#this is messy and inconsistent but it's been in my drafts for over a month so here you go

[chayscribbles]

chayscribbles’ monthly writing update ☆ january 2023

��� STATISTICS.

words written: 10 029

projects worked on: Andromeda Rogue; The Gemini Heist; and a Third, Secret Thing :)

proudest accomplishment: uhhh i can't really thing of anything... i made it to 10k words for the month at the very last minute does that count

books read: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty; Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

☆ GENERAL COMMENTS.

as you may or may not have noticed i haven't really been active on writeblr lately. between work, the fact that it's january, and having to shovel through, like, 4 snow storms, i haven't really had the time or energy.

started the writing year super strong. hit a wall about halfway and have since been in a terrible slump for most of the month.

however it turns out that you can trick your brain into thinking it's experiencing New WIP Euphoria by digging up and revamping an old wip (i.e. the Third, Secret Thing).

book comments: both books i read were about murder in space. both were pretty good. both get a solid 4/5 stars.

(between that, watching Glass Onion, rewatching Murder She Wrote, and starting to watch Columbo, i think i'm on a bit of a murder kick lately.)

more specific wip-related comments + featured excerpt below.

☆ COMMENTS: ANDROMEDA ROGUE (draft 2)

not much to say about this one tbh. while most of my words from this month came from this wip, i've,, mostly just been patching up little things like smoothing over inconsistent details and adding a little meat to description and exposition... but i've been procrastinating on fixing the Big Stuff 😭

i really like how the new version is turning out compared to the first version tho. it's so much cleaner & that's very satisfying.

if only i could just *clenches fist* get myself to actually fuckin work on it

☆ COMMENTS: THE GEMINI HEIST (outlining / draft 0.5 or something)

i finished part 1 of 7!... and now i have no idea what i'm doing.

i don't think i like fast drafting lol. i hate how shitty my quality of writing has been. and yeah whatever that's the point of a fast draft blablabla but like, when my draft is already a little bit readable i can go back and reread parts and be like "oh hey this isn't half bad". and i know people are always like "don't reread right away!!! just keep writing!!!!!!!" but for me rereading as i go is part of the process lmao. not only does it remind me of important things i would otherwise forget, it also encourages me to keep going when i see that what i've done isn't terrible.

and... with this fast draft everything just feels terrible.

not to mention i can't seem to untangle plot... heists are fuckin hard to plan. especially since there's multiple opposing parties with different plans that are all going to inevitably go to shit, and so i have to make more plans for when that happens. it feels so complicated uuuggghghhhgh

☆ COMMENTS: a Third, Secret Thing (???)

i'm not gonna talk about it too much publicly yet so i don't jinx whatever is going on here (and i want to make sure i'm a bit more committed to this thing before introducing anything) but all i'll say is it's an older wip that i've talked about on my old blog that i've dug out and changed the genre into a dark modern fantasy mystery with messy sapphics.

☆ FEATURED EXCERPT.

alright i know i said i didn't want to talk too much about the Third Secret Thing yet but i couldn't find any passages to share in either AR or GH... so have this, with very little context :') uhhh tw for mentions of death and murder.

That’s how she ended up peeking groggily out the door at the frigid winter morning, having hastily thrown a sweatshirt over her pyjamas and a towel over her hair, only to have two police officers inform her that Vanessa Villa-Cortez had been found dead in her apartment early that morning.

“D… dead?” Amina repeated, her mind in a haze. She had to still be asleep, right? Maybe the guilt over ignoring that text had seeped into her subconscious and was feeding her dreams. There was no way someone was at her door telling her that Vanessa, a girl she hadn’t heard from in nearly seven years, was… was—

“Killed in an apparent burglary gone wrong last night,” said one of the officers gravely. “A neighbour noticed the door had been clearly forced in, went inside to check, and found Miss Villa-Cortez’s body on the floor of her apartment.”

Amina’s head began to swim. She clutched the doorposts to keep her buckling knees from giving way completely beneath her. No. No. Vanessa couldn’t be dead. Amina still had to answer her text.

if you know you know ;)

☆ TAGLISTS. let me know if you want to be added/removed to any of them.

genera taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @quilloftheclouds @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @avi-why @lefttigerobservation @chazzawrites @bardolatrycore @innocentlymacabre

andromeda trilogy taglist:

@bebewrites @nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @akindofmagictoo @quilloftheclouds @nora-theteawriter @ashen-crest @corpsepng @writeblrfantasy @chaylattes @toboldlywrite @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @cheerfulmelancholies @extra-magichours @writeouswriter @cilly-the-writer @lefttigerobservation @rose-bookblood @drowsy-quill @chazzawrites @cynic-and-chief @enchanted-lightning-aes @aesa

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @retrogayyde

[feelin-kinda-cocky-bmc]

FKC Update 6/5/23

It's been a while, so I wanted to post an update.

Long story short, production's been slow because the last few months of school were hell, especially finals. So between generally trying to do well in school and working part-time, I had been exhausted. But it's summer now, so hopefully I can take a good chunk out of the writing process.

It's only been about a week of summer vacation, which has been devoted exclusively to deep-cleaning my room and work. However, once my room is taken care of (which will be soon, within this week, if not the next few days), I'll start putting more focus on the development of Feelin' Kinda Cocky.

Anyway, so I'm still currently working on Dustin's route. I have most of Day 3 written out, and the rest is planned out in bullet points. I'm trying to find a balance between quality and quantity when it comes to writing the initial routes. This largely consists of me skipping over the more mundane parts of plot, or recently, just giving myself a simple guideline to adhere to. Examples here:

Daniel is Dustin's dad's name

These methods, along with worrying less about the gameplay aspect of making choices and worrying more about the story/stories I'm trying to tell, are my primary methods to finishing a rough draft as quickly as possible. As per my January update, I'm trying to get all the routes done as quickly as possible. This means that there will be countless typos, missing details, and inconsistencies. However, my train of thinking is along the lines of "Get a basic outline now, so you can have something to edit later." A lot of creators get sucked into the mentality that every keystroke has to be perfect, and I've definitely been there, done that.

So instead, I'm doing the opposite: making a really messy script to create more quickly. It seems a little counterproductive, and like an inefficient way to make a game. But hey, neurodivergency. We ball

Anyway, that's sort of my current mindset and progress. Additionally, I've made "moodboards" of every character and ship to sort of draw inspiration from. I won't share all of 'em, but here's sort of the basic idea!

None of the art is mine, same thing with the images. Most of this was just found by searching characters up on here and being like "oo I like that for inspiration." Any picrews I made myself, but again, not my art.

Yup, so that's my process right now.

Anyway, as always, thank you for following the development of FKC! AMA, my inbox is always open :)

[suknas]

First Line Tag Game II

Tagged by @ruluxe (who dared to say that I have fanfics that I'm "holdin out on us" -- it is true tho lol)

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening lines then tag 10 of your favorite authors.

Tagging: Everyone who wants to do this! (I'm not sure which authors are still active here ;-;)

Now we all know how inconsistent I am. But I do like starting with what's going on with the characters/where they are... Don't I? Well I decided to start with the most recent published ones, descending to the first ones published (skipping some), and finally some of my WIP/"One day I will finish" fanfics.

