#he's right though. He and Ramon are both survivors | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

snowy-weather · 3 years ago

Photo

Another family lineup! This one's for the main family that Ace of Swords focuses on, the Hinata family (though there's a lot of non-Hinata characters that are important too! ) Don't mind the blob on the far right of this pic. Needless to say there's one more member of the Hinata bloodline that's not been revealed yet. Also fair waring most of these character are in fact deceased. If they are, I'll mention it in their description! Description of each character: Hinata, 'the ancestor', 'Warrior of the Sun'. Deceased. Relations: Hachiro Hinata, Haruna Hinata, Yashiro Hinata, Sen Hinata, ??????????? : Descendants. Hinata is the ancestor of everyone from the Hinata family bloodline. When she was alive, she served as a general of an army and with her strange, magical yet terrifying powers and her army at her side she would annihilate her foes and protect her country. Though history paints her as a saintly protector, the true Hinata was ruthless, strict and idealistic. But of course in the end, she too was only human. Hachiro Hinata. Deceased. Relations: Chiyoko Hinata: Wife. Haruna Hinata: Daughter. Yashiro Hinata: Son. Sen Hinata: granddaughter. Hinata: Ancestor. A family-oriented man who took a lot of pride in being one of the last direct descendants of Hinata. He was always interested in history and loved telling stories of his ancestors. He often tried to find out what happened to the rest of the Hinata family members, since as far as he knew he and his family were the only ones left. He was killed when bandits raided the village he and his family lived in. Chiyoko Hinata. Deceased. Relations: Hachiro Hinata: Husband. Haruna Hinata: Daughter. Yashiro Hinata: Son. Sen Hinata: granddaughter. A sweet motherly figure who was liked by pretty much everyone. Think of the sweet overbearing grandma type. That was Chiyoko. In her youth she was actually quite adventurous and even learned some martial arts that she later taught her son. However, when she got older she had to take it more slowly. Chiyoko was killed in the same bandit raid as her husband. Haruna Hinata. Deceased. Relations: Hachiro Hinata: Father. Chiyoko Hinata: Mother. Yashiro Hinata: Brother. Ramon Hinata: Husband. Sen Hinata: Daughter. Hinata: ancestor. Haruna was a strong and wise woman who most people looked up to as a sort of village leader. She was kind and understanding but had her limits and could also be very strict when needed. Being the oldest child she always had the tendency to be nurturing and protective. Especially of her family, and especially het husband, daughter and little brother. Like her parents, Haruna was killed when bandits raided her village. Ramon Hinata. Deceased. Relations: Haruna Hinata: Wife. Sen Hinata: Daughter. A small, weak and somewhat quiet man but a brilliant cook. He was always sort of overlooked and even made fun of where he came from. He was very surprised when Haruna actually took an interest in him and most importantly, treated him with kindness and respect. He was mostly a house husband, taking care of the house, cooking meals and of course taking care of his and Haruna's daughter Sen. He loved his wife and daughter dearly. Ramon was killed alongside his wife and in-laws during a raid on the village they lived in. Sen Hinata. Relations: Haruna Hinata: Mother. Ramon Hinata: Father. Hachiro Hinata: Grandfather. Chiyoko Hinata: Grandmother. Yashiro Hinata: Uncle. Hinata: ancestor. The only daughter of Haruna and Ramon, and one of the few survivors of the raid on their village. Though she lost an eye during it. The raid happened when Sen was eight and she was then taken in and raised by her uncle, Yashiro. Sen is a socially awkward girl who doesn't make friends easily. She's closes to her uncle and his wife, and cares about both of them very much. She has trouble expressing her emotions and because of this can come off as cold and blunt. She is actually very emotional, but just doesn't always know what to do with these emotions and how to express them. Sen loves martial arts, which she learned from her uncle, and fashion which she got from her aunt. Yashiro Hinata. Relations: Hachiro Hinata: Father. Chiyoko Hinata: Mother. Haruna Hinata: Sister. Sen Hinata: Niece. Hinata: Ancestor. When the bandit raid that killed most of his family happened, Yashiro was already living a while away with his wife Agnes. After the raid happened he took in his niece Sen and raised her. Sen and Agnes are the two most important people in Yashiro's life and he would go through fire for both of them. Overall, Yashiro is an upbeat man who's easy to get along with. Though he has his limits with some people. (He does NOT get along with his wife's cousin Asher.) Ever since he was a little boy he had an interest in martial arts which his mother taught him, and he in turn taught it to his niece Sen. Agnes Hinata. Relations: Yashiro Hinata: Husband. Yashiro's lovely wife and basically the breadwinner of the household. She works while Yashiro stays home. Agnes is a clever and strong-minded but kind woman who loves fashion and make-up as well as her family. She helped raise Sen and is like a mother to her. ??????????? Relations: Hinata: Ancestor. ????????????????????????????????????????????

Please consider reblogging my art. It tells me you like it and helps me stay motivated and keep drawing so I can give you more art! ^^

#OC #original characters #original character #oc family #oc lineup #digital art #ace of swords #Hinata #Hinata the Ancestor #Hachiro Hinata #Chiyoko Hinata #Haruna Hinata #Ramon Hinata #Sen Hinata #Yashiro Hinata #Agnes hinata #snowy's art

11 notes · View notes

gayenerd · 4 years ago

Text

Green Day Deals with the "Rock Star" Dookie

by Tom Lanham

(First appeared in BAM Magazine, March 10, 1995)

Young, loud, and snotty equals beaucoup bucks? What pencil-pushing, graph-charting trend spotter could've predicted it? But the facts speak for themselves: As of late February, Dookie--the brattish, snap 'n' snarl Reprise salvo from Berkeley's sloppy punk trio, Green Day--has sold six million copies. Six million. Chances are, somebody on your block is jumping up and down in his living room at this very moment to the scrap-metal power chords and ardent apathy of "Longview," "Burnout," "Basket Case," or "When I Come Around" and getting lost in the teen abandon of these testy 22-year-olds--weasel-voiced, Montgomery-Clift-like charismatic singer/guitarist Billie Joe; tom-tom tribal percussionist Tre Cool (of the ever-morphing hair-color fame); and bassist Mike Dirnt (who survived Green Day's appearance at Woodstock '94, although several of his teeth did not).

Yes, punk rock is a marketable phenomenon these days, leaving many involved with the music's initial late-'70s, early-'80s wave scratching their heads, wondering why it didn't take the first time around. Public reaction started as curiosity ("Hey, honey, c'mere and lookit these goofy, green-haired little whippersnappers in an insane asylum on MTV!"), but spiraled up to rock-diet necessity (Green Day just won Grammy and they're nominated for quite a few Bammies as well, including such categories as Outstanding Group, Outstanding Album, and Outstanding Song--"Longview" and "Basket Case"). The fact that they've been nominated at all probably sends a shiver up the old dinosaur backbones of Eddie Money, Huey Lewis, and Boz Scaggs, a time-creepy feeling of "Gee, what the hell do we do now?" Because this isn't just some flash-in-the-pan punk movement, folks--this is a youth movement; Green Day are, as they hiply term it, "bored in the 'burbs," and reaching out, through TV and radio, like some prodigal preachers to other American kids who sense the same slacker ennui. Obviously, we're talking truckloads of kids.

Ironically, the more fame edges into the Green Day ruffians' lives, the more mature they seem to become. They've turned down all interview requests as of late, even People magazine, preferring to lay low until this tide of interest recedes. Billie Joe got married last autumn, and spent his honeymoon--not in any exotic, expensive locale--but in Berkeley's grand old Claremont Hotel. Cool recently became a father, and Billie Joe's child is due any day now. It's a responsibility they've both eagerly undertaken. Rob Cavallo, the boys' coproducer and A&R man at Reprise, swears they're "old souls, the smartest young kids I've ever met." It rings true.

The first time I spoke with Green Day, in January of '94, Cool, Dirnt, and Billie Joe were lazing around their dingy basement apartment in Berkeley, sitting on chairs and couches with potentially painful springs poking through. Rock 'n' roll bubblegum cards were scattered across a coffee table, along with several bongs of various sizes, plus a four-and-a-half foot red plastic pipe dubbed "Bongzilla" leaned against a doorway. The only wall decoration, besides a Ren & Stimpy poster, was a Twister game mat nailed up in its entirety, presumably for high-schoolish humor's sake.

When I'd met Billie Joe a few months earlier at a campus concert, his hair was dyed lime-green and featured squidlike tufts. Now it was dark brown, with only two tufts remaining, and both his ears and nose had piercings. Periodically during the interview, he'd ram a finger into that pierced nostril, rummage around, then stare idly at the resultant booger before flicking it on to the carpet. Cool wandered out of the rec room for several minutes, but returned, red-eyed, to proudly proclaim, "Lookit me! I'm stoned, dude!" Dirnt--when he wasn't strumming an acoustic guitar--kept watching their windowsill Sea Monkey tank, finally noting, "Hey, these Sea Monkeys look just like sperm!"

Despite all these schoolboy, poo-poo wit trappings (dookie, after all, is kiddie slang for excrement), there was a sense of seasoned wisdom about them, a feeling that they were, as Cavallo postulated, truly old souls. Like the class clown who frustrates all of his teachers by also maintaining a 4.0 grade average, Green Day can afford to play because their work--brilliantly skewed three-minute pop songs, delivered with such vehemence and vitriol you don't dare doubt them--certainly speaks for itself. But, sooner or later, of course, the band has to speak for itself, too, so what follows is a set of excerpts from that first ratty-digs meeting, as well as a later chat with Billie Joe, sans sidekicks. How did Green Day take over the rock world in less than a year? That's the six-million-copy question, and hopefully we'll provide a few answers.

* * *

So punk is back, whether America likes it or not?

BILLIE JOE: It's always been around, and everyone has their own interpretation of it. It's weird to actually call it "punk" again, when it's been there all the time.

MIKE DIRNT: It's been springing up in little suburban areas, where people grab it and express themselves.

TRE COOL: It's people who make a point of setting aside all responsibilities and just playing music. And doing fat joint after fat joint--you have to let go of things like paying rent, going to school, having a job.

BJ: And, if you can't tell by my house, we don't have a very high standard of living.

How does today's punk rock differ from its late-'70s cousin?

BJ: I think it was all about art and fashion back then, really, because everyone who was a punk in England was in art school. I read an early interview with Dee Dee Ramone, where he said he wished the Ramones had more of a glamorous appeal, too, instead of playing in jeans and leather jackets. But it was definitely about fashion, until the Clash really brought out the political side. Our music came from being bored in the 'burbs. You get put in this high school situation, where you're learning someone else's rules in a room with 30 other people that you don't really like. There's nothing interesting about it whatsoever, so you pick up a guitar instead.

But you all tried college, at least for awhile, right?

MD: And then we started touring. Constantly.

TC: So most of our reading now comes from highway signs.

MD: It's the old grasshopper and the ant story. The thought of actually working is just so...

TC: Sickening!

MD: Yeah. So we put everything we had into not working. This is what I do best, and I was always told, "If you're gonna do something, do it the best you can." So why not do the best thing you can, too?

You guys--at least Mike and Billie Joe--have known each other since you were 10?

BJ: And the first conversation we ever had was about writing songs. And then we just started playing music.

A lot of the stuff on your early Lookout! records shows what was on your mind at the time--namely, girls.

BJ: That was pretty much the viewpoint of a 16-year-old kid. I don't write stuff like that anymore. The new songs are more about coming of age and being apathetic and neurotic.

Where were your parents when you were touring [at age 16]?

MD: At work, doing their own thing.

BJ: My mom's worked a waitress job for like the past 40 years or something, and whatever I was doing was OK with her.

MD: I moved out when I was 15, and I worked all the way through high school.

BJ: And me, I've never held a job longer than two weeks. I tried to flip pizzas--it didn't work. I tried cleaning toilets in the Red Onion in El Sobrante. Me and TrŽ, we used to work for the SF Chronicle, selling papers. I sold three the first day, and the next day we just smoked pot, and we smoked pot the next day after that. So we had hella extra papers lying around. Our ultimate goal wasn't to get rich or famous or anything like that. It was to not have a regular job and not be miserable.

MD: And I've lived in every city around here, except for Albany. Literally. And one thing we want to establish about ourselves is that we're just a bunch of geeks from the suburbs.

Well, one of the first times I saw you, you guys were closing your set with Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." That's pretty geeky.

MD: I grew up on radio--that's all I had. When I was a little kid, I couldn't afford records. I'll tell you, I've been down to a dollar in my pocket a lot of times. I've even lived in my truck. I can remember shooting rats with a BB gun in the flat we used to live in, before they'd make it to our food.

