#melissa on media over ten years old

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Just finished watching Community for the third time, really obsessed with Jeff and Abed's friendship. The episodes with Abed and Jeff in Abed's dorm room are some of my absolute favorite. The way Abed would've been cool with Jeff staying with him forever?? THE MONTAGE OF THEM GETTING DRUNK TOGETHER?? The way so many episodes end with emotional talks for the two of them? I just can't handle it.

[patriotsnet]

Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-republicans-riot-after-obama-was-elected/

Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

Undocumented Kids Are Saved By Obamas Executive Order Daca Which Would Put A Halt To Deportation For Those Whod Entered The Country Before Age 16 And Yet In A Bid To Get The Gop To Come Over To His Side On Immigration Reform The President Has Also Deported A Record 15 Million People In His First Term

A Family Caught in Immigration Limbo

When Belsy Garcia saw her mother’s number appear on her iPhone on the afternoon of June 15, she felt what she calls the “uncomfortable fluttering” sensation in her chest. She knew that daytime calls signaled an emergency. The worst one had come the previous year, when her sister told her ICE agents had placed their father in federal custody.

Garcia was attending Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, when her father was marched out of her childhood home. As an undocumented immigrant — like both of her parents, who are from Guatemala — she couldn’t qualify for loans. She financed her ­education through scholarships and a stipend she earned as a residential assistant. Now she wondered if her mother was calling to say her father had been deported, which might force her to leave school to become the family’s breadwinner.

But this call was different. “Go turn on the television,” Garcia’s mother said. “You’re going to be able to work, get a driver’s license.”

Onscreen, President Obama was announcing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States as children could apply for Social Security numbers and work permits. Garcia qualified: Her parents had brought her to this country when she was 7 years old. DACA transformed her into a premed student who could actually become a doctor. “It was like this weight was lifted,” she says. “All of that hard work was going to pay off.”

In The Next Hundred Days Our Bipartisan Outreach Will Be So Successful That Even John Boehner Will Consider Becoming A Democrat After All We Have A Lot In Common He Is A Person Of Color Although Not A Color That Appears In The Natural World Whats Up John Barack Obama White House Correspondents Dinner

And Then There Were Three

The first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court did so in 1880. It would take another 101 years for a woman to sit on that bench rather than stand before it. Even then, progress was fitful. Over the 12 years that Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg served together, their identities evidently merged; lawyers regularly addressed Ginsburg as “Justice O’Connor.” When O’Connor retired in 2006, she left the faux Justice O’Connor feeling lonely. Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned of something far more alarming: What the public saw on entering the court were “eight men of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side.” They might well represent the most eminent legal minds in America. But there was something antiquated, practically mutton-choppy, about that portrait.

How many female justices would be sufficient? Nine, says Justice Ginsburg, noting that no one ever raised an eyebrow at the idea of nine men.

Seal Team Six Kills Osama Bin Ladenraiding His Secret Compound In Abbottabad Pakistan While Obama And His Top Advisers Watch A Live Feed Of The Mission From The White House Situation Room The Picture Of The Assembled Becomes The Last Supper Of The Obama Era

Poop Feminism

For me, it’s one moment. All the bridesmaids have come to the fancy bridal shop to see Maya Rudolph try on wedding dresses. This should be a familiar scene: The bride emerges from the changing room and … This is the dress! The friends clap. The mother cries. Everyone is a princess. Go ahead and twirl!

But when the bride emerges in Bridesmaids, almost all of her friends have started to feel sick. Sweat coats their skin. Red splotches creep over their faces. They try to “ooh” and “aah,” but it’s already too late. It starts with a gag from Melissa McCarthy, followed by another gag. Then a gag that comes simultaneously with a tiny wet fart. It’s the smallness of the fart that’s important here. It’s the kind of fart that slips out — a fart that could be excused away, a brief, incongruous accident. Women don’t fart in wedding movies, and women certainly don’t fart at the exact moment that the bride comes out in her dress. This can’t be happening. ­Melissa McCarthy blames the fart on the tightness of her dress. We breathe a sigh of relief.

Then sweet Ellie Kemper gags, and the sound effect is surprisingly nasty. Ellie’s face is gray. Melissa’s face is red. They look bad. They are embarrassed. How far is this going to go?

The camera cuts. We are above now. We look down from a safe perch as the release we have been anticipating and dreading begins. It is horribly, earth-­shatteringly gross. A woman has just pooped in a sink. The revolution has begun.

The Government Acquires A 61 Percent Stake In Gm And Loans The Company $50 Billion The Auto Bailout Will Eventually Be Heralded As A Great Success Adding More Than 250000 Manufacturing Jobs To The Economy

The Auto Industry Gets Rerouted

“The president was very clear with us that he only wanted to do stuff that would fundamentally change the way they did business. And that’s what we did. There were enormous changes. For example, General Motors had something like 300 different job classifications that the union had. If you were assigned to put the windshield wipers on, you couldn’t put tires on. And we wiped all that stuff out. We basically gave back management the freedom to manage, to hire, to fire. People stopped getting paid even when they were on layoff. We reduced the number of car plants so that there wasn’t so much overcapacity. So now, when you have 16 million cars sold , they’re making a fortune.”

Black Lives Matter Activists Are Arrested In Baton Rouge Louisianaprotesting The Murder Of Alton Sterling; More Than 100 People Are Detained In St Paul Minnesota Protesting The Murder Of Philando Castile

What Is the Point of a Quantified Self?

Melissa Dahl: The Fitbit was introduced at a tech conference eight years ago. It’s kind of incredible to realize that, before then, this idea of the “quantified self” didn’t really exist in the mainstream.

Jesse Singal: I feel like it’s the intersection of all these different trends: Everyone plays video games these days. You got smartphones everywhere. And people are realizing that solutions to the big problems that lead to sleeplessness and anxiety and bad eating — unemployment and income inequality and yada yada yada — aren’t gonna get solved anytime soon.

MD: That’s interesting, because all of this self-tracking is also, according to some physicians, giving people more anxiety! A Fitbit-induced stress vortex.

Cari Romm: It feels like productive stress, though. I’m talking as a recovered Fitbit obsessive, but it does make you look at Fitbit-less people like, “You mean you don’t care how many steps you took today?”

MD: Oh, God. I don’t care. Should I care? Sleep is the one thing I obsessed over for a while. Which does not really help one get to sleep.

JS: Do you think an actually good and not obsession-­inducing sleep app could help, though?

MD: There’s some aspect to the tracking idea that really does work. I mean, it’s just a higher-tech version of a food journal or sleep journal, right? Ben Franklin 300 years ago was tracking his 13 “personal virtues” in his diary.

JS: Would Ben Franklin have been an insufferable tech-bro?

Officer Darren Wilson Fatally Shoots Michael Brownin The St Louis Suburb Of Ferguson Sparking A National Protest Movement And Setting Off Unrest That Will Remain Unresolved Two Years Later

On the Triumph of Black Culture in the Age of Police Shootings

In the two years since Mike Brown was fatally shot by the police in Ferguson, and the video footage of his dead body in the street went viral, we have seen the emergence of a perverse dichotomy on our screens and in our public discourse: irrefutable evidence of grotesquely persistent racism, and irrefutable evidence of increasing black cultural and political power. This paradox is not entirely new, of course — America was built on a narrative of white supremacy, and black Americans have simultaneously continued to make vast and essential contributions to the country’s prominence—but it has become especially pronounced. And it’s not just because of the internet and social media, or the leftward shift of the culture, or black America’s being sick and tired of being sick and tired. In fact, it is all of these things, not least two terms with a black president. In the same way that black skin signals danger to the police , his black skin, to black people, signaled black cultural preservation. African-Americans didn’t see a black man as the most powerful leader in the free world; we saw the most powerful leader in the free world as black. This is what comedian Larry Wilmore was expressing at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner when he said, “Yo, Barry, you did it, my nigga.” It was a moment of unadulterated black pride.

Militants Attack American Compounds In Benghazi Libya Killing Us Ambassador Chris Stevens And Three Other Americans There Will Eventually Be Eight Congressional Probes Into The Incident

“I Know I Let Everybody Down”

“Before the debate, David Plouffe and I went in to talk to him and give him a pep talk and he said, ‘Let’s just get this over with and get out of here,’ which is not what you want to hear from your candidate right before the debate. We knew within ten minutes that it was going to be a ­debacle. We had armed him with a joke — it was his 20th anniversary, and he addressed Michelle — and it turns out Romney was expecting just such a line and had a really great comeback. And Romney was excellent — just free and easy and clearly well prepared and showed personality that people hadn’t seen before. Obama looked like he was at a press conference.

We had a meeting at the White House and he said, ‘I know I let everybody down and that’s on me, and I’m not going to let that happen again,’ and that was his attitude. We always had debate camps before, where we’d re-create in hotel ballrooms what the set would look like, and all of the conditions of the real debate. When we went down to Williamsburg, Virginia, for the next debate camp, he seemed really eager to engage in the prep. We had a decent first night. That was on Saturday. On Sunday night, Kerry, playing Romney, got a little more aggressive and Obama a little less so; it looked very much like what we had seen in Denver. It was like he’d taken a step back.

Scott Brown Is Elected Massachusetts Senatorturning Ted Kennedys Seat Republican For The First Time Since 1952 And Suddenly Throwing The Prospect Of Passing Obamacare Into Jeopardy

Plan B

“I’m talking to Rahm and Jim Messina and saying, ‘Okay, explain to me how this happened.’ It was at that point that I learned that our candidate, Martha Coakley, had asked rhetorically, ‘What should I do, stand in front of Fenway and shake hands with voters?’ And we figured that wasn’t a good bellwether of how things might go.

This might have been a day or two before the election, but the point is: There is no doubt that we did not stay on top of that the way we needed to. This underscored a failing in my first year, which was the sort of perverse faith in good policy leading to good politics. I’ll cut myself some slack — we had a lot to do, and every day we were thinking, Are the banks going to collapse? Is the auto industry going to collapse? Will layoffs accelerate? We just didn’t pay a lot of attention to politics that first year, and the loss in Massachusetts reminded me of what any good president or elected official needs to understand: You’ve got to pay attention to public opinion, and you have to be able to communicate your ideas. But it happened, and the question then was, ‘What’s next?’

Sheryl Sandbergs Lean In Hits Bookstores Making The Feminist Case That Women Should Be More Aggressive And Ambitious In Their Careers And Making Feminists Themselves Very Angry

The “Mommy Wars” Finally Flame Out

After decades of chilly backlash, we find ourselves, these past eight years, in an age of feminist resurgence, with feminist websites and publications and filmmakers and T-shirts and pop singers and male celebrities and best-selling authors and women’s soccer teams. Of course, as in every feminist golden age, there has also been dissent: furious clashes over the direction and quality of the discourse, especially as the movement has become increasingly trendy, shiny, and celebrity-backed.

Perhaps the most public feminist conflagration of the Obama years came at the nexus of policy and celebrity, of politics and pop power. It was the furor over Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who gave a viral 2010 TED Talk about women in the workplace who “leave before they leave” — who alter their professional strategy to accommodate a future they assume will be compromised by parenthood — which led to the publication of her 2013 feminist business manifesto, Lean In.

It’s a lesson of the Obama era: One approach to redressing inequality does not have to blot out the others. Sometimes, attacking from all angles is the most effective strategy.

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis Laces Up Her Pink Running Shoes And Spends Ten Long Hours Attempting To Filibuster A Billthat Wouldve Imposed Statewide Abortion Restrictions

“The Concept of Dignity Really Matters”

“I was given an enormous degree of latitude. I did communicate with the White House counsel on occasion about high-profile cases, but it was much more in the nature of just giving them a heads-up, to calm any nervous feelings they might have. There’s only one exception to that, and it was on marriage equality, in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case in 2013. We were contemplating coming in and arguing that it was unconstitutional for California to refuse to recognize the legal validity of same-sex marriages. But we didn’t have to do it . And because it was a discretionary judgment, and it was such a consequential step, that was the one matter where I really sought out the president’s personal guidance. I wanted to make sure the president had a chance to thoroughly consider what we should do before we did it. It was really one of the high points of my tenure. It was a wide-ranging conversation about doctrinal analysis, about where society was now, about social change and whether it should go through the courts or through the majoritarian process, about the pace of social change, about the significance of the right at stake. He was incredibly impressive.

A Golf Summit Between John Boehner And Barack Obama Stirs Hopethat Perhaps The Two Parties Will Come To A Budget Agreement And Forestall A True Crisis Secret And Semi

A Grand Bargain That Wasn’t, Remembered Three Ways

“The president of the United States and the Speaker of the House, the two most powerful elected officials in Washington, decided in a conversation that they both had to try to make something happen. Maybe it would be the way it worked in a West Wing episode in a world that doesn’t work like a West Wing episode. That’s how it started — two individuals saying we’re going to try. I think they both shared a belief in the art of the possible, and they both did not think compromise was a dirty word.

When our cover was blown — a Wall Street Journal editorial came out saying that Boehner and Obama were working on this and attacking the whole premise — that was devastating. It resulted in Cantor being a part of the talks. Cantor and Boehner came in, and I think it was a weekend private session with the president in the Oval Office, and they were talking about the numbers. At one point Cantor said, ‘Listen, it’s not just the numbers. There’s concern that this will help you politically. Paul Ryan said if we do this deal, it will guarantee your reelection. If we agree with Barack Obama on spending and taxes, that takes away one of our big weapons.’ There were so many obstacles, some of them substantive — how much revenue, and what about the entitlements? — but there was also this overlay of ‘This is going to help Obama.’

Illustrations by Lauren Tamaki

The Obama Administration Unveils Its Plan For Regulating Wall Streetwhich Is Then Introduced In Congress By Senator Chris Dodd And Representative Barney Frank

MJ=JC?

Lane Brown: Michael Jackson’s death was a big deal for lots of obvious reasons, including the surprising way it happened and the fact that he was arguably the most famous person on the planet.

Nate Jones: He was an A-lister with an indisputable body of work; he was 50 years old, his hits were the right age — old enough that every generation knew them, but not too old that they weren’t relevant anymore.

LB: But it was also the first huge celebrity death to happen in the age of social media, or at least the age of Twitter.

NJ: MJ’s death came alongside the protests in Iran, which was when Twitter went mainstream.

LB: It also meant that so much of the instant reaction was to make it all about us.

Frank Guan: In a lot of ways, the culture prefers the death of artists to their continuing to live. Once an artist gets launched into the stratosphere, there’s no way to come down, and that permanence becomes monotonous. They run out of timely or groundbreaking material and the audience starts tuning out. At some point, their fame eclipses their art, and then the only way to get the general audience to appreciate them anew is for them to die.

LB: People seem to like the grieving process so much that even lesser celebrities get the same treatment.

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords Returns To The House Floor For The First Time Since Being Shot In A Massacre In January Casting A Vote In Favor Of The Debt

A Rare Moment of Unity

“I was doing intensive rehabilitation in Houston at the time but was following the debate closely, and I was pretty disappointed at what was happening in Washington. I’d seen the debate grow so bitter and divisive and so full of partisan rancor. And I was worried our country was hurtling toward a disastrous, self-inflicted economic crisis. That morning, when it became clear the vote was going to be close, my husband, Mark, and I knew we needed to get to Washington quickly. I went straight from my rehabilitation appointment to the airport, and Mark was at our house in Houston packing our bags so he could meet us at the plane.

That night, I remember seeing the Capitol for the first time since I was injured and feeling so grateful to be at work. I will never forget the reception I received on the floor of the House from my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. And then, like I had so many times before, I voted.

I worked so hard to get my speech back, and honestly, talking to people who share my determination helped me find my words again. I’ve been to Alaska, Maine, and everywhere in between. Best of all, I got back on my bike. Riding my bike once seemed like such a huge challenge. It seemed impossible.”

Miley Cyrus Twerks At The Mtv Vmassetting Off A Controversy About Cultural Appropriation That Soon Ensnares Seemingly Every White Pop Star On The Planet

• Karlie Kloss wears a Native American headdress and fringed bra at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

• Justin Timberlake is accused of appropriating black music when he tells a black critic “We are the same” after praising Jesse Williams’s BET Humanitarian Award speech about race and police brutality.

• DJ Khaled gets lost on Jet Ski, snaps the whole time.

• Two UW-Madison students snap their meet-cute as the entire student body cheers them on.

• Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers films and mocks an anonymous woman in the gym shower.

• A Massachusetts teen records the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl. The video is later seen by a friend of the victim.

Prior To Going To War In Iraq Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Optimistically Predicted The Iraq War Might Last Six Days Six Weeks I Doubt Six Months

What’s more, Vice-President Dick Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people after we overthrow Saddam.

They were both horribly wrong. Instead of six weeks or six months, the Iraq war lasted eight long and bloody years costing thousands of American lives. It led to an Iraqi civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites that took hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Many Iraqi militia groups were formed to fight against the U.S. forces that occupied Iraq. What’s more, Al Qaeda, which did not exist in Iraq before the war, used the turmoil in Iraq to establish a new foothold in that country.

The Iraq war was arguably the most tragic foreign policy blunder in US history.

In 2012 Republicans Predicted That Failure To Approve The Keystone Pipeline Would Send The Price Of Gasoline Sky High And Kill Large Numbers Of Jobs

Despite the fact that the Keystone Pipeline was not approved, the price of gasoline continued to drop below $1.80 per gallon, millions of new jobs were created and unemployment dropped from 8% to 4.9% by early 2016. The most optimistic predictions say that the Keystone Pipeline would only create a few dozen long-term jobs and would do nothing to lower the price of gasoline.

Eric Cantors Stunning Primary Loss Suggests No Politician Is Safe From The Rage Of The Tea Party Not Even The Tea Partys Canniest Political Leader

From Party’s Future to Also-Ran in a Single Day

On the day his political career died, Eric Cantor was busy tending to what he still believed was its bright future. While his GOP-primary opponent, David Brat, visited polling places in and around Richmond, Virginia, Cantor spent his morning 90 miles away at a Capitol Hill Starbucks. He was there to host a fund-raiser for three of his congressional colleagues — something he did every month, just another part of the long game he was playing, which, he believed, would eventually culminate in his becoming Speaker of the House.

The preceding five years had brought Cantor tantalizingly closer to that goal. In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s election, he’d rallied waffling House Republicans to stand in lockstep opposition to the new president’s agenda. In 2010, he’d helped elect 87 new Republican members, giving the GOP a House majority and making Cantor the House majority leader. He became the champion of these freshmen members, stoking their radicalism during the debt-ceiling fight and working to undermine Obama and John Boehner’s attempt to strike a “grand bargain.” His alliance with the ascendant tea party was strategic — it gave him leverage not only over Obama but over other Republicans who might also have had aspirations of becoming Speaker. It never occurred to him that the wave he was trying to ride might crash on him instead.

In 1993 When Bill Clinton Raised Taxes On The Wealthiest 15% Republicans Predicted A Recession Increased Unemployment And A Growing Budget Deficit

They weren’t just wrong: The exact opposite of everything they predicted happened. The country experienced the seven best years of economic growth in history.

Twenty-two million new jobs were added.

Unemployment dropped below 4%.

The poverty rate dropped for seven straight years.

The budget deficit was eliminated.

There was a growing budget surplus that economists projected could pay off our national debt in 20 years.

Republicans Predicted That We Would Find Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction Even Though Un Weapons Inspectors Said That Those Weapons Didn’t Exist

The Bush administration continued to insist that WMDs would be found, even when the CIA said some of the evidence was questionable. As we all know, the WMDs predicted by the Bush administration did not exist, and Saddam Hussein had not resumed his nuclear weapons program as they claimed. Ultimately, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney had to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Republicans Predicted That President Obamas Tax Increase For The Top 1% In 2013 Would Kill Jobs Increase The Deficit And Cause Another Recession

You guessed it; just the opposite happened. In the four years following January 1, 2013, when that tax increase went into effect, through January 2017, unemployment dropped from 7.9% to 4.8%, an average of more than 200,000 new jobs were created per month, Wall Street set new record highs, and the budget deficit was cut in half.

Over 5.7 million new jobs were created in the first two years after that tax increase. That’s more jobs created in two years than were created during the combined 12 years of both Bush presidencies.

In 2001 When George W Bush Cut Taxes For The Wealthy Republicans Predicted Record Job Growth Increased Budget Surplus And Nationwide Prosperity

Once again, the exact opposite occurred. After the Bush tax cuts were enacted:

The budget surplus immediately disappeared.

The budget deficit eventually grew to $1.4 trillion by the time Bush left office.

Less than 3 million net jobs were added during Bush’s eight years.

The poverty rate began climbing again.

We experienced two recessions along with the greatest collapse of our financial system since the Great Depression.

In 1993, President Clinton signed the Brady Law mandating nationwide background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun.

Apple Announces That It Has Sold 100 Million Iphoneswithin A Few Months It Will Overtake Exxonmobil As The Most Valuable Company In The World

Earthlings Gain a New Appendage

What if we had the singularity and nobody noticed? In 2007, Barack Obama had been on the trail for weeks, using a BlackBerry like all the cool campaigners, when the new thing went on sale and throngs lined up for it. The new thing had a silly name: iPhone. The iPhone was a phone the way the Trojan horse was a horse.

Now it’s the gizmo without which a person feels incomplete. It’s a light in the darkness, a camera, geolocator, hidden mic, complete ­Shakespeare, stopwatch, sleep aid, heart monitor, podcaster, aircraft spotter, traffic tracker, all-around reality augmenter, and increasingly a pal. At the Rio Olympics you could see people, having flown thousands of miles to be in the arena with the athletes, watching the action through their smartphones. As though they needed the mediating lens to make it real.

This device, this gadget — a billion have been made and we scarcely know what to call it. For his 2010 novel of the near future, , Gary Shteyngart made up a word, “äppärät.” “My äppärät buzzing with contacts, data, pictures, projections, maps, incomes, sound, fury.” Future then, present now. His äppäräti were worn around the neck on pendants. Ours are in our pockets when they aren’t in our hands, but they also sprout earbuds, morph into wristwatches and eyeglasses. Contact lenses have been rumored; implants are only a matter of time.

Let’s face it, we’ve grown a new organ.

Republicans Said Waterboarding And Other Forms Of Enhanced Interrogation Are Not Torture And Are Necessary In Fighting Islamic Extremism

In reality, waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation that inflict pain, suffering, or fear of death are outlawed by US law, the US Constitution, and international treaties. Japanese soldiers after World War II were prosecuted by the United States for war crimes because of their use of waterboarding on American POWs.

Professional interrogators have known for decades that torture is the most ineffective and unreliable method of getting accurate information. People being tortured say anything to get the torture to end but will not likely tell the truth.

An FBI interrogator named Ali Soufan was able to get al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah to reveal crucial information without the use of torture. When CIA interrogators started using waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods, Zubaydah stopped cooperating and gave his interrogators false information.

Far from being necessary in the fight against terrorism, torture is completely unreliable and counter-productive in obtaining useful information.

In 2008 Republicans Said That If We Elect A Democratic President We Would Be Hit By Al Qaeda Again Perhaps Worse Than The Attack On 9/11

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney stated that electing a Democrat as president would all but guarantee that there would be another major attack on America by Al Qaeda. Cheney and other Republicans were, thankfully, completely wrong. During Obama’s presidency, we had zero deaths on U.S. soil from Al Qaeda attacks and we succeeded in killing Bin Laden along with dozens of other high ranking Al Qaeda leaders.

Game Of Thrones Arrives On Televisionwith An Assemblage Of Dragons Torture Nudity Incest And Despair A Show The Whole Family Can Enjoy

Explaining Kale

ADAM PLATT: Many things in Foodlandia, these days, have a political element to them, and if you want to emblazon a flag to be carried into battle, you could do worse than a bristly, semi-digestible bunch of locally grown kale.

ALAN SYTSMA: To eat kale is to announce you’re a person who cares about the matters of the day.

AP: The idea of kale is much more powerful than kale itself. In short order it went from being discovered, to appreciated, to being something that was parodied. Frankly, I’m all for the parody.

AS: The same thing happened to pork. Remember bacon peanut brittle? Bacon-fat cocktails? There’s bacon dental floss.

AP: Ahhh, bacon versus kale. The two great, competing forces of our time.

AS: Do you think one gave way to the other?

AP: What we’re really talking about is artisanal bacon, and the more sophisticated-sounding pork belly, made from pigs that were lovingly reared at upstate farms and fed diets of pristine little acorns. Bacon is the great symbol in the comfort-food, farm-fresh-dining movement, a kind of merry, unbridled pulchritude. Kale is the righteous yin to pork’s fatty, non-vegan yang.

AS: But pork has an advantage: People like the way it tastes.

AP: That’s a huge advantage, one that will hopefully see it through to victory.

[v3vanya]

“WHEN I AM SILENT A FALL INTO A PLACE WHERE EVERYTHING IS MUSIC” -Rumi      Living the notes of music...

SABRINA CARPENTER.....

Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter(born May 11, 1999) is an American singer and actress,After making her acting debut with an appearance in the crime series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, she starred in a recurring role as the young version of Chloe Goodwin in the television series The Goodwin Games. Carpenter was later cast as Maya Hart in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World, from 2014 to 2017.Carpenter has starred in the feature films Horns (2013), The Hate U Give (2018), and starred as Jenny in the Disney Channel Original Movie Adventures in Babysitting (2016). As a voice actress, she had a recurring role as Princess Vivian in the Disney Channel animated series Sofia the First from 2013 to 2018. In 2016, she began voicing Melissa Chase on the Disney XD animated series Milo Murphy's Law.Carpenter's debut EP, Can't Blame a Girl for Trying, was released in 2014, and in the same year, she released her debut single of the same name. She released her debut album, Eyes Wide Open in 2015, and has since released another three studio albums: Evolution (2016), Singular: Act I (2018), and her most recent studio album, Singular: Act II, was released on July 19, 2019.

DEMI LOVATO

Demetria Devonne Lovato ( born August 20, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television judge After appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004), she rose to prominence for her role as Mitchie Torres in the Disney Channel musical television film Camp Rock (2008) and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).Lovato has released six studio albums: Don't Forget (2008), Here We Go Again (2009), Unbroken (2011), Demi (2013), Confident (2015), and Tell Me You Love Me (2017); all of which debuted in the top five of the US Billboard 200. She has earned nine top-20 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 with "This Is Me", "Here We Go Again", "Send It On", "Skyscraper", "Give Your Heart a Break", "Heart Attack", "Cool for the Summer", "Sorry Not Sorry", and "I Love Me". In total, she has sold over two million albums and 20 million singles in the United States.[7] On television, Lovato has starred as the titular character on Sonny with a Chance (2009–2011); served as a judge and mentor on The X Factor USA in its second and third seasons; and appeared as a recurring character on Glee. Her struggles with personal issues received significant media attention in the 2010s; in response to which she published a book, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year (2013), and released a YouTube documentary about her life and career, titled Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated (2017).Lovato is a pop, pop rock, and R&B artist. She has received various accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award, 14 Teen Choice Awards, five People's Choice Awards, and two Latin American Music Awards. She also holds one Guinness World Record, and in 2017 Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Outside the entertainment industry, Lovato is an activist for several social causes.

LAURA MARANO

Laura Marie Marano (born November 29, 1995)is an American actress and singer. She starred in the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally as Ally Dawson. Marano was one of the five original classmates in Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. She starred in Without a Trace for three seasons and also Back to You, in both instances playing the daughter of the main characters. Marano starred in the indie film A Sort of Homecoming.[5] Marano also starred in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Bad Hair Day. In 2019 Marano starred in the Netflix original movie The Perfect Date.In 2015, she signed with Big Machine Records and released her debut single "Boombox" on March 11, 2016 and "La La" later that year. On October 5, 2018, Laura Marano released the single "Me" as an independent artist. On January 13, 2016, Marano debuted her own radio talk show on Radio Disney entitled For the Record with Laura Marano. The weekly one-hour show chronicles Marano's journey as she launches her music career, featuring interviews with a guest star in each episode. The show also provides listeners tips on how one can pursue a career in music. The show has featured various guest stars including Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, OneRepublic, and Troye Sivan. The first episode of the show, which aired January 12, 2016, guest starred her co-stars of Austin & Ally.

SELENA GOMEZ

Selena Marie Gomez (born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television producer.  Born and raised in Texas, Gomez began her career by appearing on the children's television series Barney & Friends (2002–2004). In her teenage years, she received wider recognition for her role as Alex Russo on the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012).Alongside her television career, Gomez has starred in the films Another Cinderella Story (2008), Princess Protection Program (2009), Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), Ramona and Beezus (2010), Monte Carlo (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), Getaway (2013), The Fundamentals of Caring (2016), The Dead Don't Die (2019), and A Rainy Day in New York (2019). She also voices the character of Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise (2012–present), and has executed produced the Netflix television series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2020) and Living Undocumented (2019).Gomez released three albums with her former band, Selena Gomez & the Scene: Kiss & Tell (2009), A Year Without Rain (2010), and When the Sun Goes Down (2011), all of which attained gold certifications and reached the top ten in the US. Additionally, Gomez has released three albums as a solo artist: Stars Dance (2013), Revival (2015), and Rare (2020), all of which debuted at number one in the US.[2] She has released eight songs which reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100: "Come & Get It", "The Heart Wants What It Wants", "Good for You", "Same Old Love", "Hands to Myself", "We Don't Talk Anymore" with Charlie Puth, "It Ain't Me" with Kygo, and "Lose You to Love Me", the latter being her first US number-one single.In 2017, Billboard reported that Gomez has sold over 7 million albums and 22 million singles worldwide. Gomez has received various accolades and was recognized as the Billboard Woman of the Year in 2017. She has a large following on social media, and was at one point the most-followed individual on Instagram. Gomez's other ventures include a makeup line, a clothing line, a handbag line, a fragrance line, and a production company named July Moonhead Productions. She has worked with various charitable organizations and, at age 17, she became a UNICEF ambassador.

