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eldritchravens · 19 days ago

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Welcome Home - Springtime Salutations ! - A collection of every secret I could find

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD!⚠️

This post is a collection of all the things I discovered during my exploration of the website. I'm not going to delve too much into theories, this is more of a list of curiosities with a pinch of speculation. Buckle up, this will be a long post! Enjoy!

1 - Where's Wally?

Where did Wally go?! Oh No!! It seems our beloved puppet went missing! Seriously, this is very strange, and probably the first thing everyone noticed when loging in. Instead, Julie is here to welcome us. Hello Julie! :)

Most noticeably, Wally is missing from the front page, the Guestbook page and the Welcome Home page. His absence is also alluded to in the Storybook "Sweet Briar". So... Where IS Wally? We'll come back to this in a minute.

2 - The page is still breathing

Look very closely, the image is still... breathing. This phenomenon was added during the homewarming update, however it's interesting to note the image still moves even after the outfit change, and after Wally's disappearance. Very unnerving.

3 - Audio Distorsions

I managed to find 4 instances with audio distortions, specifically in the storybooks.

You can find two of them in "Springtime Salutations" (0:26 & 11:35). And the last two are heard in "The Julie Guide to being Joyful" (4:06 & 5:19)

4 - Missing page

In the storybook "The Julie Guide to being Joyful", here you may notice there is actually a missing page, it seems to have been ripped off! Not only that, but the audio distorts right as we're supposed to read the missing page. This section might have been supposed to be about Frank. How curious!

5 - Goo be upon ye!

That mysterious goo is still everywhere! What I find very interesting is how it always seems to be present where some nefarious, secret stuff is happening. It's like an infection.

6 - New... Friend?

Hello there little guy! You seem... quite curious. The page is burned away you say? Strange, usually the damage is made by paint and ink. Let's keep them in mind for later, shall we?

7 - The Neighborhood

There is our good old familiar Neirborhood, beautifully blooming for spring time! Except... What's this? Look at the center. When you open the background image in a new tab, as ususal, you can see what's underneath Home. Here, it appears that the Welcome Home Restoration Project did their best to block out the black goo from pouring out, by scribbling on the hole. Is this why Wally is missing? Because they're trying to keep him away?

It might not be working as well as intended, because now, some sort of dark void is creeping out of the forest. Look closely That definetly wasn't here before. Something is desperatly trying to seep out of the website. But I digress. Why don't we click on home to see Wally's profile?

8 - Finding Wally

Oh! That is... very much unusual. They took Wally's canvas away, and most importantly, he is not looking at us anymore. Whoever is behing WHRP is doing their darn best to keep him at bay.

But that's not all! His audio changed too! It's a phone ringing for about 40 seconds. Hm, a phone ringing huh? Maybe a hint? Where have we seen a phone we can interact with on the website before?

Bingo. Go to the Toys page in Discoveries, and then click the red button, it will take you to this secret link. We found Wally!

There, Wally sounds... rough. His voice is quite distorted, and Home is there as well. I strongly advise you to listen to the whole thing, our beloved puppet has a LOT of things to tell us. Most importantly, he is sending us on a quest.

"Gather good words from the flowers."

... Hm.

You know where this is going. Here we go.

9 - The Floriography Puzzle

OH BOY OH BOY. We finally arrive at the meat and potatoes of the update. Strap in, this one was quite tough to crack. Let me walk you through the process.

First of all, what is Floriography? Floriography, or “the language of flowers,” was a popular Victorian fad in which specific meanings were attributed to different plants and flowers, specific words.

Knowing this, we are going to need two things : First of all I recommend using this website, it has a solid list to help you decode that flower puzzle. Then, we need the board game cards from the WH website.

Now that we have our decoding tools, we may begin gathering the flowers. To do so, you need to spot them in the website's new additions. Then after spotting them, you need to translate their meaning using Floriography ! Don't worry, I already did the work for you, here's all the flowers I could find :

Storybook - Springtime Salutations : Trefoil, Iris, Oleander = Revenge, Message, Beware

Storybook - Sweet Briar : Quince, Osmunda, Hawthorn = Temptation, Dreams, Hope

Storybook - The Julie Guide to being Joyful : Daffodil, Moonwort, Belladonna = Regard, Forgetfulness, Silence

Food - What makes the Flowers Bloom : Daisy, Bluebell, Witch Hazel = Innocence, Constancy, A spell

Music - "Devotion" Album cover : Helenium, Rosemary, Dahlia = Tears, Remembrance, Instability

There we go, fantastic! But now, what do we do with that big bouquet of words? That one took me a while to figure out : We need to find secret links! The way to do so is rather simple once you figure it out, at the end of the WH web adress, type in the words you decoded from the flowers in order of their appearance.

This will lead you to hidden links! Videos, to be precise. These videos are all part of a story focussing on Julie, I won't say anything else, just watch them! No worries, I've prepared all the links for you, in chronological order too ! Enjoy the show, neighboor :

/revengemessagebeware

/temptationdreamshope

/regardforgetfulnesssilence

/innocenceconstancyaspell

/tearsremembranceinstability

There is so much to unpack here, and there is so much I'd like to say. I'm going to restrain myself though because this post is getting long. Please note though, in the third video at the end, you can hear Wally repeating a line from the "Julie Guide to being Joyful".

That... and...!

WELL HELLO THERE. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU. WHY ARE YOU HERE. (Told you to keep them in mind for later, didn't I?)

10 - Super secret link

One last secret link to find. If you take each first flower word of each link, in chronological order, and then assemble them, you may find one last (to my knowledge) secret link! This link leads you to an image. Frank is looking directly at the viewer. It's not the first time this happened, curiously enough, if you remember the Homewarming update.

11 - Awayfrompryingeyes

Let's end this with a visit inside W's eldritch horror-proof bunker website, Away from Prying Eyes.

Here, you will find three new entries from our mysterious "W". One of them is titled "April 12, 2025" a general update on their situation, which seems to have gotten better according to W.

The second one is titled "Joy", and features W trying out the so called Joy Soda. You can see the advertisement for this drink in the Food section of Discoveried on the main website.

Oh... that's... Hm.

W, sweetheart, we appreciate your dedication to the cause, we really do, but I really don't think drinking something that was made in the 70s is a particularly good idea.

And finally, most interesting of all in my opinion, we have an entry titled "Toy Box". In this, W wrote about this so called toy box, expressing their excitement about recieving such an object. They then post a picture to show us. At first glance, the picture is completely dark... but with a few adjusments...

There it is. From what we can see, there seems to be some kind of green leaf motif here, with the characters "GLE ' " at the bottom, and what I think might be the MARLO logo on the bottom right. Beyond that, we can't really make out anything else. Fascinating, thank you W. Please don't sink further into madness.

___________________________

AND THERE WE HAVE IT FOLKS! I was unable to discover anything else on my own, but please do let me know if you find anything new!! I'd love to know! So please, if you've discovered anything not mentioned in this post, share it in the comments!

Thank you for reading, and Springtime Salutations, neighboor! 🌸

#welcome home #wally darling #welcome home arg #welcome home update #welcome home frank #welcome home julie #welcome home secrets #julie joyful #frank frankly #For those who read even the tags #can I just say #Jonesy... I love you Jonesy...#He is very groovy and i like his voice and i would like to give him a smooch thank you very much #be still my gay little heart...#ALSO... THE NEW MERCH... HARK!!!#I will never recover financially...

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witchingwithscissors · 1 month ago

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Ew, gross personal post—but actually kind of a big deal for me, so here we are.

My wife and I are officially starting our IVF journey.

We’ve made it through the awkward consultations, the pokes and prods, the donor selection, and all the slow, clinical, slightly surreal steps that come with trying to make a baby when you’re two women. The actual process begins in the next few months.

We’ve started sharing the news with family, and a question that keeps popping up—almost like clockwork—is: “Why not just adopt?”

Now, I know most people mean well when they ask this. It sounds innocent. But when you’re in a same-sex relationship, questions like that land a little differently.

Because the subtext often feels like: Why are you trying so hard to do something you weren’t supposed to do?

No one asks straight couples to justify wanting biological kids. It’s just… expected. Natural.

