#steven went back in time and made several copies of himself

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

(Dave): ONE TWO THREE FOUR

(Dave): DAVES A BIG FAT MEANIE

(Dave): A BIG FAT MEANIE ZUCCHINI

(Dave) and [Dave]: LETS CHOP IT UP CHOP CHOP IT UP

(Dave) and [Dave]: AND SERVE IT WITH LINGUINI

(Dave): AL DENTE AL DENTE AL DENTE

(Dave) and [Dave]: AL DENTE

{Dave}: *sick guitar solo*

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

KISS v. Phantom

PART EIGHTEEN OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: major discussion of parent death, general angst but some fluff, plentiful pop culture references

Word Count: 4.9K

Summary: College decisions are released, and Ella gets another chance to practice her spontaneity. 

Awakening on the Gilmore couch, Ella squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the morning light. Of course Dean had chosen to break up with Rory the first day of spring break, upon hearing about her acceptance to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. After her shift, Ella had rushed over and been a shoulder for Rory to cry on, along with Lane. Buckets of cookie dough ice cream sat empty on the coffee table, tissues strewn around, and Ella’s makeup had been smeared around her face in her sleep. She was alone. At some point, Rory had gone to bed, she supposed, and Lorelai would be upstairs. Glancing down at her watch, she swore under her breath. It was half past eight; she was meant to be at the diner thirty minutes earlier.

Slapping lightly at her own cheeks, she spread her eyes wide. Taking in a deep breath, she hoisted herself up off the couch and tugged on her shoes, then grabbed her bag by the door. She almost forgot to say goodbye, her hand on the doorknob, before she ran back through the kitchen and into Rory’s bedroom. Rory’s back was to the door, asleep on her side. Ella placed a hand on her shoulder and shook slightly.

“Hey, Ror? I gotta go to work. See you later when you get your coffee, alright?” Ella whispered, watching Rory stir.

Rory grunted some sort of sleepy response.

Smirking, Ella ran back out the door and left the house. The late March morning was dewy and almost too fresh as she raced across town. Her boots were nearly slipping off her feet, her hair flying loose behind her. As she passed the gazebo, she ran nearly straight into Kirk, who had recently taken over as mailman. The most inconvenient time of the century, he’d ended up mixing up several peoples’ college acceptance (or rejection) letters. Though she knew she was late for work, she couldn’t help the slightly sick excitement in her stomach.

“Kirk!” she shouted as he tried to pass her. “Could you give me my mail, please?”

He faced her with a stony expression. “How many times do we have to go over this, Ella? I’m not permitted to give you your mail unless we’re standing on the address property.”

Crossing her arms, she looked down at her shoes and shook her head. Breathing out a frustrated sigh, she put a polite smile on her face. “Kirk, please. Just this once. Please do me this favor.”

Kirk blinked at her, unrelenting.

“Four rhubarb pies,” she wagered, narrowing her eyes at him.

He was silent for a moment, looking like one of the Village People in his mailman getup. She wondered how many of his clothes were regular and how many were various uniforms. “Six pies. By next weekend.”

“Deal,” she smiled, putting a hand out for him to shake.

He shook back, then shuffled through the many envelopes in his huge satchel. Fighting the urge to tap her foot, she watched him for what felt like an eternity. A throb was just beginning to form behind her eyes when he finally pulled out an envelope. A grin came to her face as she saw the return address.

“Thank you!” she chirped, immediately off again in the direction of the diner.

“Six rhubarb pies by next Saturday!” Kirk yelled after her, then went on ambling through town.

She felt a bit like Charlie with his golden ticket, despite having no idea what the content of the envelope would entail. It was the difference between a two-year degree and a four-year degree, community college and a public university. She didn’t really care much either way, but Southern Connecticut State was her top choice. Realistically, she wasn’t excited for the results, she was only excited for the suspense to end. Her dimples shone on her freckled cheeks as she made it through the front door of the diner, the bell above jingling happily. The diner was relatively packed, and she was reminded again how late she was. Luke’s face was stony and gruff, and Jess smirked over at her.

“Rough morning, Stevens?” he asked, taking in her smudged mascara and wild hair.

Ella rolled her eyes playfully and came around the counter after hanging her belongings, the envelope in one fist. But she had trouble getting out all the information between breathless panting. “I got the letter!”

“Southern Connecticut State?” Jess asked, eyebrows raising and smile turning genuine.

Swallowing dryly, she nodded, holding it up for him to see.

“You didn’t open it yet?” he asked in surprise.

“Been a busy morning, jackass,” she said, shaking her head at herself. As she prepared to rip it open, Luke came over from the register and cut the moment short.

“What time were you supposed to be here, Ella? The same time for the last three years? Is it eight-thirty?” he said, voice laced with anger and sarcasm. “Oh, right, it’s eight o’clock. Every single Saturday for the past three years!”

Face falling, Ella nodded along. “Luke, I’m sorry. I had to chase Kirk down for my Southern Connecticut State letter. And I spent all night with Rory. Dean broke up with her after she got into Harvard and-”

“What?” Luke interrupted. “The bag boy broke up with her?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“Yesterday, but-”

Before she could even finish the sentence, Luke was calling back an order to Caesar for chocolate chip pancakes, breathing huffy and frustrated. He rambled on about how much he hated Dean, how he would never be allowed back in the diner, and other such dramatic threats. Watching with brows furrowed, Jess and Ella eventually locked eyes again.

“Should I wait for him to calm down?” she asked Jess, looking back down at the envelope.

Jess shook his head. “Could take years. I’d go for it if I were you.”

“I don’t think you could handle being me.”

“You opening it or not?”

Nodding slowly, she took in a deep breath and ripped it open. She took out the crisp sheet of white paper, text in dark ink and signed at the bottom, her heart in her throat.

Ella began reading aloud, Jess standing across from her expectantly. The other patrons in the diner were more or less completely enraptured by Luke’s tantrum.

“Dear Miss Stevens, I am pleased to congratulate you on your acceptance-”

“You did it! You’re in!” Jess cut her off, gesturing excitedly as he spoke. It was odd to see him so earnest in his emotion, especially standing behind the counter at the diner.

A slow smile spread on her lips, as she stared almost blankly at the words before her. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Eventually, she folded the letter back up and looked up at him. He had to stop himself from tilting his head at the expression on her face, almost false in its happiness. The smile didn’t reach her hazel eyes.

“Congrats, Stevens,” he said, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

She didn’t even blush like she normally would, instead only wrapping her arms around his neck. After holding him in a tight embrace for a moment, she cleared her throat and pulled away, an artificial smile still present.

“Thanks,” she said, putting all the contents back into the envelope and sighing softly, all at once acutely aware of the environment around her. “I guess I should get to work.”

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered, confusion painting his face. Before she went to put the letter back in her bag, he brought a gentle hand to her arm. “Are you okay?”

“I always am.”

.   .   .

A long day of comforting Rory, serving coffee, and dealing with the flurry of townie activity brought Ella to the bridge. She held a copy of Little Women in her lap, the book she’d read probably hundreds of times before. Eyes roaming over the words, she could practically hear her mother’s voice. Soft and sweet, and always passive. Her voice always made Ella feel so simply safe. She could smell the Pond’s Cold Cream her mother had once worn. Crickets sang around her, spring finally having sprung. The air was cool but humid, charged with the possibility of rain.

Sat trying to read, she couldn’t help the tears that spotted the pages. She’d tried going home after her shift, but felt too antsy inside her own tiny room. Knowing she’d be bound to live there for at least a couple more years. And she took the book from the top drawer of her dresser, telling Fiona nothing more than that she was going out, and she wouldn’t be back for dinner. The moon had risen between the clouds. A pit of dread had been sitting in her stomach almost all day, since she’d opened the letter. For just a moment, she had been happy, relieved to have gotten into her top choice, but then the reality hit. It was real. College. Living at home. She wiped at her cheeks, sniffling. So much work, and she still felt so far away from anything resembling her goals. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, the tears blurred her vision. Blowing out a shaky breath, she turned the page.

“Hey, Daria,” she heard to her left. Startling, she snapped the book shut and blinked quickly. With the back of her hand, she wiped away the tears which had spilled over once again.

“James Dean,” she sighed, not having to look over to recognize him. “Sneaking up on people, again, huh?”

Shrugging off the bite in her voice, he came to sit down next to her, close enough for their shoulders to brush against each other. Luckily, she didn’t flinch away from his touch as he’d been half-expecting her to. Clearing her throat, she swallowed down her flush and hoped he couldn’t see the shine in her hazel eyes.

“Thought I’d find you here,” he drawled, looking over the lake. “You seemed quiet today. And you rushed out right after your shift. Are you feeling okay?”

Uttering a bitter scoff, Ella let a smirk cross her face. “Yeah. I’m great. I’m going to Southern Connecticut State, after all.”

“Yes. You are,” he said flatly, wondering what could be bothering her. “And?”

“I don’t wanna talk, Jess,” she snapped, shaking her head at herself. More tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked away from him, tossing her book to the side in slight anger.

“Okay,” he nodded. And he sat beside her, saying nothing, listening to the sounds of nighttime and watching the lake.

Then, after a long silence, Ella glanced over at the book, back at the water: “My mom used to read Little Women to me. Before bed. And then I read it over and over. Even before she died, I was just always...I was always reading it. I don’t know why.”

Jess wasn’t lost on the shakiness in her voice. “Huh.”

“Yeah. And she…” she paused to sigh, shaking her head again. She stared down at her lap, wringing her hands together anxiously. “She lived here her whole life. She was a great mom and everything but...she would just lie down and take it. Anything. Life would come at her and s-she was...sweet and kind...but she just never…”

“Bit back?” Jess ventured quietly, watching at the way her face contorted in the moonlight. He could see her fighting back the sobs, silent tears falling down her face in streaks.

Ella nodded sadly. “Exactly. I love her so much. But I don’t wanna be her. I don’t wanna be stuck here my whole life.”

“You won’t be, Eleanor,” he said, starting to understand, trying to catch her gaze. She simply refused to make eye contact with him.

She gave a humorless chuckle. “That’s what Lorelai said. But no one really knows anything, do they? I think they’re just lucky. Lorelai and Rory. And I’m not Rory. I’ll never be Rory.”

“What do you mean?” he chimed in, running a hand up and down her back, remembering how her touch had felt the night he cut his hand.

“They think things can work out,” she continued. “I mean...fuck. Rory got into Harvard and Princeton and Yale. And her grandparents are basically a bottomless pit of money. She could have anything she wants. And instead she spends the whole day crying over her dumbass boyfriend. And everyone just drops everything to make her feel better.”

Brows knitted together, he nodded slightly. Jess thought back to the morning, Luke’s tirade about Dean while Ella held her future between her fingers.

She spoke through gritted teeth as angry tears kept rolling down her face. “And I hate being jealous of her. I mean...she’s one of my best friends. And I don’t mean she doesn’t have problems. I don’t want a pity party. Of course she has problems! I mean...her dad wasn't in her life for so long. But...he came back, y’know? He came back for her. And everyone in this town loves her. Sometimes, it’s like she lives in a different world. Where everything gets fixed with coffee and sugar and her grandparents’ money.”

Speaking with her hands, she tilted her head and looked up at the sky. Maybe in an effort to dry her eyes against the breeze. She cleared her throat, hoping her voice wouldn’t sound so wobbly. Embarrassment burned in her stomach, but she couldn’t help as the words poured straight from her mind to her mouth.

“And she gets to go wherever she wants. She gets everything she wants. And she gets Lorelai. She gets a mom who she’s best friends with, who would never leave her. And my mom…”

“She didn’t wanna leave you,” Jess said firmly.

Heaving a big sigh, she swallowed thickly. “She didn’t want to. But she did. She was...um...born with this heart thing? And one night it just...got her. I went to bed one night with a mom and I woke up without one. Just like that.”

“Jesus,” he muttered. Though his family wasn’t exactly a greeting card situation, he couldn’t imagine losing his whole world forever, literally overnight.

“Yeah,” she sighed, voice exhausted. “And I didn’t cry at the funeral, but sometimes alone...I’ll get upset about it and I’ll think: ‘Okay, this is the last time. Just be sad about it one more time and your heart won’t be broken anymore. This is the last time.’ But it never is. It always comes back. I think I’ll always...have a piece missing, I guess. And today...it just came back. Because everyone was there for Rory about Harvard and Yale and Dean. Lorelai stayed up almost all night with us last night. And I haven’t talked to my mom since I was fourteen. I’ll never talk to her again.

“And now...my dad can’t even look at me. Not exactly like he was such an involved father before. But every time he looks at me, all he can see is her. I just...I just look so much like her. It’s not like I could blame him. I wouldn’t wanna have a doppelganger of my dead wife living in my house either.”

“Well, you didn’t ask for a Freaky Friday situation,” he said.

It earned him a small giggle, and he flashed her a tiny smile.

“It’s not your fault, Eleanor.”

“I know,” she nodded, then took in a big breath. “Fuck. And here I said I didn’t wanna talk. I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to tell you all that. And I know everyone has problems. I’m not special or anything. Lots of people have dead parents. But..no one talks about it. Not in Stars Hollow. Everything just needs to be happy here, but everything reminds me of her. No one...no one ever talks about her. I’m sorry, Jess, I don’t mean to-”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry over,” he told her, shaking his head.

She chuckled weakly, wiping at her nose. “And I hate crying.”

“I know.”

“Especially in front of people.”

“I know,” he repeated softly, finally locking eyes with her. His mouth was set in a thin line. All the things he wanted to say were stuck in his throat. Instead, he only listened. She needed to talk about it. She needed someone who wouldn’t brush it off, who wouldn’t get uncomfortable. Who would just hear her.

“But I just can’t stop crying,” she admitted, her voice breaking.

She put her hands over her face in shame and guilt, weeping quietly. Each time she got upset about her mother, she reminded herself of how much worse it could be. From what little she knew, she could gather Jess had never even met his father. She couldn’t blame Jess if he just walked away, or yelled at her for taking what she had for granted. At least she had two parents for as long as she did. It was a vicious cycle in her head, making her dizzy.

Jess felt his heart do a twist as she crumpled, and acted only on instinct. He enveloped her in his arms and her head went to his shoulder, wetting his jacket. Rubbing circles over her back, Jess held her against the chilly wind.

“You wanna push me in the lake?” he asked, breaking the silence. “It’s cathartic, I hear. Might make you feel better.”

Ella uttered a watery laugh. “No, but thank you for the offer.”

.   .   .

Blondie blasted through her speakers, and she huffed at herself as she tried to finish her makeup. She was having trouble making her eyeliner work, eventually deciding to just smudge it out, falling back on grunge as she usually did. Getting up to grab her boots, she gasped audibly when she heard a knock on the window. Rationally, she knew it was Jess. Who else regularly climbed through her window? But, still, in the back of her mind, she worried about hypothetical murderers. Occasional viewings of Dateline did nothing to subdue her mistrust of the world at large. Taking a boot in her hand by the laces, she walked over, ready to fend off a potential assailant. Her shoulders relaxed when she pushed the curtains back and Jess stood out in the gloomy morning with a smug smirk.

The window screeched as she opened it, and she leaned out with a grin. “Did Luke send you to avoid a do-over of yesterday? Because, by my clock, I’m not late for another forty-five minutes.”

Jess shook his head. “Good guess, but no. Are you, by any chance, still practicing your spontaneity?”

She furrowed her brows. “Occasionally. But, today, diner duty calls.”

“Actually, I got us both the day off.”

“What?” she asked, chuckling through her words. “Fuck off.”

“So eloquent, Daria. But I’m serious. We’re on spring break, so I switched with Guillermo for Tuesday.”

“Right, but hate to break it to you, I’m the other half of this duo. And I’m Luke’s favorite waitress, as we know. It’s my natural charm, of course,” she quipped, forearms resting on the window sill.

“Told him you had a migraine last night. He figured you’d need rest,” Jess explained, shrugging.

Ella shook her head in disbelief, smile turning to a smirk. “Migraine being code for major meltdown?”

“Semantics.”

She scoffed. “Really? We’re both off?”

“Really,” he said, shaking his head at her suspicion. “Free as birds. You need some notarized documentation?”

Snickering, she shook her head and glanced over her shoulder. “Well, did you have any particular plans in mind? Or was this just spontaneity for the sake of it?”

“Well, last time you were in New York, you didn’t get the full experience. Thought maybe we could go to the Met, Miss O’Keefe?” Jess shifted his weight on his feet, a familiar uncertainty welling in his stomach. “I brought my car. We’ll be back before anyone will suspect where we went.”

Ella shook her head again in pleasant shock, giggling slightly. “If you can promise me no felony charges?”

“Misdemeanor at most,” he said, chuckling.

“Alright,” she said, stepping into her boots. “Let me just grab my jacket. You’re the fucking best, Mariano.”

.   .   .

“Yikes.”

Jess raised an eyebrow and looked over at her as she shuffled through the center console of his car, searching for a CD. She’d been exploring the selection. They didn’t often need a car, and when they did, Ella was always driving. She just preferred to be behind the wheel, and also, more importantly, his car was pretty much a death trap. But he’d insisted on driving to New York, paying for the gas himself. Face falling, he saw the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack in her hands. As a native New Yorker, he’d had Broadway shoved in his face his whole life. It wasn’t his fault if some of it stuck. He kept it in the car with various other road trip music, away from his uncle’s wandering eyes. He’d forgotten it was in there, along with a couple other soundtracks, from both movies and musicals.

A flush crept up the back of his neck. “Oh, that’s my mom’s.”

“Bullshit,” she laughed, immediately going to pop it in the CD player. She shook her head slightly as the first piano chords came through the speakers. “You like musicals, huh?”

“No. Jumping to conclusions much, Nancy Drew?”

“C’mon, Jess, I know a swan beaked you in the eye, I know you work at Walmart, it’s cool if you’re a theater geek,” she said, shrugging with a wide smile. “I mean, I like Phantom of the Opera too. It’s got a ghost, sort of. That’s all I can ask for.”

Sighing heavily, Jess bit his bottom lip. “My mom had a bunch of soundtracks in her car when I was younger. Hers were eight-tracks, but whoever had this car before me put in a CD player. I just...carried on the tradition.”

“Whatever, tough guy,” she teased. “Is there a home video of little Jess singing along out there somewhere?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Methinks the man doth protest too much.”

He rolled his eyes. “KISS t-shirt. Need I say more?”

“Touché,” she said, eyes lingering on him playfully for just a moment longer as the music started up.

Fighting off the urge to sing along, she watched Jess’s eyes, trained on the road. They’d been driving around an hour, good natured arguments over movies and music, through the misty morning air. The highway was largely empty, Sunday morning drivers at church or sleeping in. Ella almost couldn’t believe she was bound for a place dedicated to master works of art. She was about to see Van Gogh with her own eyes. The thought alone was enough to make her heart skip happily.

“Jess?”

“Hm?”

She shifted a little in her seat and her fingers went to clutch at her necklace. “Thanks for listening last night. I’m sorry I was such a freak about everything.”

Jess sighed through his nose. “No reason to be sorry. I get it.”

“You don’t need to be nice about it,” she continued, pursing her lips.

“What are you talking about? I’m always an angel,” he scoffed, a wicked sparkle in his brown eyes. When she looked unamused, he shook his head a little. “Eleanor, it’s fine. There is nothing for you to be sorry over.”

“And you don’t pity your sad sack girlfriend?”

He scoffed. “My girlfriend’s a badass artist. She doesn’t need my pity.”

“Very true,” she nodded, leaning over to kiss his cheek. “Seriously Jess, thank you. I can’t believe you’re taking me to the Met.”

He shrugged, nonchalant. “I don’t do things I don’t wanna do.”

.   .   .

Standing before Van Gogh’s “Flowering Orchard,” Ella felt a foreign lightness spread throughout her being. She had so many favorites, many of which she’d seen in the last few hours. Monet, O’Keefe, Picasso. But there was something about Van Gogh which always stuck out to her, a perspective so different from her own. She who saw everything with a hidden darkness, an ulterior motive. So rarely did she work in lively color. Ella couldn’t even fathom seeing such a vibrance in what was so often a gloomy world. It took her breath away to see the piece in person, the canvas Van Gogh himself had touched. She could feel her heart reaching out to the painting, a connection to the past. It was what she loved most about art, writing, music. Impersonal love letters sent out to the public, from creator to creation to audience.

Ella didn’t even startle as Jess’s arms laced around her waist, and she leaned back against him. “Hey, James Dean.”

He smirked. “Hey Daria, hate to break it to you, but we should go if we wanna be back before they call the FBI on us crazy kids.”

Clicking her tongue in disappointment, she looked down at the watch on his wrist and nodded. “One more minute.”

“If you insist.”

She chuckled. “Can you imagine seeing the world this way?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, voice in hushed tones with other viewers milling about near them. But, with his arms around her, Ella so calm and in her element, it felt like a private world. Where parents didn’t break promises and eyes didn’t pass premature judgement.

“Just…” she began, pausing to gather her thoughts, “he could see things with so much color and life and...I could never look at things this way. Maybe I’d be a better artist if I wasn’t such a cynic.”

“Oh, I think cynicism is a benefit in all areas of life,” he said.

“You sure about that, Nietzche?”

“Way I see it, there’s cynicism or there’s cutting off your own ear.”

She scoffed. “No middle ground?”

Jess shook his head. “No one becomes an artist unless they have to.”

“Deep, but not yours. That’s from White Oleander, thief,” she said, a smug smirk on her face.

