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therucrap · 4 years ago

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RPDR 13 Episode 1 RuCrap

Hello dear internet! I just started a new page for my first ever RPDR RuCrap so please share and follow and I’ll continue if they catch on! Hope you enjoy!

The lucky 13th season of RuPaul’s Trauma Spectacular launches with the promise of “all new surprises” and a brand new twist that will leave you wondering how you ever sat through a boring old premiere with a coherent intro, climax, and conclusion when you could be enduring a dizzying hour and a half of WOW presents Happy Death Day 3: Covid Edition!

We open up on the trusty trauma center - I mean Werk Room - and the first to enter is NYC’s “Dominican Doll” and human drag lingo See ‘N Say Kandy Muse in an elaborate bejeweled patchwork jean mini dress and MATCHING DENIM BOOMBOX and she immediately informs us that we may know her from the now former Haus of Aja which was recently deconstructed like the pair of Wranglers that Kandy is wearing as fingerless gloves. Kandy is no longer alone in VIP because the befeathered Joey Jay arrives and half-heartedly delivers her intro line. “Filler queen!” We discover that Kandy is likely going to provide our Greek chorus confessional this season and all in a soft smoky eye when she informs us uncultured swine that Joey is wearing the cheapest variety of feather - chicken. Kandy didn’t construct an entire outfit from the remnants section of a Joanne Fabrics and not learn a thing or two about quality, sweetie! Joey is determined to beat viewers to the punchline and immediately clucks around branding herself as “basic” and “filler.” Joey is from the city of Phoenix (and possibly the online University as well) but she’s here to rise like a chicken!

Thunder mysteriously rumbles as RuPaul appears on the digitally enhanced Werk room TV but what could this be?! For all you newbies this is one of the several instances in every season where Ru mixes things up and gives us what we really want: a twist that is equal parts confusing, fucks up the natural order of the competition, and is ultimately unfulfilling! Come on season 13, let’s put a bunch of queer people through even more turmoil in a pandemic! Ru has a surprise but they’ll have to head to the mainstage to get the full story that they’ll be recounting to a mental health professional later!

We’re merely four minutes in and here comes Ru down the runway dressed like a glitterdot jellyfish! Our tour guide on Trauma Island introduces us to the main panel of judges for the season - Disco Morticia Addams and the two human Trapper Keepers who are now separated by glass because for the first time in Drag Race herstory we’re in the middle of a international health crisis, mawma!

Now let’s get down to trauma! Ru explains that the queens will be pairing off to lipsync unexpectedly as they enter! What could possibly go wrong? Well if you’re hoping that someone comes in wearing blades on their feet well just stick around because I have quite the treat for you! Our Dungaree Diva and the Chicken Feather Filler hit the Mainstage looking as confused as Shangela researching CDC protocol on her way to Puerto Vallarta last week. The judges interview our test subjects and immediately bring up the Haus of Aja and Kandy clarifies that she’s now an esteemed member of The Doll Haus along with last season’s ever-gorgeous Dahlia Sinn. I personally prefer not to say that Dahlia was eliminated first but instead that she was season 12’s brocco-leading lady! (Writer’s note: if you’re thinking “there’s a drag show called The Doll Haus in my hometown... is it THAT Doll Haus?!” No, there’s a drag show called The Doll Haus in almost every city in America but now, like with the former Sharon Needles, Kim Chis, and Penny Trations of the world, this one’s been on TV and alas, the others must now rename themselves)! Joey also charms the judges with her plucky demeanor and it’s already time to lipsync feather they like it or not!

Gay anthem Call Me Maybe by Canadian legend Carley Rae Jepson begins and Kandy immediately pushes a fake button on her DENIM BOOMBOX to start the party. Honestly... crown her right there on the spot. We will ALWAYS give points for prop work and the Carrot Top of the Bronx does not disappoint. Both are energetic but it’s The Dutchess of Denim who wins by infusing humor and our feathered friend is given “the Porkchop” but before we can even wrap our head around what this means for the state of the competition we snap back to the Werk Room to meet our next unsuspecting victims!

Now dear reader, this is the part where I’m just going to cut the shit. The set-up they’re selling us is that the losers of these premiere lipsyncs will be eliminated from the show but they are obviously not about to Porkchop half of the cast on day one so just stick with me while we suspend disbelief and go on RuPaul’s Totally Twisted Trauma Adventure as she convinces 6 gay people who just spent upwards of $10,000 on clothing, jewelry, and hair and then meticulously packed it into regulation suitcases to travel here during a pandemic after probably not making any money for the last four months (this was filmed in July) that they are going home on day one! This herstory-making twist, like so many before it, exemplifies the show’s worst qualities: a lack of empathy for its contestants, an underestimation of viewer intelligence and ability to decode heavy-handed editing witchery, and its love for completely dismantling its own format every year for the sake of drama. Whatever keeps the Emmy’s coming, baby! When you’re on the other side of one of these twists you usually feel like you just finished your morning coffee only to find out that the barista gave you decaf. Your mind will be blown when it’s happening but the payoff is usually at the expense of the show’s own legitimacy. With that said... this is the punishment we come to gleefully endure every year and we’re not here to complain, we’re here to watch gay people break down, dammit!

It’s deja Ru all over again as we snap back to the Werk Room where Chicago’s Denali walks in on ice skates and immediately ruins any chance of a deposit return for the bumpy, rented roll-out vinyl floors and declares “Let me break the ice!” She’s wearing the expensive feathers that Joey Jay didn’t spring for. Denali might not be the first ice skater on Drag Race but she’s the one I didn’t watch shit on a dick on Twitter last week so let’s give credit where it’s due. Ugh I wish Trinity the Tuck could block THAT from my memory! Next up is Atlanta’s Lala Ri whose white blazer, body suit, and unteased hair is immediately called basic by an icy Denali in confessional. Denali is confident but we know something that she doesn’t and Lala is wearing a sensible dancing ankle boot not two blades on her feet so let’s see how this turns out!

The lipsync song is “When I Grow Up” by Nicole Scherzinger and her assistants who were accidentally given microphones a few times! Denali struggles to conceal her wayward nipples during some ambitious dance moves and all while in skates but Lala gives us a good old fashioned drag performance and a big finale split unbothered by an elaborate costume and ultimately ices Denali who signs off with “Feeling icy, feeling spicy!” Asking these queens to lipsync upon entering is one thing but asking them to improvise their exit lines 10 minutes in is just cruel!

Denali heads backstage devastated where SURPRISE... Joey Jay is sitting alone in a sad room made of plywood walls featuring a bunch of pictures of first eliminated queens, an ominous “Porkchop Loading Dock” sign, and some cocktail tables with no cocktails (how dreadful).

Before we get the full picture and God for bid our bearings on Mr Charles’ Wild Ride let’s leave this plywood hellscape and jump back into the familiar comfort of the Werk Room’s pixelated neon pink faux brick walls where LA’s modelesque Symone stomps in wearing a dress made of tiny Polaroids of herself. She’s stylish, her energy is fresh, and she’s clearly one to watch. Then dear reader life as we know it changes. A breeze comes through the room and God herself blesses us when living legend and matriarch of the Iman dynasty Tamisha Iman from Atlanta arrives in a pointy-shouldered red power suit and proclaims to us simple townsfolk “Holler at me, I know you know me. Holler at me, I know you know me. Tamisha is here!” The sea parts, the crops are replenished, and all war stops on Earth. On stage Tamisha reveals that she’s been doing drag for 30 years (which seems like a long time to us mere mortals) and that she was originally cast last season but was diagnosed with colon cancer two days later and had to stay home for chemo. The lipsync gods wisely choose The Pleasure Principle by Janet Jackson and Tamisha gives us exact Janet arm choreo while Simone is sultry yet commanding as she shakes her Polaroids. The judges determine that Simone was picture perfect and American hero Tamisha Iman is sent to Porkchop’s Shipping Crate of Horrors to join the nest with the fancy feather option and the chicken feather option.

We begrudgingly crawl back onto RuPaul’s ever-circling carousel of doom and plop back into the workroom where accomplished LA celebrity makeup artist GottMik stomps in wearing a wacky toile dress and a full face of white makeup declaring that it’s “Time to crash the system!” GottMik is Drag Race’s first trans man contestant (and first knowingly cast trans contestant at all) for which we cheer excitedly and then immediately look at our watches because that took too long. Next up Minneapolis’s towering Utica wriggles in with a sneeze and declares “She’s sickening!” which is just the pandemic humor I came here for! Contaminate me, mom! This gay scarecrow is wearing a series of crazy patterns and a big strawberry on her head and the two of them appear to be from the same traveling circus. These two Big Comfy Couch characters slink over to the main stage where Utica explains that her cranial statement fruit symbolizes tackling obstacles because she used to be allergic to strawberries as a kid but she grew out of it. In RuPaul’s heavy universe of heart wrenching struggles that contain chronic illness and societal rejection, Utica’s animated world that suffers only of outgrown childhood strawberry problems is a welcome one. These two lanky rag dolls will be lipsyncing to Rumors by her majesty Lady Lohan of Mykonos and the vibe is instantly wacky. I wouldn’t say that either of them are the next Kennedy Davenport but they did complement each other well on the invisible obstacle course they were both miming through. Utica’s hair flops over her eye, there’s galloping and floor humping, GottMik does a split, there’s elbows and knees aplenty, and all that’s missing is dancing poodles. The judges are tickled by the kookiness of both of these human windsocks but Gotmikk snatches the win. Neither of these two are going to win So You Think You Can Dance but luckily this is RuPaul’s So You Think You Can Trauma so we’re in luck!

Our homosexual Groundhog Day continues back in the Werk Room where we meet NYC’s Rosé who gets the Brita treatment where she’s presented as a legendary New York queen and then the editors quickly get to work making her look delusional. She’s accomplished, confident, and Drag Race’s favorite personality type to dismantle and then trick into returning to All-Stars for a redemption only to dismantle again. Rosé’s fresh-faced foil Olivia Lux enters and lights up the place right away in a velvet pink and yellow gown. She’s a humble NYC newby who has competed in shows hosted by the established Rosé and we already know what’s about to happen here. The lipsync is Exes and Oh’s by Elle King which which was a choice. Olivia strips off her gown to reveal a bodysuit so she can really articulate and Rosé does the world’s least exciting split that looked like me trying unsuccessfully separate wooden chopsticks. Olivia triumphs and Rosé fizzles as she heads to the It Didn’t Werk Room aka Porkchop’s sparsely decorated storage closet to be with the other Have Nots.

We’re almost to the finish line and we limp, slightly disoriented, back to the Werk Room where we meet Tina Burner, another NYC theater kid with the confidence of a thousand Patti LuPones who is dressed like a Ronald McDonald firefighter. What she lacks in nuance she makes up for in nonstop fire puns. Next Chicago’s glamorous Kahmora Hall saunters in glowing and is clearly unimpressed with Tina’s constant Joan Rivers impression but maintains a full pageant smile. No choice but to stan. Our final queen is the refreshingly optimistic Elliott with 2 T’s who busts in wearing a bolero jacket, some red pants from the store, and a short pink wig that screams “Sorry I’m late! Here’s my flash drive! I can go on whenever!” Elliott dances in sing-talking her entrance line like the TGIFriday’s server she is: “I’m the queen you want to see. Elliot with two T’s. Okay! Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh! Okay!” Elliot is a dancer from Las Vegas and has the unhinged camp counselor energy of someone with snacks in her purse at all times.

On the Mainstage Tina cycles through the last of her introductory fire puns and tells the judges she was in a boy band which honestly tracks. Tina and Rosé share a similar NYC gotta-get-a-gimmick energy but for some reason production has decided to give Rosé the womp womp edit and Tina the superstar edit. The song is Lady Marmalade because we haven’t been though enough and Kahmora serves subdued sexy glamour, Elliott does the splits, and Tina bobs and weaves between the two with full play-to-the-back-row comedy queen energy. Tina extinguishes the dreams of the other two and RuPaul sends the final two losers to the chokey.

