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banescrown · 4 years ago

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Ahhh CONGRATULATIONS FOR 100 💖

Can you write a Thomastair based on Sasha's song 'Someone you hate' (I might write this myself but well, I wann read yours)

Also, you deserve a million more followers 💖💖💖

@starryherondales 🥺🥺😭Thank you, I love you, you’re the sweetest❤️❤️❤️. I’m not really sure how this went, but I hope you like it cuz I have really mixed feelings about it lol. (I only added the first half of the song, cuz I couldn’t make this that long; and idk what direction I took this in I’m sorry)

Bold italics are lyrics, italics are the memory

~~~~~~~~

Thomastair - Someone You Hate

Ship: Thomas Lightwood x Alastair Carstairs

Prompt: Song- Someone You Hate by Sasha Sloan

Word Count: 1019 words

~~~~~~~~

Told your mama I'd take care of you

Alastair lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep, he knew he wouldn’t be able to, but he tried anyway. Tried to sleep so he could escape reality for even a few hours, to deal with his mess of a life in the morning. Maybe in his sleep, those hazel eyes wouldn’t haunt him.

Loaded up the car

Drove into the dark

Things had been going great with Thomas, their past being put aside and they’d both been happy, and in love. Alastair missed the days when they first confessed their feelings for each other, when their relationship had been new and exciting, and it seemed like nothing would be able to tear them apart.

Billboard signs and skylines painted blue

Life had been so wonderful then. They’d been so at ease with each other, it was almost like they’d never fought. They go for walks and just talk, about everything and nothing. Or they’d lay side by side in comfortable silence, just being in each other presence was enough.

We made it a home

But I felt alone

Until it wasn’t. As time went by, they’d begun to bicker, more and more, each argument worse than the last, and Alastair wondered whether they had rushed into this, whatever relationship they had. Soon they had started seeing each other less and less, which didn’t unnoticed by their friends. Cordelia had come to him on numerous nights asking him if things were alright between them and had held him as he cried, because in truth he didn’t know.

We were growing, growing apart

And I knew I had to break your heart

He’d seen Thomas today. He had come over, try and move past their most recent fight, and Alastair didn’t even remember what it was about. But instead, somehow they’d wound up arguing again, and Alastair had simply walked out and didn’t bother to see if Thomas would follow.

He didn’t.

So, off I went

Haven't seen you since

“Why can’t you just TRY and get along with Matthew!” Thomas questioned, visibly upset.

“Because I don’t like him. At all. I try to be civil with him, even when he decides to make numerous jabs at me, which by the way you do nothing about, all for your sake. I just don’t have any interest at in starting any sort of friendship with him.” Alastair replied, not looking up from his book.

“Yes you weren’t so kind to him in the past you know” Thomas was clearly very exasperated, and Alastair knew soon he’d give up and leave soon. The thought didn’t make his heart sink as much as it should have, which made him feel worse.

I went from

Someone you held, you held when you were lonely

“Yes well, Matthew wasn’t exactly a saint either Thomas, which you conveniently ignore.” Alastair shot back, looking up to glare at Thomas. “And I tried apologizing, he didn’t want to accept, it’s not my problem he wants to take to heart something I said at FIFTEEN years old. I’m not going to grovel at his feet for forgiveness, especially when I can hardly stand him”

“It would not kill you to at the very least try again.”

“Yes well I don’t want to how about that”

“You’re being impossible!” Thomas looked livid, as if somehow this was Alastair’s fault. Alastair was seething.

Someone you called, you called your one and only

“Me? I’m the impossible one? For not wanting to be friends with someone decides to hold on to my past that I’ve tried to move past, someone who constantly insults and humiliates me every chance he gets, someone who has openly deprecated me just for my colour and looks, and you really want me to be friends with him? You stand and do nothing because he is your friend, and that makes you no better than him. It is a miracle I haven’t lost my mind and tried to possibly kill him.” Alastair had stood up, and his voice was at a shout.

I threw it all away

“You cannot expect so much of me just because I love you,” because, despite it all, Alastair did. He always would, and no amounts of quarrels in the world would ever be able to stop Alastair from loving Thomas, no matter how angry he would get. “If you really want to label me the impossible one, then sure go ahead.”

Thomas was at a loss for words, and opened his mouth to say something, but Alastair didn’t bother. He walked out his room, muttering about going for a walk, silently hoping Thomas would follow and they could talk it out. He knew he wouldn’t, it didn’t stop him from hoping, and he was right, but he kept walking, not caring where he was going.

I went from someone you love

Alastair had stayed out for hours, and when he’d come home Thomas had left. He hadn’t gone down for dinner, and when Cordelia came in asking if he was alright, it strained him to put on a smile and say he was fine. He knew she didn’t believe him, but she just gave him a sad smile and left.

Alastair didn’t know how this would end for him. For them. He’d been in a bad relationship before, Charles had been controlling and manipulative, and he had gotten his heart broken. He thought with Thomas it would not happen again. But now he wondered. Wondered whether maybe they weren’t right for each other, maybe they never had been. Maybe their history was too much for them to be together. Or maybe it was just them. Maybe they just didn’t fit. Maybe they had grasped onto broken strings and hoped to tie them together. Alastair didn’t know. He didn’t really care. He just wanted it to stop, he just wanted to lay with Thomas, to talk with him and hold him, to enjoy his company, without anticipating a fight.

Maybe, one day, they could put themselves together again.