Quick fun fact: I didn't remember writing most of those fanfics lol

So here we go!!!! (it's gonna be a bumpy ride)

1. Into the Storm [GrimmIchi]: The lightning and thundering's brightness and strong noises were slicing the dark-blue sky of a lonely and sleepless night. A storm was coming. The heavy rain and gusts of wind were not the only thing rapidly creeping through the night. Kurosaki Ichigo could sense something else approaching along with the dark clouds and the pouring rain that now was hitting his window. [2021 (but the draft was from 2017 maybe), Bleach]

2. Ascension [AoKaga]: Light appeared in the darkness and soon darkness became insignificant before the beauty and immensity of the bright light surrounding a tall and masculine figure. He walked calmly through the uncertain route that many others once also stepped into it. He had a goal. The time to seek the one whom he had once shared many memories with, good and bad. The one person whom he had loved immensely but had never gotten to experience that feeling truly and at its fullest. The time had finally come. [2021 (again the draft was probably from 2016), Kuroko no Basket]

3. The One Where Prompto Does Not Want To Be In The Middle [Gladios x Prompto x Noctis x Ignis]: Sleeping in the camping tent was always a challenge in Prompto’s opinion. It is not as if he does not like camping, it was pretty nice being able to sit under the stars and gaze them, it was relaxing. Sometimes Noctis would sit behind him, embracing him in a warm hug. They would spend a long time chatting and exchanging affectionate touches until both of them felt like sleeping. Other times Gladio would join him, and the shield would let the blond lay his head on his lap. More often than not Prompto ended up sleeping while feeling his hair being played by dexterous and caring fingers. And whenever Ignis had time to spare, he would also join him after cleaning the mess they did during dinner. [2020 (again the draft was maybe from 2017), Final Fantasy XV]

4. The Owl Who Got Caught [KuroTsuki + Bokuto]: The third day of the training camp was finally over. Soon, everybody was running to the school cafeteria to grab something to eat. In the meantime, while nobody was looking, Kuroo took the opportunity to take Tsukishima’s hand, guiding him to the room that the Nekoma team was sharing; closing the door right after they entered. Nekoma and Karasuno’s middle blockers became closer ever since their first practice game, now they were spending more time together, and their relationship had an unexpected development. [2020 (draft probably from 2017), Haikyuu]

5. A Boyfriend Text [KuroTsuki]: Laying in his bed with a smile on the lips Kuroo was texting his sweet strawberry shortcake boyfriend. Eyes rapt, staring at the bright screen in the dark room; he was feeling anxious if his stupid smile and trembling fingers were any indicator.

TETSUROU: Wanna come over this weekend?

It had been some weeks since they had the opportunity to meet; school and volleyball practice were mostly the reason for their inevitable long separation. Week after week something "magically" came up in their agendas, but Kuroo was hopeful, however, that maybe this time their schedules would finally allow them to meet. [2020, Haikyuu]

6. Domestic Bliss [KiriBaku]: Sitting comfortably on the couch, Kirishima and Bakugou were finally spending some time together after a rough week. It was one of those rare days where both could enjoy a peaceful and uneventful afternoon. To say that both men were lazily on the couch doing absolutely nothing productive was not very accurate. Bakugou was doing something with his spear time, he was reading a book. By his focused attention on the pages, anyone could tell that he was enjoying his reading and only someone stupid would dare to bother him. [2017, Boku no Hero Academia]

7. Getting Together [KiriBaku]: “Let’s grab something to eat!” The blonde shouted after stretching his arms above his head. Bakugou’s red eyes fixed on the figure of Kirishima, who was sitting comfortably in bed with his back against the headboard.The redhead’s own red eyes snapped at the figure on the chair, eyeing him from head to toe; he spaced out in no second. Kirishima wanted to touch those damn nice muscled arms, which were slowly lowered down while his hands were placed on his toned thighs. Kirishima couldn’t help himself and started to imagine Bakugou’s whole body underneath him wrapping his body with those strong legs and arms. [2017, Boku no Hero Academia]

8. AoKaga short stories collection [AoKaga]: The atmosphere of the place was hot and heavy. However, because of that, the two teens lying down on the bed were more connected than ever. Their bare bodies were united white skin with dark skin. Their breaths were out of rhythm and their hands slid skillfully on each other’s bodies. The movements were synchronized and intense. The pleasurable moans and whispers echoed in the dark room, making the place even more delightful for both of them. [2017 - Short Story #4, Kuroko no Basket]

9. It's Picture Time! [Pomptis]: In the Regalia, Prompto and Ignis were heading to the nearest outpost from their camping spot to get some supplies for the night. The sun on the horizon was almost hiding behind the tree path by Prompto’s right side, the scenery formed by dim light and shadowy dark spots caught Prompto’s eyes.“Wow! Look at the light, it’s amazing!” the blond shouted, “Can’t we stop just for a bit?” Prompto was thrilled by the idea of adding more photos to his portfolio. [2017, Final Fantasy XV]

10. That Side of You [MiSawa]: Miyuki was laying in the bed on his back, eyes glassy, hands shaking and skin hot. The body above his was driving him to a place where it was absolute bliss and pleasure. Hips moved together, swinging with movements that were making Miyuki moans the pitcher’s name in a short and breathless tone.“Sa-wamura– Aah! Do that again,” his voice low and hoarse made the order sound weak, and his usual snarky tone was lost a long time ago in some part of his foggy mind. [2016, Diamond no Ace]

11. Runaround [Sterek]: Everything was set neatly on the kitchen table. Stiles was going to be there soon, so Derek had already prepared every single book and even snacks that they may need for their studying.It wasn't new that both of them were hanging out for studying matters. Actually, Derek had come up with the idea first, mainly because he was having some issues involving fast heartbeats and some inconvenient hard-ons whenever Stiles was around. He had a ridiculous crush on his friend. However, the smart geek boy didn't have to know about that. [2016, Teen Wolf]

12. Eavesdropping [MiSawa]: Sawamura’s suspicions must be right for his sake. Otherwise, Miyuki would make sure his so careless kouhai would pay a high price for being so noisy about Kuramochi and Ryou-senpai making out when no one was seeing. The closed and almost claustrophobic locker didn’t have enough space to move around, but he and Sawamura managed to fit in somehow. So what? They were eavesdropping, and he still couldn’t say that he was regretting this. [2016, Diamond no Ace]

13. Sterek Short Stories Collection [Sterek]: Stiles had broken up with his last boyfriend a couple of months ago. Or it was what he usually says to Scott when his best friend asks him why he isn’t over his past relationship. Because according to Scott, it’s been a year and a half since Stiles had parted ways with, at the time, his other half. And right now it was one of those times.“You should move on. I haven't seen you with no one since then. What about Danny? Last night I saw him flirting with you, and when I looked again you were nowhere to be found, but Danny was still there drinking alone. And let not forget your grumpy humor because your sex life sucks. It's getting old bro.” [2015 - Short Story #3, Teen Wolf]

14. Urge [AoKaga]: The small public bathroom stall in that bar hadn't been made for sure to accommodate two giants, dumbasses, and impulsive basketball players. Nevertheless, this fact wasn’t that important for the Too player neither to the Seirin player. Kagami was already pressing his body against Aomine’s, who was stuck between the wall and Kagami while his mouth was being devoured by the other’s tongue. Both were fighting into that kiss as if there was no tomorrow. Their hands were traveling quickly by each other’s body, and quickly they were undoing their pants’ zippers and buttons. Their shirts were all messy, as well as their hair. Their breaths were heavy, and the kisses now were directed to their necks, sucking and biting the skin exposed. Soft moans could be heard, but not loud enough to echo in the bathroom. [2013, Kuroko no Basket]

15. After Dancing Lessons [AoKaga]: The music was set up, and his hips started to move, his steps were guiding him to where a dark skinned guy was sat on a chair. The dancer's eyes were fixed in front of him. The watcher's eyes sparkled with excitement when the other sat on his lap, one leg on each side of his body, and kissed his cheeks along to his lips and chin, returning the same way till his ear, biting there slightly. The dancer felt the other hands trying to take his clothes off and immediately stood up, preventing to have those hands on his body so easily. [2013, Kuroko no Basket]

16. Sleep Well [ZoSan]: The night was agitated on board of the Sunny and lots of dirty dishes were pilled up on a corner of the sink. Sanji didn't have this time someone to help him to clean everything up. 'Those lazy bastards!' He frowned, 'all right! Let’s put all these things in their right place!' And with that thought, Sanji started the tiring process of doing all the dishes. On the bright side, if he was the one doing it everything would be spot on in no time. [2013, One Piece]

17. Possessive Lover [KidLaw / LawLu]: The bell indicating the change of periods rang and the students gradually began to leave one room to proceed to another. In the middle of changing classrooms, some students went to a quick trip to the bathroom, which was where that a spiky redhead boy was heading to. He had a dangerous gaze gleaming in his golden eyes; he had quite a threatening presence, and his looks did not lie about his fiery and explosive personality. Any sane person would prefer to avoid crossing paths with him or to even look the boy in the eyes. [2012, One Piece]

18. English Lesson [WIP, AoKaga]: The room was a mess. There were a lot of magazines, books, sheets, some snacks, three soda bottles, two hoodies and two pairs of sneakers all thrown on the floor. Sitting side by side, in front of the center table with notebooks and pens in hands were Kagami and Aomine. They had that idea of starting to study at each other’s places every Thursday night after their club activities. It was not like they liked to take a book, read it and think about the subject, the matter here was way bigger than just casual study. Their grades were in the red mark, which meant that they needed to rise them at least not to get scolded and taken off the basketball team. This time around Kagami was helping Aomine with his English study. The redhead was doing his best to try to explain, but he wasn’t that good at teaching those so detailed grammatical things… [unknown year - present, Kuroko no Basket]

