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sweetsmellosuccess · 4 years ago

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TIFF 2020: Last Call

Films: 3 Best Film of the Day(s): Another Round

I Am Greta: A 15-year-old girl sits alone in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm with a simple hand-painted sign on a flat piece of wood that says “Skolstrejk For Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate”). A year later, that same girl, now 16, speaks before the general assembly of the UN in New York, and has helped rally millions to the cause of significant climate reform. In between those two poles lies the majority of Nathan Grossman’s fascinating documentary about young Greta Thunberg, and the movement she helped create of young people taking action for their own future. A slightly withdrawn kid with what she calls “a touch” of Asperger’s, Greta’s success, as unexpected and unprepared for as it was, lies partially in the very idea she conveys to another group of world leaders in Europe: “All you care about is popularity,” she growls at them, “I don’t care to be popular.” Because of her lack of personal ego in the process — else, you can imagine how going from having a small personal protest to meetings with the UN Attorney General and President of France within a few months; or better yet, in modern teen terms, to being largely ostracized from your school, where other kids “never invited” you to parties or gatherings, to having 10.6 million followers on IG, and the attention of many millions more, might swell your head and put you out of touch with yourself. For Greta, it’s a simple equation: She sees the problem (such that she was so depressed at first she sat out a year of school, and only spoke with her immediate family), and sees what needs to be done, no matter the personal cost. This isn’t to say she’s okay with it: “I miss having a regular life, with routines,” she sighs into her iPhone journal, while sailing across the Atlantic in a small watercraft to attend the UN meeting. “It is such a responsibility. I don’t want to have to do this.” A lament she turns into outrage when she actually does speak in New York, to the assemblage of world leaders: “You’re failing us!” she exhorts, “How dare you?” and ends with a sober warning to those who seek to dismiss her: “The eyes of all future generations are on you.” Naturally, for her effort, she takes potshots from condescending old men (Putin, Trump, Fox News Blowhards, et al.), some of whom trying to make things entirely personal (pundit Michael Knowles sniffed she was “a mentally ill Swedish child,” a statement Fox later apologized for), but none of it seems to matter to her. As before, she uses her “laser focus” on the matter at hand, not interested in rising to the bait of personal conflicts. The film takes us from her first days as a lone but emphatic voice to the de facto leader of a movement now millions strong, though it’s pretty clear in Greta’s mind, the only thing that ultimately matters is what these leaders are actually going to do about the climate catastrophe. At one UN gathering in Europe, she delivers her impassioned speech, only to have to sit and listen to an elderly German politician respond by trying to point out all the “good” they have done. With a look of tired disdain on her face, she pulls off the headphones translating his empty words into English, and sets them down in front of her.

Spring Blossom: Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon), the 16-year-old Parisian heroine in writer/director Lindon’s feature debut, prefers a drink of lemonade and grenadine, the purplish color of which is not-quite red, and not-quite pink. It’s in-between colors you could say, as she is herself, caught between the stifling boredom she feels at her high school with kids her own age, and the more exciting, but scary, possibilities of adulthood personified by Raphael (Arnaud Valois), an actor performing in a local, modernized production concerning Erastes — in ancient Greece, an adult in a romance with a child. Raphael, also bored and tired of the production he’s featured in, takes note of Suzanne’s apparent besottlement (in one of the better small details, she watches him eating a breakfast of baguette and strawberry jam at a cafe and requests the same from her mother the next morning), and before long they are a kind of couple, though, we are to understand, not necessarily fully consummated (it’s purposefully left ambiguous). Surprisingly, rather than duck into the well-covered territory of a young innocent ravaged by the rigors of adult love, Suzanne, a prepossessing young woman with a considerable sense of herself, senses both the danger, and her unreadiness, and herself pulls away, even though, as she says flatly “I love him and he loves me” (Raphael, ever gallant, doesn’t challenge her on this, and accepts her feelings). With her elongated neck and slightly crooked teeth, Lindon at first doesn’t appear fully suitable to the character that the script calls for, but soon it becomes apparent how well she precisely embodies the sense of between-worlds. The tone of the project is a marvel, allowing natural realism to intersect with more fanciful adornment — the scene when the couple have their first breakfast date, as Raphael puts his headphones on Suzanne so she can hear the genuinely beautiful opera that opens his show, leading them to perform a complex, sitting dance of hand gestures in perfect synchronicity together, is particularly charming — and, what’s more, the young writer/director seems to know exactly what she wants from each scene. The film itself isn’t breaking much new ground, but it does herald the rise of another talented young filmmaker.

Another Round: Thomas Vinterberg has a penchant for enigmatic endings. Not so coincidentally, he also tends to make very good films, and his latest, which stars Mads Mikkelsen as a disaffected high school teacher, who along with a small group of male colleagues, decides to try keeping his blood alcohol level at .05% throughout the day as a cure for his malaise, fits the bill. It might not be up to the otherworldly standards of his best work (Celebration or The Hunt — which also starred Mikkelsen), but it’s a good snootful of warm bourbon just the same. Mikkelson plays Martin, a history teacher and family man who seems half-alive, encased in a shell of hardened disappointment. He knows he’s lost his way (“Do you find me boring?” he asks his wife, played by Helene Reingaard Neumann, who responds “You’re not the same Martin I first met”), but seems unable to get himself out of his lethargy to do anything about it. When confronted by an angry group of parents and students that he’s not doing enough to prepare them for their all-important final exam, all he can respond with is a meek “Okay.” One night, out with some male colleagues, including psychology teacher Nikolaj (Magnus Millang), music teacher Peter (Lars Ranthe), and lonely gym teacher Tommy (Thomas Bo Larson), Martin breaks his silence and tells his friends about the perilous state of his marriage. Nikolaj cites the work of an obscure philosopher who maintained human beings were born with .05% less alcohol in their system than is ideal, and, on something of a desperate gamble, the group agree to reach that limit throughout the day (in other words, during teaching hours), quitting, as Hemmingway did, at 8 pm. Initially, it seems to work wonders — revitalized, Martin brings relish to his teaching again, and he re-engages with his wife and kids in a way he hasn’t felt in years, with the others all sharing the same sorts of success — but when the emboldened group attempt to push the envelope, first to .1%, then, much more disastrously, to the absolute limit of their tolerance, things get a good deal more dicey, putting the men, their jobs and their relationships in peril. Typically, Vinterberg avoids simple conclusions — and God help us all if this film gets picked up by a U.S. studio and remade with, say, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Rock — providing more or less equal examples of the delirious fun drinking with your friends can be (the film opens with a group of high schoolers gleefully doing “lake races” whereby teams compete to drink a case of beer while running around the nearby body of water; and closes with the same teen crew, and some of their teachers, whooping it up in celebrating their graduation); and the horrorshow it can become (one teacher ends up peeing the bed, and on his wife in the process, another wakes up bloodied and out of it in front of his neighbor’s house), leading to very real and horrible consequences. By film’s end, as the delightful Mikkelsen, a professionally trained dancer, performs an impromptu and wildly entertaining series of complicated dance choreographies, it’s clear Vinterberg doesn’t intend to answer definitively either way on the subject: As “The Simpsons” so sagely put it many years ago, alcohol is “the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”

In a year of bizarre happenings, and altered realities, TIFF has shifted its gears to a significantly paired down virtual festival. Thus, U.S. film critics are regulated to watching the international offerings from our own living room couches.

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harris-coopers · 6 years ago

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‘Riverdale’ heartthrob Cole Sprouse goes for leading man status in ‘Five Feet Apart’

When Cole Sprouse left Hollywood, he didn’t think he’d ever come back. He was 18, and he’d been acting alongside his identical twin brother since they were in diapers. The choice to work as a kid had not been his own: His single mother wanted to be around for the boys and have a steady career, and putting her twins in the entertainment industry seemed like a “lucrative alternative,” he says now.

But then Sprouse and his brother, Dylan, landed their own Disney Channel show, “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.” By 13 they’d signed a licensing agreement with Dualstar Entertainment Group, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s company, to develop their own quarterly lifestyle magazine, ringtones and cologne. They were full-blown teen heartthrobs.

And yet when it came time to apply for college, the twins decided — unlike fellow Disney stars Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez or the Jonas Brothers — that they wanted to pursue higher education and enrolled at NYU.

“My brother and I were getting recognized a lot. It became one of those things that we realized we had just sort of taken as gospel since we were little kids, and that there was another path through life,” Sprouse, now 26, recalls. “I was completely content, at the time, to let the Disney shows exist within this little nostalgic bubble and I was ready to move on.”

But somehow here he is now, sitting on the balcony of a ritzy hotel smoking Marlboros, promoting his first leading role in a movie, “Five Feet Apart.” And the film, a romantic drama about two young lovers with cystic fibrosis, is not the only project he’s taken on since graduating with honors from NYU in 2015. For the past two years he’s starred as Jughead on the CW series “Riverdale,” a teen drama based on the Archie comics.

The program, which has already been renewed for a fourth season, has reignited Sprouse’s popularity. On Instagram, he has nearly 24 million followers, many of whom are obsessed with tracking his real-life relationship with his on-screen love interest, Lili Reinhart.

“Riverdale” also rekindled Sprouse’s love for acting. During college he did none of it, opting to study something completely different: archaeology, geographic information systems and satellite imaging. He became interested in the field because his grandfather was a geologist and “it seemed like an academic discipline that was really competitive and challenging. I fancied testing if I could do something like that.”

