#spirit of service award

[archivecevans]

SEPTEMBER for CHRIS EVANS:

On September 11st, Chris Evans will receive the 'Spirit of Service Award' together with his partners from 'A Starting Point’ (ASP), Mark Kassen and Joe Kiani.

He starts the filming of the upcoming movie “SACRIFICE” along his co-stars, Anya Taylor Joy, Brendan Fraser and Salma Hayek directed by Romain Gavras in Greece and Iceland.

Make sure to follow us on:

IG: @ archivecevans

X: @cevansarchive

TikTok: @ archivecevans

[oh-my-damn]

OH WHAT A SURPRISE.

AN OPENLY ZIONIST ACTOR GETS AN AWARD THAT “recognizes individuals outside government whose work is critical to the goal of a better government and a stronger democracy.”

CRITICAL TO THE GOAL OF BETTER GOVERNMENT AND A STRONGER DEMOCRACY???

DID YOU FORGET ABOUT THE GENOCIDE YOU'RE FUNDING???

DID YOU FORGET THAT ASP IS SUPPOSED TO BE "NEUTRAL" (it isn't) AND THEREFORE SHOULDN'T BE ELIGIBLE FOR SUCH AN AWARD???

WHAT HAS CHRIS EVANS AS A PERSON ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTED TO?????

OTHER THAN BEING A ZIONIST AND SUPPORTING THE ZIONIST PRESIDENT FUNDING A GENOCIDE???

PLEASE DO ENLIGHTEN ME.

Y'ALL WILL SPIN SHIT FOR GOLD ALL THE TIME AND THIS IS NO FUCKING EXCEPTION.

[thisisyourprincipalspeaking]

do u think chris actually deserves the spirit of service award he's about to get or it's just part of his pr?

Or maybe its the work of his other partners in ASP, cuz i ain't see him put that much effort into it as the others , he's only the face of it,like a pr doll they take everywhere.

this is an interesting ask.i have some thoughts, but they are just mine.

i must admit, i had never heard of this award nor have i heard of the partnership for public service organization who is giving it. by giving the award to a notable name or celebrity, it is a decent way for a non-profit to gain press and attention.

do i think he deserves it? i'm on the fence. with the current state of american politics, i don't love that asp is giving a platform to people actively trying to take away health care, safety and civil rights from so many and doing so without real-time checks on their claims. i also don't expect an actor, no matter his interest in the topic, to be a good interviewer for these serious topics. it seems like a vanity project to me and i kinda miss some of the site's original, simpler goals. however they do claim asp has done much to bridge a gap in civic involvement and engagement for high school and college aged citizens. i personally feel like the award would have been better suited for a couple of years ago; after the avengers helped elect biden/harris and the shine and positive buzz around asp was newer and brighter. this, now feels a little calculated/ staged.

but, oh well. that's just me. i'm sure many will enjoy seeing him in a suit/tux when the time comes.

[allycat75]

"We have concepts of a plan."

[jesevans]

Chris Evans receiving the 2024 Spirit of Service Award for A Starting Point

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 83rd Birthday to Academy Award Winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki! ^__^

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An end to the climate emergency is in our grasp

On June 20, I'm keynoting the LOCUS AWARDS in OAKLAND.

The problem with good news in the real world is that it's messy. Neat happy endings are for novels, not the real world, and that goes double for the climate emergency. But even though good climate news is complicated and nuanced, that doesn't mean it shouldn't buoy our spirits and fill our hearts with hope.

The big climate news this past week is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's clarion call about surging CO2 levels – the highest ever – amid a year that is on track to have the largest and most extreme series of weather events in human history:

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/during-year-of-extremes-carbon-dioxide-levels-surge-faster-than-ever

This is genuinely alarming and you – like me – have probably experienced it as a kind of increase in your background radiation of climate anxiety. Perhaps you – like me – even experienced some acute, sit-bolt-upright-in-bed-at-2AM anxiety as a result. That's totally justifiable. This is very real, very bad news.

And yet…

The news isn't all bad, and even this terrible dispatch from the NOAA is best understood in context, which Bill McKibben provides in his latest newsletter post, "What You Want is an S Curve":

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/what-you-want-is-an-s-curve

Financier and their critics should all be familiar with Stein's Law: "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." This is true outside of finance as well. One of the reasons that we're seeing such autophagic panic from the tech companies is that their period of explosive growth is at an end.

For years, they told themselves that they were experiencing double-digit annual growth because they were "creating value" and "innovating" but the majority of their growth was just a side-effect of the growth of the internet itself. When hundreds of millions of people get online every year, the dominant online services will, on average, gain hundreds of millions of new users.

But when you run out of people who don't have internet access, your growth is going to slow. How can it not? Indeed, at that point, the only ways to grow are to either poach users from your rivals (through the very expensive tactics of massive advertising and sales-support investments, on top of discounts and freebies as switching enticements), or to squeeze your own users for more.