“The point still stands, no matter the origin.”

“I know, but...it must have been so intense for him to live that way. To...I don’t know. I wonder if the torture is worth it to be such a genius,” she thought aloud, a wistful glaze in her eyes.

Biting his lip, Jess’s smirk grew. Despite how much Ella told him the only reason for her perfect grades was her insane work ethic and stellar organizational skills, he knew it wasn’t true. She was smart in ways she didn’t ever acknowledge, thought about things in ways which would never even occur to him. Of course he could see the beauty in all the art they’d encountered, and in the painting in front of him, but she could feel it, the way he felt the words in his books. And she could look at poetry and music as a linguistic collage, art in itself. It never surprised him how fond she was of modernism. Her mind was something he could never quite grasp, a complexity he could only admire. She would always be smarter. His heart felt so full, watching her watch the painting, he almost felt silly. Each day he got more sure. It was love he felt for her.

.   .   .

Reddish brake lights glowed against the dark highway. Ella could still taste the salt on her lips from the street food they’d had for both lunch and dinner. The windows of the rusty, screeching car were cracked slightly open, letting in the fresh, chilly spring air. Her blonde waves blew back from her face as the CD ran out. Without a word, she ejected the disk, put it back in its case, and started shuffling through the other albums.

“Jesus, Mariano, how have you never told me you like Rocky Horror?”

He sighed but didn’t have time to retort before she pointed a finger at him.

“We are going to a screening at some point. And I, of course, will be dressing up,” she said with a smile, not even looking over at him as she found a new CD. Looking over, he saw a flash of red and black on the case as she opened it up. He couldn’t hide his tiny grin as he turned back to the road.

“As long as I don’t have to,” he shrugged, heart fluttering in his chest with pleasant excitement as she put the disk in.

Ella reached her arm over and placed a gentle hand on the back of his neck, leaning deeper into her seat. Shivers went down Jess’s spine at her touch, and the opening chords of “Untitled” by Interpol. Neither of them said a word, but the soft smile never left Ella’s face. She remembered his hands on her waist the first time they kissed, the warm tingling in the pit of her stomach. Notes in books and drunken evenings, stitches and pianos, paintings and shoulders to cry on. Ella glanced over at him, could see the lights of the nighttime reflected in his brown eyes, and felt as she never thought she would. So strangely whole.

“Jess?”

“Yeah, honey?”

The words almost left her lips, she could taste them on her tongue, but she bit them back as her heart began racing. Instead, she breathed in, fresh air and the smell of pine.

“Do you wish your angel of music would hide no longer?” she teased.

He rolled his eyes and his voice held no emotion as he spoke. “I don’t know, Stevens, do you wanna rock and roll all night? And party every day?”

[love-takes-work]

The Tale of Steven - Outline & Review

The Tale of Steven is a wonderful, timeless-feeling storybook about identity, authority, and finding your own way. It's got an innovative design that requires the reader to turn the book upside-down, sideways, and right-side-up to get the whole story, sometimes all on the same spread of art and text, and as we come to find out ultimately, this "tale of Steven" really is STEVEN'S story.

We begin with White Diamond, matriarch of the Gem homeworld, setting the stage--and not only does she frame the other Diamonds uncharitably (especially the littlest Diamond, Pink), she even sets the tone by admonishing THE READER straight away, scolding us to turn the book her way to read her words. (We must turn the book upside-down to read her perspective. Very nice.)

As we listen to White Diamond tell us how ridiculous Pink Diamond is and frame her as "impossible to understand," we also see exactly why Pink felt driven to leave her home. White apparently appointed herself the authority on keeping Pink in her place, and we're treated to White's huge pale hands holding little Pink Diamond in her tiny pink throne, “right”-side-up. White's perspective is proper, and she is to be praised, you see, for understanding that Pink's desires and attributes are not worthwhile and need to be forced out of her. Pink is shown as having run away to Earth and reinventing herself as a new Gem: Rose Quartz. Suddenly, we are able to turn the book sideways and see what she's thinking too. (White does NOT approve.)

The Earth, where Rose Quartz is allowed to love herself and love her surroundings, is simultaneously called "grotesque" by White, and we're seeing the same planet through two sets of eyes. White sees Rose as "stubborn" and "absurd," while Rose just gives us an aside about not listening to White if we don't want to and giving us a choice to read the book her way. As Rose continues to depict rainbows and falling in love with a human--Greg Universe--White is getting angrier. She shrieks, "You're ruining my story!" Rose, rightly, replies, "This isn't your story."

Soon, Rose has bequeathed her Gem--the center of her being--to her half-human son, Steven, with the consequence of ceasing to be herself. Baby Steven appears with his father and Rose Quartz's three companions--Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl. White Diamond finally abandons trying to narrate this story, escaping with a vindictive comment and an attempt to frame Rose as simply Pink Diamond hiding "inside an unwitting creature." Rose's perspective expresses that she wanted her son to experience the love and acceptance she never received. And then, Steven's perspective pops onto the scene. We can now turn the book fully right-side-up to read his tale.

As the story slides fully into Steven's perspective, Rose's hopes for him still line up on the sides of the pages, longing for him to experience kindness, to never know the awfulness she went through on Homeworld, to never have to feel the criticism issued by the other Diamonds, and to be able to tell his own story one day. Steven reflects on Rose's influence on his life, how he's heard about her and the more truth he's discovered the more everything frightens him. There are many perspectives, he recognizes. Perhaps there is more than one way to read the story.

White's perspective, upside-down now, returns alongside all this. She suggests "Pink" has come crawling back to turn the world the "right" way again, and she's puzzled by Steven's appearance, but she's determined to rescue Pink from herself by separating Steven from his Gem. Meanwhile, Steven's been wondering what his relationship is to Pink and Rose--is she inside him? Is he actually her? What's real?

But they all learn the truth when Steven's Gem reveals that he was also Steven inside there. All along, he was himself and no one else. This is, and has always been, his story, and he has been right about who he is.

Several wordless frames depict Steven's two aspects finding each other, reconnecting, and becoming one again. Newly confident in who he is and having asserted as much in the face of crushing authority, Steven declares, "This way feels right to me." The orientation of the book AND the definition of himself are the focus here, and for the first time, White begins to consider that her perspective was the wrong side up in someone else's story.

Steven closes by claiming the book as his own (writing his own name in the "This Book Belongs To" space, which is superimposed over a Diamond Authority symbol with the Pink Diamond on top instead of on the bottom). The end dedication is made out "To Trans & Gender-Expansive Kids."

To reflect on this sentiment and the rest of the book, I will say that a large portion of the Steven Universe fandom already recognized some threads of a trans allegory in the animation this is based on. Steven, though he is not specifically depicted as a confirmed trans character in the show, does not demonstrate or seem to experience toxic masculinity in association with his quest to be powerful, and has no qualms about using symbolism, iconography, and apparel that is more commonly associated in today's Western society with women and girls (e.g., the color pink, flower symbolism, protective and defensive rather than aggressive and offensive behaviors, wearing jewelry and dresses occasionally without it being a gag). His assertion that he is Steven and not Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz has many parallels with a common trans narrative--including pronouns that the Diamonds refused to respect--even though it is also its own thing since human beings do not have to defend that they are not literally their mother. 

They do, however, frequently struggle with authorities in their lives "correcting" them on who and what they are "for their own good," brushing off the seriousness of the misery it causes, and these children do find themselves forced to wear clothes, use names, and adhere to roles that do not match who they are. They even sometimes hear authorities mourn the "loss" of a different-gender version of them and accuse the child of being selfish for wanting to manifest their truth instead of being the son or daughter the parent thought they had.

It is my deepest hope that authorities like this can learn to turn the book around.

It is so important for children to learn that they ARE the authority on their identity, and while some well-meaning authorities in their lives may frame their identity as a phase or a fake, they do not have to accept this view of the world, or even that it comes from a loving place. White Diamond did not sound like a stern but caring figure to me. She sounded like a tyrant who is convinced of her own correctness, determined to gaslight and shame Pink Diamond into becoming the person SHE wanted. Love is listening. Love is nurturing. Love is seeing pleasure and pain and letting those things guide you in supporting a happy existence. Kids whose gender is complicated and young people who develop misunderstood identities need books like this to center them in their own stories and empower them to show others how to read their book.

Except for the section of the book where Steven's organic self and Gem self are separated and re-combine, the message is solid for readers who have not watched the show. But because of how important that wordless series of panels is and how much background you actually have to have to understand what's happening there, I recommend this book primarily for fans of the show who have seen "Change Your Mind" and the episodes that support it. The other depictions are more powerful and illuminating for those who have context from the show also, but the main purpose of the book can be readily understood without that background. 

If you haven't seen the show, all you need to know is that Steven is a hybrid Gem/human who has a gemstone in his human body, and it gives him superhuman powers. Gem characters generate a body from their Gem, while Steven's body is organic and presumably NOT generated from the Gem. White Diamond removed Steven's Gem from his belly, expecting Pink Diamond to take form out of the Gem. She thought his organic half was just a human that the Gem was stuck in. But instead, a Pink Steven emerged and went back to his organic self to merge again, proving that he is Steven, not someone else, through and through. And he truly loves and knows himself.

A couple other notes fans of the show might enjoy: White Diamond's hypothesis that Pink Diamond was "hiding in an unwitting creature" is really interesting--she knew what Steven was but believed he was just a normal human hosting a Gem. Interesting. White's disdain toward Yellow and Blue for "spoiling" Pink is an interesting addition to what we know about her, too. Pink is pictured standing on her hands on her throne, upside-down, which is interesting since it's both "silly" and an expression of her right-side-up perspective (since, when we obey White, we're reading the book upside-down!). White's commentary that she kept Pink in line is also interesting, considering we've seen way more of how Yellow and Blue treated her and none of that was very nice either (yet they're the "nice" ones in this story, indulging her even though we know they abused her). There's a really cute image of Rose lounging on the beach with Greg in what looks like a swimsuit. Connie is in a frame with the Gems looking through a telescope. And there's a frame with Garnet holding pink and blue butterflies.

Inventive, beautiful, moving, and so necessary. Buy a copy. Let kids turn the book around.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[rhnuzlocke]

Extra One: Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Zinnia was going to tear this incompetent twit a new asshole when she found him. How did he manage to screw up a simple task not once, but twice? As if she didn’t have enough to do, now she had to clean up this idiot’s mess.

And really, that was the least of it. She could see right where this was headed. Mr. Stone wasn’t an idiot. If the old man were only a little less perceptive, they would have had what they needed two months ago. The only sensible thing for him to do now would be to get the prototype to someone who couldn’t be compromised—his son. Once Maximus put two and two together, he’d send a squad to ambush the Giratina-damned League Champion like the arrogant dick he was. And Courtney—who Steven knew and would recognize—would lead it because no one else had the chance of a Bergmite in a volcano of overpowering him, superior numbers be damned. Maximus wouldn’t care. He was already impatient for the next phase. So he’d take the risk regardless and expose them weeks ahead of schedule. Why did she even bother planning when they’d all just chuck her hard work right out the window at the first little bump in the road? Well, it wasn’t really fair to blame them for what they couldn’t see. But she wasn’t about to explain it to them. They couldn’t be trusted. Not if they tripped over every hurdle. Zinnia didn’t even want to contemplate how they’d fall apart if they knew she was pulling the strings. She couldn’t say anything about it. She just had to nod her head yes as if she were none the wiser and let it happen. And that was why this peon was dead. He wasn’t in his room because why should anything in her life be easy? “The rec room at the end of the hall,” said Aster. Zinnia looked down at her daughter—always keen, always listening, always helpful—and just like that, half the anger melted off her. She held onto the rest for the job she still had to do. “They’re watching TV.” The Whismur hopped towards it, and Zinnia followed. The door was open and there sat three men on a couch, two watching and one sketching on a large work pad. She was in their peripheral vision, but none of them looked. Almost no one did. Zinnia had seen the artist and the one slouched on the other end together several times before, which meant they were a unit and didn’t run solo missions. That left the gangly teen in the middle. Now she understood. He was a child. Who the hell assigned him to her division in the first place? Zinnia stayed still in the doorway and watched him. He hunched over, arms resting on his knees and ass barely perched on the edge of the couch cushion. A copy of White Fang lay discarded on the coffee table, and a dull brown Poochyena went ignored at his feet as he stared intently at a news report, face tight. “Mr. Stone, owner and president of Devon Corporation, held a press conference this morning in conjunction with the Rustboro police chief, Hine Honda, reassuring anxious business owners and workers of his intention to support the repair of Rusturf Tunnel.” Even in the accompanying footage, he did indeed look kind and reassuring, far more so than the chief of police and her dour Hariyama. “The tunnel collapsed yesterday after being damaged by the combined Uproar attack of a stampede of wild Whismur and Loudred, setting the nearly completed project back for the fifth time this year alone. Thankfully, emergency responders report that no one was injured, but there is no word yet on how much longer it will take to repair the damage.” The other man rose from his slump to scoop the remote off the coffee table, and switched the channel. “You shouldn’t be watching that stuff, bro.” “You heard Terra at mess,” said the other without looking up from his drawing. “Probably would have happened anyway.” “Not your fault!” the first said with a clap on the back that made the kid jump. “The press is going to get a lot worse soon. It’s best to just ignore it.” “And don’t worry about Tabitha. I’m sure she doesn’t blame you.” “It was m-m-my fuck-up, Hart,” the kid finally responded with a pronounced stutter. “I’m p-pretty sure she b-b-blames me.” The other one elbowed the kid. “She thinks everyone is incompetent. You’re not special. That’s why she gets to boss people around while we have to do all the actual legwork.” “Th-thanks, Brent.” He sounded sincere, but not particularly heartened. “It was a shitty assignment and you had some pretty rotten luck, that’s all.” Hart slid back down again and put his feet up on the coffee table. “You were doing your job. Shit just goes south sometimes. You haven’t been a trainer that long and your Poochyena isn’t exactly a seasoned battler. Have you thought about maybe—” “Fang d-did fine! That t-trainer just pulled a d-dirty trick, having her Shroomish St-st-stun Spore me like that.” Now that part Zinnia hadn’t heard. Hardly a trick, just smart. Smart in a way most people weren’t. She rather liked the sound of this trainer. “See?” said Hart, as if that solved everything. “You just got dealt a shit hand as usual. Nothing to beat yourself up about.” “I know,” the kid mumbled. He sure was beating himself about it though. Seemed excessive to march in and chew him out now. But she had a reputation to uphold here and she didn’t know when she’d get another chance like this. Time to play her part. “JOSH!” she thundered, and Aster boosted it enough to make the furniture rattle. The kid damn near jumped out of his skin and threw an arm up to protect his face. Dragon’s teeth! But she couldn’t stop now. “How the fuck did you fail the same job twice!” This time, his stutter was so thick that nothing got past it, and the others were too stunned to move their tongues. “You had better get your fucking act together because this is the last time I clean up after you! Next time, it’ll be whoever’s on maintenance duty,” she spat, and he withered away from her glare. Then she turned on her heel and left. But she didn’t go far, just enough to make them think she was gone. “That nearly gave me a heart attack,” Hart groaned. Brent let out a big sigh, probably at the dark line he’d slashed across his drawing in fright. “I’m s-s-s-such a fuck-up,” the kid sniffled. “Naw, bro, that’s just Azalea,” Hart soothed, patting him more gently this time. “She’s always like that. She nearly bit my head off last week for nothing.” Zinnia didn’t even remember it. “Look, we all knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but it’s worth it, you know? We’ve just gotta focus on our goals, that’s what’s important. There’s gonna be some ugly press about us soon, but they’ll come back around when this is all over. People are fickle, but it’s up to us to help them out.” “Just keep working hard and things will get better,” said Brent. “They’ll get better for all of us.” “Y-you’re right.” Ah, there it was. Final question answered. He believed in it, what Maximus was trying to do. She could hear it in his voice. It wasn’t fear, but guilt, that was making the kid agonize over his failure. That was why he was in her division. That was why he was assigned the mission and would probably still be given more like it. Because it was simple and should have been easy, but should the worst have happened—should he ever be captured and questioned—he wouldn’t give them up. Because he was loyal and Maximus understood the value of it—probably held it in higher regard than she did. Zinnia stowed that away for safekeeping. More knowledge gained. One job accomplished. Now on to the next. “Yeah, don’t let that crazy bitch get to you.” That was her, even with Courtney for competition. Azalea was the crazy bitch. Zinnia had to smile. These clowns didn’t know the half of it.

[saxafimedianetwork]

We unearth little-known tidbits of information about the King of Pop Michael Jackson’s life, on what would have been his 60th birthday

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1. He was born in Gary, Indiana. He remains the city’s most famous resident, with Gary never recovering from the loss of its factory industry in the 1960s. That said, it’s also home to Jesse Powell, Kym Mazelle and Sista Monica Parker.

2. His parents had musical ambitions of their own. Mother Katherine Jackson played the clarinet and piano, and aspired to be a country and western singer. Father Joe was a guitarist and made extra cash performing in local R’n’B bands.

3. His first public performance was in 1963. When he was 5 he sang Shirley Bassey’s Climb Ev’ry Mountain at a public event organized by Garnett Elementary School’s Kindergarten.

4. His father was the first to notice the talent in his children. He would invite music executives to the family home, where The Jacksons would audition in the living room.

5. James Brown was his major inspiration. The late Godfather of Soul inspired Jackson to hit the stage. Speaking at his public funeral in 2007, Jackson recalled how, “Ever since I was a small child, no more than like 6 years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work.”

6. He made his recording debut at 9 years old. It was on Big Boy by The Jackson 5, which was released by a small label in January 1968. It didn’t sell in large numbers, but it was enough to notify the major labels that these kids had talent.

7. His love for books began as a young teen. His early favorites were Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. He reportedly amassed a library of more than 10,000 books.

8. His relationship with his sister La Toya was based on their love of practical jokes. His favorite was tormenting her with fake spiders and tarantulas. He would place a suspect creature on the phone in La Toya’s bedroom and would then call her and wait for her scream.

9. He began touring as an 8-year-old. As part of the first run of shows in America’s Midwest, The Jackson 5 supported soul legends Etta James, Gladys Knight and Sam & Dave.

10. He was never particularly fond of his voice during early recordings with The Jackson 5. Despite the acclaim, he would often lament the high pitch of his voice in later interviews, describing it as similar to that of Minnie Mouse.

11. It could have been The Jackson 6. Nearly 18 months before he was born, his mother gave birth to a set of twins, Marlon and Brandon. As a result of a severely premature pregnancy, Marlon survived but Brandon passed away 24 hours later.

12. Berry Gordy initially wasn’t a fan of Michael and his brothers. The star-maker and head of Motown Records dismissed the idea of signing them to his label, preferring to focus on Stevie Wonder. But he was eventually convinced to give them a shot and he signed them up in 1969.

13. You may not know her name, but Suzanne de Passe had a big role in his artistic development. She was assigned as a mentor and stylist to The Jackson 5 after they joined Motown. That relationship extended to Michael’s solo career, and she was the first one to see him rehearse the iconic dance The Moonwalk in 1983.

14. The Jackson 5’s global hit I Want You Back in 1969, was originally written for Gladys Knight and The Pips and Diana Ross. What’s unusual about the song is that the lovelorn lyrics are sung by Michael, who was barely in his teens at the time.

15. ABC is the first of Jackson’s songs that 50 Cent recalls hearing. Speaking to NME in 2015, the rapper said the track was responsible for him becoming a fan. “I’ve always loved MJ, so I guess it was probably a good place to start music: right here, with the ABCs.”

16. He broke barriers from a young age. When he was a 12-year-old with The Jackson 5, the group became the first black male group to release four back-to-back chart-toppers with 1969’s I Want You Back and 1970’s ABC, The Love You Save and I’ll Be There.

17. There was solo life before Off the Wall. For many, Michael arrived with 1979’s Off the Wall, but he released his debut solo album, Got to Be There, in 1972. It was a solid collection of soul and pop, with covers of Leon Ware’s I Wanna Be Where You Are and Bill Withers’s Ain’t no Sunshine.

18. He won his first and only Golden Globe in 1972. For Ben, a song he wrote for the 1972 horror film of the same name.

19. He always had his ear to the clubs. Jackson was a frequent visitor to the legendary New York City club Studio 54, where he was exposed to beat-boxing, which was an early harbinger to the upcoming hip-hop movement. He went on to incorporate the vocal technique into many of his future songs.

20. His first venture into film was The Wiz. He starred as a scarecrow in the title role of The Wiz, an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. The film was horrible, but it was here he struck up a life-changing partnership with Quincy Jones, who went on to produce his biggest albums.

21. Quincy Jones nicknamed him “Smelly”. This was during their time on The Wiz. “I used to call Michael ‘Smelly’, because he wouldn’t say ‘funky’. He’d say ‘smelly jelly’.”

22. He broke his nose in 1979 during dance practice. He then consulted Hollywood favorite Dr Steven Hoefflin who reportedly performed Jackson’s first rhinoplasty.

23. He only worked with the best. In addition to enlisting Jones to produce the 1979 blockbuster album Off the Wall, the songwriters who helped him on the record included none other than Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

24. Unlike many of his peers, Jackson hated singing from a sheet. While recording Off the Wall, he spent the evenings learning lyrics and harmonies, and would arrive at the studio the next day singing them off by heart.

25. Prince visited him during the Off the Wall sessions. Speaking to The National, Quincy Jones recalled how Prince arrived “into the studio like a deer in the headlight – clothes and shirt off – but he was always competing with Michael”.

