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secondfromtheright · 4 years ago

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Fandom Racism

I’m not active on social media. But though I don’t use it, I do have this. I’m a terrible, unreliable tumblr user and I apologise for that (it took me way too many password tries to get back on here). I’d rather have been able to post something on my AO3 to any and all of my readers but my option is here instead.

I’m not a good person for this message – I am white, and I am not American. Seek black voices on this subject, please. I’m not tagging this because it’s really just aimed to anybody who already may still follow me on here. To use, but not overstep my lone social media platform. Because I can’t say nothing. I just can’t. You’ve all been so supportive and lovely to me in response to my fics and I’d like to think you’re all as decent in life to understand there are many things that we as white people do not and cannot understand regarding racism and that we need to do better.

So, this is aimed directly to my fandom readers – white fandom readers. From a white fandom writer. Some racism in fandom that I’m aware of, and I implore you all to become aware of too, if you aren’t already.

And again, please research black and brown voices on this matter. Voices that can speak to this so much more than mine, that can give better understanding, that can correct where I’m wrong, that can fill in what I’ve missed, that can communicate pain and hurt that I cannot know.

I get ‘ship and let ship’ and all, but there are major, glaring red flags that scream both personal and structural racism, conscious and unconscious, in fandom and ship conversation that should make you stop arguing, sit up and think about the shit you’re saying or reading.

This goes ten-fold for any fandom you are involved in that has a black love interest in canon that your ship and/or your fandom dismisses.

“They don’t have chemistry.”

Old ass racist trope that is about erasing romantic roles of people of colour. It perpetuates the idea that POC are not loveable, or desirable, especially to white people and especially in relationships (rather than just sex).

Anything that talks of black male characters as “evil” or “creepy” or “untrustworthy” or “weird” or “intimidating” or “aggressive” or “there’s just something I don’t like.”

It is continuing the 400+ year old bullshit premise that black men are dangerous – the ultimate justifying-white-fear-excuse to target and kill black man, then and now, because ‘they were a threat’.

When most of the ship verses ship debate is talk of tearing down a character of colour.

If someone is so confident in their white ship, why the need to tear down and hate another character? Keep it to your ship and only your ship. If the COC is a canonical love interest, especially one that existed before you started shipping your ship, question yourself and/or those shipping.

Black female characters criticised as “irrational” or “angry” or “manly” or “slut.” Or, consistently praised only as “badass” or “fierce” or “strong” or “sassy.”

These are all major examples of misogynoir tropes that strip black women of their humanity, boxing them into one of numerous roles that do not allow them to be multifaceted, feeling people.

ANY negative shit about black hair, especially natural, and especially of black female characters.

Just fucking don’t. Don’t say it, don’t encourage it, seriously side-eye anyone doing it. Whites have no idea what that experience is, nor the effects of generations of products that only appeal to white consumerism and define whiteness as the definition of ‘beauty’. It a low, racist belittling of someone.

When a character of colour has an insulting nickname within a fandom.

It dehumanises them. Actively and purposely. That simple. If you’ve never been involved or really aware of BLM protests or movement before, you must at least now recognise the chants of “Say their name.” Someone’s name matters, especially with history of slavery. Do not remove a black character’s name because you feel they threaten your ship. It reinforces white supremacy in even the most basic of society.

Any kind of discussion or mention that hopes for or encourages violence and hurt against black characters, including rooting for their death. Especially anything with a group, anything that involves dogs, anything that involves white people in power.

It’s the history of racism, it is about maintaining a white supremacist society and it retraumatises black audiences.

If you or a fandom member have multiple ships but not a one of them includes someone of colour.

Question that shit. Seriously. If there’s a banner on a tumblr or a YouTube with loads of videos that has a bunch of only white characters, ask yourself why. What are you watching? What are you reading? Are there leading black and brown characters, black and brown voices, in what you’re consuming?

Don’t let yourself fall into thinking white people get to decide the definition of racism. Don’t let yourself think you know everything, even if you know the full dysfunctional and dramatic history of your fandom.

Understand that words and phrasing used has a whole history, and context. All of it. Microaggressions, tropes, coded language, connotations, dog whistles. Understand that just because you may not have known the history, it is no less relevant, or prevalent in the real lives of people of colour. More so, the fact that you can go about your life ignorant to it is evidence of your – our – privilege. And on this one I’ll add, especially if you’re not American. Learn real history – both American and your own country’s part in racism and slavery. Fandoms are global – recognise who you are interacting with.

Fandoms are tricky, often toxic as shit on a multiple fronts, I get it. Not everything within fandoms with characters of colour is simplistically only about race, but a lot of it is and none of us live in a vacuum. Don’t act like we do. Everything we say and do has a whole load of history and context behind it and we don’t get to cherry-pick.

If you say (or want to say) any response to the noted conversational points that sounds like

“So I can’t have an opinion now?” “I’m not racist but…” “I know black people and they said something else.” “I don’t care about/see skin colour.” “I didn’t say anything about race.” “Why are you bringing race into it?” “It’s just hating white people.” “That’s just how the character is written.”

Stop.

And seriously challenge yourself to be better, to listen more, to question and learn the origins and hurt behind such phrasing and what you may really be putting out, even if you didn’t realise it.

Because all that instinct that makes you want to push back, that has you wanting to dismiss the criticism and shut down a conversation that makes you uncomfortable and drives you to defend yourself – that is your privilege screaming because suddenly you are not the centre of everything. White discomfort. You have to recognise that instinct, and move past it. It takes continuous work. You don’t have to be perfect on racial understanding overnight – and please don’t get so terrified at such a prospect to the point of closing up and shutting down and doing nothing – but we do all need understand more and do more than we currently think we do and are.

I’m not trying to shame people, or even guilt people (not yet, anyway). But as a white person, you – we – need to start taking more responsibility for what we involve ourselves in, and what we don’t stand against.

I don’t care how good you believe you are (and maybe you are) or how many people of colour are in your life. If you are a white, you have a privilege – we - have a privilege. And whether you seek it or not, whether you’re conscious of it or not, you – we – benefit from that privilege because it is embedded in every part of society that we live day to day. And we do so at the expense of black lives.

I encourage everyone to be as involved in the movement as possible, but if you can’t attend protests, if there are COVID 19 concerns, if you don’t have the resources to donate or be in physical presence, and if you are not in a position to call out your friends and family, please, for the love of god please, at least do it in fandom. It’s a social circle that as we know, can take up a lot of our lives and our interactions. Challenge your friends in fandom – challenge yourself, if any of those phrases are in a space in which you inhabit.

Learn.

It is not the responsibility of people of colour to educate whites who suddenly realise the extent of racism, or worse, that there’s structural racism at all. But you can educate yourself, and you need to. Read black and brown experiences, listen to black and brown activists and academics. Hell, even read white antiracist voices as well if that helps you understand. If numbers are better communicators for you, look at data, whether on wealth disparity, environmental disparity, health disparity, educational disparity, justice disparity. Listen, absorb, push past your white privilege instinct that makes you uncomfortable, be driven by empathy and compassion and instead learn.

Learn history, learn data, learn what a black family has to talk about that you don’t. Learn about white fear and white grievance and white comfort and white discomfort and why they cannot be placated to. Learn to understand many forms of racism, systemic and institutional, overt and casual, personal and interpersonal. Learn to understand what privilege looks in real life, from a missed job opportunity to fear of a whole community every time they leave the house. Learn the extreme examples as well as the subtle, daily embedded. Learn to recognise the tropes and language. Learn about collective grief and trauma. Learn the psychology of looting from generationally oppressed view. Learn about the generations of violence against non-violent protest. Learn their names.

And act.

As a white person, you – we – can never really understand, but we can do a lot to try to. And we can be part of changing things. And frankly, we have to be. Racism is a white people problem; one that projects onto people of colour.

And especially to those who consider themselves any kind of liberal, those who think they can recognise misogyny or ageism or homophobia and problematic behaviour elsewhere – you have to step up on racism. And you can’t stop at the examples of obvious lack of humanity that are impossible to miss - go deeper.

And I’m asking you to not dismiss any racist language and behaviour within fandom on the basis of “It’s just a character, it’s not real.” Media and the depiction of black and brown lives is too often the only real relation to black and brown lives that a white someone has. It is a huge part of reinforcing white supremacy in society – it always has been.

If fans of colour in your fandom are telling you something is offensive, something is hurtful, something is racist, listen to them. Allow yourself to be challenged, uncomfortable and corrected. Because Black Lives Matter.

Black Lives Matter.

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chattre-kisses · 5 years ago

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blind (even when we try to see)

Title: blind (even when we try to see)

Fandom: American Vandal

Rating: T

Pairing: Sam Ecklund/Peter Maldonado

Characters: Peter Maldonado, Sam Ecklund, Dylan Maxwell, Gabi Granger, & Brandon Galloway

Summary: “It’s ‘cause you love him, dipshit,” Dylan says.Or Peter is jealous, Sam is dense, and somehow Dylan is the smartest person in the room.

Read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20748782

Or read it below!

Gabi Granger and Brandon Galloway break up. It’s messy.

Gabi texts Sam Ecklund about it when he’s over at Peter Maldonado’s house. Sam’s scrolling through memes and Peter’s responding to an email from Netflix about them picking up American Vandal. He hasn’t told Sam about it yet. It’s early days, he doesn’t want to get Sam’s hopes up.

“Holy shit,” Peter says. He’s hanging off Peter’s bed, the blood rushing to color his cheeks. “Holy shit.”

Peter swivels in his desk chair, indulging Sam. “What’s up?”

“They broke up,” Sam says, grinning wildly, as if it explains everything.

“Am I supposed to know who you’re talking about?” Peter asks, eyebrows furrowed behind his thick glasses.

“Gabi and Brandon. They broke up. Gabi just texted me,” Sam explains. He’s sat up now, drawing one of Peter’s pillows into his lap. He’s still smiling gleefully. “Peter, the world really is good.”

Something twists in the pit of Peter’s stomach. He turns back to his computer. “Good for Gabi. Brandon’s kind of the worst.”

“He’s objectively the pits,” Sam confirms. He throws himself across Peter’s bed, shouting, “The world is good!”

The thing in Peter’s stomach twists tighter.

“Hey, are you busy Friday night? They’re planning that shitty rom-com you like at the Aladdin, uh… what’s it called… the one with that lady? And the rich dude and the hotel?” Peter says. He’s nervous for some reason, like he doesn’t ask Sam to hang out all the time. For some reason, this feels more charged than normal.

By some miracle, Sam knows what Peter is talking about. “Pretty Woman? Aw, fuck, that sounds amazing, Pete, but I already asked Gabi to go mini-golfing with me.”

Asked Gabi.

Peter’s heart sinks. He hadn’t even realized how stupidly hopeful he’d been until that hope is crushed. Sam’s asked Gabi out, now that she’s single. And Gabi said yes. She’d be stupid not to, Sam’s a catch. Disappointment shoots through Peter’s veins. Disappointment, and something like sorrow.

“Oh, congratulations,” Peter says, even though he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t mean it at all.

Sam’s eyebrows pull together in vague confusion. “Um… thanks, I guess?”

Peter excuses himself. In the most dignified manner possible, he cries in the bathroom for three minutes, even though he can’t figure out why.

“It’s ‘cause you love him, dipshit,” Dylan says.

It’s Friday night. Peter’s at Dylan’s house, because he doesn’t want to be alone and Dylan isn’t bad company. Sam keeps sending Peter snapchats of him and Gabi, and every time Peter has to look at them smiling together, he feels more and more shattered. He tosses him phone across the room after Sam sends him a photo where he has an arm slung around Gabi’s shoulders, an easy smile on his face. “Why am I like this?” Peter mutters, mainly to himself.

Then Dylan drops the bombshell, “It’s ‘cause you love him, dipshit.”

Peter blinks. “What?”

Dylan’s smoking a joint that Peter rolled for him (every time Dylan rolled one himself it would be tapered on one end, which sent Peter’s OCD on the fritz), languidly stretched across an armchair. “You love him. Your boy.”

“I don’t–– Sam’s not… he’s not my boy,” Peter says, lamely.

“Nah, he is,” Dylan says, taking a drag. “Course he is. And you love him.”

“I– what? No, Dylan, I––”

“You loveeeeeeeee him,” Dylan drawls out which the classic middle-school intonation. “Love-love-love!”

“I… I have no idea how I feel about him,” Peter admits, knowing it’s the only way he’ll be able to shut Dylan up. “It doesn’t matter anyway. He asked Gabi out.”

Dylan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Gabi Granger?”

Peter wraps his arms around himself protectively. “Yeah.”

“Damn. She’s hot,” Dylan notes. “You’re sure he asked her out?”

“They’re mini-golfing now. Sam keeps sending me pictures,” Peter says. He’s watching his phone from across the room. It buzzes with a notification. Probably from Sam. “He hates mini-golf. But he looks happy.”

Dylan frowns. “Fuckin’ weird. Can’t be right–– Sam’s your boy. You’re sure it’s a date?”

“Yeah,” Peter says. Sam hadn’t said that it was a date, but context clues were a reliable informant.

“Shit,” Dylan says. “You should tell him how you feel.”

“I can’t do that,” Peter says. “I don’t even know how I feel. I just… I feel gross about the whole thing.”

