#through years of trading ribbons at Cons

[crinkle-eyed-boo]

hiii !! the bracelets you made look so good !! if you don't mind me asking where did you get your beads from? 🥰🥰

Hiiiii!

I got my starter set on Amazon and then I went to Michael's to supplement the colors once I really got into it. I also like these letter blocks the best.

I use this string which you can get at most craft stores. I find that the 1.0 mm weight is sturdiest but can still be used with smaller beads. I also put a dot of jewelry glue on the knot to really make it sturdy.

I'm starting to mix it up more with bead sizes. The ones I linked are called pony beads, but I just ordered some smaller glass seed beads now that I feel confident in my bracelet skills.

I just wanted to be PREPARED cause people had them at Louis' shows last summer and I COVETED them, and you would run into people who were super nice and willing to just give them away. But it's nice to trade and I look down at them and smile and think of the whole fandom experience, you know?

[beatnicksellar]

Marda Loophole: TPB: Issues #7-12

Issue #7 – The Exodus Then: Mada opened her eyes to the inhuman sights and sounds of war Half-men strewn about Bramshott the RCAMC tent soaked in red gore Through the horror she saw her scarecrow the one she treated before Minus a leg he was alive and that was enough to lift her off of the floor Now: Mada opens her eyes to the fuzzy sight of 4 purple children overhead Siphoning energy from a radiant boulder their chant stirs her from the dead A tingle in her toes and sour taste in her mouth the Hole is as Dennis said He labours nearby as the kids stitch Mada together with amethyst thread With the dulling drone done the rock bathes everyone in its immortal hue The old wendigo’s cell unlocks in the uproar allowing her to slip through Before Mada’s blurry eyes the frailest child’s torn from the circuit and slew She can hear the rapacious wendigo sob as she reluctantly continues to chew The plaster walls of the outbuilding begin to buckle from the stone’s potency Suddenly Pope enters the Hole and descends the staircase with much urgency The doctor’s met mid-way by the limping wendigo who embraces him completely Mesmerising him with her wildfire eyes she gladly detaches his loins from his body Dennis returns to find the Hole in shambles with Dot eaten and Dr. Pope screaming He disconnects the kids and requests that Mada give the boys’ lives a new meaning One of the boys grabs a ledger while the other two grip Mada and they begin fleeing Dennis and the wendigo clash by the emitting mound soon buried under the ceiling South Calgary is silent for the first time since the 33 soldiers were secretly dosed But without the hum to calm them they thrashed 33 Avenue like a whipping post Possessed troops overturned the streetcar and chard the theater like it was toast Stiff pedestrians and sate scavengers guide Mada back to her husband Marc’s ghost She mourns over his blood-spattered prosthesis as one boy reads a shard of glass His brothers study the ledger as he peers into the sliver to see what’ll comes to pass ‘We’ll return when the streetcar does’ the scrying boy points to the upturned mass With crazed GIs loose Mada and her boys depart while a curious crow tails her ass… Issue #8 – The Wild Boys ♬♪♩♬♪♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♩♫♬♪♩♬♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♬♪♩♬♪♩ A gayageum plays notes from the concerto called Dorothea The ribbon of rhythm writhes on the airstreams over Korea Baroque tones stir the ancient visage which inspired its idea Eddying over the ocean to hover above a 33rd avenue pizzeria ♬♪♩♬♪♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♩♫♬♪♩♬♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♬♪♩♬♪♩♫ The melody meanders up 20th street pausing at its composer Three long-haired boys that look 10 but are very much older Standing before Currie Barracks Condo they are of one mourner The unrelated triplets commiserate over their deceased sister ‘I cannot feel her in there’ John the empath of the family confirms ‘I cannot reach her’ Robert retorts ‘all I hear is Dennis and worms’ Scryer James perceives future events but cannot grasp their terms ‘All I see is that the stone has been scattering its ill will like germs’ Treating the condo as if a gravestone they pay respect to her spirit With unkempt heads down the trinity are subdued for a moment Each recalls Dot, the Hole, the old woman then all begin to fidget John pulls a music sheet out of his shorts and whistles a snippet ♬♪♩♬♪♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♩♫♬♪♩♬♩♫♪♩♫♩♬♪♬♪♩♬♪♩♫♪♬ James and Robert join him in his performance of Dorothea No. 4 When done John tosses the concerto down onto the sewer floor As they skate through the Loop Mada’s name hangs in every store Coffee shops hum with anticipation over the 70-year-old folklore Around the corner of 35th avenue is where a hungry entity stalks A hefty shadow cast from a vacant lot that limps wherever it walks The boys are too distracted to notice the relic from Pandora’s Box Because a fireball is about to knock’em out of their graphic socksIssue #9 – The Vacant LotYellow barricades protect the rich soil within the vacant lotThough ideal for growth it’s contaminated by junkyard rot Comparable to the toxin that comprises Hausis’ blood clot An

inherit gift from her father and the affects it has wrought Over a century old she has been scarred twice by the stoneAs well Hausis has been forced out of more than one homeFrom her log cabin to that school and finally the catacomb A hole she fled full of a plum, revenge and astral syndrome Dark energy leached into her, those boys and the headless one Wendigo mixed with indigo and once again she was on the run But on the Rez her spirits calmed; she even adopted a grandson It was the last time she felt love as the Sixties Scoop had begun Hungry and hateful she hid her mercy and fed on colonial fears Hitchhiking Highway 16 in the 1970s she traded entrails for tears Retribution for her surrogate sisters who had began to disappear When the stone summoned her home she returned with souvenirs She settled in South Calgary and became a landlord to tasty tenants Bones buried in the vacant lot next-door while lying to their parents A cane sword to assist her limp and cutback on the slaying minutes Serrated steel dentures to masticate and absorb her preys’ essence A century old entity at last content with her damned life up until TONIGHT When her plums return assured and still ripe enough to enjoy a quick biteWhen her bone yard is deemed aseptic and police investigation is in sightHausis lunges at the wild boys only to be repelled by a nimbus of starlight… Issue #10 – The Above People CREEEAK! The tactless teenager forcefully opens the oxidized attic door In search of a white wig for her cosplay getup she stomps across the floor Rummaging through containers she finds something unusual in a drawer A thirteen-year-old letter that when opened clarifies exactly who it is for ‘Aline: It’s with regret and sadness that I write this letter to my daughter’ ‘I had to go to a dangerous place so I left you to be raised by your father’ ‘I never stopped loving you or dreaming of the day we would be together’ ‘When you are ready to meet amass juniper twigs and a magpie feather’ Elated to see her mislaid mother Aline flees the loft in her space-opera costume She sprints across 35 Avenue towards a vacant lot shrouded by juniper in bloom Ripping off a bouquet Aline is unaware that just beyond bodies are being exhumed She spots a pudgy magpie perched on the yellow barricade and plucks at its plume Clutching the vital items the Big Dipper shaped beauty marks on her right arm glows FWOOOOM! A blinding white light descends from overhead lifting her off of her toes Aline suddenly finds herself in a melancholy landscape of stars, clouds and shadows Before her sit 2 enormous Above People who enquire as to her odd-looking clothes ‘It’s for Comic-con’ she roars removing the wig ‘who’re you and where’s my mom’ Sun God laughs as Moon Goddess speaks: ‘We see that you were raise with aplomb’ The electric entities sizzle and pop as they struggle to alleviate Aline’s many qualms ‘Your father fell in love with our granddaughter: the Morning Star he wished upon’ ‘But she had to return to Sky-Country to rid it of the evil her mother had let loose’ Mother Moon details how Feather Woman disobeyed and iniquity was introduced ‘She moved the giant turnip that which protects our portal because she was obtuse’ Mother Moon adds she encased the dummy in indigo stone and made her vamoose That is the past but the portal remains open for dark matter to infest Sky-Country The same stuff brought down with the stone when it crashed in the 19th century Aline accuses her great-grandparents of killing her kin and for spreading villainy The Gods giggle at the allegation clarifying Feather Woman merely has an injury More gen is traded and a deal is struck: if Aline fixes the portal all will be forgiven Above People will help find the Morning Star and teach Aline of her nuclear fusion KRA-KOOM! A fiery comet crashes and Aline emerges from impact like a magician Gazing at the wild boys she states ‘You dudes are my gran and we have a mission’… Issue #11 – The Penultimate Sequential squares spread over an infinitude of glittering stars Panels parted by gutters spanning

centuries between the bars A billboard advertises Marc and Mada’s forthcoming memoirs Christened Marda; Loop denotes the superannuated streetcar Inset in the ad is a shot of Magpie gnawing on a decayed thumb bone Balanced on the sign she spots a bird below who was once well known Magpie cries: ‘Ain’t seen you since you left with THAT there veiled crone’ Alit next to Magpie Crow recalls his ghastly exploits beyond the stone ‘It was Hell’ he croaks ‘The screaming, the silence, the suicide attempts’ ‘It took HER forever to bond with THOSE boys and get over her regrets’ ‘Once she did’ Crow pauses ‘she spearheaded some tantalizing events’ Led by the ledger and scryed images they tracked the fiery GIs’ contempt While 7 indigo infected ones enlisted for Korea 26 settled in Forest City An innocuous epithet for somewhere death stalked the streets regularly Enclosed by thickets it’s where butchers would conceal a mutilated body ‘The Serial Killer Capital’ Crow yelps ‘We lured them out during the 1960s’ Crow clarifies that when the GIs moved there each become a major player: Mad Slasher, Bedroom Strangler, Balcony Killer + the Chambermaid Slayer Mada the bait, Crow the lookout, and 3 wild boys unified became the healer ‘In the forest we’d draw out the purple poison leaving the mortals tamer’ Mada’s nursing background afforded them a home and a baby-grand piano She worked while under pseudonyms the boys penned novels & concertos ‘Forest City was safe and we had obtained almost all of that fugitive indigo’ ‘Almost’ Crow echoed ‘We left for Korea in ‘81 on a plane from Toronto’ Magpie squawks sceptically: ‘And then miraculously back for the 70th Anniversary’ {Had it been that long?} the crone ponders {Why did they whitewash my tragedy?} The veiled woman below the advert grimaces then utters anachronistic profanity Stalwart in stance she shudders when the #7 rolls by renewed for the pageantry… Issue #12 – Giant-Size Finale The fixed indigo stone pulsates expelling the remnants of its space toxin Pumped into the faucets of 22 occupants of the new condo atop its coffin Dragging fingers thru mauve hair they’re rapt by the stone’s dim doctrine They riot inside the structure while outside Mada and her wild boys lock in ‘Try it again’ the costumed Aline guides from inside the infinite sealed loop She has juniper and feather in hand yet something is off within their group ‘That thing’s teeing me off’ Mada breaks from the ring and sits on the stoop The rebuilt #7 streetcar gleams in the parking lot next to an effigy of troops Suddenly…a service door opens and the old wendigo limps out of the edifice ‘You’ Hausis growls at Aline ‘You’re relations with that Metis bastard Dennis’ Mada perks up at the name of the man who inadvertently made her endless ‘Are you?’ Mada asks ‘She sure is’ Hausis sniffs ‘and it’s making me ravenous’ Incensed Mada bares the jagged indigo scar spanning the length of her collar ‘Dennis did this’ she states ‘and orchestrated the 1950 South Calgary slaughter’ Aline has entirely no clue as to what occurred because of her great-grandfather And before Mada can educate her the group is spotted by a police helicopter ‘Freeze Ms. Cranmer’ a voice booms as a squad car pulls up with guns drawn Hausis has been hiding since police uncovered the bodies she had feasted on Clotheslined and cuffed the 145-year-old Cree woman is beaten with a baton Aline, Mada and wild boys watch in horror as Hausis is tenderized like carrion The wild child named Robert tugs at Aline’s skirt pointing at the departing cop car ‘Dot’ the 80-year-old kid chirps ‘The hungry lady has carried our sister’s soul so far’ Mada is not their 4th because it is the frail child Hausis mauled like a chocolate bar ‘We need that granny back’ Aline barks at Mada who turns away rubbing her scar Aline suggests they take the idle #7 and propel it with a trick she has just learned ‘Can I borrow a feather from your crow?’ she asks of Mada who still feels scorned Crow leaves Magpie atop the streetlamp landing beside Aline his feathers formed ‘I am not getting on that ’

Mada repeats just as the crazed tenants emerge armed KRA-KOOM! The refurbished #7 streetcar rockets down 20th street like a fireball Crow and Magpie try to slow the tenants’ progress to the 33rd avenue mini-mall Meanwhile the #7 zips down the parade route until it hits the cruiser then a wall Everyone on the #7 is unscathed and so too is Hausis who’s eating a cop’s eyeball Magpie and Crow flutter in to warn everyone of the approaching horde of tenants The wild boys jump into action with a hand out for Hausis who sees it as penance ‘Doesn’t make me a plum’ she gripes grasping John’s hand as if she is pregnant As the 4 siblings unite clouds appear and a powerful deluge forms within minutes The first drop hits as the vicious throng reaches Marda Loop then the sky cries The drenched tenants lose their momentum as the mauve washes over their eyes The rain relents as does the horde but Mada’s inner ire cannot be overemphasized The wild boys embrace Hausis and in turn Dot whose soul has now been reprisedOnlookers have gathered at the site sad to see there’s no anniversary to reminisce Crow and Magpie peck at the injured police officers as Aline stares into the abyss She apologizes to Mada for her relative’s actions but asks for her not to be remiss ‘We cannot change the past’ she points out ‘But if you help us now we can fix this’The wendigo, the crone, the wild boys, the star-child and the scavengers all return Loitering outside of the Currie Barracks condo building hashing out their concerns Hausis has subsisted with the stone while in exile so she knows where it’s interned In the bowels of the sub-basement they find the ancient rock fading in a slow burn John, James and Robert the perpetual 10-year-olds encircle Aline and embrace her Hausis jeers as the boys kiss their kin then whisper in Mada’s ear: Goodbye Mother The siblings start siphoning the stone’s essence back; Aline waves Magpie’s feather Hausis and the boys convert to stardust they swirl around the stone and then enter Aline and Mada escape the building as the boulder flies backwards thru the nexus Its trajectory bearing straight for Sky-Country where it will rid the land of sepsis The portal is sealed and The Above People welcome Feather Woman and Hausis Back in South Calgary Mada stands in the quiet rubble no longer feeling headless ‘Wanna meet my dad?’ Aline asks of her lithe friend who nods producing a smile Mada calls Crow but he and Magpie are stardust in a constellation of their profile Unveiled Mada and neophyte Aline walk towards a rainbow after their long trial As both fade over the hill stardust diffuses and floats to somewhere worthwhile An End

[deathduty]

Chill! At the Sudoku || Alain & Deirdre

Alain and Deirdre enjoy the wonders of Sudoku together! Except they’re in a cemetery at night and Alain hates Deirdre’s “wanting to see someone get eaten” guts.

Gallow’s Grove was nice, as far as cemeteries went. The feeling of death was strong, washing over Deirdre far before she even set foot inside. The urge to let her eyes roll back into blackness and see all the the cemetery had to offer was strong, but the danger of letting a man like Alain see her out-ruled it. It was more work than she bargained for, trying to see what Alain was all about; what kind of a man agreed to a thing like this, anyway? Thankfully, she didn’t have to think about it for long. Glancing up with her flashlight and Sudoku booklet, she smiled at the man as he approached. He looked like the pictures she’s seen online, though nicer in person. “I didn’t think you’d come,” she confessed, hoping the darkness hid her mischievous grin. She knew Alain wasn’t going to die, there would have been a scream out her throat if he was, but even so she delighted in all the possibilities the evening brought with it. “I thought a cemetery would be too scary for you,” she teased, snapping away from her thoughts. “Did you bring your Sudoku?”

Alain, although his eyes did not require him to use any device in order to see, was carrying a flashlight with him, to keep appearances normal. Obviously, if a vampire decided to come by and say hello, his cover would be probably blown, as he would have a lot of trouble rationalizing why he was carrying stakes and a coutelas. Oh well, the woman was rather rude, and he doubted they would get along. In fact, he only had come here to keep her alive, if he was not too late. As soon as he arrived, he looked at her from head to toe. A part of him expected her to look entirely different, considering she was probably a professional con artist, but it made sense. Only a pretty white woman could get away with this kind of bullshit. “Yet here I am,” he wondered for a moment why she was harboring such a smile on her face. This could not be good news. The hunter looked around him. Maybe she did not come alone. Still, there was nothing. His radar was silent too, which was good news, for them. “What gave you the impression that I would be scared by a cemetery ?” His eyebrows raised with false surprise. Her question had him scoff. Of course she would make people pay, and also bring their own supplies. This was ridiculous, and a part of him almost regretted coming here instead of leaving her to be torn to shreds. Yes, that was not very nice of him. Another part of him felt guilty he ever thought such a thing. No one deserved to die. “Yes, I figured that you would provide them,” rolling his eyes because he knew that he couldn’t be seen behaving poorly, the hunter pulled a sudoku book from his coat, along with a pen. “Now what?”

‘Now what’ was a good question, Deirdre really didn’t think she’d get this far. She’d hoped, of course, but like all things she hoped for, she was rightfully cautious. “Most men find cemeteries to be scary,” she added, casually flipping through her Sudoku booklet. “I figured, since you’re so old, you might want to play it safe, live what little of your years you have left in the safety and warmth of your home.” Was it odd to lure a human to a place she knew to be teeming with vampires just to watch him struggle? Maybe. Maybe it went against her carefully crafted rules, but her stay in White Crest could do with some excitement. Besides, this Alain seemed to be a little more than what he claimed, and curiosity alone propelled her forward. “I’m joking!” She added with a forced smile a moment later, “I’m happy you’re here! Doing Sudoku gets so lonely. I guess now we just do math in silence? Maybe we should trade secrets? You tell me something devastating and I’ll try my best not to turn around and share it online. Hey, do you believe in vampires?”

“Well I’m hurt. People usually think I’m younger than my age,” Alain’s eyebrow raised, a shrug followed, and he had a look around. There was no way he would sit down on a tombstone. That would be too disrespectful and he had been taught better. Her explanation that men usually were scared of cemeteries did not really convince him, but he didn’t comment on that, or on that creepy thing about enjoying the few years he had left. What the fuck was that? Who said shit like this, the hunter asked himself. She probably was trying to spook him, he figured, and so he gave her a grimace of disapproval. “And that is supposed to be worth $20?” Scoffing, he flipped through the pages of his booklet, until she started, seemingly out of the blue, mentioning vampires. Original. “Why do you ask? So you can tell people online that I believe in them? Or maybe you brought me here because you thought there would be vampires?” He raised an eyebrow at his sudoku grid, filling out a blank space.

“Can’t imagine why they’d think that,” she hummed, starting on her own Sudoku. Deirdre was seated comfortably on the gravestone of someone whose name she didn’t care to learn, one leg crossed over the other and attired in a dress that didn’t suit the grime and dirt of the cemetery. She always did delight in looking better than her surroundings; she delighted in being better in every way imaginable. “Why? You’re not having fun? Oh! Look I finished a row. Keep up, Alain.” She grinned, working through her puzzle with ease--a nonchalance she only vaguely knew was odd. “I asked just because I’m curious. I’ve heard rumor this place has a lot of them.” She filled another square. “So I thought I’d make conversation. This is what makes the experience worth twenty dollars...you get this colorful commentary!” Another square. Another row. The pen she had moved with a kind of vivacity she reserved only for Sudoku. “I don’t see you trying to make conversation here. Do you believe in vampires?”

"Me neither," she was too damn rude and part of him wondered if she should not be the one paying for other people's company. Alain glared at her as she sat down on someone's grave, blowing through his nose as if to suggest that he was just about to go and leave her to die like a piece of garbage. Why was he here again? Oh right. Because he was supposed to protect humans. Well she was a bloody demon. "Not really. I'm bored to be completed candid," he glanced down at her sudoku grid. "Should I give you a medal for doing one single row?" Rolling his eyes, again. This was going to be the worst evening he had in a while, wasn't it. Or maybe not. "You've heard well. They usually get out of their coffins when the sun has entirely vanished beyond the horizon. I wonder where they are tonight." Maybe they saw you and left, struck with terror, he almost added. No she did not deserve his sympathy. And at least he did not have to struggle about whether he should trust or not. "I do believe in vampires, and so do you, am I correct?" He had some trouble with one of the 3x3 square of his grid, and his brows furrowed as he tried to figure where he went wrong. Maybe was it his radar going on and off that disturbed him, or his questionable company…

Deirdre got the striking impression that this man wasn’t enjoying this as much as she was. If she cared at all about making humans happy, she might have apologized. She might have tried to mold herself into being better company for him. She didn’t care, and so she simply sat on the gravestone and finished off her puzzle with a saccharine grin. “Well, I’m sorry. Should I take off my clothes? Usually that spices up an evening.” She paused, glancing up at the moon above them. “I’d like a medal, I’d like a medal for a lot of things” she responded in a moment of seriousness, considering the nature of being praised silently in her head. Thoughts of medals and ribbons left her head as she glanced back down at him, lifting up her flashlight to flash it around the cemetery. He was right about one thing: where were the vampires? “I don’t believe in vampires,” she explained, “that’d be like believing in a tomato. You don’t believe in anything that’s real.” Of course, it was how she’d worded the question in the first place but she wasn’t going to comment on her motivations. “Huh, maybe the math scared them off. Vampires certainly lack a little...brain,” Deirdre spoke a little louder, hoping to anger the right kind of egotistical new vampire. “Oh, the answer for that one is six, by the way,” she pointed to a square, “and the one over there is three.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” she would find him to be less interested than he was now, the sight of bare skin leaving him completely stoic in most occasions. “You might catch a cold, however. We wouldn’t want that to happen,” he dryly went on, scribbling over a 3 to turn it into an 8. Alain could tell from a tone that she thought so highly of herself that she probably would have accepted a medal for breathing. Well, she certainly was not raised in the same kind of household as him. Spoiled brat, he thought to himself, only lifting his eyes because his radar was back on, and this time not switching back off. “I would not bet on that. You are thinking zombies,” technically spawns were as dumb as a doornail, but that should not mean that they weren’t dangerous. “That’s great, but I think you’ve managed to draw their attention toward you,” a couple of Vampires along with a handful of spawns were approaching the pair, and Alain saw himself stand up and shove Deirdre off her tombstone in order to get her behind him. “Do you think you could run?” His voice now a whisper, the hunter glanced around, looking for more of these things.

Deirdre pouted. Alain was no fun, and she’d finished her Sudoku a while ago. He wasn’t being horribly maimed, and she couldn’t even get to bask in visions of death when she wanted it. Now he was denying her a chance for nudity? Humans could be so boring. At the very least he could have indulged that for her. “Oh, I don’t get cold…” she sighed wearily, about one more exaggerated display of annoyance away from actually fainting. “Any undead creature is idiotic. Zombies and the other twenty kinds of vampires, or whatever.” She sighed, again, clearly growing increasingly bored until Alain jolted up, shoving her aside. At that, Deirdre smirked, normal humans didn’t put themselves between vampires---normal humans wouldn’t be able to notice them in the dark, anyway. She’d felt the chill of them minutes ago, the only thing she was surprised about was being shoved. “Oh, I knew it!” she taunted back, “no bloody idiot comes to a cemetery at night unless he wants to see boobs or knows how to stake a vampire.” Alain wouldn’t die today, that much she knew. Those creatures were a different story, however, and it was one she was keen on witnessing. “Run and miss watching those things die?” she whispered back, happy to sit back and watch as the creatures of the night pulled closer to them. She might not have thought humans were particularly useful, and she might not have agreed with ‘slayers’, but she didn’t like the undead much---for obvious reasons. What was a little death to her, anyway?

“ Why ? Because you are dead inside?” Alain’s eyebrows raised and his eyes rolled so high he could have been able to tell which were the stars visible in the sky tonight. She was not making any sense. First she did not believe in vampires, and now she was aware that there were many kinds, and that most of them were stupid. Full of shit, she was. “Will you shut your goddamn mouth? Nothing useful as gotten out of it since the minute I got here,” even if he whispered those words, they came out as harsh. He did not make it an habit of getting angry, but his last nerve had been hit right now. Who the hell did she think she was, luring people into coming here so they could get killed by vampires ? Was she working with them? She spoke again and his hypothesis fell into a puddle. Nope, not helping them. A strong taste for the macabre, probably. Still, she had something fucked up about her, and it rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe he could find time to discuss it later, for now, he had to get rid of them. His jaw still clenched with annoyance, he asked : “What were you going to do against these had I been one of those losers looking for nudity ?” He was extremely upset that she thought for a second that he was this kind of person, then, did he really care about her opinion? “Do you even know how to defend yourself?” Probably not. And the first spawn was already rushing toward them. The hunter felt the sting of its claw on his shoulder and grunted as he swung his own hand toward that creature’s neck, stabbing and cutting the head off with the short sword. Rolling his wounded shoulder to make sure it was okay, Alain swiped his foot across the pile of ash, and gave a look at the rest of them, a big smile on his face. “Don’t keep me waiting like that, bring it on.”

“Actually, yes! I am dead on the inside,” Deirdre retorted, whatever feeling that she got that this guy hated was quickly replaced with the fact that he definitely did. Oh well, she wasn’t here to make friends. And certainly not with the ‘kills vampires’ kind. As he fought, Deirdre flipped calmly through her Sudoku booklet, trying to find another puzzle to do in the meantime. “I came prepared,” Deirdre smiling, filling out a row and then a column. Deirdre wasn’t the best fighter, but it really didn’t matter with her abilities...or the obvious fact that when it came to the undead, the fast-beating heart of a human was the more alluring target than hers. Even now, the creatures found themselves more enticed by lightly wounded Alain--the scent of his blood no doubt permeating through heavy night air. “Yeah, bring it on,” she half-cheered, half-yawned, not bothering to look up from her puzzle. Another box filled out. Then a row. She did have her knife with her (never mind where she kept it when the only thing she’d worn was a jacket and a dress) she could help, but Alain seemed capable enough. A column. Another row. She was done the puzzle. “Are you done yet, Alain? I need a ride.”

"Elle va fermer sa putain de gueule?" Was he really above murdering someone he shouldn't be? Heh, he had done it before. And if he threw a spawn at her, was he truly responsible for what would follow? He would not feel responsible. Non. Alain smiled to himself, kicking away the beast and turning to check on her briefly. Was she doing more puzzles? His cheek stung as he was hit in the face by that same spawn he shove away. Well that would teach him. His blood felt warm against his cheek, dripping from the shallow cut. Great. Alright, he was done caring for this woman. Slashing open the spawn's abdomen, he ignored the creature's shriek and instead switched for the stake (he'd never been to fond of those but they could come in handy) pushing it under the flesh until he only had dust left in his hands. Another spawn came at him and another, and they found the same fate, again and again, and again. The two higher vampires had stayed behind, expecting, he assumed, that spawns would do their dirty work for them. The advantage with those vampires who still had their wits, was that they usually thought themselves to be really clever, when really, they were usually average and garbage when it came to strategy. This would not take too long. Then he would deal with that woman.

Fortunately for Alain, Deirdre’s French wasn’t what it used to be. Though she didn’t guess he was saying anything nice. She hadn’t led him here to die (well, she had in some way, the fact that he wasn’t going to was a disappointment she hid poorly) and she thought that might have made some sort of a difference to him. Bored, she glanced up in time to watch his face get slashed, hissing out sympathy for him. She didn’t notice the two vampires approaching around her sides, all feelings washed out by the general sense of death around her. With a growl, they tore the puzzle book from her hands and bared fangs she didn’t care for. Somehow, she got the impression that swinging around her knife wasn’t going to make them go away. “Cover your ears, Alain,” she called out, not bothering to check if he had. With the same practiced ease she’d been filling out puzzles, she opened her mouth and wailed. Stunned into fear, the vampires stumbled backwards before scrambling up to run away. “Not so hard,” she turned to the hunter, “If it’s any consolation here, I’m not a fan of the undead either.” She dug into her pockets and pulled out a handkerchief, holding it out and pointing to his cheek. “Those vampires did steal my Sudoku book so I do expect to be compensated, though.” Even though this was all her idea.

