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closhelby · 4 years ago

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Black Hand.

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader

Warnings: usual Peaky shit

Prompt: none bar the scene itself.

Word Count: 1,796.

Author note: wrote this three fucking times I’m at my wits end! Unsure to make this into a few parts.

——

Y/N woke again, at the crack of dawn, rolling over checking her watch, 5.36AM. This was the usual for her, since leaving Birmingham she could barely sleep past 6am, since the breakdown of her marriage.

It was Christmas morning, the first she was spending with only one of her two children. Charlie, y/n’s eldest son was spending his Christmas with his father this year, since splitting y/n and Tommy regularly had sex behind her boyfriends back, and then she fell pregnant, with her now two year old Harry. However, Tommy wasn’t aware of this child being his, and as far as everyone else was aware it was Roberts child.

Y/n rolled out of bed, and began to wash and get ready for the day ahead. She sat at her dressing table, thinking, as she did regularly, how it would’ve been if they didn’t spit. There was still very clearly tension there, sexual especially. Due to this, y/n cut all interaction with Tommy, whenever they needed to talk over Charlie, she would get nanny’s and maids to travel with him.

Just finishing her makeup, finishing her all off with a spritz of perfume and putting on her watch, which now shown it as 6.56am. Y/n went downstairs, starting to make herself a cup of tea when she was startled with the letterbox chattering as the postman put today’s Mail. She moved over to the door, bending over to pick up the letters, opening the first one to reveal a white card with a black hand on the front.

“Fuck!” Y/n’s heart started beating at a rapid rate, she knew that this meant kill or be killed. She needed to get her and Harry out of there ASAP. They weren’t far behind and they already knew where she lived. She ran back upstairs, grabbing overnight bags and stuffing them with her most valuable items and clothes she could possibly wear before doing the same for Harry. All while trying to be as quiet as she could because she didn’t want to wake Rob.

Y/n ran from the house to the car sat on the front drive, she didn’t even bother to ask a driver. She was going alone. Leaving alone. Without an explanation. Despite the severity of the situation, this was brewing for a long time. The current relationship was a cover up. Y/n accepted the fact that the only man she will ever love will remain Thomas Shelby, and she knew it would be the same for him. And I think that’s why they both didn’t file for a divorce.

Quickly packing the car with things she may need for herself and Harry, she ran back upstairs to collect the sleeping boy from his bed and placed him into the front seat of the car. He continued to sleep throughout the car ride, back to Small Heath. Y/n knew Tommy like the back of her hand, she knew that everyone that is associated with the Shelby name would have been dealt a black hand, and knew the only place they could possibly be safe would be in the polluted streets of Birmingham.

Turning the car onto Watery Lane, as all those childhood memory’s flooded back. From when she ran about with John as a kid, to when her and Ada would get into trouble together in her early teens, all the way to building a large profitable business with her husband, all came flooding to her. A rush of emotion, clearly visible on her face as the car came to a halt outside the once betting den. Y/n rarely had any emotion showing, only Tommy would see that in the many nights they spent alone, but that was the same for both of them. They acted tough to everyone else but vulnerable for each other. The bond they had, partners in crime, was admired, despite them both being gangsters.

Tommy was very clearly heartbroken from the downfall in their relationship, he also believed that y/n was the only woman for him in the long run. But the only way he felt that he could get over that was her under someone else. He turned to Lizzie on the regular, and as y/n still kept in contact with Ada, she knew about this. Y/n was very alike Tommy in this sense, if she needed to find something out, it would always come her way, weather she needed to look for it or not. Ultimately they shared a child together, technically two, but there was still so much love there between the both of them.

“Fucking hell,” y/n muttered before kicking in the door that stood before her. Her two year old son clutching to her chest, still fast asleep as she walked towards the family she still loved dearly. Pol loved her, loved her like her own, but they both had a similar trait, they never backed down. And sometimes like Tommy, they would argue for days on end.

Y/n stood before the table, where all but Tommy sat before her. She quickly scanned the room, noticing a blonde woman, she knew was Linda, but hadn’t met was looking at her with a very foul face on her. Ada on the other hand was smiling, excited to see her best friend after years of being away. Tommy standing to her left, eyes wide wondering why his wife was stood before him, in small Heath, with a young child in her hand.

Pol broke the silence first, “What the fuck are you doing here? Tommy tell ya?”

“No however, since you know, I find out absolutely anything I need to,” y/n spoke directing a foul look to Lizzie who was stood over in the corner, “I have also been dealt a black hand.”

There was a mutter of fuck sakes throughout the room, as they realised this was a bit more real than before. Tommy then started to talk about the issue at hand.

“Why are you starting when Johns not here?”

The room fell cold, distant and all eyes were trying to avoid hers. But Tommy wasn’t, he didn’t avoid her gaze as y/n turned to look at him. He very rarely lied to her, he simply couldn’t get away with it if anything, y/n found out everything.

“Fucking ‘ell Tommy, tell me!”

“John was killed this morning, on his front door step infront of his wife.”

Tears started to form in the once emotionless woman, the room felt as though it was caving in on them. Her legs felt heavy, like she could collapse to the ground at any moment, but her head felt light. She quickly muttered to Tommy, handing the baby over, stumbling back to process what she had just been told. John was before all this, they were best friends since they were about 4. They went all throughout school together, and because y/n dad had passed before he could walk her down the isle, John did.

“Those fuckin’ bastards! Christmas Day! Im going to fucking kill them myself,” y/n screamed in frustration.

“She won’t cope well with this,” Ada spoke quietly enough that the table could hear but y/n couldn’t. Ada approached her, giving her a soft cuddle of comfort. Y/n didn’t cry, she didn’t cry infront of anyone. But she was very close today.

She composed herself, breathing out before standing up, “why did I have to marry into this shit?”

“Why haven’t you divorced him?”

Ada knew the answer, she always had.

They both moved back over to the table, Ada returning to her seat while y/n stood by Tommy’s side. He still stood there holding his own child, without the knowledge of it. He continued to speak about the issues they were currently facing with Luca Changretta, but y/n wasn’t even listening to what he was saying, simply zoning out to how weird her life was. She’s looking at the love of her life while they’re no longer together, holding their second son that he has no clue about.

“Y/n?”

Her head quickly shot up following the direction of the voice. Arthur.

“Hm?”

“Peace or truce?” Tommy spoke.

“Peace”

“Very well. Six peace, two truce.” He quickly handed Harry back over to y/n before heading back upstairs. The group got up and left to do their own thing, while Ada sat at the table waiting for the catch up that was well needed between them both.

“Two seconds, I’m just gonna put Harry up to bed.” Ada nodded in response as y/n made her way upstairs to put Harry to bed. She opened the door to find Charlie sleeping in the small bed, leaning over to put Harry at the back of him, giving both of them a peck on the cheek before turning to see Tommy in the door way.

“Your new boyfriend is the dad? But your not married to him?”

“No I’m not married to him.”

“So you had a child out of wedlock?”

She sighed. She wasn’t going to lie to him anymore, there was enough damage and if she knew she would have to spend the next few months living with him, she needed to get it out there as soon as possible.

“No, I’m married.”

“yes, to me.”

Y/n walked over to him, pulling him into the room and closing the door behind him, aware of the fact this house was full. He took a seat on the small chair in the corner, while y/n stood slightly back from him.

“Remember that last fuck we had. Before I refused to see you.”

He nodded.

“I refused to see you because I was pregnant, and I knew it was yours.”

“Fuck sake y/n.” Tommy spoke, running his hands through his hair.

The room then went silent. The two of them not knowing what to say next, for the first time in years they were speechless.

Y/n decided to break it, “He knows. Rob knows he’s not his, he can see it, but it’s never been mentioned. Harry also knows who you are, I’ve shown him pictures of you that I have.”

Tommy stood up abruptly, making his way over to her. His hands wrapped round her waist as he pulled her closer to him. Y/n was looking, and clearly getting lost in his blue eyes. Tommy leaned in to her, their lips meeting softly,y/n began to kiss back. The feeling this was what they both had longed for. Both of them having sex with others that meant absolutely nothing to them. The bedroom door swings open to reveal Finn stood there, his mouth hung wide.

“A - Ada’s wondering where you are?”

Y/n smiled before pulling out the embrace, muttered a thanks then proceeded to go downstairs. She turns round as she’s on the third stair down, “don’t say a thing Finn,”

#cillian murphy #tommy shelby #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby fluff #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby fanfic #peakyxtommy #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinders

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years ago

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The antitrust case against Prime

The starting gun on Big Tech trustbusting was fired in 2017, when Lina Khan, then a law student (now an FTC trustbuster!) published “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” a law-review article showing how Amazon formed a monopoly without legal trouble.

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

The key was a Reagan-era shift in antitrust policy, based on the theories of the Nixonite criminal Robert Bork. Bork held that the only time we should fight monopolies is when they inflicted “consumer welfare” harms, by driving up prices.

That meant that monopolies that made prices go down — by abusing their workers and suppliers, rather than their customers — were safe from antitrust enforcement. Borkism was hugely popular with wealthy people, who bankrolled its global expansion.

Every president since Reagan has embraced and furthered the “consumer welfare” doctrine, which meant that when Amazon tapped into the capital markets for billions, it was able to safely offer prices below their wholesale cost, using investor cash for subsidies.

Then, after it had extinguished all its competitors, it could end its subsidy and switch it to its suppliers — forcing them to cut their margins and wages to unsustainable levels to maintain those prices.

This was “Amazon’s antitrust paradox”: it could inflict vast monopoly harms on the economy but never face antitrust enforcement because it harmed workers and other businesses, not “consumers.”

Now that the Big Tech trustbusting movement is in full swing, state attorneys general and the feds (DoJ and FTC) have brought antitrust actions against GAFAM, including multiple suits against Amazon.

One of the more interesting suits is DC Attorney General Karl Racine’s cast against Amazon:

https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2021-05/Amazon-Complaint-.pdf

As Matt Stoller explains, the DC-Amazon case has a better chance of succeeding than any of the other antitrust actions brought so far, because it accuses Amazon of driving up prices.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/amazon-primes-free-shipping-promise

To understand how that works, you need to understand the role Amazon Prime plays in the company’s business. Jeff Bezos described Prime as “a moat around our best customers.” Once you pay for fast, flat-rate delivery, you’re powerfully incentivized to order from Amazon.

Locking customers into buying from Amazon locks businesses into selling on Amazon. That allows Amazon to structure its own market — and the markets of all other businesses.

For example, Amazon gives search preference to Prime-eligible items. Realistically, if you’re an Amazon seller and you’re not in the first screen or two of results, you will not make any sales.

(Incidentally, if you’ve ever seen those breakdowns of the ad-tech market that show Amazon making billions from ad-sales and wondered how that worked, it’s not actual ad-sales revenue in the way that Google and Facebook get paid for ads)

(Those “ad-sale” billions are the fees Amazon charges its own sellers for search-results preference — to have a “sponsored product” show up in the results when you search on Amazon — it’s not an “ad” — it’s a “bribe”)

If you want to be Prime eligible, you have to sign up for a lot of conditions: you have to promise you won’t sell more cheaply anywhere else, you have to let Amazon pack and ship your products, and you have to give up commissions of up to 45% on each sale.

To recap: Prime means you have to sell on Amazon because that’s where everyone buys. To sell on Prime, you have to give Amazon 45% of the sale-price, and you can’t sell more cheaply anywhere else.

What that means is that every merchant that wants to sell on Amazon (which is every merchant that wants to sell goods on the internet outside of China) has to charge 35–45% more for its products, and not just on Amazon, but everywhere.

The “free shipping” you get on Prime items is actually paid for by a one-third markup that everyone who buys anything on Amazon, or in any other store, pays.

In other words, Amazon hasn’t just used its monopoly power to raise prices on its own customers, but on everyone’s customers. And that is the one thing that US antitrust law still vigorously punishes.

#pluralistic

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Upcoming DC Movies: Complete Release Calendar

https://ift.tt/3u2VfrU

The DC Extended Universe is in full swing! With a healthy schedule of upcoming DC movies in development, the DCEU isn’t going away anytime soon, and there’s still lots to look forward to.

So, it’s time to take a look at all of the DCEU superhero movies that will be released over the next few years. And trust us, there are a ton of them on the way, and we expect more details will be announced as we go forward. We have all the release dates for every one of ’em right here, as well as official details, the most interesting rumors, and suggestions for further reading where appropriate.

Thanks to HBO Max, Suicide Squad 2 is on schedule for August 2021, with The Batman, Shazam 2, Aquaman 2, and more due in 2022. There’s a bright future for the newly revitalized DCEU movies!

Here’s how this works, because the schedule is getting a little weird. We’re starting with the DCEU movies that officially have release dates attached to them. Then we’ll get into the stuff that we know for 100% certain is in development, but that don’t have release dates yet. Then we’ll get into some of the long shots, the projects that are announced but quiet or seemingly dead, at the bottom.