He traveled to Germany, France and Bulgaria for excavations, and on one dig, after spending six weeks hunched over a 1-by-1-foot trench of dirt with a toothpick, he pulled a 35,000-year-old Aurignacian stone blade out of the ground. Following graduation, he began working in cultural resource management as an archaeological assistant in a Brooklyn artifact laboratory. He was thinking about going into academia: studying at graduate school, researching a specific time period or peoples and becoming a professor.

But then he heard from his acting manager, who, per Sprouse’s request, had left him alone during his four years at NYU.

“He asked me to come back for a single pilot season. I was on this path, but I said ‘OK, if I don’t book anything, I don’t think I want to do acting anymore,’” he says. He did book something — “Riverdale” — and soon began to realize it wasn’t acting itself he had an issue with.

“From a very young age, the industry had been defined as a business,” he continues, “and it took me going away to school for a while and redefining that to find [performing] as a passion again.”

On “Riverdale,” Sprouse’s Jughead is a something of an outsider — an artsy writer with a signature beanie and leather jacket. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the show’s creator, initially thought the actor might be a better fit for Archie, the lovable jock. But after reading the pilot script, Sprouse expressed interest in Jughead — even though the character only had one scene in the episode.

“It was already kind of a sign that he viewed himself differently,” says the showrunner. “I think Cole is an old soul. He’s done a lot, and he’s seen a lot, and I think that gives him a little bit of wisdom that other actors his age might not have. When he smiles, he looks like a true 15-year-old kid. But when he furrows his brow, he looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

When it came to tackling his first adult movie part — he and his brother were in Adam Sandler’s “Big Daddy” as boys — Sprouse didn’t want to stray too far outside of his comfort zone. Recognizing the persona he’d established on “Riverdale,” he chose to play a similar archetype in “Five Feet Apart”: Will, a brooding teenager whose rebellious spirit attracts his romantic interest, played by Haley Lu Richardson of “Split” and “Support the Girls.”

“This role was interesting in a larger business sense, because a return to film also meant a question of how much of [the ‘Riverdale’] audience would turn out,” says Sprouse. “I didn’t want it to feel so incredibly distinct.”

The CBS Films production, out Friday, follows two CF patients as they fall in love but are unable to physically touch due to risk of cross infection. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic, progressive disease that affects lung function, making it difficult to breathe; the average life expectancy for the 30,000 afflicted in the U.S. is 37.5 years.

Justin Baldoni, who makes his directorial debut on “Five Feet Apart,” is also an actor on a CW series: “Jane the Virgin.” But he and Sprouse never crossed paths at network affairs. Instead, Baldoni began thinking of him for the role after catching some of his interviews on morning talk shows.

“Cole’s a great actor, but I was actually more interested in who he was off-screen,” explains Baldoni. “Cole had to grow up a lot faster than the normal kid. He was surrounded by adults: directors and producers and writers and people that were basically employing him. … When you grow up with cystic fibrosis, you grow up with doctors and nurses. Those are your friends. You learn medical terminology. You have to understand regimens and taking care of yourself in a way that regular kids don’t. You’re forced to grow up a lot faster. So there was an interesting parallel between Cole’s life and Will’s life.”

Baldoni came to “Five Feet Apart” having steeped himself in the world of CF. He had the idea for the film while working on a web series about those with terminal illnesses, “My Last Days.” One of the episodes focused on an 18-year-old girl named Claire Wineland, a CF patient whom Baldoni became so close to that he ultimately hired her to serve as a consultant on “Five Feet Apart.”

Sprouse spent a lot of time with Wineland, who died last September three months after filming was completed, talking about how CF affects both the mind and the body, including how the disease makes it difficult to gain or maintain weight. Together, he says, they came to the conclusion that it would be “a really powerful choice to embody that physicality,” and so with the aid of a nutritionist, Sprouse lost 25 pounds over the course of five weeks.

Sprouse initially told Baldoni he was somewhat hesitant to sign onto “Five Feet Apart” because he knows the scrutiny that films in this genre — “The Fault in Our Stars,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Me Before You” — can face for romanticizing illness.

“But I’m a believer that even if it might feel like the volume is a little bit too high within that genre, it still serves as an amazing platform to discuss something like cystic fibrosis,” says Sprouse. “And the star-crossed lover narrative — this is something that has existed before Shakespeare to Ovid and Pyramus and Thisbe. It’s part of our cultural memory bank. It’s one of those motifs that we just understand so well.”

Sprouse, who has the kind of poster-boy mane that’s perfect for brushing out of his eyes, frequently peppers his speech with these kind of literary references. He and his brother were the first ones on their father’s side of the family to go to college, which is “positive upward momentum” he’s proud of. Someday he hopes to spark a larger conversation about the California High School Proficiency Examination, a test that many young actors take at 16 so they can receive the legal equivalent of a high school diploma and no longer be considered minors.

“It basically cripples young academics who are working children from feeling capable to take the SAT and the ACT,” Sprouse says. “So many of us don’t go to college because our skill sets are not defined enough to be able to take those tests that would eventually allow us to apply. And kids are encouraged to do it because if you’re 18, you can work more hours and hypothetically make more money — and also because as a kid, you always want to sit back in your high chair and go ‘Yeah, I’m an adult.’”

On set, his collaborators have come to value his intelligence. Aguirre-Sacasa says that Sprouse “does a ton of work” on the “Riverdale” scripts, asking questions about the scenes and offering different points of view.

“A lot of times our episodes are homages to different films,” the executive says. “So Cole asked: ‘Can you send me a list of the movies you’re referencing in any given episode?’ And I’m that exact same way.”

While Sprouse no longer dreams of leading excavations in far-off lands, he’s found another non-acting passion that fulfills the “desire for learning and otherness” that archaeology did: photography. A few years ago, he walked into One World Trade Center in New York wearing a button-up T-shirt and asked the receptionist at Conde Nast Traveler magazine, “Hey, can anyone give me a job?”

He was pointed in the direction of former creative director Yolanda Edwards, who was willing to toss him a few unpaid assignments. Since then he’s landed a handful of high-profile gigs for Elle, W Magazine, Adidas and J Brand. He’s planning to spend the majority of his upcoming hiatus from “Riverdale” working as a fashion photographer.

Sprouse showcases some of his work on his Instagram account, which he admits is “very curated.” He’ll often delete old photos of himself, and he’s careful not to post too many photos of his girlfriend, Reinhart.

“I’ve girded my private life very intentionally,” he says. “It’s one of those things that I still sort of grapple with, and Lili and I grapple with.”

Asked if he thought about how much attention dating his costar might garner, he says he had no choice in the matter: “We legitimately could not stay away from one another.”

Beyond Reinhart, he and his cast mates — who film in Vancouver — are exceptionally close, especially of late, as they grapple with the loss of “Riverdale” costar Luke Perry.

“It’s been very, very hard this week,” he acknowledges, referring to juggling his film press responsibilities with his grief. “But the family has asked us all to keep it as private as possible, and I respect them tremendously through this time, so I continue to do so. We go back tomorrow, and it’ll be nice to be together. We all got together and talked it out a couple days ago, and then they gave us a couple of days off of production to acclimate, which was really wonderful.”

As for his future as an actor, Sprouse says he doesn’t expect to leave Hollywood again any time soon.

“It’s easy to forget, because this industry has so many different sides to it, that the act of acting is an incredibly enjoyable thing,” he says. “It’s a really empowering thing to do and it’s all the stuff on the outside of it — the publicity and the celebrity — which I actually had a problem with.”

Source: LA Times

#FUCK ME UP #SH #cs

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ba3kkie · 7 years ago

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The Final Crescendo [Epilogue]

“Baekhyun-ah” You whispered as the tears rolled down your pale cheek.

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you managed to say “ I love you”.

Part 1 || Part2 || Part 3 || Final

Pairing: Baekhyun x reader.

:. I don’t own any of the characters nor companies mentioned and it is purely fictional and should not be taken seriously. I only own the plot.

8:30 p.m

“ Let’s run away together.”

Your eyes widened in shock, that was all it took to break you, your facade crumbled into a million pieces, tears painfully hanging onto your lashes, trying their best to hold on. You hung your head low, avoiding eye contact at all cost, you knew how you turned to putty under his gaze.

“(Y/n)… Look at me baby” He cup the side of your cheek with his gentle palm, you unknowingly leaned into his touch, your hormones betraying you, oh how you have missed his touch.

“Come with me, let’s finally get our happy ending”

As he rubbed his thumb across your cheek, the look on his face made your heart ache, he looked so defeated, what happened to the strong baekhyun who was unfazed by anything? Had so much changed the past few months? Was it your fault?

“We can’t Baek.” You voice faltering.

“Baby please”

“Please (y/n), don’t you want this too?”

His voice getting softer with every plea.

“I love you, please.”

“You can’t throw away everything you worked so hard for !” you cried, banging his chest with your curled fist.

“You are my everything” He said as he let you pound his chest.

You screamed, the tears now dripping from your chin.

“ YOU CAN’T DO THIS! IT’S NOT FAIR!” you shouted at him, turning your heel and started walking to the stairs.