To someone you hate

~~~~~~~~

Yes so here it is, the first ficlet thingy I’ve posted on Tumblr!! I have a few more written so I’ll start posting those too but I hope you guys liked this :)

[I don’t have a tag list yet, so if you want to be added to my tag list please tell me <3]

#thomastair #alastair carstairs #thomas lighwood #alastair x thomas #thomas x alastair #tlh #the last hours #tsc #the shadowhunter chronicles #shadowhunters

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glenngaylord · 4 years ago

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OUTFEST 2020 FILM REVIEWS: The Rest Of The Fest

As the curtain closes on another Outfest, this one presented under extremely unusual circumstances, I sit in awe of the filmmakers and of the staff who put together not only a great group of films, but managed to creatively bring them to its audience online and at drive-in screenings. Typically, you find yourself having to choose one film over several others, but with this new format, you have a great chance of seeing everything you want. In past years, I found myself lucky if I saw 15 films. This year I saw 23 features and 4 shorts programs out of the 160 on the schedule.

As it’s impossible to get full reviews submitted for everything while the festival is still chugging along, I wanted to write capsules of the remaining films not covered at TheQueerReview.com . Please visit the website for all the other reviews I wrote as well as those by my colleagues.

THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON ★★★★★

Melding a Groundhog Day-style concept with police violence against black people, this stunning film could not be more prescient and emotionally overpowering. A black gay teenager relives his moment of murder over and over again, with slight shifts in the narrative taking us to someplace unexpected and earned. Director Ali LeRoi directs his first feature as if he’s been doing it all of his life and has interpreted Stanley Kalu’s ingenious script with a great cinematic approach. Gorgeously framed, beautifully acted, written, and directed, this is one of the most powerful films of 2020.

TWO EYES ★★★★★

I can’t form sentences here so I’m gonna vomit out words: Instant classic. Glorious. Set over three centuries seamlessly melding a triptych of stories about gender identity. I’m a blubbering mess. Fantastic and very funny last line. Travis Fine is a very gifted filmmaker who screams love child of Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt. Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Unforgettable. Montana is so beautiful. Barstow is not. A perfect film for anyone who wants to find their place in the world. I wouldn’t complain if TUNDE and TWO EYES both received Best Picture Oscar nominations.

DRAMARAMA ★★★★

Theater nerds rule in this incredibly endearing, early 90s set film about a group of high schoolers discovering themselves in one night at a ridiculous Murder Mystery-themed party. Hilarious script, vivid and wonderful performances, and the opposite of a “Coming Out” movie in the best possible way. Jonathan Wysocki has given us The Breakfast Club for air-kissing, mid-Atlantic accented freaks and geeks.

CICADA ★★★★

What happens when a traumatized, bisexual man who has more sex partners than any standard montage can contain slows things down to concentrate on one kind but also traumatized young man? This elliptically told film has a fun, flirty side but carries its heaviness with great ease. A terrific feature debut for director/writer/editor/lead actor Matthew Fifer.

THE STRONG ONES (LOS FUERTES) ★★★★

From Chile comes this sexy, moving story of two men at cross purposes who form a beautiful bond. Set against some stunning scenery and mining the chemistry between its two leads for everything it has, I am half-jokingly calling it Brokeback Andes. It’s so much more than that trite, hackneyed comparison.

MONSOON ★★★1/2

Director Hong Khaou’s followup to Lilting sets its sights on modern day Vietnam as Henry Golding’s character visits to find a suitable place to distribute his mother’s ashes. It’s a terrific mediation on a gay man finding a sense of belonging in a place he’s never been and Golding proves himself to be a subtle, compelling actor. Perhaps a little too quiet and reflective, the film makes up for what it lacks in narrative drive with its awe-inspiring cinematography and immersive qualities.

P.S. BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE ★★★★1/2

What an unexpected surprise. Michael Seligman and Jennifer Tiexiera’s documentary about a treasure trove of letters dating back to the 1950s brings us into the world of drag queens from almost 70 years ago. With many of its subjects not only alive but in fine form telling their stories and the dishiest voiceover readings ever to grace a film, I was not only thoroughly entertained, but I didn’t expect to weep like Laura Dern at the end. Oh, this is so so so so good.

MINYAN ★★★★

Eric Steel’s feature debut has its own unique tone and a star making performance by Samuel H. Levine, a spitting image of a young Al Pacino/Sylvester Stallone hybrid. With its 1980s Jewish Brighton Beach backdrop, this powerful yet subtle film about a young man coming to terms with his sexuality as well as his place within his religion, it’s a stunning debut. Ron Rifkin is stellar as Levine’s charming grandfather and Alex Hurt (William Hurt’s son) has his father’s intensity. Fantastic, lived-in production design which feels like its decade without resorting to the usual candy colored tropes and a evocative score makes this a memorable experience. Reminiscent at times of On The Waterfront, this film puts a fresh new spin on a coming of age tale and finds so many moving moments from first sex to an elderly gay couple hiding in plain sight. A must-see.

SHIVA BABY ★★★★

Writer/Director Emma Seligman must have studied Rosemary’s Baby quite a bit with this angsty story set mostly at a memorial service. Rachel Sennott is fantastic as a young lesbian who moves from one cringe-worthy moment to the next in an attempt to avoid as much conflict as possible. The great supporting cast includes Polly Draper, Fred Melamed, Dianna Agron, Molly Gordon, and Jackie Hoffman, all note perfect. Less a comedy and more of an emotional horror story, Seligman knows how to make the best of a cramped space and throw up an endless variety of obstacles. You just want Sennott’s Danielle to get her goddamned bagel with lox and cream cheese, but the fates have something else, something better, in store.

COWBOYS ★★★★

Steve Zahn gives a career best performance in this moving story of a father with mental health issues and his trans son escaping into the Montana wilderness. Sasha Knight makes an impressive debut as Zahn’s son and Jillian Bell expertly walks that fine line between villain and empathetic character. Its comparisons to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid are not coincidental. Not perfect by any stretch, it may feel fairly conventional, but it’s tackling a vibrant subject matter. Extra points for giving Ann Dowd a role where we don’t hiss at her.

BREAKING FAST ★★★

Solid romcom with a Muslim backdrop, this very tight, deceptively simple script provides just the right amount of sparks between its charming leads, Haaz Sleiman and Michael Cassidy. While structurally not breaking new ground, the entry point into a world we don’t see enough of on screen coupled with food porn for days makes this a fun, funny, goes down easy delight.

ASK ANY BUDDY ★★★1/2

Q: Daddy! Daddy! What were the 70s like down at the Piers in NYC? A: Oh shut up and watch this movie.

An experimental collage of vintage gay porn and archival footage from the disco, pre-AIDS heyday gives this film a mesmerizing, museum installation quality. While technically without a story, you feel like you’ve gone on a journey nonetheless. Would pair well with William Friedkin’s Cruising.

DRY WIND ★★★1/2

Slow cinema meets voyeuristic gay porn in this one of a kind Brazilian exploration an arid small town, a workers’ union crisis, and a man obsessed with the Tom Of Finland drawing come to life who motors into his life. Overlong and a little too obtuse as it goes along, it’s worth watching this Alice In Wonderland takes a quaalude, gets a very hairy back, and has a lot of sex in the dirt.

NO HARD FEELINGS ★★★★

This year’s Teddy Award Winner at the Berlin Film Festival, Faraz Shariat’s film uses its backdrop of a refugee camp in Germany to tell the story of Iranians and Irani-Germans searching for a better life. Its three leads bring a spark and youthful energy to a story with devastating undercurrents. A wrenching glimpse into the emotional effects an oppressive culture has on its people, yet told with a driving pulse.

LILY TOMLIN: THE FILM BEHIND THE SHOW ★★★

A look behind the scenes as Lily Tomlin and wife Jane Wagner workshop their legendary 1980s Broadway show, The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe. It’s great to see these two at the top of their game and get a glimpse of their creative process, but this documentary is almost devoid of incident and feels more like a sweet gift to the fans than a fully realized film.

SHORTS: WHAT A BOY NEEDS ★★★1/2

A mixed bag here of people searching for excitement, I found a couple of gems here nonetheless. Not to take away from the shorts I don’t mention, I want to single out two exceptional films. Ruben Navarro’s Of Hearts And Castles looks great, has a beautiful vibe, and shows us a lovely connection forming right before our eyes. Kiko’s Saints proves highly original as we follow a female Japanese artist on assignment in France become obsessed with a gay couple who have a lot of sex on the beach. Combining animation with fairly explicit sex, I loved seeing the male gaze from a female perspective.

THE CAPOTE TAPES ★★1/2

I love Truman Capote. I grew up at a time when smart authors found themselves on talk shows and were treated like superstars. I’ve read his books and always have been in awe of his ability to be himself. Featuring never-before-heard tapes of Capote’s friends being interviewed by George Plimpton, unfortunately, I don’t think this repetitive documentary gave me anything all that new. It’s still touching at times and for the uninitiated, this is a great overview of his life, but I was watching the clock.

OUT LOUD ★★★1/2

A moving look at the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles as they prepare for their first public performance. With its ticking clock storyline, director Gail Willumsen expertly interweaves storylines of its founder and members. As such, you really learn what’s a stake and what it means to them. I was lucky enough to see the chorus perform David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust a few years ago and basked in the power of its mere existence…and was also ridiculously entertained.

TWILIGHT’S KISS (SUK SUK) ★★★1/2

This quiet charmer form Hong Kong shows us something we almost never get to see on film - two elderly gay men meeting and falling in love. The fact that both have been married to women doesn’t stop them from exploring their feelings. A little to gentle by half, I still was in awe of this rarity.

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thedeaditeslayer · 6 years ago

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Josh Becker interview: Thriving, surviving and doing it his way.

Here’s yet another interview from 1428 Elm except with Josh Becker. You can support the Evil Dead/Michigan Mafia alumni by giving his latest film Morning, Noon & Night a look. You can read the interview at the link above or attached below.

Josh Becker is a talented writer and director whose film school was the Super 8 shorts that he made with pals, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Scott Spiegel while growing up in Detroit. Known for quirky films like Lunatics: A Love Story and his ode to Hitchcock and film noir, Running Time, he is a maverick with a unique voice in a cookie cutter Hollywood.

Josh Becker is an independent filmmaker who honed his craft writing and directing majority of the Super 8 shorts featuring Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Rob Tapert and Scott Spiegel. Known for his candor and his innovative approach to moviemaking, he is a modern-day storyteller.

Currently, in post-production on his western, Warpath, (which coincidentally sparked a murder investigation but more on that later) we were fortunate enough that the director was able to take some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us.

So, without further ado, here is our interview.

The Interview

Birth of a Maverick

1428 Elm: When you were growing up in Detroit, did you always want to be a director? Was that what you originally set out to do?

Josh Becker: When I was a young kid, I first wanted to be an actor. Then, when I came to realize there was such a thing as a director, perhaps when I was 9 or 10, I switched goals.

1428 Elm: Everyone knows how Sam and Bruce met initially. How did you become a part of the group?

JB: My family moved to Franklin in 1968 and the Raimi family moved in around the block from us a few months later. I immediately became best friends with Ivan Raimi, Sam’s older brother, then soon became friends with the whole family. At that point I was in 4th grade and Sam was in 3rd grade. Then, when I started junior high (now called middle school), the lockers were alphabetical and about five lockers down from me was Bruce Campbell. We became buddies and were both in the drama club and in a play together. That’s where we met Scott Spiegel. Then, the next year, Sam started junior high and became friends with Scott and Bruce and that’s when we all started making Super-8 movies together.

1428 Elm: You cut your teeth as a director on the Super 8 shorts. What was your most memorable shoot?

JB: The many various slapstick comedies, like: “The Blind Waiter” and “Cleveland Smith Bounty Hunter” were all fun to make, but my epic was “Stryker’s War,” which I spent $5,000 making. That was my biggest, and most memorable Super-8.

The Lunatic Is on the Grass

1428 Elm: Umbrella Entertainment recently released Lunatics: A Love Story. I feel this is one of your underrated gems. Very trippy. What was the inspiration for this movie? How did Bruce become involved as a producer?

JB: The inspiration was my desperate need to make another movie and make some money. I got the idea from listening to Pink Floyd, and when they sang, “The lunatic is on the grass,” I thought, “Hey, no one has yet used “lunatic” as a title. I then dreamed up a story to go with it and pitched it to Sam and Rob. They liked it and optioned it. After a year of development (meaning 14 rewrites), they hired Bruce to produce the film.

1428 Elm: Running Time is another terrific film of yours. Everyone knows about the “single take” like Hitchcock’s Rope. Tell us something that isn’t common knowledge about the film.

JB: It’s nearly ready to come out on Blu-Ray from Synapse Films. I wrote an essay about it that’s in my book “Rushes” that explains everything. It was shot on film so there’s a hidden cut every five minutes. I think it turned out pretty well and I know Bruce likes it a lot.

1428 Elm: For those of us that like the 50’s style B-movie sci-fi thrillers, Alien Apocalypse is a great deal of fun. Do you remember your pitch to the SyFy Channel?

JB: I didn’t pitch it to SyFy. Bruce and I were working with a now long-defunct company who pitched SyFy on making any movies with Bruce, and they said “send us some scripts.” I dug out “Alien Apocalypse” (which was 14 years old) and Bruce dug out “The Man with the Screaming Brain” (which was 16 years old) then at some point not too long later we were in Bulgaria making both films. I never talked to SyFy at all about it.

“Everybody’s Gotta Choose Their Own Poison”

1428 Elm: Morning, Noon & Night is getting a special showing in Royal Oak, MI on June 6. This is a darkly comedic take on addictions which relies on actually telling a story which isn’t something filmmakers do anymore. Can you see Hollywood ever getting back to doing that and where can our readers view this film?

JB: “Morning, Noon & Night” is available right now on Amazon — and will soon be on many other platforms, too. I can’t see the future, but I can’t imagine Hollywood correcting itself any time soon. It’s a thousand times easier to do sequels and remakes then to come up with a good story that everybody agrees on. I think the entire Hollywood system is broken.

1428 Elm: Let’s talk about your latest production, Warpath. Something unusual happened when you were doing pick-ups. Gerry Kissell told me about it. Can you tell our readers the story because it sounds like an incident that would be on the ID Channel?

JB: Well, “Warpath,” which will probably be fully done by July, just had its final pick-up shoot a few days ago where we got the few missing shots we still needed. As we were shooting in the woods not far from my house, folks in the cast and the crew kept mentioning a funky odor. Finally, someone pushed back a pile of branches and underneath was a decomposed human body. Suddenly, my set became a crime scene. The police showed up and we all had to fill out witness reports. Then me and the co-producer quickly found a new location, hustled everybody and everything over there and got all of the remaining shots.

1428 Elm: Wow. That’s crazy!

JB: That pile of branches is in the foreground and background of a couple of shots, so it will be in the film.

**An interesting footnote to add regarding this unfortunate turn of events, one of the cast members, Joaquin Guerrero is an active duty K-9 officer. He stepped in and took charge of the situation before local law enforcement arrived. According to the actor/officer:

“My main concern was preserving the scene and the well-being of the crew, because of the traumatic effect it may have on them afterwards.”

Riding Off into the Sunset

1428 Elm: You have an impressive cast, horror vets Thom Matthews and Ted Raimi. The film synopsis sounds like a fresh take on The Searchers. Are you a fan of Westerns? This feels like a new subject for you to tackle.

JB: I’ve always been a fan of westerns. I was the film critic for True West Magazine just a few years ago. “Warpath” certainly owes something to “The Searchers,” although in this case it’s a wife out looking for her husband, with the aid of a tough bounty hunter played by Thom. I’ve always wanted to make a western and now I have. I think it turned well, and the lead, Sasha Higgins, is terrific. Thom has aged into the perfect Marlboro man and plays it wonderfully.

1428 Elm: Do you have any upcoming projects in the pipeline? Anything you can talk about?

JB: As for the future, me and my cohorts at Panoramic Pictures — one of whom is Gary Jones, maker of such cult classics as “Mosquito” and “Spiders” — are gearing up to make my JFK script that was previously called “Head Shot” but has been retitled to “I Killed Kennedy.” It’s the account of how the assassination really came down and the professional hit men who were brought in from France by the mafia who actually did the shooting, as well as how Oswald got set up, then murdered. Th-th-that’s all, folks.