MEGHAN TRAINOR 

Meghan Elizabeth Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter "All About That Bass", and for being the recipient of the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. Trainor became interested in music from a young age; she wrote, recorded, and produced three independently released albums between 2009 and 2011. After signing a publishing deal with Big Yellow Dog Music, Trainor wrote and helped produce country and pop music for other artists in 2013. She met producer Kevin Kadish in June that year, with whom she wrote "All About That Bass".Trainor rose to fame after signing a contract with Epic Records in 2014 and releasing "All About That Bass", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight consecutive weeks and received a diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) but drew criticism for its lyrical content. The song was included on Trainor's major-label debut studio album Title (2015), which also includes the top-10 singles "Lips Are Movin" and "Like I'm Gonna Lose You". The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and was awarded a triple-platinum certification from the RIAA. The lead single of Trainor's follow-up album Thank You (2016) was "No", which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at the same position on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA. Her third album with Epic, Treat Myself, was released in January 2020.

DUA LIPA 

Dua Lipa; born 22 August 1995)  is an English singer and songwriter. After working as a model, she signed with Warner Music Group in 2015 and released her self-titled debut album in 2017. The album peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, and yielded nine singles, including "Be the One" and "IDGAF", and the UK number-one single "New Rules", which also peaked at number six in the US. In 2018, Lipa won the Brit Awards for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act.Released in April 2018, the single "One Kiss", with Calvin Harris, peaked at number one in the UK, and became the longest-running number-one single for a female artist in 2018. It won her the 2019 Brit Award for Song of the Year. In 2019, she was also awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and "Electricity", a collaboration with Silk City, won her the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. The success of the singles helped her self-titled album become one of the most-streamed albums on Spotify and achieve platinum certifications. Her second studio album, Future Nostalgia, was released in March 2020 to critical acclaim. It is her first UK number-one album; its lead single "Don't Start Now" peaked at number two on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100.Lipa has received various accolades, including two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards. She has also been nominated for three Billboard Music Awards, an American Music Award, and four MTV Video Music Awards.

BILLIE EILISH 

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell (born December 18, 2001) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.She first gained attention in 2015 when she uploaded the song "Ocean Eyes" to SoundCloud, which was subsequently released by the Interscope Records subsidiary Darkroom. The song was written and produced by her brother Finneas, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. Her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me (2017), reached the top 15 in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.Eilish's debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and became the best-performing album of 2019 in the US.[2] It also reached No. 1 in the UK. The album contains six Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles: "When the Party's Over", "Bury a Friend", "Wish You Were Gay", "Xanny", "Everything I Wanted",[a] and "Bad Guy", the last of which became her first No. 1 single in the US. In 2020, she performed the theme song "No Time to Die" for the James Bond film of the same name, which became her first to peak at No. 1 in the UK.Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is the youngest person and second person ever to win the four main Grammy categories – Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year – in the same year. In 2019, Time placed her on their inaugural "Time 100 Next" list. Additionally, Eilish is the 23rd biggest artist of the digital singles era, according to RIAA, selling 37.5 million singles in the US alone.

HAILEE STEINFELD 

Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. . Her breakthrough role was as Mattie Ross in the drama western film True Grit (2010), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Thereafter, Steinfeld gained further prominence for roles in Ender's Game (2013), Romeo & Juliet (2013), Begin Again (2013), and 3 Days to Kill (2014). She appeared as Emily Junk in the Pitch Perfect film series (2015–2017), and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her role as Nadine Franklin in The Edge of Seventeen (2016). In 2018, she voiced Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and starred in the action film Bumblebee, contributing to the latter's soundtrack. Steinfeld currently stars as Emily Dickinson in the Apple TV+ series Dickinson.Steinfeld made her breakthrough in music after performing "Flashlight" in Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), signing with Republic Records soon after and releasing her debut single, "Love Myself", followed by her debut extended play Haiz (2015). She has since released a series of singles, including "Starving", a collaboration with both Grey and Zedd, which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, and "Let Me Go", a collaboration with Alesso, Florida Georgia Line and Watt, which peaked at number 14 on the

CAMILLA CABELLO

Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao ( born March 3, 1997)  is a Cuban-American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, formed on The X Factor USA in 2012, signing a joint record deal with Syco Music and Epic Records. While in Fifth Harmony, Cabello began to establish herself as a solo artist with the release of the collaborations "I Know What You Did Last Summer" with Shawn Mendes, and "Bad Things" with Machine Gun Kelly, the latter reaching number four on the US Billboard Hot 100. After leaving the group in late 2016, Cabello released several other collaborations, including "Hey Ma" by Pitbull and J Balvin for The Fate of the Furious soundtrack, and her debut solo single "Crying in the Club".Cabello's debut studio album, Camila (2018), reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The Latin music-influenced pop album was well received by critics, and received a Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its lead single "Havana" topped the charts in several countries including the US and UK, and follow-up single "Never Be the Same" reached the top 10 in multiple countries. Cabello's 2019 duet with Mendes, "Señorita", became her second single to top the Billboard Hot 100. Her second studio album, Romance (2019), peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 chart and number one in Canada.

ASHLEY TISDALE 

Ashley Michelle Tisdale (born July 2, 1985) is an American actress, singer, and producer. During her childhood, Tisdale was featured in over 100 advertisements and had minor roles in television and theatre. She achieved mainstream success as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-2008). This success was heightened when she starred as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical film series (2006-2008). The success of the films led to Tisdale signing with Warner Bros. Records and subsequently releasing her debut studio album Headstrong (2007). The album was a commercial success, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Tisdale played the voice of Candace Flynn in the Disney Channel animated series Phineas & Ferb (2007-2015).Tisdale's second studio album, Guilty Pleasure (2009), was released to less commercial success than its predecessor. Tisdale would part ways with Warner Bros. Records following the release of the album. During this time, she began appearing in more films and returned to television with shows such as Hellcats (2010). Tisdale's production company Blondie Girl Productions, first formed in 2008, signed a multi-year production deal with Relativity Media in 2010; Tisdale would produce shows such as Miss Advised (2012) as part of the deal. Tisdale starred in the High School Musical spin-off film Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure (2011), releasing a soundtrack to promote the film. This marked her final portrayal of the character to date.

TAYLOR SWIFT

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter.She is best known for her narrative songwriting that often centers around her personal life, which has received widespread critical praise and media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at age 15, she signed her first record deal. Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s on the Billboard 200. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second studio album, Fearless (2008), propelled her to international fame and produced the successful pop crossover singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me". It became the best-selling album of 2009 in the U.S., won four Grammy Awards—including Album of the Year—and was certified Diamond by the RIAA.Swift's self-written third album Speak Now (2010) and genre-bending fourth album Red (2012) each sold over one million copies in their first week in the U.S.; the latter yielded her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". Her fifth album and first all-pop project, 1989 (2014), produced the back-to-back number-one singles "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space" and won three Grammy Awards—including Album of the Year—making Swift the first woman to succeed herself at the top spot on the Hot 100 and the first woman to win Album of the Year twice as lead artist.  

ZARA LARSSON 

Zara Maria Larsson  born 16 December 1997) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. At the age of 10, she achieved national fame in Sweden for winning the 2008 season of the talent show Talang, the Swedish version of British TV's Got Talent.  Four years later, in 2012, Larsson signed with the record label TEN Music Group and subsequently released her debut compilation recording, the extended play Introducing, in January 2013. The single "Uncover" topped the music charts in Scandinavia: Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. In February 2013, "Uncover" was certified Platinum by Universal Music Sweden.In July 2013, Introducing was certified 3× Platinum in the country.France. Larsson's debut international album So Good was released on 17 March 2017 and entered at number seven on the UK Albums Chart. It produced eight singles: "Lush Life", "Never Forget You", "Ain't My Fault", "I Would Like", "So Good", "Don't Let Me Be Yours", "Only You", and "Symphony", a collaboration with Clean Bandit. Almost all the album's singles reached the top 15 in the UK.

[x5red]

Five frequently asked Supergirl CW questions...

...and possible answers from the comics

Check social media. Read the forums. Scroll through the Subreddits. There are some questions that just refuse to go away. Time and time again fans of the CW’s Supergirl show keep asking the same old questions: How does she hide her costume? Who is stronger? Why does nobody recognise her?

Likely the questions will continue to be asked long after Melissa Benoist has hung up her cape on the final episode, but just for fun it might be interesting to take a meander through the 60+ years of Supergirl’s adventures in print, to see how successful the comics were at addressing the tv show’s most quizzed quirks.

Covered herein:

How does Supergirl fit her costume under her everyday clothes?

Why does nobody recognise that Kara Danvers is just Supergirl with glasses?

Is Supergirl more powerful than Superman?

How did Kara get her ears pierced?

How come nobody connects the name Kara Danvers with Kara Zor-El?

It’s roughly a ten minute read, peppered with interesting Supergirl pictures. Enjoy...

#1 -- How does Supergirl fit her costume under her everyday clothes?

The modern tv incarnation of Supergirl seems uncertain as to whether Supergirl’s costume uses a futuristic (and budget depleting) nano-tech solution, or a classic (and cheap) costume-under-clothes trick. Traditionally, with the exception of Matrix’s brief shape-shifting stint in the job, the comicbook Supergirl has tended to favour the latter tactic, prompting fans to ask how her costume fits under her street clothes. The first such query to reach the DC letters pages was from reader Helen Silberman of Irvington NY. In Action Comic #263 (March 1960), Helen wrote:

Dear Editor, I like SUPERGIRL very much. She is my favorite feature. But I often wonder how she conceals the long sleeves on her costume when she wears a short~sleeved dress as Linda Lee.

Acknowledging that this was a common question, editor Mort Weisinger explained that Supergirl’s super costume is super flexible.: “She merely keeps the sleeves rolled up.” This was confirmed inside the strip itself when Action Comics #342 (Oct 1966) saw Linda referencing the costume hidden under her t-shirt, and an editorial caption handily adds “Linda has rolled up the long sleeves of her super-flexible costume.”

But, respond the fans, what about her boots?

Since the Silver Age, Superman has adopted the practice of stashing his Clark Kent attire as a super-compressed parcel inside a hidden pocket in the inner lining of his cape. Various stories confirm that Supergirl does the same, and visual proof of this came in The Daring New Adventures of Superman #5 (May 1983), when she is seen reclaiming her dress from the pocket. Presumably the same pouch could hide her boots when dressed in her everyday identity?

Okay, so the boots are super-compressed inside the cape, but what about the cape itself?

This is where things start to get a little problematic.

There’s plenty of mid-transformation frames stretching back as far as Supergirl’s early Silver Age antics depicting her wearing her cape underneath her regular clothes. How she does this seems never to be explained, so we probably have to chalk this one up to a comicbook trope that readers (and now the tv viewers) just have to accept.

#2 -- Why does nobody recognise that Kara Danvers is just Supergirl with glasses?

Supergirl has adopted various means of masking her true identity down the years. The tv Supergirl hides behind a pair of glasses; her comicbook counterparts have variously used wigs, special molecule-rearranging hair dyes, shape-shifting, and advanced DEO technologies. None of these, with the exception of Matrix’s ability to shape-shift into Linda Danvers, really stands the real-world credibility test.

The problem here is that the comicbook superhero genre has its origins in a more simplistic storytelling age, were the application of just a pair of glasses, or a wig, or a fake moustache, was sufficient to create a false identity. There’s countless examples from Superman’s early decades of Lois Lane fooling the Man of Steel with just the application of a wig, and indeed the epic Silver Age tale that first revealed Supergirl’s existence to the world hangs on evil Kandorian scientist, Lesla Lar,successfully fooling Superman into believing she is Kara Zor-El by just rearranging her hair.

One can argue that Kara’s use of a wig is potentially a better disguise than Kal-El’s glasses and change of posture, but ultimately both methods have severe limitations. Research conducted by the universities of York and Huddersfield (UK) suggested that while some disguises (makeup, wigs, etc.) are effective at hiding a person’s identity, the effectiveness drops if the subject is known to the person doing the identifying. As such, in the real world, neither Clark nor Kara would stand a chance of fooling their friends and colleagues.

In Superman #330 (Dec 1978) there was a half-hearted attempt to address the problem by suggesting that the Kryptonian glass used in Clark’s eye-wear boosts a subconscious super-hypnotises power, projecting an image of Clark as feeble, but this created more problems than it solved. What happened when Clark anchored the WGBS News on tv; and how did Linda Danvers get by without any Kryptonian face furniture? So, sadly, the comics don’t really provide much of an answer -- we must write the problem off as a relic from a bygone storytelling era, that modern audiences just have to accept as part of the established baggage that comes with superheroes.

#3 -- Is Supergirl more powerful than Superman?

Although both Superman and Supergirl have Kryptonian origins, their route to Earth was markedly different. Kal-El arrived as an infant, while Kara didn’t arrive until her teenage years. Fans (at least those who have wont to obsess over such matters) have therefore speculated about how this affected their power levels.

When Supergirl first appeared in comics it became clear early on that Kal-El and Kara Zor-El had identical superpowers. There isn’t a direct comparison of the two cousins -- they never went head to head -- but DC’s writers certainly seemed to adopt the principle that any super-feats that Superman could do, Supergirl could do just as well.

That said, during Supergirl’s long history there have been periods when the power balance has clearly shifted. For example, it is reasonable to assume that the Matrix Supergirl (both pre and post merger with Linda Danvers in Volume 4) was less powerful than the Man of Steel. Indeed in the latter part of Volume 4 -- the period when Supergirl sported a white t-shirt and gloves -- she was significantly de-powered, even losing the ability to fly.

Likewise from Adventure Comics #402 to #423 (Feb 1971 to Sep 1972) the Girl of Steel had intermittent issues with her superpowers, thanks to the effects of a drug concocted by super-villain Starfire. At inopportune moments her powers would fail her entirely, resulting in Kara relying on various gadgets developed in the Bottle City of Kandor as a backup.

But wait a moment... because the balance of power hasn’t always shifted in favour of Superman.

During this Bronze Age period Superman also had issues with his powers. As part of a shake-up of the character, editor Julius Schwartz instigated a story running across Superman #240 to #242 (July to Sept 1971) that saw Superman lose a third of his power levels... permanently(!!) This was part of Schwartz’s plan to curb some of the silly excesses of Silver Age. Some fans have noted, however, that the Girl of Steel’s power loss was only intermittent, and eventually the effects of Starfire’s drug wore off entirely, so in September 1972 she technically became 50% more powerful than her cousin.

#4 -- How did Kara get her ears pierced?

Since the tv show began fans have been asking about how Kara could have pierced her earlobes of steel. It is clear from the opening moments of the pilot episode that Malina Weissman’s young Kara doesn’t appear to have any piercings when departing the dying Krypton, yet when the episode skips forward a decade to Melissa Benoist’s twenty-something Kara, she clearly does.

Show creator and producer, Ali Adler, responded to a fan’s tweeted question by suggesting that Kara had her ears done “At the mall on #krypton”, which is a fun answer, but doesn’t seem to concur with the pilot. So is there an explanation from deep within comicbook lore?

Yes. (Probably!)

The most likely explanation is that Kara used her heat vision and a mirror to burn the holes into her own earlobes. Since the early Golden Age era it has been established that Superman is strong enough to piece his own skin with his fingernails, allowing him to give a blood sample. Editors initially responded to inquiries about how Superman shaved or cut his hair and nails by suggesting that these parts of his anatomy didn’t grow under Earth’s sun. But eventually, as Superman spent more time on alien planets, they devised more creative solutions -- the heat vision haircut was one of them.

In the comics, Injustice 2 #21 (May, 2018) finally let readers see Supergirl (at least a version of Supergirl) using heat vision to cut her hair. Meanwhile the tv show had already treated viewers to Kara giving a super-trim to Mon-El’s mop in episode 2x05 - “Crossfire” (okay, so he was a Daxamite not a Kryptonian, but hey, same difference!) This suggests that Kara’s invulnerability can be defeated by her own powers in the tv universe, just like the comics, so a piercing blast from her eyes rather than a trip to the mall is probably the most satisfying answer.

#5 -- How come nobody connects the name Kara Danvers with Kara Zor-El?

It may be a small problem, but it’s one that clearly bugs some viewers. Kara Danvers not only has the same first name as Kara Zor-El, but she also pronounces it in the same distinctively European way -- “Kar-ah” not “Care-ah” (despite what Cat Grant may want us to think.)

How does she get away with this?

In the comics this generally hasn’t been a problem. Prior to the Melissa Benoist tv show, Supergirl had been known as Linda (Linda Lee, Linda Lang, Linda Danvers), or as Mae (short for Matrix), or briefly as Claire Connor. Only Kara Kent, the Supergirl of the cartoon show, Superman: the Animated Series (1996), had stuck with her Kryptonian first name. This changed in 2016, however, when DC adopted many of the tv Supergirl elements into its comicbooks, including the Kara Danvers secret identity.

Up until the tv show’s fourth season it could be argued that Benoist’s Supergirl had been very careful never to make her birth-name public, so there was little opportunity for anyone to link her two personas. But that changed in episode 4x14 - “Stand and Deliver”, when Kara can clearly be heard announcing herself as “Kara Zor-El, citizen of Earth” at a public protest, as a crowd watches. So very likely, after that incident, the Maid of Might’s Kryptonian name was plastered all over social media, and given Kara Danvers’ high profile as an award-winning journalist, we’re no closer to explaining why an army of armchair sleuths on Facebook or Reddit haven’t connected the two women.

Sadly the comics can’t really answer this Kara conundrum, because it is a problem largely of the tv show’s own making. Perhaps the only solution is to ignore episode 4x14 and assume that everyone in National City (aside from the regular cast) live in blissful ignorance of Supergirl’s Krypton name.

Conclusion

So it’s a mixed bag of success and failure. The comics provide answers to some problems, but come up empty handed for others. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too disheartened. Sure, it may be fun to devise answers to the quirks and oddities of the tv show, but ultimately it won’t stop fans from asking the same questions time and time again. The sillier aspects of superheroes are part of the genre’s charm, and trying to devise clever ways of explaining away the wackier elements is all part of the fun.

Hopefully you found the above an entertaining and informative read, but the five proffered answers shouldn’t discourage anyone from dreaming up their own explanations -- after all, these questions aren’t really properly answered until the tv show’s writers choose to answer them.

Until then, we can all have fun speculating.

[its-flicked-switch]

Alien

| RATING M | 

MSIV left the X-File fandom on the edge of a cliff that, in the absence of GA, will never be resolved to any level of satisfaction. Alien is my attempt to do what Chris Carter could not — provide closure for the series as a whole. What happens following Scully's revelations on the dock? What becomes of William, Skinner, Reyes, and The Smoking Man?

PREFACE

—

"Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow — it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it."

— Shakti Gawain

—

For the past 17 years, I have played the role of Jackson Van De Kamp. Odd, isn't it? That I would refer to playing myself as playing a role? But as I reflect on all that has happened in the past 17 years, that is the only way I know how to describe the journey that began on a farm in rural Wyoming in 2001 — a role.

Initially, everything was as it should have been. I was an only child being raised by two loving and doting parents. They attended to me and each of my milestones with the adoration and enthusiasm typical of new parents. Imagine their absolute elation at my ability to run when most babies were still creeping around on all fours and their pride in my ability to read at a first-grade level when I was only three years old. I was their miracle, an answer to their prayers for parenthood. As I continued to grow, however, it became clear that I was far more than an exceptional miracle.

My early childhood was unremarkable, until the day that it wasn't.

Tragically, the Van De Kamp's love and devotion would not be enough to silence what was inside of me. Despite their efforts, my earliest childhood memories were shrouded by a sense of unease. A deep-seated feeling that something was missing or not as it should be. In time, my parents confessed what I already sensed. I wasn't truly theirs. I came into their lives as an infant and what they knew of my biological family was limited. I have now come to understand why. The Van De Kamps were truly remarkable parents. The more I learn about who and what I am, really am, the deeper I mourn their loss. They deserved better. We all deserved better.

Van De Kamp Entry #092

Case No. 11101993717

Evidence No. 163.092

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CH1: THE WATER'S EDGE

—

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

—

The rain has thoroughly soaked through her hair and clothes, but Scully feels nothing. She remains anchored in place staring down into the black abyss below her as the divers divide the harbor into grids. When William and Spender disappeared into the depths of the harbor several hours ago, the air was cool and crisp with an overlay of mist, but the temperature has dropped ten to fifteen degrees since then and what was a soft drizzle has now transitioned into a light, steady rain.

She knows she should walk away, but she's done with that.

While C. G. B. Spender's admission to Skinner had come as a surprise, the truth had not. She and Mulder had long suspected the syndicate's involvement in her sudden ability to conceive a child. After discovering Emily and learning of her missing ova, Scully had run every test imaginable. Had there have been any ova remaining inside of her, she would have found them. This is how she knows with absolute certainty that the ova used to created William was either implanted or produced within her body by unnatural means.

Her greatest fear for William has always been that his existence was part of an agenda, and the testing she performed throughout her pregnancy and after his birth had done little to ease her fears. DNA doesn't lie. William is their son. Hers and Mulder's. Yet he isn't — at least not entirely.

Traditionally, each parent passes half of their genetic material to their unborn child. William, however, only shared half of her and Mulder's DNA collectively. The remaining half was unidentifiable and by definition — alien. When she performed the original analysis, the technology to isolate this anomaly and examine it properly didn't exist, at least not in any laboratory she had access to. Her desire to find the truth, however, had been overwritten by fear. She knew that exploring the origins and implications of the remaining half would come at a cost, undoubtedly drawing attention to and endangering their son. The decision to destroy all of the samples and data she had collected had not been a decision that she had made lightly. But ultimately, she had chosen William's safety over conspiracy and little green men.

What Scully had told no one, not even Mulder, was that she had kept the most critical sample of all. Hidden in a secure location amongst hundreds of thousands of other samples, she had stored William's umbilical cord, preserving not only his DNA but his stem cells. She could not, in good conscience, given what she and Mulder had experienced with the alien virus, destroy the key to the greatest mystery of their lives. Preserving his cord wasn't just about science. It was also about security. She had lost Mulder once, and the thought of going through anything like that ever again was unbearable. Their enemies had waged war on them before, and there was little assurance that they wouldn't come for them again. William's miraculous conception only served to further convince her that the truth was far more sinister than they had been previously led to believe. In that sense, what Spender had told Skinner was true. He was, at least on some level, responsible for the science that helped to created William — but a father, he was not.

Scully isn't sure where Mulder is at the moment, but there is little doubt in her mind that he is somewhere nearby taking the brunt of Deputy Director Kersh's wrath. The fact that she has been standing on the docks for over an hour and hasn't been approached or questioned by anybody is most certainly his doing. Were it not for Skinner, she and Mulder would both likely be in handcuffs and in the bowels of the justice building.

The call she made earlier to Tad O'Malley had been reckless, bordering on insane, but it had to be done. The days of hiding in the shadows were over. Remaining silent all these years had bought them time but not freedom. Too much had been lost to let this fall below the surface yet again. This time, those responsible will not be able to contain the blowback.

The vibrating phone in her pocket pulls her away from her thoughts and back into the harsh reality of her present surroundings. The only reason she even attends to it is that she thinks it might be Mulder, but it's not. It's her brother, and it's not the first time he's called. Tad O'Malley's broadcast in combination with tonight's body count has created quite the media storm with her and Mulder at its center.

Bill's hatred for Mulder still remains unmatched. If she can give her brother credit for anything, it's consistency. With the recent loss of their mother, she knows she can't continue to send him directly to her voicemail. He never calls, so the fact that he has called seven times in the last forty-five minutes tells her that he is about to reach his limit. If she doesn't answer soon, he is likely to turn up unannounced.

Deciding that answering the phone is the lesser of two evils, Scully takes a deep breath and hits accept, getting right to the point because she knows her brother well.

"Bill, this is not a good time. I'm going to have to call you back later."

Bill is well-connected and not above pulling rank to get the information he wants. Odds are, he already knows that she is not one of the casualties in tonight's bloodbath, leaving him with only one other reason to call, and she is in no mood to argue with her brother about Mulder or the X Files.

"Jesus Christ, Dana, what the hell is going on? Are you okay? I swear to God if Mulder —"

She cuts him off quickly because she doesn't have the energy or the patience to listen to his long list of grievances against Mulder.

"Mulder wasn't the source, Bill. I was. This isn't about the FBI or the X Files. This is about William."

She says William's name to shut him up, and also because she doesn't want him to hear it from another source. Given his high-security clearance, it's certainly possible he will find out elsewhere if she doesn't tell him herself, assuming he doesn't know already. Even though they haven't had a pleasant conversation in over a decade, he's still her brother, and he still deserves to hear it from her.

"I've seen him, Bill. Spoken to him. Mulder and I both have. He's…," she hesitates because she can't be certain that her line is secure. Swallowing the lump in her throat and steadying her voice, she finally settles with, "gone."

It's not a lie, but it's not the truth either.

"William? Dana… what are you talking about? And what do you mean gone… Jesus, is he…? How can you —"

"I can't talk about this right now. Tell everyone that I am okay and that I will be in touch as soon as I have a more secure line."

"Dammit, Dana, I —"

Ending the call, she switches off her phone and slips it back into her pocket. Scully knows that at some point she will have to level with her family and tell them the truth about William, but not now — not today. Her frozen fingers sink deeper into her damp pockets in search of her mother's quarter medallion.

The mystery surrounding its origin doesn't bother her as much as it used to. If anything, it has been a great source of comfort. Scully's mother and sister were the only members of her family to ever support her decision to join the FBI, and their support and relation to her had cost them their lives — her sister directly, her mother more so indirectly. Scully's abduction, cancer diagnosis, and subsequent hospitalizations in combination with Melissa's murder and William's adoption had undoubtedly aged her sweet mother at least two decades. Her brothers continue to assert that she died of a broken heart. They are probably right.

The conversation she and Mulder had on the church pew earlier this week immediately comes to mind. Can she live with the results of the decisions she has made? Were they the right ones? As she runs her fingers over the outer ridges of her mother's quarter, she silently prays for the clarity and strength that will be required to face whatever comes next. While she cannot predict the future, she does know one thing with absolute certainty: their son is not dead.

The dive teams won't find either body. She can't explain how she knows. She just does. With her hands buried deep in her pockets, she takes one last look at the churning waters below before turning and heading back towards the chaos. There is nothing left for her here.

Making her way back towards the warehouse in search of Mulder, Scully spots Skinner almost immediately. He's sitting in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a blanket speaking to Kersh and two other agents that she doesn't recognize. Skinner's eyes look tired and defeated, but he still manages to give her a nod and a slight smile. She returns the gesture just before disappearing behind a second ambulance. Words with the deputy director will have to wait. She needs to get out of the rain and find Mulder. As she navigates her way through the maze of tape and haphazardly parked emergency vehicles, she stops abruptly when she hears her name, turning to find Mulder walking towards her.

His stride embodies purpose and confidence, but as he gets closer, she can see the fatigue in his step and the concern in his eyes.

"I've been looking everywhere for you."

His brow furrows as he reaches out with one hand to lightly touch her shoulder, the other quickly finding the tips of her hair and side of her face.

"Scully, you are soaking wet, have you been standing out in the rain all of this time?"

Before she can respond, he's slipping off his jacket and draping it over her shoulders, pulling the hood up over her head in an attempt to protect her from the rain.

"I've been on the docks. They haven't located Spender or… or William," she says, her voice unsteady.

He swallows and nods, averting his eyes off into the distance as if he is looking for someone.

"Let's get out of here," he says as he takes her hand.

Neither of them speaks as he guides them through mayhem. She's surprised to see his silver Mustang up ahead and wonders how in the world he managed to move it without erupting World War III. Only Mulder could remove a car from an active crime scene and walk away unscathed. He unlocks the passenger door and places his hand protectively on the top of her head as she eases down into the seat. Moments later, she feels the car shift under his weight as he slides into the driver's seat, but she doesn't look at him. Her eyes are entranced by the rain splattering against the windshield — her mind on their son. He's out there. He's cold, wet, and has nowhere to go. And instead of looking for him, they are leaving. His words, spoken through Mulder, are still reverberating in the recesses of her mind.

"We can't protect him. No one can … let him go … he knows you love him."

A sickening feeling hits her in the pit of her stomach as Mulder puts the car into reverse and starts to drive away. Tonight, she is abandoning her son for the second time. The tears she has been holding back for the past several hours now flow freely. Mulder notices them but says nothing. Instead, he turns on the seat warmers and angles all the vents in her direction before reaching for her hand and intertwining his fingers with hers. It's not until his hand joins hers that she realizes how cold she is, but it's not just the cold that causes her tremble. The raw emotion brewing inside of her is paralyzing. She tries to speak but opens her mouth only to close it.

The first few miles are silent because neither of them knows where to begin.

The minutes continue to tick by until she can't take it anymore.

As wonderful as the heat feels as it hits her damp hair, skin, and clothes, she turns the intensity of it down to quiet the obnoxiously loud fan, not wanting to raise her voice to be heard.

"He's not dead, Mulder. Neither of them are."

It's not the most profound thing she could have said following the bombs she has dropped on him today, but it's a starting point.

"Scully…"

"No, Mulder, listen to me. I can't explain it. I can't explain how I know. I just do."

