#k’s hockey analysis

[seedlessmuffins]

after 2 nights, 8 playoff games, 16 teams in various states of preparation for playoff hockey, many controversies and somehow finding the time to watch at least two periods of every game, i have my analysis of every game 1 of the stanley cup playoffs. these are just general thoughts, theres no possible way i could do detailed positional analysis when there were multiple games going on at the same time. i did my best, i hope you enjoy!

NIGHT ONE

carolina hurricanes vs new york islanders, 2-1

game at a glance: clean, traditional hockey

this was the first game i watched, and it was a good way to start of this year's playoffs! it wasn't the most exciting game, but the hurricanes were playing good, clean hockey with beautiful passing and heavy possession, the isles couldn't get the puck away for long enough to have many high danger chances. the canes defense, especially burns, had such a good night, which was good because raanta had a truly bad bounce. isles forwards were ghosts, they didn't produce anything of note, and shoutout to the canes' sebastian aho who scored the first game of the playoffs! the crowd in carolina was great, very loud, they were very optimistic and cheered for most of the plays, which obviously gave the canes lots of energy! definitely a good way to start!

boston bruins vs florida panthers, 3-1

game at a glance: expectations of greatness

after a historic regular season, anything short of winning the cup is a failure for this boston team. so much so, in fact, that the crowd was chanting "we want the cup" at the end of the third period. there's not much to say about this game, because boston is everything in hockey maximized to be the best it can be, and even missing their captain they played a remarkable game of hockey that was frankly a joy to watch. ullmark in boston's net was outstanding as he has been this season, and lyon in florida's net wasn't, which was to be expected. the crowd was in a celebratory mood, as if this game was a victory lap for the bruins. they can't get to comfortable, but this was fun hockey to watch and i thoroughly enjoyed every second of the two periods i tuned in to.

dallas stars vs minnesota wild, 2-3 (second overtime)

game at a glance: the powder keg exploded

this is a series that i thought would be boring, as neither team is known for super exciting hockey. boy was i wrong, this series i think is one of the most exciting for me right now. score was pretty even, with the teams trading blows, but what really got me was the physicality. both teams were starting fights, checking and hitting each other, and there were lots of penalties given out. the pavelski hit was a big moment in the game. in my opinion? a dirty hit, but it was legal as it was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, just unfortunate that pavelski hit his head on the ice. going into double overtime just extended the battle, as each team worked to get that third goal which the wild eventually ground out. the goalies on both sides were stand out players, making multiple great saves each, and the man who should've been the difference maker, robertson, was a ghost after the end of the third. definitely a series to keep an eye on, i have a feeling it will be a close one.

edmonton oilers vs los angeles kings, 3-4 (overtime)

game at a glance: the great end-of-game collapse

have you ever seen the hope of tens of thousands of fans die in 20 minutes? the oilers started out so strong with a powerplay goal, and they kept the momentum until there was 10 minutes left in the 3rd period where they just fell apart. a disallowed goal in overtime that left time for the kings to win it was just the cherry on top of an epic collapse. draisaitl did his part for the oilers, but mcdavid didn't make an impact on the scoresheet or in the game outside a few pretty spins. korpisalo was great, and if he keeps playing like he did on monday he could drag the kings out of the first round. the atmosphere in edmonton was electric, they were so loud and when the oilers started their collapse, they started throwing beers on the ice. can't say they aren't passionate, but i think the pressure of doing well in a building that expected so much out of the oilers got in their head in overtime. hopefully, they smarten up for game 2

NIGHT TWO

new jersey devils vs new york rangers, 1-5

game at a glance: young upstarts against the old guard

this was a the most boring game i watched out of the 8, it just really didn't hold my attention at all. the crowd in jersey was lame. i said it! there were so many empty seats and rangers jerseys, and the people who were there were quiet (and left during the game!). as for the game, it was obvious that the rangers had playoff experience and were generally bigger and sturdier as a team, they bullied jersey's smaller forwards especially jack hughes the whole game, so they couldn't get any meaningful possession. igor shesterkin in net and the rangers defence blocking shots did most of the work in ensuring the low scoring chances for jersey, and the only goal, that came off a penalty shot, was more of a consolation than anything after the rangers had controlled the whole game. it will be interesting to see if the devils get more comfortable as they adapt to playoff hockey or if the rangers just eat them whole.

toronto maple leafs vs tampa bay lightning, 3-7

game at a glance: heavy is the king that sits upon the thone of expectations

this was the game i was looking forward to the most, and to be honest i was a bit disappointed. the leafs were so out of it, they looked like they were a minor league team playing against pros. they were able to use their speed and skill for a couple minutes at a time for a few goals, but they couldn't maintain it or use it on the power play to convert their chances, in addition to having absolutely horrendous goaltending (with little defensive support). tampa looked like the season vets they were, roughing the leafs up a bit and keeping to their rigid structure. it was obvious that tampa didn't have the same tricks and speed as the leafs, but by sticking to their structure and playing smart, safe hockey, they thrashed the leafs at home. the bunting hit was stupid, dirty and illegal. i hope he gets suspended, you can't elbow someone in the head and just get away with it. the leafs' lack of confidence wasn't helped by the crowd, who had very high energy but most of it was put into heckling the leafs, who were booed off the ice at the end of the first period. the expectations in toronto are so high, another failure after 19 years of failure is unacceptable. toronto needs to adapt to the pressure or it doesn't look good for them. very exciting watch, even though toronto looked so shaky.

vegas golden knights vs winnipeg jets, 1-5

game at a glance: they're the knights, but couldn’t protect their net

winnipeg looked ready for playoff hockey. vegas didn't. winnipeg looked fast, they played with discipline and their defence was exemplary. they could shut down knights chances and if one got through, hellebuyck in goal was able to shut it down. the knights continually tried to engage the jets in fights, but the jets kept composure and refused to engage. a masterclass in strategy, and the dominated the knights, who seemed to underestimate the jets. unpopular opinion: i really don't like the vegas atmosphere, it feels so aggressively like a less-enthusiastic american football game, i feel like im watching another sport. crowd wasn't great, knights weren't great, but the jets were incredible and their coach's system is absolutely stunning to watch. not my favourite series, but was interesting to see!

colorado avalanche vs. seattle kraken, 1-3

game at a glance: a selection of stars against a balance of powers

the avalanche, the reigning stanley cup champions, were exposed as very reliant on a few stars in this game. without those stars producing points, they couldn't effectively create chances or set the rhythm of the game. seattle, on the other hand, has a pretty evenly dispersed amount of talent between all the forward and defensive lines, which showed as they got scoring and playmaking from pretty much everyone on the team. their goalie grubauer having a great night in goal sealed the deal, and the kraken win their franchise's first playoff game ever. we will see how this series develops, as the avs are a much bigger, tougher team who could bully the kraken with their speed if they control play for long stretches of time. the kraken aren't shrinking violets though, and their ability to smoothly break the puck out of the neutral zone is composed and almost clinical with how they undressed the defensemen who weren't named cale makar. atmosphere was great, i love the crowd in colorado and the in-arena announcer has so many cool sound effects and songs they play which makes the game fun to watch.

TLDR

series i recommend if you want to watch beautiful hockey: boston bruins v florida panthers

series i recommend if you want a close series: toronto maple leafs vs tampa bay lightning

series i recommend if you want to see fights: dallas stars vs minnesota wild

i hope you enjoyed this analysis, and happy watching everyone!