Thanks so much to Josh Becker for speaking with us. We look forward to seeing Warpath.

#Josh Becker #Lunatics: A Love Story #running time #Warpath #Morning Noon & Night

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thecinephale · 7 years ago

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Magic Mike XXL: Masculinity Worth Appreciating

I saw the first Magic Mike with my sister the summer before I left for college. I remember this day the way I remember just about everyday I’ve spent alone with my sister. I remember the day we spent visiting her favorite “spots” right before I started high school. I remember when we got into a hip NYC club because she looked like her even though I looked like me. I remember the difficult lunch we had my first visit back after coming out as trans. I spent most of my life with my sister, usually our parents were there or nearby. But once she learned to drive, the days alone, I remember all of those. This day, in June, in 2012, we were seeing Magic Mike.

There were two men in the theatre, sheepish looking boyfriends whose body language and facial expressions tried to make clear that they were just being good sports. Otherwise it was all women, ages ranging, ready to express their sexuality in public, an experience rarely allowed. My sister commented several times how weird it was to be seeing this with her little brother. I deflected with discussion about Steven Soderbergh and his varied filmography, abuzz with the comfort and confusion I’d always feel when in majority-women spaces.

The movie was fine. Soderbergh knows how to shoot and edit, Channing Tatum knows how to dance, and Matthew McConaughey knows how to chew scenery. But in making two films about the sex industry, Soderbergh failed to understand the difference between what men and women audiences are regularly given. It’s subversive to send a bunch of horny guys into The Girlfriend Experience wanting to see Sasha Grey fuck and then giving them a cold film about economics. But doing the same to a bunch of horny women wanting to see Channing and the gang is just… disappointing.

Still there were enough abs to keep the audience relatively happy, and I left the theatre with the excited feeling that I’d gotten away with something. The same feeling I always had when I’d hang out with my sister and her friends, the same feeling I’d have any time I managed to be around groups of girls, conversations, car rides, karaoke rooms. While I never felt fully relaxed, I did feel more comfortable. It was as much about being near women as it was about being away from men.

***

We talk a lot about trans women’s relationship towards femininity. Every corny movie with a trans femme youth has her trying on makeup, heels, painting her nails. My experience was certainly filled with a lifelong admiration towards girls and women that fluctuated between envy and lust, admiration and resentment. I obsessively loved women and then turned on them when I felt dissatisfied. I convinced myself that relationships needed to be romantic, because I confused the deep desire to consume their bodies, their fashion, their entire being as a sexual impulse rather than one of imitation. I ruined so many friendships this way.

But what we talk about less is how much of my life was spent with masculinity, immersed in it, confused by it, desperate to understand how to embody it. I know some trans women have clarity from a young age that they are girls and it’s just a matter of others accepting it. But that was not my experience. My discomfort with boyhood and attraction to girlhood never seemed like something I could embrace. Instead I felt a pressure and desire to adjust those attractions, to be a boy and then a man to the best of my ability.

I’m fortunate to have a father who is sensitive and kind. I’m also fortunate to have a father who coached my baseball and soccer teams throughout most of my childhood. Sports became something that was undeniably masculine but that I also loved. I may have watched my sister’s dance classes with envy, but I also found genuine pleasure in being on the field, being physical and focused and competitive. It helped that my dad always prioritized sportsmanship, team spirit, and fun over winning. The league recognized this and rewarded him with the absolute worst players they could find. Our team of misfits may have frustrated me at times, but it also allowed me to think of sports as an exercise in empathy rather than a terrifying world of standards and punishments. I wonder now how many other boys on those teams were queer. I know at least one.

My positive experience with sports allowed me to navigate my early childhood fairly unscathed. I was bullied incessantly by other boys (and even some other girls) probably picking up on something about me. And my “crushes” (as I’d wrongly call them) on girls were intense to the point of all-consuming obsession. But my immense discomfort towards masculinity didn’t really start until middle school, until puberty.

I couldn’t figure out what masculinity even was. I knew certain expectations placed on me and felt like they were all terrible. I was supposed to objectify women. That was the most obvious. The grosser I could get when talking about the girls I “liked” the more I’d be accepted. I was also supposed to be aggressive. Physically. I was not supposed to cry. Or show any emotion. It wasn’t enough that I liked sports. I was supposed to only like sports. If someone was my friend that meant they made fun of me in front of our other friends and the proper response was to make fun of them back. Or hit them.

Some of this is just middle school. But a lot of it carried over into high school and beyond. My new friends cared more about theatre than sports, but if you’ve ever watched two 17-year-old boys fight over who gets what part in Julius Caesar you’d realize it’s all the same. *** The summer before I came out, the greatest sequel of all time graced our movie screens: Magic Mike XXL.

This masterpiece of masculinity is a modern-day Old Hollywood musical. Blah blah La La Land blah blah. Go watch On the Town and it becomes clear those musicals are about 1) hot guys, 2) tight pants, 3) great dancing. XXL is pure, sex-positive joy from beginning to end. It abandons the thematic and narrative overwroughtness of the original and makes a new statement: Celebrating female sexuality and non-toxic masculinity is what’s truly radical.

As a lesbian, I’ll leave discussions of the former to others (now that The Toast is gone I’m not sure where Roxane Gay’s review went, it’s really worth hunting down). But as a trans woman, who spent my whole life trying to understand masculinity, this movie was a goddamn revelation. The way the men celebrate women is lovely and sexy and new, but the way they celebrate each other is what really stood out to me.

The men in Magic Mike XXL are masculine. They embody so many of those basic, oversimplified middle school traits I listed above. And yet. It looks good on them. They’re physical, they rag on each other, they trade crude remarks about women. But they also support each other. They discuss their goals and varied interests. They talk out conflicts. Their discussion of women is crude but not objectifying. And they’re comfortable enough in their sexuality and gender to participate in a drag show. Watching XXL, I didn’t feel any closer to masculinity, but for the first time I found it something worth aspiring to. Social pressure was no longer the only thing pushing me towards it, and, as a result, it soon became clear I was never meant to achieve it.

Since coming out, I’ve had the good fortune of befriending some trans men and non-binary individuals who align with certain elements of masculinity and manhood. In these people I tend to see this same sort of Magic Mike XXL version of masculinity. I see it in my dad. I see it in a few cis male friends. I spent my life hating masculinity, but now I see its potential.

***

Last week I went to Thirst Aid Kit’s screening of Magic Mike XXL at the Alamo Drafthouse. Thirst Aid Kit is a podcast hosted by Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins and is really a must-listen if you’re a person who enjoys lusting after men (and if you aren’t it’s still a good time). They provided fake money to throw at the screen and bingo cards with squares like “Mike grabs his crotch.” Cocktails were served throughout and we were encouraged to hoot, wallop, and moan as we saw fit.

It’s been about six years since I sat in that regular movie theatre with my sister cherishing what felt like girl time. And here I was, again in a majority-women space, watching Channing Tatum grind. This time I felt comfortable, and also, finally, relaxed.

As a trans person, I’ve been forced to examine my gender, to wrestle with masculinity and femininity and ultimately decide what elements of both appeal to me and who I personally am. In a time when cis men are feeling increasingly confused about their place in the world, I wonder what might happen if they also had to ponder their identity. I wonder what might happen if they had to reconsider their own definitions of masculinity. I wonder what an all cis straight male screening of Magic Mike XXL might look like and what it might achieve.

Some need to thirst. Others need to learn. This movie does it all. <3

#Magic Mike #Magic Mike XXL #masculinity #toxic masculinity #femininity #trans #transgender #LGBTQIA #Channing Tatum #Steven Soderbergh #Thirst Aid Kit #Alamo Drafthouse #Bim Adewunmi #Nichole Perkins

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ratatatastic · 6 days ago

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Vanha Kauppahalli date: en full, a 2 minute 50 second masterpiece...

Primetime Panthers | 11.6.24 (x)

#aleksander barkov #matthew tkachuk #florida panthers #2425 #the global series is a gift #“alright talk to me what do we got?” with the camera following behind them makes it seems like theyre spies doing reconnaissance #the start to a thriller where they got sent to finland stake out for intelligence #maffhew not even waiting for sasha to answer before hes asks about chocolate #“the purple one you always bring” maffhew has been charmed by sashas leaving choco in stalls as gifts when he comes back from finland huh #you can tell he says that with depravity of a man who finally realises he doesnt need to rely on his supplier he can get it himself now #“uh oh [laughs] okay... what is this?” maffhew was not prepared for all the food to already be ready for him he just hopped off a plane and #expected to have to wait more and did not and absolutely does not trust the situation in the same way you get romantic candlelit-dinnered #and youre like alright whats all this then whats your angle what are you doing #“this is salmon and rye bread 😄” “(with the eagerness to prove hes smart and engaged) so is that 👉” “(charmed) and so is that 🫱”#“ill try your favourite first” GURL RELAX OKAY SETTLE DOWN YOURE IN A NEW COUNTRY JUST CHILL MAN #“salmon and rye bread—thats the famous one 🤓” [sasha nodding along because he has to reassure maffhew but also hes in the middle of eating]#maffhew choosing the most inopportune time and you can TELL sasha is like [swallows quickly] because he wants to answer but also BIG BITE #“herring” “herrin' 🤠?” “eating all this her-RING” no notes #“is this just another salmon on rye bread” he says with hope because he likes salmon but also disappointment (he wants to try more foods)#“different salmon? smoked?” the amount of questions hes askijg because hes so terribly engaged he wants to know and sashas like [shrug]#he has to get an A+ in experiencing finland which is normal to want and possible to achieve #“i still love your country though” and sasha explodes into the mirthful grin ive seen in my life like he just won the damn jackpot #he speaks at 100 mph like please take a deep breath sweetheart youre excitement is papable but PLEASE #THE WAY HE GETS SO UNSURE WHEN HE MENTIONS BARKY HATES THAT FOOD WHEN HE LIKED IT SO MUCH #MAFFHEW YOU CAN GET A PASSING GRADE IN EXPERIENCING FINLAND IF YOU STICK TO YOUR GUNS I PROMISE #SASHA HELP A GUY OUT HERE MAN THROW HIM A BONE #SASHA ONLY LAUGHS AS MAFFHEW THROWS HIMSELF INTO A TIZZY OVER THIS YOU ARE SOOOOOO #the chuckle when sasha mentions he had runebergin torttu in school... id like to know what was funny there #we call out sasha for being too lovesick and laughing at all of maffhews “jokes” BUT HES JUST AS BAD???#“what the hell do i do with this thing?” MAFFHEW HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN MERENGUE IN YOUR LIFE???

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consummmatumest · 4 years ago

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“But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

Deuteronomy 4:29; King James Version

Dorothy Day Excerpt from The Long Loneliness (1952)

“THOU shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind.” This is the first Commandment.

The problem is, how to love God? We are only too conscious of the hardness of our hearts, and in spite of all that religious writers tell us about feeling not being necessary, we do want to feel and so know that we love God.

“Thou wouldst not seek Him if thou hadst not already found Him,” Pascal says, and it is true too that you love God if you want to love Him. One of the disconcerting facts about the spiritual life is that God takes you at your word. Sooner or later one is given a chance to prove his love. The very word “diligo,” the Latin word used for “love,” means “I prefer.” It was all very well to love God in His works, in the beauty of His creation which was crowned for me by the birth of my child. Forster had made the physical world come alive for me and had awakened in my heart a flood of gratitude. The final object of this love and gratitude was God. No human creature could receive or contain so vast a flood of love and joy as I often felt after the birth of my child. With this came the need to worship, to adore. I had heard many say that they wanted to worship God in their own way and did not need a Church in which to praise Him, nor a body of people with whom to associate themselves. But I did not agree to this. My very experience as a radical, my whole make-up, led me to want to associate myself with others, with the masses, in loving and praising God. Without even looking into the claims of the Catholic Church, I was willing to admit that for me she was the one true Church. She had come down through the centuries since the time of Peter, and far from being dead, she claimed and held the allegiance of the masses of people in all the cities where I had lived. They poured in and out of her doors on Sundays and holy days, for novenas and missions. What if they were compelled to come in by the law of the Church, which said they were guilty of mortal sin if they did not go to Mass every Sunday? They obeyed that law. They were given a chance to show their preference. They accepted the Church. It may have been an unthinking, unquestioning faith, and yet the chance certainly came, again and again, “Do I prefer the Church to my own will,” even if it was only the small matter of sitting at home on a Sunday morning with the papers? And the choice was the Church.

There was the legislation of the Church in regard to marriage, a stumbling block to many. That was where I began to be troubled, to be afraid. To become a Catholic meant for me to give up a mate with whom I was much in love. It got to the point where it was the simple question of whether I chose God or man. I had known enough of love to know that a good healthy family life was as near to heaven as one could get in this life. There was another sample of heaven, of the enjoyment of God. The very sexual act itself was used again and again in Scripture as a figure of the beatific vision. It was not because I was tired of sex, satiated, disillusioned, that I turned to God. Radical friends used to insinuate this. It was because through a whole love, both physical and spiritual, I came to know God.

From the time Tamar Teresa was born I was intent on having her baptized. There had been that young Catholic girl in the bed next to me at the hospital who gave me a medal of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. “I don’t believe in these things,” I told her, and it was another example of people saying what they do not mean.

“If you love someone you like to have something around which reminds you of them,” she told me.

It was so obvious a truth that I was shamed. Reading William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience had acquainted me with the saints, and I had read the life of St. Teresa of Avila and fallen in love with her. She was a mystic and a practical woman, a recluse and a traveler, a cloistered nun and yet most active. She liked to read novels when she was a young girl, and she wore a bright red dress when she entered the convent. Once when she was traveling from one part of Spain to another with some other nuns and a priest to start a convent, and their way took them over a stream, she was thrown from her donkey. The story goes that our Lord said to her, “That is how I treat my friends.” And she replied, “And that is why You have so few of them.” She called life a “night spent at an uncomfortable inn.” Once when she was trying to avoid that recreation hour which is set aside in convents for nuns to be together, the others insisted on her joining them, and she took castanets and danced. When some older nuns professed themselves shocked, she retorted, “One must do things sometimes to make life more bearable.” After she was a superior she gave directions when the nuns became melancholy, “to feed them steak,” and there were other delightful little touches to the story of her life which made me love her and feel close to her. I have since heard a priest friend of ours remark gloomily that one could go to hell imitating the imperfections of the saints, but these little incidents brought out in her biography made her delightfully near to me. So I decided to name my daughter after her. That is why my neighbor offered me a medal of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who is called the little Teresa.

Her other name came from Sasha’s sister Liza. She had named her daughter Tamar, which in Hebrew means “little palm tree,” and knowing nothing of the unhappy story of the two Tamars in the Old Testament, I named my child Tamar also. Tamar is one of the forebears of our Lord, listed in the first chapter of Matthew, and not only Jews and Russians, but also New Englanders used the name.

What a driving power joy is! When I was unhappy and repentant in the past I turned to God, but it was my joy at having given birth to a child that made me do something definite. I wanted Tamar to have a way of life and instruction. We all crave order, and in the Book of Job, hell is described as a place where no order is. I felt that “belonging” to a Church would bring that order into her life which I felt my own had lacked. If I could have felt that communism was the answer to my desire for a cause, a motive, a way to walk in, I would have remained as I was. But I felt that only faith in Christ could give the answer. The Sermon on the Mount answered all the questions as to how to love God and one’s brother. I knew little about the Sacraments, and yet here I was believing, knowing that without them Tamar would not be a Catholic.