He's quiet for a moment, briefly giving her his eyes before he responds.

"Do you want me to turn around?"

"No."

Her voice is soft and raspy from the cold, but the answer comes easily, for the answers they seek are not at the bottom of the harbor.

Unable to look out into the dark, miserable night any longer, she closes her eyes. There is so much more she wants to say… so much that he deserves to hear but not here… not like this.

The drive home takes a little over two hours.

They finish it with their hands joined in silence.

---------

AN: As always, a HUGE thank you to my betas @kikocrystalball, @admiralty-xfd and @suilven19 for their edits and encouragement... because nobody gets there alone ;)

To follow the Cleaning Up After Chris Carter Series, click here. 

[ma9l]

Annotated Bibliography: Instagram and Depression Sources

Frison, Eline, and Steven Eggermont. “Browsing, Posting, and Liking on Instagram: The Reciprocal Relationships Between Different Types of Instagram Use and Adolescents’ Depressed Mood.” CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, vol. 20, no. 10, Oct. 2017, pp. 603–609. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1089/cyber.2017.0156.

The authors in this article took the approach of doing a longitudinal study on 671 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19. They decided to do this because they noticed that a cross-sectional longitudinal test had not yet been performed between mental health and Instagram use. The results confirmed that the more browsing one does on Instagram, the more depressed their mood is. On the flip side, they also found that the more depressed one is, the more likely they are to post on Instagram when they are depressed. It addressed both sides. Either Instagram can affect your mood, or your mood can affect how you behave on Instagram. This article was published in 2017 and the authors both have a PhD in this field of study which increases their credibility. Charts of data were provided to demonstrate how they measured and collected their results. The charts display information regarding the different times the participants were interacting in different ways on Instagram (posting, liking, or browsing) and jotted those activities down. In order to measure, they used a scaling system of numbers 1-7 where participants would rank how often they did one of the 3 activities with 1 being never and 7 being several times a day. Another chart shows the relationships between those activities with a depressed mood so we can see how they correlate. Something these authors took into account was they considered whether gender had anything to do with the likeliness of someone being depressed after spending time on Instagram, but the results for each sex were similar. To my understanding, there are multiple ways one can browse on Instagram whether it be by scrolling through your feed, viewing stories, watching Instagram TV/other videos, and visiting accounts of those you follow. Because there is such a variety in what you can do on the app, there must be a variety of emotions that users experience as they bounce from one activity to another. The article stated that browsing had the largest impact, but I am still curious as to how the others compare.

Hunt, Melissa G., et al. “No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression.” Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, vol. 37, no. 10, Dec. 2018, pp. 751–768. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751.

This article can be found in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Here, four authors work together on an experimental study to discover if social media plays a role in causing “worse well-being.” Rather than experimenting with only one platform, participants (from the University of Pennsylvania) were asked to limit the use of three: Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat to ten minutes a day or they were assigned to just use them as they normally would for three consecutive weeks. This created a control group and a test group. Interestingly enough, after the three weeks were up, both groups resulted in being less anxious and having less FOMO (fear of missing out). The authors credit this to more persistent self-monitoring. However, the group who limited themselves proved to be less depressed and lonely than the controlled group who didn’t make any changes. The study is only about a year old having been performed in 2018, a lot of facts and numbers were included thanks to the authors’ research, a clear outline of the process, and a defined prospective timeline of events. The procedure involved a voluntary sign up, surveys scaling different categories, participants sending screenshots of their battery level at specific times which is affected by the amount of time they spend on certain applications, etc. It is very thorough and well thought out. Limitations and the possibility of manipulation were considered as well. This study focused on social media in general, yet each form of social media has unique characteristics that could potentially alter or skew results based on which specific applications were used at a particular time and for how long the user spent on a single platform. For example, Facebook has a lot more to see than Instagram does when it comes to scrolling. Facebook is endless, whereas Instagram displays a kind reminder saying “you are all caught up” once you get to where you left off. I feel like one could be tempted to waste more time on Facebook than Instagram and therefore be exposed to more negative factors and consume information that would affect them mentally. Then again, maybe it all comes down to the content provided. Either way, based on the findings of this study, the authors recommend limiting your social media use to 30 minutes a day to improve your well-being.

Hwnag, Ha Sung. "Why Social Comparison on Instagram Matters: Its impact on Depression." KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems, vol. 13, no. 3, 2019, p. 1626+. Gale OneFile: Computer Science, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/apps/doc/A586241540/CDB?u=utahvalley&sid=CDB&xid=c957fbb6. Accessed 26 Oct. 2019.

The study was officially published in March of this year (2019) by Hu Sung Hwang at KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems. Out of all of the articles, this one was the most applicable to me because the study focused on college students. 245 college students who used Instagram were surveyed on questions related to Instagram activities and their relation to social comparison. The article claims that there are three types of comparison: upward, downward, and horizontal that each contribute to our psychological well-being either positively or negatively and considers whether or not they contribute to depression. I wish she would have gone into more depth on what defines the three types of comparison because I didn’t quite understand that concept and how it tied back to the topic. Unlike the other sources a lot of background information on the topic was provided here which gives us a better idea of how educated the author is on the subject matter. It also makes up for the lack of charts or photographs as proof of experimentation having taken place. Another thing the author made sure to do was she broke it down and looked at individual aspects of the title of the piece, meaning she separately discussed instagram, social media, and depression and then combined them to understand how they are connected. This journal excerpt was long and well-developed. The areas measured include: Instagram use, activity, social comparison, depression, and demographics.  The final results produced are as follows: “Taken together, these findings indicate that the daily amount of time spent using Instagram and the frequency of Instagram use influence all types of social comparison. In addition, they also suggest that users who spend more time looking at other people's status updates or commenting on other people's photos are more likely to experience upward social comparison than other types of comparison.”

Lup, Katerina, et al. “Instagram #instasad?: Exploring Associations among Instagram Use, Depressive Symptoms, Negative Social Comparison, and Strangers Followed.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior And Social Networking, vol. 18, no. 5, May 2015, pp. 247–252. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0560.

Similar to the NBC article below, this study focused on Instagram as an outlet rather than an inlet. In a sense, this means the authors were considering how people use the platform to express themselves, particularly when they are sad. The authors predicted that the negative connotation of Instagram has risen due to social comparison and the number of strangers followed. The second contribution (strangers followed) hadn’t been addressed by any of the other articles yet, so that was a clever insight. They were able to reach the wide array of 18-29 year olds by hosting an online questionnaire for 117 individuals. By doing this, they were able to analyze both how frequently the participants used the app as well as the number of strangers they followed. To insure that the test was reliable, two different types of scales were incorporated: the Center for Epidemiological Resources Scale for Depression and the Social Comparison Rating Scale. This helped them measure and recognize patterns and relations: “Findings generally suggest that more frequent Instagram use has negative associations for people who follow more strangers, but positive associations for people who follow fewer strangers, with social comparison and depressive symptoms.” A question I have is what about having strangers as followers? A lot of accounts are public on purpose because they want strangers to follow them. Does that influence what people post? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did because these kinds of people are usually concerned about the numbers and getting people to follow them, which only happens when they post certain things. I would even go as far as saying they become fake. They post what their followers want to see as opposed to what they sincerely want to share. Why? They don’t even know these people? I would be curious to learn more on this matter. Anyway, in the title of this article, the hashtag #instasad is mentioned. I had a hard time deciding if that was a real hashtag that the study was based on or if it was created by the authors because it made sense with the topic. Either way, you can surely find the tag on Instagram and a decent selection of depressive posts linked to it. Because this study was performed in 2015, it is more out of date than the other sources I looked into, but it is important to view earlier stages of research to see how it’s grown and developed over the years. Having been released 4 years ago, it’s interesting to note that the same problems we experience today existed back then.

Mackson, Samantha B., et al. “Instagram: Friend or Foe? The Application’s  Association with Psychological Well-Being.” New Media & Society, vol. 21, no. 10, Oct. 2019, pp. 2160–2182. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1461444819840021.

An obvious curiosity that was explored within the article: “Instagram: Friend or Foe?”, was that of the difference between those who use Instagram and those who don’t. The question in the title itself imposes that we ask ourselves how we personally view the platform. I don’t think most people would strictly say one or the other, I believe there is hesitation because so many of us have a love-hate relationship with Instagram, making it both a friend and a foe, just at different times. Now, depending on who is asked, people might wonder whether or not the impact the app has on it’s users is really all that significant compared to people who avoid it entirely. Is it worth avoiding? Or does it hardly do any damage? I feel like Instagram should be balanced between friend and foe, landing in the middle somewhere as more of an acquaintance than anything else. This way, it’s up to you to decide on the kind of relationship you want to have with it. If you want to get to know it better, you’ll spend more time with it, whereas if you have negative feelings toward it, you may want to distance yourself at times and take frequent breaks. Isn’t that how relationships with humans are defined? Along with this, some of the most common mental illnesses these days are depression and anxiety. They almost go hand-in-hand. This article addresses both as their negative connection with Instagram is brought into question. Results confirmed that those with the application ranked higher in experiencing symptoms of the illnesses than those without it. The reason they refer to the platform as a “friend or foe” is because it can be used for both good and bad. Yes, this article is up to date-very much so, in fact. It was put out on the 10th day of this exact month and year. In depth research on depression and anxiety were outlined near the beginning of the issue. This was smart and necessary because it provides readers with the opportunity to be more informed on the illnesses before drawing conclusions about it. In short, this article was a success because it clearly proved that “Instagram is associated with psychological well-being.”

Macmillan, Amanda. “Why Instagram Is the Worst Social Media for Mental Health.” TIME, 25 May, 2017, https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

This TIME  article is slightly outdated because it was written in 2017, but that doesn’t mean the information within it is false; In fact, Instagram has been around for almost 10 years so it is actually more recent than it is old. I stated in my project proposal that through my research I wanted to see how Instagram compared to other social media platforms and this article addresses exactly that. “Out of five social networks included in the survey, YouTube received the highest marks for health and wellbeing and was the only site that received a net positive score by respondents. Twitter came in second, followed by Facebook and then Snapchat—with Instagram bringing up the rear.” This supports my topic and tells us that Instagram is the least beneficial for our well being, which reinforces the significance of researching this specific issue. The author was helpful as she compared the pros and cons (positive/negative effects) of social media rather than just focusing on one or the other. Not only does this article give us the facts, but it also suggests ways to change. Some of those ideas include: a “heavy usage” warning, a highlight for photos that have been edited or changed from their original state, and finally teaching it to students as part of their health education in school. I agree with these ideas and I’m excited to see the difference they will make after being implemented. I’m especially passionate about having it be taught in schools because children are the rising generation and humanity depends on them for creating a bright future. Not only that, but they are also the most common users of these platforms ranging from elementary to college aged students, thus are the ones most needing to be educated in safe usage. As we can see, action is fortunately already being taken, but the issue can’t be fixed overnight. I appreciate how it concluded by saying “We must be ready to nurture the innovation that the future holds.” Technology is a part of our day and it isn’t going away so we need to find ways to embrace it.

Miller, Caroline. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

This article was written by a member of Child Mind Institute, a non-profit organization. Her name is Caroline Miller. The organization is dedicated to helping children and families with mental health issues and disorders. Although there is not an exact date listed, the website is current and still running because the copyright year is 2019. Outside educational sources have been linked throughout the write-up with raw facts and data to inform readers about the studies that have already been done as a reminder that people are actively engaged in resolving the conflicts with social media. Since the website revolves around mental health, some of the links take you to related subjects written by other members of the Child Mind Institute team that can deepen your understanding and widen your view of mental health. Miller has the perspective that Instagram doesn’t directly cause depression, but that the time spent on Instagram only correlates with the rise in depression. Several negative associations with social media besides depression, but those which still fall in the same realm, are listed in consecutive headings. For example, sleep deprivation, isolation, or less healthy activity are a few Miller dives into. A clinical psychologist for CSI says: “The less you are connected with human beings in a deep, empathic way, the less you’re really getting the benefits of a social interaction… The more superficial it is, the less likely it’s going to cause you to feel connected, which is something we all need.” I couldn’t agree more. Often, it’s easier to replace our social health with social media rather than going out with friends or attending events, but social media needn’t be a replacement. Instead, it should only be considered an additional way to connect with others. It’s a great tool to keep in touch with people-especially for those who live far away, but it isn’t a genuine way to develop and strengthen relationships. Thanks to the article, 6 tips for healthier social media use are layed out near the conclusion of the piece This shines a spotlight on us as it invites us to reflect on how we can improve our health as it relates to online activities. This is similar to the article by Pawlowski who also gives helpful advice on the matter.

Parnell, Bailey. “Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health?” YouTube, uploaded by TEDxTalks, 22 Jun. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czg_9C7gw0o.

Unlike the other sources I found, this one is in video format as a 2017 TED Talk. Bailey Parnell is the speaker. She’s an award winning digital marketer, public speaker, etc. In her talk, she, herself, started out by demonstrating a monologue of someone scrolling through Instagram and reacting to its content. It was funny, lighthearted, and relatable which is a fantastic way to introduce your subject and get your audience engaged. Parnell had previous data and statistics to show up on her PowerPoint slides, but she also did some primary research on the spot by surveying her listeners. She asked them questions and had them raise their hands. She was able to involve her audience, and see if her previous research aligned with the experiment she did in the moment. One example of this was when she asked if anyone noticed the notification alert in the upper corner of her slides. Several people had and admitted that it was driving them crazy. I am the same way because I am always checking my notifications to get them to disappear. It’s like a checklist where you have to mark the task off to say it’s been acknowledged and completed. Is this a demonstration of addiction or obsession? Something to think about.. Bailey used pathos through her tone of voice, but mainly towards the end of her speech as she had slides of kids who had committed suicide because of the bad experiences they had online. It got so bad for them that they gave up because they couldn’t handle it anymore. If that doesn’t encourage you to reevaluate your online interactions with others, I don’t know what does. The stance she took on the issue was that social media isn’t the issue, it’s the people who use it. We don’t have to be negatively impacted by it, but we allow ourselves to be by the way we engage with it. Like several other articles, tips were given on how to be safer online and Parnell also says not to get rid of it because it's not going anywhere, but to, instead, find ways to practice “safe social”.

Pawlowski, A. “Can Your Instagram Photos Reveal That You're Depressed?” NBC, https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/can-your-instagram-photos-reveal-you-re-depressed-ncna794041. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

This news piece has a unique take on the depression/Instagram correlation concern. Instead of seeing the platform as an inlet where one is obtaining a bunch of information that can contribute to their mental state, it views it from the opposite side of the spectrum in saying Instagram can also be used as an outlet for your emotions and reveal whether someone is depressed to their followers based on certain characteristics like the color scheme they use in their photographs. The colors blue, white, gray, or black seem to be more commonly associated with depressed individuals due to their dull, melancholy appearance, but not always. It’s important not to assume that everyone who uses that color scheme is depressed, but is still a trend amongst persons with depression. The article is rhetorical and uses a great deal of pathos in its tone as it appeals to emotion. It does this by giving a real life example of a woman who filled her account with pictures that portrayed how she was feeling which was, in fact, depressed. It also discusses how a computer program was designed to review these photos and identify whether someone was depressed. It is still in the works, but could be useful in the future for assisting those who aren’t receiving proper help with their condition. I was curious before starting my research on this issue about how involved parents are with their children’s social media use and under a heading titled “If you’re a parent worried about your child’s Instagram images…” it advises them to check in with their kids in a constructive way. If I were a parent, I would be following my kids on all the platforms and addressing them in person if I noticed anything concerning because they probably aren’t going to approach me voluntarily. I think it’s safe to say that most parents want to have a strong and trustworthy relationship with their children so they feel safe enough to talk to them when they aren’t feeling like themselves, but unfortunately this isn’t always the case. That is where social media becomes a tool for parents. The article concludes with a paragraph on self-reflection and self-analyzation which encourages you, if you’re feeling down or different, to look at your own photos to see if any of them confirm depressiveness. This applies to everyone whether you’re the one who is depressed or someone you know. It can either persuade you to reach out for assistance, or allow you to be a helping hand for someone else.

Wong, Brittany. “An Instagram With No 'Likes' Could Have A Big Impact On Mental Health.” HUFFPOST, 10 May 2019 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/instagram-hiding-likes-mental-health_l_5cd092d3e4b0548b735e50bc?guccounter=1. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

This article from HUFFPOST has an interesting layout. Aside from other sources, Wong uses the visual spectacle to her advantage by including a video introduction and a screenshot of an Instagram post to break up the written article itself. Perhaps the most important thing about this source, and the reason it is so reliable, is the fact that Adam Mosseri, who is the head of Instagram, was directly engaged-and he should be! Who is more credible to speak about this topic than the head of Instagram himself? He performs a presentation in the video where he suggests three ways to make the Instagram app safer for its users and to actually combat cyberbullying which can most certainly contribute to depression. If the head of instagram recognizes that something is up, then something is definitely up. Granted, money could very well be his motivation for making these changes, I still think he is wise in making these suggestions. In Canada, a separate test was being experimented with based on the question: ”Could a like-free Instagram make us a lot less thirsty for approval and more mentally sound?” In simpler terms, the number of likes would be removed from a person’s post so that the viewers focused more on the content of the picture rather than the engagement with it. This differed from Mosseri’s suggestions, but was still a clever idea and worth reading into. Negative and positive effects of social media are mentioned throughout the article, links to related sources are cited, and it was written in May of this year so it is very recent, which makes the data more relevant to the present. The author of this source even includes examples of a man and woman (Sarah and Cam) who personally participated in the experiment with a “like-free Instagram” in order to see how they benefited. They both reported that they prefer not being able to see the likes on photos. Count me in! I want to know what that kind of experience is like. Imagine how much your thought processing would change!

[haveamagicalday]

My 2018 Reads

Let me start by saying that I have read almost 100 books this year (some short stories but I like to count those too) I’m going to make a separate list for my top ten but here are the other ones!

4 Stars

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake 

This is the third book in the Three Dark Crowns series. It’s a dark tale about three sisters who have to compete against each other for the crown. There are a lot of characters to follow which means they aren’t always that well developed but the story is so so enthralling.

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas 

Loosely based on real events, the novel follows Monica whose older sister was one of five cheerleaders to die under mystery circumstances. Five years after the deaths, Monica discovers something that could help her solve what really happened. This was a gripping read with some great twists

Beneath the Haunting Sea by Joanna Ruth Meyer

This book flew under the radar this year which is a shame because it was a great read. Talia gets banished to a dreary island where she stumbles upon ancient legends that may be more real than she realizes. I will admit, the first third of this book was a little wack. It was like a different book but it got much better once she got to the island.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

A melancholy tale of a trio of ghosts that lure young boys to their deaths each summer. Our main character is a life long resident of the town who is just trying to make it through the summer. I’ll admit, it got a little messy in the end but for a debut novel, I thought it was very engaging. 

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I’m late on this one, I know. Rachel commutes to work everyday. Then one day she sees something she wasn’t supposed too that leads her down a dark spiral to find out what really happened. Definitely a turn pager that has more than one mystery to solve. 

The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn

This year’s breakout mystery/suspense novel. Anna is confined to her house, spending her days in a group chat or playing online chest. When a seemingly perfect family moves in across from her, she becomes entangled in a mystery when she sees something she shouldn’t one night. An unreliable narrator will keep you guessing what’s real and what’s not.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

If you love the movie, you will love the book. An adorable, sweet read! 

3.5 Stars

Scream All Night by Derek Milman

Dario grew up on the set of various B-horror movies. That’s because his family owns the studio that makes them. Dario has tried to distance himself from his family but is forced to return when his brother invites him to a very special event involving their father. Darkly funny and unique, this was a twisted take on a young man coming to terms with his past.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Vampires are on the rise and to accommodate them all, the US government creates quarantined cities known as Coldtowns. Vampires must live in Coldtowns but for humans, it’s optional. But once you are in, it’s nearly impossible to get out. Holly Black creates an imaginative take on vampires. The book starts off a little slow but really picks up when our main character arrives at Coldtown. My only complaint is that this wasn’t a series. There was so much packed into this book that could have easily been expanded upon over the course of a few books.

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Amber is in a coma. She can’t move or remember anything but she’s pretty sure her husband has something to do with her current state. The book alternates between past and present as Amber struggles to remember what happened to her. I found some of the twists convoluted and kooky but they were definitely original. Trigger Warning: there is a very graphic rape scene 

3 Stars

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Quincy is one of 3 media named Final Girls; the last ones standing during a horror movie like massacre that killed their friends. Now Quincy is all grown up but still trying to forget what happened the night her friends were murdered  when one of the other Final Girls shows up at her doorstep, forcing her to revisit her past.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

A Snow White retelling with a unique twist! Mina, the future queen, has a heart made of glass, crafted by her magician father. Lynet, our Snow White, is the spitting image of her dead mother. Then one day Lynet discovers that the king had hired Mina’s father to craft Lynet out of snow in her mother’s image after she died. Alternating between Mina’s past and Lynet’s present, this is a sweet and simple fairytale retelling!

Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins

Sophie is a teenaged witch with wayward powers. She gets sent to Hex Hall, a magical reform school, to learn how to better control her powers. This book was a fun read. I think I would have liked it more if I were still a teenager. The stakes never really seemed all that high but it was fairly entertaining.

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. 

The Little Mermaid from the point of view of the sea witch. Well, sort of. Evie is a witch, best friends with a prince, whose other best friend, Anna drowned when they were children. Now, a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Anna, appears on the beach one day and she is determined to make the prince fall in love with her. Honestly, I was far more interested in Annemette than Evie. I think this would have been a really interesting story from her point of view instead.

To Kill and Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Another Little Mermaid retelling but this time, the mermaid is a siren whose mission is to steal the prince’s heart. Literally. The first chapter of this book made it seem like this would be much darker than it ended up being. The romance was a little weak but still, this was an interesting take on the tale and an enjoyable read.

The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

A Nutcracker retelling. In this version, Clara is a musician who receives a mysterious nutcracker on Christmas. She ends up whisked away to a magical world where all the children have been turned into toys and it seems that her, and her music, is the only thing that can turn them back. The Nutcracker is very dear to me, so I was overly critical of this book. It didn’t bear too much resemblance to the ballet or original fairy tale and it read more middle grade than YA. Still it was a cute read.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

I absolutely loved A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness so I was excited for this. It was very different than what I was expecting. Simply put, this is Moby Dick told from the perspectives of whales. It was bizarre and I don’t really think I understood it fully but I’ve also never read Moby Dick before. The pictures were beautiful though and it is a very quick read.

Imposters by Scott Westerfeld

A new series that takes place in the Uglies universe. Frey and Rafi are twins but people only know Rafi. Frey has been raised to fight and be Rafi’s body double. I really enjoyed this book because of it’s connection to Uglies. Had I not read Uglies as a teen, I’m not sure this book would have held up on its own.

Lucy in the Sky

From the same author that did Go Ask Alice, this book is presented as a diary of a young girl that spirals out of control due to drug use. Objectively, this book isn't that great. The writing is poor, the story is unrealistic and it almost seems to glorify drugs rather than turn you off to them. BUT, it's enticing just like the other books in this series. It pulls you in and you want to keep reading. I read it in one sitting. 

From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon

Twinkle is an aspiring film director. With the help of a geeky classmate, Twinkle embarks on making her first film for a local film festival. Along the way, Twinkle learns about friendship, family and love. A delightful fluffy read for fans of romantic comedies.

What Should be Wild by Julia Fine

This is a hard book to describe. Our main character is a girl who has been kept hidden from society due to a rare gift (or curse perhaps). Anything she touches dies, and anything that’s already dead comes back to life due to her touch as well. The story was bizarre and not entirely satisfying but it certainly was intriguing. I think it boils down to a matter of taste and I’m sure others could find much more merit in it than I did! 

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

After the death of her mother, Lina is spending the summer in Italy with a father she never knew. While there, she is given her mother’s old journal which sends her down a journey to her mother’s past. With her mother’s guidance Lina discovers the magic that Italy has to offer. A cute and heartfelt read with some classic teen romance.

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

 Mila’s best friend is dead and she wants to know who is responsible. So why not ask her? With an old grimoire, Mila finds a sleep to bring her best friend back and accidentally brings back two other murdered girls as well. With the spell’s limited time Mila and her undead girl gang try to solve the mysterious behind their deaths. Quirky, fun but also enthralling, this is a very original book.

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Best friends Olive and Rose begin to lose things. First it’s only small things but soon bigger things are going lost. Everything changes for the two when they meet 3 strangers in the woods and a mysterious spell book. At times, this was a very confusing read. I’m still not sure I fully understood it but the story was engaging and fairy tale like. A lovely read.

Far Far Away by Tom McNeal

A modern fairy tale like read. What starts off as a whimsical turns drastically dark as the story progresses. Our main character, Jeremy is somewhat of an outcast but attracts the attention of an outgoing and outspoken local girl. The most interesting aspect of this book is that Jeremy is able to speak to ghosts and the ghost of Jacob Grimm (who wrote all those fairy tales) has been his friend for years. Entirely random but a fantastic addition.

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

Another YA thriller from Thomas. This was her first novel and I think it shows. It’s weaker than the other books she has written but still good. However, the last 3rd felt like a completely different book which was a bit jarring. If you like murder mystery/unsolved crimes, you’ll like this but definitely check out her other books too!

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

Our main character is a descendant of Cotton Mather, the man who sentenced women to their deaths during the Salem Witch Trails. Samantha moves to Salem with her stepmother and finds that she is not welcomed by her fellow classmates, descendants of the witches. And it turns out there might actually be some magic in Salem after all. This was silly fun. I was expecting something more like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina but that’s not the tone of this book at all. The love triangle was a little annoying and there was a reveal that was bizarre but overall it was an entertaining book.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

I absolutely loved the Cinder series and Heartless but I wasn’t feeling this one so much. There’s nothing really wrong with it, the characters are well developed and the writing is good, however I just couldn’t gather any enthusiasm for it. I will say that the writing was rather slow and I felt that the book could have been a lot shorter than it was but if you like superheroes and villains, you should like this.

2.5 Stars

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

This is a retelling of the Biblical tale about Jephthah but had more of a Greek mythology feel with a cast of many gods and goddesses. It was a weird mixture of mythology and focused on a very weak romance. I think this book was aimed more for middle grade and might be more enjoyable for them.

Midnight Sun by Trish Cook

Yes, I read the novelization of the Bella Thorne movie that came out earlier this year. Yes, it was poorly written, the plot was laughable, and the romance cheesy. But, it was a quick read that kept my interest. 

2 Stars

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashman

I received this in my owlcrate and I’m still wondering why. The book is a retelling of Jane Eyre combined with ghostbusters because in this version, Jane can talk to ghosts. There’s also a secret ghost hunting society that wants recruit her but she’d rather be a nanny for Mr. Rochester. I really didn’t like this. The attempt at humor throughout was almost painful, the characters were dumb and I don’t understand why this book exists in the first place. I think it would have been better if it was just about Victorian era ghost hunters and not incorporate Jane Eyre in any way. This is part of a series in which the authors rewrite (very quirkily!) famous stories starring a character named Jane. From the reviews I read, their first book, My Lady Jane, was much better but I don’t even want to attempt to read it after this one.

September Girls by Bennett Madison

This is one of those books that I kept reading because of how bad it was. Sam is spending the summer in a small beach town that is overfilled with The Girls. That’s what Sam calls them because they are all blonde and beautiful. Turns out they are some sort of mermaid? It’s never really explained and they are all cursed and need to have sex with a virgin man in order to be free. Enter our sexist virgin, Sam. The women are written terribly, referred to as sluts and shanks and their asses and breasts are always mentioned. I have no idea how this book got published. But damn, was it fun to laugh at. Number of breast/chest/boob mentions: 27

Poetry (Both 5 Stars)

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace

This book felt very personal to me (like I was reading the author’s inner thoughts) and I couldn’t always relate to some of the poems. I felt that the sequel dealt more with women’s issues on a whole and has something all women could relate too. Her poems are breathtaking though and so powerful.

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

I picked this up out of curiosity and ended up reading it in one sitting. It is absolutely stunning. I think every woman should read this. Hell, I think every man should read this too. I can’t wait for the third one!

Short stories

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo (5 Stars)  

Holy smokes, this was breathtaking! A collection of six short stories based on fairy tales/mythology. The stories are so utterly original though. Clever, satisfying with feminist themes. This is a must read for fairy tale lovers! 

Amazon’s Dark Corners Collection by Various Authors

I happened to see this advertised on Goodreads and got it for free on Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader. This collection is 7 short stories of the horror variety. It’s hard to rate these since they are all written by different authors. I didn’t find any of these stories all that scary though. More so just sad. Interesting, but not all that gripping. My favorite stories were Miao Dao by Joyce Carol Oates and Sleep Tight Motel by Lisa Unger but I wouldn’t really recommend the others. Trigger Warning: The Remedy deals with depression and suicide and has a rather offensive/problematic ending. 

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman (4 Stars)

This is a very dark retelling of Snow White from the queen’s point of view. Snow White is not the darling princess she is often portrayed as. This short story is very adult but not overly graphic. You can read it for free at the link I provided. 

Matchless by Gregory Maguire (3 Stars)

A quick reimagining of The Little Match Girl. The main character isn’t the match girl but a young boy whose life intertwines with the match girl’s. This short story didn’t add anything new to the story since it’s focuses on an original character. The match girl is just briefly there. My feelings for this were mutual. 

Re-reads

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (5/4 Stars)

One of my favorite summer rereads!

Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot  (5 stars)

Just as delightful and funny as the first time I read the series as a young teen

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen (5 Stars

I��ve gotten into the habit of rereading this book every summer. It’s a book that can be read in one sitting and is so heartfelt.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (5 Stars)

This is my all time favorite Sarah Dessen novel. I highly recommend all of her novels.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (4 Stars)

This takes place in the same world as the Cruel Prince. Some of the characters even appear in the latter novel. This is a standalone that reads like a modern fairy tale.

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

NEVER TOO EARLY: HALLMARK ORDERS FIRST THREE CHRISTMAS MOVIES OF 2019

By: DAN SNIERSON

February 08, 2019 at 11:30 AM EST

There’s still snow on the ground, so let’s get Hallmark’s 2019 holiday season underway, shall we?

Yes, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries already have begun gift-wrapping Christmas movies to air later this year, and EW can exclusively reveal the first three films of the next Yuletide slate.

Kristin Chenoweth and Scott Wolf will star in The Christmas Song, which is slated to debut on Hallmark Channel in November. In the movie, directed by Eric Close (who helmed last year’s Christmas at Graceland), a youth choir director (Chenoweth) needs to write a big song for the Christmas Eve show but “finds herself distracted” when a boy with a golden voice (Kevin Quinn) joins her choir, which will come as news to his widowed father (Wolf).

Meanwhile, Melissa Claire Egan, Marc Blucas, and Patti Murin star in Holiday for Heroes, which premieres on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in November. The plot revolves around a woman (Egan) and a soldier (Blucas) who exchange letters for a year before their worlds collide.

Hallmark Movies and Mysteries also is planning a Blake Shelton-executive produced Christmas film as part of a development deal with the country star, who served as executive producer of 2018’s HMM movie Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas. This film will center on another emotional homecoming journey around the holidays — and include some of Shelton’s songs — but the film will feature new lead characters.

Given that we’re already talking about these films in February, you’re starting to get the picture: 2019 will prove to be another ambitious one for Hallmark, as Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” campaign celebrates its 10th anniversary. Hallmark continues to dominate the conversation about holiday TV movies, helping to revive the once-stagnating genre of comfort-food flicks that broadcast networks abandoned. Last year, Hallmark Channel and HMM aired a record 37 new Christmas films, which bested 2017’s record of 33 and represented nearly half of all of the new holiday TV movies that debuted on cable networks and streamers such as Lifetime, Freeform, Netflix, and Ion. The two Hallmark networks have debuted 176 original Christmas movies over the last 10 years.

“The tenth year will be the biggest, boldest Christmas in Hallmark Channel history,” Crown Media executive VP of programming Michelle Vicary declares to EW. “Over the ten years, we have endeavored to be the no. 1 holiday destination, and achieved that over the last several years. What was different about last year — and what’s going to be really big about this year — is just how culturally relevant this has become in people’s minds beyond the programming, where we have towns asking if they can decorate themselves like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, and people having watch parties.”

Hallmark will not only seek to keep the Yuletide spirit alive by airing repeats of its fan-favorite Yuletide movies every Friday night throughout the year, it will debut at least one new Christmas movie in July as part of its Keepsake Christmas campaign, and it will target more weekend nights as the holidays approach. “We’re going to make sure both our networks have more original premieres on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights throughout the holiday season, so we’ll go bigger in that way in 2019,” adds Vicary.

This past holiday season once again brought Nielsen presents for Hallmark: Hallmark Channel reigned as the No. 1 cable network in 4th quarter among 18-to-49-year-old women, as well as its target demo of 25-to-54-year-old women. Twenty-two films averaged 3.5 million viewers on their premiere nights, and films such as It’s Christmas, Eve (starring LeAnn Rimes), Christmas at Graceland (Kellie Pickler) & Pride, Prejudice & Mistletoe (Lacey Chabert) outdrew all the broadcast networks in their time period.

Source: Entertainment Weekly - ew.com

[doomedandstoned]

Doomed & Stoned Turns Five!

Coinciding with Doomed & Stoned's fifth anniversary, Todd Severin of The Ripple Effect talks to Editor in Chief Billy Goate about this bitchin' lil blog, from its inauspicious beginning in the summer of 2013 as a simple social media platform to bring together lovers of the doom-stoner sound to dabbling in its own music festival, a massive compilation series, podcasting, and of course album reviews and interviews. Touching on both the joys and challenges of coordinating a multinational team of contributors, Billy discusses battles with burnout, the excitement of new discoveries, and the struggle to stay on top of an exponentially mushrooming music scene.

Photo by Chris Schanz

Let's start with the obvious: why Doomed & Stoned?

The name Doomed & Stoned isn't really meant to be edgy, though it does have a nice ring to it. It came to me as a simple way to sum up the heavy vibe that is the heart and soul of our writing: doom metal and stoner rock. I consider those to be the enduring styles of true metal and classic rock 'n' roll, best encapsulated by the music of Black Sabbath. Sabbath played music that was famously downtuned, slow, plodding, and somber, documented so incredibly by those first four albums. Then they had their up-tempo swings that tapped into the feel-good era of the 1970s, "Hole In The Sky" and "The Wizard" comes immediately to mind, as does "Sabbra Cadabra" and a number of songs on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) -- such a forward-looking album. Black Sabbath is the quintessential doomed and stoned band and it has been, broadly speaking, the stylistic portfolio of music we've decided to hone in on for this venture.

Photos by Alyssa Herrman

As soon as I was turned on to the doom-stoner vibe, I began to notice things happening into my own backyard of Portland, Oregon. At the time, Oregon’s proudest exports were bands like Witch Mountain, Yob, Lord Dying, Danava, and a handful of others that were being signed left and right to labels like Relapse and Profound Lore. Well, I just started documenting everything, because I felt there was something really special happening here, much as there'd been a magical vibe about our sister city Seattle in the '90s when my family had moved up here from East Texas.

It all began with me showing up randomly at shows and shooting live footage, I believe the first was the Portland Metal Winter Olympics in 2014, then Hoverfest. Initially, no one knew who the hell this guy was showing up with his camera, but gradually I became more accepted by the community, which opened up opportunities for doing interviews, album reviews, and a big 75-band compilation of the Portland scene, which kicked off this massive series of scene comps that many know Doomed & Stoned best for.

Yob at Hoverfest (Film by Billy Goate)

What gave you this crazy idea of promoting the scenes to the rest of the world?

Doomed & Stoned originated out of a frustration I had in sharing discoveries like Windhand, Saint Vitus, Sleep, and Goatsnake with my metal friends. Many wouldn’t give these bands a chance or listened for half-a-minute and gave up. Surely, I thought to myself, there must be others out there who were just as in love with the doom-stoner genre as I am. It wasn’t long until I met Melissa Marie in a metal forum. I told her what I was planning, she was down, and together we burrowed in the heavy underground and discovered a whole community there welcoming us. Melissa was my first contributor and along the way, we made acquaintances with aspiring writers and photographers who really caught the vision and volunteered to document their own scenes. She's since become my executive editor and the organizer of our flagship festival in Indianapolis.

Suzi Uzi and Melissa Marie at Doomed & Stoned Fest

Just like that, the Doomed & Stoned team was born. Roman Tamayo joined the team shortly afterwards, now the Editor of Doomed & Stoned Latinoamérica and I started meeting people from all over who wanted to contribute an album review here, a bit of concert footage there. It all happened very naturally and organically, fueled by simple passion, a mutual love of fuzzy, downtuned riffs, and a desire to document the energy and excitement of what we were all witnessing -- Demon Lung in Las Vegas, Orchid in San Francisco, Pale Divine in Pennsylvania, Pilgrim in Rhode Island. It didn't take us long to discover was going on in the rest of the world and it blew our ever-lovin' minds.

With the explosion in blogging and desktop publishing, we gradually discovered there was a loose network of folks covering the doom-stoner scene all over the world, too. Most of them have been very friendly and we’ve even had the opportunity to collaborate with folks like The Sludgelord, Outlaws of the Sun, The Ripple Effect, Invisible Oranges, Revolver, Blabbermouth, and so many more. There are others that wouldn’t acknowledge our existence -- still won't to this day -- I’m guessing because we were viewed as unwelcome competition in an already small market with a tight circle of friendships. The thing is, we never really wanted to compete with anyone; we just wanted an outlet to share our love of music. It’s hard not to be competitive sometimes, of course. Competition can be positive in that it inspires you to push yourself, try new things, and grow.

Stephanie Cantu, Frank Heredia, and Elizabeth Gore at Psycho Las Vegas

That said, since none of the 20+ contributors to Doomed & Stoned are doing this full-time, we want ultimately just want to have fun and you can’t enjoy the ride if you’re constantly trying to outdo this site or that. We found our niche in digging into local scenes and telling the stories of the bands who may very well be the next Sleep or Windhand a decade or two into the future.

We're now in the fifth year of our existence and I feel we’re becoming known as people willing to give bands and their local scenes the kind of in-depth coverage they deserve. That speaks to our motto: “Bringing you the music and the stories of the heavy underground, with an emphasis on the Sabbath Sound and local scene coverage -- by the underground, for the underground.”

Disenchanter at Doomed & Stoned Winter Showcase (Film by Billy Goate)

How has the scene grown and changed in the intervening years?

Well, since those bright-eyed early days, the doom-stoner scene has absolutely exploded. We were lucky enough to time our entry, purely by happenstance, to ride that wave just as it was nearing its crest. Right now, the scene is at least twice as big as it was five years ago and it’s becoming practically impossible to listen to all the new albums coming out, even if we limit the consideration to just doom metal, or even a subgenre of doom like blackened doom or death doom. It becomes a matter of practicality to prioritize those albums that are brought to your attention by PR firms and record labels, but I always remember that some of our greatest discoveries have been unsigned bands.

Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to discover bands like Disenchanter, Holy Grove, Troll, Year of the Cobra, Toke, and dozens of others that have since risen to international prominence. Just to know you were there the moment their demo showed up on Bandcamp. You were among the first to listen to their self-produced CD on the commute to work. You were there to witness them opening for a touring headliner. You wrote their first review. You made that social media post that sparked a fire of interest. You recommended them to one of your overseas blogger pals. All of that is tremendously gratifying to be a part of.

Toke at Doomed & Stoned Festival I (photo by Johnny Hubbard)

We're all the product of our musical past. What's your musical history? First album you ever bought? First musical epiphany moment? First album that terrified the hell out of you?

I was raised by parents who came of age in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so I was exposed initially to a lot of late-‘60s rock, big band jazz, and later the ‘70s radio pop. Mom was fond of playing three classical music albums with a mix of music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini, and that left a very powerful impression on me early on. She also was fond of Olivia Newton John, so I have “Jolene” permanently etched on my psyche and every so often vainly attempt singing it in the shower.

My first vinyl was the Ghostbusters soundtrack, which dad bought for me, and it unleashed a curiosity for the popular music of the ‘80s. Like a lot of my friends at school, I was nuts about Michael Jackson and I remember asking dad if I could have one of those swank red jackets that he wore so famously in “Thriller” (I was denied, though I did get quite good at grade school moonwalking). I distinctly remember the day my family got cable TV for the first time and with it MTV, which brought the music of Metallica, Boy George, Madonna, Aerosmith, and Run-DMC into our conservative Texas household.

It didn’t last long, because somewhere in the mid-‘80s, my family got caught up in the whole “Satanic Panic” movement. They started monitoring my listening habits vigilantly. One day, for instance, my mom was horrified to find her ten-year-old boy singing along to “Nobody’s Fool” by Cinderella during Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 show. From that point on, both rock and metal were banned from the house and my radio was confiscated. It was too late, though, because I was hooked – particularly by metal. Something about it has always moved me in a way that only classical music has matched. My first metal album, which I purchased in secret, was ‘Appetite for Destruction’ by Guns ‘n’ Roses – which at the time represented the pinnacle of late ‘80s heavy metal. People need to understand how revolutionary it was to hear something that “hard” on mainstream radio and MTV. I listened to it and ‘Lies’ incessantly on my Walkman and continued listening clandestinely to FM hard rock and heavy metal.

Since I couldn’t listen to it openly, I started developing an interest in the darker side of classical music, the moodier pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, and Scriabin, and took up playing the piano around 13. My family was supportive of that talent and I would spend hours and hours a day for years playing the piano in solitude. That was my first introduction, in kernel form, to “doom” – especially late Beethoven, when he started growing deaf and began expressing his frustration and despair more poignantly through dark tones. Franz Liszt, later in life, experienced so much tragedy that he begin to write very bleak, obscure music and was one of the first to experiment with atonality.

It wouldn’t be until my college days that I’d come face-to-face with doom at a Saint Vitus show in Portland. From that moment forward, I knew I’d discovered my soul food. Doom metal made an immediate connection, as it addressed the fucked up nature of life and society in a way that felt authentic to me. It wasn’t just anger. It was dark, slow despair and even a blithe kind of acceptance to it all. It was refreshing to have those feelings mapped out in song like that. That triggered a wave of discovery that led to Usnea, Cough, Pilgrim, Demon Lung, Serpentine Path, Undersmile, and others that are now staples of my musical diet.

Drumhead from Doomed & Stoned Festival II

What do you see happening in the music scene today, good and bad?

More people are digging to the doom-stoner sound and the scene is growing exponentially. The internet has democratized music in a way that has made it easier than ever for bands to form, record, and share their music. It’s also made it much, much harder for a band to get discovered. We’re simply oversaturated by it all. We’re reaching peak information and many listeners have just stopped exploring altogether. I think there was a study done some years back that said by the late-20’s/early-30’s the average metal listener typically hardens in their musical tastes. I don’t know how true that is still, but I know that I’ve been increasingly suffering from listening fatigue. 2014 was the last year I felt on top of it all. 2015 was explosive and every year since has found me woefully behind in my listening. I’m still digging through the rubble and discovering incredible records that I share now and then in a series of short reviews I call, “Doomed Discoveries.”

Among the trends I’ve seen in our scene in particular is the increase in female-fronted bands (which we tried to document in our compilation, The Enchanter’s Ball) along with more experimentation with genre blending. It’s becoming harder to find bands who traffic in traditional doom, but that’s fine because I think we all needed more diversity in our playlist to keep us from becoming jaded. For a while, it seemed every other band was “witch” this and “black” that. I’m the last person to judge a band by its name, but it was leading to a ton of criticism from fans -- to the point I’d have a hard time getting doom-stoner listeners to take a chance with a newer band that had the word “wizard” in their name. One thing that seems to be a theme of the doom-stoner scene is a continual drive for excellence and evolution. On the negative side, we tend to expect more of our heroes, as a result -- which is why bands like The Sword and Electric Wizard have been criticized for producing music that would have otherwise excited us if they were a brand new band.

Holy Grove at Hoverfest (Film by Billy Goate)

What's been your all-time greatest "find"? That band you "discovered" before anyone else and started the word spreading?

It’s hard to pinpoint one band, but I’ve been instrumental in boosting the music of Holy Grove, Disenchanter, Troll, and Year of the Cobra -- all bands from out of the Pacific Northwest. Initially they were promoted through Doomed & Stoned and then found their way to small-to-medium sized record labels and festivals. Over half of the bands that played the Vinyl Stage at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the inaugural year of Psycho Las Vegas were my direct recommendations. Though I was less involved in the following year, Psycho Las Vegas booked most of the bands that appeared at Doomed & Stoned Festival, such as Merlin, Toke, and Youngblood Supercult. It was a huge confidence booster in Doomed & Stoned’s ability to be a “taste tester.” This is not to say our taste in bands has always been picked up by festivals or record labels. The scene is getting bigger and out of necessity bands have to diversify their reach through a multiplicity of media outlets, because you never know who will read that one feature at the right time and dig your sound. Besides, there’s too much music in the doom-stoner subgenre for any one site to cover right now, so there are plenty of great recommendations coming from a number of amazing blogs and webzines.

What's the last album to grab you by the throat and insist you listen?

Definitely ‘Celestial Cemetery’ (2017) by Purple Hill Witch. I was only a nominal fan of their first album, but their second one was quite convincing, emotionally. There’s an underlying sadness to the record that appeals to me as a person who has long battled depression.

Celestial Cemetery by Purple Hill Witch

What's the hardest thing you encounter in promoting shows?

Convincing people that live music is worth leaving the comfort of our homes to experience, to say nothing of many benefits that come from connecting others in the underground music community. These days, we tend to value how conveniently something can be delivered to us. Audio books have replaced the need to sit and read (and collect printed media), our homes have become veritable theaters so no need to go out for movies anymore, and streaming high-definition music makes us feel like we’re in some sense getting the real deal.

Of course, those of us who go out to shows know there’s just no substitute for the excitement, energy, and sound of a well-produced live show, especially in a small venue. This is to say nothing of the community that comes with it. My best friendships in the scene have come about because I chose to breach my comfort zone and venture out to a show, sometimes merely on a whim. With that said, I admit I struggle with convincing myself to go out. It’s the introvert in me, I suppose. However, I have a saying that I try to live by: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”

Witch Mountain -- first tour with Kayla Dixon (Film by Billy Goate)

If you could write a 1,000 word essay on one song, which one would it be, and why? What makes that song so important?

Funny, I actually did write a 1,000+ word essay on Cough’s “Possession” -- the only song I’ve been moved to write an entire piece about so far. I think it’s because it spoke to me during a time in my life where I was feeling such raw, charged emotion and witnessing a personal transformation from being a happy-go-lucky, easy-going dude, to someone emptied of hope and weighted down by a very nihilistic outlook and pessimistic thinking. This was, in turn, keeping me more closed off from other people, because my trust level was at an all-time low.

I’ve always valued music for its ability to commiserate with me in my circumstances. During Basic Training it was Superunknown and Down on the Upside by Soundgarden. In my college days, it was Alice in Chain’s last album just prior to the death of Layne Staley, which fans nicknamed Tripod. In 2016, Cough returned after a long absence, released Still They Pray, and headlined the first ever Doomed & Stoned Festival in Indianapolis. It was a year of transition for me with a lot of upheaval in my personal life and “Possession” seemed to capture my inner storm perfectly, which inspired me to write a few words about it.

Give us three bands that we need to keep our eyes out for.

White Wail: The grooviest psychedelics this side of Berlin are nested right here in Yob country, my hometown of Eugene, Oregon. White Wail is best described as part-Graveyard, part-Radio Moscow, with a special kind of DIY electricity that has made them hands down one of the most entertaining live acts in the region. Their upcoming second album is going to put them on the map for many people, I predict.

I by White Wail

Reptile Master: Norwegian doom-sludge clan with two guitars, two basses, a drum, and one unhinged vocalist. You’ll find none fiercer. “The Sorcerer’s Weed” (opening number off their first LP, In The Light of a Sinking Sun) is positively frightening. I can feel its seething rage filling up my chest cavity like pneumonia every time I listen to it. I believe they’re expecting a new album out in the first quarter of 2019, if not sooner, and I can't wait!

Chrome Ghost: The ultimate contrast of light and dark come to us from a relatively unknown band in Roseville, California. The secret sauce here involves incredible vocal harmonies pitted against massive, crunchy riffs, something that’s done very effectively in their recent EPs, ‘The Mirror’ (2018) and ‘Reflection Pool’ (2017). Now, they just need to take this show on the road so the world can get better acquainted with them.

Shallows by chrome ghost

Tell us about your personal music collection. Vinyl? CD? What's your prized possession?

People think I have a huge vinyl collection, but mine is quite modest, really. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a bigger collection and show it off, but unfortunately, I haven’t a lot of money to put into it, really. My most prized records come from bands I’ve supported from their earliest stages, like Holy Grove, Menin, Soom, or Vokonis. CDs have come to dominate my collection, not so much by choice, but quite a few promos are sent to me that way. Mostly, I have a vast digital collection that takes up almost six terabytes of data. Since I’m doing a lot of podcasting, this allows me the easiest point of access to put together my mixes for The Doomed & Stoned Show.

BelzebonG at Psycho Las Vegas (Film by Billy Goate)

What is it about this particular type of heavy music that makes it mean so much to you?

To me, doom metal and stoner rock has incredible staying power. It’s something I can listen to over and over again without growing weary of it. Add to that the fact bands in this genre take so much care in crafting their live sound and you can go to any doom-stoner show knowing you’re going to have an incredible time, perhaps even walk away with a better experience than the record gave you. I was constantly disappointed by the concert experiences I had while immersed in mainstream metal. It just never sounded as good as the records did. With doom-stoner music, my experience has largely been that a band's show can, and often does, transcend their studio recordings. It’s just the ethic of our scene; we're fanatical about sound.

With BelzebonG

What makes it all worthwhile for you?

That's a really good question. My philosophy is that as long as we’re all still having fun, it’s worth it to keep doing Doomed & Stoned. With that said, it can be very demanding and stressful, especially as we’re increasingly turned to by bands, labels, and PR firms to host track and album premieres. The gratification of a piece well done -- whether by me or by one of my team members -- is ultimately what keeps me going day-to-day. I find a lot of joy in developing talent and even helping writers and photographers hone their craft, gain greater name recognition, and develop the confidence to even branch out on their own as freelancers. Several have gotten gigs with larger outlets like Noisey due to their work here and that just blows my mind.

When Melissa first started, she wasn’t confident at all that she could do an interview. Next thing you know, she’s interviewing Wino, negotiating contracts with promoters, booking venues, and organizing a music festival with international acts. I’ve very proud of the team and everyone who has been a part of it, if only for a season. I'd add to that my relationships with growing record labels and ambitious promoters, who I've been able work with to get bands like Tombstones, BelzebonG, Spelljammer, Vokonis, Cardinals Folly over here to play for the first time in the United States.

With Disenchanter

How would your life be different if you weren't spreading the word about music?

I suppose I’d be spending more time playing the piano, something I’ve neglected more than I’d like to admit since starting Doomed & Stoned. There are some gnarly pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin, Godowsky, and Prokofiev that I've half-chewed, just waiting for me pick them back up again. Either way, I don’t think I can stay passively involved in music. I have to be playing it or writing about it, preferably both.

Usnea play 'Random Cosmic Violence' (Film by Billy Goate)

Ever been threatened by a band or a ravenous fan?

No, but I’ve been doggedly pursued on Facebook by overly enthusiastic bands trying to get me to review their albums. What they don’t realize is that I’ve got a very heavy editing backlog -- it takes at least 2 hours and more commonly 4, 6 or even 8 hours –- to prep a feature length piece for publication. To review a record, I need even more time to let it soak in. I have to find something in it that connects with me on an emotional or at least an intellectual level or I can’t write about it. Because of that, I don’t write very many reviews a years. Maybe a half-dozen traditional, track-by-track reviews, though I do try to write at least one short review a week on our Facebook page.

Part of the blessing and the curse of doing this as a hobby, as opposed to full-time, is I don’t have a lot of opportunity to hear gossip, get into interpersonal dramas, know who's not speaking to whom -- that kind of thing. With that said, I really wish I could spend more time responding to every message I receive and developing deeper level friendships. Perhaps in time I will. My work schedule is so packed right now that it’s very hard for me to tear away and just relax and get to know people. On the positive side, it does save me from a lot of inter-scene conflict and allows me to be more of a neutral party when issues arise between bands, venues, promoters, forums, or fans.

Saint Vitus Live in Portland (Film by Billy Goate)

In the end, what would you like to have accomplished, or be remembered for?

I’m hoping we can be remembers for documenting this special era in heavy music history. I want to get better at showcasing the bands in their scenes and telling their stories, just like the writers and photographers of the Seattle grunge era were able to capture the imagination of the world with the Nirvana-Soundgarden-AIC-Pearl Jam vibe of that scene in the early-to-mid ‘90s -- what the 1996 documentary Hype! captured so well. I also hope I’ll be remembered for writing interesting, engaging, and relatable music reviews that aren’t pretentious crap. That’s still a work in progress!

Bell Witch at Doomed & Stoned Fest (Film by Billy Goate)

Many people may not realize the hours you devote to what you do for little or no pay. Is there a day job? If so, how do you find the balance?

This is most certainly not a day job. I have a full time job that I work 40-50 hours a week and I do Doomed & Stoned in the evenings and weekends. Right now, I’m not doing very good with the balance, to be honest. I’m an unrepentant workaholic, if I’m being honest with myself. That said, every other weekend, my mind and body revolt and refuse to allow me to do anything except sleep or just lay around watching movies or doing normal things like, you know, mowing the lawn. If I could will it, I wouldn't sleep more than four hours a night, hit every show that comes to town, review every new release, put out a podcast every week, edit every article within a few days of it being submitted to me. In other words, I'd manage Doomed & Stoned as if it were a full-scale entertainment website. However, I have to remind myself that I started this to build community and to have fun, so it’s okay to operate on a different model.

Filming Elder at Dante's in Portland (Photo by Matt Amott)

What's next? Any new projects?

This year, we’re on a roll with our compilations, thanks to some wonderful organizers who are embedded in their local scenes and are good at rounding up tracks from all the participating bands. We’ve released Doomed & Stoned in Ireland, Doomed & Stoned in Philadelphia, and Doomed & Stoned in New Zealand, Doomed & Stoned in South Africa, Doomed & Stoned in Sweden, and we're coming up on Doomed & Stoned in Deutschland, and our fifth anniversary compilation, Doomed & Stoned in Portland III.

Other than that, we’re in the third year of our flagship festival, Doomed & Stoned Festival, which takes place on October 6th & 7th in Indianapolis. Over the summer, we’ve had two new festivals: Chicago Doomed & Stoned Festival and Ohio Doomed & Stoned Fest. We’ll likely be doing a festival in Portland later in the summer, too, perhaps doing an all-dayer in Eugene, too. These are very much passion projects and we're lucky to break even on them, but the joy of putting on a successful fest that brings together members of the community, that brings bands like Vokonis and Cardinals Folly to the United States for the first time, is totally worth it. This is history in the making. More than that, it's vital therapy for our people -- refueling our storehouses with the power of the Riff!

Finally, other than the music, what's your other burning passion?

I have cats that I love to death. I’m a fanatical collector of B-movies, from the ‘60s and ‘70s especially –- the more awful the movie is, production wise, the more I delight in it. Probably that has a lot to do with growing up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. When B-movies and cats collide with music, I’m in a very happy place (see the band Gurt!). Also an avid fan of vintage comic books -- many of the narratives of the pre-code 1950s comic books were taking chances that rival many of the shocking storylines of Marvel and DC today. Surprisingly, one of the themes that I see recurring between titles is DOOM! It's a delight every time I discover one of these stories. Art, film, and music have a very important, symbiotic relationship and I find it tremendously gratifying to play historian and trace the threads of the past into the present and watch how they continue to evolve into the future.

I've also got a gang of cats that keep me in line and like to be very involved with the production of Doomed & Stoned, so much so that I've had to make cat beds in front of my monitor and in the drawer of one of my desks for a pair of twins I adopted from the pound some years back. They absolutely are enthralled with that desk of mind, whether I'm editing an article or interviewing someone for a show! Best of all, they love them some doom. They sleep soundly every time I've got the likes of Sea Bastard or Serpentine Path rumbling my speakers. Wouldn't trade 'em for all the vinyl in the world.

Meet The Team

North America

Billy Goate (Editor in Chief -- Oregon), Melissa Marie (Executive Editor -- Indiana), Frank Heredia (California), Elizabeth Gore (California), Stephanie V. Cantu (Texas), Chris Schanz (Washington), Papa Paul (Pennsylvania), Zachary Painter (Texas), Alex Watt (Oregon), Alyssa Herrman (Oregon), Hugo Guzman (California), Lara Noel (Chicago), Suzi Uzi (Chicago), Jamie Yeats (Montana), Stephanie Savenkoff (Oregon), Corey Lewis (Oregon), Colton Dollar (California), Adam Mundwarf (Oregon), Dan Simone (Ohio), Shawn Gibson (North Carolina), Tom Hanno (New York), Eric The Red (Oregon), Justin Cory (Oregon), Jamie LaRose (Florida).

International

Roman Tamayo (Mexico), Sally Townsend (Australia), Calvin Lampert (Switzerland), Mari Knox (Italy), Svempa Alveving (Sweden), Juan Antonio (Spain), Angelique Le Marchand (UK), Jacob Mazlum (UK), Mel Lie (Germany), Silvi Pearl (Austria), Simon Howard (Australia), Matthew Donk (UK), Willem Verhappen (Netherlands).

Doomed & Stoned would also like to thank contributions from Ben Edwards, Brian Schmidt, Bucky Brown, Cherry Darling, Chris Latta, Curtis Parker, David Glass, David Knottnerus, Doomstress Alexis, Doug McHardlane, Drew Smith, Eleanna Safarika, Gonzalo Brunelli, Gustav Zombetero, Hannah Rachel Lowe, Jake Wallace, Joey Demartini, Johnny Hubbard, Jules Maher, Leanne Ridgeway, Marcel van der Haar, Mathew Jacques, Mona Miluski, Patrick Alex Thorfinn, Paul Bracamonte, Randy Beach, Sabine Stangenberg, Sandra Mez Russotto, Sandy Wright, Sarah Eriksson, Sean Schock, Stef Dimou, Steph LeSaux, Steve Howe, Thäedra Clare, Wendy Yashira, Ygor Silva, and so many others who have supported us directly or indirectly.

Mona Miluski from High Fighter sporting our basic black

Show your Doomed & Stoned pride! Get a t-shirt or sticker and become a patron of The Doomed & Stoned Show. You can also check out and share our free scene-by-scene compilation series. Donations help us to fund cool projects, such as new t-shirt designs, patches, etc. and helps with the much needed funds for web-hosting, data storage, and lots more besides. Most of all, we value your regular readership. Thanks so much for being a member of the Doomed & Stoned family!