26. He was the only musical mind behind one of his biggest hits. Off the Wall was full of songwriting collaborations, but Jackson was solely responsible for one of its biggest tracks, Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough. He decided to write the song after constantly humming the melody at home.

27. The change on 1979 single Rock with You. It was originally called I Want to Eat You Up, but that was deemed too risque for Jackson’s heartthrob image.

28. Off the Wall was almost a hit for Karen Carpenter. The hit title track from Off the Wall was originally written for the late Karen Carpenter’s debut solo album. She declined to use it and Jackson made it a top 10 hit instead.

29. The tears in She’s Out of My Life are real. Jackson would break down in tears at the end of each studio take. “We recorded about – I don’t know – 8 to 11 takes, and every one at the end, he just cried,” producer Quincy Jones said. “I said, ‘Hey – that’s supposed to be, leave it on there.’”

30. Jackson surrounded himself with talent in both the studio and the boardroom. With Off the Wall he secured the game-changing royalty rate of 37 cents wholesale per sale. It went on to sell more than 20 million copies.

31. Thriller was a blockbuster fueled by frustration. Despite big sales and critical acclaim, he was irked that Off The Wall didn’t win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. “It was totally unfair that it didn’t get Record of the Year and it can never happen again,” he told manager John Branca. Thriller went on to win a record-breaking eight Grammys in 1984.

32. Billie Jean doesn’t exist. Despite being the subject of one of his biggest hits, the woman – who in the 1983 song admits she is carrying Jackson’s unborn son – is pure fiction. “The girl in the song is a composite of people my brothers have been plagued with over the years,” Jackson wrote in his memoir Moonwalker.

33. Billie Jean was the first video by an African-American artist to air on MTV. The video revealed Jackson’s new look of a leather suit, pink shirt, red bow tie and his signature single white glove. It was a style copied by kids throughout the United States. It caused one school, New Jersey’s Bound Brook High, to ban students from coming to class wearing white gloves.

34. Jackson introduced his famous Moonwalk in 1983. It was during a live performance of Billie Jean for the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever concert special. He was taught the move by veteran dancer Jeffrey Daniel, who went on to be hired as Jackson’s co-choreographer.

35. Jackson was a music investor from 1983. He bought the rights to select music from funk pioneers Sly and the Family Stone, and the iconic Dion DiMucci songs The Wanderer and Run Around Sue, before landing the rights to the 4,000 song catalogue of ATV Music Publishing, which included the lion’s share of The Beatles’ songs.

36. Jackson’s Beat It was a fiery single … literally. When Eddie Van Halen recorded his blistering solo, the sound of his guitar caused one of the studio speakers to catch fire.

37. The gritty music video for Beat It was a landmark production. The lavish production cost US$100,000 (Dh367,250) at the time. It was set in Los Angeles’ Skid Row and featured up to 80 real-life gang members from the notorious street gangs the Crips and the Bloods.

38. Toto were heavily involved in the making of Thriller. Keyboardist Steve Porcaro co-wrote Human Nature, and Steve Lukather contributed rhythm guitar on Beat It.

39. Thriller was almost Star Light. The lyric “thriller” in the track of the same name was originally “star light”. The decision to change it was down to marketing appeal.

40. PYT (Pretty Young Thing) was never performed live by Jackson. Despite being a well-received single from the Thriller album, the star never featured the song in any of his live sets.

41. Thriller was included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. The music video for the title track was also placed in the National Film Preservation Board’s National Film Registry of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films”.

42. It was with his seventh album, 1987’s Bad that Jackson really came into his own as a songwriter. He wrote nine of the 11 tracks and co-produced the album with Quincy Jones.

43. The title track for the Bad album was supposed to be a duet with Prince. But the latter walked away from it due to the opening line “Your butt is mine”. “Now, who is going to sing that to whom? Cause [he] sure ain’t singing that to me, and I sure ain’t singing it to [him],” Prince said in a TV interview with American comedian Chris Rock.

44. The smooth 1987 ballad I Just Can’t Stop Loving You is a duet with singer Siedah Garrett. She was the third choice after Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston rejected the offer.

45. The Way You Make Me Feel was his mother’s request. Jackson wrote this track after his mum asked him to write something with a “shuffling kind of rhythm”.

46. Man in the Mirror is one of the few music videos he is hardly in. Other than appearing at the end standing in a crowd, the video is a montage of major events and historical figures.

47. His Superbowl XXVII half-time show in 1993 was game-changing. His pyrotechnics-laced four-song set was watched more than the game itself. It has set the standard for half-time shows ever since.

48. Michael Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous was hot property. Five days before its release, three armed men broke into a music warehouse in Los Angeles and stole 30,000 copies.

49. The explosive video for Black or White was directed by Hollywood stalwart John Landis. It starred an 11-year-old Macaulay Culkin fresh from his starring role in Home Alone.

50. The music video to Scream was, at the time, in 1995, the most expensive ever produced. It had a US$7m budget. The menacing and arty video starred Jackson and his sister Janet.

51. Even when he wasn’t trying, Michael Jackson broke records. His album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, released in 1997, remains the bestselling remix album of all time, with more than six million copies sold, after virtually no promotion.

52. Jackson consistently mixed music with charity work. He was behind a series of Michael and Friends concerts in Germany and Korea, which featured performers such as tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, as well as rockers Slash and The Scorpions. The money raised went to the non-profit organization War Child.

53. Jackson’s final studio album Invincible was the bestselling album of 2001, despite moderate reviews. It features the song Unbreakable, which had, until then, the unreleased vocals by slain rapper The Notorious BIG.

54. After years of scandals and court cases, Jackson re-emerged on the music stage by announcing his final live tour This Is It. The first 10 shows alone, to be held at London’s O2 Arena in the summer of 2009, would have netted him £50m (Dh236.49m). The residency was extended to 50 shows, but the tour was cancelled following his death on June 25, 2009.

55. This Is It was his first posthumous release. With the This Is It tour abandoned after Jackson’s death, the tour’s title track became the first of many posthumous releases. The song was originally written in the 1980s by Paul Anka.

56. The secrecy of Xscape. Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album, released on May 13, 2014, was such a big deal that journalists were invited to secret listening sessions around the world days before its release. The session for this region was held at Dubai’s now-closed Qbara restaurant.

57. The life and times of Michael Jackson were discussed in detail at the inaugural Dubai Music Week in 2013. It featured a sold-out special panel session on Jackson’s career featuring producer Quincy Jones and other collaborators, the late Rod Temperton (via live video feed) and singer Siedah Garrett.

58. Abu Dhabi and China were discussed as possible sites for the world’s first Jackson family-themed hotel called Jermajesty. Speaking exclusively to The National in 2013, Jermaine Jackson said he was looking at Yas Island as a possible site for the hotel, which would be filled with Jackson family memorabilia. Nothing has been built as yet.

Read also: Jermaine says Michael Jackson was on the verge of converting to Islam

59. To celebrate Michael Jackson’s 60th birthday today (August 29), a large street party was held in New York City last Saturday to celebrate his life. It was organized by the director, and his collaborator, Spike Lee.

60. It is only fitting that the Apollo Theater in New York is hosting its legendary Amateur Night today. It was on the same stage that, in 1967, The Jackson 5 launched their career.

60 Things You May Not Have Known About Michael Jackson

[sweet-rose-of-mine]

Interview with Julianna Sedbrook (the groupie who, allegedly , got pregnant by Axl Rose in ‘87)

In the above picture: Lisa Reed, Adriana Smith and Juliana Sedbrook (GNR’s groupies). 

Exclusively for DailyBetter Group © she tells her days with GN'R, and Axl's son who never was. December 2009 Welcome to the Jungle is perfect introduction to one the greatest RN’R album ever, Appetite For Destruction, and the video introduce us to the classic line up, and with them one the luckiest person who was witness of the birth of GUNS N’ ROSES. Julianna Sedbrook is the girl that in 1987 had the honor to be in which is the first video of the band, video of the Welcome to the Jungle song, because of Steve’s call, which one she used to share not just her house with, but also a great friendship. Today a mother of two beautiful girls, she’s back in city that joined her to the so – called bad boys, California, and ready to be in touch with her past. She shares exclusively on his first and revealing interview the trunk of her most cherished memories. DailyBetter Group© was fortunate to be able to contact her and after several talks, she given one of the strongest interviews that we have done, not only by the importance of Juliana in the beginning of the legend of Guns N 'Roses, but also for the data cast that, for us, were absolutely unknown. A life history and deeply rooted feelings of Axl Rose, has broken the silence after more than 20 years and she has wanted to provide with the highest respect and affection. But by the time this interview was arming, a person posing as Rose and asked that gently unpublished photos she scanned for us and were published without her authorization, making everything work, confidence and effort see damaged. We strongly condemn this act that only serves to prevent persons of this type give better data. We try to tell a story that was never told, the history of a man who barely became one of the most loved and hated in the world of music, and history can only be told by him and those who I have surrounded and loved so much. Exit interview with you from the bottom, a silence broken, a strong affection and loyalty to the greatest character in this story, the story of Guns N 'Roses. DB: How and when did you meet the band? Julianna Sedbrook: I met them at clubs at 1st, then me and my best friend Lisa Abbate moved to LA and we moved across the street from one of GN’Rs hangouts. It was the NY (New York) boys house were Del James and West Arkeen (the co-writer for it’s so easy) and Axl’s side band “Smith&Wesson”) all lived, billy (who designed Axls cross tatoo and the 2nd cover to Appetite) lived there also with Reed, and a couple others, everyone used to get together and play under the name "The Drunk Fux", Slash would play, Duff, sometimes Axl, Del James, Todd Crew (RIP who was in Jet Boy), it was great mostly cover songs, all the girls would get on stage and dance and sing back up vocals. A lot of parties were held there, I have some funny photos from there! Steven was homeless, so we asked him if he wanted to move in a spare “washroom” we had it was big enough for his bed and TV had a private entrance and rent was only $100.00 a month, he moved in right away! Then I met Adriana, they were dating and all the band and friends of theirs were always there, we used to have their “band meetings” there as well. DB: How did you do to be the girl in WTTJ Video? Did it influence or made any difference in your personal life? JS: I was actually sick at the time and got a phone call from Steven saying, Axl didn’t like the girls Geffen had sent down to do the video and he wanted me to do it, so sick, I went down “for the band” lol and we filmed ALL night. After the video was done, Axl came back to my house and spent the night, it was our 1st time together and it was amazing. It has made a difference in my life in many ways, just being seen on tv is strange for me, I remember when they had their 1st tour to England, me and Lisa went too- I saw the welcome video on TV at the hotel, it was surreal! Then at the show, people wanted my autograph, it was a lot of fun, I had some great pics Robert John took of me and Axl before a The Cult show, I would love to get copies of, they were really nice just of me and him. The video connects me to them forever and he used it again in the “Patience” video, Axl’s sitting on the couch, looking like he’s thinking back on his life and he’s watching the “Welcome” video with the parts of me in it, it’s sweet. DB: What can you tell us about the recording of Appetite For Destruction and the recording of the WTTJ video? JS: I know it took awhile, Axl had about 4 different producers, he’s a perfectionist and wanted it just right, he sure did it too- that album is one of the best ever! I remember how excited Steven was, I have a picture of him and Ronnie the roadman in his “room” in our house holding the Original cover album in his hand, finally it was out and the rest was history! They just blew up world wide! The video was just like making any video although I can say that the scene where Axl is in the electric chair with the metal band around his head, he was shaking around so violently he cut up his forehead. DB: You have the luck to be in some tours, in shows, etc, How was the band backstage? Any story or tale that you remember? JS: Well the early shows were always fun, they were soooo crazy. But I think my favorite was when they went on tour w/ the cult we all went to the LA show, and I spent the night in Axls room with him, Adriana Smith called up and wanted to sleep with us, she seemed to be there in a lot of my sexual experiences hahahaha, not a part of it, just there : ) then the next night they played in San Diego and we drove down there and when we got there he said to me “you’re a sight for sore eyes” he gave me a rose ”which I still have“ and after the show, grabbed me by the hand and led me to the bus so we could have some “private time “. It was a sweet couple days. DB: What kind of relationship did you have with the members of the band or If you had one in particular with one of them? Any memory with each of them that can you share? JS: I had a great friendship with Steven, he’s such a sweet person with such a good heart!, his addiction started getting bad while he was living with me, it was sad, but it was nothing compared to how bad it ended up. Slash used to come over to mine and Adriana Smiths house when we lived together; we had some fun times there. Mostly, it was always Axl, my favorite time, and it was the last time I saw him. We met up at the coconut teazer I think ?? but drove back to his place in his “favorite” black BMW, we spent about 3 days together, just doing normal things ,watching movies, eating frozen pizzas, he would go to interviews I went to work, I was dancing then too, and would go back over to his house after work. We had a BEAUTIFUL time together. He was so romantic and gentle with me, he would wash me with a warm wash cloth, etc. just the really amazing Axl that I love. He played piano which will bring tears to your eyes and chills to your arms, it’s so pretty! He ended up having a depressive episode and I told him I would always love him (he had locked himself in the bathroom) and always be there for him no matter what and I left….. sad ending to one of my best memories, besides having my kids : ) but my love when I love someone is unconditional and it never ends… I miss him so much and it would mean so much to me to be able to be in contact with him or have him in my life, now that I’m back in LA, Cali again. DB: Why and when did you get away from the band? JS: Well I never have EVER revealed this to anyone before! After the 3 days me and Axl spent together, I turned up pregnant, I had a miscarriage as I was partying like a mad women, we all were, but it killed me losing our baby (he doesn’t even know this!) I know Axl has always wanted kids and the women he has dated that had them, he has always gotten very close to. I started dating another talented musician named Giovanni and we moved into together, I was still dancing, and I got pregnant with my GORGEOUS daughter Angelina, and dropped out of the “LA” scene. That’s what made it so hard for Marc Canter to find me for his book, or anyone else I was close to as well. I went through some serious downs in my life and have in the past 9 years made it great again, I have had another baby girl who is now 2 her name is Lilianna, and is Amazing and so beautiful! She’s made my life worth living when at times I thought it wasn’t worth it anymore. DB: When you found out about your pregnancy, did you try to contac Axl? JS: No, I told no-one, it broke my heart, even though I don’t think having a child with him at that time would have been good for either of us, I was devastated as I loved him so much but I never told anyone, until now, i figure enough time has passed, I have healed emotionally enough to make it public, and I am curious to know how he would feel about it, but I may never get an answer to that. I never told him, because I lost it before I had a chance to, so I never really got a chance to make a choice if I/we wanted to keep it, so I never said anything. DB: Are you still in touch with any of them? When and how was the last time did you see one of them? JS: Yes I’m in contact with Steven, and so happy to be talking with him again and know his life is on track and he’s happy has a great wife. He deserves the best!. I haven’t talked with the rest of them in a very long time and just in the past year started putting myself back out there to be able to be found and would love to get back in contact with them. DB: How was you relationship with Axl? Any fun, crazy or amazing memory that you still remember of him or private time that want to share? JS: As I said my relationship with Axl was special, amazing and strange all at the same time, fun, crazy, and sweet. I previously told my favorite story of him and me together, of all I miss him the most because what we shared in private was something special between just him and me. I also miss Steven, we had a great friendship, he’s so funny. DB: In the times that you spent with Axl, how was he at personal level with family and friends? JS: Very different then with the public, he was different with different people though, I have heard he threw girls out of his house naked and told them basically to F__K off.. but I never experienced that side of him, I have seen him cause a lot of throwing bottles etc. in clubs but he was crazy at times. He had a lot of issues with his family I really don’t want to get into though it is his personal deamons. DB: Did you meet Erin Everly? Do you remember how was the relationship between Axl and Erin? JS: Yes I met Erin several times, she didn’t like me for obvious reasons, I always thought she was his (Axl) true love, but they had a STRANGE relationship and volatile as well. Yet very loving too, they had many physical fights etc, but she was a lot younger than him (so was I), but I do know they loved each other. DB: What can you tell us about this triangles? Adriana, Steve and Axl? JS: The making of rocket queen with Adrianas background part did cause a lot of waves for all 3 of them. Adriana is a free spirit and did and I’m sure still does do what she wants at the moment, and lives for today, as I do now myself!! Barbi however gets very little credit for the song and it was written for her, Adrianna just did “backups” but it has given her a huge amount of attention. She is a sweetheart and we had some really great times together and I always wish her the best too! It is a great song and the end lyrics are so sweet. DB: Did you meet those people? And if you did what can you tell us about them? Vicky Hamilton I don’t recall meeting her, but of course heard a lot about her, I got my copy of the video and album from Geffen, I’m not sure if it was her personally, but she helped them get off the ground! Paul Tobias I never met that I re-call. It was a long time ago.LOL The girl in Axl’s tattoo The girl in Axl’s tattoo I have heard many stories around that and the one thing I do know, it’s a beautiful song!!!!! DB: Tell us about you, your life, your dauther and your family! How are you today? How has been your life since then? JS: Both my daughters are great my oldest Angelina is in college with a 4.0 average : ) I’m a proud mama .. my littlest Lilianna is amazing she’s ½ Dominican so at 2 she speaks both English and Spanish. And she’s so beautiful, both are!, my life is good now, I love animals, we have 2 dogs and a cat which is a small amount, I usually have a Zoo hahahaha.. They are my family, I don’t have contact with my other family, I have a brother in Seattle, who’s very kool! And my biological father died when I was 12 years old. DB: What did it make you come back to LA, California? JS: I came back to LA, Cali from NY because I grew up here and have family here, a better place to raise my baby DB: What do you feel when you see the video these days? What memories come up to your head? JS: So many, sometimes I cry, others I smile and laugh, I miss those days, but you can’t live in the past, you have to live for the day! So I try to do that and know I have had a life many would have loved to have had! DB: Looking back how do you remember those years? JS: The best in my life! They really were, I had more fun then, than anytime I can remember. DB: What do you think about CHINESE DEMOCRACY and Guns N’ Roses nowdays? JS:It’s very different then the old GN’R but I think Axl has what he wants – it his way, I actually haven’t even listened to to CD yet, I will but I’m just happy all of them continue to do what they love and what they are so good at~ making GREAT Rock n Roll!!!! Thank you so much for hearing my input in the making of GN’Rs beginning; there are so many people who were there. I feel privileged to have been apart of it. Thanks again and much love to all the members of GN’R… I love you always~ Julie “The Welcome To The Jungle Girl” Thanks Julie, DailyBetter Group © sends you our warmest greetings and we really appreciate your confidence and choice of providing this great interview, We're sorry about the pictures. Thanks to you we know a little more about the history of Guns N 'Roses, we hopefully that Axl give you a chance to see he someday. We communicate to Rose this interview and data have been provided with the deepest respect that we have him for the sole purpose of being able to help put together a nice history with a happy ending. Management: María Angélica Torre Alba-Staff DailyBetter Project © Preparation, translation and adaptation: Matias DailyBetter Group © Natalia Salaberry-DailyBetter Group © María Angélica Torrealba-Staff DailyBetter Project © DailyBetter Group © DailyBetter Project © You Are Fan, You are Daily! Source: www.dailybetter.com.ar Legal: All rights reserved to DailyBetter Group © and DailyBetter Project ©. DailyBetter Group © prohibit the reproduction in whole or part of this interview without appropriations credits that appear at the bottom of this note and the relevant link. Juliana Sedbrook only authorizes at DailyBetter Group © the publication of the photographs contained in this note with the credits previously agreed. Note and photos based in intellectual property rights and for the deposit required by law. Declarations: Juliana Sedbrook and DailyBetter Group © declare that the interview has been quite agreed in their structure and wording to avoid misinterpretation. 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Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953) is an American recording artist whose career has spanned five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Widely known as the Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide. Khan was ranked at number 17 in VH1's original list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2015, she was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time; she was previously nominated as member of Rufus in 2011. Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with "I Feel for You" in 1984. In the course of her solo career, Khan has achieved three gold singles, three gold albums and one platinum album with I Feel for You. With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, and two platinum albums. In December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 65th most successful dance artist of all-time.

1953–1972: Early life

Chaka Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens on March 23, 1953 into an artistic, bohemian household in Chicago, Illinois. She is the eldest of five children born to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman, and has described her father as a beatnik and her mother as 'able to do anything.' She was raised in the Hyde Park area, 'an island in the middle of the madness' of Chicago's rough South Side housing projects. Her sister Yvonne later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother, Mark, who formed the funk group Aurra, also became a successful musician. She has two other sisters, Zaheva Stevens and Tammy McCrary .

Chaka Khan was raised as a Catholic. She attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan became a fan of rhythm and blues music as a pre-teen and at eleven formed a girl group, the Crystalettes, which included her sister Taka. In the late 1960s, Khan attended several civil rights rallies with her father's second wife, Connie, a strong supporter of the movement, and joined the Black Panther Party after befriending fellow member, activist, and Chicago native Fred Hampton in 1967. Though many think that she was given the name Chaka while in the Panthers she has made it clear that her name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi was given to her at age 13 by a Yoruba Baba. In 1969, she left the Panthers and dropped out of high school, having attended Calumet High School and Kenwood High School (now Kenwood Academy). She began to perform in small groups around the Chicago area, first performing with Cash McCall's group Lyfe, which included her then boyfriend Hassan Khan, whom she would later marry.

