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thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness · 4 years ago

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Toshiya’s Creativity Vol 7: Looking back at Life This time, as Toshiya’s birthday is getting closer, we asked him to look back on his life. From his childhood to boyhood in Nagano and moving to Tokyo after his awakening to music. And the present. Memories, present and future…. Blessed with good weather, we did this interview in a localisation where you could feel the arrival of spring. “For me, music is the most stimulating thing. It was a way to escape from reality” “I think it’s a miracle I met these 4 people.” “When you are standing on stage in front of the audience, you should be a special person that nobody can’t replace”

Notes before reading: This is from ‘Toshiya’s creativity’, the serialization done by Ster Edge Magazine and later compiled into a book with the same name. This is Vol 07 (Ster Edge 006) , which was published in March 2018. Originally, I planned to post this for Toshiya’s birthday but....life. Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts. Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :)

------ 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of the formation of DIR EN GREY. Toshiya also had the opportunity to look back on the history of the band at various locations. This time, we asked him to look back on his ‘life’ just before his birthday on March 31st. How did he feel at that time? What did he realize at that moment and what does he think now? It was an interview that gave us a glimpse of his enigmatic way of thinking and a part his feelings. Toshiya is from Nagano prefecture. He says the environment in which he grew up was "a normal countryside one” in “a normal family”. In our previous talk with Hide TANAKA, a flower designer who is a childhood friend of Toshiya, which was published in "Toshiya's Creativity Vol6", he talked about his childhood, but we will explore this further, in a bit more personal way. When he was asked about his oldest memory, he folded his arms, thought for a moment, and then opened his mouth. “This memory comes quickly to my mind. There was something like an agricultural cooperative bazaar/rummage sale being held near my grandparent's house, and I think they took me to it. I was very impressed by a child of the same age as me at that time who was lost and crying alone. So, I remember holding my grandpa and grandma's hands tightly and saying, ‘Don’t lose me!’ (laughs).” His grandparents' home and his home were close, so he often went out with his grandparents from an early age. “I was close to my grandfather and my grandmother. I remember I was the type of child loved by the elderly. I’m still quite in contact with my family and relatives, we have a good relationship. But it wasn't something special, it was normal for me at the time. My hometown is a normal countryside town, where nothing is like this city, it feels like there are only mountains and rice fields. I also liked drawing at home and playing outside. I was playing like a normal country child would do.” Young Toshiya seems to have grown up in the nature of Nagano. It seems his parents also respected the things he wanted to do. “I was in a sports boys' team, a baseball team, and I practised kendo. I feel like I certainly did what I wanted. I liked physical activities. I wasn’t strong or weak at sports, after all I was normal (laughs). My parents taught me soroban (Japanese abacus), and in junior high school I attended a cram school. I think I got a textbook to study English through radio lessons. I just pretended to play the abacus, and I wasn't good at it at all (laughs). " Toshiya was a boy who was devoted to sports. He talked to Hide about playing the guitar when he was young, but was he interested in music and instruments at that time? “No, no at all. My mother's brother used to play the guitar and I was just using that guitar as a toy instead. More than playing, I was killing time. It felt like that. At that time, I had no dreams for the future. When I was told to write about my dream for the future, I just wrote ‘be a salary man, like my father’. I think that was the safest choice (laughs). The children of my class said ‘I want to be a police officer’ or ‘I want to be a pilot’, but I wasn't interested in what I wanted to do in the future at all.” He said ‘normal’ many times while talking about himself in the past but while listening to his talk, he didn't feel like that for some reason, he had a mysterious aura since he was a boy. He said the thing that young Toshiya was more interested in was ‘wild ideas/fantasies’. “I think it was like that in the past. Didn’t you have any ‘wild idea’ /fantasy on your way to school or coming back from it? I liked that kind of thing. As I liked Gundam, I thought ‘I want to ride one’. Sometimes I went home with my friends, but more often I went home alone. It was about a 30-minute walk from my house to school, so it was days of spending all that time doing that (laughs).” Perhaps he was a boy who had his own world and the strength to be alone. “No, no, I didn't think deeply about that. I never felt scared to be alone…. the reason I went home alone was it was easier for me to go home alone (laughs). I'm older than my siblings, so I grow up as an only child for a while. That’s why it was normal for me to be alone. Most of the boys and girls I played with were older kids who lived near my house” Toshiya, an elementary school boy who often played with older boys and girls who lived in the neighbourhood, gradually got more chances to listen to popular songs at his senpais' homes. Boøwy was the catalyst for him to have an instrument. “Boøwy was a cool band that older seniors listened to. When I got into middle school, there were about one or two people in the class who liked Western music. When I became friends with those guys, I was told ‘You are still listening to Japanese music?’ (laughs). From that moment, I started to dig deeper into Western music.” Then, that Toshiya in middle school becomes more and more absorbed in music. It was around this time that he started to have in his mind that he wanted to play an instrument. “Besides Boøwy and X…..From overseas… I listened to Van Halen. Then, bands like Europe, Guns N'Roses,Bon jovi….. as it was the golden age of LA metal (glam metal), I liked that kind of stuff. I listened to the X’s single ‘Kurenai’ at home. That song starts with a ballad-like part, and then it gets fierce at once, but when I was playing it at first, I could hardly hear any sound. I still remember that suddenly it made a loud noise when I turned up the volume, I was surprised and desperately turned down the volume (laughs). " As Toshiya told us this funny incident, for sure there are many people who had a similar experience. What elements of these bands inspired Toshiya in middle school? "The music was exciting, but the fashion and performance were shocking ... Every band was very unrealistic. It seems that I was taken to a different world at that time. The feelings were very strong. Since TV was the only way to collect information, I think the influence from TV on me was huge.” He has been absorbed in band activities since high school. The first thing he got in his hands was a guitar, not a bass. He doesn't have get the chance to play the guitar on stage right now, but he uses the guitar to make songs. "After all, I started playing the guitar because I admired some guitarists, but I thought 'It's difficult to play with 6 strings. It's a little easier with 4 strings.' After all, I thought it would be easier if there aren’t many chords to hold down. Also, I thought the bass was in a position that didn’t stand out much compared to other instruments, so I thought it would be interesting because that means there were many interesting possibilities about playing” Toshiya, who liked drawing since childhood, went to an art school while being in a band, after graduating from high school. Although he is good at drawing, he eventually chose the musical path. “I didn't want to get a job after graduating from high school, but I didn’t want to study something either. However, I liked drawing, so I asked my parents to attend an art school. At school, the places where the people who graduated there got a job are displayed at the corridor, isn’t it? I was looking at that and I thought ‘Ah? I don't think many people can get a job in the world of drawing’. I don’t think there are many jobs available when it comes to drawing. I thought ‘I like drawing but as this is more a hobby than a job, there is no point in spending money to study it. I’m going to spend my time doing what I like’. After all, I left the art school in about a year. After all, you only live once, and I may regret not doing what I want to do…..That's why I decided to go on the path of music for real. Music is the most stimulating thing for me. Making music was fun and I think it was a bit an escape from reality. I could be a different person than the one I was in my daily life….I wonder if these ‘extraordinary things’ became an stimulus for me.” Immediately after that, Toshiya goes to Tokyo to be fully into band activities as a band man. An era in which the Internet is hardly widespread it was important to move to make his own path. He took action and met various people. “When I went to Tokyo, I met and talked with several people. I was told often that ‘those who move out their hometowns had already won’. I thought there was no chance if I stayed in the countryside and I started doing band activities quietly. There may be various risks and scary feelings, but if you really want a chance, you have to go to the place where there is information. Of course, I think that taking no action is also one of the options. There may be a way to improve your skills locally, or you can go out to the city to seize opportunities, and I think it's up to you to decide which one to choose. I met the members (of DIR EN GREY) in Tokyo, so I think I wouldn't have been in this band if I hadn't come to Tokyo. " "I think it was a miracle that I could meet the other 4 members” Toshiya, who met Kyo,Kaoru, Die, and Shinya, moved to Kansai and started band activities there . In 1997, DIR EN GREY was formed. They made their national debut in 1998, and made his major debut in 1999 with the release of the singles "Akuro no Oka", "ZAN-" and "Yurameki". He thought ‘Because I only have one life, I may regret not doing what I want to do’, and took action. About three years later, Toshiya's life changed. "I think most people in the music world are like that…..At that time, I didn't know what I was doing, but I was confident. I think it's a little scary when I think about my confident at that time. I had such a simple idea that in a way or another, we were going to make it. That's why I didn't think anything strange, the biggest thing was that I didn't have any strange fear. As I grew up, I started to think about things I hadn't thought of before. I was getting more and more involved with people, but I didn’t have that kind of thing when I was young. I think that was the biggest driving force. When I look back on it now, I feel envious of that feeling that nothing was going to stop me.” It was a brilliant and sensational success. It was probably the tremendous power of these five people that attracted that success, which the appropriate world to describe it would be “comet”. A comet that seen from a distance was very beautiful but, how did DIR EN GREY feel about it, being the comet themselves? “We didn’t fully understand the situation we were in. There was a strong feeling we were getting into a world we didn’t know. We were an active part of that, but it felt like we were outsiders. At that time, music had a stimulating sense of unreality but also the fear that it became real started to spring up. At that time, it felt like that many times. DIR EN GREY was called the “last boom” of the scene we were in and I think we were lucky. There was also a part of us that tried to not be absorbed by that boom” DIR EN GREY’s activities have been very creative since then. From this formation until their debut, the band didn’t lose their spirits and kept their aggressive stance. Continuing to present things with a strong emphasis in musicality and fashion making a distinction in the middle of that ‘boom’, they built a unshakeable fortress called DIR EN GREY. “At that time, various media such as TV and magazines talked to us, but we tried not to go in that direction. I was influenced by TV in terms of knowing music, but when it comes to my own work, I didn’t think about becoming the kind of musician that appears on TV. Of course, I thought it would be the best if we got TV exposure but…..at some point, there were things that cold me off. ‘This boom won’t last forever’, it’s easy to get on that boom, but once the boom is over, it’s gone. At that time, I might not have thought so much about it, but I instinctively felt that it was dangerous to get into that boom” It’s not just Toshiya, all DIR EN GREY members agreed. “Sometimes thanks to the boom and the media, they (the listeners) get to know about you. I think it’s the best way to get people know about you but, I also think it’s really dangerous. I think there were some people who succumbed to that kind of excitement. We were cautious because we were the only ones who could protect ourselves, no one else would protect us.” Because DIR EN GREY decided that it was dangerous to get drawn by that boom, they were able to pursue the music and expressions they wanted to do in a deeper way. A different strength from that boom. “That’s right…. We didn’t really understand what happened, we couldn’t say ‘ we did this so this happened after’, there were moments we relied on ourselves, but there were also moments that we relied on others. I guess that balance was good. However, we tried to not get into that wave of popularity as much as possible” DIR EN GREY continued to run ahead of the boom without appearing in the mainstream media, toured Asia in 2002, achieving the first overseas expansion. Due to changes in music aspects, the attention they got from overseas increased and in 2005, they performed in Berlin, marking their first solo concert in Europe. From there, they started to held live performances around the world. Their music spread to the world in proportion to the rise of the Internet. Their journey was so innovative in the music scene that many artists used them as their role model. Should it be called ‘a miracle’ caused by a natural sense of balance? “I think this (the overseas expansion) was something rare for us. ‘Something like this is what we want’, ‘It would be good if you could show this or that’……we were told these kind of things so maybe it (a miracle) happened. First of all, I think it’s a miracle I met these 4 people.” Toshiya said this a little shy smile. There aren't many bands that have been so active for 20 years without changing members or stopping their activities. It's a miracle. “Because it’s an aspect that you can’t control…the things you do and the people you meet. I think it’s a miracle in that sense as well.” After 20 years, there were changes as an individual person, and there were changes in the way they interact with music. He says it's not just about music, ‘No matter what you do, if you make a mistake, you're done’, he adds. “Everyone calls me an 'artist', but I don't feel like one. The easiest thing to say would be ‘free person’ (laughs). As I don’t have the experience of a normal working life, waking up at the same time on weekdays mornings, getting on the same train every day, rather than an artist, I would say I’m a free person. However, if there is a misunderstanding, I come to think of myself as ‘someone special’ who can’t live a normal life. It’s dangerous and scary. But humans are creatures that make mistakes (laughs).” Is it his way of saying that there was a “misunderstanding” in the past? “Well, there is. I made mistakes. That's why I'm scared. At the time of the debut, the number of adults I didn’t know increased around me. No matter what you do, many people was moving. That became something common. But that many people come, means that many people also leave…. Shortly after my debut, a friend from Nagano told me two things. One was ‘it’s good you can do what you like’, and the other was ‘Did you start a band to be admired/ to be pampered?’ Those words were quite a big deal for me. I thought I couldn't stay that way, so I had to change my way of thinking a little more. The words this person told me made me feel sad but then I said ‘Isn’t it good? Why you don’t try to do your best too?’ (laughs).” Toshiya laughs and says ‘I want to be a person with an ordinary consciousness’. His way of talking and manners are soft, giving an impression that he is a person who has nothing to do with the word ‘rude’. “In my teens, my senpais were unconventional and I admired a lot their messy behaviour but unfortunately, times are very different now. When we were children, we thought about what to buy and how to use the money we received for New Year's but nowadays children seem to save money. It might be good to do something unconventional and have a dream in such a conservative era, but I'm not that age anymore. Now, if I do something like that, I’d be in a difficult position (laughs). That’s why being a person with an ordinary consciousness would be the ideal”. “When you stand on stage in front of the audience, you should be a special person that nobody can’t replace” When you ask him about music activity, the talk extends to other topics that are not limited to music. The concept of the brand 'DIRT 100% Natural Dirty' produced by him is 'unisex real clothes that can be worn in a wide range of occasions from casual to formal’, the design not only affects the clothes but also the spaces that surround your daily life. Toshiya proposes and produce unique and original clothes for daily life. The fact that the words ‘life’ and ‘everyday’ are included means that for Toshiya, as music, his brand production and life are something that flows together, not something that can be separate from each other. “There isn’t really a distinction. But both, music and brand production, I can’t call them ‘work’. Of course I can’t remove the business part of it but I don’t think it’s work. This interview is also part of my job, that’s why I’m definitely switched on my ‘business mode’. If you like something in a pure way, you shouldn’t make a business of it. Of course, I make music and produce clothes because I like it, but the truth is that you can’t just do something because you like it. That’s why I think I have to do it. For example, of course I would say ‘I want to do this’ to the company but saying NO to everything that the company suggests, like ‘I want you to do this, I think it’s just selfish. If I’m allowed to do what I want to do, then I have to do also what the company wants me to do, otherwise, it won’t work. If you just want to do whatever you want, it would be like ‘why don't you do it by yourself? I think I'm doing it with several people because I can't do it alone.” It might be because of this that the band DIR EN GREY continue to be active with the same members. It’s only because they have their own opinions but also they have the capacity to listen and absorb other people’s opinions. “I have a firm ideal within myself. However, there are times you will realize things listening to other people’s opinions and absorbing them. When you have a talk with several people that are experts in something, new opinions that I didn’t know before are born. I often think that it’s like the scales fall from my eyes, and it leads to new discoveries. There might be a reason why we don’t aim to “do things by ourselves’. It's not that music and brands can't be done alone…. I feel that if I go alone, I might make a mistake. Going back to I said before, if you think of yourself as 'special', I think it's not going to go in the right direction….But it's an exception when you stand on stage in front of the audience. , you should be a special person that nobody can’t replace” No matter how good a person is, they may stop at some point. Toshiya was no exception. However, he says with confident ‘I still have many things that I want to do’. “I've often thought ‘this is my limit’. I have thought many times ‘I don't have any ideas, I don't like it, it's hard’..... But then, I’ve always come up with ideas and images such as "I want to do something like that" or "Let's do something like this". I've been doing something like that all the time….I think my desire for expression will never run out. I don't think things can be made from scratch. Everything is imitation of something, an arrangement of something….I think that’s the trigger for the ramification of creation. In your daily life, you can see various things and various things will happen, so I hope to reflect in my work what is happening at that moment.” Will Toshiya reach a turning point in his life soon? In the last talk, he wondered if he would become an adult when he is 50 or 60 years old. He also said he wanted to be 50 or 60 years old soon. He set his mind on the idea of ‘You only have one life, if you don’t do the things that you want, you’ll regret it’. Until now, he has devoted his life to the band so is he satisfied with that or is there any regrets? “It’s half satisfaction, half regrets (laughs). I think I have more regrets, though. When I was in elementary school I thought that at my age I would be living in my hometown, I’d be married and would have kids…’I wish I had done that at that time’….’I didn’t do that’….things like that, if I start mentioning them, there would be no end. But you can’t do anything about the things you didn’t do, I think the perception will change if you look at it with regrets or as a reflection. Sayingt that ‘I could become an adult once I’m 50 or 60 years old” means I entrusted to my future self, things I can’t do now. It’s a way of escapism, though(laughs). I feel like the things I can’t do now will be easier in the future and the range of the things I’ll be able to do will be wider. I will pursue forever the person I aspired to become when I was a child. I think it’s a human thing to do that.” Toshiya’s voice “I requested this photoshoot to take place somewhere near the sea. Since my birthday was closer, I did an interview looking back on my life. If anything, it felt like the interview was important. As we went to Odaiba, the travel time was longer. The talk about the Olimpics in the car was exciting.