Alain had not noticed that they had taken an interest in Deirdre. Of course someone who was not waving a sword and a stake around probably was more interesting. They must have known that he would make a very poor meal. If he could have been satisfied to see that damn sudoku booklet taken away from her, this was not the case. His instinct still told him that he should have been protecting her from that. “Cover my ears?” His hand went from his cheek to his ear, and the other dropped the stake to cover the other, still it was not enough to shield him completely from her … vocals. Jesus Christ, what the hell was that? “Bravo Celine,” he replied with a Quebec accent, taking the handkerchief with a puzzled look on his face. He was not sure what shocked him the most : her screaming or her gesture of kindness. “Well look at you being nice. I knew you had it in you,” he gave her a smug smile. Laughing light heartedly, he walked back to pick up his weapons and put them away. “Let me guess, it was worth $19.99,” he glanced at the dust the spawn had turned into. “You know, if you sell that dust, you’ll have your money, probably more than what that book was worth.”

“I wasn’t being nice this whole time?” Deirdre smirked at him, navigating around piles of dust she glanced between them and him. “You’d think I’m so desperate I’d start selling drugs? I have heard it's great for the skin though…” And she might just have bent down to scoop some into her pocket. It could be useful, at some point. Deirdre rolled back her shoulders, stretching her arms like a cat after a particularly long nap. “Who spends that much on a Sudoku--oh, never mind. Did you drive here? I wasn’t kidding about needing a ride.” She moved up beside him, a smile on her face, “I like Céline. I think we can be very good friends, Alain.” Of course, the smile betrayed no sort of friendly intention. Only the kinds of intentions that lead to a fun time: like watching him get eaten, or kill things that did the eating. In her mind though, this meeting could only mean good things for the both of them.

[femmeslash]

kuzupeko 28 please?

here's an au where hajime is in the 77th class instead of teruteru. merry christmas!

28. i’ve been crushing on you for so long and when i get your name in secret santa i decide to write you a love note except there’s a last minute shuffle with people trading and my gift is given to someone else (bonus: ot3! ot3!)

Yukizome tries her hardest. She really does. And, yeah, she's better than Kizakura, who would drink during class, and show up late when he bothered to show at all, and spent half his time hitting on the headmaster. Yukizome cares; Fuyuhiko has to give her that. But her enthusiasm is far from contagious, at least to him.

"Let's have a secret Santa this year!" she says, and Fuyuhiko can hardly contain his complete lack of excitement.

And then he draws Peko's name.

Okay.

Okay. It's just Peko. Peko should be easy. Peko deserves to get a nice gift for Christmas. Peko's probably never gotten a gift before. He knows Peko - shit, what does Peko like? Plain white ribbons, plain black stockings. Soft things, fluffy animals, bamboo shinai, sharp silver blades.

Yeah, he can handle this.

* * *

In retrospect, Fuyuhiko is an idiot.

He decides on ribbons, fine white Indian-imported silk, and a soft cat-patterned microfiber cloth for her glasses. He's certain she'll love them. Not wanting to give away the surprise, he locks himself alone in his room and wraps them as best as he can with the help of some woman on YouTube.

Halfway through, he stops. It's not special enough. This is Peko. He should at least... do something.

Riding on his (incredibly stupid) impulse, he grabs a notepad from his desk and begins to write:

Hey. Since you're reading this I guess you know I'm your secret Santa. Hope you like your gifts.

I know we're gonna be graduating soon, and I'll be taking over the clan after. This whole time you've been so important to me. Not as a tool. I hate that word. But as a friend and partner. You're so special and there's no one else like you out there. I guess I'm trying to say I really care about you, as a person.

Yours, Fuyuhiko

Fuyuhiko deliberates over every word. It's so hard to talk about his feelings, especially on paper, especially to Peko. Peko has been with him since birth, and he downright adores her. All that cheesy bullshit.

He mulls on it for hours after, thinking over and over about the pros and cons of finally telling Peko how he feels. He doesn't want to ruin the relationship they have already. Until his bastard father dies and Fuyuhiko inherits the clan, Peko is still nothing more than a sword in their eyes. But in the last two and a half years of high school, Peko's been thriving, surely seeing herself as a human for the first time. He doesn't want her to resent him, or feel trapped, or a hundred other things. He wants her to know. He would rather die than let her know.

In the end, he tucks the note inside the package and tries his hardest to forget about it until the day of the class Christmas party.

It's the last day before winter break, and Fuyuhiko is dreading going home. He just has to get through this, he reminds himself. Christmas party, shitty break, New Year's with Peko, then back to the academy. Easy as hell, until Yukizome fucks it up yet again by turning the secret Santa exchange on its head.

"What if, just for fun, everyone picked a random gift?" she says, grinning like she's just had the best idea in the world.

Fuyuhiko's heart stops. "Hey, that's not a secret Santa anymore! If we were gonna do a fuckin' yankee swap, you shoulda said that from the beginning."

"Oooh, Ibuki likes it! Swap! Swap!"

"Ehehe... Umm, I don't mind either," Mikan says demurely.

Fuyuhiko has to think fast. If he just grabs Peko's gift before anyone else can, it'll be fine. Sure, opening a set of ribbons in front of the class will be embarrassing, but nowhere near as much as having someone else read his note. He looks up - and freezes.

Hajime has the box. And he's halfway through opening it.

Fuyuhiko watches, a mix of rage, horror, embarrassment, helplessness, as Hajime's eyes skim over the note. It seems they've both been caught off guard. After a too-long moment, Hajime folds the note back up and jams it in his pocket.

"Ooh, Hajime-chan's hiding something! Show us, show us!" Ibuki hollers, practically throwing herself at Hajime.

"Hey! It's none of your business," Hajime says, jerking away from her.

"Nyohoho, did somebody confess? Ibuki can smell it!"

"There's no way you can smell that!"

At the very least, it seems Hajime has his back, and isn't going to go out of his way to embarrass Fuyuhiko. Christ, at least there's one good bastard in this class.

As the party is winding down, and most of the class has gone off back to the dorms, Hajime catches Fuyuhiko's eye. "Hey," he says quietly. "You want to go outside?"

Fuyuhiko nods, and follows him out.

"So... you wrote this?" Hajime says, removing the note from his pocket as soon as they're well out of earshot of the classroom.

"What's it to ya? You got a problem with it?"

"No! No, it just... clearly was meant for someone else."

"Pekoyama," Fuyuhiko says.

"Huh?"

"I said it's fucking Pekoyama!"

"Jeez, I got it!" Hajime brings his hands up defensively. "So... you want it back, I guess."

Fuyuhiko grunts and takes the paper from Hajime's hand. "Thanks," he mutters. "For not reading it to everyone."

"I mean, that's just the decent thing to do, right? If it were me..." Hajime trails off.

"Yeah," Fuyuhiko says. "I probably won't even give it to her. It was a stupid idea. My family treats her like fuckin' dirt, she can't say no to any of us. I... I want her to have a choice, when it comes down to it."

"That's rough," Hajime says. "I'm sorry."

"It's just part of being a yakuza. ...I do want her to have the gifts, though."

"Oh, yeah. Take them. I don't know what I'd do with something like that anyway."

"And don't you dare tell anyone about any of this, you hear me?" Fuyuhiko adds.

"I won't! I got it."

"...Thanks."

On the ride home back to Kobe, Fuyuhiko can't look Peko in the eye as he shoves the cloth and ribbons into her hands. She seems surprised at first, but thanks him sincerely, and there's a little smile on her usually-blank face for the rest of the car ride.

Fuyuhiko's glad. That much is enough.

[winter prompts!]

[esonetwork]

Dragon Con Recap #2: Day 1 - Where I Learn My Limit

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/dragon-con-recap-2-day-1-where-i-learn-my-limit/

Dragon Con Recap #2: Day 1 - Where I Learn My Limit

Thursday

The official first day of con now has quickly become the day I try to squeeze too much in and pay for it the rest of the days. This year, I certainly outdid myself.

While my gang went to get their badges in the morning, I stepped off the elevator straight into the Dragon Con Merch line at the Sheraton. Good thing I did too, as increasingly the much desired items are selling out within about 2 days. I lined up specifically for Nyota, this year’s Baby Dragon plush – and left the line with her, the sea dragon keychain, DCTV pin, patches, joggers and what I’ve been waiting for years for, a zip up hoodie! Just want to send a special shout out to Debra and her crew at the Sheraton store – they are a lovely and efficient bunch of volunteers who always seem to be in a great mood.

After lunch, it was time to venture to the Hyatt for media sign in/badge pickup. On my way up from the lower levels, I had the pleasure of running into Jen & John from Epbot (one of my favorite geeky blogs) and they were just as wonderful in person as they are online. This same spot outside of Hyatt Hanover also played host to the Loyal Order of the Ribbon Meet Up, and lucky for me I remembered to bring my trading ribbons with me.

Bob & Carl cosplayers in the Hyatt

Ribbons have been a thing for quite a few years now and I already had picked up about 20 or so from Day 0, but my goodness I was not prepared for the crowd at the meetup. Ribbons everywhere! So many to trade and choose from and new people to meet. I only had about half an hour to spare there but somehow managed to leave with around another 50 ribbons to add onto my beard.

Soon it was time to hit up the evening meetups and events starting with Drunken Dragon Hotel’s Trader Vic’s patio party. I believe this was the second annual one and after 2 years, it has quickly topped my list of a must attend meetup. Sven is a wonderful host and mingling among all the folks in their tiki attire as well as the gang from the Kon Krawl really captures the “one big happy family” aspect of Dragon Con that I love and miss all year long. I also quickly learned that this is the day that the Mai Tais are SO MUCH STRONGER if you order on the patio. Not complaining mind you, but after continually revisiting the patio bar throughout the rest of the evening – I wasn’t able to really drink any alcohol for the next few days.

Meeting up with the Kon Krawl

Sven of Drunken Dragon Hotel

Chuck & Joy Corum

Just before 7, it was time to head over to Marriott for the official release of Bryan Humphrey’s (Mad Scientist With A Camera) Costume Yearbook. Many years ago, Bryan was a roaming photographer at con who eventually gained his usual setup spot as an official photographer with Dragon Con. His yearbooks have also become increasingly popular and gaining a shot among the pages is always an honor.

Mad Scientist crew getting ready to pass out the yearbooks

Everyone gathering to open up the books and see who made this year’s cover

That’s Me!

After this, I was running about an hour & a half late for the Dragon Con Cigar Group’s annual meetup at the Red Phone Booth. The RPB is this cool speakeasy type spot near the Metro Diner where you dial a phone number in the booth and the back wall opens up to let you into a swanky cigar bar. The Cigar Group are a great bunch of con veterans and they throw a relaxing get together every year complete with raffle prizes and more.

As that event was winding down, Trader Vic’s once again started calling my name so after a parade through the main 3 hotels we ended our night back on the TV patio. By ended, I mean the rest of my group called it a night by 11 and I sauntered after a half hour later to discover the glory that was the Greek food truck parked at the Sheraton. Back in the room by 11;45 pm, with a heap of loaded greek fries that I tried to eat with my vampire teeth still in – I happily drifted off to sleep. Seriously though – that Greek food truck was amazeballs. Between our group of 5 who stayed at the Sheraton, we ate there at least once, sometimes twice everyday.

See you soon for recap #3!

[autistic-stanuris]

Cigar in my Pocket

“Three months after their encounter with It, a trip to the Barrens is cut short when Stan and Bill stumble upon a creature in need.”

G rated, one-shot, 3,937 words. Also on ao3!! :)

Three months had passed. Three months since the Barrens, since Henry Bowers; since the shattered coke bottle and the clown. Two months since school had started, since Beverly had left, and since Stan had traded his stitches and dressings for the constellations of smooth, pale puckered skin where Its teeth had broken the flesh of his cheeks. One month since Eddie Kaspbrak had regained ownership of his battered right arm; just in time to start writing assignments again, though his wrist was thin and ached from disuse. It was still better than the sewers. Still better than having to deal with his mother’s chastising and insistence that he leave his friends. Anything was better than dealing with what they each had that July.

School had provided a good distraction from these summer horrors. Henry’s absence in Derry, as well as the disappearances of Victor Criss and Belch Huggins, had made the next grade that much easier for all of the Losers. Even Mike had begun to attend school with the others, though his parents remained cautious of Derry’s underlying discriminatory atmosphere. August had offered the other boys a chance though, a chance to show Mr. and Mrs. Hanlon that Mike was in good hands with them, and that they would look out for him. The Hanlons were willing to give it a shot, but they reserved their suspicions. Bill couldn’t honestly blame them, after all they had witnessed so far. But things seemed to be improving for everyone; really, they did. And with the holidays fast approaching and the smell of snow teasing through the air, it was hard not to feel optimistic about the coming year. He knew once spring began again they could all start living once more; and it was on that same hopeful note that he and Stan had left school that afternoon to bike down near the Barrens.

November frost had dusted the streets that morning, but the sun had warmed the earth throughout the day. It was still safe to travel the streets by bicycle, and though Silver still had a tendency to weave unruly through traffic despite Bill’s direction, it seemed he was getting a much better handle at steering the too big bike. Mrs. Hanscom had said he had grown a lot that summer, and he supposed it must have been true. Meanwhile Stan seemed to somehow have shrunk, or stretched out; twice as thin and a quarter taller but still graceful as ever. He wove circles around Bill as they rolled languidly along the road, leaving Derry behind them. The further they went, the more they realized the Barrens had never been the day’s destination. Somehow Stan ended up taking the lead, passing over the covered bridge with Bill close behind. They had been doing this for the last week or so; pushing the boundaries of how far they would let themselves stray from town itself. Soon enough they would reach a point where they would pass the “Welcome to Derry!” sign and leave their lives behind them as they skidded further into Penobscot County. Someday. The idea frightened Bill, but thrilled him just the same. It was something the boys had discussed in secret before, almost too scared to whisper it to even each other. It felt blasphemous somehow, the idea of doing such a thing without their parents knowledge or permission. But Bill knew that was precisely what made the idea all the more exhilarating.

Today he knew they were getting closer. Stan had left a marker on the tree where they had stopped last time; a bright green strip of ribbon, the fourth in a series of seven he’d gathered from his mother’s sewing kit: each in the colours of the rainbow. The boys had already sped past red, orange, and yellow so far, and Bill knew the sky blue strip fluttering behind Stan from the belt loop of his trousers would be the next to join the trail. His heart pounded with nervous excitement as he watched Stan begin to coast. There was a drop in the street approaching, and Bill followed Stan’s lead and slowed down to prepare for it. Past the drop was a hill, the green mark, and beyond that–

It was suddenly and with a clatter of metal to earth that Stanley disappeared from Bill’s sight, making Bill grind to a stuttering halt on the gravel in shock.

“Stan!” he shouted, dust settling on his worn sneakers as he waited. No response. Worried now, Bill hopped off of his bike and started down the hill, careful not to slip on any loose patches of earth as he went. At the bottom of the hill Stan’s bike lay in a heap, front wheel still spinning; something Bill had rarely seen before. And there, just within the edge of the forest, Bill spotted him. Stan Uris, up to his knees in dirt in his favourite corduroys, his sweater bundled in his lap.

“S-stan, what are you doing?” Bill called, and this time Stan finally answered, glancing over his shoulder and hushing Bill severely in reply.

“What is it?” Bill whispered, creeping over to where his friend sat and glancing over his shoulder, mystified. Some sort of bird shuffled in place in the leaves in front of them, squawking with displeasure (probably because we’re invading its space) and ruffling its feathers as it cried. Bill watched it amble clumsily for a moment before asking again, more pointedly this time. “What is it?”

“It’s a chimney swift,” Stan said confidently, not looking up. “He was floundering over here in the dirt; I think his wing is broken.” There was a pause as Bill watched Stan ringing his sweater in his hands thoughtfully. From where he stood, Bill could already make out the gooseflesh that covered his arms, too cold in just his buttondown. “I’m trying to figure out the best way to pick it up while causing minimal damage. I don’t want to make it any worse.”

Bill knelt down in curiosity, observing the small bird at Stan’s knees. It was a homely little thing; sooty brown, plump, ugly. Wings that seemed a size or two too large for its awkward body splayed out around it in a disheveled heap. Though Bill didn’t notice a break, the poor thing certainly seemed to be in discomfort. It squawked indignantly as Stan covered it in his pullover, carefully bundling it and being sure to favour the wing he was certain was broken. The squawking grew louder as Stan lifted the thing into his lap, and Bill cringed.

“You s-s-sure we sh-shouldn’t j-just leave it, S-Stan?” Bill asked, skeptical. Stan frowned.

“Chimney swifts aren’t meant to be on the ground, Bill,” he said sternly. “They aren’t built for it. It wouldn’t be down here if it had a choice in the matter.” His tone was final. A series of alarmed chirps piped up from the bundle in his arms as he stood, and he hushed the bird softly, whispering things Bill couldn’t make out. “Let’s go home.”

“Y-your house?” Bill clarified, walking his bike as he followed Stan to the path.

“I hardly think your mom will appreciate us bringing it back to your house, Bill,” Stan replied, but one look at his face and Bill could see he was beaming. “Back to my house. My dad might be able to give us a hand. And I’m sure he’ll want to see it for himself.”

Bill stopped beside him, looking from the bird to the spot by the trees where they’d found it. Stan noticed his hesitance and frowned, lifting his bike from the gravel. “Bill, if we leave it here it’ll die,” he said sternly. “Something will come and kill it, or it will starve or freeze to death. I can’t let that happen.”

“B-but those things happen all the time Stan,” Bill said softly, as though to reassure him. “Nature’s kind of like that. Th-things die.” Stan’s cheeks flushed, his lips drawn tight.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t help,” he said. “Those things happen but I don’t witness them every day, Bill. This is different. I’ve seen it now. If I leave it, I’m willfully allowing it to suffer. I can’t do that.” Stan swallowed thickly, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I’m contractually obligated to do whatever I can to help ease the pain of a life in need. Ugly little cigar birds are no exception. Now come on, Big Bill. I want to be home before it gets dark.”

Bill gave in with a nod, helping Stan lead his bike so he could better hold the bird in his arms. They walked in silence for a bit, Bill mulling over what Stan had said. The sound of wheels turning over gravel and tired chirping filled the space between them, and it wasn’t until they reached level ground again and the hill was behind them that Bill finally spoke.

“Th-that thing you s-said; ab-bout b-being con… cont-t-tr… contra-trac – ”

“Contractually obligated?”

“Mhmm, that,” Bill said, thankful for the interruption. “Is that Judaism?”

Stan snorted, stopping for a moment before grinning over at Bill dryly. “No, Bill. It’s Scouts.”

If there was something Bill never failed to notice when visiting the Uris’ home, it was how connected the three residents seemed. Stan knew his mother well. One look at the bundle in Stan’s arms and she shook her head, shutting her eyes with a tired smile.

“You take that to the garage and wait for your father,” she said finally, glancing briefly to the ceiling with a sigh. Bill followed her gaze, but there was nothing up there he could see.

Stan beamed and nodded silently, taking Bill by the hand and leading him to the garage. He didn’t need to say anything in response. So much of his family’s communication seemed to be nonverbal. One look could mean entire sentences and it was something Bill would never understand. He had only felt that sort of connection once before, with Georgie during their short time with one another. Now it seemed he could scream in his home and still never be heard. Trauma had placed cold hands over his parents’ ears; grief made the blinders that shrouded their eyes. They had never been more divided than they were now, and it felt like the Urises were a polar opposite to this.

Nothing needed to be said for Andrea to know they wanted cookies and milk, or that Stan needed a change of clothes and a thicker sweater. She appeared with both in a matter of moments, and the words of gratitude and endearment she and Stan exchanged were warm, despite sounding scripted. It was a cozy sound; a script they both loved. Bill felt a pang of jealousy when Andrea kissed Stan’s forehead, ruffling his dark curls before heading back into the house. How could he hold it against him though? One of them deserved to still be loved. And when Stan began to change, and Bill watched his fingers ghost over the scars that lined his cheeks, he was thankful it was him. Lord knew Stan needed all the affection he could get right now.

Dressed now, in fresh clothes, Stan seemed abuzz with nervous energy as he puttered about the garage, which was sort of half a place to keep the car and half a place for himself and his father to tinker. There was a workbench and tools at one end of the room, and Stan busied himself with re-organizing and clearing the table there to give the bird a place to rest. An empty cardboard box was reassembled and stuffed with rags before Stan set the bird inside, still bundled in his pullover and squeaking feebly.

“Can you keep an eye on her, Bill?” Stan asked, turning to him, his fingers still dancing on the one tool he could find no place for. Bill knew it was making him anxious.

“S-sure thing, S-stan,” Bill replied though a mouthful of cookie. Stan made a face at the crumbs, but seemed grateful just the same. Bill waited until after he was gone to put the wrench in its silhouetted place on the wall. It was an easy fix, he knew, and that’s what had made it so difficult. Stan returned a moment later with a stack of books, his field-guide and journal on top in a short symmetrical tower. Largest to smallest. He set them on the table and sat, patting the bench beside him and beckoning Bill to join him.

“I have medical texts and veterinary studies, a phone book so we can contact a sanctuary or rehabilitation centre, a book on wrappings and splints, and five books on birds of Maine,” Stan listed aloud. Whether he was speaking to Bill or just himself, Bill had no clue. Stan seemed to notice Bill’s confusion and smiled shyly, tugging his ear absently. “Some of the books have better illustrations than others, but some have more depth in information. I figured we could round things out best if we compare and contrast. And,” (here he lifted his journal and pen) “I want to take notes on things so I have better information to relay to whoever ends up taking care of her. And some notes for my own use. I’ve never seen a swift before, you know.” Bill shook his head, intrigued.

“I had n-no idea,” he said softly. “I’d nuh-never even h-heard of them b-before.”

That was all Stan needed to hear. Without wasting a second, he began to dive into the books, looking for the best written and best illustrated examples for Bill to consume. Bill read them dutifully while Stan began filling his notebook with sketches and bullet-point observations about their little guest. The chimney swift had quieted down now, curling into itself and cooing softly in the warmth of it’s new nest. Stan seemed pleased as hell.

Another hour had passed before Bill perked up to the sound of the front door closing and the low hum of Don and Andrea Uris’ voices from inside. Stan remained silent, fully absorbed in what he was doing. He’d taken a break from making notes and Bill had watched as he’d begun lining the feathers of the swift he’d drawn in his notebook. Every plume was symmetrical, every pencil stroke deliberate. So deep was his focus that Bill had scarcely heard him breathe in the last fifteen minutes. But when the voices got louder and the door clicked open, Stan sprang to life once more, visibly coming back to Earth from wherever he’d been.

“Dad!” he said excitedly, turning around to watch his father enter the room. Even his exclamations were measured and restrained, Bill noticed, but somehow they would have sounded wrong any other way. Don greeted them with a smile, hanging his coat by the door.

“Stan, Bill,” he said, striding over and ruffling his son’s hair gently. A funny smile tugged at his lips when he looked down at Stan. “Your mother tells me you’ve brought something home with you?” His dark eyes turned pointedly to the box on the table and Stan bolted to his feet.

“Yes, just a second!” he said quickly, immediately setting to work tidying up their space so his father could get a better look at the box and the unexpected visitor. Don chuckled, turning to Bill and smiling at him. A weird, grown up smile that adults used when attempting formality with children. Bill recognized the smile from the faces of teachers and church goers; back when his family had still gone to church together on sundays. It usually made him squirm in his shoes or avert his eyes, but somehow with Don it was always different. There was a kindness and sincerity in his eyes that was unmistakable, rarely ever present in the eyes of other grown-ups and especially rare in Derry. A kindness Stan had inherited. Bill found himself smiling back.

“How have you been, Bill?” Don asked softly. A formality. Bill considered for a moment.

“I’ve been p-pretty good, M-Mr. Uris,” he stammered. All things considered, it wasn’t a lie. Don nodded approvingly, turning back to his son but saving the smile on his face for Bill. It was as though there was a joke there somewhere, something he was sharing with Bill for a moment. As if the formal exchange had been a sort of game or test he’d invited Bill to indulge in; and Bill had somehow passed. Whatever the reason, Bill appreciated the sense of being included in something. It had been such a long time since any adult had seemed comfortable engaging with him. It had started with Georgie’s death, and though the memory had begun to fade collectively from the adults’ minds he still dealt with the awkward silence and pity from parents and teachers around him, vague as it was. Stan’s parents were been two of the only people who still saw him as something tangible, something alive. Bill would love them forever for it, even after he forgot to remember their names.

“Alright, come see!” Stan’s voice came, breaking through Bill’s thoughts. The other boy sat beaming at the table with his books in his lap, his journal open atop the stack displaying his notes. Don went to stand next to him, glancing over Stan’s shoulder to observe the bird in the box. His curiosity was piqued instantly by what he saw.

“Is that a swift, Stanley?”

“A chimney swift!” Stan proclaimed proudly, turning to follow his father’s gaze. “Bill and I saw it struggling on the ground by the path today while we were biking home. I think it might be hurt.” Stan’s tone shifted from jovial to severe in an instant and Don frowned in response. He pulled the box toward himself gingerly, careful not to cause to much of a disturbance to the swift’s new nest.

“Its breathing does seem a bit laboured,” he said softly. Stan nodded once, offering Don his notes. Bill joined the others at the table, looking in again at the awkward little creature. A cigar bird, Stan had called it, and Bill had read in one of the many books he’d been given that it was a name referencing one ornithologist’s description of the species. A cigar with wings, he’d said, and Bill found himself chuckling again at how fitting the whole thing was. Cruel, sure, but apt. Stan eyed him curiously, squinting when Bill waved his hand dismissively. Don set the book down between them with a hum, tapping his chin.

“It certainly doesn’t seem well, Stan,” he said finally, looking down at him.

“There’s a sanctuary in Bangor,” Stan replied, fingers twisting. “I thought maybe after dinner…”

“I think that sounds reasonable,” Don interrupted, nodding in approval. “After dinner you boys can come along and bring it down there with me. That is, if you’d like to stay, William.”

“You will stay, won’t you Bill?” Stan asked hopefully. Bill smiled.

“S-s-sure thing, Muh-Mister Uris,” he said, as polite as he could muster. “I w-would l-like that.”

“That settles that then,” Don spoke, gesturing toward the door. “Go wash up and see if your mother needs any help, Stanley. Let her know I’ll be there in a minute; I’d like to make some notes of my own.”

“Of course,” Stan replied, getting to his feet and setting his books on the table once more. “C’mon, Big Bill,” he said happily, taking Bill’s hand in his own and leading him to the door. It was a natural gesture, and Stan thought little of it at the time. But to Bill it seemed his touch burned against his palm under Don Uris’ watchful eyes. There was no time to think about it though with Stan tugging him along to the powder room down the hall and chattering softly in excitement as he washed his hands with four pumps of soap and the water piping hot. Don Uris be damned; Stan’s head was full of birds. Nothing short of apocalyptic disaster could pull his attention away from the promise of a chance to visit the sanctuary. Bill focused on his friend’s excitement and allowed Stan to sweep him away with his words. There would be plenty of time to worry about adults later.

The drive to the sanctuary was cozy, with Bill and Stan in the back seat of Don’s sedan and the swift sat in its box between them. The radio played softly under Stan’s continuing speech, although now it included commentary from Don as well as he drove, expanding on the information Stan spewed forth like a broken faucet. Bill was content to listen to them talk, laughing good naturedly along with Stan when his father said something that went over his head. Stan seemed loose and happy and in his element, glad to be outside of Derry for once. He sat as still as he could, but Bill could see him wiggling slightly from the waist up, his joy reaching its peak at his shaking fingertips and gently swaying head. The swift itself was silent for most of the ride, reacting only to an occasional sharp turn or bump in the road with a short burst of disgruntled tittering.