She was asked to replace Baby Huey of Baby Huey & the Babysitters after Huey's death in 1970. The group disbanded a year later. While performing in local bands in 1972, she was spotted by two members of a new group called Rufus and soon won her position in the group (replacing rock and roll singer Paulette McWilliams). They later signed with ABC Records in 1973. Prior to signing with the label, she married on-and-off boyfriend Hassan Khan, changing her stage name to Chaka Khan.

Career

1973–1978: Early career with Rufus

In 1973, Rufus released their eponymous debut album. Despite their fiery rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby" from Wonder's acclaimed Talking Book and the modest success of the Chaka-led ballad "Whoever's Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)", the album failed to garner attention. That changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan. That song, "Tell Me Something Good", became the group's breakthrough hit, reaching number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, later winning the group their first Grammy Award. The single's success and the subsequent follow-up, "You Got the Love", which peaked at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100, helped their second parent album, Rags to Rufus, go platinum, selling over a million copies. From 1974 to 1979, Rufus released six platinum-selling albums including Rufusized, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, Ask Rufus, Street Player and Masterjam. Hits the group scored during this time included "Once You Get Started," "Sweet Thing," "Hollywood," "At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)," and "Do You Love What You Feel."

The band gained a reputation as a live performing act with Khan becoming the star attraction, thanks to her powerful vocals and stage attire which sometimes included Native American garb and showing her midriff. Most of the band's material was written and produced by the band itself with few exceptions. Khan has also been noted for being an instrumentalist playing drums and bass; she also provided percussion during her tenure with Rufus. Most of her compositions were collaborations with guitarist Tony Maiden. Relations between Khan and the group, particularly between her and Andre Fischer, became stormy. Several members left with nearly every release. While Khan remained a member of the group, she signed a solo contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1978. While Khan was busy at work on solo material, Rufus released three albums without her participation including 1979's Numbers, 1980's Party 'Til You're Broke, and 1983's Seal in Red.

1978–1983: Early solo career and final years with Rufus

In 1978, Warner Bros. Records released Khan's solo debut album, which featured the crossover disco hit, "I'm Every Woman", written for her by songwriters Ashford & Simpson. The success of the single helped the album go gold, selling over a million copies. Khan also was a featured performer on Quincy Jones's hit, "Stuff Like That", also released in 1978.

In 1979, Khan reunited with Rufus to collaborate on the Jones-produced Masterjam, which featured their hit "Do You Love What You Feel", which Khan sang with Tony Maiden. Despite her sometimes-acrimonious relationship with some of her bandmates, Khan and Maiden have maintained a friendship over the years. In 1979 she also duetted with Ry Cooder on his album Bop Till You Drop. In 1980, while Rufus released Party 'Til You're Broke, again without Khan, she released her second solo album, Naughty, which featured her on the cover with her six-year-old daughter Milini. The album yielded the disco hit "Clouds" and the R&B ballad "Papillon".

Also in 1980, she had a cameo appearance as a church choir soloist in The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Khan released two albums in 1981, the Rufus release, Camouflage and the solo album What Cha' Gonna Do for Me. The latter album went gold. The same year, Khan appeared on three tracks on Rick Wakeman's concept album 1984. In 1982, Khan issued two more solo albums, the jazz-oriented Echoes of an Era and a more funk/pop-oriented self-titled album Chaka Khan. The latter album's track, the jazz-inflected "Be Bop Medley", won Khan a Grammy and earned praise from jazz singer Betty Carter who loved Khan's vocal scatting in the song.

In 1983, following the release of Rufus's final studio album, Seal in Red, which did not feature Khan, the singer returned with Rufus on a live album, Stompin' at the Savoy - Live, which featured the studio single, "Ain't Nobody", which became the group's final charting success reaching number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B chart, while also reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom. Following this release, Rufus separated for good.

1984–1996: Solo success

In 1984, Khan released her sixth studio album, I Feel for You. The title track was the first single released. Originally written and recorded by Prince in 1979, it had also been recorded by The Pointer Sisters and Mary Wells. Khan's version featured a harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder and an introductory rap by Grandmaster Melle Mel. It became a million-selling smash in the U.S. and United Kingdom and helped to relaunch Khan's career. "I Feel for You" topped not only the U.S. R&B and dance charts, but achieved great success on the U.S. pop chart and reached #1 in the United Kingdom. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1984 and remained on that chart for 26 weeks, well into 1985. Additionally, it hit #1 on the Cash Box chart. It was listed as Billboard′s #5 song for 1985 and netted Prince the 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. In addition to the song's successful radio airplay and sales, a music video of Khan with break dancers in an inner-city setting enjoyed heavy rotation on television and helped to solidify Khan's notoriety in popular culture.

Other singles which helped the I Feel For You album to go platinum included "This is My Night" and the ballad "Through the Fire", the latter of which was also very successful on the adult contemporary chart. Khan was featured in Steve Winwood's 1986 number one hit, "Higher Love". That same year, a duet was planned with Robert Palmer for the song "Addicted To Love". However, her manager declined to allow the duet to be released, citing the desire to not have too much product from her in the marketplace at one time; she was still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album's liner notes, and the song became an international hit. Khan followed up her successful I Feel For You album with 1986's Destiny and 1988's CK. Khan found more success in the late 1980s with a remix album, Life Is a Dance: The Remix Project, which reached the top ten on the British albums chart. As a result, she performed regularly in the United Kingdom, where she maintained a strong fan base.

In 1990, she was a featured performer on another major hit when she collaborated with Ray Charles and Quincy Jones on a new jack swing cover of The Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", which was featured on Jones's Back on the Block. The song reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart, later winning her and Ray Charles a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group. Khan returned with her first studio album in four years in 1992 with the release of The Woman I Am, which was a success thanks to the R&B songs "Love You All My Lifetime" and "You Can Make the Story Right".

Khan also contributed to soundtracks and worked on a follow-up to The Woman I Am which she titled Dare You to Love Me, which was eventually shelved. In 1995, she and rapper Guru had a hit with the duet "Watch What You Say", in the United Kingdom. That same year, she provided a contemporary R&B cover of the classic standard, "My Funny Valentine", for the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. In 1996, following the release of her greatest-hits album, Epiphany: The Best of Chaka Khan, Vol. 1, Khan abruptly left Warner Bros. after stating the label had neglected her and failed to release Dare You to Love Me.

1998–present

In 1998, Khan signed a contract with Prince's NPG Records label and issued Come 2 My House, followed by the single "Don't Talk 2 Strangers", a cover of a 1996 Prince song. Khan later went on a tour with Prince as a co-headlining act. In 2000, Khan departed from NPG and in 2004 released her first jazz covers album in twenty-two years with 2004's ClassiKhan. She also covered "Little Wing" with Kenny Olson on the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Three years later, after signing with Burgundy Records, Khan released what many critics called a "comeback album" with Funk This, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis & Big Jim Wright The album featured the hit, "Angel", and the Mary J. Blige duet, "Disrespectful". The latter track went to number one on the U.S. dance singles chart, winning the singers a Grammy Award, while Funk This also won a Grammy for Best R&B Album. The album was notable for Khan's covers of Dee Dee Warwick's "Foolish Fool" and Prince's "Sign o' the Times". In 2008, Khan participated in the Broadway adaptation of The Color Purple playing Ms. Sofia to Fantasia Barrino's Celie.

In a 2008 interview Khan said that she, unlike other artists, felt very optimistic about the current changes in the recording industry, including music downloading. "I'm glad things are shifting and artists – not labels – are having more control over their art. My previous big record company (Warner Bros.) has vaults of my recordings that haven't seen the light of day that people need to hear. This includes Robert Palmer's original recording of 'Addicted to Love' – which they took my vocals off of! We are working on getting it (and other tracks) all back now." In 2009, Khan hit the road with singers Anastacia and Lulu for Here Come the Girls.

In 2009, Chaka was guest singer with the song "Alive" on jazz drummer Billy Cobham's album Drum ' n voice 3. In 2010, she contributed to vocals for Beverley Knight's "Soul Survivor", collaborated with Clay Aiken on a song for the kids show Phineas and Ferb, and performed two songs with Japanese singer Ai on Ai's latest album The Last Ai. Khan continues to perform to packed audiences both in her native United States and overseas.

On May 19, 2011, Khan was given the 2,440th Hollywood Walk of Fame star plaque on a section of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Her family was present when the singer accepted the honor, as was Stevie Wonder, who had written her breakout hit "Tell Me Something Good". On September 27, 2011, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame committee announced that Khan and her former band Rufus were jointly nominated for induction to the hall. It was the collective's first nomination 13 years after they were first eligible. The group were nominated partly due to Khan's own storied reputation, including her own solo career in conjunction with her years with Rufus. Recently, Khan rerecorded her song, "Super Life", under the title "Super Life: Fear Kills, Love Heals" with Eric Benet, Kelly Price, and Luke James in tribute to Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was killed on February 26. A number of celebrities also joined in the recording including Loretta Devine, Terry Crews, Eva Pigford, and reporter Kevin Frazier.

On December 6, 2012, Chaka Khan made a controversial decision to perform at a benefit for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF originally invited Stevie Wonder, however after a successful lobbying campaign by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Wonder withdrew and was replaced by Khan who was able to raise $14 million for the IDF. This support contravened her earlier support for the Black Panther Party that publicly supported a Free Palestine.

On July 27, 2013, Khan was honored 40 years after signing her first recording contract with a ceremonial renaming of Blackstone Avenue between 50th and 51st street (where her former high school, Kenwood Academy, sits) as Chaka Khan Way and on July 28 the city declared the day Chaka Khan Day. She performed at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on the 28th. In August 2014, Khan served as grand marshal at the 85th annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic in her hometown of Chicago.

On August 27, 2015, Khan was announced as one of the celebrities who will compete on season 21 of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Keo Motsepe. Khan and Motsepe were the first couple eliminated from the competition on September 21, 2015.

In July 2016, she canceled concert performances and entered rehab.

Personal life

Khan has been married twice and is the mother of two children, daughter Indira Milini and son Damien Holland. Her first marriage was to Hassan Khan, in 1970, when she was 17. They divorced a short time later. Milini's birth was the result of a relationship between Khan and Rahsaan Morris. Khan married her second husband, Richard Holland, in 1976. The marriage reportedly caused a rift between Khan and several members of Rufus, in particular, Andre Fischer. Khan dated a Chicago-area schoolteacher in the mid-1980s in the middle of her solo stardom. Following their separation, Khan moved to Europe, first settling in London, later buying a residence in Germany. She lived in Germany for a while "in a little village in the Rhine Valley" and also in Mannheim.

Khan is vegan, saying she adopted the diet to lose weight and combat high blood pressure and Type-2 diabetes. In the past, Khan struggled with drug abuse and alcoholism. Her drug use, which at times included cocaine and heroin, ended in the early 1990s. Khan had an on-and-off struggle with alcoholism until 2005 declaring herself sober. In 2006, her son Damien Holland was accused of murder after 17-year-old Christopher Bailey was shot to death. Khan testified on her son's behalf defending her son's innocence. Holland claimed the shooting was an accident and was found not guilty. Though she sang at both the 2000 Democratic and Republican conventions, Khan says that she is more of a "Democratic-minded person".

In December 2011, Khan won permanent custody of her granddaughter, Daija Jade Holland, after reporting that Daija's mother, the girlfriend of Khan's son Damien Holland, was unable to raise her due to her drug addiction. The media reported that Khan's son was also addicted to drugs.

Khan was featured in a 2013 episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories where she told the story of a shadow man who followed her on tour for years, until she met a guardian angel who admonished her to change her life or die.

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

To date, Khan has won 10 Grammy Awards, including two as a member of Rufus. She has received 22 Grammy Award nominations, including three as a member of Rufus.

Soul Train Awards

1998 Lena Horne Award (Career Achievement) (Recipient)

2009 Legends Award (Career Achievement) (Recipient)

United Negro College Fund Award

2011 UNCF: Award of Excellence (Recipient)

American Music Award nominations

To date, she has had four American Music Award nominations.

1985 Favorite Female Artist – Soul/Rhythm & Blues (Nominee only. Award recipient was Tina Turner)

1985 Favorite Female Video Artist – Soul/Rhythm & Blues (Nominee only. Award recipient was Tina Turner)

1982 Favorite Female Artist – Soul/Rhythm & Blues (Nominee only. Award recipient was Stephanie Mills)

1981 Favorite Female Artist – Soul/Rhythm & Blues (Nominee only. Award recipient was Diana Ross)

SoulMusic Hall Of Fame at SoulMusic.com

Inducted: Female Artist (December 2012)

Discography

Chaka (1978)

Naughty (1980)

What Cha' Gonna Do for Me (1981)

Chaka Khan (1982)

Echoes of an Era (1982)

I Feel for You (1984)

Destiny (1986)

ck (1988)

The Woman I Am (1992)

Come 2 My House (1999)

ClassiKhan (2004)

Funk This (2007)

Wikipedia

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It's that time of year again when it's time to go back and watch the TV series "Hostages" starring Michael Douglas, John Rambo and Ben Kingsley. Hostage situation is still prevalent today and you can find many terrorist and hostage situations all over the world. Many people are caught in the middle and in an effort to find out who has taken them captive and why they are in their custody, the CIA sends in a group of specialists called "Hostage Rescue Team".

The team consists of some very experienced and highly trained members. Their job is to get the hostages out of the area, while keeping an eye on the hostage taker. In the first episode we see one member (played by Richard Dean Anderson) running into a building and a huge explosion just happens right behind him and the person he was protecting gets shot in the leg.

The hostage rescue team quickly realizes that there are two men that have been killed - one by a shotgun blast from the hostage taker and the other who is killed by the fire from a machine gun of the hostage rescue team. But one member has also been killed during the firefight. In this episode the series portrays how important it is to use every tool at the disposal of the team. While the team is dealing with multiple suspects, one suspect in particular has to be dealt with quickly.

Throughout the series, the hostages that the hostage rescue team is dealing with change as the series goes along. While the first episode involves only a small group of hostages, the second episode shows the hostages being taken to Iran and eventually to Iraq. The team has to take care of the hostages, while protecting the American hostages from terrorists. As the episodes progress, we learn more about the members of the team, as well as the various missions they are asked to complete throughout the series.

The "Hostages" team was created by writer/directors Steven Soderbergh and Michael Cuesta. The team that they have assembled and have worked with since the first season is composed of more than a dozen different members from across the globe, including people who have worked on movies such as "A Few Good Men", "Ocean's Eleven", "The Perfect Storm"Varsity Blues".

The "Hostages" series has been a major hit for both the film industry and television industry and has made the team a household name. The fans of the show are extremely loyal and will watch each episode over again, as the show continues to provide them with more twists and turns in the plot line.

The third episode of the new "Hostages" TV series, airing on SyFy is a very good one. It follows on the heels of the premiere, which had been rather confusing for many viewers. The second season, on the other hand, was a lot more exciting and suspenseful, which makes it even more of a must-see. "Hostages" continue that high level of suspense and mystery in the show.

The first few minutes were extremely suspenseful as a large group of people who didn't know each other were being stalked by a group of criminals who didn't seem to care who they killed or how. The crime scene was set in an upscale hotel where a lot of people who had attended the same party were supposed to be staying. The hotel manager was killed in front of his office, but he doesn't know until he has to tell all of his staff members. The other guests and workers also have to come up with a plan to save everyone who was left behind.

This is a story about a mysterious stranger who stalks people and kills them. The stranger has to be stopped before he can start another killing spree and cause as much mayhem as he did the last time he went on a killing spree. The series revolves around the various personalities of the suspects, as well as the team of people who have to take down this dangerous person.

Most of the episodes have been extremely entertaining and offer a lot of tension, which is very evident in the new season of "Hostages". Some of the main characters who were introduced in the show are the hotel manager, an FBI agent who is part of a top-secret team trying to catch this suspect, and a young man who happens to be a part of the team as well. The new episodes will delve a little deeper into their history and who exactly they all are. The series promises to be even more thrilling, as the show continues to grow in popularity every day.

The best part of the show is the fact that it focuses on the fact that there are a number of people out there who may be criminals who have been victims of similar crimes before. Because of this, a new group of people is trying to prevent these same people from doing things to innocent people again. This new group of people includes the FBI agent, who is determined to catch a serial killer who killed many people in his previous crime spree, as well as his team of other members who work together to stop another killer who is also working as a hitman.

The second season of "Hostages" is the perfect way to end the series after one of its most exciting seasons so far. The show promises to continue to give viewers a lot of entertainment for a long time to come. If you haven't already seen the first season, I highly suggest that you check it out and give it a shot. You won't be disappointed!

A new Hindi web series, Aaradhyaan, is about a hostage who is taken to a remote village in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh. The village has been threatened by terrorists who are holding hostages and killing the innocent civilians. Aaradhyaan is directed by Bipin Panikkar, an award-winning director who has worked on some of the most popular Hindi TV shows like Ashokan Fareed, Kuch Hota and Sholay to name a few.

Aaradhyaan is a unique web series, not unlike The Day After Tomorrow. It is directed by an American but was shot in India. It centers around a hostage in a rural village who gets kidnapped and taken to a very remote location where he is forced to make a choice between his life and the lives of his captors. It is an interesting tale with a few twists.

Aaradhyaan is very much different from other Indian film, since it has a very unique plot that doesn't follow the traditional story line that we have come to know. It uses a very different way of telling the story and this is one of the reasons why people are now trying to find a copy of the web series.

Aaron, the protagonist of the web series, is a British national who was serving as a security guard in India when terrorists attacked. Aaron had to work for the terrorists for a short period of time before they were killed. He later returned home only to be placed under arrest and accused of spying. Due to his good record and his expertise in counter-terrorism, he has become a prime suspect of being a spy and therefore has been taken hostage.

Aaron must learn to survive his imprisonment, while fighting off other terrorists as well as the people of his village who are also involved in his kidnapping. He is also required to fight his way through the maze of the wilderness and face several other obstacles along the way. His ultimate goal is to free himself and return to normal life. In order to achieve this goal, he is forced to think and act quickly, which in turn creates an atmosphere of suspense.

Aaradhyaan is a very intriguing web series, and the storyline and acting of the lead character Aaron are very well done. It is entertaining, suspenseful and is full of adventure and excitement. The story and visuals are top notch. This makes it an ideal Hindi movie for viewing online.

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[pegasusdragontiger]

The Stupid and Moronic things Steve Rogers Has Done List

Pairing: Pepper Potts/ Tony Stark, Thor/Jane hint at Darcy Lewis/James Barnes/Steve Rogers

Rating: G

Warnings: Fluff and feels, Laughter.  

Summary: Well someone hands Bucky a list and things don’t turn out so well. No Super Soldiers were harmed in the writing of this fic.

Okay so I got this Idea from this post that was sent to me by @queendivaofthedark pegasusdragontiger sent a photo post omg #22 whoever created the cartoon is a gem and I want to hug them so much! Cause it was like an idea buzzing in my head and told @bolontiku about and she said to me write it and tag her! Also I like to shout out to @glynnisi I sent out a call like months ago for a list of all the Stupidest and moronic things and funniest things Steve has done from the moment he rescued the Howlies and Bucky to meeting up with Bucky again and it must have been a day or too afterwards or maybe three? Anyway I tagged @mcgregorswench to help and she was like the one person to ask @glynnisi and it must have been like 4 mins later BAM I HAD THE LIST! which I have copied and saved so the list I give credit to her so If you want said list I can post that too. Lastly to my bestie/my friend/ my sis from another mother she is like a rock filled with sunshine you is has been and meant so much to me we met on Ao3 randomly and been besties ever since. By the way still planning on ruling the world or plotting can’t remember which but we will get their with our fics! This awesome funny, hilarious person beta’d this fic which I hope, I hope lives up to everything. anyway to my beta @littleplebe HERE IT IS PEOPLE!

 It was early morning when Steve and Bucky came in from their daily morning run, all tall, sweaty, gorgeously built men slightly puffing from their 15 km run. Sam hunched over, trying to drag air into his lungs. “You guys do this to me all the time, god… damn you both! I can’t breathe, I can’t move!” He collapsed on the floor. “I’m dying! I’m dying!”

Chuckling at Sam lying on the floor gasping for air, Bucky teased, “Sure you are, birdy!” He walked into the kitchen to get started on breakfast. It was his turn on the roster of kitchen duty. As he bent down getting all the pans, knives, chopping boards and the ingredients needed for what he was going to be cooking, he asked Jarvis to wake the others and notify them about breakfast.

Only a select few of the Avengers could cook. Steve, Bucky, Nat if she ever felt inclined to, which wasn’t often, and Bruce. The other person was Darcy, who was not an Avenger but her food and deserts were legendary.

While Steve prepared the pancakes, Bucky worked on scrambled eggs. He chopped the onion, bacon, tomatoes, cracked the eggs, added milk and a bit of butter, His left hand quickly whisked all the ingredients in a bowl Once the pans were hot, they started to cook.

“Jarvis, can you heat up the oven please?”

“Of course sir!”

Bucky heard the sound of the ovens turning on and watched the pans while waiting for everyone to arrive.

The smell of scrambled eggs and pancakes brought in Nat, Darcy and Thor with a struggling Jane behind him. The scientist was still in sleep mode and mumbling science equations under her breath. Next came Bruce, also drowsy from the all nighter he had pulled with Jane and Tony.  All threw a half-hearted good morning to each other before grabbing a glass of juice or a mug of coffee to start their day.

Sam, having just recovered from their morning run, got up from the floor and greeted everyone before heading off to his room to have a shower before breakfast. He walked a bit bowlegged, which made Bucky look up and smirk.