“Heavy,” Dylan says. “I’d offer you a smoke, but your lungs are all fucked up, right?”

Peter nods. It’s a surprisingly touching offer for Dylan. He watches his phone from across the room. It buzzes again.

They’re filming for the Morning Show. Peter’s making sure all his cue cards are lined up. Madison’s doing vocal exercises next to him.

Sam’s alternating between looking at Peter and looking at his phone. He stares at Peter for a moment, texts someone, and then heads over to Peter.

Peter tries to control his heartbeat. He doesn’t know when his heart stopped registering Sam as “friend” and started seeing him as “Sam”.

“You’ve got an eyelash,” Sam whispers. He leans in and sweeps the pad of his finger under Peter’s eye. Peter’s heart thunders. He looks to Sam’s finger–– there’s no eyelash. Sam smiles. “All clean.”

Sam lingers there, in Peter’s space, Peter shivery and uncertain under Sam’s gaze until Randall, carrying a camera rig says, “Sam, we gotta start filming and you’re kind of in the shot.”

Sam apologizes and breezes away, leaving Peter to contemplate what just happened.

He pictures Sam in front of him–– his warm eyes, his dimples, his smile that makes everything brighter–– and muses to himself, how could I ever want anyone else?

Sam’s at Peter’s house. They’re watching a girl on YouTube explain her shaky theory on why Peter and Sam did the dicks together. It’s stupid and indulgent, but they watch videos like this together sometimes.

Peter loves it, because it always ends with them lying together on Peter’s bed, shoulders pressed together. Sam’s always warm.

An alarm goes off on Sam’s phone. “Fuck, it’s 4:30 already?” Sam exclaims. “Sorry Pete, I gotta bounce. Gabi’s waiting for me.”

And just like that, Peter’s stomach plummets. He likes Gabi, he does, which makes the whole thing worse. “Oh,” is all Peter can manage to say.

Sam clambers off the bed and starts to put his sneakers back on.

Peter sits up and shuts his computer. He feels like there’s a wall between the two of them–– something nameless and strange that only he can feel. Jealousy wells up inside him and he can’t help it, he mutters, “Don’t go.”

Sam freezes. He looks up at Peter, confused. “What?”

Peter swallows. Carefully, louder this time, he says, “Don’t go.”

“What? Peter, I… I mean, I’m supposed to meet Gabi? We were gonna get milkshakes?” Sam says.

“I know, I just…” Peter sucks in a breath. “I just don’t want you to leave.”

Sam’s finished lacing up his shoes, and he stands up. “Why?”

“I know that Gabi and Brandon broke up, and you finally got to ask Gabi out and I’m really happy for you because you’re happy and all that, but at the same time I feel really stupidly jealous?” Peter says, the words tumbling out of him.

“I… what? Peter, we’re just getting milkshakes,” Sam says, like it explains everything.

“Still,” Peter says. “I kind of… I guess I want us to get milkshakes.”

Peter’s staring at Sam’s shoes now because he can’t bring himself to look into Sam’s eyes. Sam says, “Peter, do you like me?”

Peter says, “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”

“Oh,” Sam rubs at the back of his neck, uncertain. “Well. Okay.”

Peter feels queasy. This isn’t going as poorly as it could have, but it still isn’t going great. “Okay,” Peter says.

Sam walks up to the bed, his fingers nervously messing with the hem of his shirt. “You like me?”

Peter looks up at Sam. “Yeah, I think we already established that.”

“Yeah, okay,” Sam says. And then he climbs onto the bed, shoes and all, and then into Peter’s lap.

Peter feels like he’s been set on fire. “What a-are… what are you doing?” He asks as Sam places his hands on Peter’s shoulders.

“I’m gonna kiss you, if that’s okay,” Sam says. He’s taking off Peter’s glasses off now, folding them up neatly and then placing them on Peter’s bedside table.

Peter feels like his heart is going to beat right out of his chest. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s okay,” he says, still watching at Sam. He’s a little blurrier when Peter doesn’t have his glasses on, but Peter can still see when Sam leans in and kisses him.

It’s a messy kiss, uncoordinated and unpracticed. Both of them don’t really know what they’re doing. Their teeth click together when Peter manages to get Sam’s mouth open. Still, it’s marvelous. It's a revelry, a triumph. It’s better than Peter could have ever imagined. Sam tastes like minty gum. They kiss until Peter’s lungs can’t take it anymore, and then they rest their foreheads together, panting.

“What… what about Gabi?” Peter asks.

“For someone so smart, you’re really fucking stupid.” Sam laughs. “We were just going to get milkshakes, Peter. Just milkshakes.”

“But I thought––”

“I’m not dating Gabi,” Sam says. “We’re just friends.”

“But you were so happy when she and Brandon broke up?”

“‘Course I was,” Sam says, like it’s obvious. “Gabi’s my best friend. Brandon's a dick. She deserved better.”

Peter mulls this over. He’s about to open his both to speak, but Sam cuts him off. “How about you kiss me instead of asking another idiotic question,” Sam says.

Peter’s happy to comply.

Hours later, Peter calls Dylan.

“Dylan? This is Peter Maldonado.”

“Don’t be so fuckin’ weird, Peter. I know who you are, I have caller ID.”

“Sorry.” Pause. “Anyway, I was just calling to tell you that you were right.”

“Damn right I was.” Pause. “What are we talking about again?”

“Sam. He really is my boy.” Pause.

“About goddamn time, Maldonado!”

Click.

#american vandal #sam ecklund #peter maldonado #gabi granger #dylan maxwell #brandon galloway #peter x sam #peter maldonado x sam ecklund #eldonado #sam ecklund x peter maldonado #sam x peter #sam/peter #peter/sam #peter maldonado/sam ecklund #sam ecklund/peter maldonado

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igrublocal · 4 years ago

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10 best Chinese food restaurants in the Long Beach area for takeout, delivery – Press Telegram

It is, easily, the most iconic to-go container in culinary history — a Totem of Takeout, an origami box built for noodles, pork, shrimp and chicken. It’s technically an isosceles trapezoid solid, a three-dimensional representation of a high school geometry problem.

The Chinese food takeout container was born in the last decade of the 19th century, when it was known as an “oyster pail” because, well, it was used for to-go orders of oysters. It was also used, for many years, for honey — and was until after World War II, when Chinese takeout competed with pizza for the food most Americans took home to eat while watching The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” on small black-and-white TV screens. And for most Chinese restaurants, it’s still the standard for takeout.

This white, waxed container more often than not comes with a red drawing of a pagoda on the side (which is, of course, Japanese) and the words “Enjoy” and “Thank You” emblazoned on the top, and over the fold. Some years ago, the Smithsonian paid tribute to the container with an exhibit called “Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States.” And the phrase “sweet & sour” is especially apt, for this is not a container built for searing spices of Szechuan and Hunanese cooking. I guess dim sum will work okay in the boxes. But dim sum isn’t what comes to mind.

Rather, the box is for the classics of Chinese-American cooking. For meals consisting of one from column A, two from column B, white rice and fortune cookies at meal’s end. It meant chicken chop suey, pork fried rice, sweet-and-sour something or other, egg foo young, and lots and lots of tea. It was something you ate on Sunday nights with family. And an hour later, in the old American anti-vegetable parlance, you were hungry again. Or at least you were if your basic diet consisted of white bread and deep-fried everything.

Chop suey is the defining dish when it comes to Chinese-American cooking. The name may (or may not) come from the Cantonese sap seui, which translates as “mixed leftovers.” It was a mishmash, created in the mid-1800s by Chinese immigrants to make their native food more appealing to American taste, what there was of it.

Since there was no bok choy or white radishes or soybean sprouts to use, celery, bell peppers and onions became the ingredients of choice, with shredded meat added, and enough soy sauce to turn the white rice black. Louis Armstrong recorded a song in the 1920s called “Cornet Chop Suey.” It was culinary jazz. There’s an Edward Hopper painting called “Chop Suey” — which is not of food, but of two women, seated in a restaurant, with a sign out the window that reads “suey.”

And it was chop suey that I went looking for. Or at least chow mein and lo mein. In the case of chop suey, old school Chinese-American cooking. In the case of chow mein and lo mein, the Cantonese cuisine which faded in recent years behind a veil of super-spiced cooking. In either case, this is soul satisfying food to take home, and be filled with nostalgia, as you sip your tea, eat your rice, and enjoy your chow, eaten directly from the container with chopsticks, if you can’t muster the energy to put it on a plate or in a bowl.

This is food that tastes good no matter how you gobble it. And if you want, you can still find Ed Sullivan on YouTube. This is a journey into the past, taken one bite at a time.

2930 Clark Ave., Long Beach; 562-982-4288

Let us begin, then, with a Chinese restaurant that exists for takeout only — the perfect restaurant in these difficult times.

The original Yang Chow in Chinatown (with a branch is Pasadena) has been a much-loved destination for those hungry for a cult collection of Chinese dishes — especially the Slippery Shrimp, a dazzling, and deeply addictive creation of chubby shrimp, tender and firm textured, battered, crisped, then cooked in a sauce that’s both sweet and spicy at the same time.

Yang Chow 2.0 is not far from Long Beach Airport, with a handful of tables and a limited menu. There’s Slippery Shrimp, Slippery Chicken and Slippery Tofu, along with sweet & sour chicken, sweet & sour pork, beef with broccoli, Szechuan beef, Szechuan chicken, string beans and a handful of fried rice dishes. The only appetizer is the spring roll. That’s pretty much it. And aside from not offering my much-loved cold noodles with sesame and chicken, I’m happy as a clam to grab an order to go, which emerges from the kitchen with crazy speed.

I’m told the original chef from Chinatown is making the dishes. He’s been working the wok for decades. One bite, and it’s clear — and the food travels very well.

Egg rolls are a tasty starter for a lunch or dinner featuring Chinese food — and also make a wonderful snack anytime of the day or night. (Shutterstock)

What’s known as an oyster pail — a folded, waxed or plastic-coated paperboard container — is the perfect transport vehicle to keep Chinese food deliciously hot from the restaurant to your home. (Shutterstock)

Chinese noodles, fried rice, dumplings, Peking duck and dim sum are among the Chinese food favorites seen here. (Shutterstock)

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Chinese food, including stir-fried pork with red sauce, has long been a tasty option for takeout and delivery. (Shutterstock)

18349 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia; 562-924-4567, www.nankingchineseca.com

Can you be both post-modernist Indian and old school Chinese at the same time — with a menu that often combines the two? Nanking Indo-Chinese manages that hat trick, which is no small accomplishment. This is a classic Chinese restaurant and not a classic Chinese restaurant at the same time. Here, they manage to walk and chew gum at the same time, with no trouble at all. You want chow mein with chicken or shrimp? There it is. Ditto kung pao lo mein (“kung pao” is code for “cashews and peanuts”), kung pao vegetables, fried rice, chili-garlic fried rice, and hot & sour soup.

Nanking offers the food of both the leading cuisines of Artesia, both Indian and Chinese, under one roof. It’s a restaurant where you can order both chicken tikka masala, and kung pao cashew chicken, at the same meal. And why wouldn’t you want to? Variety, after all, really is the spice.

Defining the cooking at Nanking can be a tad challenging, even for the restaurant. At one point on the website, the owners say they “offer traditional Indian, Chinese and Nepali food.” A few sentences down, the cuisines fuse into “Indian-Chinese food.” One sentence later, Nanking is a “truly Indian restaurant.”

Even the name of the city is somewhat befuddling. Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu Province, on the eastern edge of China, not far from Shanghai. But far from India. It’s all a big jumble. Which would be bothersome, if it weren’t so much fun. Especially when it comes to parsing the roots of the dishes, most of which are either Indian or Chinese, but several of which hit both points on the culinary compass.

There is, for instance, a dish called Chinese bhel. It seems to be a modified variation of the snack dish called bhel puri, a very tasty mix of puffed rice, veggies and tamarind sauce — one of the many small chaat dishes that you’ll find at the numerous Indian snack shops in Artesia. In this case, it’s made “Chinese” with the addition of thin crunchy noodles, in a spicy-sweet sauce. Is it Indian? Is it Chinese? Is it both? Whatever…it’s a good snack, and goes well with beer.

That’s also the case with the Szechuan fries, which is just what they sound like: French fries flavored with Szechuan spices. If anything, they’re more an American-Chinese dish; Rachael Ray has a recipe online, and there are numerous YouTube videos of how to make it. Which doesn’t take much skill. Less skill than the chicken lollipops, which are essentially Buffalo chicken wings, but once again with a Szechuan sauce. It’s nice how a few spices can turn one cuisine into another.

Perhaps the most blended dish on the menu is the Szechuan paneer, which involves tossing usually bland Indian paneer cheese, which is like a child of cottage cheese and ricotta, with that same Szechuan sauce, turning spiceless into happily spicy — a very good idea. Under the enticing heading “Bombay Style Chinese” — Szechuan prawns, chili chicken, shrimp & cashew curry and so on.

Four of the five noodle dishes are straight-forward Chinese, with the red curry spice Malaysian noodles being the outsider. There’s a very small section of Nepalese dishes, just four. But among the rice dishes, the cuisines of origin move around Asia; Kashmiri pulao, Chinese fried rice, Szechuan fried rice, Thai fried rice. The desserts are solidly Indian — though I’m not sure of the mango soufflé, which may be French, and causes that much more ethnic confusion.

