#Mitch Thurman

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have The Truth about Cat and Dogs 1996

[danganronpafan777]

(You dont have to write this right away) dra male cast x reader that has the peronality of ibuki mioda like in the morning its like "good nom nom noming you sexy cutie"

I love this request sm Tsurugi Kinjo:

You were.... Interesting

With you and Yamato, he had two crackhead friends

He'd raise a confused eyebrow at some of the more random things you'd say, and would cover his ears everytime you had an instrument in your hands, whether you were playing or not 

He's completely thrown off guard when you confess to him, but finds himself accepting your feelings anyway

Tsurugi never imagined himself with someone like you, who would distract him from his trauma and give him breaks from work by tackling him into the couch and cuddling him until he can't breathe 

But he just can't keep himself away from you 

You never hesitated to grab his work, and throw it across the room and hold him to force him to take a break

He would blush a bit whenever you wrote a song for him, and would have to cover his face with his arm to hide his blush if you actually played it for people

It would take years to convince him to do a duet with you, and his voice would be so shy and relaxing, but you can't record it or tell anyone about it He does his best to keep you out of trouble, and it rarely works 

But for some reason, he still loves you 

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

“…!?…Good morning, Y/n…”

Mitch Higa:

He didn't mind your personality too much, as he had met much louder fangirls in his career, but he never would have imagined himself dating you 

Sure, he flirted with you and you replied with some witty comment, but he expected you to blow him off like every other girl in the class did for some reason

Even with his superiority complex, he will beg on his knees for you not to scream into your microphone again

He's get very confused at some of the strange things you say, and might even blush (to which he'd mentally slap himself)

If you wrote a song about him, no one would hear the end of it for the next week

He would brag about it to all his teammates and in nearly every interview of his to the point where you basically have to release it to the public

He'd try to seduce you in a duet, but would end up failing miserably Chaz Thurman style (please don't cancel me for that reference-)

Similar to what Haruhiko said about Satsuki, he jokes that of all the girls he wanted to be with in the class, he got stuck with the loudest one 

But despite your eardrum killing music, there's no one else he'd rather be stuck with 

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

He’s caught off guard for a moment, “You’re the cutie Y/n~” 

Kinji Uehara:

He was slightly started by your upbeat and loud personality, but he didn't mind too much, having experience in dealing with hyper kids 

Your classmates are impressed by his ability to calm you down-

He might ask a few questions at some of the strange things you say, but eventually just accepts that you say random things (He still might blush a bit at some of your more affectionate words)

He's a bit reluctant, but eventually agrees to perform a duet with you, having experience in singing through hymns in church 

He's not a huge fan of your music, and might politely ask for you to turn it down sometimes, but he still supports you and your passions

He would invite you to play for the kids at the orphanage, as long as the songs were child friendly and wouldn't destroy their eardrums

During one of these private concerts, you played a song that he wasn't familiar with, and was shocked when you said it was about him

It was probably the most flustered and flattered you ever saw him, and the kids teased him about it for weeks, begging for you to play it again and again

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

“I’m…not sure what that means, but thank you…”

That doesn’t stop the blush on his face

Haruhiko Kobashikawa:

Didn't expect to have a classmate this loud, but was able to match your enthusiasm 

He screamed when he heard you play for the first time, and his ears continued to ring for hours later, but he still supports you

Haruhiko might try to learn a new instrument such as the guitar (mostly to impress you), but would constantly forget cords and have no idea what he’s doing

If the two of you did a duet, he'd try to act cool and romantic but would end up forgetting half of the words

He’s confused and kinda concerned at some of the weird things you say, but will blush a bit when you say something romantic 

If you made a song for him, he would brag about it for as long as he possibly can

The two of you are two loving and energetic idiots, and while Haru’s not a great singer, he’s your number one hypeman!

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

He’s red for a moment before responding, “Good..uh, whatever to you too! Haha.. you’re the cutie…”

Kakeru Yamaguchi:

He initially flinches at your loud personality, but eventually gets used to it

Meaning he can keep himself from passing out at some of the affectionate things you say to him

He'll timidly ask what you mean whenever you say something random, to which you'd always say something even stranger 

You confuse him sometimes, but you still help him with interacting with others and expressing himself more 

He was oblivious to your feelings for him, so Kinji and Kanata probably had to spell it out for him

If the two of you ever sang a duet, he might have to stop a few times, and you oblige, not wanting him to be uncomfortable 

Your music definitely surprised him, but it does help him speak up (to ask you to please turn it down mostly-)

You like to perform private concerts for his sister, and use some of your tour money to help pay for her treatments 

Kakeru's entire face would turn pink if you wrote a song about him, and would completely pass out if you even spoke about releasing it 

From this relationship, you're able to remain serious at times, while Kakeru slowly lets loose and expresses himself more

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

Kakeru.exe has stopped working.

Teruya Otori:

He wasn't really expecting you to be so...loud, but that was alright! 

He admired your talent and the two of you were fast friends

You, him, Haruhiko, Satsuki, and Kiyoka probably start a band together (Sunshine Squad-)

He makes his classic confused faces whenever you say something random, and even his ears would turn red whenever you seemed to flirt with him

He would be extremely embarrassed and kinda shy to do a duet with you, but would be more confident as he gets older, but he still would prefer to keep it between the two of you

The moment you mention writing a song about him, his accent would leak

"Y-Ya made a son'!? A-abou' meh!? I-um..." 

He's happy! He really is, but he's also nearly at a loss for words 

His face would get even redder if you released it to the public, and his dad would probably play it on repeat at Otori Mart to tease him

The two of you are extremely affectionate and happy together (but Teruya still blushes his head off in front of others-) 

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

“W-Weh!? Y/n- um…G-good…nomming to ya too…”

His face is too red to say anything else

Yamato Kisaragi:

The both of you just clicked when you first met, and if he wasn't already a fan, he was now

He might yelp and cover his ears a bit at some of your louder songs, but he still jams out to "I squeezed out the baby yet I have no idea who the father is" while he's creating a million dollar invention 

Mikako is starting to get worried about him-

It might take him a minute to process some of the random things you say, his brain trying to make sense of it, but if it's even remotely romantic, his brain might briefly shut off completely 

Despite the pleas of literally everyone, He'll amplify your instruments and even add fireworks or create smoke machines for your concerts

He'll love to perform a duet with you, and will cry a bit in happiness if you write a song about him

If you actually play the song or release your duet to the public, he will be beet red for the whole day, but has never felt happier

He tries not to brag, he really does, but he just can't get you off his mind

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

He smiles wide, “Hey, Y/n! You’re the cutie!”

He cups your face and happily kisses you

Utsuro:

You tired him out honestly 

It took a while for him to admit that he likes you, as every time you talked/yelled and lightened up a room with your energy, he'd think or say that he wants you to shut up

...So why didn't his luck do it for him? 

