#sterling is 3 years younger !! what !! shes so big

[askthefuturegleeks]

Thank you for joining the campaign to bring the arts to future generations, ALARA COHEN-CHANG AND MELODIE STERLING, we’re happy to have you! If you want a refresher on what to do next, feel free to look at the WELCOME CHECKLIST. Please send your account in within the next 48 hours so that you can get started.

ooc information

SHIPS: chemistry

ANTI-SHIPS: no chemistry

basic ic information NAME: alara cohen-chang

BIRTHDAY/ZODIAC: march 20/pisces

CURRENT OCCUPATION: owner @ tarot & lace metaphysical shop

CURRENT LOCATION: NYC

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: divorced

FC: aslihan malbora

twitter post @seekingspiritalara: (As we quickly approach Lammas, Tarot&Lace will be holding a store-wide 50% off sale to bring in the new season.) #SALE #SUPPORTLOCALBUSINESS #SUPPORTSMALLBUSINESS

in character questions Answer these in character, and feel free to add gifs into your answers.

1.) What did you want to do with your life when you were younger? What would the child version of yourself think about the path you paved for yourself?

for most of my life i honestly had very little clue about what i actually wanted to do. i went back and forth between a lot of different career options, and doing things that would keep me happy for a couple of months, and then i would burn out. i finally realized that probably meant i should do something that i could control, which is why i went into business for myself. so, i think my younger self would really just be happy that i'm happy.

2.) What is your proudest accomplishment? Don’t be afraid to talk about what it took to achieve it and how you feel about it as well.

opening my shop, hands down. it took so long for me to realize that's what i wanted, and then once i did it was nothing but saving and research, research and saving for what felt like an eternity. of course once everything came together it was totally worth it, and i'm grateful that the process was so much and so stressful.

3.) If you could do anything you wanted for one whole day, what would it be and why?

for one whole day? gosh that's a big ask. uh. maybe go to an amusement park or a fair of some sort? just that feeling of freedom and giddiness...i think it would do me some good.

where are they now? alara was adopted by the cohen-changs at the age of 9 after being in the system since she was only a few months old. her father split from her mother the moment he learned of her pregnancy, and alara's young mother felt nothing but bitterness towards her daughter for 'driving her boyfriend away'. the system wasn't kind to alara, but she found a different life with the cohen-changs. growing up she was obedient, intelligent, and helpful, and she truly got along well with and loved her siblings and family. she is still close with them today, and would do anything for any of them.

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

ooc information

SHIPS: chemistry

ANTI-SHIPS: no chemistry

basic ic information

NAME: melodie sterling

BIRTHDAY/ZODIAC: september 19/virgo

CURRENT OCCUPATION: er nurse

CURRENT LOCATION: nyc

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: single

FC: Katherine Newton

twitter post @nursemel: (got into a deeply philosophical debate about the true function of a rubber duck with a patient .) #NURSELIFE #STORIESFROMTHEER

in character questions Answer these in character, and feel free to add gifs into your answers.

1.) What did you want to do with your life when you were younger? What would the child version of yourself think about the path you paved for yourself?

i've always known i wanted to work in the medical field in some capacity. well, if you don't count the couple of years convinced i would become the queen of america. there were times where i considered going to med school, or becoming a physical therapist, or something like that but i really think my past self would be really happy with where i ended up. i think i'd be even more proud of myself to know that i'm continuing my education and working to better myself in NP school.

2.) What is your proudest accomplishment? Don’t be afraid to talk about what it took to achieve it and how you feel about it as well.

probably actually being able to buy my apartment. nyc is a tough place to be financially and especially for anyone who actually wants to own something. but i started saving young, and made it happen.

3.) If you could do anything you wanted for one whole day, what would it be and why?

sleep. hands down, sleep.

where are they now? having grown up in the super close and tight-knit sterling family as the only female meant that melodie was well protected and well looked after. she loved every minute of her childhood and her younger-years in relation to her family. she has always been very studious and was often called an old soul. she loves reading, movies, and talking about the deeper meanings in life. she left westerville directly after graduating high school and moved to la for college, graduating from uc berkeley. however, after working and living in la for a couple of years she decided to move to nyc for a change of scenery, fell in love, and has been there ever since.

[slytherindisaster]

Just some ramblings because I have some ocs I need to work on and I don't want to forget about it. Also a few questions I did forgot about and I'm bad at communicating so this is my way of handling this.

The Sapiehas

Their birth years and overall existence don't make much sense because I fucked up when I decided on Gabriel's birth year making him like 10 years olden than the rest of HPHL mcs so let's just pretend that it makes sense in the end ok.

CJ — 3 years younger than Gabriel, Hufflepuff, because his father died when CJ was barely 14 he grew up idolising him and resenting Gabriel for always rebelling against his rules. CJ ends up following Joseph's footsteps and becomes an auror and also just like his father developing a problem with alcohol. He would either have a wife he does not care for or just stay single apart from some meaningless relationships. He dies from alcohol poisoning at age 34.

Margaret — 2 years younger than CJ, Ravenclaw, INFP, lesbian. The fact that her brothers never stopped fighting broke her heart. If I could find her some love interest it would be fun because she deserves it but I'm also tempted to leave her to be a spinster and also the coolest aunt to Gabriel's kids. Or maybe both. Either way she wouldn't have any kids on her own.

Jojo & Elisabeth — because of my dumbass decision to make Winnie's birth year 1905 that would make Jojo & Elisabeth's birth years 1901 & 1904 respectively. Also @beloved-bucky I know we've been talking about them and how they would make cool fantastic beasts ocs but as I said I'm shit at communicating so it got dropped. Since I shamelessly already took Winnie my question is – would you like to take one (or both) for yourself? I know I can be shitty when it comes to collaboration so I thought it might be easier to just split and develop them separately? If you want? Or just drop all the ideas about them at once and maybe then try to make sense out of it?

Mallory & The Rosiers

They're all just a bunch of random ideas plastered on a faceclaim rather than fleshed out characters but I'm working on it. Also @cursebreakerfarrier are we content with Toby and Winnie having two kids or do we want more?

Mallory Brokenshire — born 1931 to Winnie & Toby, 2 years younger than Jem, slytherin, INTJ, owns a potion shop on Diagon Alley. Again because I'm a dumbass and can't do math she would be only 20 when her daughter is born but I could totally see Tilly just hanging out at the potion shop for half of her childhood. I'm more concerned about how on earth would she have a potion shop by that age but maybe grandpa Gabriel could help with that.

Sterling Rosier — around 4 years older than Mallory, Pukwudgie house alumni, freshly finished with his Healer training when he comes to England to reconnect with his family there. He and Mallory meet in her shop when he has to run errands for the hospital. Then he ends up coming there for stuff he doesn't really needs and less than a year later they're already engaged. He is a sweetheart tho so I might kill him prematurely >:)

Leland Rosier — Sterling's brother, I'm not sure atm what's their age difference but I'm tempted to make them twins. Basically everything about him is tbd

Victor Rosier — Sterling's father, probably born sometime around 1901 but I'm not sure yet, his family moved to USA when he was 5 or so and he is a Thunderbird alumni. He works as an Auror and he used to be Tina's partner before she was dismissed. I will probably open him for ships if anyone's interested but keep in mind that he has to have at least two sons.

Evangeline* Rosier — a pretty big timeskip here because she would be a golden era oc. Either Harry or Ginny's year. She would be Evan & Felix's sister and she would be a Hufflepuff. Idk much about her for now, I might give her a ship with canon character but I'm not sure yet. She's the best tho.

*her name will probably change tho

The Parkers

Tilly Brokenshire-Rosier — not much going on here tbh, she's Mallory and Sterling's daughter, Lizzie's mother, a gryffindor and a professional Chaser, although her career is cut short when she gets pregnant and then her husband and step-son dissappear in mysterious circumstances and well everything goes to shit.

Anthony Parker — he's a cool guy who doesn't have much luck in life, his wife left him with a little kid and he has trouble with keeping his shit together, I'm not sure how he meets Tilly yet but they're the sweetest and she instantly loves Jacob and they're so happy together. Until they're not. He is a Hufflepuff and a magizoologist who specialises in winged horses.

Jacob Parker — so, yeah, he's Lizzie's half-brother and he is around six years older because I saw this post and I really like that logic, he is a big wip still but I might kill him or Lizzie in the second wizarding war bc I'm a bitch

[chenfordfeels]

The Rookie 2x12 Part 1

First thoughts:

1.How many people were in that car and most importantly how did they fit? The opening scene was funny as always.

2.It was nice seeing the three of them (John, Lucy, Jackson) having breakfast together. I feel like we don't get many scenes of them hanging out anymore.

3. Yes! Yes! Yes! The rookies moved sides again in roll call. Everything is right again.

4. Jackson looked so good on the red carpet! I'm living for his suit!

For a main character John didn't have much of a storyline this episode. It was more centered around the relationship between his son, Henry, and his soon to be daughter-in-law, Abigail. Don't get me wrong they are cute but they are also very very young. I mean how are they even going to pay for the wedding and why are they in such a rush to get married. On the topic of Abigail I like her, I really do, but in my opinion they haven't thought this through. She dropped out of college, she doesn't have a plan other than getting married, she is easily impressed and doesn't think of the consequences. Case in point she was so fascinated with the dead body but didn't think about how hard it would be for the family. It makes sense that she wants to be a cop, it is structured, strict and gives her a clear purpose, she can help those who can't protect themselves just like she couldn't. Even Tim was taken aback by her eagerness and at the end of the day he was impressed but still Abigail has a lot to work through as does Henry. No one should expect a 20 year old to have their life figured out but to me it seems like they are making one rush decision after the other.

Angela is the best. She was there for Jackson after his brush with fame showing him some tough love with good intentions. Their relationship reminsd of one between a big sister and her younger brother, it is so sweet. She was there for his fake break-up and also stood by Lucy. The red lipstick looked amazing on her and Angela having a flask is so on brand.

As for Jackson and Sterling I have to admit that they are cute and I'm glad that they found a way to work around their problem. The way they fawned over each other was so heartwarming. I'm still a little miffed that we didn't get an explanation for never seeing Gino again, he works at the hospital for crying out loud, but I guess it wasn't relevant to the story.

As for Nyla we got a better understanding of her past and undercover life. What happened to her was heartbreaking but the way she channeled her experience to help Lucy was inspiring.

Chenford review coming up!

[writing-with-olive]

 so no one actually tagged me in this, but I thought it would be really cool to do one of these, and I came across this set of questions, so I decide to just go for it! 

Rules: Answer the 11 questions of the person who tagged you, make up 11 questions, then tag 11 people to answer them.

1. Are there any writers you look up to?

absolutely. right now, my top favorites are Sarah J. Maas, and Rick Riordan. I love their writing styles, and their characters. I love how deep each of the characters are. SJM especially. Rick Riordan's style is also super funny, which is difficult for me to do personally, but I'm trying :) I've read most of each of their books at least six times each.

2. What made you start writing?

I've "started" writing several times. When I was younger, say 3-4, we had writing time in my preschool, where we took these pictures precut for us from magazines and glued it on paper and wrote a story about it. I've had writing time in almost all of my classes until I got to fourth grade when it stopped. 

I started writing seriously when one of my teachers began a writer's workshop class when I was in sixth grade. I've been writing ever sense.

3. On a scale of one-to-ten, how good would you say your writing is?

Well that depends. My WIP in general? or my writing right now? I've improved so much that the scores are drastically different. Right now, I'd say somewhere about a 6-7. Not bad, but still a lot of room for growth. My WIP in general? probably closer to a 5. I've been working on Project Toxin (my WIP) for over a year now, and you can tell the progress I've made as a writer just by looking at the prose in the beginning versus the end. It's not a bad thing though; I'm glad that I'm getting better.