BJ: I've always been really good about saving. If I got some money, I'd put it away instead of spending it, and I'd buy ramen.

Why name your disc Dookie?

TC: Warner's said we could do anything we want, as long as we didn't say "Cop Killer."

BJ: Somebody told our manager that the ad for it was the most tasteless thing they'd ever seen in Billboard magazine.

What exactly do you mean on Dookie by "Welcome to Paradise"?

BJ, MD, TC [in unison]: West Oakland!

MD: Living in West Oakland, and going out to parties every night.

So it cost, what, around $100,000 to make Dookie?

MD: Yeah. We kept the advances low, because you gotta pay all that shit back. Everyone knows you can't become an instant millionaire just by signing, because there are so many people that want a piece of you.

BJ: We hang out with mostly punks though, and they don't want anything we have. They could care less. And a lot of our friends don't even agree with us being on a major label.

Is Green Day angry?

BJ: No, I'm not angry, like, walking around all the time with a frown on my face. But the way my music is interpreted is very angry.

MD: When you feel really strongly about something, you want to let it out in the most powerful way possible.

Like the way you baited your old high school principal from the Warfield stage recently?

MD: I think he was an asshole. He treated me with no respect. And for high school initiation, we got our heads shaved--that's the kind of small-town shit we had to deal with! Sometimes they made you push a penny up the street with your nose. But that's life, and anywhere you go, you're gonna hate a lot of shit in your life. You'll be handed

Dookie?

MD: Yeah. Yeah, you'll be handed dookie through all parts of your life. And see, what you need to do is just deal with the dookie, build upon what you have, and make something out of the dookie, you know? Like an adobe dookie building!

* * *

Several months later, and Dookie is oozing its gooey way into the public consciousness big time. The fading summer heat sticks crackling to the Berkeley sidewalks as punks--many sporting monstrous green or fuchsia mohawks--zing by on skateboards by day, and huddle in Telegraph Avenue doorways by night, conserving feral body heat the whole time. It feels like another world here, a throwback to the Bay Area's DIY/hardcore scene of the early '80s, when squatters reigned supreme and burlesque Broadway--fueled by all-ages shows at the Mabuhay Gardens, On Broadway, and even an occasional GBH or UK Subs booking at the Stone--made weekend conversions to "Punk Playground, USA." It was the best of times; it was the worst of times--despite relentless touring, most of these bands sold bupkus in the way of records, and few, save Metallica, ever held pen in shaky hand over a major-label contract.

Billie Joe saunters into the Berkeley coffeehouse in rumpled jeans and a grease-spattered flannel shirt; his once-green-and-tufty tresses have grown out into Wally Cleaver waves and been dyed a Rod Stewarty blond. He looks like one of those feisty punks of yore; like he could hold his own through sheer physical endurance in the wildest of thrash pits. There's a new authority about him, the way he strides confidently to the counter, orders a pint-size glass of coffee, then swims through a sea of late-lunching yuppies to grab a table. The singer doesn't seem to notice them at all. Or maybe he's just too tired from nonstop touring to really give a shit. He smiles a goofy grin, revealing a set of generally crooked or chipped choppers, with an entire half of one front tooth missing. But there's such charisma behind it, the same kind of "Who, me?" innocence that little kids use. Billie Joe, you might say, has quickly become the Bart Simpson of the alternative set.

How else could you explain his uncensored performance at a certain outdoor arena where--in a hyperspeed set lasting only 30 minutes before management threatened to pull the plug--he a) unzipped his fly and paraded his privates around for all to see; b) handed a stunned fan his beat-up, sticker-plastered guitar and urged him to play it; c) destroyed a $600 microphone by smashing it into the stage, then destroyed a second mike he was handed as well; and d) encouraged half the venue to chant, "Rock 'n' roll!" and the other half to respond with, "Shut the fuck up!" He then closed the show with a proposition--"They'll be really angry with us, but what we could do is rip out the seats!" he told the audience, which promptly gave Green Day a standing ovation. Billie Joe not only shrugs off such shenanigans as artistic license, he gets away with them! He's even encouraged to continue by fans who empathize with his uppity "fuck authority" attitude.

But the facts were all on the table as Billie Joe sipped his house blend that afternoon, and it didn't take a fortune teller to read 'em. Green Day was hitting big time. Fast. And the sheer enormity of the undertaking, the weight of all its accordant responsibility, was just beginning to hit him. He looked older, wiser, and spoke in more grownup tones about his future, which then included a pending marriage to longtime girlfriend Adrienne. You could practically feel this new maturity encircling him like some protective aura.

* * *

=Where do all these punks on Telegraph come from? They can't all be local and homeless.

I think Telegraph has just become this cultural mecca for punk rockers, because most of 'em who are on the Avenue aren't even from here. They're from Arizona, Minneapolis, New York, Florida. They just come out and end up squatting in houses in Berkeley. Why here? It's the climate, and the scene itself--Gilman Street and Maximum Rock 'n' Roll are in this area, and have a link to each other. But at the same time, it's separated, because there are so many different factions of punk now. There are the squatters, the pop-cores, the mods, the crusties. And all these types of people come out just to check it out. Plus, there's the best coffee in Berkeley, and a lot of 'em are real super coffee-drinkers, just pounding cup after cup all the time. It's pretty rare to come across a punk who doesn't drink coffee. I can't drink too much coffee myself--it gives me the shakes at night, so I just have a little bit during the day. Then I can smoke dope and go to bed.

=What's the attraction in squatting or homelessness for these kids?

For a lot of 'em, it's the first sense of freedom that they've had. It's like, "You mean I don't have to be home by midnight?" They've pretty much told their families and schools to go fuck themselves, so they go off and do their own thing. When I was 17, I did the same thing. And I had this total sense of freedom, where no one's telling you what to do, you don't have a clock to punch in on, you don't have people breathing down your neck; you don't have any deadlines to meet. You have this endless schedule where you can stay up all night drinking with your friends, or do anything you want.

=But isn't "Coming Clean" about leaving behind your wilder ways?

It's also about coming to grips with your sexuality. There's one line, "Skeletons come to life in my closet." And it's like, "Am I homosexual or heterosexual?" You go through this adolescent stage in your life where you don't really know what you are, and one side is taboo because your parents brought you up to think being gay was wrong. And if you come to grips with yourself, that you happen to be gay or bi or whatever, well, that was one thing about punk that was so accepting--all creeds were welcome, all sexualities, everything.

=Was this something you went through personally?

Yeah, to a certain extent. But I don't want to go around waving a gay flag or anything.

=Well, you had a beautiful girl on your arm backstage at the last Green Day show.

That's Adrienne. She's cool. Actually, we're engaged. That's why it took me so long getting here today--I had to get this! [Rolls sleeve up on tattooed arm, points to a bandaged-on cotton swab] Blood test, dude! We're getting married next week!

=Has anybody tried to tell you you're too young for such a serious move?

Of course. There are a lot of people who've said stuff. My parents have been a little more understanding than her parents. I just called my mom yesterday and said, "Mom, I'm gettin' married," and she said, "That's fine, son. Have fun!" I can hardly surprise my mother nowadays. But [this relationship] has been a recurring thing for the past four years, and we just decided to get serious about it. She's coming out here, and we're moving in together, so it's like, "Why not?" I don't really have any wild oats to sow, or anything like that. I'm not into the "Gettin' chicks all the time" thing.

=I know a lot of girls who'll be really bummed that you're gittin' hitched. They all seem to have developed a crush on you...

Me?! It must be the teeth [grins again].

=OK, so maybe you didn't brush often enough when you were young. But you were busy developing a direction...

I wouldn't necessarily say I had a direction or anything. I just knew I wanted to write songs. It comes from...uh...I don't know. I have no idea. It wasn't any kind of cosmic force or anything like that; it was just a matter of having a guitar around and wanting to play it all the time. I've had the same guitar since I was 11--I bought it off this guy at a guitar store. And I still play it--you know, the blue one with stickers all over it? That's my blue guitar, and, for some reason, things come to life, and everyone calls it "Blue" now--"Where's Blue? Can I pick up Blue and play it?"

=And you let just anybody touch it?

Oh yeah! Blue's not prejudiced.

=It's interesting to note that the general public seems to think Dookie is your debut.

Yeah, but that's just the general public. There are people who've been with us since the beginning, who know how long we've been around, since our first 7-inch came out back in '89.

=And now you can afford to trash pricey microphones.

Actually, Warner Brothers paid for those. It was pretty nice of 'em. They looked really nice--I remember looking at 'em and thinking, "Nice microphones!" They gave me one mike and I took it and threw it down, and they gave me another, and at the end of the set I creamed it pretty hard, I guess. We toured Europe with this band Die Toten Hosen--we played nine dates with 'em--and we got charged for a microphone every night. I dunno, for some reason we just started smashing shit. We'd start throwing equipment around at the end of each set, and these kids would start grabbing Tre's drum set and throwing it, and then they started smashing the microphones too. And the bouncers just couldn't do anything about it.

=And you actually yanked your dick out onstage too?

I did. Totally. It was the real thing. I dunno. The bands that we were playing with were just boring. It was more like making a mockery of the whole thing. The big arena rock thing is just so dated now, like Journey or Queen. Which is why I think punk rock started to begin with--it was this reaction to all the dinosaur bands. So for me, that show was, "How can we make a complete mockery of this but at the same time have fun with it?" I like to leave people guessing, "Did he hate that or did he like that?" It's not that I don't care--it's more that I'm careless. I try to be as happy-go-lucky as I can, but you can become apathetic at the same time.

=Do you feel like Green Day is a part of, or represents, the so-called "slacker generation"?

There's one side of me that doesn't mind it, because it's a generational thing, and another side of me that says, "Fuck that!" The reason I wrote the songs is, I ended up going back to Rodeo, where I'm from, for a week. And then I said, "Fuck it," and left. But I managed to get several good songs out of it. A lot of my friends had just turned into complete burnouts. And these are kids I've known since kindergarten, because it's a small town and you know everybody. And it was all fixing cars, staying up all night on methamphetamines, smoking dope, and finding out all these rumors about people I haven't heard of in 10 years. Like, "Oh, did you hear about so-and-so, who got married, had three kids, and ended up shooting everybody in his family?" And it happened! It was a true story! You're there for one week, and you get caught up in it. You get so bored, all you wanna do is watch television. And there are no record stores, nothing around, so you end up hanging out with all these delinquents who aren't punkers at all, just cultural idiots. So I was watching all these people rot and rotting with them until I realized, "Shit! I gotta get the fuck outta here!"

=As they say, you can never go home again.

Oh yeah, definitely. Unless you get pregnant, like my sister did. Then you have to go. But I quit school my senior year--I just wasn't getting anything out of it. I was taking nine periods a day, plus night classes, which left me no time to smoke dope whatsoever. And my mom even suggested I drop out, because she was a dropout, too. I come from a long line of dropouts. I still have nightmares about being late with my homework assignments. When I finally went in to sign out of high school, the teacher went, "Now, who are you again?"

=And if that teacher could see you now!

A lot of people think you get this big connection with a corporate label, and you make millions of dollars, but they don't understand that you just don't make that much money. And when you do, it's easy to piss it away. I mean, every cent that I've made, I've pissed away. I'm not gonna say how I did it, but I don't have it But I don't think you necessarily have to be a punk to decide to say, "Fuck it." You don't even have to have a direction. It's just a matter of getting the fuck out and exploring things for yourself.

=But didn't you feel abject terror when you first set out on your own?

Nah, I didn't. Because, for some reason, I knew things were gonna be all right. You can create your own future as long as karma's on your side. And I'm a strong believer in karma. I think things can come back to you if you're just willing to give.

* * *

True enough. At least six million times over!

1995 Tom Lanham

#article #interview #articles #billie joe armstrong

6 notes · View notes

kitkatt0430 · 4 years ago

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cisco Ramon & Hartley Rathaway, Tina McGee & Hartley Rathaway, Cisco Ramon & Caitlin Snow Characters: Hartley Rathaway, Tina McGee, Cisco Ramon, Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells Additional Tags: Hartley's stellar social skills, (in all seriousness Hartley could use some work on his socializing), Tina gets bitched at but she deserves it in this particular verse, and she makes up for it, procuring a new job should probably not work like this, Hartley does need to restore his professional reputation somehow though, he doesn't want to be totally dependent on Cisco, meanwhile Cisco is back at work at STAR Labs, and trying to do something nice for Hartley, preferably without EoWells noticing anything is wrong..., Emotional Conversations, survivor's guilt, Mental Health Issues, Cisco and Hartley separately realizing they need therapy, Past Hartley Rathaway/Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Cisco would just like to protect Hartley right now, Cisco is good at being sneaky here, very proud of Cisco's sneakiness Series: Part 3 of Visions While I Sleep Summary:

Now that Hartley's agreed to team up with Cisco in determining what the hell is up with Dr. Wells and the accelerator (and the comatose Barry Allen), he can't just do the mad scientist thing in a warehouse anymore. Even if Hartley still totally intends to make his sonic gloves anyway. But he can't just sit around Cisco's apartment all day investigating conspiracy theories either. He needs to feel productive and start contributing to the rent. (Or get his own apartment, but neither one of them wants to talk about how the only time they sleep well any more is when Hartley crawls into Cisco's bed after one - or both - of them has already had nightmares that night...)