19. High heels [WIP, KuroTsuki]: Tsukishima walked all proud on a black suit, white button-up shirt, grey tie and black stilettos in the room. Kuroo was watching his slow movements with a fierce look from the bed, where he was sat with his hands tied to the headboard by a soft cloth. Tsukishima stopped at the bed foot, looking straight at Kuroo. Ever so slowly, Tsukishima’s hands loosened the tie around his neck, the button-up shirt was having his buttons calmly undone, soon the shirt was wide open reviling Tsukishima's snow-white skin for Kuroo’s delight. [unknown year - present, Haikyuu]

20. Christmas thing / The untitled fanfic [WIP, AoKaga]: It was Christmas the snow was falling outside, many sparkle lights, so many decorations everywhere, people receiving and giving presents, eating together and singing songs. A day to celebrate and stay with family and friends. A day full of joy and happiness.At Kagami's house every single tradition was made. Kagami invited the Seirin basketball team to celebrate, but it ended up with some unexpected guests, the self-invited guests were some of Touou basketball team. And of course, Aomine Daiki was there. The redhead didn't even want to know how Aomine had found out about his little party. He'd bet that Kuroko had told something to Momoi and she kindly invited Aomine and the rest of the troupe. [unknown year - present, Kuroko no Basket]

[lunapaper]

The year was 2010. Emo was just starting to die out (long live the scene). I was studying to become a secondary school teacher, and Katy Perry was shooting whipped cream out of her boobs...

Second albums, more often than not, fail to live up to the hype. And yet, Teenage Dream has somehow endured.

While Perry’s 2008 debut, One of the Boys, launched her into the mainstream, it really hasn’t aged all that well. On tracks like ‘Self Inflicted’ and ‘Fingerprints,’ she tries way too hard to emulate Paramore’s bold pop punk. On others, she attempts to rebel against her gospel roots by turning the bawdiness up to 10.

It can also come off pretty juvenile at times. The singer was almost 25 when she sang on the title track: ‘So over the summer, something changed/I started reading Seventeen and shaving my legs/And I studied Lolita religiously/And I walked right in to school and caught you staring at me.’

But let’s be honest: Even though it’s been declared ~problematic~, you still jam out to ‘I Kissed A Girl’ when you hear it, don’t you? I hadn’t listened to ‘Ur So Gay’ before this, either, but its slinky, jazz-infused vibe absolutely slaps.

Like Teenage Dream is also a product of its time, presenting pop at its most sugary, hook-laden and bombastic. It managed to spawn 5 No.1 singles, the second album in history to do so after Michael Jackson’s Bad, as well as a documentary, Part of Me. There’s even a deluxe edition, cleverly titled The Complete Confection. It was Perry at her peak.

You know the title track, of course. Evoking images of cherry red lipstick, tight denim and driving down an empty highway in summer, Perry desperately clings to the memory of young love, breathlessly pleading ‘don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.’

‘The One That Got Away,’ meanwhile, is its bittersweet sequel, Perry's lovesick nostalgia now tinged with regret. Yet, the only thing I really remember about the song is the video starring Cassian Andor himself, Diego Luna, as Perry’s past love, the beautifully dishevelled and tortured artist of my dreams (Dear God, that penetrating stare...) He’s also the only reason why anyone bothered to watch Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, if it wasn’t already obvious.

First single ‘California Gurls,’ on the other hand, is pure pop exuberance at its most campy and carefree, indicative of a more innocent time when it wasn’t driven by algorithms or social media. ‘Firework’ is still a go-to empowerment anthem for just about every kind of montage imaginable. ‘ET’ (featuring a pre-’presidential’ Kanye) is heavily-synthesised cyber pop that doesn’t get nearly enough love.

But Teenage Dream, in retrospect, has quite a few misses. ‘Peacock’ is just one big, long, glitchy dick joke. ‘Not Like The Movies’ is big ballad schmaltz. The brassy soft rock of ‘Hummingbird Heartbeat,’ meanwhile, opens with a hell of a line: ‘You make me feel like I'm losing my virginity/The first time, every time when you're touching me.’ And I’m pretty sure ‘What Am I Living For?’ is partly plagiarised from Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love.’ Even Pitchfork awarded Teenage Dream a rather tame 6.8 in their recent retrospective review.

By the time Perry released Prism in 2013 – her ‘darker, moodier’ record - she had shifted further into ‘inspirational anthems.’ There was the inescapable mega-hit ‘Roar,’ the saccharine power ballad ‘Unconditionally’ and the Eastern-tinged ‘Legendary Lovers,’ complete with wellness and spiritual motifs.

But it wasn’t without its bangers: ‘Dark Horse’ (featuring Juicy J) jumped onto the trap pop bandwagon just in time with its subterranean bass and eerie, otherworldly synths. Even the slick, 90s-indebted ‘This Is How We Do’ has a certain charm.

Prism also marked the point where Perry’s invincibility began to wear off. Where the masses once lapped up her candy-coated antics, they were now calling her out for wearing braids in the video for ‘This Is How We Do’ and dressing up as a geisha during a performance at the American Music Awards.

And they would only get louder during her era of ‘purposeful pop.’ Released in the aftermath of the 2016 US election, Witness was meant to cement Perry as ‘Artist. Activist. Conscious’ - as her Twitter bio read at the time. She had joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. On Instagram, she was quoting the likes of Socrates and Plato. She was Woke now, and she was telling anyone who’d listen.

Yet you’d be hard pressed to find much trace of this ‘purposeful pop’ on Witness, bar the first single, ‘Chained to the Rhythm.’ Written with Sia and Max Martin, the singer implores listeners to ‘put your rose-coloured glasses on and party on’ amid whirling, colourful synths.

The rest of the record, however, is made up of either soppy, overly sentimental ballads (‘Save As Draft,’ ‘Pendulum,’ ‘Into Me You See’), awkward lyrical turns and CHVRCHES/Purity Ring knock-offs (‘Hey Hey Hey,’ ‘Roulette,’ ‘Deja Vu’).

Funnily enough, Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick produced some of Witness’ better tracks: ‘Mind Maze’ and the soaring ballad ‘Miss You More, along with ‘Bigger Than Me.’

Final track ‘Act My Age,’ meanwhile, feels like a pre-emptive strike against the criticism Witness would inevitably receive (‘They say that I might lose my Midas touch/They also say I may become irrelevant/But who the fuck are they anyway?’).

Then there’s the godawful ‘Bon Appetit’ (featuring Migos) with its food-related double entendres. It was ‘Yummy’ before ‘Yummy’ existed. Seriously, I just wanna see Orlando Bloom say he likes this song with a straight face...

But I will still defend ‘Swish Swish’ to the death. Do the lyrics suck? Yeah, but Perry’s never been the strongest lyricist. But its pulsing 90s house beat does a lot of the heavy lifting, along with Nicki Minaj’s spitfire verse.

The promotional rollout for Witness, meanwhile, proved just as messy. Among the most infamous was a 72-hour livestream, where voyeurs got to witness Perry sleep, meditate, do yoga and welcome a random assortment of guests, including Gordon Ramsey and activist DeRay McKesson. Then there was the meme-laden video for ‘Swish Swish. She literally served herself up on a platter in the clip for ‘Bon Appetit.’ She tried reigniting her feud with Taylor Swift on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. Needless to say, it reeked of desperation.

Looking back, though, you can’t help but feel a little bad for Perry, trying so hard to please only for it to blow up spectacularly in her face. So devastated, it sent her to the Hoffman Institute, which offers an abridged version of therapy. As she later told the Guardian:

‘I think the universe was like, ‘OK, all right, let’s have some humble pie here [��] My negative thoughts were not great. They didn’t want to plan for a future. I also felt like I could control it by saying, ‘I’ll have the last word if I hurt myself or do something stupid and I’ll show you’ — but really, who was I showing?’

But although Witness lacked the perkiness of Teenage Dream or the cartoonish charm of One of the Boys, it shines best on its darker moments.

