. It always scared me."

Aunt Josephine frowned, and patted her bun. "I'm afraid you made a grammatical mistake, Klaus," she said sternly. "When you said, 'It always scared me,' you sounded as if you meant that his ankle always scared you, but you meant his tattoo. So you should have said, 'The tattoo always scared me.' Do you understand?"

That’s not even right, JOSEPHINE!!

There stood a tall, thin man with a blue sailor hat on his head and a black eye patch covering his left eye. He was smiling eagerly down at her as if she were a brightly wrapped birthday present that he couldn't wait to rip open.

Book Olaf continues to be 100x more horrifying.

"I would be happy to have the acquaintance of a local personage," Count Olaf said, tipping his blue sailor hat and using a silly word which here means "person."

you used the word “brummagem” in the reptile room.........

"Who is this Count Omar person?" Captain Sham asked.

The birth of a running gag.

"But plenty of people have those characteristics," Aunt Josephine said. "Why, my mother- in-law had not only one eyebrow, but also only one ear."

Also, I’m putting this here because it reminds me of something in The End, even though by the time I get there I will probably forget to look back here. >.>

"I've had enough of this nonsense," Aunt Josephine said. "Mr. Poe told me that Count Olaf had a tattoo on his left ankle and one eyebrow over his eyes. Captain Sham doesn't have a left ankle and only has one eye. I can't believe you would dare to disagree with a man who has eye problems."

"I have eye problems," Klaus said, pointing to his glasses, "and you're disagreeing with me."

"I will thank you not to be impertinent," Aunt Josephine said, using a word which here means "pointing out that I'm wrong, which annoys me."

THIS IS STILL SO GOOD. Klaus is channeling ATWQ-era Lemony here. :P

In order to escape from the castle of an enemy of mine, I once had cards printed that said I was an admiral in the French navy.

?????

"Hello?" she said. "Yes, this is she. Oh, hello, Captain Sham. How lovely to hear your voice." Aunt Josephine listened for a moment, and then blushed bright red. "Well, that's very nice of you to say, Captain Sham, but-what? Oh, all right. That's very nice of you to say, Julio. What? What? Oh, what a lovely idea. But please hold on one moment."

i can’t believe “julio sham” is the first fuckin J.S. name in the series. 

The candles on the table were still lit, casting a flickering glow on the business card and the bowls of cold lime stew.

So there were candles in Josephine’s house in the book?? Josephine Anwhistle, scared of turning on the stove, lit her houSE WITH CANDLES???

"Aunt Josephine!" Violet called again, and the children ran back out to the hallway and toward the door of the library. As she ran, Violet couldn't help but remember how she and her siblings had called Uncle Monty's name, early one morning, just before discovering the tragedy that had befallen him. "Aunt Josephine!" she called. "Aunt Josephine!" She couldn't help but remember all the times she had woken up in the middle of the night, calling out the names of her parents as she dreamed, as she so often did, of the terrible fire that had claimed their lives.

;-; 

"But that's another error in the note," Klaus said. "It doesn't say unbearable, with a U. It says inbearable, with an I."

"You are being unbearable, with a U," Violet cried.

"And you are being stupid, with an S," Klaus snapped.

They immediately make up, but like. This actually just made me sad that they don’t get the chance to have regular-ass sibling disagreements in non-life and death situations. Sigh. 

.. It’s still a little funny, admittedly.

"Aha!" Sunny shrieked. This word was a favorite of Sunny's, and unlike most of her words, it needed no translation. What Sunny meant was "Aha!", an expression of discovery.

asfjsdfsdg FURTHER PROOF SHE TAKES AFTER THEODORA

The youngsters were crying, of course, because they thought Aunt Josephine was dead, and I wish I had the power to go back and tell them that they were wrong. But of course, I cannot. I am not on top of the hill, overlooking Lake Lachrymose , on that gloomy morning. I am sitting in my room, in the middle of the night, writing down this story and looking out my window at the graveyard behind my home. I cannot tell the Baudelaire orphans that they are wrong, but I can tell you, as the orphans cry in Mr. Poe's arms, that Aunt Josephine is not dead. Not yet.

sTOP DOING THIS LEMONY IT’S NEVER REASSURING

Anyway. He’s living in his own house still. I am surprised. 

"You met her yesterday,"' Klaus said, "in the grocery store." "It does only seem like yesterday," Captain Sham said, "but it was really years ago. She and I met in cooking school. We were oven partners in the Advanced Baking Course."

.... See, on the surface this is amusing because of Olaf’s bald-faced lie, but it’s double amusing given the fact that Olaf and Josephine almost certainly met each other in VFD training. Although they PROBABLY weren’t actually partners in Advanced Baking. But who knows? 

"Well, that's good," Mr. Poe said, "because you can't touch a penny of it."

"We'll see," Captain Sham said.

"What?" Mr. Poe asked.

AGAIN he is doing that thing that I really thought was only in the show where he says something ominous under his breath and then the subject is changed before anyone can ask about it

If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.

STILL A GREAT LINE

The Baudelaire allergies are famous for being quick-acting, so the orphans did not have long to wait.

See! See! Bertrand isn’t the one who was allergic to peppermints, so I maintain that this is evidence that their mother was a Baudelaire before she was married.

"Me neither," Klaus said. "But look at bluh next part. 'I know your children may not understand the sad life of a dowadger.' We don't have any children."

"That's true," Violet said. "I'm not planning to have children until I am considerably older."

Aww, does she want to have kids? ... Does she still want them by the end of the series? (Well, she co-raises 1+ babies anyway.)

The Baudelaire orphans were quiet as they thought of places they had hidden things they did not want to look at, back when they had lived with their parents in the Baudelaire home. Violet thought of an automatic harmonica she had invented that had made such horrible noises that she had hidden it so she didn't have to think of her failure. Klaus thought of a book on the Franco- Prussian War that was so difficult that he had hidden it so as not to be reminded that he wasn't old enough to read it. And Sunny thought of a piece of stone that was too hard for even her sharpest tooth, and how she had hidden it so her jaw would no longer ache from her many attempts at conquering it.

daww. 

I have seen many amazing things in my long and troubled life history. I have seen a series of corridors built entirely out of human skulls. I have seen a volcano erupt and send a wall of lava crawling toward a small village. I have seen a woman I loved picked up by an enormous eagle and flown to its high mountain nest.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DRAW BEATRICE BEING CARRIED AWAY BY A LARGE EAGLE ... god, this is about the eagles that show up in Slippery Slope, isn’t it..

The whole section here with the henchperson of ambiguous gender is uhhh bad, I’m just gonna. Mention that. I’m glad their portrayal in the Netflix show is at least somewhat better? By which I mean, it might have its own problems but at least said henchperson does not 1) get described as animalistic or a “creature” 2) get referred to as “it” in the narration 3) PICK KLAUS UP IN THEIR MOUTH

Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it might be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it.

This line is still good as hell, though, as is Sunny crawling into the shack to get the keys while Violet and Klaus look in in horror/amazement. 

If you had come across the three Baudelaires at this moment, you would have thought their lives were filled with joy and happiness, because even though they were exhausted, damp, and in very great danger, they began to laugh in their triumph. They were so relieved that something had finally gone right that they laughed as if they were at the circus instead of in the middle of a lake, in the middle of a hurricane, in the middle of trouble.