But when we, as queer people, say we want a baby that’s biologically connected to us, it becomes a conversation. A challenge. A guilt trip. And I’m tired of pretending it doesn’t sting (to you strangers on the internet).

I love being gay and being able to live my truth.

I wouldn’t change it for anything.

But sometimes, I just want the world to stop making me explain myself for wanting what everyone else is allowed to want without question. I want to feel normal—not in the assimilation-y, bland way, but in the quietly building a life, wanting a family, loving my partner and dreaming big kind of way.

We’re not trying IVF to impress anyone. We’re doing it because it’s what we want. We’ve talked about it for years. We’ve cried over it, planned for it, and saved for it. It’s not about rejecting adoption, or pretending queer families can only look one way. It’s about finally letting ourselves want something fully, without feeling like we’re reaching beyond our “allowed” limits.

And look, I know it’s small and probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but—

Jac Schaeffer confirming that Rio, a presenting female, is biologically related to Nicky in the Marvel universe? That she is literally his genetic parent?

Yeah, I lost it a little.

Because that’s wild.

That is absolutely bonkers, even for Marvel. It’s cosmic nonsense. It’s canonically magical conception via oral and a celestial being.

But for some reason, I clung to it.

Because if I can suspend disbelief for radioactive spiders and Norse gods with Wi-Fi, then hell yes I can get behind magical lesbian biology. That’s a storyline I can stand behind and willingly purchase too much merch whenever Disney gets around to actually making some. Give thee a black spirit jersey with Harkness printed across the back and we’re good to go.

It’s silly.

And it’s so deeply, ridiculously affirming. In the weirdest possible way, I felt seen. It wasn’t tragic. It wasn’t political. It wasn’t a lecture. It was just this out-there possibility that said, hey, what if you could just… exist like this? Build something like this? Create something like this?

Our IVF journey isn’t glamorous. It’s medical, it’s expensive AF, and it’s stressful. But it’s also ours. It’s full of hope and love and a little quiet rebellion.

So when people ask, “Why not just adopt?”—I know it usually comes from a kind place. But what they don’t always see is how tender this all is. How much thought, hope, and heart we’ve already poured into the idea of a child who feels like both of us.

It’s not that adoption isn’t beautiful—it is. It just wasn’t our first step.

We’re building a family, slowly and intentionally. And it means the world to feel like we can just want that—without it needing to be questioned.

(This post isn’t anti-adoption. It’s just pro-queer people having options.)

#personal

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monkey-network · 6 years ago

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Ah, what a wonderful day to come back to Star Twinkle Sunday. Due to being busy these past few weeks, I’ve decided on doing a lightning round as a catch up.

Episode 5: I liked that Madoka is quite the eagle eye, the sharp shooter if you will, and while she’s under a pretty strict household, it doesn’t feel like her family are uncaring because of it, especially the father. I like that her conflict stems from keeping the secret understanding that he won’t probably wouldn’t get it regardless of how much she tries to explain while making sure he doesn’t get hurt if targeted. It’s what she wants to do. She didn’t leave much of an impact on me unlike Elena, because Hispanic Spiciness™, but I’ll be lenient since she’s respectable in the sense that she isn’t fully on board with everything but is pushing forward on her terms anyway.

Episode 6: The new ED is pretty sweet, kinda better than the one we got. I’ll say this episode was a nice prelude to episode 7 where I know it’ll be about Lala-kun and the gang fixing the rocket. A nice detail I noticed is that before they Precured Up, Madoka looked at the others holding their pendants before doing it herself. I like that they started utilizing the imagination motif and making it the enemy with the Notrigger. And I especially like that Lala-kun had her personal stakes prioritized both before and after Ryo showed her a better outlook. Introduced quite a bit and the ending was sweet as it could be.

Episode 7: The rocket looked bitchin’, especially the pink; the pink is what sold me. I’m really digging the synergy between the 4, especially their team transformation having a nice bounce in the vocals and the editing being simple yet just right, having me smile wide, though Lala-kun’s henshin animation is obviously more fast and fluid than the others and I can’t help but think of that every time. One thing I question every time is what happens to the dead bodies? Like the Red lady just disappears but do they move on? Overall this was a nice step prologue episode to prepare for the space adventures to come. One of the better episodes I’ll say.

Episode 8: Heh, bone planet. But hark, surprising space adventure is pretty space adventure with woolie type creatures. I like that it gives development for Puruns as well as for Elena and what she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of a smile. Like it’s that Hispanic Spiciness, babey!

Episode 9: Enguruush! Also it’s something that Madoka’s troubles are almost the opposite of Elena in that juggling so many things at once is not an easy feat, especially when she’s striving for perfection... Hey I just saw an MLP episode about perfection, whaddya know? The struggle is real no doubt, and I’m glad Hikaru is the influence to her shell breaking like before, helping Madoka just... have a bit of fun for once like with Lala-kun. Makes me wish for some donuts right now.

Episode 10: I liked that they brought up waterbears cuz they are the ultimate lifeform that deserve respect if we’re talking spacetime. Above all it was surprising to see the heroes actually lose for once. Like I felt the weight of them actually getting beaten by the villains, heartbreaking and critical, with the episode ending on them only managing to retreat by a hair.

Episode 11: This was quite a turnabout episode. Not only was Old Man Ryo there for Lala-kun again, but seeing the others give Hikaru that push of encouragement after all she’s done for them made mi heart fucking fist pump. We get some background on the villains, we finally get to see the... Twinkle sticks (dat merch tho), and the coloring was on point. This was a climatic boss ass big boss fight. Give it a 4 out of 5. 100 out of five. 100 dollar bill.

Episode 12: MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS! Anyways, I like that after a pretty climatic battle, it was able to transition well into a less serious yet pretty impactful episode where Lala-kun’s fate is up for chance. I’m a sucker for schlock films so this episode was up my ally with the scene of the girls botching their performances. The bond between Lala-kun and the others, Hikaru particularly, were what especially sold this for me. Almost made me cry, buddy. It was touching.

Overall, show beautiful, colorful, dashing, flashing, toasted, roasted. What can I say? Makes me smile. I REST.

#star twinkle precure #star twinkle sunday #reviews #finally caught up

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allthingslinguistic · 7 years ago

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All Things Linguistic - 2017 Highlights

In 2017, podcasting turned from a fun new experiment into a real, self-sustaining project, I checked off half of the American states on my have-visited list thanks to conference rotation (lifetime, not just in this year), and I got my book way closer to being a real thing you’ll get to see soon.

Lingthusiasm podcast

My podcast with Lauren Gawne, which launched towards the end of 2016, had a full year of episodes, a sold-out liveshow at Argo Bookshop in Montreal and reached over 100k listens!

4. Inside the Word of the Year vote 5. Colour words around the world and inside your brain 6. All the sounds in all the languages – the International Phonetic Alphabet 7. Kids these days aren’t ruining language 8. People who make dictionaries: Review of Kory Stamper’s book Word by Word 9. The bridge between words and sentences — Constituency 10. Learning languages linguistically 11. Layers of meaning — Cooperation, humour, and Gricean Maxims 12. Sounds you can’t hear - Babies, accents, and phonemes 13. What Does it Mean to Sound Black? Intonation and Identity Interview with Nicole Holliday 14. Getting into, up for, and down with prepositions 15. Talking and thinking about time

We also launched a Patreon for the podcast, and released 10 bonus episodes there:

Swearing and pseudo-swears

How to teach yourself linguistics

How to explain linguistics to employers (text chat)

Doggo linguistics behind the scenes

Hypercorrection

Language play

DIY linguistic research

Hark, a liveshow! So, like, what’s up with discourse markers?

Is X a sandwich? Solving the word-meaning argument

Liveshow Q and eh

In addition, we launched some lingthusiastic merch: scarves with a subtly nerdy IPA print on them, stickers with our logo, and various items that say NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT.

Book

I did a lot of behind the scenes writing on my book about internet language, which will be published by Riverhead at Penguin. All you got to see about it for 2017 was this update about line edits and a few cryptic tweets, but stay very much tuned for more updates about it in 2018!

You can sign up for very occasional email updates about the book here, if you want to make sure you don’t miss it on social media.