4. How do you come up with your characters?

Most times, characters just come to me, half formed, and a little flat. It's more about making them whole characters than just completly coming up with new ones. Usually a string of dialogue comes first, or just a general attitude about the world. Sometimes it's an ability or situation, though, and I just build on it from there. If characters are created out of necessity, then I start with how they're supposed to interact with my main character, and then build backward: why did they do that? what would prompt them to act like that. After I get to their backstory, then I can really turn them into 3D characters.

5. Who was the first character you ever came up with?

Oof. I don't actually remember. The earliest that I actually put effort into writing (rather than a few paragraphs and giving up) and still remember the name was a character naimed Reagan. She was kinda flat to be honest, and didn't have much of a personality, but I do remember that she was the Smart One in the group.

6. Who is the most recent character you have come up with?

Recently I came up with a character named Caemryn, (pronounced Camron, I just needed the name to fit with the setting). She's kinda selfish, and really only cares about her survival. She's got magic, which is kinda the biggest thing you can get discriminated against in her world. She's also an orphan because her parents left her after they realised she had been born with magic. After that hurt, she won't admit she loves anyone in any way, and doesn't talk to people unless she really has to. Also she's canonically aroace (and no, it's not because of trauma. her aroace-ness came first)

7. What would you give for any one of your characters to become real?

That really depends on the character. I think that some characters would do a lot more harm than good if they were real (we really do not need people in this world who abduct children just for the psychological effect). One of my characters, though Quinn Erto, is really cool though, so I would give a lot for them to become real. Just maybe not their brother. Quinn's brother is kinda an asshole sometimes.

8. What would you say is the strangest thing you have ever written?

I wrote a short story (emphasis on short) about riding a moose while going down a zipline in a combative version of capture the flag at one point.

9: Do you have any lines you recently wrote that you are particularly proud of?

Not really regarding my main WIP's - most of the stuff I've been doing this month has been worldbuilding/planning/character dev for my new WIP, so I haven't written much in the way of prose recently.

That being said, I wrote a flash fiction piece earlier today, and one of the lines I really like is:

"Then everyone gasps - ya know, like you do when a child shows you a piece of splattered paint and you have to show them How Cool It Looks, and you smile really big. But the sky is unlike any child's splatter of paint. So much more."

I think it just captures the voice of the narrator really well, and I think it's also kinda funny, which is something I usually have a very hard time writing.

10. Would you prefer to write for yourself, or an audience?

Sort of a mix of both, but mostly for myself. I love seeing the stories come to life, but at the same time, I'm going to share them eventually, when I publish them. But I think even if I wasn't going to publish them, I would still write, which I guess means I write more for myself. 

11. Do you listen to music while you write?

Absolutely. It can't be anything with words, unless the words really fit the scene I'm writing, but anything instrumental is awesome. I particularly like listening to soundtracks, as long as they're not the actual songs from the movie. (so like the background music). Recently, I've found The Mandalorian to be a really good soundtrack to write to.

my questions:

1. What time of day do you usually get your writing in?

2. Who’s your favorite character to write for? (and why?)

3. What style/genre do you prefer to write in?

4. Why do you write?

5. How did you choose the premise of your WIP?

6. Who do you think has made the most impact on your writing?

7. What kind of scenes do you have the most fun writing (dialogue, kissing, fight, travel, etc)

8. How has social distancing influenced your writing?

9. Do you drink coffee or tea when you write? or something else?

10. Have you/do you plan to publish any of your WIP’s?

11. What other media or real life has inspired your story (books, movies, shows, video games, real life events, plays, etc)

I’m tagging @writing-with-melon, @pens-swords-stuff, @owlsofstarlight, @writingonesdreams, @theupdatednotepad, @trickster-writes, @saxoniowrites, @marewriteblr, @bebewrites, @jessicacaseyauthor, @ingrid-sterling

[bodyswapmischief]

The Interview

(Although not a part 2. This story is linked to The promotion) 

If you can believe it ... before today, my body looked completely different. I was ... for the most part hairless. And that worked for me. It showed off the curves of my muscles. My six pack, biceps, and chest glistened after every work out. But, now everything changed.

It all started because, I really needed a job. I applied to everything  I could find. But, no one ever called back. Until I got a call from Transform Inc. They were a really big company, in the city. I didn't even think I applied to them. I knew it was a mistake. But, never turn down an opportunity... or so I thought.

The day of the interview, I dressed in my best. I wore well fitted slacks and dress shirt. It hugged my body and outlined my well earn muscles. I hope I was interviewed by a woman or gay man. I might not be the smartest person or have the most experience, but with my body I could seduce the pants off of anyone.

Reaching the building, I quickly realized I was out of my league, job-wise. I went up the elevator and was immediately greeted by a lady, at the front desk. She was insanely attractive and led me through the office. As we walked, I started noticing the people in the office. All the women were attractive, and the men would have been too, if they were in better shape. They had a range of different size bellies. From a little bloated to full size beer belly.

I finally reached the office. "Your interview will be held in there." She said, as she walked away. I walked in and saw the biggest fattest guy in the office. He seemed stressed and tired. His face seemed young, but the weight added age to him. His beach ball belly rested on his lap and pushed against his small desk. His dress shirt struggled to contain his stomach and his equally large pair of fat boobs. His beard hid what I could only imagine was a double chin. He looked at me, like he was caught of guard. "Oh, please take a seat." He said as he clean off his desk. On his desk was a salad and a water bottle. I laughed in my head (Yeah like that's gonna help you, fat ass). His name plate read: Steven Fuller. (Yup the name fits) I continued to laugh to myself.

I sat down, keeping my eyes on the big fat blob of a man, in front of me. He was gross and every part of me hated him, for doing that to his body. I was snapped back to the present with the creaking of his chair, as he moved. It was screaming to get this fat-ass of it. He was also looking at me. Checking my body out, but trying not to get caught. He started looking for something, but stopped as his face turned red, from embarrassment. He lifted up his massive gut and pulled out a file. "I forgot, I put this on my lap before my lunch." He shyly said.

I started laughing. The comedy of this fat pig in front of me was just to much to take. He looked hurt by my reaction. "Yeah, kid don't get fat ... it sucks." He weakly smiled, as he started reading the file. "Don't worry I won't" I winked. He immediately puts down the file and looks at me, straight into my eyes. "Do you care about your body?" I was thrown back a bit. "Yeah ..." I replied confused. "Then this is not the job for you. I recommend leaving now." he starts to put the file away. "But ... look...I'm sorry I laughed... it's just..." I tried to explain. He looked at me, "No ... you look, I know you. I've been you. In fact my body was in better shape then yours and now look at me. I am ... begging you, just walk out that door and leave."

I lost it and everything I felt just came out. "I'm sorry you don't like what you did to your fat ass body, but I am not you." I started flexing under my shirt. "You wished you had this body. But, you can't. That gut is massive and no amount of salad is going to change that." Anger filled his eyes. But, suddenly the door opened and an older man walked in. His body made of muscle, which made him look younger than he probably was. "Hello, I'm Thomas Sterling and I will be finishing the interview, in my office." He motioned for me to follow. I turned to look at Mr. Fuller. He shook his head in disappointment.

We reached Mr. Sterling's office and sat down. "I'm sorry about that." Sterling said "He shouldn't have told you to leave." His powerful arms pulled out a box. "Well, he hasn't been the first person to be jealous of my body." I said. "Oh, and you do have a good strong body. 7% body fat?" He laughed in delight. The way he talked about my body was making me nervous. But, his tone was soothing. "No ... 5%" I answered. He opened the box and revealed doughnuts. "Here take one." He whispered. "I shouldn't." I said looking at the doughnuts. "Just one won't hurt." He said. I took one and bit into it. Blue filling gushed into my mouth. It tasted so sweet and good. Sterling smiled.

Slowly my stomach felt bloated and pushed against my shirt. (I did have a big breakfast) I thought to myself. "You have the job." He smiled. He quickly got up to get some paper work. The muscles under his clothes, showing off with every move. I wanted to be like him when I got older. "Help yourself to another doughnut, in celebration," he cheered. And, I did. My shirt and pants started feeling tighter. A tingling sensation started spreading through my chest.

"Sign these papers and you can start working tomorrow." I quickly signed, every paper. "Good, Good, Good ... I'm happy to know your happy with getting as fat as I want you to." My throat choke up a bit. I looked down and saw what was happening to my body. My pants were skin tight as they squeezed my legs. My softer chest was squeezed by the now tighter shirt. My flabby stomach was peeking out of my straining buttons. "What the Fuck! What happened to me." I screamed.

Sterling laughed. "It's all part of the contract." He brought out a syringe of blue liquid and injected it into a doughnut. "You will eat 3 of these donuts every month, and gain 5 pounds of permanent fat, for each. For every 5 pounds you will be paid 10,000 dollars. That will be 30,000 a month. This will go on for a year. Then you will have an option of staying on and getting promoted or leaving the company, if you wish. If you do stay on, you will be paid 100o times your weight per year. It was written down on those paper, you signed."

"You can't do this. I quit! These documents won't hold in court." I cried out. "Aw, I thought this might happen. That's why I created this new formula. It will make you more obedient. Now, finish the last doughnut for the month." He said as he handed me the freshly injected doughnut. My hand grabbed it on its own and brought it closer to my mouth. I scream for it to stop. But my hand forced it in my mouth. As soon as the blue goo reached my tongue, I started unwilling chewing. It really was the best thing I ever eaten. I felt the effects immediately take place. My expanding ass caused my pants to rip. The buttons on my shirt popped, as my belly jiggled, now having space to expand and sit in it's full size. My skin became itchy has my hairless body started sporting hair everywhere I could and couldn't see.

"Oh, that's a side effect, I haven't worked out yet. But, I can't say it doesn't make me happy. Now my bear in training go home and get some rest, because tomorrow you start work. And let's keep this contract our little secret." He smiled at me. I started walking out and bumped into Mr. Fuller, waiting right outside. My eyes red from wanting to cry. "Before you leave ... you should come to my office." I followed him. By the way he wasn't freaking out, I already knew that he understood what went on.

He helped sneak me into his office so, no one saw me. Once there, he pulled out some clothes. "Here these should fit you." He said. "Why are you doing this." I said with a shaky voice. "I was mean to you ... I got what I deserved, maybe worse." I felt embarrassed, changing my clothes in front of him. I hated showing off the new fat rolls that I could feel on my body. "You aren’t the only one that made a deal with that devil. I wasn't lying. I was like you. About 180 pounds of  pure muscle. In my first deal, I shot up to about 270. With a little more convincing, he has me at 300 pounds." He said rubbing his swollen stomach.

The numbers started running through my head. 3 donuts each month for a year. 15 pounds every month for 12 months. That would be a 180 pound weight gain. I'm was currently 180. I would double my size with pure fat. I would be 360 pounds. 60 pounds heavier than the man in front of me. I started crying. Mr. Fuller came closer to hug me. His belly pushed tight against mine. He started talking " Look, I don't know how many pounds you signed up to gain. But you are not alone. I'm the fattest guy in this office..." (not for long) I thought to myself "And, I still live an active life. I might not be as fast or have as much stamina, like when I was in shape. But, I am able to keep my weight down to my permanent weight and not an ounce more. Just eat right and exercise. In fact some of us guys from the office go to workout everyday, you should come" He let me go. I calmed my self and started walking out "what's the point" I said. As I walked out the door, I hear him yell out " You can always be fatter than you have to."

Those words still ring in my ear, as I stand here exploring my strange new 195 pound and counting body. Imagining how I would look fatter. The door bell rings. It's a pizza delivery guy. "Order for Eric, from Mr. Sterling." He unloads 2 large pizzas, a 2 liter bottle of coke, and a cookie cake. My stomach starts to rumble. Might as well eat because, this stomach is going to get bigger whether I like it or not. I can always got to the gym tomorrow.