“ He told me why you left.” You were surprised and stopped dead in your tracks.You had to end this now, before you’d never walk away,

You let out a hollow laugh,

“You’re naive to think that he cares! ”

“He told me how to contact you.” You were beyond baffled, how could your father tell him anything. Remembering how the last encounter with the old man went.

“Bullshit, he hated us being together!” You felt the pool of anger form within, you turned your heel, facing away from him.

“I talked to him (y/n), I told him I wanted to be with you.” He wrapped his arms around your shoulders, pulling your back into his chest.

“Are you an idiot? You just debuted and you’re already a star ! Many take years to establish themselves, but you managed to do it overnight, why would you throw it all away?” You let out a choke as the words came tumbling out, the dried tears staining your cheeks.

“Im dying” he whispered as let his head fall on your shoulder.

You turned and looked at him begging it to be a joke, and for once you hated how you could read him like the open book he was to you. His dark orbs stared intenstly at you, this was all too real, you tried to formulate words, you had so many questions for him yet, they had vanish at the tip of your tongue.

“Brain cancer (y/n), I have brain cancer.” he bit back his tears, trying to be strong for the both of you. “Your father found out and told me how to contact you.”

A tear brimming once again on your already swollen eyes, you managed to choke a ‘Don’t lie’ before staring back at him.

“8 months, that’s what the doctor told me and you know what? The first thought that ran through my mind was ‘I want to spend it all with you’ (y/n), I know I’m being selfish, asking you to love a man who will soon be gone, but I’m allowed to be selfish sometimes right ?” His lips quivered as the last part escaped his lips “I love you (y/n), let me try to love you more in these 6 months than anyone could in a lifetime.” He pressed his chapped lips against yours, as your lips moved in unison with his, you felt the salty liquid reach your lips, but whose tears was it ? You couldn’t tell anymore as the pain in your chest grew with each passing moment.

xxx

The ride to your house was silent, neither of you wanted to face the hard reality. It felt like you had been thrown into the deep end after just learning to swim, you didn’t know how to react, and imagining yourself in his shoes made you feel like you were drowning, just a matter of time before it all ends.

“Baek,” you gestured for him to take a seat on your bed, “I have something to tell you”, you made your way to your bedside table, fishing out an envelope and handing it to him. “This is yours.”

His eyes widen as he saw the black and white picture, “Why are you giving me a sonogram?” his voice was shaky, unsure, fearful almost of what you were to tell him next. You took his hands in yours and placed it under your sweater, you felt the pads of his fingertips graze over the bump of your belly, goosebumps forming on your arms at the sudden contact. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice now laced with hurt and betrayal, yet his hands never moved away from your bump.

“Meet our sweet pea, Baek”

4 months ago

‘Baekhyun had sudden disappeared’ according to the media, but here he was, arms wrapped around my waist as the morning rays shone upon his face. S.M had released statements saying that Baekhyun needed to take some time off to rest, they couldn’t announce the truth, it would be far too damaging for the company and even the people within would be emotionally affected.

“Baek, why don’t you go rest? I’ll call you out when dinner is ready.” You placed a kiss on his cheek before returning to the boiling pots on the stove. His health was rapidly deteriorating, the headaches getting stronger and also lasting longer, becoming more forgetful and the waves of fatigue were becoming more apparent, and all you could do was stand by helplessly as he suffered alone.

It hurt to know Baekhyun’s days were numbered, he too found it hard to be himself during these times, it’s hard to act happy when your body is literally destroying itself and you could not blame him, instead you allowed yourself to be his pillar, a place for him to seek comfort and release built up emotions. There were nights that ended with both of you crying in one another’s embrace with hushed apologies, but there were also nights of endless pleasure, where he kissed butterfly kisses against your skin while whispering sweet nothings.

He would sing you to sleep on those nights where you had trouble sleeping,

Cause you

You could be my only star

You could be the moonlight

You’re all I need in my world forever

I run to you, through the darkness

I’ll hold you close to me through this crazy race

Let’s make it forever

Don’t disappear, this is the end for me

We’ll never find a love like this again

Don’t break my soul

Your gaze,words and everything forever

His voice as beautiful as it is and will ever be, could not hide the sadness behind the words, every word hitting a chord, sometimes you found this song too real, as if it were meant specifically for both of you and the tragic love story you will become.

It was a far cry from easy, this path you chose to walk on. As you stared at his now sunken features in the moonlight, you realise the entirety of everything,

First, you realise how much he means to you

Second, you realise your child will never remember it’s father

Third, you realised how stupid you were to push him away, how much time you had wasted with your immature behaviour

Fourth, You realise the excruciating pain Baekhyun must be going through physically and mentally

Last but not least, you realise you love him so much, you wish it were you facing the wrath of the terminal illness in his stead.

Like a broken record playing, you prayed it were you and not him suffering.

Baekhyun was alone, no one could possibly know how he felt, he was full of imperfections, but so was every unpolished diamond, yet in times of darkness he shined the brightest, he was your only star.

3 months ago

A week before your due date, you both had decided it would be best to both be admitted at the nearby hospital. You were worried for him if you were not around, how if he suddenly lost consciousness, on the other hand, he was worried he would be too weak to help you in an emergency. You had requested for Baekhyun to be able to share the room with you, given your circumstances, no one had the heart to deny you your request.

It was not even a week after you had been admitted, and there you were screaming in pain as the waves of contractions hit you like the crashing tides, baekhyun was in a wheelchair by your side, never letting go of your hand.

“(y/n), deep breaths, I love you.” His voice now very weak but just audible, and after what seemed like hours of labour, your baby girl was born, she was so tiny.

The nurse had placed her in Baekhyun’s arms and you swore you saw the world in his eyes, he placed a small kiss on her forehead before stroking her face with his thumb, you felt your heart swell at the sight of the man you love and the child you shared.

“Baek hee-ah, I’m your appa.” She gripped his finger tightly, before letting out a cute smile.

“I can’t believe you named her that” You sighed, but your lips tugging at the corner said otherwise.

“Shh, Baek hee-ah you like your name right? Your eomma doesn’t appreciate good taste.” He gave her a big smile, the second last you’d see.

Present

You rushed to the hospital with your father and child, you had mended your relationship with your father, he was the only person you could lean on in this time of sadness.

You received a call from the doctor in charge, saying how Baekhyun’s condition took a dive, he advised to come and be prepared for the worst.

You ran to his room, being second nature to you after visiting him everyday for the last 3 months, with your father fast on your tail with baby in hands.

As you reached the room, you took a deep breath before sliding the door and entering, with every step forward you took, you felt your vision cloud, you knelt beside his bed, taking his pale hands between yours. He turned slowly to face you, his body so frail and weak, your father placed Baekhee between you and Baekhyun, there it was, his final smile. He wore that smile like an apology, a sorry stretched across his teeth, “Take care my loves, till we meet again.” as he took his final breath.

“Baekhyun-ah” You whispered as the tears rolled down your pale cheek.

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you managed to say “ I love you”.

Before you saw the light in his eyes fade, his smile now gone forever, his skin as cold as ice in your grasp as you choke back the tears you didn’t know were holding.

Cause you

You could be my only star

You could be the moonlight

You’re all I need in my world forever

I run to you, through the darkness

I’ll hold you close to me through this crazy race

Let’s make it forever

Don’t disappear, this is the end for me

We’ll never find a love like this again

Don’t break my soul

Your gaze,words and everything forever

His voice playing from the small cd player he had left in the bedside table, along with a ring and a small note which read :

‘Marry me in our next life my love, and maybe then it’ll be forever.’

As you sat there alone, you let the tears flow as you felt the wind caressing your cheek, drying your tears , as if he wanted you to know he was there, watching over you both.

The days that have passed, had already turned into years, yet you had always remembered him with these silent tears you shed,

Your love, Baekhyun.

A/n: This marks the end of The Final Crescendo, it’s my first finished piece. I hope you all have enjoyed it, thank you for being with me through this journey of mine, I have written other fics so please do check them out. It is a great honour to have been given the support my readers have given me. I am thinking about writing an alternate ending, but only if you want it too, so please tell me, send me a message or

https://ask.fm/Ba3kkie [If you’d like to stay anonymous]

Thank you !

Love, Manda

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kerbieaddis · 4 years ago

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Pitch Wars Advice

So you’re thinking of entering Pitch Wars. Good for you!

First of all, if you’re at this stage, it means you most likely already have a completed novel, which is an accomplishment on its own. Seriously. Many, many people say they’ve “always wanted” to write a novel, and most never do. You’re already ahead of the game!

Pitch Wars is an awesome competition and can introduce you to a whole new writing community, all while whipping your manuscript into shape. Seriously, I adore Pitch Wars.

Secondly, I completely understand what it’s like to be in your shoes right now.

I was a two time mentee. Once in 2013, and then again in 2015. We’ll talk about 2014 here in a bit… but I’ve also been a mentor in Pitch Wars, from 2016 to 2019. I’ve seen what it’s like from multiple sides, so I’d like to give you some advice for the journey ahead.

1. You don’t need Pitch Wars

This sounds contrary to what I said earlier, but it’s true. Yes, it can be a great help and introduce you to people, but it’s just a tool. It’s not a magical golden key to publishing.

I was in twice, as I said above, and while I dearly loved both those manuscripts and my mentors were great, neither snagged the attention of an agent. I got my agent with a manuscript written outside the contest, using critique partners to guide my editing process.