The worst is over (we think) and our frazzled cast of hopefuls finally gets to know eachother in their two very different groups. The winning queens in the Werk Room are celebrating and as blissfully unaware of the doom around them as Miss Vanjie and Silky Ganache at a Puerto Vallarta circuit party during a pandemic. Over in Porkchop’s Junk Drawer the camera looms unnecessarily close to the crestfallen losers’ now disheveled wigs and sweat drenched makeup. Ru’s voice bellows over the speaker to tell this motley crew to get out and then as the last bit of light leaves their weary eyes she checks back in to tell them that she wasn’t serious! Oh good! Finally a moment of mercy for these once hopeful queens on their first day of RuPaul’s Wipeout! She then reveals that the full twist is that she is only going to send one home but they have to vote amongst the group of losers to decide who it is! Yes, that’s correct! This group of broken queens who just met and mostly have never seen eachother perform will now be expected to turn on eachother and give up their last bit of dignity to either grovel or just straight up fight with eachother! This must be what the Donner Party’s last night looked like. The queens look around broken and wounded but still hungry, their eyes barely open, their lacefronts only partially attached to their heads, and start deciding which of their own is about to get consumed. Her highness Tamisha Iman reminds them "Well, I'm the only black girl so don't vote me off” and just like that we are TO BE CONTINUED!

Thus concludes our first headspinning episode that despite being reliably frustrating has once again sucked us in and against our better judgement entertained us to the fullest! As for our 13 queens- you can use code HERSTORY on Talkspace while relaying tonite’s events to a sickening liscensed therapist!

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years ago

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FF7 Remake Review (Story/Finale)

No matter what I or anybody else says or what you see, you have to experience it to understand it, I mean it’s playing hardcore with the story it’s presenting, newbies are probably not going to get it yet and will probably have to wait until the next game to figure it out but that’s okay.

DEFINITE SPOILERS IN THIS PART!!

Playing Crisis Core before this was probably the best move I could’ve made to prepare for this, it helps gives reason as to why Cloud has all these PTSD/mental problems. I guess you could say “His head was in the clouds.” but I could see how it would turn off normies. He had future vision in this game as well (not in og), some fans may be driven off by that, but I feel like they’re purposely making it that way, I’ll talk about it towards the end.

I didn’t expect the whole “save the environment” storyline, the way it’s delivered isn’t bad though. Guess you could say that it’s “recyclable” Ha, get it?

The whole Corneo plot is just like the ‘Eye of the Beholder’ episode of American Dragon: Jake Long which is funny. Except for the hand massage thing...why IS that in there exactly? That’s super weird. In fact all of Wall Market is weird. Just take that scene out of context and it’s bait, heck, put it in context and it’s bait.

This game presents its style to you in the first ten minutes, it’s an action experience, I’ve heard it compared to Uncharted because of the set pieces but the gameplay is too different for me to compare. But is it hype? Yes.

(Random screenshot I took) Another complaint I hear is that “this is a borderline remake, almost not even a remake.” So a reboot? I mean it’s over 20 years later and there’s a lot in there from the original and new stuff, did you just want the same game? When you see a movie remake, do you want to see the same movie? I know people hold FF7 close to their heart like I do the Lion King and whenever something comes up to threaten to take that place, they don’t like it. I don’t like the Lion King remake BECAUSE it’s the same thing, it was never going to live up or be better so I was looking forward to the new content. But they didn’t say that in the promos did they? Well with FF7, they did, they said it would be multiple episodes which I assume another will follow it in a few years, they also said they would be changing stuff, so we knew what it was going to contain, just how it was going to contain it and how much. I consider this well worth 60$, (35 hours) it's not be everything from the original game but I’m sure that game was a lot easier to make back then, you can see the amount of work they put into it and maybe they're stretching it out but I’m considering this as definitive and final as it gets, I’m down for it. I think if you expected ‘different’ then you’ll like the direction it heads. Not all characters from the original are in there (yet) and a few in particular are just teased but there’s stuff in there from the og that maybe you wouldn’t expect to be in there anymore, I can appreciate their outlandishness and loyalty in that regard, no matter how weird it was but some of it is still kind of dumb despite that.

Ok! So what about the Tifa/Aerith/Barret thing?? Well...it’s just a scene in Chapter 14, it’s not even that grand for each of them, I like the idea of the Gold Saucer event in the original more. I, of course, liked the scene I got with Tifa but I was expecting something a little more pronounced, stressed over nothing, I had to look up what the difference was because I didn’t even know that was a “special” scene.

Ending:

I didn’t expect them to go against literal “Destiny”, even with the Whispers which I guess weren’t in the original, it makes me wonder about it even more. I don’t know what predicts who joins you at the end to fight Sephi but I see people getting Barret, makes me wish. Another thing I dislike about RPGs are gauntlets, sure they make you feel powerful but failing Sephiroth and then deciding to quit and coming back to have to beat big mama Harbringer again (which I knew I’d have to do, I just don’t like it) makes it annoying, I did just fine with my equipment with Harbringer but I didn’t know about it making me weak with Sephi so I had to go back and re-evaluate then start over. But that’s just the baby gamer in me talking. I didn’t mind fighting the first two stages of him, I actually got pretty good and fast at it but the 3rd and final stage is brutal, even with 3 party members because of his Octaslash KO.

I mean we know Aerith’s fate in FF7 OG, might as well not beat around the bush about it, how do you surprise an audience that already knows the biggest spoiler? So they’re tossing it up. Ever since this was announced and we got that “Aerith Lives” cameo in Wreck It Ralph, I’ve always had a theory that maybe this remake will change Aerith’s fate? I guess we’ll see. Some characters fates have already been changed, I mean the credits even say “This unknown journey will continue.” we really don’t know what will happen.

They’ve said that the original game’s ending was the “bad ending” that they allude to at the end of this game so I see them literally making alternate timelines to change it up through these Whispers. Now I don’t know what I would think if they start time travelling and hopping dimensions, this isn’t Avengers: Endgame...who am I kidding, this isn’t Kingdom Hearts! The way it is now is fine with me, just don’t make it too complicated is all. But to say that the ending makes the rest of the game not matter, seems kind of wrong, what’s passed has passed, if they start retconning stuff then I get it but right now, it’s just saying that the future isn’t set in stone, this is a different story, the next game may even go under a different name.

Is it my favorite FF game? Well I found myself playing it for hours at a time which is hard for me to do, something I wanted XV to do so desperately for me but didn’t. I mean I would start at around 6 at night and just play until I left like leaving off or when I take a shower at 8:30 (yeah I schedule that) but with this game, I would check the time and be like “Oh it’s 8, I’ll play for another half hour and wrap this up.” And it will end up being 10:00 at night before I realize “Oh, is it really that late??” I get that for most people, it happens, they can play all the time but not me and I won’t get into why I’m like that but I will say that a game has never made me get that invested. I’ll probably end up playing the original, I know so many people say that it’s a totally different experience and I believe it. So far it is my favorite though, even if I haven’t played any of the original ones yet.

This game isn’t without flaws, when I was seeing some of the other complaints such as “being killed is sometimes out of your hands” and "some enemies are just bullet sponges, there’s no strat.” and “it’s dumb that every battle resets your gauge for everything (limits, AP, etc)” and stuff like that, I fully agree, but again it’s the light you view it in.

Does it belong in my top 15? I played it at night (as I mentioned) but that’s more or less what I would think about the whole day until I played it again. YES!

(PART 1)

(PART 2)

#ff7 #remake #final fantasy 7 #review #part 3 #story #spoilers #ff7 spoilers

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bournefan · 6 years ago

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Matthew Bourne interview: Swan Lake’s choreographer on his high-flying reboot

As Matthew Bourne’s fabulous Swan Lake gets a reboot, he tells David Jays how he has hand-reared a new generation of male cygnets

The Sunday Times, December 2 2018, 12:01am

You know you’re ageing when swans, like policemen, are getting younger. So imagine how Matthew Bourne feels as he revives his landmark production of Swan Lake with its all-male swans. “It’s the first time we’ve done the show where quite a large amount of the cast were not born when we made it,” he tells me during a break in rehearsals in east London. He sighs self-deprecatingly. “It feels a bit weird. I’m some sort of historical figure to them.”

This Swan Lake soared straight into dance history when it premiered in 1995. It whirled Tchaikovsky’s tragic romance into a modern British context: the prince struggles with the expectations of an icy royal family and is overwhelmed by a magnetic wild bird. It’s like The Crown, but with added hot boy swans. Bare-chested, ferociously charismatic, those swans became instant icons, and the production reached the West End, Broadway, film, DVD and student curriculums. No one had expected it to run, let alone fly with such irresistible force.

Bourne has more silver in his beard these days, but, almost 25 years on, he’s delighted that the work still acts like catnip to charismatic young dancers. “The piece has an amazing legacy of inspiration for young guys,” he says. “For virtually everyone in it, it’s the thing that made them want to dance and it’s their dream to be in it. They have a big emotional relationship with it — you can’t buy that.”

For many spectators, too, Bourne’s Swan Lake is the gateway drug that gets them hooked on dance. But it was his first large-scale show, so he is pleased that the by now “knackered” sets and costumes gave him an opportunity to rework it. “I’d be happy to lose a lot of the humour,” he reflects. “I’ve grown more involved in the dark psychology. The prince is a mind in turmoil. For me, it’s very simple — it’s about someone without love in their life who wants to be held.

“We’ve questioned everything,” he continues. He was tempted to make the Fergie-like royal girlfriend a bit more Meghan, but it was “too late in the day” for such radical changes. But he has stripped things back: the rackety Soho club sequence, for example, originally home to Quentin Crisp and Joe Orton, is simplified to focus on dance.

Fresh eyes for the creative team were provided by Paule Constable, Bourne’s inspired go-to lighting designer for more than a decade, but a newcomer to this piece. “Classical ballet is not my comfort zone,” she admits. “But this is engaging and overwhelming. It’s about loss, and it’s profoundly painful.” She was especially taken by “the emotional impact of the ending. It really hits you.”

Constable also praises Bourne’s “narrative muscle”. “It’s fascinating, as an early show for Matt. It has big dance sections — the complexity is very different from the contemporary choreography of The Red Shoes. Matt’s reinvented it. A lot of people say it feels more grown-up this time.”

She had asked herself if seeing these young men dancing as swans would still feel radical, but she isn’t wondering now. “I had no idea it would feel so resonant and pertinent. We are sitting on a massive crisis in mental health, particularly for young men. Twenty-three years ago, Matthew was already engaged in these struggles.”

Does Bourne never resent his iconic Swan as being more of an albatross round his neck? “No, I’ve never felt it. It’s the biggest show we do, so there’s always a big influx of new people. Many of them have never acted before. Developing talent is a huge part of the show now.” For a lot of the cast, this is their first professional gig. In fact, many of the show’s fledgling swans were hand-reared. Some had performed in Bourne’s Lord of the Flies, a production that recruits local young men at each venue, many of whom have never set foot in a theatre.

More intriguing still, several dancers emerged from the company’s “Swan School”. Hold on, Swan School?

“We started it to give people a better chance of getting into the show,” Bourne explains. It was prompted by watching unpolished talent at auditions. “We invited people who we thought had potential, but who, left to their own devices, may just have come back a year later without the means to be cast.”

I can’t help imagining a feathery Hogwarts, but the reality is more focused: learning the choreography, getting feedback, exploring the show’s mix of styles. As Bourne puts it, “a crash course in being a swan”.

Swanning, he insists, is trickier than it looks — he drops a starry ballet name he didn’t think was right for it. As for the complete newbies: “There’s always been room for people who have a good standard of dancing but no performing experience — they learn through doing the show.” Later, in rehearsal, I watch the least experienced Prince: James Lovell, who came via Swan School. “He’s the youngest guy in the company, and he’s playing the Prince,” Bourne marvels. “He’s an actor, perfect for us. He’s holding his own completely.”