So the obvious answer is for Hartley to get a job, preferably one he doesn't hate. But that means repairing his reputation as a scientist and there's only one person, aside from the man who'd ruined Hartley's reputation, who might be able to help him fix things enough to actually get a job somewhere. It'll mean swallowing his pride and asking for help from someone who has already burned him once, though. Hartley's not exactly thrilled by that prospect.

#the flash #fanfiction #cisco ramon #hartley rathaway

5 notes · View notes

alltidvinter · 5 years ago

Note

For the Beatle ask: 2, 4, 7, 11, and then you pick one more! Wildcard! 😜

2) Preferred album?

I have such a great fondness for Rubber Soul. Not necessarily because of the songs it contains, though. I just love the mood. It has the perfect balance between groundbreaking experimentalism and cozy, comfortable, autumn-like vibes. It always feels like coming home.

4) Favorite nickname given to a beatle?

I love The Silver Beetles vaguely exotic stage names: Long John Silver, Paul Ramon, Carl Harrison and Stuart de Stael. Cloak and dagger ̶g̶a̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶h̶e̶r̶o̶e̶s̶ vibes ftw!

7) Thoughts on Yoko Ono?

Oh, boy.

Yoko is a compelling artist in her own right. I like most of her conceptual art. I love her short poems. I even like some of her music (she was much more of a musical innovator than John, tbh). I enjoy the eery beauty of her singing voice (see Death of Samantha). She is charming. She's a fashion icon (although I would gladly do without the furs). I personally find her quite beautiful: not that this should matter but it does, since she was disgustingly body-shamed for the last 50 years. Her efforts for peace, while not terribly effective in themselves (but that's wasn't really the point, right?), inspired thousands of others. Yoko is also her own woman, with her own trauma and goals, that not necessarily are less important than those of John, Paul, George and Ringo. As a child, she survived Tokyo's bombing and she struggled with real, life-threatening hunger during the aftermath, a fact that probably changed her outlook on life drastically. She is her own person. She matters.

As for the break up: Yoko was the stick John chose to beat Paul with. You don't blame the knife, you blame the murderer. She had no place in the studio (she hadn't earned it) and her subtly hostile presence was definitely a cause of tension. But that's on John. He hid behind her and that’s not fair on her. And let’s not forget this: Yoko’s ways may not have been conventional but as a Japanese immigrant artist woman in 60′s England, they may as well have been the only ones available to her.

Yoko is a survivor, an icon, a true artist, an inspiring figure to many.

However.

Yoko is (was?) also controlling, passive-aggressive and some kind of a bully. She just is. These things are more than well documented. On the subject of her relationship with John, I can't say much: he was a consenting adult, even if one with untreated psychological issues. However, I can't ignore how, post-1970, she made his world narrower (virtually pushing him into cutting his ties with everybody else but her) and I cannot condone her for introducing him to heroin. Her treatment of Julian and May Pang (both way younger and less powerful than her) was heinous. Most of all, Yoko has a dangerous tendency to rewrite history. She's not above muddling the waters to her own benefit. She’s successfully established the Ballad of John and Yoko - aka, the narrative of 1) Yoko!John being the True John, inherently happier, more fulfilled and superior in any way to Beatle!John and to any other possible versions of John 2) johnandyoko being this perfect, untouchable romance, the love to end all loves, the end that justifies every means. To blindly believe in the Ballad, is to allow Yoko to erase other people’s absolutely vital contributions from John’s life. Namely, Paul’s. And, while John may have had some personal reasons to slander and diminish Paul, Yoko really hasn’t. At least, not anymore. Not to mention the fact that her behavior doesn’t apply to Paul alone (see the video of #9 Dream, where Yoko edited herself onto the original vocals sung by May). That’s not fair. That’s disrespectful. That’s harmful. That’s messing with The Beatles legacy. Hell, that’s messing with John’s own legacy!

Anyway. I’m passionate about Yoko, as you can clearly tell from this mini-essay. She fascinates me endlessly. I, for one, love unironically the “hysterical piano/crazy yelling semi-involuntary jam session” between Yoko, John and Paul (you know the one): it’s powerful, haunting, oddly beautiful; the encounter/clash between those three strong personalities it’s really a sight to behold. But hey, it's 2019. We can recognize her struggle, her trauma, her talent and also retain a certain degree of fairness to all parts involved, thus protecting The Beatles legacy from any external influence.

We ought to.

11) Is there a favorite Beatle reference in a show you love?

Not a tv show but "Lennon and McCartney are inseparable" from Rocketman is almost too good to be true (thank you, Sir Elton!). I also love The Simpsons Lisa the Vegetarian episode (Paul&Linda!).

I mean.

As for the wildcard, I'm picking...

14) Would you have George teach you guitar or Ringo teach you drums?

I can't carry a rhythm with my hands for the life of me (honest to God, it's almost embarrassing, also because I’m actually a trained singer) and I think only Ringo can save me from my own hopelessness. Also, I honestly think it would be a delight to learn from him.

#i let myself get carried away #but this was so much fun!#thanks for the ask

15 notes · View notes

fromtheringapron · 5 years ago

Text

WWF In Your House V: Season’s Beatings

Date: December 17, 1995.

Location: Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Attendance: 7,289.

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

Results:

1. Razor Ramon and Marty Jannetty defeated The 1-2-3 Kid and Sycho Sid (with Ted DiBiase).

2. Ahmed Johnson defeated Buddy Landel (with Dean Douglas).

3. Hog Pen Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Henry O. Godwin. Hillbilly Jim was the special guest referee.

4. Owen Hart (with Jim Cornette) defeated Diesel via disqualification.

5. Casket Match: The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated King Mabel (with Sir Mo).

6. WWF World Heavyweight Championship Match: Bret Hart (champion) defeated The British Bulldog (with Jim Cornette and Diana Smith).

My Review

The fifth In Your House is a bizarrely entertaining show. At this point in time, the WWF knew they were in trouble. After all, 1995 was an incredibly rough year for the company from both a creative and financial perspective, and they were looking for anything that could catch fire. Thusly, we get this show, an odd mashup of caskets, hog pens, and evil Santas⏤and it somehow works. It’s a showcase for the WWF to throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks. Fortunately, with the exception of a messy Jeff Jarrett/Ahmed Johnson segment, most of it lands pretty well.

The In Your House concept was still a fairly new one at this time. Its early additions often focused on delivering a bunch of different things you couldn’t get from any other pay-per-view, all for a reasonably cheap price. This show is no exception, but its offerings feel a little more satisfying than usual. The WWF was still firmly ensconced in cartoon gimmickry by late ’95, and this show actually manages to bring the fun to match it. The Hog Pen match is obviously meant to be a bunch of tomfoolery, but the players involved revel in it. Hillbilly Jim as the special guest referee is a nice touch, though modern fans will definitely get more amusement from watching Triple H take part in something like this. The casket match between Mabel and The Undertaker is kept short and sweet. It’s a serviceable way to end the main event run of the former, whose ascent to the top proved to be one of 1995’s biggest missteps.

If those matches fit right in with the era, there’s also plenty of proof here of the WWF looking toward an edgier future. The homoeroticism of the Goldust character is really beginning to present itself and while there’s obviously a lot problematic with the storyline in a 2019 context, his lusting over Razor Ramon was new ground for the WWF, especially at a time when having gay characters on TV at all was a hot-button topic. The show’s most famous match is the main event between Bret Hart and The British Bulldog. You’d be remiss to expect something similar to their match at Summerslam ’92. It features one hell of a blade job by Bret, which may be the first instance of blood on WWF TV since WrestleMania VIII. Between this spot and him going through a table at the Survivor Series the month previously, Bret ultimately spearheaded quite a bit of the WWF’s edgier programming. It’s all the more ironic that he’d voice his displeasure at the raunchiness of the Attitude Era when he was one of the key figures in its creation.

The cherry on top is the debut of the WWF’s newest character, Xanta Klaus. Yes, that’s right: St. Nick turns heel on this show. Needless to say, the character didn’t last long, but it goes right along with a show that’s already so weird and off-kilter. And perhaps an even better thing is that this show’s runtime is just under two hours. It’s a fun, brisk watch and goes down like a smooth shot of peppermint Schnapps. It’s the right show for the holiday season, and everything a B-level pay-per-view should be.

My Random Notes

The In Your House theme is kind of a bop, no? I have a thing for pay-per-view themes that sound like the last thing you’d associate with wrestling and it really fits the bill. It’s got that blues sound you could only get in the ‘90s.

Triple H gets a gnarly cut on his back from the metal gate of the hog pen and once it gets mixed in with the mud, you have something that really makes my stomach turn.

Speaking of HHH, surely there’s gotta be more than one person out there who can say they chatted with him on the WWF Superstar hotline while he was covered in pig shit. If you’re out there, please report your experience here!

Given how old dark matches are popping up out of the WWE video archives all the time now, I hope one day we can see the absurdity of Barry Horowitz, Hakushi, and The Smoking Gunns defeating Yokozuna, Issac Yankem, and The Bodydonnas in eight-man tag action. The In Your House dark matches were pretty weird on paper, in general.

So, Double J’s return here: what was up with that? He walked out at the height of his push in the summer of ’95 and then showed back up because he felt like it, I guess? And then he left again a month later because he also felt like it? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the full story there.

I mentioned the Jarrett/Ahmed segment being a huge mess, and I stand by that, but the transition into the Ahmed/Landell match is way worse. I actually had to Google the name of the ring announcer (it’s Manny Garcia). He completely ruins the surprise by announcing Landell before he’s even revealed as Dean Douglas’ surprise replacement. With that said, I do appreciate the effort WWF made in time traveling 10 years in the past to steal Buddy Landell from the NWA. The Monday Night Wars were crazy like that.

Ah, yes, an entire VHS dedicated to cheat codes for WrestleMania: The Arcade Game. I’ll be sure to pop that in the ole VCR after I watch Jennifer Anniston and Matthew Perry teach me how to use Windows ’95.

It’s practically public knowledge by now, but Diesel in the last six months of his WWF run is absolutely who he should’ve been for the entirety of his world title run. I really hate to throw the ole “shades of gray” line out there, but Diesel’s character here was ahead of the game in terms of being the type of tweener that would be in abundance on the roster during the Attitude Era.

#wwe network #holidays #christmas #bret hart #the undertaker

2 notes · View notes

pinkletterday · 6 years ago

Text

The Flash 5x4!!!

I am HYPED, you guys! FINALLY WE FIND OUT WHAT'S UP WITH MOMMA AND BABY.

Whatever it is Im going to deeply empathize with and love both of them.

Idk who this stupid af bitch is running straight into a blazing hail of fireballs and trying to take selfies but I hate her.

Iris. Iris. Baby. Hahahahaha Nora knows what a disaster her Mom is in the kitchen. I love you sfm Iris.

Hey Nora this version of your Mom just met you so hold back on the teenage sass, okay?

Ok this isnt funny anymore my heart is aching for Iris.

Young lady sit back down and eat that breakfast your Mom made for you.

"Make you a banana" lmaoooo this is why Barry does all the cooking. Gawd I love the domesticity.

I love that Iris can't cook. It just adds to her perfection. I guess I really am a fool in love, huh?

Oh God this guy. Shut up shut up shut up. Did this buffoon just call Cisco Ramon not brave???

I wish Ralph would take the lead here. That's right, I like Ralph now. This season is magic.

I would find this softball thing adorkable and hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that Barry is literally the Flash. It doesn't make a lick of sense. Would have been much more interesting if Barry had turned into a star athlete overnight and everyone just boggled.

Otoh it provides an interesting (read: hilarious) look at their dynamic growing up. Their different dorknesses cancel each other out.

I am irked. Why is the Flash a hopeless athlete? HE CATCHES KNIVES OUT OF THE AIR. How does he just switch off his co-ordination?