Rhodey and Pepper ambled in. Pepper had her power suit on for her meeting with her team in the morning before she was due for a conference with Stark Industries’ board for their annual meetings.

The last person to shuffle in was Tony, hair all over the place, eyes half lidded, with two posted notes on his face which he didn’t seem to notice. He made a beeline for the coffee machine, simply grunting at everyone as a form of greeting.

Plates and silverware were placed on the table; Sam and Nat started removing the food from the oven, placing them on the table; and Bucky finished the last lot of bacon in the pan. Steve flipped the last pancake and placed it on the already towering stack. Making sure everything was on the table, they moved to take their seat when the vent above him popped open and out dropped Clint, looking like he’d just woken up, hair tussled, yawning and rubbing his eyes. When his eyes landed on Bucky, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a booklet which looked like it had been stapled together. He handed it to Bucky with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Here’s a list of all the stupid things Steve has done while you were gone!”

All conversations at the table stopped, eyes wide and forks with food hovering in the air, every gaze fixed on Clint and the two super soldiers. Grinning like a loon with a death wish, the archer quickly went and took his seat at the table, greeting everyone and piling food in his plate, making sure it rivaled the mountain of food set before Thor.

Nat looked between Steve and Bucky with open interest. She nudged Clint and tilted her head towards the two men yet to sit at the table, her amused eyes silently asking ‘what is that booklet?’ Clint simply winked and tapped his nose in a secretive gesture.

Steve gaped at Clint, then at Bucky, seeming nervous to utter a single word. Bucky frowned and turned the booklet over to see Clint’s recently uttered words in block letters like a title. Underneath, it said, ‘Written by Agent M. Carter, Howling Commandos , Col. C. Phillips. Edits by N. Fury, Agent M. Hill and Agent N. Romanoff.

Bucky’s mind was going a mile a minute, his brain trying to compute what the hell kind of things the list would reveal. His Winter Soldier side scoffed at the silliness, thinking this was the most ridiculous thing he had heard of! But his Bucky side, once he had skimmed down the detailed list, tried to calm his mind down, reminding himself to take deep breaths, to force the air from his lungs, to breathe in and out. In his poor mind, the Bucky from forties was in shock but also wanted to stare really hard at Steve and give him a scolding.

No, that won’t work on Stevie, Bucky thought. I need to do what Steve’s mom used to and cuff him over the head for his stupidity.

“Bucky? Buck?” Steve’s worried voice sounded as if from a distance.

Bucky looked up at his friend, his expression changing from cool best bud to dark and stormy like the Winter Soldier in a span of a few seconds.

“You okay, Buck? You need to breathe?”

Not realising he was holding his breath, Bucky took in an unsteady breath. He locked eyes with Steve and finally spoke, forgetting their audience, “What’s this, pal?”

Steve looked nervously at the booklet. “Um… I don’t know.”

“Whaddaya mean ya don’t know, you punk?”

Steve looked shocked at Bucky’s tone, then narrowed his eyes. “Means I don’t know, ya jerk.”

Both glared at each other. Then Bucky shoved the booklet under Steve’s nose and demanded, “Then why does it say Here Is A List Of All The Stupid And Moronic Things Steven Grant Rogers Has Done While He Was Captain America?”

Steve gaped at the booklet like a fish out of water, mouth opening and closing, eyes wide as they carefully read the title and the names below it.

Bucky was on a roll as he continued, “Why does it say written by Agent. M Carter? Huh! And Howling Commandos? Col. C. Phillips? What the hell, Steve?”

Steve’s mouth was set in a comical O. He shook his head in denial, trying to form words to answer Bucky. At that moment, an old memory hit him like a bullet. A conversation between Peggy and Gabe, long ago, when they were planning an assault on Schmidt's base in the Alps. They were all sitting together, laughing and joking, when Gabe teased,  “Wouldn’t it be funny if we made a little booklet on the stupid things Cap has done since he rescued us?” Everyone snorted and Peggy shook her head before letting loose a smirk which hinted that she might already be planning on making such a silly list! At the time, Steve had thought Bucky would have liked that even though it would have gotten him into trouble! Now, though, after having done several more ‘stupid things’ as they said, Steve wasn’t so sure about Bucky calming down so easily and seeing the humor in it.

Steve shook the memory from his mind and realized Bucky still stood before him reading the booklet. Steve couldn’t believe they did it. The loons actually made the list! They actually sat down with each other and wrote all the crazy things he did, with a few updated things added. Mind racing, yet his breathing staying calm, he oh so slowly backed away from Bucky, knowing what was going to come. He decided a quick getaway was in the cards, knowing Bucky was reading the list, he backed further and further away.

His stupid shoe made a squeaky noise and Steve sighed in frustration, wanting to burn his shoe into nothing but ash. He looked up as Bucky’s head slowly glanced up, eyes blazing, mouth turned in, eyebrows scrunching up. Bucky slowly counted one to ten in his head before saying incredulously, “It’s twelve pages, Steve, twelve pages!” He looked down and when he looked up again, Steve had made more progress in moving away from him. “It’s double sided, Steve! DOUBLE SIDED!”

Steve stayed where he was. “Ah hehe,” he tried to laugh it off, pulling the innocent smile he used on all the ladies in the neighbourhood, the smile that got them both out of trouble a few times back in the day when they were kids. That smile could get him away with anything and everything; all he had to do was the “aww shucks ma’am” routine and bam! The little old ladies didn’t know what hit them. Even Bucky’s own Ma didn’t catch on till Stevie’s Ma talked to his, and then little Steve and Bucky didn’t get away with some of their stuff anymore in his home.

“Now Buck, it’s,” Steve started eagerly. “It’s not that bad, really. Only a few... just a few things I may have done? Nothing like near death experience!” He moved to put himself past the table and behind Darcy who was raptly watching the morning’s entertainment.

Bucky took murder struts closer to Steve and the table, waving the booklet that he got turned to page 4, or was it 5? Who cared? “Nothing near death?” Bucky’s voice rose. “Not too bad?... Just a few things, right? So jumping out of a plane while said plane was being shot at isn’t near death? How about signing up for an experiment program without knowing if you will live to see it through or DIE?”

“Now hang on a minute,” Steve interjected quickly. “That was Dr. Erskine and he was confident.”

“Confident, eh? His only other test subject was Red Skull and if I remember correctly, his SKULL WAS RED! AND HE HAD ANGER MANAGEMENT ISSUES PLUS BEING INSANE! Oh but wait there's more! YOU CRASHED A PLANE IN THE ARCTIC? WHEN DID YOU LEARN TO FLY A PLANE? Look at these, Stevie, look at them! This is insane!” He waved the booklet around everyone at the table.

They were all watching the scene like a tennis match, eyes flitting back and forth, seeing who won each point. Tony was so riveted, he had asked Jarvis to slyly keep score. Clint wiggled giddily in his seat and smiled while shoveling food in his mouth.

“I didn’t! I just took a guess is all!” Steve stammered, fidgeting under his best friend’s furious gaze.

“GODDAMIT STEVE!” In a bid to calm down, Bucky closed his eyes. “And don’t you dare move from that spot, you punk! I’m not through with you!” He remembered something and his eyes opened in a glare. “YOU JUMPED OUTTA PLANE WITH NO CHUTE YOU ARE A GODDAMN MORON!”

Steve, looking suitably ashamed, nodded his head. “Okay, that one I admit was stupid but it was in the middle of the ocean it was reckless I admit.”

“Oh, reckless now, is it? Didn’t ya Ma tell ya to not be so damn stupid? You could have died, you have a death wish huh, Steve? Jeez, you have more sense when I’m with ya than when I’m not!”

“Look at this, STEVE parachuted (on plus side, he used a parachute!) into the middle of a pissing contest between Iron Man and Thor; argued with a somewhat unstable narcissistic philanthropist playboy genius to the verge of fighting him in armor; nearly plunged to death off back of helicarrier, but managed to hold on by one tiny strap while dodging bullets; broke into super top secret Phase 2 SHIELD weapons storage (should have been guards there); aced down an entire squad of alien army guys and got blown out window to crash onto car; let Tony Stark blast shield with repulsor rays in hopes they would bounce off and hit baddies (yay! it worked even tho we had no time to practice/test that); and this one has to be my favourite of all -- elevator fight, 10 men and one hand behind his back most of it, then elevator JUMP through girders to marble floor nearly 150 ft below with only shield to dampen fall.” Bucky paused and turned wide eyes to Steve. “WHAT POINT IN YA GODDAMN MIND MADE YOU THINK JUMPING OUT OF A LIFT WAS OKAY?”

“I had no choice--”

“No choice! STEVE, YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE! IT’S JUST THAT IT ENTERS YOUR BRAIN BUT IT WON’T COMPUTE!”

“IF YOU’D LET ME FINISH, YA JERK! I HAD NO CHOICE! THEY HAD HYDRA SWAT COMING DOWN THE HALL TO THE LIFT AND I HAD NO WAY OUT. JUMPING OUT WAS MY ONLY OPTION!”

Both of them huffed and puffed, staring each other down, too furious to say words. Bucky threw the booklet on the table and moved toward Steve, who jerked and darted away as Bucky chased him around the table.

It was a funny sight,one man trying to escape and the other trying to catch and whack him hard for his stupidity. Not really hard, but to cuff him over the head for being a moron and to make up for what his Ma couldn’t do! God bless her soul, she would be rolling in her grave for sure at Steve for being so careless.

The rest of the Avengers watched  with varied degrees of shock and amusement while their food sat uneaten.

Clint giggled like a loon and said to Nat, “Wanna bet Barnes gets Stevie good?”

Nat, looking on in her Black Widow way, side-eyed Clint. “How much you willing to bet?”

Tony, having heard them, piped up, “Hang on, hang on, are you saying that Barnes will be the winner of this esteemed fight, not our fearless leader?”

Clint smirked as if he was seeing dollar signs before his eyes. “Yes, got something to say about do that, Tony?”

Pepper looking between the three of them. “Tony, don’t you dare!” she warned. “Every bet you go into with Clint and Nat you never win! And I have to listen to you whine and complain for three weeks, Tony! THREE WEEKS!”

Tony looked affronted. “But...but Pep, I can’t not support our Cap!”

Clint and Nat were grinning like a grinch at Christmas time. “Scared, Tony?” Nat asked slowly, chewing on her piece of bacon.

“No! Jarvis you will look after the bet and the money.”

“Of course, sir.”

“I bet 150 on Cap to kick Barnes’ ass!”

Clint rubbed hands together. “Oh yeah, 250 in favor of Barnes, Jarvis!”

“Of course. Anyone else want to place a bet?”

“Goddamnit, Tony!” Pepper looked pissed with each minute passing by.

Rhodey looked on in equal horror and entertainment. “Now I can’t let you say that without backing my buddy! Jarvis, make note, 100 on Cap!”

“Noted, sir.”

Thor laughed. “This is the best entertainment I’ve ever had during a meal” Smiling widely at Jane, he asked, “I would also like to make a bet my love, do you approve?”

Jane was shoveling food into her mouth and chewing while muttering equations. She took a while before her head came up and said, “Hmm what...what?”

“Tony, Rhodey and Clint have made a bet that either Barnes or Steve will win this mighty battle, was wondering if I could make one?”

“Oh ..um? 200 on Steve.”

“Oh a good suggestion, mighty Jarvis, I would also place 500 Asgardian gold coins!”

“No, no! Jarvis, place 150 US dollars on... who did you pick?”

“Oh, can’t I use Asgardian coins?”

“No, Thor. Asgardian currency doesn’t work here!”

“Such a shame. I was going to pick mighty fair Steven!”

“Jarvis! Please can you?”

“Done, of course, Dr. Foster”

Sam was looking on in amazement. He grinned and said, “100 on Steve please, Jarvis.”

“Done, sir.”

Darcy was trying not to daydream and moon over the hot men chasing each other around the table. “200 on a draw!” she said.

Everyone looked at her in disbelief.

Tony complained, “That’s not fair!”

Bruce said, “I’m not getting involved.”

Tony and Clint whined, “Please come on, it’s not fun without you!”

Bruce sighed, giving in. “Fine. 50 on Barnes! Okay can I get back to my food, please?”

Tony and Clint jumped in their seats. “Pepper, darling Pep, are you going to…?”

“No Tony! You know betting isn’t my thing! 50 on Barnes, Jarvis.”

Tony stared at her, stunned and betrayed. “You? You went against me!”

Pepper smiled. “I did it to teach you a lesson.”

Nat, still not having bet, said, “250 on a draw, Jarvis.”

“What?” Clint exclaimed. “You can’t do that!”

Natasha looked over at Clint with her murder stare. “I can and I just did!”

Clint sulked while going back to the action going on around him. “It’s not fair.”

Steve took a chance and ran for the lifts; Bucky noticed the slight change in direction and did an impressive leap over the table and over people’s head to go after him, yelling, “YOU CAN’T RUN OR HIDE FROM ME, STEVE! I WILL GET YOU, MARK MY WORDS!” He caught him before the entrance into the hallway and with his strength on display pulled him back in a wrestling move to the floor. Everyone at the table all stood in shock, including Clint with mouth open and food tumbling out, stood to watch as the two very grown and adult men wrestled like 4 years olds over a toy or the last piece of Mrs. Barnes or Mrs. Rogers’ cake. Grappling with each other... hits, kicks, and punches thrown in with the occasional grunt.

Their Brooklyn accent came out as they yelled at each other and Tony asked if Jarvis was recording this for movie night in the future.

“Of course sir, would I ever let you down?”

Thor said to Jane, “This is the best breakfast I have ever had, we should do this more often!”

Darcy finished her food and looked at the two men she had a crush on for so long! It wasn’t everyday you see your crushes get all annoyed, mad, pissed to the point they were fighting on the floor. Everyone got up and cleaned everything up, leaving them some food for when they finished their little fight.

One everyone went their separate ways, both Steve and Bucky slowed down to a stop. Exhausted, they stayed on the floor, looking at each other. “This is why you don’t ever do missions without me! I stop your stupid from taking over and making you do moronic things!” panted Bucky.

Laughing at each other, Steve nodded. Nat, walking by, shot them a grin and said, “ You really think, Steve, that all that stuff would only take 12 double sided pages? Really? Oh Steve, we have so much more to share with everyone!” Smiling serenely, she turned around and walked out with a spring in her step, calling out to Clint to wait up.

Bucky looked at Steve as if to say what! Darcy coughed to let them know they weren’t alone. “We left you some food on the table. Just make sure you clean up after yourselves!” Smiling at the both and praising herself for not making an absolute fool of herself, she sauntered out of the room not noticing the two soldiers watching her walk away. Two dreamy sighs were heard as they watched the one person whose opinions mattered. Darcy Lewis made them feel warm and homey.

Bucky laughed at the expression on Steve’s face. “You’re mooning again, punk, stop it.”

Steve huffed in annoyance.“I’m not mooning, you are.”

“Am not, you are.”

“No, you!”

“You!”

“You!”

They glared at each other, not moving. Then, sighed and pulled each other up from the floor and walked to the table to have their hot breakfast.

Bucky chewed his food and said, “I know you love her, ya punk. Just make a move!”

Steve sighed. “I will. Just let me get a chance to work up to it!”

“What in heaven's name do you have to work up to? Just walk down there and tell her how we love her to bits and bits! And want to date her that will lead to an Asgardian marriage and then little Darcy/Steve/Bucky toddlers running around getting into mischief like we did!”

“If you’re so confident of saying all that to her then why don’t you do it?” Steve challenged.

“Cause I’m a deadly assassin and she wouldn’t like to hear it from me.”

They stayed there for a long time, arguing over who should go down there once they are done to ask out their dream girl.

The End

Tagging: @bolontiku @magellan-88 @always-an-evans-addict @ilovethings-somuch @littleplebe @mcgregorswench @glynnisi @ryverpenrad @aenariasbookshelf @anais-ninja-blog @phoenix-173 @wahwahwaffles @mee2themoo @idontgettechnology @theycallmebecca @mycapt-ohcapt @cinnaatheart @leftennant @hollyspacey @holdmecloseandfast

[keywestlou]

MORNING STEW #24

So much to share this morning. Calls for a Morning Stew.

Welcome to Morning Stew #24.

At a Trump rally in Tupelo, Mississippi last night, the President described impeachment as an “attack on democracy.” Impeachment is not the attack. The attack is the President himself.

At the same rally, Trump discussed Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke announced yesterday he was withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination. Trump said Beto “quit like a dog.” Plus it is reported the President used words that could not be printed.

A class act, our President!

Dresden was and still is a major German city. The Allies bombed the hell out of it during World War II.

Dresden as with all other German communities, quickly adapted following World War II to a way of life similar to that of most Allied communities. Nazism was totally and absolutely rejected.

Things have changed.

Dresden has a “Nazi emergency.” “Nazinotstand” the term. Means Dresden has “a serious problem…..open democratic society is threatened.”

A neo-Nazi mayor has been elected. Does not mean Dresden has become a Nazi bastion. The City Council voted in favor wednesday night 39-29 in support of a resolution reflecting and showing their dismay for the neo-Nazi mayor and the wave of neo-Nazism which is creeping over Dresden.

The resolution is intended to show the City Council’s position in opposition to neo-Nazism and their opposition to the growth of anti-Islamism in the Dresden. The resolution reflected the City Council’s commitment to fostering “a free, liberal, democratic society that protects minorities and resolutely opposes Nazis.”

Anti-Islamism is on the rise. Sometime in October, demonstrations began. Weekly, every monday night. Described as” an anti-Islam Pegida movement.” Pegida stands for “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West.” Islamophobia at its worst.

Most of the world is moving to the right. Not a healthy situation.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is National Sandwich Day.

Last year many of the chains gave out free sandwiches. This will not be the case this year. Most are advising customers how to sign up for apps. that will assist in ordering.

Subway is doing something . I think a buy one, get one free deal. McDonald’s is giving out coupons directing customers to go to McDonald’s apps and take advantage of any benefits available therfein. McDonald’s is returning to Happy Meals in a limited fashion also. Described as retro Happy Toys from 1988.

All confusing this year. Last year was much easier when most of the chains invited a person in for a freebie.

Syracuse/Boston College at noon. Boston College a  3 point favorite. Hope Syracuse wins. I am screwed once again. The game is being carried on ACCN. ACCN and Comcast have not made their dollar deal yet for Syracuse games. Ergo, we Syracuse fans are left out in the cold.

On this day in 1948, Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey  for the U.S. Presidency.

Much amusement involved in the result.

Dewey was predicted winner by political analysts and polls. Truman was going to get buried. The Chicago Daily Tribune went to press early election night putting newspapers on the street bearing the headline: Dewey Defeats Truman. H. V. Kaltenborn was the radio man of the day. No TV back then. A much respected radio commentator. He had a very distinguishable voice. Before the results were all in, he went on national radio and announced Dewey the victor.

Truman got them all!

Truman the farm boy who became President. No college education. However a man of honesty and integrity as the nation knew.

After his victory, Truman announced he was going to Key West on vacation.

My life was fortunate to cross paths 3 times with Truman. The most memorable occurred my last year of law school at Syracuse.

Truman was coming to visit the University. Two days. Don’t be shocked. Syracuse was known as a Democratic bastion at the time. The visit was several years after Truman finally left office.

A private luncheon with Truman was scheduled for the purportedly “twelve outstanding students on campus”. As luck would have it, I was selected to represent the law school.

Even better, seating for the 12 plus the former President was at 2 round tables. Six at one, 7 at the other.

Seating was at the discretion of the University. My name card was immediately to the right of Truman. I got to sit next to him for a good 2 hours.

Most of Truman’s comments had to do with the 1948 election. He had a copy of the Chicago newspaper which he had exhibited to us. He also had a recording of Kaltenborn’s words that Truman had lost. He talked about both with a chuckle in his voice. He got ’em!

On November 1, 1950, an attempt was made on Truman’s life. The President and his wife were living in Blair House at the time. The White House was being remodeled.

Around 2 in the afternoon, 2 Puerto Ricans who supported Puerto Rico independence ran up the front steps and reached the front door of Blair House. Shooting along the way.

One assassin was killed as was 1 Secret Service officer.

Mr. and Mrs. Truman were upstairs and never in danger.

The assassins’ acts did not make sense. Truman was openly for Puerto Rican autonomy.

The surviving assassin was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Truman commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

Trump has become a Florida resident. Cut the ropes that bound him to New York.

No one seems unhappy. The Mayor and Governor in effect said good riddance to bad rubbish.

I can understand Trump wanting to leave. He has been for many years unpopular in New York. The City only gave him 10 percent of  the Presidential vote. Additionally, he has never been accepted by the elite, socially, or those in politrics on a personal basis. His reputation and personality make such understandable.

Even as President, he has not been assimilated by New York City’s bigwigs.

Can you imagine, not wanting the President of the U.S. as a friend!

There will be no unhappiness in Mudville that Trump has opted to become a resident of Florida. His residence Mar-a-Lago.

I do not see any social benefit to Trump living full time in Mar-a-Lago. Palm Beach is a seasonal community. A warm weather venue. Otherwise, the homes are empty. Who will he socialize with?

Many retire for tax reasons to Florida. With his income coming from many areas and sources, it will not be easy for a good portion of his income to go tax free.

The Sistine Chapel. Beauty beyond description. As if the hand of God painted the ceiling rather than Michelangelo.

The Sistine Chapel with its newly painted ceiling was opened to the public on November 1, 1512.