As for the new swans, they were lured from West End musicals and big ballet companies. Matthew Ball, rising star of the Royal Ballet, told Bourne that, when young, he had the show poster on his wall. He even had the T-shirt. He has taken leave from the RB to dance the Swan; and Max Westwell left English National Ballet altogether. “I’d auditioned for Swan Lake before,” he says, “but it wasn’t the right time. This time I really went for it.” Meanwhile, the contemporary-trained Will Bozier was performing in Wicked, but leapt at a chance to audition. He, too, was a devoted fanboy: “I grew up watching Swan Lake.”

To inform the performances, Bourne shares film clips via Facebook and tries to make everyone watch The Birds. Bozier and Westwell — one sweet, one springy, both with close-cropped hair — describe their all-enveloping preparation. Bozier browses YouTube for footage of swans attacking people (Bourne’s birds are far from house-trained); when he isn’t needed in rehearsal later, I see him practising wing things at the back. Meanwhile, Adam Cooper, who originated the role, came in to coach them. How was that? “Insane,” Bozier says. “He’s still amazing — the speed of his movement. It all clicked into place.”

Each dancer must put their own stamp on the dual role of the Prince’s beloved wild bird and the wicked buck who humiliates him at the palace ball. Bourne explains what he needs: “In the same way that [the traditional ballet] is a challenge for the ballerina, these two roles are very different. You can’t just be a beautiful Swan. As the Stranger, you’ve got to come out and be a bit of a sexpot. It doesn’t work if you have only one of those things.”

In rehearsal, Bourne is a soft-voiced authority, the kindest of historical figures. “It’s difficult, this piece,” he tells the company. “A lot of different characters, and you have to keep changing styles.” How do the dancers themselves assess the challenge?

“Coming from a classical background, the range in the movement was tricky,” Westwell says. “And it is a big role, you have to pace yourself.” With multiple casts throughout the tour, each Swan will wrap itself around the heart and body of three Princes. “It feels different each time,” Westwell says. “So many scenarios. You have to respond in the moment. We’re working flat out.”

If this Swan Lake welcomes a new generation of artists, Bourne’s next show, based on Romeo and Juliet, goes further, involving a raft of young creatives. “We’re working with lots of younger artists,” Constable says. “We’re all bringing on young associates. I’m working with a lighting designer called Ali Hunter. She has a voice in the room, not just as an assistant. This project feels like it has incredible possibility.”

Swan Lake is at Sadler’s Wells, London EC1, until Jan 27, then touring until May 25: new-adventures.net/swan-lake

#swan lake #matthew bourne

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stillness-in-green · 6 years ago

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i realized mika's the only one of the tekkadan boys to have a specific thing he wants to do outside of fighting- farming- which is kinda ironic considering he's been called aimless. so do you have any ideas of what the other boys could/would like to do as a profession/career outside of fighting (not counting what they actually ended up doing in the epilogue)? doesn't have to be for everybody, just for whoever you can think of. thank you :)

I got this ask ages ago and have been periodically rolling it around in and around other things, but I put it in front of myself again today and finally typed out a response. Below the cut, some thoughts on what these boys would be doing if they had, not only all survived the series, but done so in a way that left them free to pursue whatever ambitions or talents they might desire or discover.

Most of them.

Lets start with the inner circle and work our way out.

I think Biscuit (whose survival is probably the reason everyone else is alive in this hypothetical AU of ours, because he would have an aneurysm before he let Orga join hands with McGillis Fareed) could be good at practically anything he puts his mind to, and therefore, what I think he should probably do is go to school. He obviously values education–he spent lord knows how much time endangering life and limb to earn the money to put Cookie and Cracker through school, and clearly admires how far Savarin’s schooling took him in life. As to what he might study, there are a number of ways that could go–agricultural sciences to help his Granny Sakura with the farm, business to pick up where Savarin left off, possibly a social science so he can find a job in all the inevitable restructuring that Mars’ new government will be doing.

Eugene, more than anyone else, strikes me as wanting to find someone to settle down with. Unlike Shino, who talks about women solely in the context of his sex drive, Eugene is interested in romance. And while he doesn’t seem to have had much luck with that in IBO’s canon epilogue, in a more peaceful time, it’s easy to imagine him devoting more energy to dating. Without Tekkadan eating up his attention, whatever career he finds a way into–possibly bodyguard work still, or maybe an office job like Zack’s–would, I think, be just a way to help support a family.

Akihiro, unlike most all of the boys, already has a girl who’s interested in him, and if he survived this show for this AU, I see no reason to not imagine the Turbines did also. Lafter plainly was never going to leave the Turbines to be with him, of course, but if there was no Tekkadan to protect… I don’t think Naze would be very keen to break his girls-only rule, but every chick must leave the nest eventually–perhaps Lafter and Akihiro might be entrusted with protecting/leading another branch of the business? Given the size of the organization*, there must be other battleships doing the transport business/transport protection thing. Or they could just accompany whichever shipment Naze directed them towards.

That is, though, probably kind of a longshot. Tekkadan Inc. or no, Akihiro has strong feelings about protecting his family, and where I think that’s most likely to leave him is actually in Dante’s place in the epilogue, helping run the orphanage and taking care of children. While I don’t know that gentleness and empathy will ever come easily to him, he would be able to relate with the stories of the many ex-Debris children that orphanage is implied to be seeing post-outlawing-of-legal-child-trafficking, and it would be a way to both honor and grapple with the memory of Masahiro.

Derma would probably end up in about the same place he does in the show–assuming Akihiro doesn’t get adopted by the Turbines, I think Derma would follow him to the orphanage. He had been more directly under Dante’s wing in the series, of course, but for a lot of reasons, I don’t think that the same things that would appeal to Dante in civilian life would hold much interest for Derma. He doesn’t have Dante’s knack with computers; he doesn’t share Dante’s itch for fame. But he does have a load of self-confidence issues that make him exactly as likely to relate to orphan ex-Debris kids as Akihiro’s losses make him. (It’s also the case that Derma is the Tekkadan kid who’s the least explored outside of being a child soldier, so I’m inclined to err on the side of what the show points him to rather than make things up wildly, which is essentially what I’d be doing otherwise.)

Returning to the main group, Shino is easy; in a scenario in which he isn’t a paid civilian soldier, that guy has got “stunt show pilot” written all over him. I doubt Mars’ entertainment industry is so well developed that they need or can afford to hire mobile suit pilots for TV/film work, but I bet the planet can support something more like the Post-Disaster equivalent of monster truck derbies. They’d probably involve old/restored mobile workers, rather than the expensive military hardware that is a proper mobile suit, but I certainly don’t put it past Shino to showboat around in a decommissioned Flauros from time to time.

Dante, always grouped with Shino in combat, would probably follow him here. In a peaceful epilogue, Dante easily could have an entirely lucrative (and possibly illicit) career with his computer skills, but I think he’d finding sitting at a computer all day to be unfathomably boring the more like an actual desk job it became. Compared to the measure of fame Shino would be making for himself, it’s obvious which Dante would go for. Also, with two people with mobile suits, they could possibly get some kind of MS boxing circuit going. I think that would be a very longterm project, more suitable for when things calm back down and there are all these mobile suits around collecting dust.

Yamagi is a mechanic–he’s one of the few characters with job experience other than “soldier,” and there’s no reason to expect him to change streams from the canon to this AU. However, I think Yukinojo and Merribit would have encouraged him to go work with Shino’s pit crew/show team before too long, if he ever held a job down at Kassapa Factory to begin with. He and Shino are, almost certainly, dating on the side. Just, like, fill in Shino and Yamagi for the Special Feeling umbrella meme.

Ride is another gimme. He has an obvious artistic streak, the evidence of which is painted all over the Isaribi, the Tekkadan complex, and the orphanage building. If he didn’t need to fight (and while he was pretty gung-ho about it originally, I have to think the trauma from Hashmal and the agriculture plant is going to be long-lived), it’s very simple to imagine Ride getting nudged into pursuing art in a more professional way. Especially if Kudelia’s new government is subsidizing such things.

Chad is another one that I’d like to see in school. There are several instances in the series that impy he’s doing serious amounts of research/study on the side–he’s constantly shown asking pertinent questions or showcasing some skillset or bit of knowledge that he has no business having access to based simply on what we’re explicitly told about him. Given that, it’d be interesting for the others to convince him to set aside the helper ant mentality and go learn something he thinks is interesting. While Biscuit has family needs to guide his academic choices, Chad could really get into anything. I would slot him into a field that involves research but also quantifiable knowledge–history, for example, or psychology, rather than e.g. theoretical physics. I kind of love the idea of Chad getting access to a bunch of banned books via Kudelia or their Teiwaz connections.

Takaki seems on-track to wind up in politics, if not as a politician himself, then as the sort of lobbyist or aide that any notionally democratic government runs on. Given that he bailed out of fighting by choice, this seems to be his chosen path in any case. He’s also likely to make a hell of a diplomat when he gets older and picks up more confidence in himself.

Aston is so rooted in his self-image of “soldier” that it’s difficult to imagine what he might want to do outside of that field. We do know a few things about him that could give us a direction, though: he’s observant (noticing more about Fuka’s schoolwork than her own brother), he’s relatively prudent and cautious (his teamwork with Vito, and his reluctance to wildly charge McGillis), and he’s a mediator (between his quartet back with the Brewers, and again between Takaki and the other Earth Branch boys). So what kind of career could combine those traits with his gravitation towards military settings? Personally, I think he’d do really well as a crisis negotiator–a specialist brought in by police to help with hostage situations and other threats of e.g. domestic violence, terrorism, suicide, and so on. Of course, the trick there is less getting certified for that job than it is finding a group to work alongside–while I can see him joining an Arbrau/Edmonton police force, it’s much harder to imagine him being able to get a job with Gjallarhorn. In any case, assuming he can manage to find an avenue for said work, he’d be great at it.

This brings us to our Season 2 newbies.

Hush I would mostly see following Mikazuki into farming. Not just to be following Mika, mind, but because Hush’s motivation, beyond a big ol’ chip on his shoulder about the Alaya Vijnana system, is much the same as so many others–to protect and provide for his social circle. If he’s provided an avenue for that that isn’t constant endangerment of life and limb, I think it’s what he’d go for. And farming is helping to provide for a great many people, some very directly–the fact that he can still be around to help Mikazuki is just a bonus.

Zack joined Tekkadan because of their fame, rather than out of real necessity–so what exactly did he think was so cool about Tekkadan to begin with? Given his reticence about actual combat when he comes face to face with it, perhaps it’s more the “spitting in Gjallarhorn’s eye” aspect than the feats of badassity? Given that, what could he do that would scratch that itch? Well, he’s a hell of a programmer, and has Dante available to teach him anything about hacking he doesn’t already know. I think he’d be very happy being one of those whistle-blower internet Ariadne activist types, finding secret information, info on cover-ups, or details on corruption, and providing proof of such things to the world at large, particularly given how government-controlled the media is in the setting.

Dane is already living a life free of fighting, so it’s possible that, absent Tekkadan being a bunch of criminals, he might end up working at Kassapa Factory anyway, or perhaps going with Yamagi to Shino and Dante’s venture. He’s another big mystery as to things he might enjoy outside of work; for example, he evinces little patience with Hush until Hush starts showing some basic empathy/humility, which leads me to think that close work with people would probably not be his thing. So sticking to work with his hands, I wonder if he, like Ride, would get any mileage out of art? He could snap paintbrushes like twigs, of course, but I can see him being good at something like pottery, and if his pre-show history is as violent as we’re lead to believe, I can see it being relaxing–probably as a hobby, rather than a career, just something he can do on his own time and terms.