Keep in mind that many of these are the CURRENT release dates as of this update, and all of these are subject to change. We’ll keep updating this with more information as we get it…

Our first trailer. Warning: gore & adult language & supervillains & adventure & heart. Can't wait to see it in a theater with all of you on August 6. #TheSuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/HdqlGVP0lB

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 26, 2021

Suicide Squad 2

Aug. 6, 2021

David Ayer going to be too busy with other projects until further notice, and none other than James Gunn (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) has stepped in to write and direct Suicide Squad 2. This is now called The Suicide Squad, which indicates something of a soft reboot, but expect this to remain a DCEU movie.

The cast is positively bonkers.

Returning from the first film we have Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, and of course Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn Scheduling issues forced Will Smith to bow out of the project as Deadshot.

But then that new cast is wild! John Cena is Peacemaker, with Idris Elba as Bloodsport, David Dastmalchian will play Polka Dot Man. Daniela Melchor will play a genderswapped version of Batman villain Ratcatcher…and there’s more, including Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark! We have a full breakdown of the cast right here.

Pandemic be damned, this one arrives on HBO Max AND in theaters simultaneously, so that August release date isn’t going anywhere.

The Batman

March 4, 2022

So, speaking of movies that had their release dates shifted because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Batman recently had to move from June to October of 2021 after its filming was put on hold fairly early on, and now it has had to vacate its October release slot for March of the following year, thanks to the aforementioned Dune reschedule, and also another production halt after star Robert Pattinson was diagnosed with Covid-19. Fortunately, principal photography has wrapped and this is now well on its way to meeting that release date!

The Batman solo movie has Matt Reeves as director. Robert Pattinson is the new Batman. Not only that, this movie will likely kick off a brand new trilogy of Batman movies. Expect a more low-key, detective focused approach to the Dark Knight than we’ve seen in previous movies.

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In addition to Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Jeffrey Wright will play Commissioner Gordon. Jayme Lawson has a mystery role. Andy Serkis is Alfred Pennyworth. And then there are the villains to contend with! The Batman will feature an all-star rogues’ gallery of villains, with Paul Dano as the Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

DC Super Pets

May 20, 2022

OK, fine, this isn’t a DCEU movie project, and it’s an animated movie. But unless you have no soul, how can you resist Krypto, Streaky, Ace, Comet, and the rest of the amazing super pets? They had better be fighting the Brain Globes of Rambat in this movie, otherwise, we riot.

You can read more about DC Super Pets here.

Black Adam

July 29, 2022

Originally slated to be the villain of Shazam, Black Adam will instead be played by Dwayne Johnson in a solo movie. The character is certainly strong enough to sustain his own movie. Adam Sztykiel (Due Date, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul) is writing with Jaume Collet-Serra set to direct.

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Shazam: Who is Black Adam?

By Marc Buxton

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By Mike Cecchini

This is the kind of thing that could work as a nifty prequel to further flesh out the mystical world of Shazam if they choose to go that route. More importantly, this movie will feature the DCEU introduction of the Justice Society of America, including Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher!

We’re currently on the lookout for more info, but Black Adam is supposed to start filming in early 2021, which seems unlikely at this time because of the global coronavirus pandemic. This film had been scheduled for December of 2021, but lost that date with all of WB’s recent release date shuffles. It’ll happen, it’s just a question of when.

You can read a little more about the Black Adam movie here.

The Flash

Nov. 4, 2022

Andy Muschietti (of Warner Bros’ IT movies) is the latest director to try and get The Flash movie to the screen. This project has had a really rough road. Christina Hodson, who clearly made the studio happy with her Birds of Prey script, is writing.

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Crisis On Infinite Earths Confirms DCEU Movies With Ezra Miller Cameo

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Ezra Miller will reprise his Justice League role as Barry Allen. Kiersey Clemons is Iris West. Ron Livingston will play Barry’s father, Dr. Henry Allen (replacing Billy Crudup who played the role in Justice League). But here’s where things get crazy…Ben Affleck will return to the role of Batman for this movie. And Michael Keaton will ALSO return to the role of Batman for this movie!

How is this possible? Because it’s based on the DC Comics Flashpoint story, which for the purposes of the movies will be used to create a big screen multiverse. Wow.

Oh, and it that’s not enough, this movie will introduce Supergirl to the DCEU, played by Sarah Calle!

This movie has had an extraordinary amount of trouble getting off the ground, so let’s see if the combination of Muschietti and Hodson keep this one on schedule for that release date. Or any release date. But pre-production is well underway, so it looks like Ezra Miller’s Barry will finally get his day in the sun.

Aquaman 2

Dec. 16, 2022

After it made a billion dollars at the box office, you bet your trident that Aquaman 2 is happening! Right now the plan is for James Wan to remain involved and start developing the movie, but he won’t decide whether or not to direct it until there’s a script in place. Fair enough. Patrick Wilson seems set to return, though, and of course, Jason Momoa will be back.

You can keep up with all our Aquaman 2 news right here.

Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods

June 2, 2023

Shazam 2 is now officially called Shazam: Fury of the Gods and…that’s about all we know about it right now.

One thing is for sure, though, this movie will retain the look, feel, and charm that made the first one so successful, since both director David F. Sandberg and writer Henry Gayden are returning. And this time we’ll have an entire Shazam family to help out!

Wait…did we mention the Sinbad cameo? No, really!

Now, let’s get into the projects that are in the works, but don’t have release dates yet. We’ve grouped these roughly in the order we expect to see them based on how far along they are.

Blue Beetle

There’s a Blue Beetle movie in the works. And unlike the character potentially appearing in the Booster Gold movie (more on that down below), this one would focus on Jaime Reyes, the magical tech powered teenage hero who wields the scarab of original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala) is writing the script, with Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) directing.

There’s no release date yet, but this is scheduled to begin production in fall 2021, so maybe we can pencil in a 2023 release date.

Read more about the Blue Beetle movie here.

Untitled Superman Project

Ta-Nehisi Coates is working on a Superman feature film with J.J. Abrams producing. No other info is currently available, but it appears to be a reboot.

“To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor,” Coates told Shadow and Act when the news was announced. “I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero.”

Will this continue Henry Cavill’s time in the role, or will it take a new approach? Will this be a completely different take on the Man of Steel altogether? Time will tell!

Zatanna

One of the most powerful magicians in the DC Universe is getting her own film, with a powerful writer attached. Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed the brilliant Promising Young Woman has signed on to write a Zatanna movie for Warner Bros. No other details are available at this time, but you don’t sign an Oscar hopeful for a movie like this unless you’re serious about getting it moving.

The New Gods

Ava DuVernay will direct a movie based on Jack Kirby‘s New Gods. It’s not clear yet whether this will fit into the continuity of the other DCEU movies, but really, it doesn’t need to. The New Gods is a cosmic story of such incredible scale that there’s no reason to try and connect this to earthbound concerns. Tom King, the DC Comics writer who has made waves with his work on the New Gods-centric (and Eisner Award-winning) Mister Miracle series, is co-writing the screenplay with DuVernay.

The New Gods is the story of two worlds, the warlike Apokolips and the peaceful New Genesis, each populated by immensely powerful beings with fantastic technology. Darkseid is the evil dictator of Apokolips, and he swaps sons with Highfather, the leader of New Genesis, and each child is raised on the opposite world. Darkseid’s son, Orion, becomes a troubled champion of New Genesis, while Highfather’s son (raised by Darkseid) revolts and becomes the super escape artist, Mister Miracle. This barely scratches the surface of what this movie is about. We tried to get into more detail about it here.

The Trench

Aquaman director James Wan and producer Peter Safran are working on developing other corners of Arthur’s world in addition to Aquaman 2. The Trench will focus on the terrifying piranha-like beasts seen briefly in the first film, and will be a smaller-scale, more horror-focused movie, and one that won’t feature any of the main characters from Aquaman. A different approach to superhero movie worldbuilding, for sure. Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald are writing.

Read more about The Trench here.

Supergirl

Oren Uziel is working on a script for a Supergirl movie. It’s not clear what kind of ties this will have to the currently dead Man of Steel franchise, especially given the uncertain state of Henry Cavill’s future as Superman.

But one thing is for sure, the DCEU does have their Supergirl! Sasha Calle will be introduced as Kara in The Flash movie, and presumably she’ll lead this one, as well.

Green Lantern Corps

Fairly or unfairly, Green Lantern has the most working against him. The 2011 film failed to kickstart the DC Universe as planned, and received a lukewarm (at best) critical and box-office reception. There are, of course, ways around this.

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The Secret Origin of Green Lantern: Far Sector

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One way is to simply not make Hal Jordan the central Green Lantern of the movie. Thisone may focus on as many as three Green Lanterns, with the main focus on a kind of buddy/cop movie with John Stewart and Hal Jordan. Geoff Johns is writing the script, but there’s no director in place yet, however Johns should be turning in his script soon and that will allow the director search to kick off in earnest. There’s also the recent announcement of an HBO Max Green Lantern TV show to consider. It remains to be seen what (if any) connection that will have to this movie.

We have more details on the Green Lantern Corps movie right here.

Plastic Man

This one is a little further off in the future as all they’ve done is hire a writer. But there is definitely a Plastic Man movie in the works, with Amanda Idoko (ABC’s The Mayor) working on a screenplay. We have some more details on it right here.

Blackhawk

Steven Spielberg has long wanted to make a Blackhawk movie, and he’s finally going to get his wish. And if it was your wish to see Steven Spielberg direct a DC movie, you’re also in luck. David Koepp is writing the screenplay. We have more details on this one here.

Batgirl

Joss Whedon was originally supposed to write, direct, and produce the Batgirl movie, one that was reportedly based on Gail Simone’s recent New 52 take on the character. He has exited the project and now Christina Hodson is writing. There is no director at the time of this writing, and rumor has it that this will be a project set to go direct to HBO Max.

Deathstroke

Joe Manganiello has long been cast as Slade Wilson, known to DC fans as Deathstroke. He even made a cameo in one of the Justice League theatrical post-credits scenes back when that was supposed to set up a Justice League 2 that never happened. But it turns out that the original version of that cameo in Zack Snyder’s Justice League was meant to set him up as the villain of The Batman solo movie (that is no longer the case),

Deathstroke was also once set to get a solo film, written and directed by The Raid‘s Gareth Evans. Despite Manganiello returning for a brief scene as Deathstroke in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it doesn’t seem likely that his solo film is happening anymore, which is a real shame as he would have been great in the role.

Justice League 2

Justice League 2 isn’t likely to happen at the moment given how the first film underperformed at the box office. It once had a release date, but that long since evaporated. Still, “The Snyder Cut” generated considerable buzz on HBO Max, and featured a teaser scene that was very much meant as a preview for what the director was looking for in his dark vision of Justice League 2.

Nightwing

The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay has been tapped to direct a Nightwing movie. Bill Dubuque (The Accountant) is working on a script. No other details are currently available, and this one doesn’t have a release date yet.

Justice League Dark

At one time this was called Dark Universe, until Universal came along and ruined that name with their failed horror movie shared franchise. This one will feature the supernatural characters from the DC Universe. Characters like Swamp Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna, and even John Constantine.

Guillermo del Toro was attached to this one for quite some time, but had to leave the project. Then it was Doug Liman. Now J.J. Abrams is involved as producer for what will likely be an HBO Max series.

And now for the long shots…projects mentioned, rumored, or that haven’t had any movement in a while.

Man of Steel 2

Never officially announced, with no director or writer ever attached…another solo Superman movie starring Henry Cavill seems pretty unlikely at the moment. Especially considering that Henry Cavill appears to be finished as Superman, there’s an excellent Superman & Lois TV series on the air, and the aforementioned movie in the works from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Cyborg

OK, to be perfectly honest, the Cyborg movie almost certainly isn’t happening. Ray Fisher made his first (very brief) appearance as Vic Stone/Cyborg in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and played a crucial role in Justice League. At one point he was supposed to feature in The Flash solo movie, too, but it’s not clear if that’s still the case.

Comics

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Basically, though…let’s be completely real: this movie isn’t happening. There hasn’t been any movement on it in years, despite once having been assigned an April 3, 2020 release date. As far as we can tell there has been no additional movement on this movie in years. It’s probably dead. Too bad, since Ray Fisher was great in the role.

Harley Quinn

Yes, there’s also another Harley Quinn movie in development! Well, at least there was at one point. Whether this is a solo project or something else remains to be seen. Keep in mind that while very good, Birds of Prey didn’t set the world on fire at the box office, which means that Warner Bros. might be a little more wary than before about additional solo projects for Harley, even with Margot Robbie’s star power. As for what shape this movie was supposed to take in the first place, your guess is as good as ours!

Gotham City Sirens

David Ayer is looking to direct a Harley Quinn and friends “girl gang” movie. Geneva Robertson-Dworet is writing, with Margot Robbie producing. It’s not clear where this stands on anybody’s priority list these days. Ayer has moved on to other projects, and as mentioned above, Birds of Prey wasn’t quite the financial success that Warner Bros. had hoped for. It’s possible that Gotham City Sirens has been put in a drawer for the time being.

Booster Gold

Flash and Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti is going to executive produce and possibly direct a Booster Gold movie. Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) will write the script.

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Men of Steel: 11 Actors Who Have Played Superman

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Joker: 6 Actors Who Have Played the Clown Prince of Crime

By David Crow

Early reports described this as a “superhero buddy cop movie” that would involve Blue Beetle. We’ll get you more updates on this as they become available, but keep in mind there hasn’t been any movement on this in a long time, and the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle movie is probably taking priority for the studio.