Talks, workshops, and teaching

A linguistics museum called Planet Word was announced for Washington DC. I’m on the Advisory Board, and I went to New York City in October for a planning meeting

Internet linguistics at SpaceWitchCon, in the woods of North Carolina

How I Became An Internet Linguist: Princeton linguistics colloquium talk

At the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Austin, Texas:

Stumbling into linguistics via blogs and Wikipedia at a panel on Getting High School Students into Linguistics which I co-organized with Moti Lieberman. Panel slides and abstracts.

How people lengthen words on Twitter, co-authored with Jeffrey Lamontagne – slides at bit.ly/longggg.

Judge for the Five Minute Linguist talks

At South by Southwest in March:

Moderated a panel called Word Curation: Dictionaries, Tech and the Future with Erin McKean (Wordnik), Jane Solomon (Dictionary.com), and Ben Zimmer (Wall Street Journal).

Erin, Jane, and I judged an emoji spelling bee organized by Jenny 8 Lee and other people from EmojiCon.

At the LSA institute in Lexington, Kentucky in July, I taught a four-week class on communicating linguistics or LingComm Here’s the class notes as blog posts:

Day 1: Goals

Day 2: Terminology and the explainer structure

Day 3: The Curse of Knowledge and short talks

Day 4: Myth debunking and in-person events

Day 5 & 6: Events, self-promotion, and charades

Day 7 & 8: Pitching and final projects

I also livetweeted the Lingstitute plenary talks:

Using games to measure how people match the conversational styles of their interlocutor

Children should be educated in a language they actually speak: Haitian Creole and linguistic colonialism

Come for the sociolinguistics; stay for the lumbersexuals

Combatting stereotypes about Appalachian English

Expanding historical linguistics beyond standardized print texts and into non-standard varieties

The linguistics of talking to sheepdogs

“Verbal Gestures” often include sounds that aren’t in a language’s words but which are very important for communication

I did lingwiki Wikipedia editathons at the LSA annual meeting, Lingstitute, and the International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC) in Honolulu, Hawaii in March.

Media

I wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post: Herefefe is why it’s toughfefe to say “covfefe”, which was picked up by the Guardian, Longreads, and El Pais (Spanish).

The first episode of Lingthusiasm was also featured in NY Mag’s Science of Us and on #SciFriLive (Science Friday on NPR).

A few articles I was quoted in:

New York Times: on Snapchat and phatic communication, on the communicative function of emoji (Gaymoji) in Grindr, on how we type laughter online.

NPR All Tech Considered: on the linguistic style of doggo, pupper, and the rest of the dog rates/dogspotting meme, on twitter threads (tweetstorms).

NY Magazine: The Internet Tilde Perfectly Conveys Something We Don’t Have the Words to Explain.

CBC Spark: on digital tools revitalizing minority languages

Al Jazeera The Stream: on emoji (watch here)

The World in Words: on “aliebn-speak” or the linguistic style of jomny sun.

Linguistics jobs

I moderated a panel about careers in linguistics at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association in Toronto. Linguistics jobs interviews that aired on the blog:

Jane Solomon, lexicographer at Dictionary.com

Project manager at a language learning software company

Project manager a language tech company.

Librarian

Digital humanities librarian

Speech pathology

User experience research

Text analyst

Communications consultant

Quote from Bringing Linguistics to Work

Selected blog posts

I hit my 5-year blogiversary! Here are a few of my favourite posts from 2017:

Roundup posts:

A list of linguistics and language podcasts

A very long list of linguistics movies, documentaries, and TV show episodes

Linguistics Halloween costume roundup

Linguistics merch gift guide

How to teach yourself linguistics online for free

Linguistics handmade things

Schwa cookies!

Gingerbread wugs and IPA

Knitted IPA door handles and a stuffed wug

A wug-tastic addition to the linguistics baked goods files

An embroidered IPA vowel trapezoid with animals

Example sentences:

Two lobsters, a baby octopus, and 21 vodka oyster shots…before running into the sea

The new Buffalo buffalo… sentence is about a fish called Boops boops

Yahoo Answers takes on the type-token distinction

“Amelia Earhart flies, like, a plane.”

Local man fond of linguistic garden path sentences friends to hearing his boring puns Structural ambiguity: Lindsay Lohan and the snake, who calls their cat toxoplasma gondii?, true self control is waiting until the movie starts to eat your popcorn, ultraviolet wine, “You can’t eat a dumpling wearing a tuxedo!”, the sad and lonely man science has left you

Things about languages:

A longread on whistled languages around the world

RIP the inventor of pinyin

A schematic of why the Korean alphabet is so cool

Irish spelling has its own historical logic

The different versions of “I” in Japanese

The middle finger in American Sign Language

Egyptian hieroglyphs in Unicode

How to revive Massachusetts’s first language

The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

Deciphering ancient Incan khipu string code

New paint colours invented by neural network

A great visualization of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Clip of someone whistling a sentence in Spanish

The most common speech sounds in languages around the world

The problems with talking about “oldest languages”

Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit triplets

Playing wax cylinder recordings of Indigenous languages with lasers

The Vocal Fries does an interview about Rez English(es) and indigenous language revitalization

Native American Hand Talkers fight to keep sign language alive

An exercise for teaching about iconicity in ASL for intro linguistics classes

Google Translate adds gender stereotypes when translating from Turkish

Other linguistics:

Gifs and videos about aphasia

Hidden sounds in English that you don’t realize you’re saying

An interview with Alexandra D’Arcy about why “like” is so interesting

Pink Trombone, an interactive simulation of the vocal tract

“Becoming conscious of previously unconscious phenomena is one of the principle joys of linguistic work”

A sentence containing all the vowels in (some dialects of) English

The linguistics of talking backwards

Three interesting articles by Julie Sedivy in Nautilus Magazine, about the role of linguistics in literature and more

“Lexicography moves so slowly that scientists classify it as a solid”

The relationship between gesture and thinking/speaking

A graph of a kid’s first words

Conlang summer camp for high school students

An intro to the field of computational sociolinguistics

Spenser vs Shakespeare: a response to grammar policing

How to tell apart the two “th” sounds in English

Inclusive and exclusive “we”

Phonemes as Pokémon cards and the first conference on Pokémonastics

Deaf babies, when exposed to ASL, start to babble with their hands

“Linguists are interested in your intuitive sense of grammaticality”

How to type IPA on your computer or phone

When does maluma/takete fail? The language’s sound system matters

Sign languages have accents

Why sign language gloves don't help Deaf people

The strange reason deaf children aren’t taught sign language

Internet linguistics:

“lol” as “this is to indicate that this brief text isn’t hostile”

when you accidentally type a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence

Phoenician letters as emoji

How many times people repeat the “u” when saying “fuck” on twitter

Question mark in parentheses (?)

Winnie-the-Pooh used Ironic Capitals

Memes:

“i lik the bred”, a meme of rhyme and Middle English

you: *cough* me, a linguist: aspirated glottal stop

Is your child texting about phonetics?? meme

OK is a fossilized meme

You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for…phonemes on the memes

Missed out on previous years? Here are the summary posts from 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. If you’d like to get a much shorter monthly highlights newsletter via email, you can sign up for that on my website.