So, that’s every–mm? A significant exclusion? A deuteragonist undiscussed?

Oh, right.

So, Orga. What would Orga do in peacetime? Well, that’s difficult to even try to conceive. Orga, like McGillis, is massively defined by both his ambition and his dissatisfaction with the status quo. He’s never satisfied, never content; he interprets Mikazuki’s intense gaze as a challenge, and it never stops pushing him forward, no matter who else tries to tell him he’s going too fast. What could Orga ever do in peacetime? It’s tempting to say that every one of the hypothetical outcomes above was paid for in Orga’s blood, because less than a handful of these people would ever desert Orga if he lived, and while he lived and had people looking to him, he would never stop. In that way, Tekkadan is in a feedback loop that they can’t get out of without a system-redefining change. Looking at his skill set, we again find a bunch of things that suggest that Orga works best as a leader–he’s canny, highly charismatic, a quick thinker, and he has killer instincts, albeit with some Mikazuki-sized blind spots. This is a kid practically fated to be a gang leader–and he’s also oathsworn to the mob, making getting out of that life safely a dicey prospect.

So what is there for him, if not fighting? Purely as an imaginary exercise, he’d be a scary effective community leader. I mean, just imagine being a city representative showing up to a town hall meeting and this is waiting in the front row:

But that’s still pretty mundane. Lets try something really different on for size.

During the season break, Orga is attending some official function at Saisei, lurking around afterward and waiting for a chance to talk to Naze. Out of nowhere, he gets jumped by the fashion equivalent of Saisei’s eccentric mechanic, who insists that Orga’s je ne sais quoi levels are off the charts, and he absolutely must grant her at least one modeling session. Naze, walking in on this conversation, has a huge laugh about it and goads Orga into accepting. And then the whole of the second season gets derailed because suddenly Orga is faced with the argument that sufficiently famous people are also rich and powerful, rich and powerful enough that he could relocate his entire gang to some private satellite around Jupiter if he were so inclined. And maybe it feels immaterial, and maybe it wasn’t the method what he expected, but that doesn’t make the paycheck any less real. The designer tells him in no uncertain terms that if he wants to continue, she will personally talk McMurdo Barriston’s ear off about how he is completely wasting this surly teenager’s God-given personal magnetism.

Orga immediately has a huge crisis over it, because it feels terrifyingly unmasculine and he has no concept of the term “soft power.” Atra loves it, though, and Biscuit thinks it’s strange but effective. Things almost fall through anyway when it comes out that Orga has a whisker implant, but the designer is insistent, so they end up just photo-editing it out and limiting his public appearances, which is just as well, because he finds crowds and fans alike to be extremely uncomfortable.

Tekkadan still do odd jobs for Teiwaz now and again, like protecting Kudelia from Dawn Horizon, but are mostly out of the line of fire when McGillis starts looking around for allies. McGillis, deprived of a Tekkadan he can talk around on joining him, is left profoundly annoyed. How things go from there is a whole new question.

*Allow me to quote from this post:

In the interest of context for the number I’m about to lay on you, the Dawn Horizon group–a band of pirates who have ten ships and are considered sizeable enough that they fill a niche that’s important to Gjallarhorn, and would also be too much a pain to try to oust entirely, have around 2,500 members. Wow! That’s a lot!

The Turbines have 50,000 members.

Like this post? Consider throwing a few bucks in my coffee fund via the Ko-fi link on my About page!

#mobile suit gundam: iron-blooded orphans #gundam ibo #g tekketsu #my writing #asks #orga's lucrative modelling career is a hilarious au and i thank you for the opportunity to discover it #stillness-answers #ibo meta

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okimargarvez · 7 years ago

Text

UNDER PRESSURE

Original title: Sotto pressione.

Prompt: post 13x15.

Warning : none. Genre: angst, romantic, family.

Characters: Penelope Garcia, Luke Alvez.

Pairing: Garvez.

Note: oneshot 25 in Garvez collection.

Legend: 💏😘🔦.

Song mentioned: La tua vita non passerà, Tiziano Ferro.

MY OTHER GARVEZ STORIES

UNDER PRESSURE

They talk, they talk, they talk, they say that I dream, but they lie, they lie...

The woman drives away the frustration while her eye burns them terribly. She throws the contact lens into the appropriate container and finally wears the old and beloved glasses again. Forced to be who she is not, for almost ten hours a day. Yes, it's true that she always had to put a good face on it, but not with them, not with her team.

No, she doesn't have to think about it. It was the initial mistake, that of wanting... everything... everything...

This is her life now. Probably it will be until she takes her last breath. She rinses her face with cold water, remove any layer of makeup. She looks in the mirror and doesn't recognize herself. Those short hair don't belong to her.

I resemble the world in many aspects and in its most evident faults...

She sits on the bed. She removes the shoes, only five centimeters high heel, black paint color. She throws them into one side of the room. She also removes the suit. Beige. It's the only nuance that is not good for her, it is unshakable, it has no personality. She is depriving her of her way of being, as if it were the wedding garment that Medea has given to her Jason's bride, to take revenge. Or the robe worn by Heracles, soaked with the ointment that the centaur Nessus gave to Deianira, succeeding in this way to kill one of the greatest demigods of ancient mythology... ok, she reads too much, in the evening. She has too much free time available.

I made too many things wrong, roads, I entered a few churches so rarely, tomorrow I will leave even if you don't want to...

She also removes the bra, while she laughs alone. Her laughter spreads across the room, bounces off the walls and comes back. The emptiness surrounds her and soon, will be able to incorporate her, make her disappear. She will become one of the many who work without passion, without knowing why she do it. She will repeat the same gestures indefinitely, until she becomes not even more aware. Soon there will not be much difference between her and whatever piece of furniture in her office.

Your life will not pass, it will not pass, it will not pass, I will not give up your life at every failure ...

She wears a pink nightgown, decorated with various images of unicorns. She closes her eyes and tries to feel that scent, something, anything that she remembers who it is. But she doesn't hear anything.

The vibration of the cell phone on the bedside table makes her jump. She grabs it by praying that there is no case. Once (and yet it has been two months since that day, it seems 2 or 20 years) she would have been happy to have to run to work. Because here she would find...

She reads the name in the sender. Cool Hand Luke.

Another giggle escapes from her, then she wonders why he texts her. Will he have a wrong number? Something will not happen to JJ or Matt or... She opens it holding her breath. I entrust your life to the wind, which changes the terms and derails them, takes people and dazzles them because often the world makes mistakes...

Hey, Garcia, how are you? I hope I'm not bothering you. I wanted to ask you if you want to get some tea. I should talk to you about something. She smiles, her lips bent gently upwards. Only he could be so careful to detail. Not a coffee, but a tea. Damn Newbie. She sighs and stares the screen until it turns off.

Hey, obviously she omits answering his first question, ok, is it something serious? When would you like to go? She deletes the last sentence. In this way it seems like a date, while it's simply about... it's definitely about work. She sees no other reason why he should contact her. Damn, they have not seen each other for two months. Two months. No one in the new workplace has ever looked at her like him, in this time frame. No one called her chica, nor even flirted just for fun with her. Nobody ever told her she did a great job. She deletes the entire message.

Has something bad happened? Don't make me worry, Alvez. She presses send before changing her mind again. As if she were on a precipice waiting for the right moment to throw herself. What a bad image.

No, not really. Are you free, then? Tomorrow night? The man' response arrives very quickly. As if he were in front of the screen, as if he were waiting... she is going too many mental journeys. This haven't stopped, at least some things don't change.

Yes, if I don't have a case. Same goes for you, I guess. I'll let you know at the time. This time at least one-minute passes before the screen lights up again.

Ok. From O'Keef at eight? Reading that name destabilizes her much more than everything else. It's a happy place, full of good memories, carefree evenings...

No, please, let's choose another place. Any one, but not that. I'm not ready. Now, that she doesn't see him every day, it's useless to keep showing herself cold and indifferent, not allowing him to glimpse not even a small part of her weakness.

Of course, Penelope, there is no problem. I know a nice place, very colorful and noisy. I'll send you the address tomorrow. Good night. He manages to snatch almost a moan from her. How the heck does he is so sweet and so smart to guess always? Why can he understand that what she needed was noise, confusion, something that didn't make her feel the weight of the loneliness she brought with her from that blessed day?

Thank you. Night.

They talk, they talk, they talk, and they say that I dream, however, they lie, they lie...

The man opens the door of his apartment and enters. The sheepdog runs towards him, showing him how much she missed him. -Hello, girl, I know, I missed you too.- he kneels, crouching to sink the face in the thick fur of the animal and inhales her scent strongly. This gesture has always calmed him, ever since he came back from Iraq and he never stopped doing it, every time he found himself in crisis, he risked to relapse... for example after seeing Penelope in tears for Reid and having had two small talk with Shawn. Or after seeing Scratch falling without doing anything. And surely when he found out that a bastard had shot Garcia during a date. And from that day, when Linda Barnes had decided to destroy everything... well, it had become increasingly necessary.

I'll go back, when I want, because you know, who doesn't have a life... dreams...

The jet landed at six in Quantico. He has all the time in the world to get ready. She has already assured him that the coast is clear, nothing fish to fry. She tried to show the usual Garcia, but she didn't succeed very well. He understood that there is something different, that she is forced, yes, even by the way she wrote those texts. Not that before (as it sounds, even in his head, this adverb of time, as if it were about centuries ago) had exchanged who knows how many messages. But those few times she didn't miss an opportunity to prick him, just a little. To provoke him. And he certainly didn't pull back. Yesterday evening, instead...

Yesterday she has sounded shut off. She even showed herself to be weak, telling him she didn't want to go to O'Keef. It was obvious that she would not like it, he had to guess it. What a fool!

I mistook day and night by dreaming and I can't sleep ...

He pulls himself up and prepares Roxy's dinner quickly. Another gesture that calms him, because so habitual, so reassuring in its repeating smoothly. Here it can't happen that a Linda (Spencer was right, Linda was a problem) suddenly arrives and destroys everything in her path. Two years of hard work wiped away in a second, to be able to integrate himself, to trust others...

He goes to the bathroom and gets naked, getting rid of anxiety alongside sweaty clothes. First, he removes the boots, putting them on the side, then the shirt, the red one amaranth, the dark trousers, the underwear and the white socks. He opens the water and slips under the jet of hot water, the steam rises, enveloping his body. He grabs the shampoo bottle and puts some liquid in one hand, rubs his hair, long as when he had known her, he closes his eyes and tries not to tremble at the thought that, in less than an hour, he'll see her again.

Two months, sixty days without a misplaced joke, a zinger, eyes turned to the sky, unbecoming nicknames... even if the last time she had called him cool guy. Yeah, he had made progress. Finally, she realized that he wasn't the playboy she wanted so much... and Barnes had to intrude herself by sending everything to hell. Thank you very much. But perhaps something positive could sprout from this mess.

While passing the sponge on the back and chest he remembers the dialogue with JJ. She had told him that she hadn't talk to Penelope for a century. She was practically gone. The same was true of Tara and Emily; the girls had tried to invite her to one of their women' nights, but nothing, she hadn't even answered, if not the next day with I’m sorry, I was overworked. Overworked. Not a term she would use. Obsolete and weird, yes, but not in the sense in which she usually expressed herself. Not even Reid, who found the experience of teaching rather formative (more humanly than unprofessionally), or Rossi, engaged in the drafting of a novel where the supreme head of a team, a bureaucrat without the slightest training on the field, she went to a lot of trouble... but even Matt was no longer able to contact her.

He had been thinking about it for a while. All this mysterious situation had made him definitively worry. They were in the same damn building and they had never even crossed their streets. Not in the parking lot, not in the elevator, nothing. He knew in which unit she had been transferred. He had heard about it. And just he couldn't imagine her among those people, each interested exclusively in their careers, to add a plaque on the desk.