By far, it is not the end-all, be-all for getting an agent. Plenty of people find their agents through the slush, and plenty of people get lots of agent love in Pitch Wars that doesn’t result in any offers.

You can get by just fine if you don’t make it in. Which brings me to my next point:

2. You are still talented even if you don’t make it in

I know people keep repeating this wisdom on Twitter and it’s probably been mentioned multiple times on the advice blog hop, but that’s because it’s 1000% true.

There are a million reasons why your manuscript might not be chosen that have nothing to do with your talent. Maybe the mentors you submitted to just didn’t jive with your concept. Maybe your query didn’t do the story justice. Maybe someone loved your manuscript, but they found another that needed work that they felt especially qualified to handle.

The reasons above absolutely happen in the Pitch Wars slush. I know, because I’ve passed on books for those reasons. A book could be amazing, but maybe I just like the concept in another better. Maybe one book needs POV restructuring, so I pass on another project to help with the one that aligns with my strengths. Has nothing to do with the talent of either writer.

Also, I mentioned 2014 above. I applied to be in Pitch Wars in 2013, 2014, and 2015, all with different manuscripts. I didn’t get chosen in 2014. Does that mean I was suddenly untalented for one year? No, it means I wrote something that didn’t click with the mentors I chose.

3. Learn to wait

A lesson Pitch Wars taught me that I didn’t realize at the time was a great appreciation for patience.

You wait to enter. You wait to get requests. You wait for the mentee announcements. If you get in, you wait to get your mentor’s notes. You wait to see if they approve the edits. You wait for the showcase. You wait to see if you get any love from agents.

It’s a LOT of waiting.

This is great preparation for how things work in the publishing industry. You send off queries and you wait. You get a request, send it off, and wait. Even once you have an agent, it’s a lot of waiting, especially when you’re on submission.

Believe me. I’m on submission now and it’s so, so much waiting.

Some people are fine with waiting and they can shut off the writing part of their brain and go about their lives. Some people, like me, feel like they must always have an active writing project, so they move on to the next thing to have a fresh manuscript ready as soon as possible.

Don’t wait and obsess. That’s where people spiral, and we don’t want that.

Learn to wait, and enjoy the wait. Figure out if you do best with shutting off that part of your brain, finding another hobby, or moving on to the next project.

4. Talk to people

I know, easier said that done. I’m quite shy online, even though I’m an obnoxious loudmouth in real life. But really, talking will help you find your people.

Start by venturing onto the hashtag. Reply when people ask questions, rejoice when someone has a success, be supportive when someone is feeling down.

I made all of my writing friends online initially. Many of them became my closest friends, and I was a bridesmaid for one! Seriously, you never know what kinds of great relationships will blossom when you start reaching out.

There are always writers looking for critique partners, and you can easily find someone willing to swap. Be careful and start with a few pages or a chapter to get a feel for one another’s critique style, and don’t be afraid to back out if you feel like you won’t work well with someone.

And that brings me to my final point…

5. No one has the final say except you

Sometimes you’ll get advice that just doesn’t click. And that’s okay. You’re allowed to say no. You’re allowed to disagree—even with your mentor. This is especially true for those of you writing about marginalized experiences.

One of my manuscripts from years ago included an #ownvoices main character with Asperger’s. My mentors were fantastic about listening when I explained what aspects were from my own experiences and how to incorporate those in a way that would be understood by readers who didn’t share that same marginalization.

They were great, but some other people weren’t. I had feedback that belittled the main character’s responses to stimuli or argued that a mental illness like mine was too hard to understand.

Trust your gut. Know that your experiences are valid, even if someone else can’t understand them on the page. It’s your book, and you have the final say. A good mentor will help you take those experiences and make them more easily understandable, but they won’t change those experiences.

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I could write so much more about my experiences with Pitch Wars, but I think those are my main five points. It’s worth submitting, but remember that you’re already doing an amazing job.

Every step you take brings you closer and closer to being a published author, and even if you are passed over in a contest, get a rejection from an agent, or you’re feeling lost while waiting, you’re still inching closer to that dream.

Celebrate the journey, not just the end result. Putting yourself out there for a contest like this takes a lot of courage, so take pride in that. Re-read your manuscript and enjoy your own words. You did it, you wrote a book!

Just keep moving forward!

If any of you reading this want to chat a little about entering Pitch Wars or you just want to flail and have a sympathetic ear, hit me up on Twitter: @kerbieaddis. I won’t be critiquing any pages or queries, but I’m totally open to listening and helping where I can.

#pitchwars #writing #amquerying #writingcontest

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kennethherrerablog · 6 years ago

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How This Family Lives Off $45K/Year While Raising a Special Needs Child

On a late November afternoon, Vicki Fouche heats up slices of frozen pizza in the toaster oven for lunch.

Her daughter Hannah, 10, waits at the dining room table in their Ocala, Florida, home.

Hannah has challenges eating on her own. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects motor skills, muscle tone and movement, when she was 6 months old.

Vicki, 48, places two plates in front of Hannah. “Look here. Which pizza do you want? Do you want ‘The Lion King’ or Olaf?” Vicki asks, referring to the Disney characters decorating each plate. “Which would you like? Lion King? Olaf?”

Hannah replies with just a sound — one that would be incomprehensible to most. But without any words exchanged, her mom knows what’s wrong.

“You don’t want either one?” she guesses. “You want pretzel bites?”

Hannah utters another obscure sound.

“You’re a pain in the butt, do you know that?” Vicki jokes, and she whisks the plates away from Hannah, handing a pizza slice off to Hannah’s 21-year-old sister, Bethany.

Vicki heads back to the freezer to get some pretzel bites, one of Hannah’s favorite foods.

When Hannah’s lunch is heated, Vicki brings a plate over to Hannah, whose attention is fixed on the iPad in front of her. Vicki proceeds to cut the pretzel bites into small pieces and feed her.

Hannah’s condition is hypotonic, meaning she has low muscle tone — specifically in her head, neck and trunk. She can’t stand on her own, walk or talk.

Hannah has the cognitive abilities to communicate; she just lacks the physical abilities to speak more than a few words. She uses an app on her iPad that lets her select words and phrases to speak aloud for her. In fact, Vicki says Hannah often uses the app to request pretzel bites.

There are many variations of cerebral palsy. For some, the disorder has a minimal effect on their lives. Others require around-the-clock care.

According to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, 1 in 323 U.S. babies are diagnosed with cerebral palsy. There is no known cure for the disorder, which affects approximately 17 million people across the globe.

Hannah’s physical challenges mean that Vicki and her husband, Tim, have to care for Hannah in ways similar to caring for an infant. They feed her. They bathe her. They carry her down the hallway and lift her into her safety bed, which resembles an oversized crib.

Hannah’s parents also shoulder all the financial responsibilities of raising a child with cerebral palsy.

The Fouches are a family of five living off less than $45,000 per year. Though Bethany, their oldest daughter, doesn’t live at home anymore, Vicki and Tim have a 6-year-old daughter, Mikayla, and they took in their 15-year-old niece, Naomi, last summer.

Tim, 48, who works as a residential construction estimator for a custom home builder, is the family’s sole breadwinner.

“I work hard,” Tim says. “As a husband and a dad, you try to maintain a balance of working and being there for your family, too, at the same time. When you do that and you still feel like you’re falling short at the end of the month… it gets frustrating sometimes.”

Why Making More Money Isn’t an Option

The family qualifies for Medicaid and Social Security benefits for Hannah, plus a scholarship that covers home-schooling expenses. But Vicki says she’s scared of the possibility of losing that assistance if her husband makes more money.

“We’re [between] the proverbial rock and a hard place,” she says.

The Fouches know other families with disabled children that don’t qualify for assistance and aren’t able to get certain treatment or equipment covered under their private insurance.

“If [Tim] were to make more money and then they took [Medicaid away], it would cost us more in the long run,” Vicki says.

Vicki usually handles paying the bills and budgeting for the family since Tim works full time.

“How she does it, I don’t know,” Tim says. “She takes something out of nothing, and she pays the bills. But it’s a struggle every month.”

The Fouches have between $10,000 and $15,000 in credit card debt. They’ve used their credit cards when unexpected expenses came up, such as when the transmission went out in their minivan last year. They’ve made home-schooling purchases on credit, only to later find out Hannah’s scholarship wouldn’t reimburse the expense.

Every year, they like to put money aside from their tax refund to save for emergencies. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stretch through the year. They don’t have any other financial safety net.

“We never have money to save,” Vicki says. “We’re lucky that we have enough to pay our bills.”

Medicaid Helps… but It Has Limits

Each week, Hannah sees a speech therapist, physical therapist and occupational therapist. She also participates in therapeutic horseback riding. Because of assistance, the Fouches don’t have to pay out of pocket for any of that.

The Fouches have also gotten some of Hannah’s equipment paid for through Medicaid: an electric wheelchair, a manual wheelchair, a walker, a shower chair and Hannah’s safety bed, plus her nutritional drinks and diapers.

“We’re very, very blessed,” Vicki says.

But Vicki says the diapers Medicaid covers for Hannah leak easily. The electric wheelchair has malfunctioned several times.

Hannah never felt comfortable in the first shower chair they were able to get through Medicaid when she was little, so her father built one out of PVC pipe and trampoline material.