[patriotsnet]

Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-republicans-riot-after-obama-was-elected/

Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

Undocumented Kids Are Saved By Obamas Executive Order Daca Which Would Put A Halt To Deportation For Those Whod Entered The Country Before Age 16 And Yet In A Bid To Get The Gop To Come Over To His Side On Immigration Reform The President Has Also Deported A Record 15 Million People In His First Term

A Family Caught in Immigration Limbo

When Belsy Garcia saw her mother’s number appear on her iPhone on the afternoon of June 15, she felt what she calls the “uncomfortable fluttering” sensation in her chest. She knew that daytime calls signaled an emergency. The worst one had come the previous year, when her sister told her ICE agents had placed their father in federal custody.

Garcia was attending Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, when her father was marched out of her childhood home. As an undocumented immigrant — like both of her parents, who are from Guatemala — she couldn’t qualify for loans. She financed her ­education through scholarships and a stipend she earned as a residential assistant. Now she wondered if her mother was calling to say her father had been deported, which might force her to leave school to become the family’s breadwinner.

But this call was different. “Go turn on the television,” Garcia’s mother said. “You’re going to be able to work, get a driver’s license.”

Onscreen, President Obama was announcing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States as children could apply for Social Security numbers and work permits. Garcia qualified: Her parents had brought her to this country when she was 7 years old. DACA transformed her into a premed student who could actually become a doctor. “It was like this weight was lifted,” she says. “All of that hard work was going to pay off.”

In The Next Hundred Days Our Bipartisan Outreach Will Be So Successful That Even John Boehner Will Consider Becoming A Democrat After All We Have A Lot In Common He Is A Person Of Color Although Not A Color That Appears In The Natural World Whats Up John Barack Obama White House Correspondents Dinner

And Then There Were Three

The first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court did so in 1880. It would take another 101 years for a woman to sit on that bench rather than stand before it. Even then, progress was fitful. Over the 12 years that Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg served together, their identities evidently merged; lawyers regularly addressed Ginsburg as “Justice O’Connor.” When O’Connor retired in 2006, she left the faux Justice O’Connor feeling lonely. Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned of something far more alarming: What the public saw on entering the court were “eight men of a certain size, and then this little woman sitting to the side.” They might well represent the most eminent legal minds in America. But there was something antiquated, practically mutton-choppy, about that portrait.

How many female justices would be sufficient? Nine, says Justice Ginsburg, noting that no one ever raised an eyebrow at the idea of nine men.

Seal Team Six Kills Osama Bin Ladenraiding His Secret Compound In Abbottabad Pakistan While Obama And His Top Advisers Watch A Live Feed Of The Mission From The White House Situation Room The Picture Of The Assembled Becomes The Last Supper Of The Obama Era

Poop Feminism

For me, it’s one moment. All the bridesmaids have come to the fancy bridal shop to see Maya Rudolph try on wedding dresses. This should be a familiar scene: The bride emerges from the changing room and … This is the dress! The friends clap. The mother cries. Everyone is a princess. Go ahead and twirl!

But when the bride emerges in Bridesmaids, almost all of her friends have started to feel sick. Sweat coats their skin. Red splotches creep over their faces. They try to “ooh” and “aah,” but it’s already too late. It starts with a gag from Melissa McCarthy, followed by another gag. Then a gag that comes simultaneously with a tiny wet fart. It’s the smallness of the fart that’s important here. It’s the kind of fart that slips out — a fart that could be excused away, a brief, incongruous accident. Women don’t fart in wedding movies, and women certainly don’t fart at the exact moment that the bride comes out in her dress. This can’t be happening. ­Melissa McCarthy blames the fart on the tightness of her dress. We breathe a sigh of relief.

Then sweet Ellie Kemper gags, and the sound effect is surprisingly nasty. Ellie’s face is gray. Melissa’s face is red. They look bad. They are embarrassed. How far is this going to go?

The camera cuts. We are above now. We look down from a safe perch as the release we have been anticipating and dreading begins. It is horribly, earth-­shatteringly gross. A woman has just pooped in a sink. The revolution has begun.

The Government Acquires A 61 Percent Stake In Gm And Loans The Company $50 Billion The Auto Bailout Will Eventually Be Heralded As A Great Success Adding More Than 250000 Manufacturing Jobs To The Economy

The Auto Industry Gets Rerouted

“The president was very clear with us that he only wanted to do stuff that would fundamentally change the way they did business. And that’s what we did. There were enormous changes. For example, General Motors had something like 300 different job classifications that the union had. If you were assigned to put the windshield wipers on, you couldn’t put tires on. And we wiped all that stuff out. We basically gave back management the freedom to manage, to hire, to fire. People stopped getting paid even when they were on layoff. We reduced the number of car plants so that there wasn’t so much overcapacity. So now, when you have 16 million cars sold , they’re making a fortune.”

Black Lives Matter Activists Are Arrested In Baton Rouge Louisianaprotesting The Murder Of Alton Sterling; More Than 100 People Are Detained In St Paul Minnesota Protesting The Murder Of Philando Castile

What Is the Point of a Quantified Self?

Melissa Dahl: The Fitbit was introduced at a tech conference eight years ago. It’s kind of incredible to realize that, before then, this idea of the “quantified self” didn’t really exist in the mainstream.

Jesse Singal: I feel like it’s the intersection of all these different trends: Everyone plays video games these days. You got smartphones everywhere. And people are realizing that solutions to the big problems that lead to sleeplessness and anxiety and bad eating — unemployment and income inequality and yada yada yada — aren’t gonna get solved anytime soon.

MD: That’s interesting, because all of this self-tracking is also, according to some physicians, giving people more anxiety! A Fitbit-induced stress vortex.

Cari Romm: It feels like productive stress, though. I’m talking as a recovered Fitbit obsessive, but it does make you look at Fitbit-less people like, “You mean you don’t care how many steps you took today?”

MD: Oh, God. I don’t care. Should I care? Sleep is the one thing I obsessed over for a while. Which does not really help one get to sleep.

JS: Do you think an actually good and not obsession-­inducing sleep app could help, though?

MD: There’s some aspect to the tracking idea that really does work. I mean, it’s just a higher-tech version of a food journal or sleep journal, right? Ben Franklin 300 years ago was tracking his 13 “personal virtues” in his diary.

JS: Would Ben Franklin have been an insufferable tech-bro?

Officer Darren Wilson Fatally Shoots Michael Brownin The St Louis Suburb Of Ferguson Sparking A National Protest Movement And Setting Off Unrest That Will Remain Unresolved Two Years Later

On the Triumph of Black Culture in the Age of Police Shootings

In the two years since Mike Brown was fatally shot by the police in Ferguson, and the video footage of his dead body in the street went viral, we have seen the emergence of a perverse dichotomy on our screens and in our public discourse: irrefutable evidence of grotesquely persistent racism, and irrefutable evidence of increasing black cultural and political power. This paradox is not entirely new, of course — America was built on a narrative of white supremacy, and black Americans have simultaneously continued to make vast and essential contributions to the country’s prominence—but it has become especially pronounced. And it’s not just because of the internet and social media, or the leftward shift of the culture, or black America’s being sick and tired of being sick and tired. In fact, it is all of these things, not least two terms with a black president. In the same way that black skin signals danger to the police , his black skin, to black people, signaled black cultural preservation. African-Americans didn’t see a black man as the most powerful leader in the free world; we saw the most powerful leader in the free world as black. This is what comedian Larry Wilmore was expressing at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner when he said, “Yo, Barry, you did it, my nigga.” It was a moment of unadulterated black pride.

Militants Attack American Compounds In Benghazi Libya Killing Us Ambassador Chris Stevens And Three Other Americans There Will Eventually Be Eight Congressional Probes Into The Incident

“I Know I Let Everybody Down”

“Before the debate, David Plouffe and I went in to talk to him and give him a pep talk and he said, ‘Let’s just get this over with and get out of here,’ which is not what you want to hear from your candidate right before the debate. We knew within ten minutes that it was going to be a ­debacle. We had armed him with a joke — it was his 20th anniversary, and he addressed Michelle — and it turns out Romney was expecting just such a line and had a really great comeback. And Romney was excellent — just free and easy and clearly well prepared and showed personality that people hadn’t seen before. Obama looked like he was at a press conference.

We had a meeting at the White House and he said, ‘I know I let everybody down and that’s on me, and I’m not going to let that happen again,’ and that was his attitude. We always had debate camps before, where we’d re-create in hotel ballrooms what the set would look like, and all of the conditions of the real debate. When we went down to Williamsburg, Virginia, for the next debate camp, he seemed really eager to engage in the prep. We had a decent first night. That was on Saturday. On Sunday night, Kerry, playing Romney, got a little more aggressive and Obama a little less so; it looked very much like what we had seen in Denver. It was like he’d taken a step back.

Scott Brown Is Elected Massachusetts Senatorturning Ted Kennedys Seat Republican For The First Time Since 1952 And Suddenly Throwing The Prospect Of Passing Obamacare Into Jeopardy

Plan B

“I’m talking to Rahm and Jim Messina and saying, ‘Okay, explain to me how this happened.’ It was at that point that I learned that our candidate, Martha Coakley, had asked rhetorically, ‘What should I do, stand in front of Fenway and shake hands with voters?’ And we figured that wasn’t a good bellwether of how things might go.

This might have been a day or two before the election, but the point is: There is no doubt that we did not stay on top of that the way we needed to. This underscored a failing in my first year, which was the sort of perverse faith in good policy leading to good politics. I’ll cut myself some slack — we had a lot to do, and every day we were thinking, Are the banks going to collapse? Is the auto industry going to collapse? Will layoffs accelerate? We just didn’t pay a lot of attention to politics that first year, and the loss in Massachusetts reminded me of what any good president or elected official needs to understand: You’ve got to pay attention to public opinion, and you have to be able to communicate your ideas. But it happened, and the question then was, ‘What’s next?’

Sheryl Sandbergs Lean In Hits Bookstores Making The Feminist Case That Women Should Be More Aggressive And Ambitious In Their Careers And Making Feminists Themselves Very Angry

The “Mommy Wars” Finally Flame Out

After decades of chilly backlash, we find ourselves, these past eight years, in an age of feminist resurgence, with feminist websites and publications and filmmakers and T-shirts and pop singers and male celebrities and best-selling authors and women’s soccer teams. Of course, as in every feminist golden age, there has also been dissent: furious clashes over the direction and quality of the discourse, especially as the movement has become increasingly trendy, shiny, and celebrity-backed.

Perhaps the most public feminist conflagration of the Obama years came at the nexus of policy and celebrity, of politics and pop power. It was the furor over Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who gave a viral 2010 TED Talk about women in the workplace who “leave before they leave” — who alter their professional strategy to accommodate a future they assume will be compromised by parenthood — which led to the publication of her 2013 feminist business manifesto, Lean In.

It’s a lesson of the Obama era: One approach to redressing inequality does not have to blot out the others. Sometimes, attacking from all angles is the most effective strategy.

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis Laces Up Her Pink Running Shoes And Spends Ten Long Hours Attempting To Filibuster A Billthat Wouldve Imposed Statewide Abortion Restrictions

“The Concept of Dignity Really Matters”

“I was given an enormous degree of latitude. I did communicate with the White House counsel on occasion about high-profile cases, but it was much more in the nature of just giving them a heads-up, to calm any nervous feelings they might have. There’s only one exception to that, and it was on marriage equality, in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case in 2013. We were contemplating coming in and arguing that it was unconstitutional for California to refuse to recognize the legal validity of same-sex marriages. But we didn’t have to do it . And because it was a discretionary judgment, and it was such a consequential step, that was the one matter where I really sought out the president’s personal guidance. I wanted to make sure the president had a chance to thoroughly consider what we should do before we did it. It was really one of the high points of my tenure. It was a wide-ranging conversation about doctrinal analysis, about where society was now, about social change and whether it should go through the courts or through the majoritarian process, about the pace of social change, about the significance of the right at stake. He was incredibly impressive.

A Golf Summit Between John Boehner And Barack Obama Stirs Hopethat Perhaps The Two Parties Will Come To A Budget Agreement And Forestall A True Crisis Secret And Semi

A Grand Bargain That Wasn’t, Remembered Three Ways

“The president of the United States and the Speaker of the House, the two most powerful elected officials in Washington, decided in a conversation that they both had to try to make something happen. Maybe it would be the way it worked in a West Wing episode in a world that doesn’t work like a West Wing episode. That’s how it started — two individuals saying we’re going to try. I think they both shared a belief in the art of the possible, and they both did not think compromise was a dirty word.

When our cover was blown — a Wall Street Journal editorial came out saying that Boehner and Obama were working on this and attacking the whole premise — that was devastating. It resulted in Cantor being a part of the talks. Cantor and Boehner came in, and I think it was a weekend private session with the president in the Oval Office, and they were talking about the numbers. At one point Cantor said, ‘Listen, it’s not just the numbers. There’s concern that this will help you politically. Paul Ryan said if we do this deal, it will guarantee your reelection. If we agree with Barack Obama on spending and taxes, that takes away one of our big weapons.’ There were so many obstacles, some of them substantive — how much revenue, and what about the entitlements? — but there was also this overlay of ‘This is going to help Obama.’

Illustrations by Lauren Tamaki

The Obama Administration Unveils Its Plan For Regulating Wall Streetwhich Is Then Introduced In Congress By Senator Chris Dodd And Representative Barney Frank

MJ=JC?

Lane Brown: Michael Jackson’s death was a big deal for lots of obvious reasons, including the surprising way it happened and the fact that he was arguably the most famous person on the planet.

Nate Jones: He was an A-lister with an indisputable body of work; he was 50 years old, his hits were the right age — old enough that every generation knew them, but not too old that they weren’t relevant anymore.

LB: But it was also the first huge celebrity death to happen in the age of social media, or at least the age of Twitter.

NJ: MJ’s death came alongside the protests in Iran, which was when Twitter went mainstream.

LB: It also meant that so much of the instant reaction was to make it all about us.

Frank Guan: In a lot of ways, the culture prefers the death of artists to their continuing to live. Once an artist gets launched into the stratosphere, there’s no way to come down, and that permanence becomes monotonous. They run out of timely or groundbreaking material and the audience starts tuning out. At some point, their fame eclipses their art, and then the only way to get the general audience to appreciate them anew is for them to die.

LB: People seem to like the grieving process so much that even lesser celebrities get the same treatment.

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords Returns To The House Floor For The First Time Since Being Shot In A Massacre In January Casting A Vote In Favor Of The Debt

A Rare Moment of Unity

“I was doing intensive rehabilitation in Houston at the time but was following the debate closely, and I was pretty disappointed at what was happening in Washington. I’d seen the debate grow so bitter and divisive and so full of partisan rancor. And I was worried our country was hurtling toward a disastrous, self-inflicted economic crisis. That morning, when it became clear the vote was going to be close, my husband, Mark, and I knew we needed to get to Washington quickly. I went straight from my rehabilitation appointment to the airport, and Mark was at our house in Houston packing our bags so he could meet us at the plane.

That night, I remember seeing the Capitol for the first time since I was injured and feeling so grateful to be at work. I will never forget the reception I received on the floor of the House from my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. And then, like I had so many times before, I voted.

I worked so hard to get my speech back, and honestly, talking to people who share my determination helped me find my words again. I’ve been to Alaska, Maine, and everywhere in between. Best of all, I got back on my bike. Riding my bike once seemed like such a huge challenge. It seemed impossible.”

Miley Cyrus Twerks At The Mtv Vmassetting Off A Controversy About Cultural Appropriation That Soon Ensnares Seemingly Every White Pop Star On The Planet

• Karlie Kloss wears a Native American headdress and fringed bra at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

• Justin Timberlake is accused of appropriating black music when he tells a black critic “We are the same” after praising Jesse Williams’s BET Humanitarian Award speech about race and police brutality.

• DJ Khaled gets lost on Jet Ski, snaps the whole time.

• Two UW-Madison students snap their meet-cute as the entire student body cheers them on.

• Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers films and mocks an anonymous woman in the gym shower.

• A Massachusetts teen records the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl. The video is later seen by a friend of the victim.

Prior To Going To War In Iraq Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Optimistically Predicted The Iraq War Might Last Six Days Six Weeks I Doubt Six Months

What’s more, Vice-President Dick Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people after we overthrow Saddam.

They were both horribly wrong. Instead of six weeks or six months, the Iraq war lasted eight long and bloody years costing thousands of American lives. It led to an Iraqi civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites that took hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Many Iraqi militia groups were formed to fight against the U.S. forces that occupied Iraq. What’s more, Al Qaeda, which did not exist in Iraq before the war, used the turmoil in Iraq to establish a new foothold in that country.

The Iraq war was arguably the most tragic foreign policy blunder in US history.

In 2012 Republicans Predicted That Failure To Approve The Keystone Pipeline Would Send The Price Of Gasoline Sky High And Kill Large Numbers Of Jobs

Despite the fact that the Keystone Pipeline was not approved, the price of gasoline continued to drop below $1.80 per gallon, millions of new jobs were created and unemployment dropped from 8% to 4.9% by early 2016. The most optimistic predictions say that the Keystone Pipeline would only create a few dozen long-term jobs and would do nothing to lower the price of gasoline.

Eric Cantors Stunning Primary Loss Suggests No Politician Is Safe From The Rage Of The Tea Party Not Even The Tea Partys Canniest Political Leader

From Party’s Future to Also-Ran in a Single Day

On the day his political career died, Eric Cantor was busy tending to what he still believed was its bright future. While his GOP-primary opponent, David Brat, visited polling places in and around Richmond, Virginia, Cantor spent his morning 90 miles away at a Capitol Hill Starbucks. He was there to host a fund-raiser for three of his congressional colleagues — something he did every month, just another part of the long game he was playing, which, he believed, would eventually culminate in his becoming Speaker of the House.

The preceding five years had brought Cantor tantalizingly closer to that goal. In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s election, he’d rallied waffling House Republicans to stand in lockstep opposition to the new president’s agenda. In 2010, he’d helped elect 87 new Republican members, giving the GOP a House majority and making Cantor the House majority leader. He became the champion of these freshmen members, stoking their radicalism during the debt-ceiling fight and working to undermine Obama and John Boehner’s attempt to strike a “grand bargain.” His alliance with the ascendant tea party was strategic — it gave him leverage not only over Obama but over other Republicans who might also have had aspirations of becoming Speaker. It never occurred to him that the wave he was trying to ride might crash on him instead.

In 1993 When Bill Clinton Raised Taxes On The Wealthiest 15% Republicans Predicted A Recession Increased Unemployment And A Growing Budget Deficit

They weren’t just wrong: The exact opposite of everything they predicted happened. The country experienced the seven best years of economic growth in history.

Twenty-two million new jobs were added.

Unemployment dropped below 4%.

The poverty rate dropped for seven straight years.

The budget deficit was eliminated.

There was a growing budget surplus that economists projected could pay off our national debt in 20 years.

Republicans Predicted That We Would Find Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction Even Though Un Weapons Inspectors Said That Those Weapons Didn’t Exist

The Bush administration continued to insist that WMDs would be found, even when the CIA said some of the evidence was questionable. As we all know, the WMDs predicted by the Bush administration did not exist, and Saddam Hussein had not resumed his nuclear weapons program as they claimed. Ultimately, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney had to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Republicans Predicted That President Obamas Tax Increase For The Top 1% In 2013 Would Kill Jobs Increase The Deficit And Cause Another Recession

You guessed it; just the opposite happened. In the four years following January 1, 2013, when that tax increase went into effect, through January 2017, unemployment dropped from 7.9% to 4.8%, an average of more than 200,000 new jobs were created per month, Wall Street set new record highs, and the budget deficit was cut in half.

Over 5.7 million new jobs were created in the first two years after that tax increase. That’s more jobs created in two years than were created during the combined 12 years of both Bush presidencies.

In 2001 When George W Bush Cut Taxes For The Wealthy Republicans Predicted Record Job Growth Increased Budget Surplus And Nationwide Prosperity

Once again, the exact opposite occurred. After the Bush tax cuts were enacted:

The budget surplus immediately disappeared.

The budget deficit eventually grew to $1.4 trillion by the time Bush left office.

Less than 3 million net jobs were added during Bush’s eight years.

The poverty rate began climbing again.

We experienced two recessions along with the greatest collapse of our financial system since the Great Depression.

In 1993, President Clinton signed the Brady Law mandating nationwide background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun.

Apple Announces That It Has Sold 100 Million Iphoneswithin A Few Months It Will Overtake Exxonmobil As The Most Valuable Company In The World

Earthlings Gain a New Appendage

What if we had the singularity and nobody noticed? In 2007, Barack Obama had been on the trail for weeks, using a BlackBerry like all the cool campaigners, when the new thing went on sale and throngs lined up for it. The new thing had a silly name: iPhone. The iPhone was a phone the way the Trojan horse was a horse.

Now it’s the gizmo without which a person feels incomplete. It’s a light in the darkness, a camera, geolocator, hidden mic, complete ­Shakespeare, stopwatch, sleep aid, heart monitor, podcaster, aircraft spotter, traffic tracker, all-around reality augmenter, and increasingly a pal. At the Rio Olympics you could see people, having flown thousands of miles to be in the arena with the athletes, watching the action through their smartphones. As though they needed the mediating lens to make it real.

This device, this gadget — a billion have been made and we scarcely know what to call it. For his 2010 novel of the near future, , Gary Shteyngart made up a word, “äppärät.” “My äppärät buzzing with contacts, data, pictures, projections, maps, incomes, sound, fury.” Future then, present now. His äppäräti were worn around the neck on pendants. Ours are in our pockets when they aren’t in our hands, but they also sprout earbuds, morph into wristwatches and eyeglasses. Contact lenses have been rumored; implants are only a matter of time.

Let’s face it, we’ve grown a new organ.

Republicans Said Waterboarding And Other Forms Of Enhanced Interrogation Are Not Torture And Are Necessary In Fighting Islamic Extremism

In reality, waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation that inflict pain, suffering, or fear of death are outlawed by US law, the US Constitution, and international treaties. Japanese soldiers after World War II were prosecuted by the United States for war crimes because of their use of waterboarding on American POWs.

Professional interrogators have known for decades that torture is the most ineffective and unreliable method of getting accurate information. People being tortured say anything to get the torture to end but will not likely tell the truth.

An FBI interrogator named Ali Soufan was able to get al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah to reveal crucial information without the use of torture. When CIA interrogators started using waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods, Zubaydah stopped cooperating and gave his interrogators false information.

Far from being necessary in the fight against terrorism, torture is completely unreliable and counter-productive in obtaining useful information.

In 2008 Republicans Said That If We Elect A Democratic President We Would Be Hit By Al Qaeda Again Perhaps Worse Than The Attack On 9/11

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney stated that electing a Democrat as president would all but guarantee that there would be another major attack on America by Al Qaeda. Cheney and other Republicans were, thankfully, completely wrong. During Obama’s presidency, we had zero deaths on U.S. soil from Al Qaeda attacks and we succeeded in killing Bin Laden along with dozens of other high ranking Al Qaeda leaders.

Game Of Thrones Arrives On Televisionwith An Assemblage Of Dragons Torture Nudity Incest And Despair A Show The Whole Family Can Enjoy

Explaining Kale

ADAM PLATT: Many things in Foodlandia, these days, have a political element to them, and if you want to emblazon a flag to be carried into battle, you could do worse than a bristly, semi-digestible bunch of locally grown kale.

ALAN SYTSMA: To eat kale is to announce you’re a person who cares about the matters of the day.

AP: The idea of kale is much more powerful than kale itself. In short order it went from being discovered, to appreciated, to being something that was parodied. Frankly, I’m all for the parody.

AS: The same thing happened to pork. Remember bacon peanut brittle? Bacon-fat cocktails? There’s bacon dental floss.

AP: Ahhh, bacon versus kale. The two great, competing forces of our time.

AS: Do you think one gave way to the other?

AP: What we’re really talking about is artisanal bacon, and the more sophisticated-sounding pork belly, made from pigs that were lovingly reared at upstate farms and fed diets of pristine little acorns. Bacon is the great symbol in the comfort-food, farm-fresh-dining movement, a kind of merry, unbridled pulchritude. Kale is the righteous yin to pork’s fatty, non-vegan yang.

AS: But pork has an advantage: People like the way it tastes.

AP: That’s a huge advantage, one that will hopefully see it through to victory.

[queenofmoons67]

The World Knows Our Name

Summary: More than a decade in the future an incident reveals werewolves to the world. As the True Alpha, the American 'wolf community pushes Scott forward as their main representative, throwing the entire McCall Pack into the spotlight as people try to figure out what to do with this revelation.

Notes: This happens a little more than a decade in the future, when Scott is thirty years old. This was written before season six aired.

It is the 11th fic in my series “The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack”. It can be read without reading the others, but for those who have read them: because it takes place in the future, the pack hierarchy has changed and more people have joined it, while others have left (sorry, but I didn't think the McCall Pack could last ten years without a death).

The new hierarchy, in order, is: Scott, Kira, Stiles, Derek, Melissa, the Sheriff, Chris, Liam, Hayden, Mason, Lydia, Isaac, Malia, Braeden, Parrish, Corey, Ethan, Danny, Brett, Lori, Naomi (OC), Jackson, Marshall (OC).

The title is adapted from Hamilton's "Alexander Hamilton".

WARNING: There is a mention of self-harm in this fic. There is another warning right before the paragraph it's in, and it's easy to skip.

The truth began as a rumor no one believed, spreading for the simple fact that it seemed impossible. A werewolf, they whispered. With yellow glowing eyes and claws and fangs. A werewolf's been found in Virginia.

The truth began as a horror story no one wanted to believe, spreading for the simple fact that more danger lay in not believing and being caught off guard. An omega, they whispered. Trapped in a jail cell on his second full moon with no alpha and no control. An omega's the death of us all.

The truth… the truth was online for everyone to see in full technicolor HD video within a week, and when the rumor and horror story became truth, the only surprise anyone really had was that it took that long. Then the truth set in, and so did the panic.

Scott yawned as he rolled over in bed, the ringing phone piercing his sensitive ears. "Mm… what time is it?" Kira murmured from beside him, eyes still shut.

"Two am," her mate replied softly, thumbing the answer button. "Scott McCall, may I - mmph," the alpha rubbed sleep from his eyes, trying not to yawn. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Turn on your TV."

"Wha- Satomi?"

"Yes."

"What are you - what are you calling so late for?"

"Turn on your TV, Alpha McCall."

This woke him up fully. She always called him Scott unless there was a serious reason, usually one that also required her deferring authority to him. "What channel?"

"Any of them, though a news channel would be best." Scott nodded, though he knew she couldn't see him, and flipped the TV on while making sure his worry didn't flow through the pack bonds, ignoring the click over the line that told him the other alpha had hung up.

"- Has been transferred to a high security prison. One can only hope that it's enough to hold him," a news anchor stated.

"You don't think he deserves the benefit of the doubt? Callie, he was only in jail in the first place for being in the middle of a bar fight he didn't even start."

"That may be true, but have you considered what might have happened if the deputies hadn't managed to stun him? He could have killed someone! As it is, one of the young officers remains in the hospital with severe injuries."

Slowly, Scott reached over and shook his mate. "Kira…" he said lowly, not taking his eyes from the TV as he sensed her stir.

"We don't automatically sentence people to prison for being criminally insane, we give them a trial," the second anchor argued. "We can do no less for him when he obviously had no control over his actions."

"This is…" Kira whispered, trailing off. Scott nodded anyway, knowing exactly how she felt. Until now, there had been hope that it was a lie, or that no one would believe the rumors. The news had discussed it jokingly, but now they were completely serious, trusting the story. There was nothing funny about it now.

Muting the TV, the alpha turned to his mate. "We need to prepare for the worst, more than we already have."

Kira nodded, slipping out of bed and throwing on jeans and a sweatshirt. "I'll get the adults up and in the War Room. Can you get the pups?"

"Yeah. I'll try and break it to them gently, calm them down. Do you…" Scott took a deep breath, considering the past and possible future events. "Do you think we should head out into the Preserve? Get the pack away from civilization, just in case? Or stick it out?"

"Stick it out," the kitsune stated firmly. "But pack easy-to-grab bags just in case."

With that, she headed out, while Scott pulled on clothes and kept thinking. He knew his mate was right, that wasn't a question. It had been the answer he was leaning towards anyway, as he now knew why Satomi had figuratively bowed to him. As the True Alpha, with a reputation before he even left for college, once he'd left school for good the 'wolf community had dragged him in deeper. Now filling a position similar to the one Talia Hale had held, he couldn't just leave - not even for the protection of his own pack. The 'wolves that would stay - the majority, he suspected, as it wasn't in their nature to run and hide - would turn to him and his pack for support and guidance.

The truth was that werewolves existed, and everyone knew it. There was no hiding from that, whether you were human or 'wolf.

Scott slipped silently from the master bedroom and moved down the hall. The door to the automatic right of his own was open, lamp light spilling softly out, and he knew Kira had decided to wake Stiles first. They'd split up - his mate probably staying on this floor to wake Derek, Melissa, the Sheriff, Liam, Mason, and their mates, while Stiles headed down one floor for Lydia, Parrish, Isaac, Malia, Ethan, Brett, Jackson, and their mates - and meet him and the pups in the War Room. Nicknamed by Stiles as such because it was the only room in the McCall Pack's Den big enough for everyone to sit down, with a giant conference table in the middle, they had planned everything from battles to dinners to marriages in there. But nothing like this. Never anything like this.