Kinda nice seeing all the ladies together like that though. Cecile is a gift.

NORA IS A GAY THIS IS NOT A DRILL WE HAVE A BABY QUEER IN THE HOUSE aaaaaand you are seriously trying my patience here. Be rude to your mother one more time. See how that goes.

Oooh Momma Bear is on the case! *hearteyes*

See, Baby Giraffe is already better at this than The Fraudulent Frenchie.

I hate to say it but based on that lumberjane chic I think we have another queer in the house. But this one we don't want.

Loool "like her size extra small". I hate to say it but thats a way better reason for her codename than "excess" ugh.

No it was different because she never knowingly put the people she was writing about in danger you asshat. God I wish you weren't so pretty.

Another black man wrongly accused. What up, America.

...Joe what. You guys. Jesse Martin looks bad. IS HE OKAY I AM SERIOUSLY CONCERNED.

Momma coaching Baby through speedster things! Because Barry taught her that one time she was a speedster. I can't handle this. My heart.

She FINALLY thanked her! Iris's smile.

My girls. I can't.

OMG SOMEONE REMEMBERS EARLY EDITION! I loved that show!

Also. Iris West, ace reporter, always better than fake hoes. Watch and learn, padawan.

Am sad we're not getting any Cisco Ramon. I hope Carlos is enjoying his mini-vacay. Otoh, I really like that Caitlin is included in the West-Allen circle this ep.

I wonder why Nora doesnt call Cait and Cisco Aunt and Uncle. They must be the godparents.

It's okay Ralph. Some leads don't pan out. If Shitloque was an actual detective he'd know that.

But I love that the heroes of Central City can walk around in public and interact freely. Oliver's team would need to break in and scare the bejesus out of some poor unsuspecting sod.

NORA IS A DISASTER LESBIAN CONFIRMED. Or probably a disaster bi like her Dad. I AM LOVIN' THIS.

THAT MOMENT WHEN THE PENNY DROPS FOR BARRY THAT HIS DAUGHTER IS A GAY LMAOOO

Fuck I love that Iris never even blinked when Nora said Spencer was cute. She probably sussed it way before. I love you Momma West-Allen.

Oh no oh no I was right. Iris pulled a Joe West. Goddamn it. I mean I get why, I get how traumatized and scared she must have been but IRIS NO YOU DON'T LIE TO YOUR CHILDREN TO PROTECT THEM. Remember how you felt when your Dad did that to you?

I am legit heartbroken, you guys. I really wanted to be wrong. I blame Joe West's goddamn patriarchal shitty parenting for perpetuating this cycle of lies.

I swear to God if this show tries to justify lying and manipulating your kid again I'm going to give up on it. It's triggering as all fuck (I still havent recovered from S1 and 2) and I need Iris to be held accountable when she fucks up, not let her turn into another Fefe who can do no wrong.

Jesus Christ Iris, trying to force a conversation with Nora by invading her privacy and ignoring her need for space is not okay. BOUNDARIES, girl.

Oh okay but she's holding herself accountable thank fuck. I mean, Barry's right she can't be blamed for what she might do in the future but IT'S STILL WRONG.

I was actually shaking. Friendly reminder that survivors of parental abuse and manipulation are also watching this show, some of us with CPTSD.

"What if my Dad did something like that to you"?? Er. Iris? Remember when he lied to you for twenty years about your mother being dead and you didn't talk to him for six months?

Oh here we go. You've stood there like a gormless beanpole for three episodes without so much as trying to intervene Barry and this is how you choose to comfort your wife. Not "yes, it's a bad thing and we can't know what led you to the choices future you made but in the here and now you know not to. We can learn from the future and make different choices, Iris."

PUNCH HIM IN THE THROAT, CAITLIN.

...I just meant for frightening Caitlin, but he actually wants to be punched?

Ooooh that was satisfying! Pretty sure her form was all wrong but can't argue with the results.

I love how fucking competent Iris is??? She knows how to use the entire STAR Labs tech arsenal. Although that Vibe device kinda defeats the whole purpose of breechers. It's like if they had a device lying around that could give just anyone super speed.

Not sure how Spencer thinks XS can kill Flash. One's a n00b and the other is veteran.

Wait, Baby Flash can do what now?

I don't like that they had to dumb Barry down so much to give Iris a chance to shine. A couple can both be competent at the same time! It's called being a power couple! Not one-half Idiot Ball couple!

So her phone got powers? Huh??

Ah yes. Dark Matter. More multi-purpose than Quantum.

Okay cool Ralph is getting his due. "Less right" LOL

"That puts meta-human powers in the hands of anyone" kinda like having a Breeching device, no?

We have meta-humans, meta-phones, meta-daggers (a tech dagger??) HOLY SHIT WHAT IF THE DARK MATTER HIT A HOME DEPOT?? How many people now have meta-vacuum cleaners? Meta-dishwashers?? Meta-can openers??

Oh God. No. Not this.

No. You do not lie and manipulate your kids to protect them. You do not do that. Love is no justification.

Don't Barry don't. Stop stop.

I can't watch this. FUCK YOU.

FOR GOD'S SAKE SHE'S CRYING AND SHAKING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO COMFORT HER AND MAKE HER FEEL SAFE NOT STAND ON YOUR PILE OF BULLSHIT WITHOUT GIVING A FLYING FUCK.

No, cry all you want. I have no sympathy for either one of you callous asshats. You fucking destroyed that girl. Fuck Joe West for having raised you to think this way.

Yeah no Joe West is not who you want to go to in these matters, Nora.

I don't even care about Cicada anymore.

I should have known this show would never get any less gross.

Look, I was fully prepared to be sympathetic to Iris, traumatized, alone and single mother to a meta-child in a dangerous world to have made some bad decisions. And I do empathize. But I wasn't prepared for present-day Barry and Iris to justify and rationalize that shit. I thought they were going to say "That was a bad thing your Mom did. I'm sure she thought she was protecting you but she may have lost sight of how much it hurts to have your choices taken away from you. But I'm not that woman, Nora. I know I could never bear to see you hurting like this. I can still make better choices. Please give me a chance?"

Not "No I am your Mom and everything I do is right and good because I love you, I'm sorry if you feel hurt about it but them's the facts."

They did this when Barry and Joe lied to Iris all through S1, when Joe lied to Iris about her mother. This show is still all about apologia for lying and manipulation because LOVE AND GOOD INTENTIONS AND TO PROTECT YOU BY DISRESPECTING THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AND TAKING AWAY YOUR AGENCY.

Parental love is not a justification. Most abuse takes place at the hands of parents who really believe they're doing it for their children's protection. Please never say "your parents have every right to hurt you to protect you because they love you". Do you even care at all.

I'm not okay. Gonna take a break from fandom for a while. Can't deal with people taking Iris's side to protect their Westallen feels. Fuck both of them.

I'm posting this but please don't engage me to argue about it. Massively triggered.

#this started out so good #why did they do this #fuck westallen #my heart is breaking for nora #fuck this whole damn show #the flash #5x4 #liveblog

5 notes · View notes

squirenonny · 7 years ago

Note

*rubs hands* How would Duality have changed if Meri's disguise had, for some reason, slipped up in front of Lance's family? (e.g. the alcohol that one time made her lose control, or a nightmare while she was babysitting overnight, whatever floats your boat)

[Turn left meme]

There are a lot of ways I could see the reveal playing out. Whatever it is, it’s definitely an accident because Meri is just so guarded about everything.

So we'll say that Meri gets sick. Lance has a cold or some other minor bug that screws with Alteans in an unpredictable way. She's babysitting that night and doesn't totally realize how bad it's gotten, because after she puts the kids to bed she just sort of curls up on the couch in misery and tells herself over and over that as soon as Rosa and Ramon get home she can go crash at her place and hopefully sleep this off. Then Rosa walks in and at first thinks one of the kids was finger-painting on Lena's face--until she sees the pointy ears. Meri is too fuzzy to realize what's happening, and Rosa tells her to spend the night, because she's obviously not in any state to make her way home at like midnight.

Morning comes around, and Meri's head is still fuzzy, but not so much that she doesn't notice the way Rosa freezes as soon as Meri comes out into the kitchen. There's an awkward silence, and then Rosa asks about the ears, and Meri barely stops herself from making a run for it.

The kids are at school by this point, and Rosa took the day off work, so there's nothing stopping them from having a long talk that ends with Meri sobbing on Rosa's shoulder. From that point on, Rosa and Ramon know everything--about the war, about Lance's bond with Blue and the fact that Meri wants to start training him when he turns 18, about her efforts to spy on the Garrison. Rosa's freaked out, obviously, but she doesn't blame any of it on Meri, which is better than Meri honestly expected.

Rosa wants Meri to find a therapist, but agrees that it's probably not going to be super helpful, considering how many lies she'd have to tell and the stress of wondering if this is how the Galra find her and the odds that the therapist would end up treating the wrong issue for one reason or another. Rosa does convince Meri to find online support groups for trauma survivors, at least, and that helps more than Meri would have expected. That, plus being able to talk to Rosa about anything.

By the time Lance applies to the Garrison, Meri is in a much better place, emotionally. She's running only 2.5 aliases (Naomi at the Garrison, one as someone with connections in the DoD, and technically still pretending to be human for everyone but Rosa and Ramon, even though she goes by Meri now), and she only spends a significant amount of time as herself and Naomi. Rosa really, really wants to stop Lance from going to the Garrison, but Meri promises to look out for him.

They tell Lance some of it when he's 16. Not everything, not all the details of his role in the war, but that Meri's an alien and the broad strokes of who and what Zarkon is. They take him to meet Blue, and Meri says she'll teach him to fly Blue when he turns 18, but that what he learns at the Garrison will be important, too. Lance can read between the lines, of course. He asks if he's going to have to fight Zarkon (and he's kind of at that stage where he's ready to take on the universe and doesn't quite comprehend that it's war.) Meri tells him that that will be his decision, but not one he has to make for a long time. He doesn't need to get involved with the war at all, and not as a soldier if he doesn't want to fight.

(They don't tell him about Voltron, or that his bond with Blue is very rare, because no one wants to guilt him into fighting. But the thing about paladins is that they can kinda feel it. Meri tells Rosa that Lance will almost certainly decide to fight, even without the guilt. Rosa just smiles and says she would expect nothing less from her son.)

Lance almost blows "Naomi's" cover several times by constantly seeking her out at the Garrison, but they work out a system, and she tells him little things about the universe and the war. Things that might help prepare him for what’s coming. Hunk's curious about Lance's officer friend and eavesdrops whenever he can, so he picks up a few mentions of Blue and that Meri is giving Lance some kind of history lesson? He's very confused, and it's murder on Lance not to tell him everything, but he promised to keep it secret.

Pidge is even more suspicious, because after the Persephone disappears Meri knows what happened, and she eventually tells Lance (after he pesters her for weeks to know if it was Zarkon.) Lance gets real serious after that, and Pidge and Hunk both notice. Lance doubles down on his lessons with Meri when she's around, because he's 17 now. Meri's still keeping secrets, but she promised to tell him everything when he turned 18, so he's preparing himself for, like, imminent invasion. (He kinda jumps to the worst case scenario a lot...) He does way better on practical things at the Garrison like flight sims and firearms training because all he can think about is the war and how he needs to be prepared--but that means he doesn’t pay much attention in the subjects that aren’t immediately applicable to his situation, so he’s still constantly in trouble with Iverson because of slipping grades.

Matt's rescue happens mostly the same. Lance tries to call Meri because holy shit, she was right! The Persephone was captured by aliens! WTF do I do?! He can't reach her--she's out of the country looking into stuff, and he has no reception--so he goes to Blue. He's going to wait it out, but then Sendak's ship arrives and Blue tells him that if they stay, bad things will happen.

So he leaves.

They go to the castle-ship, where Lance immediately recognizes Allura from Meri's stories and kinda geeks out. Less flirting, more... almost trying to wingman for Meri in absentia. Plan "Get back to Earth and pick up Meri" is high on their priority list, but... They're under a time crunch and need to get the other lions super quick, and then the castle is attacked as they're trying to recover, so it's at least post-Balmera by the time they head home. Maybe later? But not by much.

Anyway, so they go home and pick up Meri and have some tense reunions with other families. Mama Holt's Army has formed, but they haven't had time to do much. Val and Akira definitely join the paladins--Val to look after Lance, Akira to search for Takashi. Interestingly, I don't think Val would become a paladin right away, because there's not a pressing need for it. After they find Keith and Shiro and shit happens, then Val would slot in, but it would be a gradual process. Maybe around the time of the dark!Shiro arc. (Which, by the by, imagine that but with Akira losing his shit over Haggar possessing his brother. Hell hath no fury like Akira Shirogane on the warpath.)