Vicki says she’s glad her husband is so handy. He also built a makeshift wheelchair ramp for their front door and widened the entrance into their kitchen so Hannah’s wheelchair could fit through.

Getting requests approved through Medicaid can be challenging, Vicki says. She says the agency requires in-depth explanations about why they need certain equipment or therapy and how Hannah will benefit.

And even when something is approved, the family sometimes still has to pay for part of it. Last spring, for example, Hannah received three weeks of intensive therapy at a facility in Melbourne, Florida. Medicaid covered the cost of the therapy, but the family had to pay for travel and lodging, since the facility was three and a half hours from home.

The family sold bracelets as a fundraiser and made about $2,300.

“We ended up having to come up with some of it out of our pocket,” she says. “We raised most of it, but not [all].”

A Plan Abandoned

Vicki used to work as a Girl Scouts program coordinator, but high day care costs caused her to become a stay-at-home mom after having Hannah. She thought it would be temporary and that she’d go back to work once Hannah started kindergarten. Then, she got unexpectedly pregnant with Mikayla.

Vicki had her tubes tied after that pregnancy. With Hannah in school, Vicki’s new plan was to go back to work once Mikayla was in kindergarten. But then Hannah started having troubling experiences at school.

“She came home one time with rug burn on her cheek, a black eye, a split-open lip, and they say she fell over at circle time,” Vicki recalls, saying she suspects Hannah fell off a changing table instead. “She would come home 90% of the time with her lunch [uneaten].”

The Fouches were concerned their daughter wasn’t getting proper care at school. Two weeks before Hannah was going to start third grade, her parents told her she’d be going back to school soon. She cried hysterically.

“What kid at 8 years old hates school so bad?” Vicki asks.

So the Fouches made the decision to home-school their girls, and Vicki abandoned her plan to return to work. Though Vicki does a lot for her family, she sometimes feels bad that she isn’t able to earn an income. However, Tim says he’s very thankful for the role she’s taken on.

“[It’s] worth a whole lot for her to be with our children, to keep them safe and [see to it] that they’re taken care of and getting a good education,” he says.

That’s not the only sacrifice the Fouches have had to make.

Vicki says they choose not to go to places as a family that aren’t accommodating for Hannah, like the playground or the fair. If Mikayla wants to go, she has to wait until one parent can stay home to watch Hannah.

The Fouches try to make sure Mikayla gets to do things she likes — such as gymnastics and T-ball — but the money isn’t always there for her to participate. Vicki says they had to charge T-ball registration fees to their credit card. They pay per class for gymnastics, and when money is tight, they’ll just skip it for the week.

One special treat the entire family enjoys is going to Disney World, which is only about an hour-and-a-half drive from their home. Last year, the Fouches had annual passes. They got them as a Christmas gift for the girls and paid for them in monthly installments. However, Vicki says they decided not to renew the passes for this year after Disney raised its prices.

“That’s been really frustrating,” she says. “That’s really the only thing that we do with the kids… Hannah doesn’t feel disabled at Disney. She can go on all the rides. She can’t do that at all the other parks.”

Their Plans and Dreams for an Uncertain Future

About a decade ago, when Hannah was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Vicki remembers the doctor explaining the diagnosis twice.

“I guess most people get hysterical and we didn’t, so the doctor [asked], ‘Do you understand what I’m saying to you?’” she says.

But Vicki and Tim knew something serious was wrong with Hannah. Their infant daughter wasn’t meeting typical milestones for her age. Unbeknownst to each other, they both had suspected it was cerebral palsy.

Instead of being devastated, they were grateful Hannah didn’t have a terminal illness, but rather a disorder that can improve over time through therapy.

And the Fouches have seen Hannah progress over the years. She can sit up unassisted, whereas before her body wasn’t strong enough to support itself.

One speech therapist told the Fouches that Hannah would never be able to work a communication device.

“She said she would never be strong enough to push the buttons on the communication thing,” Vicki recalls. “And yeah, this kid’s a whip on the iPad. It’s not even funny.”

In early December, Hannah was fitted for a leg brace that will keep her body from folding up in her sleep. Since she can’t control her limbs, it can be dangerous if she bends herself in half overnight, causing her to hurt herself or even block her breathing. Hannah often sleeps in her worried parents’ bed so they can closely monitor her.

A few weeks after getting the brace, Tim says she’s still having trouble adjusting to it. Hannah’s therapist suggested putting the brace on for an hour or two in the evening and working their way up to using it while she sleeps. Once Hannah is able to use the brace overnight and transition to her own bed, her parents will be able to get a more restful night’s sleep.

There’s still other equipment the Fouches wish Hannah had to better her life.

They’d love for Hannah to have a mobile stander, a device that would help her stand and move around without having to support her own weight.

“We can stand her for a little bit… but the last couple times we had her in her walker, she’s gotten so overheated, she’s thrown up,” Vicki says.

Having a device that doesn’t make Hannah strain to support herself would be ideal. Being in a wheelchair so often causes Hannah to have poor circulation in her legs.

However, Vicki says Medicaid won’t cover the mobile stander, because Hannah already has the electric wheelchair. She says it’d cost $5,600 to pay for out of pocket — money the family doesn’t have.

She also says it’d be wonderful to have a hoist system in the house to lift Hannah up. At 60 pounds, Hannah isn’t easy to carry anymore.

“I’m scared I’m going to fall with her,” says Vicki, who had to be hospitalized twice last year after bad falls. Luckily, she wasn’t carrying Hannah on either occasion.

The Fouches also wish they had a handicap-accessible van, but they can’t afford one. Vicki said even getting their current minivan converted to be wheelchair accessible would cost around $15,000.

Instead, they have to lift Hannah into the minivan, and they use her manual wheelchair when they go out.

Hannah’s only 10 now, but Tim and Vicki have thought about what her life will be like as she gets older. It’s uncertain what Hannah will be able to do on her own once she reaches adulthood.

“If we could have one wish for her… I would really hope at some point that she could be able to speak,” Vicki says. “I think that would make a huge difference for her, instead of having to rely on a communication device. I don’t know if that will ever happen — and if it doesn’t, it’s fine — but if I had a choice between her walking or speaking, I’d rather have her speak.”

One thing Vicki and Tim do know is that they never want to place Hannah in a nursing home. The Fouches say their faith in God gives them strength to handle all the challenges that come their way.

Overall, Vicki’s greatest hope for her daughter is one most parents have for their child.

“I just want her to have as [good of] a life as she can,” she says.

If you are raising a child with special needs, learn more about how to plan financially for your child’s future.

Nicole Dow is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

How This Family Lives Off $45K/Year While Raising a Special Needs Child published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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thechasefiles · 6 years ago

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 6/27/2018

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Wednesday June 27th 2018. Remember you can read full articles by purchasing a Mid-Week Nation Newspaper (MWN), via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS).

NO SOLUTIONS FOR PAST PARTY MEMBERS – Former members of the fledging political party Solutions Barbados have castigated the leadership style of their once boss Grenville Phillips II. A statement, signed by past members Alan Springer, Paul Gibson and Irvin Belgrave, itemised other concerns such as a contract used “as a control mechanism for keeping candidates in the party, lack of a democratic process and being punished if they failed to sign the original contract”. They said “there was no consultation process, members were simply given directives that had to be followed. Running of the party was subject to ad hoc personal decisions . . . . There was also continual refusal, in the face of requests, for the party to be opened up to membership from the wider public as is standard practice”. The aggrieved former candidates in the last General Election also charged there was “a preponderance of religious instruction given by Grenville, which greatly hampered the work of Solutions Barbados as a political party . . . . This created a deep-seated contention, conflict and distrust within the party”. Phillips’ leadership, “presented a certain stiffness, detachment and disconnect between the leader and the public at large. It was constantly made apparent that Grenville does not have the confidence nor the trust of the electorate”. The signatories said a “final olive branch was offered by those having challenges with the leadership style, putting forward certain conditions for us to carry on under the Solutions Barbados banner . . . . Unfortunately, Grenville refused that olive branch”. Phillips, in thanking all the candidates “for their brave decision to run with Solutions Barbados”, said the process and result affected people in different ways, “which is normal”. He also said most of the candidates had committed to the next general election but others wanted “us to re-evaluate our mandatory contract requirement for membership”. “I am only president for one year, and if the members are unhappy with my leadership, then they are free to vote for another to lead them. “From the time that we had members, issues were discussed, and if we could not come to a consensus, then the majority vote ruled. Most of my positions were voted against and there was never any repercussions for anyone who voted against my position,” said Phillips. (MWN)