That's why he was surprised, yesterday, when she answered him. Why he and not the others? Maybe he just caught her at the right time, for once. He decided he wanted to believe this.

It's made of prohibitions and all of our things, life is always beautiful because life doesn't rest...

All the foam flows in to the drain. He closes the tap and goes out, grabs a towel and puts it around his waist. He threads a pair of terry slippers, walking towards the bedroom. He opens the wardrobe and pulls out a shirt. Blue. This time he doesn't need to ask for a second opinion, that of Roxy, of course. He knows (without knowing why) that this is the right choice. When he thinks he is dry enough, he puts on a tight white shirt. It's not too hot outside. But not even inside (inside him). Another pair of trousers, not jeans, without front pockets, clear, which stand out the muscles of his calves. And casual shoes but not completely elegant.

Back in the bathroom, he looks in the mirror. He passes a hand through his hair, already dry. He combs them quickly, glances at the clock nearby. He has still just five minutes. He puts on his wrist the bracelet that Phil gave him. Spray deodorant and even a scent, but delicate and almost imperceptible.

He grabs the jacket, then changes his mind to the last and opt for the denim jacket. Better.

He sighs, takes wallet, house keys, car keys and cell phone. The bare minimum.

I'm leaving home now. Are you already there? He is afraid of receiving in reply that she will not be there, that in the end some unforeseen will prevent her from reaching him, that he has only deluded himself... instead, quite the contrary.

No, but I'm almost there. It's not even from her, to be on time. There is definitely something wrong. He turns to Roxy. -Hey, girl, now I have to go. But if all goes well, I will not go back alone.- the dog almost seems to nod. -I bring Penelope back home, I promise.-

He enters in the bar and looks around. He immediately meets the gaze of a blonde woman, as confused as he is. He approaches frowning. -Garcia?- now it is certain, it is her. The hair is short, very short, smooth, cut into an almost military bowl haircut that leaves uncovered a good part of her neck. She wears a strange, dark suit that makes her look like a lawyer. The make-up is light, no eyeliner, not even lipstick. And no colorful glasses; probably she wears contact lenses. He had never noticed before how big her eyes were.

-Luke.- she doesn't move, doesn't stand up to greet him, she just looks at him. It is however strange and significant that she decided to call him by name. He takes off his jacket, leans it on the chair and positions himself in front of her. -I'm sorry for the clothes, but I just got out of work. A colleague of mine left early and I also had to finish his part. I didn't have time to change. I hope you don't mind.- the really Garcia, two months ago, would have known how to make some good joke from a situation like that. The woman who is before him now, however, limited to expose her justification with a flat and aseptic tone. She, who cared so much to every detail, who personally chose every accessory to wear combined with the clothes...

-No, it's just that... You're... you're so... weird.- the truth escapes from him, he just can't hold it. His upheaval certainly doesn't go unnoticed. The woman finds herself giggling and shaking her head, as if he had made a joke.

-I'm with you from a second, and I already seem to be back home.- here, this looks even more like the original Garcia. But still, her eyes are definitely less bright and lively, less mischievous. -So... what did you want to talk to me, cool guy?- she had say it again. She used that nickname. Penelope bites her tongue, cursing herself. But the impact wasn't strong just for him. Luke is beautiful, as always. But there's something strange about him too. He didn't shave perfectly, he cut his own cheek, if she'll put her finger on his skin, she could follow all the way...

-Nothing, it's just that... you're disappeared.- he decides to go slowly, to not did further pressure to her. After all, she is the one who was thrown in the middle of the sharks without life preservers. She is alone, but she has to continue to do what she did before, without being herself. -We work in the same building but never see each other.- he is aware of what may seem, what truly is, but he doesn't want her to know and he's hurry to continue -I mean, also with JJ and Matt.- he can't prevent his cheeks from turning red. -It's not strange? I know that you don't even be in touch with others.- at the end he says everything, without filters. It seems as if he is blaming her, that he is accusing her of something. At least it is in this sense that she perceives it.

-Well, I've been very busy.- she justifies herself by crossing her arms over her chest. It is certainly the first time that not even a small part of her breast is exposed to sight. He gives himself to the maniac, but that thought doesn't leave him free anyway. The woman notices the insistence of his gaze, but the war is temporarily interrupted by a very attractive waitress who takes their orders. Luke ignores her almost completely.

-Do you like what you do? How are you?- he asks as soon as they are alone again. He was right, the place is very welcoming, there is a strange atmosphere, as if time were suspended; the tables are all wooden, the walls covered with posters that date back to the late 1980s, a persistent music fills every empty space. And then there is the cheerful voice of other people. As he speaks, he approaches her a little.

For a while, she seems not to have heard the two questions. -Oh, Newbie, I missed your interrogation!- she is happy that he didn't ask her why she clearly avoided talking to others. And once again she wonders why she has answered him affirmatively, why she is here. Should not. This goes against the pact that she was forced to sign. She lets the nickname slip on her tongue as if she couldn't avoid it in any way. She smiles almost maliciously. -Anyway... it's not that bad. It's not the first time that I collaborate with a different team.- she adds in a professional tone, not without some uncertainty that leads man to understand that she is lying, or at least omitting part of the truth.

-I missed being called in this way.- he says this purposefully. In another situation, if they were in their offices, miles away, one in a country and one in another, this could also seem like a joke, a flirtation to ease the accumulated tension in trying to save as many human lives as possible.

But she deliberately decides to ignore these implications. -What do you really want, Alvez?- the waitress returns and settles their drinks on the table. -You can't have called me just for a chat.- she decrees, raising an eyebrow. -Do you feel lonely? Lisa is not enough for you?- here, he seems to feel a tiny pinch of jealousy. Luke chuckles, because he doesn't see Dr. Douglas from that date when they have play at the foosball table a century ago. Yet, she didn't seem particularly worried when she broke their first date. Of course, she had begun to deliriously as usual... but this is not all that significant.

He sighs and leans a hand towards the mug of beer. Look at the yellow liquid, similar to the color of the hair of his ex-colleague. -It didn't work. But basically, it's better this way.- the pure truth, nothing more and nothing less. The tone of man is not displeased, it shows no shade of sadness, although this implies exactly what Garcia has asked him, only to provoke him: solitude.

-Oh, I'm sorry.- she's honest too, and he believes her easily. The lips, so clear in their natural color, bend slightly downwards and a wrinkle appears on her forehead. But he can't stop staring at those brown eyes. Yes, they are definitely big, huge. -How is Phil?- apparently the interrogation has turned over. Now she is the one who asks the questions. -And Roxy?- hearing the name of his dog he can't help but smile gently.

-Phil is fine, he's making some progress...- he says before taking a sip of his beer. Bitter. But perhaps it is he who perceives everything in that perspective, since the hag had cast her spell. -And Roxy...- he hesitates a moment, but then he remembers the promise made to his girl. -...why don't you come see her? I'm sure she'd like it...- using his dog has always been the best way to get positive attention from the blonde. A bit 'sneaky and even incorrect, but he cares little.

Garcia takes an eternity before opening her mouth again. He watches her drink her drink, turning the little colored umbrella, pulls it out to use it as a toothpick and sticks the lemon slice, then she brings it to the mouth and suck the liquid, without producing any vulgar or annoying noise. He remains as enchanted by these simple gestures. -No.- she finally says. -I don't think it's the case.- her lips are wet from a few drops of lemon.

Who knows what flavor they have, if they would have had a bitter taste too. -Is that all you had to tell me?- he is silent. She finishes drinking and puts the empty glass on the table. -Then, I have to go.- she stands up and turns to take the jacket. At that moment Luke notices two things at the same time: first the shoes, black and without heel, well, only a few centimeters, practically slippers for the computer technician's standards; and then he notices how much she looks smaller, in those clothes so unusual for her, she also lost weight. Stress, definitely.

In a second, he is standing next to her and his fingers wrapped like coils, like handcuffs, albeit gently, around the woman's wrist. -Hey, wait.- Garcia looks at him but without protesting. -The unit needs you, Penelope.- this is only the easy half of the matter. -I, I need you.- he finally exclaims, emphasizing the personal pronoun. She almost abandons herself on the chair. He too returns to settle in front of her. The mug is still half full. He feels like freed from a burden. BAU needed Penelope Garcia because no one had her abilities, her speed in identifying the right information. About this no one would have nothing to say.

-You?- her huge brown eyes, doe eyes (he must have read this in some novel, such kind of expression, but he had never happened to apply it in the real world) are opened, exactly as when this wild animal at night is on a dangerous road and the headlights of a car illuminate it before the possible impact. -Why?- Penelope falters, her head spinning and the whole room becomes blurred. Damn contact lenses, she hates them. If at least she was able to remove...

Luke decides that by now he did the first important step, he can't hide his hand after throwing the stone. So, he reaches out and grabs her hand, without even looking. His body automatically moves in the right direction, almost guided by a superior force. -This job is empty, without your jokes that have nothing to do with the case.- well, it was just this. Newbie lacked someone to joke with, someone who could smile despite everything, nothing more. This, she was for him: a fool who made a clown.

Penelope feels anger increasing and clenching her throat, tears sting her eyes and wet her eyelashes. She can't cry, not only because Luke is in front of her, but mostly because the damned lenses get dirty, if she does. -BAU also need Reid's intelligence, Rossi's experience, Emily's loyalty, Tara's insights. Not just my jokes.- she growls, listing the other members of the team. It's immediately obvious to the man that she misinterpreted his sentence. She felt diminished, while his goal is to make her understand how important she is, but not just for the team.

Luke shakes his head, annoyed. -It's not just that, you know what I meant...- he looks at her directly in the way he has always looked at her, his hand still on hers, even the partially intertwined fingers, although she tried to get rid of it, but he is too strong, or the woman's attempts have been weak. -However, you're right.- he doesn't made any effort to admit it. Garcia doesn't smile in a victorious gesture. -But I, I only need you.- again that underlining. -Before, I was a loner, I thought it was better this way, it was simpler, nobody worried about me, but now I love this group, we are a family, I love everyone, but I love you a little bit more.- he's never let himself go with her so much on such a subject. She had sensed something when she had met Phil. From behind the column she had heard him explain to his friend how hard it was to start a normal life again, after returning from Iraq and how much Roxy had helped him. Because he needed a reason for wanting to live. Before this, she had never really thought, that Luke could have such pains within himself. Her ingenuity and her security system prevented her from getting there. She couldn't really imagine him, in a context like war. She had wondered what kind of thoughts could ever crossing his head in such a period. And how much lonely he was felt. And now he is clearly saying it, he is writing black and white that, apart from Lisa's parenthesis, he has neither wanted no one for a long time. And that now he is ready to have it. And he wants her.

The clarity of this thought strikes her like an invisible fist in her stomach, stealing the air from her. She nods and grabs the man's glass, taking a sip, before Luke's uncertain gaze. She's not a beer-type, but she needed to swallow that lump in her throat. -Why are you telling me these things? Why exactly now?- one question after another, to silence the thousand voices in her head. Her voice sounds like that of a child. Finally, she manages to free her hand and carried it on her ribs, as in the period shortly after she had been shot. -The team is gone, Luke. It's over.- she almost hears a crack as she says it.

Your life will not pass, it will not pass, it will not pass... your life will be stronger, of what they sometimes told you... -No, look at me, Penelope, please.- when she executes that simple request she realizes that even the Luke's eyes are shiny. The last time she saw him like that, it was at Walker's funeral. -Do you remember what I told you when Reid was in trouble?- he asks in a caressing, delicate, low, and extremely deep voice. And sexy. Damn it, how can he be so exciting in such a dramatic moment? Such an intense gaze like his should be forbidden. -that we will get Reid through this, we will have managed it, and so it has been.- he answers by himself, then he observes the mug and end its contents in a single sip. He stands up, wears his jacket and is imitated by a completely distraught Penelope. When she's ok he takes her by the arm and heads for the bar to pay.