6563 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach; 562-430-6888, www.nomadasianbistro.com

Like Nanking Indo-Chinese, Nomad Asian likes to move around the map — appropriate for a restaurant named “Nomad.”

In terms of old school Chinese dishes, there are plenty. Chow mein (described on the menu as as “spaghetti chow mein noodle”), with chicken, beef, shrimp, vegetables or a combo three-flavor. The chow mein is also available “handmade” (“wide flat noodle”) for $2 more. There’s Three Flavor Spicy Curry Fried Rice (“blendo” time again!), three-flavor fried rice, and Singapore noodles.

The menu stretches to about 100 dishes. And among them, you’ll find many of dishes so many of us grew up with — good, old-fashioned chop suey, made with chicken or beef. (And with sole, which is a new one on me.) There are wonton “stars,” filled with cream cheese and “krab.”

If you long for wonton soup, here it is. The classic dishes here are well prepared — they bring back lots of happy memories of the Chinese food we used to live on. I’m happy to dig into a plate of spring rolls, with chicken or with veggies. The honey-ginger chicken wings are pretty sweet, maybe too sweet, but that didn’t keep me from inhaling them. And much the same can be said of sugary preparations like the orange chicken, the honey-ginger fried chicken, the orange beef, the honey walnut shrimp and so forth. A reminder that back in the day, we liked our Chinese food sweet.

Indeed, we probably liked all our food sweet; remember Jell-O salads? But times change, and tastes evolve. Which is why the Hui dishes (or at least the dishes from the Northern Provinces) are so appealing. Northern Chinese cooking involves a lot of lamb — and over there, more likely mutton than lamb.

The cumin lamb is a wonderful thing — tender and sweet, as lamb tends to be, in a thick basting of pungent cumin. The lamb with scallions, is also heavy with garlic and ginger — a major flavor explosion. There’s lamb with pickled cabbage and dry red chiles, and lamb with garlic and jalapeños. There’s lamb tripe and lamb offal. Which is not a dish for those who dream of fried rice. Lamb offal is also served as a soup. And, there’s lamb with pickled cabbage. A litany of strong flavors that set Nomad apart.

11740 Artesia Blvd., Artesia; 562-809-3887, www.omarskitchenla.com

You’ll notice that there’s no pork on the menu at Omar’s Halal Chinese, for “Halal” refers to the Islamic code of permissible ingredients, of which pork (akin to kosher) is not one. The menu also notes that the chicken, beef and lamb are “100 Percent Zabihah” — which means they’ve been slaughtered following a well-established code of ethical rules (once again, akin to kosher).

This is the cooking of northern and western China, with its sizable Muslim population. And of the Uyghur people who live in the adjoining regions — and have their own adjoining section of of dishes on the menu. And having taken care of the technical details, let me tell you how good the food is. If it’s the classics you hunger for, there’s kung pao beef and kung pao chicken, General Tso’s chicken, orange chicken and Szechuan chicken. There’s chow mein with lamb, beef, chicken or shrimp; and fried rice with the same foursome.

But beyond this, what dominates is a menu of lamb and spice heavy dishes. Indeed, an entire section of the menu is dedicated solely to lamb — 17 dishes that, recited in a row, sound a bit like the classic Monty Python Spam routine — jalapeño lamb, basil lamb, curry lamb, lamb with green onion, kung pao lamb and so forth. There are also lamb kebabs, cumin lab, cumin lamb kidneys, cumin lamb ribs, lamb dumplings and lamb potstickers. And lamb soup, which sits on the menu next to haggis soup — which is made with lamb parts.

I don’t think there’s any lamb among the seafood dishes. But I could be wrong. And the Uyghur cumin lamb dishes are so intense, they can be tasted days later. Their cold noodles are an exercise in taste, texture and temperature — the cold noodles with cumin lamb is essential at Omar’s. The fried lamb ribs with hot pepper sauce isn’t for the faint of palate. Luckily, there’s homemade yogurt to cool you down — though this is yogurt for those who love the sourness of yogurt; this isn’t Chobani. This is the sort of food that makes you sweat, cooling you off on a hot day in Artesia.

Tasty Noodle House

11316 South St., Cerritos; 562-809-1333

For those who keep track of such things — and there are more than a few of us who do — there are plenty of “tasty” Chinese restaurants around. Here in Southern California, there’s China Tasty, Tasty Dining, Tasty Duck, Tasty Wok, Hunan Tasty, Asia Tasty, Tasty Zones, Xi’An Tasty, Tasty Goody, Tasty Chinese and Tasty Garden. (Sadly, the wonderfully named O’Tasty, in Washington DC, is closed.)

And, for those collecting their “tasties,” there’s the Tasty Noodle House chain, with branches in Irvine, Hacienda Heights, Walnut, Chino Hills, San Diego — and right here in Cerritos, where every day, all day, you can get tasty noodles and tasty dumplings to go! How tasty is that? You could probably eat here a dozen times, and never order a noodle dish at all. With a dozen appetizers, nine non-noodle soups, 16 dim sum items, about 20 rice dishes, and more than 50 entrees, the noodles of the name can get lost. Though not for long. There are some some 50 noodle soups and noodle dishes as well.

But I wouldn’t pass on the the green onion pancakes, the chive and shrimp dumplings, the cilantro fish dumplings, and the soupy xiao long bao — a dish with a cult following that’s easy to understand, and which travels unexpectedly well.

Did I mention the grilled pork bun? I should; and I now I have. And I do need to segue into the noodles, if only to kvell over the spicy cold noodles with shredded chicken, a longtime passion of mine, that always makes me wonder why I love cold noodles so much. The taste seems so much more intense when the noodles are cold than when they’re hot — though that may be an illusion. But then, much of what we perceive as taste is hard to define.

As a vegetable dish, and there are many, I ate too much of the pan-seared green chile peppers, which aren’t quite as hot as they sound, though they are hot. Not hot at all, and maybe even better, was the eggplant and mixed mushroom with basil. But then, I have a thing for both eggplants and mushrooms, and lots of them. And for spice. It makes the long evenings at home so much more bearable.

More good choices

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mochibuni · 7 years ago

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I watch a lot of YouTube, and I think some great and quality YouTube channels, and I really feel like putting out some goodness today. So here is a list of my YouTube watch list, with descriptions and why I think they're worth watching. Updated 3/16/2020.

GAMING

brutalmoose - Ian's reviews tend to be around edutainment games and old PC games, which he delivers his brand of comedy in a dry and deadpan tone. Which is hilariously contrasted by the comedic editing of his videos, some the most creative I've ever seen. I can't even adequately describe a typical video from him, other than it's creative and hilarious. I enjoy his style so much that I'll watch his reviews on 60/70's educational films.

The Completionist - Once a week Jirard chronicles his journey and struggles in 100% completing a video game. His reviews are earnest with a touch of comedy, but largely trying to accurately convey the sense of the game and his experience with it. He does, however, make bad decisions like 100% completing Hyrule Warrios and Fire Emblem Blazing Sword, which of course it's fun to laugh at his agony.

Game Theory - I usually stick to MattPat's videos, but all of them are quality in both editing and substance. However I enjoy MattPat's style and delivery the most. Even if I 100% don't agree with his theory, I 100% enjoy listening and watching him talk about it. He has energy and a great sense of humor, his voice really sells what he's presenting, but I also find a kind of mellowness to it that I enjoy just listening to. He also hosts a live stream with his wife playing games together, and they are adorable to watch.

Kshaway - If you're a League player, you probably already know about Kshaway. He makes the Wood Division series, chronicling everyone and his own fails and bugs with the game. His video style has no voice overs, just well timed music and text for the punch line.

Did You Know Gaming? - They do what they say, offering 5 to 10 minute videos with lesser known facts and production history on video games.

Pokemon Rusty - Made by Dorkly, this is a parody series following Pokemon trainer Rusty as he attempts to become a Pokemon Master in all the wrong ways. It is graphic with very adult humor, but I laugh ridiculous amounts at each video.

MOVIES AND TV

Film Theory - The sister channel to Game Theory and it does the same thing, only this time it’s about tv shows, movies, and web series (remember Salad Fingers? Mattpat made a great video series about it). They also do Did You Know Movies from time to time.

Be Kind Rewind - One of my new faves, she follows the history and culture surrounding movies by discussing female Oscar wins and their cultural significance.

Folding Ideas - Foldable discusses film theory and larger themes usually with movies. His 50 Shades series is probably my favorite, followed by how he accidentally made colonialism in his Minecraft server.

Jenny Nicholson - It’s like listening to your best fandom friend rant and rave with you at 3am in your bedrooms. Jenny has a very lowkey tone and attitude wrapped in a very silly and dry sense of humor. She talks about movies and theme parks. Her review of Avatar Land is probably my favorite.

Lindsay Ellis - I’m not even sure where to being with Lindsay’s work, I adore every video she’s made thus far. It is all film critical theory, but like talking to your smart and sarcastic fandom friend who goes out of their way to explain critical theory concepts.

New Rockstars - These are the guys going over every trailer, every second of a movie looking for easter eggs and fodder for their theories. Really great if you’re into superhero blockbuster movies.

OTHER MEDIA

Comicstorian - I love this channel, they break down comics (either series or single issues) and read them dramatically with visuals. Periodically they also give complete histories of comic book characters, especially when there is a universe reboot.

NerdSync - Somewhat similar to Comicstorian, NerdSync delves into the history and stories of comic books. They’ve moved down the path of being more history based, which is great for me since I know little about the American comic book industry.

Sideways - Remember the music theory video about singing in native languages using Moana as an example? Yeah it’s this guy’s channel, and while he has few videos, all of them are great. My favorite is his analysis of Rogue One’s score.

Atop the Fourth Wall - Linkara reviews comic books, but I largely come here to watch his retrospectives on Power Rangers.

THEME PARKS

Magic Journeys - Largely a Disney centric channel, Mig V and Lovely Jannell explore any and all types of food at the Disney parks, largely sprinkling their videos with relevant Disney history. They’re expanding to other parks in the area, but Disneyland and California Adventure are where they film. Mig edits their videos wonderfully and I greatly appreciate the bits of history he provides. Jannell also makes sure to try a variety of dishes for those with dietary restrictions and has recently branched out into trying kid’s meals. They also started a Disney Foodie group on Facebook.

Defunctland - This channel talks about the history of now defunct theme park rides.

Theme Park History - This channel also talks about theme park history, defunct or currently running.

Expedition Theme Park - Okay sometimes you just need multiple channels of the same content. Another theme park history channel.

FOOD/COOKING

Laura in the Kitchen - Laura cooks largely easy to make, no hassle meals and deserts, and is warm and personable at the same time. I’ve tried many of her recipes and each have come out very well. I also find Laura very endearing, with her genuine love of food and cooking coming through in every video.

Maangchi - Maangchi is the adorable and sweet host of her Korean based cooking channel. She provides step by step instructions, with tips and tricks, on several Korean dishes. She also talks about her time in Korea, relating dishes to stories of her life there. I have made several of Maangchi’s recipes as well, but I’d watch just about anything from her as she’s sweet, funny, and has a soothing presence to her. She’s basically everyone’s Korean Mom.

Strictly Dumpling - Mike Chen talks all about his favorite Asian food, largely Chinese, as he travels around exploring and eating at Asian restaurants. And when I say Chinese, I mean that he talks specifically about provinces and the differences and types of food each have. He also has a variety of cooking videos and traveling videos. Mike is informative, energetic, and hilarious, with a little bit of Chinese humor peppered in that makes Dan laugh.

How To Cake It - If you’ve seen the gif set of the realistic watermelon cake, then you know what Yolanda can do. She makes elaborate cakes ranging from multi-tier to recreating non-cake objects. Yo gives step by step instructions on how she makes her cakes and also sells baking supplies and cake inspired shirts on her website.

Binging with Babish - A charming and dead pan cooking series recreating food from various media. This channel became a must for Dan based on the sense of humor alone.

Destination Flavour - A mini series that aired in Australia, you can find the whole series on YouTube and I highly recommend it. Chef Adam Liaw travels to 9 different prefectures in Japan exploring the local food, culture, and recipes.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - An older documentary about the history of breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Britain, also all on YouTube. I love this documentary, it’s very thorough and I learned tons about British food and eating customs that of course influenced my own culture.

Lofty Pursuits - Based in their candy store in Florida, watch the workers at Public Displays of Confection make pulled hard candy.

ARIKITCHEN - A Korean baker with super cute bakes and a personality to match. Most of her videos have English subs.

Christy Carlson Romano - THAT’S RIGHT, REN STEVENS/KIM POSSIBLE HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL! It’s usually cooking videos where she invites celebrities she’s worked with to make fanservicey foods.

CULTURE

CGP Grey - This channel is rarely updated, but goes in depth into cultural and political ideologies and misunderstandings in an easy to understand way. His videos are worth a watch if you’ve ever been confused about “once removed” family members or don’t understand how the electoral college works in America.

Begin Japanology - An ongoing NHK series exploring Japan, each 30~ minute video explores one item in depth, from sushi, to mushrooms, to the importance of umbrellas in Japan. These videos are in English and are also dubbed, though many of them have deleted audio in places due to copyright restrictions.