#dir en grey #toshiya #translation #toshiyatranslations

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mostlymovieswithmax · 4 years ago

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Movies I watched in May

Sadly, I kind of skipped writing a post for April. It was a mad month with so much going on: lots of emails sent and lots of stress. I started a new job so I’m getting to grips with that... and even then, I still watched a bunch of movies. But this is about what I watched in May and, yeah… still a bunch. So if you’re looking to get into some other movies - possibly some you’ve thought about watching but didn’t know what they were like, or maybe like the look of something you’ve never heard of - then this may help! So here’s every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of May 2021 Tenet (2020) - 8/10 This was my third time watching Christopher Nolan’s most Christopher Nolan movie ever and it makes no sense but I still love it. The spectacle of it all is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen. I had also watched it four days prior to this watch also, only this time I had enabled audio description for the visually impaired, thinking it would make it funny… It didn’t.

Nomadland (2020) - 6/10 Chloé Zhao’s new movie got a lot of awards attention. Everyone was hyped for this and when it got put out on Disney+ I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. Seeing these real nomads certainly gave the film an authenticity, along with McDormand’s ever-praisable acting. But generally I found it quite underwhelming and lacking a lot in its pacing. Nomadland surely has its moments of captivating cinematography and enticing commentary on the culture of these people, but it felt like it went on forever without any kind of forward direction or goal. The Prince of Egypt (1998) - 6/10 I reviewed this on my podcast, The Sunday Movie Marathon. For what it is, it’s pretty fun but nowhere near as good as some of the best DreamWorks movies.

Chinatown (1974) - 8/10 What a fantastic and wonderfully unpredictable mystery crime film! I regret to say I’ve not seen many Jack Nicholson performances but he steals the show. Despite Polanski’s infamy, it’d be a lie to claim this wasn’t truly masterful. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) - 8/10 Admittedly I was half asleep as I curled up on the sofa to watch this again on a whim. I watched this with someone who demanded the dubbed version over the subtitled version and while I objected heavily, I knew I’d seen the movie before so it didn’t matter too much. That person also fell asleep about 20 minutes in, so how pointless an argument it was. Howl’s Moving Castle boasts superb animation, the likes of which I’ve only come to expect of Miyazaki. The story is so unique and the colours are absolutely gorgeous. This may not be my favourite from the legendary director but there’s no denying its splendour.

Bāhubali: The Beginning (2015) - 3/10 The next morning I watched some absolute trash. This crazy, over the top Indian movie is hilarious and I could perhaps recommend it if it weren’t so long. That being said, Bāhubali was not a dumpster fire; it has a lot of good-looking visual effects and it’s easy to see the ambition for this epic story, it just doesn’t come together. There’s fun to be had with how the main character is basically the strongest man in the world and yet still comes across as just a lucky dumbass, along with all the dancing that makes no sense but is still entertaining to watch. Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10 If it wasn’t obvious already, Seven Samurai is a masterpiece. I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, so more thoughts can be found there. Red Road (2006) - 6/10 Another recommendation on episode 30 of the podcast. Red Road really captures the authentic British working class experience. Before Sunrise (1995) - 10/10 One of the best romances put to film. The first in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy is undoubtedly my favourite, despite its counterparts being almost equally as good. It tells the story of a young couple travelling through Europe, who happen to meet on a train and spend the day together. It is gloriously shot on location in Vienna and features some of the most interesting dialogue I’ve ever seen put to film. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Tokyo Story (1953) - 9/10 This Japanese classic - along with being visually and sonically masterful - is a lot about appreciating the people in your life and taking the time to show them that you love them. It’s about knowing it’s never too late to rekindle old relationships if you truly want to, which is something I’ve been able to relate to in recent years. It broke my heart in two. Tokyo Story will make you want to call your mother. Before Sunset (2004) - 10/10 Almost a decade after Sunrise, Sunset carries a sombre yet relieving feeling. Again, the performances from Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke take me away, evoking nostalgic feelings as they stroll through the contemporary Parisian streets. There is no regret in me for buying the Criterion blu-ray boxset for this trilogy. Before Midnight (2013) - 10/10 Here, Linklater cements this trilogy as one of the best in film history. It’s certainly not the ending I expected, yet it’s an ending I appreciate endlessly. Because it doesn’t really end. Midnight shows the troubling times of a strained relationship; one that has endured so long and despite initially feeling almost dreamlike in how idealistically that first encounter was portrayed, the cracks appear as the film forces you to come to terms with the fact that fairy-tale romances just don’t exist. Relationships require effort and sacrifice and sometimes the ones that truly work are those that endure through all the rough patches to emerge stronger. The Holy Mountain (1973) - 10/10 Jodorowsky’s masterpiece is absolute insanity. I talked more about it on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10 Another watch for Grand Budapest because I bought the Criterion blu-ray. As unalterably perfect as ever. Blue Jay (2016) - 6/10 Rather good up to a point. My co-hosts and I did not agree on how good this movie was, which is a discussion you can listen to on my podcast. Shadow and Bone: The Afterparty (2021) - 3/10 For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the first season of Shadow and Bone, which is why I wanted to see what ‘The Afterparty’ was about. This could have been a lot better and much less annoying if all those terrible comedians weren’t hosting and telling bad jokes. I don’t want to see Fortune Feimster attempt to tell a joke about oiling her body as the cast of the show sit awkwardly in their homes over Zoom. If it had simply been a half hour, 45 minute chat with the cast and crew about how they made the show and their thoughts on it, a lot of embarrassment and time-wasting could have been spared. Wadjda (2012) - 6/10 Another recommendation discussed at length on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Wadjda was pretty interesting from a cultural perspective but largely familiar in terms of story structure.

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - 2/10 A truly terrible movie with maybe one or two scenes that stop it from being a complete catastrophe. Tom Green tried to create something that almost holds a middle finger to everyone who watches it and to some that could be a fun experience, but to me it just came across as utterly irritating. It’s simply a bunch of scenes threaded together with an incredibly loose plot. He wears the skin of a dead deer, smacks a disabled woman over and over again on the legs to turn her on, and he swings a newborn baby around a hospital room by its umbilical cord (that part was actually pretty funny). I cannot believe I watched this again, although I think I repressed a lot of it since having seen it for the first time around five years ago. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - (2011) I have to say, these movies seem to get better with each instalment. They’re still not very good though. That being said, I’m amazed at how many times I’ve watched each of the Twilight movies at this point. This time around, I watched Breaking Dawn - Part 1 with a YMS commentary track on YouTube and that made the experience a lot more entertaining. Otherwise, this film is super dumb but pretty entertaining. I would recommend watching these movies with friends. Solaris (1972) - 8/10 Andrei Tarkovsky’s grand sci-fi epic about the emotional crises of a crew on the space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris is much as strange and creepy as you might expect from the master Russian auter. I had wanted to watch this for a while so I bought the Criterion blu-ray and it’s just stunning. It’s clear to see the 2001: A Space Odyssey inspiration but Solaris is quite a different beast entirely. Jaws (1975) - 4/10 I really tried to get into this classic movie, but Jaws exhibits basically everything I don’t like about Steven Spielberg’s directing. For sure, the effects are crazily good but the story itself is poorly handled and largely uninteresting. It was just a massive slog to get through.

Darkman (1990) - 6/10 Sam Raimi’s superhero movie is so much fun, albeit massively stupid. Further discussion on Darkman can be found on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) - 1/10 Abysmal. I forgot the movie as I watched it. This was part of a marathon my friends and I did for episode 32 of our podcast. Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) - 1/10 Perhaps this trilogy is not so great after all. Only marginally better than Darkman II but still pretty terrible. More thoughts on episode 32 of my podcast. F For Fake (1973) - 8/10 Rewatching this proved to be a worthwhile decision. Albeit slightly boring, there’s no denying how crazy the story of this documentary about art forgers is. The standout however, is the director himself. Orson Welles makes a lot of this film about himself and how hot his girlfriend is and it is hilarious.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) - 4/10 More style over substance, Sony’s new animated adventure wants so much to be in trend with the current internet culture but it simply doesn’t understand what it’s emulating. There’s a nyan cat reference, for crying out loud. For every joke that works, there are about ten more that do not and were it not for the wonderful animation, it simply wouldn’t be getting so much praise. Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10 The first movie I’ve seen in a cinema since 2020 and damn it was good to be back! I’ve already reviewed Taxi Driver in my March wrap-up but seeing it in the cinema was a real treat. Irreversible (2002) - 8/10 One of the most viscerally horrendous experiences I’ve ever had while watching a movie. I cannot believe a friend of mine gave me the DVD to watch. More thoughts on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Don’t watch it with the family. The Golden Compass (2007) - 1/10 I had no recollection of this being as bad as it is. The Golden Compass is the definition of a factory mandated movie. Nothing it does on its own is worth any kind of merit. I would say, if you wanted an experience like what this tries to communicate, a better option by far is the BBC series, His Dark Materials. More of my thoughts can be found in the review I wrote on Letterboxd.