‘Dance With The Devil’ has the kind of smoky allure that wouldn’t look too out of place on a BANKS album, while ‘Power’ is a revelation. Produced by Jack Garrett, what could’ve been yet another dull empowerment ballad is turned into a gritty, groaning slab of vaporwave pop, with sultry sax riffs that sample, of all things, Smokey Robinson’s ‘Being With You.’ It’s electric as fuck. You believe it when Perry sings: ‘’Cause I'm a goddess and you know it/Some respect, you better show it/I'm done with you siphoning my power.’

If the singer had just done away with the whole ‘purposeful pop’ concept and stuck with Garrett, Roddick and Terror Jr’s Felix Snow as her core producing group, Witness probably wouldn’t have been half the failure it was. It could’ve had a chance to grow on people, the kind of slow burn Perry could’ve gotten away with at this point in her career. The cyberpop dystopian feel also could’ve gone hand in hand with her newfound wokeness, echoing people’s fear and anger in the aftermath of Trump’s win. But alas, we’ll never know...

While the rollout for Witness over the top, Smile’s was lacklustre and wildly inconsistent.

First single ‘Never Really Over’ came out a whole 15 months before the release of Smile to little fanfare, along with a hippie-inspired video to match. ‘Harleys in Hawaii’ later followed, which also stuck with the flower power aesthetic. Other singles - ‘Daisies’ and the title track – seemingly came and went without a trace.

So how did Katy Perry get to this point? And is there any chance of coming back?

It’s hard to say. A lot of artists go through a rough patch or two:   Miley's twerking antics divided audiences when she released 2013’s Bangerz. Taylor Swift’s reputation divided audiences. Only in recent years has Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP been vindicated. Such is the nature of music and pop culture in general. It’s fickle, just one vicious cycle after another; an endless quest for trend-bait that'll never end.

Right now, disco pop is going through a renaissance, while hyperpop reigns supreme. Dua Lip and Charli XCX are basically untouchable at the moment. TikTok has taken over from Top 40 radio when it comes to breaking hits, while the gap between album releases has also grown shorter and shorter. Even the nature of fandom has changed, shifting from old-school elitism to the bloodsport that is ‘stanning,’ along with an unhealthy amount of ‘endless simping’ (to quote a close friend of mine).

Perry, meanwhile, has failed to keep up, choosing to play it safe in order to avoid further scrutiny. But in doing so, she strips away the humour, the mischief and other idiosyncrasies that fans fell in love with in the first place.

But what choice did she have? As Junkee’s Sam Murphy notes in his own piece about Perry’s rise and fall:

‘At that point, you have two choices as a popstar — hunt for relevancy or make what comes naturally to you. Perry chose the former and came unstuck. She inserted vague wokeness into her songs as cancel culture infiltrated pop, tacked on rap features as hip-hop became the dominant commercial genre, and worked with producers who may have been able to find her credibility.’

(Full disclosure: I started writing my piece on Perry back in December 2020, so the timing of Murphy’s piece and mine is purely coincidental).

Even if you don’t believe in cancel culture, no one actually wants to be cancelled. It’s just not good for PR, especially for someone with an image as glossy and as carefully put-together as Perry’s. Even now, she continues to atone for Witness, telling the LA Times: ‘Having more awareness and consciousness, I no longer can just be a blissful, ignorant idealist who sings about love and relationships […] Even my travels have afforded me a new perspective on cultures, class systems and the inequality around the world, not just in the United States,’ though she carefully avoids the subject of politics on Smile.

But redemption is possible. Swift – Perry's one-time nemesis - was a total pariah back in 2016, mocked for her Girl Squad, for diddling the Hiddles while on the rebound from Calvin Harris and criticised for remaining coy on her political leanings. Now she’s earning indie cred with two of 2020’s biggest albums, folklore and evermore, and has thrown her support behind a number of social causes.

The devil works hard, but Swift’s PR team work harder. I might not be her biggest fan, but Taylor works Kris Jenner levels of mastery when it comes to rebuilding public sentiment. Thanks to her newfound indie cred, you’ve almost forgotten about the pastel atrocity ‘Me!,’ her 2019 duet with that insufferable drama kid cliché, Brendon Urie. Shifting her songs away from petty grievances to more original storytelling was also a smart move.

But while Swift has managed to move on, Perry seems to have fallen into the same adult contemporary trap as Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and Pink, one that ensnares many female artists over 30 (Though many have also managed to escape – Gaga, Taylor, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kesha, Robyn...)

As ‘woke’ as the industry and fans at large might think themselves to be, they’re still pretty ageist. There's still an expectation to ‘mature’ your sound as you age, to become more ‘serious.’ No more fun, no more experimenting, boomer. But when you do end up filing away the edges, you’re called dull, generic and past your prime. Perry said as much on the aforementioned ‘Act My Age. You just. can't. win.

And yet, many female artists over 30 have created some of their best work yet in just the past year or so: Hayley Williams made the dramatic shift from pop rock to low-key, Radiohead-inspired tunes on her solo debut, Petals For Armor. Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters was hailed by critics as her most bold, urgent and visceral. Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? was a cut of understated disco pop elegance. Carly Rae Jepsen, meanwhile, released an equally stellar companion to 2019’s Dedicated.

At this point in her career, Perry could afford to follow a similar path to that of the Canadian singer. Once the meme value of ‘Call Me Maybe’ wore off, along with her mainstream appeal, Jepsen finally had a chance to discover real creative freedom, pushing her sound to greater heights and earning critical acclaim, all without having to compromise her love for catchy hooks and bold synth pop arrangements.

A couple of years ago, a Reddit user made a post about participating in a focus group held by Perry’s label to discuss why she’s ‘no longer one of the[ir] most notable female pop artists,’ and ‘what can [they] do with her image or marketing to make you care about her again?’

It’s depressing to think that an artist as accomplished as her needs a focus group to help solve her identity crisis. There really is no easy answer. Hopefully, Perry will be able to return more vibrant and assured than ever, on her own terms...

-Bianca B.

[aconvenientenemy]

Getting the Team Back Together (2)

[[MORE]]

The boat, thankfully, was big enough she didn't have to worry about running into Jasper. Unless she was very unlucky. 

  She tried her best to keep up her vibes. She thought about all the new places she'd get to experience. She thought about seeing her friends again. She sat on a chair in the upper deck with her eyes closed and breathed in the ocean air, stretching out her wings and letting the wind catch on them. She stood, holding onto the table edge, eyes still closed, and let her mind wander to memories of flying. Of snapping her wings open and gliding through the sky. Of feeling the sun on smooth feathers.

  Of blood.

  Her eyes snapped open. She was breathing too hard. She looked down and saw how tight she was holding the table.

  "I should get a coffee." She said out loud in a voice much more chipper than she felt. Trying to trick her brain back into a positive space. She let go of the table, flexing her fingers out as she went downstairs to find the small cafe.

  Quirina ordered a medium half white mocha and went to the window to watch the water while she waited. There were gunshots outside. She heard them muffled by the people talking. She saw a few flying grimm fall and disperse into nothing before they hit the water. Then she heard the talking turn to whispered panic. This would only attract more grimm.

  "People, please! If we can all just stay calm and move to the lower decks. There's been a sighted circle of small Nevermores in the area. We have our crewmen trained on what to do so please don't worry. Enjoy the rest of your trip." Presumably a hired huntsman or a crew worker clicked off the announcements and everyone continued their worried mutters.

  Quirina went back to the cafe bar and slid her credits across to the barista. "Use this for everyone's orders until you reach 150 lien, please." She took her cup and her card after the barista swiped it and nodded a thanks. She went back to her window and sat down and enjoyed her drink. 

  It only took about three people getting free drinks for the mood to change. About ten to change the tone. There was very scattered gunfire in the background but everyone nearby was pleasantly ignoring it. Laughing and chatting. Mood lifted for now. 

  Quirina smiled at how easy things could be sometimes. The more people who smiled and laughed, who left the cafe to take their good spirits elsewhere on the boat, the less they heard gunfire.

  She let her thoughts run free for a few seconds, unleashed like dogs that have been trapped inside all day and someone finally opened the back door. 

  She picked one and perked up suddenly, pulling out her scroll and texting her dad before she got too far out of range. "Have you heard anything about a girl from Beacon named Autumn Farley? Someone's looking for her. I'm leaving CCT range soon btw."

  If he could connect with someone from the gym, he had friends in the greater community. He trained people who had a farther reach than she ever would. If anyone could find something out right now, he could.

  Quirina wished she had been in the right mind to think of texting around earlier. She maybe could have even gotten an answer for Jasper immediately. But she let panic and fear cloud her thoughts.