(Follow my second blog @malereblogmischief, where I re-blog the sources for the picture in my stories.)

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 2: Thoughts on The 100 2x05, Human Trials

Thoughts on Human Trials

They set up an electronic gate really fast, didn’t they? An efficient people. I think of the big Arkadia wall as really being a S3 thing, but they had to specifically unlock the entrance to get Clarke in.

Clarke & Abby was another relationship they really destroyed, huh? “That’s not a prisoner. That’s my daughter.”

Omg, Clarke thought Abby was dead this whole time. I completely forgot about that. I mean, I remember that she saw the Exodus ship explode, but I forgot that she had no way of knowing up until now that Abby wasn’t on it. Technically, Abby should have been a bit of a surprise to Bellamy and Finn, too, but I guess they had bigger surprises to deal with at the time.

I kind of miss Byrne tbh.

Six people made it to Camp Jaha. That’s Bellamy, Finn, Monroe, Sterling (RIP), Raven, and I guess Murphy is the last one, although as far as I can remember, the last Clarke saw him he was blasting a hole in the dropship and running away into the woods. So she probably wouldn’t guess he was one.

Jasper looking for Clarke 3-4 times a day in medical just tears me up inside. He’s so loyal. He feels all emotions on such a large scale. And his disbelief that Clarke would abandon them.... Who was it who theorized that Jasper was more upset about Clarke abandoning them in Mount Weather than abandoning them in 2x16 because I’ve never been certain I agree but I am intrigued.

Raymond J. Berry is so underrated.

I tend to think that Dante is sincere in offering Jasper the chance to leave and come back but I also think that this is a perhaps unintentionally cruel test because of all of the 48, Jasper is the one for whom it would be hardest to step back outside the bunker even on a mission of great personal importance.

“I have to believe they didn’t survive here all this time by fighting.” But like, actually.... didn’t they? RIP to my mom’s theory that ALIE kept the Grounders in a constant state of war to discourage population growth.

“In Grounder Creole.” I mean I guess that’s one word for it.

Clarke’s incredulousness that her mother is Chancellor is semi-hllarious.

She keeps on mentioning Finn and Bellamy as the most important people--were they among the six who made it? Where are they?

And yet RAVEN was the one who was waiting outside for her all night. Outside that shitty little medical tent. With her little tablet, reading. RIP Princess Mechanic.

Too bad Clarke put on pants before The Hug or think how much better it could have been lol.

I could watch them hug all day. Just this scene man. The best. I’m such a simple person. This is all I want. People smiling and being fond of each other.

Bellamy’s face when Clarke says she’s the only one who came back.

That Mount Weather/Reaper stuff is fully fucked up and I don’t think the show ever did anything more outrageous than this season. Which is why it should have stepped back from trying to be outrageous.

I really like scenes like this one with Bellarke and Abby, the tension in the power structure being so uncertain. Kane is the Chancellor, but Abby is also, and there are multiple groups of people out there with different levels of information, working toward different ends, and different ideas about who should be prioritized, and why, and Bellamy and Clarke are used to having the power to make those decision but now they don’t--just the intricacy of the plot at this point in the narrative. I love it. I love power dynamics and stuff like that. Also, while I get why Abby doesn’t want Clarke to leave, Bellamy is 100% right that she owes aid to Murphy and Finn, and Clarke is 100% right that, tactically speaking, cutting them loose is dumb, because they could easily create problems with the Grounders--which, in fact, they do.

Clarke’s “We’re gonna need guns” is so hot.

Adventure Squad to the rescue!

Electric fence. And Wick helping them out. I love Octavia actually looks younger than them here even though objectively speaking Marie is not. ALSO the massacre happens at Lincoln’s village but isn’t he from TonDC, which also had that bomb drop on it? Or am I confusing things? Because if so, damn, that’s a lot of bad luck lol.

So Monty would have left immediately to go after Clarke and Jasper wouldn’t--in part because he’s afraid but I also think he does feel betrayed that she left them, which Monty really doesn’t seem to care about. Interesting. And then of course the containment breach, organized to distract them and keep them from leaving. Not sure how to fully unpack that. I will note that Monty sees Maya being irradiated, which is to say that when he opens the vents in 2x16, he knows what that will do, down to the details, what it looks like, everything, and Jasper does too. Also interesting that Maya doesn’t want Jasper to leave, thinks it’s “smart” to stay. Because she doesn’t like Clarke? Because she fears the outsiders? Yet isn’t the greatest wish of her people to see the ground?

Also looks like they’re already prisoners given that you need a keycard to get out of the dorms.

I find it intensely suspicious that the Grounder blood didn’t work on Maya, since I’m sure they’ve seen radiation that bad before--the guy Clarke saw was pretty well covered if I remember correctly. I think they just weren’t doing anything, to try to get Jasper to volunteer as a subject. But is this done with or without Dante’s knowledge? I am going to say without personally.

“I know that look.” Monty knows Jasper’s ‘I’m gonna do something stupid’ look lol. Also, he is brave! He is!!

Bellamy looking at Clarke by the fire is so capital-R Romantic. They’re so efficient at comforting each other that he literally does the entire conversation re: guilt over closing the dropship door on him by himself. Don’t worry babe, I got this forgiveness narrative down.

Finn... is such a weird character. I don’t actually dislike his arc but it’s so hard to tell, for example, how smart he is, the details of him. He’s certainly very weak. Cracks under pressure, loses whatever moral compass he had at the first convenience. And what of Murphy? He’s uncomfortable with what is happening but for whatever reason seems to find himself unable to stop Finn even as he inches closer and closer to something terrible.

Is their leader... Indra?

Jasper’s “heavily sedated” face and Monty’s reaction lol. “Nothing, I feel nice.” And Monty’s eye roll. Bitch why are you so judgemental? Like you haven’t heavily sedated yourself for fun. And the classic ‘no, not going anywhere’ Monty gesture. Truly an Icon.

Ooh, I like this little outdoor cafeteria/bar. Forgot about that. Forgot about how much in S2 was outdoors or in tents.

I remember when Doctor Mechanic was a significant rare pair/side ship and you know what, I rather miss it. I was never really on board but I can see the appeal.

Minus the slapping, obviously. Which doesn’t even really fit in this scene imo.

“She stopped being a kid the day you sent her down here to die” is of course an iconic line but tbh it’s not really fair. More fair since Abby just slapped her but like--it’s a little late to be pulling that card. If they’d stayed on the Ark, more of them would have died than died in S1 on the ground, imo. And at this point that’s basically already known.

I wonder what all the ‘warning radiation area’ signs are from. Was there a post-bomb period where survivors lived on the ground and divided the worst radiation sites from the more habitable areas? Also the “no weapons beyond this point” sign clearly pre-dates the Grounders. And it’s in English.

Kane’s optimism/pacifism is really halfway and to that extent, what does he expect. Also is there prison a subway station? What a ridiculous but great way to bring Kane and Jaha back together again.

Yet again floored by this set design at the Grounder village.

Tbh I find it highly unrealistic that that amount of forest could have grown up on the National Mall in 100 years. And where are the other monuments?

Bellamy’s handdddddddddddddddddds.

Or maybe they just made Maya extra sick. So the treatment of circulating her blood through Jasper’s system is the same one they use with the Grounders, so it isn’t so much taking Grounder blood, as I tended to think of it, as using the Grounder circulatory system. But obviously this can be done without kiillng the person--so do they just use each body repeatedly until it... dies? I realize trying to find order in this is futile but I’m curious anyway.

“We all have jobs to do. Mine is to be obeyed” should have gone down in the canon of great lines. It’s certainly much better than some others I can think of.

I don’t believe Dante took the kids to experiment on them, what with his intense aversion to the experiments, and the way he gets attached first to Clarke and then to Jasper. But then, truly, as Tsing says, why take them? What was the endgame here?

“We have no choice but to move ahead with the 47″ is truly one of the weakest forms of ‘no choice’ on this show. Because, I mean, you do have a choice. You’ve discovered that they’re useful to you, but that doesn’t mean you HAVE to do the useful but completely immoral thing, that’s quite an obvious example of wanting, not needing.

No one can convince me that Dante is straight with scarves like that.

So in other words, Delano, of one-eyed Delano fame, was like the Murphy of TonDC. Don’t cast people out, nothing good comes of exile.

Finn’s “I found you” at the end is top 5 creepiest moments in this series and no I am not taking criticism on this post.

[starvingsapphic]

What is CACI Non Surgical Face Lift?

Jennifer Aniston is one of the most sought-after actresses in the United States, many of us are surprised by the way she has managed to stop the passage of time in her impressive physique, a secret that she has managed to keep very well for more than 17 years, but that an English medium has unveiled in a precise investigation.

The medium has taken as a pattern two photographs of Aniston at the Oscars, one of the year 2000 and the other more recent of this year.

While she says she owes everything to healthy living, exercise and being happy. The Daily Mail says that his "eternal youth" has cost him 1.2 million pounds sterling (1.4 million dollars). At least, that is the high amount of money that you have to pay to be preserved as Aniston, who obviously has not paid for all of her beauty treatments.

Being the image of so many brands and skin and beauty care products, you probably have not paid for everything.

The actress, 48 ​​years old, looks much younger. And that's not about pure genetics. According to the British website, the beloved Rachel of "Friends" would spend more than 16,000 pounds a year to follow an exclusive diet low in calories and carbohydrates. Eat like she exceeds 300 pounds per week . Facials amount to more than 6,000 pounds a year and include laser treatments, massages, creams and high-end serums.

Your skin care regimen has become increasingly technological. In 2000 I was a fan of facial creams that contain AHA - alpha hydroxy acids - a mild chemical exfoliant. Today, its treatment is CACI laser, a kind of non-surgical face lift, which costs around 50 pounds per session, and is recommended once a month.

But What is CACI Non Surgical Face Lift? HealthyBrags will answer your question about that.

Keeping the legs thin and toned would cost more than 40,000 pounds each year while the hair, which would cut and retouch every 6 weeks is the least expensive, a little over 6,000 per year.

Although it seems hard to believe, the actress has only undergone 3 surgeries at a rate of 2 rhinoplasties and an intervention to raise the chest. All for a price that would add about 25,000 pounds.

Apparently, "eternal youth" costs a lot of money. And that's not a big problem for Aniston.

[littleredroseonthevalley]

An Opera on Separation - Chapter 13

Prologue | Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7 | Ch. 8 | Ch. 9 | Ch. 10 | Ch. 11 | Ch. 12 | CH. 13 | Ch. 14 | Ch. 15 | Ch. 16 | Ch. 17 | Ch. 18 |

Summary: Emily’s relationship is on the rocks, but as far as Marietta Jones is concerned, the last word is still to be said on the matter. Will it be enough? Especially now that vultures roam to peck on the loves lost’s carcass.

Rating: T - Content not suitable for children.  Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with minor suggestive adult themes.

Words: 1640

Notes: Today’s song, Kate Bush’s Suspended in Gaffa, holds a special place on my regard. I got third place back in 2016 with that on the SADF Cape Town Dance Open. So listen, and comment for my own sanity’s sakes, please.

Furthermore, I have another announcement. I placed Wildest Dreams’ sequel on temporary hold. I’m not sure I’ll finish it or if it’ll rot on the Purgatory, AKA my Documents folder, but the thing is I’m finishing a Chris fic, so...

The funniest thing is that I don’t even like The Freshman, and yet it seems to be everything I write about. I think that’s because the characters are so vain and unidimensional (they’re whiny millenials, after all), I have an easier time into molding them to suit my own evil purposes.

Enjoy.