Antichrist (2009) - 8/10 Lars von Trier is nothing if not provocative and I can understand why someone would not like Antichrist, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. After watching it, I wrote a slightly disjointed summary of my interpretations of this highly metaphorical movie in the group chat, so fair warning for a bit of spoilers and graphic descriptions: It's like, the patriarchy, man! Oppression! Men are the rational thinkers with big brains and the women just cry and be emotional. So she's seen as crazy when she's smashing his cock and driving a drill through his leg to keep him weighted down. Like, how does he like it, ya know? So then she mutilates herself like she did with him and now they're both wounded, but the animals crowd around her (and the crow that he couldn't kill because it's Mother nature, not Father nature, duh). Then he kills her, even though she could've killed him loads of times but didn't. So it's like "haha big win for the man who was subjected to such horrific torture. Victory!" And then all the women with no faces come out of the woods because it's like a constant cycle. Manchester By The Sea (2016) - 6/10 Great performances in this super sad movie. I can’t say I got too much out of it though. Roar (1981) - 9/10 Watching Roar again was still as terrifying an experience as the first time. If you want to watch something that’s loose on plot with poor acting but with real big cats getting in the way of production and physically attacking people, look no further. This is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen because it’s all basically real. Cannot recommend it enough. Eyes Without A Face (1960) - 8/10 I’m glad I checked this old French movie out again. There’s a lot to marvel at in so many aspects, what with the premise itself - a mad surgeon taking the faces from unsuspecting women and transplanting them onto another - being incredibly unique for the time. Short, sweet and entertaining!

Se7en (1995) - 10/10 The first in a David Fincher marathon we did for The Sunday Movie Marathon, episode 33. Zodiac (2007) - 10/10 Second in the marathon, as it was getting late, we decided to watch half that evening and the last half on the following evening. Zodiac is a brilliant movie and you can hear more of my thoughts on the podcast (though I apologise; my audio is not the best in this episode). Gone Girl (2014) - 10/10 My favourite Fincher movie. More insights into this masterpiece in episode 33 of the podcast. Friends: The Reunion (2021) - 6/10 It was heartwarming to see the old actors for this great show together again. I talked about the Friends reunion film at length in episode 33 of my podcast.

Wolfwalkers (2020) - 10/10 I reviewed this in an earlier post but would like to reiterate just how wonderful Wolfwalkers is. If you get the chance, please see it in the cinema. I couldn’t stop crying from how beautiful it was. Raya and The Last Dragon (2021) - 6/10 After watching Wolfwalkers, I decided I didn’t want to go home. So I had lunch in town and booked a ticket for Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon. A child was coughing directly behind me the entire time. Again, I reviewed this in an earlier post but generally it was decent but I have so many problems with the execution. The Princess Bride (1987) - 9/10 Clearly I underrated this the last time I watched it. The Princess Bride is warm and hilarious with some delightfully memorable characters. A real classic!

The Invisible Kid (1988) - 1/10 About as good as you’d expect a movie with that name to be, The Invisible Kid was a pick for The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, the discussion for which you can listen to in episode 34. Babel (2006) - 9/10 The same night that I watched The Invisible Kid, I watched a masterful and dour drama from the director of Birdman and The Revenant. Babel calls back to an earlier movie of Iñárritu’s, called Amores Perros and as I was informed while we watched this for the podcast, it turns out Babel is part of a trilogy alongside the aforementioned film. More thoughts in episode 34 of the podcast. Snake Eyes (1998) - 1/10 After feeling thoroughly emotionally wiped out after Babel, we immediately watched another recommendation for the podcast: Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage. This was a truly underwhelming experience and for more of a breakdown into what makes this movie so bad, you can listen to us talk about it on the podcast.

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riotatthemovies · 4 years ago

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Halloween sitcom specials.

When the Halloween season comes rolling in I like most people start to watch more horror movies (maybe even more than I usually do). But near Halloween the horror I watch needs to have a childish innocence to it. Memories of Halloween with candy and costumes and telling each other innocent ghosts stores around a fire to spook each other. That's what Halloween is for me, memories of how as a child monsters and ghosts were just too damn cool. So the horror films I choose are more monster based often with a folklore campfire tales twists. However I also love flashing back to the cheesiest childhood memories of tv at the time. Everyone loves the better episode of Simpsons Treehouse of horror. The VHS collecting geeks I talk to often post articles about the infamous Halloween make up tips tapes and safety PSA tapes of the 80s.

For your retro entertainment I bring you a list of my 10 favorite sitcom and kids show Halloween episodes of my youth. I say my favorite not the best because I'm sure if I said the best I'll get a msg saying I'm wrong. Also I'm sure some kids gonna tell me of a that's so Raven episode and I'm an old so I never watched that. Also people always talk about the Rosanne Halloween episodes so I will let everyone else talk about those. Also note there was never a Golden girls Halloween special and if there was there is no doubt that would be the top of my list. So this is in no real order . . .

10: Facts of Life Season 5 episode The Halloween Show

Natalie is making a home movie and SPOILER tricks all the girls into believing their den mother is possessed by a ghost and is turning random people into sausages and feeding them to the group. Yeah seriously that's the point, I mean you don't know its Natalie tricking everyone so she can film a reality horror film until the end but you figure it out. Its completely unbelievable that the group of girls fall for this and legit believe it enough to try and fight their den mother that they have been best friends with for five seasons. The magic of a show being 25 minutes long that the characters have to jump to huge assumptions and get over it and a chuckle pretty quick too.

9: Webster Season 4 episode Witchbusters

Webster has some non Halloween oddly creepy episodes as it was pure 80s kids entertainment. Webster loved wearing Halloween masks and in season 2 he finds a creepy doll in the room of a missing girl that looks like a real person and comes off very Black Christmas/ Psycho. But I love the season 4 episode where Webster is peer pressured into sneaking into an old ladies house on Halloween because everyone thinks she is a witch. When Webster sneaks in his friend chickens out and leaves . Webster then finds one of the old ladies cats and thinks it is his friend who had been turned into the cat by the witch. Like many episodes the issue at had happens because Webster is really dumb. So of course he kidnaps the cat and takes it home because he thinks its his friend. Dumb Webster Dumb. Man I loved that stupid show.

8 .Family Matters season 8 episode STEVIL

Many people seem to remember the Halloween episode where infamous Steve Urkel brings a ventriloquist dummy to the Winslows Halloween party and as as ventriloquist dummies do , it comes to life and tries to kill everyone. Goosebumps meets Family Matters right there. I noticed its been the hip show to talk about this seaspn, probably cause this happened in the 90s.

7. Mr. Belvedere season 3 episode called Halloween

Mr Belvedere is depressed after eye surgery and the youngest kid in the family Wesley gets old Mr Belvedere in an eye patch and brings him out trick or treating which in turn sends him out on a bit of a bender. Also in the episode the daughter wants to wear a sexy maid costume to a party but her dad wont let her. So her older brother wears the maid costume to the party so they can secretly switch costumes there. Just one of many episodes where the older brother Kevin did a drag scene to show off his legs. ALSO in that episode the dad Bob Ueker is asked to join a sort of Shriners group but they end up being a crazy hooded cult. Which is extra funny cause in later episodes you find he did join the Shriner group after all and they never mention them being a cult. In fact the next time you see the cult members they are friends of the family and all go in drag with the oldest son they can go under cover to catch a purse snatcher.. but that's another episode.

6. Alf season 2 episode called Some enchanted evening.

Alf wants to go trick or treating cause well candy of course. The tanners think its too dangerous for Alf to go out even that he insists everyone will think he is just in a costume and not an actual Alien Life form. Eventually a Halloween party is held at the house and Alf meets an old cat lady. Alf loves cats... sorta. Also in the episode is an appearance of Lewis Arquette the dad of the all those wacky Arquette kids.

Seeing the costumes that appear in all these episodes makes one feel like in the 80s and 90s there was a rule that you couldn't have a Halloween party if there was not one devil, one pirate , one French maid, one little bo peep, one scarecrow and one Dracula. Like it was a rule or something.

5. KnightRider Season 3 episode called Halloween Knight

Michael Knight must investigate the visions of a confused woman. They believe she will be the next victim of a murdered in a gorilla suit. In the episode a man wears one of the silver shamrock pumpkin masks from Halloween 3. I did an whole article on this last year. Just another reason for you to go look through the riotatthemoveis archive.

4. Fall Guy season 4 episode called October 31st

Elvira guests stars as her self as she teams up with Lee Majors and the Fall guy team to break a curse and solve a possible murder in an old castle. Guest cameos of John, David and Keith Carradine. Also Lewis Arquette. Elvira would return the next season in an episode called.. wait for it.. October the 32nd... Yep.

3. Night Court season 3 episode called Halloween Too.

Every season of Night Court got a Halloween episode but this one is suiting for the humorous episode title and for Markie Post (who was in the episode of Fall Guy I just mentioned) wearing an amazingly and awkwardly hot witch costume. She shows up in this costume after Judge Stone has just broken up with his girlfriend who he discovers is an actual witch with magical powers as he believed her magic compromised his position on the bench. Guest cameo by Anne Ramsey as another witch. All the Halloween episodes are but I really like in this one when Quan Lee misunderstands the concept of Trick or Treating and thinks you need to threaten people for candy. Also I just needed an excuse to post this picture of Markie Post.

2 . Diff’rent Strokes Season 7 episode called A Haunting we will go. Arnold and his new step brother Sam (yeah that's a thing if you ever watched the last two season of Diff’rent Strokes) peer pressure them selves into sneaking in to an old haunted house. (similar to the Webster episode as poor little Gary Coleman and Emanuel Lewis would always be compared to each other). What makes this episode gold is when Arnold and Sam break into the haunted house they have detailed replica Ghostbusters costumes on, decades before Strangers Things season 2. We also get a door banging , chandelier shaking haunted house , dusty piano and everything if I remember right and then they show us how they did it. Very cool for an 80s kid like me. Also guest stars the amazing John Astin.

Last but not least...

Punky Brewster season 2 episodes Perils of Punky part one and 2. The cartoon series has an episode of the same name but no relation. This two parter is something if you know me you have heard about a lot. Punky and her pals go camping and meet a native shaman who tells them about a haunted cave, so in part 2 what do they do.. go in it of course. Then shit get surreal. Punkys friends get offed one by one by evil spirits then get turned into severed heads, one that flies and one that is stuck in the rock wall. It all ends with Punky having to battle a giant spider with shades of the original IT movie and has to hack it to death with an axe. Ending in the spirit of native girl waving goodbye in the cave that looks just like Punky as her friends magically come back to life as if it was all a dream... or was it. The episode is to be seen to be believed. My second favorite next to the episode where Punky thinks she killed a man at her restaurant but finds out he is just a narcoleptic with a broken hearing aid. COMEDY!!!!!

There are so many more, feel free to msg me and let me know old tv shows that had wild Halloween episodes that you hold dear.

I need some Count Chocula and a reason to watch some more... hmm maybe some boo berry,... oh man, anyone got an Haunted House pasta or Scarieos?

dang.

#halloween #halloween special #halloweentv #sitcoms #80s #80stv #80ssitcom #nightcournt #family matters #punky brewster #knightrider #webster

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whats-the-story-tc · 5 years ago

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31st of January, 2020

"The One Where Atlas Stumbles"

[LONG POST WARNING]

Another day, another flannel.

Dreaming with her the second night in a row, I really bloody hoped they hadn't changed the supervising schedule and I'd see her when I come in. And I did. What with my impending two-hour rehearsal instead of my first two classes, Debate Friend and Art Friend being outside and just plainly the sight of V, I was way too giddy. Teasing Debate Friend about me and Art Friend not having to suffer in Physics, making jokes, laughing way too loud. I noticed V turning in our direction, I think I might even have seen her watching us.

As we leave, Debate Friend to class and us to look for the always late A, we pass V and I flash her my biggest smile to greet her. Art Friend and I are back soon enough, chatting, and I tell her "Something always happens when I'm having a good morning." This time it's V passing us. There is something gentle about the way she looks at me. You know that particular look on someone's face when they aren't smiling, but they still look happy? Content is the word for it, maybe. That's the look. Oh, how I wish I wasn't right about what I said...

Break between rehearsals, I'm outside chatting to my friends, most of them about to have class with the new (foreign) English teacher. Bookworm Friend is gushing, what if he's young and just out of college (either of which he isn't), cuz then she's gonna be really good at English. I automatically tell her "he's a whole ass adult and you're a minor, you can't do that" before I realise what I just said basically contradicts what I call my current love life. "Though I am one to speak" I add frowning, and everyone laughs. I really am a bloody clown, aren't I?

English with V, in the very same classroom where I spent two hours crossing my arms, yelling at and threatening one of the boys in my year (that's my character, don't be scared), and falling on my knees over and over again until we got the scene right. V is quite visibly a little worn down, still in the process of finishing what I assume was probably coffee, but powering through class. Metaphors, synesthesia, symbols and the such, what they are and how they work grammatically. After spending two hours the previous night deciphering Biblical parables and breaking them down to metaphors and meanings for a test we didn't even write, I felt ready.

Cynical Twat has his finger bandaged, I think he cut it or something, and thus he can't write. V asks him about it, and when he tells her all that, she's just like "Well, I was never allowed [not to write]." in this half surprised, half jealous kind of way.