(when they get the sailboat to work.) I love them!!

"Why didn't you take us with you? Why did you leave us all alone by ourselves? Why didn't you protect us from Captain Sham?" Klaus asked.

"It is not grammatically correct," Aunt Josephine said, "to say 'leave us all alone by ourselves.' You can say 'leave us all alone,' or 'leave us by ourselves,' but not both. Do you understand?"

The Baudelaires looked at one another in sadness and anger. They understood. They understood that Aunt Josephine was more concerned with grammatical mistakes than with saving the lives of the three children. They understood that she was so wrapped up in her own fears that she had not given a thought to what might have happened to them. They understood that Aunt Josephine had been a terrible guardian, in leaving the children all by themselves in great danger. They understood and they wished more than ever that their parents, who never would have run away and left them alone, had not been killed in that terrible fire which had begun all the misfortune in the Baudelaire lives.

Ouch!!

Aunt Josephine's eyes filled up with tears. "I can't help it that you're braver than I," she said. "I'm not sailing across that lake. I'm not making any phone calls. I'm going to stay right here for the rest of my life, and nothing you can say will change my mind."

AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN MORE OR LESS HERE THIS MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE 

Aunt Josephine looked down, and moved away from the side of the boat. "But I ate a banana," she whispered, "just before you arrived."

HOW DID YOU FORGET THIS??? I guess Klaus getting her to move by threatening her with realtors distracted her from all her other fears ? ?? ?

The Lachrymose Leeches made a quiet, whispering sound on the water as they swam, as if the Baudelaire orphans were surrounded by people murmuring terrible secrets.

fuckin... #themes

"I'm frightened!" Aunt Josephine cried. "Please don't throw me overboard!"

"Nobody's going to throw you overboard," Violet said impatiently, although I'm sorry to tell you that Violet was wrong about that. 

These moments are really funnier because of the sense that Lemony is actually trying to be helpful. 

Instantly, she thought of a story her father had told her, long ago, when she was just beginning to be interested in science. When her father was a boy, he'd had a dreadful cousin who liked to burn ants, starting a fire by focusing the light of the sun with her magnifying glass. Burning ants, of course, is an abhorrent hobby- the word "abhorrent" here means "what Count Olaf used to do when he was about your age"- but remembering the story made Violet see that she could use the lens of the spying glass to focus the light of the moon and make a fire.

1) oh my god are bertrand and georgina cousins? is this why bertrand’s the one who doesn’t trust optometrists?

2) “about your age” lemony i’m twenty years old

Violet looked up at her homemade signaling device that had finally caught fire, all because of a silly story her father had told her. Her father's ant-burning cousin sounded like a dreadful person, but if she had suddenly appeared on the sailboat Violet would have given her a big grateful hug.

snicker snicker snicker

The illustrations are conspiring with Lemony to tell us about plot events before they happen.

.. Turning the page and seeing this is so fucking ominous.

"Is that so?" Captain Sham said, turning the sailboat around and sailing toward Damocles Dock. His one visible eye was shining brightly as if he were telling a joke. "Mr. Poe will send me to jail, eh? Why, Mr. Poe is putting finishing touches on your adoption papers this very moment. In a few hours, you orphans will be Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Sham."

So far this “Count Olaf’s eye shining extremely brightly right before he reveals the horrible twist in his plan” thing has happened in every damn book, although I’m only three deep. Will have to keep an eye out for it (ha ha).

"I promise not to say anything to Mr. Poe!" Aunt Josephine said desperately. "I'll go someplace and hide away, and never show my face! You can tell him I'm dead! You can have the fortune! You can have the children! Just don't throw me to the leeches!"

The Baudelaires looked at their guardian in horror. "You're supposed to be caring for us," Violet told Aunt Josephine in astonishment, "not putting us up for grabs!"

Captain Sham paused, and seemed to consider Aunt Josephine's offer. "You have a point," he said. "I don't necessarily have to kill you. People just have to think that you're dead."

"I'll change my name!" Aunt Josephine said. "I'll dye my hair! I'll wear colored contact lenses! And I'll go very, very far away! Nobody will ever hear from me!”

I *still* can’t decide if this is worse than what happens in the show. I think it is, though, because... shudders.

"Haven't been," Aunt Josephine corrected, wiping a tear from her eye.

She just absent-mindedly corrects him!! And that makes him so mad he kills her!!!! (As opposed to in the show, where she DOESN’T give in, but her big hurrah of bravery is just correcting his grammar and getting pushed into a lake.) 

These books are upsetting and Olaf is bad.

Sunny growled at him, and he looked down and in one swift gesture moved his peg leg and knocked Sunny to the other end of his boat.

OLAF IS BAD!!

So as their guardian faded from view and the lights of Damocles Dock approached closer and closer, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny did not think "Josephine, schmosephine." They thought "We hope Aunt Josephine is safe."

And this - following the whole speech about how their feelings about Josephine were “all tumbled up” because she tried to care for them but was a bad guardian because of her fear but they knew she’d been through dreadful things herself - is sad!!!!!

Mr. Poe frowned, and coughed into his white handkerchief. "That's enough of your revolting talk, Olaf," he said sternly. "We've caught you now, and there's no way you'll be getting away. The Lake Lachrymose Police Department will be happy to capture a known criminal wanted for fraud, murder, and the endangerment of children."

"And arson," Count Olaf piped up.

>:|

but I will say that eventually-about the time when the Baudelaire orphans were forced to attend a miserable boarding school-two fishermen found both of Aunt Josephine's life jackets, all in tatters and floating alone in the murky waters of Lake Lachrymose.

>:| ;-;

They leaned up against one another appreciatively, and small smiles appeared on their damp and anxious faces. They had each other. I'm not sure that "The Baudelaires had each other" is the moral of this story, but to the three siblings it was enough. To have each other in the midst of their unfortunate lives felt like having a sailboat in the middle of a hurricane, and to the Baudelaire orphans this felt very fortunate indeed.

;-; ;-; ;-;!!!!

Next Friday, a black jeep will be in the northwest corner of the parking lot of the Orion Observatory. Break into it.

Oh hey this is referenced in UA!

And the author description is just “LEMONY SNICKET is still at large,” so presumably at some point between writing this book and publishing it he went on the run. 

..... Live-brary’s copy is also telling me that the author description in the Reptile Room was “still at large,” so I’m stumped. Maybe it depends on the edition? 

[oodlyenough]

that character meme: clem (twdg), ellie (tlou), max (lis), fiona (tftb), alex (oxenfree)

5. Alex

I like Alex a lot! I think a lot of Oxenfree’s charm comes from Alex, and most of Alex’s charm comes from some great delivery by Erin Yvette (since it’s not like Alex has a lot of animation or anything). Alex is interesting as a playable because you can make her a pretty wildly different person, someone who will sacrifice herself for her friends or literally sell one of her friends to ....the abyss... in order to save herself & others. I kinda liked it because I liked the idea of infinite Alexes all desperately trying to do something, anything different to break the loop. I thought Alex’s relationship with Jonas and her angst over Michael were both quite well done. Wish she could’ve romanced Nona tho.