Japanology Plus - The sequel and current version of Japanology that continues to explore Japan and sometimes revisit old videos to update them.

Lunch On! - Also provided by NHK, it explores what the Japanese eat for lunch and the history and culture surrounding those dishes. The segments also tend to explain and explore the background of the people they’re following for lunch, such as the balloon industry or bus scheduling.

ARIRANG TV - A Korean channel, it provides a variety of subbed and dubbed videos about Korea. I usually just watch the food videos, but they also have videos about current affairs, media, and variety programs.

Crash Course - If you haven’t seen this show before, it’s mini video essays hosted by John Green discussing history, literature, science, and so on.

MISC

Buzzfeed Unsolved - Another Buzzfeed series, this time exploring the supernatural with a believer and a non-believer. This series is just hilarious, the supernatural cases are presented in a matter of fact way with visuals, but often intercut with commentary from the two about the cases that brings a nice comedic tone to the otherwise serious video.

Bright Sun Films - Jake’s current video series explores buildings and establishments that were abandoned, their history, as well as projects that were cancelled. Most videos are about the Disney Corporation, but also include Target in Canada, Blockbuster, and the McDonald’s Barge. His videos are well researched, great visuals, and his voice and personality are great to listen to.

AKB48 - 48g is one of the biggest music franchises in Japan, based on the idea of Idols You Can Meet. Since the COVID outbreak in Japan, AKB has been streaming their daily theater show on YouTube. If you want to relax to some cute Japanese pop for a few hours, check out their VODs.

Laura Price - Laura is a professional artist and most of her videos are either about her life as an artist or tips and tricks on art.

Royalty Soaps - Soap making! I find Katie really relaxing to watch and listen to, and she often talks about her soap making process.

Safiya Nygaard - Quirky and adventurous, Safiya tends to make beauty and fashion try videos, and some travel videos as well. Safiya is probably one of those YouTubers you need to watch a video of to see if you’ll like because her channel is all about her and her husband’s Tyler’s personality.

The Try Guys - Four very different guys who try things together. I’m assuming you all know who the Try Guys are, but.

Watcher - Shane, Ryan, and Steven left Buzzfeed to make their own video channel and brought many of their ideas over from there. Shane and Ryan continue to be a delight together in just about everything they do. So far my favorite is Shane’s Puppet History Theater.

ENGLISH SUBS

AIDOL - One of the last English subbers, though they update infrequently now. This links to their DailyMotion account as AKB videos are largely removed from YouTube quickly. If you enjoy the older AKB generations, this is a great resource of older subs.

Animegg.org - My go to English subs place if Crunchyroll doesn’t have what I’m looking for. Their adds aren’t evasive and they accept adblock.

#mochi watches #mochi reviews #there's tons of grammatical and spelling errors in here #i'm so sorry

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galadrieljones · 8 years ago

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Bajillion Question Meme

Tagged by the lovely @littleblue-eyedbird. Thank you!! <3 Here we go.

1. Coke or Pepsi: Coke

2. Disney or DreamWorks: Disney 3. Coffee or Tea: COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE

4. Books or Movies: Books

5. Windows or Mac: Mac. I am hopeless with Windows. 6. DC or Marvel: DC, aka: Alan Moore. 7. Xbox or Playstation: Xbox. We just got a PS4, and I am playing Horizon Zero Dawn and like, the buttons?????? I keep getting confused lol. 8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: Dragon age (I am just not as into space and lasers and aliens as I am into forest and arrows and and elves.) 9. Night Owl or Early Rise: Night Owl. 10. Cards or Chess: Cards. 11. Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate. 12. Vans or Converse: Ha! No. Neither of these work for me. Docs? 13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash or Adaar: Lavellan. Though I loved my Trevelyan who married Sera. <3 14. Fluff or Angst: Both. I think @thevikingwoman said it best in her comment on my last update for TDS, “a deep sated weary happiness.” 15. Beach or Forest: Forest. 16. Dogs or Cats: Dogs. 17. Clear Skies or Rain: Rain. (Where I live, you learn to appreciate moisture.) 18.Cooking or Eating Out: Eating out. 19. Spicy Food or Mild Food: Not too spicy! But I like spicy. 20. Halloween/Samhain or Solstice/Yule/Chirstmas: Christmas. I love Christmastime so much. 21. Would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: A little too cold. Probably just because I’m used to it. I run kind of cold. I am always a little cold. 22. If you could have a superpower, what would it be: No sleep. Like the vampires in Twilight. 23. Animation or Live Action: Live action. 24. Paragon or Renegade: Paragon!! (Sorry I am just no renegade.) 25. Baths or Showers: Showers. 26. Team Cap or Team Iron Man: I agree with vikingwoman: “Tony Stark is an arrogant sexy bastard so Iron Man.” Mostly though it’s because of Robert Downey, Jr., who is hot as hell.

27. Fantasy or Sci-fi: Fantasy. But I really also very much love sociological scifi, or the slipstream between the two. Like I have written a great deal of fiction about a time-traveling cowboy but it is no scifi tale. It is much more dreamy than that. My scifi tends to also have ghosts or folklore attached. So...a little of both, I guess. 28. Do you have three or four favorite quotes? If so, what are they?

“A picture may be worth a thousand words. But a thousand words is worth four thousand words.” -Ron Carlson (author and my grad school mentor)

“We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the ideas with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.” -Joan Didion, The White Album

“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” -John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

“You’re tearing me apart!” -Jim Stark, Rebel Without a Cause

29. YouTube or Netflix: YOUTUBE. Netflix just got rid of Buffy the Vampire Slayer like I am on my last straw with these folks.

30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson:

Idk who Percy Jackson is. Harry Potter for sure.

31. When Do You Feel Accomplished: After submitting a new chapter for The Dead Season, but the feeling is very brief and quickly followed by a small flutter of anxiety over the fact that I now need to stfu with my pride and go do the whole damn thing again lol. 32. Star Wars or Star Trek: ....neither. Sorry. 33. Paperback Books or Hardback Books: Paperback. I liked what bird said about being able to just manhandle a paperback book. I feel the same way. I love that there are creases in the binding, and that those creases are representative of the places in the text I love and have read the most. 34. Handwriting or Typing: Typing.

35. Velvet or Satin: Velvet? Neither, honestly. I love cotton. 36. Video Games or Movies: Video Games 37. Would you rather be the dragon or own the dragon: I’d rather be the mother of dragons.

38. Sunrise or Sunset: Sunset? I love the end of the day. I love night. 39. What’s your favorite song: That’s a serious question. I honestly do not know. My favorite catalogs are by Neko Case, Fiona Apple, Ben Folds (Five), Regina Spektor, and Fleetwood Mac. 40. Horror Movies, yes or no: I used to be intensely into horror movies and still look forward to them when they’re very well made. I used to love watching horror movies alone, on my computer, in the middle of the day. But for whatever reason, ever since I had a baby, I can’t deal anymore. My emotions are so close to the surface. It’s like, my empathy overloads. I also can no longer deal with gore. 41. Long or Short Hair: My hair is very long. Like almost down to my ass. 42. Opera or Theatre: Theatre. But I haven’t been to the opera.

43. Assuming the multiverse theory is true and that every story ever told has really happened somewhere, which one of the movie/book/tv show/game/etc worlds would you pick to travel to first: Stars Hollow, Gilmore Girls. 44. If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be: french fries 45. Older guys or young guys: Oh dear. Classically, I am more drawn to older men. But I also have an intense thing for professional athletes, especially basketball and (American) football players and most of them are younger than me, so... 46. If you could erase any show from TV history, what would it be: Erase? None. It’s all necessary.

47. Singing or Dancing: Singing. 48. Instagram or Twitter: Instagram. I used to be super active on Twitter. I had to stop. I came here instead lol. 49. Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit: Lord of the Rings, because Aragorn. 50. If you could create either a sequel or bring back any tv show/movie, what would you choose: The Sopranos. But I just want more episodes from the same run. Because it’s so fucking good. I also want Lost, only remade and made perfectly, but with all the same cast. I love that show, but it got so rushed in the end like, I want to see it revised and perfected. Also, Party Down. Like that show I could watch forever. I pray to the gods they make a movie. I love Ken Marino.

51. Who is your movie/tv show character that you are looking up to and why? Buffy Summers, because she is vulnerable and she feels so much, and she uses her emotion to make herself stronger. She does not hide it away in an effort to simply appear strong. 52. If you were ever convicted of a crime, what would it be? Public drunkenness? lol. 53. Anime- subbed or dubbed? I have no idea what this means! Sorry.

54. City or countryside? Countryside. I really don’t like cities at all. I like the open road.

Lots of people have been tagged! So I’ll give it my best. @shift-shaping @wrenbee @ladydracarysao3 @l-a-v-e-l-l-a-n @tel-abelas-mofo @whosafraidofthebigbaddreadwolf @consumed-by-veilfire @fatale-distraction @silent-of-spirit @liderfin (if you want!) and anyone else who would like to do this! <3

#bajillion question meme #about me #long text post

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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Every week, we pick a new episode of the week. It could be good. It could be bad. It will always be interesting. You can read the archives here. The episode of the week for August 5 through 11 is “Two Piece and a Biscuit,” the second episode of HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness.

HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness has been billed by some as a “late-night comedy series,” but I’m not certain “comedy” is the right designation for it. I understand the compulsion; the half-hour program from creator Terence Nance is composed of sketches that are so visually distinct and (occasionally) rapid-fire that comedy sketch series like Portlandia and Key & Peele come to mind. But the official synopsis offered by HBO — “a unique mix of vérité documentary, musical performances, surrealist melodrama and humorous animation” which aims to showcase “the beauty and ugliness of contemporary American life” — hints as to why it isn’t so easy to pigeonhole.

It’s not that Random Acts of Flyness isn’t funny, or that humor and commentary are mutually exclusive. Rather, I don’t think provoking laughter is the show’s primary intention or its primary mode of conveying its message.

Consider the second episode, “Two Piece and a Biscuit,” and the sketch that opens it. (Each episode is generally made up of one or two longer sketches that are punctuated by smaller bits.) In the evening, a young woman named Najja (Dominique Fishback, whom you may recognize as one of the best parts of The Deuce) leaves her apartment. As she walks, she begins introducing the show; as she speaks, a man enters the frame, immediately beginning to follow and catcall her.

Suddenly he falls, as if struck by lightning. The camera moves, revealing a brick wall in front of him. It’s a literal “knock it off.”

Random Acts of Flyness is chock-full of such moments of inspiration, as Nance and his co-writers regularly reimagine intangible concepts or truths that people are tempted to ignore (“white thoughts,” for instance) as solid objects, including brick walls. And that’s as it should be. Random Acts of Flyness isn’t just about living in contemporary America; it’s about being black in contemporary America. That experience (or any experience) can’t be captured in a single sketch, let alone a single genre.

Random Acts of Flyness addresses “the beauty and ugliness of contemporary American life.” Seher Sikander/HBO

“Two Piece and a Biscuit” is built around a series of monologues. These monologues are given by real people, not sketch characters, and the speakers include a cis woman, a trans woman, and a gender-nonconforming person. Each speaker details their experiences with their body while sitting alone in a mirrored black box. While they’re not comic bits, everyone appears to be in good humor.

The cis woman, who is black, talks about having wanted plastic surgery since she was young, not necessarily because she thought she was ugly or because she was unhappy, but because she saw the disparity between her features and white features as something to be fixed. The trans woman talks about becoming comfortable in her own body, and not feeling like she needs to get work done in order to be a woman. The gender-nonconforming person talks about how performative gender identity can be.

They’re the kinds of conversations that are only just beginning to be had on mainstream TV (even though Random Acts of Flyness airs at midnight, it’s still on the ever-prestigious HBO, and the pilot is available to stream for free on YouTube) — and it feels significant to be hearing these stories told by those who are actually living through them.

Doreen Garner and Nance in one of the show’s sketches. Courtesy of HBO

The rest of “Two Piece and a Biscuit” exists in the realm of bizarre fiction. The sketches are similarly bold, and honest in a way that verges on confrontational — even if they don’t always feel like complementary pieces of a whole.

Leaving her catcaller behind in the episode’s opening sketch, Najja heads to an arcade. The first game she plays is a shooter, and the swarms she’s defending herself from aren’t the typical zombies but people on the street: black men (“You’re too dark for me anyway, sweetheart”), white men (“MAGA!”), black women (“You’re sleeping with the enemy”), white women (“Oh, my god, I want your butt”). The stream is endless.

Later, after Najja gets beaten at a Dance Dance Revolution-style game by a trans woman, the woman gives Najja another brick wall to use as a consolation prize. She’ll need it, Najja is told, as the wall floats out of the machine. All women have to stick together.

Though the idea and execution is solid, the payoff feels like it’s only addressing the episode’s themes of street harassment and ownership of one’s body by half. Two other sketches in the episode — involving a smartphone video of a woman telling off a public masturbator, and a man delivering an argument for other men to quit harassing women on the street — fall similarly short. The sketches are bold, but not always built out enough to carry the weight of what they’re trying to address, and the connective tissue feels thin. The scene at the arcade with Najja and the trans woman is the only time the episode really ties the monologues and the sketches together.