The words for pigeon and dove are interchangeable in my mother tounge, as the actual word for dove is quite outdated. And although the metaphor was about a dove, V specified "When we call someone a pigeon, we don't mean that they smell and spread diseases." At the end of class, when somebody asked her how specific we will need to get about recognising these things in writing, she mentioned we will need to know which example is a metaphor or which one is, for example, a symbol, and added "but you will only need to know the exact subtype if you're preparing for an A level", and briefly glanced straight at me before taking a sip of her coffee. I smiled. Challenge accepted.

First lunch break, two people from the other class are rushing towards me the moment they see me, to ask for my Literature textbook. V told them if anyone doesn't have theirs, they're going to have to answer some questions for a grade. Me being me, I gave it to them because, as I told Pocketwatch Friend, "I love V to bits, but I wouldn't want anyone having to answer the questions she asks." Got my book back the next lunch break, as they forgot everyone's having homeroom, and getting their first term report cards.

V and I have a bit of a similar way of walking—long and fast strides, shoulders straight, head held high—so it was a bit funny, both of us heading towards the same door from opposite ends of the corridor. (Though I only really walk like this when I'm confident in myself. It's funny, apparently I do it often enough for it to be noticeable, cuz admittedly, V recognises this walk of mine. It's something she told me at the end of last year, when she mistook someone on the street for me, but realised our hairs were different and that I walk differently.)

As I'm sat in my usual place, head on Pocketwatch Friend's shoulder as I was really tired, I notice that there is something off about V as she's typing away on her laptop. I couldn't exactly pinpoint what, but I felt that something wasn't quite right. The feeling further strengthened when she started the lesson, and I saw her eyes. They looked years older than they did merely three hours before. There was this... deep-rooted exhaustion and sorrow in them, and at first glance, I thought she had cried. She did smile a couple times as far as I remember, and by the end of the lesson, when she showed us some romanticism-period music and art, and we all cracked up on how the cable connecting our projector to her laptop constantly malfunctioned and kept colouring everything to pink, she seemed to be in a lot better mood. That's something I noticed about her in the past two months or so, that she's usually a bit off when she starts class with us, but by the end of it, she's much more calm and feeling better. Not to brag, but I think she likes being with us.

On my way out, as she was telling everyone to put their chairs up, I told her to get some rest as I passed her. She usually doesn't hear these kind of comments because she doesn't want to, but I tried. But, while her "thanks" was probably addressed to the others, she did look me in the eye as she was walking out, me already being outside. There is something gentle about the way she looks at me. Maybe she did hear it, after all. Maybe she was glad. These looks of hers are the reason I never know for sure how she feels about me. That's the one thing I never learned how to read about her.

After I spent an hour and half with six little girls clinging to me every other minute of training, I went home feeling great. That's how I know I'm doing my job well. My boys aren't quite so physical, naturally, but I like to think they like me, too. They laugh at my jokes. Anyway, I was in a good mood, ready for dinner, having a good time... then I get a text from Bandana Friend, saying "Look at V's [SNS account]."

Private account.

I immediately got dead scared. What if she found out I was there? What if she saw? Oh God, what if I fucked up? I immediately lost my appetite, and I was in a rather intense state of fear and panic, not at all able to think the situation through rationally and spamming both Bandana and Pocketwatch Friend about the situation. Now, I am aware that I overreacted quite a bit, to the point of nearly crying, and that the situation is nearly not as dramatic as I thought, but I really felt like I betrayed her and invaded her privacy, which, especially after all the shit she's done for me, felt like quite the dick move.

Why was her account public before if she didn't want anyone finding her, you may ask. I actually haven't got an exact answer for that. The best I can say is that—she's human. She made a mistake, and I trust her enough to feel that she did. She was careless, but I'm in no position to throw the first stone at her. After all, I was, too.

For long hours after that, I felt hollow. Disappointed in myself. I could only cry later as well, once my mum was gone. Quite tragic, that. One Friday I'm crying in her arms, the next I'm crying because of her. This is why it took me so long to sit down and tell you this, even just writing all this took me 4 whole ass hours. As I thought it over and over again, I realised V isn't someone I should be fearing. That if she ever confronted me about it and I admitted to it, she would be hurt, but she'd understand. She wouldn't hold a grudge, and I could surely make it right by her, were that the case.

But both my friends offered an explanation that made even more sense. After all, it was my cousin from the other class who found it, and surely all of his classmates know. My friends both said that maybe someone over there let the cat out of the bag—honestly, some people there are the type. If you read things back, the fact that she had class with them between our two classes with her, and that she started class with us really disoriented and worn quite add up. I don't think I'll ever know if she saw I was there. I don't think she'll ever mention it. I still feel a little guilty, and something tells me all this isn't quite over yet, not until I see her again and see how she acts. But spending an hour last night, jumping around barefoot in my PJs while listening to Queen and Abba and lip-synching into my phone worked wonders to get the depression out. You should try it.

We'll see how things go. Maybe I screwed up, maybe we both did, maybe neither of us has. Whatever happens, I'll tell you next time. Promise I'll be on time from now on.

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

#tc #tcc #teacher crush community #female tc #female teacher crush

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svtfoefan1976-blog · 7 years ago

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It’s returning! Any guesses?

From here

Now, doing something the crew that works on Star vs the Forces of Evil hates.

Trying to guess the episode content by its titles... I simply can’t resist.

Well, let’s be optimistic. What I got right before:

From the leaks, I got right TomStar return and a bit of Scent of Hoodie.

Got right that Jarco would break-up, but didn’t get that would be in the same episode it was hinted.

Got right on Marco moving to Star, and Star moving out Marco.

Got right Heinous would come back on Princess Turdina.

And the rest totally missed the target. You can make fun on me about these.

The problem is this time I have a feeling that most of episodes are very, very interconnected one to another, which makes that one episode will be very related to other one in this sequence or with episodes from past seasons, with the two final episodes on April 7th giving a partial closure and keep a hang for season 4.

Of course, I won’t do any comments on the ?????????? and ?????????? episodes from April 7th. Probably these are the ones to keep the most hype - and, of course, as they are season finale episodes - because the title will give a strong hint on what we’ll find in the episode.

March 3rd

The Bogbeast of Boggabah - From all references I found in internet, all they have in common is the World of Warcraft definition: a swamp monster. So, probably Star will hunt a “bogbeast” in the Forest of Certain Death.

But the funniest definition I found was “extremely ugly woman resembling something that lives in a swamp”. What woman resembles a monster in this show?

From here

Yes, Heinous / Meteora. People start chasing a swamp monster and Star probably follows them chasing for answers for her questions, thinking the monster could be her. Catching Meteora or not - even catching another monster who is not her - will probably influence facts for the next two episodes.

Total Eclipsa of the Moon - Looks like a reference to the music Total Eclipse of the Heart, from 1983.

Good times, when I didn’t have many worries... Er, humm... Giving too much clues on my age...

I have a theory on this post, where I state the possibility that the legitimate heir to Mewni’s throne after Eclipsa being cristalized could not be Moon’s lineage, including Star, but Meteora. If there’s an episode where this would be revealed, this would be the ideal point.

“Turnaround(...)

Once upon a time I was falling in love But now I'm only falling apart And there's nothing I can do A total eclipse of the heart Once upon a time there was light in my life But now there's only love in the dark Nothing I can say A total eclipse of the heart ”

But it could relate to any of the other parts of the music. But I feel (better, would like to be) that could be the most fitting meaning.

March 10th

Butterfly Trap - Here things can take many paths, depending on the previous episodes. Could be a trap set for Meteora, a trap done by the Butterflies, something to catch the Butterflies with a new enemy revealed, a trap done by Eclipsa. I will never guess this. I fold.

Ludo, where art thou? - Easy to guess that we’ll see back Ludo. Good! The most probable reference would be the movie O Brother, where art thou. Most probably will show his time at the void dimension and how he will come back to Mewni. Maybe we’ll see Dennis again!

But a post put me that the reference could be other: Romeo and Juliet.

No, please, not again!

No Evil Star nor Evil Marco scenario this time. I already quoted them as having little chance of happening.

But please read this and try to understand what I’m thinking.

From here

Are they shipping Ludo? Will Ludo find his happiness? Even love? Become an official show shipper?

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

Any choice made from these ones, it will be funny to see Ludo again. I miss him.

March 17th

Is Another Mystery - This probably will make a parallel on Is Mystery episode from Season 2. The one where Buff Frog discovered about the hole on the corn fields up to Ludo’s own corn plantation and the danger he represented.

What is the mystery this time? Meteora’s hideout? A plan against the Butterflies? The Butterflies themselves after being overthroned by Eclipsa / Meteora or their enemies? Eclipsa’s Monster husband? Mina Loveberry powers origin?

It’s a mystery for me too. Folding.

Marco Jr. - What is known from this episode is that Marco and his mother Angie will be present, thanks to a paper with misplaced signatures.

It has been too many episodes since Marco became conscious about his feelings on Star. I had a theory before that it could be Naysaya’s return or about a laser puppy. Both were denied by the original Marco’s voice actor, Adam McArthur, but let’s take into account that their posts were done on Mexico’s equivalent of April’s fool and that Adam McArthur’s posts are somehow teasing and misleading.

So, this episode could be anything from Marco having a brother or being transformed to a baby to Marco’s son coming from the future to change the timeline in such a way he can exist. Or even I could be right. and it would be about Naysaya or the laser puppy.

Expect the unexpected. The usual Daron’s way.

March 24th

Skooled! - This looks like schooled - sent to school - but mispelled.

Well, Marco came to Mewni as an exchange student, but didn’t go to school, at least until now, any time.

Feel like it is time to face consequences of being out of school. Maybe he will need to rethink his priorities. But how? Is there something like a school at Mewni? Will it appear now?

Or will this episode be about Glossaryck, who was Star’s teacher on the content of The Book of Spells? Or even about how monster’s education is bad? Remember Buff Frog on Raid the Cave?

Buff Frog: [offended] Oh, so I not go to school for learn fancy handwriting. Sorry!

I’m still betting this will be a Marco-centered episode, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with school or education.

Booth Buddies - I feel like this episode will make a parallel on The Bounce Lounge on Season 2. The photo booth was an important part of their fun.

From here

So important, that Pony Head couldn’t resist to take it to herself...

From here

With the crew taking a last photo to remember.

From here

I haven’t seen how weird were Johnny’s eyes in this photo when I watched the episode...

Getting back to the topic. Well, in the actual status while I am writing, there are two buddies in this photo sharing something.

Better, someone. A squire. More specifically, Marco.

Star and Kelly at this time should be both well aware of the current status of their relationships. At least superficially. And if they want to understand themselves deeper, well... wouldn’t it be the best time to put things together when meeting their friends? With whom could you feel safer?

Or even if only two of them - Star and Kelly - meets... and talk.

This may state ships that will survive from then on, even shaking Star’s or Kelly’s beliefs.

What would be Star’s reaction if Kelly told her that she is or wants to date Marco?

Mission Starco, stage two!

March 31st

Bam Ui Pati! - Don noe da wae. Foldat!

From here

I deserve that. Lame joke.

Tough Love - Tough one.

No pun intended here. I mean that there are several tough situations that could fit into this. The most probable would be Eclipsa’s monster love. This truly deserves an episode. Or how Eclipsa had to abandon Meteora. Any mother would agree this is tough.

But there are other ones which could fit this perfectly:

Marco having a hard time telling Kelly he loves Star.

Marco having to choose between an impossible - at least in the current status - love and what someone he knows he will have fun with, but he doesn’t have the same strong feelings.

Star having strange feelings when seeing Kellyco.

TomStar break-up.

Ludo’s love or shipping attempts.

All of them happening in an eleven-minute episode. This one would be the toughest scenario... for the writers and storyboarders to make it fit.

These would be candidates to be tough moments to the characters on love affairs.

But I hope we get to know better a bit more from Eclipsa’s love history.

Final words

Take these exactly as they are: guesses. I don’t have internal knowledge from the show and these should not be taken as real expectations for it.

I am in the same status we all fans are: what we are going to see next?

And how many days are left until March 3rd?

If you want to share your ideas on what we may see on these episodes, feel free to do so.

#svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #star vs las fuerzas del mal #star vs as forças do mal #season 3 #poker arc #any ideas?

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terribletoonietuesday · 4 years ago

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Halloween in 80s Sitcoms

10: Facts of Life Season 5 episode The Halloween Show

9: Webster Season 4 episode Witchbusters

8 .Family Matters season 8 episode STEVIL

7. Mr. Belvedere season 3 episode called Halloween

6. Alf season 2 episode called Some enchanted evening.

5. KnightRider Season 3 episode called Halloween Knight

4. Fall Guy season 4 episode called October 31st

3. Night Court season 3 episode called Halloween Too.

2 . Diff’rent Strokes Season 7 episode called A Haunting we will go.

Arnold and his new step brother Sam (yeah that's a thing if you ever watched the last two season of Diff’rent Strokes) peer pressure them selves into sneaking in to an old haunted house. (similar to the Webster episode as poor little Gary Coleman and Emanuel Lewis would always be compared to each other). What makes this episode gold is when Arnold and Sam break into the haunted house they have detailed replica Ghostbusters costumes on, decades before Strangers Things season 2. We also get a door banging , chandelier shaking haunted house , dusty piano and everything if I remember right and then they show us how they did it. Very cool for an 80s kid like me. Also guest stars the amazing John Astin.

Last but not least...

There are so many more, feel free to msg me and let me know old tv shows that had wild Halloween episodes that you hold dear.