The one other point of note: in this AU, in which Meri has actually dealt with the loss of Altea (and has at least somewhat addressed her staggering survivor's guilt) she would never leave to go spy on the Empire. Which... probably tells you a lot about her mental state in Duality canon right now...

#ask meme #turn left meme #dualityverse #phoenixyfriend #answers

13 notes · View notes

placetobenation · 5 years ago

Link

Back in June 2013 the Place to Be Nation invaded the information super-highway with the launch of the website you are visiting just now. Since then a back catalogue has grown to include thousands of podcasts and written pieces, some of which you might have missed and it is my arduous task pleasure to go through the archives and bring you some of the highlights of PTBN through the years.

This weeks podcast is an audio anniversary for Jennifer and Mirandia as Geek & Sassy #1 hit the PTBN POP feed in this week in 2016. In this episode our wonderful hosts give a brief introduction to their new audience and how they developed their geekiness, followed by about their favourite TV shows, and how they think some were cancelled far too early. To find out where they rank Doctor Who and Harry Potter in their Top 5 Fandom discussion, or to see who they picked as their Nerd Eye Candy of the Moment, click here to listen.

And while you’re listening to Geek & Sassy #1, take a trip down memory lane with JT Rozerro and Chris Jordan as they bring us Part 1 of their look at wrestling video games in We Miss The 90s. Together they discuss the good, the bad, and the King of the Ring of video games from both the WWF and WCW in the first part of the decade and give their rankings on their favourites.

JT: Hey Jen… I mean Andy… Or Cowboy? Wait who the hell are you? Regardless you look like someone that played a lot of wrestling video games in the early 90s, so you want to hang around and chat it up with me?

Chris: Who the hell am I? Let me introduce myself.

Chris.

Now that introductions are out of the way, I would be glad to hang out and talk about wrestling games. It’s probably the only genre of gaming that I’m familiar with. It wasn’t uncommon to find a young me, unshowered and surrounded by empty containers of Cup O’Noodles, trying to land a Macho Man elbow on an evil, beaten Hulk Hogan. I can’t recall how many games I played back in the day. It probably goes back to the Nintendo era.

JT: Hey Chris! Unshowered is the best way to game, I would assume. That’s what I am told anyway.

I certainly dove into wrestling video games through Nintendo first and foremost. I have one game we we will start with and then I am going to pull one out the NAHSTALGIA BIN in a moment.

First up… WrestleMania Challenge! I remember this game very vividly. I remember renting it and sitting in my basement and playing on a very old, barely working TV. But I remember loving it.

It had some great theme music, a solid roster and… Rick Rude with short hair! It also had my personal favorite of the day, Brutus Beefcake. The game was interesting because it was centered mainly around the Ultimate Warrior instead of Hulk Hogan (1990, natch).

You remember this gem? Was it a gem?

Chris: A gem?? WrestleMania Challenge? I don’t think so, dude. I will admit, though, that it was a step up from the previous WrestleMania game. The roster was pretty stacked with eight whole Superstars. Guys like Hogan, Warrior, Boss Man, Andre the Giant, Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, Randy Savage and Rick Rude.

However, I remember being disappointed in some aspects of this game. The theme music was there, but it was more like 8-bit versions of elevator renditions of their theme music.

JT: Yes it was terrible. I lied.

But… I was a theme music junkie and it wasn’t as readily available then as it is now, so you took whatever you could get. I loved theme songs so much that I made my mother call WWF headquarters to see if they would sell a cassette of them for me. She did. They didn’t. I was crestfallen. Crest. Fallen.

However… Let us switch promotions briefly to discuss WORLD. CHAMPIONSHIP. WRESTLING.

My favorite game of the very early part of the decade. It was unique and had some different stuff from what the WWF games offered, mainly that you chose your moveset before every match. Plus the roster was loaded… Sting! Flair! Steamboat! Rick Steiner! Road Warriors! THE GAMESMASTER!

I rented this one over and over and over…

Ever have the experience here? If not what was next in your canon?

Chris: I remember the WCW game very well. I also rented the hell out of that one. Not only could you select the wrestlers’ moveset, but they also had finishers, which was the first time I played a game that grasped that concept. The WWF games at that point, from what I remember, didn’t really incorporate finishers and yes the roster was also pretty cool at the time. DR. DEATH(!!), Eddie Gilbert. It had Rick Steiner, but not Scott Steiner which I found disappointing at the time, because I was hoping to pull off a Frankensteiner, the coolest move in wrestling back then.

Interesting thing is that the Road Warriors were on the cover, but they were on the WWF roster by the time I got my hands on this one.

I used to bring this back to the video store where I rented it, and then re-rent it. It got me in trouble with this one older kid at the store one time because I re-rented it in front of him, and he threatened to roll me for it and not return it, jacking up my mom’s rental account with bogus late fees.

JT: Ha! That is an awesome story. And it is a legit threat! That would have sucked man. Did you back down? I hope not…

Yes that was a mindfuck for sure, especially since I didn’t really watch NWA/WCW until 1992, so I was playing with a roster I didn’t have great knowledge of at all. The theme music of the game itself was pretty pimp though.

So, Genesis comes out and with it we get Super WrestleMania. I stayed loyal to NES but my good buddy Jim had it so I got to sample this game but don’t remember much about it. Eventually it came out for SNES too, but I was behind the curve on that. Did you ever dabble into the land of Sega?

Chris: I actually invited the kid back to my place to give it a whirl, then we ducked into a Woolworths where I ditched him and ran home before he knew what was up. He didn’t know where I lived and I didn’t really want him over anyway.

Yeah, Sega Genesis was awesome. I tried Super WrestleMania for Genesis, and the first thing I noticed was that the wrestlers had finishers, whereas the SNES version did not. One of the reasons why I picked up a Genesis, really. My favorite Genesis wrestling game, however, was Royal Rumble. The theme music was all there, the roster was stacked with guys like Hogan, Savage, Undertaker, IRS, Rick Martel, Razor Ramon, Jim Duggan, Crush. By the time I acquired this game, I was of legal drinking age (19 in Canada). My friend, Craig, and I would get into some beers and play video games on the weekends.

One time we teamed up with myself as Savage and Craig as Hogan, and we would go into tag tournament mode. I found myself knocked out on the mat, with one of the opponents also knocked down next to me. Craig, as Hogan, went to hit a legdrop on the opponent, and he nailed ME with it instead! We have no idea how that happened. Needless to say, as marks, we turned it into an angle and would fight each other the next match. Good times!

JT: Woolworths! We need to do 90s malls and department stores in a future installment of this for sure. And good, screw him. It is your right to renew!

I did like Genesis but I was Nintendo through and through and couldn’t be swayed. Royal Rumble was really awesome and Josh Richer and I would have some real battles. Rumble matches felt like they could go on for hours in that game. It was also frustrating that Genesis and SNES had slightly different rosters:

Genesis had Martel, IRS, Duggan, Shango and Hogan!

SNES had Flair, Perfect, DiBiase, Yokozuna and Tatanka!

I liked having Flair and Perfect but I really wanted Hogan and Shango… Papa Fucking Shango in a video game! Baller. Plus the Model’s theme sounded great in that game.

Also frustrating was that on the box for SNES, Mr. Perfect had on his black tights from Survivor Series 1992 but I could never figure out how to get them to appear in the game. Drove me nuts.

I want to circle back to NES and Steel Cage Challenge. The graphics seemed to take a step back but the cage match gimmick was neat plus it featured The Mountie’s theme in MIDI form. I have a good story about renting this game, but first… Any memories of it?

Chris: About the different rosters for SNES/Genesis Royal Rumble: I was a little miffed that the Genesis version never had Mr. Perfect, as he was my #1 guy at the time. My friend, the aforementioned Craig, had both a SNES and a Sega Genesis because he let his pimp hand do the talking like that. I also enjoyed the Royal Rumble match feature that you, as a player, could come back as another guy if you were eliminated…except when you came back as Duggan.

Anyway, on to Steel Cage Challenge. Yes, I remember this game also. I rented this for the NES console many time in my quest to be champ. One note about my gaming skills: I’m not skilled. Where it would take someone a couple hours to beat a game, there were games that I could never beat. Choosing Bret Hart, I would struggle to barely beat guys after the third match in championship mode. One guy that always beat me was The Undertaker. This was the first WWF game to feature a cage match, so i was pretty stoked for it.

You’re right on The Mountie theme. Classic mark out music.

JT: Yes being able to re-enter the Rumble was pretty clutch. To me that was the first game with a ton of replayability (that a word?) and I squeezed every ounce out of it.

I was so psyched for Steel Cage Challenge when it came out. Having that generation of stars in a game was neat and the cage just added to it all.

The day it came out, as soon as I got to my grandparents’ house after school, I called The Movie Center to ask if it was in stock. When the girl answered she said “The Movie Center, Phoenix”. After she confirmed I asked my mother to stop at the Movie Center on the way home to pick it up. Well, we get there and they don’t have it. Apparently there were two Movie Centers and the one I had called was in the Phoenix section of town. I thought Phoenix was that girl’s name. Of course, being 12 and desperately wanting to play this game, I lost my shit and my poor mom drove back across town so I could get it. And I played the shit out of it and eventually bought it. It was a lot of fun, even if IRS’ theme music was just a typewriter clicking and clacking over and over during the match. Looking back, I know the game sucked hard but whatever it was great the time.

Before we go fully into the next generation games for SNES and Genesis, I wanted to toss two more rare ones out there to see if you ever experienced them:

King of the Ring for NES Rage in the Cage for Sega CD

CJ: Your mom was pretty cool to drag you to the other side of town for a wrestling game. I come from a small town and my mom would have made me walk or take my bike. She was NOT cool. And Phoenix is a good name for a girl. It limits her career choices down to stripper or porn star, so it should be easier to decide what to do with her life.

King of the Ring for NES is one that I can remember playing. Rage in the Cage for Sega CD however…I have to hearken back to my friend Craig again. This guy had all the cool stuff back then. He had Sega CD and Rage in the Cage was one I can remember playing at his house. I thought it was cool immediately with the Fink doing intros and short videos. Any game with Kamala in it was kick-ass. That loading time, though. I can remember the game freezing a few times. One time, Craig was one win away from the championship and it froze on him. He started going all Ric Flair on us, dropping elbows like a lunatic.

JT: King of the Ring came out very late in 1993 and got lost in the shuffle because most people had moved on to the next generation consoles. It had a cool roster though: Hogan, Savage, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Michaels, Ramon, Bigelow, Yokozuna, Perfect, Luger (as Narcissist!) and YOU! That is right, our first, albeit very rudimentary, CAW! Plus you could do a tournament, which was cool. My buddy Jim had it and I played it out of pity when I went over his house but eventually he stepped up to Genesis and that was that.

I can’t believe you played Rage in the Cage! We would stare at that magazine ad with jealous eyes, unable to process that such an awesome looking game was just impossible for us to ever play. Kamala! The Nasty Boys! CAGES! CDs? Mind blowing.

OK, we can now dive fully into SNES. We need to talk about Raw, which was a kick ass Christmas gift in 1994, but first… did you ever play WCW SuperBrawl? The KB Toys in the Warwick Mall had it in the discount bin for all eternity and I would always stare at it but never pulled the trigger on the $15 or so it would cost to bring it home. You ever get to play that one? And did you have Raw for SNES? Or were you solely Genesis?

Chris: You know something? I cannot recall the SuperBrawl game, which is weird because my friends and I were HUGE wrestling geeks and how this one got past us, I don’t know. I wasn’t too big on SNES, as I was Genesis-centric. You know another genre of game I was fond of was baseball, and I had the Genesis for another reason: World Series Baseball. But aside from the original NES, Genesis was the only other system I owned.

Now Raw was a game that I played. Again, Friday nights at Craig’s were filled with nothing but wrestling games, wrestling tapes, and backyard wrestling. Our mutual friend Leon tried to make me submit with his figure-four leglock, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Anyway, Raw was a kick-ass game, with my favorite character being Doink, because he had that top rope Whoopee Cushion. But this game also had The 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Diesel and the late, great Owen Hart! Again, Royal Rumble mode was the best for me, as I had no skill to beat anybody, but could also sneak someone over the top rope if I needed to. That was me: the cheap shot artist.

Did you have a favorite character?

JT: I bet SuperBrawl is still in that bin in front of KB in Heaven.

Yeah Raw had a loaded roster for sure and again the ability to park on the character pages and listen to the themes was big for me. I would dub the themes to cassette and use them for entrance music for my Hasbro figures or my wrestling buddy matches.

