#this article is really making my day

[skitskatdacat63]

Fernando Alonso & His Relationship With Cards

I'm sure we're all familar with the cards on the back of Fernando's Vegas GP helmet by now, but did you know his relationship with cards goes a lot deeper?

I. Magic Tricks

You've probably seen or heard someone at least mention Fernando's propensity for card tricks. As far as I can tell he was doing them(publically) as far back as 2003 all the way to as recently as 2018. Even once performing a card trick, with a condom and a teddy bear(!??!?!??!!), in front of Valentino Rossi who said "How was that possible?"(x)

But how did this start? According to James Allen, "Fernando admits to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather, a mercurial figure, who taught him magic and card tricks, still one of his passions away from the race track."(x) And I'm not sure the validity of this one, because I couldn't find an actual source, but apparently he once said: "My parents are responsible for the two things I like doing most - driving and magic tricks. They bought me my first go-kart and a magician's kit."

In several interviews he described it as his hobby off track, and that he loved learning new tricks and surprising others in the garage with them! So clearly cards are pretty important to him both as a hobby but also to who he is as a person since they've been with him just as long as racing has.

II. Card Symbolism in His Helmets

This is the reason I originally made this post, but I thought I should also explain the origins of his card fascination first. As I said, we probably all remember the cards on the back of his helmet in Vegas, but did you know that wasn't the first time he had cards on the back of his helmet?

From 2008-2013, he used to have a pair of cards on the back of his helmets. The symbolisms of the cards themselves as well as the evolution of their design is really fascinating to me! Even more so with the recent development of the card choice in 2023.

Fernando said he wanted to reference his two titles in some way on the back of his helmet and after his friend sent him several ideas, he decided on having two cards(an ace of clubs and an ace of hearts, sometimes pictured with 05 and 06 on them as well), saying: "I picked the cloverleaf [the ace of clubs - Ed] to give me luck, but the only pity is that it doesn't have four leaves!"(X)

2008.

Here's the very first appearance of the cards! They're displayed flat, with the 05 and 06 clearly visible

2009.

Very similar to 2008, but with a slightly different design, and they're maybe a bit more straight with less shadow?

2010.

This is the first major change! I was sad they didn't have the years on them anymore, but then I realized they're sparkly to match with his signature lightning bolts on the top of the helmet!!

2011.

Honestly I'm still somewhat unsure if this is the actual 2011 helmet? It's pretty difficult to find clear photos of the back of helmets from older seasons. It's easiest to find them on replica sites or auction sites so I'm not 100%? But anyways, I like that this has the championship years on the underside of the cards

2012.

This is when I started getting weirdly emotional about the helmets. Do you see how they've progressed from being a centerpoint to being curled up and sad at the bottom of the helmet? Not listing the year anymore??

2013.

Same thoughts as 2012. And after this season, they cease to exist (just like his ferrari chair in the garage, WOAH CALLBACK), until cards make a reeappearance in his Vegas helmet, albeit in a different form

2013 Monaco(Honorable Mention):

For some reason 2013 helmets were easier to find proper pictures of, so I happened to witness this absolute beauty. The creativity of this helmet genuinely blows me away??? Wanting to keep the card motif, but making sure to incorporate it into the rest of the puzzle piece design?? Mwah! There was another special 2013 helmet but they didn't change the cards at all so I really applaud this one

2023 Las Vegas(The Return of The King):

The magnificent return! But look! The cards are different cards! Instead of being two aces, it's now an ace of hearts, a four of hearts(his driver number of course!) and, the, now iconic, representation of himself as a Joker. I literally could not believe my eyes when this helmet was released and I saw the Joker card, what a fucking silly old man....I really wonder if he felt nostalgic having cards on his helmet again or if he didn't think about it all and was just like, "ah cards because Vegas!!!"

III. Why Does This Matter?

*The rest of the post was factual, this is moreso my personal thoughts on the symbolism of the cards/designs

This post spawned from me recently watching the 2010 Bahrain gp and noticing "hey wait a minute...are those CARDS ON THE BACK OF HIS HELMET!?" It's a really tiny detail that's unfortunately covered up by the HANS device pretty much whenever he's wearing the helmet, so it's really difficult to spot! But I became fascinated with the fact that he had cards on his helmet before that recent helmet, and now here we are!

There's something to me about how the design of the cards evolves over the course of six seasons from the cards being front and center to being smaller, more folded up and closer to the bottom of the helmet. As I said, the 2012-2013 ones genuinely made me depressed because it feels, symbolically, like his hopes for getting another Ace are becoming more and more unlikely and falling away until they eventually fall falt and fade away entirely after 2013 and disappear for basically a decade.