4. EllieGOD I waffled over where to put Ellie for a LONG TIME, check back with me after TLOU2 when she might’ve moved higher. I think TLOU is a very solid game made great by Ellie almost exclusively herself -- she’s such a good and compelling mix of tough, resilient and vulnerable, such a believable combination for a little girl who isn’t thrown into the zombie apocalypse but instead was born in it, and the uncertainty and tumult it brings. Having Ellie and her constant running commentary while you do relatively standard video game things like root around for broken scissors really gives the game so much personality, and then Left Behind came out and just kind of took her next-level. She’s funny and she’s sweet and she’s brave and she’s sad and she’s even a lesbian, hashtag blessed. I can’t wait for TLOU2 because of more Ellie.

3. Max Power

I love Maxwell! Something I think is so interesting about LIS and having Max as the playable is that her character remains pretty consistent no matter what choices you make and what dialogue you choose. That’s hard to do for a choice game and I was impressed. I love that Max starts off so shy and awkward and unsure of herself and over the course of the world’s longest week she grows into herself and her confidence and her power and learns how to be an ~everyday hero~. (Who, uh, then levels a small town.) Max really grows into herself over the course of the game and that’s fun to play and watch. NO, IT WASN’T EASY AT ALL.

2. Fiona

Man I love Fiona like.... a Lot. Like Jessica and Sarah, Fiona hits all my buttons by sort of being a mishmash of a lot of tropes usually given to men, and while I can’t say with 100% certainty I think there’s a strong chance I would not like Fiona virtually at all if she were a dude, but she’s a woman so I’m like YOU’RE MY NEW FAVOURITE PERSON. Fiona is a lot of fun because she’s just so cool, the action girl and the sharpshooter and the cleverest person in the room con woman, while also being the kind of person who yells “touchgoal” and is Really Bad at emotions, generally, great at manipulating people less great at interacting with them on a genuine level with real emotion, probably has never had a friend in her life aside from Sasha and doesn’t really know what to do with them. I think she does a lot of posturing about being Tough and Badass but is kind of a huge softie underneath.TBH I could talk about Fiona for, like, ever right now, so I’ll save it for fic.

1. ClementineClementine is my daughter and I raised her myself.

Clementine is so well done in s1, like Ellie, she really becomes the heart of the game, and TWDG wouldn’t be successful without her. Getting to see Clem grow through the seasons and the person she became is fascinating, my lil baby off to destroy people :’) and while it’s sad to see how hardened Clem has become by this hellish dystopia, what I love is that you can see the baby Clem underneath; under it all she’s still a sweetheart who is maybe more cautious, guarded and jaded than ever before, but still will come back to help Javi no matter what. I want her 2 find happiness but it is an unattainable goal. I hope she gets to stay with Javi and Kate and be happy for ten goddamn seconds but it’s not lookin’ great for her.

[bloggerblagger]

85) Hashtag Strap-on. Edinburgh Fringe 2018, explored, explained,  and reviewed.

If you have a spare few days left in August, drop everything and take advantage of my top holiday tip. Take the high road or the low road, the plane or even the train (provided you’re prepared to stand for four or five hours)  and  hightail it to the Athens of the North.

The Edinburgh Fringe is truly a once in a lifetime experience. And that’s an understatement. Because once you get the bug you may very well find yourself  - like me - going  back year after year.

Never mind that the weather is often, inevitably, dreich. (Dictionary definition: Scottish dialect for ‘Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless, dreary.’ And pronounced and meaning almost exactly the same as  ‘dreck’  which is Yiddish for lousy. How curious.)

Worry not that the  restaurant prices are ludicrous - in a bad way.  Nor that you’ll be lucky to get a room you could swing a kitten with dwarfism in, no matter how much you’re willing to pay - ‘how much?!!!’. Nor even that the pavements are so crowded - ‘OMG, will you just get out of the fucking way?!’ - you have to walk in the road if you want to travel above  sub sloth pace.

Because, really, who gives a shit? What’s the occasional near death experience compared to the non stop adrenaline rush of the Fringe.

If there is a better legal high available, answers on a postcard please.

Do mind the quality and still feel the width.

It is said there are 3000 shows on during the Fringe and that, during August,  the population of Edinburgh doubles. Frankly when you’re there it feels like these are gross under estimates.

Every lecture hall, every  room - very possibly every broom cupboard -  in the University campus becomes a theatre. Every basement in every pub and every loft above every bar seems to have a mic and a makeshift stage. And every doorway in every street seems to lead to a stand up comedian, or a sketch show, or a play, or to music or magic or mime.

The standard length - and it rarely varies - of any performance is one hour and shows begin at 9a.m and go on to 1 or 2 the following morning. If you had the stamina  and could survive the sensory overload,  you could, theoretically, do ten shows a day. But  even if you did, you would still see less than 10% of what is available.

And the standard is astonishing. True, every so often you come across a dud but, in my experience - three years now -  for a show even to be  average it  has to be pretty damn good.

Essential Fringe primer. 

Eight super-cunning tips (in no particular order).

1) If you want to know the best things to see,  find a friend who has been and ask them. LIKE ME! My reviews are below and as regular followers of my blog know, I am never wrong. Failing that, Google the  recommendations from The Guardian, the Beeb and The Scotsman.

2)  It’s useful to understand the basic ‘architecture’ of the event because there are several events going on in parallel in Edinburgh.

First, the original Edinburgh Festival festival which takes place in proper venues and is sort of proper culcher  and proper expensive.

Second, the Edinburgh Fringe which, as it name suggests, exists outside the Festival  proper, began nearly 50 years ago, has grown like the Beanstalk on steroids, and in which, shows, generally speaking, charge £10-12 for entrance.

Third, there is the Free Fringe, in which you find acts, so far as I can tell, that  are not in the actual Fringe and for which you can get a separate programme, and which, as the name suggests, don’t charge.

(There are also lots of other things going on - like the Edinburgh Book Festival - but I am not sure where they fit into the scheme of things. Might be part of the actual Festival, but not really relevant.)

3) Download and use the Edinburgh Fringe App. It’s really cleverly designed and once you’ve worked it out, it’s a great way to narrow down the insane choice, to find out what tickets are available, and offers an easy way to buy them. (I didn’t even bother getting the  hard copy brochure/guide. Who wants to schlep a telephone directory around?)

4) There are lots of shows you can take children and young teens to, but if you want to avoid a lot of  the kids, go on August 15th or afterwards. Because, as odd as it seems to us non-Scots, Scottish schools return for the autumn term in mid-August.  I am inclined to think that is the best time to go anyway. After a couple of weeks the shows will be properly grooved.

5) If you are part of a couple try it to make sure you are there on a Monday and Tuesday. There are lots of two for one offers available to all on those days.

6) Couples going for a few days or more, should get a Friend of the Fringe membership. Costs £35, and there lots of other ‘two for one’ offers available every day to FOFs.

Otherwise, to see 3 or 4 shows a day (the right level, for a serious  and hardy Fringe goer, I would say) you need to budget about £40 per day per person for entertainment before costs of  food, drinks, accom etc. Well, I never said it was cheap. ((By the way, my max fringe binge  this year was five shows in one day.)

7) Build your schedule around the plays at the Traverse theatre. The Traverse, known as one of     Britain’s leading centres of new writing, is not strictly part of the Fringe nor part of the Festival but hovers somewhere in between. HOWEVER, its programme is included in the Fringe. (No, I don’t quite understand either, but that’s what I was told.)

