#Spicer Avenue

[doo-wop-city]

Binns & Bonito’s Upgrade, Part 3: Bonito Motel

Part 1: Bonito Part 2: Binns Hi, there. Stella Star here. In posts from last month, which you can view by clicking the buttons above, we looked at Binns and Bonito’s early stages of transition into Vibes. A few months passed, and my husband took photos again to note the developments since then. These photos were taken on April 10, 1968. (…Or, was that 2024?) You’re familiar with this sign, if…

[relatableblorbopoll]

Preliminaries

Here's how it will work:

The first round will consist of 18 polls of 6 participants each, the first two places get a place on the bracket

For the second round, there will be 12 polls of 6 participants each, the first two places get a place on the bracket

The third round will consist of 4 polls of 12 participants each where there will be a (metaphorical) knife battle to the death where only one character from each poll will get in the bracket

All pairings of groups are randomly generated

Check after the read more for the full list of participants and for the groups of the first round of preliminaries

Group 1 poll

Nimona (Nimona)

Twelfth Doctor (Doctor Who)

Blue/Green Oak (Pokémon Green/Blue/Red)

Jack Reacher (Reacher Series)

Tsubakura Enraku (Len'en Project)

Albedo (Genshin Impact)

Group 2 poll

Jessica Day (New Girl)

Daniel LaRusso (Karate Kid)

Omota Uramichi (Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan)

Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown)

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Eichi Tenshouin (Ensemble Stars)

Group 3 poll

Conner Bailey (The Land of Stories)

Lucy Honeychurch (A Room With A View)

Greg Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

Akaashi Keiji (Haikyuu!!)

Burgerpants (Undertale)

Group 4 poll

Legosi (Beastars)

Stephen Stills (Scott Pilgrim comics)

Sunny (Omori)

Tony Stark (Marvel Avengers)

Rookie (Club Penguin)

Charlie Morningstar (Hazbin Hotel)

Grupo 5 poll

Melissa Chase (Milo Murphy’s Law)

Candace Flynn (Phineas and Ferb)

V-Flower (Vocaloid)

Ciaphas Cain (Warhammer 40k)

Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson series)

MK (Lego Monkie Kid)

Group 6 poll

Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows)

Crowley (Good Omens)

Dave Strider (Homestuck)

Junior (Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race)

Kim Dokja (Omnicient Reader's Viewpoint)

Donutella (Tokidoki)

Group 7 poll

Rigby (Regular Show)

Angua (Discworld)

Cao Weining (Word of Honor)

Aang (Avatar: The Last Air Bender)

Okuyasu Nijimura (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

Shin Tsukimi (Your Turn to Die)

Group 8 poll

Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls)

Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise)

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives)

Ford Prefect (The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy)

Shaun Murphy (The Good Doctor)

Sonic (Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise)

Group 9 poll

Overlord (Bad End Theater)

Denji (Chainsaw Man)

Abed Nadir (NBC Community)

Entrapta (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Gren (The Dragon Prince)

Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg (Ride The Cyclone)

Group 10 poll

Nagisa Ran (Ensemble Stars)

Waver Velvet (Fate series /The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II)

Shuichi Saihara (Danganronpa V3)

Opossums (real life)

Midori Takamine (Ensemble Stars!! Music)

Seven of nine (Star Trek)

Group 11 poll

Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)

Shigeo Kageyama / Mob (Mob Psycho 100)

Barry the Quokka (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog)

Kaveh (Genshin Impact)

Yusuke Kitagawa (Persona 5)

Nanami Kento (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Group 12 poll

Rod (Avenue Q)

Missi (Vampair Series)

Lia (The Music Freaks)

Sand (Only Friends)

Pa Jindapat (Bad Buddy)

Sara Murphy (Milo Murphy’s Law)

Group 13 poll

Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Welcome to Night Vale)

Noah (Total Drama Series)

Basil (Omori)

Stanley Pines (Gravity Falls)

Wen Ning (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed)

Nick (Only Friends)

Group 14 poll

Oz Vessalius (Pandora Hearts)

Sound (My School President)

Luz Noceda (The Owl House)

Gundham Tanaka (Super Danganronpa 2)

Saiki Kusuo (Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan/The Disastrous Life of Saiki K)

Drew (The Music Freaks)

Group 15 poll

Wen Kexing (Tian Ya Ke / Faraway Wanderers)

Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson Series)

Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb)

Reki Kyan (Sk8 the Infinity)

q!Quackity (QSMP)

Group 16 poll

Parker (Leverage)

Gudetama (Sanrio)

Finn the Human (Adventure Time)

Rain O'Fire Frazier (Worm)

Piper Mclean (Heroes of the Olympus)

Norma Khan (Dead End Paranormal Park)

Group 17 poll

Berdly (Deltarune)

Hamlet (Hamlet)

Squidward Tentacles (Spongebob)

Hunter (The Owl House)

Szeth-son-son-Vallano (The Stormlight Archive)

Nami (One Piece)

Group 18 poll

Tobias (Animorphs)

Isaac O'Connor (Paranatural)

Trisana Chandler / Tris (Emelan book series)

Sokka (Avatar: The Last Air Bender)

Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran Highschool Hostclub)

Shinji Ikari (Evangelion)

[webseriesviral]

David Beckham's staggering 2023 earnings revealed David Beckham is ending 2023 ... #movie quote #movies #movie line #movie line #movie scenes #cinema #movie stills #film quotes #film edit #vintage #movie scenes #love quotes #life quotes #positive quotes #vintage #retro #quote #quotes #sayings #cinematography

[yourreddancer]

Trump at the Intl Hotel in DC

"When he wasn’t melting down over how 'very badly' he was treated or acting like a seditious lunatic, Donald Trump could be downright serene in certain Washington settings—and never more so than when he would swan in for dinner at the Trump International Hotel, a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and the only other place where he would ever agree to eat," Mark Leibovich writes.