I did not know any Catholics to speak to. The grocer, the hardware storekeeper, my neighbors down the road were Catholics, yet I could not bring myself to speak to them about religion. I was full of the reserves I noted in my own family. But I could speak to a nun. So when I saw a nun walking

down the road near St. Joseph’s-by-the-Sea, I went up to her breathlessly and asked her how I could have my child baptized. She was not at all reticent about asking questions and not at all surprised at my desires. She was a simple old sister who had taught grade school all her life. She was now taking care of babies in a huge home on the bay which had belonged to Charles Schwab, who had given it to the Sisters of Charity. They used it for summer retreats for the Sisters and to take care of orphans and unmarried mothers and their babies.

Sister Aloysia had had none of the university summer courses that most Sisters must take nowadays. She never talked to me about the social encyclicals of the Popes. She gave me a catechism and brought me old copies of the Messenger of the SacredHeart, a magazine which, along with the Kathleen Norris type of success story, had some good solid articles about the teachings of the Church. I read them all; I studied my catechism; I learned to say the Rosary; I went to Mass in the chapel by the sea; I walked the beach and I prayed; I read the Imitation of Christ, and St. Augustine, and the New Testament. Dostoevski, Huysmans (what different men!) had given me desire and background. Huysmans had made me at home in the Church.

“How can your daughter be brought up a Catholic unless you become one yourself?” Sister Aloysia kept saying to me. But she went resolutely ahead in making arrangements for the baptism of Tamar Teresa.

“You must be a Catholic yourself,” she kept telling me. She had no reticence. She speculated rather volubly at times on the various reasons why she thought I was holding back. She brought me pious literature to read, saccharine stories of virtue, emasculated lives of saints young and old, back numbers of pious magazines. William James, agnostic as he was, was more help. He had introduced me to St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

Isolated as I was in the country, knowing no Catholics except my neighbors, who seldom read anything except newspapers and secular magazines, there was not much chance of being introduced to the good Catholic literature of the present day. I was in a state of dull content—not in a state to be mentally stimulated. I was too happy with my child. What faith I had I held on to stubbornly. The need for patience emphasized in the writings of the saints consoled me on the slow road I was traveling. I would put all my affairs in the hands of God and wait.

Three times a week Sister Aloysia came to give me a catechism lesson, which I dutifully tried to learn. But she insisted that I recite word for word, with the repetition of the question that was in the book. If I had not learned my lesson, she rebuked me, “And you think you are intelligent!” she would say witheringly. “What is the definition of grace—actual grace and sanctifying grace? My fourth-grade pupils know more than you do!”

I hadn’t a doubt but that they did. I struggled on day by day, learning without question. I was in an agreeable and lethargic, almost bovine state of mind, filled with an animal content, not wishing to inquire into or question the dogmas I was learning. I made up my mind to accept what I did not understand, trusting light to come, as it sometimes did, in a blinding flash of exultation and realization.

She criticized my housekeeping. “Here you sit at your typewriter at ten o’clock and none of your dishes done yet. Supper and breakfast dishes besides. . . . And why don’t you calcimine your ceiling? It’s all dirty from wood smoke.”

She brought me vegetables from the garden of the home, and I gave her fish and clams. Once I gave her stamps and a dollar to send a present to a little niece and she was touchingly grateful. It made me suddenly realize that, in spite of Charlie Schwab and his estate, the Sisters lived in complete poverty, owning nothing, holding all things in common.

I had to have godparents for Tamar, and I thought of Aunt Jenny, my mother’s sister, the only member of our family I knew who had become a Catholic. She had married a Catholic and had one living child, Grace. I did not see them very often but I looked them up now and asked Grace and her husband if they would be godparents to my baby. Tamar was baptized in July. We went down to Tottenville, the little town at the south end of the island; there in the Church of Our Lady, Help of Christians, the seed of life was implanted in her and she was made a child of God.

We came back to the beach house to a delightful lunch of boiled lobsters and salad. Forster had caught the lobsters in his traps for the feast and then did not remain to partake of it. He left, not returning for several days. It was his protest against my yearnings toward the life of the spirit, which he considered a morbid escapism. He exulted in his materialism. He well knew the dignity of man. Heathen philosophers, says Matthias Scheeben, a great modern theologian, have called man a miracle, the marrow and the heart of the world, the most beautiful being, the king of all creatures. Forster saw man in the light of reason and not in the light of faith. He had thought of the baptism only as a mumbo jumbo, the fuss and flurry peculiar to woman. At first he had been indulgent and had brought in the lobsters for the feast. And then he had become angry with some sense of the end to which all this portended. Jealousy set in and he left me.

As a matter of fact, he left me quite a number oftimes that coming winter and following summer, as he felt my increasing absorption in religion. The tension between us was terrible. Teresa had become a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. Ididn’t know anything of the Mystical Body or I might have felt disturbed at being separated from her.

But I clutched her close to me and all the time I nursed her and bent over that tiny round face at my breast, I was filled with a deep happiness that nothing could spoil. But the obstacles to my becoming a Catholic were there, shadows in the background of my life.

I had become convinced that I would become a Catholic; yet I felt I was betraying the class to which I belonged, the workers, the poor of the world, with whom Christ spent His life. I wrote a few articles for the New Masses but did no other work at that time. My life was crowded in summer because friends came and stayed with me, and some of them left their children. Two little boys, four and eight years old, joined the family for a few months and my days were full, caring for three children and cooking meals for a half-dozen persons three times a day.

Sometimes when I could leave the baby in trusted hands I could get to the village for Mass on Sunday. But usually the gloom that descended on the household, the scarcely voiced opposition, kept me from Mass. There were some feast days when I could slip off during the week and go to the little chapel on the Sisters’ grounds. There were “visits” I could make, unknown to others. I was committed, by the advice of a priest I consulted, to the plan of waiting, and trying to hold together the family. But I felt all along that when I took the irrevocable step it would mean that Tamar and I would be alone, and I did not want to be alone. I did not want to give up human love when it was

dearest and tenderest.

During the month of August many of my friends, including my sister, went to Boston to picket in protest against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, which was drawing near. They were all arrested again and again.

Throughout the nation and the world the papers featured the struggle for the lives of these two men. Radicals from all over the country gathered in Boston, and articles describing those last days were published, poems were written. It was an epic struggle, a tragedy. One felt a sense of impending doom. These men were Catholics, inasmuch as they were Italians. Catholics by tradition, but they had rejected the Church.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two anarchists, a shoemaker and a fish peddler who were arrested in 1920 in connection with a payroll robbery at East Braintree, Massachusetts, in which two guards were killed. Nobody paid much attention to the case at first, but as the I.W.W. and the Communists took up the case it became a cause célèbre. In August, 1927, they were executed. Many books have been written about the case, and Vanzetti’s prison letters are collected in one volume. He learned to write English in prison, and his prose, bare and simple, is noble in its earnestness.

While I enjoyed the fresh breeze, the feel of salt water against the flesh, the keen delight of living, the knowledge that these men were soon to pass from this physical earth, were soon to become dust, without consciousness, struck me like a physical blow. They were here now; in a few days they would be no more. They had become figures beloved by the workers. Their letters, the warm moving story of their lives, had been told. Everyone knew Dante, Sacco’s young son. Everyone suffered with the young wife who clung with bitter passion to her husband. And Vanzetti with his large view, his sense of peace at his fate, was even closer to us all.

He wrote a last letter to a friend which has moved many hearts as great poetry does:

I have talked a great deal of myself [he wrote]. ButI even forget to name Sacco. Sacco too is a worker, from his boyhood a skilled worker, lover of work, with a good job and pay, a bank account, a good and lovely wife, two beautiful children and a neat little home, at the verge of a wood near a brook.

Sacco is a heart of faith, a lover of nature and man.

A man who gave all, who sacrificed all for mankind, his own wife, his children, himself and his own life.

Sacco has never dreamed to steal, never to assassinate. He and I never brought a morsel of bread to our mouths, from our childhood to today which has not been gained by the sweat of our brows. Never.

O yes, I may be more witful, as some have put it, I am a better blabber than he is, but many many times in hearing his heartful voice ringing a faith sublime, in considering his supreme sacrifice, remembering his heroism, I felt small at the presence of his greatness and found myself compelled to fight back from my eyes the tears, and quanch my heart, trobling to my throat to not weep before him,—this man called thief, assassin and doomed. . . If it had not been for these things I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning

men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man’s understanding of man, as we now do by accident.

Our words, our lives, our pains—nothing! The taking of our lives,—lives of a good shoe maker and a poor fish peddler—all! That last moment belongs to us —that agony is our triumph.

The day they died, the papers had headlines as large as those which proclaimed the outbreak of war. All the nation mourned. All the nation, I mean, that is made up of the poor, the worker, the trade unionist—those who felt most keenly the sense of solidarity—that very sense of solidarity which made me gradually understand the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ whereby we are the members one of another.

Forster was stricken over the tragedy. He had always been more an anarchist than anything else in his philosophy, and so was closer to these two men than to Communist friends. He did not eat for days. He sat around the house in a stupor of misery, sickened by the cruelty of life and men. He had always taken refuge in nature as being more kindly, more beautiful and peaceful than the world of men. Now he could not even escape through nature, as he tried to escape so many problems in life.

During the time he was home he spent days and even nights out in his boat fishing, so that for weeks I saw little of him. He stupefied himself inhis passion for the water, sitting out on the bay in his boat. When he began to recover he submerged himself in maritime biology, collecting, reading only scientific books, and paying no attention to what went on around him. Only the baby interested him. She was his delight. Which made it, of course, the harder to contemplate the cruel blow I was going to strike him when I became a Catholic. We both suffered in body as well as in soul and mind. He would not talk about the faith and relapsed into a complete silence if I tried to bring up the subject. The point of my bringing it up was that I could not become a Catholic and continue living with him, because he was averse to any ceremony before officials of either Church or state. He was an anarchist and an atheist, and he did not intend to be a liar or a hypocrite. He was a creature of utter sincerity, and however illogical and bad-tempered about it all, I loved him. It was killing me to think of leaving him.

Fall nights we read a great deal. Sometimes he went out to dig bait if there were a low tide and the moon was up. He stayed out late on the pier fishing, and came in smelling of seaweed and salt air; getting into bed, cold with the chill November air, he held me close to him in silence. I loved him in every way, as a wife, as a mother even. I loved him for all he knew and pitied him for all he didn’t know. I loved him for the odds and ends I had to fish out of his sweater pockets and for the sand and shells he brought in with his fishing. I loved his lean cold body as he got into bed smelling of the sea, and I loved his integrity and stubborn pride.

It ended by my being ill the next summer. I became so oppressed I could not breathe and I awoke in the night choking. I was weak and listless and one doctor told me my trouble was probably thyroid. I went to the Cornell clinic for a metabolism test and they said my condition was a nervous one. By

winter the tension had become so great that an explosion occurred and we separated again. When he returned, as he always had, I would not let him in the house; my heart was breaking with my own determination to make an end, once and for all, to the torture we were undergoing.

The next day I went to Tottenville alone, leaving Tamar with my sister, and there with Sister Aloysia as my godparent, I too was baptized conditionally, since I had already been baptized in the Episcopal Church. I made my first confession right afterward, and looked forward the next morning to receiving communion.

I had no particular joy in partaking of these three sacraments, Baptism, Penance and Holy Eucharist. I proceeded about my own active participation in them grimly, coldly, making acts of faith, and certainly with no consolation whatever. One part of my mind stood at one side and kept saying, “What are you doing? Are you sure of yourself? What kind of an affectation is this? What act is this you are going through? Are you trying to induce emotion, induce faith, partake of an opiate, the opiate of the people?” I felt like a hypocrite ifI got down on my knees, and shuddered at the thought of anyone seeing me.

At my first communion I went up to the communion rail at the Sanctus bell instead of at the Domine, non sum dignus, and had to kneel there all alone through the consecration, through the Pater Noster, through the Agnus Dei—and I had thought I knew the Mass so well! But I felt it fitting that I be humiliated by this ignorance, by this precipitance.

I speak of the misery of leaving one love. But there was another love too, the life I had led in the radical movement. That very winter I was writing a series of articles, interviews with the workers, with the unemployed. I was working with the Anti- Imperialist League, a Communist affiliate, that was bringing aid and comfort to the enemy, General Sandino’s forces in Nicaragua. I was just as much against capitalism and imperialism as ever, and here I was going over to the opposition, because of course the Church was lined up with property, with the wealthy, with the state, with capitalism, with all the forces of reaction. This I had been taught to think and this I still think to a great extent. “Too often,” Cardinal Mundelein said, “has the Church lined up on the wrong side.” “Christianity,” Bakunin said, “is precisely the religion par excellence, because it exhibits, and manifests, to the fullest extent, the very nature and essence of every religious system, which is the impoverishment, enslavement, and annihilation of humanity for the benefit of divinity.”

I certainly believed this, but I wanted to be poor, chaste and obedient. I wanted to die in order to live, to put off the old man and put on Christ. I loved, in other words, and like all women in love, I wanted to be united to my love. Why should not Forster be jealous? Any man who did not participate in this love would, of course, realize my infidelity, my adultery. In the eyes of God, any turning toward creatures to the exclusion of Him is adultery and so it is termed over and over again in Scripture.

I loved the Church for Christ made visible. Not for itself, because it was so often a scandal to me. Romano Guardini said the Church is the Cross on which Christ was crucified; one could not separate Christ from His Cross, and one must live in a state of permanent dissatisfaction with the Church.

The scandal of businesslike priests, of collective wealth, the lack of a sense of responsibility for the poor, the worker, the Negro, the Mexican, the Filipino, and even the oppression of these, and the

consenting to the oppression of them by our industrialist-capitalist order—these made me feel often that priests were more like Cain than Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” they seemed to say in respect to the social order. There was plenty of charity but too little justice. And yet the priests were the dispensers of the Sacraments, bringing Christ to men, all enabling us to put on Christ and to achieve more nearly in the world a sense of peace and unity. “The worst enemies would be those of our own household,” Christ had warned us.

We could not root out the tares without rooting out the wheat also. With all the knowledge I have gained these twenty-one years I have been a Catholic, I could write many a story of priests who were poor, chaste and obedient, who gave their lives daily for their fellows, but I am writing of how I felt at the time of my baptism.

Not long afterward a priest wanted me to write a story of my conversion, telling how the social teaching of the Church had led me to embrace Catholicism. But I knew nothing of the social teaching of the Church at that time. I had never heard of the encyclicals. I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor, that St. Patrick’s had been built from the pennies of servant girls, that it cared for the emigrant, it established hospitals, orphanages, day nurseries, houses of the Good Shepherd, homes for the aged, but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man’s dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so mighty a sum total of Catholic institutions.Besides, more and more they were taking help from the state, and in taking from the state, they had to render to the state. They came under the head of Community Chest and discriminatory charity, centralizing and departmentalizing, involving themselves with bureaus, building, red tape, legislation, at the expense of human values. By “they,” I suppose one always means the bishops, but as Harry Bridges once pointed out to me, “they” also are victims of the system.