I need some Count Chocula and a reason to watch some more... hmm maybe some boo berry,... oh man, anyone got an Haunted House pasta or Scarieos?

dang.

#i used #a new url #so i can #link #on facebook #check my main page for #the archives

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fangirlandiknowit101 · 7 years ago

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Story starter meme

Rules: List the first lines of your last 15 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

I was tagged by @definitelynotaminion

(I guess the 15 last means in update order...)

Some nsfw!! You can find all the fics on my ao3.

1. Lessons in love (viktuuri)

“Yuuri Katsuki?”

Yuuri’s mind blanks out. He’s in a small park behind a skating rink larger than any he’s ever visited, wondering how he ended up there in the first place.

And now, a foreigner is approaching him.

Maybe if he closes his eyes and pretends he’s a statue, the man will ignore him.

“You are the figure skater Yuuri Katsuki, right?”

The man smiles at him when Yuuri peeks through his lashes, tall and pale and oh god, he’s gorgeous.

2. Miliy (viktuuri)

Viktor has never done anything illegal before, and maybe he still isn’t, but surely – surely – paying people to get off on camera has to fall within some sort of immoral don’t-let-the-press-know category on Yakov’s list of Reasons I'm Balding.

And yet he can’t stop.

Gnawing furiously on his lower lip his fingertips hover over the touchpad on his laptop, the transfer of a not insignificant sum of money just a click away. When his eyes flicker to the screen – to the man currently licking cum off his fingers, eyes a hooded dark brown that Viktor tries and fails not to drown in every time – the decision is easy.

3. Sugar star (oisuga)

At 6 am sharp, Tooru’s eyes flew open as he threw himself towards his phone. He thought it might be a new record in reaching it, but then again he was already awake and merely biding his time until the device would yell It’s a trap! to signal the day’s first incoming text.

It was from Iwaizumi, of course, and he couldn’t help the silly little smile that graced his lips as he opened it to read.

Or well, he would have read it if it wasn’t just a picture of a wrinkly bulldog. Before he could think of an appropriately annoyed reply, another text followed the first.

Welcome to the 40’s club. Maybe now you can get a discount on your anti wrinkle cream.

He pressed the call button.

“You’re awful,” was the first thing he said (more like whined), flopping onto his back again to stare at the painted night sky on his ceiling. “And I don’t use anti wrinkle cream!”

4. The sun within me (sasnar)

”Hey Sasuke!”

It took Sasuke a second to realize that the person yelling at him was, in fact, not an intruder but rather Naruto, though by that point the knife was already securely embedded in his kitchen wall. Great, another dent to add to the already present four.

“Really Sasuke, you should be used to this by now! You need to relax a bit.”

Turning his head towards the noise he watched the other ninja slump down into one of his kitchen chairs, one arm on the table and the other loosely hanging off the back of the chair. Of course, that stupid grin was spread over the tan face, stretching out the whisker marks.

5. I see the universe in your eyes (viktuuri)

Well, Viktor thinks, this isn’t very good.

He’s got one hand covering his mouth and nose against the heat billowing around him, eyeing the unstable steel construction he’s standing on warily. It could give out any minute, really, but at least he has minutes.

There’s a high-pitched screech somewhere in the distance, like metal grinding against metal, and he nervously wipes sweat off his brow. To say he hadn’t planned on ending up here is an understatement. It was supposed to be a routine mission, one of the boring ones, a simple pick-up-some-valuable-cargo in one of the outer systems. Nothing like the missions that had made him famous, had given him a reputation.

I know I always thought I’d prefer going out with a bang, but this is a little early.

The rest is under the cut bc this post is too damn long haha...

6. Prosecute my heart (sasnar)

Sasuke liked to think that he was neutral about Halloween. Actually, scratch that. He liked to not think about Halloween at all, but right now he found it very difficult to keep his brain free of the (fake) holiday considering his work desk was completely covered in all things Halloween.

It was Monday.

A Monday that so happened to be October 31st, and had he expected this he would have called in sick for sure.

7. Wasn’t expecting that (sasnar)

Sasuke isn’t quite sure what to make of his new classmates yet. They seem like your regular, run-of-the-mill people, with varying degrees of awkward. He probably feels more awkward than most.

Though, it’s not nearly as awkward as he used to feel, and now his awkward is more related to being able to act however he wants to without getting shit for it. He isn’t used to it yet, but it doesn’t worry him, because everything is right and the worst part is over, anyway. Still, during the first week he accidentally went inside the girls’ changing rooms before gym class. He’d been stressed, and too used to associating school with things like having to be a girl, and he’d had one of those annoying and pointless arguments with his parents as they dropped him off. He hadn’t been thinking, which was funny because thinking feels like the only thing he’s been doing the past years.

8. tomorrow, today (kagesuga)

Suga breathes in the excitement in the air, leaning against the railing up on the spectator’s level. Two seats are already secured right behind him, and he taps his fingers against the cool metal in quick little twitches.

“It should only be a minute or so,” Daichi says by his side, amusement evident in his voice as he leans on his forearms to peer down at the court.

“I just want to make sure they see us before they start,” Suga defends his anxiousness with, worrying his lip between teeth as his tapping continues.

“They already know,” Daichi mumbles, voice low as if he knows it won’t do a thing to Suga’s state of mind.

9. Head over heels (sasnar)

Sasuke isn’t lonely. He isn’t. He’s got plenty of things demanding his attention, therefore he doesn’t have time to be lonely. Maybe it’s the apartment, he thinks, as he makes his way down the busy street after successfully having completed his various errands. It had only been two months since he moved in after all, it would take some time to get used to the additional space.

10. The sun within me - extras (sasnar)

There was a thud followed by a gasp as Sasuke’s hands slammed against the glass wall of the shower. His head was bent, water streaming down the dark bangs plastered to his flushed face, lips tingling and sore from the bruising kiss Naruto had just given him. Tan hands caressed down his back, palms pressing into his muscles.

“Sasuke…”

11. Secret Santa for SNS xmas 2015 (sasnar)

“Saaasukeeeee.”

Heaving a sigh, Sasuke dropped the dishes back into the sink and dried his hands, sparing a look at the clock in the kitchen. Naruto had slept for all of one hour and twenty minutes. A baby would be easier to take care of.

“Saaaaaaaasukeeeeeeeee.”

12. The sweetest gift is you (sasnar)

Why, oh why did absolutely everyone in Konoha decide that this evening in particular was perfect for braving the cold and leaving their homes to go shopping for Christmas… Couldn’t they see Naruto was in a hurry, dammit! Pushing and shoving he made his slow way through the mass of people littering the streets, a figurative clock inside his head counting down the seconds he was now late by, hoping Sasuke was somehow feeling the Christmas spirit and wouldn’t be too annoyed with his tardiness.

13. Pumpkin surprise (sasnar)

Oh god, this party was boring. He’d only been here for thirty minutes, and he was already dying to go home. Not that he was usually much of a party person, but he’d arrived a while after it started when everyone was already drunk, and Sasuke simply did not drink, which made everything five times as boring.

Why was he even here… oh, right. Because Karin dragged him, literally dragged him after handcuffing him to herself, declaring that she would never forgive herself for leaving her good friend all alone on Halloween. The fact that Sasuke didn’t like Halloween and also would never forgive her for dragging him seemed unimportant, apparently.

14. You and Me (and Him) (sasnar)

Sasuke is rushing, pushing himself forwards with chakra bursting from the soles of his feet to the rhythm of his frantically beating heart. It’s happening again rings through his ears as he careens through the village, sight set on the Hokage tower. Of all the times to leave the village…

He’s only been gone for a couple of hours, but the pang of regret still leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He shouldn’t have. He should have brought him with him. If only he could have.

The few people milling about the entrance of the tower give way to him, eyes widening at the look on his face. Shizune is there to take him far below ground level, leads him to one of the all too familiar special, reinforced cellars. He can feel the heat long before they reach it, the pressure in the damp air causing the hairs at the nape of his neck to rise.

He knows this pressure. It’s bad this time.

15. Naruto and Sasuke (sasnar)

Somehow, our names always seem to be associated with each other. But I guess it can’t be helped, living in a small town like this. There are only so many people you can be friends with, and only so many you can dislike without becoming lonely. That’s why I’ve spent my life trying to become friends with everyone I can, and I have to say I’ve succeeded pretty damn well besides that one exception.

Uchiha Sasuke.

If I were to describe him, I’d say he’s a jerk who seems to enjoy making my life miserable, and wherever I go he always shows up.

If I were to try and describe our relationship though…

I know it says to tag my fav authors but i like a bazillion writers so i’m just tagging a few of you that i follow on tumblr bc i’m lazy so pls don’t think you’re not my fav if you’re not tagged (actually pls do the meme anyway if you want!!)

I tag: @kiaronna @uchihanochidori @teekettle @byebyeholocene @nihonlove

This was a lot of fun~ As for any patterns... well, it’s pretty obvious I like to start right away with some action, and leave descriptions for some other time. I kinda really hate descriptions lol. Also I tend to write while amused so, that probably shines through? I need my fics to be fun or action or both haha!

#i used to write so many fics with holiday themes??#and somehow i think my fics are less similar to each other than i thought lmao #but when i read them through the feeling i get is the same #in writing style i mean #reading my own fics is so comfy!

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cicinicole-14 · 7 years ago

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jvsvau 1

So... its currently 4am... and I'm just posting this now. to clarify, Gus is the youngest of 4 kids in the Sloan family (including Sofia) and Shelly is the 3rd out of 4 kids in the Hunt family. anyway, they have so many more things I could talk about because Gus and Shelly have a very complicated yet adorable relationship. and hats off to @only-freakin-sunflowers for letting me steal a good chunk of the original fic this story belonged to. this is technically the AU version of Shelly’s story, yet we created a whole life story behind it, oops? anyway, enough rambling...

if you want to know more about Gus, Shelly, or their families, feel free to leave some requests! @only-freakin-sunflowers owns Shelly and the Hunt fam, and I own the Sloan fam. if you have any questions about them too, we will be happy to answer! onto the fic!

also: these really don't have titles, sorry. and they’ll be numbered if I keep posting them but by no means are in chronological order...

Everything was all lined up. It was going to be picture perfect.

On August 31st, when Shelly went into labour, Laurie and Roger Chapman were to meet her at the hospital, and once the baby was born, nurses would hand it over and it would be theirs. Forever. Shelly would never know it’s gender, or it’s name, or what it looked like or acted like or grew up to be. Her baby would be out there in the world, without her. That’s what she had chosen.

But her baby would be okay, he or she would have Laurie and Roger. Her baby would have an actual father in Roger. And Laurie would be a better mom than she ever could; she was a teacher, and a Christian, and she baked, and she liked to garden. On paper, she was your stereotypical, storybook mother…

“Augustus, you home?” Shelly calls into the apartment as she squats down and places the spare key back under the welcome mat outside and stands back up.

“Living room!” He responds, watching her appear from around the corner of the hallway.

Shelly walks over to the couch and plops down not-so-gracefully next to him as he’s typing away on his laptop. “Work?” She questions. He shakes his head.

“No, video game. I’m trying to finish up the one I was creating. I have a few more details to add into it but I can’t figure out what exactly I need to make it feel like it’s complete.” He muses and she shrugs her shoulders. “What were you doing today?” He asks, looking up at her.

“I’m bored!” She whined. “There’s nothing to do at home because both my parents are at work, Dee still kinda hates me and Evie’s back in school now.” She complains. “I was hoping you were home, and I seriously don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t home. Actually I probably would’ve went to your office to bug you, because I’m bored. Maternity leave is boring. This baby can just makes it’s way out any day now. That way I can get my body back and go back to work. I will be so much happier when that happens.” She rolls her eyes at the last sentence.

Gus laughs shaking his head. “Sometimes I don’t know why I’m friends with you.” He shakes his head. “You want something to drink?”

“Because you love me and yes, a beer please.”

“That’s not even funny, Michelle.” He says in a serious tone, turning and walking into the kitchen to pour hr a glass of ice water. He returned to the couch, handing her the glass and sitting back down next to her with his laptop on his lap.

“Thank you. Do you want to watch a movie?” She asked and he shrugs before picking up the remote.

“Sure, pick something, just–”

“I know, no scary movies and no movies where a dog dies.” She says taking the remote from him and flipping through the tv guide searching for a movie. “Oh, since I’m here we can finish catching up on Supergirl.”

---

“I still can’t believe Maggie just turned Alex down! That was so sad.” Shelly rants, watching her show. “I am so glad Alex finally told Kara she was gay, though. Hopefully Maggie will come to her senses. Also, I still think Alex looks like your mom.” Shelly says, smiling at Gus.

“Not at all. If anything, Maggie looks like your mom.” Gus replies.

“No! For one, Maggie is Puerto Rican. My mom is not. Alex so looks like your mom. Now hurry and click play.” Shelly urges.

“I am… Shelly, did you spill your drink?” Gus questions, feeling the puddle of liquid seeping into his pants on the couch.

“No my water broke.” Shelly answered, shoveling popcorn into her mouth, too engrossed in the show. Her eyes widen and she looks at Gus. “OH MY GOD I’m going into labour! What do we do?!” She screams at him.

“How am I supposed to know? I’m the baby of the family. And please don’t yell.” He says softly.