That's why the number of laptops sold in America slowed down. It's why the number of cellphones sold in America slowed down. It's why the number of "smart home" gizmos slowed down.

Even the steepest hockey-stick-shaped exponential growth curve eventually levels off and becomes an S-curve, because anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop.

One way or another, the world's carbon emissions will eventually level off. Even if we drive ourselves to (or over) the brink of extinction and set up the conditions for wildfires that release all the carbon stored in all the Earth's plants, the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere has to level off.

Rendering the Earth incapable of sustaining human civilization (or life) is the ultimate carbon reduction method – but it's not my first choice.

That's where McKibben's latest newsletter comes in. He cites a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute, which shows a major reversal in our energy sources, a shift that will see our energy primarily provided by renewables, with minimal dependence on fossil fuels:

https://rmi.org/insight/the-cleantech-revolution/

The RMI team says that in this year or next, we'll have hit peak demand for fossil fuels (a fact that is consistent with NOAA's finding that we're emitting more CO2 than ever). The reason for this is that so much renewable energy is about to come online, and it is so goddamned cheap, that we are about to undergo a huge shift in our energy consumption patterns.

This past decade saw a 12-fold increase in solar capacity, a 180-fold increase in battery storage, and a 100-fold increase in EV sales. China is leading the world in a cleantech transition, with the EU in close second. Cleantech is surging in places where energy demand is also still growing, like India and Vietnam. Fossil fuel use has already peaked in Thailand, South Africa and every country in Latin America.

We're on the verge of solar constituting an absolute majority of all the world's energy generation. This year, batteries will overtake pumped hydro for energy storage. Every cleantech metric is growing the way that fossil fuels did in previous centuries: investment, patents, energy density, wind turbine rotor size. The price of solar is on track to halve (again) in the next decade.

In short, cleantech growth looks like the growth of other technologies that were once rarities and then became ubiquitous overnight: TV, cellphones, etc. That growth isn't merely being driven by the urgency of the climate emergency: it's primarily a factor of how fucking great cleantech is:

https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/the_incredible_inefficiency_of_fossils.pdf

Fossil fuels suck. It's not just that they wreck the planet, or that their extraction is both politically and environmentally disastrous. They just aren't a good way to make energy. About a third of fossil fuel energy is wasted in production and transportation. A third! Another third is wasted turning fossil fuels into energy. Two thirds! The net energy efficiency of fossil fuels is about 37%.

Compare that with cleantech. EVs convert electricity to movement with 80-90% efficiency. Heat pumps are 300% efficient (the main fuel for your heat pump is the heat in the atmosphere, not the electricity it draws).

Cleantech is just getting started – it's still in the hockey-stick phase. That means those efficiency numbers are only going up. Rivian just figured out how to remove 1.6 miles of copper wire from each vehicle. That's just one rev – there's doubtless lots of room for more redesigns that will further dematerialize EVs:

https://insideevs.com/news/722265/rivian-r1s-r1t-wiring/

As McKibben points out, there's been a lot of justifiable concern that electrification will eventually use up all our available copper, but copper demand has remained flat even as electrification has soared – and this is why. We keep figuring out new ways to electrify with fewer materials:

https://www.chemanalyst.com/NewsAndDeals/NewsDetails/copper-wire-price-remains-stable-amidst-surplus-supply-and-expanding-mining-25416#:~:text=Global%20Copper%20wire%20Price%20Remains%20Stable%20Amidst%20Surplus%20Supply%20and%20Expanding%20Mining%20Activities

This is exactly what happened with previous iterations of tech. The material, energy and labor budgets of cars, buildings, furniture, etc all fell precipitously every time there was a new technique for manufacturing them. Renewables are at the start of that process. There's going to be a lot of this dematerialization in cleantech. Calculating the bill of materials for a planetary energy transition isn't a matter of multiplying the materials in current tech by the amount of new systems we'll need – as we create those new systems, we will constantly whittle down their materials.

What's more, global instability drives cleantech uptake. The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a surge in European renewables. The story that energy prices are rising due to renewables (or carbon taxes) is a total lie. Fossil fuels are getting much more expensive, thanks to both war and rampant, illegal price-fixing:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/an-oil-price-fixing-conspiracy-caused

If not for renewables, the incredible energy shocks of the recent years would be far more severe.

The renewables story is very good and it should bring you some comfort. But as McKibben points out, it's still not enough – yet. The examples of rapid tech uptake had big business on their side. America's living rooms filled with TV because America's largest businesses pulled out all the stops to convince everyone to buy a TV. By contrast, today's largest businesses – banks, oil companies and car companies – are working around the clock to stop cleantech adoption.