It was an age-old battle, the war of the classes, that stirred in me when I thought of the Sacco Vanzetti case in Boston. Where were the Catholic voices crying out for these men? How I longed to make a synthesis reconciling body and soul, this world and the next, the teachings of Prince Peter Kropotkin and Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, who had become a missionary priest in rural Pennsylvania.

Where had been the priests to go out to such men as Francisco Ferrer in Spain, pursuing them as the Good Shepherd did His lost sheep, leaving the ninety and nine of their good parishioners, to seek out that which was lost, bind up that which was bruised. No wonder there was such a strong conflict going on in my mind and heart.

#dorothy day

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clary-jace · 7 years ago

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a-z :D

ohh alright anon we’re just gonna go there and do all of them!!! alright!!! let’s do this!!!

A: Your current OTP.

well, as y’all know i’m always on my rucas shipping bullshit because i’m me and i’m literally always thinking about them, but i’m also currently really into glenn/maggie, like i’ve shipped them for years but i’m in a Mood™ with them recently, so i’d say them.

(gonna continue these under the cut bc this is probs gonna be long)

B: A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind.

this isn’t necessarily true anymore bc i kind of don’t care abt any ships from this universe and i stopped watching all these shows but back in the Day aka like 2014, i was watching arrow and the flash and phoebe ( @justiceleague2017dirzacksnyder ) turned me into a barry/felicity shipper.

C: A pairing you wish you shipped, but just can't.

there are very few ships that i actively wished that i shipped but a lot of the time i wish that i shipped a ship that was more popular in a lot of my fandoms, like i like the pairing itself but i wish that just ONCE i could ship the most popular ship in a fandom for all the content

D: What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?

looking back on my ff.net account, which was my first Online account, the first thing i ever contributed to any fandom was a sonny with a chance fanfiction back in july of 2009.

E: Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what?

ajflkdasf i definitely have, i have this han solo edit that was kind of my first “cracky” edit that i ever posted and then i have the best post i ever made (my riley “look what you made me do” edit) and i also think my girl meets world incorrect quotes would also fall under this category

F: What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it?

hm, i would maybe say the walking dead? i’ve considered myself part of the fandom for like 3 years even tho there was a solid like 9 months where i didn’t post any original content, i’ve been a fan for a long time and have plenty of original content to show for my time in the fandom

G: What was your first fandom?

honestly?? probably like late 2000s disney/nick shows ajkfldjasf, that’s what all my earliest fandom contributions are for and considering i was joining the internet fandoms at like age 13, it makes sense

H: Do you prefer real-life TV shows or animated TV shows?

real life! the only animated show i’ve ever been super into is bob’s burgers, which is like my favorite show of all time, but most of my other favorite shows are real life, not animated.

I: Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

tumblr has never ruined an entire tv show fandom for me but it’s definitely ruined ships/shipping fandoms for me, like a lot of times if a shipping fandom is really like rude towards one of my favorite characters that’ll make me stop being a fan of that ship/that ship fandom.

J: Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr.

tbh most fandoms that i join, i join them because of tumblr like i distinctly remember the walking dead being all over my tumblr and originally having no desire to watch it but all the gifs and edits that i saw made me really interested eventually so i caved and watched it. the same kind of goes for girl meets world too.

K: How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom(s).

I HAVE TO SAY that most people in the rucas fandom are pretty wonderful and all things considered the rucas fandom is probably the nicest shipping fandom i’ve ever been in like obviously there are sour apples in every fandom, but most rucas shippers are pretty sweet, i will also say that i’ve never met a mean gleggie shipper which i’m Thankful for.

L: Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for?

considering my favorite gifmaker AND fanfic author is maggie @friarlucas aka my bestie, i like to think that i have more than one request BUT if i only had one and am not allowed to request the next chapter of atlp, i would request a follow up to her hp au fic where lucas fell off his broom

M: A person who got you into a fandom and what fandom they pulled you in to.

at the beginning of our friendship, samantha @jakeamys kinda pulled me into the dylan o’brien fandom tbh, that’s really the only time i can think of something like that happening tho

N: Your favorite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over).

HONESTLY probably the gleggie fandom, when i was more firmly in that fandom every single person that i met was an angel and i also have to say that i always felt like most gleggie shippers loved both glenn and maggie and truly just wanted to see them together and just genuinely loved their scenes and that’s all you can ask for which i love, i hope all my gleggie shippers out there are doing well bc i love them all

O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?

i’m sorry i can’t think of any song randomly ajfkljdaf i’m really bad at questions like this i’m sorry i failed you

P: Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

OK so an au i’ve had on my mind for like a week that i have yet to post abt is a zombie apocalypse au for riley and lucas where the apocalypse happens when they’re in college (+ dating long distance) so riley is in nyc and lucas is in texas so obviously they have no way to contact each other and they’re really far apart and they have no idea if the other one is still alive and then like a year or two into the apocalypse riley is living at this community/camp and one day lucas randomly shows up bc like he was wandering around the area and ended up getting hurt and needed help and he has no idea riley is there and wow they reunite and it’s beautiful

Q: A ship you’ve abandoned and why.

i used to be really into riley and maya and i just kind of lost interest in them, i realized that i just didn’t like them as much as i thought i did so i don’t really consider myself a shipper of them anymore

R: A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships.

i don’t know if i’m necessarily the Only shipper but i feel like i’m one of the few people who ships zay and lucas romantically, same goes for maggie and sasha like i don’t think i’m the only one but i’m one of the few that’s for sure

S: What's a headcanon you have?

i literally have been sitting here for like 10 minutes trying to come up with a hc but like i can’t think of anything i’m so sorry anon for failing you i’ll try and do better next time

T: What are your favorite male/male ships or female/female ships?

i’ll admit that i don’t have many m/m ships but i really love zay/lucas (girl meets world) and adam/ronan (the raven cycle), as for f/f ships i love maggie/sasha (the walking dead), riley/smackle (girl meets world), malia/lydia (teen wolf) and spencer/emily (pretty little liars)

U: What are your favorite male/female ships?

my top five m/f ships are riley/lucas (girl meets world), glenn/maggie (the walking dead), han/leia (star wars), matt/julie (friday night lights) and rich/grace (skins)

V: Do you have any 3-way ships? If so, what?

riley/lucas/zay!!!! the ot3 we were robbed of!!!!!!!!!!! they’re really all i can think of tho.

W: 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms.

riley matthews (girl meets world), maggie greene (the walking dead), julie taylor (friday night lights), han solo (star wars) and spencer hastings (pretty little liars)

X: 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms.

riley/lucas (girl meets world), glenn/maggie (the walking dead), han/leia (star wars)

Y: A fandom you’re in but have no ships from.

i truthfully ship in pretty much any fandom that i’m in but i would say that i have pretty much no ships when it comes to bob’s burgers like, obviously, i love bob and linda but like outside of that i don’t really “ship” anything???

Z: What's a ship that you want to ship publicly, but everyone on tumblr hates it so you keep your mouth shut about it?

i literally can’t think of anything for this one??? like yeah tumblr hates a lot of my ships but i’m also not like ashamed of any of them so like???? i can’t say there’s anything that i don’t talk abt shipping if that makes any sense

#answered #thank u so much for asking anon!!!!!#this was a lot of fun to answer!!!#Anonymous

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neoraven · 5 years ago

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NWA TNA Episode 1, June 19th 2002

17 years ago NWA TNA started the weekly PPV experiment. I went to every single one. Now I'm going to watch them for the first time since I was there.

(this review brought courtesy of Toby Keith and the red white and blue)

In 2002, I was a teenager set adrift by 9/11 and the alienation from starting high school. For better or worse, every week I started going to National Wrestling Alliance - Total Nonstop Action shows on Wednesday night. I loved WCW and was bitter about the botched invasion going on, and here was a new WCW in my backyard. It looks like there were 111 weekly PPVs, I'm not sure exactly how many taped ones / clip shows ended up happening, but I never missed one for injury, illness, or even vacation for the better part of two years. It was basically my ECW, for someone who was too young to follow ECW when it first aired.

I'm not really sure what the format of these is going to be. It's kind of a recap + live blog + review, I'll give matches the standard 0-5 star ratings with 1/4*'s possible, so it's really a 20 point scale. I'm going to hopefully figure out a better way to get screen captures going forward. Also, these first couple were taped in Alabama, not at the TNA Asylum in Nashville. Hopefully if my memory holds up, I'll be able to give some live notes and memories from being there for some of these. I have an old hard drive of pictures taken that I hope I can recover. I won the "Best Fan of the Night" and "Best Sign" contests a couple times to get to go backstage, and I also generally hung out before the shows and after the shows to talk to the wrestlers coming and going like a groupie. Later on, I was even on the TNA "Street Team" helping to market TNA and hand out flyers/ads during Smackdown tapings. I was also the moderator for the brief TNA Online Message Board, which I truly wish I had screencaps/archives somehow of all the…wildness there.

NWA TNA #1 June 19th 2002

Don West is the first person out of the gate, introducing Ed Ferrara after pyro and a brief introduction. Ed's all about TNA and introducing the girls dancing in cage as some sleazy music plays. Appropriately, he throws it to Mike Tenay, all business at ringside. TNA chants kick us off. Don West's hawaiian shirt is a thing of legend, and it's distracting me from Tenay's long explanation of the "Gauntlet For The Gold".

Jeremy Borash eventually is in ring announcing a parade of legends. Harley Race, Dory Funk, Jr, Jackie Fargo, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Corsica Joe & Sarah Lee, Bill Behrens, Ricky Steamboat. "All Our Base Are Belong To Us" shirt spotted in the stands. The Dragon compares the belt to every major championship in pro sports, the Stanley Cup, etc. He will special referee the finals of the match, and that brings out the one and only - Jeff Jarrett. His TNA theme "My World" is a lowkey banger that nevertheless completely haunted my life for 2 years. His big mouth earns him the first spot in the match. Ken Shamrock is here after that, and he joins Jarrett in burying the Battle Royal match. Finally, Scott Hall saunters through the crowd in a strip club(!!!) t-shirt as his awesome theme "Marvelous Me" plays. To round up, Ken Shamrock's theme wasn't great. "Hey Yo" sign spotted.

Goldylocks is backstage with Total Nonstop Action and the original midget killer "Puppet the Psycho Dwarf". Oh no. He's gonna spill some midget blood. Jeff Jarrett angrily kicks over a tiny music stand in the background hilariously. Then we go to the girls in cages and honest to goodness our first wrestling match -

6 Man Tag Team X Division Showcase AJ Styles, Low Ki, and Jerry Lynn vs The Flying Elvii (Sonny Siaki, Jimmy Yang, and Jorge Estrada)

An X Division showcase awaits. The legends surround a tiny monitor backstage. The generic faces' intro music is bland. The flying Elvii have a nice little knockoff theme at least. Siaki has Big The Rock Energy while the other two mug. The Elvii refuse handshakes and all hell breaks loose. Triple dropkicks and flying splashes to the outside. Styles reverses a back suplex into a phenomenal forearm, and I'm not going to attempt to catch every move. As an aside - Total Nonstop Action has taken a full 18 minutes on air before someone punched someone. Siaki and LowKi is a pretty appealing matchup. The former does a crisp Samoan Drop. Styles and Yang get in and have a very crisp, quick flurry of moves together. Jerry Lynn crushes a cradle Piledriver, and Siaki runs in and hits his neckbreaker finisher. LowKi accidentally brains AJ, and Yang capitalizes with the Yang Time for the pin. Considering who went on to hold the X Title, this is an odd result, but commentary was generally putting over how the mismatched team was going to compete in the X Title Round Robin coming up.

The Flying Elvii in 7 minutes, Yang Time pins AJ Styles **3/4

Midget Showcase Teo vs Hollywood

Hollywood starts it before the bell. From the promo, I thought this was a triple threat with Puppet. Hollywood kicks out of the "Tadpole Splash" from the top rope. Ed Ferrara says in response to Teo's claims to be a ladies' man - "He's the right height". Teo finishes Hollywood with an ugly swanton.

Teo in 3 minutes, Swanton?, 1/2*

Now West and Ferrara are in the ring hyping the Lingerie Battle Royal next week. The New Francine, Miss Joanie, Shannon (Daffney?), Alexis Laree (Mickie James!), The Incredible Sasha, Erin (Baltimore Cheerleader?), Elektra from ECW, Miss Taylor Vaughn, Darisa Da?? I didn't catch her name as Ed starts rambling about a kid in a candy store. Maybe I'll catch all the names if they're introduced with title cards next week. Francine grabs a mic and calls Ed "pudgy" and says none of the women compare to her. Elektra stands up to Francine and starts a catfight.

Goldylocks is in the back with Mortimer Plumtree. His character peaks with his name. He manages a tag team that bullied him in high school for reasons that are never explained. He leaves to walk "The Johnsons", Richard and Rod, to the ring.

Tag Team Match The Johnsons w/ Mortimer Plumtree vs Psychosis and James Storm

The latter is an odd pairing for a few reasons. I honestly didn't remember James Storm started off without Chris Harris and America' Most Wanted. He even has the prop guns firing blanks in the ring, which was always a nice touch. I feel like this is where I mention that the Johnsons are in full body suits and masks that make them look like walking penises. In other news, Psychosis is going without his trademark horned mask. Alicia from WCW is on the stage scouting the match. There's a fella in an XFL jersey in the stands. What year is it? "Buff your(sic) still the stuff" sign spotted. Ferrara "These Johnsons just look good". They hit simultaneous clutching suplexes to take control of the good guys, but Mortimer interferes to let one of the Johnsons hit their finisher on Cowboy. Post match, the ref pays off the lady watching the action.

The Johnsons in 4 minutes, Samoan Drop into Neckbreaker, *

Stan and Bo Dupp harass Goldylocks in the back until they run into the brothers' shared girlfriend in a quick nothing segment.

Borash introduces 1993 Rookie of the Year and Winston (yes, cigarettes) Cup Points Leader Sterling Martin. K-Krush is out to save us from the race car drivers. He's getting booed, but this would be a face promo anywhere other than Huntsville Alabama. K Krush "Damn you, and Damn Alabama" Brian Lawler is out to save the NASCAR dopes from the angry black man. He cuts an angry promo about "your kind" while the crowd howls in racist jeer. It's a pretty ugly segment considering "Grandmaster Sexay" Lawler is still clad in his Too Cool black rapper cosplay outfit.

Backstage, Jeff Jarrett is choking Jackie Fargo.

Tag Team Match Christian York & Joey Matthews vs The Dupps w/ Fluff Dupp

For better or worse, now I know their girlfriend/cousin's name now. After the crowd roared for the pasty white NASCAR duo, commentary is really going in on how these two wrestlers are completely fucking stupid and southern. The Dupps' intro is very boring twangy banjo crap, and they're not much better in the ring. Matthews hits a move called the Virginia Necktie that looks pretty nice. I think the non-Dupp team is working face, but it's hard to tell who the crowd is popping for. The Dupps win with some cheating and Fluff interference.

The Dupps in 4 minutes, Crotch shot, 1/2*

Before the Gauntlet For The Gold, we get a Toby Keith music video. He is singing "Angry American". Jeff Jarrett walks out and pushes Toby Keith off his little stupid stool and the crowd goes wild and honestly, I screamed in joy and Jeff Jarrett turned face for my money when he says "Nobody wants to hear that damn song, and take your Angry American Ass OUTTA HERE".

The Gauntlet For The Gold 20 Man Battle Royal for the NWA Heavyweight Championship Of The World