The sun was already dipping below the trees when they finally reached the rehabilitation center, and by that time Stan had fallen silent, exhausted from excitement and dozing off in his seat. He refused to be left behind once they arrived though; despite the hour and Don’s insistence that they wouldn’t be able to stay. He carried the box clasped tightly to his chest and tried not to shiver under his jacket as Bill joined him. Their breath mingled together in clouds of white as they followed Don to the door, Stan taking extreme care not to jostle the swift.

The actual drop off only lasted around 5 minutes, with Stan insisting to take charge and relay his observations to the worker on duty despite near constant yawning. It was clear he was starting to feel hesitant about letting the bird go, even though Bill knew that the logic of the situation would always outweigh any attachment Stan was struggling with. The rehabilitation worker seemed to sense the same thing though, and after promising Stan and Don that they could visit the birds some other day and even offer the swift a temporary name, Stan seemed placated. Bill took his hand again as they walked back to the car, and this time his concerns that Don would be unhappy about the gesture failed to resurface.

Stan mumbled absently to himself and Bill and no one in particular as they started back down the road to Derry. Bill heard the word “cigars” mentioned more than once, and it wasn’t until Don Uris laughed loudly in the front seat and replied– 

“Stanley, you don’t know the first thing about cigar brands, son. You should pick a different name’”

–that Bill realized what Stan was trying to do. A cigar name for a cigar bird. It made perfect sense. Bill tried to contribute any tobacco knowledge he had, but that consisted mostly of cigarette names he’d heard Bev and Richie discuss in the past. The conversation began to lag about half way back into town, and by the time they pulled up to the Denbrough house, Stan had fallen asleep leaning against Bill’s shoulder; Bill snoring softly beside him. Don was hesitant to move them. It had been so long since he’d seen Stan this happy.

[easyfoodnetwork]

The Best Cookbooks of Fall 2020

New cookbooks from Ina Garten, Vivian Howard, Yotam Ottolenghi, and more will restore some much-needed joy to cooking

For many of us, cooking has taken on a different role in our lives over the past six months. As restaurants closed, cooking — and cooking well — became essential even for those who previously spent little time in the kitchen. It also became a chore. At this point, six months into the pandemic, I’m impressed by anyone who still considers cooking a creative, joyful pastime, not just a means to food.

But here to change that is a stellar lineup of fall cookbooks, bringing with them new inspiration and new comforts, and, at last, a reason to enter the kitchen with excitement. There are anticipated titles from beloved culinary figures, whose time-saving guidance and easy meal upgrades feel especially welcome now. There are books from some of the restaurants we miss the most, offering recreations of their dishes and insights that make us nostalgic for the time before shutdowns. There are primers on international cuisines; books for the adept home cook that take a studied, even scientific approach to flavor; and books that reflect the trends of the moment, including baking books for the person who has spent hours perfecting their bread game as well as the one who feels the occasional urge to bake a cake to be eaten immediately.

I’m confident that even the most reluctant cook is sure to find at least one new cookbook among these 17 to dip a fork into. And for those for whom cooking never lost its luster, it’s a feast. — Monica Burton

One Tin Bakes: Sweet and simple traybakes, pies, bars and buns

Edd Kimber Kyle Books, out now

The philosophy of Edd Kimber’s One Tin Bakes is pleasingly minimalist: Invest in one good 9-by-13-inch aluminum pan — or “tin,” in British parlance — and bake everything in it. Kimber has published three other books since winning the inaugural season of The Great British Bake Off in 2010, but this is the first that’s themed around a specific piece of equipment, and by focusing on the versatility of a single pan, One Tin Bakes prioritizes simplicity for both novice bakers and those who already know their way around a stand mixer.

For the most part, these are not show-stopper, highly technical bakes — though some, like the “Giant Portuguese Custard Tart,” are impressive by nature. The recipes are unfussy, undemanding, and a pleasure to cook. They’re all sweet, with chapters spanning cakes, pies, breads, bars, cookies, and some no-bake desserts too. And while 9-by-13-inch sheets and slabs of baked goods are the stars of the book, Kimber’s collection also includes non-rectangular treats: rolled cakes, ice cream sandwiches, and babka buns, among others. Six months ago I might have described this book as a party baking companion — most of the recipes feed eight to 12 people — but parties are in short supply for the foreseeable future. That said, even without feeding my coworkers or friends, there is something so joyful (surface area, perhaps?) about pulling a magnificent rectangular pan of streusel-topped coffee cake or gigantic British scone from the oven. — Adam Moussa

Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen

Durkhanai Ayubi with recipes by Farida Ayubi Interlink, out now

The story of Parwana, the popular Afghan restaurant in South Adelaide, Australia, has always been intertwined with history. Owners Zelmai and Farida Ayubi fled Afghanistan for Australia in 1987, during the Cold War, itself the result of hundreds of years of conflict. So it’s no surprise that the restaurant’s cookbook, written by Zelmai and Farida’s daughter Durkhanai Ayubi, would double as a history lesson. Interspersed between recipes are stories of the Silk Road, the Mughal empire, and the Great Game, which illustrate how because of trade, plunder, and cultural exchange, Afghan cuisine is both beloved and recognizable.

The book walks through classics like kabuli palaw, shaami kebab, and falooda (all of which, unlike so many restaurant dishes adapted to cookbooks, are incredibly achievable for the home cook) and demonstrate how Afghan cuisine both influenced and was influenced by nearly all of Asia. No matter what cuisine you’re most used to cooking, you’ll find a recipe, or even just a flavor, that feels familiar here. �� Jaya Saxena

The Sourdough School: Sweet Baking: Nourishing the Gut & the Mind

Vanessa Kimbell Kyle Books, out now

The first thing to know about the sweets-focused follow-up to 2018’s The Sourdough School cookbook, the groundbreaking gut-health baking book by food writer and BBC radio host Vanessa Kimbell, is this: “It is not a book about baking,” she writes. “This is a book about understanding.” She’s right, sort of. It is not just a book about baking. It is, like its predecessor, a manifesto on the gut-brain connection — a guide to caring for the magical ecosystem within our own bodies, a fragile environment that, she says, our modern way of eating has ravaged, grimly affecting both our physical and mental health. It’s a book about science and bacteria and flour milling and fermenting and strategies for adjusting our lives in such a way to allow for four-day cupcake-making.

But then... it is also very much a book about baking. There are loads of delicious (if unabashedly healthy-looking) recipes with ingredients that prioritize your gut’s microbiome, everything from chocolate chip “biscuits” and Bangladeshi jalebis to swirly miso-prune danishes and a pudgy lemon-poppyseed cake with a hit of saffron. Nothing about these multi-day recipes is what anyone might call simple (I’ve never been so tempted to whip up my own couture flour blends), but Kimbell is as lovely a hand-holder as she is a writer, giving out lifelines like detailed schedules for each recipe, including the crucial pre-bake starter feedings so many other sourdough books leave out. She also is not above compromise, allowing for store-bought flours and dolling out assurances like, “if you are not into the scientific details, feel free to skip this entire section. I totally get just wanting to get on and bake.” A thorough reader, though, will be rewarded with a whole new way of thinking about the human body, along with a whole bunch of yummy new ways to indulge it. — Lesley Suter

The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico

Mely Martinez Rock Point, September 15

Mely Martínez comes to publishing by way of the old-school world of recipe blogging on her website, Mexico in My Kitchen. Martínez was born in Mexico and traveled throughout different regions as a teacher and again later in her life, learning from local women along the way, before eventually settling in the United States. After bouncing around recipe forums, she established the site in 2008 as a way to record family recipes for her teenage son. Through the internet, she reached a far wider audience of Mexican immigrants craving their abuela’s recipes. Now, her debut cookbook, The Mexican Home Kitchen, reflects that well-traveled savvy, but it’s forgiving, too, providing helpful tips on variations of recipes and alternative methods of food preparation or ingredients.

Martínez’s book is about the basics of Mexican home cooking; recipes include comfort foods like caldo de pollo dressed up with slices of avocado and diced jalapeño and special occasion meals like mole poblano. The recipes are simple enough for people just getting into Mexican cooking, but also have a nostalgic quality that will appeal to those who grew up with homemade arroz con leche or chicharrón en salsa verde. Flipping through The Mexican Home Kitchen, I remembered my own childhood visits with my stepmother’s family, where I would sit around the table with the many other grandkids swirling Ritz crackers in steaming bowls of atole. I turned to Martínez’s atole blanco recipe on page 178, and headed to the store for some masa harina, newly inspired. — Brenna Houck

Pie for Everyone: Recipes and Stories from Petee’s Pie, New York’s Best Pie Shop

Petra “Petee” Paredez Abrams, September 22

If you’re not a pie person, then clearly you’ve never had a slice of Petra Paredez’s black-bottom almond chess pie. Growing up in a baking and farming family (her parents started northern Virginia treasure Mom’s Apple Pie Company in 1981), Paredez has considerable pie-making expertise. In 2014, she and her husband, Robert Paredez, opened their Lower East Side shop Petee’s Pie Company on a shoestring budget, and today, the sweet, sunny cafe on Delancey Street is considered one of the best pie shops in New York City.

At the heart of Petee’s Pie, the goal is simple: a flavorful, flaky, tender crust and perfectly balanced filling. Pie for Everyone teaches readers how to achieve this at home. The book begins with foundational information (how to source ingredients, the tools to buy to make pie-making easier and more efficient) followed by chapters on crusts and crumbs and pie fillings. And while there are hundreds of ways to make pie, Paredez believes in the merits of a super-buttery crust. “If you only use one of my pastry dough recipes,” she writes, “I hope it’s my butter pastry dough.”

With recipes that are both sweet and savory (including quiches), Pie for Everyone covers the shop’s year-round signature pies, like maple whiskey walnut and chocolate cream, as well as seasonal favorites, like strawberry rhubarb and nesselrode, a New York specialty consisting of chestnut custard with black rum-soaked cherries. But whether you’re a fan of Petee’s Pie or you’ve never been, bakers and pie lovers will appreciate learning from Paredez, a baker for whom pie-making is a ribbon-worthy feat every single time. — Esra Erol

Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ina Garten Random House, October 6

There are many cookbooks that you want to read more than cook from, but Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is not one of them. In her 12th cookbook, Ina Garten, the queen of timeless, expertly tested dishes, shares 85 recipes for the kinds of comfort foods we’re craving more than ever. Dedicated home cooks may already know most of these unfussy foods by heart, but with Garten’s thoughtful techniques and guidance on how to find the best ingredients, dishes like chicken pot pie soup, baked rigatoni with lamb ragu, and skillet-roasted chicken with potatoes feel new and exciting. The skillet-roasted chicken and potatoes, for example, calls for a buttermilk marinade to make the bird juicy and moist, while potatoes are cooked with the chicken jus under the chicken, on the bottom of a hot skillet, to absorb extra chicken flavor, turning two humble ingredients into a fabulous dinner.

This being a Barefoot Contessa cookbook, it also comes with all the stories and aspirational photos (including many heart-melting pictures of Garten and husband Jeffrey) that have long inspired fans to want to live, cook, and eat like Ina. But, compared to Garten’s other books, Modern Comfort Food depicts the culinary star more as a loving neighbor who will bring you chocolate chip cookies on Sundays than the imposing queen of East Hampton. In the intro to this book, Garten admits that these days, she’s a little grumpier than usual (just like the rest of us), says it’s okay if we reach for a cold martini and a tub of ice cream for dinner, and reminds us once again how she managed to capture so many hearts over more than two decades as the Barefoot Contessa. — James Park

Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You’re Not Drinking for Whatever Reason

Julia Bainbridge Ten Speed Press, October 6

A lot of people feel weird about drinking nowadays. Our spending habits show it, through products like low-ABV hard seltzers, chic nonalcoholic aperitifs, or just the ongoing popularity of sober months like Dry January. Author Julia Bainbridge understands the fluid nature of this type of sobriety, which is why she subtitled her book of spirit-free drinks as “for When You’re Not Drinking for Whatever Reason.” After all, you don’t need to eschew alcohol forever in order to enjoy a thoughtfully blended drink that isn’t trying to get you sloshed.

The drinks in Good Drinks are structured by the time of day you might enjoy them (brunch accompaniment, happy hour treat, aperitif), and are as complex and innovative (and labor-intensive) as anything at a fancy cocktail bar. They call for ingredients like black cardamom-cinnamon syrup, buckwheat tea, and tomato-watermelon juice, each of which get their own recipes. There’s even a whole recipe for a dupe of nonalcoholic Pimm’s (involving citus, rooibos tea, raspberry vinegar, and gentian root). The results are festive, celebratory drinks for any occasion, so the nondrinkers need not be stuck with cranberry juice and seltzer anymore. — JS

Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage Ten Speed Press, October 13

It’s probably a good thing Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook isn’t called Plenty 3 or More Plenty More, veering the chef’s cookbook oeuvre into Fast & Furious territory. But by the London chef’s own admission, that’s a good way to understand Flavor, his newest book, which like its Plenty predecessors focuses on vegetables and all the creative ways to prepare and combine them.

Co-written with Ixta Belfrage, a recipe developer in the Ottolenghi test kitchen, Flavor presents recipes from three perspectives. The “process” chapter explores specific techniques to transform vegetables, such as charring and fermenting. “Pairing” takes an angle that will sound familiar to Samin Nosrat fans, with recipes rooted in the perfect balance of fat, acid, “chile heat,” and sweetness. And “produce” focuses on the ingredients with such complex tastes, usages, and sub-categories that they deserve examination on their own: mushrooms, onions (and their allium cousins), nuts and seeds, and sugar in fruit and booze form.

The result, in typical Ottolenghi fashion, is multi-step, multi-ingredient, and multi-hued recipes whose promised flavors leap from the page — from cabbage “tacos” with celery root and date barbecue sauce to saffron tagliatelle with ricotta and crispy chipotle shallots. Chipotles and other chiles are actually in abundance here (as well as “a lime or two in places where lemons would appear in previous Ottolenghi books,” as the intro notes) thanks to Belfrage’s roots in Mexico City. Those flavors, as well as those from Brazilian, Italian, and multiple Asian cuisines (spy the shiitake congee and noodles with peanut laab), unite with the usual Ottolenghi suspects — za’atar, star anise, harissa, labneh — to make Flavor worth the look, even for the home chef who already has Plenty and Plenty More on the shelf. — Ellie Krupnick

Xi’an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York’s Favorite Noodle Shop

Jason Wang with Jessica K. Chou Abrams, October 13

The debut cookbook from the New York City restaurant chain Xi’an Famous Foods is worth picking up whether or not you have slurped the restaurant’s hand-pulled noodles. This is a book on how to operate a food business — CEO Jason Wang outlines five lessons to know before diving into the business and strips away the glamor of running a restaurant empire. It’s also a food history of the flavors of Xi’an, China. With so many layers to appreciate, Xi’an Famous Foods is a prime example of what a restaurant cookbook can be.

Much of the book reads like a TV series. It’s broken into episodes covering Wang’s challenges, failures, and successes, from his life-changing move from Xi’an to a rural town in Michigan, to his nights out in New York City’s Koreatown, to taking over his father’s business, Xi’an Famous Foods. Interspersed with these anecdotes, there are recipes for the restaurant’s fiery, mouth-tingling dishes, including Xi’an Famous Foods’ famous noodle sauce (accented with salty and spicy flavors from black vinegar, oyster sauce, fennel seeds, and Sichuan peppercorns), along with techniques for making hand-pulled noodles paired with helpful illustrations and visual references. For avid home cooks who want a challenge, Xi’an Famous Foods also provides tips on putting together the best hot pot at home, and for those who are confused at Asian groceries, there’s a list of basic pantry items with flavor notes and how they are used in cooking. And whether it’s Wang’s personal connection to a dish or its wider history that draws you in, each recipe will broaden your knowledge and appreciation of Xi’an cooking. — JP

Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from my Indonesian Kitchen

Lara Lee Bloomsbury, October 13

In the introduction of her debut cookbook, Lara Lee writes that an overflowing generosity is central to Indonesian culture; meals are shared freely between neighbors and friends. This generosity fills the pages of Coconut & Sambal, each recipe heightening the sense that as a reader, you’ve been let in on something special.

Lee, who was born in Australia, didn’t spend time in Indonesia until later in life, so early memories of Indonesian cooking come from the trips her grandmother Margaret Thali — whom Lee lovingly refers to as Popo throughout the book — would take to Australia. Each of the cookbook’s chapter introductions is deeply researched: Some recount stories of Lee’s grandmother, and others focus on the Indonesia that Lee fell in love with as she traveled across the archipelago collecting stories and recipes for this book.

The recipes that fill Coconut & Sambal demonstrate that Indonesian cuisine cannot be painted with one brush. The food of the nation — made up of more than 15,000 islands — incorporates the sharp heat of chiles, the mellow hit of fermented shrimp, the sweetness of coconut in nearly every form, and always enough rice to go around. You’ll find curries fragrant with makrut lime leaf, ginger, and turmeric, and bright ceviches adorned with thinly sliced chiles, banana shallot, and palm sugar; I was particularly drawn to a fried chicken dish (page 142), its crisp shell smashed and laced with fiery sambal. Lee explains that recipes are typically passed down orally in Indonesian culture, which makes me even more grateful for these written ones. What Lee has given readers is a gorgeous document that sets in stone food traditions passed down through generations, as well as some she’s created herself. You’ll want to dedicate an evening to turning the pages of this book, planning out feasts of green chile braised duck, Balinese roasted pork belly, and perhaps some sticky ginger toffee pudding to top it all off. — Elazar Sontag

In Bibi’s Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean

Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen Ten Speed Press, October 13

Recipes are almost always the main attraction in a cookbook. But In Bibi’s Kitchen, written by first-time author Hawa Hassan in collaboration with veteran cookbook writer Julia Turshen, there’s so much to enjoy before you even get to the first recipe. The book focuses on dishes from eight African countries, linked by their shared proximity to the Indian Ocean and involvement in the region’s spice trade.

Each chapter, divided by country, starts with a brief history of the region and question-and-answer-style interviews with one of the bibis, or grandmothers, who call these places home. The answers to these questions find the grandmothers speaking about the meaning of home, the gender roles in their communities, and the importance of passing on food traditions. Each interview is as beautiful and varied as the recipes that follow: kadaka akondro (green plantains and braised beef) from the home of Ma Baomaka in Ambohidratrimo, Madagascar; digaag qumbe, a Somalian chicken stew rich with yogurt and coconut milk, served with sweet banana; kaimati, crisp coconut dumplings in an ambrosial cardamom syrup, this batch cooked in Ma Shara’s kitchen in Zanzibar, but popular all along the Swahili coast. A practical advantage of collecting recipes from home cooks is that these recipes are all approachable, most calling for fewer than 10 ingredients.

In many ways, In Bibi’s Kitchen breaks ground. It pays tribute to a part of the world that has been criminally overlooked by American publishers, sharing the stories of these African countries from the perspectives of home cooks who actually live there. The book is full of intimate portraits of the grandmothers in their kitchens, captured by Kenyan photographer Khadija M. Farah, who joined these women in their homes. The result of this collaborative and ambitious effort is a collection of heartwarming photos, tidbits of history, and, of course, plenty of mouthwatering meals. — ES

This Will Make it Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking

Vivian Howard Voracious, October 20

Reading through Vivian Howard’s This Will Make It Taste Good is like reading a cookbook by your real or imagined North Carolinian best friend. The design itself is cheerful, full of 1970s serif fonts and colorful badges that are reminiscent of a children’s workbook. Dishes are photographed from above, in the same style as Alison Roman’s Dining In and Nothing Fancy, often showing Howard’s hands as they work away chopping herbs or spooning chowder. The A Chef’s Life host’s goal is simple: to teach home cooks that easy meals can be exciting rather than bland.

Howard’s intended audience is the time-crunched kitchen novice, though a more experienced cook will surely find some useful tips, as well. Each section is based around a recipe that can be prepped in advance and then used throughout the week in a multitude of dishes: Among the most promising are the “Little Green Dress,” a dressing with flexible ingredients that can gussy up anything from mussels to crackers to soft-boiled eggs; the “R-Rated Onions,” which you can keep in an ice cube tray in the freezer to use at your convenience; and the “Citrus Shrine,” i.e., preserved citrus that promises to elevate dishes like shrimp cocktail and rice pilaf — you can even use it in margaritas! In any time, This Will Make It Taste Good would be a great help to those of us who prefer recipes that look and taste more complex than they are to prepare. That it happens to arrive at a moment when we’re likely all sick of the contents of our fridges and our own culinary limitations is just a bonus. — Madeleine Davies

The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food

Marcus Samuelsson with Osayi Endolyn Voracious, October 27

“Black food is not just one thing,” chef Marcus Samuelsson writes in the introduction to The Rise. “It’s not a rigidly defined geography or a static set of tastes. It is an energy. A force. An engine.” The cookbook that follows is an invigorating, joyous, and deeply nuanced illustration of the complexity of Black foodways, one that weaves together conversations about history, artistry, authorship, race, class, and culture with 150 recipes that incorporate ingredients and techniques from around the globe.

Each of the book’s recipes was created in honor of “someone who is illuminating the space we share,” as Samuelsson writes: chefs, artists, activists, authors, and historians, all of whom are profiled by the book’s coauthor, Eater contributor Osayi Endolyn. The recipes are organized to demonstrate how culinary rituals and traditions evolve according to time, place, and cook. In the first chapter, “Next,” for example, you’ll find food that speaks of forward-thinking innovation, such as baked sweet potatoes with garlic-fermented shrimp butter, created in honor of David Zilber, the former director of fermentation at Noma. (That butter, pureed with avocado, sweet soy sauce, and fresh thyme, is not only easy to make, but so good that you can be forgiven for eating it straight from the food processor.) “Migration,” the third chapter, speaks of the American South, with recipes like spiced lemon chess pie, broken rice peanut seafood stew, and Papa Ed’s shrimp and grits, named for Ed Brumfield, the executive chef at Samuelsson’s Harlem restaurant the Red Rooster.

The Rise doesn’t claim to be an encyclopedic compendium of Black cooking; instead, it’s a celebration, one that honors the past while looking ahead, challenging assumptions even as it feeds you well. — Rebecca Flint Marx

The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes

Nik Sharma Chronicle Books, October 27

Nik Sharma begins his second cookbook by explaining that we rely on a variety of senses and feelings when we eat: sight, sound, mouthfeel or texture, aroma, taste, and even our emotions and memories. These components make up what he refers to as the “Flavor Equation,” and this concept and the role it plays in everyday cooking is the guiding principle of his book of the same name.

Following a thorough and captivating science lesson on the equation, Sharma lays out seven chapters dedicated to basic tastes and flavor boosters — brightness, bitterness, saltiness, sweetness, savoriness, fieriness, and richness — each with its own set of recipes: pomegranate and poppy seed wings exemplify brightness, roasted figs with coffee miso tahini or hazelnut flan highlight bitterness, “pizza” toast for saltiness, masala cheddar cornbread in the sweetness section, and more. Through these achievable recipes, many of which rely mostly on pantry essentials, Sharma helps readers better understand how flavor works and how to use that to their advantage to become more confident home cooks. Whatever your skill level in the kitchen, with its more than 100 recipes, illustrated diagrams, and Sharma’s own evocative photography, The Flavor Equation is an engrossing guide to elevating simple dishes into holistic experiences. — EE

Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives

Nadiya Hussain Clarkson Potter, November 10 (originally published June 27, 2019)

Nadiya Hussain is just like you and me. That’s the guiding principle behind her public persona, her BBC Two cooking show Time to Eat (now on Netflix), and her cookbook Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives. “I know what it’s like to have just one head and one pair of hands,” the Great British Bake Off winner writes in the introduction of Time to Eat, a new stateside version of her U.K. cookbook of the same title. Her book, she promises, will help you become a smarter home cook in between chores and kids, thanks to heavy use of the freezer and other time savers.

On the page, that looks like tips for prepping and freezing, recipes that leave you with enough leftovers to make a second dish, and ideas for remixes and variations. There are more than 100 recipes, divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and basics. Many of these dishes may be unfamiliar to American audiences — hello, kedgeree and fish pie burgers! — but the instructions are as approachable as Hussain’s on-camera demonstrations. With enough variety to keep it interesting, balanced with dishes easy enough to work into your weekly rotation of meals, e.g., eggs rolled onto tortillas, Time to Eat offers something for any home cook looking for new ideas and time-tested, time-saving methods. — Jenny G. Zhang

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End

Magnus Nilsson Phaidon, November 11

Last December, after more than a decade of acclaim, accolades, and meals rooted in seasonality and locally produced ingredients, Magnus Nilsson closed his restaurant Fäviken in Jämtland, Sweden. In the lead-up to the closing, he told the LA Times that he wanted to focus on the restaurant, not elegies or explanations. Now, the explanation has arrived in the form of Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End, Nilsson’s latest monograph with publisher Phaidon.

Although the book covers the lifespan of Fäviken, including lookbacks at the first title Nilsson published about the restaurant, it is not an elegy. There are no laments here, but rather a thorough catalogue of all the dishes that Fäviken served, ruminations about craft and haute cuisine and sustainability, and a long-awaited account of “Why Fäviken had to close, really.” The book contains recipes for many of the restaurant’s dishes — ranging from the simple berry ice to the more demanding “Scallop I skalet ur elden cooked over burning juniper branches,” with extensive headnotes — but its purpose is not as a cookbook. It is a tome (beautifully put together, as is typical for Phaidon) that is made for fans of Fäviken’s, of Nilsson’s, and more importantly, of the way of life he espouses, one that is passionate but measured.

That is best expressed in one of the book’s final essays, one dated May 12, 2020, in which Nilsson articulates gratitude that he was able to close his restaurant on his own terms, for Fäviken would not have survived the pandemic. “If one day some years from now I wake up in the morning and feel the same burning desire to run a restaurant that I felt for many years at Fäviken, I won’t think twice about it,” Nilsson writes. “But if that doesn’t happen, that’s okay too. There are many other things to do in life.” — JGZ

A Good Bake: The Art and Science of Making Perfect Pastries, Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Breads at Home

Melissa Weller with Carolynn Carreño Knopf, November 17

There are people who treat baking like a hobby and there are people who treat baking as a raison d’etre, a life’s purpose. Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake is for the latter, which shouldn’t surprise anyone considering Weller’s resume, which includes creating pastry for some of New York City’s most revered restaurants, such as Per Se, Roberta’s, and her acclaimed SoHo bagel shop, Sadelle’s. Before she became an expert baker, Weller was a chemical engineer, and as such, she tackles recipes with a scientific approach, getting the fermentation, proofing, and pH balance of her dough down to, well, a science.

If you’re a quarantine baker who’s mastered sourdough and is ready for the next challenge, consider Weller’s takes on NYC classics like chocolate babka, spelt scones with raspberry jam, and even traditional hot dog buns. A Good Bake will thrill bakers who rejoice in doing things the difficult way (but note that there are beautiful and detailed photos of her process to help guide ambitious bakers through the recipe). Of course, this means that failing will hurt all the more, considering the hours (or days, even!) of work that you’ve put into your bake, but success? It will taste all the sweeter... or more savory. It depends on your tastes, and Weller expertly caters to both. — MD

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New cookbooks from Ina Garten, Vivian Howard, Yotam Ottolenghi, and more will restore some much-needed joy to cooking

For many of us, cooking has taken on a different role in our lives over the past six months. As restaurants closed, cooking — and cooking well — became essential even for those who previously spent little time in the kitchen. It also became a chore. At this point, six months into the pandemic, I’m impressed by anyone who still considers cooking a creative, joyful pastime, not just a means to food.