He shuts down Akane when she offers that maybe he secretly doesn't mind you or your voice

Even before you started dating, you were affectionate and outgoing to him, throwing an arm around his shoulder and dragging him to some stupid class activity 

Whenever he dozed off, either in class or in the safety of his dorm, you would either shake him away or loudly snore on top of him 

It frustrated him to no end, but you never left his side 

One day, Utsuro told you he could make you the biggest rockstar in the world, give you wealth, fans, inspiration, anything you wanted if you would just leave him be

You refused.

In a rare moment of seriousness, you told him that you knew how he felt, and how lonely he was deep down and he just wanted to be understood, not used for his talent

From that point, Utsuro saw you in a different light, and slowly but surely, he began to confront his feelings 

Sure, you were his crazy and outgoing S/o, but at the same time, you were someone who truly sympathized and took the time to understand him 

"Just leave the BGM to Y/n! I made a whole album for you, Utsuro!"

"...Thank you."

"Of course, cutie~! This is for you and -"

"No...thank you. For understanding."

Yuki Maeda:

His reaction to meeting you was the same as meeting Satsuki (except he found himself liking you more)

This one's going to be a handful...

He would always compliment your music and any song you wrote for him, even if you were practically screaming to the microphone 

He had researched you prior to entering Hope's Peak, but he was happy to learn more about you!

You offered to teach Yuki how to play an instrument, and eventually he agreed to it

He was... mediocre at best, but he was still your boyfriend, and you wanted the world to see him

He can't really match your energy, and sometimes he feels more like your caretaker than your boyfriend, but at the end of every day and every kiss, the feeling of butterflies in his stomach lingers as all he can think about is you

"Good nom nom noming you sexy cutie~!” 

“H-Huh!? Y-Y/n..!”

[droids-in-disguise]

Alright, RWRB movie: final thoughts.

Overall I had a good time with it. It was fun, cheesy, and heartfelt when it needed to be. Honestly a lot of the more emotional scenes hit way harder than I expected them to.

If you're going into it thinking it's gonna be exactly like the book, you will be disappointed. There are a fair number of changes in the supporting cast and the details of how certain scenes play out. Some of it I understand, having only 2 hours you kinda have to be a lot more direct with the kind of story you want to tell.

List of things I liked:

I know one of the things people were concerned about in the lead up to this movie was the chemistry between Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine and OMG it's there, I promise, they have it! They were great as Alex and Henry.

The way the opening "cakegate" scene was done. Brilliant.

Joan Jett for the opening credits.

Uma Thurman.

The texting montage at the beginning where Henry and Alex are getting to know/flirting with each other. I really loved how they staged that.

Zahra's Mitch McConnell joke.

Just Zahra in general.

Red Room scene

The one big sex scene in the movie was actually so good and sweet. I am not generally a person who feels this way but it actually made me a bit emotional.

Alex coming out to his mom. Yes, I know there was no Powerpoint but there spirit was there.

Stephen Fry as the King, notable gay icon plays homophobe, lmao.

List of things I did not like:

No June, obviously, knew this was gonna be the case. In the movie "Nora" really feels more like June than Nora tbh, but I did like her dynamic with Alex.

Why are Alex's parents not divorced? Was it because they didn't want to cast Leo? Or because there was only enough time to focus on Henry's trauma and not Alex's?

Not enough David! He was in one scene, not even wagging his tail.

Not enough Pez, once again, only in one scene.

Henry not saying Return of the Jedi was his favorite movie.

Not enough of the emails, like I feel like we only got a few pieces and it makes it not feel quite as impactful when they leak.

Where are the silly goofy group chats???

Ultimately I'm glad this movie exists. Most of the things I didn't like are really just nitpicky issues I have as a fan of the book. As the movie stands by itself, as its own entity I think it was wonderfully done. Alex and Henry's story is so very important to me and I'm excited for the exposure that a movie brings.

[ellaelsinore]

I am three Mike's Hard Lemonades deep in my own despair, and I'm going to watch Red White and Royal blue for the third time. I've been trying to put my thoughts together on the movie which is almost impossible because the book is such a HUGE part of my soul. Maybe I'll have a coherent thought.

Right off the bat, fuck Phillip. I need someone to call him Pip and kick his ass.

Why is Bea the younger sister? The dynamic is changed so much for that, she is supposed to be the older sister that Henry takes care of because of her addiction.

WHERE IN THE GOOD GOD IS JUNE?!!? Alex does not play well as an only child, it makes him seem even more entitled and idiotic, he has no one to ground him, no one to tell him when he is being a complete asshole. Nora is great but she's also not Nora. She's some weird amalgamation of June and Nora and it makes me miss both of them.

Alex is too tall.

ALEX IS TOO TALL AND THEYRE TOO OLD. Seeing these two MEN trying to act like they are 20-somethings trying to find themselves and their places in this queer world that they are newly apart of, is awkward. This is not what 22 yo men look like, all broad shouldered and confident. Both of these boys need something to grow into, to have room to grow into themselves and each other, and when they look like 31 yo models who work out every day and don't have a blemish or an awkward bone in their body, it is so much less believable. I understand that Alex is supposed to be super charming, but you can be super charming and ALSO insecure and anxious. They're so one-dimensional it actually painful.

I love Henry's face. Excellent face acting from him, he's like the best of both of them. Subtle and understated but brilliant.

The cake scene sucks. It's boring, there's not enough people and NO ONE would have been able to get that close to Henry for that long. Also, I hope that is fake cake.

Bad Reputation is a little on the nose, don't you think?

ALEX IS TOO TALL.

Zarha is too friendly. I want him to think that she's going to kill him, he needs the fear of Zahra put into him.

Uma Thurman is a wonderful actor, she is not right for Ellen Claremont. There is no softness to her, very little affection, she seems unfocused on everything, which Ellen is not. Ellen is laser focused on winning the election. Or laser focused on her kids. I also am not sure who did her blocking because Ellen seems high, like all the time.

Love the Mitch McConnell joke.

I miss Cash. Amy is wonderful, but I miss Cash. I need their little conspiritory moments.

We need more of the boys being mean to each other. This is how they fell in love, the little quips, the jokes, the thinly veiled flirting. They're not mean enough to each other, not as biting. The relationship evolves so fast, we don't really get to see where they came from. What they were like together before, when they "hated" each other.

Alex is too tall and too hot. Henry looks like a human, Alex looks like the statue of David. Taylor is a wonderful actor, don't get me wrong but there are moments when Henry is supposed to be larger, broader, stronger than Alex, be able to wrap Alex in his body and they lose their impact when Henry has to look up to Alex. Half of the book Alex is angry that Henry is taller than he is, its actually a time when height does matter!

I love Shaan. I need more of him. I need MORE of the relationship between Henry and Shaan, Henry trusts him so much and we never see it.

Why not the Rio Olympics?

The banter on these two idiots, this is what I want to see from them, I want more of these two morons insulting each other.