[mecachrome]

loll thank u for confirming it to me re:kpoppie fan past!!! i think i remember it was you (?) who said aomething about landoscar coworkerisms and i was like EXACTLY! this is what makes them interesting to me. i get people who don’t really like 814 bc on the surface they are just teammates who have content together thus easier to ship but at the same time, that’s the beauty in them isn’t it <33 and lando’s comment about being contractually obligated to hang out together was Romance to me actually bc >coworkership.

alsooo once again i would just like 2 say i love your metas/analysis cause i think yours is such a fun pov to read from!! not sure if this is bcs of our commonality in fandom history but it’s truly like, a different perspective than if you were like on the 1d > f1 rpf pipeline or just a general sports rpf background. i’m not sure what makes kpop so unique in this ejduksdj maybe perhaps bcs we spend so much time dissecting idolsona and manufactured content or whatever 🙂 anyways! love your work and your gifs 💘💘💘 u are a godsend for the fandom!!

yesss anon coworkershipping is literally so important and real 2 me!!! ofc people are entitled to their own opinions and preferences and i will never force my silly little ships onto anyone but admittedly i am 100% the type of guy who thinks that sometimes Things that aren't romance are romance and sometimes Things that aren't sex are sex. so that's a me problem HKLSDFH

i think the ability to be self-aware about your coworkerisms and find humor in it or even show fondness for it is really sweet... like to me it's meaningful that oscar followed lando's career for so long and clearly rates him and just sincerely objectively LOVES being his teammate and is satisfied with that alone because again "i'll have you in whichever way you'll have me" is lesbianism to some. it's also interesting when they're regarded as a pr bait ship especially considering how much mclaren like... Don't bait them to us that much anymore and how simple and stripped bare the content they post nowadays is? i think there's just a general conflation of [shares hobbies off-track] + [likes each other as people] in that regard...

fandom history is definitely so interesting, i've been in 132402382834 fandoms so i reflect on this a lot !!! i got into hockey like 10 years ago so i think just wrt like, the sporting aspect of f1 then i view it through that lens primarily (and hockey is a sport that's a lot just like... less Sympathetic to individual athletes because it's very explicitly about systems which i think is why i'm less like. parasocially invested in flop careers halsdfh), but when it comes to the celebrity consumption and sheer global influence of f1 then there are genuinely a lot of parallels to k-pop, which adds an interesting dimension. the thing about many other sports/esports/etc. fandoms is that not all of them have the same tenuous 4th wall + measure of exclusivity that f1's genz marketability propels itself off, which i think is where this accusation of 1d/k-popification comes from because it's a less familiar space in quite a few sports. but there's a lot of nuance there of course...

so random but i actually had this discussion with someone earlier where i was like my "type" in k-pop is always pathetic gayboys with horrible personalities alsfdkhalksdfh but in sports i like really adjusted normie boring straightguys (my 2 favorite hockey players are also very much Polite Cats who have cute nicknames hehe :3c) so it's interesting how despite certain fandom similarities there are many cultural nuances that influence our investment.

also idk if you're familiar with bbb but i thought i'd share the hockey version my friend made of it :') it's all quite interesting to me because hockey is like, MUCH more accessible as a fandom product just because of how many players major sports leagues have and the fact that it's not as successful in north america as any other league save mls (lol) (actually idk if this is still true with messi we might fr be flops now), so you can spend $20 to go to a game in some markets and see your favorite player up close during warmups whereas that... is not possible in f1. there's just a lot of considerations for how personas are built up & managed and the space f1 occupies in that analysis !!!!!!!! but i don't want to talk your ear off too much aklsdfhldfh thank you so much for your kind words! 🥺💕

[msmargaretmurry]

E, K, V for the writing meme ❤️

thank you for asking my dear!! 💕

e. What character do you identify with most?  Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

i wouldn't say that there's a specific character who i identify with the most as much as all of my characters end up with little pieces of me in them. like in haw, the pressure matthew feels to live the kind of life his family/the world expects is something i super relate to. and i'm also a very anxious person so his anxiety in that fic was something that i identified with, even though the way his manifests and the ways he deals with it are not quite the same as mine. or in tnno, dylan's wariness and resistance to forgiving someone he loves who hurt him very badly — definitely something i identify with. part of the reason i'm enjoying writing my girl!quinn fic so much is that she has a lot of issues around navigating femininity that are similar to my own! that is something i really love about writing, tbh, is being able to take pieces of myself and kind of filter them through a new experience and see them through my characters' eyes.

k. Do you have a guilty pleasures in fic (reading or writing)?

not really, honestly, because i don't really believe in guilty pleasures? like if i like it then i like it, i don't need to be weird about it 😂 i am cringe but i am free, etc. and i think fic is a medium that's uniquely suited to people just trying shit and having fun and leaning into self-indulgence, and i love to see that. i briefly thought of cisswap/rule 63 as a guilty pleasure but then i decided to lean into it instead. i guess some things that could go here are like, i really love when a fic leans HARD into hurt/comfort. i love when people write weird and/or super self-indulgent porn. i really enjoy a slightly fucked-up power dynamic. given how much i hate to see hockey injuries irl perhaps i should not love a good career-ending injury fic so much but what can i say. the heart wants what it wants.

v. Are there certain comments you’ve received on your stories that have stuck with you?

yes for sure! first of all i go back to reread my comments fairly often — at least a few times a year, especially if i'm struggling with writing — so i've read a lot of them a bunch of times, which makes them memorable. especially the longer ones or partituclarly thoughtful ones, when people really dig into the writing/themes of the fic or share very personal ways the fic resonated with them (i got a couple of these re: how matthew comes out to brady in haw, which did make me a little weepy. also some really lovely comments on tnno from people who have gone through complicated friend breakups.) someone left a super super long comment on tnno once breaking it down literary analysis style that i think about SO much because it was so fun and touching to read.

[atlanticcanada]

The City of Moncton will be hosting another major hockey event next year.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has announced the Moncton Wildcats will host the 2024 league entry draft at the Avenir Centre.

Newly appointed league commissioner, Mario Cecchini, made the announcement at the arena Tuesday morning.

"I'm delighted that the City of Moncton and the Wildcats came forward to host the 2024 edition of the QMJHL entry draft," said Cecchini. "The draft is a very, very special thing."

During the news conference, Moncton Wildcats president Robert K. Irving welcomed the commissioner who was in the city for the first time and dropped a so not so subtle hint about his desire to host the 2025 Memorial Cup, the next time the QMJHL hosts the championship tournament.

"We've got a good clean team," said Irving.

Irving later asked the crowd of season ticket holders and city staff if they would want to have the Memorial Cup back in the city for the first time since 2006.

He was met with a round of applause.

"I was warned," laughed Cecchini.

After the news conference, Cecchini stressed it's up to the Canadian Hockey League to decide who hosts the major event.

"The Memorial Cup is really, as I understand it anyway right now from what I've been told, it's really all about the bids that are going to come in and obviously it's a committee that makes that decision to actually alleviate that type of pressure on any one of the three commissioners," said Cecchini.

Moncton has a lot of hockey momentum on its side right now.

It was the co-host for the 2023 World Junior Championship and in March, the Wildcats were named the hosts for the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game next year.

The last two times the QMJHL played host for the tournament, it was held in Maritime Provinces.

The Memorial Cup was held in Halifax in 2019, and after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, returned in 2022 and was hosted by Saint John.

After the announcement Irving spoke about Moncton's desire to be the third straight team from the Maritimes to represent the QMJHL.

"We're all in," said Irving. "We think we've got a great facility. We've got a great organization and I think if you look at our hockey players we're going to be building for that year and we'll have a great team. So everything is lining up towards Moncton right now."

The Wildcats last hosted the Memorial Cup in 2006 at the Moncton Coliseum and Irving believes it's their turn again.

"Look, it's the CHL that's going to make the decision at the end of the day. They have certain criteria. We'll have to meet that criteria and hopefully exceed their expectations and that's what our plan is," said Irving.

Events Moncton co-chair, Bill Whelan, said the draft will have a huge economic spin-off for the hotels, restaurants and bars in the city.