#linguistics #year in review #roundup #2017 #lingblr #links #summary

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flickerwix · 6 years ago

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“Before you I was nothing but dust and shadows. You brought me to life. And I cannot survive without you.” 💕 ― Deborah Harkness, The Book of Life . . Happy Hump-day, Lovelies! 🐫 . . I'm going to be making a big batch of All Souls candles today so I thought the picy most appropriate. 🤣 And can you really ever have too much DoW? 🤔 Naaahhh - I don't think so, either. With all the excited about Season 8 of GoT, I hope you're all still making time to watch DoW on AMC / BBC America! 🧛‍♂️ OMG, the show is so GOODE. 🤤 I can't wait for the next season already. I hope you're loving it, too. 🙌 . . Only a few shop updates today! . . We've got new candles coming to the shop this week! 🙀 Yaaassss... several new designs and fandoms! I will be posting them this weekend along with some picys here, so keep your eyes peeled 👀 for those updates! 💕 . . I'm also working on getting all the left over merch from the last several boxes posted on @Book.Dragon.Supply! 🐲 I have all kinds of amazing and fun stuff that will be going up this week. 🙌 Make sure to follow @book.dragon.supply for the latest -- I'll be posting as items are going up! I *think* 🤔 I even have ONE complete GoT 🐺 box left, if you missed out and want it for your watching! 🙊 . . And last, but definitely not least, our first VENDOR REVEAL for the Caraval ♠️ box! I know, I know... waiting a whole month is torture 😭, so here's a little nibble to to help pass the time! 😂 The amazing and super fabulous Amber, @bookish_signs is making a fab custom item for you to use in picys and display on your shelves! 🥰 I can't wait for you guys to see them -- pure gorgeousness! Thank you, Amber! It's always a pleasure collaborating with you! 🤗 . . QOTD: Uggh.. death 💀 and taxes, my friends! I hope you got yours filed on time! If you're getting a refund, what are you doing with it?! 💵 . I BARELY made it, this year... and to my surprise, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm actually getting a refund! 🙀 SAY WHHHAAAT?! 🙊 I know! I'm thinking it will go to bills anyway, but I'm excited none the less.🤪 . . I hope you're surviving your week, my lovelies! 🥰 . . 📸: @ve_xo! https://www.instagram.com/p/BwXQzfwHwz3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16tliwx5dvano

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ainomessage · 8 years ago

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Sailor Moon Year in Review: Reflections on 2016, Hopes for 2017

Sailor Moon had quite a year in 2016 - this is an accomplishment, considering that it falls well into the long-running 20th Anniversary Celebration and just before the beginning of the 25th Anniversary. I’d like to take a look at the major developments and analyze what worked and what didn’t. This is mostly from my own personal standpoint, but also taking into account general public opinion. Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3: Overall this worked. The new season largely addressed the most common complaints about the art style and generally had better pacing. The most common complaint I’ve seen about this season is that people felt the new attack and transformation sequences were too close to the 90s anime. Personally I enjoyed the throwback, and I think especially in Japan, the market that matters most, nostalgia is the driving factor in keeping the 20th Anniversary show going. Sailor Moon Drops: A mobile game! I think this hit right on target. It was one of the first truly modern marketing moves they’ve made, and overall reception seems very positive. Personally I rage-quit that game a LONG time ago because I find it irritatingly difficult, but I totally understand the appeal. Another success. Merchandising: This has been a bit of a mixed bag. I think the pacing has been way too slow for certain items - for example, the fact that only 2 of the Figuarts Zero figures based on Crystal’s Season 1-2 style came out before the style was changed, only one more was released in 2016, and we’re still waiting on Venus in 2017. S3 has come and gone, but the first figure based on its design wasn’t even announced until months after the series’s end. Meanwhile we’re bombarded by endless cheaply made trinkets based on the same wands over and over. I think the stationary, fashion collabs, makeup, and higher-quality figures/proplica have been the highlights. The cheaply made, lazy items coming out of gacha/crane games, the re-hashed figures (It’s Mars but she’s SITTING!), and overpriced jewelry/accessories feel like flops and over-saturation. Amour Eternal: The big cast change is honestly something I haven’t seen many comments on, surprisingly. Personally, I was really happy with this musical. A suitable shift came with the changing of the cast - instead of trying to follow the beautiful performance of the previous girls with another heavy and serious musical, they added way more comedy and silliness that harked back to the Bandai era. The plot was closer to the anime this time, which I felt was appropriate as the more complex manga version of the Dream arc would have been too much to pack into one show. The production staff also really upped their game when it came to effects and the circus performers were phenomenal. A lot of new things were tried with this musical and overall I think they worked. Fan Club: This one I have to say so far has been a huge flop. For a fanclub that was advertised as only lasting one year, the benefits have been pitiful. Only one pamphlet mailed out, very little original merchandise, and very few opportunities to attend live events. Of these events most aren’t even fanclub exclusive (and those that are still are done by lottery, so you can fail to get tickets). The tickets I got through the fanclub to Amour Eternal were for seats in the back row - wtf? As slow as the pace has been for the Japanese fanclub, I can’t even imagine how it’ll go for the international members :/ Going into 2017... This year I hope they jump onto that 25th Anniversary asap. I doubt this will happen, as everything seems to move slowly with this staff, but I worry - fads burn out fast in Japan, and I’d hate to see the momentum fizzle before Crystal and the musicals cover the rest of the story. Ideally, with future seasons of Crystal, I’d love to see just a little more deviation from the manga. No major plot changes, just more character development added. Two episodes for every chapter rather than just one. With the merchandising, I’d like to see better pacing and less “filler.” Unfortunately since they announce everything about 6 months in advance, I’m not sure we’ll see this happen, at least not any time soon. I’d really like to see more merch from Supers/Stars - Eternal Sailor Moon figuarts, Starlights figuarts, stationary featuring the designs and characters of these arcs. I’m reasonably hopeful we’ll see some of this as Crystal/Myu progresses in that direction. The fanclub needs to be revamped or dropped. I certainly won’t pay ~$50 again to join if they don’t come up with better membership benefits. I hope to see more involvement from Naoko in 2017. It’s hard to say what involvements she’s had behind the scenes, but it would be cool to get little messages or sketches from her every so often the way we used to through her website. Even if it just went to the fanclub! Now that I’d pay the $50 for. I’m fairly confident we’ll get one more musical. I just can’t imagine them cancelling the run before they do the very last arc. I’m very excited to see how they handle the Starlights. And finally, huge longshot but I can dream - a Sailor Moon console game would be AMAZING. Ideally an RPG. Even if it’s just Sailor Moon Another Story with updated graphics, I would play the hell out of that. What do you guys think? Any hopes for Sailor Moon in 2017?

#sailor moon

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canttalktumbling · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Can't Talk

New Post has been published on http://www.cant-talk.com/2017/06/10-second-reviews-vetra-nyx-edition/

10 Second Reviews: The Vetra Nyx Edition

It’s only been a few months since “Mass Effect: Andromeda” dropped, and my heart now belongs to a certain turian smuggler with a heart of gold. (No, you’ve romanced her in three out of four playthroughs. That certainly doesn’t sound like something I would do. Nope.) I mean, just look at her. Such a BAMF. Such great style. Such great voice.

Since there hasn’t been a lot of official Vetra Nyx merch yet (I’ll be here waiting for my Funko Pop!), fan artists and writers have filled the gap with some great stuff. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Vetra is so pretty and shiny! Thanks, @dragonsworncosmetics. Can’t wait to order Drack and Ryder next. 💕

A post shared by Ness (@paperbytheton) on Apr 12, 2017 at 12:52pm PDT

Vetra nailpolish by Dragonsworn Cosmetics.

If y’all don’t know about Dragonsworn, y’all are in for a treat. This indie Etsy shop sells fandom nailpolishes, lipglosses, eyeshadows, and lotions—all of which are amazing. The Vetra polish is no exception. The purple base is the color of Vetra’s markings, and the teal and gold glitter are reminiscent of her armor. Pictures don’t do this polish justice, and it looks great with a shiny or matte topper. The polish applies super evenly, and I usually get about a week or so out of it before it starts chipping. Even though there’s lots of glitter, it’s not hard to get off your nails.

Verdict: Highly, highly recommend.

Looks pretty and smells pretty—just like Vetra.

There, there. Not everyone can be as great as Vetra.

Vetra candle by Silvan Naturals.

I love candles, and I love fandoms, so this Etsy shop is pretty much the best of both worlds. In addition to soy candles, Silvan Naturals also sells fandom bath bombs, solid perfumes, lip balms, and other bath goodies. I picked up her Vetra candle, and y’all. It gives me so many feels. The scent is perfect—vanilla, sandalwood, jasmine, and lavender. It’s a lovely light scent that isn’t overly sweet and cloying. (And it comes in a solid perfume, which is my next purchase from this shop for sure because I am Vetra Nyx trash now.) In my headcanon, it’s what Vetra smells like after trading Jaal solder for lotion. This lovely purple and glittery candle comes in a 6-ounce metal tin.

Verdict: Buy this now. Thank me later.