Thinking optimistically, it’s the kind of problem that’ll resolve itself as the season carries on, but in the two episodes that have aired so far, it’s a stumbling block.

Gelani Watson and Aquan Bowry. Rog Walker/HBO

The episode’s other big sketch manages a slightly more satisfying conclusion. It’s a retelling of Peter Pan, opening with a young man chasing his shadow through an apartment complex. Hook appears when Pan fondly roughhouses with another boy, accusing him of “faggotry” while the men in the room try to convince Hook that it’s not true, that such a thing would never happen in their community. Pan escapes with Wendy’s help, fleeing to “Nuncaland,” this world’s version of Neverland, where he tries to convince her to stay.

The segment is magical, not least in part because it turns into an all-out musical sequence. When Wendy sings, the Pan corollary becomes clear: The boys need to grow up. Though they risk becoming Hooks themselves and embodying what is stereotyped as black masculinity, or inheriting their father’s sins, they can’t stay boys forever. And instead of Wendy having to hide from rape culture and harassment in Nuncaland, she argues, “You should be the ones to grow.”

In the final musical number of the sketch, though there are a few loose ends — the stigmatization of homosexuality isn’t really addressed again, for example — it manages to fold in most of the themes that the episode has touched on so far, as well as giving the preexisting story of Peter Pan a deeper dimension.

It hints at the greater heights that Random Acts of Flyness could — and hopefully will — reach, as the artists involved use what seems to be complete artistic freedom to speak, and to sing.

Random Acts of Flyness airs Friday nights at midnight Eastern on HBO.

Original Source -> HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness is starting to fulfill its enormous potential

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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evodex · 7 years ago

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14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I

Everest Base Camp Trek

There is a real world and a mountain world and I have existed in both. In the mountain world, we play different roles and it tests us in our weakest moments and bares our souls even to strangers. We feel a strange connection with people we may never meet again in life but while we exist there, we are bonded. We were a team of eleven strangers, some known to each other, some not but while in the mountains we became the EBC family.

While you are looking and probably reading the blog to know more about the trek, I can’t do justice to the same without sharing my experience and the background story. So when I decided earlier this year that I wanted to do the EBC trek, my only experience was a low altitude 5-day hike that I had done in Iceland last year and more grueling 100 kms trail walk under 48 hours. While the former was easy to medium level the latter was a test of grit. I was reaching a milestone in my life and I knew I had to do this to make this special but I needed one more such crazy person and I have to admit that I asked a lot of people around me. Meera, my trail walker teammate agreed to it. She was a little unsure but I hung on to the idea and made sure she doesn’t back out. It was only later that I figured out many occasions that she was made of sterner stuff and I was glad for it.

EBC(Everest Base Camp) at 5564 meters is the holy grail for all mountaineers, for the ones who claim to be and the ones who actually summit, all have to touch forehead here. The trek has been marked as medium to difficult and trust me whether it is the lack of oxygen, hours of climbing, the substandard tea houses, gross common toilets or commonly occurring landslides on the way, they all test your grit, passion, and ambition. Which is why I strongly believe that no person who decides to go on this trek is ordinary but whether it’s a mom who does it for her child or a mom who does it leaving her kids behind for three weeks, or a seventy-year-old or a first-time trekker they are all driven by their own reasons.

Kathmandu, Nepal

We arrived in Kathmandu on the 27th of October and were accommodated in the Thamel resort. Meera and I chose to arrive a day early and catch up on some sightseeing. Both of us are moms to two kids and it took us months of planning, begging parents to babysit and overcoming all the motherly instincts when we realised that we will be away from our kids for a really long time. I have been away for a week at times but 19 days was too much. We kept two extra days to sightsee. Some of the touristy things to do in Kathmandu are Pashupatinath, Durbar square, Bodhinath, Patan etc.

Your guide will give you an orientation a day before you leave and that’s the day you will end up meeting your group as well. Let me introduce them to you to them. You already have a background of Meera and me. The next was a group of five; an American named Justin( 36 years old), Sunil Nehru(71 years), and Ashok Mahadevan(69 years), Anita Singh(43 years) who was doing it again to mark her son Angad’s thirteenth birthday. Arun, an avid trekker(43 years), who has already done some 8-9 treks in the Himalayas. Then there were three brothers from Karnal, Rahul(40 years), Raghav(25 years), and Madhur(23 years), two of them were first-time trekkers and one had trekked in various national parks in the US but nothing as demanding as this one. The reason I have mentioned everyone’s age is to give you an idea of how varied the group was.

pic credit- Meera Prashant (Do not miss spotting Kunthal in the blue shirt who has climbed Everest and is celebrity status for all aspiring climbers.)

The next day Meera and I decided to cover up some sightseeing and headed to Bodhinath Stupa and then to the Sherpa shop, which was highly recommended by Meera’s friend for authentic trekking products. Kathmandu is the best place to buy trekking gear from brands like Northface, Icebreaker etc but you have to be careful about authenticity and make sure you buy Northface and not Northfake :).

P.S. We booked our trek with White Magic Adventures and while some people might like to trek on their own and it’s very possible, I would not suggest the same unless you are a hardcore trekker. Managing bookings at various tea houses, arranging for porters and taking care of the whole background work becomes too much. Plus if you fall ill your guide is your best shot to recognise the signs and fly you back to safety. We saw many helicopters evacuating people on a daily basis.

For the ones who are reading for some inspiration in between our story you will know what the trek looks like;

pic credit

The minor difference being that we skipped Pheriche during our trek.

Day 1 — Lukla(2850)/Begin Trek/Phakding (4-6 hours)

While booking your trek if you have done your research, unlike me, you would know that Lukla airport @2850 mtrs is listed in the top 10 dangerous airports in the world. We prayed hard to survive this as it would be a complete shame if our expedition would end before it even started. Luckily we had a smooth landing. Next, we headed to Yak Donald’s resort and met our porters there. The highlight was meeting two women porters Anjali and Dilmaya who would be lifting around 30 kgs each and pacing with the male porters. They were indeed superwomen in their own right, a fine example of women liberation and empowerment. I was so proud of them.

We started our trek at around 8.30 and we trekked from Lukla to Fakding. Most of the trek is downhill, you descend down along the river Dudh Kosi(which means milk river) and this day was easy. We stopped at around 11.30 for lunch. Lunch was a standard for all Nepali veg thali set and then ginger honey tea which was really nice. Little did I know that slowly I will get bored of my wits eating these. On the way, you will pass many beautifully embossed stones known as the ‘Mane Pathar’. They have some mantra written on them, most probably it says “OM Mane Padmai Hum’, a very well known Buddhist mantra. You cannot miss them.

The people in Nepal are very friendly and the Nepali kids are used to strangers. They love posing for pictures and I got a few lovely shots with them.

Loved how he was playing with his cycle.

Once we reached Fakding, Meera and I decided to voice record our day on our phones so that we can pen it down when we reach home. It was a brilliant idea, because, I am really reliving every day listening to them.

P.S. My right knee was already hurting as we had climbed down many stairs today, so I decided to tape it as I knew next day was going to be a lot more stairs and walking. This is a special roll tape which my physiotherapist had recommended I carry. I checked Youtube videos on how to apply the tape.

Day 2 — Phakding to Namche Bazaar(3440 mtrs) – (6-8 hours)

Every night before we retired to bed our guide Sanjeev, would give us a briefing on the day ahead. What we needed to wear, what to carry and what to expect on our trek. He told us that Phakding to Namche would be fewer steps but my phone stepper showed around 116 floors climbed at the end of the day. I think he purposely hid this bit from us to keep us away from the pressure. Now, this where I felt good about not doing research because had I read about this stretch earlier I would have been weighed down by what lay ahead. Sometimes having no expectations is great. Of course, we also had people like my dear mountain sister, Anita, who even after having done the trek in 2015 didn’t remember any parts of it and to counter her was Meera who knew the names of the Peak and all that was to know of the trail and someone who had watched the EBC youtube videos many times over . On day 4, we entered the Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, at Monjo.

Meera and Me

The entire Sagarmatha park is a wifi enabled zone and honestly, I was a little disappointed as I was looking forward to social media detox for the next few days. I had finished my work before flying to Nepal and left my team with instructions on how to handle it while I was away. This meant I would still be tempted to check my device.

The Dudh Kosi river in the background

We walked through villages along the Dudh Kosi river(Dudh-Milk, Kosi-River) and crossed multiple suspensions bridges. The most noteworthy was a double suspension bridge that we had to climb.

Double Suspension Bridge

The trek went on for four hours to reach Monjo and another four hours to reach Namche. The second half from Monjo to Namche was more of an uphill climb and was killing. I stopped on a few occasions to stretch but did not stop for too long as the body tends to start cooling down and then you start shivering.

Taking a halt just before we reach Namche Bazaar

At 4.30 pm we saw the first steps to the market town of Namche Bazaar filled with Tea houses and restaurants and even spotted the Irish pub, which we marked for our return celebration. Today we celebrated with Pakodas, chai, and Mars roll( Mars chocolate dipped in flour batter and deep fried), very unique to this trail and would recommend it as a must try. Angad, the thirteen-year-old with us was the last one to reach but I was so impressed with this kid. No complaints, just very focussed. Ashok, on the other hand, walked with both his hands folded on the back, like a walk in the park. Both Ashok and Sunil(69 and 71 years to their credit), didn’t ever take breaks and managed to stay ahead of the pack.

pic credit: Justin Brown

We changed into fresh clothing as we were sweating and wore an extra layer as it tends to get colder here. Here we met Shanon and Rebecca, two nurses from Las Vegas. What I learned from them was that they are going all the way to EBC and doing Kala Pathar but taking a helicopter back. They paid 2700 dollars for the entire trip which is way steeper than what I paid, but as they explained time is a valuable commodity for them and they couldn’t have taken more time off. Honestly, I was tempted but I knew I would feel unaccomplished if I didn’t walk the entire route back as well (an option that will keep clouding my mind many times on the way back).

P.S. You burn about 4000 calories per day, so stock up on those carbs people.

Day 3 — Acclimatisation Day At Namche

On the trail to EBC, the guiding companies plan a few acclimatisation/rest days for you to avoid medical issues and acclimatise better. These rest days don’t mean that you will laze around in the tea houses but they take you on short treks around the area. We had our first rest day at Namche and we hiked 250 meters up to see the Tenzing Norgay Museum. I was experiencing a little shortness of breath and then I saw these two women racing uphill. They were runners from Malaysia participating in the Everest Ultra Marathon which starts from EBC and goes all the way to Dingboche. The museum has a lot of information regarding Sagarmatha Park, the animals, flowers, people and about the various expeditions that were carried here. Would definitely recommend a visit here to the museum and also you get lovely views of the Everest from here if you are lucky to get clear weather unlike us. I picked up some medicines, an Icebreaker Merino wool base layer(you don’t get this brand in India and it’s expensive but worth it), a few t-shirts for my kids etc. This is also the destination where my guide adviced me to start Diamox which helps in combating altitude sickness. I napped for a few hours and woke up feeling terrible. All kind of thoughts were clouding me. It was just the start of the trek. If I was going to feel sick then how will I manage the rest of the days? I couldn’t even eat my food. Sanjeev, my guide was amazing. He told me to just remove every negative thought from my mind and relax. While I couldn’t it felt good to see someone tell you that. Luckily I had carried theplas(Gujrati bread) and ‘achar'(pickle) from home and polished away a few. The salt levels in my body improved and soon I was chasing a huge insect from our room, instead of lying down and pitying myself. My apologies for ever doubting the reasons for any Gujarati family to carry this stuff on their holidays. They were a boon that night.

p.s. Some side effects of Diamox are that you pee a lot and might have blurry vision.

p.s. Namche Bazaar is the last place where you can shop for anything you need for your trek and the last place you will find ATMs.

Intrigued to know more about the Everest Base Camp? Keep reading, I promise to be back with more stories. This post is getting too lengthy, so I am going to divide it into a few more posts as I am aware that reading so much can get boring. Until next post, Ciao and happy dreams of the mountain world.

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Inside Ron Jeremy Sexual Misconduct Allegations

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/inside-ron-jeremy-sexual-misconduct-allegations/

Inside Ron Jeremy Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Last June, a woman named Ginger Banks posted a YouTube video that circulated widely among those in the adult entertainment industry. In it, Banks, dressed down in a topknot and spectacles, calmly addresses the camera as her dog sleeps in the background: “There have been allegations of rape and sexual assault against Ron Jeremy,” she says, her hands folded on her lap.

In the 10-minute clip – which amassed more than 50,000 views – Banks compiles allegations against Jeremy from all corners of the adult-industry Internet, including stories of everything from indecent exposure, nonconsensual digital penetration and rape. “He tried to forcefully kiss me on the lips and he grabbed my ass,” one woman wrote on Twitter. “He slipped his fingers into my panties under my panties and into my vagina #notokay,” another tweeted.