Scott paused outside a door two down from his own, willing away the fear-provoked red eyes. He didn't need to cause chaos the moment he stepped in the room.

Opening the door, he moved inside and whispered, simultaneously tugging on their pack bonds, "Lori. Naomi. Wake up."

Two pairs of glowing yellow eyes opened, both girls sitting up to take in their alpha as the flare eased. At the sight of them safe and uninjured, something in Scott eased. Despite both of them being in their mid-twenties, only a few years younger than Liam and already graduated from college, they were two of the three youngest in the pack, as well as two of the newest additions. Both taken together had caused quite a few protective urges in the older 'wolves, and no matter how many times they proved they could take care of themselves and weren't teenagers anymore, it would take several more years and a few more new additions until they stopped being "pups" to everyone.

"Come with me. We're getting Marshall, having a talk, and then meeting everyone else in the War Room."

The girls shared a glance, but followed him.

Marshall, unlike Lori and Naomi, was a pup in every sense of the word. Seventeen years old, he'd only been bitten by Scott a few months before when they'd found him dying in the woods from hypothermia (unfortunately, dying or in mortal danger seemed to be the state of every person Scott bit, from Liam and Hayden to Marshall and Naomi, who Lori had begged Scott to bite after a terrible car accident nearly took her life a few years back). Somehow, he'd managed to convince his parents to let him move into the Den. Part of it, Scott knew, had to do with him rooming with Jackson, whose parents were good friends with Marshall's parents. But otherwise, the alpha didn't have a clue - he knew his mother would never have allowed it, though then again, having first Peter the murdering psychopath and then Derek the doom and gloom murder suspect as an alpha were extremely different circumstances from having Scott the veterinarian (not that Marshall's parents knew the truth anyway).

Scott peeped into the room the last pup shared with Jackson, noting that the older beta was gone already. Stiles must have woken him already. "Marshall," he whispered, tugging on his pack bond like he had the other pups'. "Wake up."

The entire McCall Pack - twenty-three people strong - sat in silence around the table in the War Room. Emotions surged back and forth across the pack bonds, rebounding off each other, multiplying in strength - panic, fear, disbelief, anger. Scott and Kira had explained the situation and what the plans so far were, but with no one outside the pack knowing they were werewolves the best they could do was act normal and hope for the best. If no more werewolves were found, nothing would happen except a lot of speculation, possibly the passing of laws that would never affect them.

More werewolves were found. Or rather, old hunter families like the Calaveras and the Campbells got their information out there through the Internet, the media, any way they could guarantee that it would spread quickly. Within a day of the original video release, over fifty packs worldwide had been revealed to the public, along with the knowledge that more than just werewolves existed. Of the packs caught in the crosshairs of the rising panic, the McCall Pack knew the majority and had treaties with ten of them spanning across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The only reason they themselves hadn't been revealed in the information dump was that Chris's treaty with the Calaveras still stood. The truth was out there, and the McCall Pack couldn't just sit back and watch their world - their friends - turn to ash.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Stiles whispered, glancing out at the podium with the spotlight and cameras shining down on it and then back to Scott. "You don't have to. We can start out slow, if at all, and-"

"Yes, he does, and yes, he is," Satomi and Derek chorused, both glaring at Scott's right hand.

"Geez, sorry," he muttered, raising his hands in the universal 'I-give-up' gesture. "I just wanted to make sure."

"I know," Scott nodded. "But they're right. Even if I wasn't a True Alpha, I'm bound by treaties ten times over to help. There's no choice to make."

The moment Scott stepped on the stage, Kira by his side, the reporters and city leaders in the audience snapped to attention. The pack hadn't revealed much about the press conference, only sending out invitations stating that it was 'wolf related, knowing that would be enough.

"Many of you know us," the alpha began. "But for those who don't, I'm Scott McCall, Beacon Hills veterinarian."

"And I'm Kira, a science professor at Beacon Hills College and Scott's mate."

"Yes, mate," Scott continued. "I'm also the alpha of the McCall Pack. Our territory occupies about half of Beacon Hills, including the Preserve from the city line in."

"We're revealing ourselves today," Kira picked up, "because of the crisis facing the 'wolf community. Anyone in need of help of any kind, whether it is understanding our world or facing prosecution with who you are revealed, you can come to us. We'll do our best to help. Any questions?"

One reporter shouted, "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

The video of Scott and Kira, standing strong side by side, flashing red and orange irises garnered a record number of views on YouTube.

They had all thought things were going as fast as they could, but it didn't take long after the press conference to figure out they were wrong. Kira, and several other member of the pack guessed to be 'wolves just by association, lost their jobs. Marshall's parents refused all contact with him. Other alphas followed Scott's example, trying to show people trust in the hope they would return it. Others turned and ran, entire sections of communities all over the world disappearing without a trace overnight. The number of gun sales in the United States skyrocketed, and the amount of wolfsbane being imported into the cities was so large the scent of it followed the 'wolves wherever they went. But the final tipping points happened within the same hour as each other.

Kira, Derek, and Chris sat in the kitchen enjoying lunch, the TV on in the background and the voices of news anchors humming lowly. The pack's left hand, about to take a bite of his sandwich, suddenly jerked in his seat and whirled to face the screen, wolf blazing its way to the surface. A clawed hand grabbed the remote, muscles tense as he held back to avoid crushing it, and began turning the volume up. Blue eyes peered out from a jutting brow, entirely focused on the news. Kira and Chris exchanged startled glances. Whatever had scared Derek was cause for serious worry.

"- His condition has worsened, his body refusing to heal itself, and the doctors say he is not expected to make it," a voice reached a level regular ears could hear clearly.

"This is a grave day for us all," the second news anchor added. "This attack demonstrates the lowest humans can go. When frightened, we're no better than the animals the majority of us claim the werewolves are."

"And yet, Evan," Callie - Kira recognized her from that first night - continued, "We must ask ourselves if it's not a push in the right direction. Alvin Coleman has just been declared dead on arrival. Cause of death? A beta werewolf, completely in control of herself an entire two and a half weeks before the next full moon, ripped his throat out on the street."

"But you can't say he was completely innocent. Witnesses say the attack was provoked by multiple barbs, and the beta ignored him the best she could for several minutes."

"She tore his throat out with her teeth. There's nothing innocent about that, just pure savagery."

"Scott?" Chris asked into his phone, thumb on the mute button, eyes watching Derek and Kira. "The omega was just attacked in prison. And a beta killed someone in broad daylight. I suggest you get the pack home safely and then contact other alphas. We need to do something before this gets anymore out of control than it already is."

Seconds after Scott ended his call with Chris, his phone rang again. Frowning down at a number he didn't recognize, Scott answered it anyway.

"Alpha McCall?" a stranger's voice asked.

"Yes?"

"Alpha McCall, this is Alpha Quinn. I'm calling on behalf of the American Packs. Since the igniting incident, all that has come out of waiting for things to calm down has been chaos. I have discussed with multiple other alphas doing something that has never been done before - electing one alpha to represent us all. In the light of today's events, we came to a decision and reached out to other packs to make sure they were in agreement. They are."

"I never received a call," Scott frowned.

"That is because you are the agreement, Alpha McCall. Congratulations, you have been elected to the new position Representative of Werewolf Packs in the United States." Scott breathed in sharply, eyes widening and flashing red in recognition of the responsibility laid at his feet. "After this conversation, I will be contacting President Sandoval and letting her know of this development. I would expect a call soon after. Any questions you have can be directed to Alpha Ito. Do you understand and accept this position?"

Doing so would place his pack in the spotlight as a prime target for hunters, even more than they already were. Doing so would put them in the best place to help, especially with a pack as diverse as theirs. They were more than capable, Scott thought. He hoped. He knew. "Yes."

"Thank you, Alpha McCall. And good luck."

There was a click as Alpha Quinn hung up, but Scott barely noticed, too busy locking up the clinic and hurrying home.

Scott wandered the halls that night, senses reaching out to try and settle the red occasionally taking over the brown in his eyes. Kira, the scent of her lightning and the steel of her sword engrained within the very walls of the Den. Stiles, his heart beating just a little bit faster than everyone else even in sleep. Derek and Braeden, their scents entwined after more than a decade as mates. His mom and Chris, her distinct hospital smell mixed with his gunpowder from a marriage of five years. The Sheriff, an affectionate nickname now as he'd finally retired and become a consultant only a year before, snoring loudly. Liam and Hayden, in training to become the alpha pair when he and Kira eventually died as the more experienced of the four betas who could actually inherit his True Alpha power, sleeping and, judging by their steady heartbeats, without nightmares. Mason, who had taken over Deaton's position as Pack Emissary after the druid died in a car crash of all things, his job obvious to anyone with a good sense of smell and the right knowledge. Corey, who Mason had finally convinced to officially join the pack a year before the chimera proposed, his reptilian scent mixing perfectly with his husband's herbs.

Lydia and Parrish, banshee and hellhound, hearts beating in sync. Isaac, Ethan, Danny, and Jackson - three betas and one non-supernatural who'd all left at one point and returned home safely, their scents part of that unique McCall Pack smell. Malia, the lone source of the coyote smell in the Den. Brett, who'd gradually transitioned from Satomi's pack to his over the college years, and brought his sister Lori with him, their hearts beating similar tunes despite being on different floors. Naomi and Marshall, one fully integrated to the pack and the other still adjusting, still learning, but both their scents screaming McCall Pack.

WARNING: MENTION OF SELF-HARM IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

Satisfied that his entire pack was safe in the Den, the red faded entirely from Scott's eyes, but he didn't stop his wandering - which was, he admitted to himself, not wandering at all but guarding and marking his territory with each brush of his arm against the wall. There should have been more. As big a pack as they were, there should have been more. Allison, Aiden. Erica and Boyd. Deaton, of course, and… Scott hesitated, not wanting to go down that path. No matter how much the guilt had been relieved by pack members, it was still a dark road and one that, without fail, would send tendrils of pain carving their way down the pack bonds. The alpha breathed sharply, claws piercing his hands and the pain bringing him back to himself before he could think the name. The emotional pain, for the moment, pushed back by the physical.

Scott hurried through the Den, eased open the door, and bolted for the woods their home bordered. Within the safety of its trees, he dropped to all fours. A midnight run would, hopefully, clear his mind of past pains and future worries and burdens enough for him to get some sleep before his flight to Washington, D.C. in the morning.

"Don't go," Liam pleaded, panic and fear pulsing in his bond. Next to him, Hayden stood still, the same emotions emanating from her own bond, but eyes wide with understanding.

"They have to, Liam," she whispered, curling her fingers between his and squeezing.

"I'm not ready to… to… be you!" his first bitten beta cried.

Scott shook his head, smiling softly. "You'll be alpha eventually, and this practice run means you get to try it out with me coming back as a safety net. Besides, you won't actually be an alpha - you'll just be in command. And Stiles will still be here, and my mom and the Sheriff. And you have Hayden to support and advise you. Liam, you'll be fine. Besides, you've done stuff like this before."

"Not like this," Liam muttered, but still nodded shakily, his bond settling a little.

"Come here," the alpha commanded, opening his arms for a hug. The two betas gladly stepped into it, sighing as they felt his fingers run through their hair, curl around the backs of their necks, and finally squeeze tight around their bodies. They had watched him do it with their pack mates, and so had Derek, Kira, and Chris - instinct telling them to scent mark the ones they left behind more than they usually did, especially when they had no idea how long the trip would take.

Getting to D.C. wasn't the problem, as President Sandoval had sent a private plane. When they arrived, though, the press bombarded them the best they could considering the security surrounding them. All of them wanted to know why the president would go to such trouble for a group of people from Beacon Hills, California. All it took was one person recognizing him and Kira from the YouTube video the week before, and then the scene became more chaotic than it already was.

"Alpha McCall! Why did the president summon you to D.C.?"

"Alpha McCall! How could you leave the rest of your pack weakened without four of its top members? I thought pack protocol went against that."

"Werewolf! Are you here to defend your kind?"

"Alpha McCall! Has the president asked for the bite? Are you going to give it to her?"

"Alpha McCall! Is it true your bite has killed someone before?"

All the other questions, the sensory overload from the camera flashes and yelling, all that the pack could weather with little trouble. But at the last question, the pain that ripped through all the pack bonds from their alpha had Derek turning on the source, eyes blazing electric blue, fangs snapping in warning, a growl rumbling in his chest. The entire mass stilled, security unsure who they should defend and the reporters' eyes wide in fear. The spell broke when Scott stepped up to his beta, murmuring words so quiet only the 'wolves could hear them, and rested a hand on his shoulder. Security, assured that no one was about to be mauled, took the chance to push the reporters back - not that they were protesting much. Derek's eyes faded and his fangs vanished. Standing staunchly at his alpha's shoulder, mirrored on the other side by Kira and Chris, the four members of the McCall Pack made their way to the car waiting for them without further incident.

"Scott?" Kira murmured inside the car.

"Hmm?"

"Are you ok?"

"I will be. I have to be."

Derek, his anger closer to the surface ever since the world learned about werewolves and the omega was attacked and killed in prison, growled, "How did they even find out?"

"Medical reports?" Chris suggested. "His death was labeled as an animal attack, and it probably didn't take long for people to figure out most of those were actually supernatural. Taking into account the one bite, the fact he was found on McCall territory, and after Scott became an alpha… It wouldn't be hard to guess."

Scott nodded, mind flashing back unwillingly. His death. Dustin's death. A young boy, not even a teenager, out playing in the woods alone, unaware that another pack had made a move on the McCall Pack's territory and the preserve wasn't safe that night. He had, they guessed, heard the sound of fighting and, like all young kids that age, decided to investigate instead of running away. He'd run straight into the claws of a beta from the other pack fleeing the battle. Scott hadn't found him until after, when he'd bled too much to have a chance at the hospital and Scott… Scott had bitten him, hoping and praying that his youth and strength would turn him and save his life. They hadn't.

Like all other werewolf related things those days, the video went viral (though not as much as the picture of Alpha McCall shaking the president's hand on the steps of the White House did).

The next few weeks scraped by. Scott, as the True Alpha and Representative of Werewolf Packs in the United States, Kira, as his mate, Derek, as a born wolf, and Chris, as a hunter who found himself a member of a werewolf pack, found their days filled with explaining to and arguing with congressmen, Supreme Court justices, representatives of the House, and every other government official imaginable why, exactly, werewolves were people, deserved the same civil rights as everyone else, and did not need to be systematically hunted down and imprisoned, if not killed, by the United States Army. Most agreed with them, at least on some level, but there was always someone in the room who firmly believed they would eventually go to hell and there was no reason not to send them there early.

At the same time, Alpha McCall found himself fielding calls from 'wolves - omegas, betas, and alphas - across the country on issues, as well as calls from the Representatives of Werewolf Packs in other countries around the world to discuss what they needed to do (the formation of RPAW, Representatives of Packs Around the World, had been fairly quick). One of the first things they did was create and release "So Your Neighbor's a Werewolf" and "A Guide for Werewolves: How to Handle Your Entirely Non-Werewolf Neighbor's Issues With You". They may not have made much impact in resolving the riots, shootings, and maulings, but they did drastically decrease the number of calls and allowed the Representatives to focus on resolving those.

In the end, though, things didn't start calming down because of something RPAW did, but rather because of They Are Human Too, or TAHT. Their non-supernatural pack members, the McCall Pack members in D.C. learned, had not been sitting idly by (not that they thought they were, they just hadn't thought they were doing something quite this big). Led by Stiles and Melissa, TAHT had become immensely popular in Beacon Hills, quickly spread throughout California, and then went country and world-wide simultaneously, though slowly, with the non-supernatural members of other packs joining the charge. People who, for years, had been ignorant of the werewolf community only to find their families and best friends part of it, barely hesitated. With a movement to get behind, the people arguing werewolves were all monsters soon found themselves vastly outnumbered.

There would always be problems, they all knew that. Regardless of how many people accepted their werewolf friends, most remained at least a little wary. The Census of American Werewolves, with jail time if it was discovered you didn't reveal yourself, would likely pass. No one wanted unknown concealed claws and fangs any more than they did non-permitted concealed guns. Other laws meant only for werewolves would, over the coming months and years, be introduced as well. RPAW and TAHT would pick their battles carefully and fight the ones necessary. Some would pass anyway. Some wouldn't. For the moment, though, the McCall Pack - for the first time in two months - would be whole.

Note: You can find the complete series of “The Strength of the Wolf is the Pack” on AO3, and a list of all the fics’ summaries on Tumblr.

[gadgetgirl71]

Top Ten Tuesday 19 January 2021

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To

(You could take this opportunity to tell us what’s left on your seasonal TBRs from last year. Or books you were super excited about and then you didn’t get to them.)

A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde

It’s the season of new beginnings for Helena and Gilly.

Gilly runs her own B&B business from her much-loved family home, which she doesn’t want to part with – at any price.

But that’s before she meets handsome estate agent Leo, and soon she begins to wonder whether selling up might not be such a bad idea after all.

Meanwhile Gilly’s daughter Helena has a budding romance of her own. A talented weaver, she’s becoming very close to her new landlord, Jago, who’s offered to help her at an upcoming craft fair.

It’s what friends do, and they are just friends. Aren’t they?

With spring in full bloom, Helena and Gilly begin to ask themselves the same question:

Might their new loves lead to happily ever after?

Breathless by Jennifer Niven

Before: With graduation on the horizon, budding writer Claudine Henry is making plans: college in the fall, become a famous author, and maybe–finally–have sex. She doesn’t even need to be in love. Then her dad drops a bombshell: he’s leaving Claude’s mother. Suddenly, Claude’s entire world feels like a lie, and her future anything but under control.

After: Claude’s mom whisks them away to the last place Claude could imagine nursing a broken heart: a remote, mosquito-infested island off the coast of Georgia. But then Jeremiah Crew happens. Miah is a local trail guide with a passion for photography–and a past he doesn’t like to talk about. He’s brash and enigmatic, and even more infuriatingly, he’s the only one who seems to see Claude for who she wants to be. So when Claude decides to sleep with Miah, she tells herself it’s just sex, nothing more. There’s not enough time to fall in love, especially if it means putting her already broken heart at risk.

Compulsively readable and impossible to forget, Jennifer Niven’s luminous new novel is an insightful portrait of a young woman ready to write her own story.

Meet me in London by Georgia Toffolo

What do you do when your fake engagement starts to feel too real…

Aspiring clothes designer Victoria Scott spends her days working in a bar in Chelsea, and her evenings designing vintage clothes, dreaming of one day opening her own boutique. But these aspirations are under threat from the new department store opening at the end of her road. She needs a Christmas miracle, but one is not forthcoming.

Oliver Russell’s Christmas is not looking very festive right now. His family’s new London department store opening is behind schedule, and on top of that his interfering, if well meaning, mother is pressing him to introduce his girlfriend to her. A girlfriend who does not exist. He needs a diversion. Something to keep his mother from interfering while he focuses on the business.

When Oliver meets Victoria, he offers a proposition: pretend to be his girlfriend at the opening of his store and he will provide an opportunity for Victoria to showcase her designs. But what starts as a business arrangement soon becomes something more tempting, as the fake relationship starts to feel very real. But when secrets in Victoria’s past are exposed will Oliver walk away, or will they both follow their hearts and find what neither knew they were looking for…

Our Story by Miranda Dickinson

Otty has just landed her dream job. She’s about to join the writing team of one of the most respected showrunners in TV. And then the night before her first day, she’s evicted from her flat.

Joe has been working with Russell for years. He’s the best writer on his team, but lately something has been off. He’s trying to get his mojo back, but when his flatmate moves out without warning he has other things to worry about.

Otty moving into Joe’s house seems like the most obvious solution to both their problems, but neither is prepared for what happens next. Paired together in the writing room, their obvious chemistry sparks from the page and they are the writing duo to beat. But their relationship off the page is an entirely different story, and neither of them can figure out why.

And suddenly the question isn’t, will they, or won’t they? It’s why won’t they?

An epic and modern love story for our times, we will all see ourselves reflected in Otty and Joe. We are our own biggest barriers and this novel explores what happens when we get out of our own way. And it is glorious.

The Summer Villa by Melissa Hill

Three women. One summer reunion. Secrets will be revealed…

Villa Dolce Vita, a rambling stone house on the Amalfi Coast, sits high above the Gulf of Naples amid dappled lemon groves and fragrant, tumbling bougainvillea. Kim, Colette and Annie all came to the villa in need of escape and in the process forged an unlikely friendship.

Now, years later, Kim has transformed the crumbling house into a luxury retreat and has invited her friends back for the summer to celebrate.

But as friendships are rekindled under the Italian sun, secrets buried in the past will come to light, and not everyone is happy that the three friends are reuniting… Each woman will have things to face up to if they are all to find true happiness and fully embrace the sweet life.

An epic summer read about food, friendship and the magic of Italy, perfect for fans of Mary Kay Andrews and Susan Mallery.

A Home from Home by Veronica Henry

Sunshine, cider and family secrets…

Dragonfly Farm has been a home and a haven for generations of Melchiors – arch rivals to the Culbones, the wealthy family who live the other side of the river. Life there is dictated by the seasons and cider-making, and everyone falls under its spell.

For cousins Tabitha and Georgia, it has always been a home from home. When a tragedy befalls their beloved great-uncle Matthew, it seems the place where they’ve always belonged might now belong to them…

But the will reveals that a third of the farm has also been left to a total stranger. Gabriel Culbone has no idea why he’s been included, or what his connection to the farm – or the Melchiors – can be.

As the first apples start to fall for the cider harvest, will Dragonfly Farm begin to give up its secrets?

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

How much can a family forgive?

A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne—sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Francis and Lena’s daughter, Kate, and Brian and Anne’s son, Peter. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story, while tested by echoes from the past, is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

Behind Red Lips by M R Smith

Her confidantes are a rubber duck and a diary she calls Rajah. She tiptoes on the edge of the love cliff, but to her an imaginary love life is safer than taking the plunge with a real one. She dreams about men who remind her of her long lost love, Mason, yet when she bumps into him she panics and runs away.

Her heart crushed by a long-ago betrayal, Charlotte cannot find happiness unless she confronts the ghosts of her past and deals with the realities of the present.

This touching love story wends its way through the ups and downs of Charlotte’s life as she tries to deal with her emotional problems and find a way to heal her broken heart.

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.

Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother’s birth through the lens of his camera. Photography–and fate–introduce him to Ana, whose family’s interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War–as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel’s photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.

The Women at Hitler’s Table by Rosella Postorino

Inspired by the powerful true story of Margot Wölk, this is a heartbreaking and gripping historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Beekeeper of Aleppo

East Prussia, 1943. Hitler hides away in the Wolfsshanze – his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war and his enemies circle ever closer. Ten women are chosen. Ten women to taste his food and protect him from poison.

Twenty-six-year-old Rosa has lost everything to this war. Her parents are dead. Her husband is fighting on the front line. Alone and scared, she faces the SS with nothing but the knowledge every bite might be her last. Caught on the wrong side of history, how far is Rosa willing to go to survive?

Until next week.

#JustForFun, #Top Ten Tuesday, #TopTenTuesday, #TTT

[tabloidtoc]

National Enquirer, July 27

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Prince Harry trapped in marriage from hell to Meghan Markle 

Page 2: Mariah Carey has slimmed down again and the formerly plump pop star’s recent pics have stunned doctors who believe she’s lost at least 60 pounds in the last year and experts believe the recent weight drop may have come with some medical assistance plus experts warn the star’s constant weight swings have placed her health at risk 

Page 3: Paris Jackson bravely reveals suicide ordeal -- admits many attempts after losing dad Michael Jackson 

Page 4: Shia LaBeouf got his whole chest permanently inked to get into character as a vicious gangster for his new movie The Tax Collector 

Page 5: Head-over-heels Ben Affleck is raring to have a baby with girlfriend Ana de Armas, Ashton Kutcher has rushed to the rescue of Hollywood pariah Lea Michele and now he’s on the outs with wife Mila Kunis -- Lea has been blasted as a despicable and cruel and entitled bully by former castmates on Glee and Broadway but Ashton who was paired with Lea in the 2011 rom-com New Year’s Day thinks she’s gotten a raw deal while Mila thinks Ashton is crazy for sticking his neck out for someone he hasn’t seen that much over the last decade 

Page 6: The bizarre marriage of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has hit a crisis point over another man and the blowback may push them toward a $270 million divorce -- both Will and Jada have denied humiliating reports that she was involved in a torrid two-year affair with their son Jaden Smith’s pal singer August Alsina with Will’s blessing 

Page 7: Christina Ricci’s domestic battery call was just round one in what promises to be a bitter divorce brawl with husband James Heerdegen -- Christina secured an emergency protective order against James after cops were called to the couple’s Woodland Hills home after he allegedly spit at her and now Christina has filed for divorce and sole custody of their five-year-old son Freddie, Sarah Palin and husband Todd Palin quietly finalized their split 

Page 8: Lonely Caitlyn Jenner has lost hope of making a love connection with 24-year-old live-in Sophia Hutchins and she’s on the hunt for romance and the 70-year-old longs for a partner to give her the affection she craves

Page 9: Tubby Adam Sandler and dumpy Denzel Washington have packed on the pounds during lockdown and now docs fear the Hollywood heavyweights may be digging their graves with a fork and spoon -- Denzel weighs close to 250 pounds and Adam is five-foot-ten and weighs 230 pounds 

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Brooke Shields in the Hamptons wearing a patriotic bikini,  Brooke Burke on a swing in her backyard, pregnant Sophie Turner out for a walk in Encino 

Page 11: Lara Flynn Boyle stepped out in L.A. during quarantine to stock up on essentials including a bottle of vodka but with sagging jowls and a puffy trout pout the actress was nearly unrecognizable, Tom Cruise is a dominant individual who left costar Thandie Newton terrified and insecure while filming Mission: Impossible 2 and Tom has since sent her Christmas gifts linked to his controversial religion of Scientology 

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Millie Bobby Brown with alien balloons (picture), Alicia Keys and Beyonce have both struck a sour note with their Black Lives Matter music tanking -- Alicia’s Perfect Way to Die is nowhere on the charts and few are lining the streets to cheer Beyonce’s Black Parade, Chris Pratt needs to finish filming Jurassic World: Dominion in London in the next few months just when he and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger are expecting their first child so Chris will have to make a choice between work or his wife and new baby -- Chris is contractually obligated to be on set when they start although every effort will be made so he can take the 11-hour flight home on weekends, producers of RHOBH have discouraged the housewives from being political on the show because the audience is far more interested in personal drama and fights between the ladies but Lisa Rinna intends to change all that when the show starts filming again and she plans to use her platform to push her views on climate change and other issues, despite the raging pandemic The Bachelorette Clare Crawley won’t be wearing a mask and neither will any of her suitors because the show is about escape and people watch it to forget their troubles 

Page 13: Kanye West’s bizarre pronouncement that he’s running for U.S. president has the entire Kardashian family quaking in fear about the can of worms his candidacy could open -- Kardashian momager Kris Jenner is furious because it’s likely to trigger media scrutiny and probes by political opponents into the family’s private lives and business deals 

Page 14: True Crime 

Page 15: Cradle-robbing Mary Kay Letourneau’s scandal-scarred life came to a tragic and lonely end at 58 as she died of cancer after being dumped by her husband and reduced to living in squalor 

Page 16: Jeffrey Epstein’s galpal Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest has big shots shaking -- with Ghislaine behind bars there is growing concern their high-powered pals will try to quash evidence in the explosive sex scandal 

Page 18: Real Life 

Page 19: Jim Carrey has written a fictionalized autobiography but he was too scared to confront his biggest demons -- Jim was not eager to tackle sensitive subjects like his bitter divorce from first wife Melissa Womer and the 2015 suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White, activists have demanded the removal of the Confederate flag across America but that’s not stopping an Illinois museum from proudly displaying a piece of television history emblazoned with it -- the last surviving 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee used in the comedy classic Dukes of Hazzard 

Page 20: In a plot twist fit for one of his mystery thrillers novelist Dan Brown’s ex-wife Blythe claimed he lived a life of lies and charged he financed numerous secret affairs with their joint $178 million fortune, Julian Lennon is determined to get what he’s been denied by his stepmother Yoko Ono before she kicks the bucket -- Yoko is 87 year old and in a wheelchair and very ill plus she’s set to leave her son Sean Lennon who’s Julian’s half brother all of their father’s massive fortune -- Julian only wants what he thinks a son deserves and he pleading with Yoko to do the decent thing and give him a reasonable share 

Page 22: Health Watch 

Page 25: Denise Richards is so spooked by the coronavirus she refuses to do love scenes on The Bold and the Beautiful unless it’s with her husband -- she’s had her holistic healer husband Aaron Phypers added to the cast of the soap as a stand-in during intimate scenes, the Duke of Edinburgh has a shocking secret he’s hidden from the royal family for decades: he’s related to a busty pair of twin Playboy models -- Queen Elizabeth’s elderly husband Prince Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families but his wider familial ties extend to the U.S. which is home to Carla and Carmen Morrell

Page 26: Cover Story -- Heartsick Prince Harry trapped in living hell -- Meghan Markle’s demands leave him alone and miserable -- Harry feels lonely and directionless living in Meghan’s shadow as he struggles to find meaning in his life with a series of charity appearances designed to bolster the royal renegades’ image 

Page 28: Assistants Air Stars’ Dirty Laundry -- Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Frank Sinatra 

Page 29: Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Aniston, Christian Bale 

Page 31: Miley Cyrus has donated over $1.6 million to help homeless teens and vulnerable families though her Happy Hippie Foundation 

Page 32: Dying Ethel Kennedy has secretly ponied up a $1 million bounty to find the killer of Connecticut teen Martha Moxley in a bid to prove the innocence of her troubled nephew Michael Skakel

Page 34: Lizzo’s secret half-brother Brandon Johnson desperately wants to end a family feud with the singer 

Page 36: Scandal-scarred Johnny Depp was forced to walk the plank and exit the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise and Guardians of the Galaxy bombshell Karen Gillan has been asked to helm the next Pirates voyage and is set to snag a massive amount of money for the starring role 

Page 38: Gavin Rossdale seems to be pining over ex-wife Gwen Stefani five years after their split admitting he still thinks she’s incredible, Hollywood Hookups -- Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg split, Lily James and Chris Evans are on, Josh Brolin and third wife Kathryn Boyd are getting ready to welcome baby No. 2 

Page 42: Red Carpet Stars -- Margot Robbie 

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Jay Leno with his vintage Lincoln Continental 

Page 47: Odd List 

[inkyardpress]

Excerpt: Someone To Love by Melissa de la Cruz

o n e

“It’s not that I’m rebelling. It’s that I’m just trying to find another way.”