It’s everything I hoped it would be. cc: @chaosxing

A post shared by Ness (@paperbytheton) on May 3, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT

Everyone wants a spikey girlfriend mug by bravestbrain

I am very picky when it comes to travel mugs, mostly because I drop stuff a lot and I don’t want to have to buy a new mug every week. So no cute ceramic travel mugs for me. Luckily, Redbubble is there for both my clumsiness and Vetra needs. There’s a lot of excellent Vetra Nyx fanart, but I went with the best flirt option in the whole damn game: “Everyone wants a spikey girlfriend.” Friends, this mug is everything. The art on it is adorable (precious Vetra face). It’s stainless steel and has a lid that screws on tightly. Because of the lid’s design, I haven’t had any problems with leaks. It is apparently dishwasher safe, but I usually just wash it by hand at work once I’m done with my coffee. I’ve used it every day for a month now, and the mug still looks flawless.

Verdict: I’ll take about 10 more, thanks.

Hark! An adorable turian.

Vetra sticker by DisfiguredStick

Now that I’m in grad school, I’ve wholeheartedly embraced covering the entirety of my laptop with stickers. Obviously, I had to get one of my beautiful space girlfriend. I went with this chibi sticker from DisfiguredStick, and I have absolutely no regrets. It’s the cutest. It’s removable (for when I get a new laptop, natch). And it tells everyone that I am here to romance adorable turian ladies.

Verdict: It’s everything I ever wanted in a sticker.

This doesn’t have anything to do with the fic, but enjoy another picture of Vetra being a BAMF.

“a moment in time (and space)” by bringham

You knew I had to rec some fic. There is not nearly enough Vetra/f!Ryder fic, but there are definitely some gems out there. This one, about Vetra and Ryder trying to have an evening together and getting blocked by Director Tann, is charming and delightful. Bringham is spot on with all the characters’ voices and gets at the heart of what is ultimately a loving relationship based on mutual respect, affection, and never letting Vetra cook steak again.

Verdict: 10/10. Would read again.

What are your favorite places to get fannish stuff? And please send me your Vetra/f!Ryder fic recs (or hit me up if you want more recs yourself!). I need more than 15 bookmarks of these two dorks in love.

#10 Second Reviews #Mass Effect #Ness

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templeofgeek · 5 years ago

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With all the hype surrounding the latest Doctor Who announcement, what better way to get into the Doctor Who and Holiday spirit than by grabbing up some cool Doctor Who merchandise. We collected some of our favorite Doctor Who inspired merch and collectibles. These are all perfect for gifts and for a little bit of treating yourself! Check out this Doctor Who Holiday Guide we have created.

*This article contains some affiliate links and our website can potentially earn commissions on some of these products.

Ornaments

DOCTOR WHO K9 DOG MOLDED ORNAMENT

DOCTOR WHO TOM BAKER 4TH DOCTOR ORNAMENT

Doctor Who: Dalek Ornaments Set

TARDIS with Wreath Ornament

Doctor Who: Thirteenth Doctor Ornament

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Doctor Who Tardis and Daleks Christmas Sweater – Official BBC Festive Jumper by LOVARZI. Amazon Link Here.

Holiday Cards

Redbubble is an online marketplace for print-on-demand products. The designs are submitted by independent artists. So, it’s basically a cool place to get your hands on some pretty cool fanart! It’s a place to find some really weird and off the wall art as well. One of the cool things you can find there is a large selection of Doctor Who Themed Greeting Cards! Just in time for the holidays. Click this link to see all the current and available cards. https://www.redbubble.com/

Audio

John Barrowman, who plays the witty and charming Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood, announced his first album ‘A Fabulous Christmas.’ The album will be released on 6th December 2019 and features all your festive classics including, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ & ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’ Available at https://store.universalmusic.com/johnbarrowman/

If you miss some of your favorite Doctors and companions, then you can see that their stories may still live on in audio. Big Finish creates exciting new audio dramas for previous incarnations of the Doctor. Listen to stories from the first to the twelfth Doctor. There are also spin-off series from River Song, Missy, UNIT and Torchwood. https://www.bigfinish.com/hubs/v/doctor-who

Fine Art Collection

Classic Stills, a Los Angeles and London-based publisher of rare and iconic photographs, is launching 14 new limited-edition images from Doctor Who on November 19, in collaboration with BBC Studios. Doctor Who fans had been asked to nominate which iconic scene or moment they would most like to hang on their wall through a competition hosted by Classic Stills.

The 14 images feature on-set photography, rare behind-the-scenes moments, and publicity stills. One hundred individually numbered prints of each photo are available, with each sold hand-framed and presented with a Certificate of Authenticity. Prices start from $149 / £125.

The Doctor Who collection will be available for purchase in the US, Canada, UK, and Ireland. For more information on Classic Stills and the Doctor Who collection, please visit https://classicstills.com/ and https://classicstills.co.uk/.

Books

I Love the Bones of You: My Father And The Making Of Me by Christopher Eccleston. In this book, Eccleston unveils a vivid portrait of a relationship that has shaped his entire career trajectory, mirroring and defining his own highs and lows, from stage and screen triumph to breakdown, anorexia, self-doubt, and a deep belief in the basic principles of access and equality denied to generations. Amazon Link Here

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor – The Many Lives of Doctor Who by Richard Dinnick (Author), Giorgia Sposito (Illustrator), Pasquale Qualano (Illustrator). An introduction to the brand new thirteenth Doctor, featuring multiple stories of previous incarnations of the Doctor. Amazon Link Here.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Volume 1 by Al Ewing (Author), Rob Williams (Author), Simon Fraser (Illustrator), Gary Caldwell (Illustrator). The collected Year One comic book adventures of the Eleventh Doctor. Amazon Link Here.

The Heralds of Destruction Hardcover by Paul Cornell (Author), Chris Jones (Illustrator). New adventures for The Third Doctor and U.N.I.T. Amazon Link Here.

The Doctor, Harry, and Sarah Jane Smith arrive at a remote Scottish island when their holiday is cut short by the appearance of strange creatures – hideous scarecrows who are preying on the local population. The islanders are living in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all. It doesn’t go to plan – the time travelers have fallen into a trap, and Scratchman is coming for them. Amazon Link Here.

Stocking Stuffers, Fan Art & More

Travel Hopefully vintage-inspired button by Logan Arch / 13th Doctor Collection by Logan Arch

Doctor Who Pinback Sets by ButternutGouache

DOCTOR WHO! INDIVIDUAL PRINTS by Johanna The Mad

13 Round Bag by iHeroCouture

FunSuits

Fun.com has a cool selection of men’s Doctor Who themed suits! We’ve reviewed their suits before and can say that they are absolutely worth the price. Currently, their suits have been marked down in price and you don’t want to miss out! Get them while you still can!

DOCTOR WHO TARDIS POP INTERIOR SLIM FIT SUIT JACKET

DOCTOR WHO DALEK SUBTLE SLIM FIT SUIT JACKET

DOCTOR WHO TARDIS FORMAL SLIM FIT SUIT JACKET

Cosplay

Last year we reviewed the Her Universe Thirteenth Doctor Cosplay Collection. You can still get your hands on this collection at Hot Topic and Torrid.

Coat Hot Topic https://www.hottopic.com/

Coat Torrid https://www.torrid.com/

Doctor Who Fifth Doctor Cricket Jumper and Seventh Doctor Question Mark Jumper Official BBC Licensed Sweaters by Lovarzi. https://www.lovarzi.co.uk/collections/doctor-who

Shop Temple of Geek Merch

Buy Temple of Geek gear and help support our site. Proceeds from these products go directly to help us continue to create more geeky content. You can shop Temple of Geek Merch on Red Bubble or TeePublic.