  She leaned against the glass as she heard more scattered laughter. This was the time to remain positive. 

  She let hope fill her lungs and refused to let it out. 

-

Her dad texted her several updates, just to let her know he was working on it. 

  "Asking Herron and Partridge."

  "Jerry said she didn't see that name on her bus list but she's asking other evac bus drivers now." 

  "Still in range? Jerry said the name was on Ben's bus. He's getting in touch with his supervisor."

  "Partridge said she knows Autumn's aunt's best friend. She's calling them now."

  She was almost out of range and she watched the bars dip lower and lower as she waited for what would hopefully be a positive update.

  "Ben's supervisor not responding. Waiting on Partridge still."

  "Called the friend, got aunt's scroll. Calling now."

  Quirina hadn't seen Jasper since they got on the boat and tried to keep as far as possible from the awkward atmosphere they created together but she stood up and went to look for him. 

  She took several minutes walking the outer perimeter, not seeing him. She went to the upper deck, cleared again for people now that the Grimm were taken care of, nothing.

  She walked the perimeter again. Her scroll buzzed. Weak network. 

  "Not now!" She ran to the back of the boat. It buzzed again. Weak network. She could feel panic. Anxiety bursting in her chest like a popped water balloon. She felt like she was drowning.

  She saw red hair across the deck. 

  No network. 

  She had to make a decision.

  Quirina ran to the front of the boat, took a series of breaths as deep as she could take on the verge of a panic attack and tried to channel it properly. Away from her stomach and into her heart. Out of her throat and into her fists. She ran as fast as she could to the back of the boat, scroll in hand, panic turning to frustration to anger, and she screamed as she threw herself off the back of the boat and snapped her wings out into the air.

  A draft shot her up, higher than she expected. The pain in her back began immediately and she used it to propel her anger as she glided away from the boat and back into network territory.

  Her shoulders screamed. Another headache threatened to bloom as she yet again found herself gritting her teeth. 

  Thank goodness for the initial strong updraft because if she had to flap her wings she thought she would pass out. 

  Her scroll buzzed in her hand and she took a sudden breath, not realizing she had been holding it. Her spotty vision cleared enough to read.

  "Aunt answered. Autumn is home in Vacuo. Minimal injuries sustained. She's safe Noa."

  "Thanks, dad. No more network."

  She tucked her scroll into her pocket and turned back to the boat. She would have to flap her wings to make it there and she was already unsteady enough as it was. She could feel every pocket gust of air like a stab in her spine. She screamed and dipped low as a particularly strong gust caught her wrong and she folded a wing on instinct.

  She tried to channel the energy into anger again. Imagined Indy. The blood. Focused the pain into her semblance of anger and spread it like support beams into her wings. 

  She thought about Indy's metal wings.

  Quirina screamed as she flapped her wings enough to rise to a level where she could try and glide back to the boat without further flapping.

  She saw a small commotion happening near the end. They were looking for her.

  A strong wind pushed her back and she screamed again as she had to flap her wings twice against it. The boat was getting further away. 

  She heard a beeping on her scroll and she knew it was her aura.

  A rapid beeping. 

  She screamed and dove towards the boat, not near enough but it was all she had left.

  Two figures jumped into the air and she saw wings. Her vision got blurry and her spine screamed and she folded her wings like a cocoon around her body as she plummeted suddenly, dropping like a stone. 

  A few seconds of falling and she felt hands on her arms, yanking her free from her fall, bruises she knew would form later. 

  She felt that same hope from earlier fill her lungs again and the world was spotty but she didn't pass out. 

  "What on earth were you doing out here??" One of them shouted at her over the wind. He had falcon wings. 

  "It was important." She replied, but she was sure they couldn't hear her. 

  "The authorities are going to want to speak to you as soon as we get back on the boat, ma'am." The other one informed her. A woman with bat wings, she noticed.

  She nodded.

-

They took her to a side room in officer quarters and asked her a lot of questions while she laid out on a little bed that reminded her of a school nurse's office. 

  She explained she was a provisional Huntress and she was trying to get information about a student from Beacon. She over-explained about her semblance and her wings. And once they were done asking her their questions she asked for an announcement to be made for Jasper. 

  "I didn't get his last name but he's a fox faunus. When you find him, tell him Autumn Farley is safe and at home."

  They told her okay and to lay back down. That they would bring her some food and let the ship doctor have a better look at her.

  She knew she was fine. For now at least. Another stunt like that would be sure to break something but this was serious bruising at most. 

  Quirina laid on her stomach, wings out, resting around her, sure to be in a right mess. She hated that she still got embarrassed about how messy they looked sometimes. 

  A doctor came and inspected her. He could feel inconsistencies through skin, so he was able to get a deeper look even without an x-ray machine on board. He felt along her spine and where her wings connected. He made a lot of noises under his breath and asked her questions about her wings but in the end he informed her she was whole. Nothing broken. 

  "But you did sprain your shoulder, you shouldn't lift your right arm or wing for at least a few days. A week at best, but I know you're a huntress so asking you to limit your movement is a bit… like asking a wave not to crash. Just know, if you move it too much you're liable to pop it out of its socket and then you'll have even worse wing problems." 

  "Okay." She had overdosed on pain and her brain was oddly quiet now. Quirina for once found herself in a mental and physical calm. 

  "You'll have bruising along your spine, and I already see hand marks on your arms. Do you bruise easily?"

  "Not too easy."

  "Then the ones on your arms should clear up in a few days. But due to the nature of your previous wounds, your back will most likely be bruised for three weeks to a month." He stood up and sighed. "Can I say, "Don't do it again.'' or would that be a waste of my energy?" He asked her, she could hear a smile in his voice. 

  "It's a bit of a waste." She admitted. 

  He laughed quietly. "Thought so."

  Quirina was left on her own in a mental quiet for only a few minutes. She thought she might try to get some sleep since this didn't happen to her too often but then she heard footsteps approaching. She turned her head to look at the door in case it was the doctor again. It was Jasper. 

  His ears were perked up and he looked heartbroken at the state of her wings as she lay on the bed still, too tired to even get up to a sitting position. 

  "Hey." She offered to his downcast silence. 

  His ears lay down against his head and he took a seat where the doctor had been in the chair by her bed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

  "For what?"

  "For this! This is my fault. I- I made you feel bad, back on the airship. I should have never said-"

  "Hey hey. This isn't your fault, Jasper. I'm a Huntress now and it's my job to protect people. So be happy because I got good news for you and your sister and I'm counting on that good news to keep your spirits high enough to keep grimm away from this ship."

  "Good news?" He leaned forward. 

  "They didn't tell you? What did they say?"

  "They called me over the speakers, said you were getting information for me and that you were down here. They didn't tell me what it was."

  She let out a breath. "Autumn's okay. She made it out. She's with her family in Vacuo."

  He smiled, sudden and bright. He made a jerky movement and seemed to think better of it before he just jumped up from his chair and did a little skip. "I wish I could hug you right now! Thank you! Are you sure? Who did you talk to?"

  "We heard from her aunt. I got her scroll details if you want to confirm it yourself whenever you get back in range." She nodded over to her scroll on the counter and he picked it up and held it out to her. "You can do it, I'm not really supposed to move my shoulders right now."

  He made a worried face but she nudged her head at him to get moving and he opened the scroll. It was still on her dad's texts and the aunt's info was right there. 

  He smiled again, almost crying. "Yeah. That's her aunt." He set the scroll down and sat himself back in the chair. He shook his head. "Man, you never think to get everyone's numbers, you know? It's just your family and your friends. You never think to get their family. Their emergency contacts. You never really… think something like this can happen."

  "Yeah." Quirina could feel his statement like a twist in her ribs. "You never think about how hard it is to find people when you aren't close by to them. It's hard to think that you would need identifying information for your friends. You know what their favorite snack is and what music they like, but you don't know where their grandparents live or how many aunts and uncles they have. If they're staying with siblings or cousins. Where exactly those relatives live."

  Jasper nodded back at her the whole time, flipping his scroll nervously in his hands. 

  His ears perked up suddenly. 

  "Happy thoughts! Right? Good spirits!" He stood up. Quirina smiled. "Thank you so much for your help. Can I- can I put my number in your scroll, just so you have it someday? I repay favors, promise."

  She nodded, working against her usual shrug response. "Yeah totally. That's cool. Take my number too. Just in case."