"Unlike the Obamas, who would sneak out for date nights at trendy restaurants, Trump was hardly discreet when he went out to dinner. For Trump, a big, applauded entrance was as essential to the experience as the shrimp cocktail, fries, and 40-ounce steak. Each night, assorted MAGA tourists and administration bootlickers would descend on the atrium bar on the small chance they’d get to glimpse Trump himself in his abundant flesh—like catching Cinderella at the castle, or Hefner at the mansion."

The hotel gave every impression of being a tight and well-managed operation, in contrast to the proprietor’s side hustle down the street. Lots of Washington reporters would hang around the establishment, too. We could always pick up dirt that Trump and his groveling legions tracked in. The place was crawling with them, these hollowed-out men and women who knew better. You might catch Rudy rushing out to smoke a cigar, red wine staining his unbuttoned tuxedo shirt (that was the night of the Mnuchin wedding, I think). Or see Trump’s favorite pillowy-haired congressmen—fresh off their Fox 'hits'—greeting the various Spicers, Kellyannes, and other C-listers who were bumped temporarily up to B-list status by their White House entrée."

But the guests who stood out for me most were Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy and the busybody senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham. I would sometimes see them around the lobby or steakhouse or function rooms, skipping from table to table and getting thanked for all the wonderful things they were doing to help our president. They had long been among the most supplicant super-careerists ever to play in a city known for the breed, and proved themselves to be essential lapdogs in Trump’s kennel."

from The Atlantic

[handeaux]

17 Curious Facts About Cincinnati’s Ravenous Appetite For Oysters

Cincinnati Ate A Lot Of Oysters

In the 1800s, Cincinnati diners consumed something 200,000 gallons of fresh oysters every season, shipped in the shell on ice from the east coast. That works out to something like 2.5 million oysters per year. The volume is remarkably consistent between reports in 1852 and 1888. In the 1880s, 30 Cincinnati businesses either packed or served oysters.

Oysters Inspired Better Transportation

As early as the 1810s, Cincinnatians consumed oysters, pickled or spiced, shipped in hermetically sealed canisters. By the 1830s, entrepreneurs had worked out a system of speedy wagons to get fresh oysters from Baltimore to Wheeling, where steamboats could haul the tasty molluscan cargo to Cincinnati. From Chesapeake Bay to the Public Landing, the entire trip took just five days, with new ice added along the way to keep the oysters in prime condition. Within a few years, railroads shortened that run to just hours.

Mrs. Trollope Was Appalled

Pretty much everything about Cincinnati disturbed Frances “Fanny” Trollope. The acerbic British lady vented her displeasure in her 1832 best-selling “Domestic Manners of the Americans,” where she whined about Cincinnatians: “In eating, they mix things together with the strangest incongruity imaginable. I have seen eggs and oysters eaten together; the sempiternal ham with apple-sauce; beefsteak with stewed peaches; and salt fish with onions.”

Oysters Delayed The Mail

Mail runs were profitable for stagecoach lines, but not as profitable as oysters, and barrels of iced blue points were shoved into every available space on wagons departing Baltimore. The Daily Gazette [5 February 1846] reported that mail deliveries to Cincinnati were arriving late because the postal coach had broken down from being overloaded with oysters.

Oysters As You Like Them

How did Cincinnatians eat their oysters? An 1859 menu preserved by the Gibson House offers a single course at an elaborate dinner consisting of Oysters Baked in Shells, Escallops of Oysters, Oysters Baked with Fine Herbs, Small Oyster Pies, Raw Oysters, Oysters Baked in a Form, Oysters Stewed with Champagne, Oysters Baked with Cheese, Fried Oysters and Pickled Oysters. A later course included Aspics of Oysters in a Form of Jelly.

Heaven To A P.O.W.

S.B. Nelson’s 1894 History of Hamilton County recounts the tale of Columbus Bennett, a school teacher in Anderson Township who enlisted early in the Civil War. He served with distinction for several years until captured by the Confederates. Eventually paroled, on reaching Union territory the famished prisoner consumed his “first square meal in eight long months, consisting of thirteen dozen raw oysters.” He survived to teach another 30 years.

Romance On The Half-Shell

The Enquirer [2 December 1874] recounts local speculation about William “Billy” Stolpp, the keeper of an oyster house at 159 West Fourth Street, and his extended trip to Baltimore. His friends and customers assumed his long absence involved acquiring a stock of fresh bivalves for his shop. In fact, Billy soon returned to Cincinnati with his new bride, the former Miss Lizzie Evans, of Baltimore, whom he had wed in that city.

Six Words And $700 Created A Legend

James A. “Jimmy” Shevlin was no dummy. He was working as a bank teller when he noticed the substantial and regular deposits from the Central Oyster House on Sixth Street. “There’s money in that game,” he said and borrowed $700 to open his own oyster house on the same block. Jimmy’s advertising slogan was, “If it swims, I have it,” and Shevlin’s Oyster & Chop House became a hangout for Democratic politicians and celebrities of the baseball, boxing and horse-racing worlds.

Oysters Paved Cincinnati Roads

The WPA “Guide to Cincinnati” reports that, in the 1880s, Boudinot and Wardall avenues in Westwood were part of what was known as Shell Road. “The story goes that one winter a landowner sent his hired man almost daily to Cincinnati hotels and restaurants – to obtain wagon loads of oyster shells. These shells were then scattered over the roadway. Horses’ hoofs ground them fine and created a shining white roadbed.”