"I haven't seen an economic impact analysis, but I would assume it would be certainly be $10 million-plus by the time it's all said and done," said Whelan.

The Wildcats last hosted the draft at the Moncton Coliseum back in 2009.

The 2024 draft is scheduled to take place on June 8.

For the latest New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/j41imAd

[cc-tinslebee]

[steps up to the mic] Listen, this might just be me, but if you’re going to have a large cast of “main” characters, you should probably give those characters opportunities to display their skills and foils instead of handing it off to the “real” main character.

Obviously, this could probably speak to a lot of fandoms, but I’m just gonna talk about The Mighty Ducks for a second because that’s what inspired this train of thought.

A bit of a rant (analysis?) below the cut:

When we look at the movies, I think the original, as well as D2, handled their large cast pretty well. Sure, it was kind of strange not seeing Karp, Peter, Terry, and Tammy/Tommy in the D2 cast, but they seemed to fill their absence decently with the new additions. (Of course, that’s just my own opinion.)

D3’s where my real gripe is, and while I have yet to rewatch it, there are still a few issues about the large cast that come to mind. Going from giving Adam good arcs in 1-2 to side-lining him when there was a perfect opportunity right in front of them, setting up a conflict between Guy and Connie with seemingly little payoff, and completely cutting Jesse (an original and arguably very important Duck) out with, as far as I know, little explanation.

I’d like to clarify before I get into this next part that I actually like Linda as a character; she seemed to have a lot of heart and I really admire that. I don’t, however, appreciate the writers creating a female character for the sole purpose of being the love interest to the lead. I really do believe that they could have made a much more compelling coming-of-age story for Charlie had they not implemented that romance, which didn’t seem to add anything to the plot. It really wasn’t Linda who got Charlie to turn around and realise his kinda self-destructive behaviour, but Fulton and Bombay.

They really would have used their time better focusing on solely telling the story of the Ducks’; Charlie’s refusal to change, actually giving us a vague understanding of Connie and Guy’s lovers quarrel, Adam’s feelings of separation from the Ducks. They really did the Ducks dirty with this one, and, hell, they did Linda dirty too. (And, yes, I do understand that D3 was mainly there to wrap up the story, so naturally things were a little messy.)

Which brings me to Game Changers.

Look, I’m not going to subject you all to me nitpicking this show. I will, however, say this: I hope they give the Don’t Bothers/reclaimed Ducks other than Evan a chance to shine. Even Sofi and Nick, despite them arguably being the “second/third” main (younger) characters. Sam, Logan, Maya, Lauren, Koob — even the Capek brothers! — are listed as main characters, but they’re often not as focused on as Evan. I’ve seen someone argue that Sam was set up to be a really interesting character this first season and they didn’t really do much with him other than in Pond Hockey, which was kind of disappointing, and I think that’s an extremely valid point.

I can only really speak for myself when I talk about things I’d like to see if we get a season 2. Like, if they manage to get Joshua Jackson, I’d be pretty happy with a new-captain-meets-the-old-captain moment, but I would much rather see Charlie bond with Logan over absentee parents over Evan. Logan clearly has some unaddressed issues with his mom, clearly more self-aware that what his mom did was unfair to him, and it just furthers his already established arc (but I’ve spoken about that already). I’d like to see Sam’s character get explored more, and maybe see Bombay help him harness his X-factor! I’d like to see Lauren and Maya’s relationship grow, and the Capeks’ gradual journey learning English! Hey, maybe even see the Reddicks join the new Ducks and bond a bit with Evan like Stephanie and Alex did.

That’s what I, personally, would like to see, not Evan getting handed all the potential arcs. Because he pretty much got everything; absent dad, team captain, love interest, choosing between what's good for him versus the team, getting Bombay back onto his feet, etc, etc. Other than maybe Sofi and Nick, everyone else on the team has 1-2 arcs at most, and I think there’s a pretty good argument out there that some get one to none.

And look, I’m not so naïve that I don’t understand that large casts are hard to juggle. It’s difficult to focus on everyone especially when a particular character speaks more to you and especially with a time limit. But take my Logan and Evan point for example; it’s not hard to assume that a bonding-with-Charlie-over-an-absent-parent moment would go to Evan. That’s probably what the GC writers might assume. But if you take a step back, look at the rest of your cast for a moment, you can see that he’s not the only option. It’s all about sharing the wealth of arcs evenly amongst your characters.

(Also, I wanted to quickly include — I believe — @k-romantic’s idea/joke that Julie should’ve been the one to romance Linda purely because I think it adds to my argument of arcs being forced onto the main character when they could’ve easily been better suited for another character. Obviously, since it was the late 1990s and Disney’s a bunch of cowards, maybe they wouldn’t have used Julie, but I think another Duck dating Linda would have done what the writers were going for just as well, maybe even better.)

[laresearchette]

Monday, January 10, 2022 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: DARCY & STACEY (TLC Canada) 8:00pm DAVID & ANNIE: AFTER THE 90 DAYS (TLC Canada) 9:00pm LOREN & ALEXEI: AFTER THE 90 DAYS (TLC Canada) 9:30pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT STREET OUTLAWS: FARMTRUCK AND AZN  (Premiering on January 21 on Discovery Canada at 10:00pm)         STREET OUTLAWS (TBD - Discovery Canada) BLACK MARKET WITH MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS (TBD)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

NETFLIX CANADA TERMINATOR: DARK FATE UNDERCOVER (Season 3)

AHL HOCKEY (TSN2) 3:00pm: Springfield Thunderbirds vs. Toronto Marlies

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:00pm: Bruins vs. Capitals (SNWest/TSN5) 10:00pm: Sens vs. Oilers (SN/SN1) 10:30pm: Rangers vs. Kings

COLOSSAL MACHINES (Super Channel Fuse) 7:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE):  In April 1981, the first Space Shuttle launched, ushering in a new era of space exploration; unlocking the secrets of the cosmos requires intricate machines, and what's under their hood is nothing short of rocket science.

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN5) 7:00pm: Bucks vs. Hornets (SN1) 7:30pm: Pacers vs. Celtics (SN Now) 8:00pm: 76ers vs. Rockets

DWIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR (Family Channel Canada) 7:00pm: Guy Club guys come back through a portal in Gretta's fridge, but the fate of the world hangs on sending one of the new guys back home.

G LEAGUE BASKETBALL (SN Now) 7:30pm: Long Island Nets vs. Raptors 905

MURDOCH MYSTERIES (CBC) 8:00pm: Murdoch investigates a death threat against Sigmund Freud and gets an unwelcome analysis.

THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (CBC) 8:00pm: Romaine, whose testimony was the one hope to save Leonard from the gallows, has turned on him.

MARY MAKES IT EASY (CTV Life) 8:00pm:  Mary makes healthier versions of her favorite comfort foods by incorporating more nutrients and adding healthier ingredients without sacrificing the flavor.

MY UNIQUE B&B (Makeful) 8:00pm: Treehouse designer and master carpenter Simon Parfett helps families, couples and retirees generate extra income by creating their own unique B&B, alongside his team of professionals.

UNITED STATES OF AL (Global) 8:30pm: When Al invites his professor over for dinner, Al's professor and Lizzie start flirting with each other; Riley hits a snag in his physical relationship with Holly and seeks out his therapist for help.

TRANSPLANT (CTV) 10:00pm: Rania's arrival triggers unwanted memories for Bash; Mags can't win her new boss' approval.

HIGHWAY THRU HELL (Discovery Canada) 10:00pm: Jamie and his brother team up for the most stunning wreck of the season; Al hauls a unique piece of equipment on a treacherous backroad; Brandon and highway crews face a difficult night on the Coq; Jamie adds a wrecker like no other to his fleet.