TRUMPED UP – Solutions Barbados leader Grenville Phillips II has dismissed as “nothing but fake news”, charges by former members that he was an autocrat, whose say in the party was the only one that mattered. Three former candidates of the fractured party came out publicly today and issued a statement confirming a front-page story published by Barbados TODAY on Thursday, June 14 that more than a dozen candidates had resigned and were in the process of forming their own political grouping. Alan Springer, who contested the St Michael South Central seat, Paul Gibson, who ran in St Michael South, and Irvin Belgrave, who carried the party’s banner in Christ Church West, claimed in the statement that the party’s affairs were conducted on Phillips’ whims. “For example, it was his decision solely who was or who was not a candidate and this fluctuated according to his mood at any given time. There was a reluctance as well as the inability to move the party forward by establishing the right facilitating structures and processes,” the former members said in the two-page document, a copy of which was obtained by Barbados TODAY. The three accused Phillips of being manipulative, deceptive, inconsistent, and engaging in coercion and single-handed religiosity. “For example, for a time Grenville maintained a public face of 28 candidates knowing he had demoted a number of candidates to the status of associate members over an internal dispute. So in fact, there were only 22 candidates at that time. This lying to the public was capped by the recent press statement where Grenville stated that no one had left Solutions Barbados, but were simply ‘taking a break to take care of business’, and that everyone intended signing the contract. This is patently not true,” they stressed. One of the major points of contention was a contract which Phillips demanded that candidates sign, binding them to severe financial penalties in the amount of US$1 million if they opt to leave Solutions Barbados to join another political party. The trio said the contract, introduced in December 2017, was a control mechanism for keeping candidates in the party “and was a carefully enforced way of maintaining loyalty to Solutions Barbados and himself”. The disenchanted candidates noted that a “final olive branch” was offered by those having challenges with Phillips’ leadership style by putting forward certain conditions for them to carry on under the Solutions Barbados banner. “Unfortunately Grenville refused that olive branch and instead took the step of removing members, who had tendered their resignations,” the group said. However, the Solutions leader totally rejected the allegations, telling Barbados TODAY they were nothing but fake news and an assault on his character. “Its all false, incorrect and defamatory. The evidence proves each statement they made to be false and it is incontrovertible,” he said. “I went through the document trying to find anything that could be true and I found nothing. Everything is in our constitution, which they voted for,” he stressed. Phillips said the members had agreed that “I am a good leader”, and he attributed the actions of those who have now made their views public to the defeat they suffered at the polls in the May 24 general election. “The result of the elections perhaps affected persons in different ways and for these this is how it affected them,” he said. Despite the fallout, the structural engineer made it clear he had no interest in speaking ill of his former party colleagues, “because they did make the brave decision to run with Solutions Barbados”. “But when you send people to war some come back with certain conditions and you don’t cry them down, you try and work with them and do what you can. I can’t speak badly of them,” he said. Belgrave, Gibson and Springer committed themselves to doing “what is best for Barbados” by hopefully forming a new political party leading up to the next general elections. “Moving forward, one thing that is clear for this group is our commitment to what is best for Barbados and our constituents. We will ensure that we remain a voice to the nation on matters of national importance and continue to give Barbadians a clear understanding of what is happening behind the political and governmental curtain. This will, we hope, evolve into something more concrete in the years leading up to the next general elections,” the statement read. (BT)

HOUSE APPROVES $7 MILLION FOR ROAD REPAIRS – The Barbados Labour Party (BLP)-administration took its first steps today towards honouring its pledge to repair all the roads on the island. To this end, it has allocated $7 million to pay contractors and complete some unfinished projects which began just before the last Government’s term in office ended. Speaking in the House of Assembly during debate on a $7 million supplementary, Minister of Public Works and Transport Dr William Duguid said work would continue on Flagstaff Road, Harrismith Road, Kings Village, Lowthers, Padmore Village, Rollins Road, Little Bay, River Bay Road and Long Bay Village Road. He noted that contractors had already done significant work on some of these roads. “For example, 40 per cent at Lowthers; ten per cent at Flagstaff; ten per cent at Long Bay Village and five per cent at Kings Village.” However, he chastised the former Freundel Stuart led administration for starting some of these projects after Parliament was dissolved, the end result being that “some of the contractors, who spent their own money to work on these roads, would have spent nearly a million dollars, and indeed some have been brought to the brink of bankruptcy. “All because of the mischief that can occur when Parliament dissolves officially, but the executive continues to work. If they had done the right thing, they would have been able to pay the contractors on time by coming to Parliament to approve their payments,” he stressed. Duguid was supported by former Minister of Public Works and Member of Parliament for St George North Gline Clarke and Member of Parliament for St Michael South East Santia Bradshaw, both of whom lamented the fact that road projects started under the last BLP administration a decade ago were ignored by the Democratic Labour Party when they took over the reins of power in 2008. However, with this venture, they said they would put an end to that practice. Hence, the decision to finish off the projects the last Government started. “I have instructed my ministry wherever possible and when available, we do the trenches for services like natural gas and water before putting on the final layer,” added Duguid, while arguing that “it makes no sense to complete a road, and then a few weeks, months or years later, we dig it up again to install the pipes and other infrastructure associated with the utilities”. Following requests from several of his parliamentary colleagues who spoke on the resolution and asked for speed bumps in some parts of their constituencies, and recourse for people whose cars were allegedly damaged by potholes and other road problems, Duguid informed them of the procedures involved. “If you want speed bumps in a particular area, write to the ministry with your concerns, identifying the roads in question, and we will work from there,” he said. “On the issue of vehicle damage, the ministry has a Legal Department, and when you submit your claim, we have assessors who will go out and examine your vehicle, and determine whether the road caused the damage or if some other factor might have contributed to it.” Following today’s debate, Parliament was adjourned until July 10. (BT)

UNIT 1 BACK IN ACTION – Businesses operating on the South Coast and residents there should be getting more relief following some improvements to the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant. Yesterday, Processing Unit 1 was operating again after being out of service for the past two years. Some of the sewage from the South Coast plant had been piped to the Bridgetown plant but when Unit 1 became faulty, it was diverted. Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams deemed the $400 000 emergency fix at the plant a success. “When we started to clean out the tank, everything that could be wrong was wrong . . . . It wasn’t simply a clean and a pretty-up,” he said. “In the last three weeks, we have managed to entirely rebuild this Processing Unit to the point where, unless something really unforeseen happens, we don’t think we have to look back at this unit for another 15 years, with the exception of routine maintenance. “When we started the works, this tank was down entirely and the other tank, which represented half of the processing power, was operating at less than a quarter capacity. “Right now, we have one fully functioning tank, which is half capacity of the plant, and we are taking the other one offline very shortly to do the fix on that as well. When we finish that one, we expect to be at 100 per cent.” Abrahams and general manager of the Barbados Water Authority, Keithroy Halliday, thanked the workers who they said went the extra mile to get the task completed. Abrahams said some of the parts needed to finish the job were not readily available, and the engineering and welding teams had to utilise what material was at their disposal to find solutions. It took five skip trucks, two cranes, two Bobcats, a hazmat (hazardous materials) team of eight men, two paramedics and a team of health and safety officers to undertake the job. About 758 cubic metres of sludge were removed from the Processing Unit and disposed in a specially created spot at the Mangrove Landfill. Now back in operation, Unit 1 would hold about a million gallons of wastewater, which would be treated and disposed of as effluent. The project, which saw the removal of debris, bush and plants from the unit; repair and re-installation of a 35-foot, three-ton bridge; the cleaning, repair and replacement of pipes and diffusers; clearing of valves and the repair of a 12-inch airline, was supposed to have taken two weeks but due to rainfall last week was delayed by a few days. (MWN)

PROCESSING UNIT NO.1 RECOMMISSIONED AT BSTP – The first step in returning the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant (BSTP) to optimum capacity has been completed with the recommissioning of one of two processing units there. Processing Unit No.1, also known as the contact tank was out of operation for two years; added with additional sewage diverted from the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant (SCSTP) the plant was on the verge of collapse. On assuming office Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley elevated the south coast sewage challenge to a national crisis, established a cabinet sub-committee chaired by Minister of Energy and Water Resources the Hon. Wilfred Abrahams and tasked it with oversight of the crisis. Earlier this month, Minister Abrahams launched a $400 000 emergency fix at the plant which included cleaning and repairing both processing units and cleaning the wet wells at the River Road Lift Station and the BSTP. Private contractors Project Recycle/Jose & Jose, teams from the BWA, the Ministry of Environment and the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) worked together and around the clock to meet the deadline set by the minister. It also took five skip trucks, two cranes, two bobcats, a hazmat team of eight, two paramedics on a 24-hour, shift rotation and a team of Health and Safety Officers to get the job done. Rains over the last week delayed completion of the first phase of the project which saw focused activity including the removal of debris, bush and plants from Processing Unit No.1; the repair and re-installation of the 35-foot, three-ton bridge which usually sits over the unit; the cleaning, repair and replacement of pipes and diffusers, the clearing of valves and the repair of the 12-inch airline. An estimated total of 758 m3 of sludge was removed from PU#1 and disposed in a specially created spot at the Mangrove Landfill, equipped with open trenches to accept the waste which was spread and covered in layers using substances like fly-ash, organic substance and white lime. Now back in operation the unit carries about a million gallons of wastewater which will be treated and disposed of as effluent. Work on Processing Unit No.2 is expected to start shortly. (MWN)