SUPPLY CLOSET. The acting in this scene is actually impeccable. I believe them as real people. As stupid, moronic young men with baggage and feelings and private lives and misunderstandings.

I love Amy.

Henry when no one is looking is my favorite Henry.

There's something overly confident about Alex that is almost off-putting. He ACTS older, he acts with more life experience and doesn't have any vulnerability in the beginning.

SOMEONE PLEASE SAY FUCK.

Why are his parents not divorced? Are we trying to make the relationships more palatable to heteronormative society? Why are we taking that stressor and pressure off of the situation? People get divorced, people learn to work together after divorce to support their children and each other. Let the Claremont-Diaz's have that victory together.

Miguel is a fucking dick. The only out, gay character is a complete and utter slimy, smarmy, jackass who just wants to get into Alex's pants and get his story. He is gross and I for one do not like the implication of the only out and proud gay character being the one who fucks everything up. He is the only "role model" for Alex as a gay man and he is the fucking worst. He acts like all the straight men I have ever met in a bar. AND HE DOES NOT DESERVE TO SAY JACK SHIT ABOUT ALEX"S EYELASHES

I need all of the text messages. They are some of the best interactions in the entire book, the most honest, what is really going on in their heads, how they fell in love.

ITS ABOUT PATTERNS.

Turkey Gate. More desperation from Alex. A younger man's reaction. 30 yo men don't panic when a turkey gobbles. 22 yo men might, especially if they are drunk. I just want him to be younger. I feel terrible making those kinds of judgements because Taylor is a great actor. He does wonderfully for what he has been given and I can acknowledge that and enjoy his performance but I still want 22 yo vulnerable AGCD.

Who wears a polo to bed?

There's a softness to Henry's face that is missing from Alex's, a gentleness that makes you feel so sorry for him and the life he is forced into him.

Please don't sleep on top of your comforter.

This party is so much smaller than anticipated. I wonder if they couldn't get a large enough set or enough extras. There aren't enough bodies for 500 people, no one has taken off a jacket or their shoes. The couches are empty, the dance floor extends 10 feet.

I miss June.

Pez. Why are you not Pez.

Get Low brings back middle school dances. I do not care to elaborate.

The first time Alex looks young is drunk just after getting kissed by some girl and then realizing Henry is gone.

I cannot get past a 30 yo man acting stupid, drunk and oblivious. I'm 34, I have life experiences that make finding your friend outside in the snow less of a "did I do something wrong?" moment and more of a "get the fuck inside so we can talk about this" moment.

Thank you for the hair grab intimacy coordinator.

Nice touch with the text messages showing that Henry read them.

I think we need Liam to put some context into Alex's history with his sexuality.

Gay panic always sells.

"Shut up. Shut all the way the fuck up." Please someone say fuck.

That was not 5 minutes.

This interaction about Henry's erection and the 500 feet away instructions are the first time that their interactions feel human and like them, the two idiots in the first throes of love. (Probably because those instructions are right out of the book).

Henry literally just sucked Alex off and his hair isn't even messed up. His tie and shoes are still on. He's not even flushed or sweaty, what the fuck intimacy coordinator, I gave you credit for the hair pulling, lets get on this.

I appreciate Henry's nervous tick with his ring. I also think I just like his face.

(4th Mike's Hard, 1/2 a CBD gummie)

POLO POLO

Since I already watched the movie, I know what I am going to be mad about in this scene. The tack room sex scene in the book was the most awkward, rushed, messy, silly, glorious scene and they MONTAGED OVER IT. They took out all of the urgency, the time crunch the fact that Henry in leather boots does something for Alex. This is my favorite sex scene by far in the book. It's their first real, public tryst in the real world, outside the confines of the residence or the secret service. They could EASILY get caught. But they don't care, not enough to stop them from almost fucking on a table in a room that smells like horses and leather and sweat. This is the first time that the reader gets to see where we're headed, that we are looking down the barrel of two strong-willed idiots falling in love whether they want to or not. I think that is one of the things that the book really puts across that the movie is missing - the sheer urgency of everything that they have to do, the shortness of their time together, the lengths that have to be gone to for these morons to be together. It does not let up for a minute and it keeps you on the edge of your seat as they fall more in love and get more reckless and the world gets more complicated around them. Fuck, this movie is too clean.

Finally chinos.

They only look moderately fucked.

I miss the queen. I get that it might not be proper or whatever since she recently passed away but there's something taken away when it it not the queen mother, men are supposed to want to fix things and cover them up and make it all better. Having it be grandma, someone who stereotypically is nurturing and kind, makes it hurt all the more that she doesn't want to support her grandson, a man who is NOT in line for the throne, who is not using the crown's money, who just wants to live his life. It hurts so much.

The movie needs the pull of law school for Alex. He is so one dimensional, so focused on politics that there seem to be no other options for him, even though we know that Henry DOES NOT WANT THAT LIFE.

Again, there is a softness to Henry, to everything about him, that makes him more believable, more human. Why do I like his face?

Alex is so charming almost to the point of too much confidence. Like he can do anything. Without being nervous or anxious. I want to see the raw underside of that confidence.

Can Henry not wear a suit for a hot second? Him in sweatpants and soft pajamas is the sweetest part of getting to know Henry Fox, the man behind the royalty. I still feel like I know nothing about Henry and even less about Alex. We don't know his dreams, his fears, his aspirations, the LSAT scores in his desk, the constant running himself ragged to do everything and be everything. He's our main character and we get nothing.

The fact that Ellen doesn't get to make a PowerPoint means that we miss some of the BEST jokes in the slide titles.

Thank you for reiterating that the B is not silent in LGBTQ+.

You love him forever you stupid idiot.

Nice plug for Casey's most recent book, One Last Stop, which is INCREDIBLE.

Where are the kimonos? Why does Pez look normal?

I see them falling in love, but there is nothing like hearing it in Alex's own voice, in his own head.

The smile on Henry makes my heart melt.

If the only person in this whole movie who mentions Alex's eyelashes is MIGUEL, I will summarily LOSE MY COLLECTIVE SHIT again because I know that's what happens and I'm allowed to continue to be angry.

I can't watch Henry leave. There is so much pain in his eyes, it just breaks my goddamn heart. Except we don't need the view from Henry's side, Alex's mayhem is fueled by the not knowing and it is so much better when we find out right alongside Alex that Henry loves him, really and truly loves him in the way that might ruin his life.

Fuck you Pip.

A 30 yo man would not fly to London in the middle of the night. I'm sorry I want him to be younger.

I realize that I haven't said anything about Rafael Luna, BECAUSE HES NOT IN THE MOVIE, which is a damn travesty. Miguel being the gay role model and also the BBEG is not a good look for a movie about two boys falling in love.

There's my one fuck. Not in the most appropriate place but there it is.

The emotion from Henry for the first time, anger, almost despair, is probably the first raw thing I believe in this movie. The set of his jaw that matches Henry in the book. The pain in his eyes, raising his voice for the first time, in his silk bathrobe and no shoes, hits where it should. Potentially not as hard as it could have but it hits.