WALL OF CHEFS (Food Network Canada) 10:00pm: A modern approach to a traditional Chinese crowd-pleaser has the chefs intrigued; the home cooks get salty when Herbes Salées is revealed in Chef Marysol Foucault's Quebecois fridge.

HEAD OF THE CLASS (CTV Comedy) 10:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE):  As the debate team acclimates to the slightly unconventional methods of their new teacher, Alicia, friendships are tested when only some of them are invited to an exclusive party.

[cksmart-world]

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

May 18, 2021

GOP BATTLE CRY: “GET RID OF YOUR DIAPER”

Who could guess the new battle cry of the Trump wing of the GOP would be, “Get rid of your diaper.” Although it's a great T-shirt slogan, it's somewhat limited because it's hard to sing, although Majorie Taylor Greene did give it a good try. The failure could have something to do with the acoustics as she bellowed through the office door mail slot of Bronx Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Here at Smart Bomb, the staff has been unable to discern the origin of the catchy phrase. It may have been the product of focus groups in Taylor's backwoods Georgia district, although our analysts think it might be too sophisticated for her constituents, who are more likely to come up with something like, “Get rid of your taco you stupid spic.” Perhaps Taylor Greene paid an expensive K Street PR firm to come up the colorful maxim. The Trumper firebrand had a few other gems up her sleeve: she called AOC a “chicken,” which impressed some of her Republican colleagues for its finesse. But all that was just a warmup for the heavy artillery when she called AOC a "radical socialist," adding: "You don't care about the American people." But the former Bronx bartender seemed unrattled when she retorted, “I used to throw people like her out of the bar all the time.”

WINGMAN READY TO SING, MAN

Ever wonder what someone means when they say, “He's my wingman.” It used to mean a pilot whose plane is positioned behind and outside the leading aircraft in a formation. Then hockey players appropriated it for forwards, who generally do most of the scoring. But now wingman can mean almost anything. For Trumpist Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz it means something like “fixer” or maybe “pimp,” but boy did his wingman score. Of course, those are just allegations that came out when the feds investigated Gaetz' wingman, Joel Greenberg, who faces a 33 count indictment and will probably need a wingman, himself, when he ends up in the Big House alongside guys who have pretty good slap-shots. If Gaetz' wingman sings, the Congressman could face charges of sex trafficking of a minor and others. There have been more famous wingmen, of course, like Sundance was to Butch, like Spiro Agnew was to Richard Nixon, like Pence was to Trump, like Tonto was to the Lone Ranger, like Dale Evans was to Roy Rogers and like Mike Lee is to Ted Cruz (Laurel and Hardy of the Senate). But not even Agnew and Nixon were charged with sex trafficking. Let's not forget, Gaetz is innocent until proven guilty. And anyway, the girl said she was 18.

STEWART AND CURTIS: OFF WITH HER HEAD

Time to roll out the old guillotine. See, when you have a revolution everyone has go along and if they don't you have to cut their heads off. In the case of Wyoming's Congresswoman Liz Cheney, some say she's getting it in the neck for telling the truth about The Big Lie and that the January 6 insurrection was no picnic. But here in Utah, our Rep. John Curtis can explain the whole thing away: “Well, I think the thing that's been frustrating to me is missing the narrative that she was not removed because of her stance on President Trump, nor because of her statements,” Curtis said. “It's that she is not leading this party in a way that will help us,” undermine democracy or prove the Earth is flat. We also have Rep. Chris Stewart to help us understand what Curtis said: “This was not a vote to condemn Rep. Cheney for her previous vote of conscience (to impeach Trump); this was a vote to unify the Republican Party” so we don't have that bitch going on and on about The Big Lie. We can't keep talking about how the election was stolen and how January 6 was just a big party incited by Donald Trump. That would just continue to make us look like assholes who chose Trump over Truth. Oh, and by the way, don't put away the guillotine: Mitt Romney, you're next.

Post script — Well that about does it for another crazy week here on As The World Turns, aka Smart Bomb. Some of us worry too much and some don't worry enough. If you're in the second group we can help: Consider this — our birth rate is declining and has reached 1.7 children per couple. Pencil this out and you will find that is 0.3 of a person short of replacing the current population. What's wrong with that, you might say, the swimming pools and golf courses are too crowded and, almost as bad, people are starving in Bangladesh. Why can't we just go back to a less crowded world where you could get up Little Cottonwood Canyon? Well because, stupid, capitalism demands growth. There must be an expansion of goods and services — and people to purchase them. And it can't work in reverse. So for us in the U.S, the short term solution is that we need immigrants. What do you think all those Turkish guys are doing in Germany — other than the blonde women, of course. That's right, Germans stopped reproducing (too much beer?). Smart Bomb analysts have considered the data and made a prediction: Ten years from now Trumpers will be inviting immigrants from everywhere and anywhere. And when you ask, they'll say, What's a Trump?

Well Wilson, here it is May, the most beautiful month of the year and everything is coming up roses. So how about you and the guys play a little cheery something for Matt Gaetz and his sidekick Joel Greenberg:

If I had a boat I'd go out on the ocean And if I had a pony I'd ride him on my boat And we could all together Go out on the ocean Me upon my pony on my boat If I were Roy Rogers I'd sure enough be single I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale It'd just be me and trigger We'd go riding through them movies Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail The mystery masked man was smart He got himself a Tonto 'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free But Tonto he was smarter And one day said kemo sabe Kiss my ass I bought a boat I'm going out to sea...

(If I Had A Boat — Lyle Lovett)

[welllpthisishappening]

singersdd

replied to your video

“washingtonburakovsky: i love how tylers shamelessly watching the caps...”

It's Killian and Peggy while she's home with a cold & happy at the moment.

Listen, I am only human. Albeit a human who really is very concerned about how much hummus I’m going to consume while social-distancing. But the point remains. And when I see solid ideas, I feel compelled to write about them. We’re going to go the teething route, though. So, sorry other anon, that Blue Line masterlist has another thing on it now. Here’s like 1.5 K of total fluff. 

-----

They had tried everything. 

Anything. All of it. And then some. 

They were bordering on desperate now, a growing frustration over the last few days that had not happened when Matt was this age. Nothing helped. 

Peggy twisted and turned and tossed and whined, which didn’t follow the alliterative rule that Killian had apparently come up wth, but he was more than willing to blame that on his absolute and complete exhaustion. 

Sleeping, it seemed, was a luxury neither he nor Emma could afford anymore. 

Not when they were so busy reading lists and searching for some kind of an answer, typing word combinations that Killian wasn’t even aware existed in the English language until some time in the realm of four that morning. That was after the pacing. But before the bobbing — moving through a variety of rooms in their apartment because some website on the third page of the Google results promised it would work. 

It didn’t. 

He hadn’t expected it to. 

Nothing good ever came from the third page of Google. 

“Ah, no, no, nah—c’mon,” Killian mumbled, reaching out a hand that he didn’t think should feel quite that heavy in an attempt to tug Peggy’s fingers away from her mouth. 

Every inch of him ached, and that might have also been a byproduct of the only-recent end to the season, an admittedly not great end either, a second-round loss that would probably grate on his nerves even more than Peggy’s tooth-related screeching, but none of those words were particularly positive to begin with. 

So. 

He wasn’t sure he’d ever had so many opinions on words. 

Matt was going to stay with the Vankalds for the rest of the weekend. 

“We’re not doing that,” Killian continued. Peggy made a noise. Not words. Figured. She was a baby. “I know it hurts, but you can’t start sticking your fingers in your mouth. Did the medicine wear off?”

Still no response. 

It really had not been this bad for Matt. 

That seemed unfair. 

For all parties involved. 

“Alright, we’ll get the ring thing and that’ll probably help and you won’t mention how that rhymed, right?”

That got him a gurgle and a wobbling lower lip. 