Anyway, notwithstanding that, they put on about half a dozen plays of about 60-90 mins length - why aren’t all plays that short? - cuts out nine tenths of the snoring - and they rotate them so they play at different times every day. Invariably brilliant stuff and probably all sold out this year. But they do get RETURNS. Call them on 0131 228 1404 to find out how to get one.

8) My strong advice is to book accommodation as far in advance in possible - like right now for next year - even if you are not 100 per cent sure you are going. You can always cancel.  I stay 20 miles out of town with friends - lucky me! - and this year, hired a car and every day drove into a Park n’ Ride (50p per day) and caught the train in for the last 5 miles. Inexpensive and just about manageable, although it took some organising. So if you have some mates in striking distance, blag a room.

If you have a ‘winibago’, you could do as a few enterprising Fringe goers do and take your leviathan and park in a Park ’n Ride. (There are quite a few situated all around the borders of Edinburgh.) Not sure I would want to stay in the Hotel Park n’ Ride but I saw people who did it.

This year’s BloggerBlagger  reviews.

I went to twenty three things in all. (22 performances of one kind or another plus 1 something else.)

These comprised, again in no particular order:

Five straight plays.

Games. A two hander based upon the story of two Jewish women at the time of the Berlin Olympics and simply stunning, as were Borders and Angels,  the last two fringe offerings written by former comedian Henry Naylor.  Henry, (who I am pleased to call a friend from the time I directed him in a Direct Line campaign 20  years ago - yes, funny old world) was  bracketed by one reviewer with Athol Fugard after the recent off-Broadway production of ‘Angels’.  

His standard does not drop. ‘Games’ is gripping from first to last and subtly draws chilling parallels with the era of Trump. Commit murder to get a ticket. (You may have to.) Five Bloggerblaggerstars.

Freeman. Half a dozen actors, with no scenery, constantly switch between different roles and different centuries to produce a riveting commentary on the sins of slavery and it’s rippling effect into the present day. Wonderful performances. Great imagination. Utterly compelling. Not on any account to be missed. Five Bloggerblaggerstars.

Revenants. A more conventional piece of theatre set in 1942 in which Queen Mary (widow of George V) is portrayed as a game old bird with a touch more brain power than the Royal Family are usually said to have. Surprisingly this too, turns out to be a story about race.

Had its moments but didn’t quite do it for me.Three Bloggerblaggerstars.

Underground Railroad Game. A theatrical experience like no other I have ever experienced. Once again this is about slavery,  a  mesmerising two hander  at the Traverse presented in a constantly shifting context and style. Sometimes comedic, sometimes tragic, and sometimes explicitly  and, even for a man of the world like me, shockingly  sexual, it never stops surprising.

Two wonderful performances, particularly by Jennifer Kidwell, an actor of astonishing power. You may have to commit a murder for this one too, but well worth  a lifetime in prison  so go for it.

My joint pick of the week.Five Bloggerblaggerstars Plus.

Chihuahua. A clever one woman performance that switches between the life of a character in  an Edith Wharton novel and that of a waitress in a coffee shop in Scotland; two women who are linked in a not very defined way by chihuahuas. This was presented in a much smaller venue than the other plays I saw, and also unlike those, it was only half full.

I thought the actress and writer, whose name I didn’t write down and now can’t locate on the internet, was heroic in the face of such a small audience. I think the title might be the problem. I am sure there must be something  that would grab a passer-by or a flicker-through with  much more grip. Three and a bit BloggerBlaggerStars.

Two plays with music.

What are Girls Made Of?.  Another Traverse presentation, this one with four excellent actors, three of whom were obviously at least as gifted as musicians,  and the fourth of whom sang wonderfully. Apparently she would have danced too had she not suffered a nasty injury at some previous performance,  a misfortune that the disembodied voice of the artistic director of the Traverse told us about  at the outset, before apologising for the show’s relative shortcomings and  begging the audience’s  indulgence. She needn’t have bothered her invisible head.

Cora Bissett, the injured singer, was so assured in this tale of the sudden rise and precipitous fall of a young rock star, told  as she approaches forty, that neither she nor we missed a step. She was completely convincing in the role,  unsurprisingly in a sense, since it was her own true life story she was telling, and, of course, she wrote it. Five Bloggerblaggerstars.

Vulvarine. Much more authentically Fringe in that it was conceived and performed by five fresh faced performers with great verve and obvious talent but with the odd rough edge still to be professionally smoothed. ‘Vulverine’ is a more than creditable  attempt at a musical comedy with a sort of ironic feminist theme and has some quite decent tunes and lyrics and  more than a few genuinely funny bits.

Allie Munro, plays the lead part of boring Brony Buckle who is transformed into Superheroine Vulvarine, and she was, I thought,  terrific.  Likewise the rest of the cast with one obvious exception. But given the youthful gusto that made this show so much fun, it would seem mean to name the culprit so, should you go, you can decide for yourself who I meant. Four Bloggerblaggerstars.

Four other musical shows.

21st Century Speakeasy Andrea Carlson and the Love  Police. Andrea Carlson, who, I would guess, is comfortably north of fifty,  has a sweet voice, vaguely reminiscent of Blossom Dearie if you are old enough to know who that is or maybe Maria Muldaur if you’re a little bit younger.

Sadly she had a rather faded quality - her costume seemed a little contrived and dated - and I don’t think it was intentional. The tunes were, by and large, pleasant enough  and she and her rather elderly backing musicians performed faultlessly, but the whole thing felt slightly tragic to me, an impression not helped by the only half-filled room. Two Bloggerblaggerstars.

Jess Robinson - No filter. This was  not a name I knew but she played to a packed audience in a relatively large venue so evidently a lot of people knew what I had been missing. Jess Robinson seems to be not just a singer, but an impressionist and has, according to Wikipedia,  been on the telly quite a bit, in Dead Ringers amongst other things. (She also nearly made the final of Britain’s Got Talent, seventh series.)

Regrettably I didn’t know many of the people she was impersonating as her cast of characters didn’t include   Vera Lynn or Gracie Fields or Marie Lloyd or Mrs.Patrick Campbell. My companion on the night described it as a bit ‘low rent’ which I thought was a tad harsh, but I knew what she meant. Two and a half Bloggerblaggerstars.

Johnny Woo’s Brexit Cabaret. Not a terribly clever musical revue with nothing very original to say about you know what. I didn’t realise Johnny Woo was a drag artist and I probably wouldn’t have gone if I had.  (More fool me for not perusing the blurb closely enough.)

I have never understood the point of drag - never got panto dames or Danny LaRue - although I suppose I do  remember liking the film of La Cage Aux Folles. And in the modern world, where, happily,  everyone in enlightened countries has the opportunity  (theoretically anyway) to be what they want to be - drag seems to me to be somehow redundant. Slick but shallow is about the best I can say of this effort. Two Bloggerblaggerstars.

Frau Welt. Another drag show, though this time, I had a better excuse as it was the only show on in the place where I  was, at the time I was there, and I was determined to see something, anything. This one was full-on screaming camp and I found the first ten minutes  spectacularly unamusing. One word kept coming to mind: WHY? Then I left. Zero  Bloggerblaggerstars.