Suspended in Gaffa

In the course of the following weeks, things seemed to settle with Emily, Queenie and Nathan.

They fell into a comfortable routine that allocated little time to pointless arguing between the three of them, and, not unlike every other morning, the young man was cooking breakfast, whistling while doing so.

“Good morning!” The youngest roommate walks into the kitchen, all smiles as often.

“Good morning, Emily!” He responded, in equal amount of cheerfulness, while flipping a pancake with a cheeky flair. “I’m almost done with your stack.”

She took a seat at the counter. “You’re on a great mood this morning.” She noted.

The blond took to an uncharacteristic move and chuckled heartily. “Yeah, I suppose I am.”

“Any special motives?” The redhead probes, appreciative of the enjoyable and non-conflictive new mood of her housemate.

“No, nothing special.” The man answers, and after a while, continues: “I don’t know, I just have so much free time these days. I’m caught up with my movies and books I’ve been wanting to read for years. I picked up squash again with Mr. Hibert, down at 4B. And I’m cooking! I love to cook, but I couldn’t even eat right back when I was working.”

The young woman smiled kindly at him. “If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“I am very happy.” He nodded. “Today’s the last day of school, isn’t it?”

She shook her head. “Nah, the students get off today, but the teachers will have to wait until Friday to leave for the Winter break. We have exams and planning meetings to attend.”

“So you’re free this weekend?” He asks while settling the stack of pancakes in front of her.

“I have to grade the end-of-term tests for my students, but after that I’m completely free.” She responds. “And these pancakes are to die for!”

The fair-headed man smirks. “Thanks. And I was thinking of watching a stupid blockbuster on the big TV on the living room Saturday night. Would you care to join?”

The ginger tutted. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt if I didn’t finish it all on the first day of break. Sure, why not? Six works for you?”

He scoffed. “I’ll be sure to work it out on my busy, busy schedule.”

“Don’t you make a girl feel special?” She laughed of his comment.

The two of them continue to talk amicably until it was time for Emily to leave for school.

“Hello, Ms. Harper.” Marietta knocks on the door of the classroom while Emily got ready for lunch. “I wanted to have a word with you today. Could I walk you to the teacher’s lounge?”

“Of course.” She responded, wary of what could possibly be the subject of such conversation.

The two women walked out the room, Emily locked the door and Marietta begun to talk: “You see, Ms. Harper, I have been speaking with a few of your students about your classes.”

The redhead gasps softly in concern. “Is there something wrong? If there’s something I could do better, I would be more than happy to rectify my behaviour.”

The Caribbean woman laughed, dismissively. “Oh, no, not at all. Much the opposite, the students say they love your classes. I believe their words were ‘kind’, ‘patient’ and ‘smart’. You’ve made a great impression on them!”

Emily giggled in embarrassment. “They are great students, as well. I’m glad they like my teaching, especially for me being so inexperienced.”

“Experience is the one thing you can be sure it comes with time.” Ms. Jones smiles kindly. “Ms. Harper, I have to ask, what’s your plans for the next school year?”

“I’m not really sure.” She confessed. “I’m still trying to settle in New York and all the singledom and living with my mom again.”

The two educators reach the teachers’ lounge and take a seat over an unoccupied table.

The black woman, then, nods to the other’s declaration. “Well, I think you already know, but Mr. Smith of the English department is retiring in June. And the superintendent insists in sending the worse hires, we rarely take the long end of the stick with teachers around here.

“Which leads me to my question: would you be interested in teaching high school come August? You’ll receive a raise, of course, and you’ll have your own classroom. And…” She stops to think a little. “I guess those are all the benefits I can offer you.”

“But what about my GED classes?” The younger woman asks, concerned for them not having a Reading teacher in the coming year.

“That’s up to you. If you feel that you can handle the extra workload, then you can keep on teaching both levels. But if you prefer teaching high school only, you also may. The raise will be less generous, but you’ll still have enough hours to qualify for full-time.” The principal explains.

Emily, hearing that, smiles widely. “Well, then I’m in. I’d love to teach high school and GED classes next year.”

It seemed like a load got out of Marietta’s shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it. I’ll contact the superintendent and inform him we’ll have a full English department next year, and you should talk to Mr. Smith about the transition.”

“Of course, ma’am.” The redhead nods.

“Moving on to lighter subjects,” The other woman smiles. “Who’s your Secret Santa?”

The white woman smirks. “Shouldn’t it be a secret?”

“I don’t do Secret Santa ever since a student thought it’d be funny to gift me a pair of lacy underwear.” She says, a hardness of an unfulfilled hatred shielding her eyes for an instant. “And I like knowing things before anyone else. Come on! Indulge a poor, old lady!”

Emily looks around to check if there was someone overhearing their conversation leans over and says: “Ms. Perth, from the Chemistry department.”

“She’s into cats. Try to find a porcelain statuette, she loves those.” Marietta responds and the two of them share a laugh.

It was then that Zig entered the room. He looked forlornly at Emily, who faced him with an equal expression of heartache.

Sensing the awkwardness, Marietta calls out: “Mr. Ortega! Why don’t you join us?”

He coughs. “I’m sorry, Ms. Jones, I just remembered I have to stop by the library to check on some books that arrived this week.”

“No, please, stay.” Emily stands up. “I’m already finished either way. Thanks, Ms. Jones, for your kind offer.”

She walks to the door, her perfume brushing Zig’s nose on her way out. He, then, occupies the seat left vacant by the woman.

“That was painfully awkward.” Marietta says, looking pointedly at the burly man next to her.

“Yeah, well, what can I do if she prefers to frolic around with her jailbait excuse for a husband?” He said, bitterly.

The woman rolled her eyes. “You can fight, for one. Last I understood, she made it very clear she wanted to be with you.”

“It’s useless.” He grumbles. “What frustrates me is that every time I am close to get the girl, down struts Nathan Sterling, the third,” The man sneers the filial name. “And messes everything up.”

“That’s enough, Zigmund Ortega!” Marietta hits with her fist against the table. “I forbid you to hold a pity party for yourself! You’re going to stand up, act your own age, and go after what you want right this instant!”

He looks disinterested at the older woman and drawls: “You got any ideas?”

“In fact, I do.” She fished a small slip of paper out of her pocket and shows it to reveal Emily’s name. “I rigged the Secret Santa. Congratulations, you drew Emily! Now go out and buy a nice present that shows her all your love and care. Now!”

Nathan was enjoying a nice cup of tea, brewed to perfection by his own two hands, while reading a light book. He was by himself at the apartment, and the tall floor made the traffic bellow sound like a soft white noise machine.

His peace, however, was soon to be destroyed by what seemed a wind gust running through the front door: “Emily hasn’t come home yet, has her?”

The man sighed. “No, Soraya, she has not.”

She smirked and pulled a small bunch of notes. “Here’s your cut for our little bake sale. The fatties loved your ‘fat-free’,” She used arrogant air-quotes. “chocolate croissants.”

The blond man laughed derisively. “Thank you, they flatter me with their voraciousness towards my cooking.”

“Speaking of which, how’s your Friday night?” Queenie walks over to the kitchen to grab a water bottle and Nathan trails behind.

“Nothing much.” He responds.

“Congratulations, then. You’ll win our TV back on a raffle I’m organizing.” The older woman smiles wickedly. “It’s for the poor children whose families can’t afford Christmas, see?”

“Of course.” He smirked and shook his head. “What about Emily, though?”

“Don’t worry about her.” She dismissed. “She’ll be on a Secret Santa party with the other teachers.”

Nathan grimaces with the thought and Queenie looks pointedly at him. “I know what you’re doing.”

He looks at her with his patented derisiveness. “What?”

“You’re trying to web Emily back with you.” The woman declared, hard and cold like steel. “I don’t know why, if you are competitive to the point you can’t see anyone else to be with what you once considered yours, or if you hate her and can’t stand to see her happy.

“What I do know, though, is that you’re not going to succeed. My daughter is trusting, naïve and good. But she’s not stupid. You’ve done some terrible things, Nathan, and you don’t get to come back from that.”

He scoffed. “You’re wrong, Soraya.”

“Am I? Am I really?” She smirked and left the kitchen.

Nathan, now alone, contemplates the glass full with water laying abandoned on the counter.

Queenie was wrong.

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An Opera on Separation - Masterlist

[thvndcrstrvck]

✮, ◈, ♣

mun related asks:

✮ ━ top three favorite muses that you’ve played

oh god ummm i’m gonna regret this but mars, sterling, and heaven maybe??? this is stressful i hate this

◈  ━ share some headcanons that you have for a muse of your choosing

how about i do one hc for each of them:

max is completely sober — yes, he metabolizes substances too quickly to get drunk/high, but he doesn’t drink just as a personal choice after his sister had a Bad Experience one night when they were younger and he spent it taking care of her.

ellie doesn’t have much control over her powers still, so sometimes when she gets overwhelmed emotionally she manipulates others around her to varying degrees to feel what she’s feeling completely by accident. she’s working on it though.

as the baby of the family, calvin got away with a lot of shit but one thing he fully regrets is that as teenagers he and max had a fairly big fight that ended physically and their relationship has been frayed since. ellie’s always had to be the bridge between the two of them.

♣ ━ share five random facts about yourself

oh god ok

i’m a libra sun scorpio moon. sorry.

i was a career dancer for almost 20 years but i stopped when i went to college and i regret it massively

my dream job is to be a working comedian or otherwise be entertaining the masses

i’ve been out of work for just over 2 years and that sucks

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i started writing stories and shit when i was like 3 and here we are still doing it

[mostlysignssomeportents]

William Gibson interviewed: Archangel, the Jackpot, and the instantly commodifiable dreamtime of industrial societies

William Gibson's 2014 novel The Peripheral was the first futuristic book he published in the 21st century, and it showed us a distant future in which some event, "The Jackpot," had killed nearly everyone on Earth, leaving behind a class of ruthless oligarchs and their bootlickers; in the 2018 sequel, Agency, we're promised a closer look at the events of The Jackpot. Between then and now is Archangel, a time-traveling, alt-history, dieselpunk story of power-mad leaders and nuclear armageddon that will be in stores on October 3.

It's been nearly 20 years since I first interviewed Gibson and in the intervening decades we've become both friends and colleagues. He was kind enough to submit to an email interview again, in advance of Archangel's publication.

Cory Doctorow: This feels like an intermediate step between today and Agency, which is, in turn, an intermediate step on the way to The Peripheral. I know that when you first wrote The Peripheral, you didn't really know what The Jackpot was... Is this you taking successive runs at either side of The Jackpot, trying to get up to the edge of it so you can get a better look at it?

William Gibson: It feels like that to me now, but the whole thing’s been completely unintentional.

Mike and I (Michael St. John Smith, the actor, who’s also a screenwriter) started bouncing things around after I’d finished The Peripheral, which I assumed would be a one-off, but I found myself still in the grip of the “stub” alternative timeline thing, so Archangel wound up with a similar mechanism (rules of time travel invented, as far as I know, by Sterling and Shiner). Meanwhile, Agency was conceived as a book set in 2016 San Francisco/Silicon Valley, but treating contemporary reality there as if it were a near future (which of course it feels like to me, because I’m old). But I’m also slow, so Trump got elected before I’d finished, and suddenly I had about half of an ms that felt like it was set in a stub, a world that never happened. Extremely weird feeling! So I had this one extra thing to be pissed off with, about Trump! But then I wondered what would happen if I considered it as exactly that, a stub, but to do so I felt I needed to hook it up with the further future of The Peripheral, the London of the klept. Meanwhile, Archangel had been coming out from IDW, and when I went down to meet them at ComicCon, in 2016, the possibility of a Trump win naturally came up. So, through to November 8th, part me was looking at that, and the other part was No Fucking Way, and, well, you know.