Killian’s head dropped — whether from exhaustion or the overwhelming obstacle of a teething six-month-old, he wasn’t entirely sure. “We’ve just got to make sure the ring thing isn’t frozen, ok, Pegs? And then you can have that and maybe some more medicine. Where do you think Mom put the medicine box?” Killian swayed on the spot, trying to look in the kitchen without walking, rocking his head to a rhythm that didn’t exist when the TV was playing a game in the background. 

The Capitals and Penguins. 

In the Eastern Conference Finals. 

So, maybe Killian was just a masochist. 

It was the first time he’d watched a game since his ended. 

Peggy squirmed again, tears welling in the corner of her eyes while her unoccupied fingers curled forward to reach for something. There wasn’t a shirt there anymore — a product of lunch and mashed bananas were disgusting anyway, and Emma had postseason stuff to do at the Garden. 

Killian needed to pick his shirt off their bedroom floor at some point. 

“I know, I know, I know,” he chanted, leaning back like meeting his daughter’s gaze would help the situation. It did not. Version, four-hundred and sixty-two. 

He was admittedly less worried about numbers than words. 

The tears spilled over, and he honestly wasn’t sure where all the moisture on her face was coming from — her eyes or her mouth or a mixture of both and someone on the myriad of websites he and Emma had spent all night clicking on should have made it more obvious that parenting was like this. 

Difficult. Exhausting. 

Possibly impossible. 

Killian huffed, teeth digging into his lower lip. He kept moving, ignoring the state of his calves and the force Peggy got into her kicks when she flailed her legs into his ribs. 

“Ok, ok, ok,” he said. Apparently he could only repeat things in triplicate now. That was at least on brand for hockey and—

Killian let out another breath, ruffling the ends of Peggy’s barely-there hair. “Alright, we’re going to try something new.”

The medicine was on top of the refrigerator, which wasn’t the first place Killian thought to look, but it hadn't been at the bottom of his metaphorical list and he was going to take his victories where he could get them. 

Plus, the ring-thing, plastic monstrosity, whatever, was not frozen. 

“Only one more away from a parenting hat trick, huh?” he muttered, mostly into the top of Peggy’s head. She’d stopped crying eventually, more than a few hiccups and noises that ebbed as soon as Killian started drawing circles on her back. 

“That was actually really funny,” Killian added. “You’ll appreciate that eventually, I know it.” He dropped back into the corner of the couch, careful not to jostle the kid in his arms and it wasn’t the most comfortable he’d ever been, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. 

Where stepping wasn’t involved at all. 

More like, staring. Directly at the hockey game in front of them. 

Killian was fairly certain Peggy’s eyes didn’t actually widen, but he was willing to blame the exhaustion again and they definitely should have thought of this before. He’d admittedly been avoiding most things hockey-related though, and that was also a little childish. 

They only had room for so many children in that apartment. 

He let Peggy turn, her back to his chest and tiny legs stretched out in front of her. Her head rested just under his collarbone, those same few tufts of hair tickling his skin. 

Killian smiled. 

Even if it was the Capitals and the Penguins. 

And, so it went — for the next two periods, part medicine, part ring-thing, part analyzing the game, a running stream of commentary from Killian and baby-type sounds from Peggy and neither one of them tried to sleep, which might not have been the best decision, but he did get her to giggle several times and he assumed that was a wash. 

Maybe some kind of zamboni joke. Fresh start or clear ice or something. 

“See, that right winger on the Pens can’t get the puck in the zone,” Killian mumbled, almost halfway through the third period, and he’d stretched out at some point. 

His feet hung over the side of the couch, toes threatening to rest on the arm of the closest chair, with one arm twisted behind his head. He still hadn’t put his shirt back on, Peggy resting on his chest on hands and knees, making it only too easy to press absent-minded kisses to her chin and her cheek and the bridge of her nose when she started to babble again. 

“I know,” Killian nodded. “I don’t think he’s good either. You’re a genius, you know that?”

More babbling. A few da’s sprinkled in for good measure. 

Killian’s heart felt like it was going to burst. 

It was a much better feeling than that lingering ache in his calves. 

Someone on the TV smacked the puck into the boards, earning another noise from Peggy and a grin from Killian and he was almost genuinely disappointed that they missed the final few minutes of the game. 

Exhaustion appeared to be the winner anyway. 

His eyelids fluttered when he heard the lock in the door, soft footsteps and the telltale sounds of shoes kicked off, and Peggy didn’t move when Emma did. 

She scrunched her nose as soon as she stopped in front of the couch. 

“I probably should feel bad waking you up, huh?” she asked softly, a quick hiss when one her knees cracked. She’d crouched down. 

Killian clicked his tongue. “I’m sure it’s painfully adorable.” “Something like that, for sure. What worked?” “Who won the game?”

“Oh my God, did hockey do this?” “You could probably argue that hockey did all of this,” Killian said, doing his best not to laugh for fear of shifting Peggy too much. Emma rolled her eyes. “Go on, admit you’re into that.” “I’m delirious from sleep deprivation.” “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before. Sounds of the rink as a lullaby.” “God,” Emma groaned, but it didn’t sound particularly frustrated. “If I go sleep in bed like a normal person, you going to be annoyed?” “Not at all.” “Do you also want to go sleep in bed?”

Emma lifted her eyebrows when she pressed her lips together and Killian got the very real impression she already knew the answer. “Nah,” he whispered. “I’m good here.” She nodded once, a kiss to the side of his mouth and the top of Peggy’s head and Killian fell asleep to the sounds of post-game press conferences and in-studio analysis. 

[seedlessmuffins]

i look so funny right now taking notes on two hockey games at once at my desk like ✍️✍️✍️

[sidneycrosbyisawitch]

Would you do an analysis of Tyler? His character etc

if i could count the number of words i’ve spilled about tyler jacqueline seguin, it would surely be astronomical. and still i wouldn’t say i’ve ever approached capturing all the beautiful nuances of how complex and wonderful he is.

but if i were to try to reach out and grasp just a few qualities that make up the constellation of who tyler is (with help from lina @betheproof), it’d look something like this:baby boytyler is his momma’s first baby, her only boy, and (like all hockey players) he’s a momma’s boy and loves to be loved. then he’s drafted second overall to the boston bruins, a team of veteran guys where he’s the only rookie. i think it’s a mistake when we write off tyler’s time with the bruins as if they didn’t care about him or were wrong for him. because they loved tyler.