We're on track to double our use of renewables before the decade is over. But to hold to the (already recklessly high) targets from the Paris Accord, we need to triple our renewables usage. As McKibben says, the difference between doubling and tripling our renewables by 2030 is the difference between "survivable trouble" and something much scarier.

The US is experiencing a welcome surge in utility scale solar, but residential solar is stalling out as governments withdraw subsidies or even begin policies that actively restrict rooftop solar:

https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/1798049929082097842?s=51

McKibben says the difference between where we are now and bringing back the push for home solar generation is the difference between "fast" and "faster" – that is the difference between tripling renewables by 2030 (survivable) and doubling (eek).

Capitalism stans who argue that we can survive the climate emergency with market tools will point to the good news on renewable and say that the market is the only way to transition to renewables. It's true that market forces are partly responsible for this fast transition. But the market is also the barrier to a faster (and thus survivable) transition. The oil companies, the banks who are so invested in fossil fuels, the petrostates who distort the world's politics – they're why we're not much farther along.

The climate emergency was never going to be neatly solved. We weren't going to get a neat novelistic climax that saw our problems sorted out in a single fell swoop. We're going to be fighting all the way to net zero, and after that, we'll still have decades of climate debt to pay down: fires, floods, habitat loss, zoonotic plagues, refugee crises.

But we should take our wins. Even if we're far from where we need to be on renewables, we're much farther along on renewables than we had any business hoping for, just a few years ago. The momentum is on our side. It's up to us to use that momentum and grow it. We're riding the hockey-stick, they're on that long, flat, static top of the S-curve. Their curve is leveling off and will start falling, ours will grow like crazy for the rest of our lives.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/12/s-curve/#anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-eventually-stops

[hunnam]

Chris Evans 2024 Service to American Medals: Spirit of Service Award

[jstor]

Effie Lee Morris stands as a towering figure in the realm of children's literature and library services, leaving an indelible mark through her visionary leadership and tireless advocacy. Born into an era marked by racial segregation and systemic barriers, Morris defied the odds, rising to become a beacon of change and progress. Her journey began as a public librarian in Cleveland and later in the Bronx, where she cultivated a deep appreciation for the transformative power of literature and education.

In 1971, Effie Lee Morris shattered barriers as the first African-American president of the Public Library Association, a milestone that underscored her commitment to equity and inclusion in library spaces. Her groundbreaking work extended beyond administrative roles; Morris played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of children's literature by spearheading the establishment of the Coretta Scott King Award. By crafting the original selection criteria in 1970, she laid the foundation for recognizing and celebrating African-American authors and illustrators, ensuring their voices resonated prominently in the literary world.

Morris's impact reverberated within the walls of the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), where she assumed the role of the first coordinator of children's services. During her tenure, she revolutionized children's literature by establishing a research collection of out-of-print books, meticulously documenting the evolving portrayals of ethnic and culturally diverse groups. This collection, later renamed the Effie Lee Morris Historical and Research Collection in her honor, served as a testament to her unwavering dedication to preserving diverse narratives and fostering cultural understanding.

Beyond her professional achievements, Morris's advocacy extended into the realm of social justice and community engagement. She founded the San Francisco chapter of the Women's National Book Association and actively participated in the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table, championing causes aimed at combating racism, inequality, and poverty. Her contributions were met with widespread recognition, as evidenced by numerous accolades, including the Silver Spur Award and the Grolier Foundation Award, affirming her status as a trailblazer in the literary landscape.

Effie Lee Morris's legacy transcends generations, inspiring future leaders and storytellers to uphold the values of diversity, inclusion, and equity in children's literature and library services. Her visionary spirit lives on in the countless lives touched by her work, serving as a timeless reminder of the transformative power of literature in bridging cultures, fostering empathy, and igniting change.

Read more about Effie Lee Morris here.

[canonkiller]

The Eberron maincamp has unfortunately prematurely ended, so (with DM clearance) I'm going to share the stuff I'd had as spoilers so it can be known, for funsies.

Here's some bonus links -

Delta, Bravo, Lima (character playlist)

Renegade (bgm playlist)

writing treat 1

writing treat 2

writing treat 3

early test for characterization

crew assessments + reasonings

house lyrandar medical record, classified

- and here's some of the information about Valka Rotaeir, captain and pilot of the airship Revelation, and two more images because the read more breaks if I try to move them.

Dossier of House Lyrandar:

NAME: Valka Rotaeir AGE: 71 yrs. (b. 927yk) HEIGHT: 7 ft. 3 in. WEIGHT: 244 lbs. SPECIES: Dragonborn (Green) TITLE(S): Cpt., Ms.