Deadshot

Warner Bros. knows they have one of the biggest stars in the world already in costume, so they’re reportedly considering a Deadshot solo movie, as well. But with Smith now having left Suicide Squad 2 this project seems like it may not ever materialize. Unless, of course, switching Idris Elba’s role (he was originally intended as Smith’s replacement as Floyd) means they’re keeping the door open for him down the road.

Lobo

The Lobo movie may attempt to be the DCEU movies’ equivalent of Deadpool. Jason Fuchs must have impressed Warner Bros. with his work on Wonder Woman, because he’s on board to write the script for this one. Michael Bay might direct. But with Lobo appearing on Krypton season 2 and a TV series for the character that had once been put into development (but is probably dead), this might be less of a priority for the studio now.

We have some more info on the project here.

Joker & Harley Quinn Movie

At one point there was yet another Joker-centric flick in the works. This one, a Joker and Harley Quinn movie is absolutely part of the DCEU movie continuity would pick up where Suicide Squad left off. There are currently no additional details available on this one, either. This probably won’t happen, however.

Warner Bros. is very happy with how their R-rated, out of continuity Joker movie performed both critically and commercially, and with Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar win, it’s a safe bet that they’re at least quietly hoping to make him their definitive Clown Prince of Crime for the foreseeable future…even though Joker was never intended to be part of the DCEU.

Not to be confused with…

Jared Leto Joker Movie

Honestly, we’re having trouble keeping track of all these, but yes, there was also yet another Joker solo movie in development focusing on Jared Leto’s version of the character in the works at one point. Apparently, this has long been canceled, but we’re keeping it here to be safe for a little longer.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

We’ll keep updating this with more information about upcoming DC superhero movies as they get announced and information becomes available.

The post Upcoming DC Movies: Complete Release Calendar appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3buqIKf

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

Text

Rufus Thomas

Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels, including Chess Records and Sun Records in the 1950s, before becoming established in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records. He is best known for his novelty dance records, including "Walking the Dog" (1963), "Do the Funky Chicken" (1969) and "(Do the) Push and Pull" (1970). According to the Mississippi Blues Commission, "Rufus Thomas embodied the spirit of Memphis music perhaps more than any other artist, and from the early 1940s until his death . . . occupied many important roles in the local scene."

He began his career as a tap dancer, vaudeville performer, and master of ceremonies in the 1930s. He later worked as a disc jockey on radio station WDIA in Memphis, both before and after his recordings became successful. He remained active into the 1990s and as a performer and recording artist was often billed as "The World's Oldest Teenager". He was the father of the singers Carla Thomas (with whom he recorded duets) and Vaneese Thomas and the keyboard player Marvell Thomas.

Early life

Thomas was born in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper. He moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, around 1920. His mother was a "church woman". Thomas made his debut as a performer at the age of six, playing a frog in a school theatrical production. By the age of 10, he was a tap dancer, performing on the streets and in amateur productions at Booker T. Washington High School, in Memphis. From the age of 13, he worked with Nat D. Williams, his high-school history teacher, who was also a pioneer black DJ at radio station WDIA and columnist for black newspapers, as a master of ceremonies at talent shows in the Palace Theater on Beale Street. After graduating from high school, Thomas attended Tennessee A&I University for one semester, but economic constraints led him to leave to pursue a career as a full-time entertainer.

Early career as a performer

Thomas began performing in traveling tent shows. In 1936 he joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, an all-black revue that toured the South, as a tap dancer and comedian, sometimes part of a duo, Rufus and Johnny. He married Cornelia Lorene Wilson in 1940, at a service officiated by Rev. C. L. Franklin, the father of Aretha Franklin, and the couple settled in Memphis. Thomas worked a day job in the American Finishing Company textile bleaching plant, which he continued to do for over 20 years. He also formed a comedy and dancing duo, Rufus and Bones, with Robert "Bones" Couch, and they took over as MCs at the Palace Theater, often presenting amateur hour shows. One early winner was B.B. King, and others discovered by Thomas later in the 1940s included Bobby Bland and Johnny Ace.

In the early 1940s, Thomas began writing and performing his own songs. He regarded Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Gatemouth Moore as musical influences. He made his professional singing debut at the Elks Club on Beale Street, filling in for another singer at the last minute, and during the 1940s became a regular performer in Memphis nightclubs, such as Currie's Club Tropicana. As an established performer in Memphis, aged 33 in 1950, Thomas recorded his first 78 rpm single, for Jesse Erickson's small Star Talent label in Dallas, Texas. Thomas said, "I just wanted to make a record. I never thought of getting rich. I just wanted to be known, be a recording artist. . . . [But] the record sold five copies and I bought four of them." The record, "I'll Be a Good Boy" backed with "I'm So Worried", gained a Billboard review, which stated that "Thomas shows first class style on a slow blues". He also recorded for the Bullet label in Nashville, Tennessee, when he recorded with Bobby Plater's Orchestra and was credited as "Mr. Swing"; the recordings were not recognised by researchers as being by Thomas until 1996. In 1951 he made his first recordings at Sam Phillips's Sun Studio, for the Chess label, but they were not commercially successful.

He began working as a DJ at radio station WDIA in 1951, and hosted an afternoon R&B show called Hoot and Holler. WDIA, featuring an African-American format, was known as "the mother station of the Negroes" and became an important source of blues and R&B music for a generation, its audience consisting of white as well as black listeners. Thomas used to introduce his shows saying, "I'm young, I'm loose, I'm full of juice, I got the goose so what's the use. We're feeling gay though we ain't got a dollar, Rufus is here, so hoot and holler." He also used to lead tours of white teenagers on "midnight rambles" around Beale Street.

His celebrity in the South was such that in 1953, at Sam Phillips's suggestion, he recorded "Bear Cat" for Sun Records, an "answer record" to Big Mama Thornton's R&B hit "Hound Dog". The record became the label's first national chart hit, reaching number 3 on the Billboard R&B chart. However, a copyright-infringement suit brought by Don Robey, the original publisher of "Hound Dog", nearly bankrupted the record label. After only one recording there, Thomas was one of the African-American artists released by Phillips, as he oriented his label more toward white audiences and signed Elvis Presley, who later recorded Thomas's song "Tiger Man". Thomas did not record again until 1956, when he made a single, "I'm Steady Holdin' On", for the Bihari brothers' Meteor label; musicians on the record included Lewie Steinberg, later a founding member of Booker T and the MGs.

Stax Records

In 1960 he made his first recordings with his 17-year-old daughter Carla, for the Satellite label in Memphis, which changed its name to Stax the following year. The song, "Cause I Love You", featuring a rhythm borrowed from Jesse Hill's "Ooh Poo Pa Doo", was a regional hit; the musicians included Thomas' son Marvell on keyboards, Steinberg, and the 16-year-old Booker T. Jones. The record's success led to Stax gaining production and distribution deal with the much larger Atlantic Records.

Rufus Thomas continued to record for the label after Carla's record "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" reached the national R&B chart in 1961. He had his own hit with "The Dog", a song he had originally improvised in performance based on a Willie Mitchell bass line, complete with imitations of a barking dog. The 1963 follow-up, "Walking the Dog", engineered by Tom Dowd of Atlantic, became one of his most successful records, reaching #10 on the Billboard pop chart. He became the first, and still the only, father to debut in the Top 10 after his daughter had first appeared there. The song was recorded in early 1964 by the Rolling Stones on their debut album, and was a minor UK chart hit for Merseybeat group the Dennisons later that year.

As well as recording and appearing on radio and in clubs, Thomas continued to work as a boiler operator in the textile plant, where he claimed the noises sometimes suggested musical rhythms and lyrics to him, before he finally gave up the job in 1963, to focus on his role as a singer and entertainer. He recorded a series of novelty dance tracks, including "Can Your Monkey Do the Dog'" and '"Somebody Stole My Dog" for Stax, where he was often backed by Booker T. & the MGs or the Bar-Kays. He also became a mentor to younger Stax stars, giving advice on stage moves to performers like Otis Redding, who partnered daughter Carla on record.

After "Jump Back" in 1964, the hits dried up for several years, as Stax gave more attention to younger artists and musicians. However, in 1970 he had another big hit with "Do the Funky Chicken", which reached #5 on the R&B chart, #28 on the pop chart, and #18 in Britain where it was his only chart hit. Thomas improvised the song while performing with Willie Mitchell's band at a club in Covington, Tennessee, including a spoken word section that he regularly used as a shtick as a radio DJ: "Oh I feel so unnecessary - this is the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you wanna do something nasty, like waste some chicken gravy on your white shirt right down front." The recording was produced by Al Bell and Tom Nixon, and used the Bar-Kays, featuring guitarist Michael Toles. Thomas continued to work with Bell and Nixon as producers, and later in 1970 had his only number 1 R&B hit [and his second-highest pop charting record] with another dance song, "Do the Push and Pull". A further dance-oriented release in 1971, "The Breakdown", climbed to number 2 R&B and number 31 Pop. In 1972, he featured in the Wattstax concert, and he had several further, less successful, hits before Stax collapsed in 1976.

Later career

Thomas continued to record and toured internationally, billing himself as "The World's Oldest Teenager" and describing himself as "the funkiest man alive". He "drew upon his vaudeville background to put [his songs] over on stage with fancy footwork that displayed remarkable agility for a man well into his fifties", and usually performed "while clothed in a wardrobe of hot pants, boots and capes, all in wild colors."

He continued as a DJ at WDIA until 1974, and worked for a period at WLOK before returning to WDIA in the mid 1980s to co-host a blues show. He appeared regularly on television and recorded albums for various labels. Thomas performed regularly at the Porretta Soul Festival in Italy; the outdoor amphitheater in which he performed was later renamed Rufus Thomas Park.

He played an important part in the Stax reunion of 1988, and appeared in Jim Jarmusch's 1989 film Mystery Train, Robert Altman's 1999 film Cookie's Fortune, and D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary Only the Strong Survive. Thomas released an album of straight-ahead blues, That Woman is Poison!, with Alligator Records in 1990, featuring saxophonist Noble "Thin Man" Watts. In 1996, he and William Bell headlined at the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1997, he released an album, Rufus Live!, on Ecko Records. In 1998, he hosted two New Year's Eve shows on Beale Street.

In 1997, to commemorate his 80th birthday, the City of Memphis renamed a road off Beale Street, close to the old Palace Theater, as Rufus Thomas Boulevard. He received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1992, and a lifetime achievement award from ASCAP in 1997. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.

Death and legacy

He died of heart failure in 2001, at the age of 84, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis. He is buried next to his wife Lorene, who pre-deceased him in 2000, at the New Park Cemetery in Memphis.

Writer Peter Guralnick said of him:

His music... brought a great deal of joy to the world, but his personality brought even more, conveying a message of grit, determination, indomitability, above all a bottomless appreciation for the human comedy that left little room for the drab or the dreary in his presence.

Thomas was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Byhalia.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Rufus Thomas among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

In popular culture

Bobby Brown portrays Thomas in the BET television series American Soul.

#12/15 #03/26

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chaossmagic · 5 years ago

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Robron prompt: family or husband fluff (if it grabs you!) 💖

Most 14-year-olds wanted to be indoors, playing video games with their mates, but when they’d announced that they were taking Ellie to the park, Seb had surprisingly wanted to come too. Knowing he’d been working hard in preparation for next year when he’d start studying for his GCSEs, they’d let him come with them for the afternoon for a break and a change of scenery.

Now, Robert and Aaron sat on a bench at the side of the playground, watching as Seb pushed Ellie higher and higher on the swings per her shrieking demands, her little voice carrying on the wind followed by peals of high-pitched laughter when her brother acquiesced.

The two of them together, Eleanor with her riot of dark curly hair that never seemed to stay untangled, and Seb with the same green eyes and freckles as his father but a wicked smile that was all Dingle, it would never stop being something that neither could quite believe was real. It had taken so long, they’d almost given up hope.

But they hadn’t, because they had each other and together, they could do anything; that’s what they had promised each other, when they’d renewed their wedding vows a year after Robert had been released from prison, in a quiet ceremony in Wales. It had just been them, Liv, and Seb, Robert being unable to face a full to-do while still recovering from a breakdown, and Aaron not needing one.

“I keep saying it,” Robert said suddenly, breaking the silence, “but I thought for so long that I - that we’d - never have this. That I could never be a good enough father or husband again.” He stopped, swallowing hard, composing himself. “But you - you gave me that hope. You believed in me.” He reached across the bench for Aaron’s hand; he took it, twining their fingers together tightly, squeezing. He could feel Robert’s fingers shaking, and he gripped harder, wanting him to feel through his touch that he was there and tangible, not a fever dream or a mirage Robert’s mind had designed to play cruel tricks on him.

“You are good enough, you muppet,” Aaron insisted. “Look at them. Look at how happy they are, just messing around together, being siblings. I never doubted ya as a dad and I never doubted ya as a husband. Just took a bit of time, is all.”

“Yeah, because I messed things up. Again,” Robert muttered darkly.

“I thought you were dealin’ with all that?” Aaron said. “With your counsellor?”