Red Bubble Link https://www.redbubble.com/

Tee Public Link https://www.teepublic.com/

Check out more Holiday Gift Guides and Ideas below!

https://templeofgeek.com/doctor-who-gift-guide-nine-gifts-for-fans-of-the-ninth-doctor/

https://templeofgeek.com/doctor-who-gift-guide-twelve-gifts-for-fans-of-the-twelfth-doctor/

https://templeofgeek.com/doctor-who-gift-guide-twelve-gifts-for-fans-of-the-thirteenth-doctor/

https://templeofgeek.com/holiday-gifts-ideas-for-every-the-office-fan-in-your-life/

https://templeofgeek.com/a-holiday-gift-guide-for-the-frozen-fan-in-your-life/

https://templeofgeek.com/holiday-gift-guide-for-fans-of-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse/

https://templeofgeek.com/our-2019-holiday-gift-guide-for-ghostbusters-fans/

We have your Doctor Who Holiday Gift Guide for 2019 With all the hype surrounding the latest Doctor Who announcement, what better way to get into the Doctor Who and Holiday spirit than by grabbing up some cool Doctor Who merchandise.

#13th Doctor #Christmas #Christmas Gifts #Doctor Who #gift guide #gift ideas #gifts for whovians #Holiday Gifts #Holiday Guide #Whovian

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celtfather · 6 years ago

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Best Irish Christmas Music #172

I’m picky about Christmas music. I prefer upbeat, fun Christmas songs. Good sing alongs. It’s a challenge to find those with the Irish and Celtic Christmas music albums. But I have a few favorites to share with you in the pub today.

You'll also hear some Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular Tour news, thoughts about kids music, the future of this podcast, and news about Coffee with The Celtfather.

Speaking of which, the last Coffee with the Celtfather show of 2018 is today at noon.

Enjoy Irish Christmas music from Kilted Kings, The Selkie Girls, The Irish Rovers, Brobdingnagian Bards, The Gothard Sisters, Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer, Marc Gunn, and Mikey Mason.

Pub Songs Podcast is music and community. If you like, tell a friend or interact. Subscribe to the podcast and my mailing list. PubSong.net.

WHO'S PLAYING IN THE PUB TODAY?

0:17 “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by Kilted Kings

6:42 “Good King Wenceslas” by The Selkie Girls from Winter Lore: Songs of Celtic Christmas

11:05 “Christmas at The Ale House” by The Irish Rovers from Merry Merry Time Of Year

14:07 “Jingle Bards” by Brobdingnagian Bards

16:12 PUB TALK

25:47 “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” by The Gothard Sisters from Falling Snow

31:11 “Deck the Halls” by Vicki Swan & Johnny Dyer from A Sound of Christmas Past

33:49 "Hero of Christmas" by Marc Gunn & Mikey Mason from Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular Album

39:14 SHOWS

42:34 “Christmas in the Shire” by Marc Gunn from Celtic Christmas Greetings

If you enjoy the music in this show, support the artists. Buy their music and merch. Follow them on Spotify. Let them know how much you love what they are doing. And tell a friend.

Pub Songs Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn. To subscribe, go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or to our website where you can join the Gunn Runners Club to support my music and this podcast. I’ll also email regular updates of new videos, podcasts, stories behind the songs, plus 21 songs for free. Welcome to the pub! www.pubsong.net.

THANK YOU PATRONS

The Pub Songs Podcast is listener-supported. Your generous pledge of as little as $1 or more per month allows me to create music and podcasts for your enjoyment.

If you enjoy visiting the pub, please join the Gunn Runners Club on Patreon. You’ll get podcast episodes before regular listeners, free albums, videos and lots more. Go to marcgunn.net to join the Gunn Runners today.

PUB TALK

Welcome to the Pub Songs Podcast. My name is Marc Gunn. I'm a Celtic Geek musician and podcaster.

What makes great Irish and Celtic Christmas music

Fun Christmas Music for Families and Kids playlist on Spotify

Geek Pub Songs playlist on Spotify.

Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular Tour

Coffee with The Celtfather returns in January on YouTube.

Video: "Frosty the Irish Snowman"

Enjoy more Celtic Christmas music from the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast and the Celtic Christmas Podcast.

Check out this episode!

#pub songs podcast

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365footballorg-blog · 7 years ago

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Black History Month: How Cobi Jones sparked a generation to get in the game

February 22, 20185:02PM EST

EDITOR’S NOTE: This year, MLS and its community outreach initiative, MLS WORKS, will launch a new platform, called “Soccer for All.” Soccer for All signifies that everyone is welcome to MLS, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or ability. MLS embraces the diversity of our league and is committed to ending discrimination by driving positive social change and fostering more inclusive communities.

Cobi Jones is not soccer’s Jackie Robinson. He wasn’t the first African-American to take to an American pro soccer field, not by a stretch. Nor was he the first Black player to make a significant impact on the field for the U.S. national team. (Joe Gaetjens, we see you!)

But a case can be made – and I will happily make it – that Jones was the first Black soccer player in America to be both talented enough and visible enough to inspire other African-Americans to get into the game.

Like many Americans, my older brother and I were introduced to Jones in the summer of 1994, when the World Cup party came to the United States for the first time. That year, the U.S. team and its cast of characters broke into the mainstream consciousness like no other team before or, arguably, since.

Alexi Lalas, with his long red hair, bushy beard, and acoustic guitar. Eric Wynalda, who scored that incredible freekick goal to earn a draw with Switzerland that let everyone know we weren’t going to be pushovers. Tony Meola, Claudio Reyna, Tab Ramos, and Johnny Harkes – all dripping with North Jersey soccer swagger.

And then there was Cobi Jones.

Cobi Jones in action against Romania during 1994 World Cup | Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

An arresting mix of catch-me-if-you-can speed, impeccable skill and iconic dreadlocks, Jones was instantly intriguing. Watching him come on as a late sub vs. Switzerland, my brother and I locked eyes and both said something to the effect of: “Yo, who is this dude?!”

It may sound extra in the era of Jozy Altidore, but for us two soccer-loving Black kids in Texas, Cobi Jones was a near-deity at that time. To give you an analogy rooted in the era, he was the sporting equivalent of Living Colour (the rock band) and In Living Color (the sketch TV show).

He was someone who looked like us doing stuff we’d never really seen people who looked like us doing.

Alongside pro skater Steve Steadham and ska-punk outfit Fishbone, Jones was the third point of light in our little Holy Trinity of weird Black guy idols. It’s not that we didn’t like soccer – or skateboarding or rock music – until we saw them do it; it just made us feel normal for once to see someone other than us do it.

Representation counts.

Suddenly that summer I was out kicking a ball for the first time since I was 11. It was only pick-up – the options for organized soccer for an 18-year-old after a seven-year absence from the game are limited – but I didn’t care. I was back on the field and with zero hang-ups about it. I was also now buying any soccer magazines I could get my hands on, meticulously combing through them for details on the imminent launch of MLS; with the World Cup over, I needed a new way to get my Cobi fix.

Jones: “I was never the type to say ‘Look at me! I’m your role model.'”” | Hana Asano/@hanaasano – LA Galaxy

The thing with Cobi Jones, though, was that he didn’t just do it. He did it damn good. Cobi’s resume is so thick with accomplishment that you would be foolish to accuse him of being an icon on skin-tone alone.

Internationally, he repped the U.S. at the Olympics and at three World Cups. Before he was done, he earned 164 caps, a record that still stands despite Landon Donovan’s best efforts to catch him.

On the club front, Jones played a record 392 games for the Galaxy, his only MLS club. He notched 76 goals – including the club’s first ever – and 104 assists, and before retiring in 2007, he won two MLS Cup trophies, two Supporters Shields, a U.S. Open Cup, and a CONCACAF championship.

Simply put, the man produced.

But the record books will never account for what he did to help produce a new generation of African-American soccer players and fans.

Getting Jones to talk about his position as a role model has never been an easy task. Gregarious but never one who seemed comfortable being the center of attention, he always preferred to let his game do the talking.

Until now.

Cobi Jones is currently the lead soccer analyst for Spectrum SportsNet in LA | Hana Asano/@hanaasano – LA Galaxy

“I never talked about it much, but I think right now, in the times we’re living in, it’s important to,” Jones recently told me. “We’re going through a watershed time in this country. And now some things that didn’t have to be said in the recent past need to be said out loud today.”

Things like how the representation of people of color in administrative roles needs to improve. How the economic barriers to high-level youth soccer can limit the opportunities for Black and Hispanic kids. How American soccer’s traditional suburban development pathway, so at odds with development pathway in the rest of the world, is probably hamstringing the game’s potential here.