For the record, in the graphic novel's script, pre-election, the Pilot winds up where he winds up in the comic, but it’s a nice WTF moment.

CD: You've written screenplays and novels but not, AFAIK, comics. You're on record as thinking that the comics previously adapted from your work were visually disappointing. You are one of the most visual writers I know, a font of extremely specific and striking visual details -- tell me what it was like to be able to collaborate with drawing-type people who could make visual things happen? How did it compare to screenwriting, how close did it come to your mind's eye, did this scratch some long-felt itch to conjure those visuals up and make them tangible?

WG: Well, previous attempts were well-intentioned, I don’t doubt, but comics have gotten a lot more sophisticated in the meantime.

Maybe because I'm a very visual writer, I don’t actually have any specific urge to see someone else render the things I’ve already seen, myself, in mind’s eye.

That said, the process with IDW was extremely gratifying. The talent and experience of a lot of professionals, all bent toward making this thing right. And budget not an issue, just a question of what could be drawn and fit in available space. You want an atomic explosion, you’ve got it!

CD: You once told me that Neuromancer was optimistic because it only featured a couple of limited nuclear exchanges instead of the holocaust we'd all be expecting. The futures you've written this decade all feature much more grave catastrophes, with much higher death-tolls. Is your optimism (such as it was) waning?

WG: I think I was relatively optimistic then, and remain so, but less so. I’ve never felt that my optimism, such as it was, was particularly logical. Often it felt deliberately quixotic to me.

But I’ve also observed a tendency, over my years as an sf reader, for sf writers of a certain age to give the After Us The Deluge speech, so I promised myself I’d try to be watchful of the onset of that, try to fend it off as best I could. I suspect that when people notice how much of the world they grew up has already ended, it’s quite natural to feel that the world is ending. Because the world one knew quite demonstrably is. But it always has been ending, that way. You can read the ancient Greeks, say, doing it at great length. When younger, though, this sounds like something one can simply choose to avoid, just as old people, to the young, appear to have made some sort of inexplicably terrible decision to become old.

There aren’t many catastrophes in my work, in our traditional cultural sense. There’s the California quake that forms the backstory of the Bridge trilogy, and the somewhat deliberately goofy Singularity that closes it. Otherwise, the catastrophic landscapes are simply human civilization, ongoing. The Peripheral introduced something new, for me, with the idea that our cultural model of catastrophe is still largely one of a uni-causal event of relatively short duration. We are ourselves of relatively short duration as individuals, and thus do we look at the world. Is our widespread use of fossil fuels a single extended catastrophe? Did it become one at some relatively late point? Is our species itself catastrophic (see Sterling’s “Swarm”)? Would it seem so to tigers, could they consider such things, and know that we’re on the brink of bringing about their extinction? I don’t see why it wouldn’t.

It seems to me in retrospect that Ballard’s work had a certain arc, in its employment of catastrophe. Early on, he’d unleash catastrophes of the sort our culture recognizes as such, though with wonderfully poetic results. As he continued, however, the catastrophe became humanity. Not a world made desert, or drowned, but a world made Cannes writ large, and terrible through being the very opposite of deserted.

CD: One place where this catastrophic business wraps around to touch your visual sense is in the cyberpunk aesthetic: for decades, you've been frontrunning the mainstreaming of bohemian subcultures. Archangel features gorgeous, eyeball-kicky sequences in an illegal nightclub in war-torn Berlin, with lots of well-dressed weirdos (there's also a Bowie-esque protagonist in the cast of characters). Today, it's hard to imagine a genuinely underground culture that isn't also something you can buy at the mall, with a few exceptions (e.g. extreme racist alt-right Pepe trolls who have to order their t-shirts off the internet or get them in a flea market). Can you imagine an uncommodifiable futuristic bohemian subculture that today's post-cyberpunks could deploy to make really edgy teens and young people? (Scott Westerfeld suggested that tomorrow's punks might opt for acne in a post-zit world)

WG: I accepted Sterling’s description of bohemias as “the Dreamtime of industrial societies” immediately, but I also took it (and still do) to imply that that might not be true for post-industrial societies. Bohemias were the product, if Sterling was right, of societies in which information was relatively unevenly distributed, specific information being what you needed in order to auto-other yourself into subculture. Roots of “hip”: to know, to be "with it”. A more universal, post-geographical availability of information seriously messes with that, because you don’t need to physically go to Montmartre or the Haight to get with it.

Mr. Baby’s club in Archangel is envisioned as a scaled-up version of what you get when Berlin’s Weimar bohemia becomes a platform for the postwar black market, so imagine it as primarily extra-legal, but staffed in part by pre-war counterculturists.

It’s interesting to consider the Pepe trolls as a subculture, because if they aren’t, why aren’t they? Yesterday a friend showed me a passage from Joshua Green’s book about Steve Bannon, Devil’s Bargain, describing René Guénon as an influence. So I checked out Guénon’s Wiki for the first time. Highly recommend it. Trippy, as we used to say! Guénon was, among other things, a convert to Islam (albeit a raging esotericist along with it, so not just any Islam) and otherwise deep into Egypt. So in the way of things internet I wound up diving his correspondence with Julius Evola, who kept him up to date on what Aleister Crowley was up to, and explained why this Jung character was even more dangerous than Freud. Both these guys, Guénon and Evola, were obviously total hipsters (in the original sense of the term). Subculturalists, unmistakably. With-it dudes. Whatever “it" was.

But then I never felt I truly understood many aspects of what I’d experienced in the countercultural ‘60s until I got a prof at UBC whose central interest was the mass psychology of fascism. Guénon and Evola and, hell, Bannon, come with big deja-vu, that way. Guénon also influenced Andre Breton (doesn’t surprise me). So the Pepe trolls, however distantly, have this weird lineage, which feels countercultural to me. (Is Bannon hip to the Dark Enlightenment?)

Subcultural “cool”, it seems to me, is inherently commodifiable. Subcultures may have pre-dated cool, but I wouldn’t bet on it. There was a countercultural boutique in Greenwich Village in the 1890s, called The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the first I know of. Sold the outfit a girl needed to self-other into Village-ness (but she still needed cigarettes, too).

CD: Last question: When I first interviewed you, 20 years ago (!!), we talked about why Japan was a wellspring of cool futurity and China was (in the cyberpunk pantheon, at least), an also-ran. Now, Chinese authors are winning Hugo awards and China is projecting more heavy zaibatsu-style force into more territories (including orbit) than Japan ever dreamed of. In The Peripheral, China is a mysterious, closed technocracy that may or may not be the source of interdimensional semi-time-semi-travel. Now that you've written two more books that circle The Peripheral's future, are you homing in any more on what role China plays in this future you're playing in?

WG: In The Peripheral, I thought of China as a much more sophisticated and advanced species of klept. So that “the” klept, as Netherton thinks of it, comes out of the jackpot controlling everything still habitable that isn’t China. Which has become some sort of super-advanced sphere of its own, with little need of dealing with outsiders. Which gave me this other, unknowable realm, a sci-fi Faerie, where impossible magic can conveniently happen without my having to invent an explanation for it. But that’s not any literal prediction for China. That’s me using China as a plot device.

What I wanted from Japan, when I started writing sf, was that it was Japan. It was wonderful for me that it was Japan during the Bubble, because that slotted perfectly into my being sick of sf futures basically being America. But that was really just another excuse for me to write about Japan. The thing that makes me nuts about Japan, as near as I’ve ever been able to express it, is the way in which all of all their culture, their stuff, seems to be fractal. You can break it down into smaller and smaller bits, and each one is still Japanese. For whatever reason, I’ve never gotten that from China. For me, Japan’s gotten steadily more interesting as that Next Big World Player thing has receded. I don’t want to hang with whoever has the most money and spaceships. I want to hang with whoever has the best shadows, the most exquisitely weird and poetic history of being whacked with alien technology, becoming the first industrialized Asian nation, trying to take over their side of the world, getting nuked for their trouble, and inventing the Walkman. I think it’s probably something like you and Disneyland: I’m just so there.

https://boingboing.net/2017/09/22/the-jackpot.html

[ramajmedia]

Green Lantern: 5 Actors Who Could Play Hal Jordan (And 5 Who Could Play John Stewart) In The DCEU

There’s every chance that the DCEU’s eventual Green Lantern movie won’t revolve around Hal Jordan, since that’s the version Ryan Reynolds played in his despised 2011 movie and Warner Bros. will likely want to distance themselves from that as much as possible. So, the DCEU’s Green Lantern might be John Stewart instead. Fans have wanted to see Idris Elba play John Stewart pretty much since the Green Lantern Corps movie was announced for the DCEU, but he’s since been cast to star in The Suicide Squad in the same universe, so he’s out of the running (unless, although it is a stretch, his Suicide Squad character is John Stewart). Here are 5 Actors Who Could Play Hal Jordan (And 5 Who Could Play John Stewart) In The DCEU.

RELATED: 10 Ways Green Lantern Could Be Introduced In The DCEU

10 Hal Jordan: Jon Hamm

The role of Hal Jordan requires a standard leading man type with an extra degree of charm and humor. That’s what made Ryan Reynolds the perfect choice to play him in the 2011 movie (it’s just a shame that the movie itself turned out to be dreadful). It would also make Jon Hamm a perfect choice; Don Draper is the quintessential dude. If the Green Lantern Corps movie has an older Hal Jordan working with a younger John Stewart, then Hamm is about the right age – he’s believably older, but not too old that the physical action scenes would be unworkable.

9 John Stewart: Trevante Rhodes

Ever since Idris Elba is off the table due to his casting in another DCEU movie, Trevante Rhodes has become fans’ most popular casting choice for John Stewart. It seems as though the Green Lantern Corps movie will be a buddy cop movie with Hal Jordan as the veteran training up John Stewart as a rookie. Rhodes has both the look and the age to pull of John Stewart, and he proved with his turn in the Oscar-winning masterpiece Moonlight that he has serious talent as an actor. Prior to his acting career, he was a track and field star, proving he also has the physicality to play a superhero.

8 Hal Jordan: Karl Urban

Karl Urban has always deserved to be a bigger star than he is. He’s always brought a likable charm to roles like “Bones” McCoy in the Star Trek reboot series and even the cold-hearted, ultraviolent comic book icon Judge Dredd. He even managed to make Skurge the Executioner redeemable in Thor: Ragnarok.

RELATED: Star Trek: 5 Kelvin Timeline Actors We Hope Reprise Their Roles In Quentin Tarantino's R-Rated Movie (And 5 We Don't)

He started off as a follower of Hela, but he realized the error of his ways and sacrificed himself to save the surviving Asgardians. Hal Jordan is that guy – he’s the guy who screws up, but will then do whatever it takes to fix the screw-up and do right by people.

7 John Stewart: Michael B. Jordan

Zachary Levi has proved by playing Fandral in the MCU and then Shazam in the DCEU that it’s possible to appear in both studios’ superhero franchises and not get blacklisted in Hollywood by the one you worked for first. Granted, Michael B. Jordan’s MCU role was a lot larger and more memorable than Levi’s, but that was mostly down to Jordan himself working with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler to develop Erik Killmonger into an all-time classic villain. Jordan could play John Stewart as the by-the-books straight man trying to get the job done opposite Hal Jordan’s goofball man-child act.

6 Hal Jordan: Nathan Fillion

It’s about time Nathan Fillion finally got a starring role as a superhero in a comic book movie. He’s been rumored for pretty much every character that has made his way from the pages of comic books onto the big screen, most notably that of Hal Jordan. He has the charm and the warmth to nail Hal’s likable qualities, and he’s proved in antagonistic guest appearances on Modern Family and Brooklyn Nine-Nine that he can also play a jerk with serious personality flaws. Fillion’s acting persona is the definition of “lovable rogue,” and conveniently enough, so is Hal Jordan’s characterization.