“I am,” he replied. “I promise, I am. I never thought I’d spend seven years in therapy, either. But it is helping. It does help. Rachel’s great.”

Rachel was Robert’s therapist, a woman with red-hair and purple-framed glasses a little older than him, and Aaron liked her a lot. And when it came to Robert, he had high standards - and was very picky about who he trusted with his husband’s health and welfare.

Aaron leaned over to press a kiss to Robert’s shoulder, quick and fleeting, a gentle touch of the lips that said I’m here. And I’m proud of you.

At that moment, Ellie and Seb chose to abandon their games and came running up, Ellie immediately launching herself into Robert’s arms and scrambling into his lap, black hair flying.

“Seb says he’s going to eat me, Daddy!” she exclaimed, her eyes huge. “He said he was a big bad monster and he was going to eat me!”

“Ah, see, we can’t have that,” Aaron said, addressing Seb, who was red in the face from chasing his sister around, pretending to be a dragon in their make-believe games. Fairytales were Ellie’s absolute favourite, and Seb was usually her guinea pig. “Princess Ellie has big strong knights to look out for her, and we don’t like dragons much, do we, Rob?”

“Definitely not,” Robert said, giving Ellie a smacking kiss on one of her ruddy cheeks. “So sorry, but the princess stays with us. The bad dragon has to get back to his maths homework.”

“Haha!” Ellie giggled, sticking out her tongue at her brother. Seb blew a raspberry back at her, then ruffled her hair affectionately.

“Can I at least go and see Isaac later?” Seb asked.

“Okay. But only if your dad checks your homework first,” Aaron compromised.

Seb groaned. “Fine.”

“I love you, you know?” Robert said. He kissed the top of Ellie’s head again. “Both of you. You’re both so important to me, I need you to know that.”

“Eh, what about me?” Aaron asked, feigning offence.

“I love you the most,” Robert said, over the top of Ellie’s head. He smiled a soft, slow smile, one he reserved just for Aaron. It was still there, even years later. “Always.”

#saras-almanac #lorna's writing #robron #robron fic #robert's return 'verse #verse: meet me in the afterglow #one day i will ask for short prompts and actually make them short #today is not that day

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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Have you done breakdowns of the last few episodes yet? If not 👀

**spoilers for a new york wedding**

Prologue: I had a partially free day today (as in the day I started writing this which is now two days ago) so I decided to swing by Central Park and check out the Bethesda Fountain where I saw both a proposal and a man on a segway with a live snake around his neck so, yeah, New York is just Like That.

"Here's a possibly magic crown. Why don't we ask the butt stuff guy about that?"

The face Brennan makes when Emily says, "I used to do colonics at the salon," is great. Like, "We are two minutes into this ep, your sentence isn't even complete, and I already can't handle it."

So they get out of the sewers and Bethesda Fountain has been attacked (which is a shame just aesthetically because, having now seen it in person, it's a really pretty fountain). Em is devastated and explains that the fountain is like a Important magical symbol of good change and a source of divine purification magic.

Another side note about the fountain: There are these little cherub figures around it in additional to the Angel. I wonder if those are sentient too. Also-also, the promenade across from the fountain has these cool murals of the seasons. My point is, there's a lot of fodder for possible lore just in that small area of the park.

Misty finds ashes by the fountain (concerning) and wipes it on Kugrash's fur (rude).

I love that Emily thought Pete was pouring one out (one being one bag of cocaine).

"Sophie, your magic is that you're a wonderful person and you jump really good."

"The Bread Wedding"

Kudos to Brennan for all the wide range of crazy voices he had to do in this ep. Don Confetti. The Golem. Perry the Pigeon. That can't be easy on the throat.

Sophie is fully ready to fistfight Don Confetti over their last names which is wild for a lot of reasons we're not gonna get into.

So Brennan has everyone roll a Wis save and everyone did OK except I think Ricky. Brennan never explains why he had them roll that. Concerning. I'm wondering now if it was something that would have needed a nat 20 to save from it or something where the people who saved didn't realized they saved from it and the people who didn't are just ticking time bombs or sleeper agents or something else awful.

Pete is such a dangerous friend to be around when you're emotionally compromised. His solution to everything is drugs.

"It's an off-white!" --Misty upon being called out for wearing white to a wedding.

Brennan has Perry go on a wild 39 second monologue about relationships that Pete interrupts by stuffing drugs down his gullet--see again my previous bullet about Pete.

Sophie notices that a lot of the pixies recognize her which pm confirms her brother is In This which, to use the word of the day again, *Concerning*.

Emily having Sophie get really emotional but also struggling to keep the laughter out of her face is always super funny to watch.

So Pete finds a table of vampires. Brennan spends a couple of minutes describing them before he gets to it outright but it's pretty immediately clear they're vamps. Well, vamps plus a suspicious older guy and a girl (Melissa) who seems to be playing Renfield to the vamps. Getting high so they can drink her blood and get high. Pete brilliantly confirms this by getting the suspicious guy (Rob, as far as we know) to go off on Politics and then deep mind-reading the girl. That's one of the most clever RP things I've seen a player do. Pete also sees that Rob is hanging out with the vamps but he doesn't seem to be one.

Pete fails his wild magic check but nothing happened that we know of. A lot of stuff on the wild magic table is situational though (like the reincarnate spell from Bloodkeep with the potion Sohkbarr drank).

Rob implies he knows what happened with Pete's dad. Pete goes into a tailspin, as if he isn't constantly in one.

Everyone dancing so they can talk in public instead of just, like, having a sidebar. Just that entire sequence is peak comedy.

Ricky, the good boy, is dancing with his pigeon date while everyone else is mystery solving (or, in Soph's case, crying in a closet or something).

Rob is supposedly in finance. Last time there was a character involved in finance/banking in D20 it was the whole KVX fiasco in FH.

"Did I use up my favor? I could have had anything in the world."

Sophie upon seeing anything young woman in any kind of situation immediately springs into action, ready to drag them out by any means necessary. I love her.

Robert works at a hedge fund and Kug recognizes him. Brennan explains how he knows him in a very vague way which the rest of the table clocks instantly. Murph asks if Rob knows Gabriela. He does. Who the hell is Gabriela, Misty and I wonder.

Emily goes galaxy brain and theorizes that the bad guys are laundering souls which is equal parts bonkers and brilliant. The camera unhelpfully *doesn't* cut back to Brennan so I can attempt to read his DM poker face. I am reminded of Emily wondering if [redacted] was in the sword in a recent ep of Naddpod and Murph just deciding that they were on the spot because it was cooler than what he had planned. I know you can't win at DnD but I think Emily is winning at DnD.

I mentioned this in passing I think last recap, but Pete's magic is really interesting to me because Pete doesn't know what his character sheet looks like and he's not someone like Kingston or Ricky who's been doing their thing for a while and knows that they can do and what the things he can do are called. So Ally has to get a little creative about activating abilities (like True Strike in this ep) without being too meta, if that makes sense.

Kug knows Rob from a while ago (from the 80's he later says) but he doesn't seem to have aged. The group is thinking vampire, but he wasn't drinking blood in the memory Pete saw. Suspicious. Put a pin in that with everything else on my conspiracy board.

Misty: Eyyyy Macarena!

Kug kisses the pigeon. Sure.

Misty/Siobhan also does a clever thing and suggests taking a selfie with the vamp table in the background to see who shows up. Only Melissa and Rob do, so they're not vamps for sure.

So they go back to Kingston's place and he, Pete, and Sophie cook for everyone which has basically nothing really to do with the plot but I think it was a nice character beat for them.

Kingston and Misty fought a mummy on Long Island back in the day. As you do. Sidenote, when I was in Central Park today (two days ago), I passed by a big-ass obelisk that apparently exists and that I am *certain* Brennan has lore for, even if it doesn't come up.

Misty, a very wealthy Broadway star: If you pay for the Metropolitan Museum, you're a Goddamn fool.

Sophie had not put together that Misty is a fairy before now and I was like ??? for a second but, actually, with the info she has, that's not necessarily the conclusion she would draw. She could just be a really short lady with magic. It's been that kind of week.

Kingston presses Kug on how he knows Rob and Kug reluctantly confesses that HE USED TO BE A GUY. Zac blindly guesses that he was a stockbroker which is ALSO CORRECT.

"movie horse breeder" is such a specific job to pull out of thin air.

Siobhan, making a choice: Let me tell you about my good friend, John Wilkes Booth.

Brennan's total break of composure when Zac/Ricky says, "I wasn't always a firefighter." Zac lowkey has the best comic timing of everyone on the squad. He's just really understated about it.

Anyway, there are levels to this. How long has Kug been a rat??? I feel like it must have been a while because of all the weird ass stuff that he does. Also, he excuses a lot of his behaviors due to being a rat considering he's actually a rat-MAN, emphasis on the man. The stock broker thing surprised me more considering that Kug is introduced doing some pretty altruistic, non-stockbroker-y things. Did Kug piss off a homeless witch and get Beauty and the Beast-ed? He never actually answered the question about how he knows Rob since everyone got sidetracked by the fact that he used to be a whole-ass HUMAN MAN. Did Rob curse him for less moral lesson reasons? What's going on here????

Esther and Ale have been researching. The grey baby is apparently named Nod, just like the place, and it (it specifically, not him or her) like the ruler of there.

There's this whole group bit Brennan, Ally, and Siobahn do about how you can take the L train really far and then catch a shuttle bus that can only be seen by the pure of heart to get to Nod and it's really funny but how funny would it be if they actually tried to do it in a dire moment and also Ricky could do it for sure send tweet.

Kingston is trying so-so hard to keep everyone on task all episode. Bless him.

Kug asks Esther about her mom, which surprises her. He says they used to be friends (Did *SHE* curse him????). Esther says she hasn't seen her in a long time, since she was 5 or 6. Of course, it's easy to want to connect this to the Gabriela he was asking about earlier but we'll see about that. I think I saw some people speculating that he's Esther's dad which I'm even more skeptical about considering what we learn later but wouldn't that be wild?

Ricky decides to shoot his shot with Esther. His brain is full of love, determination, civic responsibility, and absolutely nothing else, bless his golden retriever heart.

Brennan as Esther drops the best stealth joke (though, it has a very high likelihood of crossing from joke to plot point) in D20 so far with the Imperial Axiom/Sinatra's Law explanation. It was a full, "Wait. What? Oh!" Big gold star for Brennan for that one. I had to take a second and recover from that when I heard it the first time. Beyond the joke, it also seems like a likely hook for the eventual Big Bad of the campaign. First NY, then the world, you know?

The fact that the highways go against the grain of magic leylines of NY in this world is such a good detail and it makes a lot of sense intuitively.

Zac breaks Brennan again with the, "Traffic's really bad," comment.

Please let Ricky's big dumb puppy self win over Esther. "It's really hard for me." Riiiickyyyy.

So Kingston goes to see Willy, the Williamsburg golem about Lazarus from the Bible (New Testament). Aren't golems de facto Jewish? I think. I am correct. However, as much as Willy doesn't know about the New Testament, he *does* know about the Statue of Liberty which is convenient because--shoutout to the people who figured it out in advance--Lazarus is not Lazarus from the Bible. It's Emma Lazarus who wrote the poem on the Statue of Liberty. This of course means that I need to do a close read of that poem at some point but not today baby because I need more information before I start going full Pepe Silvia. Sidenote: What a great place for Kingston to be when figuring out that info. Close enough that Willy can just point out the statue. It's cinematic. Fantastic.

(Also, I made a post about the fact that Siobahn just knew Emma's name off the top of her head, but when it cut to the other side of the table, Emily's eyes got all big too).

Emily gets a nat20 which RUINS her plans because she runs into Isabella aka the woman her husband left her for. They have an adult Means Girls stand-off where Sophie finds out they're getting married (or at least having a ceremony bc Dale didn't send her divorce papers yet). Big ups to Emily for staying in character and ditching all the sleuthing she was going to do because there is no way Sophie would be stable enough for that to be her top priority at the moment (even though I really wanted her to do all that stuff!)

Also, I'm looking forward to watching Sophie rip her to shreds when she inevitably turns out to be a succubus/demon/fiend/whatever. Honestly, she can just barfight her and I'd be satisfied.

So Misty goes home and finds a present waiting for her. It's a big ass mirror. Correction. It's a big ass mirror that Titania immediately uses to angry Skype her. Yikes.

It seems like her shoes of Titania are literally that, stolen from Titania (love that Titania was barefoot in her character art btw). I know they let her cast a certain spell in an earlier episode but I'm wondering why she stole them. Maybe they helped her cross over from Faerie (which happened ~400 years ago we ind out)?

Titania is pissed that Misty is stealing "glamour" that should be hers (via playing her in the new show). Glamour in the fairy sense is like a disguise. Glamour in the DnD sense is a fey-based bard option (which is the class I'm guessing Titania will be if they have to fight her). Curious to get a deeper explanation on that later.

Misty is able to cover back up the mirror but she breaks a hip in the process because of Titania's mojo and has to call Kingston. I already said this but I love their relationship.

(Sidenote, I meant to mention this earlier, but I think whiffs of the undead came up a couple of times in this ep which makes me wonder if the mummy situation Kingston mentioned is going to come back).