A 40-year porn veteran, Jeremy, 64, did not achieve fame due to his good looks; with his hirsute, fleshy physique, stringy hair and unkempt mustache, he easily earned his nickname, the Hedgehog. He immediately achieved notoriety for his stamina, his ability to perform on command, and not least of all his prodigious, nine and three-quarter-inch member. Since then, he has made cameos in countless mainstream shows and movies like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Detroit Rock City, as well as any number of late-night B-movies. He has also appeared in dozens of music videos – donning a gold chain and orange tan in LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” – and has been name-dropped in everything from the Netflix series Big Mouth to Sublime’s paean to hand jobs, “Caress Me Down.”

“He’s an avatar of a regular guy,” says Nina Hartley, a porn performer and director who has known Jeremy for more than 30 years. “The average porn viewer looks at him and thinks, ‘If a guy like Ron Jeremy can get laid, there’s hope for me.'”

For this reason, Jeremy has a reputation as an elder statesman of porn – a goofy, almost family-friendly totem of an industry that is often dismissed. Yet many women inside the industry claim his presence is far more sinister than that. Rolling Stone spoke with more than a dozen women both on and off the record who made such claims against Jeremy, alleging that the famous porn star violated their boundaries, taking advantage of both his status as an industry legend and their status as sex workers as grounds to flout the basic rules of consent.

“People expect this from him. If I went and got mad on Twitter, people would say, ‘That’s Ron,'” says adult performer Kendra Sunderland. She alleges that Jeremy sucked her breast without her consent at a Dallas expo in 2015. “But if I said a fan did it, they’d say ‘That’s not OK, that’s crossing a line.'”

“He doesn’t hear no,” says former performer Jennifer Steele. She alleges that Jeremy raped her twice, once at a photoshoot and once at his apartment, in December 1997. “He just kinda keeps going and pretends like you didn’t say anything.”

Jeremy refutes these accusations, claiming that all the interactions he’s had have been consensual. “These allegations are pure lies or buyers remorse,” Jeremy told Rolling Stone in an emailed statement. “I have never and would never rape anyone. All serious allegations have been investigated by police and dismissed by judges, as have most of the accusations of ‘groping.’ I have never been charged nor spent one day in court for any of this.” (Jeremy’s full statement has been appended to the end of this article.)

While a handful of these allegations have previously surfaced in the media, for the most part they have only spread word-of-mouth among women in the tight-knit industry – which has, some women allege, responded with silence. “I have viewed him as the missing stair in the adult community,” says performer Jessica Drake, who has not been assaulted by Jeremy but has “personally witnessed him being grabby to a multitude of women on a multitude of occasions.” (The “missing stair” is a term used to describe a known sexual predator within a community who is whispered about but tolerated nonetheless.)

Part of this apparent apathy stems from Jeremy’s status as an icon in the industry; part of it from sex-worker stigma, which makes it even more daunting for women to come forward. Much of it also likely stems from the fact that unlike mainstream Hollywood or other industries – where the lines of appropriate physical contact are more clearly drawn, if not always observed – there are admittedly gray areas when it comes to the adult industry. In a sexually open field where most people know (and have often had on-camera sex with) each other, a pat on the ass on a film set or at an expo is not always an unwelcome gesture.

Ron Jeremy performs the Star Spangled Banner at Kansas City’s Rockfest in 2013. Jason Squires/Getty

For this reason, Jeremy says, his behavior with fans and other performers is well within the bounds of acceptability. “There is ‘put on’ flirting and touching for the photos,” says Jeremy. “This is exactly what people pay me for at conventions. The female performers flirt and touch too. It’s what we do.”

Yet many performers Rolling Stone spoke with say that Jeremy’s behavior is not considered standard in the adult industry at all. Some say they believe Jeremy uses his public persona as a lovable lech as a smokescreen for violating other performers’ consent, particularly in public spaces where such behavior would otherwise be considered morally reprehensible at best and criminal at worst.

“I think Ron is an anomaly, and you’d be hard-pressed to say there’s any other person who’s been able to publicly sexually harass or assault people and get away with it,” says Julia Ann, a popular performer who has been working in the porn industry for more than two decades. “It’s one thing for someone to do it in their hotel room or their condo or their office or their car, but he can do it in the middle of a convention.”

Porn star Amber Lynn likens Jeremy’s behavior to that of an “aggressive dog.” “You have to be very clear [with him],” she says.

The performers Rolling Stone spoke with say Jeremy’s alleged behavior is particularly egregious given how highly consent is generally valued in the adult community. It is an industry where stars have “no” lists for performers they don’t want to work with, where just about every single sexual act is parsed and negotiated with a rigorous attention to detail before every shot.

Despite a few highly publicized examples of consent violations in porn (like the prominent sexual assault allegations against James Deen), sex workers tend to have an acute understanding of the importance of affirmative consent, largely because they have practice negotiating their own sexual boundaries. “When there are dollar signs involved, the lines [of consent] actually get drawn much more distinctly,” says Julia Ann.

It’s not insignificant that the vast majority of those who have publicly accused Jeremy of sexual assault had been involved in the porn or sex industries at some point in their lives.

Even if it is done under legal circumstances, as is usually the case in the porn industry, sex work is shrouded in stigma, and rates of sexual assault and violence are extremely high: while statistics are hard to pin down, sex workers have an approximately 45 percent to 75 percent chance of experiencing workplace violence in their careers, according to a 2014 global review of sexual or physical violence against sex workers in the American Journal of Public Health.

Yet few assaults are reported to the police, ostensibly because sex workers who come forward are likely to be blamed or disbelieved by law enforcement.

“We have only just now reached the point where lawyers and judges understand that victims are not to blame for being raped,” says Laura Agustin, an anthropologist and author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. “Everyone else tends unconsciously to assume women were ‘doing something to encourage’ what befell them. If you add that women are selling sex, then most people in the world probably see that as a form of ‘asking for it.'”

In other words, in the eyes of many, sexual abuse of sex workers is viewed not as a violation of consent but as a mere hazard of the trade. This is precisely why Jeremy’s detractors say he has gotten away with this behavior for so long.

“There’s this idea of: ‘This is what you signed up for when you decided to be a sex worker and when you decided to be in the adult industry,'” says Banks, who has been leading a de facto social-media campaign against Jeremy since early 2017.

Most of the allegations against Jeremy have been passed through whisper networks, but there is legal documentation for at least two of the complaints: First, in 2003, Jeremy was questioned by police on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct following an appearance at a Deja Vu strip club in Ypsilanti, Michigan. According to John Minzey, a retired sergeant of the Ypsilanti police department, a woman from Ann Arbor who had driven with her friend to the club to see Jeremy had gone with him to a back room at the club, where she alleged he held her down and raped her.

Minzey says the woman’s friend didn’t corroborate her statement. “She said she thought [the sex] was consensual,” says Minzey. Police also interviewed Jeremy himself, who also claimed the sex was consensual. Washtenaw County First Assistant Prosecutor Konrad Siller did not press charges against Jeremy. (Siller declined to comment to Rolling Stone.)

“It was basically ‘he said, she said,'” says Minzey, adding that the woman did not have bruises or any sign of forced penetration. “She didn’t waver in her story. She said she was held down, and he said she wasn’t.” In his statement to Rolling Stone, Jeremy denied all allegations. “I have never raped anyone,” he wrote.

Then, in 2007, Jeremy was held on suspicion of battery after a woman named Leslie Sanchez accused him of reaching inside her bra, pulling out her breast and signing it without her permission at Miami Beach Exxxotica. According to a police report obtained by Rolling Stone, “He pulled the nipple up and took out [Sanchez’s] breast and signed his name on it.” In response, Jeremy claimed that he did not do anything wrong: “I probably signed about 150 boobs that weekend, all of which I sign ‘RJ’ with a heart,'” he told TMZ.

While the women who reported Jeremy to the police weren’t sex workers, an early allegation came from one of his colleagues: Ginger Lynn, an adult performer who was one of the highest-paid porn stars of the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2003, Lynn said on her KSEX radio show that, in December 1983, Jeremy had raped her while they were on location shooting a film, an account that he publicly denied in an interview with industry website AVN: “I went up to the room with her to take a shower and then we messed around. No goodbye, no get lost…. We were very good friends, how can you rape a friend?” (Jeremy maintains that he has never raped anyone, including Ginger Lynn. “These allegations have been online and in print for quite sometime,” he tells Rolling Stone. “This is not new or breaking news.”)

Ron Jeremy at Exxxotica Miami Beach in March 2007. Gustavo Caballero/Getty

While the story briefly dominated trade comment forums, it didn’t gain momentum. “No one seemed to care. Nothing happened,” Lynn wrote in a blog post she published on the subject last October. (When asked for comment, Lynn directed Rolling Stone to her blog: “The story that needs to be told is what I laid out in my blog article. I don’t really think I have any comment beyond what I said there at this time,” she said in an e-mail.) Lynn eventually went back to working with Jeremy, performing together in a 2010 porn parody of Saw.

Ginger Lynn’s public allegations prompted a few other performers to come forward, including Jennifer Steele. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Steele alleges that Jeremy sexually assaulted her in 1997, first at an adult-magazine photo shoot and, later that same day, in his Los Angeles apartment.

According to Steele, she first met Jeremy when she was 25 and working as a house dancer at the now-defunct Stars Cabaret in Beaverton, Oregon. When Jeremy came to the area to judge a Miss Nude Oregon competition, she approached him for advice on how to break into the industry. (A former club employee confirmed to Rolling Stone that Steele worked at the club during that time period, and that Jeremy was present at the competition.)

At the time, Steele was trying to become a feature dancer, which would have allowed her to get booked for higher rates at strip clubs across the country. She approached Jeremy with the idea that getting a few porn credits under her belt would be good for her career. Almost immediately, however, “he started off being really handsy,” she says. “That was one of the things I looked back at being like, ‘I should’ve known.'”

Steele says Jeremy invited her to stay at his apartment in Los Angeles, where he would introduce her to producers and try to get her booked for girl-on-girl shoots. (She says she was seeing someone at the time, so she was not comfortable doing anything else). Steele flew down shortly thereafter, where Jeremy informed her he had booked a gig for her on a photoshoot, where the sex would be simulated. During the shoot, Steele alleges, Jeremy cornered her in the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

“He was like, ‘I need to look at your ass so I can get hard for the photo shoot,'” says Steele. “Then it turned into him basically sticking it in without me knowing it was happening. I said flat-out no. It stopped, but it didn’t stop soon enough after I said no.”

Steele says she was in shock. “During the whole photo shoot I was thinking, ‘Was I just raped? What the fuck just happened?'” she says. “[But] by the time the shoot was done, I had it in my head that I had somehow exaggerated it and it was an honest mistake,” so she agreed to stay at Jeremy’s house and sleep in the same bed with him the same night, though she says she reiterated that she had a boyfriend and did not want anything sexual to happen. That night, she says, he raped her again.

“I froze,” she says. “This was after so many times of saying no and realizing that wasn’t gonna work.” As she recalls, she loudly confronted him the next day and accused him of violating her consent. “I went completely livid. I broke down,” she says. That night, he slept on the couch, and Steele flew out the next morning. When asked why she didn’t leave earlier, she responds: “What was I gonna do, walk from Los Angeles? There was no place for me to go.”

At the time, Steele says she told a number of people, including her ex-husband and her colleagues at the strip club where she worked. (When reached for comment by Rolling Stone, Steele’s ex-husband said that Steele confided in him about the incident when he picked her up from the airport. Amber Lynn, a friend of Steele’s, also said that Steele later related her account in a support group.) She quietly left the industry in 2010.

When asked about Steele’s allegations, Jeremy was dismissive: “Why would she decide to go to her rapist’s home? Give me a fucking break,” he said. “It is just not true.”

Steele says that while she considered reporting the incident to the police, her sexual history kept her from doing so. “I was pretty promiscuous,” she says. “I was a stripper. I couldn’t prove it.”

Steele believes that is precisely why Jeremy allegedly assaulted her. “He hides behind other women’s scarlet letters, is what he does,” she says. “[He] know[s] if someone’s a porn star and they say they’ve been raped, people aren’t gonna take it seriously.”

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While the allegations against Jeremy have been percolating for decades, it wasn’t until Ginger Banks posted her video – and the New York Times broke the story on Harvey Weinstein – that the accusations began to get noticed outside the industry.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Banks says she was motivated to take a stand against Jeremy after speaking with dozens of women who claimed he had assaulted them at conventions. “I would bring this up to industry people and they’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s Ron,'” Banks says. “And that attitude is what motivated me the most – there were people in the industry who knew about this and accepted it.”

After discovering that a website she worked for called ManyVids had employed Jeremy to host their awards show, Banks was outraged, tweeting at them that she would not support a company that associated with a “known groper.” The company quickly dropped Jeremy as a host.

“We were alarmed at the amount of women who came forth about being assaulted by a man who was considered an industry legend,” ManyVids marketing manager Laura Scavo said in an email to Rolling Stone. “Because of this, we pulled him from hosting our award show.”

On October 23rd, after much pressure on social media, Exxxotica followed suit. When reached for comment, Dan Adams, the director of operations at Exxxotica, told Rolling Stone: “After the recent outpouring of claims on social media over the last few months, a decision was made by the show to reach out to Ron directly and agree that he would no longer attend our event.” Shortly thereafter, the industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition issued a statement saying it would be rescinding a 2009 “Positive Image” award given to Jeremy following the allegations.