Pushcart Deliveries

If Cincinnatians didn’t feel like taking a streetcar to their favorite restaurant or walking to the local fishmonger, they could just wait until the oyster hawker pushed his wagon past their residence. In the 1880s and 1890s, Cincinnati streets were crowded with pushcart merchants offering to mend umbrellas, sharpen knives and scissors, grind some fresh mustard, slice watermelon, shovel coal and, yes, shuck a dozen oysters from an ice-laden cart.

Queen City Condiments

No matter how Cincinnati diners ordered their oysters, whether fresh out of the shell, or steamed, or breaded and fried, they usually added some sort of flavoring. If the condiment of choice was a hot sauce, odds are it was brewed right here in the Queen City. Two brands of locally concocted chili sauce in particular, Snider’s (1900) and later Frank’s (1918) had wide distribution outside the Tri-State region.

The Pig Is Still King In Porkopolis

A 1905 “Dictionary Of Slang And Colloquial English” by John Farmer and William Henely defined “Cincinnati Oyster” as “a pig’s trotter,” in other words, a pig’s foot. The prevalence of pigs in the Queen City inspired many saloons to offer pigs feet as a regular component of their free lunch buffets.

Blame The Kaiser

World War I did nothing to abate Cincinnati’s hunger for oysters, even though wartime conditions hiked the cost of their favorite bivalve. In 1917, most Cincinnati oyster houses raised the price of oyster stew from 20 cents a bowl to 25 cents. Restaurateurs blamed the war and the customers blamed the Kaiser for starting the conflict.

Oysters For The Jury

Among the most sensational trials in Cincinnati history was the land-scam scandal of Roy Van Tress. At the conclusion of the court proceedings, resulting in Van Tress being sentenced to federal prison, the court received a bill of $848.46 from the Havlin Hotel for housing the jury, and a bill for $1383.75 from Shevlin’s Oyster House for feeding them. At that time, an oyster dinner with all the trimmings cost about 35 cents. That’s a lot of oysters!

Free Oysters For Life (Version 1)

In addition to newspaper reports, there are witnesses who attest that William Whipple Symmes, great-grand-nephew of John Cleves Symmes and prominent Cincinnati attorney, earned free oysters for life at the Central Oyster House. In one version, reported by Alfred Segal in the Cincinnati Post [22 June 1946], Jacob Rosenfield, the proprietor, realized that Symmes had been a regular customer for 30 years and presented him with a free pass for the remainder of his days.

Free Oysters For Life (Version 2)

Another Post columnist, Si Cornell, reported [16 March 1971] a different rationale for the free oysters, and cited W.W. Symmes’ law partner, William Busch, as the source. According to Busch, Symmes heard that Cincinnati was paralyzed by an “oyster scare” – rumors that oysters “weren’t much good and maybe worse.” Symmes contacted the Central Oyster House and offered to sit in the front window, eating Jacob Rosenfield’s oysters for everyone to see. Business picked up and the proprietor repaid his customer with “on-the-house” oysters ever after.

Still A Lot Of Oysters

Jacob Rosenfield’s old Central Oyster House was demolished in 1958 to make way for the new Federal Building on Government Square. The owner at the time, Rosenfield’s grandnephew Jake Spicer, proclaimed that the Central Oyster House would reopen nearby. Business was too good to close – averaging 4,000 hungry customers a day. One of Spicer’s employees calculated that she had served 32,260,000 breaded and fried oysters during her 40 years at the restaurant.

[oosteven-universe]

The Swamp Thing #8

The Swamp Thing #8 DC Comic 2021 Written by Ram V Illustrated by Mike Perkins Coloured by Mike Spicer Lettered by Aditya Bidikar    A terrifying reunion! With Levi making his choice, the new avatar of the Green draws one step closer to escaping the clutches of the Suicide Squad! But is it already too late? Has the Squad bolstered themselves to an unstoppable end? Or will an unexpected guest help him to victory at a terrible cost?    While I am most assuredly not a fan of this current Suicide Squad, mainly because there’s something wrong with Amanda Waller and we don’t know what that is, I am, however, a fan of this iteration of The Swamp Thing.  Levi has come a long way in accepting his new position, or life or whatever it is you want to call it, as Avatar of the Green and it really is an exciting new chapter in the characters existence.  What the boys are doing here makes me want to see this go straight to a monthly series with issue eleven.  This is the best book currently being put out by DC hands down and this is thanks to the writing and the interiors, not to mention the lettering as well, so why let it stop here?    I am in love with the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well.  The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter keeps their ever evolving and growing personalities at the forefront.  The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more things we want to see and know about.      I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen.  The layer keeps opening up new avenues to be explored in the midst of others already being explored and they all add this delicious depth, dimension and complexity to the story.  How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.      The interiors here are mindbogglingly brilliant to see.  The linework is utterly exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work we see is astonishingly well rendered.  I love, love the fact that even without words we’d be able to see the visuals and understand the story. It's just that incredibly well laid down.  Between the utilisation of the backgrounds and how we see the composition within the panels the overall way that the work expands and enhances the moments as well as depicts the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is brilliantly rendered.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling.  The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show the work of a master colourist as well.  The creativity and imagination that we see and how it is all presented just boggles the mind in how good, strong and full of verve the work is. ​    Just the way that this story engages the reader is beautifully done.  How we become invested in the book through the storytelling is immaculately rendered.  The desire to see and know more is inherently placed in the reader by the last page and it just never seems like we're getting enough of this story.  This is just a mindbogglingly brilliant book from head to toe, the writing, characterisation and interior artwork just make this one of today’s most intriguing reads point blank period.   

[the-record-obituaries]

Dec. 4, 2019: Obituaries

Debra Bauguess, 65

Debra Lou Bauguess, age 65, of  North Wilkesboro, passed away Sunday, December 1, 2019 at Wake Forest Baptist Health-Wilkes Regional. Debra was born December 19, 1953 in Wilkes County. She was preceded in death by her father, Clint Call; mother, Evelyn Sparks Lyall; brother, Randall Call; and sister, Mary Acosta.