5 John Stewart: Jamie Foxx

DC might be looking to make a potential Green Lantern movie their answer to Guardians of the Galaxy, with a lot of heart and humor, and Jamie Foxx has both of these in spades. His heartfelt portrayal of Ray Charles won him an Academy Award, while his background in standup comedy has given him expert comic timing. He’s played a number of action-based roles, like bounty hunter Django Freeman in Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed spaghetti western Django Unchained, but never with a CG-heavy sci-fi bent. John Stewart would make an interesting next chapter in Foxx’s storied career (he’s set to make his directorial debut in the coming months).

4 Hal Jordan: Armie Hammer

The role of Hal Jordan will need a cocky, confident, and ultimately heroic (heroic enough to redeem the cockiness) leading man type. Armie Hammer has played this kind of role in a couple of prospective franchise beginners – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Lone Ranger – and both failed to take off at the box office. Hammer deserves to finally get a successful franchise with this persona. Lord knows he’s put in his time. Hammer is sort of like Brendan Fraser, but an actually good actor, as shown by his roles in The Social Network and Call Me By Your Name, which would make him an ideal Hal Jordan.

3 John Stewart: Sterling K. Brown

If the plan for the Green Lantern Corps movie doesn’t involve an older Hal Jordan and a younger John Stewart and the roles are switched, Sterling K. Brown would make a fantastic choice to play an older version of John. His star-making turn in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson proved he could be engaging and memorable, no matter how small the role was, and his subsequent leading role in This is Us has shown that he’s even greater when the spotlight is on him. He’s also a good guy in real life; he’s the only cast member from The Predator who spoke out in support of Olivia Munn after she exposed Shane Black for casting his friend and not telling anyone he was a registered sex offender.

2 Hal Jordan: John Krasinski

Hal Jordan is lovable, charismatic, and goofs off from his responsibilities, which sounds an awful lot like John Krasinski’s beloved character from The Office, Jim Halpert. A Quiet Place proved that he has a strong grasp of filmmaking (Ben Affleck worked so well as Batman because he was putting in time behind the camera as well as in front of it), as well as the capability to shake his sitcom persona and do serious acting.

RELATED: Everything We Know (So Far) About A Quiet Place: Part II

Plus, Amazon’s Jack Ryan series has shown he can pull off action-oriented roles convincingly. Marvel Studios could be eyeing Krasinski to play Reed Richards in their Fantastic Four reboot, so Warner Bros. will have to act fast if they want to get him in the role of Hal Jordan, but he would be perfect.

1 John Stewart: John Boyega

From his starring role in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy to his upcoming sci-fi romance Hold Back the Stars with Letitia Wright, John Boyega is no stranger to space-bound settings. As shown by his trips to a galaxy far, far away, Boyega can flit between goofy and lighthearted fun and grave, serious acting at a moment’s notice, and he has an easy charm. Plus, Attack the Block showed he’s capable of fighting aliens believably. With his Star Wars tenure set to end this year with The Rise of Skywalker, Boyega will have a gap in his schedule that could be filled with a big-screen Green Lantern franchise.

NEXT: 10 Mistakes The DCEU Made That Prevented It From Matching The MCU's Success

source https://screenrant.com/hal-jordan-john-stewart-actors/

[agentnico]

Cars 3 (2017) Review

With the ‘Cars’ franchise now being a trilogy (I know, who would have guessed?), Pixar still hasn’t answered the pivotal question of what happened to all the humans? I mean seriously, am I the only one wondering this??

Plot: Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician with her own plan to win, inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet, and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn't through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage!

Possibly one of the weaker franchises that Pixar has to offer, the third film in the franchise is now out, but the question is, does it lean more towards the simpleness but sweeter tone of the first ‘Cars’ film, or the mess that is ‘Cars 2′? I actually quite like the first ‘Cars’ film. It’s far from a perfect film, but it had some cool ideas and was generally a nice time to watch. With ‘Cars 2′’, the least said the better. Luckily, ‘Cars 3′ tries to play it safe by following in the footsteps of the first film, and though it is at the end of the day the same old shtick with hardly anything new to offer, it still offers some enjoyment factor and the usual life lessons that Disney and Pixar so love to teach their young audiences. This time around, the story tackles the idea of the older generation’s anxiety about irrelevance in the new technological age with the internet and whatnot, with the lead Lightning McQueen not being in his rookie years anymore, and beginning to be edged out by younger more advanced racers such as the new Jackson Storm, a faster and more efficient anthropomorphised automobile. And so our ‘Rust-eze’ red racer now has to get back on his feet (well, get back on his wheels) and prove to everyone that there is still some racing blood (sorry, racing petrol) left in him. There’s also a welcome feminist side-plot involving the new character of Cruz Ramirez, who sets out to train McQueen and get him back into shape, but then cards start to switch, and Lightning inadvertently starts becoming the mentor of Cruz. Here the film pays respects to Paul Newman by bringing back Doc Hudson in flashbacks of him mentoring McQueen, and the film uses Newman’s voice from recordings that were made during interviews and discussions when the very first ‘Cars’ film came out.

The best part of this film is easily the animation. Visually this movie is gorgeous, especially during the race sequences, notably the scene from the trailers where we see Lightning’s big race accident is a stand-out.

The voice cast is generally good, but nothing special. Owen Wilson is back in his somewhat signature role as Lightning McQueen, and he has that right amount of charisma and energy in his voice that shows that McQueen is determined in achieving his racing goals. As I already mentioned, Paul Newman’s voice is used also for Doc Hudson, and that only made me miss Newman even more. Larry the Cable Guy voice Mater again, but luckily Pixar has learned from it’s mistakes of ‘Cars 2′, as Mater is only in about 3-4 scenes in the entire film. Then we have newcomers to the cast, with Cristela Alonzo adding the right amount of excitement to the boisterous Cruz Ramirez and Nathan Fillion (an always welcome inclusion) as billionaire Sterling who buys the ‘Rust-eze’ brand and becomes Lightning’s new sponsor was also really good. Then Armie Hammer is also in this film as the villainous Jackson Storm, McQueen’s rival, however he hardly appears in the film, and when he does, he usually just makes an evil joke about Lightning’s old age and the leaves. It just felt really pointless. In fact, the ‘old jokes’ are really over-used in this movie, with some character pointing out McQueen’s age every 5 minutes. We get it, he’s old, get over it! Also in general the film tries to be funny quite a few times in the film, but all the jokes mostly miss. And rounding up the cast is ‘Orange Is the New Black’’s Lea DeLaria as an uber-violent school bus that partakes in demolition derby races, and she offers a good bit of fun for the few scenes she’s in.

‘Cars 3′ in no way saves the franchise, nor does it offer anything new, but I did enjoy the film for what it was, and the ending was a nice send-off for the ‘Cars’ franchise. Hopefully this is the actual end though.

Overall score: 5/10

TOP MOVIE QUOTE: “I never really thought of myself as a brand .” The irony!!

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Kevin Wozniak on Kevflix: 2020 NFL Mock Draft – Movie Edition

Kevflix has always been a website about movies, with the occasional dabble into some T.V..  But my first love before getting into writing about movies was sports and it is something I am still very passionate about.  Since I can remember, I’ve always loved sports.  I have my favorites to play and watch, but I don’t discriminate against any sport.  Whether something as popular as basketball or a sport so random it might not even be classified as a sport, I’ll watch it and try to play it all.

This week, the 2020 NFL Draft is taking place, though it won’t be the event that it has been in past years thanks to COVID-19.  I love watching the NFL and the NFL Draft is always a big day for the sport.

In honor of the draft, I am going to do a mock draft of the first ten picks of the 2020 draft.  Then, using my knowledge of each team, along with some real 2020 NFL mock drafts to see what the teams need, I am going to draft them a player from a football movie that would actually make an impact on their team and one that I could realistically see the team drafting if they were real.

For a football movie to be eligible, the movie must be fiction, so sorry Remember the Titans, The Express, and Friday Night Lights.  All fictional movie character are eligible, even if they were in high school, prison, or are older than draft picks would usually be.

Those are the rules.  Here is the 2020 NFL Draft – Movie Edition.

          #1 PICK – CINCINNATI BENGALS

The Cincinnati Bengals select…

    BOBBY BOUCHER, LINEBACKER (The Waterboy)

The Bengals are a bit of a mess right now.  They haven’t been able to trade Andy Dalton this off-season, yet they have a strong running game with Joe Mixon, a stud wide receiver in A.J. Green, and good number two and three receivers in Tyler Boyd and John Ross III, so the offense could be solid under the right play calling.  Bobby Boucher is a bonafide stud.  A hard-hitting, well-hydrated linebacker that will elevate the defense to a new level and take some of the pressure off the offense .  Though Cincinnati is a long way from the Louisiana swamp where Boucher grew up, I’m sure his Momma wouldn’t mind a change of scenery, especially when her boy has All-Pro talent.

    #2 PICK – WASHINGTON REDSKINS

The Washington Redskins select…

    LUTHER “SHARK” LAVAY, LINEBACKER (Any Given Sunday)

The Redskins are an absolute nightmare on offense.  Will Dwayne Haskins pan out as a starting quarterback?  The backfield is all over the place and their wide receivers aren’t any better.  So rather than add another young offensive player to a messy situation, the Redskins sad defense will get an immediate upgrade in Luther “Shark” Lavay.  He’ll add an intensity and power to a Redskins defense and give other divisional quarterbacks Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, and Daniel Jones some real trouble during the season.  Lavay has Hall of Fame potential.

      #3 PICK – DETROIT LIONS

The Detroit Lions select…

    BECKY “ICEBOX” O’SHEA, LINEBACKER/FULL BACK (The Little Giants)

Becky might be the best overall player in the draft.  She can play both sides of the ball and is a beast on both ends.  The Lions would love to pick “Icebox” here.  On the defensive end, she’ll make a huge impact on a defense that has been known to give up a lot of points.  On the offensive side, the Lions run game has been injury-prone and unreliable, so “Icebox” has the potential to be a major player for Matt Stafford.  In a brutal NFC North, “Icebox” would be a force to be reckoned with.

      #4 PICK – NEW YORK GIANTS

The New York Giants select…

    DEACON MOSS, WIDE RECEIVER (The Longest Yard)

The Giants are young with a lot of potential.  Daniel Jones is now quarterback and he has a beast of a running back behind him in Saquan Barkley.  Jones’ receiving core is a bit suspect, however.  Golden Tate is really solid, but Sterling Shepard is having trouble with concussions and Darius Slayton is too young and raw to know if he’s legit or not.  Though he has some off-the-field issues, Deacon Moss would immediately become Jones’ number one target and has the potential to be a Michael Irvin-esque talent (*wink wink*).

    #5 PICK – MIAMI DOLPHINS

The Miami Dolphins select…

    “STEAMIN’” WILLIE BEAMON, QUARTERBACK (Any Given Sunday)

Miami has a lot of young talent on the offensive end.  The signing of Jordan Howard gives them a solid backfield and they have good young receivers.  They need someone to throw them the ball and unfortunately Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t the man to do it.  “Steamin’” Willie Beamon is a little rough around the edges, but his upside is huge.  He has a cannon and can run.  Also, Beamon would thrive in the South Beach lifestyle.  Defense is still questionable, but Beamon has the potential to turn this team around in a now Brady-less AFC East.