The idea of Henry not wanting that life, or trading the prison of royalty with the prison of politics is fascinating. For so long, the life he wanted was something he could never have. And now that he MIGHT be able to have a life, a real one, he has to struggle with the idea that he will still be in a prison of their own making. Still scrutinized at all turns, still trying to be what the world wants from him instead of who he is. He could no longer be a royal and he would still be under a microscope in the public eye.

"I would never call you a coward." Please kill me.

Collarbones and eyelashes.

Ugh, god, Alex making Henry tell him to leave is so romcom and I still love it.

I am not sold on the museum scene, it doesn't feel right. The weird choreography takes away from the reverence of the whole situation, the two of them being in the private world that Henry only wants to share with the person he loves, Alex. It feels scared in the book, the only thing in the world that Henry keeps to himself, the place where he can lay his heart bare. Its tropey in the movie. Its a set-piece not a secret.

Signet ring goes on the key chain "Two homes next to each other." And he gave him the key.

Gay people would not do this to each other, not for revenge, this is bullshit. I would much rather it be a political scandal than some gross bullshit to get revenge on the man who wouldn't sleep with him or give him a story. Give me the political scandal.

I wish we saw more of the emails, of the words and the quotes and the honesty. The impact of the emails is not stated enough in the movie because we DONT SEE THEM.

Zahra and Shann. Zahra and Shaan!

Lovesick puppy, gross. I feel like Zahra, put those two lovesick homosexuals on the phone so we can move on.

I know this is nitpicky, but why is Henry literally looking to the side while collapsing into his love on the steps? Who coordinated that? Someone in his situation, would have their face buried in their partner's shoulder as close to them as the possibly could be for safety and comfort.

Henry wins best actor in this movie. He's so spot on, he's so believable. Even his hands.

Stephen Frye is the king. Fuck you Pip. Stand up for yourself Henry, you deserve to be yourself whoever that is. You do it!

Your love is vulgar but no one says FUCK.

Alex: It's me. hi, I'm the problem, its me.

If you haven't seen Stephen Frye say "homosexual", you are not living.

Bea, you are so boring.

Henry gets all the good lines. Alex mostly looks pretty which is like not how Alex is portrayed in the book. He's quick witted and snarky, a little mean and a fucking nerd.

I hate that this is where this ends. I hate that jacket.

Overall, the movie was not the worst, but it certainly didn't stomp on my heart like the book did. It tells the story, at the cost of the heart of the book. It tones down the insanity, the desperation, the joy that the book weaves into this story. It's like the story is on low volume in the other room because you don't want to wake your partner at 3 am, the words are there sometimes, but you are missing all of the nuance. It hits all of the big points, but misses the depth of these characters. It misses all the things that make them human and flawed and interesting, all the bits that we want them to overcome and makes the reader want to root for them. Was it fine? Yes. Objectively, a cute, gay, rom com where being gay isn't the twist but learning to be yourself regardless is. Subjectively, disappointing. A gay man being the BBEG is a bold/terrible choice. This was not written by a gay person. And I want to touch on that, there are so many things that just scream "I am not queer". There is no way that a queer person is outing another queer person, two other queer people, on the literal world stage. Coming out is a hugely private and personal choice that some of us get to make and some of us don't but I cannot suspend my disbelief long enough to believe that another queer person would out someone like that. That is some straight people bullshit and it is fucking disrespectful to the others of an already marginalized community. Let politics be the bad guy, not the one other gay man. I miss Raf.

I'm gonna go read the book again.

[militantinremission]

I can give Senator Dianne Feinstein her flowers 4 what she was able 2 accomplish, as a 'Woman in a room full of Men'. Her contemporaries call her a Role Model. On 'Face The Nation', Lindsey Graham said that Sen. Feinstein was 'good for California'... Did he mean All of California? Black Californians haven t fared well on her Watch. The Black population of her State has shrunk in half since she took Office. The Black Community of Sen. Feinstein's Hometown of San Francisco, is on Life Support; that's not including the Homeless population.

Family in Oakland, Richmond, & Berkeley R being priced out of their Communities, like so many other Black Families in Southern California; how did Sen. Dianne Feinstein benefit them? Everyone interviewed spoke about her last act of voting to keep The Country 'Open'... Why is this a thing? It makes me question why she had to assign Power Of Attorney 2 her daughter. How much 'there' was still there? While I can say a kind word or 2, I also feel that Dianne Feinstein joins the ranks of Strum Thurman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, & now, Joe Biden & Mitch Mcconnell- folks that stayed past their Time.

-Just My 2 Cents

[irishfederalreconnaissance]

Homeland Security Committee on the Irish Republican Army (MI-6)

Chief Chamberlin: Mitch "Dragfield" McConnell.

Senator Supervising: Barack "Habeebi" Obama.

National Security Agency: Sandi "Khelkhet" MacDonald.

US Army Intelligence: Ben "B-Rock" Carl.

NKVD Vietnam: Dennis "Thresh" Fong.

British Navy: Silver "Stitches" Laventi.

Republic of Ireland: David "Chet" Charlebois.

Federal Bureau of Investigation: Alexandra "Miasma" Rhzanova.

Red Alert Team:

Persian Intelligence: Jeffrey "Dr. Leo" Lange.

Al-Qaeda: Amanda "Gemma" Schuck.

Chicago Poly Mercantile: Pat "Haggar" Ware.

NYPD: Momo "Kobun" Yubari.

Boston Gennero: Uma "The Bride" Thurman.

Harrison's Betting Parlor: Maureen "M" Charlebois.

Personal Bearing ("Chet", Republic of Ireland):

Target: Proctor and Gambol, police unions of dairy.

Jack Napier: Boy Scouts of America.

Edward Nygma: DC Comics.

Victor Fries: National Security Agency.

Jonathan Crane: Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.

The Joker: Homeland Security.

Bane: Committee for Security Services (KGB).

Oswald Cobblepot: Eros (North Korean MSS).

Digger Harkness: Sinn Fein.

Eric Needham: INTERPOL Taiwan.

[recountmag]

(via Rage Stalks This Place (Chapters 2-4))

[tuppencetrinkets]

various 200x100 icons; assorted media.

Teagan Croft - Rachel Roth - Titans

David Duchovny - Fox Mulder - X-Files

Matt Ryan - John Constantine - Constantine

Jodelle Ferland - “Five” - Dark Matter

Haruka Ayase - Assorted

Nicole Kidman - Satine - Moulin Rouge

Uma Thurman - Poison Ivy - Batman and Robin

Joaquin Phoenix - Arthur Fleck - Joker

Nicole Kidman - Chase Meridian - Batman

Mitch Pleggi - Walter Skinner - X Files 

Claire van der Boom - Anne Marie Flynn - Constantine

Alicia Vikander - Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

This content is free for anyone to use or edit however you like; if you care to throw a dollar or two my way for time, effort, storage fees etc you are more than welcome to do so via my PAYPAL.  Please like or reblog this post if you have found it useful or are downloading the content within.  If you have any questions or you have any problems with the links or find any inconsistencies in the content, etc. please feel free to drop me a politely worded message via my ASKBOX (second icon from the top on my theme!)