Only when they are out in the cool evening air, she seems able to talk again. -It was different, he was innocent, while we...- she silences, shakes her head and looks around, as if she were looking for someone or something. An escape route.

-What is it that you don't want to say?- Garcia doesn't answer. -There's something you didn't tell me, I see it.- he reads in her big eyes how much she hates the fact that he's a profiler. But work has nothing to do with it.

Finally, like a dormant volcano that has managed to convince everyone that it's non-dangerous, she suddenly erupts. -Ok, all right!- she shouts loudly. -If you really want to know... Barnes made me promise to close relations with all of you. Well, it's not that she really made me promise, let's say she has "warmly" recommended me...- for a moment she loses herself in trifling matters, like her usual did, before that day. -If I hadn't, she would have sent me to prison. And she would have forced all of you to leave...- she didn't want that he discover this part, but she didn't make it. She can't keep secrets or things of this kind only for herself. They also made fun of her for this. But she doesn't want to be a martyr. She absolutely doesn't want his compassion and even worse his pity.

-In prison?- finally he is the one seriously upset. She enjoys the triumph in silence. -What?- man can't conceive of such a possibility. Or the reasons why a person like Penelope can end up behind bars. For excess of sweetness? Behavior too uninhibited? Illegal distribution of tea? And then, late, the other consideration also hits him. She sacrificed herself for them. She couldn't talk to them, with any one of her old team, she was forced into exile. And this is not absolutely right.

Penelope emits a bitter laugh. -I'm a hacker, Luke.- she decides to be magnanimous and not wait that him arrives on his own to the right conclusion. He could very well do it, she knows how clever and perceptive he is, more than she wanted to admit. But for certain things, he seems almost as naive as she is. All the pieces find their place in the man head. -How do you believe I know certain tricks? Why do you think I ended up working for the BAU?- this was really a too loud bomb and she shot him straight in the face. Despite the jacket, the woman getting cold. She shudders only a little.

-Penelope, you can't carry this weight alone.- a third question enlightens his mind. Why had she decided to break that sort of contract and see him, why him, the one who had known her for less time, and not the others? A slight flame is re-ignited. But she is quick to turn it off.

-Never mind.- she shrugs like if it were nothing. She has always done so, grin and bear it. When Reid was arrested she and JJ carred about his mother's, she worried that she always had a hot meal, to cite just one example. - Now I have to go.- again that phrase, which breaks into his thoughts.

-No.- he stops her only with that monosyllable, without needing to grasp her physically or add more. -Are you dating anyone?- now that this threshold has passed, he can afford to be jealous of the idea that she, in these two months, has found someone else. And maybe right at work. Perhaps one who didn't limit himself to sraring her as if she was a miracle on this earth, but has found the courage to ask her a date, without fear of ending up incinerated like Anchise with Aphrodite.

-This argument has never been your business.- she defends herself as she can, but she no longer has any strength. She's about to give in, it's obvious now. Luke approaches her a step. She hears the slight rustling of his shoes, it's still early but few cars pass by the street. She has her eyes closed. She can't cry.

-Unfortunately you're right, could you answer however?- she feels his breath create like a cloud of steam that comes directly into her face. The heat is too much, the last straw. When she tries to lift her eyelids, she realizes that he is much closer than she believed. She never got the chance to observe his dark eyes at such a distance. She takes advantage of it to capture a thousand details, nuances. She is so close to that scratch on his cheek... just a caress, just one...

-No, I'm not dating anyone.- she responds without being able to look away from the male. She's like hypnotized, in a trance. -My life is work, Luke. It will always be like that.- she explains. But the words don't agree with the subdued tone. She sees the great hands of him rise and reach her cheeks and she knows in advance what he is about to do. She literally abandons herself, allowing him to grasp her lips with his own, to slightly bite the lower one, to the point of shaking her along the spine, to make her mouth open to intrude his tongue in and start a wild fight with hers.

Yet she is conscious of every action of her own, she doesn't lose the sense of reality. She feels her own arms moving, a hand resting on the man's back, on his shoulder blade and bringing him closer to her, as if she needs more heat. The other instead ends right on the cheek of the man, she feels the roughness of the shaved beard hairs and she identify the scratch, following the path.

When he detaches her lips from the female ones, exclusively for lack of oxygen, he still can't stay too far from her. He lays his forehead against hers. Since Garcia doesn't wear her usual stilts, the difference in height between them is even more noticeable. -If I managed to do this, all together we can save the team, don't you think?- he tries a joke, but he is extremely serious.

-Starting a clandestine relationship that goes against the regulation, is not v the best of the ideas you've had, Newbie.- and she seems to understand it, because she responds in the same way. As if Luke's lips had been able to restore her true essence, what she was beginning to forget. He wiped out all the beige with a single gesture.

-That means that you liked the others?- that grimace, that crooked smile, all leaning to the left, the white teeth partially visible. How much did she miss it, without realizing it? She also had the courage to wonder why he and not the others.

-You always twist my words against me!- but it's a protest for play, to see how far he can get, to pretend that the BAU is still together, that she shouldn't return in the cold, cold and impersonal apartment that they had gave to her. Where cats aren't allowed. It was the last time she saw Emily, when she gave Sergio gave back to her. Heck, how much she misses everyone.

-That's why you like me so much, don't you?- he satisfies her, answering her jokingly and as their noses touch, before a second kiss, Penelope realizes that even if they were to get married, this thing will not change between them. They will continue to prick each other even when he has to help himself with the stick and she will be almost completely blind and maybe even deaf as a post.

It was absolutely not a rational thought. They aren't even together, and she already imagines their eternity? The man realizes that one of the moans is too much like a sob. -Luke...- she is crying. Her whole body is shaken by unstoppable sobs.

Luke puts a hand on the woman's back and pushes her against his chest. She puts her head in but doesn't stop sobbing. -Sorry, I didn't want to make you cry, I'm so stupid.- he believes it's his fault. She enjoys those caresses on the hair, behind the ear (how the hell does he know it's one of her sensitive spots?) and on her back.

-It's not for you, it's ... this whole situation.- finally she manages to calm down enough to formulate some coherent and meaningful sentence. -I kept the pain inside for these two months, I didn't allow myself to cry even a tear, because then I would have admitted that it was really over. I missed all of you, so much, yes, you too.- they laugh together. A few drops also fall down from man's face, until the scratch, then on the neck, left naked by those too short hair.

Even when they shout to you, run, bastard, run, your life stays in here, I defend it, I defend it...

-You missed me too, Penelope. I can't imagine you in another team, all alone. Dressed like that... I guess they don't even allow you to make your own jokes.- she doesn't detach herself from that embrace that they both pursued at least from the trial for the detention of Reid, certainly since he had found her in tears in her office. She wraps her arms around Luke's mighty back.

-The paragon of professionalism.- words that seem to come from another timing. -Luke, you have no idea. She forced me to wear civilian clothes because... because I also have to take care of the support of the victims' relatives. I can't do everything, I can't do it.- he's about to open his mouth but she raises her head in his direction making him understand that she hasn't finished yet. -She also forced me to put these damned contact lenses, which my eyes deeply dislike. And... I live in a tiny apartment, in a complex, very close to the office, because at least in that way I can't be late.- another sob, though no more salty drops growing in her eyes. She sinks her face into Luke's jacket and inhales his scent. -I had to give up Sergio.- a phrase that corresponds to a long groan.

-Oh, baby, we'll get through this.- he takes her face in his hands and she gets up on the tips to reach his lips in a kiss less passionate than the first two, but decidedly more intense and full of responsibility. Both linger one suspended on the other's mouth. -You will not have to endure this situation for a long time. Do you believe me? - the mind rationally should suggest her to respond negatively.

Instead for the first time it agrees with the heart. -Yes.- he smiles, still holding her in his arms. They need both external and internal heat.

-What would you like to do now? Do you prefer to see others or...- there has never been a quicker and simpler answer to give. Of course, as they both said, it's not just him who needs her back in the BAU, but the whole team, who they consider as a family. This is absolutely true. But then there are only them and they can't see beyond their noses.

- Well, you don’t told me that Roxy misses me...?-

TAGS: @theshamelessmanatee @itsdawnashlie @talesoffairies @janiedreams88 @kiki-krakatoa @yessenia993 @teyamarra @c00lhandsluke @gcchic @arses21434 @orangesickle @entireoranges @jarmin @kathy5654 @martinab26 @thisonekid @thenibblets @perfectly-penelope @ambrosiaswhispers @maziikeen92 @lovelukealvez @reidskitty13 @jenf42 @gracieeelizabeth27 @silviajajaja @smalliemichelle99 @charchampagne14 @ichooseno @ megs2219 @rkt3357 @franklintrixie @thinitta @chewwy123 @skisun @maba84 @saisnarry @myhollyhanna23 @thenorthernlytes

#garvez #penelope garcia #luke alvez #penelope x luke #luke x penelope #garcia x alvez #alvez x garcia #criminal minds #cm #13x15 #tiziano ferro #la tua vita non passerà

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ncmagroup · 5 years ago

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by Brian Trautschold

Well before the age of coronavirus — it seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? — we were seeing a steady, rapid increase in sales teams who were transitioning to remote work.

And for good reason: It can benefit everyone. Employees, especially millennials, appreciate the flexibility to work from anywhere, and sales orgs open themselves up to a much larger pool of talent when they’re not limited to hiring locally.

But sales teams face unique challenges when they go remote — even when they’ve had plenty of time to plan for the transition. It’s always a challenge, for example, to put the right tools in place and hire people who can handle a certain level of independence.

So when your sales team unexpectedly and hastily goes remote… well, that’s even harder.

One of the biggest challenges sales managers face? Keeping tabs on their teams from afar. Especially if you’re a manager who wasn’t prepared for the remote shift, it can feel like you’re suddenly wearing blinders. How do I know what my reps are doing all day? How do I know if they’re staying on track?

The good news is the same basic sales coaching principles and best practices still apply, and they’ll still help you maintain a system of accountability. They just may require a few tweaks.

Here are 5 tactics every sales manager should implement to keep your reps accountable, aligned, and on a path to success — even when you’re not sharing a sales floor.

Set daily activity targets

Add a little (more) structure

Reinvent your 1:1s

Shore up your tech stack

Leverage your team

1. Set Daily Activity Targets

Many sales teams set daily activity targets to keep reps on track. It’s a great way to ensure your people hit their longer-term objective targets and ultimately achieve results.

Remote sales managers may want to take daily activity targets one step further. Why? At 8 a.m., 5 p.m. feels like it’s a long way off. Your reps may overestimate what they can get done if they don’t pace themselves as they would in the office.

To help, consider setting multiple activity targets throughout the day. One Ambition customer runs a “10×10” program for their remote reps: Every morning, reps need to make 10 calls by 10 a.m. Managers get a private alert in email or Slack when reps haven’t hit their target, so they can jump in if they need to help a rep get back on track.

2. Add a Little (More) Structure

Every sales manager has a unique coaching style. It may range from total independence — essentially setting your reps free — to complete micromanagement. Of course, the most effective sales managers tend to have a style that falls somewhere in the middle.

If you’ve found your sweet spot, that’s great. You don’t need to overhaul your approach or methodology. In fact, that could do more harm than good since your team is already trying to adapt to the substantial and stressful changes COVID-19 has introduced.

But do consider adding more structure to your existing coaching program.

What does that mean, specifically? For starters, weekly 1:1s just isn’t enough if you want your team to stay connected, aligned, and motivated. A few ideas:

“Brown bag” lunches

You don’t have to be in the office to share a meal together. Set up regular (and casual) “Lunch and Learns” with your whole team — webcam required. Pick a topic to cover or skill to hone. Or better yet, crowdsource ideas from your reps.