he had a team full of daddies and older brothers taking care of him, and they won the stanley fucking cup in his rookie season. we can’t ignore how fucking formative that was. hockey media still talks about the 2011 bruins like they were the most incredible thing to ever happen to hockey. they say that locker room would have killed and died for each other. tyler still has a group chat with that team. that is the environment that raised tyler. a bunch of older guys who would kill for him.(but at the same time, it wasn’t perfect, and that oftentimes left tyler to his own devices in a high pressure market. and management watched that happen, and then they fucked up.)tyler makes such a point to say how it was good for him to come to dallas where most of the guys were his own age (even though jamie’s a little older, tyler adds). it was good for him because it meant someone was taking care of him on and off the ice. jamie (and jordie and the rest of the guys) didn’t have families to go home to at the end of the night. they didn’t have to leave tyler alone. tyler needed someone to basically live on top of him and that’s exactly what jamie did.there are so many things that make tyler a baby boy. his need for attention and praise. the way he knows how to use his body and constantly positions himself as a sexual object. tyler flirts like he’s getting paid because he wants that extra layer of attention and interest. all of this is to say: tyler has a need to be taken care of. (he says jamie tamed him, but jamie just gave him what he needed in large enough doses that it settled something inside of him. tyler still has fun, he just doesn’t tip over the edge.)performance / performativityspeaking of the being tamed comment, tyler is well aware of his role the narratives spun around him. it isn’t a stretch to say that, in addition to his talent on the ice, dallas acquired tyler to be a face of the franchise. they threw him into media as soon as he touched down, and tyler was expected to carry the weight of the media attention for not only his own trade but also jamie’s new captaincy. dallas started throwing out the k*ne and toews comparisons real early. (”aren’t we the bestest of friends?” “only to media.”) they wanted that kind of narrative for themselves, and jamie and tyler lived up to it in a big way. after being a player criticized for immaturity, tyler grew to hold half the weight of the dallas stars. he says the right things at the right times. he makes sure he brings out the best in jamie and brings everything back to the party line. (that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to subtly subvert the party line when he needs to, though. he might be hyper-aware of his role, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bland puppet for the org.) then there’s the way tyler is his own voyeur. all professional athletes are to some extent, right? tyler tells the eye of the tiger story about his dad watching him play hockey when he was little. from a young age, tyler has always been hyper-aware of being looked at and judged and it manifests in so many ways. being a top competitor, obviously. but there’s also the way he embraces his looks and his body and the way people look at him. the body issue. photoshoots. that Basic instagram story. (he knows people are looking and he knows how to work it.)he also does this thing lina noticed where he points out “flaws” before anyone else can (even the tiniest things) and jokes about them. not quite self-deprecating, but gently making fun of himself. it makes him more human, but also diffuses criticism before it starts. a donut stain on his coat. chewing gum too aggressively. someone thinks i’m way better at hockey.tyler’s social media and the moments he chooses to share are an extension of the performance. he’s so fucking honest with us in so many ways, but they’re still carefully selected and curated moments. even during that awful fucking r*adtrip last season, tyler still posted an update for every city. it isn’t just media promotion, it’s a genuine outlet for him. when his grandparents passed away, he pulled his heart out on instagram. he wants us to see the puppies he’s so proud of, his home, his family, his team. he wants us to see those parts of himself especially. interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligencetyler doesn’t get enough credit for just how smart and introspective he actually is. it’s like you table dance with strippers one time and everyone forgets you’re a multifaceted human capable of more than being a lushy flirt. (not that the lushy flirt side of tyler isn’t incredible and important, as well.)but tyler clearly understands himself and other people better than most. in the at home video from this summer, tyler talks about how his early career gave him a skewed perception of how easy it is to make it to the championship round and team bonds and what vegas did versus what the stars didn’t do. he talks about going on the water to think. it’s all so perfectly illustrative of how much thought and introspection tyler is capable of. he knows who he is and where his heart is. and tyler’s relationships with others, what can really be said here that isn’t self-evident. tyler knows how to make people love him. he’s charming and fun and craves social attention and affection. tyler needs a pack. (he created his own little pack of pups for when he can’t fill his house with human companions.)but more than that, he understands how people work and gives them what they need. it’s why he was so good for jamie. it’s why guys love him. it’s even why we love him. expressiveness and physicalityin a sport full of men deeply media trained to be as boring as possible, we aren’t treated to a whole lot of facial expressions. men in general tend to be less expressive than women, supposedly. maybe that’s why we lose our shit when guys in this league make a single face and why tyler’s body language can read very feminine and at times submissive. because tyler is so fucking expressive. he’s got those puppy eyebrows that give his whole face life. he smiles and pouts, grimaces and laughs, with so much abandon. when he feels something, he expresses it, even exaggerates it. and it’s not just his face, his body is so expressive, too. he talks with his hands, he’s constantly touching his face/neck/shoulders when he speaks. he presses close to people and likes to be touched back. as lina always says, one of tyler’s most important love languages is physical touch. obviously, as with all athletes, his body is his livelihood and he’s so in tune with it and comfortable with his sensuality. meaning: he’ll call his chest his boobs, no problem. then he’ll tattoo them because his body is his and he loves it. and then he’ll pull up his shirt in the middle of a party and play with his nipples for the camera. and he’ll be beautiful the whole time.home and familyif you haven’t read julie dobbs’ recent blog post, please go do so now. tyler’s defining characteristic is that he’s a family guy with a good heart. he’s an unashamed momma’s boy, an awesome big brother, and a proud provider. family is probably the single most important thing in tyler’s life. he loves them with everything he has. he shares their happiness and their heartbreak with us.  he has a cottage outside toronto that he lovingly turned into a home and filled it with friends and family all summer. he takes so much pride in the fact that it’s become a place his family uses even when he’s in dallas.which brings us to dallas. a home he never wanted or expected, but he made it his own, anyways. (and how fucking hard must it have been to leave boston? a place tyler considered home for years? a city he still loves?) he grew into himself and settled deep into the heart of texas. dallas is home, tyler says. and it’s more than a media platitude. tyler chose to stay there -- fought to stay there, actually, by essentially having to jumpstart contract negotiations himself. tyler has grown so, so much since he came to dallas, and the sense of home started with jamie.tyler and jamie essentially lived together. tyler didn’t get the typical experience of bunking with another rookie and living out of each other's pockets  at the NHL level until he got to dallas and met jamie. that, and the group of young teammates, are what started dallas being home for tyler. living in the same building, which transitioned to buying houses down the street. jamie was the most important pack member, and tyler started nesting into dallas. turned his houses (with help from jackie) into beautiful homes where he can host his whole family for christmas, now. he got more dogs to add to his pack, his need to nurture and provide kicking into a higher gear. he has brampton on his arm, boston on his ribs, but dallas is in his heart.superstaronce upon a time, tyler was a tiny kid who thought he’d have to play college hockey and work his ass off if he ever wanted to get a glimpse of the NHL. he was ready to put in that work, every single day, just for a chance.then he went second overall and won a cup.   of course so much of tyler’s identity revolves around being a really fucking good hockey player. their highs and lows depend upon performance, that’s not unique, but it is still so important to who tyler is. he’s a goal scorer, an all star, a stanley cup champion. he’s the kid who went out after a tough loss in boston (a loss blamed on him) and sat down to eat alone. he’s the guy who fucking beamed in an interview after jamie got him a promised goal to break his drought. and he’s the guy who’s gracefully shouldering the undeserved criticism of his play while it probably tears him up inside.but tyler is a star, and what do stars do best? shine.growthtyler was a kid who was easily led astray (and he was a teenage boy, of course he was). during the draft, taylor hall was already poised and well-trained and it was only his presence that stopped tyler from following where he shouldn’t go. and boston saw him following there a bit too much. but tyler grew. he proved them wrong. tyler’s tweets have been used to teach rookies how not to social media, and now tyler has a sweet, responsible insta presence. tyler was known as an immature party boy, and now he (definitely still parties but) loves to be in the home he made for himself. he’s a leader on the stars, helped jamie become captain and lead the team. his game has evolved so much that he’s crucial on every part of the ice, in all situations, and had a career high season last year. he’s the stars’ you can play ambassador. he funded a ball hockey court and youth center for underserved kids.he was always capable of more.   tyler grew into himself and his role. he’s poised, charming, responsible -- all while being entirely himself. this summer, tyler did nothing but grow and he did it for himself. alone, but not lonely. he learned how to box. he grew his hair out like he’s always wanted. he visited spain and scotland and knocked two countries off the little list of places he wants to go that he keeps in his iphone notes.and now, through all of this new pain, he’s going to grow again.

[my-hero-aaron]

Provisional Licenses, Part 4

Well, everyone else did, anyway. I was the last one in, and I didn’t really get any prep time like anyone else. Instead, I stood still, reaching out with my senses to see if there was any cold for me to hold onto. Thankfully, there was someone dashing by in what looked like a full suit of armor, and that much metal, even in this heat, had plenty of cold for me to pull in.