"Please, use any one of the guestrooms."

I FORGOT ABOUT KUG'S STUFF AT THE END

Ugh, this ep is an emotional roller coaster

"Wherever you are Rat Jesus, know that I love you. From Wally." What a good boy.

Everyone reacting to Murph's reaction to Wally before they Find Out is like, an experience. It's like that airpods meme.

OK, I'm not going to go through a whole play by play because nothing I could say would be better than watching the scene but I guess Murph/Bren decided in for a penny, in for a pound because we find out via a conversation between Wally and his businessman brother David that he is Kug's SON. HIS SON. S O N.

Wally is convinced that their dad wouldn't have just left them. David thinks Wally is being naive. I want to die.

Everyone around the table except maybe Ally is so visibly upset at this new information and Ally goes, "FUCK!" at the end so you know we all express emotions in different ways.

God, it's so sad! And I'm not gonna say, "I knew it!" because I didn't. I super didn't. But when Wally was introduced (man that scene hits differently now) I remember thinking, this is such an oddly specific NPC. Like, you know when you're playing a game and the stuff you can click is slightly better rendered and you can kind of tell what you should focus on and what's background art? That's how he felt.

Anyway, again, I'm sad. (GMYeah!.gif)

Watching *OVER* you Murph. OVER you. That's how you make it not creepy!

Meanwhile, Pete lets a bunch of bug monsters out of his dream into real New York City which, tbh, I'm not surprised. This seems like the kind of thing that would happen. Pete is exactly the worst kind of person to be the dream avatar in terms of being responsible.

I love that Siobhan is like, “I have a broken hip” as if all but one of them don’t have literal magic powers. That’s a very fixable problem compared to other stuff they’ve dealt with that day alone.

Anyway next time, a wasp centaur (thanks, I hate it) and a nat 20! See you then.

#dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #asks #a-salty-alto #there are for sure mistakes in this but I am on a whirlwind schedule rn #and I wanted to get this out before the next ep #so I wasn't too behind

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lucienballard · 5 years ago

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Apocalypse Now: Final Cut review ...

crazed exposé of the heart of darkness .... 5stars out of 5 stars.

From Marlon Brando’s extraordinary cameo to Dennis Hopper’s crazed photojournalist, Coppola’s epic ‘definitive’ cut of his brilliant 1979 war film is triumphant in restating the inhumanity of empire

Someday this war’s gonna end,” is the sage comment from surf-crazed Wagner enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, brusquely played by Robert Duvall. In fact, when Francis Ford Coppola’s grandiose epic masterpiece Apocalypse Now was first unveiled in 1979, the Vietnam war had only ended four years previously, and the succeeding Cambodian-Vietnamese war (where the film’s climax is set) was in full swing.

Coppola’s bad trip into south-east Asia was co-written by John Milius with narration written by Michael Herr. It was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, Herr’s own Vietnam reportage-memoir Dispatches and maybe at one further remove by Rudyard Kipling’s lines about the US taking up the white man’s imperial burden. It was famously an ordeal for all concerned. The production involved a filming expedition in the Philippines that felt hardly less colossal and traumatic to the participants than the actual war, though it became commonplace in Hollywood’s Vietnam for the anguish of American soldiersnot that of the Vietnamese people themselves, to be seen as important. (The nearest that Vietnamese people get to actual importance in Apocalypse Now is the four South Vietnamese intelligence officers, executed by ColKurtz as Communist spies, whose ID cards we briefly see.) Like Lawrence of Arabia, moreover, this is a film without women – or mostly.

Now Apocalypse Now has resurfaced for its 40th-anniversary in what Coppola is calling his definitive final cut. Interestingly, this does not mean simply including everything he shot. He has removed some of the “Playmate” sequences that were in his 202-minute “Redux” edition from 2001, but this cut retains the extended “dinner party” scene with French planters in the jungle, like an encounter with angry imperial ghosts.

Martin Sheen plays Captain Benjamin Willard, a troubled officer, recovering – or not recovering – from a breakdown caused by his last tour of Vietnam. He is tasked by hatchet-faced intelligence chiefs with travelling with a small crew upriver into Viet Cong territory and into Cambodia. There he is expected to track down the renegade Colonel Walter Kurtz – an extraordinary cameo by Marlon Brando – and “terminate his command”, because this once brilliant officer has gone native and become drunk with power, ordering executions; he is rumoured to be revered as a chieftain, or worshipped as a pagan god, lost his mind through having been vouchsafed some terrible vision of humanity in the jungle itself.

And so Willard sets off into the Boschian chaos, encountering Kilgore, who gives him diversionary air cover to get his boat to the river’s strategic entry point with his bizarre “Air Mobile” helicopter cavalry attack blaring Wagner from the sound-system. It is one of the most staggering war-movie set pieces in history. Finally, Willard and his men: Tyrone (Laurence Fishburne), Lance (Sam Bottoms), Chef (Frederic Forrest), and Chief (Albert Hall) arrive at the sinister jungle clearing, with corpses hung everywhere, and they encounter Kurtz’s acolyte: the crazy, gurning photojournalist (Dennis Hopper) – a countercultural parody, like a cross between Charles Manson (whose fate Willard had noticed in a newspaper headline) and one of Manson’s followers. It is presumably this character who has painted the graffiti: “Our Motto: Apocalypse Now” on to a nearby rock.

Brando’s charisma sells the climactic scenes with Willard; without his presence, the literary musings would be a little callow. But his unmistakably adenoidal whispered aria about tribespeople cutting off their children’s arms rather than submit to inoculation always delivers a sickening blow. Sheen, meanwhile, is strong and charismatic as Willard, becoming more fascinated and awestruck by Kurtz’s reputation the closer he gets to his quarry. Each time I watch this film, though, I always regret, just a little, that Willard hasn’t a bit more to say for himself, especially as he has this avowed need to “confront” Kurtz. But his mute presence is potent enough.

Finally, Apocalypse Now finds its triumph in restating the inhumanity of empire. Like many a colonial planter, Colonel Kurtz finds it intensely pleasurable, even ecstatic, to feel himself superior to the subjugated peoples. Having tested his strength against theirs, he affects to admire their supposed primitive honesty and authenticity as superior to the white civilisation he has transcended. But having contemptuously left behind his former identity, he feels how desolate and futile is his existence as both human and god.

• Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is released in the UK on 13 August and in the US on 15 August.

Peter Bradshaw

@PeterBradshaw1

Wed 7 Aug 2019

#apocalypse now

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

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“A good yet stained main card with plenty of prospects and debuts on the undercard” The UFC Fight Night Tuivasa vs JDS Preview

Joey

November 27th

After a TUF FInale, the UFC heads to Australia where...well...things have always been hit or miss. Australian PPVs tend to be damn fun shows but these Aussie fight nights? Woof. They can be hit or miss. The one last November holds the record for the longest UFC fight night ever and I believe it STILL holds the record to this day. The UFC rolls into Australia with a really good main card and some intriguing prelims but I'm not as excited about it now as I was a week or so ago. We'll get into that. The main card's theme in so many words is about the best Australia has to offer minus stars like Robert Whittaker taking on some proven talent that's either looking to take their place (Justin Willis, Tony Martin) or looking to hold onto their spots (Shogun and JDS). The fights are well put together and intriguing on paper----but I'm having a tough time really getting into it. The prelims feature some tremendous fights at the lighter weight classes, a few intriguing debuts and a welterweight looking to survive the Yushin Okami test. This show SHOULD be well worth your time and hopefully your concerns are not my concerns either.

Fights: 12

Debuts: Jim Crute, Sodiq Yusuff, Suman Mokhtarian, Kai Kara-France, Damir Ismagulov, Alex Gorgees

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Ross Pearson OUT, Damir Ismagulov IN vs Joe Duffy/Joe Duffy OUT, Alex Gorgees IN vs Damir Ismagulov/Askhan Mokhtarian OUT, Elias Garcia IN vs Kai Kara-France)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 6 (Shogun Rua, Mark Hunt, Junior Dos Santos, Jake Matthews, Yushin Okami, Wilson Reis)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: (Wilson Reis, Mizuto Hirota)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Tai Tuiavasa, Justin Willis, Tony Martin, Jake Matthews)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 26-12-1

Tai Tuiavasa- 3-0 Junior Dos Santos- 2-1 Justin Willis- 3-0 Mark Hunt- 2-3-1 Shogun Rua- 2-1 Tyson Pedro- 3-2 Jake Matthews- 4-2 Tony Martin- 5-1 Paul Craig- 3-2 Jim Crute- 0-0 Suman Mokhtarian- 0-0 Sodiq Yusuff- 0-0

Divisional Breakdown:

Flyweight- 3 Welterweight- 2 Lightweight- 2 Heavyweight- 2 Light Heavyweight- 2 Featherweight- 1

Too High Up- Jim Crute vs Paul Craig

I actually really really like this fight----as something for the prelims. Paul Craig has struggled with guys like Crute; hard hitters who are a smidge more athletic than him who are don't panic on the feet and pressure him into making mistakes. Jim Crute fits that bill and there's a lot of unknowns about Crute that makes this a compelling match up. Crute tends to start slow and is hittable; opening up some doors for Craig. We also don't know how good he is on the ground which is an avenue by which Crute could be exposed. It's a fine fight as a prelim headliner or something of that ilk. It's a good fight, just a bit too over the top for the main card. Chances are this one is about to be a little ugly too. Both guys have some serious technical flaws on the feet.

Too Low- Wilson Reis vs Ben Nguyen

The prelims on this card are perfectly fine for a filler December Fight Night; it's basically a lot of Japan vs the world fights (Australia, Russia and Germany) with a few filler flyweight fights thrown in. I like Reis vs Nguyen though. Even though Ben Nguyen has basically been scrubbed every time he gets tasked with taking a step up, Reis is the sort of guy he can have a hell of an action fight with. Reis vs Nguyen could be a fun fight and the main card could use that even if it interrupts the Australia vs the world run.

Stat Monitor for 2018:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 32-40-1): Jim Crute, Sodiq Yusuff, Suman Mokhtarian, Kai Kara-France, Damir Ismagulov, Alex Gorgees

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 31-30): Elias Garcia, Alex Gorgees

Second Fight (Current number: 39- 33-1): Elias Garcia, Salim Touahri, Alexey Kunchenko, Christos Giagos

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 22-37): 0

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 31-23-1): Alex Gorgees

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really; Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization:

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Has Tito vs Chuck dampened anybody else's enjoyment of this card? MMA tends to be a swing of extremes and so when something's really good, it tends to make everything else seem really good and when something's really bad, we tend to all swing in the opposite direction and assume everything is bad. I'm in the latter right now with the top three fights on this card. JDS has been flattened every time he's faced a puncher recently with Overeem and Miocic (twice) beating him up pretty badly. The Cain fights speak for themselves of course. Tai Tuivasa may be limited in a collection of areas but he hits really hard and carries that power pretty well seemingly. I just saw Shogun get laid out by Anthony Smith and while the damage Shogun's taken may be somewhat overstated compared to the other guys involved in the "big" fights, he's been laid out in four of his last five losses. Lastly you have Mark Hunt who is way over 40 and had a full medical evaluation done after he did an interview alleging some form of brain damage. He was cleared ("and said he was joking") but he's fighting another guy who hits really hard after decades of combat sports abuse. It just feels like all of these fights paint a somewhat unsettling picture and maybe that's just the Chuck/Tito afterglow on it. I still am pretty excited for three "young guy vs old lion" fights----but man if I'm not giving this a second look and hoping we've got quick trigger finger refs available.

2- Is JDS a step too far for Tai Tuivasa? Tuivasa debuted around this time last year and he ran through some so-so dudes in Rashad Coulter and then Cyril Asker. He got a sturdy test in Andrei Arlovski in the midst of yet another career rebirth and he passed that well enough. He looked lost early, got hit a bit and then made adjustments and brawled his way back into the fight. It wasn't the sort of performance that would make you think he's ready for JDS but at the same time, JDS isn't the same guy he was in 2012 or 2013. Dos Santos' wins have all felt the same; he's comfortable when there's space and when he can press forward, he still has the primary traits and tools necessary to trouble dudes who are limited athletically or the types of HWs who rely on toughness and grappling (since he's impossible to take down) but dudes like Stipe and Overeem had zero issues walking him down and less issues finding his chin. JDS' ability to get in and out of harm's way comes and goes and fighters who can pressure him early can get him to back straight up and give them ample avenues to fire away. Lastly, Tuivasa just has a lot of different avenues to hurt JDS and while I have questions about HIS defensive ability; I feel like when shit gets squirrely you bet on the youth. At the same time this is HW and at heavyweight, nobody is ever really "done" unless they're completely comatose. Andrei Arlovski has been gone, come back and then been gone again. Alistair Overeem feels like he's one win away from pushing himself into the big fights again. Derrick Lewis' early UFC runs were blemished by losses to dudes like Shawn Jordan and Matt Mitrione. This shit is never really over and so I'm wondering if JDS is about to wow us with yet another HW renaissance.

3- This has to be Tyson Pedro's last chance to be something, right? Losses to Latifi and OSP in fights that he probably should've won puts you in this do or die spot, no?