But when they return? They're not the same cards! Instead of representing Fernando's championships, they now represent him as a person, displaying his driver number and his persona of being a Joker!! Though I do think it's interesting he happened to keep the Ace of Hearts, even though he talked more about the Ace of Clubs before. I'm not sure it's actually this deep in reality, but I like to think that it's him not letting his championships(and the lack thereof) define him, but rather letting who he is as a person shine and be the centerpoint instead! But on a sadder note, as @suzuki-ecstar said to me, maybe the Aces aren't there anymore because he's lost all hope for a chance at a third Ace entirely :(

[lesbianredhoodedmercenary]

happy father's day i'm thinking about this outis line again

I always thought it was a bit out of pocket considering this isn't too long after the events of Canto III, even with how Outis was being harsher this Canto.

But I then I remembered that Outis' son is the same age as Sinclair.

Her son, who thinks that she died in the Smoke War (the in universe equivalent to the Trojan War as depicted in the Iliad and the Odyssey) because she hasn't been home in years. Her son who cannot cry out to her. And her son, who is currently in much the same position as Sinclair regarding his self-perception and ability to fight, as Telemachus refers to himself as "a weakling knowing nothing of valor" (Book 2 of the Odyssey, line number and exact wording depend on translation).

I think this line reflects more on Outis and her anxieties about her family thinking that she's dead, as well as a reference to Telemachus experiencing his own journey to manhood, much like Sinclair.

I think there's also things to be said for the parallels between Sinclair and Telemachus, even just the ones imagined by Outis. Hell's Chicken had her showing a very paternal worry over his diet (raise your hand if your dad has ever said you'll be short forever if you don't eat right). Overall, even though Sinclair and Telemachus only share the bones of a coming of age narrative, Outis is seeing connections there because she misses her family.

As with this one. Again, she's showing her hand more than she means to. Though she's talking to Dongrang, I think she's also talking to herself. Trying to reassure herself that home will always be waiting. Dongrang, however, decides not to return, but to pursue glory no matter who he hurts in the process. The Odyssey also contrasts the pursuit of glory with the desire to return home. Odysseus has to choose humility in order to return.

Outis has been keeping up a careful persona around us, but it's slipping. Her desire to return home is seeping through even as she tries to assert herself by clinging to the glory from a war that's long since ended.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

the doctor isnt neurodivergent or autistic or adhd or nonbinary or genderqueer or asexual. what the doctor is, is Not From Here

[reallyhardy]

Sorry what’s up w the Ethan slater stuff? I know him only from your posts / SpongeBob stuff

HI HELLO please buckle in

yep -- the same guy from the spongebob musical, and my posts abut the spongebob musical.

he blew up completely and now the general public knows him as 'ariana grande's new boyfriend' - their relationship seems to have started off the back of co-starring in the upcoming wicked musical film adaptation.

it's just been like. a monkey's paw curling sort of a way for him to get catapulted to fame, as i had always really enjoyed him as a performer (as spongebob, yes, but also in the other roles i'd seen him in,) and my biggest hope back around 2017 was that he would continue in and be really successful in theatre, get a lot of broadway roles, maybe take on some existing parts i thought he'd really suit, like seymour in little shop or ogie in waitress.......... but instead he booked the role of boq from wicked in a massive hollywood film production instead, where he met ariana grande. THE ariana grande.

and then yeah. at some point, he and grande broke up with their respective partners, (slater leaving both his wife AND newborn son) jumped into a new relationship, and now the whole wider internet knows who he is but certainly not for the right reasons.

there's been speculation regarding whether or not grande and slater had cheated on their previous partners before their relationship began with various sources coming out of the woodwork saying "yes they did" and others saying "no they didn't" -- humans are all perfectly capable of making stuff up, the media especially, so i simply don't know who to trust and i admit it had completely shattered my whole good impression of him - PLUS it gave the wider internet an absolutely awful first impression of him, resulting in, yeah, the (frankly, unflattering, sometimes downright cruel) memes of him popping up on twitter and, as i discovered yesterday, in non-theatre youtubers' videos who would literally never have heard of him if not for the slater-grande romance 🥲

FULL COVERAGE of the situation as it was happening can all be found on the lovely @notasimpleslater's blog under the tag 'ozgate' if you want to delve deeper!