The game also had a nice array of finishing moves and stood out for including Luna Vachon, who I believe was the first female competitor involved in one of these games. Was it weird that they had male vs. female violence in a kids’ game in 1994? Doesn’t really fit the profile. Are they saying she isn’t a woman? Michaels and Diesel were my jam in 94, so I definitely favored using them.

Apparently there was a Genesis MegaDrive version that had Gorilla Monsoon (!) and Stephanie Wiand (!!) doing commentary instead of McMahon and Lawler. How bizarre.

A year later we radically take a left turn and are gifted WrestleMania: The Arcade Game. With games like NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat all the rage, WMTAG was much more in your face and…zany? I guess zany. There were exaggerated movements and crazy finishers (Doink’s hand buzzer says hi!) and Vince McMahon screaming (THAT’S GOTTA HURT!) and… it was surprisingly a ton of fun to play. The moves were crisp and the action was non stop. Plus the graphics were pretty great and the details were super sharp. Even though it had a limited roster and even less match options it had great playability and I wasted many hours on it. Did you enjoy this game as much as I did? Or am I in a silo here?

Chris: Recording the themes from the video game for your action figures just shows proof of your hardcore wrestling love. That sounds awesome **coughnerdcough** Oh, who am I kidding? I used to put on weekly shows and PPV cards with my younger brother’s action figures all he time.

Now that you mention it, I totally forgot about the inclusion of Luna in the Raw game. Of course, I would never pick her because I was sexist. I had no issue with hitting her over the head with a weapon, with equal rights and all that. That was definitely the first selectable female character, however. Also, this was the first game where some characters could win with a roll-up. No recollection of a rival’s theme music playing just before said roll-up, though. While we’re on it, I seem to remember that the Sega 32X version included Kwang. I only remember this because my hardcore console-collecting friend Craig informed me of this over the phone one day, which made me do a spit take, literally. YooHoo everywhere. Never got a visual confirmation of that Kwang, however (he really was).

Now Wrestlemanial The Arcade Game is legendary among me and my friends because I ABSOLUTELY HATED IT!! I refused to play it. It had taken my love of wrestling and turned it into an over-the-top, cartoonish display of comic proportions. It was still real to me, dammit, before that was even a phrase to coin! You had Doink pull out a HUGE mallet to hit over the opponent’s head, Bam Bam Bigelow’s fists actually WERE fists of fire! I couldn’t stand it because I wanted realism out of my fake sport. Was that too much to ask for?

JT: Kwang is such a random inclusion. There was nobody else left on the 1994 roster they could have swapped in? Jeff Jarrett even? Sparky Plugg? Bob Backlund! Weird.

It breaks my heart that you hate WMTAG so much! It was nutty but super fun and those graphics? Straight fire.

Ok, so I am thinking we can draw the line in the sand here and spin off a second part that covers the back end of the decade and the next gen consoles like PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Before we go, I have two asks:

– Give me your closing thoughts on the first half of the decade in wrestling video games – Rank all the ones we discussed based on your love and memories, not based on their actual quality as a game

And… one more… who was your favorite character to be out of all these games?

Chris: So for me, looking back at the early part of the 90s, I can say that the games for the most part were not that great, but they were AT THE TIME! It was easy to get stoked for certain wrestlers appearing in the games, the gradual improvement of the theme music and the improvement of the graphics with each console. The downside early on basically came down to moveset and the lack of finishers. We tend to get nostalgic, but really, would any of us go back and play them now on any kind of serious gaming level?

Ranking the games, for me, begins with my #1: Royal Rumble for Sega Genesis.

2. WWF Raw for Sega Genesis 3. WCW Wrestling for NES 4. WWF Steel Cage Challenge for NES 5. WWF Rage in the Cage for Sega CD 6. WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game

This is just the games I played and my enjoyment level of them. My favorite character was Randy Savage all the way. I just wish that Mr. Perfect was in the Genesis version of Royal Rumble, or I would have gone in that direction.

JT: Agreed. Looking back, these games were sort of a hot mess, but at the time they were so cutting edge and amazing to play. The themes and variety of characters are what always sucked me in. They really did make the leap with those next gen games, especially Royal Rumble.

My list is as follows, and is pretty similar to yours:

1) WWF Royal Rumble for SNES 2) WWF Raw for SNES 3) WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game for SNES 4) WCW Wrestling for NES 5) WWF Super WrestleMania for SNES 6) WWF WrestleMania Challenge for NES 7) WWF Steel Cage Challenge for NES (TAKE THAT MOM!)

Looks like Royal Rumble reigns supreme!

OK, we shall part ways for now and soon return to look at the new wave of games for the next set of consoles. We will be back even sooner with a whole new topic. Until then…REJECTED! THAT’S GOTTA HURT! PIN HIM! PIN HIM! PIN HIM! YOU HAVE TO GIVE CREDIT TO… CHRIS JORDAN!

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

0 notes

renka-aardvarknews-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Hypocritical Simpsons producer pulls Michael Jackson episode after ‘Leaving Neverland’ doc backlash

Producers of The Simpsons cartoon series are pulling an episode featuring Michael Jackson following renewed allegations of child abuse in a new documentary. Reaction has been mixed, with many accusing the show of hypocrisy. HBO’s new documentary ‘Leaving Neverland,’ contains a slew of allegations of child sexual abuse against pop icon Michael Jackson, made by his accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck. In the 1991 Simpsons episode ‘Stark Raving Dad,’ Homer meets a man named Leon Kompowsky who believes he is Michael Jackson. Kompowsky befriends Homer’s son Bart and even sings a once-popular birthday song for Lisa. Executive producers of the long-running animated series have decided to remove the episode, which features the voice of the pop star, from syndication and streaming services in the US. The news follows decisions by radio stations across the globe to remove the star’s music from their playlists. "The guys I work with – where we spend our lives arguing over jokes – were of one mind on this," Simpsons producer James L. Brooks told the Wall Street Journal, adding that it "feels clearly the only choice to make." Online reaction to the news was mixed, with some saying it was the right move to make, others accusing Brooks of blatant hypocrisy, as the show has featured many controversial figures over the years, including Bill Cosby and Charles Manson.

The "Leaving Neverland" documentary rigorously details allegations of child abuse made against Michael Jackson and has reignited the decades-old controversy surrounding the musical icon – but the #MeToo era has already given its verdict. When police began investigating Jackson over accusations of child molestation in 1993, the world quickly divided into two equally resolute camps; those who defended the superstar and those who believed the accusers. This time, however, we are in the #MeToo era. While Jackson’s family has vigorously denied the claims made by Wade Robson and James Safechuck in the documentary and is suing HBO, which produced it, for $100 million, the backlash has been instant. A museum in Britain has removed a statue of Jackson. Op-eds are appearing by fans who once were more convinced of Jackson’s innocence but who have since changed their minds. Oprah Winfrey has taken heat from Jackson superfans for her support of Robson and Safechuck. Radio stations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand have even been banning Jackson’s music. To ban or not to ban? The question of pulling Jackson’s music from radio stations in light of the documentary is a heated one. "The thrill is gone," one headline reads. "We'll never listen to Michael Jackson the same way again," another says. Event DJs are torn about whether or not to stop playing Jackson songs at weddings. Should unproven allegations destroy the legacy of a man regarded as a musical genius? Even if the allegations could be proven, is banning the music the right decision? For many Political Correct ones, the answer is a clear-cut "yes" to banishing the music from the airwaves, but for others, it’s not just a simple question of right and wrong, but more a philosophical one. "I really have a huge issue with curtailing access to art and to things that have been created by somebody in the past, by somebody who is dead and who cannot do anything about it," film director Ramon J. Goni told RT. "When you look at a Picasso painting or you read a Hemingway book or even look at a statue that was created during the Renaissance period when the Catholic Church was torturing and killing people in the name of God," Goni asked, is not possible to separate the flawed human being from the art that was created "at their best moments"?

marni halasa But political activist Marni Halasa disagrees, said that "if listeners of these radio stations are calling up and saying you know what, this is criminal behavior that R. Kelly and Michael Jackson have actually engaged in and we're not okay with that, I think that's perfectly fine." To believe or not? Goni and Halasa also disagreed on how convincing the new documentary actually is. While Halasa believes Robson and Safechuck’s accounts of abuse are "irrefutable," Goni said that judgements were being made without real evidence. "It’s a scary area if we all are judging for ourselves with very limited facts, with facts that we don't quite cross-examine with actual evidence other than interviews and documentaries that are biased," he said. People across the world are equally convinced on both sides. Jackson superfans believe Robson and Safechuck are just looking for money. They claim there are inconsistencies in the men’s stories and have blasted the documentary as one-sided.

© Reuters / Leonhard Foeger They point to Macaulay Culkin, who also had a close relationship with Jackson as a child, and who says he was never abused (suggesting that since Culkin already had money and fame, he didn’t need to ‘fabricate’ abuse allegations). They also point to Brett Barnes, another man who knew Jackson in the 90s as a child and denied abuse took place. Director Dan Reed did not approach Culkin or Barnes for the documentary. Many are equally convinced Jackson did commit the crimes and find the emotional accounts of abuse presented in the documentary too convincing, compelling and detailed to deny. "If Michael Jackson were alive, I'm confident a jury would find him guilty," a barrister writes in the UK Telegraph. Those who believe in Jackson’s guilt also point to Culkin’s case, saying that an abuser would likely target children with less power – and that this is why Culkin was never a victim. They say Jackson was a master manipulator who groomed both the boys and their families into thinking sleeping in his bedroom was normal and they question the Peter Pan persona of the damaged, eternal child that Jackson portrayed.

From social to mainstream media While the debate rages online between vehement supporters of Jackson and adamant believers of his accusers, mainstream media has almost 100 percent come down on the side of the accusers this time around. The certainty of the media can likely be explained by the #MeToo culture which says all accusers must instantly be believed for the greater good and which leaves no room for any defence of the accused. Jackson’s legacy has been attacked as though there is no doubt whatsoever about the allegations made against him at a time when he has no ability to defend himself. Some in the media have even done away with all pretence of ‘innocent unless proven guilty’ and simply refer to Robson and Safechuck as"survivors" of abuse rather than "accusers," despite the fact that there is no surefire way to prove the authenticity of their accounts, however harrowing they may be. Piers Morgan appears to be one of the only media figures who has vigorously questioned Reed on the accusations made in the documentary. Aside from that interview, critical analysis of the documentary has been almost entirely missing in the media, in favour of swift condemnation of Jackson. So was Jackson just a troubled man whose childhood was stolen by an abusive father and who struggled to relive a better version of it in adulthood? Or did his troubled past really lead him to commit terrible acts of child abuse? The #MeToo epoch has delivered its own verdict: guilty as accused, no proof necessary. If you want to enjoy Michael Jackson before Youtube decides to ban him too, here's a link: Omg, there are certainly a lot of snowflakes who will be offended by this clip... Read the full article

#metoo #AgeofPoliticalCorrectness

0 notes

afpwestcoast · 7 years ago

Text

9:30 Club, Washington, DC, 10/31/17

There’s a famous story in the annals of showmanship about Bobby Darin - known at the time almost exclusively for his rendition of the classic Mack the Knife. He parlayed the success of his interpretation of the song into a concert at Carnegie Hall, which the crowd expected would build to a climax of the familiar favorite. Instead, Darin OPENED with Mack the Knife, and then proceeded to blow the doors off with a stellar performance, as if to say, ‘You think this is all I can do? Watch this!’

On the 17th anniversary of their meeting, Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione - The Dresden Dolls - performed their version of this stunt by opening with perennial fan favorite and frequent show closer Girl Anachronism. And, like Darin before them, they never looked back and proceeded to torch through a set that included some of the Dolls’ oldest material as well as some brand new songs and a varied list of covers that left the audience thrilled and exhausted.

Plus zombie Madonnas.

Annotated Set List:

Girl Anachronism

Dirty Business

Missed Me

Ultima Esperanza

Backstabber

Mandy Goes to Med School

Mrs. O

Material Girl (Madonna cover). Before the show Amanda tweeted a call for people to dress up as zombie Madonna. For this (slow and doleful) cover the Madonnas - including one zombie Mother of God - covered the stage in camp horror.

Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones cover). For this cover Brian picked up his guitar and Amanda took over the drumming duties. Trés punk.

Rid of Me (PJ Harvey cover). Amanda stayed on drums and intimated that she had never drummed on a song that she cared about before. (RAMONES SLAM!)