4- Can't tell if Justin WIllis vs Mark Hunt is an attempt to body Hunt on his way out of the organization or the UFC just throwing names and faces they have no interest in together. Willis is kinda good but also 31 and struggled with Chase Sherman's pressure at times. Not an ideal step up for him.

5- Jake Matthews vs Tony Martin is pretty interesting on paper and could be a lot of fun come fight night. I threw in the towel on Matthews a while ago but he's rallied to win three straight at 170 lbs and looks like a different fighter mentally than the dude who struggled with Andrew Holbrook. Martin is a fine fighter who has also found himself up 15 lbs at 170. Martin is probably still going to be worlds smaller than Matthews but he's a pressure fighter who is good enough everywhere that Jake Matthews shouldn't be able to run over him. If he does then it'll be pretty damn impressive and another stamp that Matthews at 170 lbs is a serious big time fighter to keep in mind.

6- Can we pencil in Overeem vs the winner of JDS/Tuivasa now or should we at least wait a while?

7- Either way I wonder if a quick turnaround is coming for either HW winner if he gets it done in short order. Both Ngannou and Overeem had quickie finishes and January's ESPN+ show is approaching quickly.

8- What is the incentive to make weight if you're a flyweight? Wilson Reis is a guy who has a pronounced big cut, Ben Nguyen could probably make 135 lbs easy enough, Kai Kara-France is in his debut so he can't fuck up his weight cut obviously while Elias Garcia is a small dude (like natural 125 lber small) who is taking it on short notice. What's the point if everybody knows this division is going away?

9- Sodiq Yusuff is about become yet another really talented kinda impossible to promote "problem" for the UFC. Dude's damn good and worthy of your time though.

10- Chrisos Giagos fought in late September vs Charles Oliveira and now he's back out here throwing down in December vs Mizuto Hirota. Maybe this is how he keeps his stay in the UFC, as the busy hungry man dude who takes a bunch of fights nobody else wants at any time. He has a good chance to beat Hirota from distance at least.

11- If you thought Alexey Kunchenko could be a big star, why the fuck would you put him in there vs Yushin Okami of all people? That SEEMS like a bad idea across all levels.

12- Damir Ismagulov was signed shortly after the UFC's big success in Russia and it makes sense given that he's an M1 champion and big enough deal in Russia. The UFC tried to get Imsagulov onto the China card with apparently three different opponents falling through. They squeezed him in on a short notice deal vs Joe Duffy (and I think he would've won that fight personally) but Duffy pulled out so now he faces undefeated Kiwi Alex Gorgees. Something tells me Ismagulov is going to get fast tracked.

#MMA #UFC #Australia #Hunt #JDS #Tuavasa #Pedro #Shogun

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ioterri · 2 years ago

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Josh nottingham brewers

Josh nottingham brewers full#

Josh nottingham brewers professional#

The Brewers are sitting at the top of the NL Central but they’re coming. Look for another pitcher, most likely, either an activation of someone like Keynan Middleton from injury or a promotion of another depth option from Tacoma. The Milwaukee Brewers are rumored to be listening to calls on star closer Josh Hader as the MLB trade deadline approaches.

Josh nottingham brewers full#

The moves leave Seattle’s 40-man roster full once more, with just 25 players on the active roster, meaning another move is likely before tomorrow’s series opener in San Diego. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jacob Nottingham (26) hits a grand slam home run during the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Miller Park. February 12, 2016: Traded by the Oakland Athletics with Bubba Derby (minors) to the Milwaukee Brewers for Khris Davis. July 23, 2015: Traded by the Houston Astros with Daniel Mengden to the Oakland Athletics for Scott Kazmir. Find Josh Barnes total career earnings, contracts & net worth breakdown. Seattle already passed Lail through waivers at least once since mid-2020, while Marmo will be a mildly interesting one to see if another club bites on his prodigious power. June 7, 2013: Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 6th round of the 2013 amateur draft. The Brewers pulled off the first blockbuster of MLBs trade season Monday when they dealt four-time All-Star closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres. Heading out the door are Lail and Marmolejos, both of whom are no stranger to living on the fringes of a big league roster. He should be solid behind the dish, though this will be his first work with a big league staff. He’s been fairly successful, albeit with incremental steps up through the minors that have only yielded 129 plate appearances in AAA for his career. Where Nottingham has a Tom Murphy-esque profile of decent power and some swing and miss, Godoy is a contact hitting lefty who has never run a strikeout rate above 19% in the minors. This is Godoy’s first full season out of the Cardinals organization, where he spent his entire career since signing in 2012. Its a move that sent shock waves through Milwaukee. Josh Tomlin, Francisco Mejia shine, but Cleveland Indians fall to Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6. Godoy is just 26 himself, and will be making his big league debut if and when he gets in a game. In this article: The Brewers made a splash a day before the Major League Baseball trade deadline by sending three-time National League reliever of the year Josh Hader to San Diego in exchange for reliever Taylor Rogers, pitcher Dinelson Lamet, and prospects Esteury Ruiz and Robert Gasser. The second backstop added is minor league signee José Godoy, who extremely dedicated Spring Training and Tacoma Rainiers aficionados may recognize. The Brew Crew ultimately jettisoned Nottingham again recently with Narv on the mend. As you may remember last time, the 26 year old was claimed by Seattle back in April but almost immediately was traded right back to the Brewers for cash, following an injury to Omar Narváez. Reetz isn’t currently on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding. They’ve chosen two replacements, with their second round of claiming Nottingham this year extending the hilarity of their last flirtation. The Brewers are planning on adding catcher Jakson Reetz to their 40-man roster, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. As Connor investigated earlier today, Torrens has absolutely crumbled defensively after being solid previously, leaving Seattle little choice but to find an alternative, giving Torrens time in Tacoma to reset at the plate and behind it. The writing has been on the wall for weeks with both Torrens and Marmolejos struggling to put together anything potent at the plate and harboring significant defensive limitations. José Marmolejos designated for assignment 586 winning percentage.īaseball Almanac is pleased to present a unique set of rosters not easilyįound on the Internet.Jacob Nottingham claimed off waivers from Milwaukee Contents 1 Career 1.1 Amateur career 1.2 Houston Astros 1. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners. Mike Moustakas(US55), Josh Hader(US85), Jesus Aguilar(US113).

Josh nottingham brewers professional#

Nottingham was activated from the Milwaukee Brewers ’ 10-day injured list on April 22 and was immediately. Jacob Andrew Nottingham (born April 3, 1995) is an American professional baseball catcher and first baseman in the Baltimore Orioles organization. Series Baseball Milwaukee Brewers Team Set of 14 Cards: Jacob Nottingham(US6). They play their home games at American Family Field (Park Factors: 102/102) where fans are witnessing their 2021 Brewers play with a. Nottingham’s transaction history between April 22 and May 21 went viral on Friday. The 2021 Milwaukee Brewers have played 162 games during the regular season, won 95 games and lost 67 games.

#Josh nottingham brewers

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saras-almanac · 5 years ago

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I know logically they can’t just have Aaron visiting Robert off screen for years (even though it’s one of the only things that makes sense) so they’re going to have to find a way to have Robert and Aaron not see each other. The obvious answer is to make Robert cut off all forms of contact but I just don’t see Robert doing that in that way--He’s been in Aaron’s shoes and he knows how desperate he was to see Aaron and talk to him. He wouldn’t do that to Aaron. My guess (hope) is that either they have Robert in a prison that’s too far away for Aaron to visit regularly so they can only talk on the phone every few days.

The only other way it would make sense would be for Robert to tell Aaron not to visit him because it’s going to be too hard for Robert to see him every week (every couple weeks) and not be able to be with him. Anything less than Robert framing it around what he needs won’t work because I would never believe that Aaron doesn’t just ignore that and continue to fight for him. But if it was about Robert and doing what Robert needed, Aaron would absolutely hate it and tell Robert that (and continue to pine for him because he’s never going to settle for anyone else, not really), he’d respect that because he’ll always do whatever’s best for Robert.

What I’d love is them to not officially split up and just continue to have Aaron visit Robert occasionally and talking on the phone and just let it play out as it goes. We’ll have months and at least a year (though it should be ages longer than that) before Aaron would even think about moving on and they can always just address it later. (Or Danny decides to leave in a few years and moves to be closer to Robert’s prison.) ((Or Ryan decides to come back in a few years and gets released from prison early.))

#it's late and i'm sad #and i have a lot of thoughts about this #the robert breakdown is in full swing #robron #robert sugden #aaron dingle #emmerdale #emmerdale chatter

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Upcoming DC Movies: Full DCEU Release Date Calendar

https://ift.tt/3u2VfrU

The DC Extended Universe is in full swing! With a healthy schedule of upcoming DC movies in development, the DCEU isn’t going away anytime soon, and there’s still lots to look forward to.

Thanks to HBO Max, The Suicide Squad is on schedule for August 2021, with The Batman, Aquaman 2, Black Adam, The Flash, and more due in 2022, . There’s a bright future for the newly revitalized DCEU movies!

Keep in mind that many of these are the CURRENT release dates as of this update, and all of these are subject to change. We’ll keep updating this with more information as we get it…

The Suicide Squad

Release date: Aug. 6, 2021

James Gunn (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) has stepped in to write and direct Suicide Squad 2. This is now called The Suicide Squad, and it’s neither a reboot nor a straight sequel, but still firmly in the DCEU.

The cast is positively bonkers.

But then that new cast is wild! John Cena is Peacemaker, with Idris Elba as Bloodsport, David Dastmalchian will play Polka Dot Man. Daniela Melchor will play a new version of Batman villain Ratcatcher…and there’s more, including Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark! We have a full breakdown of the cast right here.

Pandemic be damned, this one arrives on HBO Max AND in theaters simultaneously, so that August release date isn’t going anywhere.

The Batman

Release date: March 4, 2022

Movies

New Batmobile Revealed for The Batman Movie

By Joseph Baxter

The Actors Who Have Played Batman

By James Aquilone and 1 other

DC League of Super Pets

Release date: May 20, 2022

OK, fine, this isn’t a DCEU movie project, and it’s an animated movie. But unless you have no soul, how can you resist Krypto, Streaky, Ace, Comet, and the rest of the amazing super pets?

And what an incredible voice cast this one boasts! Dwayne Johnson is Krypto, Kevin Hart is Ace, the Bat-Hound, with Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Jameela Jamil, and Keanu Reeves also along for the ride in undisclosed roles!

They had better be fighting the Brain Globes of Rambat in this movie, otherwise, we riot.

You can read more about DC Super Pets here.

Black Adam

Release date: July 29, 2022

Movies

Shazam: Who is Black Adam?

By Marc Buxton

Movies

Black Adam Powers and Abilities Explained

By Mike Cecchini

The Flash

Release Date: Nov. 4, 2022

Movies

The Flash Movie Set Photos Reveal Supergirl, Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and More!

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

The Flash: Batman Set Photo Teases Michael Keaton’s New Batsuit

By John Saavedra

How is this possible? Because it’s based on the DC Comics Flashpoint story, which for the purposes of the movies will be used to create a big screen multiverse. Wow.

Oh, and it that’s not enough, this movie will introduce Supergirl to the DCEU, played by Sasha Calle!

Aquaman 2: Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom

Release Date: Dec. 16, 2022

After it made a billion dollars at the box office, you bet your trident that Aquaman 2 is happening! And it has a cool, suitably adventurous title: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Right now the plan is for James Wan to remain involved and start developing the movie, but he won’t decide whether or not to direct it until there’s a script in place. Fair enough. Patrick Wilson seems set to return, though, and of course, Jason Momoa will be back.

Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods

Release date: June 2, 2023

Shazam 2 is now officially called Shazam: Fury of the Gods and…that’s about all we know about it right now.

It appears that the Shazam family will be taking on the Daughters of Atlas in this movie. Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and another currently unnamed character played by Rachel Zegler.

Wait…did we mention the Sinbad cameo? No, really!

Wonder Woman 3

Release date: TBD (likely 2024)

Patty Jenkins will reunite with Gal Gadot for what may be the capstone on the Wonder Woman movie trilogy. No details about Wonder Woman 3 are currently available, and that release date is likely to come in 2024, since Jenkins has her Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie to release for Christmas 2023.

Blue Beetle

Release Date: TBD

There’s no release date yet, but this is scheduled to begin production in fall 2021, so maybe we can pencil in a 2023 release date. This one may be destined for HBO Max, according to a recent report.

Batgirl

Release Date: TBD

Joss Whedon was originally supposed to write, direct, and produce the Batgirl movie, one that was reportedly based on Gail Simone’s recent New 52 take on the character. He has exited the project and now Christina Hodson is writing with Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah helming the project.

‘With Batgirl, we hope to take the audience on a fun ride and see a different side of Gotham,” Burr told THR. “Christina’s script is crackling with spirit. Adil and Bilall have an excited and joyous energy, which is infectious, making them the perfect filmmakers for this Batproject. And I’m just psyched I get to be part of the DC universe, which is super cool.”

Rumor has it that this will be a project set to go direct to HBO Max.

Untitled Superman Project

Release Date: TBD

Ta-Nehisi Coates is working on a Superman feature film with J.J. Abrams producing. No other info is currently available, but it appears to be a reboot.