[formulazero]

Hello Jean! I have a question for you, if you had to assign a fall out boy song to each driver on the FE grid which song would they be (and maybe why)? I’m curious and I thought I would come to you 😊

oh my god maisie this took me actually forever this is incredible thank you here is the 2021 grid [not gonna do why for everyone because i’m just automatically right]

mitch: novocaine

sam: 7 minutes in heaven (atavan halen)

jev: irresistible

antonio: centuries

andre: growing up

pascal: sunshine riptide

robin: heaven’s gate [YES this is a fanboost joke. but also he deserves one of their best songs xoxo]

nick: young and menace

lucas: alpha dog

rene: caffeine cold

sims: bob dylan

lynn: pavlove

nico: miss missing you [lmao]

joel: whatever song they did with lil peep that i’ve listened to once im sorry i don’t know this man

sergio: where did the party go

rowland: i don’t care

séb: west coast smoker

turvey: where is your boy/grand theft autumn

tom: thnks fr th mmrs

stoffel: uma thurman

nyck: champion [in a negative way]

jake: the mighty fall

max: stay frosty royal milk tea

edo: from now on we are enemies

norman: yule shoot your eye out

[thumperdaetime]

Casting Picks for A Dungeons and Daddies live action thing:

Darrly: Bert Kreischer

Henry: Neil Patrick Harris

Ron: David Boreanaz (slouching)

Glenn: Jimmy Wong

Jo: Freddie Wong

Grant: Symfuhny

Lark: Jared 19

Sparrow: Jared 19 (with dog ears)

Terry Jr: Carlon Jeffery

Nick: Conan Gray

Paeden: Juliocesar Chavez

Carol: Jennifer Aniston

Mercedes: Sofia Vergara

Samantha: Yvette Nicole Brown

Morgan: Fiona Apple

Walter: Danny DeVido

Darnell: Harley Morenstein

Terry Sr: Craig Robinson

Autumn: Uma Thurman

Rest of the Glenn Close Trio: Mitch Guindon, Glenn Close

David Borianus: Beth May

Cern: Andy Serkis (no cgi)

Scam Likely: Steve Buscemi ep:44

Beth May: David Borianus

Hardball Coughdrop: Kiara Mia

Killa DeMall: Willow Smith

Yeet Bigley: Jaden Smith

Intern Doug: Anthony Burch

Dennis Carleson: Cris Hemsworth

HorseyOak: Brian Firenzi

[roleplaytipsandadvice]

Could I please request a family template for sasha luss? Thank you very much!

Brother

Alexander Ludwig

Chord Overstreet

Tom Ljungman

Jack Johnson

Mitch Hewer

Toby Regbo

Riker Lynch

Ross Lynch

Sister

Yana Shmaylova - Half sister

Veronika Vernadskaya

Alena Shishkova

Agnes Bruckner

Willow Shields

Zara Larsson

Nina Nesbitt

Alexis Ren

Rita Volk

Mother

Michelle Pfeiffer

Julianne Hough

Uma Thurman

Helen Mirren

Kate Winslet

Jane Lynch

Father

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Viggo Mortensen

Gabriel Mann

Roger Taylor 

Eric Dane

Val Kilmer

[goalhofer]

2020-21 Utah Grizzlies Roster

Wingers

#7 Diego Cuglietta (Kamloops, British Columbia) C

#13 Mitch Maxwell (Magrath, Alberta) A

#14 Trey Bradley (Toronto, Ontario) A

#17 Jared Pike (Sandy, Utah)

#22 Brayden Gelsinger (Regina, Saskatchewan)

#24 Joe Wegwerth (Southeast, New York)

#25 Denis Smirnov (Moscow, Russia)

#29 Charlie Gerard (Rocky River, Ohio)

#33 Terao Yuri (Tochigi, Japan)

#61 Christian Horn (Plymouth, Minnesota)

#72 Matt Hoover (Brantford, Ontario)

Centers

#16 Mike McNicholas (Redondo Beach, California)

#19 Cédric Paré (Pintendre, Quebec)

#26 Jack Jenkins (Lake Bluff, Illinois)

Defensemen

#3 Garrett Johnston (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

#4 Alex Lepkowski (Thurman, New York)

#5 Edwin Hookenson (Lampman, Saskatchewan)

#15 Miles Gendron (Shrewsbury, Massachusetts)

#18 Teigan Zahn (Bethune, Saskatchewan)

#27 Kris Myllari (Kanata, Ontario)

#28 Ian Scheid (Coon Rapids, Minnesota)

#34 Tanner Jago (Brandon, Manitoba)

#44 Matt Abt (Leduc, Alberta)

Goalies

#30 Brad Barone (Medfield, Massachusetts)

#31 Peyton Jones (Langhorne Borough, Pennsylvania)

[cloverorgan83-blog]

QUEENS 1930s

I’ve begun to think about “stuff” lately.

Forgotten New York celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and I didn’t start on it until 1998, when I was 40 years old. This was just a few years after the World Wide Web started getting really popular; had the internet been around in the 1970s, think of how large Forgotten NY would be by now. If you’re keeping score there are 3,715 separate posts, which consist of tens of thousands of images, if you estimate ten images per page (many posts have one image but many have 100!) To cut to the chase, I’m thinking about legacy. In the immediate offing, I’m covered by the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which will continue the hosting if I’m run over by a streetcar or something. Long-term? I’m 61 now (in 2019), and hope to do this as long as I’m physically able. My energy levels are still as good as ever — I do a lot of walking and bicycling, though I can’t walk 20+ miles a day like some friends (to my frustration).

How will Forgotten New York be remembered when it ceases everyday production? Well, as a photographer and chronicler of New York city infrastructure, I’d be honored to be whispered about in the same breath as photographers Percy Loomis Sperr, Eugene Armbruster, Edgar “E.E.” Rutter, and the anonymous photographers who shot every property in New York City for tax purposes; their work can be found in the New York Public Library archives and in the NYC Municipal Archives. Their photography was primarily documentarian over esthetic: there wasn’t a budding Ansel Adams in the bunch. For esthetics, you’d be advised to turn to Berenice Abbott, who deftly managed to combine both everyday chronicling and beautiful photography, having been influenced by the great Parisian art photographer Eugene Atget and by artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. I don’t aspire to Abbott’s artistry, but I certainly aspire to the great documentary powers the other photographers I mentioned were able to achieve.

Remember, photography was an expensive, cumbersome business for all mentioned above. I have a camera with a small, thin chip in it that can record over 1,000 pictures depending on its setting, as well as a portable telephone that has an excellent camera almost as an afterthought. Street photography has never been easier. As far as modern work goes there’s Matt Weber, one of the best New York street photographers, and for night photography the best I’ve seen is Mitch Waxman, who sticks mainly to western Queens, especially the Newtown Creek area.