EMPLOYMENT RECORD: Civilian recruited by Cpt. Adelaide Mallory in 948yk. Served well as navigator and representative until the Treaty of Thronehold ended the war in 996yk. Returned to service in 997yk as navigator aboard the Revelation after its post-war refitting. Survived the unforeseen accident that occured during the Revelation's test flights over the Endworld Mountains along with four others who retired from active duty after the incident. Following a recovery period, she was promoted to Cpt. of the Revelation as Cpt. Mallory was rendered incapable of command during the incident, for exemplary action and demonstration of skill beyond her station and duty.

Rotaeir has shown distaste for the House and the war throughout her employment, but has not publicly denounced either and remains dedicated and hardworking. Her experience is vital to the House; losing her is not an option. Cede whatever is needed to maintain her connection to the House. If this fails, take necessary measures.

Valka was formerly the ship's navigator and diplomatic representative as a knowledge domain cleric. The Revelation was in active duty during the war, and Valka was a late addition to the crew, recruited by her then-future husband, Roshan. The two of them had a strong relationship despite the war, and while both wanted to retire, Roshan's dragonmark bound him to piloting duty and Valka refused to leave him.

During the late years of the war, they had a child together. Valka entrusted her egg to a caretaker in secret, fearing it would be damaged or killed if she kept it with her on the ship. The settlement it was in was later targeted; though the two of them searched for years (and Valka never truly stopped) they were never able to find the egg or its remains in the ruins.

After the war, with Roshan kept in duty by the House, a mechanical failure in the experimental drive of the Revelation led to a catastrophic crash that killed most of her crew. Valka survived at the cost of her husband's life; Roshan, her Rose, made the choice to sacrifice himself to save her, grafting his arm and eye - and his dragonmark - to save her life in the hopes that she would be able to help whoever was left until they were rescued.

Awarded prestige and merits for her survival, and resenting all of them for praising that she had survived what her family had not, Valka suffered - and continues to suffer - lingering pain and migraines from the crash. Her grafted arm is unresponsive and is kept immobile, and her grafted eye has light sensitivities that dragonborn nervous systems are not equipped to handle, granting her night vision but requiring a cover in ordinary light. The dragonmark haunts her more than anything else; as something meant to die with its bearer, what does it mean that it transferred to her? Was Roshan able to rest in peace, or does she drag his spirit with her?

The house took advantage of her fragile state after the crash and convinced her of Roshan's continued presence as being bound to the airship, a belief that she still holds, while publicly covering up the truth of the crash and Valka's inherited dragonmark. She was bound back into service by the mark, as it allows her to pilot the ship and its experimental, secretive systems. The Revelation is her family, her love, and her airship, and she will defend it with her life - to do anything else would be to abandon Roshan.

And, in Sharn, a now-grown dragonborn named Zykr looks strangely familiar... (Hi, Andy!)

With the House bearing down on her lack of respect for their authority, she has gone rogue; drawn under the influence of the Lord of Blades and allied with warforged forces, she only seeks a way out - to take the Revelation and leave this stupid, angry war behind, at any cost.

Depending on how things went, there was a chance she would end up at Wanderstrand - that's for a post later today, because I had to keep that one REALLY secret, but it's half of the 3rd writing treat link.

Trivia:

Valka's tarot card is the three of swords.

Her character playlist title is in international maritime signal flags: Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty / I am taking in or discharging or carrying dangerous goods. / Stop immediately.

Rotaeir is a simple combination of the valkyrie names Róta (sleet and storm) and Eir (peace, clemency, help, mercy). Valka just sounded right.

Though not on her paperwork, she took a translated version of the Revelation's name (Saksatkara) as her own surname after the crash

Receiving the dragonmark replaced her existing clerical abilities; narratively, she lost faith in the gods and her own experience that granted her a knowledge domain, and instead only had faith in the destruction and grief that the storm domain had brought her.

Roshan's dragonmark spans her whole grafted arm; it glows faintly when oh board the ship, and brightness increases with how much energy she has focused into using it. At full effort, it is bright enough to glow through the brace / sling.

Mechanically, she can strike anyone who damages her with an immediate lightning strike.

While neither of her eyes retain their original color, she had golden eyes like Zykr. They also share a heart-shaped chest marking.

Valka's physical difference from Zykr was a worldbuilding adjustment; half dragonborn would have had more humanoid body shapes, while full dragonborn more closely resembled dragons. It never came up.

After being briefly dead, Zykr began having visions of being on a boat with a person he didn't recognize; he was seeing though Valka's eyes, unknowingly looking at his own father, Roshan. Surprise, Andy! There would have been more hints about it in Sharn if we'd gotten to explore some more.

Original reference document text:

Valka is an elderly dragonborn woman, weathered by the past years of war. She is snakelike in appearance, wiry and lithe at 7'3", with a longer neck, body, and limbs. She stands slouched, leaning heavily on a polearm that doubles as a makeshift cane; often heavily bundled against the cold, her right leg is braced under her clothes and her right arm and hand are entirely covered by a black brace buckled in faded brass, kept immobile against her chest by a sling. Her scales are mottled dark greens and yellows, graying around her eyes, muzzle, and knuckles, and she has many visible scars from old battles on all visible skin. The right side of her face is badly burned, and her eye on that side is entirely covered by a large patch. Her other eye is milky white; it's uncertain whether she can see our of her visible eye or if the patch isn't opaque.