BIBA ELECTS NEW BOARD – The Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) elected a new board of directors at its annual general meeting last Thursday, June 21, 2018. The meeting, held at Courtyard Marriott, Christ Church, had in attendance representatives from 26 companies, executives and members of the secretariat. Addressing the meeting, Immediate Past President Marlon Waldron said the international business sector could “almost single handedly remedy our foreign exchange crisis”. However, he said the commitment and cooperation of Government and key stakeholders remains vital to realizing this goal. “Barbados can no longer remain stationary and paralyzed when the rest of the world is moving to capitalize on new opportunities in areas such as FinTech, artificial intelligence and of course marijuana,” he said without elaborating. Waldron thanked the board and members for allowing him to serve while urging the organization to embrace change and push new talent. “I am an eternal optimist and therefore I believe that international business is in good hands, and I would recommend to my successor that younger persons in the industry be embraced and encouraged to serve on committees. “Those of us who have the skills and knowledge should mentor the younger persons so that we always have a number of educated and skilled individuals equipped to carry on the mandate of this important sector,” he said. Newly elected president Julia Hope said she was eager and ready to serve as well as optimistic about the sector’s future. She urged members to think about ways in which they could contribute positively to its growth. “BIBA needs to be saying to Government, ‘How can we help you to help us?’ We have to change our tune and build a true partnership between the private and public sector,” she said. The new board is as follows: President: Julia Hope (Innovate LSO) 1st Vice President: Derrick Cummins (J&T Bank & Trust) 2nd Vice President: Tara Frater (Lex Caribbean) Treasurer: Gregory McConnie (Brookfield International Bank Inc.) Secretary: Natalia Burke (Harridyal Sodha & Associates) Ex-officio: Marlon Waldron (AMA Management company Ltd.) Members: Janice Burke (Wentworth Insurance Co. Ltd.); Christopher Evans (Strategic Risks Solutions Barbados); Melanie Jones (Lex Caribbean); Dominique Pepin (Tailored Tax Solutions); Jamar Selman (Chancery Corporate Services Ltd.); Jeanne Crawford (USA Risk Group Barbados Ltd.); Connie Smith (Tricor Caribbean). (BT)

LOOKING AHEAD – The University of the West Indies (UWI) has signed an agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) Government to facilitate development research on climate change, disaster resilience, security and justice, and prospects for economic growth. The agreement was signed last Friday by Mark George, deputy head of the Department for International Development and Professor Winston Moore of the UWI’s Economics Department, Cave Hill Campus, during a meeting here which discussed issues facing Commonwealth Caribbean countries. George warmly welcomed the collaboration with UWI academics whom he noted were very well placed to undertake the research, which, once complete, will inform the UK Government’s future aid programme for countries in the region. Professor Moore said the research would be able to demonstrate the complex nature of development challenges in the region. The UWI spokesman also suggested that in order to understand the context of the Caribbean, it was important to look deeply into a range of indicators and trends rather than merely using income per head measures to assess the status of development. The study is to be completed by the end of August. (BT)

ANTIGUA/BARBUDA: TUBERCULOSIS CONFIRMED, PRESCHOOLERS TESTED – Anxiety turned to irritation for parents visiting the St John’s Health Centre after learning that their preschoolers might have been exposed to the highly infectious bacterial disease, tuberculosis (TB), and they had to be tested yesterday. On Friday, when 40-plus parents of PreK-3 and PreK-1 classes got the notification to take their children into the clinic Monday (yesterday), they were not given any specific reason why, until they got there. And, that’s when they also learned that a four-year-old PreK-3 boy at the institution had been diagnosed and was hospitalized for the past two weeks. The news came as a shock to all. Tuberculosis is spread through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze. It is treatable. The symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough often bloody, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. TB is also known as “Consumption” – a term adopted due to the weight loss that patients suffered. “This is very unfair. The parents of that child should not have exposed our children to this. The school [advocates that] when your children are sick that they should stay home. The principal and teachers would go as far as call you, even if you just dropped off the child, to return for any sick children,” one parent said. When parents went to the clinic for 9 a.m. yesterday they were told that their children would receive a test for tuberculosis. OBSERVER media was there and observed many of the children, most of whom were not happy with being restrained and injected for the test. While the test did not last more than 30 seconds, the children who were as young as two-years-old complained of discomfort at the injection site on their forearms. Parents were given further instructions by the medical team to return to the clinic with the children’s health card tomorrow at 9 a.m. so that the reaction, if any, of the injection site, could be addressed. Deputy chief medical officer Dr James Knight told OBSERVER media that Antigua and Barbuda eliminated TB as an epidemic 40 years ago and the hospital ward that specifically dealt with these patients was subsequently closed. He stated that there was one confirmed last year, but, he suggested there was no need for alarm. According to him, the mandatory procedures are being followed now that health officials know at least one child was carrying T.B. Dr Knight said as a precautionary measure the 51 patients were administered Mantoux to test for the bacteria. (BT)

RONELLE RECEIVES QUEEN’S AWARD – Earlier today 25-year-old Ronelle King of Barbados received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Ronelle received the award for her work through Life In Leggings organisation that she formed in 2016. The organisation highlights domestic and sexual violence against women and girls in Barbados and across the region. (MWN)

SIR FRED LAID TO REST – Sir Fred Gollop was remembered as a courageous and thoughtful leader at his funeral service this morning. As a testament to his influence Governor General Dame Sandra Mason and Prime Minister Mia Mottley were in attendance as well as members of the Cabinet and Senate. In a touching tribute by his children Renee Kowlessar, Robyn Gollop-Knight and Reissa Galt, Sir Fred was remembered as a devoted father who always made time for his children and grandchildren and ensured that they did well in their lives. Sir Fred’s love for his family extended beyond his biological family to the Nation Group of Companies and One Caribbean Media. In his sermon Reverend Guy Hewitt spoke of the gift of love which Sir Fred possessed and shared with all. (MWN)

FEMALE PRISONERS ON THE RISE – The number of female admissions at Her Majesty’s Prison in Dodds, St Philip is trending upwards while the number of new male offenders at the correctional facility is declining, according to the just released findings of the latest prison report. According to the 2016 annual report from the penal facility, female admissions climbed by 36.5 per cent while male admissions dropped by 7.7 per cent. Despite the increase, however, the number of female prisoners, which stood at 86, trailed male admissions by a long way, with male inmates totalling 1,043. Only 13 per cent of convicted females were serving sentences of five years or more while 42 per cent of convicted males were facing lengthy sentences. The report showed that the majority of females were serving sentences for drug possession. However, the majority of females on remand were charged with more serious offences, including firearm possession, wounding, theft, murder and sexual assault. During the period under review, 422 males and 28 females were released from prison, with the correctional facility registering a 13.3 per cent reduction in repeat offenders. First-time offenders fell from 189 in 2015 to 164 in 2016, the number of people incacerated also fell from 927 to 913 inmates. Since 2014, Barbados’ incarceration rate has declined from 328 per 100,000 people to 322 per 100, 000, even though it still represented one of the highest incarceration rates in the region, placing behind only Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. The number of non-nationals incarcerated during that period fell from 131 to 126, with 43 coming from Guyana – a decrease by five – and 36 from Jamaica. The majority of non-nationals were charged with the importation and possession of illegal drugs. Meanwhile, prison authorities are reporting a more efficient system, saving taxpayers $1,139,424 annually in maintenance costs, and the daily maintenance cost of a single inmate has dropped from $85.68 to $83.08 “It is internationally acknowledged that incarceration is an expensive exercise and as a consequence, the Barbados Prison Service seeks to establish value for money in its operation and performance,” the report said, explaining that it cost approximately $31,271.72 per annum to keep an offender in safe custody. However, in 2016, it costs approximately $30,323.07 per annum to keep an offender in custody, the report stated, while noting that the figure did not take into account any additional expenses occasioned by services provided by the psychiatric and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as the visits to the various polyclinics or private doctors. (BT)

POLICE INVESTIGATING AN UNNATURAL DEATH - Police are investigating the unnatural death of a 31-year-old man. The incident occurred between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. yesterday at Orange Hill, St James. The victim was at a residence in Orange Hill when a man confronted him. Shots were fired and the victim ran to the back of the property, where his body was later discovered. (MWN)

I APOLOGISE FOR SMOKING – A St George man, who tried to ease his stress by smoking “a spliff”, has been fined $350. Ellerton resident Tramaine Ricardo Christopher Crawford now has one month to pay the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court if he wants to avoid spending a month at Dodds prison. Police were on patrol on Fairchild Street, The City, when they caught wind of a pungent scent and later found Crawford with the illegal substance in the form of a cigarette. “I apologize for smoking officer . . . . Give me a chance,” Crawford said at the time. However, a further search discovered a loose quantity of the vegetable matter in his pocket. “I asking for a chance, sir, and give me a fine. I don’t smoke often, but I had a lot of my mind so I wanted a [smoke]. So I asked a guy and he gave me a portion,” Crawford told Magistrate Douglas Frederick today. (BT)

ARMED ROBBERY – A 23-year-old man lost his freedom today, three months after he robbed another man at knifepoint. Harlem Darin Anthony Small, of 3rd Avenue Bibby’s Lane, St Michael, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Douglas Frederick to robbing Paul Narine of $1,640 cash and a $400 cellular phone. Sergeant Rudy Pilgrim said Narine was leaving a bathroom in the Nursery Drive bus terminal on March 17 when he encountered Small who told him that he had dropped an item. As Narine turned around, three other men entered the bathroom and closed the door. Small then placed a flick knife to Narine’s throat and told him not to move before relieving him of his property. The matter was reported to police, but only the phone was recovered. A restitution order has been granted for the device to be returned to Narine. The first-time offender told Magistrate Douglas Frederick, “I got into this basically because of bad company”. However the magistrate told him that the offence was very serious as it was committed in a public place. “This is a dangerous thing. A flick knife, four men. I don’t know if this is an ongoing enterprise and you only now got caught. I can’t let you go because I have society to protect. This is a serious thing,” the magistrate stressed. He then ordered a pre sentencing report on Small’s life. The accused will remain on remand at Dodds and return to the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court on July 24. (BT)