Peer-to-peer coaching

Peer learning often happens organically in an office setting, but working from home can feel like working in a silo. Jump in and help newer, less experienced reps connect with more experienced reps by designating time for peer coaching opportunities on a weekly or biweekly basis.

Then, step back. The magic of peer coaching happens when your manager isn’t looking over your shoulder!

Cross-departmental meetings

Make an effort to stay abreast of what’s happening in tangential departments, like Marketing, Sales Enablement, and Product.

Sure, you may hear updates during all-hands meetings or via Slack, but since you’re no longer absorbing important details through osmosis at the office, consider setting up a time for your team to interface with a representative from another department.

Keep in mind, no one likes pointless, fluffy meetings. Adding in extra, structured opportunities to coach and connect is smart when your team is distributed. Just make sure that every calendar invite has a clear objective and agenda.

3. Reinvent Your 1:1s

Your 1:1 “template” should be a living, breathing thing. No, you don’t need to change up your questions every week, but these meetings should evolve as your team grows and changes.

That said, when your team is going through a major transition, it’s a prime time to rethink your 1:1 format. A few things to keep in mind:

Strike the right tone

Be empathetic. We’re all dealing with an unprecedented crisis, and it’s adding stress to everyone’s lives, on both a professional and personal level. Of course, your 1:1s should be much more than a temperature check — but start there.

Ask how your reps are doing. Show you care about their physical and mental wellbeing during this trying time. Right now, there’s no such thing as “business as usual.”

Troubleshoot WFH challenges

Working from home can be a whole different ball game, especially if your reps have roommates hanging around, or if they are parents trying to wrangle tiny interns, thanks to closed schools and daycares. Help your people troubleshoot issues that are blocking their productivity, and think through ways you can provide flexibility while still helping them stay on track.

Let your reps lead

Remember: coaching sessions are not mini-performance reviews. In fact, your reps should be leading the sessions. This approach is even more critical for remote reps since you don’t get the chance for regular, casual interaction.

As always, guide the conversation with a solid mix of thoughtful, open-ended questions. Ask questions that encourage your reps to make observations about their performance and draw conclusions based on those observations, then apply them to new and different circumstances.

4. Shore Up Your Tech Stack

Fortunately, most of the tools we’re now using to stay connected aren’t new. Zoom, Slack. We were already using them.

Of course, staying connected is one thing. Staying accountable and motivated is another. These are the tools you need to ensure performance doesn’t take a nosedive.

Sales coaching software

With fewer opportunities to interface with your reps, you need to make the most of the time you have together. Our mantra: automate what you can.

Find ways to take administrative work off your plate, like scheduling coaching sessions, recording notes and coaching conversations, creating and tracking action plans, etc.

Send your reps their 1:1 questions ahead of time (bonus if you can automate that, too), and make sure you get their responses before your session starts so you can spend time on a meaningful conversation.

Sales gamification software

Sales contests are a tried-and-true tactic to add a layer of accountability while also getting your reps fired up to sell. Bonus: healthy competition (and maybe some friendly trash-talking) can provide a welcome distraction from everything that’s happening in the world right now.

The key to remote competitions is visibility. Make sure you’ve got a sales gamification tool that integrates with email and Slack, so everyone can celebrate wins together. And make sure leaderboards screens are accessible through URLs.

5. Leverage Your Team

Of course, you want your reps to feel accountable to you: you’re their manager and you’re helping to steer the ship.

At the end of the day, though, it takes every person on your team to achieve results and hit The Number. Sales should be a team sport — so find ways to encourage collaboration and nurture relationships, even when your people are apart. You’ll add a layer of “peer accountability,” and it’s also just a great culture play. Consider:

Weekly shout-outs

During your regular team meetings, set aside time for reps to shout out their teammates for something they did that was particularly smart or well-executed. If you don’t already do this, you’ll find that reps look forward to earning recognition from their team.

Remember, this requires overcommunication throughout the week and performance visibility, which leads us to our next point.

Increased visibility

As a manager, you hopefully have easy access to performance data and insights for your reps. But do your reps have that same easy access?

Make it easy to see the team and individual progress against goals — even better if it’s automatically visualized in charts or graphs, so you and your reps aren’t having to run Salesforce reports or shuffle through spreadsheets.

Team competitions

As noted above, sales competitions are a great way to ignite the competitive spirit. Make sure you’re not limiting yourself to only individual competitions. Run team competitions — especially ones where you’re pairing up newbies with seasoned pros — so that teammates can collaborate together and hold each other accountable. Or try some of these team-building activities.

Bottom Line

Whether you’ve always been remote or it’s a recent, potentially short-term shift, you can optimize a distributed team without overhauling every process and workflow. In other words: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But do think through ways you can adapt your management style to a new situation. Adding in extra layers of accountability, when done thoughtfully and with your team front of mind, you’ll be able to keep your remote team on track, even in uncertain conditions.

Go to our website: www.ncmalliance.com

5 Ways To Create Accountability for Remote Sales Teams by Brian Trautschold Well before the age of coronavirus — it seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?

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preciousmetals0 · 5 years ago

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30 Million Unemployed; Tesla Cries Freedom; Microsoft Goes Hard

30 Million Unemployed; Tesla Cries Freedom; Microsoft Goes Hard:

On the Turning Away…

…from the pale and downtrodden … and the words that they say which we don’t understand.

Wall Street almost — almost — became aware of the U.S. economy this morning.

Continuing the epic U.S. employment saga, the Labor Department put another brick in the unemployment wall this morning. Some 3.8 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week.

The six-week total now stands at 30.3 million unemployed. CNBC called it “the worst employment crisis in U.S. history.”

The market opened down nearly 2% on the news, and, for a brief moment, you could see the sweat on Wall Street’s brow. A hint that somewhere in that sea of frothing bullishness, someone almost had an epiphany. A realization that economic demand might suffer considerably due to 30 million unemployed American consumers.

And then, while contemplating how waning demand might impact a U.S. economic recovery and corporate bottom lines, that someone stumbled over a pile of Fed money (It’s a gas!) and completely forgot the whole deal…

The Takeaway:

Hey you!

Are you still learning to fly in this crazy market? Or are you sitting back comfortably numb and enjoying the quarantine?

Yes, the economic data makes you want to run like hell, but you don’t have to say “goodbye blue sky” to investing in this market. Just breathe, be patient and take your time. Otherwise, your portfolio will play that great gig in the sky.

When it comes to investing, it’s hard to remove yourself from the “us and them” mentality, especially during these trying times. But giving in to emotions will eventually bankrupt you one of these days.

Yes, by all economic accounts, the market is more irrational than Roger Waters on a nicotine and whiskey bender. But you can be right and still lose money.

Now, Great Stuff has been pretty down on the market’s prospects since this whole pandemic thing started. We recommended putting most of your investment capital in gold, bonds and cash … you know, the standard safe havens. (By the way, which one’s Pink?)

But there’s one sector in which we have high hopes: tech.

No, we don’t have brain damage. We’re just reading the writing on the wall. Today, Great Stuff takes a look at three Big Tech companies post earnings, and we weigh their potential in the current market.

It’s our way of helping you shine on, you crazy diamond!

So, what’s … uh, the deal? Where can I grab that cash with both hands and make a stash?

Why, be careful with that ax, Eugene! If you’re wanting more, then it’s time to turn your tech investing into interstellar overdrive. See, nobody stays as fearless in the tech game as Paul Mampilly. And Paul just found one tech stock that’s set to transform the way we use and create energy.

Paul even said: “This technology can single-handedly power a major American city … virtually free of charge.” So, let there be more light! And as the market’s seesaw continues, and the Fed’s jugband blues carries on, find out more about the one tech stock that Paul recommends you buy now.

Click here to learn more!

Good: Freedooooom!

Did you miss crazy Elon Musk? I did.

The Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO proffered up his best Rage Against the Machine impression yesterday, crying out “Freedom!” and calling the COVID-19 response in the U.S. “fascist.”

The outburst came during Tesla’s earnings call with investors … earnings, yeah right!

Speaking of earnings, Tesla posted a surprise profit. Doesn’t that make it three in a row?

Why yes … yes, it does. And that’s a good thing for Tesla investors in the wake of Musk coming a bit unhinged. The company posted a first-quarter profit of $1.24 per share, shocking analysts who expected a loss. Revenue also topped expectations, coming in at $6.2 billion.

While Tesla remained cautious in its outlook due to the pandemic, investors seized on the unexpected profit and better margins — a notable feat given Tesla’s lower production volume.

Our take at Great Stuff is that Tesla is a solid long-term investment. However, given our reservations about the overall market and the U.S. economy, now may not be the best time to chase TSLA shares. If you’re looking to invest, be patient. Wait for a pullback, and time your entry accordingly.

Better: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Do this. Don’t do that. Can’t you read the signs?

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is in rally mode today. The company has seen the sign, and it’s opened up investors’ eyes. (A Tesla cover into and Ace of Base reference? Are you trying to give us whiplash?)

What sign? Why the most important sign of all for Facebook: stability in ad trends.

Forget that Facebook blew past Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations, or that revenue of $17.74 billion rose 17% to beat the consensus target of $17.53 billion. It’s all about guidance in this market.

“After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, we have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April,” Facebook said in its conference call with investors.

That’s all the sign that FB bulls needed to send the stock skipping more than 5% higher.

So, what’s our take on Facebook? Well, setting aside our distaste for the company’s mishandling of user data and its unwillingness to fully address misleading posts … FB is the best social media stock on the market.

It’s a dual-edged sword. FB is a solid investment choice if you can set aside your emotions on the company.

Best: Good Ol’ Softy

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is probably one of our favorite tech stocks here at Great Stuff. While we haven’t made it an official pick for the Great Stuff free portfolio, you should probably pick up a few shares if you can.

Why? Because of statements like this: “COVID-19 had minimal net impact on the total company revenue.”

Fact: MSFT was the only Dow stock to gain in the first quarter.

While practically every other company in the U.S. issues warnings and pulls forecasts, Microsoft is plowing ahead. The company just reported fiscal third-quarter results, beating even pre-virus estimates.

Driving that performance was an impressive 59% spike in Azure sales. Azure is Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” business, and it’s eating Amazon Web Services’ lunch with JEDI-like prowess.

Finally, Microsoft actually provided fourth-quarter guidance — one of the very few companies to do so this earnings season. The company expects revenue of $35.85 billion to $36.8 billion, largely in-line with Wall Street’s targets.

The thing is, Microsoft has been an essential company for decades. It’s weathered dot-com busts, financial crises and government antitrust lawsuits. In fact, when I hear that “buy and hold” is dead, I always point to Microsoft.

You spoke to me, and now it’s time to breathe in the air.

Mr. Great Stuff, how long are you keeping this Pink Floyd thing going?

One of these days … one of these days I’ll stop speaking in song lyrics. But until then, you can count on Great Stuff to get countless eclectic earworms stuck in your head.

Meanwhile, if you’ve been hanging on in quiet desperation for this week’s Reader Feedback, wait no longer! It’s that time again, so let’s see what Great Stuff readers are thinking about this week.

Bye-Cycles

I feel like the stock market has three things going against that people don’t talk about but I’m not sure if they even really matter.

“Sell in may and go away”

We are at a serious technical resistance for SPY.

We are at the end of the month and we tend to see people selling more at the end of the month as opposed to the beginning … right?

I have also read that we Tuesdays tend to be more bearish than other days of the week.

I am thinking that since we didn’t see much of a sell-off on Tuesday, no one is talking about ‘sell in May,’ and we aren’t really seeing a sell-off due to resistance or it being the end of the month … the fed is going to win and we are going to plow through resistance and the recovery will continue. Does what I’m thinking make any sense?

— Preston B.

My, my … someone’s been reading his Chad Shoop! (For anyone guessing: Chad focuses on investing around many of these market cycles — as well as some hidden market cycles too. Details here!)