    #6 PICK – LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

The Los Angeles Chargers select…

    SHANE FALCO, QUARTERBACK (The Replacements)

The loss of Phillip Rivers has put the Chargers in an interesting position.  They have a lot of talented players on both sides of the ball, especially on offense.  But is Tyrod Taylor the way they want to go?  Shane Falco, though a bit old for a draft pick, would be a great pick here.  Draft him here and you’ll have a veteran running your offense who can get the ball to Keenan Allen and dump it off to Austin Eckler.  They could then look to draft a younger quarterback later in the draft, like a John Mox (Varsity Blues) to learn under Falco and have a stud quarterback for the future.

      #7 PICK – CAROLINA PANTHERS

The Carolina Panthers select…

    JOEY BATTLE, LINEBACKER (The Longest Yard)

The surprising retirement of All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly shocked the Panthers organization this offseason and left a big whole on the defensive side.  Luckily for the Panthers, there is a great pick waiting for them at seven.  Joey Battle, like Deacon Moss, might have some off the field issues, but the combination of size, speed, and aggression will make him a perfect replacement for Kuechly in a loaded NFC South.

    #8 PICK – ARIZONA CARDINALS

The Arizona Cardinals select…

    VONTAE MACK, LINEBACKER (Draft Day)

Getting Deandre Hopkins was a huge move for the Cardinals and really improved an already exciting and talented offense.  Though they should focus on getting help for their young quarterback Kyler Murray, Mack is the kind of player that will elevate the Cardinal defense to a whole new level.  The Ohio State product is fast, tough, incredibly smart, and the kind of player you can build your defense around.  The NFC West is a tough division with San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, but with Mack on defense and this high-power offense, the Cardinals could be a sleeper contender sooner than we think.

    #9 PICK – JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

The Jacksonville Jaguars select…

    EARL MEGGETT, RUNNING BACK (The Longest Yard)

Picking Maggett here might sound surprising, as the Jaguars already have a pretty good running back in Leonard Fournette.  Fournette has had issues staying healthy since being in the league and without him, the Jags offense becomes anemic and depressing, especially with an unproven receiving core.  Maggett has a ceiling to be the next Christian McCaffrey.  He’s a little smaller than McCaffrey, but Meggett is a crafty, speedy runner who could also double as a receiver for Garner Minshew.  He’d also play well alongside a healthy Fournette, as the two could become the most dynamic backfield in the NFL.

    #10 PICK – CLEVELAND BROWNS

The Cleveland Browns select…

    BILLY BOB, OFFENSIVE TACKLE (Varsity Blues)

On paper, the Cleveland Browns have a stud offense: Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt in the backfield, Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry at wide receiver, the huge addition of Austin Hooper at tight end, this is an offense that should destroy defenses this year.  The biggest question mark on the offense is quarterback Baker Mayfield.  However, if you give him protection, which Billy Bob would most certainly do and do very well, Mayfield could have a Pro-Bowl year.  Concussions could shorten his career, however, so the Browns will have to be super cautious with him.  But he’s worth the gamble for one of the best offenses in the NFL.

    STILL IN THE DRAFT ROOM

PAUL CREWE, QUARTERBACK (The Longest Yard)

JUMBO FUMIKO, OFFENSIVE TACKLE (The Replacements)

ROD TIDWELL, WIDE RECEIVER (Jerry Maguire)

JULIAN WASHINGTON, RUNNING BACK (Any Given Sunday)

ALVIN MACK, LINEBACKER (The Program)

BRIAN MURPHY, TIGHT END (The Replacements)

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          The post 2020 NFL Mock Draft – Movie Edition appeared first on Kevflix.

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[actutrends]

Matches to make for Covington, Holloway and other UFC 245 losers

Check out our choices of who should be the next opponents for Colby Covington, Max Holloway, and other UFC 245 losers.

The UFC closed out 2019 with a bang. With three championship bouts on the card, UFC 245 did not disappoint. The winning fighters will go into the holidays and New Year with smiles and cheers but what about those who came up on the losing end? We break down the options for each fighter who came up short on Saturday night.

Colby Covington

Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman delivered a memorable main event at UFC 245. It went all the way to the final minute of the fight for Usman to put away Covington and retain the welterweight championship. Both Covington and Usuman put on a show that kept fans guessing as to who would have their hands raised at the end of the fight. Usman made sure that it would not go to the judges and now Covington is forced to go back to the drawing board.

Next Possible Opponent: Kamaru Usman or Jorge Masvidal

Despite being finished Covington  put on an impressive performance against Usman. Covington’s smack talking ability and new found persona will generate publicity for any of his fights. Put him and Usman back in the Octagon following Saturday’s fight and fans will be clamoring to see the two face off once more. If Usman feels that Covington does not deserve a rematch or must prove himself worthy then a fight with another notorious trash talker may be in order for Covington.

Jorge Masvidal has proved that he does not need a championship to generate publicity for his fights. His personality alone has fans wanting to see and hear more of him. There may not be enough microphones of media platforms big enough to handle a publicity tour if Covington and Masvidal were ever to face off. There is also the history of the two being former friends that can add to the drama of the fight. The winner of this bout could easily make a case to be the number one contender for the welterweight title.

Max Holloway

The Holloway era officially came to an end on Saturday. Alexander Volkanovski hand Max Holloway his first lost at featherweight in over six years. Volkanovski earned a unanimous decision victory and took home the featherweight championship. Holloway did lose a bout earlier this year when he moved up to lightweight and fought Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title. Holloway would bounce back and defeat Frankie Edgar to retain his featherweight crown but maybe fighting three times in a year was too much for Holloway’s body to take.

Next Possible Opponent: Alexander Volkanovski

Since Volkanovksi did not finish Holloway an immediate rematch is warranted. Holloway deserves another crack at regaining the title he lost. He earned that right by being the most dominant and consistent force in the featherweight division since 2014. Other champions have suffered more devastating loses and were given immediate rematches so there is no reason why Holloway should not be given an opportunity to reclaim the featherweight title.

Germaine de Randamie

Germaine de Randamie was the first fighter in two years to take Amanda Nunes to the distance. Though she came up short to Nunes on at UFC 245, it was not for lack of effort. De Randamie has been notorious for taking long breaks in between her fights but hopefully after Saturday night’s performance she will want to get back in the Octagon right away.

Next Possible Opponent: Julianna Pena

De Randamie could face a fighter who recently came off a long layoff in Julianna Pena. Before she took time off to have a child, Pena was on the verge of a title shot. She returned to action this past summer and scored a win over former champion Nicco Montano. A fight between de Randamie and Pena could serve as a title eliminator. If Pena wins, that is back to back wins over former champions. If de Randamie wins then she gets a win over a former Ultimate Fighter winner and top five ranked fighter. The win would bring up a potential rematch with Nunes.

Jose Aldo

When Jose Aldo announced his plans to fight at bantamweight the MMA community let out a collective groan. Though only 33 years old, Aldo has a lot of miles on his body and has gone 2-3 in his last five fights with two TKO loses. Add to that an extra weight cut, Aldo moving to bantamweight had bad news written all over it. To the surprise of almost everyone Aldo looked pretty impressive against Marlon Moraes on Saturday night. Moraes is a former title challenger and was able to walk away with a split-decision victory that many felt should have gone Aldo’s way.

Next Possible Opponent: Alijamain Sterling

Aldo was able to hang with the number ranked bantamweight so it makes sense to see if Saturday night was not a fluke and put him up against the number two ranked fighter in the division. Sterling taking on Aldo is a main event fight worthy of headlining an ESPN card. Sterling was very vocal about his dislike of Aldo moving down to bantamweight. That could be the selling point of this fight taking place next for both men.

Urijah Faber

When Urijah Faber came out of retirement earlier this year and scored a TKO victory over Ricky Simon it looked like the “California Kid” was back. Unfortunately the feel good come back story did not last as Faber was knocked out by Petr Yan at UFC 245. Yan, who is 14 years younger than Faber, looked stronger and faster than the UFC Hall of Famer. Yan made it look easy against Faber and called for a title shot after his victory.

Next Possible Opponent: Back to retirement

It was made clear on Saturday night that Faber cannot compete at a high level in the UFC. If Faber’s goal is to get back into title contention then that ship has sailed. At 40 years old and a Hall of Fame career there is no need for Faber to continue putting his body and brain through the violence of the Octagon. We have seen veteran fighters stay too long or come back after retirement and get knocked out left and right. Hopefully Faber can avoid further punishment and hang up his gloves for good this time.

The post Matches to make for Covington, Holloway and other UFC 245 losers appeared first on Actu Trends.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – June 8

For the first time since April, the box office won’t be topped by either a superhero or a Star Wars movie, and maybe it’s the sigh of relief the box office needs after last week’s disappointing showing. This weekend is just as much a mixed bag but the one movie that’s likely to dethrone Solo is Steven Soderbergh’s re-imagining of his Ocean’s 11 remake with  some of the hottest female stars around. Other than that, there’s a couple of buzzworthy movies that are likely to split business.

OCEAN’S 8 (Warner Bros.)

This weekend’s “big” movie isn’t exactly a sequel or a remake, but it’s a movie that has its roots in a movie that not only was a remake but also led to two sequels. In this case, it’s the return of the high concept heist movie that helped pave the way for Steven Soderbergh to become a studio director after forging his path on indies. Before we get to the box office history of Ocean’s 11 and its sequels, we should look at what makes Ocean’s 8 special, and that’s just one word: WOMEN! That’s right. Someone, whether it was someone at Warner Bros. or Soderbergh himself, came up with a modern-day twist to help reinvigorate the heist franchise and that was by bringing together some of the biggest woman actors in the business including four Oscar winners.

There’s no question that having Oscar winners and box office stars like Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathway, Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter on your masthead is going to make Ocean’s 8 a big draw for both women and men, but there’s a lot more to the movie than just that. The premise of a group of women robbing the annual Met Gala in New York City seems like the perfect way for the franchise to go, and though Soderbergh himself isn’t directing, he is producing with filmmaker Gary Ross at the helm. (Ross, in case you didn’t know the name is a four-time Oscar nominee for movies like Seabiscuit and Big, plus he successfully brought Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games to the big screen, turning it into a $400 million blockbuster.)

Now let’s get to some box office history….

Released in December 2001, Ocean’s 11 was partially a blockbuster hit because Soderbergh had just won an Oscar for Traffic, but he also was able to remake the classic Rat Pack movie with a modern version of the Rat Pack, namely George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon, who were already becoming box office stars on their own. (The movie also starred Don Cheadle pre-Iron Man, Casey Affleck pre-Oscar and many more.) The movie opened with $38 million in the normally slow early December and then grossed $183 million thanks to holiday legs. Its sequel Ocean’s 12 opened on a similar Dec. weekend with $39.1 million and grossed $125 million, but it wasn’t received as well. Still, it made $362 million worldwide on a $110 million budget so Warner Bros./Soderbergh gave it another go and Ocean’s 13 opened softer on the same day (June 8) in 2007 to a weaker $36 million and $117 million domestic. So that’s it. Franchise over, right?

Nope… go forward ten or so years and someone comes up with the idea to have a bunch of women doing a heist, and though Julia Roberts is nowhere to be seen, but Sandra Bullock continues to be an even bigger star, especially after winning an Oscar for The Blind Side ($256 mill. domestic gross) and being nominated for Gravity ($274 mill.). She also co-starred with Melissa McCarthy in Paul Feig’s action-comedy The Heat ($159 mill.) although her 2015 film Our Brand Is Crisis was a huge bomb, grossing just $7 million. Still, that movie is definitely an outlier.

Anne Hathaway has been a star for almost seventeen years since her early appearance in Disney’s The Princess Diaries, but she’s followed that with big studio blockbusters like Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, hit animated movies (Rio and its sequel), awards-worthy musicals like Les Miserables (for which she won her Oscar), as well as Christopher Nolan blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises (as Catwoman) and Interstellar. For women in their 20s and 30s, Hathaway could be one of the bigger draws as they’re likely to have grown up with her.