CLARKE COMES UP WITH SURETY – A 24-year-old man, who spent the last 28 days on remand at HMP Dodds, is now out on $3,000 bail. Rodney Darian Clarke, of no fixed place of abode, was released after his surety confirmed his Constitution Road, St Michael address to Magistrate Douglas Frederick today. Clarke is accused of escaping police custody on May 16 while under arrest for another offence. He is to reappear in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court on August 22 and must now reside with his surety until the matter is adjudicated. (BT)

LORD EVIL TO KNOW FATE SOON – Andre Omar Jackman, also known as “Lord Evil” or “Punchies”, will have to wait a little longer to know the outcome of a charge against him. Jackman, 38, of Stroud Bay, Crab Hill, St Lucy, who had a murder charge against him thrown out earlier this year, appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday. He had two matters for assault and criminal damage dismissed in December 2016 by Magistrate Douglas Frederick. However, he still faced an indictable charge of unlawful violence towards Skii Sommerville, in such a way that it would cause another person of reasonable firmness at the scene to fear for their safety, on December 10, 2016. He had been released on $5 000 bail. After prosecutor Sergeant Rudy Pilgrim asked the court yesterday for a further adjournment, defence counsel Shadia Simpson argued that yesterday was in fact given as the final adjournment date for the matter. “The court indicated if the prosecutor could give no indication where this case was going, the matter would be dismissed,” she submitted. However, Pilgrim said there was a file, but it did not reach the office when it should have. “My instructions are that the constable [dealing with the matter] is on vacation, and will return at the end of the month,” he told the magistrate. Magistrate Frederick asked counsel to give the prosecutor a “few more days to get it sorted out”. “The problem is that this has fallen through the cracks . . . . The man, who is to do what he has to, is on vacation, so work with the man,” he said, adding he had not written yesterday would be the final adjournment date. But Simpson argued that the prosecution had six months to do what needed to be done. “I am here and ready to work, Your Worship. I am sure my client remembered you said this would be the final adjournment date, and I wrote it down,” she said. “I remember,” Jackman said from the dock. Magistrate Frederick set a final adjournment date for July 10. (MWN)

PERERA RETURNS TO DASH WINDIES HOPES AS SL LEVEL SERIES – West Indies faltered in their bid to win the three-Test series against Sri Lanka, when they ran out of momentum when it mattered most and went down by four wickets on the penultimate day of the historic day/night Test here Tuesday. Dilruwan Perera, who struck an unbeaten 23, formalised the result for the tourists when he lifted captain Jason Holder to the long-off boundary, just over an hour before the scheduled lunch interval. It was his crucial unbroken 63-run, seventh wicket stand with Kusal Perera, who made 28 not out, which pulled Sri Lanka over the line and ensured a 1-1 series result. Captain Jason Holder said while the result was not what he had hoped for, the team deserved praise for the way they had played the series. “It was a good fight from the boys. All the boys put in a really good effort,” a disappointed Holder told media following the contest. “It did not end the way we wanted but credit again to the guys, it was very, very tough. It was a hard fought series. Credit to the Sri Lankans to the way they fought back and hopefully we can put things right in this next series against Bangladesh starting next week.” Resuming the afternoon at Kensington Oval requiring a further five wickets to complete a 2-0 series win with Sri Lanka on 81, West Indies managed only the scalp of Kusal Mendis for 25, as they let a glorious opportunity for a series-win slip. They were frustrated by left-hander Kusal Perera who recovered significantly from a frightening incident while fielding on Monday’s day three, to carry the bulk of the scoring for Sri Lanka. He crashed into the advertising boards attempting to take a catch at long on deep into the Windies second innings, and had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance. However, he showed no signs of trauma from the blow, striking two fours in a 44-ball knock as he combined with Dilruwan Perera, to break the Windies hearts. Dilruwan, unbeaten on one at the start, counted three fours in a composed 68-ball innings. When Mendis was trapped lbw by Holder in the afternoon’s first over with no addition to the overnight score, West Indies would have been harbouring thoughts of victory. But the two Pereras survived a couple near misses with catches going near to hand, to safely navigate the session, as Holder lacked support from fellow seamers Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach and Miguel Cummins who toiled without reward. Holder ended with five for 41 – his second five-wicket haul in Tests – to post match figures of nine for 60. West Indies entered the match leading 1-0 in the series, after winning the first Test at Queen’s Park Oval by 226 runs and drawing the second at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia last week. West Indies turn their attention to Bangladesh who they face in first Test of a two-match series at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua starting July 4. (MWN)

PM MEETS WITH CRICKETERS – It was a girls’ day out. The Windies women’s players brought cricket to Parliament today as Bajans Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin, Shamilia Connell and Shakera Selman met Prime Minister Mia Mottley in the flesh during a special ceremony. And they didn’t come empty-handed either, having brought the Women’s Twenty20 trophy with them as the tournament’s reigning world champions. (MWN)

ARGENTINE JOY; NIGERIAN TEARS – Marcos Rojo scored a brilliant late volley to send Argentina through to the last 16 of the 2018 World Cup with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Nigeria in St Petersburg today. A lacklustre Argentina were on the verge of an embarrassing exit before Manchester United defender Rojo surged into the area to place Gabriel Mercado’s cross into the bottom corner. Lionel Messi, who had scored a brilliant opener, jumped on Rojo’s back as he sprinted away in delirious celebration, joined by the entire Argentina bench in the corner. It was a result they scarcely deserved after a poor second half showing, epitomised by the Javier Mascherano error that allowed Victor Moses to equalise with a penalty. But once their ragged defence had held on to the final whistle, the Argentina players embraced each other in the centre of the pitch, waving to their vociferous fans, a disjointed side united for now. They will face Group C winners France in the last 16 in Kazan on Saturday, while Group D winners Croatia, who secured top spot by beating Iceland 2-1, play Denmark. Given Messi will be 35 during the next World Cup in Qatar in 2022, victory here has at least staved off a miserable end to what could well be his last chance to win the tournament. The Barcelona striker, whose hint of a smile during the pre-match anthems was a stark contrast to his pained expression prior to the 3-0 defeat by Croatia, produced a superb first-half performance. His opening goal displayed all his talent and composure. With Ever Banega looking to go over the top from deep, Messi cut sharply right and surged in behind the defence, with the Sevilla midfielder picking him out with a terrific pass. Messi’s first touch to cushion the ball on his left thigh was sublime, the second off his left boot to draw it away from Kenneth Omeruo exquisite, the finish into the far corner with his right emphatic. Elsewhere he was efficient, threatening to create openings with every quick touch, and could have had a second but for Nigeria keeper Francis Uzoho’s tremendous save to tip a free-kick onto the post. With Argentina’s players reportedly at odds with boss Jorge Sampaoli, it was perhaps telling that Messi delivered a second team-talk to his side in the tunnel just before coming out for the second half. His words failed to inspire them, with Messi increasingly isolated, but the little master had at least given his team-mates the foundation to salvage their World Cup hopes. (BT)

MISTAH DALE OUT FIRST IN PARTY MONARCH SEMIS - Mistah Dale will be the first and Mr Blood and iWeb will be the last act during the semi-final round of the Party Monarch competition. These two seasoned acts make up the 16 artistes who are hoping to dethrone reigning monarch Li'l Rick. Mistah Dale who will be singing Bold and Brave will be followed by Ray Dainja, Mr Veejay, Nikita, Kas Katee, Marzville, Kirk Brown, Stiffy, Mikey, Ashawnya, Chrissy D, Faith, SammiJane, and Mac. The draw took place this evening at the National Cultural Foundation headquarters in West Terrace, St James. The semi-finals will be held during Phenomenal Friday at Kensington Oval on July 6. (MWN)

NEWCOMER NIQA OUT FIRST IN SWEET SOCA SEMIS – Out the blocks first Friday at the Sweet Soca semi-finals is newcomer Niqa with For The Love. She pulled first position when the Sweet Soca calypsonians met at the National Cultural Foundation office this evening to bring in their songs, sign their contracts and iron out the last details. Excited but still nervous, she is no stranger to the stage as she came form the Junior Monarch and Pic-O-De-Crop tents. The artistes were in a jovial mood and all were present except for Li’l Rick, whose number was pulled by management Ruel Ward, Biggie Irie and Kirk Brown whose numbers were pulled by Merle Niles and iWeb whose number was pulled by Brian Corbin. Nikita is the lone female doing the double as she is also in the Party Monarch competition. The artistes will perform next week Friday at Phenomenal Friday on the same stage of the Yello International Bashment Soca competition. Duo Leadpipe & Saddis and Li’l Rick are also into the Yello International Bashment Soca finals. In order of appearance on stage are: Niqa, Imani, Leadpipe & Saddis, Sanctuary, Mikey, Jslo (newcomer), iWeb, Kirk Brown, Natahlee, Adrian Clarke, Li’l Rick, Bo Bo (newcomer), Nikita, Biggie Irie Mighty Grynner and Marvay. The reserve is Joaquin. (MWN)

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