Five stand ups.

All the stand-ups I saw this year, apart from the polished old stager, Fred MacAulay - whom I caught in the second half of The Best of Scottish Comedy, which a friend smuggled me into after I had fled the horrendous Frau Welt - were just a little disappointing. None were remotely bad, but none got me guffawing uncontrollably.

They were all watchable and, every so often, amusing and applaudable but, apart  from Maisie Adams, none seemed to me to have any stardust sprinkled on them. She has a routine in  which she discusses  her own epilepsy, and at  24 - she told us that - is clearly a natural performer. But she wound  up by telling us how she had overcome her disability, and being the ancient curmudgeon that I am, I found that bit a touch self-congratulatory.

AAA (Batteries Not Included) with ChrisTurner

Gràinne Maguire

Jan Lafferty:  Wheesht!

All two point six seven three ( why not?) Bloggerblaggerstars.

Maisie Adams Three and a tad Bloggerblaggerstars.

The  Best of Scottish comedy: Fred MacAulay. Four Bloggerblaggerstars.

Three other comic turns (I think you would classify them as ‘absurdist’)

Siblings. This two girl comedy duo is made up of  the  Bye sisters, who, as the ultracognoscenti know, are the real life daughters of Ruby Wax. (And Ed Bye - poor bloke, never gets a mention.) I saw them last year and thought they were hilarious, but,  as I remember it, their routine was slightly more conventional, in that there was a logical thread that you could just about follow.

This year it seemed to have a larger element of out and out bonkersness which didn’t really work for a couple of the people I had insisted accompany me. “You will LOVE them” I had said, but it was quickly evident they were just baffled. I would say (the) Siblings probably weren’t  quite as funny as last year but I really can’t be sure because all I could  think about were the fingers of blame that would be jabbed at me afterwards.“You said we’d love them.Love WHAT?” 

Three Bloggerblaggerstars. (My friends are superannuated old gits, so what would they know.)

The Kagools. Another female duo, Aussies Claire Ford and Nicky Wilkinson, who have a completely word-free act that is simply ingenious. They interact with a film of themselves  so that they are live on stage one moment and the next vanishing behind the screen to reappear in the film. It is clearly rehearsed to the millisecond because the timing is absolutely perfect - a moving arm  is  half live and half on film at one point, seemingly without a join.

The really impressive thing though is that,  despite the precision, it all seems completely spontaneous. The technique never gets in the way of the comedy and The Kagools are simultaneously  wonderfully silly and completely charming. An absolute delight, they are the other half of my joint pick of the week. Five Bloggerblaggerstars Plus.

Claire Sullivan, I wish I owned a hotel for dogs. Another Aussie, Claire takes absurdist comedy to new heights - or to new records of excess in whichever dimension absurdism exists. Think Vic and Bob on acid. And then some. Quite honestly, I didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on at any time, but she has a winning way which can’t but help force a smile. I did like her but I really don’t know why. Two and a half Bloggerblaggerstars.

One acrobaticky sort of show.

360 All Stars.  Five blokes in baseball caps worn at various angles doing tricks on BMX’s and with basketballs and  breakdancing mentally and doing somersaults and all that sort of thing. Probably great for the ten and unders and not too bad for the rest of us. But I wouldn’t be falling over myself to go again. Seen better Circusy things at the Fringe.Two and a half Bloggerblaggerstars.

Two ‘well known names’ shows.

Maureen Lipman. As those with knowledge of my murky advertising past  will know, Maureen and I go a long way back, so in aiming for proper objectivity, I might have to have be  more critical than I normally would be. In which case, she was even better than I thought, and that was very, very good indeed.

Her show was a splendid mixture, of comedy monologues, jolly good jokes and some excellent music supplied by Jackie Dankworth (Cleo and Johnny’s daughter I assume),  a fine pianist and, extraordinarily, on guitar, Harry Shearer, legendary Simpsons’ voice and co-writer and co-star of Spinal Tap.

At 72 - don’t think I’m giving away secrets there -  and now in Coronation Street, Maureen has, despite achieving national treasure status,  most definitely not run out of creative steam.  Sadly you can’t get tickets for this show no matter who you kill, because her run has  finished. Five Bloggerblaggerstars.

Nina Conti. *And now, at last, to the explanation of  ‘hashtag strap-on’. Nina Conti’s show began with another pre-performance announcement, this time to tell us that there was a Tourettes sufferer in the audience and to ask for our understanding. She turned out to be sitting a few rows behind my  seat and began to randomly pepper the show with lots of very audible ‘biscuits’ and suchlike. I can’t say this wasn’t slightly off-putting while at the same time provoking an occasionally guilty giggle, and it would have been a fearsome challenge for most performers.

Fortunately much of Nina Conti’s incredibly clever ventriloquist’s act -  I was in the front row and never saw her lips move once -  is ad-libbed and she somehow contrived  to incorporate one or two of the Tourettisms into the show, notably ‘tortoises’. (Really can’t explain but it was both utterly surreal and bloody funny.) The highpoint came when Nina, who uses volunteers from the audience as her dummies by fitting  pigs’ masks on their faces, and operating the lips with a hand control, was fiddling about with one of the velcro ties that holds each mask in place. ‘Hashtag Strap-On’ shouted out the Tourettes lady and  almost literally stopped the show. Five Bloggerblaggerstars.

One participation game-show (no audience)

Werewolves. A parlour game with twenty participants paying a tenner each, played at midnight every night,  masterminded by an Australian (they’re everywhere in Edinburgh) called Nick who sports a long beard, a topper and full Edwardian costume including an ankle length fur coat that must be a fraction too warm even in a Scottish summer.

The rules are a bit too complex to explain but think of it as a sort of  super de luxe, infinitely wittier version of the game where you wink at people to kill them. I warn you. It is addictive. Having made my debut last year, I played three times last week- meaning I was still up at two on three mornings! - and loved it. (Also a winner - twice! Not that I’m one to brag.) Totally recommended. 

Twenty Five Bloggerblaggerstars at least.

[marithadotws]

How Often Should My Dental Practice Post on Social Media?

See on Scoop.it - iMaritha

You’ve set up your Facebook account for your dental practice, landed on a Twitter handle, and maybe even posted on Instagram a few times. Then comes the million dollar question — how often (and what) should you be posting on social media for your practice?

It’s no secret that establishing a social media cadence is key to dental marketing.

Having an active presence attracts new patients, keeps current patients engaged, and drives referrals. But creating accounts and only posting sporadically doesn’t take full advantage of the huge marketing benefits social media provides.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Contrary to popular paranoia, there really is no such thing as posting too much on social media.

Take Facebook — their News Feed algorithm does a great job at making sure users see a balance of what they care about both as individuals and consumers. This means a lot of content filtering by Facecook.

So while worrying about cluttering your patients’ feeds with posts is kind, remember that it’s highly unlikely they will see every single post of yours.

Posting on social media for your dental practice all comes down to consistency and quality. Creating a regular posting cadence with highly valuable content gives your dental practice dependable visibility on the sites or apps your patients love.

Frequent posting also enables you to accurately test whether or not you’re reaching patients.

Facebook Analytics and Twitter Analytics provide great tools to help you analyze the effect your posts have on engagement, but testing is only accurate with a consistent posting schedule.