Boot on braced leg has a special hook on the heel that she can clip to the harness strap on her thigh to keep is raised / out of the way if mobility is more important than stability. Safety harness extends down the upper part of her tail; anchors to this instead of her braced leg when necessary.

Though not visible, the eye under the patch is unnervingly human-like (as it originally belonged to Roshan), and if her arm brace were removed, the arm underneath is also distinctly not her own; she is unable to move the replacement limb at all, and the dragonmark on it does not move to anywhere else on her body though she can utilize its power.

As a child, Valka was often drawn to the idea of traveling. She restrained her desire to leave for many years, bound by ties to her family and home, until a chance meeting with Roshan, an airship pilot, during the war. In an impulse, whirlwind romance, she joined him in his travels and quickly became an indespensible member of the crew and Roshan's partner. They were married during the war, but hesitated to start a family, fearing the kind of world they would be raising a child in while Roshan's mark kept him in duty. Over time, they found comfort in a future seemingly without children, though they pledged to do what they could to adopt or foster if the war ended with enough time for them to do so.

Valka was one of many overjoyed to see a time of peace, and hoped to start a proper life with her husband even with their age. Unfortunately, a series of malfunctions in their shared airship led to a crash that left both them and their crew grievously injured in a remote mountain range. Valka, having lost her right arm and with severe trauma to her entire right side, was barely conscious; she awoke hours later to her arm replaced and her injuries magically repaired, and to Roshan dead, having chosen to sacrifice himself to keep her alive. Most importantly to the House, his dragonmark was still present - a glowing brand on the arm grafted improperly to replace Valka's own.

Abruptly alone, dealing with the trauma of the crash and her own guilt in her survival being at Roshan's expense, she was taken to trial and found not guilty. Feeling cheated by this verdict and losing faith in both justice and the afterlife (after all, if a dragonmark was bound to a person's soul, what did it mean that she could now take power from it? Had she damned her lover to a kind of half-life, or worse, an eternal purgatory?) she threw herself into religion with a self-destructive determination, secretly hoping the gods would recognize her believed wrongdoing and judge her properly where mortal courts had failed.

When presented with an opportunity to sabotage the project that led to Roshan's death, she took it, taking control of the airship and going rogue with the intent to destroy it either by her own hand or by forcing any pursuers to take it down with her. At present, she is driving it as far from settlements as possible to achieve this goal with as little loss of life as possible, and does not know what she will do with herself when this act is complete.

For characterization purposes, her actions will be influenced by:

- Like The Back of Her Hand: even when the Revelation is being piloted by someone else, her long familiarity with it means she is incredibly difficult to catch off guard. In its current state, she would notice anything out of place on board; this will decrease as the ship is modified.

- Blindsided: her left eye, uncovered, is blind, while her right eye, covered by a patch, still functions. The patch dims light, but still allows her to see.

- Local Doctors Hate Her!: her right arm is entirely immobile on its own, but the brace can be locked into different positions (ex, she can lean on her elbow, but wouldn't be able to pick something up.). Her right leg is stiff, and she is able to strap it up so she's less likely to trip. She is used to moving around the Revelation on one or both legs, but prefers both on unfamiliar terrain.

- House, Not Home: Valka has little care for the interests of the dragonmarked Houses, and may be more likely to take actions that damage the resources or reputation of a House.

- A Ship That Loves You: Valka believes her husband's spirit is entwined with the ship's elemental, a belief that the House has intentionally used as leverage against her. If she cannot have the ship on her own terms, her alternative goal will be to destroy it and herself - but will put her life on the line to prevent others from damaging it.

- An Empty Nest: Valka has no contact with her extended family and has no reason to believe she has any living immediate relatives. She has formed few relationships since the Revelation's crash.

- The Soils of War: Valka does not want to fight, though she will if she must. Her anger is directed at herself, at the gods that failed her, and the Houses that force her into their service. She wants to escape it, to lick her wounds, and to rest; to discover what the world is becoming in a time of peace that she has not had the chance to know.

[thisisyourprincipalspeaking]

A few things here:

1) he has never done something like post IG montages for any other public relationship. Even before he had IG, unless I am mistaken he never did any of this with his past GFs, and they all had IG even if he didn’t. In fact, I believe he never even posted about any partner publicly in the past and very rarely spoke about them except in passing.

He did, however, publicly engage in SM with his ex Jenny and it was wholesome and cute for the most part. He was seen out and about with her and other exes and there are photos from fans and lots of sightings. He even attended a family fueled red carpet with Jenny. These are all things out in the open.