  They exchanged numbers and he took her sleepy eyes as an excuse to leave without making an awkward exit and with a happy heart and relatively quiet mind, she was finally able to get some sleep before they made it to Menagerie. 

-

She managed to eat when the officers finally brought her food. She had another coffee, which was free. Apparently every time someone caught up to the limit, someone else added a new limit on their own lien. Maybe like 15 people bought the whole boat's worth of coffees and teas. 

  Quirina washed her face in the bathroom and checked on her scroll by habit but it was effectively just a camera. There were no towers out here. She would have to work by word of mouth now. 

  She started straight away on the docks. 

  "Excuse me, do you know where there might be a registry of faunus who came over after the attack on Beacon?"

  There was an older lizard gentleman working the desk she approached, he appeared to sell various scarves, he gave her an odd look. "Whatever Menagerie did have during the emergency would've been gotten rid of by now. It's not safe to have a list of us just in case. Still plenty of people who hate faunus and plenty of extremist white fang who hate neutral parties." He gave her a sad shrug. "Wish I could help you."

  She nodded. "Yeah, no I understand. By chance then, do you know a boy named River Mingan Greenwood? He has white wolf ears, short white hair, and purple eyes?" At the nonresponsive look from the man she continued. "Or Tori, Torrential Arinth? He's got long turquoise hair? Usually in a braid. He wears skirts and no shoes?"

  At that the man's eyes showed a recognition. "Barefoot kid! Yes! He goes to my friends bookshop. Waits outside for people to bring him books because it's a no shoes no service kind of place. My buddy's told me about him."

  He gave her the address of the bookshop and she weaved her way excitedly through the crowd of faunus exiting the boat and the various stands set up to sell things. The place was crowded but beautiful and she made mental notes to come back after she found Tori and check out the various stalls and desks.

  She made it to the bookstore, muttering excitedly to herself along the way. The whole place was so beautiful,  she couldn't get over it. She wished she could fly over it and see it from above. Her shoulders ached with the thought, wings twitching resentfully, but she knew there was no chance after her stunt on the boat.

  Quirina stopped suddenly, realizing.  As crowded as it was, not one person bumped into her. She looked around, as much as she was leaning to the side she hadn't bumped into anyone, everyone was giving her a wide berth already. Most of the faunus with wings that spread past their shoulders even when folded were given the space. Faunus with tails constantly swaying, faunus with prickles coming out of their spines and arms. As crowded as Menagerie was, the people knew how to exist together. 

  She kept walking, no longer muttering as she went. 

[tophatal]

It’s Our Ball So Let Us Play

It remains the most popular sport in the world and at the international level , there is no more popular quadrennial event than the World Cup . Last held in 2014 , this year’s event is being held in Russia , where President Vladmir Putin hopes to see the host country raise the Jules Rimet Trophy to signify themselves as world champions. In the opening game of the tournament Russia overpowered their opponent , Saudi Arabia , winning the game in a lopsided fashion , 5-0 . Good enough, to set the host country on their way within their group.

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The top thirty-two teams in the world have gathered together for Soccer’s most prestigious event looking to succeed the current defending champions Germany , who will be looking to make a successful defense of their title. Quite rightly, they remain a firm favorite with an established and world-class team .Germany got off to a really rocky start in the defense of their title with a shocking loss , 1-0 against Mexico in their opening game of their group, Group F . This was one in a line of truly embarrassing results for a number of the favored teams as the opening schedule of games took place.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are considered to be the two best players in the world with each having been named the world’s best player on several occasions . Ronaldo seeks to lead Portugal to the first World Title , while Messi and his Argentinian teammates will be looking to win their third title .

Lionel Messi and his teammates will take to the field on Thursday,21st June to face Croatia . Portugal’s next game in the opening round of group games will see them face Iran . Cristiano Ronaldo has continued to set records at the international level for his country and the player will further seek to establish himself perhaps the best European player in the history of the game.

Well we can’t talk about international soccer without mentioning the name of Brazil and their list of all-time great players. Currently the best player on their roster , is Neymar Jr , perhaps the closest thing they have to matching both Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo on the international soccer stage. Brazil has gotten to a dogged start to this World Cup with a very unimpressive debut game, resulting in a 1-1 tie against Switzerland . With Serbia leading Group E , a group many believed Brazil would have all to themselves , they now have to win their next outing , when they are due to face the group leaders in a game to be played on the 27th June . Failure to win the contest and there is a chance that the Brazilians would face a tough time qualifying from their group.

While the world continues to watch the World Cup unfold, here on the West side of the Atlantic , the biggest story likely to unfold over the next forty-eight hours will be how the NBA Draft unfolds as the top-ten picks of the first round go down. Luka Doncic was thought to be the consensus number one overall pick , but his stock has been dropping faster than the popularity ratings of both Kanye West and Roseanne Barr combined. The knock against the Slovenian player , has been his lack of physicality to his game. It’s something I believe once he’s in the weight room adding on the muscle , his game being what it is , the team who drafts him will get the benefits of what made him a European Player of the Year and a Finals Four MVP in the European Club Championships. Whether or not the front office of the Phoenix Suns will choose to make Doncic that overall number one pick remains to be seen.

If Luka Doncic isn’t the player to be taken at number one , then look for the stocks to rise of players such as Marin Bagley III and DeAndre Ayton . These two players, are thought to be the best of the college declaree’s for this year’s Draft.

Over the past five years , it would appear that Dwight Howard was never going to be able to fulfill the early promise shown at the start of his career . For the second time in the last two years the player finds himself on the move as the Charlotte Hornets traded the veteran center to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Timofey Mozgov and some future picks. Far be it for me to suggest , but the Hornets even with this trade are far from where they need to be. Team owner Michael Jordan and the front office have done little to raise the profile of this franchise , since Jordan took controlling interest , having bought the Hornets from BET founder Robert L Johnson .

The decision to move Dwight Howard might well have a great deal more to do with the fact his relationship with his teammates had soured due to his antics . It was also rumored that Michael Jordan sought to improve the cap space for the team as he sought to lure a marquee free agent to the Hornets.

With the opening round of the NBA Draft set to begin tonight , 21st June and plays out over the next two nights. . It will be interesting to see what transpires , as well as bearing in mind LeBron James has yet to make the world aware of his plans. James is looking to hold the NBA’s franchises hostage and in doing so, it affects how they are likely to proceed.

Soured relationship or not what has taken place this past season between Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs should be a lesson for all teams who have superstars who now want to make demands , purely because they can’t get their way. Leonard’s season was curtailed due to injury with his only playing nine regular season games for the Spurs and being unable to participate in the NBA Playoffs where they would be summarily dismissed in the first round by the eventual NBA champions the Golden State Warriors .

Kawhi Leonard has met with Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich and it’s not known what was discussed between Popovich and the player, but it is believed that as a senior front office executive for the franchise in his capacity in that role , he has pulled the plug on any demands that Leonard might have in wanting to be traded. The disruption to the franchise has not yet met a crescendo level , but there’s no doubt in my mind Kawhi Leonard is pushing to be traded. The Spurs for their part will be concentrating on the Draft, but I also believe if the right offer came along, they might well be willing to part ways with their disgruntled star.

Jeff Luhnow , the front office executive who has systematically brought the Houston Astros back to life was given a healthy contract extension by team owner Jim Crane . Having gone from the verge of bankruptcy to their current situation where they are considered the best team in baseball , with a growing fan-base . It would be safe to say the Astros have finally arrived. The managerial staff of AJ Hinch has set this ball-club for success, for a long time come , especially with the core of this roster signed to very good contracts.

The Houston Astros have simply carried on from where they left off during the MLB postseason having won the World Series with a great deal of ease, with their lopsided triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers . Having started out of the gate really fast in 2018, the Astros now have a commanding lead within the AL West and could have the division sewn up by late August if things carry on as they are. Houston will be in action on Friday when they take on the Kansas City Royals in a home game being played at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas,. This will be the first in a three-game home set of a weekend series against the Royals, where I fully expect the Astros to prevail against their AL rivals .

Having become the first team in the Majors this season with fifty wins to their name the Houston Astros are showing why in many respects the AL might be considered a better quality league than that of their NL rivals . That being said , it should not be considered a major knock against those teams.