My hand thrust outward toward the stranger, and the cold had the air shimmering slightly before it slipped into the bracer on my arm, and from there into my chestplate. By the time I had taken all that was safe to pull, the chestplate had enough of a store that there was at least some slushiness occuring in the liquid within. It’d have to do, I mused, rushing to catch up with K, who was staring contemplatively at a tower of rubble. A cursory glance with my thermal vision made it clear there was someone ensconced in the rock. The solution looked pretty simple to me. “K, I’m just gonna shatter the rubble, that’ll make for a simple path!” My arms crossed slightly, one steadying the other as my fingers splayed in a familiar gesture. The residual cold in my hand from the harvesting I’d pulled earlier blasted forward, but before the ring of superchilled air could slam into the rock, Kailey had reacted with an outstretched hand of her own. A little waver materialized in the air, and the next thing I knew, the blast that was headed away from me mere moments before was now sticking pieces of frost in my hair.

“kAILEY WHAT WAS THAT FO-”

Kailey’s outstretched finger begged me to shush, or at least wait with my outburst.

“Aaron, if you had broken that piece of rock, the whole pile would have come down on that guy in there. Look a little closer, there’s no other support for the biggest piece on the right. We need to lever them apart, not break them up.”

I cast a little more critical eye at the pile, and, surprising nobody, she was right. The whole thing was essentially a precariously balanced henge with no keystone, and I definitely would have, at best, endangered the guy, and at worst, required some incredible intervention from K to save him. Taking a deep breath, I stepped in closer, this time pressing my hand against the rock on the right. This would take finesse, but I was pretty sure I could manage a small pillar of ice to widen the opening in the rubble. I could feel my pulse, well, pulsing, in my hands as the passage of time seemed to slow. For all I knew, K was lending me a helping hand, and it was. The thought had my breath pick up a bit, but soon enough the rhythm stabilized as my focus shrunk to the rock in front of me. The rock could only take so much before getting fragile, and it was pretty clear any decrease in what was required to break the rock would go poorly. With a bit of coaxing, the pool of cold started to form in just the right spot, and soon enough with a bit more pushing the rubble started to creak and rumble, ice expanding between the two largest pieces.

“Alright, it should be stable enough. Can you move to get out?” I called into the darkness, the heat of the victim’s outline sharp against the chill I’d been putting into the concrete. The guy had hardly gotten the negative reply out of his mouth before K set to work crawling in to save the dude. Once she’d pulled him out, I squinted, focusing on seeing just where the most heat signatures were. That was, odds are, where my fellow heroes had set up triage. Well, that, or a group of schoolkids had gotten trapped. Either way, it’d be best for us to head that way. Judging by the noticeable limp the actor was effecting, there was no way I could make him walk all that distance at any kind of speed.

“Sir, I’m going to lift you, okay? K-I mean... Stellaria, grab onto my cape, we’re gonna need to get places fast, as usual. Hang on tight.” With a bit of effort, I swept the victim off his feet, and nodded back at K, skates forming on our feet. I really should talk to support about getting some actual skates built into my boots. Would save some time. I mused as we started to sail over to the (now a bit more clearly marked) triage area.

We carried on saving folks like that for a bit, digging them out of the rubble with great precision thanks to Kailey’s analysis and my leverage. Most of the time was spent skating them over to triage as fast as possible. However, it wasn’t long before another large blast rung around the arena, and feedback slammed the speakers above our heads once again.

“The villain’s attack is not over yet! You now have to deal with their onslaught on top of the rescue efforts, good luck!”

Somewhat unceremoniously, the victim overdramatically slumped in my arms was dropped into the outstretched arms of Kailey. As interesting as it was to play the rescue role, my place was in opposition to the villains, and I knew it.

“Stellaria, get this person safe. I’ll handle the attack.” I hurriedly said, taking the cold from K’s skates as I set a hand on hers for a moment. The spin I pulled to get moving toward the now-smoking hole in the wall wouldn’t have looked out of place at a figure skating arena, but that wasn’t the only move I had borrowed from ice-sports. A hapless looking minion had rushed ahead of his peers, and, unfortunately for him, slipped onto my incoming path of ice. A well-placed shoulder check that was clearly borrowed from the hockey playbook had him slam, butt first, onto the ice. A simple thought was all it took to bind his hands and feet to the ice as I skated around him. One down, a whole lot to go. I mused, my skates dissolving mid stride to transform my gait into a jog. I was one of the first ones to arrive, and it showed, the large crowd of nondescript, black jumpsuited villains still spreading out to cause mayhem. As I stalled, trying to come up with something clever to distract the villains, a familiar face strolled up next to me, his stride remarkably confident for the ice coating the ground. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at Zanshin’s analytical expression, and instead turned to him, my gaze slipping up to his face. Had he gotten taller since I’d seen him before the test?

“Zanshin, any ideas? There’s a lot of them, and I’ve got a few options for crowd control.”

“As far as I can tell, they’re going to be spreading out quick. I can give you a few places to build walls to hamstring them, if that’s what you need.” Zanshin intoned, cool as a cucumber despite the strain of the situation. I did my best to not squint at the noticable increase he’d had in muscle mass since we’d last actually spoke as well, shaking my head a bit to clear it of the clutter. What the heck am I doing? This is a CRISIS, not an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

“I was thinking a few small snowstorms, but I’d need either some wind pulses or someone with a water quirk to pull that off. Walls would be a good start.” The pace of my breath picked up a bit, and to aid in my focus, I started stomping my feet a bit, the rhythm of my steps synchronizing with the pulses of cold I was putting out. Out of the corner of my eye, Zanshin was giving me what could most easily be described as a bemused look. Unfortunately, that was just enough to throw me off, and only one of the three walls I was planning on making had materialized before I stumbled, face planting with a great deal of force in front of the tall, dark, and handsome young man at my side. Doubly unfortunately, the one wall I had made now funneled the villains in the direction of the triage area, rather than into the second wall, then into us. Thankfully, that was still a long way off, but we had to get moving quick if we wanted to cut them off. I rolled over with a groan, my hand finding Zanshin’s outstretched one like it was fate.

“On your feet, twinkle toes, we’ve gotta get recalculating.”

I grit my teeth, heaving a sigh to let go of my anger. It wasn’t worth making a fuss right now, and more important things were at hand anyway. I sprung to my feet, and nodded, glancing forward to see a group of the minions hopping the obstacle I’d tossed in front of them, rushing at us.

“Well you can know what they’re doing, Zanshin, let’s see how well you take advantage of that.” I quipped at my compatriot, dashing forward into the fray. Feeling dramatic, I let a little fog slip from the palms of my hands, and a little frost creep onto my face to give me a bit of a harsher edge. As I ran into the midst of the group of the ski-masked dudes, it was clear that those little touches were absolutely having an effect on them. They seemed, at the least, a bit rattled. Almost reflexively, I snapped a set of finger guns at them, and my abilities responded in kind, blasts of cold slamming into each person’s chest as I pointed, leaving them stumbling backwards, winded. Once they had all gotten a taste of what I was giving them, I slammed a hand, palm down, into the ground, restraints blooming out of the dirt and concrete around us to keep them neutralized.

“Huh. I wasn’t expecting that to work, honestly.” I mumbled, flicking my hands a bit to keep them from freezing up completely.

“Gonna be honest with you, Frigius, I’m shocked you pulled that off too.”

“Oh you shush, I totally meant to do that.”

“Did you, Mr. I didn’t expect that to work?”

“So much for me getting away with mumbling anything.” I mumbled, Zanshin simply responding with a chuckle this time.

As we geared up to rush into the fray proper, where a noticeable number of our fellow testees were embroiled in a fight with some dude who had a, if I was honest, a pretty gross looking bug-head, a final screech of interference blasted out of the speakers above our heads.

“Alright, everyone! The victims have all been handled, and thus, the test is over! Head to the medical office if you’ve got wounds to be treated, or the gathering area if you don’t! Additionally, you’ll have to remove your costumes now. I’ll be seeing you in a little while to present the results of the test!”