The montage IG stuff has never felt genuine and I think that’s why red flags and questions were brought up.

Ryan and Eva and Chris and Elsa - both show their relationships with tons of PR. They’re both well received by the public and probably the fans too so whatever they do you most likely won’t find it too cringe.

People have hated the PT person since the start so no matter what, people were going to hate this. It’s clear in a lot of anon’s comments that they feel negatively about this situation so now he’s a “teenager” with her but Ryan and Eva are very mature. I agree that Ryan and Eva have been together much longer but if you saw “his” past relationships and how this stuff didn’t happen with those women - it should raise a question of why now this looks vastly different.

2) there’s a bit too much of claiming he likes attention when all the celebs just mentioned here also like attention and pick and choose what they post. Using cillian Murphy as a comparison also makes little sense to me because yeah he doesn’t have SM and he appears private but he’s also in the public eye when he needs to be. You don’t know if he’s getting comped trips and private parties (he most likely is) because you haven’t seen him post anything about that. Hence because he doesn’t have SM. All celebs who get to a certain point in their career will get comps and free trips and they’re allowed to take advantage of that if they wish. It’s not like “he” is flaunting his trips - he posts a thank here or there for comps in the past and he’s seen with his family at Disney and pictures are taken. What’s the big deal? Why is he not allowed to like these things?

“He” likes certain things he can get like trips and etc. ok? And? Does this make him any different than any other person? I don’t see him in the headlines or being papped every other day.

Suddenly he loves attention since this lame relationship appeared and fans are mad they have to know about it. For two years nobody ever saw these two and yall were mad but now they did some pap walks and you’re still mad. To claim he gets a pass from people makes little sense to me because all I see on tumblr are people criticizing him 24:7 and coming onto pages like yours to vent.

He doesn’t really do much or show much when he’s not being seen publicly and so I don’t believe he’s out there thriving for meaningless attention. And his fans are viewing him under a microscope so they’re going to zero in on him in all ways.

Lastly, he and his cofounder for his website did the legwork leading up to launching the platform. They did months of backend work and went to DC to knock on politician doors and conduct interviews and who knows what else behind the scenes. Some of you claiming he didn’t do much work and is only the face is also wrong because if that were true, then why is it always his fault the site didn’t mention this or didn’t post this? It’s either he didn’t do anything and has nothing to do with the content being presented or he’s in charge of all decisions and because they didn’t discuss ABC topic or they let certain politicians have a platform it means he’s the reason this is happening.

You can’t have it both ways.

when you say "you" at the end, anon, i'm not sure if you're addressing the proverbial, collective you or if you're specifically addressing the principal.

if you're addressing the collective you, aka the fandom, then in a way you're correct. not everyone (the proverbial you) can be satisfied all at the same time. it's impossible. but remember that much of what is shown is intentionally crafted to create conversation- whether that conversation is good/bad cannot be controlled and those who craft the stories count on there being some people to fall on each side in order to elongate the discourse.

on your list item 1): while i agree with your overall point, i don't agree with your supporting details. twitter was not created for sharing photos. that's what instagram was created for. twitter was originally created as a way for users to use short messaging services (SMS = texting) to microblog their random thoughts to groups of followers. it was 4 years before the site had the functionality for pictures/videos. so these comparisons are not evenly yoked. people also act differently in different relationships.

i agree with your point about jenny and that the ig montage did not feel genuine.

on your list item 2): all celebs like attention when it comes to their careers. they want their projects to do well so that they are profitable and are more likely to get future job offers. cillian, as you said, is public when the job calls for it. not having social media is his prerogative, and that's fantastic. but his not having social media isn't necessarily why you don't see whether or not he receives comped perks. part of the deal with comped offers is that the company/venue is allowed to advertise your visit in order to attract attention to their business. which is why you see chris, and other celebs, posting about their trips to these "great places" or how they "love this particular restaurant/product/service" because that's part of the exchange. it's not because the celeb wants to invite the public into their daily lives or their private vacations. your questions:

what’s the big deal? >>> there isn't one

why is he not allowed to like these things? >>> he is

does this make him any different than any other person? >>> different than any other person? yes, very much so. different from any other celebrity? no, not at all.

chris doesn't have to do much in order to get himself out there because the fandom- and for a long time, the gp- does it for him. you even said so yourself when you mentioned how his relationship with jenny was documented by sightings coming from fans. this doesn't make him "thriving for meaningless attention" it makes him smart. he has previously, and still does from some fans, get a pass for a lot of behaviors because he was so well-loved and paraded around the idea of him as the all-american boy next door. when someone has been feeding that narrative for a long time, and fans have eaten up that narrative to the point of defending him, giving him the benefit of the doubt, covering for his oopsies, and talking up his projects as to keep his name relevant and constantly trending to then have that long-supported image shattered, fans are allowed to be upset by that. and yes, they are allowed to vent about it here (to an extent, see the rules).