Ideally, you want your social media plan to be like your patient schedule — full and organized.

So whether your accounts are set up and a little stagnant, or if you’re just getting started, these tips can help your dental practice up its social media posting game.  

Facebook

 How often to post

1-2 posts per day

Having an active and engaged Facebook page is one of the easiest ways to market your dental practice. Odds are, it will be your most effective channel on social media. Therefore, posting at least once a day sets a good foundation for your page.

What to post on Facebook

Your Facebook posts should reflect your dental practice. Be informative, funny, professional, warm, entertaining — be you!

Your Facebook page is like a virtual waiting room for your dental practice. You wouldn’t want to walk into a waiting room that only had the hours and a list of approved insurance providers stapled to the wall.

Engaging dental social media ideasUse or create a hashtag for a weekly post. This is a great way to start building your post schedule. A fun picture of a patient smiling with #sundaysmile, or a quote with the tried-and-true #motivationalmonday, can go a long way while building a content library.Post on national and trending holidays. Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, National Dentist Day, National Brush Your Teeth Day — all carry potential Facebook posts.Repost trending articles or topics. Adding commentary to current dentistry news or new potential services helps build credibility for your practice.Post behind-the-scenes pictures of your office and staff, or host video tours of your office. Photos and videos help create the feeling of a dental community rather than a stark business.

  Twitter

 How often to tweet

5+ tweets per day

When it comes to tweeting, the more the better. A tweet’s life cycle is much shorter than a Facebook post, as engagement typically drops off around an hour after tweeting. Shoot for five tweets every day, but don’t hold yourself back.

What to tweet

Keep it short, informative, and use lots of hashtags. Even though last year Twitter doubled the number of characters allowed in a tweet from 140 to 280, brevity is still the soul of wit. Think about what would catch a patient’s eye in their feed.

Follow and share with other dental practices, major businesses, or educational groups in your area. Twitter helps you stay informed and build relationships, but it will also naturally give you endless content to retweet.

Engaging dental social media ideasPost daily updates from your practice. Are you offering new treatments? Did it snow and you took an incredible photo from your office?Share user testimonials. Create a hashtag for your office and encourage patients to share their positive experiences on Twitter.Repurpose your Facebook content for tweets.Follow trending dentistry hashtags, as well as national and local topics that are trending.Retweet reputable industry articles or blog posts that your patients would find interesting.

  Instagram

 How often to post

1-2 posts per day

When it comes to breaking down barriers and creating a bond with your patients, Instagram is an ideal dental social media channel. However, posting once or twice a day is plenty for your dental practice.

Unlike Twitter, multiple Instagram posts in one day can appear spammy. For more frequent posting, use Instagram Stories. This is a feature that lets you post photos and videos that disappear in 24 hours.

What to post on Instagram

Each post should reflect your practice’s brand. It should also be curated in a style similar to your other social media feeds. Because Instagram is so integrated with Facebook and Twitter, it is an easy way to share pictures on multiple platforms.

Engaging dental social media ideasPictures of your team — Instagram helps build a sense of community with your staff by sharing special office moments.Photos of smiling patentsHigh quality before and after shots of patients’ smiles (emphasis on the high quality)Shots of your practice or any community events

  LinkedIn

 How often to post

1-5 posts per week

Let’s get down to business. Literally.

Posting on LinkedIn is decidedly different from other social media platforms. The LinkedIn crowd is looking to network, get professional updates, and endorse service providers — like their favorite dentist!

Posting once a day during business hours is the norm, so set a goal of at least one post per week to stay active.

What to post

Since LinkedIn is more geared toward your peers than your patients, this is a good place to share professional development.

Post an interesting new study or particular article from a medical journal. Dentistry IQ and Dentaltown are always good for content, too!

Beyond networking, LinkedIn is a good place to post any job openings. Since 46% of LinkedIn users are college graduates, it makes for an excellent marketplace for talent.

Engaging dental social media ideasPatient testimonials or referrals — Again, LinkedIn is all about generating endorsements.Photos of happy patientsA blog post you recently wrote for your site or relevant articlesJob postings — An active LinkedIn account helps attract prospective employees.

  Snapchat

 How often to post

1-2 snaps per day

A disclaimer: we get it. It’s easy to brush off Snapchat when creating a marketing strategy for your dental practice. However, Snapchat has proved to not just be a passing millennial trend.

Studies report 158 million users last year, and major businesses and brands are jumping on board with great success.

Though the Snapchat audience is younger it still makes dental appointments! This demographic is much more inclined to remember and return if your practice is visible on the social platforms they use (like Snapchat).

Posting a snap to your story once a day, connecting with patients, and engaging with other community groups opens your practice up to a potentially untapped audience that other practices are likely missing out on.

What to post

Using Snapchat gives you a chance to be authentic and fun. Embrace the filters and show your practice’s personality. Be informative while also entertaining your followers!

Engaging dental social media ideasLinks to your website for patients to make appointmentsUpdates from the officeSpecial offer codes — Taking screenshots is a big component of Snapchat, and fun offers (like an extra free toothbrush on your next visit if you take a screenshot) make for great recall incentives.Create a branded GeoFilter for patients to use at your office — These customized filters cost a little bit of money but enable users to access the filter in specified locations, like your waiting room or operatory. Filters are fun for patients and create instant referrals for your practice.

[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

Here’s how Cam Newton’s sexist comment sounded to women in sports

Quarterback Cam Newton on the field at Bank of America Stadium on Aug. 31, 2017, in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo: Getty Images)

During Cam Newton’s press session on Wednesday, the Carolina Panthers quarterback fielded a question from Charlotte Observer Panthers beat reporter Jourdan Rodrigue. “I know you take a lot of pride in seeing your receivers play well,” she began. “Devin Funchess has seemed to really embrace the physicality of his routes and getting those extra yards. Does that give you a little bit of enjoyment to see him kind of truck-sticking people out there?”

By the time Rodrigue hit the word “routes,” Newton was smirking. “It’s funny to hear a female talk about ‘routes,’” he said. “It’s funny.”

According to Rodrigue’s Observer colleague who wrote a first-person account of the incident, “There was dead silence when Newton proclaimed ‘It’s funny’ — because actually it wasn’t funny at all.”

A few minutes later, Rodrigue sought out Newton after he left the locker room, but according to her account, she didn’t get any more explanation of what he had found funny, nor did she get an apology — though the team says he gave her one. She didn’t let much time pass before she responded to his remarks on social media: “I don’t think it’s ‘funny’ to be a female and talk about routes. I think it’s my job,” she tweeted.

I don’t think it’s “funny” to be a female and talk about routes. I think it’s my job.

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) October 4, 2017

She also wrote, “I was dismayed by his response, which not only belittled me but countless other women before me and beside me who work in similar jobs.” The NFL’s Ian Rapoport shared her statement on social media.

Statement from #Panthers beat reporter @JourdanRodrigue on Cam Newton’s comments & response pic.twitter.com/vmffxQ7Jra

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 4, 2017

While to many Newton’s words may seem inconsequential — he’s a quarterback, not a gender studies expert — they’re being taken very seriously by others. As they should.