“I’m sorry, I’m just freaking out. I didn’t really think these were real contractions because my mom said they start out slow and light, and they have been going on since last night. I didn’t think anything of it.” She rambled on.

Gus stands up, helping Shelly to her feet before grabbing the redhead’s purse for her along with his keys and leading her out the door to head to the hospital.

“Shit, I need to call Laurie and Roger." Shelly groaned.

---

Gus walks her into Grey Sloan, one arm holding her hand and the other arm wrapped around her waist. He spots the Chapmans and can see the mixed look of excitement and worry across both Laurie and Roger’s faces. He walks up to the nurses station in the maternity wing of the hospital and helps her nurse get her settled in the room. Stepping out when she goes to change into the hospital gown.

Looking in the mirror, standing sideways to fully assess her grown belly, Shelly couldn’t imagine not being a mother in a few months. She already felt like one, if she was being honest; and while on the surface it looked like a horrible idea… she couldn’t imagine not following this through, not being there for the rest of her baby’s life.

But Laurie and Roger were just out there in the waiting room waiting for her to hand over her child to them. She had to do this, right?

---

Gus had been sitting with her, keeping her company as her labour progressed and got more intense as the hours passed. Shelly reached over, squeezing his hand lightly, knowing it would get his attention. Gus looked up from his phone and smiled, knowing something was on her mind.

“What’s up?” He asks softly.

“What if I could do it?” Shelly asks. “I always thought i just couldn’t keep this baby and I need to give it up for adoption, but what if I could do it? The whole ‘raising a baby’ thing.” She thought aloud.

“If you really wanted this, I think you could make it work,” Gus admits gently. “You can do a lot more than you give yourself credit for, Shell. You’ve been in and out of rehab four times now? You’ve had the effort to step back up to the plate and keep batting every time; you’re not a quitter, and you’re not weak. But you know inside what you can and can’t handle. Raising a kid is not an easy thing to do. If you really want it though, then you could do it.” Gus tells her.

“It’s too late though, Gussy.” She says with tears in her eyes.

“Have you handed over your baby yet? Have you signed the final papers?” He asked, a bit harshly.

“No.”

“It’s not too late, Michelle.”

“It is, Augustus. Laurie and Roger are right outside in the waiting room, waiting for me to pop this baby out and hand it over to them. It’s too late.” Shelly argued back, the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“It’s not, Michelle, but I really don’t want to argue with you now. I’ll come back later.” He said standing up and leaving.

“Augustus, you’re seriously leaving right now?”

“I need to cool down, Shell. I need a minute. I’ll be back, I promise.” He stated, before walking out of her hospital room.

“Great! Now both of my best friends kinda hate me right now.” She stated, the tears falling harder down her face.

---

Amelia can see the pain across her daughter’s face. Not just physical pain, but the emotional pain of not having Dee or Gus in the room with her right now. Half listening to the obstetrician, Amelia picks up her daughter’s leg, as Shelly takes a deep breath, getting ready to push when the door swings open and crashes against the wall behind it.

“I’m here, I’m here I’m here I’m here,” Dee announces quickly, running into the delivery room. Shelly lets go of the breath she just inhaled and smiles, tears falling down her face again. “Gus called me, I’m sorry I’m late. He’s in the waiting room, by the way. He said he’ll see you after. He didn’t want to be in with all the loud noises.” Dee told her. Shelly just nods appreciatively.

Dee takes Amelia’s spot as Amelia leaves the room and Shelly looks up at the brunette with a smile. “Thank you for being here, still.” She whispers, inhaling a deep breath, getting ready to push again.

“You’re welcome.”

---

“You’re doing great, Shelly, just give me one more big push,” the obstetrician instructs. “One more big push” turned into six, but then, there was a cry, and when Shelly looked up, she saw Dee smiling. “Do you want to see the baby?” the OB asks.

Shelly shakes her head. She was wordless, with everything that had happened, and everything that was still happening, but she shakes her head. She can’t; if she gets to see the product of these long nine months, all the nights she’d spent awake thinking and questioning and crying… she would never want to let it go. And she had to let it go.

“Will you go let my mom know she’s a grandmother to a child she won’t ever know about and let the Chapmans know they have a kid now?” Shelly asks Dee. Dee nods. “And go see the baby, i know you want to. You can hold it, if they let you, and take Gus with you too, i need a minute to myself.” With that, Dee gives Shelly a smile and walks out of the hospital room, following the nurse pushing the tiny basinet.

---

Dee stayed in the nursery with the baby, Gus and the new parents oogling over the new baby until Shelly was moved from the delivery room to recovery. She comes back in awe, with a smile on her face, trying so hard not to show it. She doesn’t want Shelly to feel bad. “She’s beautiful,” Dee says simply. “She’s got red hair just like you…”

“It’s a she?” Shelly asks, a little bit of sadness mixed with shock in her voice. She hadn’t wanted to know she was abandoning a little girl in this world. Dee realizes her mistake instantly, her mouth slightly agape as she tries to figure out how to fix it. “Uhhh… no….”

“It’s a he, then?” Shelly asks again, this time more sadness in her voice. She hadn’t wanted to know she was abandoning a little boy in the world either.

“Uhhh….no….” Dee repeats again.

“It doesn’t have private parts and it’s an alien?” Shelly asks, this time she’s crying. Not about her genderless alien baby, not in particular, just about everything. Dee can’t help but laugh a little. “It’s not an alien Shelly, I’m sorry,” she comforts her. “It’s a girl. I didn’t mean to tell you.”

“It’s okay,” Shelly whimpers, wiping her eyes.

“I’m so proud of you,” Dee says as she sits down on the edge of the bed and leans in for a hug. “I’m so, so proud of you.” She says again.

Shelly closes her eyes, trying to conceal the tears. “Dee, can I have another minute alone?” Dee stands up from the bed, nodding.

“No problem. I’m going to go find Gus for you, but I’ll give you some time first. Anything you need?” She asks before she leaves but Shelly just shakes her head.

---

The door to Shelly’s room opens up again, not even five minutes after Dee leaves and Shelly doesn’t even open her eyes. “Gus, Dee said she would give me a few minutes before she found you and sent you over.” Shelly breathes.

“I’m not Gus, but I can come back.” The social worker says. Shellys eyes open as she recognizes the voice.

“No, wait, I need to talk to you.” Shelly says, sure of her next statement.

---

There’s a knock at her door and Shelly looks up as he walks in. Gus raises his eyebrows as he sees the sight before him. There was Shelly, sitting upright in her hospital bed, her arm propped up on a pillow with a pink bundle cradled in her arms. “Gussy, I want you to meet Lyla.”

“Is that what Laurie and Roger are naming her?” Gus asks, walking over to the side of the bed.

Shelly looks back down at the baby, avoiding eye contact. She swallows and clears her throat before speaking up. “No. No that’s not what they’re naming her. They aren’t naming her because they aren’t her parents. I am. Because some stupid friend of mine told me it wasn’t too late to keep her, and now I have a daughter named Lyla, who has absolutely nothing, because I was planning on giving her up for adoption.”

Gus just stares between the baby and Shelly, a smile spread widely across his face. “Well, who would do that?” He asks innocently. She elbows him with her free arm, playfully.

“Can you go get my mom and Dee?” She asks.

“Can I hold her first?” Gus asks tentatively. Shelly gasps quietly, forgetting to offer that.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot to ask you if you wanted to hold her. Here,” She said, passing over the baby. “Just support her head like that.”

Gus stared down at the little baby, smiling. “Hi, Lyla. Welcome to the world.”

---

“Shelly, what’s wrong?” Amelia asks, bursting into the room. “Gus said you needed us to come immediately.”

“Shhh.” Shelly hushed her mother as the woman walked in, followed by Dee and Gus, both women staring with their mouths hanging wide open at the sight. “She just fell asleep.”

“How’d this happen?” Dee asked, taking one side of the hospital bed, while Amelia stood at the other side and Gus stood at the foot.

Shelly looked up at Dee. “After you left, the social worker came in and was going to ask me to sign and I told her I couldn’t. I made sure it wasn’t too late and I told the nurse I wanted to hold her. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give her up.” Shelly said, looking back down at the baby. “Mom, Dee, I’d like you to meet Lyla.” Dee gasped.

“Lyla.” Dee whispered, looking at Shelly.

“I hope you don’t mind.” Shelly said, wondering if Dee would hate that she named a child after her.

“Thank you. I love it. C-Can I hold her?” Dee held the baby, walking around the room, gently rocking the infant as Shelly looked up at her mom.

“I know I still live at home and I didn’t talk to you about this, but we have room. We can turn Charlie’s room into a nursery. Mom, I can’t give her up. I’ll make this work, I promise.”

Amelia just nods, with tears in her eyes. “I’m a grandma. Oh, your father is going to have a cow.”

---

“What if I break her? She’s too tiny, Gus, I can’t do this!” Shelly says frantically, laying the sleeping baby back onto the hospital bed.

“Will you bite my head off if I do it?” He asks and Shelly shakes her head, stepping back. Gus steps closer, picking up the baby and laying her gently into the carseat and buckling it over her tiny frame. “There. Was that so hard? She didn’t even wake up.”

“Thank you. And thank you again for driving us home. Mom and dad both got called into emergency surgery and Thea couldn’t get off work.”

“You’re very welcome. Now into your seat.” He said pointing to the wheelchair. Shelly rolled her eyes and groaned in disgust.

“Why do I have to ride in this?” She whined.

“It’s protocol.”

“Both my parents and your parents work here and your parents own part of it, as well as my aunt and uncle, you’d think i could get away with not riding in a friggin’ wheelchair and embarrassing myself.” Shelly grumbled.

“Michelle, just humor me?”

“Fine, but only for you, Augustus.”

---

They made it back to the Hunt home, almost an hour later, because the whole way there, Shelly made Gus drive ten miles under the speed limit, but he did it to please her, anything to ease her mind of worry.

Gus smiled as he opened the back door to grab the carrier. “No heavy lifting.” He reminded her as she reached to grab Lyla’s carrier and Gus took it from her. She rolled her eyes but took his hand instead and walked into her house, leading Gus upstairs towards her room.

“Surprise.” Everyone whispered, lighting up Shelly’s face. Everyone was there. Her mom and dad, her sisters, Dee, even Jesse and Gus’s parents and siblings were there to welcome her home.

“We’re going to leave soon so you can adjust with the baby, we all just wanted to welcome you home.” Thea smiled, hugging her little sister. “Congrats, Shelly.”

Everyone filed out of Shelly’s room, giving her and the baby a minute to relax and for her to take Lyla out of the carseat since she woke up and began to fuss. She just finished feeding the baby when there wa a soft tap on the door and it opened.

“Everyone left, but we have one more surprise for you.” Owen told his daughter. Shelly carefully stood up and followed her mom, dad and Gus down the hall towards her brother’s room. “Open it.”

She pushed open the door with one hand, amazed by the nursery. “Wow. How’d you do this so fast?” Shelly asked, walking in, admiring the crib and running her hand along the smooth wood. She peeked in the drawers, finding them filled with baby clothes and everything stocked full of baby items.

“You can thank this boy right here.” Amelia said, patting Gus’s back.

“You did this?” Shelly asked, still astonished. She watched as her parent backed out of the nursery slowly, shutting the door on their way out, giving them privacy.

“Michelle, you’re my best friend. You help me through all the rough times in my life, and were my friend when no one else was because of my condition. You’re always there for me when I needed you to be, I’m just returning the favor.”

“How’d you get all this though? You were with me in the hospital the whole time?” She questioned.

“I had it. I knew you wouldn’t be able to give her up. Michelle, you’re strong, but you aren’t strong enough to give your child away. You’re stronger for raising her. I knew you would.”

“You should’ve told me. Why didn’t you just tell me to keep her in the first place? This would’ve been a whole hell of a lot easier.”

“I couldn’t do that. This had to be your choice, your decision on your own terms. You had to decide to be strong enough to raise her. You can do this.”

“Thanks for believing in me, Augustus.”

“Always, Michelle.”

Shelly looked down at her daughter. “Welcome home, Lyla.”

But Laurie Chapman wasn’t her baby’s mother. She was.

this started from one of those sentence prompt things, this one was ‘OH mY GOD I'm going into labour what do we do?!’ and... well.... thus Lyla... aka kinda the beginning point of the AU part in this series verses Shelly’s original plan of letting the Chapmans raise Lyla.

again, if you have any questions, let me know. any future pics posted in this verse will be tagged as below.

#cici writes #jvsvau #omelia #slexie #Gus x shelly #<they don't have a ship name yet but need one...#jvsvau 1 #belle writes

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nongravity · 7 years ago

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DECAF July 2017 Post Mortem

(Clearing out my draft folder at the end of the year. Posting my July Post Mortem on December 31st!) I’m the event organizer of DECAF, so even though I sold some books at the show, things were so fast paced that I could only really mentally absorb the organizer aspect and I left the particulars of the table in the capable hands of Elida and Debbie. So this post mortem will be more about event organizing than table sales.

This is my 10th post mortem convention write up! You can find the rest on the Events page on my website or the post mortem tag here on my tumblr.

First the numbers! Not itemized though since I love transparency but don't want to force it on anyone else.