Buff Bagwell runs down for number 2 and the bell rings. Maybe it was for the main event finally starting but honestly the crowd goes pretty wild for Buff Bagwell laying hands on Double J. Buff hits a couple signature moves, but gets tossed before the next entrant. Ragin' Cajun Lash Laroux Is 3. He falls victim to The Stroke and is eliminated fast. "Somebody pissed in Jeff's Cheerio-s this morning!" Here comes Screamin' Norman Smiley at 4. The second largest pop of the night so far comes for the Big Wiggle. Jarrett tosses him anyways. Apolo comes down at 5, getting more offense than the previous entrants combined. K-Krush is 6. His signature axe kick gets tremendous boos, they hate him. Slash w/ James Mitchell is 7. Del Rios is 8. He is some kind of bodybuilder and it shows. Slash bites his way out of a belly to belly suplex as the announcers stress everything is legal. Justice is 9, I think this Is the future Abyss, but I can't swear to it. He hits a Black Hole Slam and now I'm 99% sure. Konnan is 10, yelling "Arriba La Raza" on his way to the ring. Abyss sells Konnan's facebuster a la HBK vs Hogan and I love it. 11 brings out Joel Gertner "I'm gonna be with 5 girls in Huntsville because I don't settle for less" He gives an X-rated introduction for the man they call Bruce of the Rainbow Express, led out by Lenny Lane. I'm not gonna bother listing all of the homophobic euphemisms the announce team runs through explaining who the Rainbow Express are. Rick Steiner is 12. He dumps Slash and Abyss with a couple impressive shows of strength. Malice is 13, dealing out chokeslams. Bruce, K-Krush, Del Rios, Konnan, and Steiner go out quickly thereafter. Scott Hall is 14. Toby Keith? is 15. He suplexes and tosses Jarrett. Not that anyone cares, but Toby Keith leaves through the middle rope to chase Jarrett and is never officially eliminated. 16 brings Wildcat Chris Harris. Vampire Warrior, former Gangrel, runs down seemingly early as an entrant with no music? The on screen countdown timer disappeared during the Toby Keith situation. Dangerous Devin Storm, aka Crowbar, is probably 18. Steve Corino comes in at 19, the only former NWA Champ. Ken Shamrock is out at 20. "Hall was framed" sign spotted. Brian Christopher/Lawler is number 20 and I realize now that Toby Keith was not an official entrant. Brian clears out Chris Harris, Vampire Warrior, and Crowbar mostly by holding the top rope down when they ran by. He dumps Corino shortly after. Christopher and Apolo get dumped by Malice next. Then the cameraman somehow misses Malice back body dropping Scott Hall over the top, leaving Malice vs Ken Shamrock to go to a pinfall or submission.

Malice vs Ken Shamrock, Special Referee Ricky The Dragon Steamboat

Malice gets some advice from Father James Mitchell at ringside. After going back and forth, Shamrock gets an awesome cross arm breaker reversal of a choke slam. After a long tease of tapping, he gets the rope, maybe with James Mitchell pushing it a little toward his client. A big boot leads into the Ankle Lock and Shamrock refuses to break it on the ropes, after even a 7 count, leading to heated words with Steamboat. Shamrock wins with a Belly to Belly to a big pop despite his heel tactics. Cue pyro, and hoisting the tiny gold belt.

Ken Shamrock wins a 5 minute match following a 33 minute battle royal, Belly to Belly. **

The match was a little too long, even with Jarrett speeding up the beginning by tossing the opening entrants as fast as possible. Speaking of Double J, he fights with legends and security backstage before emerging with a microphone. He punches the legends after moaning about the battle royal until Toby Keith and Jackie Fargo come back out to book Scott Hall vs Jeff Jarrett next week, the show ends with them brawling up the ramp.

That wraps up episode 1! They have some marquee singles matches next week in addition to crowning the first X Division champ, I'll see you then to wrap up the two first Alabama shows before settling into The Asylum.

#nwatna impact tnaasylum

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enricodandolo · 7 years ago

Text

What I’m currently working on

Mostly academia and ESO, tbqh.

Tagged by @celeritassagittae, I’m continuing the emergent tradition of sharing snippets.

Main project: next chapter of A Light Shining in Darkness

The Grand Duke indicated a brisk pace, and quite quickly they had reached a set of archways flanked by guards in polished steel cuirasses and elaborate masked helmets. Through the thick marble walls, the faint clamouring of a large crowd could be made out. “Ready to face the music, Inquisitor?”

She tried to think of something clever to say. She nodded.

On Gaspard’s arm, Bethany entered the Hall of Homage. At once, she felt blinded by the light of electric candles and sconces, reflected and prismed by hundreds of tiny crystals that hung from the frescoed ceiling in heavy chandeliers, and by the tall mirrors lining the walls on either side of them. It was warm in the hall, no doubt a consequence of the throngs of people gathered in it, yet a gentle breeze seemed to fly through it, bringing necessary refreshment. Once her eyes had somewhat attenuated to the sudden brightness, Bethany realised that the back wall of the hall was composed of five massive floor-to-ceiling windows interrupted by marble columns. The middle window was made of stained glass, although there was no way to determine what it depicted now that the sun had gone down. In the other windows, all wide open and leading out onto a large terrace looking out over the city, swayed large silk banners of the Orlesian flag. Yet Bethany’s eyes were intractably drawn towards the massive throne in front of the middle window. A huge sunburst emerging from the floor as half a wheel formed the backrest, and resting lions the arms. Both shone brightly in the chandeliers’ light, and Bethany would not have been surprised to learn they were shaped from solid gold. Royal blue cushions were embedded into the seat and backrest, the latter embroidered in gold with the imperial coat of arms. It was the sort of overloaded, almost gaudy thing she had expected, and yet she could not but be awed.

Bethany issued a slight gasp at the sight of the hall, at the scale of it. In the silence that slowly descended over the hall as all eyes turned to them. it felt like a scream. She flushed. Then, suddenly, to their right, a young elf in an embroidered silk herald’s tabard slammed a carved rod of wood onto the floor and exclaimed: “His Imperial Highness, Field Marshal the Grand Duke Gaspard of Chalons, Prince of the Blood and Marshal of Orlais! Accompanying His Imperial Highness: the Right Worshipful and Learned Enchanter Bethany Revka Hawke, Lady Amell of Kirkwall, formerly Viscomital Reader in Force Magic at that Circle, and leader of the Inquisition!”

Oh, bugger.

On hold for now: The Brightest Star in the Sky, a Mass Effect / real life crossover

Where Charon had been, there was a bright yellow, oblong and perfectly regular shape, forked in the middle. “What the hell is that?”

“We don’t know,” the flight director down at Goddard replied. The anxiety was plain to hear in her voice. “But we’ve got the White House on the phone.”

She was about to reply when another transmission came through. “Station, this is Munich.[1] The European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile just picked up an unidentified object seemingly appearing out of nowhere inside the orbit of Mars. We’re trying to establish what it is, or what its heading is, but it’s gone on the very next image we have.”

“How is that possible?” An idea hit her, and for a moment she had to weigh whether to ask the question at all. Maybe she had watched too much Star Trek. “Could it be moving at … well, at relativistic speeds?”

“Uh, Station, we’ll get back to you on that. Honestly, we’re as much in the dark as you are right now. Lemme put it this way, we just got on the line with the Berlaymont and President Mogher-”[2]

Whatever else the ESA flight controller had to say, it was lost in transmission as a sudden tremor went through the station, almost as if a shockwave had hit it. Giulia gasped in surprise, and almost at once bright red warnings popped up all over the laptops lining the walls. “Uh, what happened? Er, Sasha, life support?”

Quickly, the Russian floated over to the nearest Russian Laptop responsible for control of the Russian Orbital Segment. “It’s, uh … steady across the board.”

“I’m getting a caution from both P6 SAWs here!” Ana added, her voice raised with tension.

“Station, Moscow. We just got the data, is anyone hurt up there? What happened?”

“I, I don’t know,” Giulia reported, looking for a laptop that was set to telemetry data. “Space debris, maybe? We’re all fine, just a bit rattled. Do you have any alerts for us?”

“Three dozen. It looks like both P6 SAWs may be bent or broken, we will want you to examine those using Canadarm. For now, stay in the ROS in case there are more impacts like that. Keep emergency equipment on hand and stand ready to seal bulkheads throughout the station. We’re bringing SURGEON in, he should be here in a couple of minutes. Your telemetry looks good, be advised we will hand primary mission control over to Houston in eight minutes.”

“Roger, Moscow.” Giulia looked around at the others, whose faces betrayed their concern, if not fear. They didn’t send people up who lost their calm under pressure. “Moscow, do you want us prepare an emergency evac and deorbit? Please advise.”

“Stand by.”

There was no immediate reply, so Giulia turned to the others. “Alright, let’s take stock. For now, no one moves past N1. Sasha, Ana, I want you to keep a close eye on life support and telemetry. If anything happens, even if it’s just a routine alert, I want to know about it immediately. Ilik, if you could have a look at our electrical and radiation systems? Matthew, give me a hand. We need to stow away all this food before it gets on the instruments.”

“Uh, Giulia?”

“What is it, Ana?”

“You might want to have a look outside.”

Frowning, she floated over to the bullseye the air force officer was staring out of, utterly transfixed. She looked outside.

Then, she picked up the nearest radio receiver. “Moscow, Station. We have a problem.”

[1] Mission control for the European laboratory module Columbus is actually based in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. As that is, however, a ridiculous name, EUROCOM is referred to as ‘Munich’ on the radio. Other control centres for the ISS are Houston, Moscow, Huntsville (Alabama), and Tsukuba.

[2] No politicians were harmed in the making of this fic.

Still intent on continuing this at some point: Lohengrin, a Dragon Age fic set in the late Ancient Age

There was no reply to the call, and Elsa sank to her knees. She folded her arms before her chest, bowed her head, and prayed silently, as she had all those months of silence. Orinia was no longer sure if it really was just for show, or if she really was so deluded as to think her false god would help her now.

She glanced over at Telramund and the king, who were watching the scene with almost equally grim eyes. Surely, she thought, if no fighter could be found, they wouldn’t force the girl to take up arms in her own name for possibly the first time in her life? If she’d had any training, it certainly didn’t show on her frail and slight body. No, surely, the king was—well, at least he wasn’t entirely barbarian, although she shuddered to think of what kind of fate a nobleman of the empire might have to endure to be forced to live out the rest of his life amongst the barbarians in the dark forests of the far south. Not that her life had been all that much better, mind. But he had Tevene blood in him, and was clearly an intelligent and insightful man, much like her Telramund might have been had he had the benefit of a proper education. No doubt he would—

Someone sharply elbowed her in the back without so much as a sorry. Hurt and annoyed, Orinia turned around—though she would never have dared to berate what was doubtless a well-armed barbarian at least three heads taller than herself—and found that she wasn’t the only one to turn away from the praying girl.

All around her, people had turned to face towards the river, craning their necks and standing on tip-toes to see what was going on. Curiously—for what could possibly have distracted so many from such a matter of life and death?—Orinia tried to jump up and down, but found that even that wasn’t nearly enough for her to see across the heads of the barbarians. And as she was quite sure she would be crushed to death if she tried to make her way to the back, she didn’t even try and merely listened to what people were exclaiming or whispering around her. Look, look! What a strange thing! What a miracle! What’s this? A swan? A barge—it’s drawing a barge down the river—is that a swan?—look, look!—there’s someone standing in it—how marvellous!—they’re all in green, from head to toe, look, a swan—what a strange wonder!—look at the swan, mummy, look at the raft, look at the knight!—a miracle!—a miracle has happened!—miracle, such a strange unheard of marvellous holy miracle!

Now Orinia, too was craning her neck, trying to make out anything. A swan, what on earth were they talking about? Proceeding around them had ground almost to a halt, and then the crowd broke up as people ran towards the riverbanks to get a better view. As all around her streamed down to the banks of the Scaldis, Orinia and a few others were left up on the hill the linden tree grew on, so that a cynical observer might have noted that they now had a better view of what was going on. Telramund stepped to her side, and together they watched as an upright figure, dressed head to toe in gleaming green cloth that billowed and sparkled and flowed like water in the breeze, leaning on a spear in his hand, standing tall on a narrow, flat little boat, little more than a raft no larger than a door.

And the whole thing, on a golden chain, was being drawn by a massive swan, its plumage an exceptionally clean, bright white, at least four or five feet long, elegantly gliding down the river.

Also pretty much on hold for now: Poekhali, a Dragon Age fic about Tevinter blood mage elven psychopath Yuri Gagarin

Faleria had never been a planner. There was no plot, however well laid-out, that survived contact with the enemy, and any plan that required more than one other thing to happen was no more than make-believe. The people who wrote plays and pictures and novels in which cunning protagonists set events in motion years ahead, she had always suspected, wouldn’t be writing them if any of their own plans had succeeded. No, the way to get ahead was to know an opportunity when you saw it, and seize it without hesitation.

When she had been eleven, she’d thrown a tantrum about her parents’ inability to provide presents for her twelfth birthday, foolish brat that she had been. Luckily for her, the commander of the labour camp had just the week before announced improved rations for anyone who ratted out fellow prisoners for misdemeanours such as hoarding ration cards. Well, her parents had done so for weeks, and a few quick words to the guards later, found themselves marched to the gallows. Only later did Faleria recognise that α) they had been hoarding precisely to provide her with birthday presents and β) the long-term effects of this act directly increased the peril she was in. The human guards tutted at her betrayal of her parents. The other prisoners glared at her, especially the elves.

Not long after, one of them had tried to murder her in her sleep—whether for revenge or to steal her ration book, she did not know, for that very act caused her magic to awaken in her, violently. By the time she celebrated her first birthday as a mage, she had been removed from the labour camp and sent to one of the new military schools for the magically gifted, intended to bring them up as the new ruling cadres of Areolani’s new empire. Elves, of course, tended to face rather less lofty careers than their human classmates, but she’d always done fairly well regardless, she thought.

What, regret? Killing her parents had been the best damn thing that had ever happened to her.

That had been one opportunity she’d seized, and it had served her well. At the cadre school, she perfected her sense of opportunity, and found she had a gambler’s good luck. When she joined the army air corps as a pilot officer, it hadn’t taken long until she’d found herself gifted with a scramble-all siren, a sharp razor, and only herself and the flying officer placed directly above her alone in the shower room. She’d flown her first combat mission that day, and in truth it had only been astonishingly good luck, a few well-placed lies and the two Qunari fighters she had shot down that had saved her from suspicion. A flying officer’s stripes soon followed.

No tags, but feel free to carry this on!

#dragon age #mass effect

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comiccrusaders · 6 years ago

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NEW SERIES!

Thrice-Nine took Sasha’s brother, and it took Maria’s heart.

Plagued by the ramifications of a techno-magic world now thirty years gone, Thrice-Nine is a dirty folklore world that limps along, degenerating into a place filled with paranoia and poison. Sasha Vasnetsov thought he’d escaped all that, but when news comes that his younger brother has been kidnapped by the secret police, he finds himself dragged back into the madness with a simple goal—to find his brother.

But Sasha is going to need help to do this, and he enlists Maria Kamenaya, a former warrior with hundreds of enemy kills to her name, who was betrayed by the very country she served. This quest is how they get both of those things back, in the lawless land of decapitated states…the land of DEAD KINGS.

Written by Steve Orlando (Batman/Shadow, Crude, Midnighter, VIRGIL) and drawn by Matthew Dow Smith (October Girl, Suicide Squad, X-Files) DEAD KINGS is an in-depth exploration of retribution, in all its dark, complex forms.

STEVE ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT AND WHY HE’S EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT:

“DEAD KINGS is a Post-Post-Apocalypse. The human spirit, and species, is enduring, even after we’ve invoked science and sorcery to drive ourselves to global war. In DEAD KINGS, there is no mystery to magic, it’s simply assets and technology, and like any other type of dangerous technology, we’ve abused it to create massive diesel-punk war machines that nearly destroyed the world. But the world’s crawling back, and in Thrice-Nine, the kingdom that used to be the Slavic Empire, anarchy rules. The Oprichniki, Secret Police without a Captain, run the loose nation as a police state, the Wild Wild East…rounding up anyone who disagrees with them or lives against their standards. The worlds been burnt and born again, but these human drives remain. Sasha Vasnetsov is on a quest to free his brother Gena from a work camp for the socially regressive. He never accepted Gena until he was kidnapped, and now Sasha has promised to liberate his brother and return with him to their mother before the end of her fiftieth year. He’s going to need help…and he finds it in Maria Kamenaya, an abandoned iron soldier and survivor of the Great Iron War that almost killed the world.

This is Russian Folklore to the tune of Blade Runner 2049, and it’s going to take you to a world you’ve never seen…the world a generation after the end of the world, where the first sprouts of goodness are fighting to grow up through the cracks.

Please, come with us, and help them thrive.”

STEVE AND MATTHEW ON THEIR EXPERIENCE SO FAR WORKING WITH AFTERSHOCK AND THE CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND THE BOOK?