Sexism in sports is nothing new, and sexism faced by female sports journalists (as well as nonbinary reporters and reporters of color) is some of the most vitriolic out there. Even while women comprise 45 percent of NFL fans, their devotion and knowledge is more often than not just not taken seriously.

In a video that went viral in 2016, sports reporters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro had mean comments that had been written about them read aloud to their faces. They used the hashtag #MoreThanMean to show the level of harassment faced by women in sports. The comments ranged from “I hope your boyfriend beats you” to “This is why we don’t hire any females unless we need our d***s sucked or our food cooked.” While the men reading them aloud were flabbergasted, the point being made was that harassment like this is sadly commonplace for a woman covering sports.

Newton’s comment was not on that level, but the message was arguably the same: This is a man’s world. Get out.

The NFL was quick to denounce Newton’s words. As the NFL’s vice president of communications, Brian McCarthy, tells Yahoo Lifestyle in an email, “The comments are just plain wrong and disrespectful to the exceptional female reporters and all journalists who cover our league. They do not reflect the thinking of the league.”

The people hit hardest by this incident, though, are the women who have dedicated their professional lives to sports and sports journalism. “This was a rude reminder that the playing field is still not level,” Paola Boivin, professor of sports journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “I faced a fair dose of sexism early in my career,” she adds. “Some of it was blatant: I had a jockstrap thrown at me in a baseball clubhouse, followed by a player asking if I was there to look at a bunch of guys’ d***s. Some was more subtle: A basketball coach was talking to a group of reporters about the pick-and-roll and then looked right at me to explain what it was.”

It wasn’t until 1978 that female sports reporters were even allowed to interview players in locker rooms before and after games, which, needless to say, put their male colleagues at the advantage for getting the story. As recently as 2015, female journalists were stopped from entering the Jaguars’ locker room after a Jaguars-Colts game, because the usher was not sure if they were allowed.

Women who are sports reporters are now allowed in the locker rooms but still find themselves at a nearly constant disadvantage, with sexism being the number one reason. Things such as the 50 Hottest Female Sports Broadcasters list are not unheard of, and Spain and DiCaro’s video proves that being a woman in the business can feel downright dangerous.

“When I first heard his comments, all the air sort of went out of me and I felt so deflated,” DiCaro tells Yahoo Lifestyle of the Newton incident. “The insanity of the whole thing is that there are probably many guys in that room who never played organized football. But being a male allows them the assumption of competence, while being a woman leads to an assumption of ignorance.”

Of course, not all female sports journalists are in perfect agreement on the issue. Former ESPN reporter Britt McHenry tells Yahoo Lifestyle that while she found Newton’s comments “flippant and unnecessary,” she finds the backlash to be “PC culture at its worst.”

“As a woman in sports media and now political commentary as well, the last thing I want to do is use a crutch for myself,” she says. “We’re all looking to advance as women in the media industry. [We] should be supportive of that, but also not be offended by any and every perceived slight.”

In addition to the league’s speaking out against his remarks, Newton is getting hit where it really hurts: his wallet. Since the press conference, Newton has lost his endorsement deal from Dannon Yogurt. Michael Neuwirth, the senior director of external communication at Dannon, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the company severed ties with the QB after the remarks, which they “perceive as sexist and disparaging to all women.” He adds, “It is entirely inconsistent with our commitment to fostering equality and inclusion in every workplace. It’s simply not OK to belittle anyone based on gender. We have shared our concerns with Cam and will no longer work with him.”

Katie Sowers is an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers and only the second woman to hold a coaching position in the NFL, and she knows a great deal about what it’s like to be a woman not only in sports but in the NFL specifically. She tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “My immediate reaction was truly of disappointment.

“I take it upon myself to do exactly what Jourdan [Rodrigue] decided to do: continue to do my job. By doing something as simple as just getting to work, we are all making an impact, because we are creating a future for all young girls.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: 

Grandmothers react to ripped jeans: ‘Disgusting’ and ‘a proper disgrace’

This red lipstick line was made especially for dark-skinned women

‘So white’ New York Times wedding announcement mercilessly mocked

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

[aviationmagic2016-blog]

Wales National Airshow! Wow!!!! What a fantastic day out!! We live about an hour away from Swansea and have never been to the airshow but now we have been we will never miss it again! We arrived in Swansea at 10am a little apprehensive about finding somewhere to park but we need not have worried!! There was still street parking available close to the Guildhall and we parked with ease! The roads closed and we wandered along the sea front in blazing sunshine! What a day!! We were a bit nervous about going to such a big event with our little girls but we instantly noticed big tipper trucks and concrete blocks blocking off the roads and giant sand bags on the pavements and an abundance of happy smiling police! We were greeted by one who gave us wristbands to pop on our girls incase they got lost and chatted to Isla about the aeroplanes! I was completely struck with the beauty of the bay! After living in Cornwall until I was 19 I had grown up with the beach and sea and couldn’t believe how big and beautiful the bay was!! So much room on the beach! We noticed people had already started setting up in their spots and wondered if we should be doing the same but with it being such a big area and nearly 3 hours until the flying displays started we thought we’d risk it!!! It was brilliant to see the young air cadets out mingling with the public and talking about their passion of flying! There was a buzz around the Red Arrows merchandise stand with fantastic pieces for sale, we particularly liked the children’s little red jump suits! They were many stands for us to look around from the different groups and organisations and despite the heat and them being in their flying/working overalls were really happy to engage with the public about their roles! Isla noticed the men walking around in full camo gear (who must have been boiling) and they were being stopped every few metres for photos! We kept going and came across the food stalls, there was a good range but all we needed for now were fluids!!! Towards the end of the ground display was an area dedicated mainly to the army but what was lovely was seeing people and families everywhere!!! There was commentary and entertainment/music throughout the morning which was upbeat and informative! It was still a while to go before fly time so we ambled back along the front to the funfair! This was great for the girls to kill sime time and the prices were reasonable as well! Once we could persuade our 4 year old to leave it was the lengthy walk back along the front to the display area! It was of course much busier now with people jostling for a good spot but we kept going up to a large slip way then decided to head onto the packed beach! (slightly crazy with a pram and enough to keep us going for a week!) We actually found we had plenty of choice for places to sit and we settled down and enjoyed the aerial displays! We had already seen the Gyrocopter display which was fantastic and then it was time for Team Raven! A fantastic display which had us all hooked! Then in flew Lauren Richardson in her bi-plane, a female aerobatic flyer, and what an inspiration to all the young girls watching! Following Lauren was a Bristol Blenheim, we all stopped and watched this magnificent aeroplane. Just beautiful! This was swiftly followed by the Battle of Britain display of a Spitfire and Hurricane, I really enjoyed this display too and it was a great opportunity to explain to young people the importance of the role these planes took. Then it was the Coastguard rescue display, we had noticed the crowd appeared to be split into two main groups, one at our end with the commentry and the other down towards the fun fair, the Coastguard went right along the beach so everyone got the best views! Anticipation was building as we waited for the Red Arrows, Red 10 confirmed over the tannoy they would be completing their full routine due to the fantastic weather and in they came!!!! We were not disappointed!!! An action packed, fast paced routine followed! Incredible!!! I then took the opportunity to dive up the beach to try and get some food, after a couple of funny queue swapping episodes at the portaloos I succeeded in buying food and a couple of drinks!!! I could hear the Chinnock display happening while I was queuing but hubby got some great photos and I was back in time to watch the parachute display team land!!! Then on to the buzz of the RAF Tutor a great little plane to watch! Then we were swiftly onto the Strikemaster display which was fantastically flown and a joy to watch! The Vampires followed and captivated our girls with their appearance (once I’d reassured them they weren’t real Vampires!) and then finally the Typhoon display! It uses the hashtag ‘bring the noise’ and they didn’t dissapoint! A spectacular finale to the Airshow and a fantastic day!! We slowly wondered back to the car and joined the queues to exit Swansea but it was a lot faster to leave the city than we were expecting! Brilliant day! We couldn’t believe this was a free event but found the facilities to be more than adequate, the displays exhilarating and the people really enthusiastic and interested! It was a record breaking crowd of 250,000 people so as long as you expected to be in a few queues and kept smiling you’ll have had a fantastic time! The security was brilliant and a high presence of city council workers were more than happy to help! We will definitely be back next year!!