But here to change that is a stellar lineup of fall cookbooks, bringing with them new inspiration and new comforts, and, at last, a reason to enter the kitchen with excitement. There are anticipated titles from beloved culinary figures, whose time-saving guidance and easy meal upgrades feel especially welcome now. There are books from some of the restaurants we miss the most, offering recreations of their dishes and insights that make us nostalgic for the time before shutdowns. There are primers on international cuisines; books for the adept home cook that take a studied, even scientific approach to flavor; and books that reflect the trends of the moment, including baking books for the person who has spent hours perfecting their bread game as well as the one who feels the occasional urge to bake a cake to be eaten immediately.

I’m confident that even the most reluctant cook is sure to find at least one new cookbook among these 17 to dip a fork into. And for those for whom cooking never lost its luster, it’s a feast. — Monica Burton

One Tin Bakes: Sweet and simple traybakes, pies, bars and buns

Edd Kimber Kyle Books, out now

The philosophy of Edd Kimber’s One Tin Bakes is pleasingly minimalist: Invest in one good 9-by-13-inch aluminum pan — or “tin,” in British parlance — and bake everything in it. Kimber has published three other books since winning the inaugural season of The Great British Bake Off in 2010, but this is the first that’s themed around a specific piece of equipment, and by focusing on the versatility of a single pan, One Tin Bakes prioritizes simplicity for both novice bakers and those who already know their way around a stand mixer.

For the most part, these are not show-stopper, highly technical bakes — though some, like the “Giant Portuguese Custard Tart,” are impressive by nature. The recipes are unfussy, undemanding, and a pleasure to cook. They’re all sweet, with chapters spanning cakes, pies, breads, bars, cookies, and some no-bake desserts too. And while 9-by-13-inch sheets and slabs of baked goods are the stars of the book, Kimber’s collection also includes non-rectangular treats: rolled cakes, ice cream sandwiches, and babka buns, among others. Six months ago I might have described this book as a party baking companion — most of the recipes feed eight to 12 people — but parties are in short supply for the foreseeable future. That said, even without feeding my coworkers or friends, there is something so joyful (surface area, perhaps?) about pulling a magnificent rectangular pan of streusel-topped coffee cake or gigantic British scone from the oven. — Adam Moussa

Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen

Durkhanai Ayubi with recipes by Farida Ayubi Interlink, out now

The story of Parwana, the popular Afghan restaurant in South Adelaide, Australia, has always been intertwined with history. Owners Zelmai and Farida Ayubi fled Afghanistan for Australia in 1987, during the Cold War, itself the result of hundreds of years of conflict. So it’s no surprise that the restaurant’s cookbook, written by Zelmai and Farida’s daughter Durkhanai Ayubi, would double as a history lesson. Interspersed between recipes are stories of the Silk Road, the Mughal empire, and the Great Game, which illustrate how because of trade, plunder, and cultural exchange, Afghan cuisine is both beloved and recognizable.

The book walks through classics like kabuli palaw, shaami kebab, and falooda (all of which, unlike so many restaurant dishes adapted to cookbooks, are incredibly achievable for the home cook) and demonstrate how Afghan cuisine both influenced and was influenced by nearly all of Asia. No matter what cuisine you’re most used to cooking, you’ll find a recipe, or even just a flavor, that feels familiar here. — Jaya Saxena

The Sourdough School: Sweet Baking: Nourishing the Gut & the Mind

Vanessa Kimbell Kyle Books, out now

The first thing to know about the sweets-focused follow-up to 2018’s The Sourdough School cookbook, the groundbreaking gut-health baking book by food writer and BBC radio host Vanessa Kimbell, is this: “It is not a book about baking,” she writes. “This is a book about understanding.” She’s right, sort of. It is not just a book about baking. It is, like its predecessor, a manifesto on the gut-brain connection — a guide to caring for the magical ecosystem within our own bodies, a fragile environment that, she says, our modern way of eating has ravaged, grimly affecting both our physical and mental health. It’s a book about science and bacteria and flour milling and fermenting and strategies for adjusting our lives in such a way to allow for four-day cupcake-making.

But then... it is also very much a book about baking. There are loads of delicious (if unabashedly healthy-looking) recipes with ingredients that prioritize your gut’s microbiome, everything from chocolate chip “biscuits” and Bangladeshi jalebis to swirly miso-prune danishes and a pudgy lemon-poppyseed cake with a hit of saffron. Nothing about these multi-day recipes is what anyone might call simple (I’ve never been so tempted to whip up my own couture flour blends), but Kimbell is as lovely a hand-holder as she is a writer, giving out lifelines like detailed schedules for each recipe, including the crucial pre-bake starter feedings so many other sourdough books leave out. She also is not above compromise, allowing for store-bought flours and dolling out assurances like, “if you are not into the scientific details, feel free to skip this entire section. I totally get just wanting to get on and bake.” A thorough reader, though, will be rewarded with a whole new way of thinking about the human body, along with a whole bunch of yummy new ways to indulge it. — Lesley Suter

The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico

Mely Martinez Rock Point, September 15

Mely Martínez comes to publishing by way of the old-school world of recipe blogging on her website, Mexico in My Kitchen. Martínez was born in Mexico and traveled throughout different regions as a teacher and again later in her life, learning from local women along the way, before eventually settling in the United States. After bouncing around recipe forums, she established the site in 2008 as a way to record family recipes for her teenage son. Through the internet, she reached a far wider audience of Mexican immigrants craving their abuela’s recipes. Now, her debut cookbook, The Mexican Home Kitchen, reflects that well-traveled savvy, but it’s forgiving, too, providing helpful tips on variations of recipes and alternative methods of food preparation or ingredients.

Martínez’s book is about the basics of Mexican home cooking; recipes include comfort foods like caldo de pollo dressed up with slices of avocado and diced jalapeño and special occasion meals like mole poblano. The recipes are simple enough for people just getting into Mexican cooking, but also have a nostalgic quality that will appeal to those who grew up with homemade arroz con leche or chicharrón en salsa verde. Flipping through The Mexican Home Kitchen, I remembered my own childhood visits with my stepmother’s family, where I would sit around the table with the many other grandkids swirling Ritz crackers in steaming bowls of atole. I turned to Martínez’s atole blanco recipe on page 178, and headed to the store for some masa harina, newly inspired. — Brenna Houck

Pie for Everyone: Recipes and Stories from Petee’s Pie, New York’s Best Pie Shop

Petra “Petee” Paredez Abrams, September 22

If you’re not a pie person, then clearly you’ve never had a slice of Petra Paredez’s black-bottom almond chess pie. Growing up in a baking and farming family (her parents started northern Virginia treasure Mom’s Apple Pie Company in 1981), Paredez has considerable pie-making expertise. In 2014, she and her husband, Robert Paredez, opened their Lower East Side shop Petee’s Pie Company on a shoestring budget, and today, the sweet, sunny cafe on Delancey Street is considered one of the best pie shops in New York City.

At the heart of Petee’s Pie, the goal is simple: a flavorful, flaky, tender crust and perfectly balanced filling. Pie for Everyone teaches readers how to achieve this at home. The book begins with foundational information (how to source ingredients, the tools to buy to make pie-making easier and more efficient) followed by chapters on crusts and crumbs and pie fillings. And while there are hundreds of ways to make pie, Paredez believes in the merits of a super-buttery crust. “If you only use one of my pastry dough recipes,” she writes, “I hope it’s my butter pastry dough.”

With recipes that are both sweet and savory (including quiches), Pie for Everyone covers the shop’s year-round signature pies, like maple whiskey walnut and chocolate cream, as well as seasonal favorites, like strawberry rhubarb and nesselrode, a New York specialty consisting of chestnut custard with black rum-soaked cherries. But whether you’re a fan of Petee’s Pie or you’ve never been, bakers and pie lovers will appreciate learning from Paredez, a baker for whom pie-making is a ribbon-worthy feat every single time. — Esra Erol

Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ina Garten Random House, October 6

There are many cookbooks that you want to read more than cook from, but Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is not one of them. In her 12th cookbook, Ina Garten, the queen of timeless, expertly tested dishes, shares 85 recipes for the kinds of comfort foods we’re craving more than ever. Dedicated home cooks may already know most of these unfussy foods by heart, but with Garten’s thoughtful techniques and guidance on how to find the best ingredients, dishes like chicken pot pie soup, baked rigatoni with lamb ragu, and skillet-roasted chicken with potatoes feel new and exciting. The skillet-roasted chicken and potatoes, for example, calls for a buttermilk marinade to make the bird juicy and moist, while potatoes are cooked with the chicken jus under the chicken, on the bottom of a hot skillet, to absorb extra chicken flavor, turning two humble ingredients into a fabulous dinner.

This being a Barefoot Contessa cookbook, it also comes with all the stories and aspirational photos (including many heart-melting pictures of Garten and husband Jeffrey) that have long inspired fans to want to live, cook, and eat like Ina. But, compared to Garten’s other books, Modern Comfort Food depicts the culinary star more as a loving neighbor who will bring you chocolate chip cookies on Sundays than the imposing queen of East Hampton. In the intro to this book, Garten admits that these days, she’s a little grumpier than usual (just like the rest of us), says it’s okay if we reach for a cold martini and a tub of ice cream for dinner, and reminds us once again how she managed to capture so many hearts over more than two decades as the Barefoot Contessa. — James Park

Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You’re Not Drinking for Whatever Reason

Julia Bainbridge Ten Speed Press, October 6

A lot of people feel weird about drinking nowadays. Our spending habits show it, through products like low-ABV hard seltzers, chic nonalcoholic aperitifs, or just the ongoing popularity of sober months like Dry January. Author Julia Bainbridge understands the fluid nature of this type of sobriety, which is why she subtitled her book of spirit-free drinks as “for When You’re Not Drinking for Whatever Reason.” After all, you don’t need to eschew alcohol forever in order to enjoy a thoughtfully blended drink that isn’t trying to get you sloshed.

The drinks in Good Drinks are structured by the time of day you might enjoy them (brunch accompaniment, happy hour treat, aperitif), and are as complex and innovative (and labor-intensive) as anything at a fancy cocktail bar. They call for ingredients like black cardamom-cinnamon syrup, buckwheat tea, and tomato-watermelon juice, each of which get their own recipes. There’s even a whole recipe for a dupe of nonalcoholic Pimm’s (involving citus, rooibos tea, raspberry vinegar, and gentian root). The results are festive, celebratory drinks for any occasion, so the nondrinkers need not be stuck with cranberry juice and seltzer anymore. — JS

Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage Ten Speed Press, October 13

It’s probably a good thing Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook isn’t called Plenty 3 or More Plenty More, veering the chef’s cookbook oeuvre into Fast & Furious territory. But by the London chef’s own admission, that’s a good way to understand Flavor, his newest book, which like its Plenty predecessors focuses on vegetables and all the creative ways to prepare and combine them.

Co-written with Ixta Belfrage, a recipe developer in the Ottolenghi test kitchen, Flavor presents recipes from three perspectives. The “process” chapter explores specific techniques to transform vegetables, such as charring and fermenting. “Pairing” takes an angle that will sound familiar to Samin Nosrat fans, with recipes rooted in the perfect balance of fat, acid, “chile heat,” and sweetness. And “produce” focuses on the ingredients with such complex tastes, usages, and sub-categories that they deserve examination on their own: mushrooms, onions (and their allium cousins), nuts and seeds, and sugar in fruit and booze form.

The result, in typical Ottolenghi fashion, is multi-step, multi-ingredient, and multi-hued recipes whose promised flavors leap from the page — from cabbage “tacos” with celery root and date barbecue sauce to saffron tagliatelle with ricotta and crispy chipotle shallots. Chipotles and other chiles are actually in abundance here (as well as “a lime or two in places where lemons would appear in previous Ottolenghi books,” as the intro notes) thanks to Belfrage’s roots in Mexico City. Those flavors, as well as those from Brazilian, Italian, and multiple Asian cuisines (spy the shiitake congee and noodles with peanut laab), unite with the usual Ottolenghi suspects — za’atar, star anise, harissa, labneh — to make Flavor worth the look, even for the home chef who already has Plenty and Plenty More on the shelf. — Ellie Krupnick

Xi’an Famous Foods: The Cuisine of Western China, from New York’s Favorite Noodle Shop

Jason Wang with Jessica K. Chou Abrams, October 13

The debut cookbook from the New York City restaurant chain Xi’an Famous Foods is worth picking up whether or not you have slurped the restaurant’s hand-pulled noodles. This is a book on how to operate a food business — CEO Jason Wang outlines five lessons to know before diving into the business and strips away the glamor of running a restaurant empire. It’s also a food history of the flavors of Xi’an, China. With so many layers to appreciate, Xi’an Famous Foods is a prime example of what a restaurant cookbook can be.

Much of the book reads like a TV series. It’s broken into episodes covering Wang’s challenges, failures, and successes, from his life-changing move from Xi’an to a rural town in Michigan, to his nights out in New York City’s Koreatown, to taking over his father’s business, Xi’an Famous Foods. Interspersed with these anecdotes, there are recipes for the restaurant’s fiery, mouth-tingling dishes, including Xi’an Famous Foods’ famous noodle sauce (accented with salty and spicy flavors from black vinegar, oyster sauce, fennel seeds, and Sichuan peppercorns), along with techniques for making hand-pulled noodles paired with helpful illustrations and visual references. For avid home cooks who want a challenge, Xi’an Famous Foods also provides tips on putting together the best hot pot at home, and for those who are confused at Asian groceries, there’s a list of basic pantry items with flavor notes and how they are used in cooking. And whether it’s Wang’s personal connection to a dish or its wider history that draws you in, each recipe will broaden your knowledge and appreciation of Xi’an cooking. — JP

Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from my Indonesian Kitchen

Lara Lee Bloomsbury, October 13

In the introduction of her debut cookbook, Lara Lee writes that an overflowing generosity is central to Indonesian culture; meals are shared freely between neighbors and friends. This generosity fills the pages of Coconut & Sambal, each recipe heightening the sense that as a reader, you’ve been let in on something special.

Lee, who was born in Australia, didn’t spend time in Indonesia until later in life, so early memories of Indonesian cooking come from the trips her grandmother Margaret Thali — whom Lee lovingly refers to as Popo throughout the book — would take to Australia. Each of the cookbook’s chapter introductions is deeply researched: Some recount stories of Lee’s grandmother, and others focus on the Indonesia that Lee fell in love with as she traveled across the archipelago collecting stories and recipes for this book.

The recipes that fill Coconut & Sambal demonstrate that Indonesian cuisine cannot be painted with one brush. The food of the nation — made up of more than 15,000 islands — incorporates the sharp heat of chiles, the mellow hit of fermented shrimp, the sweetness of coconut in nearly every form, and always enough rice to go around. You’ll find curries fragrant with makrut lime leaf, ginger, and turmeric, and bright ceviches adorned with thinly sliced chiles, banana shallot, and palm sugar; I was particularly drawn to a fried chicken dish (page 142), its crisp shell smashed and laced with fiery sambal. Lee explains that recipes are typically passed down orally in Indonesian culture, which makes me even more grateful for these written ones. What Lee has given readers is a gorgeous document that sets in stone food traditions passed down through generations, as well as some she’s created herself. You’ll want to dedicate an evening to turning the pages of this book, planning out feasts of green chile braised duck, Balinese roasted pork belly, and perhaps some sticky ginger toffee pudding to top it all off. — Elazar Sontag

In Bibi’s Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean

Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen Ten Speed Press, October 13

Recipes are almost always the main attraction in a cookbook. But In Bibi’s Kitchen, written by first-time author Hawa Hassan in collaboration with veteran cookbook writer Julia Turshen, there’s so much to enjoy before you even get to the first recipe. The book focuses on dishes from eight African countries, linked by their shared proximity to the Indian Ocean and involvement in the region’s spice trade.

Each chapter, divided by country, starts with a brief history of the region and question-and-answer-style interviews with one of the bibis, or grandmothers, who call these places home. The answers to these questions find the grandmothers speaking about the meaning of home, the gender roles in their communities, and the importance of passing on food traditions. Each interview is as beautiful and varied as the recipes that follow: kadaka akondro (green plantains and braised beef) from the home of Ma Baomaka in Ambohidratrimo, Madagascar; digaag qumbe, a Somalian chicken stew rich with yogurt and coconut milk, served with sweet banana; kaimati, crisp coconut dumplings in an ambrosial cardamom syrup, this batch cooked in Ma Shara’s kitchen in Zanzibar, but popular all along the Swahili coast. A practical advantage of collecting recipes from home cooks is that these recipes are all approachable, most calling for fewer than 10 ingredients.

In many ways, In Bibi’s Kitchen breaks ground. It pays tribute to a part of the world that has been criminally overlooked by American publishers, sharing the stories of these African countries from the perspectives of home cooks who actually live there. The book is full of intimate portraits of the grandmothers in their kitchens, captured by Kenyan photographer Khadija M. Farah, who joined these women in their homes. The result of this collaborative and ambitious effort is a collection of heartwarming photos, tidbits of history, and, of course, plenty of mouthwatering meals. — ES

This Will Make it Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking

Vivian Howard Voracious, October 20

Reading through Vivian Howard’s This Will Make It Taste Good is like reading a cookbook by your real or imagined North Carolinian best friend. The design itself is cheerful, full of 1970s serif fonts and colorful badges that are reminiscent of a children’s workbook. Dishes are photographed from above, in the same style as Alison Roman’s Dining In and Nothing Fancy, often showing Howard’s hands as they work away chopping herbs or spooning chowder. The A Chef’s Life host’s goal is simple: to teach home cooks that easy meals can be exciting rather than bland.

Howard’s intended audience is the time-crunched kitchen novice, though a more experienced cook will surely find some useful tips, as well. Each section is based around a recipe that can be prepped in advance and then used throughout the week in a multitude of dishes: Among the most promising are the “Little Green Dress,” a dressing with flexible ingredients that can gussy up anything from mussels to crackers to soft-boiled eggs; the “R-Rated Onions,” which you can keep in an ice cube tray in the freezer to use at your convenience; and the “Citrus Shrine,” i.e., preserved citrus that promises to elevate dishes like shrimp cocktail and rice pilaf — you can even use it in margaritas! In any time, This Will Make It Taste Good would be a great help to those of us who prefer recipes that look and taste more complex than they are to prepare. That it happens to arrive at a moment when we’re likely all sick of the contents of our fridges and our own culinary limitations is just a bonus. — Madeleine Davies

The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food

Marcus Samuelsson with Osayi Endolyn Voracious, October 27

“Black food is not just one thing,” chef Marcus Samuelsson writes in the introduction to The Rise. “It’s not a rigidly defined geography or a static set of tastes. It is an energy. A force. An engine.” The cookbook that follows is an invigorating, joyous, and deeply nuanced illustration of the complexity of Black foodways, one that weaves together conversations about history, artistry, authorship, race, class, and culture with 150 recipes that incorporate ingredients and techniques from around the globe.

Each of the book’s recipes was created in honor of “someone who is illuminating the space we share,” as Samuelsson writes: chefs, artists, activists, authors, and historians, all of whom are profiled by the book’s coauthor, Eater contributor Osayi Endolyn. The recipes are organized to demonstrate how culinary rituals and traditions evolve according to time, place, and cook. In the first chapter, “Next,” for example, you’ll find food that speaks of forward-thinking innovation, such as baked sweet potatoes with garlic-fermented shrimp butter, created in honor of David Zilber, the former director of fermentation at Noma. (That butter, pureed with avocado, sweet soy sauce, and fresh thyme, is not only easy to make, but so good that you can be forgiven for eating it straight from the food processor.) “Migration,” the third chapter, speaks of the American South, with recipes like spiced lemon chess pie, broken rice peanut seafood stew, and Papa Ed’s shrimp and grits, named for Ed Brumfield, the executive chef at Samuelsson’s Harlem restaurant the Red Rooster.

The Rise doesn’t claim to be an encyclopedic compendium of Black cooking; instead, it’s a celebration, one that honors the past while looking ahead, challenging assumptions even as it feeds you well. — Rebecca Flint Marx

The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes

Nik Sharma Chronicle Books, October 27

Nik Sharma begins his second cookbook by explaining that we rely on a variety of senses and feelings when we eat: sight, sound, mouthfeel or texture, aroma, taste, and even our emotions and memories. These components make up what he refers to as the “Flavor Equation,” and this concept and the role it plays in everyday cooking is the guiding principle of his book of the same name.

Following a thorough and captivating science lesson on the equation, Sharma lays out seven chapters dedicated to basic tastes and flavor boosters — brightness, bitterness, saltiness, sweetness, savoriness, fieriness, and richness — each with its own set of recipes: pomegranate and poppy seed wings exemplify brightness, roasted figs with coffee miso tahini or hazelnut flan highlight bitterness, “pizza” toast for saltiness, masala cheddar cornbread in the sweetness section, and more. Through these achievable recipes, many of which rely mostly on pantry essentials, Sharma helps readers better understand how flavor works and how to use that to their advantage to become more confident home cooks. Whatever your skill level in the kitchen, with its more than 100 recipes, illustrated diagrams, and Sharma’s own evocative photography, The Flavor Equation is an engrossing guide to elevating simple dishes into holistic experiences. — EE

Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives

Nadiya Hussain Clarkson Potter, November 10 (originally published June 27, 2019)

Nadiya Hussain is just like you and me. That’s the guiding principle behind her public persona, her BBC Two cooking show Time to Eat (now on Netflix), and her cookbook Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives. “I know what it’s like to have just one head and one pair of hands,” the Great British Bake Off winner writes in the introduction of Time to Eat, a new stateside version of her U.K. cookbook of the same title. Her book, she promises, will help you become a smarter home cook in between chores and kids, thanks to heavy use of the freezer and other time savers.

On the page, that looks like tips for prepping and freezing, recipes that leave you with enough leftovers to make a second dish, and ideas for remixes and variations. There are more than 100 recipes, divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and basics. Many of these dishes may be unfamiliar to American audiences — hello, kedgeree and fish pie burgers! — but the instructions are as approachable as Hussain’s on-camera demonstrations. With enough variety to keep it interesting, balanced with dishes easy enough to work into your weekly rotation of meals, e.g., eggs rolled onto tortillas, Time to Eat offers something for any home cook looking for new ideas and time-tested, time-saving methods. — Jenny G. Zhang

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End

Magnus Nilsson Phaidon, November 11

Last December, after more than a decade of acclaim, accolades, and meals rooted in seasonality and locally produced ingredients, Magnus Nilsson closed his restaurant Fäviken in Jämtland, Sweden. In the lead-up to the closing, he told the LA Times that he wanted to focus on the restaurant, not elegies or explanations. Now, the explanation has arrived in the form of Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End, Nilsson’s latest monograph with publisher Phaidon.

Although the book covers the lifespan of Fäviken, including lookbacks at the first title Nilsson published about the restaurant, it is not an elegy. There are no laments here, but rather a thorough catalogue of all the dishes that Fäviken served, ruminations about craft and haute cuisine and sustainability, and a long-awaited account of “Why Fäviken had to close, really.” The book contains recipes for many of the restaurant’s dishes — ranging from the simple berry ice to the more demanding “Scallop I skalet ur elden cooked over burning juniper branches,” with extensive headnotes — but its purpose is not as a cookbook. It is a tome (beautifully put together, as is typical for Phaidon) that is made for fans of Fäviken’s, of Nilsson’s, and more importantly, of the way of life he espouses, one that is passionate but measured.

That is best expressed in one of the book’s final essays, one dated May 12, 2020, in which Nilsson articulates gratitude that he was able to close his restaurant on his own terms, for Fäviken would not have survived the pandemic. “If one day some years from now I wake up in the morning and feel the same burning desire to run a restaurant that I felt for many years at Fäviken, I won’t think twice about it,” Nilsson writes. “But if that doesn’t happen, that’s okay too. There are many other things to do in life.” — JGZ

A Good Bake: The Art and Science of Making Perfect Pastries, Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Breads at Home

Melissa Weller with Carolynn Carreño Knopf, November 17

There are people who treat baking like a hobby and there are people who treat baking as a raison d’etre, a life’s purpose. Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake is for the latter, which shouldn’t surprise anyone considering Weller’s resume, which includes creating pastry for some of New York City’s most revered restaurants, such as Per Se, Roberta’s, and her acclaimed SoHo bagel shop, Sadelle’s. Before she became an expert baker, Weller was a chemical engineer, and as such, she tackles recipes with a scientific approach, getting the fermentation, proofing, and pH balance of her dough down to, well, a science.

If you’re a quarantine baker who’s mastered sourdough and is ready for the next challenge, consider Weller’s takes on NYC classics like chocolate babka, spelt scones with raspberry jam, and even traditional hot dog buns. A Good Bake will thrill bakers who rejoice in doing things the difficult way (but note that there are beautiful and detailed photos of her process to help guide ambitious bakers through the recipe). Of course, this means that failing will hurt all the more, considering the hours (or days, even!) of work that you’ve put into your bake, but success? It will taste all the sweeter... or more savory. It depends on your tastes, and Weller expertly caters to both. — MD

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[pokesception]

Who will my next friend be?

I’ve been getting an all-shiny, all-ghost, all-moon ball team together for pokemon Ultra Sun, and with yesterday’s Drifloon, I’m almost done!  So far I’ve got:

From left to right Boney Boy the Cubone (not a ghost yet, but he will be when he evolves), a yet unnamed male Drifloon, a yet-unnamed female Oricorio, a yet unnamed agender Dhelmise, and Spooky Boy the Mimikyu.

Suggestions for names on the yet unnamed members of the team are still greatly appreciated, but what I really need help with, and what this post is mainly about, is picking the last member of the team.  If the team were just any shiny ghost, then it would be an easy choice, as I’d just go with pumkaboo or shuppet, favorites with cool shinies that I don’t have yet.  But those can’t be caught in moon balls, at least not yet.  That extra restriction leaves leaves me with the following options:

Sandygast

Pros: Shiny Palosand looks amazing.

Cons: I already have a Shiny Palosand, albeit not one in a moon ball.  I do eventually want a shiny of every ghost pokemon, so I suppose I could just... not evolve it?  But a ‘fill in’ younger shiny isn’t really something I want to devote a team slot on.

Sableye

Pros: Sableye is literally my favorite pokemon, and I haven’t used a Sableye in a play through since since Tourmaline on my last gen 6 team.

Cons: I have like three shiny Sableyes already, including the aforementioned Tourmaline, who I still occasionally use.  And, honestly?  Shiny sableye is not one of my favorite shiny palettes among ghost pokemon.  Going from the usual purple to yellow isn’t bad, I like that in the Drifloon line, but Shiny sableye’s yellow is much more drab, sort of mustardy.  And then it has yellow eyes on top of that?  Yellow on yellow isn’t a great choice, IMO.  A brighter or paler yellow, with bright shiny green or yellow eyes would have been so much better.  Shiny Mega Sableye improves somewhat with green eyes, but the yellow’s still a bit drab, and it’s big green gem could really stand to be brighter/shinier/more saturated.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike shiny sableye / mega sableye.  It’s colors are good, better than a lot of shinies out there, but when it’s my favorite pokemon overall being just a few obvious tweaks away from being fantastic is just frustrating.

Honedge

Pros: the shiny colors for this entire evolutionary line look amazing.  And a second dash of red would help Dhelmise fit into the rest of the lineup aesthetically.

Cons: I already have a shiny Aegislash - Morikhane from the same team as my shiny Sableye Tourmaline.  So If I want to use this pokemon to further my overall collection of shiny ghost pokemon, I’d have to refrain from using a dusk stone on him, leaving him in his secondary evolution as Duoblade.  However, Duoblade’s actually a pretty strong and cool pokemon in its own right.  Nowhere near as strong as Aegislash, of course, but still interesting, and plays completely differently.  I could definitely see myself being happy with a shiny Duoblade on my team.

Ghastly

Pros: Gengar is the classic ghost pokemon, and while its shiny colorations is one of the famously bad ones (going from purplish to a barely distinguishable navy blue), shiny mega gengar’s striking white coloration is fantastic.  Plus, even with the nerf to Gengar in gen 7, it’s still just a good, strong pokemon to have on the team.