A few years ago, I got my mitts on nearly 1,000 photographs taken all over Queens between 1929 and 1940 primarily as a method of recording recent street paving jobs. Thus, the focus is on roadways, either those recently repaved or are about to be repaved. Everything else seemed to be done as a sidelight though, as you’ll see, some fascinating building interiors were also recorded as part of the project. I have a somewhat busy weekend with a tour scheduled, so I thought I would take a few of these and scribble something about what I’m seeing in each.

164th Street at Jewel Avenue, looking north, July 7, 1936

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, a trolley line connected Flushing and Jamaica, running originally through the farms and fields of Fresh Meadows. The above image was captured at 164th Street and Jewel Avenue in 1936, just a few months before service ended in 1937. In short order, the tracks were pulled up, the weeds paved over, a center median added, and 164th Street became the fast and furious stretch we know it as today between Flushing Cemetery and the Grand Central Parkway.

South of Grand Central Parkway the trolley line veered off 164th and rode on its own right of way to a terminal on Jamaica Avenue at about 160th Street. In the decades since, most of this trolley route has been either eliminated or hidden pretty well, but the four-lane width of 164th Street is a legacy of the route. As you can se there was one lane of traffic on the east side of the street, with the rest taken up by trolley tracks. This photo was about a year before service ended, and the line seems to be in decline, with plants and weeds sprouting between the tracks. For more information see Stephen Meyers’ book, Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island.

In the photo, the lengthy building seen on the right distance is still there in 2019.

Jewel Avenue is an unusual named street that runs from Forest Hills across Flushing Meadows-Corona Park all the way to Fresh Meadows. It’s the only remnant of a group of streets east of Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills named in alphabetical order that turn up on maps from the early 20th Century. The streets in sequence were named Atom, Balfour, Chittenden, DeKoven, Euclid, Fife, Gown, Harvest, Ibis, Jewel, Kelvin, Livingston, Meteor, Nome, Occident, Pilgrim, Quality, Ruskin, Sample, Thurman, Uriu, Verona, Webb, and Zuni; it’s likely the streets were only on the planning boards till they were built mid-century, by which time they carried the numbers (68th Road, 68th Drive etc) they do today. I don’t know why the Jewel Avenue name was kept; it’s one of the few non-numbered streets, along with Northern Blvd. and Roosevelt Avenue, that cross Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The above photo was taken by the Somach Photographic Company, which also did a large amount of work recording what NYC streets looked like in the 1930s.

Ocean Promenade (Rockaway Beach Boardwalk) at Beach 101 Street

I cropped out the date on this photo to get my optimum width, but again, it’s sometime in the mid-1930s in late April. The season is just getting started at Gobel’s hot dog and hamburger stand. Note the barrel that was used to dispense Hires’ Root Beer. Silex coffeemakers debuted in 1915 and merged with Proctor Electric in 1960, creating the Proctor Silex company, which merged with Hamilton Beach in 1990.

The photos have largely yet to see the light, but in October 2018 I walked the length of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, which aside from a short section by Riis Park near the Marine Parkway (Gil Hodges) Bridge, runs continuously from Beach 126th to Beach 9th Street (numbered streets on the peninsula get bigger from east to west). In 2012, Hurricane Sandy did a number on the old wooden boardwalk and it needed to be rebuilt virtually for its entire length. It’s now a state of the art seaside walk, but at the loss of the old “boardwalk” feel as synthetic materials were used instead of good old wood planks.

What is also missing are boardwalk-side vendors like this; I have a wealth of photos depicting these stands which numbered in the dozens. What happened to them? The closure of the Rockaway Playland amusement park in the early 1980s didn’t help, and today, not one remains. Also: “Specifically [Robert Moses’] 1939 road to nowhere called Shore Front Parkway. As part of the construction, no businesses or dwellings were allowed within 200′ of the boardwalk and a lot of homes, businesses and about half of Playland. 

Capitol Diner, Lawrence Street, February 18, 1932

This E.E. Rutter photo of a roadside railroad-car style diner was taken in an era when fast food franchises such as Starbucks and McDonalds did not exist. Yet it can be said that the Dunkin’ Donuts of the world are the direct descendants of such road food stands, which evolved into steel and chrome diners. Such diners are now themselves dying out, as their owners retire and developers prefer to build multistory buildings in their footprints.

Yet, these small diners, the earliest of which were located in decommissioned railroad cars, were nearly ubiquitous even in downtown areas in the 1930s and 1940s; they’re all over scenes in the Municipal Archives linked above.

In 1969, the Department of Traffic (now Transportation) decided to rename 122nd Street, College Point Causeway, Lawrence Street, and Rodman Street under the single moniker College Point Boulevard. a short stub still bears the name Lawrence Street in Queensboro Hill. You have to be a little careful with the labeling on these photos; the “College Point Causeway” moniker only applied to the current stretch of College Point Boulevard on the diagonal stretch between 26th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway; south of that, the bulk of the road was called Lawrence Street and that’s where this photo was likely taken.

On the ads, the Willys-Knight Company produced autos between 1915 and 1933. Willys, named for John Willys, developed one of the first “jeeps” used in World War II and the brand name survived until the late 1950s and a series of mergers. The Whippet was a popular model named for the racing dogs, in production between 1926 and 1931. And,

The Scranton & Lehigh Coal Company was one of Pennsylvania’s large coal companies, supplying the Northeast with anthracite and other coal products. The engines that powered Brooklyn ran on coal; everything from heating homes and apartments, to heating the offices, schools, and churches of the borough, to the huge boilers that powered the many factories in the city. Coal was the fuel that kept it all going until well after World War II. Even today, a coal furnace still turns up here and there; they were long lasting, powerful, but simple heat producers. [Brownstoner]

“Theater building,” Lawrence Street, February 19, 1932

Another Rutter photo from the same period, also labeled College Point Causeway, shows a former domicile that has been turned into a billboard for several local movie theaters and the features playing at the time.

On the top floor are bills advertising the Taft Theatre, opened on Main Street in 1917 Flushing and renamed after President William Howard Taft, who passed away in 1930. It was a first run theater, but could not compete with the nearby RKO Keiths and Prospect Theatres, and closed in 1955. Both the Keiths and the Prospect survived until the mid-1980s: the RKO Keiths shell building is still on Main and Roosevelt Avenue, awaiting redevelopment. The Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica has been a church for several decades, but its near-phantamagorical detail has been preserved.

As far as the features go, The Champ was a 1931 film directed by King Vidor about a broken-down boxer played by Wallace Beery (who won the Best Actor Academy Award) and his son, played by Jackie Cooper, who had a lengthy career: he played Daily Planet editor Perry White 47 years later in the first Christopher Reeve Superman. Little-remembered today, Marie Dressler earned a Best Actress nomination in Emma.