While it’s not uncommon for attendees at porn conventions to try to get handsy with adult performers, it’s another thing for a performer to grope a fan or an industry colleague at an expo without consent.

In Jeremy’s case, it’s important to note that many fans do approach him with the intention of having them sign their breasts. “Any time I have been anywhere near him, people run right past me and trample me to get to him,” says Drake. “And I feel like I should also say I have seen women go up to him, pull down their tops, want him to grab and sign their breasts. I’ve seen civilian women jump on him, kiss him, pose for him.”

Yet some performers and expo attendees allege that he has touched their breasts or digitally penetrated them at the expos without their consent. “Some people did welcome [the groping],” says Jesse Jane, a former adult performer who frequently attends the expos. “But I know a lot of girls didn’t. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” While Jane says she has never experienced unwanted physical contact with Jeremy, she says that she has observed him frequently trying to “grab [the girls] and touch them and rub their pussies.”

When asked for comment about the allegations of groping, Jeremy admitted that he does get handsy, but that he basically sees it as an extension of his brand. “As for the charges of Groping, I say yes, I AM A GROPER,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And by groper, I mean I get paid to show up to these shows, events, and photo shoots and touch the people and they touch me. I’m not the young stud I was, but I still draw a crowd.”

While established performers like Jane might have the social capital and wherewithal to know which figures to avoid at expos and industry events, that’s not necessarily the case for fans and people like Danica Dane, who at the time she met Jeremy, had just shot one scene and was new to the industry.

Ron Jeremy at Exxxotica 2014 in Edison, New Jersey. Bobby Bank/Getty

Dane was 20 years old when she went to her first Exxxotica in 2014. With her friend Sara Vibes, a New York dominatrix, she was perusing the booths in the sprawling convention center in Edison, New Jersey, when she spotted Jeremy signing autographs.

Dane immediately recognized Jeremy, and they got to talking: He commented on the fact that she looked half-Asian, and she told him she was attending his college alma mater. A few minutes later, she says, Jeremy invited Vibes and Dane into a back room at Exxxotica, to partake in some craft services food and beverages. “I felt like the dumb kid who got lured into the truck that said free candy,” says Dane. “You look at it now and you’re like, I should’ve known better.”

Once they got there, Dane says there were other people in the room, including a man who looked to be a security guard and one other woman. According to Dane, she and Jeremy posed for a few photos before Jeremy inserted his fingers insider her vagina. Vibes and Dane say they told Jeremy to stop, and that he was going too far. “I was saying, “I’m not comfortable with this,'” says Dane. “And before I know it I feel the tip of his penis inside me.”

After telling him to stop and that he was going too far, Vibes says, she pulled Jeremy off Dane. The two retreated to a booth, where they met their friend Nina Hartley. Dane started crying. “I was in shock,” she says. “I wasn’t treating it seriously.” When she got home, she got an STD test and tried to block the incident out of her mind. Later that day, Dane confided in her close friend from high school, who confirmed details of her account, as did Hartley and Jessica Drake, whom Dane spoke with that evening on a shuttle-bus between the expo and her hotel.

“She was super upset. She told me that he tried to take advantage of her,” Drake recalls. “She didn’t know what to do. She arrived at the conclusion that she did not want to call authorities or make a report and she didn’t speak out about it, and I supported [her decision].”

In an emailed statement to Rolling Stone, Jeremy confirmed that Dane and Vibes accompanied him into a “back tent” where other people, including a security guard, were present, though he denied that any unwanted physical contact took place. “We took some sexy photos with each other as people looked on or looked at their phones,” he writes. Chaz Rome, the owner of the adult company the Love Library, says he was also in the room and that Vibes and Dane “were happy, giggling, and there was no indication whatsoever that any non-consensual activity was occurring,” he wrote to Rolling Stone. (Dane refutes this.)

Dane is far from the only performer to allege inappropriate touching by Jeremy at the expos. In addition to the allegations in Banks’ viral video, porn performer Jay Taylor also claims that Jeremy digitally penetrated her without her consent when she met him at the Los Angeles AdultCon in 2013. “I was super new to the industry. I wanted to take a photo with him and I was super excited and I told him I was a performer too,” she says. “We posed for our pictures and he reached up my dress and fingered me.” (Taylor’s boyfriend, who was also at the expo and taking the photo, confirmed her account.)

Adult star Nina Hartley has known Jeremy for over 30 years. Matti Matikainen/Newspix24/Sipa

Lynsey G. is a journalist who was covering the adult industry when she approached Jeremy for an interview at the Edison Exxxotica Expo in 2009. She handed him her card and asked him to sign her T-shirt after which she says he lifted up her shirt, grabbed her breast and signed it. Then, she says, he placed her breast back into her bra and kissed her on the mouth, without her consent. (A former colleague of Lynsey’s who was present at both the Expo and the afterparty confirmed her account.)

“There were people taking photos and I could hear them laughing,” Lynsey, who also wrote about the incident in her June 2017 book Watching Porn, recounted in an interview with Rolling Stone. (She says she never heard from Jeremy about the allegations in her book.) “I had no idea what to do,” she says. “I was so embarrassed. I was trying to be professional, but there was no pretense of professionalism about it. It felt like he had preplanned this in his head, like he did this to everybody.”

Later, Jeremy approached her and her colleague at an Exxxotica after-party, where Lynsey says he grabbed her from behind and gnawed on her neck. While she laughed it off at the time — “I didn’t want to be a killjoy” – she says that the experience was “deeply upsetting.”

“I had been sexually assaulted before, and my response wasn’t the same but it was of a kind: I got the clammy hands, the glossing over of everything. It was a trauma response,” she says. Her companions, however, laughed it off. “He is such a figurehead,” she says. “He is the public face of porn, for better or worse, that people will just let him do his thing.”

This was a common thread throughout the interviews Rolling Stone conducted with women who alleged they had been harassed or sexually assaulted by Jeremy: Although they felt at best uncomfortable and at worst violated by his behavior, they felt they could not speak out against him, let alone press charges, as a result of his reputation in the industry. Even in the post-Weinstein era, where the reputations of prominent men are toppling like dominoes, Ron Jeremy is perhaps one of the few men on the planet from whom sexually deviant behavior is not only tolerated but expected. Ironically, his detractors say, his reputation in this regard has only served to protect him.

“I don’t fear him costing me work. He’s not in a position of power,” says the industry veteran Julia Ann. “What is more fearful to me and more upsetting to me is me saying something and everyone looking at me and going, ‘But that’s Ron.'”

Julia Ann says that in 2011, she, Jeremy and a few other adult performers were making a personal appearance at Hedonism II, a clothing-optional resort in Negril, Jamaica. She invited Jeremy to her hotel room because she needed him to bring her his signed 8’10’ headshots to fill gift bags for guests.

“He proceeded to tell me that I needed a leg massage and I was like, ‘Actually, I don’t,'” she says. “He was like, ‘Yeah, you do. Let me massage your legs.’ So he tried to push me down on my bed and grab at my legs.”

At that point, Julia Ann says, she panicked and kicked him out of her room. “I felt in that moment I was not being heard, and I was continuing to be grabbed at and pushed,” she says.

Shortly afterward, Julia Ann told Sean Michaels, the adult performer who arranged the trip, that Jeremy had tried to force a massage on her in her hotel room. Michaels confirms having a conversation with Julia Ann about the alleged attempted assault while in Jamaica: “She said something happened with him and she didn’t feel comfortable with him being there. I said, ‘Hey, what do you wanna do? How do you wanna handle it?” Michaels also says he spoke to Jeremy about it afterward, who said he and Julia Ann had just been talking in her hotel room before she asked him to leave.

Aside from speaking to Michaels and a few close friends, Julia Ann says she never spoke out about it until now.

“I saw me going into a police station and saying, ‘I want to file a report,’ and it’d be like, ‘The Hedgehog?'” she says. “It’s a joke. I don’t feel like it would be taken seriously at all. I just wanted it to go away fast.

“Who are you telling?” she adds, her voice becoming brittle and emotional. “People who already know?”

When asked for comment on this incident, Jeremy responded by saying that it was a non-issue. “Someone claimed that in Hedonism in Jamaica, which is a nudist swingers resort, I tried to massage their leg years ago?” he writes. “Why is this even in an article?”

Julia Ann alleges that Jeremy forcibly tried to touch her in a hotel room in Jamaica. Ethan Miller/Getty

Since suffering a heart attack in 2013, Jeremy primarily shoots cameos in low-budget mainstream films and TV shows, as well as the occasional non-sexual role in pornographic features. He mostly makes appearances at fan conventions and expos, where even his fellow performers say he is still considered a top draw.

In response to the allegations that he uses his appearances at conventions as a justification for groping, Jeremy writes: “If anyone was ever made to feel uncomfortable by ANY of our interactions, I’m deeply sorry. That was never my intention and it breaks my heart in half.” Yet he also points out that fans wait in line to get an autograph from a legendarily crude, loud-mouthed, ribald porn star, and that’s exactly what they get.

“I hope that everyone reading this keeps in mind that I do tons of these conventions and adult signings,” he says. “I take pictures with about 500,000 people each all over the world and have every year, for 40 years. These touching complaints are the exact same thing everyone else stood in line for. They couldn’t be happier.”

Additionally, directors who have worked with Jeremy in the years following his performer heyday say they had no idea that Jeremy was alleged to have done anything improper. Axel Braun, a top porn director who has cast Jeremy in a number of his films, says he has known Jeremy for 28 years and has a hard time viewing him as a sexual predator, and he has never witnessed him doing anything improper on set. “Is he a rapist? I don’t believe it,” he says. “Is he a horndog who tries to bang girls? Yes. So is 99 percent of the [heterosexual male] population in the [adult] industry.”

Jim Powers, who has directed Jeremy in a number of his movies and served as his cameraman in the 1990s, was even harsher in his view of the allegations against him, deeming them “a ridiculous witch hunt.” “Here’s my feeling on all these allegations: You got this whole thing going on Weinstein, people jumping on the bandwagon,” he says.

While he acknowledges that Jeremy is “flirty,” he says such behavior is extremely common on pornographic film sets, and is an integral part of Jeremy’s brand. “Ronny has been the harmless face of porno for years now,” he says. “His whole thing is sitting there posing with girls, being that perverted guy. Ronny has never tried to rape a girl. All a girl has to say is, ‘Hey, back off, Ronny,’ and it ends.”

In addition to appearances in low-budget mainstream films and pornographic features, Jeremy lends his name to various brands, including a line of spirits such as Ron de Jeremy rum and Hedgehog Gin. He also continues to make public appearances at clubs and awards shows, both in the industry and out, and regularly gives interviews to mainstream reporters about industry issues. Last January, he even hosted the XBIZ Awards, the awards show for one of the industry’s largest trade publications.

“I’ve known Ron to be a gentle soul, someone who’s lived a life of porn celebrity for decades,” Alec Helmy, the founder and publisher of XBIZ, said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “The reality is, for a porn star to be touchy-feely with fans at trade shows is common. Ron is known to partake in such behavior, but with the consent of his fans. He’s a porn icon and kind of like a rock star.”

By all accounts, Jeremy relishes his role as a spokesperson for the industry and de facto mainstream media liaison. As a not particularly attractive older man in an insular, highly marginalized, highly stigmatized community, he’s been elected a president of the only club that would have him as a member, and he doesn’t seem particularly keen on relinquishing that position anytime soon. But thanks to what some of his colleagues allege is at best a disregard for the rules of consent, and at worst a pattern of sexually predatory behavior, his time in that role may have run its course.

“The industry doesn’t need Ron anymore,” says Taylor. “[He] just sells tickets to expos and goes to sex toy openings and has his rum. But I don’t think we need him. He can find his happiness somewhere else. But not in the industry.”

• • •

Ron Jeremy’s Full Statement: Let me first say, that I’m fully in support of the women and men who have been coming forward about being sexually assaulted. These real predators need to be taken down. My reputation is currently being smeared by these old allegations that have already been investigated and dismissed. However, I understand how social change works, and if my reputation has to get a bit tarnished along the way for the better treatment of women, and men, so be it. I will be there to support all people, men and women, that have bravely come forward to attack this systemic problem.

As for the allegations against me, these allegations have been online and in print for quite sometime. This is not new or breaking news. I’m shocked you guys are picking this up after it’s been reported on over and over by other publications and has been proven over and over to be false.

I have never and would never rape anyone. All serious allegations have been investigated by police and dismissed by judges, as have most of the accusations of “Groping”. I have never been charged nor spent one day in court for any of this. And these are old allegations. Check, Anything about me appearing in court or in jail, is public record. I was only arrested 20 years ago when I was fighting for Freedom Of Speech with Hal Freeman. The police who looked into the groping charges have always said that they watch the video from the event or whatever and that I did nothing wrong or illegal. They then ask if I want to press charges against The people making false accusations. I never have.

As for the charges of Groping, I say yes, I AM A GROPER. And by groper, I mean I get paid to show up to these shows, events, and photo shoots and touch the people and they touch me. I’m not the young stud I was, but I still draw a crowd. And we are talking about things that are within reason, in front of police officer’s and security that are always there as well as the tons of cameras And the general public. But seriously, if you were going to be around Ron Jeremy, wouldn’t you assume that I’d be a little bit touchy Feely? Yes. This is what I do for a living. I am not Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Weinstein, or Cosby.