In many ways, by speaking out, Cobi is once again acting as a north star for people. It isn’t easy now, just as it wasn’t easy when he was trying to just be part of a team. But, as always, the man produces.

“You feel that you are different, but you also feel that you have a responsibility to hold yourself in a certain way,” he says of being a role model. “I always wanted to make sure that I carried myself with a certain amount of self-respect that was evident.”

“I was never the type to say ‘Look at me! I’m your role model.’ But I always had a sense of what I was representing. I wanted others to see what I was doing and know that they could do it as well.”

SHAWN FRANCIS is the founder of the pioneering The Offside Rules soccer blog, a co-founder of Asbury Park FC and a long-suffering New York Red Bulls fan.

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MLSsoccer.com News

Black History Month: How Cobi Jones sparked a generation to get in the game was originally published on 365 Football

#Black #Cobi #game #Generation #history #Jones #month #sparked

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ascensionmonumentsmedia · 8 years ago

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THE LAUNCH OF SOMETHING SINISTER...

Ascension Monuments Media is a new, small run-only, boutique record label and merchandising company formed by art collectors Austin and Noel Albrektsson in San Juan Capistrano, California. The label, which will primarily focus on cassette and vinyl releases among other mediums, will see its first releases including titles from Drug Honkey, Nachtmystium, ColdVoid, Hate Meditation and Holocaust. For fans looking to purchase merchandise and unsure of things given Blake Judd’s past, the controversial frontman has chosen Ascension Monuments Media as the new exclusive manufacturer and distributor to handle all North American merchandise for Nachtmystium and Hate Meditation. German label House of Inkantation will handle European merchandise and distribution, and will also serve as the European distributor for all AMM titles in order to reduce shipping costs. The label is looking to expand its roster and encourage bands, both unsigned and established alike, to submit materials for consideration. Ascension Monuments Media is not interested in MP3s or links to streaming sites, but is looking for hard-copy demos that showcase an artist’s music and their visual aesthetic presentation. Hoping to expand into the territories of experimental music, power electronics, indie, powerviolence and other punk, the label is looking to diversify its genres past extreme metal.

About the bands working with Ascension Monuments Media:

Nachtmystium — America’s most controversial black metal coven has returned from the dead to seek redemption of Blake Judd’s soul. In all truth, Blake has been healthy and opiate-free for almost two years and the band’s management is focused on making things right and refunding anyone spurred by Blake’s drug-addled actions of the past. The Nachmystium mastermind has enlisted Martin von Falkenstein (Mosaic), Jean-Michel Graffio (ex-Sanguis Imperem), Øystein Albrektsson (ColdVoid/Holocaust) Jacob Dye (ColdVoid) and Phenex (The Ruins of Beverast, Hate Meditation, etc.) for the band’s forthcoming EP, Resilient.

Mammut — The ultra obscure / creative southern California black metal one-man-phenomenon known as Mammut, a force that parallels groups such as Leviathan, Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega in terms of sheer negative energy, creative musical structures and a non-compromising stance, aesthetically.

Holocaust — The well-established, Los Angeles-based, underground black metal duo will be releasing their second full-length album, Obscurum Satanic Rites, on CD / cassette via Ascension Monuments Media later this year. Holocaust’s unique brand of black metal is influenced heavily by the Pure Holocaust-era of Immortal, Inquisition’s newer material and Leviathan. The duo are a punishing live act and have live dates pending for both the United States and Europe.

ColdVoid — The band’s traditional brand of depressive black metal harks back to the best eras of bands such as Abyssic Hate, Judas Iscariot, Xasthur, and Strid. ColdVoid also gig heavily in the southern California area and are expanding their territorial reach in July by performing at the third annual Festum Carnis Open Air festival in Wilseyvilla, California (in the Lake Tahoe-area) alongside label-mates and headliner Nachtmystium.

Releases and merch available or currently at press:

HATE MEDITATION - Condemned To Death cassette (2003 demo reissue); Monument001 - (ltd. 100 hand-numbered units with sticker)

NACHTMYSTIUM - Eulogy IV cassette; Monument007 (ltd. 100 hand-numbered units)

NACHTMYSTIUM - Live Decay: Roadburn Rites 2012 (digipak CD to be released July 7th) Monument006

The band’s 2012 main stage appearance at the world-renowned Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland, this live album is the band’s third full-length album, Instinct: Decay, live in its entirety for the first time ever. Recorded directly from the soundboard and mixed later at a professional studio, there is no better way to listen to Nachtmystium live unless you know.. you’re there! Limited to 500.

NACHTMYSTIUM - Reaper 18x24 screen printed posters

NACHTMYSTIUM - Reaper screen printed back patches

DRUG HONKEY - Ghost In The Fire (cassette with sticker ltd to 100 hand-numbered units to be released July 25)

Chicago’s doom-dub pioneers second full-length album, Ghost In The Fire, is an exercise in human suffering via sound waves. One of the most negative, punishing and ugly records AMM has ever heard, Drug Honkey is completely unique and Ascension Monuments Media has extensive plans to release the band’s entire catalog on limited edition cassette. A limited edition vinyl LP of Ghost In The Fire will be released by AMM in November / December 2017.

Other releases scheduled:

- Drug Honkey - Death Dub cassette (ltd. to 100)

- Drug Honkey - Hail Satan cassette (ltd. to 100)

- Drug Honkey - Cloak Of Skies cassette (ltd. to 100)

- Drug Honkey - Ghost In The Fire LP (ltd. to 500)

- Holocaust - Obscurum Satanic Rites CD (ltd. 500)

- Nachtmystium / ColdVoid - Split 7" EP (ltd. 500)

- ColdVoid - TBA full length CD / LP (ltd. 500)

- Mammut - TBA full length CD

- Hate Meditation - TBA new full-length CD / LP (ltd. 1000 CD / 500 LP)

- Hate Meditation / Mammut - Split CD / cassette (ltd. 500 CD / 100 MC)

- Nachtmystium - Rites of Unbirth 10" MLP / cassette (ltd. 500)

- Nachtmystium / Murmur - Split 7" EP reissue (ltd. 500)

Merchandise at press (available July 6):

- ColdVoid embroidered patch (white thread on black)

- Hate Meditation embroidered patch (white thread on black)

- Nachtmystium embroidered patch (red thread on black)

- Nachtmystium - Unholy Terrorist Cult tee (new design)

- Nachtmystium - Performance-exclusive “Nights of Eulogies and Decay” baseball tee (black sleeves / white body)

- Nachtmystium - Instinct: Decay (new design)

- ColdVoid logo tee

- Drug Honkey logo tee

Ascension Monuments Media on the net:

BC:

www.ascensionmonumentsmedia.bandcamp.com

FB:

www.facebook.com/ascensionmonumentsmedia/

EM:

[email protected]

Mailing address:

Ascension Monuments Media P.O. Box 865 San Juan Capistrano, CA 92673-0781 U.S.A.

Band links:

Drug Honkey -www.facebook.com/drughonkey

ColdVoid -www.facebook.com/coldvoidblackmetal

Nachtmystium -www.facebook.com/Nachtmystium.Official

Holocaust -www.facebook.com/bloodofkingsofficial/

Hate Meditation -www.facebook.com/hatemeditation

Deathgod Messiah - www.facebook/com/deathgodmessiah

Cobalt -

Leviathan - www.facebook.com/TheTrueLeviathan/

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recentanimenews · 8 years ago

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Creating the Crunchyroll Expo - An Interview with Director of Events Adam Sheehan

HARK! The first ever Crunchyroll Expo is preparing to blast off later this summer at the Santa Clara Convention Center. And in anticipation of this momentous event focused on anime and the fandom around it, we present an interview with Adam Sheehan, Director of Events for Crunchyroll. Read on and enjoy!

Crunchyroll News: Hi and please introduce yourself!

Adam Sheehan: Hi and thanks for having me! I’m Adam Sheehan, the Director of Events for Crunchyroll

First of all, what are some of your favorite anime?

Ranma ½, FLCL, Kare Kano, Eva, Kenshin, FMA, and Serial Experiments Lain are among my all time favorites. For more recent titles I would say Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, Erased, Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Osomatsu.

Can you talk a bit about your past history with regards to anime events planning?