Thirty five years ago, I was fortunate to visit the Sistine Chapel. My then wife, children and my parents with me. I was in awe!

The Sistine Chapel was crowded. Shoulder to shoulder, body to body. Heads tipped up.

Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes took several years to complete. The most famous The Creation of Adam. The arms of God and Adam stretched toward each other almost touching.

God is in His Heaven in the ceiling as conceived and painted by Michelangelo.

At one point, my father and I were standing in the middle of the Chapel. My father look at me and told me, did not ask, “What’s the big deal?” I smiled. I had no response.

I could not blame Dad. It was hot with all those bodies crushed together, painful for the neck, tiring to be on one’s feet since it took forever to reach the Chapel through a long narrow crowded hallway.

Many years ago, I wrote an article for KONK Life spelling out how prisoners were entitled to the very best medical care. Some what difficult to understand when you realize how many persons in the U.S. cannot afford health care. Yet we provide it free to those who have broken the law.

The scenario is the result of the U.S. Supreme Court case Estelle v. Gamble decided in the 1960’s.

The situation comes to mind this morning because of Steven Hayes. He is serving 6 life sentences in a Pennsylvania jail. Sentenced because of his part in the murder of Hawke-Petit and her 2 daughters. He and an accomplice perpetrated a home invasion and brutally killed the three. First with beatings. Then dousing with gasoline. Finally setting the whole house on fire.

Hayes has been receiving hormone therapy in prison as part of a gender transition. He says he is in reality a female.

A Pennsylvania statute limits medications per inmate to $600 a month. It prohibits/refuses to pay for any surgery related to gender modification.

I am not aware whether the statute not allowing any payment for gender modification has been tested in a federal court. I would assume the Estelle decision would override it.

The reason behind the Estelle decision is that prisons/the state is required to provide the “very best medical care.” Translated means a right to adequate medical care. Failure to so provide constitutes a violation of the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The filming of the Rose Tattoo began this day in 1954 at a house on Duncan Street. Two doors from Tennessee Williams’ home. Tennessee Williams wrote the play which was the basis for the movie.

Change the clock again. Do not forget to turn your clock back one hour tonight before going to bed.

Enjoy your day!

  MORNING STEW #24 was originally published on Key West Lou

[thisdaynews]

Beto’s Long History of Failing Upward

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/betos-long-history-of-failing-upward/

Beto’s Long History of Failing Upward

AMES, Iowa—The presidential run of Beto O’Rourke is a profoundly personality-driven exercise, his charisma and Kennedy-esque demeanor the topic of one profile after another, so it’s surprising to listen to his speeches on the stump in which he doesn’t talk a whole lot about himself. In Iowa recently, over several days in a rainy, foggy, uncertain stretch of spring, O’Rourke delivered a series of speeches and held question-and-answer sessions in which he spoke at length about unity, civility and inclusivity, and only rarely touched on his personal story. There was one notable exception: When he did offer up bits of his biography, he leaned most heavily on his run last year against Ted Cruz for a spot in the United States Senate.

He recounted for the crowds tales of the places he went and the people he met during his barnstorming, freewheeling, attention-getting campaign, coming back to two numbers: 254, the number of counties in gargantuan Texas, all of which he visited … and the percentage-point margin by which he was defeated.

Story Continued Below

“We lost by 2.6 percent,” he said in a basement music venue here at Iowa State University.

“We lost that Senate race in Texas by 2.6 percent,” he said in a downtown greasy spoon in Storm Lake.

“We came within 2.6 percentage points of defeating Ted Cruz,” he said in a community college cafeteria in Fort Dodge.

“So close,” the local party leader said in introducing O’Rourke one morning at a brewpub in Carroll. “So close.”

The part of his past that he talked about the most, by far, was a race that he lost.

O’Rourke, 46, campaigns with the wanderlust of the wannabe punk rocker he once was and the vigor of the regular runner, hiker and cyclist he still is. His hair is somehow simultaneously boyish and salt-and-pepper-streaked. He drives himself around in rented Dodge minivans, dressed almost always in plain brown shoes, Banana Republic chinos and blue oxford shirts with no tie and the sleeves rolled up just so. He often dons locally appropriate dad hats, from a maroon Iowa State cap at Iowa State to an orange Clemson cap at Clemson and so on. He holds microphones with his right hand kind of like a singer, and he extends his left arm into the air kind of like a preacher, and he punctuates his points with grins that flash perfectly imperfect teeth.

After Iowa, I dropped in on O’Rourke on the trail in South Carolina and Virginia, listening to him rat-a-tat-tat through his airy, often alliterative talking points about “common cause” and “common ground” and “common good” and “conscientious capitalism” and “our aspirations” and “our ambitions” instead of the “pettiness” and the “partisanship” of politics today, along with planks of a nascent platform like a new voting rights act, citizenship for Dreamers, “world-class public education” and “guaranteed, high-quality, universal health care.” And almost always, when he did talk about himself, it would be back to the time he fell just short. “We lost by 2.6 percent,” he said to a small, low-key gathering in rural Denmark, South Carolina.

Celebrating defeat is unusual for a politician, and doing so makes O’Rourke notably different from the rest of the unwieldy field of Democrats running for president. In contrast to the 20 or so other 2020 candidates—all of them in various ways overachievers who tout the litanies of their successes—O’Rourke instead presents his loss to Cruz as a prominent selling point. More than his ownership of a small business. More than his six years on the city council in his native El Paso. More than his next six years as a back-bench House member in Congress. His near-miss against a prominent Republican in a red state was such a high-quality failure, so epically heroic, he seems to suggest, that it should be considered something of a victory.And he’s not wrong to do it. His failed Senate bid, after all, is singularly what made him famous, what got him an interview with Oprah, what put him on the cover ofVanity Fair—and what’s put him in the top handful of aspirants angling for a shot to topple President Donald Trump.

But while it might be his most spotlit miss, it’s not an aberration.

There’s a reason his biography doesn’t feature much in the campaign. For O’Rourke, the phenomenon on display in that race—failure without negative effects, and with perhaps even some kind of personal boost—is a feature of his life and career. That biography is marked as much by meandering, missteps and moments of melancholic searching as by résumé-boosting victories and honors. A graduate of an eastern prep school and an Ivy League rower and English major, the only son of a gregarious attorney and glad-handing pol and the proprietor of an upscale furniture store, the beneficiary of his family’s expansive social, business and political contacts, O’Rourke has ambled past a pair of arrests, designed websites for El Paso’s who’s who, launched short-lived publishing projects, self-term-limited his largely unremarkable tenure on Capitol Hill, shunned the advice of pollsters and consultants and penned overwrought, solipsistic Medium missives, enjoying the latitude afforded by the cushion of an upper-middle-class upbringing that is only amplified by his marriage to the daughter of one of the region’s richest men.

“With a charmed life like his, you can never really lose,” an ad commissioned by the conservative Club for Growth sneered last month. “That’s why Beto’s running for president—because he can.”

“A life of privilege,” David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, told me.

It’s not just Republicans who think this. “He’s a rich, straight, white dude who, you know, married into what should politely be called ‘fuck you money,’” Sonia Van Meter, an Austin-based Democratic consultant and self-described “raging feminist,” told me. “His biggest success is by definition a failure,” she added. “He’s absolutely failed up.”

Even by the experience-light standards of the most recent occupants of the White House—a first-term senator followed by a real estate scion and reality TV star—the notion of O’Rourke’s uneven résumé blazing a path to the presidency is new and remarkable. For the moment, he is trailing and slipping in the polls, but it’s early, and he is still attracting besotted fans. The support O’Rourke built that even allowed this run in the first place did not depend on traditional concepts of meritocracy and diligent preparation. To look deeper into his past, to talk to his friends from his teens and his 20s, to read distant clips from money-losing media ventures, and to talk to voters, too, is to see a different kind of claim to excellence. In the end, O’Rourke’s best recommendation that he can win might be that he knows how to fail big—and then aim even higher.

O’Rourke’s ascent in some sensestarted more than 20 years back. In the summer of 1998, he made the choice to quit New York. He had graduated in 1995 from Columbia University, then spent most of the next three years playing, listening to and talking about music, reading theEconomistand theNew Yorker, drinking Budweiser, riding in cramped subway cars. He had worked for short periods as a nanny, a copy editor, a hired-hand mover of art and antiques, and in a series of odd jobs around the city that let him split cheap rent in a sparsely furnished Brooklyn loft where he liked to jump on a rooftop trampoline. Now, though, he wanted out, and so he bought a used pickup and drove home, steering toward more open road. He was, he has said, “young” and “happy” and “carefree.”

This decision to leave New York, his longtime friend Lisa Degliantoni told me recently, was and remains O’Rourke’s biggest, most consequential accomplishment—not just a learning experience or a tail-between-his-legs withdrawal, she believes, but an accomplishment. In her mind, it unleashed O’Rourke, allowing him to be “transformational”—first for his city, then for his state, and now potentially for his country.

Trading the bright lights and the bustle for the relative ease and isolation of the desert by the Mexican border, Degliantoni said, was risky, “because as soon as you’re there, you’re off all the radars.” That risk was mitigated significantly, however, by what he was heading home to, according to interviews with nearly two dozen people who have known him or worked with O’Rourke. Riding shotgun in the cab of that pickup was Mike Stevens, another one of his best friends, and when they logged the last of those 2,200 or so miles, Stevens told me, waiting for O’Rourke in El Paso was far from certain success but also “a pretty large safety net.”

He used it. Upon his return, he worked at first in the warehouse of his mother’s store. That fall, he was arrested after driving drunk in his Volvo at 3 a.m. and sideswiping a truck at “a high rate of speed” on Interstate 10. He went to “DWI school,” finishing the next spring.

It was his second arrest. Three years before, he had been apprehended by the police at the University of Texas El Paso after tripping an alarm trying to sneak under a fence at the campus physical plant while “horsing around” with friends. Prosecutors didn’t pursue the charge. (“No consequences,” said McIntosh from the Club for Growth.)

The next year, in 1999, O’Rourke started the Stanton Street Technology Group, an offshoot of which was StantonStreet.com. The website covered the arts and food and local politics and endeavored to be “the most comprehensive, interactive, and entertaining home page in the Southwest.” In the summer of 2000, it was registering 32,000 monthly “impressions,” according to O’Rourke at the time, a figure whose impact is hard to gauge given the early era of the internet and the size of El Paso—but the site also was bleeding money, taking from the coffers of the web design business. Even so, in January 2002, he launched a weekly print version. Bob Moore, the former editor of theEl Paso Times, told me he used to rib O’Rourke that one of his few advertisers was his mother—“his only advertiser,” he said, “for the longest time.” It lasted 15 issues.

The newspaper was, said Degliantoni, who worked on it with him, O’Rourke’s “love letter to his hometown” but also “probably in hindsight not the best move.” Even O’Rourke joked about it recently in his remarks in Storm Lake. “In a brilliant stroke of genius, just as print newspapers were in decline,” he told the standing room only, shoulder to shoulder, coffee shop throng, “I started a print newspaper.”

The result? “We bankrupted the operation,” O’Rourke said to what sounded like good-natured, forgiving titters.

No matter.

He had run the website and started the paper “to be as engaged as I possibly could,” he later explained. “The logical conclusion,” he continued, “was to run for office.”

He ran for City Council in 2005 and won, and won again in 2007, backed by El Paso’s business elite, and then he ran for Congress in 2012, challenging in the primary Silvestre “Silver” Reyes, an eight-term incumbent who would have the endorsements of a pair of presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) and never before had had even a close call in a reelection. It was, political analysts in the area agreed at the time, a bid that smacked of audacity and risk. “It’s close to impossible to get a sitting member of Congress out of office because of the privilege and power,” O’Rourke said early on in his campaign.

But O’Rourke, of course, had a share of both as well, hailing from “an old El Paso political family,” as a local columnist pointed out, calling O’Rourke “just as ‘household’ around here as the stately congressman himself.” A company owned by his father-in-law, the real estate tycoon Bill Sanders—he’s worth at least an estimated half a billion dollars—gave $18,750 to a PAC that supported O’Rourke’s campaign. Reyes threw around the words “family wealth” and charged that O’Rourke was “a show pony” and “part of the 1 percent.”

In the end, though, painting Reyes as an aging Washington insider, and employing block-by-block door knocking, O’Rourke won with 50.5 percent of the vote.

Friends and admirers say O’Rourke is nothing if not a hard worker, wearing out shoes and racking up miles. “I think he’s the hardest-working man in U.S. politics,” said Steve Kling, a Democrat who lost last year running for the Texas state Senate. They describe him as an exceptional listener.

In his three terms in Washington, O’Rourke compiled a moderate to centrist voting record, which in this left-leaning primary could become problematic. He was known in D.C. as sufficiently affable but also something of a loner, say Capitol Hill staffers, a floating, unthreatening member who had undercut his clout by pledging to stay no more than four terms.

When he began his race against Cruz, it’s easy to forget, O’Rourke was close to unknown—even in Texas. Cruz, on the other hand, was one of the most prominent Republicans in the nation, and no Democrat had won a statewide campaign since 1994. Texas Senator and Majority Whip John Cornyn dubbed it “a suicide mission.”

But what, strategists and operatives say now, did O’Rourke really have to lose? He had engineered his own congressional exit, anyway, 2018 was shaping up to be a favorable year for Democrats, and Cruz was a legendarily unpopular foil against whom he could rally support. And the worst-case scenario? Something O’Rourke had done before. Just go home. Go back to El Paso. Failure, in fact, was an option.

“Beto,” Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson toldTexas Monthlyin March 2017, “lives life with a cushy net beneath him.”

“It wasn’t that big of a risk,” Texas-based GOP strategist Brendan Steinhauser told me.

The biggest risk he took in the Senate bid, in the estimation of politicos in Texas and beyond, was to listen to people who lived in all 254 of the counties in Texas more than he did to people who could have armed with him with more targeted data. He tended to rely on feelings more than numbers. It was a root of his populist allure—and also perhaps the reason he didn’t win.

In his concession speech, he positioned himself at the center of a stage decked out with floodlights and speakers and drums, a scene evocative of a rock concert more than a convening of the dejected supporters of a failed candidate and campaign.

“I’m so fucking proud of you guys!” he hollered, eliciting squeals from his fans.

They chanted his name.

“Beto! Beto! Beto!”

After O’Rourke’s recent event in Sioux City, Iowa, I talked to two people who had traveled from different states to see him specifically because of that night. Because they had been inspired by how he spoke about losing. Chris Untiet, 35, had come from California. He works for Habitat for Humanity, and he told me he had watched the speech on the screen of his phone while on a trip to build houses in Vietnam. “I was really moved to tears,” he told me. The other was Claire Campbell. She’s 17. She saw the speech sitting in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and will vote for the first time in next year’s presidential election. And she hopes she can pick O’Rourke. “I literally love him,” she told me. In the question-and-answer session, she raised her hand and asked him to her prom.

“So, he had to lose the Senate,”Kim Olson, a Democrat and staunch O’Rourke ally who last year lost her bid to be Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, was telling me as I hurtled ahead on a ribbon of road slicing through flat fields, from one Iowa campaign stop to the next. “He had to get the nationwide name recognition. He had to do the hard work. And let me tell you: It’s fricking hard work running as a statewide candidate—as it’s going to be countrywide … grind, every day, all day—and here he is, after losing in a hard-fought race, he said, ‘I’m still going to serve, I’m still going to go, and I’m going to run for president.’ So, yeah, you could say his greatest accomplishment was to lose by, you know, 300,000 votes to a guy who almost won a primary for the president. But that wasn’t his greatest accomplishment. It wasn’t the loss—it’showhe did it—that was his greatest accomplishment. It was going to everywhere, all the time, speaking to people, getting out there, not being afraid of anybody or anything and doing that hard grind that it takes. That’s why it makes him an incredible candidate for president, I think.”

Olson, affable and voluble, in essence attempted to redefine the idea of failure. O’Rourke hadn’t failed. Because he had tried and worked so hard. Because the experience had opened other doors.

At many of the dozen or so O’Rourke events I attended of late, most of the people I talked to knew not a whole lot about him—hardly anything, really, about what he had done, or not done, before the race against Cruz. Maybe they had seen what he said about the kneeling National Football League players in a clip that lit up the internet. Maybe they had seen the Oprah interview. Maybe they had seen the Annie Leibovitz shot on the cover ofVanity Fair. The conversations were a reminder that most people not in Washington or even Texas have basically just met him.

“Is he a lawyer?” 70-year-old Ruth Lux from little Lidderdale, Iowa, asked me after O’Rourke’s pit stop in nearby Carroll.

“No,” I said.

“What did he do before he got into politics?” she asked.

I provided a speedy rundown to the Cruz race.

“I think the fact that he came so close to unseating Cruz, that’s pretty important,” Lux said. “A lot of people are relating to what he’s saying, you know.”

I asked her if she was bothered by O’Rourke’s lack of experience compared with other candidates in the Democratic field. She wasn’t. “I don’t know that Obama had much more,” she said. “Did he really have much more experience than this guy? Really probably not.”

The man who introduced O’Rourke at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge responded similarly. “I heard the same thing in 2008 when I was supporting Obama,” David Drissel, a professor of social sciences, told me. O’Rourke, he pointed out, has not only more congressional experience than Obama but “more congressional experience than the past four presidents combined.” I did the quick math. Trump. Obama. The second Bush. Clinton. True enough.

Obviously, the bar for the requisite experience for the Oval Office has been recalibrated over the past decade or more of presidential campaigns, and doesn’t necessarily run through Congress at all. But voters haven’t entirely abandoned their desire for a candidate to win—and then actuallydo something. For all the shrugging over his résumé, people at O’Rourke’s town halls clearly, too, were pressing for specifics. I listened to multiple people ask him explicitly to put meat on the bones of his ideas.

Their questions to him often boiled down to one word: How?

Then, when I asked them if they had heard from him what they had wanted to hear, their answers often boiled down to one word as well: No.

Jason Levick, 27, who had driven from Omaha to see O’Rourke, wanted to know how he would cut down on wealth and income inequality.

“A little bit rambling and not really to the point or concrete,” Levick told me.

Brendan Grady, 26, asked O’Rourke in Denison how he would address the “lack of social cohesion.”

“Didn’t really address it,” Grady told me.

Mike Poe, 64, asked O’Rourke in Marshalltown how he would manage to enact meaningful gun control.

“Vague,” Poe told me.

I heard the same thing in South Carolina. In Denmark, at O’Rourke’s town hall in a threadbare auditorium on the campus of tiny Voorhees College, Sailesh S. Radha from Columbia stood up and expressed his frustration that so many presidents can’t seem to make good on their promises after they get elected. How would O’Rourke, Radha wondered, turn his words into actions? Into accomplishments?

After the event, when I asked him what he thought of the answer, Radha shook his head and made a face. “I need to hear more from him,” he said.

And yet, and in spite of a stageof the campaign that’s started to feel more like an ebb than a flow, if I had to divide every crowd into two groups—the squinty, not-quite-satisfied versus those inspired by O’Rourke’s table-hopping battle cries and open to the viability of his candidacy—there was no shortage of dewy-eyed believers.

Many people were struck by his energy and his charisma and his gauzy optimism. They heard echoes of iconic Democrats from the past and saw, they said, a possible path forward—a potential winner—somebody who might be the one to take on Trump. “I’m thinking back to the first encounter with President Obama here at Morningside College,” retiree Mike Goodwin told me after the event in Sioux City.

Lux, meanwhile, the woman in Carroll who thought maybe O’Rourke was a lawyer, waited in line after the event and shook his hand and told Robert Francis O’Rourke he reminded her of … Robert Francis Kennedy. O’Rourke told her thank you. He told her RFK is one of his heroes.

“The charisma,” Lux said when I asked her about the comparison. “The compassion for people at the bottom. Actually, even the physical appearance—the hair, the rolled-up shirt sleeves.”

She told me she had entered 2007 enthused to vote for Hillary Clinton in the caucuses and then for president. But she ended up going for Obama.

“You know, always, it comes down to: How do you present yourself? How charismatic are you?” Lux said. And she said something I heard from many others as well. She was less interested in policy proposals than she was in the possibility of victory. Especially now. “I am more interested,” she said, “in who can unseat Trump.”

It’s one of the few things, it seems, all Democratic voters seem to agree on. “I think that what caucus-goers are looking for is to defeat Donald Trump,” said Norm Sturzenbach, O’Rourke’s state director in Iowa. “That’s ultimately what’s driving it.”

Steinhauser, the GOP strategist from Texas, agreed. “I wouldn’t want to run a campaign against O’Rourke,” he said. He pointed to what he was able to do in … almost beating Cruz. “Look back at what just happened here. It’s pretty incredible. Who else out there on the list really excited people in that way and is the young-looking guy? He reminds a lot of people of Obama or John F. Kennedy or those kinds of candidates.”

Even with his thin résumé? His hazy policies? Steinhauser cut me off.

“Nobody cares,” he said.

“Donald Trump’s policy positions did not matter,” he added, although it should be noted that his visceral pitches in areas like immigration mattered a lot. “I think Democrats want to beat Donald Trump. I think that they’re smart enough to know they need somebody who can win, whatever that means.”

Whether the failed-upward O’Rourke can be that “somebody,” of course, very much remains to be seen. The Iowa caucuses are nearly nine months away, and there’s a long year and a half to go between now and November 2020.