Cons:  As with Sableye and Aegislash, I already have a shiny Gengar - Mama Gengar from the same team as the others.  However, unlike my other Shinies, Mama Gengar is not a pokemon I caught or hatched myself, she was a halloween event givaway from several years back, so there’s be a certain personal satisfaction to obtaining a shiny gengar on my own, in particular one I could give an actual nickname to.  But it would still probably be less exciting than adding a completely new shiny to my collection.

Snorunt

Pros:  Snorunt isn’t a ghost pokemon, but one of its two possible evolutions, Froslass, is.  And Froslass is a very cool pokemon, if you’ll forgive the pun.  Fast, has spikes, etc.  I haven’t played a Froslass since the same Halloween event that I got Mama Gengar from, and have never used on in an actual play through.

Cons: Shiny Froslass’s colors aren’t very exciting.  She trades an orangish-red ribbon for a pinkish-red ribbon.  That’s it, nothing else changes.  Granted, I at least like the pinkish-red ribbon better, but still.  Worse, only female Snorunts can evolve into Froslass, cutting the odds of hatching the right pokemon in half.  With exactly three weeks to go, the odds would still be in favor of me hatching one in time, but do I want to risk that?  How frustrating would it be to get to hatch one or two shiny males, but no shiny females?  

Litwick

Pros: Cute as a button!  And I’ve never used or bred Chandelures before, shiny or otherwise.  Chandelure is a pretty strong pokemon, one of those competitive ghost pokemon that I’d really like to have available to adopt from Sception’s Sleepy Sepulcher, so going for a shiny litwick for the team would fill a gap there.

Cons: I’m not a huge fan of Shiny Chandelure’s colors.  They’re fine, not bad, and they’re noticeably distinct from regular Chandelure, with orange flames instead of blue, but in this case I might have actually preferred if it stuck to Litwick’s barely distinguishable ‘slightly brighter blue’, because blue fire is spooky and ghostly, and orange fire is just regular fire, you know?  Also, we’ll already have a ghost/fire pokemon on the team with Alolan Marowak, though we have two ghost/flying pokes already, so it’s not like that really bothers me.

Misdreavus

Pros:  I like Misdreavus/Mismagius a lot.  They’re cool pokemon.  Often overshadowed by Gengar over the years, but less so in 7th edition now that Gengar no longer has levitate.  And I’ve never used them at all.

Cons: Again, I’m not a huge fan of the shiny colors.  I get it, sure, Misdreavus is a witchy pokemon, and green has been associated with witches since the Wizard of Oz movie, but olive green just isn’t the most exciting coloration, and Mismagius’s brighter green isn’t a huge improvement, imo.

Phantump

Pros:  Shiny Phantump/Trevenant’s colors are fantastic, with striking white bark and red autumn leaves that remind me of my favorite time of the year.  And I’ve never used Trevenant before, so, as with Chandelure or Mismagius, it would be a new experience.

Cons: While it looks cool, Trevenant is not an especially strong pokemon.  Grass/ghost, like grass/anything really, is not an especially good typing - why oh why does grass have so many weaknesses?  and why does gamefreak keep treating grass as a bulky typing with slow defensive pokemon largely undone by being weak to so many attacks?  Even among the now four different options for fully evolved grass/ghost pokemon, Trevenant is probably my least favorite, and one of those grass/ghost pokemon I like better is already on my team.  Again, though, I already have two ghost/flying types, so it’s not like type overlap is my biggest concern, and Trevenant plays very differently from Dhelmise, so I don’t think it would feel redundant.

...........................

Overall, there’s a lot of cons to this bunch, being mostly pokemon that I either already have shinies of, or I’m not super excited about their shiny colors, or I’m not particularly thrilled with their game mechanics.  Again, if Pumpkaboo or Shuppet or Frillish or Nincada or Golett or Yamask could be obtained in moon balls one of those would definitely have taken the last spot.  But there are no bad pokemon, and whichever of the above pokemon ends up on the team, I will love them just as much as all the others.

Right now, I’m leaning towards Honedge, Litwick, or Phantump, but I really could end up settling on any of the above, especially if I get some help deciding.

[sempainope-blog]

I am become Death

Title: “I am become Death” AO3 

Length: Ongoing 

Rating: Mature for language, sexual content, violence, possible torture, possible non con/sexual assault,

Pairings: Jyn/Cassian/Bodhi, Peripheral Baze/Chirrut

Summary: A Knights of Ren/Rogue One AU fic. This is the first mission that the Knights have been separated on, and it is the first one that they have been trusted to do without supervision, but then, no mission has been so important. 

Author’s note: Though Rogue One is probably my favorite of the new Star Wars movies, I was a little let down that the terrible fate that the trailers alluded to (Saw Gerrera's "What will you do when they catch you? What will they become?") didn't come to pass. I freely acknowledge that I'm a terrible person (also, maybe, a bit of a sadist), for wanting them to be captured and turned to the dark side.

I also freely acknowledge that I don't know all the ins and outs and finer details of the Star Wars universe. It's been years since I read any of the Star Wars novels but the love has never gone away. There will be tweaks as I work. The only thing I know for certain at this point, is where the story is going and that it is Rook, Andor, and Erso centric. Haha, please bear with me. I may be needing a betareader...

It had come again; intangible, pure, more real than real, and horrible. Heat; unending and suffocating, rolled over her and crushed the air from her lungs. There was nothing she could see, nothing she could hear, beyond the roar of her blood in her ears. The first time she had told one of their keepers about the dream, he had reassured her that the mind made up all sorts of things. Meditation and focusing on training would help, he had said, but years of both of those things had not diminished the visions. If anything, she wondered if they were becoming more real. Even now, hours and hours from waking, she felt her skin prickle in anticipation of the heat.

“Miss?” The blue-skinned owner of the inn they sat in smiled expectantly at her from behind the counter of the bar. The Rogue blinked her impossible dream away, realizing belatedly that the innkeeper’s serving droid had rolled up to her and parked itself at her side. The tray clipped to the unit’s body held a fogged glass pitcher, the contents turning the glass a milky green. Judging from how the liquid was completely still in the glass, the droid had been sitting there waiting for her decision for at least a little while. The Rogue’s companion chuckled quietly, his deep brown eyes steady on her face as if he’d been watching her for a time, too.

“I think we have both had more than enough,” He said, his amusement threaded through his soft voice. His face turned towards the innkeeper, though his eyes lingered on her face for a moment more.

The Rogue ignored him and favored the blue-skinned woman a small smile, bobbing her head slightly in agreement. As if she would allow herself to become intoxicated on mission. The muscles around her lips felt stiff and she wondered if it was as obviously insincere as it felt. If it was, the innkeeper missed it and the droid...well, it was a serving droid. The creature beeped in comprehension and rolled back towards the pantry room. It swiveled its head back to look at them again, as if giving them a last chance to change their mind before disappearing past the pantry door.

It had taken them twenty-three days, twenty-three days of talking and negotiating and making pleasantries, to narrow down the location. Saying that it had been painful and a stretch of her skills would be an understatement. Now, with the target so close, the Rogue felt her mask of warmth and humanity giving way to her impatience. Those extroverted characteristics that made infiltration easy: charisma, a bubbly sense of humor, friendliness; they just weren’t in her nature, if they ever had been.

Of all of their rank, the Rogue never managed to blend in as well or for as long as the others. They were all of them, perfect, near-exact replicas of some long-forgotten human war heroes but something about her unnerved people. The Sniper claimed it was her eyes that gave it away. How they were flat and hungry as a colo claw fish most of the time. The Heavy had been more prosaic about it and had chalked it up to the alterations and additions that had been made to their genetic sequence. There had been almost nothing left of the sources for their genetic templates and some human traits were inherently undesirable to the Supreme Leader to begin with, so the Kaminoans had filled in the gaps and tweaked what existed to order.

Any reasons why the Supreme Leader had insisted on these particular humans for the project was insight into a wisdom that far surpassed the Rogue’s comprehension. It wasn’t deemed necessary information for them to know, and she had never bothered to ask. It hardly seemed important.

Rising up, the Rogue looked over the inside of the inn and meandered towards one of the four narrow windows set in the rounded inn walls. The road was just visible in the dying sunlight, a thin silver-blue ribbon winding over the lush, hilled land. It was clear and empty, and in the distance, the soft glow of the closest colony flickered like a candle. It was more than two hours from the inn by foot but with all the quiet of the countryside, blaster fire would probably carry.

That was fine; blasters weren’t the Rogue’s favorite short-range weapon anyways. Her thumb slid along the top of the belt strapped around her waist before hooking above the handle of her nightstick.

There were strict laws in this region of space, laws fueled by some sort of ridiculous, rabid cultish fervor and the collective unhealed trauma from the Empire’s occupation that prevented the presence of any non-indigenous military presence or bounty hunters from roaming without close observation. That had ruled out their life-sustaining armor in favor for something that, unfortunately, screamed tourist and traveler. The Rogue had been quick to protest but as the Knights and this mission weren’t supposed to exist, it was unavoidable. It had also been a direct order, so. That had settled that.

The Armory’s dark khaki green tunic was the cheap, common kind that could be found at most trading posts with long sleeves and enough folds and pockets to hide all sorts of useful things. The black, high-necked, and long sleeved shirt that the tunic was wrapped over was made of a more expensive and deceptively tough knife-resistant fabric, but a person would have to be looking for that particular detail to notice it. His pants, leg wraps, and shoes were black and all looked to be of the same trading post origin as the shirt.

Weapons were also highly regulated, which meant the most deadly thing the Armory had on his person was a single law-congruent stun pistol, and a crescent-bladed knife hanging off of the utility belt cinched around his middle. The several vials of poison discreetly tucked out of sight were somewhat less legal but they had no intention of staying on this planet past the midnight hour.

The Armory’s dark hair hung loose about his head in a thick, heavy fall that reached his shoulders. It was hardly regulation nor very practical in a fight, but it suited him. The short facial hair that framed the Armory’s mouth and swept up his jaw bone kept his features from appearing too much younger than his twenty-two years and brought balance to the pronounced bridge of his nose and hollowed cheeks. The warm tone of his brown skin easily hid the fact that he wasn’t often exposed to sunlight, quite unlike the Rogue’s. And with his large, friendly eyes that drew people in and a face that leant itself best to smiling, the pair might as well be night and day. That approachability was something the Rogue used to be jealous of for the attention it brought him, but she had ultimately learned to play to her strengths.

The Rogue had brought no weapons aside from herself and a more tame nightstick than the one that usually accompanied her. It hung openly at her waist over a knee-length gray tunic and a twin of the black, stab-resistant shirt that the Armory wore. Her own cinnamon brown hair had been pulled back into no-nonsense braid that had then been twisted into itself and pinned as a bun at the back of her head.

There wasn’t a trace of rouge on her lips or kohl around her eyes, something that the Sniper had pestered her for not caring about. When he hadn’t let up, she rewarded him with a quick sweep of her leg to knock the Sniper’s out from under him and send him crashing heavily down onto the floor. Though the memory of his stunned expression and how he had rubbed at his bruised tailbone brought amusement to the Rogue, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he hadn’t been completely wrong.

A little makeup might have actually made her more approachable...but probably not. If it wasn’t her “colo-claw-fish-eyes” and standoffish demeanor that put strangers off, her sharp tongue inevitably cut away any amicable connections with would-be allies. The knowledge that they had managed at the inn for the past several hours without her offending anyone wasn’t much of a consolation.

The inn wasn’t particularly large to begin with but the Armory and the Rogue were its sole guests. The upper floor housed four rooms to let out to guests while the main floor served as a modest eatery and watering hole for the locals. A place like this probably got more than enough business but it was the off-season now, and the cusp of the second harvest which meant the only people traveling were those who absolutely had to. The inn itself would be closed in another day or two until the cold season was over and planting was complete. It was unlikely anyone would be stumbling in on them.

The Rogue tapped her fingers impatiently along the handle of her nightstick as she started to calculate their odds of being interrupted, then dismissed the thought before it was complete. If the Armory had done his job and the Sniper was currently doing his, it would be impossible.

“I’m sorry, but we must impose even further on you,” The Rogue said suddenly. Her voice was rough and slightly hoarse from disuse, an unpleasant contrast to the calm ease that filled the room. “We were directed here by some mutual friends. We were told you help people find what they’re looking for. Things from the war against the Empire.”

The Armory moved his arms from where he had them leaning against the tabletop to drop one casually across his lap and within easy reach of a quick draw of his stun gun. The other he braced on the bench he sat on as he looked between the Rogue and the innkeeper with nothing more than polite curiosity on his face. He was still planning on getting what they needed without violence. That was not a priority for the Rogue.

The tense moment of silence that followed the Rogue’s words erased any remaining doubt she had as to whether they had the right target. Tension drew the innkeeper’s posture ruler-straight behind the counter of the bar and her lips thinned.

Did the innkeeper know she was prey? If she didn’t, she would find out very quickly. A thrill tickled up the Rogue’s spine and she licked her dry lips in anticipation.

“I don’t. Not anymore.” The Innkeeper said shortly. “Not for years.”

The Armory’s head tilted minutely towards the door to the pantry in an unspoken warning. The droid had returned to the entrance to the main hall, surveying the scene unfolding before it in silence. The Rogue nodded slightly; she’d destroy it soon enough but her focus was on their target.

“I’m just an innkeeper. I don’t want trouble,” She said, raising her voice. One of the Rogue’s eyebrows quirked at the foolishness of the act. Undoubtedly, the innkeeper hoped that someone would hear her but the roads were as empty as the inn nearly was.

“Then indulge us a little. You said years, but our mutual friends said you helped move some Imperial relics six weeks ago. That’s a bit short of the years you say it’s been since you were involved in any smuggling.” The warm smile that had first come to the Armory’s face when the innkeeper had offered them more to drink had never left. Only now, it was twisted into something considerably more focused and less inviting.

The Rogue’s heart skipped when she saw the sweat beading across the woman’s forehead and she slid her fingers around the fabric-bound handle of her weapon.

Prey, the Rogue’s blood sang with excitement, unworthy prey.

Fear tightened the innkeeper’s lips and the Rogue’s eyes measured her, waiting. Would the innkeeper run? There was nowhere to go. No, judging from how the Chiss had drawn closer to the countertop of the bar and had been moving her arms in tiny, stiff motions beneath the counter, she probably had a weapon trained on them at that very moment.

Good. The Rogue preferred an open fight.

Inhale, exhale...Inhale, exhale...

Inhale- A burst of red blaster fire exploded through the thin front board of the counter but the Rogue was ready for it.

In a blur of motion, the Rogue swung aside and closed the distance between them. Her nightstick swung up and the metal-capped end smashed across the woman’s mouth with enough force to send her spinning to the floor. Blood spattered the floor in a spray and the Rogue bared her teeth in a predatory grin.

A sudden, shrill siren-like tone raised loud enough to rattle the teeth in their heads and stole the flush of victory from the Rogue.

The damned droid-!

The windows shuddered in their frames, cracks starting to splinter out along the panes. The Armory had clapped his hands over his ears in an ineffective attempt to dampen the piercing shrill; his stun gun still clutched in one hand. None of his weapons would be effective against the metal creature. In a single motion, the Rogue twisted the handle to electrify the lower end of the shaft and turned to deal with the droid. Her weapon wasn’t ideal for disabling it, but-

Behind the Rogue, glass dust and twisted metal shrapnel exploded out from where a window once was. She grit her teeth against the sudden flash of heat she felt across her cheek as the first blaster bolt passed her and slammed into the droid’s eye lenses. Another bolt blasted into the body of the droid, shearing straight through it’s plating to fry the circuits and cut off its screams. Steam and chemical vapor curled up from the droid, filling the air with the acrid smell of burning plasteel and circuitry but it was silent.

Kriffing hell.

The Rogue cast a glowering look out the shattered window and into the darkness. Subtlety was clearly off the table, but the innkeeper and her droid had seen to that.

Hopping the counter, the Armory landed lightly beside the innkeeper and kicked the blaster out of reach. Placing a booted foot on the innkeeper’s shoulder, he shoved her onto her back.

The nightstick had knocked three of the Chiss’ teeth clean free, cracked several others, and from the blood and saliva that oozed out from her lips, she’d probably bitten into her tongue, too. The Rogue’s nose wrinkled at the sight, not at all trying to hide her amused disgust at her own handy work.

“Well that was foolish of you,” The Armory commented as he glanced back at the smoldering droid. When the innkeeper let out a moan, he looked back down. Dropping weightlessly into a crouch that would have made most knees creak, the Armory placed the flat of his dagger under the innkeeper’s chin.

“Focus.” When the innkeeper’s disoriented gaze wandered, he tapped the flat of the blade against the innkeeper’s lower jaw. It wasn’t hard enough to really hurt but it definitely got the woman’s attention.

“I have connections-! High up friends that will come after you for this!!” She spat, blood from her broken teeth staining her blue lips purple.

“We’re ghosts, my friend,” The Armory replied as the Rogue moved in closer. His voice was gentle but confident. “No one can catch ghosts. Now, you were just telling us about those Imperial relics...”

The innkeeper’s resolve broke fast, certainly faster than her femur did, but the Armory and the Rogue were nothing if not thorough and there would be no stopping until they had agreed they knew everything.

[micaramel]

James Benning in Joshua Tree (December 25), 2011. Photo by Heinz Peter Knes

  Artist: James Benning

Exhibition Title: Down the Rabbit Hole: JB in JT

Arranged by: Julie Ault and Martin Beck

In Collaboration With: O-Town House, Los Angeles

Note: at the request of O-Town House we have adjusted this project’s presentation.

  Shortly after I arrived in Joshua Tree some three weeks ago, going into lockdown with Julie and Martin, we decided this was a perfect time to realize our plan for a James Benning exhibition of his works in their home. The idea for a private exhibition of James’s works here was hatched last Christmas, a time when the gang usually descends on Joshua Tree for some quality time at the kitchen table and in front of the fireplace. But now, considering the current circumstances, developing this exhibition as a virtual one seems to resolve several issues—of privacy, access to the public, and keeping busy and engaged with the world. Down the Rabbit Hole: JB in JT is conceived as part of a continuum with two earlier exhibition projects. The first, Tell It To My Heart, which traveled from the Kunstmuseum Basel to Culturgest in Lisbon and ultimately to Artists Space in New York, was an exhibition based on the artworks Julie has collected over decades, many of them the results of conversations and collaborations with other artists. The curatorial team was equally significant, and the project strove to develop a different mode of mapping the ways art and history touch our lives through relationships and collaborations. The second project in this lineage was inspired by the first, titled 31 Friends by James, for which he made 31 artworks for as many friends. The works were shown at the Marfa Book Company in Marfa, TX, and, after the exhibition ended, were given to their intended owners. James then asked everyone to send him a photograph of the works in their new homes. Those framed photographs were presented at O-Town House. James described 31 Friends as an “attempt to pay homage to the ability of art to produce community as opposed to just commerce.” The line drawn from Tell It To My Heart to 31 Friends to Down the Rabbit Hole is indicative of an ongoing effort to sustainably engage artistic practices and align the language around this work meaningfully with our lives. Down the Rabbit Hole  brings together (nearly) all the artworks and some artifacts made by James that are distributed in Julie and Martin’s house and grounds in Joshua Tree. Many of these objects are on permanent display, others were unearthed from drawers and closets. Most objects we photographed as they are installed, others we staged, and, collectively, we put together an annotated checklist, supplying details about the work and some stories of how they came about. Picking up on the aspirations of Tell It To My Heart and 31 Friends, this exhibition also reads as a conversation. The works are listed in chronological order to make present the unfolding of friendship over many years; the show becoming an extension of ongoing collaborations with a view toward the future. Moments of recollection, such as Down the Rabbit Hole represents, become crucial to finding fresh ways of thinking about the role art can play in the construction of community. By drawing lines across time, as we rummage through James’s traces here at the house, together, we are taking stock, reviewing, and recounting the conversations that grew into plans and then into actions. Enduring interests and subjects, obsessions, and curiosities have become shared experiences and the medium with which we solidify our lives together.

— Scott Cameron Weaver

    After Traylor, 2004 Colored pencil on cardstock Two parts 6 1/2 × 4 1/4 inches and 6 1/2 × 8 3/8

James often came to Joshua Tree around the holidays to visit our mutual friend Dick Hebdige. In 2003 they came over to our house a couple evenings. Sitting by the fire, James said, “I usually don’t like places like this, but I like it here.” I think he was referring to all the colors. When Dick and James came over the following Christmas, JB brought this wonderful gift. It seems reasonable to me now, but at the time, copying Bill Traylor imagery, and doing it well, was astonishing. (JA)

    Two sugar pine cones (Pinus lambertiana) from Hatchet Peak near Pine Flat, ca. 2005 Approx. 11 × 4 × 4 inches each

When coming to JT from his place in the Sierras, James sometimes brings a couple of large pine cones with him. We integrated most of them into the landscape, and some have disintegrated over the years. These two we kept on a stand on the patio. They sometimes get blown off by the wind and we find them somewhere between the cactuses. (MB)

    Clock, 2006 9 inches diameter Acrylic paint on clock

I needed to keep busy, part of my nature, so inspired by the many cans of paint in the garage (due to the many different colors used inside and outside of the house [what is it 36? I think it’s 42]), I decided to paint a clock I had just found in a local thrift store using a few of those colors. (JB)

  Continue the exhibition after the jump.

    AFTER JESSE HOWARD (DETAIL) J.B., 2007 Colored pencil on cardstock Two parts 6 1/2 × 4 1/4 and 6 1/2 × 8 ½ Pencil (verso of larger part): A MAN HAS NO RIGHT TO DEFEND HIS FAMILY DECATUR. ILL. OCT. 11. 1961 OF ALL THE UN=AMERICAN. UN=CIVIL- IZED WAY OF LIFE! ARREST: A MA- N AND THROW HIM IN JAIL! BECA- USE HE HAD NO PERMIT TO CON- STRUCT A FALLOUT SHELTER, FOR HIMSELF=AND=HIS=FAMILY. JESSE HOWARD

This was the second set of drawings made for this two-part frame. The first set was two Bill Traylor drawings (see After Traylor, 2004), but they looked rather silly so small, so I replaced them with these two truncated drawings of a Jesse Howard painting that I copied and is hanging in the replica Kaczynski cabin I built in the Sierras. I’m not sure what happened to the first set. (JB)

Once taken out of the frame, the first set, After Traylor (2004), was kept in the bottom shelf of a covered sideboard, visible right when opening its door. The unprotected drawings were vulnerable. This display, if one could call it that, always felt a bit treacherous and, recently, Julie packed the drawings in glassine and cardboard and stored them safely in the Christmas closet. (MB)

    Freedom Club, 2009 Wood carving 2 × 9 7/8 inches

Kaczynski embedded a signature of sorts—the letters FC—in the bombs he made from 1980 on, and in the mid-nineties signed letters to public figures and editors FC. FC (Freedom Club) was supposed to be an anarchist terrorist group. Kaczynski’s 1995 letter to Scientific American is worth repeating: “Scientists and engineers constantly gamble with human welfare, and we see today the effects of some of their lost gambles: ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect, cancer-causing chemicals to which we cannot avoid exposure, accumulating nuclear waste for which a sure method of disposal has not yet been found, the crowding, noise and pollution that have followed industrialization, massive extinction of species and so forth…. We emphasize the negative PHYSICAL consequences of scientific advances often are completely unforeseeable….  But far more difficult to foresee are the negative SOCIAL consequences of technological progress. The engineers who began the industrial revolution never dreamed their work would result in the creation of an industrial proletariat or the economic boom and bust cycle.” This carving was a step in James’s process of furnishing his Kaczynski cabin. After a while, he replaced it with one reading FC, and I asked if I could have this one. (JA)

    James Benning and Sadie Benning Untitled, 2010 Pencil on cardstock, framed Two parts (left part drawn by Sadie Benning, right part drawn by James Benning) Drawing: 6 1/2 × 4 1/4 inches and 6 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches Frame: 8 × 14 1/2 inches

This was the third set of drawings made for this two-part frame. I was going to continue to change the drawings for this frame, but since this is the only collaboration between Sadie and I, it seemed best to end the series here. (JB)

James and Sadie like to settle on the couch in front of the fireplace when they visit. One Christmas we got a new couch. Knowing that we wouldn’t be home when they arrived, and that they would immediately take their places in front of the fire, we wrapped a large ribbon around the couch and made it an in situ present to them. (MB)

    After Traylor by J.B., 2010 Colored pencil on paper Drawing: 12 3/4 × 8 1/2 inches Frame: 21 1/2 × 14 1/4 inches Pencil on backing board: APARTMENT FOR PEOPLE TO GO AND THEN COME OUT UP A ELEVATOR AND THEN JUMP OUT THE WINDOW. ONLY THE MANAGERS CAN GO THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR. NAME OF THE APARTMENT IS “THE PEOPLE’S APARTMENT”. 100 PEOPLE LIVE IN IT, EVERONES THE SAME AGE, BUT SOME ARE 10, 20, AND 40. by VANESSA

    Vanessa’s name is Vanessa Basilio. She was about eleven at the time, 2010. She was a CAP student. CAP is Community Arts Partnership. CalArts students teach kids in disadvantaged communities, and then the kids have a show at CalArts. When I saw her piece (house and text), I was most impressed and asked her if I could trade her an artwork for it. She was excited to make a trade, but told me she wanted to see what I could offer. I told her I could trade her a house for her house. The next day I met her and her mother, and showed her the After Traylor house. She really liked it and we made the trade, and I took a picture of her holding her house but can’t find the photo. (JB)

James made another version of the After Traylor (2010) drawing that he gave Vanessa for our house; he transcribed Vanessa’s description of her house on the frame’s backing board. A photograph of the work by Heinz Peter Knes, showing the drawing in context at the house, adorns the back cover of the first volume of Tell It To My Heart. Proofing the catalog, none of us noticed the image was reversed, the bird looking to the left rather than to the right. (MB)

    (FC) Two Cabins by JB, 2011 Edited by Julie Ault Contributions by Julie Ault, James Benning, Dick Hebdige, Theodore J. Kaczynski, and Henri David Thoreau Designed by Martin Beck Published by A.R.T. Press, New York

I still intend to write something about the Two Cabins constellation and Thoreau and Kaczynski copies James gave me. (JA)

    After Thoreau, 2011 Ink on chipboard, framed Drawing: 10 × 8 inches Frame: 18 1/2 × 15 1/2 inches

This is a copy of one of Henry David Thoreau’s many drawings that he made as the town surveyor of Concord, Massachusetts. The frame is tramp art from the 1930s. (JB)

The autodidactic orientation of both Thoreau and Kaczynski finds a correlation in Benning, who takes immense pleasure in learning. Ted Kaczynski created a numeric code to shield his most self-incriminating journal entries about his bombing campaign. JB meticulously copied the dense document and hung it in his Kaczynski cabin. He made a second copy for me, but it’s not in Joshua Tree. Empathy is palpable in his copies, and so is James, who leaves traces. I regard the reproduced TK code and the Thoreau survey as outlying companions linked by James’s acts of copying, thereby completing the triad of primary protagonists in FC: Two Cabins by JB. (JA)

    intertitle study for Stemple Pass, 2012 Typewriting on paper 11 × 9 1/4 inches

I spent a few weeks working on Stemple Pass at the kitchen table in JT. This was made while I was working on the intertitles. I believe there is a photo of me doing just that, in the first Tell It To My Heart catalog. (JB)

Tell It To My Heart was an exhibition about the artworks given to and acquired by Julie over a few decades. For the catalog, the works were photographed in situ, “at home” in our NY apartment and the JT house, installed on the walls, packed up in closets, under the couch, in drawers, and other odd places. Some of the images didn’t even show artworks, just the environment. The only person appearing in the catalog’s photography is James, seen from behind, with headphones on, sitting at the JT kitchen table, editing a film. (MB)