Absolutely. I’ve been working on or around anime events and conventions for almost 20 years now. I got my start in 1998 when a couple of friends of mine who were running our college anime club with me decided to start a marketing firm to promote local anime events. Our first (and only) client was A-Kon, the largest anime convention in Texas. After college I got my first paying gig in the industry as the Tour and Conventions Manager for a company called Score Entertainment, who put out the Dragon Ball Z collectable card game. I spent the first few years driving an H1 Hummer all around the country covered in DBZ graphics.

After that I spent over 10 years at FUNimation where I worked on multiple projects including helping to build and run their events and conventions department. While there I was able to do a lot of fun things from recreated the Ouran High School Host Club host club with cosplayers and the main English dub cast to helping to bringing CLAMP to the US for the first time back at Anime Expo in 2006.

All this lead me to where I am today at Crunchyroll.

How do you think anime conventions, and geek cons in general, have evolved over the last few years and what do you think is behind those changes?

There has been a spike in pop-culture conventions over the last 10 years. Both the demand by fans for such events and the profits around them have created what seems to be a suitable industry on its on. Video game shows like PAX or Blizzcon raised the bar on what a high-end convention could be after E3 struggled back in the 2007 and shows like South by South West saw their interactive track start to out perform their long time headlining music track around the same time.

Anime cons have grown along with this trend having shown to be one of the largest in average attendance per event of any types of pop culture conventions in North America. The one thing that anime cons haven’t done though over the years is change too much from the core of what we’ve considered an anime convention to be since the early 90s.

Anime cons are not the only offender here I will add. Comic cons only started to change their format that was built some time in the 70s when Hollywood and overall nerd media content became more main steam some 15 years ago. This is one of the reasons we wanted to launch something like Crunchyroll Expo. Anime conventions overall are pretty good as they are laid out today. So imagine if we could nudge them forward a bit more and help take them to their next natural evolutionary step. We spent the better part of 2015 and 2016 looking at events like Blizzcon, SXSW, and SDCC to see what they did to change the mold or build an event without the same traditional base that anime cons have.

The big question is, of course, what will make CRX different from all the other anime cons out there?

Without giving any of our secret plans away yet I can say that Crunchyroll Expo will have a variety of new takes on some of your favorite things at anime cons. We are not going to change out everything you see at an anime con in 2017. We are looking to put on a great event first and for most and if we try to change too many things all at once we could be removing some of the parts that make anime cons so great in the process.

I would say to the fans out there who are planning to attend CRX this year to expect to see a different take on things like how panels are set up, our exhibit hall layout, and more curated experiences when it comes to the kinds of events offered during the show. We still know anime fans want to see great guests, buy lots of anime goods, and connect with friends and other fans of anime in real life. We won’t be taking any of this away. If anything, we are looking to enhance them.

CR is best known as an anime streaming company, but the brand has been involved recently with special events like Anime Movie Night, the Anime Awards, and now CRX. Can you talk a bit about how Crunchyroll is expanding in this direction and what it means for the future?

When I came on board 2 years ago I could tell Crunchyroll was looking to grow their events presence. My third day here our CEO of Crunchyroll, Kun Gao, brought up the idea of doing our own convention so I knew there was a want to expand beyond the digital space. In 2016 we changed around a lot of what Crunchyroll had done at conventions in the past with great feedback from the fans. It felt only natural with this kind of momentum to see where we could take things next.

This lead to events like Anime Movie Night, the Anime Awards, and of course Crunchyroll Expo this year. We also created our ‘Powered by Crunchyroll’ convention program where we work with some of the best anime cons in the country to provide more for our Premium Members. As expected we have a lot of surprises in store for Anime Expo next month but are raising the bar again from what we did last year. Including the premiere of the first 3 episodes of Ancient Magus Bride months before it airs in Japan.

What was behind the decision to hold the first CRX in Santa Clara? What is the convention center facility like?

We looked at many different location options when planning where to put Crunchyroll Expo this year. After taking all our options into consideration as well as where a lot of our Premium Members and fans of Crunchyroll are located holding this in Northern California made the most sense. Having Crunchyroll’s home office located in the Bay Area was also a bonus since we feel an affinity to the Bay Area and the anime community around it.

The Santa Clara Convention Center is a great location. There is more then enough space to hold all the big events and locations we are planning on having like the Exhibit Hall, Artist Alley, and an over 2,000-seat Main Events hall. It also has a lot of lobby space and other areas for activations, gatherings, and smaller high quality engagement points for fans to enjoy.

Can you give us some idea what the logistics are like in planning an event like this? Especially for a first-time con?

Our Events team has almost 50 years of combined experience across all of us. None of us though has ever launched a convention so we made what I think was the very wise decision to bring in some experts to help us get Crunchyroll Expo off the ground. After looking at multiple companies we decided to work with LeftField Media who run events like Awesome Con, Five Points Festival, and Anime NYC. They were founded by some of the people who helped launch New York Comic-Con and New York Anime Fest so we feel that we are in good hands with them.

The overall planning for the event has been going great since there is a wonderful balance between Crunchyroll having access to great content, guests, and connection with our fans and LeftField knowing how to get the most from everything involved with setting a convention as well as create an event space that attendees will love exploring.

What can you tell us about the guest lineup?

I need to keep a lot of this a secret still since we haven’t started announcing guests for Crunchyroll Expo yet. What I can tell you is that we are looking at a wide array of guests for this year. This includes anime and manga related guests from the US and Japan as well as fan favorite influencers and celebrities that have a love for anime and pop-culture. Stay tuned over the next few months for more details and names to squee about.

How about special events or con exclusives?

A lot of big secrets here as well that I can’t yet share. What I can say on the topic of special events is that we will have some spaces that anime fans are familiar with at CRX that will have a different flair or focuse to them than they are use to seeing at other events. This is part of our plan mentioned before to push anime conventions forward.

I can confirm that we will have convention exclusives. We will have a Crunchyroll Expo merch store of goodies that are made specially just for this year’s event as well as we are planning to have a items in our Crunchyroll booth store in the Exhibit Hall that should be exclusive or brand new for that weekend.

We also have two VIP ticket options this year that not only give people greater access to events and guests but will also include exclusive merch that only these ticket holders will be able to get.

What are you personally looking forward to the most at CRX?

I’m really excited to see how what the fans think of all the different and new things we are bringing to Crunchyroll Expo. There are some things we think will be a huge hit with people when they see them in person but you don’t know until it actually happens. I am planning to spend a good amount of just time going around the convention watching people react and engage with different events and activations we have there.

Where should people go to stay on top of new announcements for CRX?

They can visit our CRX Blog at http://ift.tt/2t76dhg. We are updating it multiple times a week so be sure to keep checking back. We also have a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts for Crunchyroll Expo so they can follow us there as well.

Finally, if you had to describe CRX in one sentence, what would it be?

A forward thinking event focused on entertaining all lovers of anime and the fandom around it.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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365footballorg-blog · 7 years ago

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Black History Month: How Cobi Jones ignited one man's passion for soccer

February 22, 20185:02PM EST

And then there was Cobi Jones.

Cobi Jones in action against Romania during 1994 World Cup | Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

He was someone who looked like us doing stuff we’d never really seen people who looked like us doing.

Representation counts.

Jones: “I was never the type to say ‘Look at me! I’m your role model.'”” | Hana Asano/@hanaasano – LA Galaxy

Internationally, he repped the U.S. at the Olympics and at three World Cups. Before he was done, he earned 164 caps, a record that still stands despite Landon Donovan’s best efforts to catch him.

Simply put, the man produced.

But the record books will never account for what he did to help produce a new generation of African-American soccer players and fans.

Until now.

Cobi Jones is currently the lead soccer analyst for Spectrum SportsNet in LA | Hana Asano/@hanaasano – LA Galaxy

SHAWN FRANCIS is the founder of the pioneering The Offside Rules soccer blog, a co-founder of Asbury Park FC and a long-suffering New York Red Bulls fan.

MLSsoccer.com News

Black History Month: How Cobi Jones ignited one man's passion for soccer was originally published on 365 Football

#Black #Cobi #history #ignited #Jones #man&039s #month #passion #Soccer

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