Napoleon (Ani DiFranco cover)

Shores of California

Thirty Whacks

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor cover (excerpt)) This was a brief interlude to psych up for the first public performance of the following song.

The Love You Never Got. A brand new Dresden Dolls song!! Though the title was not announced, I am deducing it from the chorus. A very engaging song, both musically and lyrically, that I predict will hold up well amongst the Dolls’ canon.

Halloween Polka. An original, impromptu Viglione composition that provided another brief (well, brief-ish) interlude necessitated by a piano bench malfunction.

Small Hands, Small Heart. A recent AFP Patreon release that is a great and topical song, but one that doesn’t quite work as a Dresden Dolls song, IMHO.

Bank of Boston Beauty Queen. A fave from back in the day that they haven’t played live in years.

Modern Moonlight

Half Jack

——

Amsterdam (Jacques Brel cover)

Killing In The Name (Rage Against the Machine cover). Bombastic openers This Way to the EGRESS were invited onstage, turning this iconic cover into a spectacle of cacophonous exuberance. The crowd lost its mind, Amanda was nearly maimed in a tragic crowd-surfing accident, and the collective attitude of joyfully enraged defiance felt like a deeply political and ultimately cathartic act.

—-

Coin-Operated Boy

Sing. Sing for the President, Sing for the terrorists, Sing. *heavy sigh*

Photo Gallery:

@_NikkiLS_, @DeannaDYoga, & @Esmertina ready for some Halloween fun!

@DeannaDYoga making friends … and art!

@_NikkiLS_ and I got Lost in Translation

The Artist in her natural habitat.

Viggie sporting some new regalia. It’s amazing that this coat stayed on until the 2nd encore.

Well technically the piano is a percussion instrument, right?

0 notes

emblem-333 · 5 years ago

Text

It Isn’t ALL Kevin Nash’s Fault

In 1995, the WWE was in the beginning stages of a down period once Hulk Hogan left the company in June of 1993. The New Generation lead by Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, while talented, couldn’t continue the successes “Hulkamania” reached like Vince McMahon hoped.

The New Generation rose to prominence in the fall of 1992. Off the heels of a mildly successful WrestleMania VIII, the company knew their love affair with Hulk was nearing its end. Although they gifted the Hulkster the coveted main event match on the card - a non title bout against Sid Justice; which ended in a disqualification. The climax of the match was the surprise appearance of former champion The Ultimate Warrior running in to save Hogan from the beat down he was receiving from Justice.

The choice to book this particular match in the main event raised a lot of eyebrows. Hogan wasn’t going over Justice, on the contrary, this was his foe’s coming out party as an unstoppable killing machine. Justice wouldn’t last long after WrestleMania. His final match for the company was during its tour of the United Kingdom where he scored a victory over The Undertaker, his third loss PPV since joining the company in 1990.

Hogan spent the majority of the match beaten up and overpowered. The sight of Hogan dominated physically shocked those in attendance. They waited with baited breath for his famed Babyface comebacks. When it came, Hogan missed the leg drop and Justice proceeded to beat him some more. Warrior making the save in the end communicated to the fans that he was back in the fold after a abruptly leaving the WWE after SummerSlam in 1991. Hogan was almost an afterthought. This match was his send off. Hogan was leaving wrestling to film movies.

Vince nearly broke down in tears when Hogan informed him this was likely his last WrestleMania. The timing couldn’t have been better on Hogan’s end. Hulkamania was running out of steam, a new fresh Babyface in Bret was making a run for his spot. Fast forward a year later, Hogan is not only back at WrestleMania, but leaves the champion. McMahon showed little confidence in his new guys and came running into the arms of his old flame.

If WrestleMania IX was defined by the complete injustice of Bret Hart, the ‘Mania after was defined by his redemption. Like the year prior, Hart main events the pay-per-view, against Yokozuna and wins! Prior to that, HBK and Razor Ramon brought Madison Square Garden off their feet during their iconic ladder match for the Intercontinental strap. This was the height of the New Generation.

Bret held the strap for 248 days, participating in two high profile feuds. One involving his brother Owen, who scored a victory over his older brother in the greatest ‘Mania opening match in history. The two outdid themselves at SummerSlam, Bret going over this time in a steel cage match. The second feud was returning legend and former champion Bob Backlund.

Backlund returned to the WWE after a ten-year hiatus. Before Hulk Hogan, Backlund was the standard bearer of the WWE. Holding the championship belt for over 2,000 days before losing to the Iron Sheik so he could lose it to the aforementioned Hogan three weeks later.

Born in Minnesota, Backlund was the perfect white meat, midwestern Babyface for the era of the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. His appearance screamed humble and “aw, shucks.”

Bret was the same style of Babyface. Absolutely no edge to his character, he was a hero. Plain and simple.

When the two clashed on a late July tapping of WWF Superstars, Backlund have “The Hitman” all he can handle, coming up short via roll-up pin after Backlund believed he secured the victory. Bret extends his hand to the aggrieved Backlund who lost his last wit, snapping and attacking the champion. Backlund placed his infamous “Chicken Wing” submission maneuver on Hart and tortured him for what felt like ages. When referees finally pried the mad man off the champion, he stared at his hands like he committed a murder. The all-American boy, born and raised in the Midwest, turned heel.

Backlund won the title from Hart at Survivor Series, ending his run as champion at 248 days. But it wouldn’t last long. On a House Show in Madison Square Garden three days after Survivor Series, Backlund was massacred by Shawn Michaels bodyguard Diesel and lost the title in ten seconds. On the next episode of Raw, Diesel was the champion and even though he originated and became famous as a heel, was being portrayed as a Babyface in the mold of Hogan. Sort of like the precursor to Roman Reigns.

Diesel (a.k.a Kevin Nash) took a strange journey to becoming world champion. At 35-years old, the WWE placed all their hopes on Diesel carrying them out of these dark times.

Nash began his wrestling career in 1990 for World Championship Wrestling as an orange-mohawked man named “Steel,” acting as one half of the tag team known as The Master Blasters. They began their WCW run on a undefeated streak, before running into the Steiner Brothers and losing in 52 seconds. Nash was repacked as “Oz” a clear ripoff of a character from the Wizard of Oz from the 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Nash was managed by The Great Wizard (Kevin Sullivan). Ultimately, this gimmick fizzled out as well. All plans for Nash was scrapped when he refused to sign a $300 a night guarantee as the company was cutting costs. Nash remained in the company, repackaging him as “Vinnie Vegas.” A streetwise, Italian-American straight out of the movies.

Nash found himself in the WWE soon after, at the request of Michaels to act as his bodyguard. He took the name “Diesel” and made his debut at a House Show helping HBK defeat his former friend, now nemesis Marty Jannetty for the Intercontinental Title acting as the enforcer for the heel Michaels.

The relationship went both ways, Michaels would help Diesel win the Intercontinental Championship over fellow Kliqmate Razor Ramon after HBK took a hiatus following WrestleMania X to rehab an injured ankle.

In 1994, the WWE was in quite the bind. WCW plucked their talent from them (Hogan, Savage, Flair) and their homegrown talent was just as good (Sting, Barry Windham, Big Van Vader). Vince signed Lex Luger to a hefty sum of capital in ‘93. The former WCW failed to duplicate his success in the WWE, likely through no fault of his own. Since once he returned to WCW Luger proved to be more, if not more popular than in his first run.

McMahon wasn’t sure if Bret was the guy to turn the ship around. So after having him drop the belt to Bob Backlund at Survivor Series, Diesel would crush the champion at a House Show three days later. This coming after Diesel and Michaels ended their keyfabe friendship, with Big Sexy turning Babyface in the process.

Diesel would hold the belt for 358 days and his reign is wildly panned by just about every metric. His reign coinciding with WWE’s worst run of House Show and PPV revenue.

I’m no fan of Kevin Nash. I think we can blame him for a ton of stuff. However, i’m doubtful anyone could have righted the ship for WWE in this time. The business model of the company was far too ancient to generate a profit. WCW changed the game by having 10 PPVs are year, to the WWE’s five. Monday Night Raw was only an hour, Nitro was two.

Bret, Diesel, HBK, two of them were the greatest wrestlers of their era, perhaps ever. Diesel was intimidating as fuck and the closest WWE got to home growing their replacement Hulk Hogan. All considered flops as champions due to an antiquated business model.

Diesel and HBK’s respective title reigns saw them defanged once the belt was fitted around their waists. All the edge in their characters was drained in favor of a more family friendly persona. Everything that got Diesel over to the audience as a bad-ass suddenly vanished. Michaels suddenly was being accompanied to the ring by his real-life mentor Jose Lothario during every match.

When Michaels lost the belt to Sycho Sid at Survivor Series, held at Madison Square Garden that year, the heel did everything to generate a negative reaction from the New York crowd. He even attacked old man Lothario and received only palpable cheers for his assault. HBK in the ring certainly deserved praise. But the dirty secret about him is he’s always been a superior heel, versus him as a white meat Babyface. The good guy image never fit for the guy who does a stripping routine before every match and fancies himself a ladies man. It didn’t fit Diesel either.

The company acknowledged their past mistakes on the Raw after ‘Mania XIV. Teasing the audience they were going to make the same mistake with their new champion, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Even putting him in a suit and taking pictures with Vince McMahon in the ring. The corporatizing of the champion isn’t unheard of. But Austin proving to be the company’s most profitable champions, whilst going against the traditional grain makes me scratch my head as to why Vince desperately wants champions in the mold of Hogan, Cena and Reigns, when the model clearly is outdated and detrimental to the overall product.

The booking of WrestleMania XII was a testament to how desperate the WWE was in recapturing it’s glory. Even copying the steps it took to set up the original WrestleMania. The company was short on talent and sought big name celebrities to compensate. Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy accompany both the champion and the challenger, respectively, to the ring for their title match. Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor squares off versus Bam Bam Bigelow in the Main Event of ‘Mania. Not dissimilar from the first WrestleMania. Singer Cyndi Lauper played a role in the penultimate match. Muhammad Ali was the guest referee in the main event, and Mr. T wrestled in said main event.

Getting celebrities involved in wrestling to draw casual eyeballs is fine. WrestleMania XII would’ve been a bigger flop without them. But the booking of the card bugged me. Even though I wasn’t even born when it took place.

First off, Diesel rose up the ranks too soon. He was green on the stick, coming off as disingenuous when cutting a Babyface promo on the Raw after winning the title from Backlund. Maybe Nash was never meant to be the top guy in the first place, his title reign shouldn’t have been so disastrous regardless.

WWE blamed Bret for the bad numbers and assumed a new champion was needed. So the Hart-Backlund conflict took a backseat to Diesel vs Shawn. WWE wanted to groom HBK as the next top Babyface, so he became a tweener and won the Royal Rumble despite being the first entrant. The ‘95 Rumble was the shortest in the history of the PPV not even eclipsing forty-minutes. Perhaps more importantly, the only notable names HBK interacted with during the rumble was The British Bulldog and Lex Luger. The latter is gone too soon, the former hangs around for too long. Bulldog survives until the very end and he came in at number two. Receiving nothing for coming up short despite him and Michaels lasting the exact same length of time.

Owen Hart and Backlund were both ambushed by Bret before entering the ring, thus killing any interest fans could have had in this match.

In my opinion, the WWE should have done one of the following versus what actually happened.

1. Diesel wins the Royal Rumble

Diesel could smash Backlund at ‘Mania, turn Babyface at some point before or after the rumble devote crucial time to his push and perhaps avoid the issues WWE faced.

2. Buildup a Bret - HBK program

I mean why not? HBK isn’t even the champion so it’s not like you’re asking him to drop anything. Who is HBK to turn his nose up at a chance to main event WrestleMania?

3. Slot the blowoff match of the Bret-Backlund feud for the title

It does suck the blowoff to a surprisingly quality feud ended in a farce of a match. Slotted in the middle of the card, with Roddy Piper sticking a microphone in the face of either Bob or Bret every few seconds to snag a little bit of the already dimming spotlight. It was ugly and a damn shame. At least there was a story being told that made sense. Bret was the company’s face (or at least he’s supposed to be) why not main event this year’s ‘Mania?

4. Put the pieces in place for a Diesel vs HBK vs Bam Bam vs L.T main event title match

Ah, now we get crazy. Crazy with a capital K. Bam Bam vs L.T was surprisingly good, and the feud proceeding the match was excellently built.

People could debate who’d win in a lock up, Diesel or L.T? Will HBK super kick L.T? (I know HBK’s finisher at this time was the fisherman’s suplex) Will L.T win the championship? Is it jumping the shark? Yes. Would it have been good for business? Also, yes.