But one recent morning at a seafood restaurant in Ladson, South Carolina, all the booths jammed full, people standing in the back and all the way toward the door, an O’Rourke aide handed the microphone to 69-year-old Stephen Johnson from Mount Pleasant for the last question of the event.

“Congressman O’Rourke,” Johnson said. “I really like you a lot. But there’s one thing I want to know. If you get the Democratic nomination, will you beat Trump?”

O’Rourke answered the question almost before Johnson could finish getting it out of his mouth.

“Yes,” he said.

The people roared.

Read More

[chelsorz07]

so i’m a grown-ass woman but

I’m still barely an adult. And I don’t have a job or a life so all I’ve been doing every day for the past couple weeks is personality quizzes. Then today this popped up on my facebook memories from 2010 and I decided I’m gonna do it again just to see how much I’ve changed in seven years. Original answers are in normal font and current are underneath in bold.

Are you ready for this? probably not but i'm a procrastinator. Obviously, since I took the time to copy and paste it and switch from facebook to tumblr.

What do you think about Love? it's hard. It’s a pain in the ass when you’re not happy but you know you wouldn’t be happy anywhere else either. Who has your heart? david.  Dave, kinda. My heart has pretty much given up at this point.

Are you wearing a necklace, who got it for you, wheres it from? i don't normally wear necklaces. I wear Dave’s wedding ring on a chain because he’s not allowed to wear it at work, and if I give it back to him when he gets home he’ll just lose it again. Are you tall for your age, or short? taller than average but not tall. That one’s the same. I didn’t exactly grow from age 20 to 27. Except the number on the scale. What are you about to do? bathe.  Continue watching Ridiculousness and wasting my life. Maybe read some spn finale codas to fix my soul after last night.

Tell me about the person you like? i wouldn't know where to begin. I’d rather not. Do you like the smell of coconuts? no. Yeah. See idk what happened there. Expecting something to change in the next month? stuff changes all the time. Hopefully I’ll find a new job, but I have to start looking first. Tell me the truth,ever kissed your boyfriends/girlfriends best friend? no, unlike all his other girlfriends. Same. What are you looking forward to? my birthday.  Um...the All Time Low concert the day before my birthday, which I’m more excited that my sister is coming with than the actual show, actually being back in PA for Old Home Days this year because it’s that same weekend, and hopefully moving home before the end of the year.

Did you get anything off your chest today? i did a few days ago. I haven’t talked to anyone today but this quiz is pretty cathartic. How many rings do you usually wear? none. Three. Engagement ring, wedding ring, and this really cool silver one with a green wooden inlay that I got at an antique store. Do you have a bestfriend of the opposite sex? a couple. Yessir. Shoutout @sloan28allday who still refuses to use tumblr even though he has one. Can you sleep without blankets covering you? no. Definitely not. It’s much less uncomfortable in the summer now that I have central air. What did you wear to bed last night? basketball shorts and a tshirt.  I didn’t go to bed last night, but for the sake of this quiz I was wearing the same thing I am now, green plaid pajama pants and my angel banishing sigil t-shirt.

What do you do in your spare time? pretty much this. Watch Shameless over and over again and cry about how much of an asshole Ian Gallagher is and how Mickey deserves better. What were you doing at 10:00 this morning? hanging with maranda. Watching the season 9 spn finale because it was on TNT. What time do you think you're going to bed tonight? like 8pm. i'm exhausted. and i'd go to bed now if i didn't have to bowl tonight. Well I just woke up from a nap at like 9 so probably not anytime soon. Late morning, I’d guess. How do you feel about the person who texted you last? i love him. I’m gonna kick him in the throat if he sends me a text out of the blue that just says “waffles” one more time. Anything irritating you right now? pretty much always. See the last question. Also the fact that I have two separate DVRs and it decided to record Seth Meyers on this one so it changed the channel while I was watching Ridiculousness. I hate Seth Meyers, the only thing I want to see is ATL’s performance. Did the person that hurt you most apologize? yeah actually. idk how sincere it was though. or if he's just really bad at communicating. My mother hasn’t apologized for my entire childhood yet but I’m not holding my breath. Do you want to get married? maybe someday. i don't want kids though. at least not my own. Have been for almost two years now. The kids answer has changed too. Every time I see a baby I cry because it isn’t mine.   Would you ever get your lip pierced? yeah. I kinda would like to have my nose pierced now, but I can’t decide which I want more. Where would you like to live in the future? nashville. anywhere down south works but that's my first choice. georgia's a close second. Having visited Nashville and Georgia semi-recently, I can say I’d still live there in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for the fact that I want to move home so badly. So my new answer is Bradford. Would you be able to date someone who doesn't make you laugh? no. HELL no. 

What college do you plan on going to? uh...none. i want to get my cosmetology license buuuut i don't have the money for school. Wooow why did I ever even consider cosmetology? Lol...I’m probably never going to go but I want to be a contractor so I’d go to Penn Tech in Williamsport. Do you have good vision? it's not terrible. It’s getting progressively worse. I can barely drive at night now. Everything is too bright. Did you speak to your father today? yep. No but he’s a night owl like me and sometimes he’ll just message me on fb to say hi so I still might. What do you usually do right when you wake up? go back to sleep. Check my phone, pee, and head downstairs for some caffeine. Are you too shy to kiss the person you like? sometimes. he doesn't really give out the vibe that he wants to be kissed. kinda sad after being together for a year if you ask me, but oh well. No. He actually got a lot better about that when we got back together so he’ll kiss me randomly throughout the day when he’s home. We still don’t like make out anymore like when we first started dating though. Which sucks, because I love making out.  Can a girl love sex and not be a whore? i love sex and i'm not a whore. i've only been with one person. so yeah. Okay my number has doubled since then but I’m still not a whore because I’ve only been with one person besides my husband, and it was one time (we weren’t together). Hate the last person you kissed? sometimes. i love him more than anything though. Love him, hate him, want to punch him in the balls, want to have his children...it’s a rollercoaster. Are you someone who hates to read? used to love it. now it bores the shit out of me. I love reading, it’s just more gay fanfic than books nowadays. If you could change your eye color what would you change it to? i wouldn't. Still wouldn’t. My eyes are awesome. Do you think age matters in relationships? to an extent. Not really as long as everything’s legal and consensual. Name of your first cat? steven. Obvs that’s the same. But he was my first cat as a kid. My Marshie was my first cat as an adult. Would you rather be at the beach or lake? lake. Lake fosho. Clearly I’ve never liked beaches. What would you do if you found out the person you liked had a girlfriend/ boyfriend? i AM his girlfriend. I’d divorce his ass so hard. And keep my Impala lol Do you feel like you have life figured out? nobody does. No, and I’m positive I never will. Ever dropped a cell phone? i throw it more than i drop it. This is actually funny, because now I drop it way more than I throw it. I’ve mellowed but gotten clumsier. Who last hugged you? randa. This is actually the same. For all you tumblr folks, Maranda is my niece. And even though we live four hours apart now and I only get to see her once every few months, I happened to be home about a week and a half ago and she wasn’t in school because of a doctor’s appointment, so we got a few minutes together and she hugged me like four times. I love that little girl so much it kills me. Aaaand now I’m crying. Thanks, facebook mems.  Ever had a pet fish? no. No but my little sister has. He didn’t last a week lol Do you want your tongue pierced? no. Ew no way. Anything happen to you within the past month that made you really happy? kind of. Above story with Maranda, and getting my new car. which happened on the same day. Last time you spoke to the person you have feelings for? in person, 2 nights ago. he just texted me a few minutes ago though. In person, last Wednesday. We text randomly or talk on fb while he’s away for work. And I don’t talk on the phone at all so he doesn’t call me. Have you ever kissed 2 people at once? no.  No wtf Was your last kiss drunk? no but it was severely hung over lol I don’t even get drunk anymore.  What are you listening to at the moment? nothing. i should be showering. Fucking annoying Rachel Maddow and Seth Meyers. And my kitten, Thomas, is licking himself rather loudly. Your best friend has sex with your ex, what happens? haha...she's not retarded. she wouldn't do that. Well she has a boyfriend so no. Plus they are both my best friends. And definitely aren’t each other’s types. Although I do think if they were to get together she’d be the only girl besides me not to cheat on him because she doesn’t do that. Do you think you will be married by the time you are 25? probably not. I got married 29 days before my 26th birthday.  Whats the first thing you did when you opened your eyes today? shut off my alarm and went back to sleep. Looked at the time. Do you believe exes can be friends? sometimes. it just so happens that my exes are all crazy so we don't speak. These questions always amuse me because my ex is my best friend now and one of the most important people in the world to me. Have you ever kissed someone whose name started with a q? no. Still no. Where is the last person you kissed at right now? i would imagine he's on his way to work. I don’t remember if he’s on day or night shift this hitch, so he’s either working or sleeping. Last person you held hands with in the past 24 hour? randa while she was walking. I have had no face to face human interaction other than the drive-thru at McD’s. Would you go on a road trip with your friends? i've been dying to. In theory, yes. Because I love my friends and going anywhere with them would be a good time. However I’ve developed a very intense fear of traffic. So can it be like a short, rural road trip please? Would you shave your entire body (including your head)? no. I definitely wouldn’t shave my head. But also no to the rest because I can’t shave anywhere I have psoriasis patches. Which is 80% of my body. Pits and downstairs maintenance is all I can do. Did you sleep alone last night? unfortunately. I didn’t sleep last night. But yes, I am alone for another 5-ish days. Have you ever kissed just a friend? yeah. Yup. Did you have any unread text messages when you woke up today? no. I may have had something from Michael on fb but no texts. Nobody texts me but Dave anyway. Do you think people talk about you behind your back? i know they do. i don't give a shit cuz i probably talk about them too. Don’t care. Is it possible to be single and happy? yes. Probably. Idk, I haven’t been single in a long time. And I’ve never really been truly happy. Everyone deserves a second chance, right? not remotely true. Not everyone. Did you stand on your tippy-toes when you had your last kiss? i don't think i had the strength to. Pretty sure I was sitting on the front porch step. Who was the last person to call you? wes. Bill collectors, which I don’t answer. As for actual people I know, that would be David. And it was in January. And I didn’t answer. Lol Think back to this time last year, were you happy? i was getting there. No. That was when I started realizing how much I missed home. Do you smoke weed everyday? nope. I haven’t smoked weed in years. Smoke cigarettes every day though. Have you broken the law in the past 5 days? probably. I may have gone like 7mph over the speed limit. Do you have siblings over the age of 21? yep. My older sister is 36, my brother-in-law (her husband) will be 37 in two days, my other brother-in-law is 33, and both of my sisters-in-law are 31. Then there’s me at 27 and my little sister is 19. Have you kissed someone with braces? no. Still no. Did your last kiss take place on a bed? no - my entry way/mudroom thing. Like I said, porch. What was bad about today? ha. I’m still mourning Castiel’s death, even if it is temporary. What's been your biggest shock this year? nothing shocks me anymore. My old job fucking me over. And the spn finale. Currently wanting any piercings or tattoos? several. YAAAS omg I want so many more tattoos but with my skin the way it is I have nowhere to put them. Can you call the last person you kissed without it being awkward? not really cuz we both hate talking on the phone. i mean it's not awkward just out of character. I’mma keep that answer. Plus if he’s out of town for work I never know his schedule so I wouldn’t want to call him while he’s sleeping or on location. Who was the last person you had sleepover with? i mean i stay at dave's on the weekends but it's not really sleepovers...it's just staying there. I couldn’t even tell you. I don’t think it counts as a sleepover if you live with the person. And I’ve lived with Dave for almost 5 years. Do you like family get-togethers? well i don't like my family. so no. Depends on the occasion, the amount of time spent there, and how big of a bitch my older sister decides to be that day. She hasn’t been too bad lately so I think my dad’s birthday dinner next weekend should be okay. Do you hate the last person who called you? nope. The people who still want 400 bucks from me on behalf of Penelec? Yeah kind of. If you are being extremely quiet, what does that mean? could mean anything. I’m bored, tired, cranky, thinking, watching something, reading, or I just woke up and am not coherent yet so if you speak before you’re spoken to I’ll stab you. Did anyone watch you the last time you kissed someone? no. I doubt it, unless I have really creepy neighbors. Oh wait, I do. I wouldn’t put it past Sharon to watch us saying goodbye before Dave leaves. She’s like obsessed with us. Do you like to spend time with people? occasionally. Sometimes but I prefer to be alone. Just not as alone as I am now. Because I’m ALWAYS alone. 

Do you want a relationship right now? i'm in one and yes i want it. Um. Mostly. Where did you last fall asleep other than a bed? couch.  Sometimes I fall asleep in the car when we go back home for a visit.

Have you ever been called heartless? usually. Yeah.

Okay! So mostly we’ve discovered that I’m still a cynical little shit but I use capitalization now so that’s personal growth. For the most part my relationship with my family has improved. Dave’s stuck with me so I don’t have to second guess all the minutiae of our relationship. If it falls apart I’m like whatever I saw this coming years ago and it won’t kill me. Annnd I still have no ambition or drive. It’s always sobering to learn things about yourself and how much you’ve changed in a given span of time. Alright, I gotta poop. If you like reading this kind of shit, cool. If not, sorry not sorry. It took me over an hour so I probably won’t do it that often anyway.

[u23art]

A LOOK AT GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)

So here we are, one of the most controversial movies to come out in recent history. Between the questionable casting against the pedigree of WETA’s work on the visuals, it was difficult to gauge this and come out with a positive predisposition. However, I came out unexpectedly pleased with what this movie presented to me. So for those of you don’t know, Ghost in the Shell is the cyberpunk experience based off the animated movie from the 90s which is based off the manga from the earlier 90s. We follow the story of the Major and the rest of section 9 facing all manner of cyber terrorist threats. A mysterious hacker by the alias Kuze is taking out one by one the leading experts of the Hanko corporation, the leading provider of prosthetic cybernetics in this world. But not is all as it seems, as the Major’s deep dive hacking brings her closer to capturing him, she comes to know he presents a deeper connection to her past.

So off the bat, casting, the casting at least for the notable members of section 9; Bato, Togusa and Aramaki were appropriate. Generally speaking, I was not negative in the slightest with the performances. Bato was by far my favorite, he’s still stalwart and cheeky towards the threats he faces yet worries himself silly over the major even bring with him some welcome humor. They even added his dog from Ghost in the Shell Innocence which I found to be a nice touch.  Togusa, from his brief moments on screen is spot on. Then of course we have Aramaki, portrayed by Takeshi Kitano, I felt he brought his A game with his body language but then there’s the fact he’s speaking purely Japanese the whole movie. In fact he’s the only person speaking Japanese in the whole movie. Honestly I would have liked it more if he faked his way through some english. Even Saito gets his time to shine when he takes out a sniper and a helicopter with one shot.

Of course you’ll note I made no mention of the Major amongst all that praise, that’s because Scarlet did nothing for my in this movie. All that controversy aside, her interpretation is one of the weaker elements of this movie. In the context of the movie, this is her origin story, so I’m sure that in a sense this could justify her emotionally fluctuating personality. However, the outbursts of emotion lead her to make stupid mistakes, yet it’s these stupid mistakes that drive the plot forward. Not once but twice, the Major is beaten with stun batons and get captured. The second time was due to her running on ahead of her team which most would know the Major would never do because that’s idiotic when surrounded by gunfire on all sides. And it’s in these scenes the Major is held still long enough for an exposition dump. She was also captured a third time, however the difference here is she’s given a lead to explore upon being captured before getting more plot. I have constantly joked that Scarlet’s work here would have all the facial movement and acting ability of Keanu Reeves minus the intensity and likability. I would now like to correct that statement, Scarlet here is more akin to that of Steven Seagal. Throughout the movie, she is just quivering with emotion and frustration, even leading to long awkward silences as we get to admire admire her shocked expression for several seconds. Not to mention her angry walk, she is frequently walking stiff with comically big strides, and this just comes off as silly. Now do note that I said Scarlet was one of the weaker points of this movie, the worst part of this movie hands down is the villain, Mr. Cutter the boss of Hanko. His schtick is wanting to create the perfect weapon, so he kidnaps runaway children and has their brains implanted into cyber bodies. This can make sense to some degree, creating a weapon with imagination and the human ability to adapt and learn from all experiences. However he contradicts this by insisting he doesn’t want the humanity in tow. So let me see if I have this straight, he wants a robotic body, that can be programmed and convinced to fight and obey, minus the humanity. Buddy, it sounds like you just want a regular robot. It also doesn’t help that his scenes are also kind of moronic. In one scene he’s having a briefing with section 9, he pisses off Bato who is instructed to be held back and then held back by Togusa. Then he dissolves, revealing this was a holographic projection the whole time. So Togusa was keeping Bato from yelling and approaching someone who isn’t even physically there. Then there’s his time remote controlling the spider tank at the end and basically twirling his mustache and talking his mouth off long enough for the Major to take him out. Cutter, if I may call you that, you are in fact one of the biggest idiots I have seen in a long time on screen. Visual-wise, I liked what I saw. Sure the opening establishing shot zooming through the city landscape looked a little raw and gave me uneasy flashbacks to the Coruscant establishing shot in the Phantom Menace, but then as the movie went on I got to see a lot of creative science fiction visuals. Also I have to add the set work is amazing, if accurately captures the scenery of the animated movie to an uncanny degree, making it hard to tell where the set ends and the special effects begins. I even applaud how the movie copies several sequences verbatim throughout from the original movie.

I do however have to mock this movies inability to get the point of the original film, and its subtitles while exploring the philosophy within. Most would argue that that Ghost in the Shell is essentially philosophy and the characters and action are simply a tool and a medium to make it tangible to us the audience. But I find it laughable, that within the first five minutes we are spoon fed the point out right when an African representative discusses outright with Hanko scientists, the conflict of retaining one’s identity in this technological age. The original movie danced around these themes, leaving the audience with elements to dissect and put back together, and it makes me sad that this movie could have the same respect for the audience’s intelligence.

And on a smaller note the music, it works, it functions, but I prefer the haunting melodies of the original. The soundtrack here is more suitable for Tron. In fact a lot of this movie feel more similar to that of Bladerunner than Ghost in the Shell. From the giant, vibrant, intimidating advertisements on the buildings, to the promotional material having less mechanical imagery and more digital implication, it leaves me thinking the movie was a little confused.

In summation, I can’t say I hated this movie at all, in fact I wouldn’t object to seeing it again. And though this movie is tanking in the box office, I hope this could potentially lead to a sequel with similar degrees of effort put into it.. HOWEVER, if a sequel is approached, just do the right thing and make the Major japanese. The movie even reveals that this major was original a Japanese girl kidnapped off the streets, and the Major’s whole gimmick throughout the many movies and anime is body hopping, so just do the right thing and give the fans what they want. And Tachikomas, basically make the sequel by Stand Alone Complex. I give Ghost in the Shell (2017) a 7 out of 10

[misskimmy13-blog]

If you are looking for something to get a 12-year-old boy excited about getting creative you need look no further than the Stop Motion Animation Kit from Stopmotion Explosion. Combining creativity with imagination and teaching patience (trust me it takes a lot of individual pictures to make a video of any length!) this kit was something we were super excited to review.

When we received our package in the mail we dug into it right away and found a copy of Stopmotion Explosion Animate Anything and Make Movies, a quick start guide, and a special stop motion camera. Everything EJ would need to become the next Steven Spielberg. He was happy to see there were a lot of examples of using Lego figures in the book since he has a huge collection.

Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.

– Steven Spielberg

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The first thing we did after downloading and installing the program from the CD included with the kit (there is also an option to download it from the website if you don’t have a disc drive so no worries there) was to begin reading the almost 300 page guide book that begins by explaining the history of filmmaking. We both found this quite interesting. EJ was amazed by the circular zoetropes that help strips of paper that were animated when the contraption turned.

EJ was eager to get started right away so he built himself a Lego backdrop and got out some figures before beginning with his project. He wanted something simple that had a vehicle in it plus people moving so he checked out the book for moving mini-figures and off he went. Since he hadn’t gotten to the part about sharing your video on YouTube yet he simply made a video of his video and uploaded it.

I thought it was a pretty good first attempt. The lights flashing through the back wall are actually lit from the television that is behind the “set.” I think it made a neat effect. I have to say he was pretty surprised that his 70 individual shots only created a video that was about 6 seconds long (this is where the patience comes in!)

Reading further into the book we learned more about exaggerating moves to make them more easily seen in the stop motion video. We also learned about a bunch of different techniques including layering, the rule of thirds (much as we use in photography, and how to use paint.net to edit our videos. As I am sure you can tell there is a lot more to this kit than simply shooting the stop motion video. I was pleased to find that it also includes a treasure of information and instruction on how to create high-quality videos. Of course, this means the kit is targeted for 13+ but you can certainly use it with those who are a bit younger as long as mom or dad are working along with them.

Ninjas vs Astronauts

After working with my laptop for a while we decided to download and try out the new Stopmotion Explosion Animator for iOS. The app was easy to find in the App store and quick to download.

Unfortunately, you can only use the camera on the iPad since the camera that came with the kit connects by USB. This did lead to EJ having to be imaginative when setting up his staging. I love how he used the lamp as both a camera stand and the lighting source for his set! (Those are the legs of the lamp, the cushion is set so the iPad won’t slip backward.)

It was nice in a way to be able to use the iPad and not have to find a spot for my laptop to sit but it was also a bit awkward to prop it up and keep it from moving. We also found the camera that came with the kit seemed to focus a bit better but that could have been where we had things set up. Overall the app was nice and easy to use with only a few spots to press to save the individual pictures into a video. We then edited it with YouTube so were able to get it all done with one device. This makes it nice for when you want to take your movie making outdoors!