(Steve) “It’s been fantastic! AfterShock has been nothing but supportive of Matt and I building this expansive, next-generation world in mashing up oil, steel, and folktales. Working on the project has been energizing, using the “Marvel Method,” a plot and art first method of producing a comic, has engendered so much raw creativity that I almost can’t imagine working an original concept any other way. Matt’s making me better with his creativity and inventiveness (and tolerating my eccentricities…actually, that goes for the entire crew). Working with Thomas Mauer again is a dream, someone who has stood by me through over a decade of comics, both aspirational and realized. And to have Lauren Affe on board couldn’t be more exciting, someone who works hard and adds so much to every page she touches.”

(Matthew) “Working with Aftershock is a bit of a homecoming for me, in that one of the founders, writer and editor Joe Pruett, actually gave me my very first job in comics back in the early ‘90s, so it’s a thrill to work for him again, not to mention getting to work with Steve, who is not only an old friend of mine, but also one of the best writers working in comics today. We’ve been talking about teaming up on something for a long time and when he brought this concept to me, I knew I had to do it. Strong concept, strong characters, a unique visual language, it’s exactly the kind of material I got into comics to work on. And I think we’ve built a great team to bring it to life. Steve, me, Thomas, Lauren, we’re all bringing a little piece of ourselves to this one, and for me, that’s were the really interesting books come from, and I can’t thank Aftershock enough for giving us a home for it and for supporting us every step of the way.

MATTHEW ON SOME OF HIS FAVORITE AFTERSHOCK TITLES AND WHY:

“Honestly, I have yet to see an Aftershock title I haven’t loved. It’s such a diverse roster of talents, concepts, and genres, from Bennet and de Latorre’s Animosity to Ellis and Hester’s Shipwreck to Layman and Kieth’s Eleanor and the Egret. Any time I see an AfterShock book on the shelf, I know there’s going to be something new and fresh and unexpected inside, and it’s one of the reason I was so excited this project is coming out under their banner. They’ve built something special and it’s a thrill to get to be part of it.”

STEVE ON (3) REASONS WHY COMIC BOOK FANS SHOULD ADD THIS TITLE TO THEIR PULL LIST:

1 – The Retribution Series! Welcome to the present day, where tensions are high and we need catharsis more than ever! What began with CRUDE, NAMESAKE and VIRGILcontinues here as we give you cold, unrelenting, endorphin flushing REVENGE. No matter who you are, you’ve faced injustice. We’re hungry for worlds where those who abuse us get what they deserve. DEAD KINGS picks up that thread on the biggest canvas yet.

2 – The Scale! This is the biggest original series I’ve ever done, it makes the worldbuilding inNAMESAKE look like flash fiction. Matt is realizing these massive moments with such a deft and innovative hand, that the world ofDEAD KINGS has become one of the most tonally rich books I’ve been lucky enough to take part in. The pure ethos of struggle, of the cold, dark, enrapturing world of Russia’s great authors like Bulgakov and Gogol is there! But it’s painted with action scenes and devious foes right out of Pacific Rim and True Grit.

3 – The Love! DEAD KINGS is a book that springs to life through pure enthusiasm, for the story, the characters, and the collaboration itself. There is no behind the scenes mandate to be found here, just co-creators in me and Matt that are dedicated to the unique, risky, surprising collaboration that is comics and have been hunting for a way to work together for years. This is a labor of love – a violent, thrilling, theatrically grand one, but a labor of love still. It’s in every page, every word, and that’s what you deserve.

DEAD KINGS #1 / $3.99 / 32 pages / color / on sale 10.24.18 Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Matthew Dow Smith Colorist: Lauren Affe Letterer: Thomas Mauer Cover A: Matthew Dow Smith Cover B: Michael Gaydos

NEW AfterShock Title DEAD KINGS #1 NEW SERIES! Thrice-Nine took Sasha's brother, and it took Maria's heart. Plagued by the ramifications of a techno-magic world now thirty years gone, Thrice-Nine is a dirty folklore world that limps along, degenerating into a place filled with paranoia and poison.

#AfterShock #comics #Matthew Dow Smith #Steve Orlando

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savvyherb · 5 years ago

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The Future of Drug Education Is So Much Better than D.A.R.E.

Drugs are coming to a high school near you. Or at least a conversation about them grounded in science and reality might be.

On Tuesday, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), an advocacy group whose self-proclaimed mission is to end the war on drugs, announced it would roll out Safety First, a brand-new approach to drug education for ninth and tenth graders. It's a model that has already been heralded as the sort of polar opposite of the old-school fear-mongering propagated by Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., in the 80s and 90s. Experts said wider adoption could offer a fresh road map for teaching kids about drug use in the age of vape panic and mass fentanyl deaths.

The "Just Say No" mantra of old relied on strident (and therefore easy-to-swat-away) messaging about the dangers of all drugs, essentially treating the entire spectrum of illicit substances as if they were the same. In contrast, the DPA's is centered on the philosophy of harm-reduction. That's the public-health belief that policy should be less focused on the complete eradication or abstinence of drugs, which will never happen, and instead minimizing needless risk and suffering.

So rather than demanding that teenagers completely refrain from doing drugs or being around them, Safety First teachers comprehensively explain specifics in 45-minute intervals over the course of 15 separate lessons. Why do people cope with drugs? What, even, is a drug? What could be some benefits to psychedelics? How do laws affect personal health?

If proponents of this new approach have their way, the conversations will only get deeper, more honest, and resonant from there.

"I think all too often we sell our youth short by not providing them with accurate, scientific information about psychoactive drugs and how to minimize risk," said Gerald Stahler, a professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, and an expert in addiction. "There has never been a time when a nation has been completely drug- and alcohol-free—there will unfortunately always be youth who will use psychoactive substances that may cause them and others harm."

According to the DPA, the courses all align with the National Health Education Standards (NHES) and Common Core Learning Standards, and will be available online in at least eight different languages. They'll also be modifiable for, say, teaching in a state, such as Colorado, with legalized cannabis.

"Not only does this curriculum teach students how to stay safe in high school, but it also serves as a foundation to prepare them as they progress into adulthood, where they will inevitably encounter even more drugs," said Sasha Simon, a former health teacher and Safety First's program manager. "Developing an understanding of both the harms and how to reduce them may be the difference in them developing healthy behaviors toward drugs in the long run or not—or even them being able to save their life or not."

Safety First was initially tested out in the classroom at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan in the spring of 2018, before it was brought to an additional five schools in San Francisco later that year. These were admittedly liberal-leaning areas that might be more receptive to these kinds of progressive steps than elsewhere in the country. But the curriculum is basically an expansion of an earlier Safety First program, a research-based strategy designed to aid all parents in speaking to their kids about drugs. The idea was that both Generation X and millennials were struggling to find new, appropriate ways to talk about the dangers of drug use with their children, and how best to handle them, without sounding like some kind of outdated Matthew McConaughey character.

"Some families had questions, but not a single parent I encountered thought any of this was a bad idea," said Drew Miller, the health teacher at Manhattan's Bard High School Early College who participated in the pilot program. "It was pretty much the opposite response. Like, 'Why are only our ninth graders getting this?'"

The dialogue and landscape around drugs has, of course, been changing pretty substantially over the past decade. More and more states this year have legalized recreational cannabis; U.S. cities like Denver have decriminalized psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms"; and a spate of vaping-related illness—some, though not all, of them linked to black-market THC products—arrived this summer on the heels of what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) characterized as an epidemic in youth vaping. (While cigarette use among teens has gone down, e-cigarette has skyrocketed.)

But, perhaps most notably, the opioid crisis has hit its peak. This is what the DPA emphasizes above all else: that, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 70,000 people died of drug-related overdoses in 2017, "making it a leading cause of injury-related death in the United States." The Sacklers—the cartoonishly wealthy family that owns Purdue Pharma and helped introduce the country to OxyContin—continue to undergo more and more scrutiny for the role they played in perpetuating this pandemic. (Following a year of lawsuits, the Sacklers have most recently been accused of filing for corporate bankruptcy to avoid responsibility.)

People, in other words, are eager to address the ongoing tragedy in new ways. Like in Philadelphia, where activists have been campaigning, so far successfully, to open up a nonprofit called Safehouse, a safe-injection site where people can do drugs under medical supervision. (It would be the first of its kind in the United States.) The proliferation of deadly fentanyl-tinged opioids has also served to clarify the stakes and the need for dramatic action, instead of preaching abstinence—or a slightly more modern version of drug resistance—into the wind.

"This pattern has persisted into the overdose crisis, which has hit young people especially hard in some jurisdictions," said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, and drug overdose expert. "This initiative," he continued, "is intended to reframe these education efforts toward information that's most likely to reduce risk, and it's not a moment too soon."

And it's one, Miller said, that the students are "super receptive to."

"I think they just know, really," he continued, "that we're not selling them B.S."

Follow Alex Norcia on Twitter.

source https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kezzd/what-kids-need-to-know-about-drugs

The post The Future of Drug Education Is So Much Better than D.A.R.E. appeared first on Savvy Herb Mobile Cannabis Platform.

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#cannabis #marijuana #thc #cbd

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cadladefed · 5 years ago

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Judgement Day Storyline Buildup

Judgement Day Match One

The Revival are backstage bragging about winning the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. They are dressed like to impress. Bullying some low level talent at catering. They mouth off to the room but don’t leave until knocking a coffee over Drake Maverick.

The Revival are watching the match.

#1 CONTENDERS MATCH to the SD! Tag Team Titles

THE CLUB vs DANIEL BRYAN & ERICK ROWAN – 22 minutes

Nice, long match to put over the strength of our tag division. Main Events show.

Underhanded play from The Eco Warriors in heat, fixating their attacks on Karl Anderson’s left knee.

Luke Gallows breaks up 3 double team manoeuvres on Karl Anderson. Gallows sacrifices himself to take out Rowan. Anderson gets a reversal small package, 2 count, Bryan hits his running knee… one, two thr-KICK OUT. Bryan sells shock for a movement before immediately applying a figure four… but before fully applied, the pressure is reversed onto Bryan. Rowan stops the ref for seeing Bryan tap to this.

Anderson breaks the hold. Turns ref. Bryan bumps ref.

Magic Killer. No ref. Chair shots from Rowan. KEVIN OWENS returns. Hits Rowan with chair. Hit’s Bryan with chair. Pulls Anderson on to Bryan. 1,2,3.

Owens walks up the ramp after the bell saying “That’s for Sami asshole”

Further bullying from The Revival to Drake Maverick.

Handicap Match

THE REVIVAL vs DRAKE MAVERICK

With an assist from The Club, Maverick somehow is able to steal a victory.

In ring promo and stand off.

WILDER vs GALLOWS

DW over

DAWSON vs ANDERSON

KA over.

JUDGEMENT DAY –

SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:

THE CLUB vs THE REVIVAL (18)

Your winner and new tag team champions, The Club.

MATCH 2

Build:

W1 - Daniel Bryan comes back to TV by attacking a returning Sami Zayn. Bryan puts Zayn’s famously damaged arm in a chair and stomps down.

Since Daniel Bryan was beaten for his WWE Championship, he has become hell bent on earning back his respect. He is feeling belittled and undermined, something he cannot abide with given his belief that he is the WWE’s moral compass. He thinks it is unjust that because Kofi had to relinquish his title, that Bryan is no longer eligible to a rematch.

W2 –

#1 CONTENDERS MATCH to the SD! Tag Team Titles

THE CLUB vs DANIEL BRYAN & ERICK ROWAN – 22 minutes

Nice, long match to put over the strength of our tag division. Main Events show.

Underhanded play from The Eco Warriors in heat, fixating their attacks on Karl Anderson’s left knee.

Anderson breaks the hold. Turns ref. Bryan bumps ref.

Magic Killer. No ref. Chair shots from Rowan. KEVIN OWENS returns. Hits Rowan with chair. Hit’s Bryan with chair. Pulls Anderson on to Bryan. 1,2,3.

Owens walks up the ramp after the bell saying “That’s for Sami asshole”

W3 –

KEVIN OWENS vs DANIEL BRYAN

Kevin Owens beats Daniel Bryan after a botched interference from Erik Rowan. Post match Bryan and Rowan attack Owens. They take a chair and place it on his arm as they did the week prior with Zayn. Only they think better of it… and in turn place it around his neck! They force Owens’ neck into the ring post and Owens is carried out on a stretcher.

W4 - The week after Bryan is promoing in the ring about how fickle and hypercritical the WWE Universe are. He is very aware that he is not in a particularly rich vein of form, but assures all that he is not to blame. He turns to Rowan and presents him with a kendo stick. He puts all of his recent failings on Rowan and proceeds to punish him with a series of weapon shots. Backstage Rowan is in the doctor’s office having shards of wooden plucked from his back.

W5 - Bryan protests to Triple H for an opportunity at the vacant WWE championship. He makes it clear that every quality you seen in AJ are evident in him. He also alludes to suing for discrimination in the work place dating back to the days of the ‘Yes Movement’. AJ intervenes and happily accepts Bryan’s challenge.

Bryan bars Rowan from attending ringside.

AJ Styles beats Daniel Bryan when a heavily taped up Sami Zayn prevents Bryan from cheating. Sami’s intervention stops Bryan from using a weapon and Bryan turns immediately into a Styles Clash. Bryan has been beaten again.

Rowan storms to the ring and chases Sami away.

* AJ is alone in the ring when Brock storms and F5’s his opponent for Judgement Day

JUDGEMENT DAY –

DANIEL BRYAN vs SAMI ZAYN (16 MINUTES)

Bryan gets his first win since losing the WWE Championship despite a stellar effort from a badly injured Zayn. Another botched interference from Rowan leads to a very believable falsey for Sami shortly before being caught in the LeBell lock.

Post match Bryan and Rowan again beat Sami down. They once again set Zayn’s arm up in a chair as they did previously, only for Kevin Owens music to hit. Bryan and Rowan scarper. Owens extends his hand and helps Zayn to his feet.

An alliance has formed.

MATCH 3

Build:

Several contests between all competitors, over multiple weeks, all fighting for the spotlight on a new look Smackdown.

High action, Indy scramble.

Winner of the below six man, qualifies for a spot in the MITB match.

JUDGEMENT DAY –

MONEY IN THE BANK QUALIFYING SCRAMBLE:

REY MYSTERIO vs ANDRADE ALMAS vs ANTONIO CESARO vs

CEDRIC ALEXANDER vs DOLPH ZIGGLER vs DREW MCINTYRE

(10 MINUTES)

Rapid pace back-and-forth. Cesaro takes the fall from Cedric Alexander.

MATCH 4

Build:

W1 - The double champ Becky Lynch is ruling the roost. Her biggest foes have not been seen since she beat the pair at Wrestlemania.

Beth Phoenix has her first singles match on Smackdown since returning as a full time athlete. She beats Mickie James in a bout that reminds all of how good she was.

W2 – Fatal Fourway #1 Contenders match for SD Womens Championship

Becky makes her way to the ring. She promos saying why she will beat whoever is the victory of this bout:

“Bayley is a precious flower, who ultimately can’t step out of Sasha’s shadow.

Nikki Cross is a mental.

Renee Young has no business being in the ring with me… huh… oh Alexa Bliss, is it… same thing these days. Except one of them headed up the much praised Talking Smack... and the other is linked to the tragic Moment Of Bliss”

Beth Phoenix paved a way for The Man to be The Man, but that was then and this is now so maybe go back to playing Florence Nightingale for your husband because I’m not convinced you’ve got The Glamazon in you anymore.”

She remains ringside for the match.

Beth Phoenix wins beating Nikki Cross with the Glamslam.

Becky & Beth stand opposite one another.

W3 – BECKY LYNCH & BETH PHOENIX vs THE IICONICS – WWE Womens Tag Titles.

The Iiconics lose via DQ. Tensions raise between Lynch and Phoenix.

JUDGEMENT DAY –

SMACKDOWN WOMENS TITLE:

BECKY LYNCH vs BETH PHOENIX (12 MINUTES)

Beth gives it her all but unfortunately for her, the better man wins the day. They square up post match before Beth raises Becky’s arm. Beth leaves Becky to reap the adulation of the crowd. Becky is on the stage when suddenly CHARLOTTE FLAIR returns, jumping the barricade. Becky is thrown off the stage.

MATCH 5

Build:

Samoa Joe is showing more and more aggression after Wrestlemania. He is sick of being overlooked and is taking it out on Smackdown’s newest asset, Finn Balor.

FINN BALOR vs ANTONIO CESARO – 20 mins

Finn over in what is hopefully a worldy.

Backstage an exhausted Finn is making his way back to the locker room when he is jumped by Joe and throws him through a pain of glass.

Joe is promoing in the ring. Finn is not around because he’s recuperating from last week’s injuries. REY MYSTERIO returns and mocks Joe for losing his US title before Rey could even get his rematch. He also calls Joe a coward for his actions. “Interesting…would a coward do this?” Joe jumps Rey but Rey is able to counter the brawl into headscissors followed up by a dive.