Budget for the event: €550-ish

Venue +VAT

Website

Poster Art

Poster/Postcard Printing

Decorations/Supplies

Patreon, Donations and Exhibitor Incoming: €496

10 Patrons over 2 months - €65

1 kind anonymous donation - €60

33 Exhibitors w/€16 Full Tables & €8 Half Tables - €371

For a total budget shortfall of: €54

After losing money on the last DECAF, one of my goals for the second DECAF was to not lose money! But then I lost money again!

The shortfall was down to two reasons, both of which were my fault for not anticipating (I’m learning!)

+VAT - WHAT A DOPE, I forgot VAT for the venue cost! So my math calculating the table costs for exhibitors was off from the very start!

Dropouts! - Out of 40 table applications: 7 dropped out. Had they paid I would have broken-even even with my VAT mistake.

I’m still learning about VAT here in Ireland, it’s never really on my mind. But it will be from now on! We had dropouts the first show as well, but since we didn’t have any space for them anyway in the last venue it worked out. This time I set my table prices for 40 exhibitors, so 33 couldn’t cut it. Moving forward I’m going to anticipate a 20% dropout rate.

My total outgoing costs for the convention in order of leaving my house to the start of the show: €10

Fuel driving into Dublin - €10

So busy I forgot to eat lunch! - €0

What I brought with me:

Loads of We Can’t Afford This

My last few copies of Hats that aren’t trapped in storage

Plenty of Odd Reels and Strong

What I sold:

0 Copy of Hats for €7

1 Copies of Strong €5

1 Copies of Odd Reels €3

8 Copies of We Can’t Afford This €4

For a total incoming of: €30-40-ish?

The show was so hectic that I left the Stray Lines tables to Elida and Debbie most of the day and in the end they paid me out but I forgot to get the numbers of what I sold! I really was overwhelmed. But in the end, if you count my sales I only lost about €20 on the show.

More We Can’t Afford This

The more shows I do, the more I’m getting the message that I should get working on the sequels to We Can’t Afford This. I’ve got two planned from our experiences in the year following We Can’t Afford This. Someone even said they were working on a housing crisis anthology!

Our Table(s) and Us

Stray Lines had two tables at the show! Elida bought one for herself and spread our books across her table as well. I decided to triangulate our tables around the room, with the two Stray Lines tables on opposite sides of the room so we could keep an eye on everything. It probably would have been smarter to put both tables together because we were kind of short on Stray Lines members to watch the tables! It just meant I couldn’t roam around as much as I wanted to, though I did manage to get away enough to take some photos.

What we brought for the group:

30-ish different books by 6 different artists!

What the group sold:

65 books!

My numbers are such a mess this time! But sales were good! Slight improvement on the sales numbers from the first DECAF.

Dublin Eight Comic Arts Festival

As is probably clear by now, the summer DECAF was three times as big as the spring DECAF.

The Dublin Food Co-op is such a wonderful venue. People complained about the heat, but it’s hard to fault a rare sunny summer’s day in Ireland. The Thursday Cafe provides a great reason for people to stick around after they’ve walked around the comic hall. One of my big mistakes of the day was not taking five minutes to sit down in the cafe and have lunch. I was running on pure anxiety and adrenaline all day!

The space looked exactly how I wanted a small press show to look, very casual, very informal, and lots of people!

We were short on chairs at the start of the day but the Co-op team steered me in the direction of their chair storage. It made for a funny morning, moving chairs around instead of introducing myself to exhibitors as they walked in. It means I didn’t really meet some people until the end of the day.

There was also table shuffling to be done, one exhibitor was a no-show due to another event conflict and another exhibitor left partway through the day. I mishandled the no-show exhibitor, I left the table empty until I heard from her which was more than halfway through the day at that point. I should have shuffled someone in within the first hour. As a result I was more on top of things when the other exhibitor left early, I was able to move someone in to fill the space.

Something I did this time that I didn’t do the first time was make a point to stop and say hi to all the exhibitors before the end of the day. I’m terrible with names but hopefully if I can do this at every show I’ll get better at introducing myself to people and not panic-blanking when they say their name back to me. From what I gathered, almost all the exhibitors made back their table costs (a big part of me doing all these post mortems is that I think that’s a part of comic shows that often slips through the cracks). The possible exception is the exhibitor who left early and an artists who’s book wasn’t ready in time for the show so he was without inventory.

Sophomore Slump

That was the big question hanging over the day. Was the success of the spring DECAF a fluke? Was scaling up x3 a terrible idea? Would we drown in the massive Food Co-op space?

Really happy and relieved that we scaled up successfully. I don’t imagine we’ll grow larger than the Food Co-op for some time.

Cloud

Something that hung over the event for me was knowing that our fantastic hosts, the Dublin Food Co-op, won’t survive the planned renovation of Newmarket Square.

That really sucks, because there are very little venues in Dublin for a show with a budget like ours. I put on this show for between €5-600 because that’s all I’ve got and that’s all I can reasonably ask people to pitch in for!

While it’s possible DECAF might grow in the future, it has to happen organically. If venues in our price range disappear, DECAF disappears.

Unfortunately, I’m still learning how things work in Ireland and I missed the official window to lodge my objection to the current Newmarket proposal with the city.

Highlights

Debbie did a fantastic job with her monster communal comic. I know she has years of experience doing this but I was still surprised that she managed to get total participation without having to be a carnival barker with a megaphone all day long convincing people to join-in.

Karen did the Herculean task of organizing and hosting a panel. The Co-op is a great venue for a lot of things but it’s not a super venue for acoustics. The panel really was just for the 40ish people sitting around the stage and not for the entire exhibition hall. On one side, that’s good, less disruption! But on the other side, I thought the sound would carry far enough that the exhibitors could listen if they wanted.

The DECAF miracle of the day was that I successfully recorded the panel to share on Patreon! Of all the things on my to-do list, figure out how to be an audio engineer was way down at the bottom. Thankfully the Co-op’s microphone set-up is fool-proof and there was just a simple line-out from their speaker/microphone receiver to my computer and then a simple press-record in Quicktime and wallah! Magic! I remembered the audio for my Patreon but I entirely forgot to distribute blank postcards to my exhibitors and ask them to make a sketch for the €10 postcard-tier of my Patreon. This was supposed to be my chance to stockpile art rewards for Patreon. Next time!

Our swap table was even bigger this time (everything scaled up!) and we raised €76 for the Simon Community. We still need to sort out what to do with the leftover swapsies at the end of the day, both DECAF’s we’ve been left carrying home massive IKEA bags full of comics. None of us really have the storage space for that sort of thing. This time we made an end-of-the-day swaps-over-take-what-you-want announcement and made the table a freebie table and even that didn’t clear it entirely.

Tara O’Brien did a fantastic poster! There was a brief plan to try to make prints of Tara’s poster to sell but I didn’t have the time to organize it. Ultimately I’d like to start selling prints of all the DECAF posters because they're so so good! Seems a shame to use them for one quarterly event and then discard them!

Conclusion

Get out of the red, dummy!

That’s really all there is left to do.

For October I’m raising the table/half table prices from €16/8 to €20/10. That should cover the VAT and the potential 20% drop-out rate.

I also think I need to increase my publicity budget a little. I burned through the posters and postcards pretty quickly this time and there’s still huge swaths of the city left unplastered. Choosing the Food Co-op as a venue did a lot to bring in a new audience who didn’t even know there was a comic event on, but knew that the Food Co-op always hosts something. I want to keep finding new people outside the Dublin comic scene and expanding our publicity reach would help.

Epilogue

The fall Decaf will be on a bank holiday, Monday, October 30th, at the Dublin Food Co-op again. Moving to a Monday and a three-day-weekend will bring it’s own challenges but hopefully we can maintain the level of participation we had in July.

Our amazing October poster is by Helene Pertl! Yay!

#decaf #dublincomicarts #dublin comic arts #comic arts fest #comiccon #comicconvention #comics #exhibitor #organizer #tabling #recap #postmortem #sales #stray lines #the comics lab #dublin food coop #newmarket square

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nsoora · 8 years ago

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I think it has been a month, here’s an update for March.

[This post from March 31, 2017, is copied over from my other blog; nazwrotesomestuff.tumblr.com. As mentioned in the previous post ‘I intended to use the blog for my travels - but stopped at two posts. HAH! So that one is getting deleted… or revamped…soon, I should do something about it’]

Okay. I’m really late this time.

It’s March 31st. I haven’t been writing much. In fact I completely stopped at week 3. No written journal entries, other than short notes on the iPhone App. I spent plenty of times in March staring out of train windows and having conversations with myself about anything and everything. With that in mind, I should tell you about how I ended up learning German in Hamburg but living in Bremen. I’ll share that later, but first lets start with where I left off; week 2.

FEVER IN BERLIN

Week two started with a cough and fever. My body finally told me that it couldn’t keep up with the weather change and heated up. I spent my first day lying in bed in Berlin. Honestly, I was nonchalantly about it. I ignored the early signs and spent the day out in Potsdam only to come back with a flu as well. I spent quite an amount at the pharmacy for medicines after that, but I deserved that for what I did. I ended up not doing much. Not that there was anything I wanted to do anyway. I’ve been to Berlin in Summer of 2015, and nothing much has change. I wrote in my journal a short line about how ‘it’s pretty much the same place, except there seems to be more constructions going on in the city area. It’s for the new U-bahn line I guess. Judging from the photos on the fences...’

fever in Berlin

I also wrote about how Alexandraplatz stinks that same as I remembered it. It still smells like pee;

‘Alexandraplatz still smells like pee. I wonder when it would stop smelling this way. Maybe it’s just on a bad season, maybe there is a season when the underground doesn’t stinks’.

HAMBURG AND ITS HARBOUR SERENITY

On Thursday, March 2nd, I moved to Hamburg and stayed in a wonderful hostel in Schanzenviertel, a young, ‘hipster’, neighbourhood. The fever was fortunately gone by then, but my throat was still sore. That day I wondered why I didn’t brought any of my dad’s nin jiom pei pa koa cough syrup. That would have cured this throat quick, but too late for regrets.

Early the next morning I took a walk at Hamburg’s city centre and was overwhelmed by the harbour serenity. I walked the whole day starting from the Rathaus at half past 8, till around 3 when I decided to get lunch and headed home. The next few days were spent the same way. I woke up, had coffee, take a walk and head back to the hostel for lunch. On Sunday however, I head out extra early to visit the Fischmarkt, which wasn’t far from Schanzenviertel. All I have to do was walk past St Pauli and I’ll be there in about 35 minutes, googlemaps told me. I head out on foot at half past 7 in Hamburg’s 6 degree celcius morning.

THE MORNING AFTER REEPERBAHN

Walking past St.Pauli means that I would have to walk past Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s red light district area, which I actually wanted to visit the night before. But after reading trip advisor I went to sleep instead. That morning I thought it would be interesting to visit ‘the morning after Reeperbahn’ and it was definitely interesting to say the least. Saw a few ladies getting off work, some with customers, some with fellow ‘colleagues’. Got cat called by a few dirty drunk old man, and saw some strange looking items on the way. Very strange; cabbages being strewn all over the pathway, a blazer on the ground that got peed on, and pills packaging that definitely does not look like it came from the pharmacies.

What did the cabbage do to deserve this?

I eventually reached the Fischmarkt slightly later than google maps said I would. Walked around and had a Fischbrötchen like anyone who visited the market would do. That morning, I left Hamburg for Bremen.

MAKING BREMEN HOME

I reached Bremen on Sunday and settled in a hostel for a night before moving into the student apartment the day after. Back in 2014, I visited the city with my schoolmates during the summer language immersion programme. However, even though this city looked familiar, it was still strange to me. I wrote in my journal, ‘The train station look the same. I went past that place with the windmill. The ice cream place is still there. So is Rossman and that halal kebab place’.

I bought my takeaway dinner at that same kebab place. The man had no clue I was there 2 years ago. I ordered the same exact thing.

The same old Bremen as I remembered it

That same Sunday, I was approached twice by strangers on the street. Once by a man who tried to ask me out for a drink which I rejected with the reason that ‘sorry, I don’t drink’. Only to be asked again for coffee. I rejected him the second time. ‘I can’t make it, sorry,’ I lied. It was my first day in Bremen, I had a whole month.

A couple of minutes after that happened, a girl asked me if I had a fashion Instagram account. She said she liked what I was wearing and was wondering if I was on the platform as a fashion influencer or some sort. I was flattered of course, but after I walked away I laughed as I recalled I had the same pullover on for two days straight. I was wearing my warmest clothes. That Sunday was cold. It was cold AF.

Strangers approaching for conversations become a common occurrence after that. I had some strange people talking to me; some drunk men, some just curious what I was, and one almost followed me home. That person apparently live in the same complex and waited for me at the foot of the apartment where i stayed. It was the strangest thing.

Although this city is full of strangers, it became my home for the next 4 weeks.

GOING FOR CLASS IN HAMBURG

Bremen was home, but I had classes in Hamburg. This was also, btw, an interesting story. I didn’t applied to learn Deutsch in Hamburg. How I ended up there was out of luck I guess. That and some negotiation were also involved. I received an email about 2-3 weeks before I left Singapore that the classes in Bremen got cancelled. It was a last minute change and I was given the option to opt out or go to another school in another city. At that point of time, I had already my itinerary finalised and everything necessary booked. Opting out was definitely not an option for me, and going to another city would mean I would have to change some of the bookings. So instead, I asked with hope if I could get a place in Hamburg, my last stop before Bremen, despite the city not being in one of the choices offered.