Highest paid player in the game, by way of his contract and now the naysayers are sitting up and taking note as to what Giancarlo Stanton means to the New York Yankees and the team in general . It’s at times like this , I just wish the idiots would just shut hell up and simply learn something about the game of baseball ! Stanton might not be the best player in the game but he’s certainly in the argument to be considered a top-ten player that’s for sure. Giancarlo Stanton is proving to be a leader both on and off the field and his productivity this season is proof of that fact. Is he ready to assume the mantle of the team captain ? Well that’s an honor not often bestowed upon a Yankees’ player , with the last such person to be given the honor , being Derek Jeter . It has been almost five years since Jeter was last seen in the Yankees’ pinstripes.

Right now it has been the New York Yankees’ offense which has held away for the team as they battle the Boston Red Sox within the AL East . Giancarlo Stanton , Aaron Judge , Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius are the primary reasons why the Yankees are firing on all cylinders . That’s not to say the pitching staff haven’t played a part in the team’s success as it would be remiss to do so. The team’s best pitcher this season to date has been Luis Severino (11-2, 2.24 ERA) and he’s due back on the mound for the Yankees when they face the Philadelphia Phillies on the road on the 26th June. However , before that game takes place the New York Yankees will begin a weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg , Florida. New York’s CC Sabathia will be the starting pitcher on the mound as he faces Ryne Stanek of the Rays in the first of the three encounters beginning on Friday ,22nd June ,2018. I fully expect the Yankees to dominate this series , as they encounter a Rays’ team which remains very inconsistent .

As this month winds down within the world of sports, what are you own expectations of the coming months ? Also, which story within the past few days has been the one which has captured your attention the most ?

Tophatal ……..

— FIFA World Cup news & 2018 World Cup teams

FIFA World Cup matches & results

FIFA World Cup Group Standings

FIFA World Cup statistics (players and teams)

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NBA news

2018 NBA Draft and Draft Board

NBA transactions

MLB news

MLB schedule three days at a glance

MLB standings

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— Picture gallery. By clicking on an individual image you can see that frame in a reformatted size along with an accompanying narrative.

It’s Our Ball , So Let Us Play …. It's Our Ball So Let Us Play It remains the most popular sport in the world and at the international level , there is no more popular quadrennial event than the…

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: First Day of Playoffs, First Vegas Playoff Win; Sam Bennett; Jesse Puljujarvi – April 12

I’m sure much of the hockey world was looking forward to the Flyers/Penguins series. Anyone following hockey for the last 10 years or so would vividly remember the 2012 series which featured goals and fights to the heart’s content.

Game 1 wasn’t so much a playoff game as it was a public execution.

Pittsburgh skated away with a 7-0 win on the back of a 24-save shutout from Matt Murray and a natural hat trick from Sidney Crosby. Brian Elliott was mercifully pulled after the fifth Pittsburgh goal and Petr Mrazek let in a couple more after that.

A lot of the focus for the fans and media will undoubtedly be Crosby, who scored a ridiculous bat-out-of-mid-air goal again. One thing that stood out to me: the Flyers didn’t get the memo to not make Evgeni Malkin mad. Not long after he took a hard hit that was blatant interference (he never had the puck and the play was about 30 feet away from him), he decided to go all Angry Geno on them:

Malkin and Crosby really out here playing anything you can do I can do better pic.twitter.com/ZHPyBRxUjn

— Filipovic Forsberg (@DimFilipovic) April 12, 2018

It didn’t lead to a goal – dang post – but Malkin was simply dominant at times in this game.

Pittsburgh continued their trend of using Justin Schultz on the power play which certainly raises questions for the next fantasy season. I wrote often last summer about the mix of him and Kris Letang making for a messy situation at draft time. They seem pretty committed to using Jultz on the top PP unit. Letang is clearly the superior player, but situation matters a lot. It will make for some interesting projections.

*

Winnipeg took the first game of their series against Minnesota 3-2 but some bigger news was that Mathieu Perreault injured. He took a couple big hits – one a blatant interference – and eventually just left the game late in the second and did not return. It’s the playoffs so we won’t get any sort of specific update, and the team has depth to overcome it, but he’s a key piece to their forward group. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.

With Minnesota up 2-1, Patrik Laine did what Patrik Laine does:

.@PatrikLaine29 with a snipe. pic.twitter.com/HhI2gJOXTx

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) April 12, 2018

He’s a guy whose ADP should be fascinating next year. Can he go in the first round? He’s probably already one of the top-3 goal scorers in the league and he’ll only be in his age-20 season. He was a second-round pick last season in most fantasy leagues. He’ll definitely find his way into the first round, right? How high would you be willing to draft him? Let me know in the comments.

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The first-ever Vegas playoff game was rather dull. I don’t mind low-scoring games, but outside of a couple very good saves from Jonathan Quick, there wasn’t much to speak of offensively in the Golden Knights’ 1-0 shutout win. I’m sure Vegas fans don’t really care about the manner of the win, however.

By the way, Shea Thedore was the lone goal scorer. There’s your trivia answer sometime in the future.

Most media members were wrapped up in the hits in this game – over 100 through two periods. Let me tell you, it didn’t lead to an exciting game.

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For those with subscriptions to The Athletic, I recommend this article by Corey Masisak on how the New Jersey Devils infused analytics into their organization.

I’m not going to go through the whole thing, but two things stuck out to me:

Taylor Hall is very much into advanced stats and tries to keep up on the research as much as possible. He was always a player who did the things on the ice necessary to help his team win, but it’s pretty cool to see he’s still trying to evolve his game.

The relative unimportance of players to “believe” in the use of non-traditional stats. And it makes sense. It’s not really that important that a player believes they shouldn’t dump the puck in all the time, eschewing entering the zone with control. It’s just important that the coach believes they shouldn’t, coaches that way, and that the players buy into doing exactly that. If all that happens, it doesn’t really matter what the players do or don’t believe.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting article. Give it a read if you can.

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Not to go on an Athletic binge, but the story by Aaron Portzline on Artemi Panarin and the hardships he endured growing up was something else. He’s a special person and a special player.

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We’ve gone from “Joe Thornton will not play game one” to “Joe Thornton hopes he can return in the first round” in the span of two days. Of course, the team knows this all along, they just don’t want to share the information. All the same, a return for the second round, should the Sharks get there, would be a huge boost.

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There is a cool fundraising effort going on started by Ian McLaren of the Score to raise money for the Humboldt Broncos. It’s a Money on the Board pledge wherein you decide how much you want to donate for a specific event in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Maybe you want to donate $5 for every goal scored by Nikita Kucherov, $10 for every Golden Knights win, or $1 for every penalty minute in the Penguins/Flyers series (might need to take out a loan for that one).

Please consider if you are able. Do not feel pressured if you can’t; money is tight for a lot of people. If you can, just follow this link.

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The news came out that Vladimir Tarasenko will be out 4-6 months recovering from shoulder surgery. That is, uh, pretty bad. Four months would leave him a month until training camp. Six months would have him return sometime after the regular season has started.

A couple weeks ago, I mused that Tarasenko’s ADP would probably fall from where it was in 2017-18 and that I would be a buyer. Now, I’m not so sure.

He’s clearly an elite talent and going into his age-27 season, I wouldn’t expect much in the way of a decline in skills. But I loathe drafting players coming off serious injuries like this. Injuries which don’t let players have a regular offseason. I suppose a shoulder surgery is better than a knee or a hip surgery, but it’s no small issue all the same. 

What say you Dobber heads? How concerned are you about Tarasenko for next year and what round would you take him if you knew he’d be in the lineup for game one of the 2018-19 campaign?

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There were just three games on the playoff schedule so I wanted to go back over the fantasy regular season a little bit. We have the whole summer to look ahead to next year so I’m going to spend some time looking back on 2017-18 to see what it can tell us about the season to come.

  Individual Expected Goals

Jesse Puljujarvi

Cam went over some left wingers and individual expected goals per 60 minutes from the Metro division. I recommend reading that.

Connor McDavid led the Oilers in individual expected goals scored for the season at 1.12, which was among the league leaders. Any guesses on second in Edmonton? Pretty easy to guess, right? It’s Jesse Puljujarvi.

Obviously, the 12 goals and 20 points in 65 games aren’t enough for fantasy. It’s hard to put up a big fantasy season with 13:22 in ice time per game, though. He also played just 12:21 over his final 30 games of the season. No one is going to produce being used as a fourth liner.

I watched enough Oilers games to feel pretty confident in saying that Puljujarvi didn’t play himself down the lineup. Was he a consistent presence game in and game out? No, but very few of their players were. The fact they cut down on his ice time as they were playing themselves out of the playoffs is lunacy. They should have been giving him 16-17 minutes a night to try to build him up for 2018-19.