#WWE #HBK #Diesel #WrestleMania #Bret Hart #Bob Backlund #fantasty booking #free coinage of silver

1 note · View note

placetobenation · 7 years ago

Link

*** Scott & JT’s Vintage Vault Refresh reviews are a chronological look back at WWE PPV and TV history that began with a review of WrestleMania I. The PICs have revisited these events and refreshed all of their fun facts that provide insight into the match, competitors and state of the company as well as their overviews of the match action and opinions and thoughts on the outcomes. In addition, Jeff Jarvis assists in compiling historical information and the Fun Facts in each of the reviews. Also, be sure to leave feedback on the reviews at our Facebook page. Enjoy! ***

Monday Night Raw #116

June 19, 1995 (Taped June 5, 1995) Struthers High School Struthers, OH Announcers: Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

1) Undertaker defeats Mike McReynolds with the Tombstone at 2:00

Scott: We open the go-home Raw before Sunday in Philly with a loaded show and all of the major players. The Deadman faces Mabel in the first round of the KOTR tournament and warms up with a new jobber I’ve never heard of before. Vince McMahon finds Jerry Lawler’s feet putrid as the “Kiss My Foot” match is just six days away. The ventilation system in this high school is pretty bad as the smoke hasn’t left the ring area. Taker is one of many guys that could win this tournament, and perhaps after not being around much in 1994, this tournament is his to take. Grade: DUD

JT: We are back here with another edition of Monday Night Raw, still coming at you via videotape from the rocking Struthers High School field house, just six days away from King of the Ring. Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler welcome us to the show and we waste literally no time in welcoming in the Deadman for our opening bout. It isn’t often that Undertaker pops up on Raw, so they really are hyping up this rare treat for us. Vince wastes no time just ripping into King’s disgusting feet as Taker attacks Mike McReynolds off the bell and proceeds to batter him amidst a cloud of persistent smoke. Vince also reminds us that Taker has to square off with Mabel in the KOTR opening round while King notes that he may be looking past Sunday and on to getting revenge on Kama. Lots going on for the Deadman for sure here as of late. Taker easily finishes of McReynolds with the Tombstone and then stuffs him in a bodybag while the Creatures of the Night look on from the crowd. Grade: DUD

*** We head back to last week and recap the issues that unfolded between Bob Backlund and Man Mountain Rock. ***

2) Adam Bomb defeats Bill Payne with a clothesline off the top rope at 2:00

Scott: I’m pretty bummed that Adam Bomb is not in the KOTR tournament, but I guess there’s only so many people you can put in it, and if Lex Luger, British Bulldog & Owen Hart aren’t in it I guess Bomb can’t be either. Vince is shilling the new WWF magazine with Lawler on the cover, and he says the “APA” sponsored it. Hmmmm, a future time remnant? Never mind, we’ll get there. Bomb is beating down this stiff while Vince keeps harping on Lawler’s stinky feet. Bomb wins easily and perhaps can be a contender to Jeff Jarrett’s IC Title. Grade: DUD

JT: Back to the ring we go as Adam Bomb stalks to the ring to battle Bill Payne. Vince talks about the work Bomb is doing with the upcoming Special Olympics in Connecticut as things get started. Vince and King spend nearly the entire match discussing the Kiss My Foot match, including looking at the WWF Magazine, which has Lawler on the cover. Vince also breaks the news that Razor Ramon’s rib injury may keep him out of the King of the Ring. That would be a pretty big blow to the quality of the tournament. Bomb finishes Payne off with a clothesline from the top. Grade: DUD

*** Todd Pettengill is here with our final King of the Ring update here on Monday Night Raw as the show is just six days away now. Here is the full card:

Diesel & Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Sid & Tatanka Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler – Kiss My Foot Match Undertaker vs. Mabel – Opening Round Match Shawn Michaels vs. Kama – Opening Round Match Bob Holly vs. Roadie – Opening Round Match Razor Ramon vs. Yokozuna – Opening Round Match

All that plus the remainder of the KOTR tournament. There you have it! Be sure to order today so you aren’t left out of the big night in Philadelphia. We will see you there! ***

*** Barry Didinsky is in the aisle promoting a special Diesel Power shirt, available for purchase tonight! ***

3) Psycho Sid & Tatanka defeat New Headshrinkers when Tatanka pins Sionne with after a Sid powerbomb on the floor at 8:56

Fun Fact: PTBN bids a fond farewell to what is left of the Headshrinkers after this match. The team was never the same after Samu left the WWF in the fall of 1994. Sione replaced Samu, but the team only made 1 PPV appearance, the 1994 Survivor Series, after the change. The team would stay around in the WWF until July before Sione left for WCW.

Scott: Before this, we had our final KOTR report with a Bret Hart promo in there as well. I hope that match is really good because the gimmick is so stupid. The Headshrinkers have slid down the tag team ladder even though Sione is an awesome worker and to me upgrades that team beyond when they were Tag Team Champions. Obviously, this is a setup for Sid & Tatanka to win as they face Diesel & Bigelow on Sunday. Is that match the main event? Will the tournament finals be the main event? How about Hart vs. Lawler? One year ago Lawler was in the main event, why not this year? So many questions surrounding Sunday. The Corporation is working pretty well as a team here and doing some effective double teaming on Fatu & Sionne. Eventually, Sid hits a pretty vicious powerbomb on the floor and that leads to Tatanka’s pinfall and the heels are victorious. It was a fun TV match with a sick ending. Grade: **

JT: We head down to the ring for our marquee match of the evening as Ted DiBiase leads out his prized team of Psycho Sid and Tatanka. Of course, these two are looking to get some work in before they head to Philadelphia for their big challenge against Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow, so DiBiase signed them for a match against the fading Headshrinkers. Just one year ago, Fatu and Samu were the kings of the tag division, but here we are twelve months later, Samu is gone, Sionne is here and they are nothing but cannon fodder. Even in the promo hyping this match last week, Todd Pettengill basically admitted the Samoans were floundering and needed a big win. As we start to get settled in, King pokes fun at Diesel’s balky elbow, which is still ailing the Champion as we near Sunday. Fatu and Tatanka open up and the Samoan dominates early with hard strikes. Tatanka comes back with a clothesline and starts to work the neck and upper back with chops before pitching the big man to the floor. Tatanka fetches him and rolls him back inside but Fatu just shrugs off a chop to the head from the top rope and then no sells a DDT as well. Vince talks about the thickness of Fatu’s cranium as he drops Tatanka with a side kick and then dances. Sid tags in and stares down Fatu, who moonwalks to the corner and checks in with Sione. Sid tries to ram their heads together but that fails and Sione clotheslines Sid down and lays in a few more shots. Sid recovers and cuts Fatu down with a real hard clothesline and then plants him with a chokeslam. He follows with a leg drop and grabs a near fall and then continues to maul Fatu through a break. Tatanka tags in and keeps the pressure on as Vince again talks about Diesel’s elbow as well as an upcoming charity softball game that he will be taking part in this weekend. Sid and Tatanka double team in the corner, but Sid would whiff on a leg drop, giving Fatu a false hope before Tatanka cut him back down. Fatu would dodge a Tatanka elbow and finally tag in Sione, who came in and mowed right through the Native American, nabbing near falls on a powerslam and stun gun. Stone followed with a piledriver for two but Sid made the save. Sione and Tatanka would end up on the floor while Sid dropped Fatu with a powerbomb in the ring. Sid then hung Fatu in the ropes and hit the floor where he dropped Sione with a big powerbomb on the floor. They pitched him back inside where Tatanka covered for the easy win. Well that was quite the strong finish to a surprisingly feisty match. Sticking Tatanka in this team may have been a shrewd move as this was the best he looked in a while. Sid was great too, tweaking out on the apron and then just beating the piss out of both Samoans whenever he could. The finish was great too with him just wrecking Fatu and Sione with powerbombs to wipe them out. DiBiase’s boys certainly look locked and loaded for Philly. We also say farewell to the Samoans, a team that has provided a lot of entertainment over the past three years. Their time had clearly come but I also feel like they could have accomplished even more with a better sustained push throughout their run. Grade: **

*** We head backstage for a visit with Diesel and Bam Bam Bigelow. They talk about their chances on Sunday with Diesel’s ailing elbow and remain quite confident in their chances against the Corporate team despite the injury. ***

*** We check out footage from Jerry Lawler’s palace where he continues to prepare for Sunday. This time he shows off some ancient torture devices in his dungeon and then warns Bret Hart of the impending doom that awaits him. ***

4) Hunter Hearst-Helmsley defeats Buck Quartermain with the Pedigree at

Scott: This newcomer gets his second Raw match after a final Jerry Lawler vignette in his “palace” putting over the match Sunday with Bret Hart. I’m feeling based on the tournament and the tag match with the WWF Champion in it that this could be the main event. With Lawler as commentator, he can put this match over literally the entire show. Helmsley is a solid character and the mid-card is growing with some decent heels. He beats this bum up, and then debuts (On Raw) his new finisher, the “Pedigree”. Not a bad finisher at all. Grade: DUD

JT: Time for our next match as the blue blood Hunter Hearst-Helmsley slowly walks to the ring and disrobes for a match with old pal Buck Quartermain. King continues to take shots at the Hart Family as the insane hype for the Kiss My Foot match continues. Hunter makes very easy work of the Buckster and finishes him off with his brand new finisher: the Pedigree. Nice win for the American Blueblood as he continues to quietly pick up wins on a regular basis. Grade: DUD

5) Shawn Michaels defeats Gus Kantarakis with the superkick at 4:16

Scott: So Shawn is in the KOTR tournament against Kama in the first round, and with the babyface push that Shawn is getting, if he made it to the finals I can see that match being the main event and the show ends with babyface Shawn celebrating. I do like the jobber’s tights being the colors of the Greek flag, since he is clearly Greek. I’m so puzzled and fascinated on how Sunday’s show will go. More in terms of match order than results, because Diesel’s tag team and Bret Hart are clearly winning, but it comes down to who wins the KOTR tournament. The only legit heel in the bunch is Yokozuna, and as a former WWF Champion I can see him winning. Otherwise, the real favorites are all faces (Shawn, Razor, Undertaker), which means the final match of the night could be the finals of the tournament. Shawn wins the match with the superkick, but immediately Kama comes in looking to go after his tournament opponent in the first round. Then the Undertaker comes down the ramp, stalking the man who melted his urn down. Then Mabel comes down the ramp as we go off the air. Good way to boost the tournament. Grade: *1/2

JT: It is time for our final match of the night as the one and only Shawn Michaels dances out to the ring for a bout with the Greek Freak Gus Kantarakis. Michaels is sporting a five o’clock shadow and the ladies seem to be digging it for sure. Vince talks about Shawn’s tilt with Kama on Sunday as he looks to capture his first ever KOTR crown. He also mentions that Jim Ross has an update on the WWF Superstar line that centers around the injury to Razor Ramon and what could happen if he can’t go in Philly. Michaels plays around with Gus for a bit and then puts him to sleep with the superkick, picking up a win in his final stop the way to Philly. Grade: DUD

*** After the match, Kama tries to attack Shawn Michaels but Michaels fought him off and sent him bailing to the floor. Undertaker then stalked out and stared down Kama followed by Mabel also ambling out as the show would to a close. ***

Final Analysis

Scott: Finally we get some action on a Raw with a lot of the big stars out to wrestle and get the hard sell in before Sunday in Philly. Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Sid & Tatanka and some of the other players. Wait a minute, there are NO Title matches on Sunday. Sid’s in the tag match, Yoko is in the tournament and…wait where the fuck is Jeff Jarrett? Vince, are you drunk? What kind of mess is this? I’m not having a good feeling about this show on Sunday. Plus you’re in Philadelphia which could get kind of rowdy if they don’t like what they see. Good luck Vince, I think you’re going to need it. As for this episode, it’s head and shoulders better than the past two weeks. Now maybe come next Monday we have a great King and some storylines to chew on through the summer… but we will see. FINAL GRADE: C

JT: This was a solid go-home edition of Raw for sure. We saw some big names in there prepping for Sunday and the cornerstone tag match was surprisingly fun. Sid looked great in there and with all the focus on Diesel’s elbow, they have done a really good job of putting the finish of that match in question. Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler has been hyped to the Heavens, week after week, and is certainly being positioned as a big time match on the card. And speaking of the card, it is kind of a weird one. As Scott said, we have no title matches and a bunch of top name guys sitting at home, including Jeff Jarrett, British Bulldog and Owen Hart. The tournament is kind of loaded at least but the brackets have giant warning flares that something odd could be approaching as well. Next time we are here, we will know all the answers. Until then… Final Grade: C+

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

0 notes