A couple of days later I was told that there was a place for the class in Hamburg but they didn’t had a place for me to stay. I given yet another choice of looking for one myself or stay in the school’s apartment in Bremen and travel to Hamburg for 1 hour 10 minutes everyday.

I chose to travel everyday.

The school ended up paying for the monthly train ticket, and I travelled to Hamburg for class every morning. I got to see more of Hamburg and watch the season change in two cities. I also fell in love with the train.

Hamburg Train Station

TRAINS OF THOUGHTS

Living in Bremen is great, and so is going to classes in Hamburg. The fact that I get to travel and experiencing all this is just so amazing to me. But the journey between the two cities in my opinion was just the best.

I look forward to travel every single day and meeting the many nice commuters in it as well. It’s so funny when you share a routine with so many people and start to recognise that man in the ponytail, or that lady with the coffee in wagen 5 and so on. Some even started to recognised me after a week which let to the same, ‘moin’ or ‘schönes tag noch!’ from fellow train travellers every morning.

I also spent many hours in the trains thinking and talking to myself as the train goes past villages and plain fields. I missed it already.

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wellpersonsblog · 8 years ago

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Your Unapologetically Strong Coaching Questions, Answered

OK, hunker down, friends, because I’ve got a lot of info coming your way. I have been asked many questions about the new Unapologetically Strong Coaching program, and honestly, the enthusiasm I’ve seen from those who have already snagged a spot on the team is so, so thrilling.

Below are the answers to your most commonly asked questions so let’s get to it! Here we go!

Q: Is this program only for powerlifting?

A: Nope! This is the kick off of the brand-new Unapologetically Strong Coaching group, and the choice to pursue either powerlifting or foundational strength is entirely up to you

Q: When does the program start?

A: We are off and running Monday, April 3rd. (No time like the present!)

Q: How long does it run?

A: Your program runs for 12 weeks, and your initial commitment is for 3 months. After your that, if you’re interested in staying on to continue training for either powerlifting or foundational strength (you can definitely switch from one to the other after your initial program completion), you will have the option to stay on a month-to-month basis.

Q: When does registration close?

A: Registration closes at midnight on Friday, March 31st.

Q: Is the program in person or online?

A: It is all online! I have a strong desire to bring the sense of community and teamwork we’ve built through our results-based training method at The Movement Minneapolis to people who aren’t based in the Twin Cities (AKA people who don’t like winter much).

Q: What is the difference between the powerlifting program and the foundational strength program?

A: Unapologetically Powerful is a 12-week powerlifting program for beginner to early-intermediate lifters that will expand your strength and refine your technique in the squat, deadlift, and bench. It will also peak you to test your 1RM in those three lifts, whether you are signed up to compete in a meet or not.

Bedrock Strength is a 12-week strength program for trainees of all levels where you will build an unbreakable foundation by increasing our strength and mobility in all planes of motion.

Q: What if I’m pretty new to strength training? Will either program be too much for me?

A: Nope! New lifters can choose between the Unapologetically Powerful Beginner Training Program or Bedrock Strength. Both place a large focus on grooving the movement patterns for the squat, press, and deadlift. People relatively new to strength training are encouraged to participate — don’t feel like you have to have years of experience in the weight room.

That said, it is best to have at least a basic understanding of deadlift and squat patterns already (regardless of equipment used). While you will be given weekly feedback based on your video submissions, it’s tougher to teach the patterns from scratch without being live and in person. I always recommend working with a trainer in person to get at least a rudimentary understanding of strength-training fundamentals first.

That said, if you have at least some experience with those two basic patterns, you’ll thrive in this group. And, you’ll have access to a coach (me! holler!) who will be there to improve your movement quality every step of the way.

Q: I’ve been strength training for years, is the program advanced enough for me?

A: It very likely is, yes. Because the programs teach you our intuitive training protocol, you are ultimately in charge of determining your own training volume, density, and intensity, which is extremely helpful for beginners and veterans alike.

Q: Do I need to have access to a gym or can I do the workouts from home?

A: There is quite a bit of barbell work built into these programs and most definitely in the Unapologetically Powerful program. Whether you lift at home or at the gym, barbells, weight plates, and a power rack will be required equipment if you want to powerlift. You will also be working with other small pieces of equipment, such as dumbbells and resistance bands, so having access to a fully stocked gym will make doing the program easier.

Q: How much time commitment is expected?

A: Bedrock Strength is a 3 days per week program and Unapologetically Powerful is 3-4 days. You can expect your workouts to last between 60-90 minutes.

Our main form of communication will be in our private group on Facebook. You will want to check that at least once a day to get daily messages from me, see what other people are chatting about, and to post your own questions.

A large part of the coaching aspect of Unapologetically Strong is to improve your proficiency in your big lifts, like your squat and your deadlift, and upper body pressing movements. Because of that, you will be asked to post videos weekly videos of your lifts so that I can offer you tweaks and tips for the next time you head to the gym.

So, yes, you will be putting in some work! But it’s what you’re here for, yes? The more involved you are with the group, the more benefits you will reap.

Q: Is there a nutrition component to Unapologetically Strong?

A: Eating For Performance nutrition lessons will be provided by holistic nutritionist Steph Gaudreau, of Stupid Easy Paleo, and you definitely won’t want to miss that! (And don’t let the word “paleo” deter you: for this program, we’re definitely “paleo-ish,” and also, it must be said, we do not eliminate or criminalize any macronutrient, particularly carbs. Mmmm, carbs!)

Q: What if I’m recovering from an injury, can I still participate?

A: You can, but I wouldn’t advise it.

If you’re dealing with the sort of injury that you truly believe you can work through without detriment, we will need a copy of your doctor’s release attached to the health intake form. I will help you find modifications for any movement to make it more accessible to you.

This a great place to put in the following disclaimer, however: I am not a doctor and will not diagnose or treat any condition. If needed, I will refer you to a medical professional. And, while my scope allows me to give variations that help work around pain, I advise seeking out a physical therapist who can work with you to resolve specific pain issues.

Q: My main goal is to lose weight. Is this the program right for me?

A: Probably not. The main thrust of this program is growing the heck out of your total-body strength and improving your movement proficiency in the Big Three, so we won’t be talking a lot about weight loss.

Our focus will be on unleashing the radass that lives inside you, and the addition of Steph Gaudreau’s lessons, recipes, and webinars will help you learn how adjust your nutritional needs to your inner burgeoning athlete.

That said, you may lose weight on the program, or at the very least, decrease body fat (hey, scale weight means nothing compared to body composition).

Q: What type of results can I expect in 12 weeks?

A: So much stuff! Between all of the programs, your mobility, strength, and power are addressed. You can expect with consistent training frequency, your strength levels will go through the roof.

I will also teach you how to follow your own body and to listen to the cues it’s giving you. Combine that with progressive overload by introducing your body to new stimuli — whether it’s in the form of heavier weights, more reps, or moving faster — will ensure that your results don’t plateau.

You can also expect to make lifelong friendships with the other members of US Coaching. Remember, you’ll have a whole team of lifters cheering you on from the start to the very finish.

Stronger and more powerful in 12 weeks, with new friends? Yes, please!

Q: Do I need a Facebook account?

A: Yes. But if you’re not into sharing funny cat videos and Buzzfeed quizzes, you can simply create an account (with a pseudonym, if you wish!) for the duration of the coaching program, not “friend” anybody, and only belong to our coaching group.

Q: What do I get when I sign up for Unapologetically Strong Coaching?

A: Unapologetically Strong Coaching includes:

A minimum 12 weeks of coaching for people who want to increase their strength, power, and confidence in a supportive, team-atmosphere, community.

Daily coaching, support, and accountability to keep you on track and consistent.

A private Facebook group exclusively for coaching clients.

Detailed feedback from me based off your video submissions so that every time you head into the gym you’re confident in your knowledge of how to complete the assigned lifts safely and effectively.

Weekly check-in emails from me, where I will detail the weekly coaching focus and distribute recipes and shopping lists from Steph Gaudreau of Stupid Easy Paleo.

Q: Does the program include a meal plan?

A: No, you don’t get a meal plan with Unapologetically Strong Coaching. We don’t do the one-size-fits-all prescriptive plan thing, but you will receive new recipes every week (shopping list included) for foods that will support your activity levels.

Q: Why buy coaching? Can’t I read some online articles for free?

A: Yes, of course. There is plenty of quality info out there for you, and you could very well take the time to sort through it, experiment with it, see if it works, take what works and discard what doesn’t and keep experimenting. It would be a lot of work, but you could do it.

But if you truly want to become a better lifter, you need to have a coach, if even for a short period. (I even have one myself and she is terrific!) You can only take yourself so far before you need another set of eyes on you that can identify your weak points and help you shore them up. A really great article or book may inspire you to create change, but the stickiest, most transformative changes tend to come from working with another human.

Q: There are so many different online coaching programs out there — what makes Unapologetically Strong Coaching different?

A: The most important thing I do is introduce you to the concept of intuitive training, so that you can learn how to improve your strength without beating up your body. The end goal is for you to know enough about your body to progress your training and sustain your healthy eating habits on your own. If that doesn’t set this program apart, I don’t know what does!

This won’t be an “on the program” or “off the program” situation. Once you have the concept practiced and down, it will stick with you for life.

You’ll also have a highly committed coach (that’s me!) and your teammates looking out for you, encouraging you, and celebrating you. You could go purchase a cookie-cutter program and try to work through it on your own, but what fun is that?!

Years of experience have taught me that working alongside a patient and empathetic coach and peers with common goals can makes things easier and more fun than you thought possible, while also helping fast-track your progress.

Q: I still have more questions, how can I find out more?

A: Leave your question in the comments below or head HERE and let’s talk it out! I would love to hear from you.

The post Your Unapologetically Strong Coaching Questions, Answered appeared first on Thrive with Jen Sinkler.

First found here: Your Unapologetically Strong Coaching Questions, Answered

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sportsandfitnessinfo · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/fitness/your-unapologetically-strong-coaching-questions-answered/

Your Unapologetically Strong Coaching Questions, Answered

Below are the answers to your most commonly asked questions so let’s get to it! Here we go!

Q: Is this program only for powerlifting?

A: Nope! This is the kick off of the brand-new Unapologetically Strong Coaching group, and the choice to pursue either powerlifting or foundational strength is entirely up to you

Q: When does the program start?

A: We are off and running Monday, April 3rd. (No time like the present!)

Q: How long does it run?

Q: When does registration close?

A: Registration closes at midnight on Friday, March 31st.

Q: Is the program in person or online?

Q: What is the difference between the powerlifting program and the foundational strength program?

Bedrock Strength is a 12-week strength program for trainees of all levels where you will build an unbreakable foundation by increasing our strength and mobility in all planes of motion.

Q: What if I’m pretty new to strength training? Will either program be too much for me?

Q: I’ve been strength training for years, is the program advanced enough for me?

Q: Do I need to have access to a gym or can I do the workouts from home?

Q: How much time commitment is expected?

A: Bedrock Strength is a 3 days per week program and Unapologetically Powerful is 3-4 days. You can expect your workouts to last between 60-90 minutes.

So, yes, you will be putting in some work! But it’s what you’re here for, yes? The more involved you are with the group, the more benefits you will reap.

Q: Is there a nutrition component to Unapologetically Strong?

Q: What if I’m recovering from an injury, can I still participate?

A: You can, but I wouldn’t advise it.

Q: My main goal is to lose weight. Is this the program right for me?

That said, you may lose weight on the program, or at the very least, decrease body fat (hey, scale weight means nothing compared to body composition).

Q: What type of results can I expect in 12 weeks?

A: So much stuff! Between all of the programs, your mobility, strength, and power are addressed. You can expect with consistent training frequency, your strength levels will go through the roof.

You can also expect to make lifelong friendships with the other members of US Coaching. Remember, you’ll have a whole team of lifters cheering you on from the start to the very finish.

Stronger and more powerful in 12 weeks, with new friends? Yes, please!

Q: Do I need a Facebook account?

Q: What do I get when I sign up for Unapologetically Strong Coaching?

A: Unapologetically Strong Coaching includes:

A minimum 12 weeks of coaching for people who want to increase their strength, power, and confidence in a supportive, team-atmosphere, community.

Daily coaching, support, and accountability to keep you on track and consistent.

A private Facebook group exclusively for coaching clients.

Detailed feedback from me based off your video submissions so that every time you head into the gym you’re confident in your knowledge of how to complete the assigned lifts safely and effectively.

Weekly check-in emails from me, where I will detail the weekly coaching focus and distribute recipes and shopping lists from Steph Gaudreau of Stupid Easy Paleo.

Q: Does the program include a meal plan?

Q: Why buy coaching? Can’t I read some online articles for free?

Q: There are so many different online coaching programs out there — what makes Unapologetically Strong Coaching different?

This won’t be an “on the program” or “off the program” situation. Once you have the concept practiced and down, it will stick with you for life.

Q: I still have more questions, how can I find out more?

A: Leave your question in the comments below or head HERE and let’s talk it out! I would love to hear from you.

Originally at :Fitness – Thrive with Jen Sinkler Written By : Jennifer Blake

#Answered, #Coaching, #Questions, #Strong, #Unapologetically #Fitness

#Answered #Coaching #Questions #Strong #Unapologetically #Fitness

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