[superstudentalert-blog]

Summary of Chapter 14

Social media are media that are designed to be shared. It is easy to comment on, send and copy the media. This all happens on the internet. Social media is instantly updateable, have unlimited real-time commentary, archives are accessible, all media can be mixed, it is infinite and the people on it have a lot of freedom.

Social networking refers to forming and maintaining online social network for communities. The communities are people who share real-world connections, interests and activities, or are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. It’s done by using the tools of the internet. This social networking has created a new meaning for the term ‘friend’. By using such networks, users reveal a great deal of info about themselves, this does not only take away anonymity, but creates room for advertisers to target more effectively. Facebook is an example for this.

A page is a profile for a brand, organisation or a celebrity. It consists of a cover image, a profile image, ‘about’ information and a wall. Tabs are distinct pages of information on the brand’s Page. Applications are developed by third parties and can include games, contests, virtual gifting, photo uploaders, interactive tools and more. It’s a way for brand to create branded experiences. Facebook is one website that includes these features. Facebook connect allows users to log into services external to Facebook using their Facebook login details. This can make it easier for users to log into new services without having to create new usernames and passwords. The Facebook Like Button allows users to indicate that they like or recommend content, images, media or websites, and to share that recommendation with their social circle. Moreover, Facebook has a newsfeed, which is the stream of content that users see when they log into Facebook. The website uses an algorithm, based on relevance to the user, to determine what information to show in their newsfeed. There are several factors considered by the algorithm before it displays content in a user’s news feed, such as: is it timely and relevant, trustworthy, shareable, interesting or something to complain about? The user is more likely to interact with content in the news feeds, and therefore, it is vital to ensure that your page content takes this algorithm into consideration.

Google + is Google’s answer to social networking giant Facebook, and is slowly but surely being integrated into all of Google’s product. It includes Circles, Hangouts, and Google + Local.

Because of the demographic and psychographic information that is being collected by the social networks, advertisers are able to target their adverts to a very specific audience segment.

Content creation

Youtube may be the first content-sharing site that comes to mind, but users share images, audio and other media, too. For instance, Instagram is one of these content-sharing apps. The key word here is free: there are no fees for joining. This means that that these sites attract an enormous audience. Many of these services also encourage distribution of their content.

People love to share photos, images, art, and funny pictures online. Images tend to attract higher engagement than text-only posts. Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest are examples of such sites that allow users to share.

Online video consumption continues to grow year on year as bandwidth gets faster and cheaper. For example, people can share their video’s on Youtube, Vine, Vimeo and on Instagram Video. Companies can also market through Youtube. There are two aspects to this phenomena: promoting video content through Youtube, and advertising next to or during content on Youtube. The website offers brand channels. Using socials services such as Youtube allows video creators to tap into an existing community of avid video viewers.

Blogging

A blog is a website where entries are typically displayed in reverse chronological order. It is a regularly updated journal on the world wide web. Blogs are mostly text based, but can comprise solely of images, videos, audio or a combination of any of these. The basic elements of a blog post are: author, title, tag, comment and trackback. Some other elements include: RRS feed, categories, blogroll and archives. Blogging can be beneficial as it can create an online identity, create a voice for yourself or your company, promote engagement with your audience and build a community. Blogging can be a very successful marketing tool. It’s a good way of communicating and reaching other people. Blogging also helps to foster a community around a brand, and provides an opportunity to garner immediate feedback on developments. A blogger writes posts, replies to comments from readers, monitors other blogs, keeps up to date with the latest industry news, builds relationships with other bloggers, and comments on other blogs.

It is important to outline a strategy and establish guidelines before starting a corporate blog, especially as there will most likely be a number of contributors. Corporate blog content should be: industry relevant, appealing to your target market, transparent and honest, personal and entertaining, related to what’s going on in the blogosphere and posted regularly. Moreover, Blogging can also be a marketing tool, as bloggers can share or promote whatever they want.

Microblogging

Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows a user to publish short text updates usually limited to 140 characters. The most popular microblogging service is Twitter. Twitters includes some of these features: tweets, usernames, hashtags, retweets and trending. Twitter is often used as a marketing tool, as it can be used for rapid customer service.

Podcast

A podcast is a digital radio or video programme downloadable from the Internet. You can listen to a whole range of programmes and voices; just as blogs have allowed people to become writers without having to deal with a media channel controlled by someone else, podcasting has allowed anyone who fancies doing so to become a broadcaster. Moreover, podcasts offer an incredible opportunity for marketers. Podcasts are: targetable, measurable, controllable, responsive, boundary free and relatively inexpensive. However, the content must be of excellent quality and real and valuable. Podcasting is about coming up with ideas for real programs that, through informing or entertaining, enhance your customers’ experience of your brand.

Bookmarking

Bookmarking means storing an URL so that you can locate it again easily. It also gives you a personal library of websites that you can store on your computer. Seeing how users categorize your content will give you an idea of how your audience perceives your website and company.

 Location and social media

Social media have also seen the introduction of location services such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. These services allow users to sort of “check in” at locations, they visit with equipment such as mobile phones and tablets. These location services appeal to marketers for a number of reasons, since they can obtain, engage with and retain customers by leveraging their interactions with the real-world. These services also offer rewards and special deals to users who have checked in, incentivizing them to return and share the location with their friends.

As any digital marketing trick, you need to be able to track and measure your campaigns in order to understand how successful they are, and what you can do to improve them. There is often a strong reliance on the built-in tracking offered by the various channels, although new third-party tracking services are emerging and offering competitive and sophisticated tools. Web analytics software plays a part in social media tracking.

Social media implies democratization of information and requires authenticity and openness from those who deliberately use it for marketing.

Marketing to:

-       Content creators

-       Content consumers

-       Content shares

-       Advertise on social media platforms

Advantages and challenges

Social media gives brands the opportunity to interact with customers through relevant and targeted communications that customers can choose to engage with on their terms. Social media’s potential to go viral is one of its greatest benefits. It also allows marketers to capitalize on the creativity of their consumers to spread their message further, often at the very low cost. In addition, it allows you to engage with an online community, connect, and create an online community. Moreover, it gives your business the opportunity to innovate and implement new marketing strategies.

However, some challenges are that all news, bad or good, spreads quickly. Also, the customer online is really king so one wrong step can be fatal.