Newsstand, Cross Island Boulevard, July 22, 1938

This photo is slugged “Cross Island Boulevard” which is the former name of Francis Lewis Boulevard; when the Cross Island Parkway was built in the late 1930s, Cross Island Boulevard was renamed shortly afterward to avoid confusion.

Depicted is a typical newsstand of the period. The top shelf is full of romance and movie magazines, few of which survive today. Titles such as Popular Science, Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping are still in business today, but none of the newspapers shown, The Long Island Daily Star, The New York Sun, and the North Shore Daily Journal, are. The New York Sun was revived as a daily in the 2000s and still exists in online form.

Laurel Hill Boulevard and 47th Street, March 28, 1938

Nothing in this photo remains; the buildings on both sides have long been razed, and Laurel Hill Boulevard is now the service road on either side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Changes were soon to come to this placid scene as the first Kosciuszko Bridge was spanning over Newtown Creek and the BQE was planned to connect Brooklyn and Queens. Once in Queens, the BQE was slated to follow the diagonal route of Laurel Hill Boulevard between the creek and Queens Boulevard, whereupon it would turn north to fork into two sections at Grand Central Parkway.

Laurel Hill Boulevard, named for a small neighborhood in Queens between Calvary Cemetery and 50th Street north of the LIRR Montauk tracks, dates back to the colonial era when it was paved with shells and known as Shell Road. It skirts the right end of Calvary Cemetery before following the BQE to Queens Boulevard.

James Gilder Bar & Grill, March 30, 1938

The James Gilder bar was located in one of the buildings depicted in 1938 that would soon give way to BQE construction.

Interborough Parkway, Cypress Hills Cemetery, January 27, 1932

The Jackie Robinson Parkway along with the Grand Central were the first of NYC’s “parkways” providing express (more or less) auto through-routing built within New York City. The “Jackie” unusually begins at the confluence of Jamaica and Pennsylvania Avenues in East New York, twisting through a convoluted route through the “cemetery belt” and Forest Park at the Brooklyn-Queens border, meeting the Grand Central at Flushing Meadows.

Here it is pictured as it was constructed in Cypress Hills Cemetery on January 27, 1932 in an E.E. Rutter photograph. Rutter chronicled the “Jackie,” which was called the Interboro Parkway until 1997 when it was renamed in honor of the first African American major league baseball player, who himself is interred in Cypress Hills. The parkway was rebuilt to handle modern traffic volumes from 1987-1992, eliminating the last traces of the original railings and overpasses seen here.

Metropolitan Beer Gardens, Metropolitan Avenue at Union Turnpike, June 28, 1933

Before the Interborough Parkway opened in 1935, narrow, two-lane Metropolitan Avenue was one of the main traffic routes connecting the Brooklyn waterfront and Jamaica. It was constructed as the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike during the James Madison presidential administration in the 1810s and renamed Metropolitan Avenue after the Civil War. Union Turnpike (its name suggests it was originally tolled, as Metropolitan avenue had been) is a somewhat newer route and remained incomplete until the early 20th Century as an extension of Union Avenue, originally a short route in Glendale.

In the early 1930s, the Interborough Parkway was under construction, paralleling Union Turnpike for a portion of its route. No trace of the Metropolitan Beer Gardens exists today, and either the parkway construction or Prohibition (repealed in December 1933) may have done it in; beer gardens around town either went the speakeasy route or sold “near-beer” containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

PS 63, October 30, 1929

Public School 63, which still exists today in a newer building (a massive edifice at Sutter Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets in Ozone Park) is pictured in a 1929 photo by E.E. Rutter. Though it’s slugged “Linden Boulevard” I can’t be sure it was located on that street as in the early 20th Century, Linden Boulevard, which has its origins miles to the west in Flatbush, was extended east through Queens in a halfhearted fashion; today Linden Boulevard exists in a number of separate pieces in Ozone Park, regaining traction for good in South Jamaica, where it runs continuously into Elmont in Nassau County along the former route of Central Avenue.

I suspect this photo was taken on Old South Road which decades ago was renamed in sections as Pitkin Avenue and Albert Road. Indeed, the present PS 63 is called the Old South School, which might cement it for you.

Soda Candy, Rockaway Beach Boulevard, April 26, 1938

Though Rockaway Beach Boulevard was rerouted in the 1970s a block north of this location and given extra lanes, a short, one-block stretch was left over and actually this portion of the road still exists. One thing you notice about this corner grocery is the Meadow Gold Ice Cream “privilege sign” in which a company would pay for a sidewalk sign, provided its product was prominently shown on the sign (several Coca-Cola signs around town in this category still exist. Meadow Gold, which also distributes other dairy products, is still found in several parts of the country.

Smith Brothers Ice Cream, Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, East Elmhurst

One such Coca-Cola “privilege sign” can be found at this roadside grocery at Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue near Glenn Curtiss Airport, now LaGuardia Airport. In the forefront is a placard for Smith Brothers Ice Cream, a popular brand in the early 20th Century. This brand was not originated by the bearded fellows on the cough drop boxes, but company scion Richard Smith developed the Früsen-Gladjé, Chipwich, Eskimo Pie and other dessert brands.

Van Wyck Expressway at 95th Avenue, September 7, 1934

The furiously mustachioed Robert Anderson Van Wyck was the first mayor of Greater New York, serving from 1898-1901. His involvement with American Ice, a monopoly in the necessary commodity before the age of universal refrigeration, cost him his political career. Nonetheless when a major route was built between Jamaica Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard in the early 20th Century it received his name, Van Wyck Boulevard.

In the early 1950s, NYC traffic czar Robert Moses built the Van Wyck Expressway along this route from Flushing Meadows south to Idlewild, now JFK Airport. The west side of Van Wyck Boulevard was retained, while everything on the east side was demolished; the buildings ween on the right side of the photo at 95th Avenue still stand. Since hundreds of residences were retained this is one of the few Expressways in NYC that have numbered addresses.

Van Wyck likely pronounced his name with a long “why” but today, most locals use the WICK pronunciation.

Lawrence Street (College Point Boulevard) at 36th Avenue, February 18, 1932

The Flushing Main Street station is so-called because there used to be a Flushing Bridge Street station located on the Long Island Rail Road Whitestone Branch, which operated from the mid-1800s to 1932, branching from the Port Washington line at Flushing Meadows and running north and east to Whitestone Landing at the East River at 152nd Street. After the LIRR unsuccessfully tried selling the line to NYC to operate as a subway line (presumably a connection would be made to the Flushing Line, today’s #7 train) the LIRR shut it down for nonridership.

This photo shows the branch as it crossed Lawrence Street, now College Point Boulevard; the Flushing Bridge Street station was just east of here. When the tracks and signals were cleared away, the one-block stretch of King Road would replace them.