[ratatatastic]

"Day one, you immediately said you don't believe in the thought of a hangover, you don't. What is—from that point, day one when you got back to now as you close in on that opener—makes you feel that that's true?" "I think it's a perspective. Well, a couple of things that I think would be important: had we not tested—so we'll test these guys hard—had they not put the effort into testing hard that would've been a red flag for me. So we're there physically. The question will be is: How do you perceive the adversity of the year? And that's where it changes. So I'll give an example. The last two seasons in November we've gotten into—on a road game—into a Western Conference team that wasn't very good and didn't make playoffs, and we lost. Then if it happens and we're in there in November again this year and if we lose: it'll be the hangover. That will be everybody's perception. It'll be exactly the same as the last two years. So how we perceive our adversity, and then how we act on our adversity will be how we define our team." "At what point do you—if at all—say 'Okay, that was last year, that was great. Trust me, we'll always embrace it but this is this year and we can't mingle the two.' Or do you embrace it? Kind-of mingling the fact that 'Hey, you're the Champs!' and what you just experienced?" "These men have earned to enjoy some of the things that come along with becoming a Champion and the Ring Ceremony on Monday night will be a really big part of that. We want to be fully able to enjoy it, it's been earned. What we don't want to do is feel that what we earned last year will have anything to do with the next night when we open against Boston. The puck gets dropped, the game demands certain things no matter whether you won or you lost last year. There's a certain number of things that you have to do to expect to win and we're gonna to have to be prepared to do that." "Did the fact that you are the hunted more so than the hunter—and obviously you're hunting for another title—but everywhere you go it's like, 'Hey, the Champs are coming to town,' 'Hey, the Panthers—that's the team we got to beat, they're the Champs.'" "It's an interesting thing that you say that because there was—I was reading an article today about the Top 5 Forward groups in the National Hockey League and our guys aren't part of it. So we're still, I think, lurking that—there is an expectation and that's where maybe the danger of why people will say it's so difficult to repeat. I don't believe that. It's exactly the same level of hard as we like to say, to win. It's just that your expectation—feel you won last year so somehow this should be easier and it won't be." "You talked so much last year about finally getting that taste of that all year. So now obviously you love the game, it keeps you going, you love being around the team but how much did winning last year change you—if at all—as you enter this new year? Do you sense anything? Do you feel anything as a coach that burden or pressure or cloud—whatever you want to call it?" "It's a great question and I've been looking for it, I'm trying to monitor. The driver for that to me is these guys works so hard, and in their effort they deliver this prize and you get to be a part of it. They did all the work, I get to be a Stanley Cu—I get my name on the Cup. I don't want to be the weak link here so at the same time because I'm aware of that, I got to also be mindful that I'm not a Berserker every day so that nobody thinks I'm being casual. So I got a job to do, I want to be the guy that prepares just like them, they work hard all summer I want to make sure that I'm driving as hard as I can, and they know that I'm not being casual about this."

Chasing the Cup (WPLG Local 10) | 10.6.24 (x)

[queer-omens-in-the-archives]

Immense willingness to write VS absolutely shot visual/word processing that makes it hard to read: battle to the death right now

[skitskatdacat63]

"The Boy With The Thorn in His Side"(x) - The Smiths × 2023 Strollonso moments + pundits' reactions

[torchickentacos]

nobody understands feta cheese like i do

[hide-your-bugs-away]

@angrytranspossum HERE'S ALAN AND THE SPHINX STATUE!! circa 1967!!

Here's an un-Shutterstock-ified version of the left photo from the July 1967 issue of Music Maker! One of the rare magazines out there that feature both Eric and Alan on the front cover... 🤲 (yes, it's very special to me....)

[thedrotter]

we're taking a break from my usual posting so i can show you the goofy images ive created as college assignments for illustrator. my teacher's mistake was letting me have free reign this is how we ended up here (funny enough they still got accepted)

[spookberry]

why is every art history professor the bane of my existence

[whiteshipnightjar]

Andy Samberg is the perfect choice to play David E. Scherman in 'Lee' (2023) and here's why: (1) he's a great actor and that's non-negotiable, it's a fact; (2) this scene in the film:

and the real life from David E. Scherman's perspective:

illustrated by these photographs:

(3) . It's going to be so good, you guys!

[chaoticwholesome]

.

[straykats]

to take it easy, rest, and have time to myself, or to make the most of this break and deal with The Horrors, socialise, and be super productive – that is the question

[depresseddepot]

weird thing about me is that I am so serious about new year's resolutions that the last week of december feels like I'm in one of those "preparing for war" montages (but in a good way)

[tardis--dreams]

Me panicking because i have 9 missed calls and 5 emails talking about my absence and how "a colleague could take over for me" vs. Me knowing it's really not that important no matter how pushy a client is and that on top of it I'm underpaid and have way to much overtime so i shouldn't even care