—EDIE SEDGWICK

The stall door won’t shut all the way.

What the hell kind of bathroom doors does our school have?

The kind with crooked doors that don’t always latch. The kind you don’t want to get caught in. Not with your head above the toilet. Not when you’re kneeling on the floor, puking your guts out. Not with a fifth of vodka—which I desperately need right now.

Shouldn’t the stalls all lock? Doesn’t matter anyway. I’m done.

I wipe my mouth and take a stick of gum from my purse and unwrap the shiny paper. It makes me think of Andy Warhol’s famous art factory, all wrapped in silvery aluminum foil and pulsing with artists and conversation. I can see Edie Sedgwick’s haunting face. Her platinum pixie. Smoky circles around her eyes. Dangling earrings. That megawatt smile. She may have been one of Andy Warhol’s superstars— those grimy, glamorous muses—but Edie was his angel too.

An angel wearing a leotard and fur coat, hiding in the backs of limousines and dingy clubs. Skinny as hell.

I’d rather be in New York. Studying art. Living in my own art factory. Get out of this sunshiny, swimming pool state. I crumple the paper into a ball, toss it into the wastebasket near the door and head for the sinks. I turn on the faucet. Pump soap onto my hands. Scrub. Scrub. Stare at the water slip- ping down the drain. Don’t look up.

I hate mirrors. Glass is dangerous. Water is dangerous. Windows are dangerous. Anything that ref lects myself back at me is a threat. A punishment.

Welcome to my Monday morning. It’s Eastlake Prep’s year- book photo day. Yeah. That Eastlake Prep—the one with the five-figure tuition and super-fancy alumni. Famous people have gone here, and famous people send their kids here.

It’s the end of September—we’re already a month into school—but I can’t seem to get into the swing of school. And I also can’t show up at photo day with frizzy hair and a pim- ple on my chin. As much as I hate taking them, I know the power of a class photo. Thirty years from now, when every- one has moved away and no one is following each other on social media anymore, people are going to pull out their year- book and look at you. That’s what you’ll be to them forever.

Do you want to be the girl with the greasy forehead? Or the bad bangs?

No. I didn’t think so.

The spotless surface reflects my double. I smooth my hands over my long dirty-blond hair and examine my skin, slightly jaundiced under the bathroom’s unflattering fluorescent light. The problem with mirrors is that they show me only what’s already there. It’s I who has to see the potential, who has to see how much more there is to lose. How much smaller I can be. How much closer to perfection.

Speaking of perfection: Zach Park.

He’s gorgeous. Thick dark hair tousled like he’s been loung- ing on the beach all day. Wide green eyes with teardrop curves that seriously make me want to stop everything and get lost in them for an eternity. I’ve had a low-key crush on him since the end of freshman year when he transferred here from a Korean private school.

I had only one class with him—the last semester of first- year English—but I doubt he remembers me. I mostly drew pictures of other people in the class on my notes to avoid looking at him too much, even though I was always listening to him. He was so well-spoken and mature. So different from the other teenage boys who seemed to be interested only in playing video games or whatever party they were planning for the weekend.

Zach actually liked talking about ideas. Whenever the teacher called on him, he would say something insightful that I’d never thought about before, and I loved when he vol- unteered to act out scenes from the books the class was dis- cussing, because Zach would bring them to life. It was like whatever character he was playing had stepped off the page into the classroom and was standing in front of you.

Not that I ever really talked to him. Today’s the day. Maybe.

I just have to pull it together for the camera, in front of all

the other junior and senior girls with their immaculate hair and carefully coordinated outfits, in front of Zach and his perfect jawline and forearms. Even thinking about all of them staring at me, wondering who the loser is who wandered into their perfect midst, is enough to make me want to skip school and never come back.

I screwed things up enough my freshman year. I was dating this guy—Ollie Barrios—who was a really popular junior bas- ketball player. I’d just lost a lot of weight and he was my first boyfriend. It felt amazing to be noticed. To be wanted—no, desired—by someone. I should have seen the red f lags though. Ollie was always telling me what I should wear or who should be my friends. He’d even choose my food at restaurants.

I ended up gaining some of the weight back during the first few months of school, and Ollie dumped me. We were leaving from my house to go to the homecoming dance. Ollie stopped me before I could get in the car. “We’re not going,” he said. “What do you mean?” I asked, thinking maybe Ollie made other plans.

“That dress makes you look like a stuffed sausage.” “I—I can go change,” I stammered.

God. I was so stupid. That would have just been putting lipstick on a pig.

“How much weight have you gained? Ten? Fifteen pounds?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

My skin was crawling. I wanted to escape my body. “Don’t you keep track? Most girls weigh themselves every day.”

“I’ll start eating better. Exercising,” I pleaded with him. “Whatever, Liv. You obviously don’t care about yourself.” He left me crying on the doorstep.

Ollie spread his version of the story around the entire school. He said our relationship wasn’t working out because he was an athlete and I wasn’t “disciplined” enough, which was obviously code for eating too much and not exercising enough. Everyone looked at me like I was the biggest loser. But Ollie was right. I was a fat cow. I immediately went on a revenge diet. I started fasting for days at a time, but then I would get so hungry that I’d binge and eat way more than any normal person should—pasta, burritos, ice cream, what- ever was available—and feel so guilty about bingeing that I’d puke everything up.

I’ll never let myself gain weight again.

I’m a yo-yo girl. What goes down must come back up.

I’ve been keeping myself from bingeing pretty well the past couple of months, but I still have to purge. I hate the feeling of being full. It makes me nauseous.

I smash the gum between my teeth, partly to cover the acrid smell, but mostly to give my mouth something to do. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. I try to push away the thoughts. I’m stronger than my hunger. I take a cleansing breath to clear my head.

One.

Food is disgusting. It never made you happy.

I exhale slowly. My breath is my mantra. My focus.

You are not a slave to your hunger.

Two.

I’m finally ready to take on this torturous rite of passage. I leave the bathroom and am walking around the corner  of Decker Hall when a guy staring down at his phone runs

into me, nearly knocking me over.

“What the hell?!” I say, then I realize I know him, a smile forming on my lips.

It’s Sam. We’ve been best friends since elementary school. “Sorry,” he says. “I was looking for you… You left class early.”

“Obviously.” I roll my eyes and make a sarcastic face at him. “I had to prep. Don’t wanna turn out wretched in my yearbook photo.” I look down at my simple, sleeveless black dress. The color suddenly seems so wrong. “What was I thinking? I look like a vampire. And not even the cool kind.”

“Oh please,” Sam says, laughing as he puts his arm around my shoulder. “You look great.”

“Greatly appalling,” I say. “Do we have to do this?”

I twist around to look into his deep blue eyes, trying to plead with him to cut class with me, but Sam doesn’t cut class. He actually likes school. He’s really smart—I’m sure he’s going to be a genius-level scientist someday—and handsome in that geeky, still-needs-to-fill-out kind of way, but there’s no way I’m ever going to tell him that.

“Why even bother asking?” Sam says.

“Fine,” I say, moving his arm off my shoulder. “You can at least walk me over to the shark tank. And button your shirt.” I don’t even wait for him. I start doing it myself.

Just like when we were kids. They don’t go anymore, but Sam’s parents used to take me sailing with him and his older brother, James, on the weekends. I remember standing on the deck, the boat going full speed, the wind whipping my hair back and forth across my face, feeling weightless and com- pletely free from the prison of my own body. Sam may not be the best at dressing up for yearbook photos, but he seemed so confident on those sailing trips. The way he handled the ropes so deftly, how he steered the boat with ease. I envied him, because Sam was the master of his own destiny on the water.

I miss those days.

“They’re yearbook photos. Who cares? We’re all just going to stuff them in our closets anyway,” Sam says.

“Wrong,” I say. “Yearbook photos are like diamonds. They’re forever.”

“Actually you’re wrong,” he says. “The whole concept of a yearbook is obsolete. Everyone blasts their lives on social media now, so what’s the motivation to rummage through some old book?”

He takes over buttoning his shirt when I get up to his neck. “Have you not seen the awful yearbook photos of celebri- ties on the internet? Just because they’re not on social media

to start with doesn’t mean they won’t end up there.”

A tie hangs limply from his pocket. “Do you know how to tie that?” I ask.

“I watched a tutorial,” Sam says. “It can’t be that hard.” I laugh.

We must look like a couple, but everyone knows we aren’t together. I love Sam. We always sit next to each other in classes because our names are so close. Sam Bailey. Olivia Blakely. He’s super smart and will probably do something ex- ceptional someday, like work on a giant particle accelerator. He’s also the most loyal guy I know.

He’s had a crush on a few girls over the years, but neither of us has been that lucky in love.

“We better get going,” I say, continuing on my way. “I want to be early.”

I start thinking about Zach. Again.

If only he knew that I exist. And that I’m totally in love with him. He’s always off and on with Cristina Rossi. God. That girl. Model gorgeous. And, since this is Los Angeles, she actually is a model. She even appeared half-naked for a Calvin Klein underwear campaign on a billboard next to the Chateau Mar- mont this summer. They both look like works of art. Ms. Day, my studio art teacher, might call them “aesthetically pleas-

ing.” Well-proportioned. Shapely. Statuesque.

Sam pulls the tie out of his pocket. He tries to tie it as he walks. It’s as defiant as his unruly hair. He can’t manage a Windsor knot to save his life.

“How ’bout just ditch the tie?” I say.

“Help me out, Liv. You’ve known how to tie these since the fourth grade.”

Out of the corner of my eye I see a guy with brown, slicked-back hair and a gray suit striding across the quad like he owns the school. Jackson Conti. He’s a mass of muscle and has the confidence to match. We sat near each other in biol- ogy sophomore year, but I haven’t hung out with him outside of school or talked to him much since then. I hear he’s plan- ning an event with Zach, who happens to be his best friend, in Marina del Rey on a 148-foot yacht that belongs to Sean Clark, an up-and-coming action movie star.

Did I mention that Zach is also an actor?

He played a minor part in one of Sean’s recent movies. Sean’s letting him borrow the yacht to throw a killer party for his friends and cast members while Sean’s out of town. It’s not the actors I’m interested in though—except Zach, of course. I overheard Cristina’s best friend, Felicity, whose fa- ther is a big art dealer, telling someone that Geoff LeFeber, a major contemporary artist, is supposed to be visiting from New York and might be going to the party. I guess one of the executive producers of the TV show Zach stars on knows him. It seems like a long shot that he’ll attend, but anything’s possible in Los Angeles. It’s a smaller place than people think. I have to be there. LeFeber’s my favorite living artist. He puts together these insane installations that completely alter your perception of reality. I’ve never been to one in person, but I watched a YouTube video the Museum of Modern Art put out that took you through this massive open room filled with tunnels of tape attached to the beams of the roof and pillars. It looked like you were caught in a giant spider’s web from the perspective of the f ly. Besides looking otherworldly, the installation was supposed to illustrate the dangerous in- toxication of curiosity and wonder. I love how LeFeber can make simple shapes and materials seem dreamlike and surreal. I may be a painter instead of an installation artist, but I’d die to talk to someone like LeFeber.

My parents are well connected, but they’re not that inter- ested in art. They’ve taken me—or have let me take myself— to a lot of museums, but never to gallery openings or lectures where the artist is actually present. There are so many ques- tions I would ask him. How do you come up with your ideas? Did anyone believe in your work when you were young? When did you really know you were an artist?

I’m determined to get an invitation to the party. A girl can hope.

I glance behind me. Sam has finally managed to finish tying his tie on his own. I’m glad I ran into him before pho- tos. Being around him usually makes me less nervous.

Now that I know Sam looks put together, I have to drum up the courage to see what I can find out about that boat party.

“I’ll be right back. There’s someone I gotta talk to,” I say, leaving him so I can catch up to Jackson.

It’s not like people don’t know me. Dad’s position as the Speaker of the House is high profile, but his job also means that I’ve spent a lot of time on both coasts and helping out my parents with their projects—mostly Mom’s literacy campaign and whatever hot topic Dad happens to be dealing with at the moment—which means less time for making friends in LA. After the Ollie incident, I’ve mostly been a loner the past couple of years. It’s not like I don’t have any friends, but I don’t put myself out there that much.

“Hey…Jackson,” I stutter. My stomach instantly hurts.

“Olivia.” He smiles. Jackson’s all teeth and eyebrows. He talks to people like a salesman. Like they’ll all be potential clients someday. I’m not interested in him, but he’s the one hosting the party so I pretend to f lirt. I have to be there.

“Is…that a new suit?” I ask. “You look great.”

God. I’m an idiot. What a suck-up.

“You do too,” he says. “That color is hot on you.”

Did he really just say that? I try to stif le a laugh, but this ugly, garbled half chuckle, half groan comes out of my mouth. Who takes sexy yearbook photos?

I can feel Sam following behind, so I grab Jackson by the

elbow to get away. I haven’t told Sam about my plan yet. He would think I’m being stupid. Or shallow.

“Going inside?” I ask, propelling him forward. “I hate school photos but really love our photographer, don’t you?” I don’t even know what I’m saying. I do this thing when

I get nervous and start talking about anything to avoid an awkward silence.

“She’s all right,” he says without much enthusiasm. “Made my teeth look big.”

“No!” I say to Jackson. “I mean, not too big. Plus, big teeth are in these days. Don’t you watch Silver Lake?” The entire reality cast has giant teeth, like they’re a bunch of big- toothed piranhas about to attack the cameras and each other in every scene.

“No…” he says. “Should I?”

“They all have them,” I say. “That big teeth thing.”

He stops, runs his tongue across his top teeth. “They do?”

I turn around. The hall is filling up. Here comes Sam. And Zach. And Felicity Pace. She’s basically a teenage so- cialite, with her bouncy blond hair, which she swings back and forth as she walks down the hallway, linking arms with Cristina Rossi.

A massive crowd of students begins to descend on us like a horde of gorgeous, perfectly groomed, well-dressed zombies. No. No. No. I need to talk to Jackson alone. It’s the only way I’m going to get invited to that party. Maybe I’ll never have a chance with Zach, but I might still have one with LeFeber. I have to talk to him.

I grab his arm again. We head into the photo studio and join the queue.

“So that boat party,” I squeak. “The one in Marina del Rey?”

“What about it?” Jackson asks. “Dad mentioned…”

I don’t want to tell him I overheard Felicity. Embarrassing. “Yeah?” he says. “Aren’t he and Sean pals?”

I nod. Ever since Sean Clark campaigned for my dad for the House, they’re tight. Dad totally went Hollywood.

My family is nearly perfect—at least to the public. There’s

Mr. and Mrs. Blakely, the charming political power couple, Mason, who turned his life around after rehab and now works in venture capital in Silicon Valley, and Royce, who has al- ready had an article published in the New York Times while in college.

Then there’s Olivia Blakely.

I’m just trying to survive my junior year of high school. “That’s cool,” he says. He seems like he’s about to say some-

thing else, but he looks over my shoulder. I whip around to see Zach and his entourage walking toward us.

Cristina. Felicity, her best friend. Thin. Tan. Fashionable. “Do you need us to bring anything Friday?” Felicity asks. “My parents bought a case of St. Germain. It’s delicious with champagne.”

“You lovely ladies just bring yourselves,” Jackson says. “Zach and I will take care of the rest. And don’t worry, we’ll make sure the girly drinks are there.”

My feet feel heavy. My purse feels like it’s hiding an entire system of gravity and slings toward the floor. I barely catch it. The girls are laughing at something Zach says.

It’s like they’re all talking in slow motion. So charming. So at ease with themselves.

I can’t outwardly hate them. They haven’t actually done anything mean to me other than to be.

But they don’t have to weigh every single piece of food they put in their tiny bodies like I do. They don’t have to count ounces and measure milliliters. Their brains don’t constantly tell them that they’re ugly and fat and should give up on their diets because they’re never going to meet their goals anyway. They probably drink to have fun with their friends. Not to numb the hunger long enough to fall asleep.

Jackson turns away from me to talk to Zach. I don’t even register on his radar.

There goes my stomach again. It feels full. Gorged. I wish I hadn’t eaten at all this morning. I’ll be bloated for the pictures. Then I really start to feel it. The invisibility. The cloak.

Like an atmosphere, it surrounds the real me. The fullness is totally noticeable now. My stomach is bursting. My brain burns with shame. I’m fat. Everybody can see how huge I am right now. From my cheeks to my fingers. My waist. My hips. My thighs.

I just want to be perfect. I want to be worth noticing.

Is that too much to ask?

I ate half a grapefruit for breakfast. I drank two cups of green tea.

Took two pulls of the vodka hidden in my closet. Just to take off the edge.

I feel every pound I weigh, and every ounce, like my life, is too much. Even though I already threw up at the end of class, I feel like I have to get it all out again. I excuse myself and run back to the bathroom and start heaving in the empty stall.

Something has to come out. Something. Anything.

  t w o

 “Creativity takes courage.”

 —HENRI MATISSE

 “Can anyone figure out the origin of this painting?” Ms. Day asks, fluffing her afro with one hand. Her gold hoop earrings glint under the light of the projector.

My mind wanders from the class, thinking about how the photo I took the last period turned out. The photographer took the picture before I was ready, and I’m almost certain I had a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look, but they only take one shot before they shuffle you off and move on to the next person in line.

“Look at the subject,” Ms. Day adds, patiently waiting for the class to respond.

The painting on the screen behind her shows a young woman wearing a pale pink dress being pushed on a swing above an admiring young man. The two figures aren’t touch- ing each other, but the artist painted their movements so dy- namically that they seem like they’re about to leap across the painting to embrace each other. A lush garden surrounds the lovers. Every leaf and f lower has been painted with an in- credible amount of detail and attention to light and shadow.

 A girl at the front—Emma—raises her hand.

“The fashion definitely looks English or French,” she says. Ms. Day nods. She’s not giving any hints.

I have her for two classes. AP art history and studio art. She’s the only teacher I feel like I can actually talk to honestly about my future goals. Not because I like her subject the most—though that’s true—but because she never mentions my parents. Or my brothers. Not that they would have ever dreamed of taking an art class.

“I’d say French,” Emma’s friend sitting next to her adds. “Even though she’s wearing stockings, the way her legs are exposed is too scandalous to be English.”

“Forget her legs.” Nate, a boy who sits in the back, snick- ers. “He’s looking up her dress. Bet he’s totally going to get him some.”

“Our very own connoisseur of the romantic arts speaks,” Ms. Day says. “Tell us more, Casanova!” The other boys snicker, but Nate’s too embarrassed to say anything else. I love how salty she can be with her students. She’s my favor- ite teacher.

Ms. Day turns away from the painting and gives him some serious side-eye. She puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “It is French. French Rococo, to be exact. The painting’s official name is The Swing. It was painted right before the Revolution by an artist named Jean-Honore Fragonard. The painting was commissioned by the notorious French libertine Baron de St. Julien as a portrait of his mistress. That’s all I’ll say for now. What do you think this painting is about? What’s the context?” The class is silent again. “History is important to under- standing art,” Ms. Day continues, asking us for our analysis of the piece before she gives us her interpretation. “But be- coming a truly great artist means keeping your soul trained on the future. What will someone hundreds of years from now think or feel when they view your painting? What speaks across time and culture? Think about what truly moves you as a viewer.”

Emma raises her hand again. “It’s kinda playful.”

“That’s right.” Ms. Day paces across the front of the room. “Many of the painting’s critics called it frivolous. Why do you think they might have used that word?”

“Well,” I say, leaning forward in my seat to see the paint- ing better. “It’s not like the subject is an important religious or historical person or event or anything. And the painting’s focal point is clearly her pink dress.”

“You think there’s more to the painting than that…” Ms. Day walks up the aisle and pauses by my desk, gesturing to- ward the painting. “Don’t you, Olivia?”

“She always has something to say,” Nate groans.

I ignore him. This is pretty much the only class in which I feel in my element.

“That playfulness that Emma mentioned? I think she’s right. I also think the painting is about seduction. Except the moment doesn’t seem so planned out. It’s like their de- sire is spontaneous.” I wonder whether someone will ever feel that way about me. Why do so many things have to come together perfectly for people to fall in love?

“The French would call that joie de vivre,” Ms. Day adds. “That translates to a cheerful enjoyment of life. An exulta- tion of the spirit. Of the soul. Everything one does becomes filled with joy. Conversation. Work. Play. Eating.”

I wish I could feel joy when I eat. The only thing I feel is dread.

“Why do you think the painting is about seduction?” Ms. Day asks.

“Besides the fact that the man on the ground is pretty much looking up her dress?” I pause for a moment. The boys in the back laugh. “They know they’re being provocative. She’s let- ting her shoe f ly off her foot like she’s Cinderella. He’s her Prince Charming. They’re gazing directly into each other’s eyes. Maybe they’re in love.”

“Or lust,” Ms. Day says. The class murmurs like they’re scandalized.

I trail off, thinking about Zach’s eyes and what I might feel if he ever looked back at mine that way. I’d probably melt into a puddle on the f loor.

While I’ve been thinking about Zach, Ms. Day has moved on to analyzing other parts of the painting. “What details do you notice? Look at the background.”

The class goes silent. We’re stumped.

“See this statue of a cherub on the left?” Ms. Day walks up to the screen and touches the left side of the painting. “Can you see what he’s doing?”

“Oh my god,” Emma squeals. “I totally see it.” Everybody squints and leans forward. We’re still all confused.

“The little cherub? He’s holding his index finger in front of his lips. He’s trying to keep everything a secret.”

Ms. Day smiles and draws circles around the other statutes in the garden with her finger. “What about the other sets of cherubs? The ones below the humans looking up?”

A few students respond to her question. “They look concerned.”

“More like afraid for her.” “I think they’re scowling.”

“Yes. This is obviously an illicit love affair,” Ms. Day says. “Yet the painter casts off the moral concerns of the day to illustrate a moment of lighthearted pleasure. It is frivolous. Free. In fact, the painting’s alternate title is The Happy Acci- dents of the Swing.”

“They’re definitely, like, living life to its fullest or whatever,” Emma says.

“YOLO,” Nate adds.

“Exactly.” Ms. Day laughs. “Homework for tonight is to research…”

I lose myself in my thoughts while she gives us tonight’s assignment.

I can barely remember the last time I felt truly happy like the woman on the swing. When I was younger, tapping into that feeling of freedom seemed so much easier. I could ride my scooter fast down the street. I could get on a swing and pump my legs until I was soaring high over the playground. What happened to that girl? Did I lose her?

Am I living my best life? Am I even trying to?

The bell rings for lunch and all the students start piling out the door. I slowly put my notes and my textbook in my backpack while Ms. Day turns off the projector.

“Olivia,” she says. “I wanted to tell you something in stu- dio art this morning, but you were out the door too fast. Do you have time to stick around for a few minutes?”

Of course I have time. It’s not like I actually eat lunch anyway.

I have only one rule about eating at school. I don’t do it. “Yeah,” I say. “What’s up?”

“There’s an opportunity that would be great for you.” She walks to her desk and grabs a neon-yellow f lyer. “One of my old friends from grad school is part of the staff at an art gal- lery that wants to feature young artists from the area.”

My pulse quickens. This could be huge. “Which gallery?” I ask.

“It’s called the Wynn. It’s fairly small, but they have a great schedule of contemporary artists lined up for this year. It would be a huge deal when you’re applying to art schools to say you’ve shown your work there already.”

“Sounds…great,” I say, unsure.

I’ve heard of the Wynn before. It’s an up-and-coming gallery that mostly features artists early in their careers, but I’m not sure I’m good enough. I sketch and paint constantly, but I don’t like showing my work to people. I come up with these concepts in my mind, but I can never seem to execute them exactly the right way. Sometimes I feel as if my skill will never match up with my vision.

“It’s a ways off—the show won’t be until near the end of the school year—but you have to submit a portfolio to be considered. They’re going to take only two or three artists total.”

How can I pull off a full show in eight months?

I’m a perfectionist. I take forever to put together a painting. “That sounds pretty intense,” I say. “I don’t know what I would paint.”

Ms. Day puts down the f lyer and looks at me. “Olivia. You need to start believing in your work. Really. It’s time for you to push yourself. Find your voice. You’ve been experiment- ing with figure drawing lately. Why don’t you try painting live models?”

I want to ask Ms. Day what she means by finding my voice, and exactly how I should go about doing that, when the fire alarm goes off.

“Really?” Ms. Day shakes her head. “We’ve had three of these damn things this week already. Wish I could catch what- ever little delinquent is responsible for this.”

Lights flash on and off as the alarm buzzes. The school installed these alarms with strobe lights that practically blind you. It’s most likely a false alarm, but they’re so annoying they make you want to leave the room.

She heads for the door. “You don’t have to decide now,”

she says, holding the f lyer out to me. “You’re the only stu- dent I am recommending for this, so please promise to think about it.”

“Yeah,” I say, taking the flyer, my stomach tightening with nerves. “I promise.”

t h r e e

“You live but once; you might as well be amusing.”

—COCO CHANEL

I’m sitting with Mom and Dad at a table at Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, dining under the chandeliers in the ambience of mahogany decor and literary ghosts. Faulkner. Hemingway. Fitzgerald. Steinbeck. Parker. You name the writer—they ate here. The restaurant is old Holly- wood classy. Waiters wear red jackets and black ties. Mom and Dad love this kind of stuff. A sense of history appeals to them. I had to go home after school to change just so I could go out to dinner with my parents, even though I have absolutely no interest in eating.

It’s Thursday. Today was supposed to be a fast day.

I’m trying to break a plateau. My goal is to get down to 100 pounds, and I’m not going to get there by eating ham steak or a rack of lamb or whatever.

When the waiter delivers my salad, Dad starts doing this thing he always does at these dinners, as if his life suddenly revolves around my eating habits.

“A house salad?” Dad asks. “That’s it?”

I get irritated with them at dinners because they’re always commenting on what and how much I put on my plate, making me feel guilty for whatever I do or don’t eat.

Believe me. I already judge myself enough for my own eating habits. Like those two Rice Krispies treats Mom made that I binged on yesterday? They made me feel terrible.

Words slip out before I have a chance to process. “Why do you care?”

Sometimes I want to stand on the table and inform the congressman: Sir, my life isn’t about shoving millions of calories of dead cow into my body.

They were the ones who encouraged me to lose weight in the first place. When I came home crying about how fat I was after Ollie dumped me freshman year, Mom was the first to help me go on a diet. She bought me weight loss guidebooks, exercise tapes and a food scale. I would give her a special list of what to pick up at the grocery store.

I counted every calorie. Weighed every ounce. Recorded every mile. It was healthy at first. I started to lose weight. Fast. I really did need to ditch some of the weight, but I couldn’t stop even after I lost all the weight I had gained.

And everyone, I mean everyone, was nicer to me. Even my parents. But I don’t want their attention anymore. They’re more controlling with me than they were with either Mason or Royce. Dad claims I’m more prone to extremes. Mom says I’m too hard on myself. I fail to see either. I’m pretty average.

Devastatingly average.

“Give me the benefit of the doubt,” he says. “I’m just saying that you don’t have to order the salad. Eat whatever you want. You used to like the Manhattan steak.”

I refuse to react. I take a small bite of lettuce, the smallest leaf I can find.

I chew thirty times, counting each one like a bead on a rosary.

30…29…28…27…

It’s way harder to come up with excuses for not eating at a restaurant, and I can’t go to the bathroom after dinner either. Too obvious. So I order light and chew my food for so long that when they’re ready to go, I end up leaving half my food on the plate.

I may be a fairly average teenage girl, but I’m strong-willed. Probably more so than any of those girls who hang around with Zach. I can put up a good fight.

I smile at Mom as if to say, Please keep the congressman behind the imaginary fence. She looks at me and shrugs. I guess I’ll have to fight this battle on my own.

So I feign deafness, take a sip of water and stare at the wood paneled walls, thinking about my conversation with Ms. Day right before lunch. Having my work shown at a real gallery would be an amazing experience. It would mean that I actually have the talent to be a professional artist someday. Just being good at art in your high school classes isn’t enough. I have to test myself outside of school too.

I want to put together a portfolio, but I don’t know where to begin. My mind goes blank every time I try to think of a concept or theme for the show. I need to find my inspiration.

If only I could talk to LeFeber…

“You might consider returning to Earth once in a while, Ms. Space Cadet,” Dad says. His mouth is moving, but his words are white noise. “Ground control to Olivia.”