on your last item: i agree with you that chris and mark did a lot of legwork, prep, and collaborating for asp for a good while before launch. i think the anon ask you're referencing, the anon was speaking more regarding recent content and promotion. chris has been noticeably absent. in defense, early on the objective was made clear that the plan was for ce to take a backseat once the project was up and going. while i understand that was always the goal, and that he has had a lot of other professional and personal things happening that have taken his attention, the state of america (and the world) hasn't really been an ideal time to take a backseat. based on previous behavior in recent political tribulation, the chris that really roped in a lot of fans would have spoken up. now, with asp's reputation paired with his wife's association with racism and bigotry, his silence is that much louder - especially for these allied fans and any fans of color or minority.

the principal isn't asking to have it both ways. the principal is asking for students to see it both ways and realize either is plausible. chris is a very privileged white man who doesn't need an army of troops and i could be wrong, if so i apologize in advance, but your ask has a tone of defense to it and feels like you are wanting everyone to give chris a break because he's not a bad person. the principal has never said he's a bad person; he's a human. so if your ask is specifically addressing the principal, then it's dangerously misdirected.

[allycat75]

[archivecevans]

Full video of Chris Evans, Mark Kassen and Joe Kiani accepting the Spirit of Service Award

[harryandmeghansussex]

"I stand here not as Prince Harry, Pat Tillman award recipient, but rather a voice on behalf of the Invictus Games Foundation and the thousands of veterans and service personnel from over the 20 nations who have made the Invictus Games a reality. This award belongs to them, not to me." That said, it's of great importance to me to highlight these allies, athletes and their amazing families for their achievements, their spirit and their courage at every opportunity. Especially on nights like this in front of people like you.

Moments like these help us reach those that need Invictus most and reduce more than 20 veterans a day taking their own lives in this country alone.

We're celebrating ten years of witnessing life changing impact and healing through sport. While so much progress has been made since those first games, the world outside seems to be in an even more precarious state. We live in an age marked by polarization and division. Conflicts rage around the globe, anger and resentment towards those who are different seem to pervade societies everywhere.

Our community challenges that. Our community proves that unity is not just possible, but formidable. The beauty of the Invictus Games lies in how it brings people together. No matter one's nationality, background or personal struggles. It is a collective built from courage and mutual respect, where athletes discover time and time again the common denominator of their humanity.

[justenjoythegossip]

THE ONE WHERE HE SAID HER NAME

For people who aren’t aware, Chris was just interviewed on Access Hollywood where he is promoting his dog food brand and talking about his wife’s connection and relationship with “their” beloved dog. Go Portugal! 

First remark, she will no longer be known as Voldemort as it’s the first time since the start of this shitshow that he has ever said her name. Good for her and shame on him. 

Second remark, his background has been blurred for more… privacy (sarcastic coughs).

Apart from those 2 new elements, it’s pretty much the same old stuff. Let’s dig. 

THE TIMING OF THE INTERVIEW

This interview takes place at a time where Chris is gaining a lot of momentum. He just made a very talked about cameo in a huge Marvel hit. As a positive sign, he is gaining followers again, which at least looks organic whether they are real or bots or a combination of both. He is working hard, doing stunts with ASP, in order to look deserving of the Spirit of Service award he is going to receive on September 11th which, by the way, coincides with the one-year anniversary of his wedding. 

This interview is about promoting his dog food brand and their partnership with a giant retail store. Because obviously why not ride this wave of publicity, make more bucks and get more attention? Especially after that planned story on his Insta about his Deadpool cameo and the variety article that suspiciously followed so quickly after it. 

Not coincidentally, this date was supposed to be the one when a BUA was to be announced, as Team PR blogs were insisting. (By the way, that fact alone should enrage Chris’ fans as his team clearly looks in cahoots with them, as many suspected.) 

TEAM PR AND THEIR LASTEST DECEPTION

Team PR blogs have been claiming the contract expired on July 26th, that the BUA was imminent and was to happen before the end of July.

They were clearly lying like they have been lying since the start of this shitshow. Particularly about the ending which was supposed to happen after the Ghosted premiere, after the Peter Holmes interview, after he came back to Insta, after theForbes article, after the papwalk in December… …during the shooting of the Materialists… 

The fact people actually gave credence to their most recent claims is not a testament to their “cunning” manipulation techniques or people’s gullibility but to how much this fandom wants this shitshow to be over. 

As you noticed, one key and vicious member of Team PR was explaining yesterday that Chris’ wearing the ring meant nothing and “was insignificant”. How hypocritical, isn’t it?  When Team PR, Team Real & Team Middle have all been talking & trolling about the precious for months. 