Surviving are her husband, Mark Bauguess; daughter, Tina Bauguess Durham and spouse Brock of Roaring River; son, Michael Bauguess of North Wilkesboro; grandchildren, Gralan Durham, Hayden Durham, Allie Brooke Durham; several nieces and nephews.

Graveside service was  December 3  at North Wilkesboro City Cemetery with Rev. Victor Church officiating. The family has requested no flowers. Memorials may be made to the American Stroke Foundation, 6405  Metcalf Avenue, Suite 214, Overland Park, Kansas 66202. Miller Funeral Service is in charge of the arrangements.

 Shelba Church, 82

Shelba Jean Church, age 82, of Wilkesboro, passed away Sunday, December 1, 2019 at Forsyth Medical Center. She was born February 20, 1937 in Wilkes County to Cecil Lee and Mildred Marie Whittington Church.

Mrs. Church was a member of Lewis Fork Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Rex Lee Church and Cecil Ralph Church.

Surviving are her husband, Loyde Church; son, Tim Church and spouse Courtney of Wilkesboro; grandchildren, Madalyn Church and Alexis Church; brother, Kenneth Reece Church and spouse Sheila.

Service was December 3, 2019 at Lewis Fork Baptist Church with Pastor Dwayne Andrews and Rev. Sherrill Wellborn officiating. Burial followed in the Church Cemetery.   Flowers will be accepted. The family has requested no food, please. Miller Funeral Service is in charge of the arrangements.

  Randall Wagoner, 49

Mr. Randall Shannon Wagoner, 49, of Wilkesboro, passed away on Thursday, November 28, 2019.

Randall was born on Wednesday, March 18, 1970 in Wilkes County to Linda Mae Wagoner.

Randall is preceded in death by his brother Rex Allen Parsons and step father Rex Elisha Parsons.

Randall is survived by his wife, Kimberly Porter Wagoner of the home; daughters, Kaitlyn Nicole Wagoner of North Wilkesboro, Erica Hannah Wagoner of Wilkesboro; mother Linda W. Brown and Christopher "Chris" Brown of North Wilkesboro.  

A graveside service was held December 1, at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Cemetery with Rev. Brady Hayworth and Preacher Scott Wagoner officiated..

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be given to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Cemetery Fund.

Adams Funeral Home of Wilkes has the honor of serving the Wagoner Family.

  Margaret Call, 76

Mrs. Margaret Elizabeth Shepard Call, "Doll" passed away Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at Wilkes Senior Village.

Funeral services were November 30, at Fishing Creek Arbor Baptist Church with Rev. David Welborn and Rev. Allen Bouchelle officiating. Burial was in the church cemetery.  

Mrs. Call was born January 2, 1933 in Wilkes County to Clarence and Ermma Staley Shepard. She was retired from American Drew Dining Room Plant. Mrs. Call was a member of Fishing Creek Arbor Baptist Church. Doll as she was called, was a hard worker. She always had an open door for friends, family and her neighbors. She was an excellent caretaker for family and friends, loved to sew, cut hair and especially loved her grandchildren and was a Jack of all trades.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband; James Phillip Call three sisters; Beatrice Williams, Mary Curry and Betty Minton, two brothers; Mack Shepard and Joe Shepard and two grandchildren; Barney Call and Emily Call.

She is survived by a daughter; Peggy Byers and Robert Foster of North Wilkesboro, four sons; Rex Allen Call and wife Nancy of Wilkesboro, Charles Call and Michelle Stanley of Wilkesboro, Randy Call and wife Shirlene of Wilkesboro and Terry Call and Regina Dowell of Wilkesboro, nine grandchildren; Tabitha, Jason, Angie, Anthony, Zach, Dusty, Jamie, Amy and Amanda, sixteen great grandchildren and a brother; David Shepard of North Wilkesboro.

Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made at Fishing Creek Abor Baptist Church Building Fund 2446 Fishing Creek Arbor Road Wilkesboro, NC 28697 of Alzheimer's Association 4600 Park Road Suite  250 Charlotte, NC 28209.

  Nadine Anderson, 86

Ms. Nadine Opal Anderson, age 86 of North Wilkesboro, passed away Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at Gordon Hospice in Statesville.

The family received friends November 29, at Reins Sturdivant Funeral Home.

Ms. Anderson was born December 1, 1932 in Wilkes County to James Cicero and Drusey Soots Anderson. She retired from Carolina Mirror. Ms. Anderson loved to cook, bake and read. She loved to read her Bible and loved her family. Nadine was crowned the Farmer's Queen and Miss Wilkes County of 1951.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a son; Scott Tevepaugh, two sisters and four brothers.

She is survived by seven daughters; Vernell Powers and husband Gary of Moravian Falls, Bobbie Glass of Moravian Falls, Phyllis Spicer and husband Barry of Yadkinville, Terri Guion and husband Bobby of Taylorsville, Julie Tevepaugh of North Wilkesboro, Brenda Tevepaugh of Wilkesboro and Beth Pennell and husband Jody of Stony Point and a son; Robert C. Tevepaugh of North Wilkesboro, eleven grandchildren; twenty one great grandchildren three great great grandchildren and two step grandchildren .

Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made to Gordon Hospice Home 2341 Simonton Road Statesville NC 28625 or Alzheimer's Association 4600 Park Road Suite 250 Charlotte, NC 28209.

   Stella Couplin, 70

Stella Colleen Couplin, age 70, of North Wilkesboro, passed away Monday,

November 25, 2019 at her home. Stella was born August 22, 1949 in Buncombe County to Joseph Wayne and Anna Belle Cothern Simonds. She was preceded in death by her parents; and sister, Betty Catherine Waddell.