I’m a disappointment to him. Not only am I not interested in his job, I don’t get as high grades as Royce and I’ll never be as popular as Mason was in high school.

He taps his fork on my plate, clanging the tines against the glass to get my attention. I stare at him, hoping my smoldering irises are enough to laser some more gray streaks into his hair. “I hope the rabbits across America aren’t starving…”

I scrunch up my forehead. What the hell is he talking about?

“You eat so much lettuce you must have tanked their food economy,” he says.

“Congressman Blakely,” I say, stabbing my fork into a leaf covered in sesame seeds, “I like salads, the rabbits will be just fine and, besides, I’m just not super hungry, okay?”

I started calling him Congressman Blakely about a year ago. I don’t know why, other than I thought it was funny. Maybe I was being a little mean. It’s a way for me to passively fight back in my own house. My own private revolution, for no reason other than that I’m a teenager. It’s practically my duty to get under my parents’ skin.

“Can you not be like this? I’d love to have a peaceful dinner.” Mom wipes a touch of water from her lips, then folds up her napkin into a perfect rectangle. She’s perfect. Intelligent. Tactful. Nothing—not one stray hair or wrinkled shirt— ever out of place.

I reach for my own napkin and realize it has fallen on the f loor. Compared to my mother, I’m a hot mess. I’m not diplomatic in social situations, and I can barely manage to find a clean pair of jeans in the mornings. I don’t know how I ended up so different from my parents. I would be the worst politician ever.

Dad has just opened his mouth to argue again when Mar- tin Barrios—Ollie’s father—approaches the table. Just seeing him makes me want to slink down in my chair and hide under the table. He’s wearing a black toupee slicked tight against his head and a blue suit that’s slightly wrinkled and damp from sweat. He’s fresh from the bar, face red, and too happy—way too happy for me anyway. He winks at Dad as if he knows some big secret. Not only is Mr. Barrios Ollie’s father, which is mortifying enough, he’s also worked with Dad on a big downtown renovation project, so there’s no getting away.

“Colin Blakely?” He squints at Dad and spills a few drops of his martini on the carpet. “Whoa! Don’t want to lose that,” he adds. “This is a Musso martini!”

Dad laughs. “I hope you brought that for me.”

“Why? Is this a celebration? I mean, I hope it is.” He looks at Mom. “You look lovely as always, Debra.”

“How’s Oliver doing at…” Dad pauses. “Where does he go to school again? Princeton? Or Dartmouth?”

“He’s a Princeton man. Double major in economics and Near Eastern studies.”

“That’s good to hear,” Mom says politely.

How can she keep smiling at him? I never told her exactly what Ollie’s comment was when he broke up with me, but she knows he said something horrible to me.

Then Mr. Barrios turns toward me, training his bloodshot eyes on my face.

“Olivia?” he says in faux surprise. It’s so fake I want to laugh.

“I’m her doppelgänger,” I deadpan. “The real Olivia has been claimed by the robotics industry and is now being mass manufactured.”

I imagine a hundred little replicas of myself and shudder. I can barely stand seeing myself doubled in a mirror, let alone a never-ending assembly line of Olivia Blakely dolls.

Mom shoots me a death stare. She doesn’t like when I’m sarcastic around adults. It’s a liability. I say they could stand to loosen up. Why take everything so seriously?

“Is she?”  He laughs  like  a factory-produced  automaton. “You’re all grown up,” he says. “You’ll be a marvelous woman. You have two great brothers. And mother…”

Gag. That’s when I stop listening. I shut him off completely. I’ve heard this speech before from a hundred different politi- cians. He’s lost interest within seconds anyway, because I’m not important to these kinds of people other than that I’m merely something to turn into a compliment for my parents. I check my phone. There’s a text from Sam. I answer as surreptitiously as I can. Mom and Dad don’t like when I text at the dinner table, but I can’t help myself.

SAM: Feeling better? LIV: Yep

SAM: Thinking about doing a bonfire at the beach. You down? LIV: I wish. Dinner with my parents

SAM: Bummer. Hang out tomorrow? LIV: Totally. I’m down.

SAM: I have a surprise for you. LIV: OoOoO. What is it?

SAM: It’s a surprise…

“Liv? Could you put your phone down, please?” Mom asks. She places her napkin on the table like she’s about to make a serious announcement.

“Yeah. One sec,” I say, rapidly texting Sam back.

LIV: Gotta go. Txt later

I was supposed to hang out with him after taking year- book photos yesterday, but I just felt like locking myself in my bedroom after the disaster with Jackson, so I gave him an excuse about not feeling well. I’m a terrible friend. I need to make it up to him.

Mr. Barrios has waded his way back to the bar. I really wish I could join him. Maybe he could buy me one of those fa- mous Musso martinis. I could use one.

Or three.

The buzz would help deaden the anxiety whirling in my stomach. I think about my conversation with Jackson— rehashing every tiny word and action over and over in my mind—until I convince myself that Jackson and all his friends, especially Zach, think I’m a freak who just wants to party with the popular people.

I’m feeling more nauseous by the second.

I’m just getting up to go to the bathroom when I realize Dad’s been trying to get my attention.

“Honeybee,” he says. He’s been calling me that since I stepped on a bee at my friend’s birthday at Griffith Park nearly ten years ago. “Don’t go just yet. I have something to tell the both of you.”

“Ugh,” I say and sit back down. “I have to pee. What is it?” Mom puts a hand on his arm. The news is something she’s been anticipating. I’ve always been able to read her. And Dad? He’s an open book. He’ll tell anyone whatever he’s thinking at any given moment. No secrets there. I guess that’s some- thing people admire about him, but I don’t understand. Ev-

eryone needs a secret to call their own.

“There’s a reason we went out on a school night,” he says. “What is it?” I ask absentmindedly, thinking about how much homework I have to get done tonight. I have at least

two hours’ worth. It’s going to be a late night.

Dad jolts me back into reality.

“I’m running for governor of California,” he says.

 My stomach drops.

“We’ve been waiting to tell you,” Mom says, her face full of joy. I’m pretty sure the expression on my face is communicating the otherworldliness of this announcement.

“Really?” I ask. “Are you serious?” “Couldn’t be more serious,” he says.

I should be happy for him, happy for his achievements, but this is terrible news. This means even more attention on the family and more stress during my junior year, which every- one knows is the hardest school year ever, especially since I have to start studying for the SAT, working on my portfolio and thinking about art school—or at least how I’m going to convince my parents to let me go there instead of a regular university.

All eyes are going to be on us. That means I have to be more perfect than ever. Stronger. Nothing should be able to take me down. Not food. Not school. Not this election.

I push the lettuce around on my plate and crush the croutons with my fork while Mom and Dad talk like old high school lovers, excited about this new opportunity.

“This is exactly what we need. Imagine not having to fly to Washington all the time.” I can tell that, in her mind, Mom is already decorating and ordering furniture for a new house. “We’ll live in the governor’s mansion. Sacramento is so lovely, and I miss having seasons.”

The timing couldn’t be worse.

My entire junior year is going to be taken up by this campaign. Probably part of my senior year too. Everything will be about him. Like always. Not to mention I may have to live in Sacramento for half of my senior year.

Sacramento? I mean, seriously, what’s in Sacramento? A river? Let me say it again: There’s. No. Way.

Might as well join the Mars Colony. They’re taking hip young up-and-coming artists ostracized from their power- hungry families, aren’t they? Sign me up.

A campaign for governor changes everything. Forget mak- ing any friends, let alone hooking up with Zach Park. Dad winning the governorship would ruin all that. And Dad’s scarily good at winning elections.

Fine. I’m just going to say it. Not out loud, but I’m going to say it in my head because it’s all I can think. I hope he loses. I hope his campaign completely tanks. There. Said it. I just need to get on the ball and focus on getting invited to Zach’s boat party.

That’s my only chance to get on his radar and to ask for LeFeber’s advice. I have to start living my best life. Stop constantly overthinking things and doubting myself.

No more being a wallflower.

No more being known only as the congressman’s daughter. Or Mason and Royce’s little sister.

I have to make a name for myself. For my art. Everyone needs to know who Liv Blakely really is.

[mossyrossaliceinterviews]

Dead End Career Club

Apr 27, 2020

By Melissa Rodwell

Interview by Mossy Ross

Photos by Ryan Kennedy

It was a quiet, spring Saturday morning in 2018, and I had just unlocked the front door of the local Williamsburg dive bar where I worked at the time. It was looking like it might be a slow, boring day when suddenly, “Black in Black” started blasting from the speakers. A smoke machine appeared from nowhere and began spraying its vapors towards the door. A fire-breathing aerialist, wearing a jeweled thong and pasties swung down from the ceiling, performing air splits. The door opened and invisible fans started blowing Ryan Kennedy’s wild, bleached blonde hair. His shirt flew open in the wind as he walked through the door (in slow motion), and tore off his sunglasses.

Okay, so maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. But when I look back on that day, that’s how I see it in my mind. It’s not often that I meet someone with so much rock n’ roll panache in Brooklyn these days. It was even more surprising to find that Ryan is so refreshingly humble and genuine.

Kennedy was one half of the now-defunct clothing line No Name Saint and is currently the brains behind Dead End Career Club, a hybrid of music and clothing. I was awed by Kennedy’s ability to expertly dye and distress the hell out of clothing for No Name Saint, and continue to be inspired, amused, and even comforted by the cheeky, quiet rants he creates for the music and clothing for Dead End Career Club.

Quarantined in the small town he lives in an hour and a half from Toronto, Ryan talked to me on Zoom about social media, ministers, music, and middle-age.

Mossy: How far back in your history do we need to go, in order to explain how you came to be who you are now. What was growing up like for you?

RK: My father was a Pentecostal minister, so I grew up in a strict Christian home. I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music and I didn’t have cable, we didn’t have a computer, we didn’t have a VCR…I read books. My dad had a guitar and I picked that up when I was thirteen or fourteen, and that was sort of game over for me. I wanted to learn how to write songs and, like so many kids, I was in a series of teenage bands that were fun, but weren’t that good. (laughs)

Mossy: How did your dad feel about that?

RK: He was fine and supportive of me making the music. He was still “iffy” about the kind of music I made and where I played. I started out playing in church, and then there were some bridges to cross when I wanted to start playing in bars…that didn’t go over that great. But at this point in my life, my parents are very supportive. And they’re very different people than they were twenty years ago. My dad’s not a minister anymore. Not to say that faith isn’t there, it still is, but his attitudes towards certain things have changed, and so have mine.

Mossy: Do you think you had anything to do with them coming around, in terms of having to accept your differences?

RK: Well I can’t take credit for it solely. But, I have a brother and two sisters as well. And I think it’s safe to say that none of his kids turned out the way he thought they would. And I understand. I mean, my dad was a minister and his parents were Christians, my grandfather was a minister. And you have kids and expect them to grow up in the church, and you have a picture of how their life may turn out, and none of our lives have turned out like they thought. So then you have a choice. You can either consistently compare your kids to the expectations you had for them, or you can accept who they’ve become, and love them for who they’ve become. And my parents have done a great job of doing that.

Mossy: Did you stop going to church eventually?

RK: Yeah, I haven’t attended church regularly in probably twenty years. It’s a very complex subject to talk about. I mean, just because I haven’t gone and sat down in a church doesn’t mean that I don’t have faith, or that I don’t have a relationship with God, or that I don’t believe in certain things. I do. But when you grow up in church, and I went like four or five times a week…you sometimes see the worst of it, and it can sort of scar you in ways that you wouldn’t think it would. And there was just something about going to church that I didn’t enjoy anymore.

Mossy: So when you stopped going to church, then what? Were you playing in bands?

RK: Yeah, so when I was about twenty, I started to take it (music) more seriously, and I didn’t go to church or play in churches anymore, I played in bars. And my first serious band, when I was in my early twenties, got a record deal in Canada, and that was it for me. For the next fifteen years, over the series of three different bands, music was my full-time thing. In that fifteen-year period, I also opened a vintage clothing store since, you know, rock n’ roll doesn’t pay that well. So yeah, starting in my early twenties, I was in a series of bands that were supposed to be big, and (laughs)…weren’t.

Mossy: If you weren’t listening to secular music growing up, how did you come to rock?

RK: I mean, that’s the interesting thing. When I started this first serious band, my brother was in it, so he’s a pastor’s son. The other two guys in the band were also pastors’ sons, and then the guitar player was an ordained minister. So we were all a bunch of Christian kids, playing trashy, garage-y, rock n’ roll in bars. We got signed and hooked up with a producer in Montreal, and we went to Montreal for two months to make a record. We went into the studio with this producer, and we’d play the song and he’d say, “Oh man, that sounds like ‘Wire,’” or “That sounds like ‘Television,’” or that sounds like ‘The Hellacopters.’” And we were like, “I don’t even know those bands.” (Laughs) So I’ve gone back over the last twenty years and learned a whole bunch of stuff that I should’ve learned when I was fourteen. And this was 2004, so this was the tail end of record labels handing out big record deals, so there were advances and that sort of stuff…and we just blew our advances on records.

Mossy: I was listening to your new EP, and I really like how you modernize rock music by talking about things like Soundcloud and social media, but you keep that raw rock sound as well. I feel like your music is something that I can relate to as a 40-year old, but also something that a 20-year old could relate to as well.

RK: At this point in my life, the only thing I have to offer is myself. And that means that I can’t hide that I’m forty. I’ve had label people tell me when I was in my early 30s, not to put my face on the (album) cover, because they didn’t want people to prejudge the music by seeing that I wasn’t nineteen. And that’s from well-meaning people that care about me and my success. But that’s the advice I’m getting, “You need to hide who you are.” And I don’t see any point in that now, and I also don’t see any point in being some sort of, like, stuck-in-twenty-years- ago guy, that’s not willing to acknowledge that Soundcloud exists. I mean, I am trying to navigate my way through 2020’s music industry, and 2020’s digital world. And I struggle with that, and it filters into my writing. So I am sort of an “old” guy talking about new stuff. But that’s all I can be, and I have no interest in being anything else. I don’t know where that leaves me in terms of a target audience, but I don’t really care.

Mossy: I wonder all the time, why the decision makers who determine what music gets heard by the masses, seem to feel that musicians can’t become more marketable as they get older. I mean, the thirty and above market is huge, and they have money. Older artists still have issues that so many people can relate to, probably in our current times more than ever. Do you ever think there could be a movement of thirty and up “rockstars” making more of a mark than they have in past decades?

RK: Well in my optimistic moments, I do believe that. Because I see it in television and film. I see it in books. Why is it the music industry is like “No, no…we only make stuff for kids?” Or “We only make stuff for a 35-plus audience with already established artists?” There’s a lot of wonderful music being made for my age demographic, it’s just the stuff that rises to the surface is made by artists that have been famous for ten or fifteen years. It’s not very often that you come across a brand new artist that’s forty. But there are television shows and movies that are absolutely targeted to my demographic, and not targeted to nineteen-year-olds. It’s kind of fucked that the music industry is so behind on that.

Mossy: That’s a really great observation. I watch new TV shows all the time that make references to things that only someone in our generation would know about. How is that not happening with music? 

RK: Yeah, they’re based on relatable experiences to people of my age group. Not to say that nineteen-year-olds can’t enjoy it or take something from it. But the people that made it are my age, the actors, the storyline is based on people my age, going through experiences that I go through. I know it’s made for me. But music is far behind on that.

Mossy: We seem to be in an abusive relationship with social media…we come back to it even though it hurts us in a variety of ways. Has your art and music changed since social media came into existence?

RK: Yeah, I think social media is so overwhelming and so pervasive in our lives that it filters into my work, in a way that the same sort of metrics didn’t twenty years ago. So the same sort of feelings I have about posting something on Instagram and not many people liking it, or not having a lot of followers…are the same feelings that I had fifteen years ago when I made a record. I was checking sales charts and I was checking radio charts. And I was wondering why my music video got added to MTV in light rotation, and not heavy rotation. Why did this band get this tour, and I didn’t get this tour? Same feelings…why does this person have so many social media followers and I don’t? But there was, like, four or five metrics to use before, and you could hide them pretty well. It’s like, if you don’t send me the radio charts, I can’t check ‘em. Now I cannot hide from those metrics. So I have to choose to see the metrics and to absorb them in a different way. And I think that because I’m human, and I’m willing to be honest about it, I openly talk about how those metrics make me feel. Some days I hide them better than others, and some days they hit me and I think, “What the fuck?”

Mossy: So you toured for fifteen years and had a clothing shop…was that No Name Saint?

RK: No I had a vintage clothing shop called Sympathy for the Rebel. It was just a traditional vintage clothing shop. I had to close that because I was touring a lot, and I started No Name Saint after that. When I started with NNS, it was basically an extension of my vintage shop…picking vintage band shirts, bleaching them, and distressing them or painting on them. And then I realized that was not terribly original, and there were other people doing that, and doing it better. And a friend of mine gave me a heat press, and I started to figure out how to use that and how to do something different with that. I figured out how to make my own prints, and I started putting words on t-shirts. And the whole idea is that they were one offs. What I don’t like about fashion is you pick this crazy cool shirt that’s supposed to make you stand out, and you go to a bar and someone else is wearing it. (laughs) So, that’s never been me. If I’m gonna wear something, I’m gonna alter it, or paint it, or rip it up so that I’m the only one that has it. That’s just a personal thing, but I wanted the brand to be an extension of that. So I made hundreds and hundreds of shirts and jackets because they were all one offs.

Mossy: So after No Name Saint, just based on what I saw on your social media, it seemed like you were a bit broken up about that ending. Was it hard starting over on something new?

RK: Yeah, No Name Saint was just me and my partner Kurt. Kurt was also the drummer in two of my bands, so we’re great friends and tight, and he just wanted to move on with his life in a more financially solid way. I’m one of the last guys standing saying, “Hey I still wanna do this.” So I’m pretty used to people saying, “I’ve aged out of this” or “I love this, but I can’t do it for a career.” So I would never begrudge somebody their choice to move on. But I also felt like No Name Saint had run its course and that was something I had started with him, and if I was gonna do something else I needed it to be a fresh start. And that also coincided with the end of my last band, so it was kind of this period of endings, and I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do. So yeah, it was a little bit of a down period. But not with anger, just with you know…okay, endings.

Mossy: What do you think it is that makes you not age out of things?

RK: I’ve asked myself that question a lot, and I’ve wished that I could age out of it, or phase out of it many times. But pretty much since the moment that I picked up the guitar and wrote my first song, I’ve lived every day just wanting to do that. Every time I’ve tried to convince myself I should want something else, it feels like a betrayal. So I don’t know why I’m wired this way. And I think what I’ve come to accept is that I am wired this way, and I need to find a way to keep doing this, whatever that looks like. I mean, it’s called Dead End Career Club for a reason. I know the prospects aren’t great. (laughs)

Mossy: Yeah, I assumed the name had something to do with that. How did you arrive at that name?

RK: Well, there are a lot of well-meaning people who love me, that have, over the years gently told me, “You might want to find something else to do.” (laughs) You try something and it doesn’t work, and by the end of the third time you’re like, “Okay, if I willingly choose to go down this road again, I have to know exactly what road I’m going down, and that is a dead-end path commercially.” But artistically and emotionally I don’t believe in dead ends, so…

Mossy: I saw a shirt or a jacket on your IG that says 1-800-NOT- PUNK. How do you describe what is “not punk?”

RK: (Laughs) I put that on a lot of stuff, actually, but sometimes it’s hidden. I was on this 1-800 number kick. (laughs) I was making up these fake 1-800 numbers and 1-800-NOT-PUNK was one of them. I don’t know what punk is (laughs). I think punk is something that gets co-opted a lot, and I think that there would be people out there that say I’m co-opting it…that this style of jackets that I make and the ripped t-shirts and stuff speaks to a punk world that I don’t actually like. I mean, “The Clash” is one of my favorite bands ever. Are they punk? I don’t know. According to Johnny Lydon they’re not punk! But I don’t like the Sex Pistols either! (laughs) It’s just one of those things that you could ask ten different people and get ten different answers as to what is punk or what is not punk.

When I put 1-800-NOT-PUNK on a jacket if you tell me “That’s not punk,” or “That’s fake punk,” I can say, “Yeah, I fuckin’ told you! It says right there it’s not punk!” (Laughing) I didn’t call it punk, I’m not telling you that it’s punk, I’m not telling you that I’m punk…I’m just telling you that this is what I like.

Mossy: I think it comes down to authenticity. You don’t have to be squatting on the Lower East Side or something to be punk. It’s more about intention.

RK: I agree. I think people that make really hard decisions in life, both creatively and just like, lifestyle decisions, relationship decisions that are counter to the decisions that most people would make, that have the guts to do that…I think that’s punk. I think standing up for things is punk. Having opinions and sticking by them, no matter what they are, I think that’s punk. So yeah, I don’t think you have to have a mohawk and spikes on your jacket and like Rancid, but I’m not saying you can’t! So yeah, it’s just a play on the lack of an overall definition of punk.

Mossy: So your clothing line is Dead End Career Club and your band is Dead End Career Club…

RK: Well, it’s not really a clothing line. I mean, you can’t go online and buy it. There’s only one store in Nashville that sells my stuff. So that’s the only place you can go in and buy Dead End Career Club clothing. I’ve spent too much of my life thinking, “How am I gonna make money from this?” and then that impacts what I do. I think it’s just natural. You ask yourself, “How am I gonna make money from this?” Well, find the audience and cater to them. But what if what you actually wanna do isn’t built to cater to anybody? It’s built to be an expression of who you are, and your good days and your bad days and all that stuff. That’s not gonna cater very well to a target audience. So, it’s not much of a business, it’s an art project. It’s an extension of me and all the things that I do, all the things that I find interesting. And the canvases happen to be songs and clothing.

Mossy: Your EP is five songs. How do they all relate to each other so that you decided to release them as an album, rather than singles?

And where did the title “Skim Milk” come from?

RK: The title refers to the trimming of the fat. I’ve gone from being in a five-piece rock band…then a three-piece band, then a two-piece band, and then playing to a track, and now it’s just me playing with one string and singing. It’s as bare as I can get. If you take the one string away then I’m just acapella, which you’re not gonna hear that (laughs).

As to how the songs relate to each other…it’s not a concept album. They relate to each other the same way all my work does in that they’re these little snapshots of how I feel about myself on any given day. And I think that I do look for this overall arc between the clothing work and the music to be speaking the same language. And I feel there’s enough consistency there that I wanted to batch them together. I also feel like my music is not one that easily fits onto a playlist. Like, it’s a good mood ruin-er if you put it on the wrong playlist (laughs). And so the idea of just piecing out these singles one at a time…that’s not enough to get you actually into what I’m doing. I think for me, I wanted to put a bunch of songs together so you could sit down and at least spend twenty minutes listening to my vibe, instead of just one song at a time. I think it’s a bit more vibe music than playlist or single stuff.

Mossy: You said on your Spotify bio that you were “featured in Elle and Vogue, and other publications that mattered to you when.”

RK: (Laughs…hard) Who reads bios, right?

Mossy: When did they matter to you and when did they stop?

RK: I mean, I’ll be honest with you, if Vogue wanted to write about me now, that would matter to me. But, it mattered to me a lot when we started No Name Saint. We hired a publicist, and they actually posted some of our pieces, and I have those framed in my house. That did matter to me…in the same way that having a record label mattered to me. As these sort of barometers of success. They matter to me less now. Whether “Vogue” writes about me or not, it’s not gonna impact how I work. But you know, when you do get in “Elle” and they like something, it’s like, “Oh, well I’ll just do more of that.” In the same way that if you have a song that gets on the radio, you say, “Well, why don’t I just write another version of that?” And so it gets in your head. It’s not in my head now. But I would be lying to you if I said, “Yeah if Vogue called and said they wanted to talk to me, I would say no.” I wouldn’t fuckin’ say no! But it doesn’t matter to me like it used to.

  Find Dead End Career Club:

Website | Instagram | Spotify

[yourdailykitsch]

TEXAS FOREVER Taylor Kitsch Is Not Game for a ‘Friday Night Lights’ Revival But the hunk formerly known as Riggins is having the time of his life breaking bad, first as a terrorist in ‘American Assassin’ and next as cult leader David Koresh in ‘Waco.’ Before he gave his best blue steel modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch, and before he rose to stardom as the brooding, hunky Tim Riggins on NBC’s Friday Night Lights, Taylor Kitsch took his fair share of hits. He—along with his two older brothers—were raised by their mother in a trailer park in his native Canada after their father deserted the family when Kitsch was one, and a devastating knee injury during his teenage years dashed his dreams of hockey stardom. Years later, after the modeling gigs dried up in New York, he found himself homeless, spending his nights sleeping in subway cars and sneaking into gyms to shower; after moving to L.A. to try his hand personal training, he spent four months living out of a tiny hatchback, with one of its windows replaced by a clear plastic sheet covered in duct tape. “Any time you can go through life and get hit or knocked down, it should help,” he says. “The journey of getting here was a pretty darn good test, and I’m still being tested each and every day.” Kitsch’s latest test comes in American Assassin, with the 36-year-old actor playing his first onscreen villain. He is Ghost, a shadowy international terrorist attempting to get his hands on a nuclear weapon in order to exact revenge on the U.S. We later learn that he was a former black ops agent who was left for dead overseas by his boss Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), an ex-Navy SEAL who specializes in asymmetric warfare. Ghost serves as a foil to Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien), a young man who, after losing his fiancée during a terrorist attack in Spain, attempts to single-handedly penetrate a terror cell and kill those responsible—only to then be recruited by the deputy director of the CIA (Sanaa Lathan) and trained by Hurley to kill for the red, white and blue. “I loved it,” Kitsch says of breaking bad. “I hope to do it a lot more, to be honest with you. It’s nice to create this guy and have free rein to make him how you saw. It strays away from ‘cliché’ bad guys. He is an American, it’s an attack that’s beyond personal for him, and on a certain level you kind of understand him—which I loved.” Assassin is gloriously over the top, and nobody seems to be having more fun than Kitsch and Keaton, who appear to be playing their own personal game of Who’s More Grizzled? In what is without question the film’s finest sequence, Kitsch removes his shirt to reveal the spoils of war before brutally torturing Keaton, yanking off his fingernails one at a time. “I got nine more! I like this!” Keaton barks back. The cinematic implication of a scarred villain torturing the two-time Caped Crusader was not lost on Kitsch. “I definitely saw it,” he chuckles. “You know you’re in good hands going to bat with Keaton, and the work he’s been doing of late has been just terrific. It was a big part of me signing on, and driving a scene like that with him was a lot of fun.” With a title like American Assassin and a truly bonkers normal-guy-hunts-terrorists premise, many feared that the film would succumb to crass jingoism at a time when a hawkish strongman with an itchy Twitter finger has the U.S. on the perpetual brink of global war. But Kitsch insists it’s “not just violence for the sake of violence” and far from fetishizes combat. “We show you the worst, most unglorified part of being an assassin,” he says. “Obviously it’s fictional, but you see the trauma that Dylan O’Brien’s character goes through personally, and you see the trauma that being in war brings. We take you down the worst part of that. It’s not like Bond, where you’re going, I want to be Bond! Nobody’s going, I want to be Mitch Rapp—this tortured, psychologically scarred young man out for vengeance.” With roles like Ghost, Bruce Niles in The Normal Heart, and the closeted Paul Woodrugh on True Detective, Kitsch has seemingly weathered the blockbuster storms of John Carter and Battleship and returned to his character actor roots. Just don’t expect to see him in a revival of Friday Night Lights. “I think there are still rumblings about that,” he says, laughing. “Pete [Berg] knows the answer loud and clear. We’re having dinner tonight, and even at dinner, I think he would more or less joke about it than ever be like, ‘Hey, let’s go back ten years and relive this moment that ended perfectly.’ You know, there’s just no point.” “Earlier on, even if you wanna start with Riggins, I was told, ‘He’s going to last just one season,’ and ‘you’re not a priority,’ so I’ve always been drawn to these character-driven guys,” he continues. “Bang Bang Club was an incredible story and still something that I’m very proud of. Then you take these big swings with winners like [Andrew] Stanton at Pixar and Pete [Berg] with Battleship, then you go into a Murphy [in Lone Survivor] that was a beautiful tribute to these guys. I feel incredibly happy with the work I’ve done—not just making the most of them, but staying scared and keeping myself off-kilter.” In that vein, Kitsch will next embark on perhaps his most difficult role yet: portraying David Koresh in Waco, a miniseries about the Waco siege set to premiere on the Paramount Network early next year. The show’s all-star cast includes Michael Shannon, Melissa Benoist, Andrea Riseborough, John Leguizamo, and Rory Culkin, and will run over six one-hour episodes. But Kitsch will be front and center as the charismatic cult leader of the Branch Davidians. And it sounds like he’s done his homework. “I met the nine guys that survived the last siege. After I read [survivor] David Thibodeau’s A Place Called Waco several times I got in touch with him and hung out with him a lot, and then spent a lot of time learning what Koresh believed in,” shares Kitsch. “Singing and learning guitar took up a lot of my time too, as did losing about twenty-five to thirty pounds to play him. I listened to hundreds of hours of Koresh phone conversations with the FBI, with the ATF, with child protective services, with his mom to watching sermons and videos of him growing up. It’s really the key to anybody—the past, and how he grew up.” He adds, “I will say that it’s going to bleed a lot of truth into what actually happened. What the media gave people at the time was incredibly one-sided, and they wouldn’t let the Davidians talk to the press or release anything. They’ve still withheld a lot of these FBI tapes. We’re going to shed light on what actually happened.”