We were very happy with the Stop Motion Animation Kit from Stopmotion Explosion. I can see us continuing to use it in the future. I like how it is fun for EJ but at the same time is teaching him several skills that he will be able to use with both still and video photography. There are chapters on audio and video editing, using a DSLR camera with a macro filter and converting its frames into MPEG video, and a lot more. And we haven’t even gotten into chroma-keying yet (that’s where you use a blue screen behind your character and cut in the actual background later, say if you want them to fly).

I like a program that will allow EJ to learn and grow in his skills rather than simply a little app to make fun videos with (of course with this one he can do both). I certainly encourage other families to take a look at this kit if your children are at all interested in movie making.

You can follow StopMotion Explosion on social media to learn more about them and stay up to date on their latest releases.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/App-Page/Stopmotion-Explosion-104732269687187/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/StopmoExplosion YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ich35AhOSQcXwrSHqrJdg

And for more reviews from other crew families be sure to click on the banner below.

  Getting Creative with StopMotion Explosion {My Review} If you are looking for something to get a 12-year-old boy excited about getting creative you need look no further than the…

[blackkudos]

Alex Haley

Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.

Haley's first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with the subject, a major African-American leader.

He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Alex Haley's Queen. It was adapted as a film of the same name released in 1992.

Early life and education

Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11, 1921, and was the oldest of three brothers and a sister. Haley lived with his family in Henning, Tennessee, before returning to Ithaca with his family when he was five years old. Haley's father was Simon Haley, a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University, and his mother was Bertha George Haley (née Palmer), who had grown up in Henning. The family had African American, Mandinka, Cherokee, Scottish, and Scots-Irish roots. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the obstacles of racism he had overcome.

Like his father, Alex Haley was enrolled at age 15 in Alcorn State University, a historically black college in Mississippi and, a year later, enrolled at Elizabeth City State College, also historically black, in North Carolina. The following year he returned to his father and stepmother to tell them he had withdrawn from college. His father felt that Alex needed discipline and growth, and convinced him to enlist in the military when he turned 18. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began what became a 20-year career in the United States Coast Guard.

Haley traced back his paternal ancestry, through genealogical research, to Jufureh.

Coast Guard career

Haley enlisted as a mess attendant. Later he was promoted to the rate of petty officer third-class in the rating of steward, one of the few ratings open to African Americans at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. During his enlistment other sailors often paid him to write love letters to their girlfriends. He said that the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long voyages was not the Japanese forces but rather boredom.

After World War II, Haley petitioned the U.S. Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism. By 1949 he had become a petty officer first-class in the rating of journalist. He later advanced to chief petty officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959. He was the first chief journalist in the Coast Guard, the rating having been expressly created for him in recognition of his literary ability.

Haley's awards and decorations from the Coast Guard include the Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (with 1 silver and 1 bronze service star), American Defense Service Medal (with "Sea" clasp), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the Coast Guard Expert Marksmanship Medal. Further, the Republic of Korea awarded him the War Service Medal 10 years after he died.

Literary career

After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard, Haley began another phase of his journalism career. He eventually became a senior editor for Reader's Digest magazine.

Playboy

 magazine

Haley conducted the first interview for Playboy magazine. His interview with jazz musician Miles Davis appeared in the September 1962 issue. Haley elicited candid comments from Davis about his thoughts and feelings on racism. That interview set the tone for what became a significant feature of the magazine. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Playboy Interview with Haley was the longest he ever granted to any publication.

Throughout the 1960s Haley was responsible for some of the magazine's most notable interviews, including one with George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. He agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance from the writer that he was not Jewish. Haley remained professional during the interview, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout it. (The interview was recreated in Roots: The Next Generations, with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell.) Haley also interviewed Muhammad Ali, who spoke about changing his name from Cassius Clay. Other interviews include Jack Ruby's defense attorney Melvin Belli, entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., football player Jim Brown, TV host Johnny Carson, and music producer Quincy Jones.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, was Haley's first book. It describes the trajectory of Malcolm X's life from street criminal to national spokesman for the Nation of Islam to his conversion to Sunni Islam. It also outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. Haley wrote an epilogue to the book summarizing the end of Malcolm X's life, including his assassination in New York's Audubon Ballroom.

Haley ghostwrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X based on more than 50 in-depth interviews he conducted with Malcolm X between 1963 and Malcolm X's February 1965 assassination. The two men had first met in 1960 when Haley wrote an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader's Digest. They met again when Haley interviewed Malcolm X for Playboy.

The first interviews for the autobiography frustrated Haley. Rather than discussing his own life, Malcolm X spoke about Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam; he became angry about Haley's reminders that the book was supposed to be about Malcolm X. After several meetings, Haley asked Malcolm X to tell him something about his mother. That question drew Malcolm X into recounting his life story.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X has been a consistent best-seller since its 1965 publication. The New York Times reported that six million copies of the book had sold by 1977. In 1998 TIME magazine ranked The Autobiography of Malcolm X as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

In 1966 Haley received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Super Fly T.N.T.

In 1973 Haley wrote his only screenplay, Super Fly T.N.T.. The film starred and was directed by Ron O'Neal.

Roots

In 1976 Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based on his family's history, going back to slavery days. It started with the story of Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave. Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and his work on the novel involved twelve years of research, intercontinental travel, and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew up and listened to a tribal historian (griot) tell the story of Kinte's capture. Haley also traced the records of the ship, The Lord Ligonier, which he said carried his ancestor to the Americas.

Haley has stated that the most emotional moment of his life occurred on September 29, 1967, when he stood at the site in Annapolis, Maryland, where his ancestor had arrived from Africa in chains exactly 200 years before. A memorial depicting Haley reading a story to young children gathered at his feet has since been erected in the center of Annapolis.

Roots was eventually published in 37 languages. Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1977. The same year, Roots was adapted as a popular television miniseries of the same name by ABC. The serial reached a record-breaking 130 million viewers. Roots emphasized that African Americans have a long history and that not all of that history is necessarily lost, as many believed. Its popularity also sparked a greatly increased public interest in genealogy.

In 1979 ABC aired the sequel miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations, which continued the story of Kunta Kinte's descendants. It concluded with Haley's travel to Juffure. Haley was portrayed at different ages by Kristoff St. John, The Jeffersons actor Damon Evans, and Tony Award winner James Earl Jones. In 2016, History aired a remake of the original miniseries. Haley appeared briefly, portrayed by Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne.

Haley was briefly a "writer in residence" at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he began work on Roots. He enjoyed spending time at a local bistro called the Savoy in nearby Rome, where he would sometimes pass the time listening to the piano player. Today, there is a special table in honor of Haley at the Savoy, and a painting of Haley writing Roots on a yellow legal tablet.

Plagiarism dispute and other criticism

Roots faced two lawsuits that charged plagiarism and copyright infringement. The lawsuit brought by Margaret Walker was dismissed, but Harold Courlander's suit was successful. Courlander's novel The African describes an African boy who is captured by slave traders, follows him across the Atlantic on a slave ship, and describes his attempts to hold on to his African traditions on a plantation in America. Haley admitted that some passages from The African had made it into Roots, settling the case out of court.

Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in Roots. The Gambian griot turned out not to be a real griot, and the story of Kunta Kinte appears to have been a case of circular reporting, in which Haley's own words were repeated back to him. None of the written records in Virginia and North Carolina line up with the Roots story until after the Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found in the written records, but the most likely genealogy would be different from the one described in Roots.

Haley and his work have been excluded from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite his status as the United States' best-selling African-American author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. In 1998 Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."

Later life and death

Early in the 1980s Haley worked with the Walt Disney Company to develop an Equatorial Africa pavilion for its Epcot Center theme park. Haley appeared on a CBS broadcast of Epcot Center's opening day celebration, discussing the plans and exhibiting concept art with host Danny Kaye. Ultimately, the pavilion was not built due to political and financial issues.

Late in the 1970s Haley had begun working on a second historical novel based on another branch of his family, traced through his grandmother Queen; she was the daughter of a black slave woman and her white master. He did not finish the novel before dying in Seattle, Washington, of a heart attack. He was buried beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee. At his request, the novel was finished by David Stevens and was published as Alex Haley's Queen. It was subsequently adapted as a movie of the same name in 1993.

Late in Haley's life he had acquired a small farm in Clinton, Tennessee, although at the time it had a Norris, Tennessee address. The Farm is a few miles from the Museum of Appalachia, and Haley lived there until his death. After his death the property was sold to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), which calls it the Alex Haley Farm. The nonprofit organization uses the farm as a national training center and retreat site. An abandoned barn on the farm property was rebuilt as a traditional cantilevered barn, using a design by architect Maya Lin. The building now serves as a library for the CDF.

Awards and recognition

In 1977 Haley received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, for his exhaustive research and literary skill combined in Roots.

The food-service building at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center, Petaluma, California, was named Haley Hall in honor of the author.

In 1999 the Coast Guard honored Haley by naming the cutter USCGC Alex Haley after him.

The U.S. Coast Guard annually awards the Chief Journalist Alex Haley Award, which is named in honor of the writer as the Coast Guard's first chief journalist (the first Coast Guardsman in the rating of journalist to be advanced to the rate of chief petty officer). It rewards individual authors and photographers who have had articles or photographs communicating the Coast Guard story published in internal newsletters or external publications.

In 2002 the Republic of Korea (South Korea) posthumously awarded Haley its Korean War Service Medal (created in 1951), which the U.S. government did not allow its service members to accept until 1999.

Recordings

Alex Haley Tells the Story of His Search for Roots (1977) – 2-LP recording of a two-hour lecture Haley gave at the University of Pennsylvania. Released by Warner Bros. Records (2BS 3036).

Legacy

Collection of Alex Haley's personal works

The University of Tennessee Libraries, in Knoxville, Tennessee, maintains a collection of Alex Haley's personal works in its Special Collections Department. The works contain notes, outlines, bibliographies, research, and legal papers documenting Haley's Roots through 1977. Of particular interest are the items showing Harold Courlander's lawsuit against Haley, Doubleday & Company, and various affiliated groups.

Wikipedia

[topmixtrends]

I CAME LATE TO Raymond Chandler, and I don’t know if it was in the best or worst possible way. I had my degree in literature, and I had read not a single word by Chandler. It was a rainy afternoon in London and I needed to kill a couple of hours, so I went to see a showing of The Big Sleep. The film I saw, however, wasn’t the 1946 Bogart-Bacall classic (which I’d only heard about), it was the 1978 remake directed by Michael Winner and set improbably, unconvincingly, in England. The film is universally despised. Roger Ebert said it “feels kind of embalmed,” although plot-wise it’s strangely faithful to the novel, and the cast is fantastic — Jimmy Stewart, Candy Clark, Richard Boone, Oliver Reed, with Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe. Mitchum has always seemed to me the perfect Marlowe, and far more believably tough and insolent than Humphrey Bogart; I just wish he’d played the part 20 years earlier. He first played Marlowe in 1975 in Farewell, My Lovely, when he was in his late 50s; he was 60 by the time he made The Big Sleep, and he doesn’t look a youthful 60.

You could argue that if Chandler’s genius could shine through that dreadful adaptation, then it’s pretty much unassailable. And shine through it did. I was hooked, and went back to the source. I immediately read The Big Sleep (1939), his first novel, and then the rest of the oeuvre, and I’ve been increasingly hooked ever since. I consider myself an enthusiast rather than an expert or a scholar, although there’s a shelf in my office heavy with Chandler-related volumes: the letters, the biographies, the notebooks, and various Los Angeles–related items that include Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles (1987), Chandlertown: The Los Angeles of Philip Marlowe (1983), and Tailing Philip Marlowe: Three Tours of Los Angeles — Based on the Work of Raymond Chandler (2003). The Annotated Big Sleep, with a short but excellent foreword by Jonathan Lethem, will eventually join them.

But here’s the question: when I read The Big Sleep for the first time (or subsequently, for that matter), was there much in there that I didn’t understand? And I’m not talking about plot matters such as who killed the chauffeur, or why the cute but borderline-insane murderess isn’t prosecuted, but rather matters of fact and vocabulary.

Did I feel the need to reach for the dictionary and look up “swell” when Marlowe says to Vivian Sternwood, “I don’t mind your showing me your legs. They’re very swell legs”? Did I wonder what a jerkin was, or a chiseller, or a bookplate? Was I puzzled by the terms “hot toddy” and “got the wind up”? Did the words parquetry, stucco, or croupier seem unfamiliar? After I’d read that General Sternwood was propped up in “a huge canopied bed like the one Henry the Eighth died in,” did I feel the urge to check the date of Henry VIII’s death?

Honestly, I did not — but Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Dean Rizzuto, the three editors of The Annotated Big Sleep, certainly think that all those things I’ve listed are worthy of explanation, which, I think, raises the question of who reads The Big Sleep and who those annotators think reads The Big Sleep.

Pico Iyer, in his essay “The Mystery of Influence” (2002), says of Marlowe, “Of all the great figures of the twentieth century, he seems one of the most durable, in part because he travels so well and so widely.” And he tells us that Haruki Murakami began his career by translating Chandler into kanji and katakana scripts. It’s not hard to imagine that Japanese readers might find something of the noble, tarnished samurai in Marlowe, though what they make of a line like, “She has to blow and she’s shatting on her uppers. She figures the peeper can get her some dough,” is anybody’s guess. Somehow they cope.

¤

The fact is, it’s rare, if ever, that we read a book and understand every single word, every literary allusion, every local or historical reference, just as we don’t understand every single thing we encounter as we go about our lives. And, of course, with fiction it gets harder depending on the age of the work and our cultural distance from its milieu. In a piece on John Updike’s Rabbit Is Rich (1981), Martin Amis writes, “Like its predecessors, the novel is crammed with allusive topicalities; in a few years’ time it will probably read like a Ben Jonson comedy.” I imagine there may be readers of that essay who could use a little annotation explaining the nature of Ben Jonson’s comedies.

If the common reader happily misses a few references, we tend to take it for granted that the best literary works will require explanations, glosses, and readers’ guides. Many have read James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) with a map of Dublin, Ireland, and a copy of Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce’s Ulysses (1988, by Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman) close at hand. Joyce would have been delighted.

Steven C. Weisenburger’s A Gravity’s Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon’s Novel (1988) is a great help in understanding much abstruse material in Thomas Pynchon’s 1973 masterwork; although, when I laid hands on the compendium (a good decade after I’d first read the novel), I was thrilled to find that he’d got various things wrong, including not knowing the English meaning of “minge.” And this is one of the joys of annotated volumes: seeing what the editors did and didn’t explain.

And it doesn’t stop at high literature. There’s a subgenre of annotation that seeks not to explain evident difficulties, but to show the complications in apparently uncomplicated texts. Martin Gardner is the boss here. Having annotated Lewis Carroll’s Alice volumes (and declared Carroll to be sexually “innocent”), he went on to annotate books by G. K. Chesterton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), and Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic — Sung in the Year 1888” (1888). His publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, runs a list of annotated volumes that includes The Annotated Little Women (2015), The Annotated Peter Pan (2011), and The Annotated Wizard of Oz (2000). Do these works need annotation? The question is moot, since there’s clearly a market and an audience; and if we’ve learned anything in the last several decades, it’s that scholarship can be applied to popular, or even low, culture, just as successfully as it can be applied to high art.

¤

Raymond Chandler would have understood the dichotomy and might have reveled in the contradictions as they applied to his own work. In writing for a pulp audience, he knew he was slumming, inhabiting the less respected and less examined districts of the city of words. But he was not modest about his talents or his ambitions. He’d had an English classical education at London’s Dulwich College, which contained Marlowe House. He knew that his hero’s name might evoke Christopher Marlowe for some readers, but certainly not for all. The earliest version of Chandler’s detective is named Mallory, as in Thomas Malory, the author of Le Morte d’Arthur (1485), but maybe he came to think that was going too far.

In a 1949 letter to Hardwick Moseley, Chandler wrote, “The aim is not essentially different from the aim of Greek tragedy, but we are dealing with a public that is only semi-literate and we have to make an art of a language they can understand.” His invocation of Grecian heights strikes me as going way too far.

¤

No doubt the “semi-literate” public will not be rushing to read The Annotated Big Sleep, but for the rest of us, there’s a huge amount to enjoy in the book. I found myself more intrigued by the background information than by the editors’ close reading of the text, which sometimes feels like they’re breathing over your shoulder and making arch remarks, telling you how to read (for example, “Carmen is back to her default between the kitten and the tiger — for now”), but no doubt some readers will feel the opposite way.

Some of this background comes into the “who’d have thought it?” category. For instance, we’re told that in the 1930s, Los Angeles had 300 casinos and over 40 newspapers; hard to say which of those numbers is more surprising. Information about the city’s population and ethnic makeup is fascinating. I don’t think many of us regard 1930s Hollywood as the center of Jewish life in Los Angeles. The book quotes the journalist Garet Garrett (not his birth name), who visited the city in 1930 and wrote,

you have to begin with the singular fact that in a population of a million and a quarter, every other person you see has been there less than five years. More than nine out of every ten you see have been there less than fifteen years.

In 1939, the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration authored a book titled California: A Guide to the Golden State. In it, they called Los Angeles the “fifth largest Mexican city in the world” (a distinction that nowadays belongs to Chicago). We also learn that between 1920 and 1930, 30,000 Filipinos migrated to California. They were known as dandies and sharp dressers, which explains Marlowe’s line to Carmen Sternwood that she’s “[c]ute as a Filipino on Saturday night.” I guess this is a racial slur, but as these things go it seems quite gentle.

There are some revelations relating to Marlowe himself — details that are easy to miss or simply skim over. For instance, Marlowe’s description of himself on the novel’s first page, “I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it,” is army slang — “neat, clean, shaved and sober” means ready for inspection. Later, in a description of Marlowe’s apartment, we read he has “an advertising calendar showing the Quints rolling around on a sky-blue floor, in pink dresses.” I had never thought to wonder who the “Quints” were, but we’re told these are the Dionne quintuplets, identical French-Canadian girls born in 1934, the first quintuplets to survive past infancy. A couple of them are still alive, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

There’s also an interesting consideration of Marlowe’s daily rate — $25 plus expenses, which some clients find a bit pricey. It’s the equivalent of $400 in today’s money, which sounds a tidy sum, although considering what Marlowe has to go through to earn his money, it’s not altogether unreasonable.

The annotations make much of the geographical and topographical background to the novel, describing Laurel Canyon, the Pacific Coast Highway, Franklin Avenue, and noting landmarks such as the Sunset Towers and Bullocks on Wilshire. But as becomes obvious to anyone who’s tried to walk in Marlowe’s footsteps (something I did when I first started living in Los Angeles), one of Chandler’s skills was to blend a detailed real city with one of his own invention. So yes, being told that Geiger’s bookshop is on Hollywood Boulevard by the corner of Las Palmas seems utterly precise, but Stanley Rose, who had a bookstore at more or less that location, isn’t much of a model for Geiger: you’d find Rose hanging out in his store talking with Hollywood literati rather than taking nude photographs of drugged heiresses. At other times, Chandler simply made up the names of streets; Laverne Terrace and Alta Brea, for example, sound completely authentic, but you won’t find them on any map.

The editors, inevitably, and reasonably enough, wade into the inscrutable and contested sexuality of Chandler and Marlowe. I’ve never been sure whether Marlowe’s homophobia (as Chandler wouldn’t have called it) was his own, or Chandler’s, or simply something that pulp readers would have expected from a tough guy detective. It’s well known that quite a few people who met Chandler assumed he was gay, but that raises more questions than it answers, and there’s certainly no evidence that he ever had any sexual relationships with men. Still, the annotations are interesting in themselves. They tell us that the “1920s and early ’30s saw no fewer than ten new terms for ‘homosexual’ recorded,” including “queer.” We also learn that, as a result of prohibition, gay and lesbian subcultures had become more accepted in select quarters, while still remaining hidden. Once you were breaking the law by drinking illegally in clubs and speakeasies, you were less likely to cut up rough about seeing some same sex couple and a drag act or two.

The editors also raise the possibility that when Vivian Sternwood, wearing a “mannish shirt and tie,” says to Marlowe, “I was beginning to think perhaps you worked in bed, like Marcel Proust,” she may be accusing him of being gay. I don’t quite buy that, but then, I don’t have to.

I do buy, eagerly, the book’s analysis of the instances where Chandler “cannibalized” his own early stories and incorporated them in the novel. They show, despite Clive James’s insistence to the contrary, that Chandler’s writing improved very rapidly indeed in the six years between the publication of his first short story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” (1933), and The Big Sleep (1939).

The book is illustrated with dozens of images, book and magazine covers, movie stills, maps, period photographs. These are well chosen and very useful. I wish some of them were bigger, especially the maps, and I wish some of those pulp covers were in color, but you can’t have everything.

For what it’s worth, I only found one error, maybe half an error. The book has Le Corbusier as sole designer of the chaise longue basculante: these days Charlotte Perriand is usually given her due as co-designer.

The book’s bibliography is lengthy without being exhibitionistic, and the editors have even managed to track down a treatise on “the lost art of walking,” by one Geoff Nicholson, that contains a short section about Chandler. Top-notch sleuthing. Marlowe would be proud.

¤

Geoff Nicholson is a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Review of Books. His latest novel, The Miranda, is out now.

The post “Marlowe Would Be Proud”: On “The Annotated Big Sleep” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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