Thank you for your thorough email, Preston. I wanted to touch on just a few of your questions today, but honestly, you already answered it yourself in the first line. Here’s the lowdown:

Yes, we often see a seasonal dip in May. Yes, the end of the month often brings a flurry of Big Money rebalancing and profit taking. Resistance … why, up until today’s market dive, it seemed like the S&P 500 Index had the rearview mirror torn off like it was in a Jo Dee Messina song.

All of these are true to their own extents. Yes. But somewhere along the line, Mr. Market declared that fundamentals and technical logic are dead, instead deciding to leap headfirst into the chasm of “fear of missing out” uncertainties.

Preston, your observations are most astute. In normal market climates, those trends are what we’d talk about this week instead. But today, as things are right this instant, I mostly agree with your statement at the top: “I’m not sure if they even really matter.”

Just Like Starting Over

Yo, Joe,

Well, I tried. That’s about all the slang I know. I am the newest of the newbies, have never placed an order. … How can I go find a broker when I have to stay inside? How can I get my monies out of banks into brokers’ hands? Is that all done electronically? Help!

— Janis W.

Yo, J.W.! What’s good, homie? You keeping things 100 during quarantine?

Let’s help you get that bread — err, a brokerage account to start with. Your hunch is right: Almost all brokerage action is done electronically these days, as is moving money into your account once it’s set up.

I know that many people are put off investing entirely because it’s mostly online. But once you get started with a broker you like and trust, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the convenience — and the possible addiction of checking on your stocks every second of the trading day (which, frankly, is a stage most new investors get through sooner or later).

Before we go any further, let me just say that Banyan Hill doesn’t have any personal or business relationship with any of these services. They’re just the top choices I see among many of our readers.

Check out some of these links below and see what broker is right for you. You’ll want a trading platform that’s easy to use and gives you the information you want without having to sift through a bajillion different web pages:

I also want to add that, just like starting any kind of account where money is concerned, there will be fine print. (There’s always fine print, right? It’s like the ever-returning pocket lint of the legal world.)

I wish you the best of luck, Janis!

I Am You, and What I See Is Me

Are you still ok with your advice to buy Starbucks put options?

— Philip H.

Philip, I … I don’t think that was my recommendation. By any chance, are you thinking of this Winning Investor Daily article by John Ross back on April 10? Hey now, us Joes and Johns aren’t interchangeable, you see…

So, while I can’t give you personalized investment advice here (legal beagles and whatnot), what I can say is that, when it comes to options … you definitely want to keep any losses short and take gains when you’ve got ‘em.

Options Land is a fast-moving (yet insanely profitable) place … and you might want to ask John Ross directly for your next move, Philip. For everyone else out there looking for a spot to jump into the options game (and trust me, there’s no better time to do so), you can get started with expert John Ross right here.

That’s a wrap for today, but if you still crave more Great Stuff, check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, be Great!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

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goldira01 · 5 years ago

Link

On the Turning Away…

…from the pale and downtrodden … and the words that they say which we don’t understand.

Wall Street almost — almost — became aware of the U.S. economy this morning.

The six-week total now stands at 30.3 million unemployed. CNBC called it “the worst employment crisis in U.S. history.”

The Takeaway:

Hey you!

Are you still learning to fly in this crazy market? Or are you sitting back comfortably numb and enjoying the quarantine?

Yes, by all economic accounts, the market is more irrational than Roger Waters on a nicotine and whiskey bender. But you can be right and still lose money.

But there’s one sector in which we have high hopes: tech.

It’s our way of helping you shine on, you crazy diamond!

So, what’s … uh, the deal? Where can I grab that cash with both hands and make a stash?

Click here to learn more!

Good: Freedooooom!

Did you miss crazy Elon Musk? I did.

The Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO proffered up his best Rage Against the Machine impression yesterday, crying out “Freedom!” and calling the COVID-19 response in the U.S. “fascist.”

The outburst came during Tesla’s earnings call with investors … earnings, yeah right!

Speaking of earnings, Tesla posted a surprise profit. Doesn’t that make it three in a row?

While Tesla remained cautious in its outlook due to the pandemic, investors seized on the unexpected profit and better margins — a notable feat given Tesla’s lower production volume.

Better: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Do this. Don’t do that. Can’t you read the signs?

What sign? Why the most important sign of all for Facebook: stability in ad trends.

That’s all the sign that FB bulls needed to send the stock skipping more than 5% higher.

It’s a dual-edged sword. FB is a solid investment choice if you can set aside your emotions on the company.

Best: Good Ol’ Softy

Why? Because of statements like this: “COVID-19 had minimal net impact on the total company revenue.”

Fact: MSFT was the only Dow stock to gain in the first quarter.

Driving that performance was an impressive 59% spike in Azure sales. Azure is Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” business, and it’s eating Amazon Web Services’ lunch with JEDI-like prowess.

You spoke to me, and now it’s time to breathe in the air.

Mr. Great Stuff, how long are you keeping this Pink Floyd thing going?

One of these days … one of these days I’ll stop speaking in song lyrics. But until then, you can count on Great Stuff to get countless eclectic earworms stuck in your head.

Bye-Cycles

I feel like the stock market has three things going against that people don’t talk about but I’m not sure if they even really matter.

“Sell in may and go away”

We are at a serious technical resistance for SPY.

We are at the end of the month and we tend to see people selling more at the end of the month as opposed to the beginning … right?

I have also read that we Tuesdays tend to be more bearish than other days of the week.

— Preston B.

My, my … someone’s been reading his Chad Shoop! (For anyone guessing: Chad focuses on investing around many of these market cycles — as well as some hidden market cycles too. Details here!)

Thank you for your thorough email, Preston. I wanted to touch on just a few of your questions today, but honestly, you already answered it yourself in the first line. Here’s the lowdown:

Just Like Starting Over

Yo, Joe,

— Janis W.

Yo, J.W.! What’s good, homie? You keeping things 100 during quarantine?

I wish you the best of luck, Janis!

I Am You, and What I See Is Me

Are you still ok with your advice to buy Starbucks put options?

— Philip H.

That’s a wrap for today, but if you still crave more Great Stuff, check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, be Great!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

#Timor Invest

0 notes

thegloober · 6 years ago

Text

30 Minutes on: “The Hate U Give”

by Matt Zoller Seitz

October 20, 2018 |

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I saw “The Hate U Give” after a couple of weeks spent revisiting classic silent films made nearly 100 years ago. George Tillman, Jr.’s film, which is based on Angie Thomas’ bestselling young adult novel, reminded me of them, a bit.The movie is at its best while channeling work from cinema’s earliest era, when films were still disparaged as lowest common denominator entertainment because they put beautiful images in service of simple, powerful stories stocked with simple, powerful characterizations, and always took the direct route in trying to connect with viewers.

It tells the story of Starr Carter (Amandla Sternberg), an African-American private school student who narrowly escapes a shooting incident at a party, gets a ride home from a charismatic young drug dealer named Khalil (Algee Smith) that she’s known since childhood, and becomes the sole witness to his murder at the hands of a jumpy white police officer who pulled them over in traffic stop that has all the hallmarks of routine harassment. The traumatized Starr has to decide whether to testify in front of a grand jury. Informing would put her and her family in the crosshairs of a drug dealer named King (Anthony Mackie), who bought her father, an ex-con and former gang member named Maverick (Russell Hornsby), a convenience store as reward for doing three years in prison for King’s crimes.

The movie’s even more tangled, plot-wise, than this synopsis suggests. It’s trying to cover major sociopolitical and historical ground while also succeeding as a three-hanky tragedy, an inspirational coming-of-age story, and a portrait of a community with its own distinct traditions and values, some noble, others self-defeating—all while appealing simultaneously to young fans of Thomas’ bestseller and newbies who have no idea what they’re about to see, not to mention enough of a demographic cross-section to make the film a mainstream hit. Starr has a half-brother named Seven (Lamar Johnson), born to a woman that Mav impregnated when he and Starr’s mother Lisa (Regina Hall) were separated; this would be irksome enough if Seven’s mother hadn’t taken up with King. King is so worried that Starr’s testimony will incriminate him that he and his goons try to terrorize the Carters to get her to clam up. The movie would fit nicely on a double-bill with “On the Waterfront,” another film about the ethics of informing (though one with a more problematic justification) where the story unfolds in a tightly knit community in which many of the key players are related by blood or work and everyone, including the most menacing or antisocial characters, are bound together by religion, politics, and a distrust of the government. Lisa even has a brother on the police force, a patrolman named Carlos (Common) who urges our heroine to tell the authorities what she knows, and asks, “If you can’t trust the system, can you at least trust me?”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that, when he’s wearing a dark blue uniform, that’s a distinction without a difference.

As adapted by the late screenwriter Audrey Wells—who died of cancer the day before the film’s release—”The Hate U Give” comes on like a basic novel-to-movie adaptation, designed to impress the source material’s fans with its faithfulness at the expense of subtlety. Its least effective scenes are overlaid with swaths of narration drawn straight from the book. These are read in a stilted tone, and tend to either duplicate what we can already see or supply facts that could’ve been conveyed through acting, direction, and expository dialogue. But they’re of a piece with the movie’s determination to take the most direct route towards explanation and illumination, and paint with a broad brush rather than leave anyone confused about what was intended.

This sounds like condemnation if you haven’t seen the movie with a decent sized audience, in which case you’ll appreciate how Wells and Tillman manage to keep the viewer emotionally invested at all times while constantly adding layers of information and marginal details that complicate our reactions to the characters. The actors all get at least one big monologue that lets them bring a lifetime of craft to bear on one or two minutes of screen time. The standouts might be Khalil’s playful attempt to seduce Starr, Maverick’s summation of his belief system, and Lisa telling Starr why she decided to stay with Maverick after he fathered another woman’s child, and Carlos admitting, with evident shame, that he’d treat white and black motorists differently in the same situation—but with this many spotlight turns, it’s hard to choose.

The film is a primer on systemic racism in the United States, aimed at young people as well as any older relatives who might not have gotten the memo. It embraces the idea that riots are the language of the unheard, inevitable and necessary if the people are being lied to, silenced, or micromanaged by authorities. A climactic clash between heavily armored police and anti-police brutality protesters in their street clothes is shot to evoke coverage of Ferguson, but also images of sadly similar incidents dating back to the origins of visual media. The film is also about how slavery and lynching continued in the United Staes under different labels while perpetuating the same multigenerational oppression. Starr’s Instagram page juxtaposes recent victims of police brutality with a graphic closeup of Emmett Till’s disfigured face, flat-out telling us that when American police kill unarmed black men for no clear reason, they’re committing acts of racist, vigilante terror, even though they refuse to call them that.

I’ve been watching Tillman’s work since “Barbershop” and “Soul Food,” but I didn’t know until I looked up his biography recently that he was inspired to become a director after seeing low-budget, predominantly black comedies and melodramas like “Claudine” and “Cooley High” as a ’70s child. That he’s managed to build a durable career making those kinds of movies at a time when it’s hard to get stories about reality into mainstream theaters is remarkable. That this film was released by a major studio and is essentially the story of a young black woman’s political radicalization is even more impressive.

And when the film is firing on all cylinders—as in the riot sequence, the political dynamism of which evokes the first Edmund Pettis Bridge scene from “Selma“—it’s nearly breathtaking in its sneaky audacity. The signature image in this film is a teenage black girl finding her inner revolutionary by chastising riot police through a bullhorn, then seizing a tear gas canister that they fired at her fellow protesters and lobbing it back a them. There’s a lot of commentary in the film about the way black police officers’ loyalties are torn, as well as how the tribal mentality ultimately decides the matter of whom to side with in a crisis. Maverick even draws an extended analogy between gang warfare and the rival houses in the Harry Potter books. If you somehow fused one of those earnest and didactic 1970s ABC Afterschool Specials with James Baldwin’s “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and “Battleship Potemkin,” the result might look something like this.

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