Thankfully, I didn’t have any damage that I could notice, other than maybe a little stiffness in my fingers, so after getting out of my costume, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the results, fidgeting a bit in my energy. A little bit of waiting later, K wandered into the room, a small bandage marking a little scratch on her head. She was otherwise unharmed, thank goodness. Oliver wasn’t far behind her, and he was no worse for wear. With my pals beside me, the wait for the results flew by. Before we knew it, the list of 80 names had scrolled onto the screen. They were in alphabetical order, so first I spotted my name, then K’s, then finally Oliver’s. We’d managed to pass, and I couldn’t help but let out a whoop of glee, moving to sweep K into a deep dip, kissing her. I had felt that I’d barely gotten started before K placed a gentle hand on my chest, pushing us apart.

“O-okay Aaron, we can... celebrate more later.” K’s little moment of sensibility didn’t do a thing to dampen my mood, however. We now all had our provisional licenses, and this was a huge step forward! Looking a bit closer at the list, I saw every one of our classmate’s names. Well, everybody but one: Neito. That was going to be atrocious to deal with later, he’s always so dreadfully overdramatic. Thankfully, Zanshin’s efforts had put him on the list as well, so his efforts, valiant as they were, weren’t in vain. However, before I could really get to stewing on Zanshin’s performance, the more detailed results sheets were being handed out, and I got mine. Unsurprisingly, I got docked points for how I handled the arrival of the villains, but to my shock, I got just enough points back to pass for my work with Zanshin. The fact that I was working with someone outside my own group, even despite my major fumbling, reflected well for my cooperative efforts in the future, or at least, that was what the comments on the page said. Regardless, I’d take it. A pass was a pass, no matter how strange. I could tell a new page was turning in our lives at this point. We now had the authority of full heroes, at least in certain circumstances, and the adventures coming for us because of that were going to be simply remarkable.

[moore84ttara]

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[caixxa]

Hey! Questions 18, 27 and 35 for fanfic asks!

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written?

This is a hard question. Depends on how you define wild - the most far.fetched AU, the most exciting and action-filled plot, the most obscene amounts of explicit sex, the, um, kinkiest kink? It might be  Father Cristiano’s Redemption, football rpf historical AU, in 50260 words you’ll have, among other things, Sir Alex Ferguson as the Archbishop of Canterbury, some priest/angel sex, gun violence (because there are battles in two wars), a brief visit to history of Dominican Republic. But, on the other hand, most of this happens in a pictoresque countryside village in Wales so go figure.

Maybe I’ll just go for camera ready, (hockey rpf) 89 K of porn with plot about porn is... as a writing task something pretty wild.

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received?

Honestly - these things can’t be put in order. Every comment elicits the same soft and warm jolt in my chest, whether it is a “Thanks for updating” with a heart emoji or a 2000 word analysis. I felt so appreciated when a friend told they had come to reread my fic today to cheer up after a bad night.

I have to give a special shoutout to @ibarbourou for the deep, long, heartfelt comments. The kind of analysis that she gives in her reviews is rare, but what is even rarer that she reviews and analyses the porn because that, dear friends, is something more commenters could learn from. If you read it, no need to be shy about what worked well in it.

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

Fanfic is great! It is amazing! Reading good fic feels like no other reading because of how you feel about the characters (because you LOVE them), and because of how the writer feels about the characters (they love them), and at its best all this love is so palpable and creates something so unique.

Yes this comes from this e-mail sitting in my inbox when I woke up this morning:

kehlee posted a new chapter of inextricable (21865 words):

Chapter 8 (4240 words)

I have read it twice and will read it again.

Thank you so much for the ask! These were really hard questions! (They are from the list on this post)

[audiencestudies2020]

Audience Studies (3P18) Week #8 - Media Rituals and the Olympics Watching

In this week’s lecture and reading, we discussed the concept of media rituals and how mass audience events differ from individual viewings. This week’s reading was by Kim, K, Cheong, Y and Kim, H titled the influences of sports viewing conditions on enjoyment from watching televised sports: An analysis of the FIFA World Cup audiences in a theater vs. home. Within their article and throughout our lecture we discussed how media rituals are largely impacted by the location and nature of the audience viewing the media. In their article, Kim, Cheong, and Kim state the following regards to audience viewership, content, and audiences, “while the attractiveness of the game is the content-driven factor, with both influencing the suspenseful experience of sports media consumption, the fundamental driver of audience demand for sports viewing” (Kim, Cheong, & Kim, 2016).

This quotation really helped to introduce me to  the concept of media rituals and how consumption and audience feel change depending on the context in which content is viewed. Another important aspect we discussed throughout lecture and was mentioned throughout the article for this week was the concept of media rituals. A media ritual can be defined as, “The theory is based upon Carey's 'ritual view of communication' in which he asserts that "news reading, and writing, is a ritual act and moreover a dramatic one".[1] This 'ritual' view of communication is in contrast to his 'transmission' view of communication.” (Media Ritual, 2019). The concept of media rituals is sort of a direct contrast and opposition to the stereotypical transmission model of communication. Which looks at communication in a basic and objective way. A message is encoded by a producer, it is sent to audience members, in which they decode the message. Consuming media in a transmission model is done strategically and solely when the media needs to be consumed. The ritual form of media and media consumption looks at consuming media and meaning in media on an individual basis. How and why people consume specific media in certain ways is a huge aspect of understanding ritual media. In their article, Kim, Cheong, and Kim looked specifically at how consuming sports games in a home alone environment vs. a theatre setting. This study made me think of a fairly recent potential example of mass media ritual consumption, The Olympics.

It would only make sense that the Olympics would qualify as a media ritual much like the sporting events studied in the article, we read this week, as they are both sporting events. The viewing of the Olympics as a worldwide ritual event in the sense that the vast majority of individuals who view the Olympic events as well as opening/closing ceremonies typically do so in a social setting. Watching one’s country compete in extremely popular events (a notable one here in Canada being Hockey), is more of a social event than a traditional media consumption for personal benefit. I distinctly remember, in elementary school during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, our entire school piled into the gym to watch the Team Canada vs. Team USA men’s final hockey game for the gold medal. I remember that the entire room being completely silent until a goal was made by either team, resulting in either cheers or gasps of disbelief. The moment when Team Canada scored the winning goal, the entire gym erupted in cries of excitement and celebration. In that exact instance, they way that the audience reacted and celebrated was solely connected to the fact that we watched the event in a larger social setting, if we had all watched the game alone I can guarantee that the reactions and emotions the audience would have felt would have been widely different and more reserved.

Reference List

Kim, K., Cheong, Y., & Kim, H. (2016). The Influences of Sports Viewing Conditions on Enjoyment from Watching Televised Sports: An Analysis of the FIFA World Cup Audiences in Theater vs. Home. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 60(3), 389-409. doi:10.1080/08838151.2016.1203320

Media ritual. (2019, April 30). Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ritual

[seedlessmuffins]

hello lovelies! two things.

first, to my footie friends i’m sorry i haven’t been posting as much footie stuff lately, it will come back when the nhl regular season ends because my canucks aren’t making the playoffs. sorry for the overload of hockey posting i’ll make it up to y’all i promise.

second, i realized i haven’t felt joy with the canucks in so long, but doing all the research for my canes anon was super fun because the hurricanes are feeling joy right now. so i want to open my ask box to anyone who wants to learn more about any hockey team! any pro level, anywhere at all i’ll do my best to give you an intro to the team. just send me a team and i’ll do an analysis for you!

third, if you hate my intro to hockey stuff, i’m tagging it all with #k the hockey prof??? so you can just block the tag so you don’t have to see! the opposite is also true, that tag is where you can find all the hockey info

ok love you besties i can’t wait to see your asks

mwah 😚🫶