Gas station, Whitestone Parkway, July 27, 1937

Among the items seen are a coin-operated public telephone, a Gulf calendar, and an ad for the upcoming World’s Fair to be held in Flushing Meadows in 1939. The Parkway gained expressway status some years after the Whitestone Bridge opened in the mid-1930s.

I’ll get back to recent photos — but from time to time, I’ll be showing some of these classics to indicate how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. You can find much more in the book I wrote with GAHS, Forgotten Queens.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

5/19/19

Source: https://forgotten-ny.com/2019/05/queens-1930s/

[recountmag]

(via Silhouette On Fire)

[anthonianrhapsody-blog]

So, about that contest...

A big thanks to all Anthonians who submitted entries! We are currently in the process of checking works and determining the winners of “Anthonian at ASEAN: A Writing Contest for Leaders of Tomorrow.” Give us some time, guys. :)

But hey, you don’t have to wait that long. Starting November 27, we’ll post the top 3 works for the Essay, Letter, Spoken Word, Page Poetry, Short Story, and Drama Categories. 

In the meantime, we’ll whet your appetite. In case you needed a reminder, the Champion of each genre will receive academic incentives, P500 in cash, as well as a prized collection from the Captain’s Library. And what exactly are the selections from this Library, you ask?

Take a look:

-Aeneid by Virgil

-America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

-A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

-Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin

-Essential Wordsworth (collection of poems and other works by Romantic poet William Wordsworth)

-Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

-How Not to Write by Terence Denman (a humorous guide to effective writing, particularly in the business and academic realms :D)

-Paradiso by Dante

-Purgatorio by Dante

-Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

-The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

-The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry

-The Complete Plays of Sophocles

-The Elements of Playwrighting by Louis Catron

-The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

-The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

-The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

-The Martian by Andy Weir (yes, that Martian, as in Matt Damon)

-The Only Grammar Book That You’ll Ever Need by Susan Thurman (seriously)

-The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

-The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe

-The Tolkien Reader (collection of stories, poems, and commentaries by the acclaimed writer of Lord of the Rings)

-The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

If you’re going to be named Champion of any genre in the contest, we’ll let you pick any one of these books. Gotta call dibs as fast as you can! Good luck :)

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1271

Monday, July 22, 2019

 I finally got some nice fishing weather, cloudy with a slight breeze, for a solo trip out to the lake this morning. A great time was had by me. Lots of exciting news coming out of the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend. Hearts were all a-flutter but I am dead inside now and wasn't fazed. I am happy that they cast a Chinese Canadian in the lead role for the Shang Chi movie.

 Domino: Hotshots #5 - Gail Simone (writer) David Baldeon & Michael Shelfer (art) Jim Charalampidis (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Yay Neena Thurman and her Hotshots. The day is saved and I await the next story. I really hope this goes on but if this is the last issue then I am satisfied. This was a great story overall and I loved the art.

 The Unstoppable Wasp #10 - Jeremy Whitley (writer) Gurihiru (art) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Nadia and the G.I.R.L.s beat the bad guy and we have another happy ending. Wow, it looks like this is the last issue of this title too and I'm sad that it won't be on the racks anymore. I've enjoyed reading every issue and I will be recommending the collections to fans looking for some fun stories.

 Immortal Hulk #21 - Al Ewing (writer) Ryan Bodenheim (art) Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I've been curious about who this Major General Reginald James Fortean is that heads Shadow Base and now I wonder no more. This issue tells his origin story and it's so complete you'll totally get where he's coming from when it concerns the Hulk. The last page means very bad things are in store for the big green galoot down the road.

 Daredevil #8 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Lalit Kumar Sharma (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). No Devils, Only God part 3. Wow, what a great issue and the costume was nowhere in sight. Matt manages to turn a nice Italian family dinner into a major debacle. Hell's Kitchen is heating up while Mayor Fisk plots. This book is climbing the charts.

 Blossoms 666 #5 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Laura Braga (art) Matt Herms (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). I wouldn't still be reading this if it wasn't for the terrific art. It's sick and twisted and made even more enjoyable because these are Archie characters. I am waiting to find out who the Ant-Christ will be.

 Batman #75 - Tom King (writer) Tony S. Daniel & Mitch Gerads (art) Tomeu Morey & Mitch Gerads (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). City of Bane part 1. Tom King turns this title upside down as he winds up his tenure slated to end with issue #87 or so. Now we know who climbed out of the pit at the end of the last issue. Bane is the mayor of Gotham City. Batman's rogues gallery all work for the GCPD. This new Batman has a new sidekick who is a lot more powerful than a Robin. The negotiation between Bane and the POTUS caps off this unbelievable reality. Batman is going to be a very interesting book to read the rest of this year.

 Loki #1 - Daniel Kibblesmith (writer) Oscar Bazaldua (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Loki is the new King of Jotunheim. If you want to know how that came about go read War of the Realms. It's not easy for the God of Mischief to sit still, so this debut shows us how Loki has evolved to fill the shoes of the ruler of the Frost Giants. I like the humour in this and if the shenanigans are fun, I will keep reading.

 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 - Matt Fraction (writer) Steve Lieber (art) Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I wasn't going to read this new title after the snippet I read in Superman Leviathan Rising #1 but I wanted to give Matt Fraction a chance to wow me since I've enjoyed his previous writing gigs. I liked Jimmy's misadventures 50 years ago and these short stories are similarly silly, but I've outgrown them. Not even the mystery of how he winds up banished to Gotham City will keep me hanging around.

 Spider-Man Life Story #5 The '00s - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Mark Bagley (pencils) John Dell (inks) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Someone coined the term the aughties for the decade between 2000 and 2010 and I thought that was quite clever. I love how Chip is incorporating Marvel continuity into these stories. Here we have the Civil War raging between Iron Man and Captain America while Morlun is hunting Spider powered people during Spider-Geddon. Peter and Mary Jane are living in Portland with their twins Claire and Ben while clone Ben Riley pretends to be Peter Parker in New York City and fights crime as Spider-Man. Peter is forced to come out of hiding to fight Morlun and the battle ends with a thrilling conclusion.  I can't wait to see what happens in the next 10 years.

 Silver Surfer Black #2 - Donny Cates (writer) Tradd Moore (art) Dave Stewart (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). What a cosmically epic issue as the Silver Surfer fights Knull, God of the Symbiotes. Yeah, that's right. Black costume and Venom Symbiotes. That was surprising, but then an ally pops up and it's an even bigger surprise.

 The Superior Spider-Man #9 - Christos Gage (writer) Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Otto gets the keys to the city of San Francisco after all he's done to protect it from Terrax and Master Pandemonium and during War of the Realms. I loved how his arrogant reaction to the ceremony leads to more emotional growth for the reformed super villain. The cover shows Norman Osborn rearing his ugly head but he doesn't show up until the last page. This Norm must come from some alternate universe because he's got six arms and a henchman named Spiders-Man. 'Tis to laugh. I also got a chuckle from the old timey bad guy from 1982 that Otto fights in the main story. I'm getting to like the Superior Spider-Man more and more.