She is survived by her daughter, Michelle Erwin of North Wilkesboro; brother, Larry Wayne Simonds and spouse Crystal of Granite Falls; sister, Barbara Simonds of North Wilkesboro; grandson, Zachary Michael Erwin of North Wilkesboro; brother-in-law, Chris Waddell of North Wilkesboro; several nieces and nephews.

Memorial service will be held at a later date. Miller Funeral Service is in charge of the arrangements.

  Brenda Church, 72

Mrs. Brenda Kay Henderson Church, age 72 of North Wilkesboro passed away Sunday, November 24, 2019 at SECU Hospice Home in Yadkinville.

Funeral services were November 30, at Second Baptist Church with Rev. Danny Dillard and Rev. Wiley Boggs officiating.  Burial was in the Church Family Cemetery.       Mrs. Church was born July 27, 1947 in Iredell County to Mull and Frankie Keever Henderson.  Brenda was Phi Theta Kappa in college, world best cook, accepted with full honors to the University of Chapel Hill at age 59, she loved spending time with her grandchildren, best private detective, huge Tarheel fan and world's best mother, grandmother and a caring loving wife.  She was a member of Second Baptist Church.

In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by a sister; Paulette Cloer, a brother; Jerry Henderson and fur baby; Tiny.

She is survived by her husband; Eugene Church of the home, three daughters; Gina Hall and husband Gregory of Hays, Lori Church of North Wilkesboro and April Wilburn and husband Roger of Hays, two sons; Johnny Eugene Church of North Wilkesboro and Matthew Boyd Church and wife Haillee of Millers Creek, twelve grandchildren; Maria Church, Matthew Church, Monica Church, Brittany Church, Zoey Church, Reed Church, Cameron Hall, Noah Hall, Chance Kohlmeier, Autumn Transeau, Hunter Transeau and Philip Wilburn, four great grandchildren and a brother; Paul Henderson of Statesville.

Flowers will be accepted or memorial may be made to Mountain Valley Hospice, 243 North Lee Avenue, Yadkinville, NC 27055.

[lucindarobinsonvevo]

@it-is-bugs TDBM Drabble Challenge: Late Payment Title: Watering Them Geraniums Words: 300 - ish

Being a copper was, in Charlie’s opinion, a bit like being some sort of divine debt collector. Every body that turned up was someone’s down payment on a ticket to Hell. It fell onto the shoulders of the boys in blue to make sure that they were rounded up and made to pay in full. In Ballarat, there were lots of bodies.

If it was still just his life, there’s every chance that he’d still be out there. He liked making arrests and he liked making the streets safer. But these days, it wasn’t just his life that would be affected. No, these days he had a wife. Doctor O’Brien-Davis. If something happened to him, then it by extension, would effect her. He didn’t think she would become a Mrs Spicer, or some such nonsense. She’d lived thirty odd years without him, and he wasn’t so vain as to think that she wouldn’t be able to live in his absence. But just because he knew she’d be okay without him didn’t mean she should have to be.

He’d sworn he’d never come back to Ballarat. After that last fight with Matthew, he’d cut himself off from the house on Mycroft Avenue entirely. For a while, but like Neville woman before him…Here he was. Again. His reasons had less to do with impending death (his or otherwise) and more to do with the fact Mattie had taken a job as the second Pathologist at Ballarat General after Alice asked her to. He didn’t know what it was about Ballarat that drew people back here. It was still just an overgrown country town with no sun and festering war wounds.

And bodies.

“Narrow.” Mattie observed, setting the skull down and not bothering to elaborate on what part of the skull exactly was narrow only that it was.

“Probably a woman, then.” He said, looking at the file in his hands, “Consistent with the file.”

“You’re getting good at this.”

“Lots of bodies.” He said, eyes roving over the six body bags already lined up. So far five were identified as Missing Persons by things on their person. Lots of bodies, and yet never the body he was looking for. One debt still unpaid.

[trevorbarre]

Covid and the Improv Circuit

A few days ago, I posted a couple of blogs about one of our free improv national treasures, Evan Parker, in relation to views he expressed to Wire writers Tony Herrington and Daniel Spicer, and to Jazzwise’s Ken Waxman, in the spring and summer of this year. After some reflection, I soon deleted them, fearing that they might be misinterpreted, given the current toxicity that can soon surround discussions on Covid 19, the pandemic, and the measures that are being put in place to treat and contain them. I would direct interested readers to these interviews themselves, but want to write a short piece about Mr. Parker, and on whether an artist’s views can alter our perceptions of their work (basically, they should’t, but inevitably do?)

I got my sorry ass to only 4 gigs after March in 2020 (i.e. subsequent to the first lock down), and 5 in 2021,  events that featured some of the cream of our UK free improvisers, in the absence of visiting American and European talent. So I had healthy, but somewhat homeopathic, doses of the likes of John Butcher, Eddie Prevost, John Edwards, Mark Sanders, N.O. Moore and Dominic Lash, These gigs were wonderfully refreshing in the middle of these most strange 21 months of relative isolation and social strictures, but one name was conspicuous in its non-appearance, that of Evan Parker, the musician that I have undoubtedly seen and heard in a live situation more than any other (well over 100 performances, I would estimate; no other musician apart from John Edwards comes even close). Even the saxophonist’s longstanding residency at The Vortex now seems to be a thing of the past, and given the fact that he has been an integral part of the scene since 1966, his disappearance is surely hugely significant, and seems to herald an ‘end of an era’ moment?  I do increasingly feel that we will look back at the (just to give it a name and time) ‘2010-20 Cafe Oto period’ as a ‘golden age’, to be put alongside those of The Little Theatre Club (1966-74) and the London Musicians Collective Gloucester Avenue residency (1978-88). But perhaps slightly better attended and more contemporaneously celebrated?