    After Beck 11 × 15 3/4, 2013 Acrylic paint on wood panel 11 × 15 3/4 inches

Martin gave me a painting of his that was hanging on the wall in JT. It was a painting that I always admired. I was going to make an exact copy of it and replace it in the same place. It proved to be too difficult for me to reproduce, so I made this painting instead. It was the same dimensions as the painting I tried to copy. (JB)

Back in 1996, I gave a painting I had made as an art student to Julie. It was the first painting I considered to be quite good and therefore was precious to me. Soon after we got the house in JT, the painting moved out here, which is where James saw it. Expressing his admiration, he wondered if there were others like it. I had a similar same-size one from that time in storage at my parents house in Austria. James and I then cooked up a trade: I would give him that painting and he would copy it for me. When visiting my parents next I took the painting to NY and sent it to him in the mail. Quite a few months later, at Christmas out in JT, James gave me his version of it. While James was working on the copy, Sadie painted a white version as a companion piece. Unbeknownst of the impending gifts, I had made two drawings, to give them as presents, one for James, one for Sadie, both saying “the same thing can be done in different ways.” (MB)

    Thinking about the Unabomber, 1987/2014 Enlarged photobooth photograph, framed Image: 4 3/4 × 4 3/4 inches Frame: 12 1/2 × 12 1/2 inches

Thinking about the Unabomber, 1987/2014 Enlarged photobooth photograph, framed Image: 4 3/4 × 4 3/4 inches Frame: 12 1/2 × 12 1/2 inches

In 1987 a woman witnessed a man wearing aviator glasses and a hooded sweatshirt placing a package outside a computer store in Salt Lake City that turned out to be a bomb. The widely circulated police sketch made from her description was the first representation of the Unabomber. (JA)

The last year I lived in NYC, Sadie visited me and we went to Coney Island and made this photo in a photobooth. I was thinking about the Unabomber because a number of my friends and I thought the Unabomber might have been Leo Burt, the only person never to be arrested for the Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin, in protest against the Vietnam War. In 2014 I re-photographed the photo. (JB)

    Three Paper Airplanes, 2014 Signed contract; three one hundred-dollar bills, folded Laser print on paper, framed Print: 9 3/4 × 8 inches Frame: 12 1/2 × 10 1/2 inches Bills: 1 1/2 × 6 × 1 1/4 inches each

Julie bought this piece for $600 and paid with 563 single dollar bills. I then gave the three secretaries (the three women who keep the CalArts film school running) $200 each. The piece was in the spirit of Douglas Huebler—he was teaching at CalArts in the 1980s—and was one of the reasons I took a job there. I like his art very much, and he was an amazing guy. (JB)

For several years, whenever James needed a book for his Kaczynski library and research into artists he was copying, he asked me to scope out the possibilities online and order the books, since I had a credit card. This provided a productive exchange about the books’ contents and various editions. Periodically I’d give him the tally. On one occasion, he owed me $563 and paid me in one-dollar bills stuffed into a big envelope. Not needing the cash at that moment, I kept the reimbursement “as is.” A few years later, James told me about his paper airplanes made from one-hundred dollar bills and said he wanted to get more than their value to split the money between the three women that run the film department, who do a lot for him. So I pulled out the envelope and made up the difference to $600. (JA)

This work was really hard to photograph—it is usually stored in a protective box in a cabinet. Scott and I kept moving the paper airplanes around the house and tried about a dozen different settings until we settled on this one. Another image we shot looks very similar except that the hundred-dollar bills sit on a pink ground with a yellow glow coming in from the sides. Julie liked the green ground better, so we went with that. (MB)

    After Ono by J.B., 2014 Photocopy, framed Print: 7 1/4 × 5 3/8 inches Frame: 11 1/8 × 9 1/8 inches

This is a reproduction of a call for entries by Yoko Ono for a show (This is Not Here) at Emerson Museum, Syracuse, NY, to open on October 9, 1971. (JB)

    After Ono by J.B., 2014 Photocopy, framed Print: 7 1/4 × 5 3/8 inches Frame: 10 7/8 × 8 3/4 inches

    After Warhol (smiling), 2014 Serigraph, silver and black oil-based ink on paper Print: 25 × 24 1/2 inches Frame: 26 1/2 × 26 inches

I love this sexy exuberant photograph of Andy Warhol, grabbing Parker Tyler’s crotch. JB made it in the spirit of Warhol, as part of a diptych, the other half being After Noland (smiling). I’m often amazed by the images and narratives James annexes and activates. (JA)

    After Noland (smiling), 2014 Serigraph, silver and black oil-based ink on paper Print: 25 × 24 1/2 inches Frame: 26 1/2 × 26 inches

For quite a few years, I’ve been spending summers in JT, mostly by myself. The only friend who doesn’t mind the heat and visits regularly is James. During the hot days, we both work and tool around, he under the covered patio, I in the garage studio. In the evenings, I prepare food; he makes gin-and-tonics, we listen to music and talk about work and life. At first, I wasn’t sure why James thought I should have an image of Ruth Ann Moorehead (“Ouish” of the Manson girls). I know he likes Cady Noland’s work and I do too. I love the image and, of course, understand why he chose it. (MB)

    Thirty-one Friends (October), 2015 Published by Marfa Book Company, Marfa, TX

In the years 2014–15 James Benning made 31 works of art for 31 friends, and produced a book, recounting a story of each friendship and describing the works created with them in mind. Some of the works referenced work by other artists—Andy Warhol, Marie Menken, Bill Traylor, Jean-Luc Godard, Jesse Howard, Henry Darger, Henry David Thoreau, Cady Noland, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Miroslav Tichý, and Ted Kaczynski—inferring another set of (imagined) friends. In the summer of 2015, these works were exhibited together along with the publication at the Marfa Book Company, in Marfa, TX. At the show’s closing event, the artworks were removed from the walls and given to each of the friends for whom they’d been made. The works then traveled to places near and far—Bastrop, Texas, Duisburg, Germany, Sydney, Austria, downtown Los Angeles…. The final chapter of this project happened in 2018 at O-Town House, and consisted of the photographs James asked each friend to take of his gifted artwork in situ— gathered together from their disparate locations. 31 Friends represented a self-professed exercise in prioritizing the mechanisms in art that foster genuine examples of community. (SCW)

    June 2nd, 1984, 2015 Acrylic paint on thermometer 15 1/2 × 2 3/4 inches

In the summer of 2015 James generously helped me with the shoot and edit for the Last Night film which is based on the records David Mancuso played on June 2nd, 1984, at the last party at the Prince Street Loft. To keep the sound clean we had to film with windows closed and swamp cooler off, making for a rather hot environment. To get a little break, one afternoon we went to the 99 Cent Store where James bought a thermometer. He painted it pink and, after thinking for a while what other decoration it should have, decided on June 2nd 1984. (MB)

    After Chris B., 2018 Acrylic paint on match-head on nickel coin in wrapping paper 1 × 2 inches Edition 7/20

After Chris B., 2018 Acrylic paint on match-head on nickel coin in wrapping paper 1 × 2 inches Edition 19/20

I made this work in JT while recuperating from major surgery. (JB)

James was pretty under the weather after his surgery. We were all worried about his vulnerability and waiting it out. One morning I was going to the store and asked if anyone needed anything. James suddenly perked up and said he needed twenty nickels, some metallic paper, and a box of red-tip matchsticks. I couldn’t find red matches anywhere, only Diamond-brand green tips. He then asked for red paint and a small paintbrush and proceeded to meticulously color twenty of the green tips red. With his obsession and ambition restored, we knew he was recovering. (JA)

James made this edition as gifts for friends while convalescing under Julie and Martin’s and Dick Hebdige’s doting care in Joshua Tree, staying at their places a few days each, wearing the pajamas bought for him by Sharon Lockhart. The work was inspired by the 1979 installation, The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, by Chris Burden. The original work, now in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, comprises fifty thousand nickels and match sticks, all placed on the floor in a grid, with the red match-heads all pointing in the same direction and the words of the title painted across the wall behind them. With each red match and nickel representing a Soviet tank, Burden’s installation spoke to the escalating arms race at the height of the Cold-War. (SCW)

    Ault + Beck, 2019 Acrylic paint on wood board 9 1/4 × 23 inches Sign reads: AULT + BECK 9224 VIA ROCOSA PSALMS=148=8

Soon after we bought the house, Jennifer Bolande and Cannon Hudson stayed here for a few weeks. They were having some packages sent and, in order for the carrier to find the house, painted a sign showing our names and address. Over the years, the sun burned off the paint and made it illegible. When James arrived for the recent Christmas holidays, we asked him to make a new sign, which he eagerly took on, commenting: “Now I have something to do and don’t have to stare at the walls.” His sign uses Jesse Howard’s lettering and cites a psalm Howard included in one of his paintings. Psalm 148:8 reads “lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding.” The day after we installed the sign, it snowed—a rare and lovely occurrence in the desert. (MB)

    Genius Christ, 2019 Acrylic paint on wood board 5 7/8 × 12 7/8 inches

In celebration of our favorite genius. (JB)

    Love Saves the Day, 2019 Acrylic paint on wood board 10 7/8 × 12 7/8 inches

Once James finished the two signs and needed more things to do in order to stay busy we started thinking of other signs that might be needed. I asked him if he could make one for the garage studio, referencing the Loft and David Mancuso. We decided on the phrase Mancuso used on the invitation to the first Loft party in 1970. (MB)

JB has copied Jesse Howard’s signs for many years, and replica signs figure into his recent projects Found Fragments and Alabama. A hand-painted recycled license plate that hangs from a thick rusty chain crossing his driveway in Pine Flat reads: “POSTED Henry David Thoreau KEEP OUT.” For some time previously, it read, “POSTED T.J. Kaczynski KEEP OUT.” (JA)

    Sketches for Genius Christ and Love Saves the Day, 2019 Laser print and pencil on paper 5 × 13 inches and 8 1/4 × 17 1/4 inches

These scraps of paper contain the scale calculations and printouts James used to transfer the sign layouts to the boards. They now are in the same place in the sideboard which the two-part After Traylor (2004) drawing inhabited for a long time. (MB)

    after Darger (Welcome), 2020 Acrylic paint on garage door 6 feet 11 inches × 25 feet

This work doesn’t exist yet. James had the idea for it over the holidays but wanted to wait for warmer weather to paint it. We thought including a mock-up here might insure it happens—hopefully soon as he can safely come to JT. (MB)

We were all talking about the influx of people to Joshua Tree over the last few years and envisioning a message to anyone coming up the driveway who didn’t belong there that they’re in the wrong place (or, perhaps, the right one). Naturally, the Vivian Girls came to mind, and James had just the Darger image on his laptop to extract from, Second Battle of McAllister Run they are pursued. The section he plans to superimpose on the garage door shows Glandelinians bearing bayonets, hunting for the girls, who hide behind trees, as if to say: welcome to the realm of the unreal. (JA)

  Images courtesy of O-TOWN HOUSE, Los Angeles

  Shortly after I arrived in Joshua Tree some three weeks ago, going into lockdown with Julie and Martin, we decided this was a perfect time to realize our plan for a James Benning exhibition of his works in their home. The idea for a private exhibition of James’s works here was hatched last Christmas, a time when the gang usually descends on Joshua Tree for some quality time at the kitchen table and in front of the fireplace. But now, considering the current circumstances, developing this exhibition as a virtual one seems to resolve several issues—of privacy, access to the public, and keeping busy and engaged with the world. Down the Rabbit Hole: JB in JT is conceived as part of a continuum with two earlier exhibition projects. The first, Tell It To My Heart, which traveled from the Kunstmuseum Basel to Culturgest in Lisbon and ultimately to Artists Space in New York, was an exhibition based on the artworks Julie has collected over decades, many of them the results of conversations and collaborations with other artists. The curatorial team was equally significant, and the project strove to develop a different mode of mapping the ways art and history touch our lives through relationships and collaborations. The second project in this lineage was inspired by the first, titled 31 Friends by James, for which he made 31 artworks for as many friends. The works were shown at the Marfa Book Company in Marfa, TX, and, after the exhibition ended, were given to their intended owners. James then asked everyone to send him a photograph of the works in their new homes. Those framed photographs were presented at O-Town House. James described 31 Friends as an “attempt to pay homage to the ability of art to produce community as opposed to just commerce.” The line drawn from Tell It To My Heart to 31 Friends to Down the Rabbit Hole is indicative of an ongoing effort to sustainably engage artistic practices and align the language around this work meaningfully with our lives. Down the Rabbit Hole  brings together (nearly) all the artworks and some artifacts made by James that are distributed in Julie and Martin’s house and grounds in Joshua Tree. Many of these objects are on permanent display, others were unearthed from drawers and closets. Most objects we photographed as they are installed, others we staged, and, collectively, we put together an annotated checklist, supplying details about the work and some stories of how they came about. Picking up on the aspirations of Tell It To My Heart and 31 Friends, this exhibition also reads as a conversation. The works are listed in chronological order to make present the unfolding of friendship over many years; the show becoming an extension of ongoing collaborations with a view toward the future. Moments of recollection, such as Down the Rabbit Hole represents, become crucial to finding fresh ways of thinking about the role art can play in the construction of community. By drawing lines across time, as we rummage through James’s traces here at the house, together, we are taking stock, reviewing, and recounting the conversations that grew into plans and then into actions. Enduring interests and subjects, obsessions, and curiosities have become shared experiences and the medium with which we solidify our lives together.

— Scott Cameron Weaver

  Link: James Benning at O-TOWN HOUSE

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/2Vr0Hq6

[vgblast-blog]

Top 30 Recommended Nintendo Switch Games of 2018

https://videogameblast.com/?p=1034

30 Recommended Games On Nintendo Switch That You Should Play Right Now

The Nintendo Switch Is Building Up A Nice Library, So Here Are 30 Of The Top Games We Think You'll Enjoy!

Arms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYH99_qj3eg

Choose a fighting champion from around the world, equip your own combination of extendable arms, and then use a mix of button presses and quick hand motions to really take the fight to your opponent. Throw punches and guide them mid-flight to hit agile fighters, avoid incoming attacks with dashes, or trampoline high into the air to rain down fists from above. Power-up your punches to deal extra damage or curve your fists around obstacles to hit skittish opponents. Fill up your special gauge to dish out devastating combinations and finish them off. Unleash your inner fighter in this unbelievable sporting event!

Fight via simple motion and button controls - Grab onto your Joy-Con with a unique "thumbs-up" grip and use simple motions and button presses to outthink your opponent. Toss and curve punches when you find an opening, and dodge a flurry of incoming attacks. It's fast-paced fun for everyone!

Select from a variety of fighters - Select from brand-new fighting superstars like Ribbon Girl, Master Mummy, and more! Each fighter has their own special attributes to learn and master.

Fight in arenas with unique obstacles - Throw punches around (or through) mysterious liquid-filled columns in a spooky laboratory, or in certain arenas, toss fighters onto trampolines for epic aerial skirmishes.

Choose your arms carefully - Each weapon has its own strength. Some are slow and do tons of damage, while others are fast as lighting, but will only serve to set up larger combinations. It's up to you to mix and match your arms to fit your play style.

  Get Arms On Nintendo Switch Here

  Bayonetta 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxJGDofOfo  

Bayonetta's back and more powerful than ever.

Wield wild weapons and execute deadly moves - like the powerful Umbran Climax - to take out angels and demons in this breathtaking action game. You can even team up with friends in 2-player online or local wireless co-op fights (additional accessories required; sold separately.) Bayonetta is a butt-kicking, havoc-wreaking witch who wields sweet weapons like pistols, whips, hammers, flamethrowers, and poison bows. But it's not just about brawn - it's also about style. Bayonetta is deadly but sleek, with moves like Witch Time that slows down time itself, and the all-new Umbran Climax - a special magic attack that summons Infernal Demons to devastate enemies. The Bayonetta 2 game also features an online and local wireless 2-player cooperative mode where players bet halos on their performance and work together to amplify their sass, cause destruction, and score some riches.

Foxy, sassy Bayonetta is a butt-kicking witch who's back to wreak havoc

Wield stylish moves and deadly weapons - like a poison bow and flamethrowers

Use magic to execute Umbran Climax and summon Infernal Demons to do your bidding

Team up with other players in the 2-player Tag Climax co-op mode via local wireless or online (additional accessories required; sold separately)

  Get Bayonetta On Nintendo Switch Here

  Celeste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iofYDsA2yqg  

Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight, hand-crafted platformer from the creators of multiplayer classic TowerFall.

A narrative-driven, single-player adventure like mom used to make, with a charming cast of characters and a touching story of self-discovery

A massive mountain teeming with 700+ screens of hardcore platforming challenges and devious secrets

Brutal B-side chapters to unlock, built for only the bravest mountaineers

IGF "Excellence in Audio" finalist, with over 2 hours of original music led by dazzling live piano and catchy synth beats

Pie

The controls are simple and accessible - simply jump, air-dash, and climb - but with layers of expressive depth to master, where every death is a lesson. Lightning-fast respawns keep you climbing as you uncover the mysteries of the mountain and brave its many perils. This is it, Madeline. Just breathe. You can do this.  

Get Celeste On Nintendo Switch Here

  Crypt of the Necrodancer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaNjmuttJzw  

Crypt of the NecroDancer is an award winning hardcore rhythm-based dungeon crawling game.

Can you survive this deadly dungeon of dance, slay the NecroDancer, and recapture your still beating heart? Or will you be a slave to the rhythm for all eternity? Players must move on the beat to navigate randomly generated dungeons while battling dancing skeletons, zombies, dragons, and more, while grooving to the game's award winning Danny Baranowsky soundtrack! You can even team up with a friend in local co-op mode!  

Get Crypt of the NecroDancer On Nintendo Switch Here

  Darkest Dungeon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCJ6UNvEG94

Video Source - Red Hook Studios

Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic RPG about the stresses of dungeon crawling. You will lead a band of heroes on a perilous side-scrolling descent, dealing with a prodigious number of threats to their bodily health, and worse, a relentless assault on their mental fortitude! Five hundred feet below the earth you will not only fight unimaginable foes, but famine, disease, and the stress of the ever-encroaching dark.

Darkest Dungeon focuses on the humanity and psychological vulnerability of the heroes and asks: What emotional toll does a life of adventure take? Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes through twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts, and beyond.

You'll battle not only unimaginable foes, but stress, famine, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Uncover strange mysteries, and pit the heroes against an array of fearsome monsters with an innovative strategic turn-based combat system. Darkest Dungeon is not a game where every hero wins the day with shiny armor and a smile. It is a game about hard trade-offs, nearly certain demise, and heroic acts.

The Affliction System - battle not only monsters, but stress! Contend with paranoia, masochism, fear, irrationality, and a host of gameplay-meaningful quirks!

Striking hand-drawn gothic crowquill art style

Innovative turn-based combat pits you against a host of diabolical monsters

Narration system to celebrate your successes...and failures

16 (and counting!) playable hero classes, including Plague Doctor, Hellion, and even the Leper!

Camp to heal wounds or deliver inspiring speeches.

Rest your weary, shell-shocked characters in town at the Tavern or the Abbey to keep their stress in check.

Classic CRPG and roguelike features, including character permadeath, procedural dungeons, and incredible replay

  Get Darkest Dungeon On Nintendo Switch Here

  Donky Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5p0SiWHwvw   Barrel-blast into a critically acclaimed Donkey Kong adventure as this beloved franchise makes its Nintendo Switch debut with a banana-bunch of new features. Traverse islands packed with platforming perfection and nonstop action as the classic Kongs in the original game, or mix things up by playing the story as Funky Kong in new Funky Mode! Arctic invaders have turned Donkey Kong Island into their personal frozen fortress, and it's up to you to save the day. Play as Donkey Kong in Original Mode and team up with Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Cranky Kong - each with unique abilities - to overcome platforming challenges and frosty foes. For a more accessible experience, start a game in Funky Mode to enjoy a range of gameplay updates and a new main-character option, spectacular surfing simian Funky Kong! His extra hearts and unique abilities make for a more relaxed gaming experience. And no matter which mode you choose, a wealth of collectibles and two-player co-op round out the fun!  

Get DKC Tropical Freeze On Nintendo Switch Here

  Dragon Quest Builders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BNho6bA8g  

Gather, craft, and build the kingdom of your dreams to restore the ruined world of Alefgard!

As the legendary Builder, you'll construct rooms, towns, and defenses while fighting monsters. In Terra Incognita, build freely, share creations online, battle in an arena, and access exclusive content to the Nintendo Switch version of the game! You're the only one in Alefgard who can rebuild and level up its ruined towns to attract new residents and raise their strength. But be wary: increasing a town's level will also lure the Dragonlord's monsters! So, join residents and fight back! When you defeat monsters and break blocks of the environment, you'll earn materials for crafting items and building structures. Enjoy content exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version in Terra Incognita: ride a Great Sabrecub, slay foes for Pixel Blocks, and use them to build a Dragon Quest Game Pak so you can access more items for building! The land is yours to rebuild... The goddess Rubiss has spoken!

Gather materials, craft items, and build towns to fulfill your destiny as the legendary Builder

As you build rooms and defenses, towns level up and residents grow stronger

An open world adventure with real time battles against monsters and bosses

Discover side quests, treasure chests, and building schematics during your travels

Build to your hearts' content in Terra Incognita, the free-build mode

Battle waves of monsters at the arena in Terra Gladiatoria

Upload your creations online or download buildings made by other players

Nintendo Switch version of the game Exclusive content: gather special materials with the Great Sabrecub to unlock retro customization options, including the Dragon Quest Game Pak

  Get Dragon Quest Builders On Nintendo Switch Here

  Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKkWcfawKFE   Winner of 200+ Game of the Year Awards, Skyrim® arrives on the Nintendo Switch console. The open-world adventure from Bethesda Game Studios® where you can virtually be anyone and do anything, now allows you to go anywhere - at home and on the go. New features for the Nintendo Switch version of the game include motion controls, gear based on the Legend of Zelda series, and amiibo compatibility.

Live Another Life, In Another World

Create your own custom character, and do virtually whatever you want

Includes all content from of??icial add-ons: Dawnguard, Hearth??ire, and Dragonborn

Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The character system allows you to play almost any way you want and de??ine yourself through your actions

Exclusive Features Only on Nintendo Switch

Use motion controls to battle with melee weapons, aim your bow, or pick locks

Tap compatible Legend of Zelda character amiibo ??igures (sold separately) once daily for the chance to gain gear inspired by the series. Take down enemies with the Master Sword, protect yourself with the Hylian shield, and feel heroic in the Champion's Tunic!

Tap other compatible amiibo ??igures to receive a chest of loot and abilities

  Get Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim On Nintendo Switch Here

  Golf Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-6HotrJfBI

Video Source - SideBarGames

Tee up anywhere - on and off the course

Golf Story combines the sheer excitement of golf with a serious story that plays out over 8 different courses. Play the story of a golfer who is forced to give up all that he holds dear for one last shot at accomplishing his dreams. But all is not so simple in the world of golf. To best today's players you have to be able to keep up with them both on and off the course. Features:

Tee up anywhere! You'll be surprised by how many problems can be solved by hitting a golf ball at them.

Explore 8 unique environments, each with their own courses, challenges, people and secrets.

Play through a dramatic story with a diverse cast of characters.

  Get Golf Story On Nintendo Switch Here

  Hollow Knight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWo5g-tsBNk   An epic action adventure through a vast ruined kingdom of insects and heroes. Explore twisting caverns, battle tainted creatures and befriend bizarre bugs, all in a classic, hand-drawn 2D style.

Classic side-scrolling action, with all the modern trimmings. Dodge, dash and slash your way through even the most deadly adversaries.

Includes all of the new items, areas, characters, and bosses from the currently released free content packs; Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, and Lifeblood. All players will also get access to the final free content pack, Gods and Glory, due later this year!

Explore a vast interconnected world of forgotten highways, overgrown wilds and ruined cities. Choose which paths you take, which enemies you face and find your own way forward.

Evolve with powerful new skills and abilities! Gain spells, strength and speed. Leap to new heights on ethereal wings. Dash forward in a blazing flash. Blast foes with fiery Soul!

A haunting, intimate score accompanies the player on their journey, composed by Christopher Larkin. The score echoes the majesty and sadness of a civilisation brought to ruin

  Get Hollow Knight On Nintendo Switch Here

  Kirby Star Allies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNPf9KkL-ik  

When a new evil threatens Planet Popstar, Kirby will need a little help from his...enemies?! By making friends out of foes, up to three* players can drop in or out of the adventure at any time. With new and expanded copy abilities, classic Kirby action is deeper than ever: combine abilities with elements such as ice or fire to create new friend abilities! With tons of bosses and enemies standing in your way, Kirby has a new bag of tricks. Take baddies out by taking advantage of their elemental weaknesses.

Use friend hearts to charm enemies and they'll fight alongside you!

Drop-In/Drop-Out Co-op: Up to three other players can take control of Kirby's new friends

Play through the entire game with up to four* players or with CPU friends

Kirby and his friends have fresh moves thanks to new and expanded copy abilities

Combine abilities with elements such as wind and water to create new friend abilities

Some bosses and enemies are weak to certain elemental attacks, so remember to strategize

*Additional accessories required for multiplayer mode. Game, system and some accessories sold separately.

  Get Kirby Star Allies On Nintendo Switch Here

    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhpgfHGgc4  

Deep space is a dangerous place, but you don't have to go alone!

LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS SPACETIME is a frantic 1- to 4-player couch co-op action space shooter. Explore a colorful galaxy in a massive neon battleship that you control together by manning turrets, lasers, shields and thrusters. Only through teamwork can you triumph over the evil forces of Anti-Love, rescue kidnapped space-bunnies, and avoid a vacuumy demise. Deep space is a dangerous place, but you don't have to face it alone! LOCAL CO-OP GAMEPLAY 2 to 4 players (or 1 player plus a loyal AI space-pet) need to work together to man the different battle stations, dashing back and forth between weapons, shields and engines. All players fill important roles at all times, and nobody gets left behind. UPGRADEABLE SHIPS Find and combine powerful space-gems to customize your ship's load-out. Each gem provides different abilities, letting you learn the right tools for every situation. A NEW EXPERIENCE EVERY TIME Randomized level layouts mean that all players will be exploring fresh areas every time you play. SIMPLE CONTROLS, DEEP CHALLENGE Controlling your spacenaut is so simple that anyone can jump in quickly, but getting all players to work together like a well-oiled machine, battling a galaxy of evil robots and constellations — that's the tricky part.  

Get These Lovers On Nintendo Switch Here

  Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4_QXyo1ew   The Mushroom Kingdom has been torn apart by a mysterious vortex, transporting the chaotic Rabbids into this once-peaceful land. To restore order, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi must team up with a whole new crew: four Rabbids heroes! Together, they will battle with weapons through four worlds filled with combat, puzzles, and unpredictable enemies. Developed exclusively for the Nintendo Switch system, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the best of the Mario and Rabbids franchises, combining all that you love about Mario's iconic universe with the side-splitting antics of the Rabbids.

FEATURES:

Mario & Rabbids universes collide in this new adventure that combines the best of these two worlds!

Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi join forces with four Rabbids heroes with their own unique personalities.

Easy to play, difficult to master. Solo and co-op turn-based combat is a fresh gameplay experience.

Battle with an arsenal of weapons through four new worlds filled with enemies, puzzles, and humorous fun!

Pick up and play anywhere exclusively on the Nintendo Switch system, even on the go.

  Get Mario + Rabbids On Nintendo Switch Here

  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKlRN2YpxRE   Hit the road with the definitive version of Mario Kart 8 and play anytime, anywhere! Race your friends or battle them in a revised battle mode on new and returning battle courses. Play locally in up to 4-player multiplayer in 1080p while playing in TV Mode. Every track from the Wii U version, including DLC, makes a glorious return. Plus, the Inklings appear as all-new guest characters, along with returning favorites, such as King Boo, Dry Bones, and Bowser Jr.!