Will this continue Henry Cavill’s time in the role, or will it take a new approach? Will this be a completely different take on the Man of Steel altogether? Time will tell!

Zatanna

Release Date: TBD

Now, let’s get into the projects that are in the works, but haven’t had any movement in a while…

Supergirl

But one thing is for sure, the DCEU does have their Supergirl! Sasha Calle will be introduced as Kara in The Flash movie, and presumably she’ll lead this one, as well.

Green Lantern Corps

Comics

The Secret Origin of Green Lantern: Far Sector

By Kayti Burt

Comics

New Green Lantern Series Expands Cosmic DC Universe

By Jim Dandeneau

One way is to simply not make Hal Jordan the central Green Lantern of the movie. Thisone may focus on as many as three Green Lanterns, with the main focus on a kind of buddy/cop movie with John Stewart and Hal Jordan. Geoff Johns is writing the script, but there’s no director in place yet. There’s also the upcoming HBO Max Green Lantern TV show to consider. It remains to be seen what (if any) connection that will have to this movie.

We have more details on the Green Lantern Corps movie right here.

Plastic Man

Blackhawk

Deathstroke

Nightwing

Justice League Dark

And now for the long shots…projects mentioned, rumored, killed, or otherwise unlikely.

The New Gods

Ava DuVernay was set to direct a movie based on Jack Kirby‘s New Gods., but recently the project appears to have been killed by Warner Bros. No other details are currently available.

The Trench

Aquaman director James Wan and producer Peter Safran were working on developing other corners of Arthur Curry’s world, but Warner Bros. ended up killing the project. The Trench was to focus on the terrifying piranha-like beasts seen briefly in the first film, and would have been a smaller-scale, more horror-focused movie, and one that wouldn’t feature any of the main characters from Aquaman. Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald wrote a script, but this appears to have been sunk.

Justice League 2

Man of Steel 2

Cyborg

Harley Quinn

At one point there was another Harley Quinn movie in development! Whether this is a solo project or something else remains to be seen. Keep in mind that while very good, Birds of Prey didn’t set the world on fire at the box office, which means that Warner Bros. might be a little more wary than before about additional solo projects for Harley, even with Margot Robbie’s star power.

Ms. Robbie told us that there’s been no movement from the studio about Birds of Prey 2. However she also told us that she’s hoping to finally get Poison Ivy into the DCEU, so the pair can explore their relationship! We know we haven’t seen the last of the fantabulous Harley Quinn.

As for what shape this movie was supposed to take in the first place, your guess is as good as ours!

Gotham City Sirens

Booster Gold

Flash and Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti is going to executive produce and possibly direct a Booster Gold movie. Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) will write the script.

Movies

Men of Steel: 11 Actors Who Have Played Superman

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Joker: 6 Actors Who Have Played the Clown Prince of Crime

By David Crow

Deadshot

Lobo

We have some more info on the project here.

Joker & Harley Quinn Movie

Not to be confused with…

Jared Leto Joker Movie

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

We’ll keep updating this with more information about upcoming DC superhero movies as they get announced and information becomes available.

The post Upcoming DC Movies: Full DCEU Release Date Calendar appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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swefed · 4 years ago

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Blood and Guts 2.20.21

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen back to Blood and Guts! We are in the aftermath of our first-ever pay-per-view Prison Yard.

Sunny Midnight is STILL your sWe World Champion. Jimi Sierra is your first-ever sWe Workhorse Champion. We were gone for one week but it is time to get back into gear. We have a full night of action for you. In our main even we will see sWe Workhorse Champion Jimi Sierra put his title on the line against The Cyborg. Now let’s go down to the ring for..

DING! DING! DING!

Bot charges towards j23..

~sWe Bot uses the SPEED tactic.

~j23 uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

j23 kicks Bot in the gut..lifts Bot up..DRILL CLAW!

j23 acts like hes gonna go for the pin..

~sWe Bot uses the BRAWLING tactic.

~j23 uses the BRAWLING tactic.

j23 shakes his head NO. He is not done doing damage..

j23 is waiting for Bot to get up..

~sWe Bot uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~j23 uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

KO PUNCH on Bot!!

j23 goes for the pin!

1..

2..

3..

DING! DING! DING!

Winner: j23

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- j23

RD2- DRAW

RD3- j23

Ring announcer states Psycho Shivaa never made it to the arena. As a result of no-showing the match, he has forfeited.

Winner: Chris

-Match Breakdown:

FORFEIT

DING! DING! DING!

Both men are staring at each other..

~Sam Danger uses the SPEED tactic.

~Beast Incarnate uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

They both roll out of the ring..

Ref starts the count..

1..

~Sam Danger uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Beast Incarnate uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

Beast powerbombs Danger into the barricade..

2..

3..

4..

5..

Beast is attempting to climb into the ring..

~Sam Danger uses the BRAWLING tactic.

~Beast Incarnate uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

Danger with the RUNNING KNEE on Beast!

Danger loses his grip on the rope and falls off the apron from pure exhaustion. Both men are out on the floor!

8..

9..

10..

DING! DING! DING!

DOUBLE COUNT OUT

Winner: DRAW

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- DRAW

RD2- Beast

RD3- Danger

DING! DING! DING!

As soon as the bell rings Moxley charges towards Kamikaze..

~Kamikaze uses the SPEED tactic.

~Robert Moxley uses the BRAWLING tactic.

Kamikaze evades Mox. Moxley crashes into the turnbuckle. Kamikaze has Mox up on the tope rope..SUPER HURRICANRANA!

Moxley is back up. He puts Kamikaze into a headlock..

~Kamikaze uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Robert Moxley uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

HEADLOCK DRIVER ON Kamikaze!

Moxley doesn’t go for the pin. Kamikaze is back up..

~Kamikaze uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

~Robert Moxley uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

Kamikaze sweeps the legs of Moxley. Locks in the CAMEL CLUTCH!

Moxley is tapping out!

DING! DING! DING!

Winner: The Kamikaze

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- Kamikaze

RD2- Moxley

RD3- Kamikaze

DING! DING! DING!

Mystyk gets down on one knee..He’s giving Mini a free shot..

~Mystyk uses the SPEED tactic.

~Mini Borracho uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

Mini slaps Mystyk! Mystyk slaps Mini back!

Mini bounces off the ropes.. ducks the clothesline..

~Mystyk uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Mini Borracho uses the SPEED tactic.

Mini hits the ropes..SUPERMAN PUNCH from Mystyk!

Mystyk is letting Mini get back up..

~Mystyk uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

~Mini Borracho uses the BRAWLING tactic.

Mini gets the back of Mystyk..GERMAN SUPLEX on Mystyk!

Mini lets Mystyk get back up..

Both men start hitting each other with closed fists!

The ref is warning both men..

DING! DING! DING!

The ref has thrown this one out. It has gotten out of control.

Winner: DRAW

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- DRAW

RD2- Mystyk

RD3- Mini

In our next match there must be a winner! This is the 3rd time these two men have met. The match will go into sudden death as many times as needed to have a winner. The ringside barricades have been reinforced. The ring has been reinforced.

DING! DING! DING!

Bill charges towards Monster..

~Monster Hurs uses the BRAWLING tactic.

~Bill Scott uses the BRAWLING tactic.

Monster grabs Bill by the throat..CHOKESLAM!

Monster turns his back on Bill as he celebrates..

~Monster Hurs uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Bill Scott uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

SPEAR on Monster!

Bill picks up Monster..

~Monster Hurs uses the BRAWLING tactic.

~Bill Scott uses the SPEED tactic.

Bill lifts up Monster..JACKHAMMER!

Bill Scott goes for the pin!

1..

2..

3..

DING! DING! DING!

Winner: Bill Scott

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- Monster

RD2- Bill

RD3- Bill

DING! DING! DING!

As soon as the bell rings BORRACHO rolls out of the ring..

~BORRACHO uses the SPEED tactic.

~Austin Shadow uses the SPEED tactic.

BORRACHO is standing on top of the announce table challenging Austin Shadow to come get him..

Shadow rolls out of the ring and climbs up onto the announce table..

~BORRACHO uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Austin Shadow uses the BRAWLING tactic.

STUNNER on BORRACHO!

The table doesn’t break! BORRACHO recovers..

~BORRACHO uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

~Austin Shadow uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

RUNNING POWERSLAM on Shadow!

DING! DING! DING!

The ref has thrown this match out.

Winner: DRAW

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- DRAW

RD2- Shadow

RD3- BORRACHO

After the match EL BORRACHO attacks Austin Shadow with a chair!

The crowd is booing. BORRACHO has a mic..

“EL BORRACHO was screwed at the last ppv. Now Im DEMANDING a rematch.

EL BORRACHO has kicked everybody’s ass that’s needed it. While OGGY got a #1 contender spot for testing out a new pair of knee pads.

Anyone who gets in my way, just make sure your insurance is up to date. Because until EL BORRACHO gets his title shot.....

Things here in SWE aint gonna be no fun at all.

Step up Sunny.... BE A MAN! Give me my rematch!”

Wanted Dead Or Alive by Bon Jovi plays in the arena. BORRACHO exits the ring and goes to the back. The crowd continues to boo him.

DING! DING! DING!

~Jimi Sierra uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

~Cyborg uses the BRAWLING tactic.

As soon at the bell rings SUPERMAN PUNCH by Sierra!

Cyborg recovers..She kicks Sierra in the gut..

~Jimi Sierra uses the BRAWLING tactic.

~Cyborg uses the GRAPPLING tactic.

SWINGING NECKBREAKER on Sierra!

Both competitors are up..

~Jimi Sierra uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

~Cyborg uses the SPEED tactic.

DOUBLE KNOCKOUT KICK!

Both are down..Sierra is stirring first..

~Jimi Sierra uses the SPEED tactic.

~Cyborg uses the SPEED tactic.

SPEAR on Cyborg!

Cyborg kicks out a pin attempt..

Sierra can’t believe it!

Cyborg ducks under a clothesline..

~Jimi Sierra uses the CONDITIONING tactic.

~Cyborg uses the BRAWLING tactic.

CYBER STRIKE on Sierra!

Will Sierra tap?!

DING! DING! DING!

What happened?! Did Sierra tap? Let’s go to the ring for the decision..

“This match has ended in a TIME LIMIT DRAW”

Winner: DRAW

-Match Breakdown:

RD1- Sierra

RD2- Cyborg

RD3- DRAW

RD4- Sierra

RD5- Cyborg

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movieswithkevin27 · 7 years ago

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Keeper of the Flame

When Keeper of the Flame was released in 1943, it seemed as though everybody was lining up to hate the film. Even director George Cukor stated that the film’s ending was not that good with Katharine Hepburn embodying everything that made the general public hate her in the 1930s. The head of MGM was incensed that they had financed such a picture. Republicans decried it for its leftist politics, leading them to calling on the head of the Production Code to ban such a picture from being made for how it equates being rich with being fascist. Of course, Keeper of the Flame does nothing of the sort, Hepburn is brilliant, and the ending is what makes the film such a brilliant work from Cukor even if he does not know it. Portraying the death of a charismatic political leader, the aftermath, and then the mystery surrounding his death leading to the great reveal - that he was not all he was made up to be in the public eye - Keeper of the Flame shows the dangers the future held for America. In viewing Nazi Germany, many Americans thanked their lucky stars and said, “Good thing that could never happen here.” Portraying a war reporter returning to the United States, Spencer Tracy’s Steven O’Malley is even asked why he is back in the States, as there is no war there. Yet, as the film argues about a secret hand in politics made up of men who want nothing but power and will sow division and discord, amongst the unwitting public in an attempt to pit hatred against hatred, Keeper of the Flame shows there is a war to be fought. It is not a film preaching leftist ideals nor is it one that is anti-American. Instead, it is a film that warns about fascism draped in American flag. It is a warning we ignored as the film was roundly rejected by Republicans (the film never even calls the dead fascist a Republican, but I guess this one hit a little too close to home, eh?) and faced backlash even in the studio (again, a little too close to home for the Hollywood elite, eh?). Tell the truth and the guilty will take issue, apparently.

It is this ending in which the secrets behind Robert Forrest are revealed that Keeper of the Flame becomes so impactful and it is, in large part, because of Katharine Hepburn. As the sound all around her dies down, Forrest’s widow Christine (Hepburn) tells every secret he had to hard-nosed journalist Steven O’Malley. Revealing his plans to put elements of society against one another through “fake news” articles to be run in specifically targeted publications - examples such as an anti-semitic piece, an anti-urbanite piece to run in the Farmers Gazette, anti-black stories, or an anti-poor story - and the way in which this mountain of a man came to believe in his own god-like status bestowed upon him by the public, Hepburn’s monologue is achingly beautiful. It is heavy-handed, yes, but it is necessarily heavy-handed. These are not ideals that can be left to suggestion or thematic development and writer Donald Ogden Stewart wisely recognizes this fact. Instead, it must be said. It must be a rallying cry to “keep the flame” burning. The public is smart, but nothing can be left to chance. They must know there is a secret group of fascists within American borders who sell pro-American ideals as being that of hatred of others, animosity, and racial superiority. They must know there is a plot to install soulless men who want nothing but power and wealth into political office where they will sell themselves and their vote to the highest bidder. There is a plot to leave the public poorly educated, apathetic, build up beliefs in public officials as being god-like, and stoking our childish desire to blame others for our ills. It is a powerfully written call to action that, like all of the best speeches and monologues that hit too close to the mark, fell on deaf ears in 1943. Hepburn’s impassioned delivery of the monologue serves as the emotional climax of the film as she explains her hatred for what her beloved husband had become once he, too, came to believe himself worthy of being worshipped. It may be on-the-nose, but it is its power and delivery that makes it come off so authentically and emotionally. This is, largely, due to Hepburn who deserves great plaudits role in this film.