I have been criticised at times for my monumentalising of particular ‘notional’ periods of English free improvisation, but Evan Parker’s loud absence does seem to me to be of notable significance, representing a caesura that correlates with the onset and continuation of the pandemic. Without being too fanciful and/or morbid, perhaps a comparison to the loss of Coltrane in 1967 might be some sort of equivalence, in terms of impact on a particular music culture? Having read Parker’s interviews, I do wonder if his stance(s) on a variety of related issues (the European Union, the virus, lock down, vaccinations) may have influenced his willingness to perform in such a ‘hostile environment’ (hostile to who and to what is the key question here, however). Has he, in effect, retired? Is he unwell? And, to add a more abstract question - have his opinions affected the way I (and, by extension, others) listen to his music? The answer is that I don’t really know, except to say that his contribution to the music has been so massive and consequential, that this is not a flippant or asinine question to be asking. We live in divided and polarised times, as so many hacks keep on telling us, and it does seem significant that the stances of public figures (and Evan Parker IS one of these, however marginal), rightly or wrongly, have become nodal points of conflict, and can lead to the unpleasantness that follows - for just one current example, just look at the case of the tennis maestro Novak Djokovic, which has occasioned a nigh on international incident. “I just play (tennis) man!” (a version of a sarcastically-meant quote from the late Parker nemesis, Derek Bailey) would be a neat get out clause, but somehow I think it’s gonna be more complicated than this in the long term, and I just hope that we will remember the immense amount of fantastic music that Evan Parker has given us, and that he will, that is if he wants to, return to enrich our rather arid and denuded live performance arena.

[time-of-objects]

Film in the digital Era

I took these images during the 90s and early 2000s when I was working as an assistant editor in the independent feature industry in Melbourne and Sydney. It was working in this capacity that left its unique mark on my approach to film making. It was exciting to work with film materials and the large editing apparatus within the big machine of feature film production itself. The image at the 16mm Steenbeck was taken on while working as an second assistant on the film Mallboy (Giarrusso, 2000). My job was to sync up rushes, film the rushes on a video camera off the Steenbeck monitor for distribution to the director and producer, put away trims back into their camera rolls, as well as lay up sound effects to enhance the soundtrack. Mallboy was a low budget film so the production decided to take the rare step (at that time) to cut on film. Digital edit suites were expensive and the hiring of Steenbeck and edit rooms were cheaper which meant the edit schedule could last for longer. We would have more time with the material and longer time to try things out. I am forever grateful that the production took those steps because I learnt valuable lessons about editing with physical materials. An assistant editors role now is much less interesting than during the time of editing on film. Syncing audio to picture digitally is now automatic, files are copied at the stroke of a mouse click which means the assistant might not even watch the raw rushes. The editor needed more assistance with filing and syncing and laying up music and sound effects which meant more time with them so we witnessed their craft and learnt what they do by being present at all the stages of the edit. A digital timeline may be navigated swiftly, you go to the head of a sequence in a stroke. At the end of a reel it must be physically rewound on a winding bench or on the Steenbeck. Rewinding on the Steenbeck gives you the opportunity to watch the film back and notice patterns in the edit from another point of view. This is useful information to the editor that time and the physical matter of a film reel imposed on them. Now because the digital edit suite is so quick at performing many seemingly mundane functions, this opportunity must be purposely sort out or is lost.

Another effect of cutting on film might be learning how to cut in your head. Because film handling can be laborious one becomes adept at watching rushes and cutting them in your head before you make the effort to find the shot, mark it up, take the spicer and trim away the excess. I want to know what other things can be learned by constructing a film on the Steenbeck that I may have not paid attention to before. So one of the tasks I have set myself in this research is to cut something on the Steenbeck again. So far I have used it as a way to make DIY digital copies of my film negs and I have also used it as a way to reconstruct a film shot on film but edited digitally. To cut on the Steenbeck I will need to make film prints or what we used to call a work print. Something you feel free to cut up before cutting the original film negative. This will have a financial cost and I am aware I don’t need to apply all the industrial methods of the feature film process to my personal process but I want to think through what might be useful. I have also read about using the Steenbeck machine as a DIY contact printer (in the Artist Film Workshop magazine Film Is) too which would make the Steenbeck an even more valuable tool to have use of. There is a great many possibilities and avenues to explore. I will be documenting them here on this blog.

Revisiting these images of my time as an assistant editor I can see I was already charmed by the materials during the rise of digital processes. The image of the 35mm print in the glow of the light bench treaded into the gang sync. My winding bench, a work station with books, music and photos arranged around it like any work desk. The pizza boxes full of the rushes. A pile of effort and time wound up sleeping and waiting to be put to use. The Super 8 projector and the beaten up 16mm camera on top of the Steenbeck monitor, objects becoming totems, symbols of an artisan approach. I took these photos from a stance of affection for the materials. It is puzzling that an industrial art form can take on the cloak of an artisan appeal. And this artisan appeal it seems to me to rest on not only that the surface of film that may be scratched or photochemically explored but importantly that the physical nature of working with film means you hold it, carry it from apparatus to apparatus, push and tug the film strips through different machines in different work spaces which requires action and energy of your body to a greater extent than working with the keyboard and the mouse plugged into a machine that is also receiving your emails, streaming content and social media. Again it could be considered only as a matter of degrees but the active movement of the body and machine is film art practice.