Next season will be Puljujarvi’s third. They don’t have a better scoring winger on the roster (assuming you consider Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centres and not wingers). His shot-share numbers were good, his production rates were good, and his shot rates were good. My bet is they go looking for a scoring winger this offseason (LOL) and that worries me for Puljujarvi’s usage next year. He’s good. He can probably be very good. You wouldn’t know it the way the Oilers treat him, though.

  Sam Bennett

It was a very up-and-down season for the 21-year-old Flames forward. He started the year with zero points in his first 15 games, went on a tear in the middle of the year that saw 13 points in 14 games from November 28th through December 28th, and registered one point over the final four weeks of the season. Even in leagues that count hits, that kind of inconsistent production made it hard to rely on him in fantasy.

Bennett also led the Flames in expected goals per 60 minutes. His mark of 0.92 was also top-25 league-wide among forwards with at least 500 minutes played. His problem was his shooting percentage, managing just over 7 percent at five-on-five after being close to 10 percent over his first two seasons.

Here’s the interesting thing for me: he barely shot while on the ice on the power play. Among the 214 forwards with at least 100 minutes of power play time, he was 209th in individual shot attempts per 60 minutes. The only players who shot less often were Nick Foligno, David Desharnais, Travis Zajac, and Zack Smith. Not only did he underperform his expected goals at five-on-five by a pretty significant margin, but there was no chance he’d make up the difference on the power play shooting as little as he did.

Over his first two seasons, Bennett’s expected goals scored per 60 minutes (0.62) wasn’t far off from his actual goals scored per 60 minutes (0.68). Last year was a huge deviation and under-performance. The 2018-19 campaign will be his fourth, and you know we love our fourth-year breakouts here. He’ll have a hard time being consistently productive in leagues that don’t count hits as he’ll likely be third line/second power-play unit, but don’t sleep on him in deeper leagues. A jump in shot rates on the PP could help get him close to 20 goals and 40 points.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-first-day-of-playoffs-first-vegas-playoff-win-sam-bennett-jesse-puljujarvi-april-12/

[heroesofthemodernage]

Back-Issue Review: Uncanny X-Men 400

As part of a new series for Heroes of the Modern Age, I will be reviewing some back-issue comics that I have accumulated over the years. I have quite a stack of them in my room and I do know they are prevalent in most comic shops, so let’s give them some love, shall we?

For this first review, I read Uncanny X-Men #400. I will also preface this article with the fact that I am not a big X-Men reader so you will have to bear with me on this. Primarily, I know them through TV shows, video games, and movies, so this was a change of pace for me to get into some written material. Overall, I thought this was a decent comic to start an arc with, and while its focus on the introduction of the Church of Humanity as a new antagonist and Stacy X as a new member of the X-Men were done well, its artwork and development of other characters was more inconsistent.

Stacy X and Chamber in the beginning of the issue.

I enjoyed Stacy X’s character in this issue. She was a new character at the time and had been introduced in the issue prior to this one, so it makes sense to feature her more prominently and go into her backstory a bit. Power-wise, she has pheromone control, which equates to her making other people lose control of their bodily functions, including vomiting and paralysis. She’s a wild character and steals the show in this one, but carries with her a vulgar edge that I couldn’t see translating to the screen or other media very well. She’s not one of my favorite X-Men characters, but she is definitely one that stands out and could be used for more mature renditions of the team.

Stacy X as she appears in her flashback.

Another aspect of her story in this issue is that of her origin; while detailed through a flashback, it is unclear just how much of it is true or not, and as a reader, I enjoyed this challenge. The mystery surrounding her character kept me interested, despite wanting to know the truth. Will we learn of her origin in future issues? Probably, but the execution of it in this scene is done well and suits the story.

Villain-wise, this book introduces the Church of Humanity, who are basically a cult of mutant hating Christians that believe God created men to be superior to mutants. There’s a whole backstory flashback detailing their origin, which reads nicely and has some slick art and graphics in it, but as an organization, I’m not sure they’re as unique as the Brotherhood of Mutants or some of the other foes the X-Men have encountered. I’m not as knowledgeable regarding that area of the X-Men, but these guys didn’t do much to interest me. Perhaps I wanted them to be more independent of an established religion, but for what it’s worth, they offer great contrast to Stacy X’s off the rails, wild-child character. Additionally, with Nightcrawler’s strong Catholic beliefs, I foresee some interesting discussions of religion, and perhaps a manipulation of Nightcrawler’s own beliefs with the Church of Humanity.  

Aside from the Church and Stacy X, the rest of the X-Men are featured in passing. Wolverine has his own brief segment where he runs off on a solo mission to get a lead on their new enemy (big surprise there) then returns to the group later in the issue; Iceman is present but provides little more than support in battles; Chamber, another newer X-Man, provides some banter with Stacy but otherwise is not much to write home about; and Nightcrawler is here as well, though only for a few panels. Nightcrawler’s role seems to set up more for later in the arc, but it is unclear what that may be. One of the strengths of the X-Men has always been the wide variety of characters and perspectives in their stories, and that is seen here, but none get as much time or focus as Stacy X or the Church. Still, each character does something in the issue and has a presence, it’s just a matter of them needing more time and space. But I suppose that is what other issues are for as well.

One of many interior shots of the Church of Humanity.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of this book is the art, which is solid all around. The cover art features the X-Men in a monochrome palette stylized in a messy, draft-like oil pastels aesthetic. Over the X-Men is the same art but in red and featuring members of the Church. It’s a striking comic, and the artwork inside doesn’t disappoint either. With the combined styles of six artists, each section of the book has its own feel and personality. Sections like the flashbacks and backstory explanation are rendered beautifully and stand on their own as stories, and scenes taking place inside the Church are illustrated in the same monochrome, dirty style that the cover is. The Church’s scenes come off as hazy and supplement their disparate ideals well.

My problem with the various artists lies in their interpretations of certain characters and how drastically they shift throughout the book. Iceman starts the book with sunglasses, messy brown hair, and a scruffy beard. As the story progresses, his hair turns blond, he becomes clean-shaven, and he looks younger. Were it not for the ice powers, I would have thought this was a different character. Stacy X faces similar issues, except hers are localized to her face and markings. First she has tattoo-like markings, then loses most of them aside from her head, then has more in her flashback sequence, and finishes the issue with yellow eyes and markings that look like scars. I’m fine with variations on characters between issues or arcs and I suppose Bobby could have shaved between the mission and when we see him next, but for them to change so much within one issue is jarring and confusing.

The X-Men back in the X-Mansion.

As a general note, I think this comic is a great period piece and works as evidence of Marvel’s early efforts of corporate synergy and also their response to real world events. This comic was released in December 2001, which is evident from the cover graphics and the designs of the X-Men’s costumes themselves. I’ve written about corporate synergy before, but essentially it is making one universal image or branding for all versions of an intellectual property. So, in this case, it’s the costumes. The first X-Men movie had come out about a year and a half prior to this comic’s release date, and the influence of black leather from the film is incorporated into similar black leather costumes with yellow stripes and jackets. What I find interesting about this choice is that each character’s suit is slightly different, and they incorporate personal shirts under the jackets, as seen with Iceman and Chamber. It’s a neat idea and one that is also from the movie, but done differently here. Of course, each X-Men has always had personal touches to their costume, but here they are done with a more realistic edge to them in this issue.

The other real world influence I noticed was the incorporation of the twin towers silhouette with a red, white, and blue striped ribbon over it in the lower right-hand corner of the cover. This comic came out just two months after 9/11 and the graphic makes that known. Around the time of the attack, Marvel took a stance and wrote a few stories dealing with the incident and how their heroes responded alongside firefighters and police officers. Following that, Marvel printed these graphics on their comics to remember the tragedy. For how long they did this, I’m not sure, but it’s evident that Marvel made an effort to remember the attack for some time.

If you’re looking for some great artwork and newer characters, then I would say this issue is for you. On the whole, it’s not a bad issue, just the start to a new arc with a fresh enemy for the X-Men to face. Personally, I have not been won over by it and will not look into the rest of the arc. It’s a bit all over the place, but the art is gorgeous despite being inconsistent and there is potential here for these characters to be intriguing, but as it exists now, this is a decent first issue with some ground to cover for the rest of the arc.