After commercial we have REY MYSTERIO vs SAMOA JOE – 15 mins

JOE over clean.

JOE vs CEDRIC ALEXANDER – 10 mins

Joe over quite strong.

Post match Joe promos and says if Finn isn’t physically capable of defending his belt, the workhorse Intercontinental title, he should be a man and relinquish it.

The lights go down and a message appears on the title.

“The man may be hurt.

But when a man is weak

He can draw strength

From his demons.”

Lights come up and The DEMON FINN BALOR is in the ring.

John Woo shotgun dropkick. Cue-de-gra.

JD –

INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE:

DEMON FINN BALOR vs SAMOA JOE (16 MINUTES)

After a flourish of high risk offense, Samoa Joe dominates this physical strong style bout. Finn is clearly still hurt following his attack some weeks ago. After enduring a heavy hit ‘murder, death, kill’, Finn is able to roll up Joe.

SEGMENT

Build:

Series of hype videos build to the arrival of Matt Riddle. Video packages get across the history of Riddle’s lineage in UFC and clips of him in PWG, Progress, etc.

The Friday night prior to the show, on Instagram The Miz announces he will be hosting a very special version of Miz TV at Judgement Day when he promises to once again, give us all “must see TV…. Bro”

* Miz TV segment * (12 mins)

Miz interviews new Smackdown recruit Matt Riddle who hopefully feels like a big deal. He has not been called up with everyone else, he has been saved and amped up accordingly.

The fans begin a deafening “bro” chant at Riddle and The Miz shut’s it down.

“I don’t care about your history. I don’t care about what you’ve achieved in the minors. This is the big leagues Matthew and as far as I’m concerned you’re reputation is built on defeating those not worth my time. I don’t care how legit you are with your flowing hair and sandals, you’ll never be The Miz, you’ll never be must see and you’ll never...” Riddle pump knees Miz.

Miz feeds in for a second strike. Riddle gee’s up big. Powerbombs Miz through a table in the ring.

As Riddle is showing out his music starts. McGuiness describes Riddle as “an incredible specimen, with the world at his bare feet. Truly a legend in wait.”

RKO OUTTA NOWHERE!!!!

Orton stands over Riddle.

MATCH 6 - MAIN EVENT

Build:

TRIPLE H is in the ring and explains that Smackdown is sans a WWE champion. He says this state of flux looms not solely over the blue brand moreover, WWE as a whole. “For too long as a business, we have rested on our laurels. We have monopolised the industry and have taken our foot off the pedal. Whilst the talent on Smackdown is exceptionally high, we have been guilty of not nurturing that talent. Management is guilty of failing to build the stars the WWE Universe deserves and that the roster is capable of becoming. We need a revolution. But a revolution calls for leaders.”

Triple H invites AJ STYLES to the ring. “AJ you are a once in a generation talent. You have against the odds attained success where no one thought possible. You are the standard bearer.

I need you! We need you! To be our leader. To be the leader this show, this company, Hell this industry needs!

Do this not because I deserve better. Not because the McMahon’s deserve anything. But because they do.”

As Triple H extends his hand BROCK LESNAR’s music plays. He storms the ring and kicks seven colours out of AJ.

Paul Heyman is promoing in ring about Brock’s creditials.

“We are in no need for reinvention. This is the era of Brock Lesnar. The most dominant, legitimate competitor this industry has ever known. Yet, because of his superiority, you as a fanbase, aren’t entertained. Brock has no interest in being and entertainer because he is a fighter and you people, you who claim to be fans of combat sports and belittle sports entertainment are nothing but a collection of uneducated, opinionated hypocrites.

Triple H’s music plays and he storms down to the ring to correct Heyman.

“The fans haven’t turned their backs on Lesnar because of his performance. They’ve done so because of his work ethic. The man may be my father-in-law, but Vince McMahon made the biggest mistake he ever made, when he tied your client up to the contract he has. Lesnar may well be dominant but when your schedule is as relaxed as it is, is it any wonder? An industry leader and generation definer doesn’t show what he’s made of 10 times a year but does it every Tuesday on television, all week on house shows and every PPV he’s scheduled to compete in.”

Heyman and Trips continue to bite at each other. Heyman states he finds it ironic that the man complaining that Lesnar has forged an easy way to the top, is the same man who slept his way into a position of power! Heyman jabs at AJ for not being in the same league as Brock, and for not having the edge it takes to truly define a generation.

AJ sneaks into the ring and strikes Heyman with an unprotected Chair shot. Heyman is left a bloodied mess.

AJ Styles is promoing in the ring. He’s confronted by former Paul Heyman Guy – Antonio Cesaro.

AJ STYLES vs ANTONIO CESARO (18 mins)

AJ over. Cesaro goes to use a chair after AJ kicks out of his Neutraliser. AJ ducks, rolls through into the Calf Crusher and taps Cesaro out.

Post match AJ goes to use the chair again but is stopped by Triple H.

Triple H confronts him and says he cannot go around attacking staff with weapons. If he lets Cesaro go, he will get Brock at JUDGEMENT DAY and in a NO DQ match he can have Heyman next week. AJ smiles, throws the chair out of the ring, and hits Cesaro with a Styles Clashes.

Heyman has been protesting since the announcement that he is unfit to compete. Triple H forces him to do so.

PAUL HEYMAN vs AJ STYLES

AJ is toying with Heyman (who is in a neck brace). Until Cesaro gets involved. After receiving a few chair shots (conventional), AJ hits Cesaro with a Styles Clash through the announcers table. Heyman is begging in the ring when Brock slides in and hits AJ with an unprotected chair shot an F5.

Heyman pins AJ.

JUDGMENT DAY –

The vacant WWE CHAMPIONSHIP (28 mins)

BROCK LESNAR vs AJ STYLES.

The bell rings AJ runs at Brock, ducks his clothesline and immediately dives to the outside, crushing Paul Heyman.

Aggressive match to not only crown a champion, but tent peg a new era.

All the shenanigans: Heyman distracts the ref, ref bumps, chair shots, etc

AJ incredibly kicks out of multiple F5 efforts. Brock attempts to F5 AJ from the top to the outside only for AJ to counter with a second rope Styles Clash.

He crawls on top… “ SHOCK… THE SYSTEM”

O’Reilly, Fish and Strong appear on the stage, Triple H makes his way to the walk way only for Adam Cole to make his way through the crowd and land a Panama Sunrise on AJ. Lesnar hit a final F5, Cole throws in the referee.

Your winner and new WWE Champion… BROCK... LESNAR

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 7 years ago

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Ramblings: Islanders Injuries; Timo Meier Breakout Potential; Oshie; Hartman – January 8

With bye weeks arriving, the NHL loaded up Sunday’s schedule with 10 games. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, be sure to check which teams are taking the week off and adjust lineups accordingly. Maxing out (or close to maxing out) games played is important, even more so when there are fewer games to pick from.

Both Josh Bailey and Andrew Ladd missed the Islanders game on Sunday with injuries. We didn’t really get much of an update on either:

Weight on Bailey injury: “Wasn’t horrific news but certainly not good news.” Ladd not long term but out today.

— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) January 7, 2018

I guess it’s good news that Ladd shouldn’t be out long, though there isn’t much for clarity on Bailey. As soon as we learn anything we will pass it on but with the team off until Saturday, it’s doubtful we get much from the team until then.

For Sunday’s game, Ladd was replaced by Anthony Beauvillier and Alan Quine took Bailey’s spot on the top line. Jordan Eberle took Bailey’s spot on the top PP unit.

Sebastian Aho (Islanders defenceman) got his first two career points on Sunday including his first career goal. He was also paired with Nick Leddy at five-on-five for the entire game and even got some power-play minutes on the second unit. He didn��t crack the 20-minute mark but it’s worth tracking his usage once the Islanders come off the bye. They need all the defensive help they can get and with the team fighting for a playoff spot, maybe they rely on Aho more than they had anticipated initially.

He was sent down to the AHL but it’s due to the bye week. I suspect he’ll be back up when the team returns to action this weekend.

Quick update on the other Sebastian Aho:

Canes GM Ron Francis says Aho is day-to-day with lower body injury.

— Chip Alexander (@ice_chip) January 7, 2018

As far as rookies go, I don’t think too much was expected of Nolan Patrick. Unlike Nico Hischier, who was given (you could say earned) the top-line role once Adam Henrique was traded, or Clayton Keller, who is probably the best offensive player Arizona has, or Brock Boeser, whose shooting was lauded by some, Patrick seemed destined to not be featured on this particular roster in this particular season. Maybe he could slot in as the second-line centre, but that wasn’t a given.

All that said, it’s hard not to be disappointed with his season. Going into Sunday afternoon’s game, he had just eight points on the year and at times had been a healthy scratch. His shot rate isn’t very good though that should improve over the years. He’s also last among the team’s forwards in adjusted shot share by a pretty wide margin. Again, that’s not too surprising for a rookie, but you’d think with sheltered competition and favourable zone starts that he’d be a little better in this regard. He hasn’t been.

We know that not all young players develop in a straight line. Some guys like Keller come out guns blazing. Some guys like Victor Hedman can take a few years to really hit their stride. There hasn’t been too much good to come out of Patrick’s rookie season, though. I want to ask his dynasty owners: is there any sort of panic setting in, and for those who don’t own him, are you trying to trade for him?

While on the subject of Flyers centres, Sean Couturier scored goals 22 and 23 of the season for him in the team’s 4-1 win against Buffalo. He’s on pace for more goals this year (45) than his previous career-high in points (39).

It has been a remarkable offensive season from Couturier, but please exercise some caution. He’s now shooting an even 18 percent on the year. His previous career-high was 11.7 percent, and was a career 9.4 percent shooter coming into 2017-18. Yes, he’s shooting nearly double what his career rate was. I am not saying that with better line mates and more ice time (he’s well over 21 minutes a game) that he can’t be a good offensive player. I am definitely saying that I wouldn’t rely on him to push, or break, the 40-goal barrier on a regular basis.

Don’t forget the Dobber Hockey Mid-Season Guide will be out later this week! Grab the information you need for the home stretch in your fantasy hockey leagues. Just follow this link here.

Andre Burakovsky was back in the lineup for the Caps after being scratched for a couple games. He was slotted on the fourth line with Jay Beagle and Alex Chiasson where he stayed for the game, playing under 11 minutes.

The Caps have three games this week and then their bye week comes. Maybe Burakovsky can work his way up the lineup, but if it takes him a couple games to do so, he won’t have much use on redraft fantasy hockey rosters for the next couple weeks. I wouldn’t be running to the waiver wire to add him unless you don’t really need production from a roster spot for a few weeks.

Now that Timo Meier is seemingly sticking around the top line for San Jose, it’s probably time to start taking his value in redraft leagues seriously. Over his past 20 games, before Sunday afternoon’s tilt – which haven’t all been on the top line, mind you – he’s managed 51 shots and is playing about 15:30 per game.

The following chart from Hockeyviz.com should be taken with a little grain of salt. He’s played nearly one-third of his ice time with Joe Thornton and that’s going to skew things a little. All the same, it’s pretty crazy how good this team has been offensively from dangerous areas with Meier on the ice (red is good):

Since being a top-10 pick a few years ago, Sharks fans have been waiting for Meier to be part of the next generation of top-end scorers the team needs. It looks like it’s finally starting to happen. If you were going to try and buy him in deep keepers, or dynasties, then time is running out. It seems a matter of time before a full-blown breakout hits (even without top PP minutes).

Jack Roslovic suited up for his second career game, first this season, in Sunday’s game against San Jose. He was on the fourth line with Marko Dano and Matt Hendricks.

It’s nice to see Roslovic get in the lineup, and he did take Adam Lowry’s spot on the top PP unit as well, but it’ll be hard to have a lot of value playing in the bottom-six with the minutes he got (under eight). We’ll see if his role changes this week but like Burakovsky, the Jets have three games and then hit their bye, so I wouldn’t pull a hamstring running to the waiver wire to grab him in one-year leagues.

St. Louis was in Washington on Sunday afternoon and Brayden Schenn was split away from Vladimir Tarasenko. We’ve seen this happen in sporadic spurts this year, but this seemed inevitable. The team hadn’t scored more than three goals in any one contest for 13 straight games.

This kind of sucks for Schenn, but keep in mind that Tarasenko can produced with just about anyone; he scored 40 goals in 2015-16 playing about half his minutes with Jori Lehtera. I wouldn’t be too concerned about Tarasenko’s production outside of the concerns we already had (namely shooting percentage). In fact, both he and Schenn scored in the team’s overtime loss.

Florida may have lost in the shootout, but we got this goal from Sasha Barkov, so maybe it was worth it?

Barkov shootout goal: pic.twitter.com/FP5ySXif69

— Cats On The Prowl (@Cats0ntheprowl) January 8, 2018

TJ Oshie was taken off the top line for the Caps early in the second period in their game against St. Louis and replaced by Devante Smith-Pelly. Oshie was moved to the third line with Lars Eller and Brett Connolly.

It has been a rough year for Oshie production-wise. His 82-game pace for goals this year is 26, which isn’t bad out-and-out bad, but there are red flags. His shots per game is down to 1.86, the lowest for him since his rookie year, and that’s despite playing slightly more per game (18:47) than his career average (18:37). It’s not that his shots aren’t just finding the net, either: his 8.99 shot attempts per 60 minutes at five-on-five (before Sunday’s game) is by far the lowest of his career (10.75 last year and 10.78 in 2013-14). In fact, of out 247 forwards with at least 400 minutes played, he’s 232nd in shot rate. He was never a volume shooter, but he was 169th out of 234 forwards last year. Not great, but a lot better than 2017-18. The names at the bottom of the list with Oshie this campaign are basically passers and grinders. Oshie is neither, so this is a problem.

There have been talks of injuries and he did suffer a concussion last month. Maybe there’s something wrong that we don’t know about. All I know is that playing nearly 19 minutes a game, shooting nearly 17 percent, and having an 82-game pace of 26 goals as a goal scorer isn’t great. Shooting percentage regression was inevitable, but his shot rate is becoming a real problem.

Ryan Hartman remained on the second line in Chicago’s 4-1 win against Edmonton while also sticking on the top PP unit. He had an assist, three shots on goal, and played a whopping 20:58. His previous single-game high for minutes this year was 18:36 on New Year’s Eve.

He's not shooting as much as he has in prior seasons, but he’s still at a very healthy 15.85 attempts per 60 minutes at five-on-five, in the same neighbourhood has guys like Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Seguin, and Mike Hoffman. Remember, he scored 19 goals in 76 games last year playing fewer than 13 minutes a game. If he can play anywhere from 17-18 minutes a game, in the role he’s being given, there is very good offensive upside here. With a top-six spot and top power-play minutes, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be rostered in 12-team leagues by now, especially now that we’re hitting bye weeks.

There was a scary situation in the Tampa Bay game as Lightning defenceman Dan Girardi went down to a knee to block a one-timer and took it straight off the back of his head:

A better look at Girardi trying to block a Frk shot pic.twitter.com/uvZoay8vve

— Prashanth Iyer (@iyer_prashanth) January 8, 2018

He was down for a few minutes but skated off the ice under his own power. He did not return to the game but the Lightning indicated that he would be ok. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.

Boone Jenner had seven shots on goal in Columbus’s 3-2 shootout win over Florida, but failed to hit the scoresheet. He’s now shooting 4.4 percent on the season.

Jenner was a career 11.3 percent shooter before this season so there is clearly a lot of bad luck going on here. He’s still usually getting 18 minutes of ice time so John Tortorella still trusts him. He’s very valuable in multi-cat leagues and he should be able to turn around that shooting percentage in the second half.

Pavel Buchnevich was a healthy scratch for the Rangers in their game against the Golden Knights. I don’t know how to explain this, honestly, and can’t properly express myself without a string of expletives so I’ll just let it go for now.

Hey, Karl Alzner had a multi-point game! He scored his first of the year against Vancouver and assisted on Brendan Gallagher’s game-winner in the third. It was Alzner’s first multi-point game in which he scored since March of 2015. His contract is an utter disaster but this was a nice game for him. So, silver linings and all.

Boston’s top line is seriously rolling right now. David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand both scored for Boston in their 6-5 overtime loss to the Penguins on Sunday night, each their 17th goal of the season. I guess they were tired of being tired with Patrice Bergeron at 16 goals. The three of them have 10 goals combined over the last four games.

A couple games ago they were on the ice for their first goal against at five-on-five this year but it’s incredible how good they are.

Sidney Crosby had three assists in that win, bringing his season up to 15 goals and 43 points in 44 games. It wasn’t long ago – literally like four days – that people were still freaking out about his season. There’s still half a season left and a lot of regression to go. Buckle up.

from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-islanders-injuries-timo-meier-breakout-potential-oshie-hartman-january-8/

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