Until this moment, however, Keeper of the Flame is a mystery drama film. Portraying the death of Forrest, showing the national mourning that occurs, and then the efforts of journalists to interview Christine that are consistently met with a locked gate, Keeper of the Flame creates great mystery and intrigue. The only man capable of breaking through is Steven O’Malley, whose writing was greatly admired by Robert Forrest before his political swing that came to define his life at the end. In a classic role for Tracy - a man in a position to “right a wrong” in society or politics and crusading to create this impact - he is able to smooth talk his way into the estate of Forrest where he is able to win over Christine to gain the rights to pen the biography about Forrest. Once given access, however, he stumbles on some oddity. Christine acts quite weird around her male cousin, who is established as having hated Robert. The gatekeeper’s daughter became quite taken with Robert, only to be sent off to a sanitarium following a nervous breakdown. The gatekeeper’s young son cries daily and has made himself sick because he believes he could have saved Robert as he knew the bridge - which Robert’s car fell through - had collapsed by the phones were out due to a storm so he could not tell him. Robert’s elderly mother claims he was murdered. Christine’s story about her whereabouts that evening do line up either. All of this leads to a suspicion of murder, infidelity, sabotage, and the brutal back-stabbing of a great man. The painful reveal that, while some of these may have some mild truth, that none of what the world knew about Forrest was actually true hits Tracy’s righteous character like a ton of bricks. However, in building this suspense and mystery, Cukor does a fantastic job in giving the film just enough depth and time to reach a great climactic moment without beating around the bush for too long and causing the film to drag on endlessly. This is a succinct work that builds suspense and then gives a great pay-off without overstaying its welcome.

Technically, the film’s atmosphere often gives a very strong horror movie vibe. Starting off with a shot of Robert’s car careening through the gap in the bridge, the film includes heavy lightning in a storm during the middle of the night to set the scene. It feels quite ominous and frightening due to these sound effects, as well as the score from Bronislaw Kaper. Throughout the film, Kaper’s creepy score serves as the perfect undercurrent for the mystery that Cukor and Stewart seek to create throughout the film’s first two acts. However, what makes it all the more impactful is the cinematography from William H. Daniels. Often draping characters in full darkness - such as Steven when he first meets Christine and hides in the shadows of the room - or in absolute brightness - such as Christine’s eyes as she reveals the dark secrets about Robert - Daniels’ cinematography gives the film a great gothic and horror movie feeling. This matches the score, atmosphere, and general aesthetic perfectly, as Daniels’ reliance upon creepy shadows, low-angle shots of houses on big hills, lightning, and cramped spaces, creating a deeply sinister feeling that mirror the mystery and confusion that is unfolding in the script.

Keeper of the Flame has finally found its year. 2017 is the year for Keeper of the Flame and it should be required viewing for everybody given the rise of fascism, pushing of hatred and division, and the apathetic and under-educated populace that eats it all up with two spoons. It is a film that packs a punch with a powerful warning about this fascism wrapped in an American flag and sold as being patriotic, but it is one we ignored. At the time, those in power realized its power - whether it be the head of MGM or the Republicans in congress - so much so that they yelled and screamed about how dangerous the film was, how it was biased, and how it attacked them and their values without Keeper of the Flame even having to name the charismatic Robert Forrest as a Republican. Instead, he is just a wealthy man who everybody loves. It is those in power and the Republicans who assumed Keeper of the Flame was leftist for showing this man turn into a fascist and power hungry individual. Tragically, this may say everything it needs to about the world we have today. While Keeper of the Flame was so ahead of its time it was labeled as lunacy in 1943, it is tragically right at home in 2017 with its message ignored and the reality it presented having come into full view.

#1943 movies #1940s movies #keeper of the flame #george cukor #film analysis #film reviews #movie reviews #katharine hepburn #spencer tracy #donald meek #darryl hickman #forrest tucker

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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Supreme Court Bars Workplace Discrimination Against LGBTQ People; Ruling May Be Transformative

DemocracyNow.Org | June 16, 2020!

The ruling could have a huge impact on the estimated 8 to 11 million American LGBT community, who are not protected against workplace discrimination in most US states.

In a historic 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, forbidding workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, applies to gay and transgender people. The decision comes just days after the Trump administration reversed health protections for transgender people under the Affordable Care Act. “This truly is a historic ruling,” says Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. “This is going to have a transformative effect on federal civil rights laws in the context of housing, education and healthcare, as well as credit.” We also speak with journalist Imara Jones, creator of TransLash.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, joined by my co-host Juan González at his home in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Hi, Juan.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Hi, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to begin with the Supreme Court ruling Monday, that landmark ruling that a civil rights law protects gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in the workplace. The historic 6-to-3 ruling marked a massive victory for the LGBTQ community, as well as everyone, as was penned by one of the court’s most conservative justices: Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined the majority opinion in stating that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, applies to gay and transgender people. At least half of the 50 states previously allowed employers to fire workers for being LGBTQ.

One of the key cases the court considered was that of Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who was fired from her job at a Michigan funeral home in 2013. Stephens did not live to see her victory in the Supreme Court. She died last month at the age of 59. The Supreme Court also reviewed the case of Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who said he was fired for being gay. He died in an accident in 2014. This is Zarda’s lawyer, Gregory Antollino.

GREGORY ANTOLLINO: It’ll be a catalyst toward changing history. You know, it’s a new decision. It’s going to take the states that don’t protect LGBT rights time to adjust to, but it is certainly a catalyst, an historical one. And that sounds bigger than I can imagine at this time.

AMY GOODMAN: The victory comes amidst a nationwide uprising against police brutality and racism that’s often shone a light on violence against Black trans women. In Brooklyn Sunday, at least 15,000 people marched through the streets in defense of Black trans lives after two more Black trans women were killed last week. It also comes just days after the Trump administration reversed health protections for transgender people under the Affordable Care Act.

Well, for more, we’re going to Boston, Massachusetts, to speak with Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. He was one of the attorneys for Aimee Stephens in the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case to protect LGBTQ workers.

Chase, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the significance of the victory, and the fact that the person who wrote the majority opinion was the Trump appointee, Neil Gorsuch?

CHASE STRANGIO: Thanks, Amy. And thanks for having me back and actually being able to talk about something positive for once.

You know, this truly is a historic ruling. And it absolutely — the court was unequivocal that federal prohibitions on sex discrimination include prohibitions on discrimination against LGBTQ people. So this means you cannot be fired across the country for being LGBTQ or otherwise face employment discrimination.

But I think what is also so important is that courts use Title VII cases to interpret all of the other federal civil rights laws that prohibit sex discrimination, so this is going to have a transformative effect on federal civil rights laws in the context of housing, education and healthcare, as well as credit. So this truly is a historic win.

And in terms of the breakdown, absolutely, we briefed this case for Neil Gorsuch. He was our — he was our swing vote. He is a textualist. His jurisprudence is premised on the idea that you look to the words of the statute, not to the intentions of Congress at the time a statute was enacted. And we hoped that he would stick to his principles instead of reverse-engineer an outcome based on politics. And he did that. And the chief joined. And I am shocked, but it was the right and righteous decision. And we were right on the law, and so were they.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Chase, in terms of the implications of this decision, just last week, the Trump administration reversed health protections for transgender people under the Affordable Care Act. And they announced this, ironically, on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse massacre that claimed 49 lives in Orlando, Florida, at a gay nightclub. Your sense of how this — would this decision have an impact even on this latest move of the Trump administration?

CHASE STRANGIO: Absolutely, it will have a huge impact. So, one of the things to point out is that the Trump administration issued a comprehensive anti-trans regulation at 4 p.m. Eastern time on a Friday, knowing that the Supreme Court was going to issue opinions 10 a.m. on Monday morning and could likely undo the very regulations that they were putting forth. So it was an act of just absolute cruelty towards LGBTQ people, and people who need access to abortion, I might add, as well.

But ultimately, a federal agency cannot contradict the statute that it is implementing. And the ACA has a prohibition on sex discrimination, and that is the source of the protection. So the Trump administration is not the final word on the meaning of sex discrimination under federal law; the Supreme Court is. And they just made just absolutely clear that prohibitions on sex discrimination include LGBTQ people. So I think that rule is dead on arrival.

You know, obviously, people are going to continue to face discrimination. We know that even when legal protections are in place, particularly our Black and Indigenous and Brown trans sisters, our fem sisters, are facing relentless discrimination, and so we have to keep fighting. The laws is not the only source of protection, absolutely, but this is going to have a cascading effect. And all of the administrative actions that this administration has taken, since day one, in 2017, from rescinding Title IX student guidance, those actions are completely undermined by yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Imara Jones into the conversation, journalist, founder and creator of TransLash and a Soros Equality fellow. If you could comment on the significance of Friday’s Trump order that would take away protections for transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act, and then what happened yesterday, Imara?

IMARA JONES: Yes. Thank you, Amy. And it’s great to be back on, as well.

Those regulations that allowed for equal access to trans people are pivotal in two primary ways. The first way is that for trans people who either need or choose to have medical interventions to aid with transition, either hormones or surgeries, we know that those medical interventions are lifesaving. They have a dramatic impact not only on people’s ability to, quite frankly, stay alive, but also to have an amount of well-being that allows them to be full citizens, and so it’s pivotal in that way.

The second way, of course, is that we know that many trans people are afraid to go into healthcare facilities, and that fear is driven by the fact of people’s past experience with discrimination. I even have had that happen before. And to codify that in the law — even with the existing regulation, as Chase pointed out, people still face discrimination. So that was the case. But to codify that and to expand that means that, again, that with regards to regular healthcare or lifesaving healthcare that’s not related to transition, that trans people would either not be able to access it because of the decision of those healthcare providers or not go in because of that fear that’s based on past discrimination. And all of that’s happening against the backdrop of COVID-19, and so it was particularly cruel in so many ways.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I wanted to ask Chase if you could talk about — you were one of the attorneys for Aimee Stephens, one of the lead plaintiffs in this case, in this historic case. Could you tell us a little bit about her story, and also the unfortunate fact that she passed before the final court ruling?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yes, and that part of the story is absolutely heartbreaking. Aimee, like many trans people, like me, struggled internally for many years, and ultimately, somewhat later in life, came out as transgender to her family, and really had hope that her employer would accept her as who she is. And she wrote this incredibly beautiful letter to her colleagues and her boss at the Michigan funeral home where she had worked for many years and was a model employee. And she wrote this letter, and she was immediately fired, just because she is transgender. And that was in 2013. So she spent the last seven years of her life fighting this case, fighting for justice, even when many people told her that she had no claim.

Ultimately, it was the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that brought the case against her employer, when the Obama administration was enforcing federal civil rights laws to protect trans and LGB individuals. After the election, we intervened on Aimee’s behalf to ensure that someone in the case was defending her rights, knowing that the United States would likely shift positions, which they ultimately did. At the United States Supreme Court, it was the employers and the United States against the workers. And so, you know, this was an incredible victory for workers, in general. This was an incredible victory for expansive interpretations of civil rights laws.

And the reality is that Aimee lost her job. She lost her financial security. She lost her health insurance, because we live in a country that ties access to health insurance to employment, which is tragic in and of itself. And her health began to decline as a result of that. So she spent the last seven years of her life not only fighting for the basic dignity of the recognition that what happened to her was wrong, but while she was precariously situated because she did not have financial security, which led directly to her premature death just weeks before the Supreme Court ruled in her favor in this case.

And I think that is a reminder that discrimination leads to death. And that is especially true for Black people who face higher rates of discrimination in employment, higher rates of discrimination in housing and shelter access, and, as we know, higher rates of deadly violence from the police. And so, we have to connect the fact that two of the three individual workers have died before the outcome of this case, and that is directly tied to discrimination. And we have a responsibility to not only ensure the enforcement of this action, but go much farther, to ensure justice for our full community.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, let’s go back for a moment to hear Aimee Stephens in her own words.

AIMEE STEPHENS: I’ve been living basically two lives: one at home and in public, and one at work. And in the beginning, that wasn’t so bad. But as time goes on and as time progressed, I got to the point that living two lives, being two people, was becoming downright impossible. And I knew that I couldn’t keep going that way. And things came to a head in November of 2012, when I stood in the backyard with a gun to my chest, pondering the question: If I can’t go forward and I can’t go backwards, where does that leave me? And if this is all I have to look forward to, then what’s the point of continuing? And in that hour, going over that and over that in my mind, I chose life, and I realized that I liked me too much to just disappear and go away.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Aimee Stephens speaking at an ACLU news conference before she died last year in September.

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