Features:

Race your friends in the definitive version of Mario Kart 8, only on Nintendo Switch!

Race as every character on every track from the Wii U version, including DLC characters and tracks.

Pop some balloons in the revamped Battle mode, complete with Balloon Battle and Bob-omb Blast.

Battle on new courses, like Urchin Underpass and Battle Stadium, or returning ones, such as GCN Luigi's Mansion and SNES Battle Course 1.

Inkling Girl & Inkling Boy from Splatoon, King Boo, Dry Bones, and Bowser Jr. join the roster!

Players can choose a new Smart Steering feature which makes driving and staying on the track easy for novice players and kids even at 200cc

Three new vehicles have been added, two are even inspired by Splatoon

Carry two items at the same time

Returning items include Boo, the item stealing ghost, and the Feather, which gives you a high jump in battle mode.

Play your friends in local wireless multiplayer with up to 8 players.

Drive through in 1080p HD quality in TV mode

Play on the go with handheld mode and play anytime, anywhere.

  Get Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch Here

  Mario Tennis Aces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHT2vdWvpg

Up your game with Zone Speed and Zone Shot

Unleash an arsenal of shots and strategies in all-out tennis battles with friends, family, and fan-favorite Mushroom Kingdom characters. Whether you play locally,* online,** or using simple motion controls, intense rallies await! In Adventure mode, experience a new favor of tennis gameplay, with a variety of missions, boss battles and more. Complete missions and boss battles in Adventure mode while mastering the controls. Test your hard-earned skills in singles or doubles with up to 4 players in local* or online** multiplayer, not to mention Tournament Mode, which lets you challenge the CPU. Store up energy and use it to pull off amazing feats: move so fast the world slows down around you or aim in first-person to send the ball crashing down! Your rivals may attempt to block you, but if they fail, their racket will take damage—and break after three hits. Fully charge your energy to launch the ball with enough force to KO your opponent!

Rally against other players in singles or doubles as one of 15+ Mushroom Kingdom characters

Serve up everything from basic shots to trick shots to split-second blocks

Use energy to leap after the ball, slow down time, aim in first-person, break rackets, and KO opponents!

Play locally,* online,** or swing your Joy-Con™ controller like a real racket in Swing Mode

Take on CPU opponents in the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, or Star Cup in Tournament Mode

Adventure mode offers a new flavor of tennis gameplay, with a variety of missions, boss battles and more.

  Get Mario Tennis Aces On Nintendo Switch Here

  Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au36nktJESo  

Jump into 10 classic Mega Man games, coming to Nintendo Switch! Play the Blue Bomber's six original 8-bit quests in Mega Man Legacy Collection, which includes Mega Man 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 continues the adventures with the series' evolution and retro revolution across Mega Man 7, 8, 9, & 10. These collections are bursting with additional content, from time trials and remix challenges to a music player and an extensive gallery of rare illustrations. A new "Rewind" feature makes the 6 challenging 8-bit titles in Mega Man Legacy Collection more accessible for newcomers, with the option to rewind time and enjoy a swift recovery from blunders. Unlock additional challenges with the Mega Man amiibo figure!.

Includes game card for Mega Man Legacy Collection

And a download code for Mega Man Legacy Collection 2

Each copy of Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2 purchased at retail comes with a free Mega Man 30th Anniversary Cleaning Cloth included inside (while supplies last).

  Get The Legacy Collection On Nintendo Switch Here

  Minecraft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8nJ_liqrw  

Minecraft is a game about placing blocks and going on adventures. Build anything you can imagine with unlimited resources in Creative mode, or go on grand expeditions in Survival, journeying across mysterious lands and into the depths of your own infinite worlds.

Will you hide from monsters or craft tools, armor and weapons to fight back? No need to go alone! Share the adventure with friends in split-screen multiplayer and online! With constant updates and community creations, Minecraft is bigger, better and more beautiful than ever before.

Explore amazing player-made maps, thrilling minigames and more! Band together with friends playing on phone, Windows 10 or console, set up your own online world with Realms*, or join one of the massive player-run servers*! There are so many ways to play! *Realms requires paid subscription (sold separately). Realms and servers available as released.

Play and share with friends on mobile, PC and console

Discover community creations in the new in-game store

Access new mini games and game modes through Servers

Share the couch with four player split screen

Play on the go in handheld or tabletop modes

Includes Super Mario Mash-Up, Natural Texture Pack, Biome Settlers Skin Pack, Battle & Beasts Skin Pack, Campfire Tales Skin Pack

  Get Minecraft On Nintendo Switch Here

  Night in the Woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWMz_H4l-MY  

At the End of Everything, Hold onto Anything

College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren't the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades. And there's something in the woods. Join Mae on a trip through her hometown and into the dark on the other side. NIGHT IN THE WOODS is an adventure game focused on exploration, story, and character, featuring dozens of characters to meet and lots to do across a lush, vibrant world. Break stuff, play bass, hang out, walk on powerlines, jump between roofs, and discover strange and amazing and terrible things you never asked for. Come home and waste your life away in Possum Springs.

  Get Night In The Woods On Nintendo Switch Here

  Owlboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dutS-F6amrE  

Owlboy is a story-driven platform adventure game, where you can fly and explore a brand new world in the clouds! Pick up your friends, and bring them with you as you explore the open skies. Overcome obstacles and greater enemies, in one of the most detailed adventures of this era.

Being a mute, Otus struggles living up to the expectations of owl-hood. Things spiral from bad to worse with the sudden appearance of sky pirates. What follows is a journey through monster infested ruins, with unexpected encounters, well kept secrets, and burdens no one should have to bear.

A love letter to pixel art for a new audience, Owlboy is a story-driven action adventure, with a unique mix of flight and platforming.

Carry anything. Recruit Otus's friends as gunners to fight for you, each with unique abilities and stories.

Large dungeons with big and challenging boss battles.

An adventure 9 years in the making.

  Get Owlboy On Nintendo Switch Here

  Rayman Legends: Definitive Edidtion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wF02hgOPqE

Rayman, winner of multiple artistic and musical achievements, is coming to Nintendo Switch with Rayman Legends Definitive Edition. This definitive edition contains the acclaimed game Rayman® Legends - 92 on Metacritic for Wii U - as well as new exclusive features. Michel Ancel, celebrated creator of Rayman®, is bringing his innovative creativity to this new and exciting platform, making full use of the power of Switch and its Joy-Con controllers.

Rayman, Globox, and the Teensies are off wandering through an enchanted forest when they discover a mysterious tent filled with a series of captivating paintings. As they look more closely, they notice each painting seems to tell the story of a mythical world. While focusing on a painting that shows a medieval land, they are suddenly sucked into the painting, entering the world, and the adventure begins. The gang must run, jump, and fight their way through each world to save the day and discover the secrets of every legendary painting.

WIRELESS LOCAL MULTIPLAYER - Thanks to the new capabilities of Switch and its Joy-Con controllers, Rayman Legends Definitive Edition enables up to four players to experience wireless local multiplayer.

KUNG FOOT UPDATE - Rayman Legends Definitive Edition brings new features for Kung Foot.

TOUCH GAMEPLAY - Rayman Legends Definitive Edition takes full advantage of Switch and its new capabilities. Undock your Switch device and use the touchscreen to take out enemies, manipulate platforms, cut ropes to clear a path, and much more, including the ability to move rotating platforms.

PLAY EVERYWHERE, ANYWHERE - Play with your friends at any time, and keep playing the game everywhere, anywhere, thanks to Switch and its new controller.

CHALLENGES - Connect with friends through a variety of challenges that will test skill and speed, and check the leaderboard to see rankings around the world.

RAYMAN ROCKS! - Jump to the beat of a drum, punch to the bassline, even zip-line during a guitar sustain. Timing and rhythm are the key to beating the game's maps set to music.

  Get Rayman Legends D.E. On Nintendo Switch Here

  Shantae: Half Genie Hero - Ultimate Edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSKWihjkk04  

Shantae and her friends are coming to Nintendo Switch in full HD with tons of new content in the form of the Ultimate Edition,' containing all the DLC!

In addition to the bevy of vivid, detailed high-definition graphics that made this newest entry in the Shantae series resemble a playable TV show as Shantae danced and transformed her way through 2.5D platforming action, the Pirate Queen's Quest' DLC allows players to take on the role of Shantae's arch-nemesis, Risky Boots, in a whole new storyline!

The Friends to the End' DLC features ethereal new levels and a special boss encounter as Shantae's pals Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops enter her nightmare to try to save her from certain doom, while the Costume Mode' DLC provides three new arcade-style adventures for her to sashay her way through in style.

Shantae's Trademark Belly Dance Moves Come to Switch with Tons of Added Content

After completing Shantae's storyline, dancing to transform into new and fan-favorite creatures alike, why not challenge a whole new storyline as Shantae's arch-nemesis, Risky Boots? Or how about playing through added scenarios as Shantae's friends? Or taking on new challenges as a ninja, beach bum, or policewoman? So many ways to play!

"Pirate Gear" Style of Play Returns in Another Perspective on the Shantae Storyline

The gear-based ability system from Shantae and the Pirate's Curse returns to help Risky Boots multi-jump, glide, and more as she discovers new gear to access new areas in the Pirate Queen's Quest' DLC expansion.

All-New Gameplay Types Abound as Shantae's Friends Get Into Her Head - Literally!

Glide through the air as Sky, swing around with Bolo's grappling hook, or toss your own head across the level as Rottytops, all to rescue Shantae from the darkened depths of a nightmare in the Friends to the End' DLC expansion.

Dress For Success to Challenge New Stages Like Never Before

Stick to the shadows as Ninja Shantae, soak in the sun as Beach Shantae, or lay down the law as the Mighty Switch Force-inspired Officer Shantae in three arresting new arcade adventures with the "Costume Mode" DLC expansion.

  Get It On Nintendo Switch Here

  Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPDjBHXoTk  

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is the full and complete edition of Shovel Knight, a sweeping classic action adventure game series with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic! Become Shovel Knight, wielder of the Shovel Blade, as he runs, jumps, and battles in a quest for his lost beloved. Take down the nefarious knights of the Order of No Quarter and their menacing leader, The Enchantress.

But that's not everything! Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove also features three additional campaigns that are games all unto themselves! Take control of Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight on adventures of their own! Together, they form a grand and sweeping saga! With a fully cooperative campaign, a full-featured challenge mode, a 4 player battle mode, and body swap mode, you'll be digging for a long time. With Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, you get it all. Uphold the virtues of Shovelry, earn relics and riches, and discover the true meaning of shovel justice!

  Get Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove On Nintendo Switch Here

  Splatoon 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBYfndq8fU  

Ink-splatting action is back and fresher than ever. Get hyped for the sequel to the hit game about splatting ink and claiming turf, as the squid-like Inklings return in a colorful and chaotic 4 vs. 4 action shooter.

For the first time, take Turf War battles on-the-go via local multiplayer in portable play styles. You can also compete in frenetic online matches like before. Two years have passed since the release of Splatoon, and two years have also passed in the game world, leading to an evolution in fashion trends and new styles of weapons and gear. Staying fresh never looked so good.

New weapons - New dual-wielding Splat Dualies join the action, complete with a new Dodge Roll move. Mainstays like the Splat Roller and Splat Charger have also been remixed to include new gameplay mechanics and brand-new special weapons.

Local and Online Multiplayer - In a first for the series, compete in local multiplayer Turf War battles, whether in TV mode or on-the-go in handheld or tabletop modes. Online battles also make a return.

New ways to play - Play using the Joy-Con controllers or the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, both of which allow for gyro controls for better aiming and control.

New Trends - Two years have passed since the release of Splatoon in real life, and two years have also passed in the game world. Some familiar characters return under different circumstances, and new characters are introduced as well.

Fresh Updates - Similar to Splatoon for Wii U, updates will roll out post-launch, adding new content.

Smart Device Support - An upcoming smart-phone application for the Nintendo Switch system will enhance matchmaking and allow for voice chat options.

Turf War - Iconic 4 vs. 4 Turf War battles return. The goal is to splat ink on as much territory as possible, while strategically submerging yourself in your team's colors and blasting your enemies.

  Get Splatoon 2 On Nintendo Switch Here

  Stardew Valley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjJx6u_5RdU  

You're moving to the valley...

You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home? It won't be easy. Ever since Joja Corporation came to town, the old ways of life have all but disappeared. The community center, once the town's most vibrant hub of activity, now lies in shambles. But the valley seems full of opportunity. With a little dedication, you might just be the one to restore Stardew Valley to greatness!

  Get Stardew Valley On Nintendo Switch Here

  Super Mario Odyssey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6oPBIVjf8E

A CAPTIVATING ADVENTURE

Explore incredible places far from the Mushroom Kingdom as you join Mario and his new ally Cappy on a massive, globe-trotting 3D adventure. Use amazing new abilities - like the power to capture and control objects, animals, and enemies - to collect Power Moons so you can power up the Odyssey airship and save Princess Peach from Bowser's wedding plans!

An adventure so big, no one kingdom can hold it

Explore astonishing new locales like skyscraper-packed New Donk City to your heart's content, and run into familiar friends and foes as you try to save Princess Peach from Bowser's dastardly wedding plans.

Mario's classic moves are joined by a variety of incredible new moves

Thanks to heroic, hat-shaped Cappy, Mario's got new moves that'll make you rethink his traditional run-and-jump gameplay - like cap jump, cap throw, and capture. Use captured cohorts such as enemies, objects, and animals to progress through the game and uncover loads of hidden collectibles.

Crazy Cap is THE must-shop stop for savvy travelers

Be sure to bring any coins you find to a Crazy Cap store, where you can exchange them for decorative souvenirs for the Odyssey and new outfits for Mario! Some destinations have very exclusive dress codes, after all...

Play Super Mario Odyssey with a friend

Hand a Joy-Con controller to a friend to enjoy simultaneous multiplayer: Player 1 controls Mario while Player 2 controls Mario's new ally Cappy.  

Get Super Mario Odyssey On Nintendo Switch Here

  Super Meat Boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKjjyDUgGd8   Super Meat Boy is a tough as nails platformer where you play as an animated cube of meat who's trying to save his girlfriend (who happens to be made of bandages) from an evil fetus in a jar wearing a tux. Our meaty hero will leap from walls, over seas of buzz saws, through crumbling caves and pools of old needles. Sacrificing his own well being to save his damsel in distress. Super Meat Boy brings the old school difficulty of classic titles and stream lines them down to the essential no BS straight forward twitch reflex platforming. Ramping up in difficulty from hard to soul crushing SMB will drag Meat boy though haunted hospitals, salt factories and even hell itself. And if 300+ single player levels weren't enough SMB also throws in epic boss fights, tons of unlockable secrets, warp zones and hidden characters. And now coming first to Nintendo Switch™ is a brand new way to play Super Meat Boy with your friends. Introducing "RACE MODE"! In this 2 player split screen race, friends (or enemies) can compete against each other through individual chapters, randomized levels, or the entire game! Choose light world, dark world, or both and have at it. Side effects may include: elevated heartbeat, severe anxiety, hubris, and schadenfreude.  

Get Super Meat Boy On Nintendo Switch Here

  The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSM2p5lWQI  

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ is a randomly generated action-shooter with heavy RPG and roguelike elements. Following Isaac on his journey players will find bizarre treasures that change Isaac's form giving him super human abilities and enabling him to fight off droves of mysterious creatures, discover secrets, and fight his way to safety.

Over 500 items and weapons

Over 1,000 hours of gameplay

5 unique modes of play

14 playable characters

20 professionally animated cartoon endings

Over 50 unique bosses

Online Leaderboards and Daily Runs

30+ Challenge modes

Over 6,000 rooms with over 4 billion possible combinations

Bestiary! (enemy collection page that keeps track of everything you kill in game)

  Get It On Nintendo Switch Here

  The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw47_q9wbBE   Forget everything you know about The Legend of Zelda games. Step into a world of discovery, exploration, and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across vast fields, through forests, and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the kingdom of Hyrule In this stunning Open-Air Adventure. Now on Nintendo Switch, your journey is freer and more open than ever. Take your system anywhere, and adventure as Link any way you like. Explore the wilds of Hyrule any way you like - anytime, anywhere! - Climb up towers and mountain peaks in search of new destinations, then set your own path to get there and plunge into the wilderness. Along the way, you'll battle towering enemies, hunt wild beasts and gather ingredients for the food and elixirs you'll make to sustain you on your journey. With Nintendo Switch, you can literally take your journey anywhere. More than 100 Shrines of Trials to discover and explore - Shrines dot the landscape, waiting to be discovered in any order you want. Search for them in various ways, and solve a variety of puzzles inside. The tasks you must perform in each Shrine varies, and you'll never expect the challenges you'll face until you enter. Some will involve realistic physics, and some will require you to harness the power of nature, including electricity, wind, fire, and more. Work your way through the traps and devices inside, utilizing your runes and think outside the box to earn special items and other rewards that will help you on your adventure. Be prepared and properly equipped - With an entire world waiting to be explored, you'll need a variety of outfits and gear to reach every corner. You may need to bundle up with warmer clothes or change into something better suited to the desert heat. Some clothing even has special effects that, for example, can make you faster or stealthier. Battling enemies requires strategy - The world is inhabited with enemies of all shapes and sizes. Each one has its own attack method and weaponry, so you must think quickly and develop the right strategies to defeat them. amiibo compatibility - Compatible amiibo* include the Wolf Link amiibo figure, figures from the Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary amiibo series, and figures from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild amiibo series. There are compatible figures and cards from other amiibo series like Super Smash Bros., Super Mario, Splatoon and Animal Crossing as well! Each one will offer Link in-game items that may just come in handy.  

Get It On Nintendo Switch Here

  West of Loathing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG1QcGO_nTc   West of Loathing is a single-player slapstick comedy adventure role-playing game set in the wild west of the Kingdom of Loathing universe. Traverse snake-infested gulches, punch skeletons wearing cowboy hats, grapple with demon cows, and investigate a wide variety of disgusting spittoons. Talk your way out of trouble as a silver-tongued Snake Oiler, plumb the refried mysteries of the cosmos as a wise and subtle Beanslinger, or let your fists do the talking as a fierce Cow Puncher. Explore a vast open world and encounter a colorful cast of characters, some of whom are good, many of whom are bad, and a few of whom are ugly. Features:

A sprawling open world, chock full of danger, quests, puzzles, and mysteries

Lush hand-drawn black and white graphics

Thousands of jokes, gags, and goofs

Crunchy turn-based combat (but only if you want it)

Liberal use of the Oxford comma

Over 50 hats

Disreputable saloons

Several gulches

A drunk horse

  Get West of Loathing On Nintendo Switch Here

  Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7sevjOhrj0  

Stricken by a curse and transformed into a half-human/half-lizard by the Meka-Dragon, a lonesome adventurer is facing the challenge of a lifetime! In search for a cure, our mutated anti-hero will explore the many traps of Monster Land and defeat many stuff-throwing, curse-wielding dragons. The six different forms of our shape-shifting hero - human, lizard, mouse, piranha, lion and hawk - make up just a small percentage of the cast of this non-stop action/adventure platformer!

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a beautifully drawn and animated remake of the unforgettable Sega Master System game Wonder Boy III . The game's developer, Lizardcube, reverse-engineered the original game in order to faithfully replicate the character movements, item drop logic, secret door locations and much more. Nicalis and DotEmu are teaming up to publish physical retail editions of the game for Switch and PS4. The remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is presented in widescreen HD, with enhanced interface functions, a new playable character (Wonder Girl) and the option to toggle between the all-new hand-drawn visuals and the original sprite/tile-based graphics on the fly.

Huge interconnected world

Six playable forms for the main character, each with different abilities

Multiple dragon enemy types: Zombie Dragon, Mummy Dragon, Samurai Dragon and more!

Beautiful hand-drawn animated graphics

Memorable soundtrack based on Shinichi Sakamoto's original compositions, re-imagined and recorded with classical instruments

Play as the game's classic character, Hu-Man, or as his brand-new, long-awaited co-star Hu-Girl

Switch the graphics and/or sounds from the modern versions to the 8-bit originals at any time - even during gameplay!

Three difficulty levels catering to players of all types

  Get It On Nintendo Switch Here

  Read More:

Miles Kilo Move To The Nintendo Switch

1994 Nintendo Documentary Otaku Is Legendary

[hcrsegirl]

╰☆╮MUSE 46 — wait, is that cerise “reese” du pont? is it just me or does the twenty-one year-old look exactly like abigail cowen? last i heard, they still weren’t over being exposed by the sentinel. according to the app, they can be credulous & turbulent, but i’ve also heard they're intrepid & audacious. can’t be too sure, people have a way of surprising you. all i know is that they remind me of vape scented smoke appearing in the middle of lecture , filming viral tik tok’s in public , the brushing down of a horse , forgetting a pencil but remembering to bring the juul to class & drinking homemade moonshine for barbie movie drinking games. honestly, the broadcast communications major should try to keep their head down. after the events of last semester, i wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. ╰☆╮

wow hey hi hello!! i’m kaya and this is my lil crackhead, reese!! this got really long because i never know when to shut up but if you want to plot pls hit me up here on tumblr or on discord at medieval 4loko gang#5402

P A R A L L E L S

gigi ( booksmart ) , keanu reeves ( always be my maybe ) , serena van der woodsen ( gossip girl ) , kirby anders ( dynasty )

T R O P E S

hard-drinking party girl , cloudcuckoolander , the trickster , upper-class equestrian , fleeting passionate hobbies , naive animal lover , fearless fool , playing with fire , parental neglect , fantasy-forbidding father

S U M M A R Y

born and raised in wilmington, delaware on the du pont family ranch, reese learned how to ride and compete on her family’s thoroughbreds. she’s a seasoned equestrian who typically competed in eventing and throughout the years had accumulated a series of ribbons and trophies between dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. definitely was a horse girl growing up and tbh still is???? definitely not the type to eat grass anymore BUT if given the chance she will not shut up about them.

a veterinarian before marrying into the du pont family, reese’s mother had their ranch doubling as both a home and veterinary clinic where the kids would help with the animals and keep them company. this caused reese to develop a soft spot for them, one that contributed to her going vegetarian at the age of 12 and eventually vegan at 15. it was also this love of animals that led her to wanting to help the environment they lived in and so her parents put her in girl scouts and eventually her love for the outdoors would cause her to join steinhardt’s outing club.

while her mother, eleanor, also helps out with the du pont family business of breeding thoroughbreds as well as run her clinic, her father, pierre, is a chairman of dupont, a conglomerate who got its start in the black powder market before expanding into chemicals for agriculture, materials science, and specialty products.

he was the type to have HIGH expectations for his family, expectations that reese never met. not that she cared to. definitely not a daddy’s girl, she’ll be the first one to call her father out for being a pompous douche straight to his face. probably quoted this to her father during a thanksgiving toast of “what are we thankful for this year”.

the black sheep of her family, even at a young age she could be found stirring up some trouble and almost always dragging one of her siblings or cousins along with her. a rebellious child who didn’t like being put into a box, she lived in a fantasy world of whimsy, often playing make-believe much to her father’s chagrin. she believed in all things fantastical from fairies to mermaids and while pierre tried to stifle those thoughts, they stubbornly remained.

even through her teenage years she’s held onto the firm belief that barbie lore is real. no one knows if she actually believes that or if it’s all of the drugs and her love for the movies getting to her head, but when confronted about it she will always be adamant that it’s a legitimate form of history.

speaking of history, her concept of it is slightly skewed?? def has weird beliefs of what communists are?? like you’re an android user??? suddenly she thinks you’re a communist????

tbh you could probably tell her something about anything and she’ll believe you without a hint of doubt. research?? she dunno her!! you could say the moon is a government con-job and she’d think it’s a fact??? super gullible and it’s a mess

i guess now would be a good time to preface that she’s dumb. stupid. an idiot. the list goes on but when i say she’s lacking brain cells… i mean it. the definition of head empty, she probably has a bunch of rocks where her brain should be sdfgh. but really, she can be innovative when she wants to be but academically she just doesn’t care to do well. in high school she ditched classes more often than not and was probably the kid smoking under the bleachers.

but where she lacks in intelligence she makes up for in brawn??? def the brawn over brains type who was a jock in high school. competed for her school’s equestrian team but also was on the fencing and archery teams. she once begged to be put into archery lessons after seeing the princess diaries 2 and fencing just came along not too soon after. she also used to run track and play soccer but those two sports ended after her senior year of high school although she probably still plays for the steinhardt’s intermurral league as well as any athletic competitions her sorority, tri-zeta ( zeta zeta zeta ) enters.

definitely the jack of all trades type except she’s passable at a whole bunch of things but good at none of them. probably can change a tire but it’ll need to be changed again soon. can bake a cake but it’ll be a little dry. the list goes on. she’s just very curious and picks up a lot of things but gets bored of them easily so she changes to the next thing.

okay i know i said she could bake a cake but she really…can’t. like with supervision she probably could but she’s impulsive and following directions for that many ingredients??? impossible. she just gets tempted to toss everything into a bowl and wing it and she does that every time. she can however make rice krispy treats. especially if they’re suppose to be edibles dfghj. but ya, don’t ask her to cook bc she can. not.

a stoner and overall drug connoisseur, she’s probably most known for being that kid who forgets to bring their backpack to class but don’t worry!! she remembered her juul!! has a collection of juuls on her person at all times. definitely that party girl who shows up hungover to class whenever she did bother to show up.

calls herself an entrepreneur because she used to sell edibles and other drug-related things and definitely was that tweet where she would give discounts if you signed an environmental petition or went to a protest.

has never said no to a dare EVER. you name it and she’ll do it. and if you dare her to drink cow titty milk or eat a piece of meat she’ll do it but it just makes you a dick dfghj

gets bored easily and tends to lash out and do something chaotic because of it?? the type to spontaneously light a couch on fire because she felt like it. a mild pyromaniac who once learned how to make a molotov cocktail. she can’t do it well. at all. but the one time she did try was also the same day she realized what a dumpster fire looked like.

i’m also not saying she’s out here to ruin your life for her own whims but like home girl has ZERO boundaries for anything. if you want to say she was a homewrecker in a past relationship??? honestly full send because it probably was her. morally she’s chaotic neutral and doesn’t care to be good or evil, she just wants to live her life of chaos and whatever happens happens. it should also be noted that she’s selfish. she puts herself first and others second always.

god someone pls try to start a fight with her. she’d either pat you on the head and ignore you OR go feral and just…foam at the mouth and bite you. probably claims to have gingervitis which is where she like…sprays vegan whip cream into her mouth and just… attacks you. for fun.