For over 40 years fans and fellow performers pay money and wait in long lines to meet me. They want autographs, pictures, to flirt with me, physically grab me in different areas (usually my clothed penis), they ask me to touch them and many ask to have me sign their boobs. When I take photos with fans and other performers at these conventions, signings or events, I do sometimes kiss people on the lips or the cheek, sign boobs or whatever they want. There is “put on” flirting and touching for the photos. This is exactly what people pay me for at conventions. The female performers flirt and touch too. It’s what we do. If you watch these videos that Ginger Banks put out of me “groping,” you see that everyone in the videos is laughing and “groping” too. That I’m not running up to them, they come to me.

If anyone was ever made to feel uncomfortable by ANY of our interactions, I’m deeply sorry. That was never my intention and it breaks my heart in half.

I hope that everyone reading this keeps in mind that I do tons of these conventions and adult signings. I take pictures with about 500,000 people each all over the world and have every year, for 40 years. These touching complaints are the exact same thing everyone else stood in line for. They couldn’t be happier.

I have never raped anyone. If anyone continues those claims, that is defamation. I will sue them in court.

I’m not saying that I never met these people or interacted with them. I don’t remember most of them, how could I? I may have seen hundreds people on those days. A girl said that I took her into a back room at a convention? Now this I remember. No one pushed anyone anywhere, she and a girl friend of hers asked if they could come in to the back tent with me. “Back room” was actually a small tent where the performers went to relax and eat crafty. There were seven other people in the small tent including security guard. And we took some sexy photos with each other as people looked on or looked at their phones. If I did anything wrong, that security guard who works for the convention, would have taken me down and called the police. And someone claimed that in hedonism in Jamaica, which is a nudist swingers resort, I tried to massage their leg years ago? Why is this even in an article?

I am very happy that the scum bags of the earth are being taken down. They deserve it. But these allegations are pure lies or buyers remorse. In 40 years, I’ve never been punched by a boyfriend or anyone ever.

I have been heartbroken over these allegations. Not because it affects me or my business, I can take that, but because they are lies and there are actual women and men out there Who have been victims of serious sexual assault, and so on, that are trying to get their voices heard.

Again, It does bother me that there might be women out there that had some buyers remorse after our interactions. But I did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary for these conventions or events. These events are supposed to be a fun time. That video that Ginger Banks made looks like a pro Ron Jeremy video if you turn off the sound. Everyone in the videos is having fun with me.

This really is a non-story. However I’m glad I had a chance to speak my side. – Ron Jeremy

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samiam03x · 7 years ago

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The Conversion Rate Conundrum: Common Mistakes and What to Do Instead

In real estate, the axiom is location, location, location. It’s first and foremost. The number one consideration.

For your digital efforts – email, web pages, eCommerce platforms – an argument could be made for a few different ones: search engine optimization (SEO), the user experience (UX), conversion rate optimization (CRO), or perhaps something else entirely.

Ask five experts and you’ll probably end up with five different answers. But what’s really the end goal? Why are you doing whatever it is you’re doing?

Conversion, conversion, conversion.

Whether that means signing up, downloading, opting in, subscribing, or purchasing, you want your target to do something. Ultimately, everything else should be assisting that one objective.

With apologies to Meghan Trainor, I’m going to suggest it’s all about that CRO. SEO is obviously necessary, but traffic alone is meaningless. And the UX? A happy and satisfied user is imperative, but try paying your rent with one.

So, at the risk of drawing the wrath of the SEO and UX camps, they both fall under the CRO umbrella (they’re all very, very important, though). But – and this is a big but – it’s a massive mistake to believe that SEO and/or UX alone will do much for your CVR.

Start with the end in mind. You need to focus on specific ways to improve your conversion rate.

CRO: An Uphill Battle

Consider this: a couple of years ago, 80% left a site without doing anything. No conversion. That figure is up to 96% in 2017. The global average CVR of online shoppers early this year was 2.48%. Those stats are a bit scary.

The good news? With numbers like that, things can only get better. It just takes time, effort, and a systematic, active approach.

But don’t fall victim to these traps, pitfalls, and mistakes.

Your Mistake: Focusing On the Wrong Things

Quick question: would you rather have something beautiful, or something functional? Would you rather be clever, or understood?

I’ll be blunt…beautiful things are nice, but functional things are essential. And that goes double for your email marketing, website, eCommerce portal, or app.

And clever? Don’t get me started. Clever headlines and subject lines don’t mean a thing if no one clicks or opens them. Consumers want to know what it’s about immediately. They don’t want to have to guess or click or open before finding out (and most won’t anyway).

Be functional. Be clear. Full stop.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good looking website. Nor should your headline be boring and the first dull thing that pops into your head. Quite the contrary. But if you’re putting beauty over function and cleverness over clarity, you’re doing it wrong.

A breathtaking site that’s confusing and awkward to navigate but bursting with clever puns, wordplay, and double entendres may win you fans, but few or no conversions. Which do you want?

Do this instead…

Put your customers first. Consider their wants and needs. Use every available data source – analytics (Kissmetrics goes much deeper than Google…just sayin’), industry studies, surveys, polls, etc. – to identify and create detailed buyer personas. Then, create a site for them.

But don’t stop there. Once you have it where you think it should be, have others take it out for a spin. Try an impartial and third-party service like UserTesting to get invaluable video of real people using your site. Where did it fail them? Take that insight and tweak.

Next, turn to the old standby: A/B testing. You’d be surprised by the big results you can get from tiny changes. Use a testing tool like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer to confirm your theories about colors, placement, copy, design, images, and more.

One site saw a conversion lift of 304% simply by moving the CTA button from above-the-fold to below it.

Don’t make it look pretty. Make it practical.

Having said that, a cheap, outdated design with grainy stock photos isn’t going to cut it, either. People won’t trust it – or you – and if they don’t believe you’re trustworthy, they won’t convert. Keep your design clean and modern, and use high quality images of your products and people.

Finally, always opt for clear – Get Your Free Trial – over clever – Click or I Kill This Puppy.

Your Mistake: You’re Targeting Just One Platform

Desktop. Tablet. Mobile. Which one is most important?

It’s a trick question. You’ve no doubt heard a lot about the increasing role of mobile devices when it comes to the online world. Chances are virtually everyone around you is staring at their smartphone screen.

Google announced a change to its algorithm in mid-2015 that made mobile-readiness a ranking factor. Since then, more people access the internet on a mobile device than a desktop computer.

Like any good webmaster, you’ve dutifully checked the mobile-friendly tool and made sure your pages passed the mobile test. Kudos.

But the desktop is not dead. Far from it.

Image Source

More people shop weekly online using their desktop than a mobile phone, and the same number shop daily using both.

Traditional desktop computers still boast a higher conversion rate than both tablets and mobile phones. In fact, desktops had a CVR that was more than 3x higher than smartphones for American shoppers in 2016 (3.55% vs 1.15% respectively).

Mobile at the expense of desktop? Bad idea.

So how about desktop over mobile?

We’ve already mentioned that more people head online using a mobile device than desktop computers, so you’d be waving goodbye to a huge chunk of potential.

And when it comes to your local market, you’re missing out if your platform isn’t mobile-ready. More local searches result in a purchase when made on a smartphone than those made on a desktop (78% vs 61% respectively).

Finally, 59% of smartphone users expect a website to be mobile-friendly and feel frustrated when it’s not. They’ll leave and likely never return.

No mobile? No way.

Image Source

Do this instead…

The solution should be obvious. Desktop or mobile? You need both. And tablets, too. Create a website or portal that looks and functions equally well on all three, and you’re ahead of the curve.

In big markets like the United States, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom, the vast majority are multi-platform people.

Image Source

Try a tool like Screenfly or WhatIsMyScreenResolution to see for yourself. Is everything legible? Are the buttons and links spread out and big enough to be easily tapped on a touchscreen? Do you use more scrolling than clicking?

Google recommends you use a responsive site design rather than dynamic content or a separate mobile URL. And it’s best to follow their advice. Of course, there’s a lot more to mobile optimization, but this is enough to get you started.

The key takeaway: Don’t sacrifice one for the other. Design and optimize for desktop, tablet, and mobile, and watch that CVR head north.

Your Mistake: You Don’t Care About Speed

This can’t get any simpler: speed matters. For your customers and the search engines. So be fast.

As you beef your site up with tools, HD images, videos, and more, your speed suffers. If you believe that a practical, responsive site and good products are enough, you’re wrong. Why?

Because if your page takes too long to load, they’ll leave before even experiencing any of that.

Nearly half of web users expect a page to load in under 2 seconds, and 79% won’t return to a site with performance issues like slow load times.

As much as 83% of users expect a page to load in under 3 seconds, and a 1 second improvement in your load time can produce a 7% increase in conversions. That’s right.

The godfather of eCommerce – Amazon – experiences a 1% loss in revenue for every 100ms delay…that’s just one-tenth of a second.

Do this instead…

Care about speed and load time. A lot. Actively work to make your pages faster and more streamlined.

Limit the number of plugins you use

Compress images with a service like TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only)

Keep the amount of analytics and tracking codes to a minimum

Upgrade your hosting provider. HostGator and InMotion are two that consistently sit at the top of speed rankings.

Optimize for and enable browser caching

Reduce the number of redirects

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

Turn on Gzip compression

Test, tweak, and optimize frequently using PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix

Google suggests that your site take no more than 2-3 seconds to load. At most. How do you measure up?

There are other mistakes that negatively affect your CVR: you give up too easily (solution: retargeting, cart abandonment emails, etc.), no social proof (solution: add social proof), weak call-to-action (solution: make it active, make it clear, test, and optimize), and more.

Check out some of the great tutorials by Neil Patel, Glide, Kissmetrics, and HubSpot if you want to dig deeper and go further. In the meantime, find and fix these three mistakes to shift your CRO into overdrive.

Because online, it’s conversion, conversion, conversion.

About the Author: Daniel Kohn is the CEO and co-founder of SmartMail, a company that helps E-commerce stores and online retailers increase sales, average order value, and lifetime customer value through email. Download SmartMail’s 4 highest converting email templates to help jumpstart your E-commerce email marketing program.

http://ift.tt/2i6SHJb from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2vEgo02 via Youtube

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evodex · 7 years ago

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14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I

Everest Base Camp Trek

Kathmandu, Nepal

pic credit- Meera Prashant (Do not miss spotting Kunthal in the blue shirt who has climbed Everest and is celebrity status for all aspiring climbers.)

For the ones who are reading for some inspiration in between our story you will know what the trek looks like;

pic credit

The minor difference being that we skipped Pheriche during our trek.

Day 1 — Lukla(2850)/Begin Trek/Phakding (4-6 hours)

The people in Nepal are very friendly and the Nepali kids are used to strangers. They love posing for pictures and I got a few lovely shots with them.

Loved how he was playing with his cycle.

Day 2 — Phakding to Namche Bazaar(3440 mtrs) – (6-8 hours)

Meera and Me

The Dudh Kosi river in the background

We walked through villages along the Dudh Kosi river(Dudh-Milk, Kosi-River) and crossed multiple suspensions bridges. The most noteworthy was a double suspension bridge that we had to climb.

Double Suspension Bridge

Taking a halt just before we reach Namche Bazaar

pic credit: Justin Brown

P.S. You burn about 4000 calories per day, so stock up on those carbs people.

Day 3 — Acclimatisation Day At Namche

p.s. Some side effects of Diamox are that you pee a lot and might have blurry vision.

p.s. Namche Bazaar is the last place where you can shop for anything you need for your trek and the last place you will find ATMs.

The post 14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I appeared first on Maa of All Blogs.

14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I published first on http://ift.tt/2Afzj22

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evodex · 7 years ago

Text

14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I

Everest Base Camp Trek

Kathmandu, Nepal

pic credit- Meera Prashant (Do not miss spotting Kunthal in the blue shirt who has climbed Everest and is celebrity status for all aspiring climbers.)

For the ones who are reading for some inspiration in between our story you will know what the trek looks like;

pic credit

The minor difference being that we skipped Pheriche during our trek.

Day 1 — Lukla(2850)/Begin Trek/Phakding (4-6 hours)

The people in Nepal are very friendly and the Nepali kids are used to strangers. They love posing for pictures and I got a few lovely shots with them.

Loved how he was playing with his cycle.

Day 2 — Phakding to Namche Bazaar(3440 mtrs) – (6-8 hours)

Meera and Me

The Dudh Kosi river in the background

We walked through villages along the Dudh Kosi river(Dudh-Milk, Kosi-River) and crossed multiple suspensions bridges. The most noteworthy was a double suspension bridge that we had to climb.

Double Suspension Bridge

Taking a halt just before we reach Namche Bazaar

pic credit: Justin Brown

P.S. You burn about 4000 calories per day, so stock up on those carbs people.

Day 3 — Acclimatisation Day At Namche

p.s. Some side effects of Diamox are that you pee a lot and might have blurry vision.

p.s. Namche Bazaar is the last place where you can shop for anything you need for your trek and the last place you will find ATMs.

The post 14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I appeared first on Maa of All Blogs.

14 days of Everest Base Camp: Pages From My Travel Journal I published first on http://ift.tt/2Afzj22

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