[doo-wop-city]

Binns & Bonito's Upgrade, Part 2: Binns Motor Inn

Recently, we looked at Bonito Motel in the early stages of renovation. Now, let’s see its sister property, Binns Motor Inn on the same day, both inside and out. These photos were taken on February 7th, 1968. (…Or, was that 2024?) The efficiency apartment on Spencer Avenue is getting a Googie-style slanted rooftop, which points at an identical one on the roof of Bonito Motel. Windows, doors, and…

[relatableblorbopoll]

Round two of preliminaries

The first two places will get added to the bracket

(There will be a third round after this)

All pairings of groups are randomly generated

Check after the read more for the poll groups

Group 1:

Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown)

Jack Reacher (Reacher Series)

Lucy Honeychurch (A Room With A View)

Dave Strider (Homestuck)

Donutella (Tokidoki)

Missi (The vampair)

Group 2:

Reki Kyan (Sk8 the infinity)

Shinji Ikari (Evangelion)

Tsubakura Enraku (Len'en Project)

Conner Bailey (The Land of Stories)

Blue/Green Oak (Pokemon Red/Blue/Green)

Junior (Total Drama)

Group 3:

Trisana (Tris) Chandler (Emelan book series)

Akaashi Keiji (Haikyuu!!)

Jessica Day (New Girl)

V-flower (Vocaloid)

Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg (Ride The Cylone)

Sunny (Omori)

Group 4:

Tony Stark (Marvel)

Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls)

Rookie (Club Penguin)

Wen Ning (MDZS/The Untamed)

Drew (The Music Freaks)

Nick (Only Friends)

Group 5:

Nagisa Ran (Ensemble Stars)

Finn the Human (Adventure Time)

Okuyasu Nijimura (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 4)

Szeth-son-son-Vallano (The Stormlight Archive)

Barry the Quokka (The Murder Of Sonic The Hedegehog)

Midori Takamine (Ensemble Stars!! Music)

Group 6:

Omota Uramichi (Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan)

q!Quackity (QSMP)

Seven Of Nine (Star Trek)

Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Waver Velvet (Fate Series)

Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson Series)

Group 7:

Oz Vessalius (Pandora Hearts)

Isaac O'Connor (Paranatural)

Tobias (Animorphs)

Greg Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Berdly (Deltarune)

Ciaphas Cain (Warhammer 40k)

Group 8:

Gundham Tanaka (Super Danganronpa 2)

Noah (Total Drama)

Lia (The Music Freaks)

Angua von Überwald (Discworld)

Gudetama (Sanrio)

Eichi Tenshouin (Ensemble Stars)

Group 9:

Sara Murphy (Milo Murphy's Law)

Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog Franchise)

Overlord (Bad End Teather)

Shaun Murphy (The Good Doctor)

Shin Tsumiki (Your Turn To Die)

Charlie Morningstar (Hazbin Hotel)

Group 10:

Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows)

Gren (The Dragon Prince)

Melissa Chase (Milo Murphy's Law)

Nami (One Piece)

Denji (Chainsaw man)

Rain O'Fire Frazier (Worm)

Group 11:

Kaveh (Genshin Impact)

Yusuke Kitagawa (Persona 5)

Nanami Kento (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Rod (Avenue Q)

Rigby (Regular Show)

Sound (My School President)

Group 12:

Piper Mclean (Heroes of the Olympus)

MK (Lego Monkey Kid)

Albedo (Genshin Impact)

Basil (Omori)

Ford Prefect (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Hamlet (Shakespeare's Hamlet)

[xtruss]

Trump’s Business Hauled In $2.4 Billion During Four Years He Served As President

— Dan Alexander, Forbes Staff | July 19, 2021

Jamel Toppin For For es

Forbes estimates the pandemic helped wipe about $200 million off Trump’s top line last year.

In April 2017, Press Secretary Sean Spicer took the podium in the White House briefing room and announced that the president was donating his first-quarter salary to the National Park Service. With a serious look on his face, Spicer pulled out an oversize check with an oversize signature. It was the first of several checks that Donald Trump signed while in office, handing over his $400,000 salary in exchange for good publicity.

That was pocket change for Trump. His real money came from the business he refused to divest, not from his government salary. An analysis of documents, some of which only became public in recent weeks, shows just how much Trump’s businesses raked in while he was in office. Dig through everything—including property records, ethics disclosures, debt documents and securities filings—and you’ll find about $2.4 billion of revenue from January 2017 to December 2020.

If not for the pandemic, there would have been even more. Trump’s business was hauling in about $650 million annually during the first three years of his presidency. But in 2020, revenues plunged to an estimated $450 million as Covid infected the business. “It’s hurting me, and it’s hurting Hilton, and it’s hurting all of the great hotel chains all over the world,” Trump said in a March 2020 press conference at the White House. “It’s hurting everybody. I mean, there are very few businesses that are doing well now.”

The biggest portion of Trump’s revenue flowed through his clubs and golf properties, which generated approximately $940 million over four years. Trump National Doral, the golf resort in Miami, contributed roughly $270 million to that total. Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, brought in about $90 million. A New Jersey golf club, where the former president has been spending time this summer, took in $60 million or so. Those top-line figures didn’t all end up in Trump’s pocket, however. Golf clubs and resorts are expensive to manage, with operating profit margins running at 20% in good times. During the pandemic, Trump’s traditional courses fared reasonably well, but his golf resorts had to contend with long shutdowns, causing his overall golf and club revenues to drop 27% to an estimated $190 million in 2020.

Donald Trump owns a 30% interest in 555 California Street, a San Francisco office building. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Fortunately for Trump, he also had high-margin commercial real estate holdings to bolster his bottom line. That proved especially critical in 2020, as commercial tenants—many locked into long-term leases—continued to pay rent. At 555 California Street, a San Francisco office building in which Trump holds a 30% stake, his rent actually inched up last year, from $42 million to $43 million, according to an analysis of filings. The same thing happened at New York City’s 1290 Avenue of the Americas, where Trump’s haul increased from roughly $55 million to $58 million.