WOW ALMOST FORGOT but she’s a big larper!!! loves to go to the ones that are historical-esque where she can be an elf ( because she has a collection of elf ear tips dfghjk ) and acts as a knight/ranger by using her ACTUAL fencing, archery, and equestrian skills. she learned sindarin ( elvish ) for this but also she’s a big lord of the rings fan in general so it just worked out. her character’s storyline is her acting as her cousin, taay’s, protector but she has been known to enroll in a few competitions regarding any of her three skills.

currently selling moonshine alongside her roommates of trap zeta ( also known as the residents of the moonshine & roses subplot ) and so if you saw her running around with stolen pressure cookers, that is why !! making your own alcohol is illegal, but selling it??? even worse so they only sell it to trusted customers and anyone vetted by their usual customers. they probably have secret passwords and shit just like the prohibition period.

speaking of trap zeta, with the exception of fraternities on greek row, they throw the biggest parties. their jungle juice??? fire AND strong but also, they keep it in like....these dispensing chugs with a key so the only ones with access to fill them up or trap zeta themselves. they also have a stripper pole ( or two ) around their living room so like...ya get lit, get twisted, go off ig.

let it be known that their sorority, tri-zeta, is actually known for their stellar amount of community service but after the residents of trap zeta moved in together their sophomore year, the rep for partying started to increase and that’s why the home of muse 46-50 is nicknamed trap zeta. reese has probably been sent to standards way too many times and only got in and is still in bc her mother is a very generous alumni of steinhardt’s chapter of tri-zeta. 

a broadcast communications major, she’s a social media intern for steinhardt’s barstool page but most importantly has a whole tik tok account alongside her roommates dedicated to their college antics. think the hype house except it’s not pg-13 dancing and rly just their crackhead, drunk antics. might eventually make a playlist of tik tok’s that are probably posted on their account, we’ll see.

okay so you know the whole exposing of secrets from last semester??? reese doesn’t usually get mad but rn she Big Mad. like not only are they be scrutinized by the dean but their sorority is too and suddenly tensions are high between tri-zeta bc if trap zeta gets caught they all suffer and their chapter will be shut down and it’ll be a whole ass mess. atm she suspects their customers and even their somewhat rivals, the drug dealers of the ludes plot, but does she suspect anyone from the house??? no not rly

you can find her  stats page here and a wc page here

you can also find her pinterest board here

i also have a reese playlist here and a trap zeta playlist here

[gayveganmemes-blog]

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[vitalmindandbody]

‘It was quasi-religious’: the great self-esteem con

In the 1980 s, Californian legislator John Vasconcellos set up a task force that promoted high-pitched self-esteem as the answer to social ailments. But was his science based on a lie?

In 2014, a heartwarming character sent to year 6 students at Barrowford primary school in Lancashire exited viral. Handed out with their Key Stage 2 exam upshots, it reassured them: These research do not ever assess all of what it is that realize each of you special and unique They do not know that your best friend count on you to be there for them or that your laugh can brighten the dreariest era. They do not know that you write poetry or songs, participate boasts, wonder about the future, or that sometimes you take care of your fucking brother or sister.

At Barrowford, parties learned, teaches were deterred from questioning beatings, characterizing small children as naughty and promoting their voices. The institutions guiding logic, said headteacher Rachel Tomlinson, was that kids were to be treated with unconditional positive regard.

A little more than a year later, Barrowford obtained itself in the news again. Ofsted had given the school one of its lowest possible ratings, find the quality of education and exam outcomes insufficient. The institution, their report spoke, emphasised developing pupils emotional and social wellbeing more than the achievements of quality standards. Somehow, it seemed, the nurturing of self-esteem had not be converted into higher achievement.

The shortcoming hitherto virulent notion that, in order to thrive, people need to be treated with unconditional positivity first gained traction in the late 80 s. Since then, the self-esteem crusade has helped transform the behavior we parent our children prioritising their appears of self-worth, telling them they are special and amazing, and cocooning them from everyday consequences.

One manifestation of this has been grade inflation. In 2012, the chief executive of British exams regulator Ofqual admitted the value of GCSEs and -Alevels had been gnawn by years of prolonged point inflation. In the US, between the late 60 s and 2004, the proportion of first time university students claiming an A median in high school has increased from 18% to 48%, despite the fact that SAT scores had actually fallen. Nothing of this, alleges Keith Campbell, prof of psychology at the University of Georgia and expert on narcissism, provides our children well. Burning yourself on a stave is really useful in telling you where you stand, he speaks, but we live in a world-wide of accolades for everyone. Fourteenth region ribbon. I am not making this substance up. My daughter got one.

Campbell, with his colleague Jean Twenge at San Diego State University, has argued that this kind of parenting and teaching have led to a discernible rise in narcissism: witness the selfie-snapping millennials. Although their findings are disputed, Twenge points to other investigate done in the US and beyond twenty-two contemplates or tests[ that] demonstrate a generational increase in positive self-views, including narcissism, and merely two[ that] do not.

How did we get here? To answer that, you have to go back to 1986 and the work of an eccentric and powerful California politician, John Vasco Vasconcellos. That time, the Democrat Vasconcellos managed to persuade a deeply sceptical Republican state governor to money a three-year task force to explore the value of self-esteem. Vasco remained convinced that low self-esteem was different sources of a huge array of social issues, including unemployment, educational downfall, child abuse, domestic violence cases, homelessness and mob warfare. He became remain convinced that causing specific populations self-esteem would act as a social inoculation, saving the state billions.

But Vascos plan backfired spectacularly, with the fallout lasting to this day. I wasted a year trying to find out why and discovered that there was, at the very heart of his job, a lie.

***

John Vasconcellos grew up an submissive Catholic, an altar boy, the smartest boy in his class, whose mom blaspheme that he never misbehaved. But, being such a ardent Catholic, he knew that no matter how good he was, he could only ever be a sinner. At primary school, he flowed for class chairwoman. I lost by one vote. Mine, he eventually replied. He didnt vote for himself because Id been drilled never to use the word I, never to visualize or speak well of myself.

After a charm as a lawyer, Vasco participated politics. In 1966, aged 33, he was elected to the California state assembly. But “theres a problem”: his professional success was at odds with how he thought of himself; he felt he didnt deserves it. At 6ft 3in and over 200 lb, he would stalk the Capitol building in Sacramento, glowering and agitated in his smart black clothing, perfect white shirt and arrow-straight tie, his whisker cultivated with armed precision. I learnt my identity and my life starting utterly apart, he eventually enunciated. I had to go and seek help.

That help came from an uncommon Catholic priest: Father Leo Rock was a psychologist who had studied under the innovator of humanistic psychology, Carl Rogers, a soldier who believed that the Catholic had it absolutely wrong. At their core, he fantasized, humans werent bad; they were good. And in order to thrive, people needed to be treated with unconditional positive thought( Rogers coined the phrase ). Vasco began contemplating under Rogers himself, a soldier he afterwards described as virtually my second father. Through intense group therapy workshops at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Vasco became a adherent of the human potential shift, based partly on the Rogerian idea that all you need to do to live well is discover your authentic inner self.

Portrait: Franck Allais for the Guardian

Around the state capitol, Vascos colleagues began to notice the buttoned-up Catholic was unbuttoning. He flourished his mane and wear half-open Hawaiian shirts on the floor of the senate, a gold series nuzzled in his chest “hairs-breadth”. One reporter described him as looks a lot like a cross between a boulder starring and anti-retroviral drugs smuggler. He became a human potential evangelist, urging the innate goodness in human beings and handing long notebook directories to peers. His self-hating Catholic self had washed away, and in its neighbourhood is a major, glowing note I.

Vasco knew he was in a unique slot. As a legislator, he could take everything hed learned about human potential and transform it into programme that would have a real effect on thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. He decided to campaign for a state-financed task force to promote self-esteem: this would give the movement official affirmation and allow legislators to fashion legislation around it. Best of all, they could recruit “the worlds” finest researchers to prove, scientifically, that it worked.

In the mid-8 0s, the notion that feeling good about yourself was the answer to all your problems seemed to many like a silly Californian cult. But it was also a age when Thatcher and Reagan were busily redesigning western culture around their projection of neoliberalism. By interrupting the unions, flogging shields for workers and trade deregulating bank and business, they wanted to turn as much of human life as possible into a competition of self versus soul. To get along and get ahead in this new competitive age, you had to be ambitious, ruthless, relentless. You had to believe in yourself. What Vasco was offering was a simple hack that would draw you a more winning contestant.

Vascos first try at having his task force mandated into principle has now come to a halt in 1984, when he suffered material heart attack. His belief in positive think was such that, by seeking to remedy himself, he wrote to his ingredients requesting them to envision themselves with minuscule cleans swimming through his arteries, rubbing at the cholesterol, while singing, to the sing of Row, Row, Row Your Barge: Now tells swim ourselves/ up and down my flows/ Touch and rub and heated and thaw/ the plaque that stymie my streams. It didnt piece. As the senate “vote yes ” its own proposal, Vasco was retrieving from seven-way coronary bypass surgery.

After a second attempt was vetoed by the state minister, Vasco decided to enhance the name of his job, modernizing it to the Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. He reduced the proposed budget from $750,000 a year to $735,000 over three, to be spent on academic the investigations and the roundup of sign in the form of public testament. On 23 September 1986, Assembly Bill 3659 was signed into law.

The response from the California media was immediate and barbarian. One editorial, in the San Francisco Chronicle, called Vascos task force naive and outrageous. Nothing established Vasco more enraged than his ideas not being taken seriously, but he was about to become the prank of America.

***

Until Monday 9 February 1987, Vascos task force had was widely regime report. But on that morning, the cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who had been tickled by the legislators crusade, inaugurated an extraordinary two-week lope of his favourite Doonesbury strip to be given to it. By the end of that day, reporters were mobbing Vasco on the floor of the assembly enclosure. Rival politicians devoted dismissive briefings You could buy the Bible for $2.50 and work better while the Wall Street Journals story endured the headline Maybe Folks Would Feel Better If They Get To Split The $735,000.

Vasco was pallid. The media, he grumbled, were ghastly, cynical, sceptical and inexpensive. Their problem? Low self-esteem.

Meanwhile, something impressive seemed to be happening. The response from the people of California had been great. Between its notice and the task forces firstly public gather in March 1987, the role received more than 2,000 calls and letters, and almost 400 applications to volunteer. More than 300 parties came forward to speak in support of self-esteem at public hearings in the various regions of the nation. And even if the medias tone wasnt always respectful, Vasco himself was now their own nationals anatomy. He seemed everywhere from Newsweek to the CBS Morning Show to the BBC. This, he felt, could be a major opportunity.

But firstly he needed to find a way to wrench the national media gossip upwards. And situations, on that front, were going from unfortunate to foolish. It began with the announcement of the task forces 25 members. On the upside, it was a diverse group, including women, gentlemen, people of colour, lesbian beings, straight beings, Republican, Democrat, a former police officer and Vietnam veteran whod been awarded two Purple Middle. On the downside, it also included a white man in a turban who predicted the work of the working group would be so powerful, it would cause the sunlight to increase in the west. A delighted Los Angeles Herald told how, in front of the press, one member of the task force had asked others to close their eyes and thoughts a self-esteem maintenance gear of sorcery hats, twigs and amulets.

Vascos team embarked sounding information from people up and down California. They sounded from an LA deputy sheriff who toured academies, attempting to reduce drug use by telling students, You are special. You are a wonderful individual. They sounded from masked members of the Crips, who accused their murderous criminality on low-pitched self-esteem. One school principal recommended having elementary pupils increase their self-importance by doing evaluations on their teachers. A wife called Helice Bridges explained how shed dedicated her life to assigning hundreds of thousands of blue ribbon that read Who I Am Makes A Difference.

With the national media held so much to snigger over, it was beginning to look as if Vascos mission was a bust. But there had been some good word: the University of California had agreed to recruit seven profs to research the connection between low-grade self-esteem and societal maladies. They would report back in two years hour. For Vasco, their findings would be personal. If the professors decided he was wrong, it was all over.

***

Me, myself and I: a selfie-snapping millennial. Picture: Francois Lenoir/ Reuters

At 7.30 pm on 8 September 1988, Vasco fulfilled the scientists at El Rancho Inn in Millbrae, just outside San Francisco, to hear research results. Everything hinged on Dr Neil Smelser, an emeritus professor of sociology who had coordinated the design, resulting a crew who reviewed all the existing experiment on self-esteem. And the bulletin was good: four months later, in January, the task force questioned a newsletter: In the words of Smelser, The correlational discovers are very positive and compelling.

The headlines rapidly piled up: Self-Esteem Panel Finally Being Taken Seriously; Commission On Self-Esteem Finally Getting Some Respect. The nation minister mailed the professors experiment to his fellow ministers, suggesting, Im convinced that these studies build the foundations for a new period in American problem solving.

Vascos task force was almost done: all they had to supposed to do now was build upon this positive tint with the publication of their final report, Toward A State Of Esteem, in January 1990. That report turned out to be a win beyond the reasonable hopes of anyone who had witnessed its humiliating descents. The minister of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, whod privately taunted Vasco and his projection , now publicly endorsed it, as did illustrations including Barbara Bush and Colin Powell. Time magazine ran with the headline, The gibes are turning to cheers.

The man they were calling the Johnny Appleseed of Self-Esteem is available on the Today Show and Nightline, on the BBC and Australias ABC. The report went into reprinting in its debut week and went on to sell an extraordinary 60,000 copies. Vascos publicists approached Oprah Winfrey, who extended a prime-time special probing why she speculated self-esteem was going to be one of the catch-all words for the 1990 s. Interviewed were Maya Angelou, Drew Barrymore and John Vasconcellos.

Four months after the launch of Toward A State Of Esteem, the papers were reporting that self-esteem was broom through Californias public academies, with 86% of the states elementary school territories and 83% of high school regions enforcing self-esteem programmes. In Sacramento, students began matching twice a few weeks to decide how to discipline other students; in Simi Valley, children were taught, It doesnt matter what you do, but who you are. Political chairmen from Arkansas to Hawaii to Mississippi embarked considering their own task forces.

As the months became times, the self-love action spread. Accuseds in narcotic visitations were reinforced with special key chains for be contained in court, while those who completed medication were given applause and doughnuts. Children were gifted plays accolades just for swerving up; a Massachusetts school district prescribed children in gym classes to skip without actual ropes lest they abide the self-esteem calamity of tripping. Meanwhile, police in Michigan trying a serial rapist taught the public to look out for a thirtysomething male with medium build and low-grade self-esteem.

The credibility of Vascos task force turned predominantly on a single knowledge: that, in 1988, the esteemed professors of the University of California had analysed the data and approved his impression. The only question was, they hadnt. When I tracked down one renegade task force member, he described what happened as a fucking lie. And Vasco was behind it.

***

In an attempt to discover how America, and then “the worlds”, went conned so spectacularly, I travelled to Del Mar, California, to assemble the task force member whod prophesied their work would cause the sunlight to increase in the west. David Shannahoff-Khalsa greeted me into his bungalow, examining little changed from the old-time image Id learnt: appearance constrict, attentions sharp-witted, turban blue. A kundalini yoga practitioner who guessed meditation to be an ancient engineering of the head, Shannahoff-Khalsa had been so disillusioned by the final report, hed refused to sign it.

Portrait: Franck Allais for the Guardian

As we sat and nibbled cheese, he picked up a dense notebook with a glossy red-faced handle: The Social Importance Of Self-Esteem. This was the obtained work of the University of California professors. He flicked through its sheets, ending eventually on Smelsers summary of the findings. The information most consistently reported, he read out loud, is that the association between self-esteem and its expected importances are mixed, insignificant or absent.

This was a radically different conclusion from that fed to the public. Shannahoff-Khalsa told me he was present when Vasco first met preliminary enlists of the professors make. I remember him going through them and he ogles up and enunciates, You know, if members of the legislative council finds out whats in these reports, we are able to cut the funding to the task force. And then all of that nonsense started to get brushed for the purposes of the table.

How did they do that?

They tried to hide it. They wrote a[ positive] report before this one, he alleged, tapping the ruby-red notebook, which deliberately dismissed and considered up the science.

It was hard to believe that Vascos task force had been so rash as simply to develop the mention, the one that territory the findings and conclusions were positive and compelling. What had really happened at that see in September 1988? I knew the answer on an old-time audio cassette in the California state archives.

The sound was hissy and swooning. What I sounded, though, was clear enough. It was a recording of Smelsers presentation to Vascos task force at that meet in El Rancho Inn, and it was nowhere near as upbeat as the task force had claimed. I listened as he announced the professors work to be complete but worryingly mixed. He talked through a few domains, such as academic achievement, and remarked: These correlational findings are really pretty positive, reasonably compelling. This, then, was the mention the task force employed. Theyd sexed it up a bit for the public. But they had wholly omitted what he enunciated next: In other areas, the connects dont seem to be so great, and were not quite sure why. And were not sure, once we have connects, what the causes might be.

Smelser then leaved the task force a tell. The data was not going to give them something we are able to hand on a dish to the legislature and do, This is what youve got to do and youre going to expect the following kind of results. That is another sin, he said. Its the sin of overselling. And no one can wishes to do that.

I wondered whether Smelser was angry about the mention that got used. So I announced him. He told me the university got involved in the first place only because Vasco was in charge of its budget. The influence[ from Vasco] was indirect. He didnt speak, Im going to cut your budget if you dont do it. But, Wouldnt it be a good idea if the university could dedicate some of its resources to this question? It turned out that Smelser wasnt at all stunned about their dubious medicine of the data. The task force would welcome different forms of good word and either reject or disclaim bad news, he replied. I knew this was a quasi-religious crusade, and thats the kind of happen that happens in those dynamics.

Vasco passed away, aged 82, in 2014, but I find his right-hand guy, task force chairman and veteran legislator Andrew Mecca. When we finally communicated, he confirmed that it was the prestige of the University of California that had passed occasions around for Vasco. That gave us some credibility stripes, he replied. Like Smelser, he felt that the university became involved simply out of anxiety of Vasco. John chaired their lifeblood. Their plan! he chuckled.

How did he frequency the professors investigate? As you read the book, he mentioned, its a cluster of scholarly gobbledegook.

What was Meccas response when the data didnt say what he craved?

I didnt care, he did. I thought it was beyond discipline. It was a leap of faith. And I reckon simply a blind stupid wouldnt believe that self-esteem isnt center to ones persona and health and vitality.

Was Vasconcellos furious where reference is read the professors reports?

The thing is, John was an incredible politician. He was pragmatic enough that he felt he had what he necessary, and that was a scholarly report that pretty much supposed, Self-esteems important. At least, thats the spin we got in the media.

Mecca told me that, prior to the final reports publication, he and Vasco visited editors and television services and facilities producers up and down the two countries, in a deliberate attempt to construct the fib before it was possible to subverted. An extraordinary $30,000 was spent on their PR campaign: at its meridian, five publicists were working full time. We decided to make sure we got out there to tell our fib and not let them interpret it from the stuff that was being written by Smelser. We cultivated the letter. And that positiveness prevailed.

So nobody listened to what Smelser and Shannahoff-Khalsa were saying?

Im not sure anybody attended, Mecca added. Who recollects Neil Smelser or Shannahoff-Khalsa? Nothing! They were minuscule ripples in a big tsunami of positive change.

***

More than 20 years on, the effects of Vascos mission linger. Whether the tsunami of change he brought about was utterly positive continues dubious. I spoke to educational psychologist Dr Laura Warren, who taught in British academies in the 90 s, and remembers her schools edict that staff utilize mauve writes to differentiate wrongdoings, in place of the negative red. It was a policy of wage everything that they do, she told me. That turned out to be a atrociously bad idea.

The Ofsted inspectors detected as much when they saw Barrowford primary school in 2015. But after their critical report became public, the headteacher, Rachel Tomlinson, defended herself in her local newspaper. When we introduced the policy, it was after an horrid heap of research and deliberation, she read. And I think it has been a success.

Accommodated from Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed And What Its Doing To Us by Will Storr, published by Picador on 15 June at 18.99. To tell a emulate for 16.14, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846

The post ‘It was quasi-religious’: the great self-esteem con appeared first on vitalmindandbody.com.

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[blackpjensen]

CASE Dealer Equips Team Rubicon with Excavators: This Week’s Industry News

Want to keep up with the latest news in lawn care and landscaping? Check back every Thursday for a quick recap of recent happenings in the green industry.

Landscape Ontario’s Congress Set for Jan. 9-11, 2018 The 45th edition of Congress, Canada’s premier trade show and conference, owned and produced by Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association, is set for January 9-11, 2018. It features more than 600 multinational vendors in over 1,300 exhibits spread over eight acres at the Toronto, Congress Centre, Toronto, Ont. Congress is co-located with Fencecraft, a show-within-a-show, owned by the Canadian Fence Industry Association.

CASE Dealer Equips Team Rubicon with Excavators CASE Construction Equipment dealer Titan Machinery donated the use of two excavators to Team Rubicon for a service project and training event at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa and Nebraska. The excavators — a CX210D and CX250D — were used to remove several levees and water culverts as part of a wetland habitat development project. Team Rubicon is a veteran-led disaster response organization that deploys teams globally. Its heavy equipment operators have been trained as part of a partnership with CASE that began in November 2015.

Kubota Tractor Joins National Hispanic Landscape Alliance Kubota Tractor Corporation has joined with the National Hispanic Landscape Alliance, an organization dedicated to facilitating the upward mobility of Hispanic Americans as professionals and entrepreneurs in the landscape industry. Since its inception in 2011, the NHLA’s mission has been to empower and equip its members with the necessary tools and resources to grow and become more successful professionals in the industry.

Deere Buying German Road Construction Company for $5.2 billion Reuters reports that U.S. based farm and construction major Deere & Co said on Thursday, June 1, it would buy privately held German road construction company Wirtgen Group for $5.2 billion, including debt. Wirtgen makes equipment used in laying roads and has a network of company-owned and independent dealers in about 100 countries. Deere said the acquisition it will not see any product overlap and that it expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2018. Citigroup was Deere’s financial adviser.

Economist/Author Alan Beaulieu to Deliver GIE+EXPO Keynote Alan Beaulieu will deliver a keynote address at the GIE+EXPO, held Oct. 18-20, 2017 at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The Dealer “Kick-Off” keynote is free with tradeshow registration. He is co-author of Prosperity in the Age of Decline, a powerful look at how to make the most of U.S. and global economic trends over the next 20 years. He also co-authored Make Your Move, a practical and insightful guide on increasing profits through business cycle changes. Beaulieu’s session, titled A Good Year Ahead, will focus on the uncertainty and volatility that business leaders confront today.

Ariens New Website Highlights Product Portfolio, Company History Ariens has launched a brand new website, highlighting the portfolio of outdoor power equipment products and the company’s family history. New features include a product selector tool for both lawn and snow products where customers are able to choose from several criteria to match the best product to their property and landscaping needs. The site also includes expanded product information and spec comparisons for customers to compare products side-by-side.

SiteOne Acquiring Evergreen Partners in the Carolinas SiteOne Landscape Supply has announced the acquisition of Evergreen Partners. Started in 2007, Evergreen has two locations in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The acquisition of Evergreen Partners allows SiteOne to expand its existing Raleigh footprint and provides SiteOne with its first Nursery wholesale location in the Myrtle Beach area.

Project EverGreen Finishes Two More Projects for Healthy Turf. Healthy Kids. Project EverGreen formally dedicated two of its most recent Healthy Turf. Healthy Kids. projects when it cut the ribbon on the Hazlet (NJ) Youth Athletic League’s William  B. Paterson Field and the Neighbors of Vega Baja community garden in East Harlem, New York City. The Hazlet project started in October 2016 with a professional landscaping renovation to restore and improve the health of the weather-damaged grass field which serves as the home playing surface for nearly 1,500 children football leagues within the Hazlet Township community. The dedication of the renovated Neighbors of Vega Baja community garden took place on Saturday, May 20. The project was supported by a Con Edison community service grant, NYC Parks GreenThumb and local landscape and nursery industry professionals.

Wright Mower Wins New Product Award Wright Manufacturing has won a Twenty for 2017 new product award for its Sport Intensity commercial lawn mower. The 36-inch Sport I was introduced last fall at GIE+EXPO. The Sport I is a new twist on the popular Stander stand-on mower that Wright invented in 1997.

Agenda, Speakers Announced for Greater & Greener 2017 International Forum The International Forum agenda has been announced for the Greater and Greener 2017 in Minneapolis and St. Paul on Wednesday, August 2. It will be from 7:30 a.m.—4:30 p.m. City Parks Alliance and World Urban Parks present a series of interactive presentations and discussions about approaches that cities around the world are taking to create healthy, sustainable, and resilient park systems.

PBI-Gordon is now on Twitter You can now follow them @PBIGordonTurf.

Hearst Autos Expands to Include Advertising Sales and Marketing Initiatives Hearst Magazines announced today that its Hearst Autos division will house the automotive sales and marketing functions for the Hearst Magazines print and digital portfolio of brands. Felix DiFilippo, publisher/chief revenue officer of Car and Driver and Road & Track, adds the title of senior vice president, integrated sales, automotive for Hearst Autos; Jill Meenaghan, previously associate publisher and group marketing director of the Hearst Men’s Group, has been named chief marketing officer of Hearst Autos. The announcement was made by Hearst Magazines President of Marketing and Publishing Director Michael Clinton and Hearst Autos President Nick Matarazzo. The existing auto-focused sales force from Hearst Magazines’ 21 brands will move under the umbrella of Hearst Autos.

The post CASE Dealer Equips Team Rubicon with Excavators: This Week’s Industry News appeared first on Turf.

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Town End Alpaca Yarns|British Alpaca Wool|UK Alpaca Knitting Wool

In addition to being comfy and warm, it has the tendency to be a rugged and long lasting material. It does not tablet easily which implies that it will last a long time, perhaps even a full lifetime and beyond under regular wear conditions. This durability makes it a good investment, as it is most likely to keep the user warm and comfortable for many, numerous years. Even now, though Alpacas can be seen in nations all around the globe, many of them still originate from the high mountains of Peru. It is an important industry for this country and individuals who live there and who make a living making items, consisting of clothes, from the popular fibers. Though the market is very important to the story of modern-day Peru, it is similarly crucial to its history, as they have relied greatly on the animals for their fibers as much as their meat.

Prepare the fiber. To do this, pull the fibers apart so that they separate a little but do not break apart totally. Hold this in your non-dominant hand. Connect a leader yarn (a length of yarn about 12 inches long) to your spindle or wheel. Fluff out the ends of the leader yarn and pinch this together with a small part of your alpaca fiber. Start to spin your wheel or spindle clockwise and let the twist add the leader yarn and into the alpaca fiber. OAK HILL-- Fayette County's very first coffee micro-roaster-- and among just a handful in the state-- is keeping it craft, local and all in the family. ¶ Leading Knot Coffee and Craftsmen Store in downtown Oak Hill is an alpaca-themed coffee bar and coffee shop offering up excellent brews and a line of items including West Virginian artisans. Owner Daniel Harding, who owns the store in collaboration with his moms and dads Angela and Roger Harding and wife Stephanie, roasts his own coffee beans through direct trade coffee companies that link him directly with small growers around the world. Their house blends are a medium dark-roasted Peruvian bean and a more moderate medium-roasted Nicaraguan bean.

You can produce your own stunning needle felted figure! Follow the basic actions that we have actually illustrated and identified through years of proficiency and great tuning in this basic set. After you experience the satisfaction of making a unique and special needle felted alpaca, you will have the ability to explore different avenues by producing other figures with the needles that we have supplied in your package. Take pleasure in and create! The package consists of whatever you have to make the huacaya alpaca.

With a shawl or wrap, you can transform a flattering attire into a knockout one. This is a key product that can be used on any event with nearly any attire as a way to add color and class. The line of Alpaca shawls and Alpaca covers can be found in a range of colors, lengths, designs and patterns. Colors consist of a number of neutral tones for unequaled versatility. Numerous patterns and lengths assist you discover the style that matches your tastes.

Alpacas produce among the finest and most glamorous natural fibers. It is soft like cashmere and warmer, lighter and more powerful than wool. With 22 standard colors, it is available in more colors than other fiber produced by an animal. The Zoo's alpaca is sheared every other year in the spring. Her much shorter summertime 'do assists keep her cool in the summer. The physical differences in between alpacas and llamas are the most obvious. One of the most convenient distinctions to spot is the ears. Llamas have long, banana-shaped ears, while alpacas have much shorter, spear-shaped ears. Another difference is their size. When completely grown, a lot of alpacas weigh in between 100 and 175 pounds. Llamas, on the other hand, weigh in between 200 to 350 pounds with some as heavy as 400 pounds. We participate in as lots of spin off contests as we can considering that this is where we think the market Hensting Alpacas the pros and cons of alpaca farming is headed. Our kids and girls have done truly well-- specifically our brand-new juveniles and crias. Likewise our herdsire Ivanhoe consistently wins blue ribbons in spin-off contests. He is still totally solid true black which is fantastic at his age. Val also offers classes in spinning, knitting, and felting with alpaca fiber.

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