The Oscar-worthy cast continues with Cate Blanchett (fresh off her Marvel debut in Thor: Ragnarok) and Helena Bonham Carter, who also appeared in Les Miserables, but that followed her role in the last few Harry Pottermovies, her Oscar nomination for The King’s Speech, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and more. That’s not to take anything away from the likes of Rihanna and Mindy Kaling, each of whom have their respective audiences, as well as the relative newcomer, New York’s own Awkwafina. The diverse mix of women featured in the movie should help bring in a similarly diverse audience of women.

It’s also related that in July 2015, Sony released Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters, which changed genders to focus on four hilarious women comics, something which was met with outrage by male Ghostbusters fans, but still opened with $46 million and grossed $128.3 million domestically. (Unfortunately, it also cost $144 million and the $100 million made overseas didn’t help matters.)

Even so, that seems like a pretty good barometer for Ocean’s 8, even though it’s likely to be targeting older women even though it has the same PG-13 rating as Ocean’s 8.  Reviews so far haven’t been bad with 77% Fresh on RottenTomatoes(just slightly higher than Ghostbusters), and that will certainly make a difference since negative reviews could have destroyed it.

In other words, Ocean’s 8has a lot going for it even without a lot of direct competition, so expect it to do very well with high-$30 millions on the low-end but more likely more than $40 million. We’ll have to see if it can get past the next two weeks of blockbusters to surpass the total for Ocean’s Thirteen, but there’s a good chance that the names involved will help the movie do well overseas as well.

HEREDITARY (A24)

If all of the great female actors in Ocean’s 8 wasn’t enough for you, and you like the movies you see to scare your pants off (and then give you nightmares about walking around without pants), then you’ll probably want to check out Toni Collette in this directorial debut by Ari Aster.

One of the bigger buzz movies to come out of the Midnight section of Sundance in January, the raves and hyperbole for Aster’s horror movie are not unwarranted, although this isn’t your typical high concept horror i.e. it’s not based on a popular party game like Ouija or Truth or Dare.

Collette is a solid actor who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and has appeared in a number of great indies in the decades since, including this week’s Hearts Beat Loud (see below). She’s joined by Alex Wolff, one half of the Disney Channel’s “Naked Brothers Band” with brother Nate, who recently appeared in the Sony hit Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, as well as Gabriel Byrne, another well-established dramatic actor. It’s hard to tell whether Wolff will help the movie bring in the younger audience who normally would be apt to see a horror movie that could potentially eff ‘em up, but more discerning moviegoers should appreciate Colette and Byrne for sure.

A24 has had decent success with horror movies in the past, specifically Robert Eggers’ The Witch, released in Feb. 2016 (a year after its similarly rave-worthy Sundance debut) to open with $8.8 million and make $25 million total. Last year’s It Comes at Night opened on the same early June weekend and didn’t fare as well (less than $6 million opening and under $14 million total).

The question now is what makes Hereditary different from those two? First of all, it’s set in the present day and disguises itself as a grieving family drama, but when the supernatural enters the mix, the movie becomes something that has the potential of buzz on the level of The Blair Witch Project or even The Exorcist.

If you’re a horror fan, hopefully you haven’t ruined some of the movie’s bigger surprises by reading too much about it, but you’ll definitely want to see the movie. The movie’s 93% Fresh on RottenTomatoesis better than the two A24 horror films mentioned above, which also should build interest.

That drive by horror fans to see the movie as soon as possible and A24 potentially getting the movie into more theaters due to the timing i.e. post-Deadpool 2 and pre-Incredibles 2 should help the movie open in the low teens. Even if it winds up closer to $10 million, that would still make it A24’s biggest opener to date.

My Review

HOTEL ARTEMIS (Global Road)

Continuing the theme of great women actors, this crime-thriller from Drew Pearce, his feature film directorial debut after writing Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation, stars Jodie Foster, another great actor who has been fairly dormant in the last few years. In fact, it’s been five years since Foster appeared opposite Matt Damon in Neill Blomkamp’s unfortunate sci-fi movie Elysium. (It did okay worldwide, grossing $286 million, but it was a disappointment cause Foster wasn’t very good in it.)

Foster is joined by David Bautista, the former WWE superstar best known for playing Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and the recent Avengers: Infinity War; Sterling K. Brown, the Emmy-winning This is Usstar who recently appeared in Black Panther; Sofia Boutella from Star Trek Beyond, The Mummy (ouch!) and Atomic Blonde; Zachary Quinto, also from Star Trek; Jenny Slate and Jeff Goldblum (making barely a cameo).

That seems like a pretty strong cast for an action movie except that Hotel Artemis is more of a high-concept crime thriller set in the title location, a hospital/safe haven for criminals who pay to become members.

This is only the second release from the newly-named Global Road (formerly Open Road) after the unfortunate Show Dogs, and it will be another test to see if their marketing is reaching the right audiences and doing much to get them interested.

This one is certainly going to have a tough time making a mark over the male-driven blockbusters still in theaters as well as the two movies above, and because of that, I can see this one ending with a disappointing $6 to 7 million this weekend and not more than $20 million total.

Mini-Review: While Pearce’s directorial debut should be the type of movie I would normally like, the bad tends to outweigh the good as his screenplay just isn’t up to the snuff. Some of the dialogue is so bad at times that you may wonder how Pearce got prestigious actors like Sterling K. Brown and Foster on board. They offer the best performances, the former as a would-be bank robber who comes to the Hotel Artemis for medical help after a botched robbery and the latter as Nurse, who runs the Hotel Artemis.  It’s certainly an intriguing concept to have a hotel/hospital for criminals willing to pay a hefty sum for membership, but this concept is used as the centerpiece for pseudo-sci-fi storytelling on par with The Purge movies, as criminals come to Hotel Artemis to hide from the law or evade the riots outside. There are certainly some interesting characters, although Dave Bautista’s bouncer/orderly doesn’t offer much range from other roles he’s played. Same with Sofia Boutella, who at least has a terrific hallway fight on par with Old Boy.  Although Foster is decent, you might wonder why she was made to look so old, and spurred Charlie Day to do give such an over-the-top performance with a horrible accent.  Jenny Slate and Zachary Quinto are so miscast as a social worker who knew Nurse’s dead son and the son of the city’s biggest crime lord that one wonders if they were Pearce’s first choice.  Worst of all, Hotel Artemis sells itself as an action movie but then offers very little action as most of the film is exposition from Nurse about her son, and the film quickly fizzles out and never quite recovers. Rating: 5.5/10

Ocean’s 8should win the weekend with relative ease, and though Hereditary might be held back by stronger returning fare, it could also pull off a surprise second place, mainly due to fans of quality horror not having much to appease them so far this year. Solo will have another drop putting it very close to Deadpool 2 in its fourth weekend, while Hotel Artemis will probably have to settle for a few scraps.

This is what the Top 10 should look like…

1. Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.) - $41.2 million N/A

2. Hereditary (A24) – $13.8 million N/A *

3. Solo: A Star Wars Story (Lucasfilm/Disney) - $13.5 million -54%

4. Deadpool 2 (20thCentury Fox) - $13 million -44%

5. Adrift (STX Entertainment) - $6.8 million -40%

6. Hotel Artemis (Global Road) - $6.5 million N/A *

7. Avengers: Infinity Warc (Marvel/Disney) - $5.8 million -45%

8. Book Clubc (Paramount) – $5.1 million -25%

9. Upgrade (BH Tilt) – $2.4 million -50%

10. Life of the Party (New Line / WB) – $2 million -43%

* Both these new movies are being released into more theaters than the estimated theater counts, Hereditary by more than 700 theaters, so that makes it even more possible that it will do even better than my original projection.

LIMITED RELEASES

One of my faves from Sundance is released this Friday as well as a hot Sundance doc that I only saw more recently but is already my favorite movie of the year.

First up is Hearts Beat Loud (Gunpowder and Sky), the new movie from filmmaker Brett Haley, who directed last year’s The Hero (which made my Top 10) and I’ll See You In My Dreams before that. This one stars Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons (Dope) as a father and daughter who (sort of) start a band together, but there’s more to it than that, as Offerman’s Frank Fisher owns a Red Hook record store that’s in danger of going out of business while his daughter Sam is preparing to head off to L.A. to pursue a career in medicine and is torn when she falls for an artist, played by Sasha Lane. The movie also stars Toni Collette, Ted Danson and Blythe Danner, and it features some amazingly catchy songs by Keegan Dewitt (who also did music for Haley’s previous films).

My Interview with Brett Haley, Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons

Next up is not only going to be the best movie of the weekend but possibly of the entire year and that is Morgan Neville‘s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features), which you may have guessed, is about Fred Rogers of the beloved PBS show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” If you’re like me, you watched this show religiously as a youth, and Neville does an absolutely fantastic job telling his story and covering some of the highlights of his life. So far, this is not only my favorite doc of the year but also my favorite movie of any kind. Neville finds a way to tell Rogers’ story in a distinctive way that really tugs at the heartstrings, and if you’re not completely sobbing your way through this movie, then you just don’t have a soul. (I’m talking to you, Dan Schindel of The Film Stage! Are you kidding me? A “C”?!?)

Andrea Riseborough stars in Christina Coe’s Nancy (Samuel Goldwyn), a drama that premiered at Sundance but one I wasn’t too crazy about even though I generally like Riseborough. In this one, she plays an odd woman living with her abusive mother (Ann Dowd, who also appears in Hereditary) who pretends to be the long-lost and estranged daughter of a couple played by Steve Buscemi and J. Smith Cameron.

I’m more thrilled that the Korean blockbuster Believer (Well GO USA) will be released into select theater this weekend. Lee Hae-young’s crime-thriller is about an investigator who is trying to bring down the head of Asia’s biggest drug cartel along with a disgruntled member of his gang. Check out the trailer below:

A comedy that premiered at Slamdance and is getting release in theaters and On Demand is Dan Mirvish’s Bernard and Huey (Freestyle Digital Media), written by legendary columnist and cartoonist Jules Feiffer and starring David Koechner and Jim Rash.  They play friends from college who reconnect when Huey (Koechner) crashes at Bernard’s place as the latter has fallen in love with the former’s daughter Zelda (Mae Whitman).  In return, Huey tries to seduce the women in Bernard’s life.  

Also in select cities and On Demand is Colin McIvor’s Zoo (Samuel Goldwyn) about a group of young friends who try to save a baby elephant during the 1941 air raids over Belfast, Ireland. Art Parkinson (Game of Thrones) stars along with Toby Jones and Penelope Wilton.

As far as other docs, we get Lorna Tucker’s Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (Greenwich), which is about Malcolm McLaren’s former partner, Dame Vivienne Westwood, who helped redefine British fashion over the course of 40 years.  After premiering at Sundance, the doc opens in New York Friday at the IFC Centerand in L.A. at the Nuart on June 15.

Opening in L.A. is Miao Wang’s doc Maineland (Abramorama) as the Beijing Taxi director spent three years in China and the U.S. to tell a story of two Chinese teenagers, Stella and Harry, as they attend a boarding school in rural Maine as “parachute students.” It won a special jury prize at SXSW.

The Quest of Alain Ducasse (Magnolia) is Gilles de Maistre’s French doc about the world-famous chef who manages 24 restaurants in eight countries and is preparing to open a new restaurant in the Château de Versailles.  Haven’t seen this yet, but it will be available On Demand as well as at New York’s Quad Cinema.

Speaking of New York theaters, my beloved local theater, the Metrographwill be playing restorations of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1963 film Dementia 13 along with his daughter Sofia Coppola’s early short Lick the Star from 1998. They’ll also continue with the Kubrick and Jane Fonda retrospectives and Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess.

#movies #weekendwarrior #BoxOffice #Oceans8 #Hereditary #HotelArtemis