Notice how those Team PR blogs are now deflecting once more with silly diversions such as dog behavior or how allegedly his family will suffer for it (oh please), or play the victim card as they are allegedly receiving threats and hate messages. All of this is meant to distract from the fact that they lied once more. And they did it for several reasons, the most important being... 

ANOTHER CLASSIC BAIT & SWITCH FOR ADDED SHOCK VALUE

We have seen this movie before and repeatedly, haven’t we? The pattern is so similar to what we have witnessed in February with the ski trip. 

And even recently, with all the time she was seen spending in her home country without him (the concert, the birthday), her furnishing an apartment in Portugal, his wearing and hiding the ring every chance he got, and more importantly the stunt at the walk of fame of Kevin Feige where she was seen to be a no show so ostentatiously… Look at how staged that was, and you will realize what the purpose for it was. 

So, what they did was to try to breadcrumb a separation once again, to build up the fans’ anticipation before pulling the rug out from under them in order to add shock value. 

Well done! But FYI the aftereffect might prove very counterproductive for Chris, as his complicity looks more and more obvious and his playing the victim card looks more and more infuriating. 

CHRIS’ COMPLICITY

Chris claimed in his SMA interview how much he hates any forms of manipulation. He should have added that he was fine with it as long as he was the one doing the manipulating.  Indeed, his complicity is absolutely undeniable. 

I have written a post about this topic, if you want to check it out. 

Let’s add to this his recent shenanigans and more precisely what he did with the precious ring. I won’t go too far back and will just use 2 recent examples. 

Do people remember the Jinx commercial where he uses his pinkie to “hide” the ring as he gives food to Dodger? What he is actually doing here is to draw more attention to the ring and promote his relationship with Alba, he also looks ashamed to gain sympathy from his fans and manages to feed the discourse (real or not?) in the process. 

Isn’t it exactly what he did again for that walk of fame ceremony where he allegedly arrived without the ring (like he would forget to wear it) and then get photographed with it from every angle while his wife was a no-show?

Now let’s move on to the most interesting aspects of it all: the brand deal.

THE BRAND DEALS CONNECTED TO THIS SHITWHOW

First observation. You can see the similarity to the interview he did on The View sponsored by Jinx when he came back to Insta just in time for the Black Friday. 

I am not privy to any private information and haven’t seen the contracts but it’s safe to assume that certain businesses of his are directly connected to this shitshow for the simple reason that they have been getting an incommensurable amount of “free” publicity from many prestigious publications & media outlets. 

And by the way, it started before Alba even entered the scene. We can safely deduce Chris had already cashed in on those checks (“free” publicity) and this shitshow was also used as a payment for it. 

Because clearly, dog food and a civil engagement platform are not the “sexiest” businesses. And, the amount of media coverage those companies have been getting seems totally disproportionate compared to Chris’ status and the marketability of those businesses.

Compare this to the media coverage his fellow Avengers have been getting, like Jeremy Renner’s cigar and alcohol businesses, or Scarlett’s The Outset. 

Obviously, Chris gets to promote his businesses Jinx or ASP when he talks or breadcrumbs his relationship to Alba because this is far more selling and salacious for the media and the public. 

Sidenote, now observe the media coverage his commercial for a much “sexier” brand like Audi got, a commercial where he did not have to wear the ring by the way. 

So if you guys are enraged by this shitshow and how it is conducted, not looking at this train wreck won’t change a thing or the timeline but what might have an impact is to boycott the protagonists and the brands that are playing and manipulating you. 

THE ENDING OF THE SHITSHOW

Clearly this shitshow is long-term and won’t be ending anytime soon. And the reason for that is simple. The optics of this relationship aren’t great as he looks like her old uncle and the power imbalance is all over the place. He HAS to stay married to her for a while to give value to this relationship. 

Because clearly, he looks like another Hollywood cliché going through a midlife crisis. The only thing that could salvage a part of his public persona is to make this marriage last so that he doesn’t look like a “one-dollar Leo but without the talent”. 

In fact, it will likely last for much longer and might even escalate (DM is breadcrumbing baby rumors) because one thing appears crystal clear at this point: this marriage seems to be much more than a rebrand and a publicity stunt.

WHAT MIGHT BE COMING NEXT?

There is a rumor that Chris might be selling his LA home after he just sold his Concord house. Not so long ago it was the one in Vermont.

Like some Team PR blogs rightfully said, it was purposefully leaked to the fandom after the house had already been sold. It was a great and very smart PR move. Suddenly, Chris seemed like he was at a crossroads, like it was a new start where anything is possible. 

But as you guys noticed, the background was purposefully blurry for this interview, which gives the illusion he is private when he is really not, also puts emphasis on the crazy fan narrative (Chris has to hide to protect his family from his crazy fans) and more importantly helps to present any fabricated life he wants to the general public. It is a white canvas so to speak.