The hotel, licensing and management businesses, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well. Estimated revenues stayed well above $100 million from 2017 to 2019 but dropped closer to $50 million in 2020. No part of Trump’s portfolio was more poorly positioned to withstand such a blow, given the debt load against his hotels. Inside his Washington, D.C., hotel, revenues flatlined at about $52 million from 2017 to 2019. With the top line stalled out, the hotel didn’t seem to be producing enough profit before the pandemic to cover the interest on its $170 million loan from Deutsche Bank. Things only got worse when Covid-19 hit, and revenues plunged to less $20 million. It’s no wonder the Trump Organization tried to sell the place.

Just down the street from the White House stands the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Alex Brandon/AP

But the former president didn’t have much luck offloading that hotel or other assets last year. Trump ditched $32 million of real estate in 2017, an estimated $53 million in 2018, then $32 million in 2019. In 2020, however, he pocketed just $435,000, by selling condos in Vegas. The lack of deals was one reason revenues dropped about 25% to an estimated $450 million. A smaller sum, to be sure, but still more than 1,000 times the annual salary he gave away.

[gaypowercouple]

Transgender woman fatally shot becomes 14th trans victim killed this year · PinkNews

Transgender woman fatally shot becomes 14th trans victim killed this year · PinkNews

[ad_1]

A transgender woman has been fatally shot in Cleveland, becoming the 14th trans victim in the US in 2018.

Keisha Wells, 58, was found in the car park of an apartment building with a gunshot wound to the abdomen on Detroit Avenue on Sunday.

No arrests have been made yet and the investigation is ongoing, according to Cleveland.com.



The victim’s aunt, Regina Spicer, said Wells was known…

[oosteven-universe]

The Swamp Thing #5

The Swamp Thing #5 DC Comics 2021 Written by Ram V Illustrated by John McCrea Coloured by Mike Spicer Lettered by Aditya Bidikar    Newly armed with the knowledge and powers he gained from the Green and yet lonelier than ever, Levi Kamei is pulled once more into service as the Avatar of the Green is summoned by primal forces to the city of London, where old ideas lie buried, slowly leaching into the reality above. The scars of old wars and the dangers of past ideologies resurface as the Swamp Thing must team up with an old trench-coated acquaintance and his new protégé to save the present from the atrocities of our past.    This series just keeps getting better and better as Ram really has found his stride where this book is concerned.  The way that he’s been able to get at the heart of what the Swamp Thing is, the Avatar or Guardian of the Green, and how he’s able to utilised what he is to travel halfway across the world to be where he’s needed is magnificently well told.  If there is someone who isn’t reading this than you have no idea what great comics are because this is the epitome of sensational book.  This needs to be an ongoing monthly so everyone should be out picking this title up.    I am in love with the way that this is being told.  How we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely.  The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is marvellously rendered.  The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re catch up with old acquaintances and left with that feeling of wanting more.    I’m a huge fan of the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen while new ones emerge.  With existing avenues explored nicely and new ones opening up that could lead to new places it’s an exciting time to b reading this.  The depth and complexity that we see within the layers is awe inspiring.  How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is brilliantly achieved.    John does a great job filling in on the interiors here.  The linework is amazing and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is extremely nice to see.  That backgrounds play such a big role in all this is great to see and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is wonderfully rendered.  The creativity and imagination that we see is utterly delightful.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling.  The colour work is brilliantly rendered.  How the various hues and tones within the colours are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great eye and understanding for how colour actually works. ​    This is one of those rare books that’s a hell of a lot better than folks realise.  It has a stunning range within the story that makes for complicate and yet interesting reading.  It has this amazing writing and characterisation that is wrapped up in these dynamic and detailed interiors take the enjoyment factor of this to new heights.  

[wildhotels]

by Rick Barot

A Poem as Long as California

This is my pastoral: that used-car lot where someone read Song of Myself over the loudspeaker

all afternoon, to customers who walked among the cars mostly absent to what they heard,

except for the one or two who looked up into the air, as though they recognized the reckless phrases

hovering there with the colored streamers, their faces suddenly loose with a dreamy attention.

This is also my pastoral: once a week, in the apartment above, the prayer group that would chant

for a sustained hour. I never saw them, I didn’t know the words they sang, but I could feel

my breath running heavy or light as the hour’s abstract narrative unfolded, rising and falling

like cicadas, sometimes changing in abrupt turns of speed, as though a new cantor had taken the lead.

And this, too, is my pastoral: reading in my car in the supermarket parking lot, reading the Spicer poem

where he wants to write a poem as long as California. It was cold in the car, then it was too dark.

Why had I been so forlorn, when there was so much just beyond, leaning into life? Even the cart

humped on a concrete island, the left-behind grapefruit in the basket like a lost green sun.

And this is my pastoral: reading again and again the paragraph in the novel by DeLillo where the family eats

the takeout fried chicken in their car, not talking, trading the parts of the meal among themselves

in a primal choreography, a softly single consciousness, while outside, everything stumbled apart,

the grim world pastoralizing their heavy coats, the car’s windows, their breath and hands, the grease.

If, by pastoral, we mean a kind of peace, this is my pastoral: walking up Grand Avenue, down Sixth

Avenue, up Charing Cross Road, down Canal, then up Valencia, all the way back to Agua Dulce Street,

the street of my childhood, terrifying with roaring trucks and stray dogs, but whose cold sweetness

flowed night and day from the artesian well at the corner, where the poor got their water. And this is

also my pastoral: in 1502, when Albrecht Dürer painted the young hare, he painted into its eye

the window of his studio. The hare is the color of a winter meadow, brown and gold, each strand of fur

like a slip of grass holding an exact amount of the season’s voltage. And the window within the eye,

which you don’t see until you see, is white as a winter sky, though you know it is joy that is held there.