#The Long Ass Anthony Critique | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

billhader · 1 month

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Here You Come Again

Chapter Four: Monday, Monday

A Cobra Kai fanfiction [COMPLETE!!]

Read Chapter Four on AO3 | Three | Two | One

[NEW] Listen to the fic playlist on Spotify!

Chapter Four Summary:

Finally, it's Anoush's first day back at LaRusso. Louie buys breakfast.

Rating: Teen (canon-typical profanity)

Chapter word count: 3.9k Completed work word count: 14.3k

Relationships: Louie LaRusso/Anoush Norouzi

Characters: Louie LaRusso, Anoush Norouzi, Amanda LaRusso, Daniel LaRusso, Samantha LaRusso, Anthony LaRusso, Tom Cole

Tags: Canon Compliant, Star-crossed, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, more like co-workers to friends to strangers to coworkers again to lovers, Lovable Himbo Louie LaRusso, Angst with a Happy Ending, poor communication skills, Family Bonding, Missing Scene, Slow burn

I did it, folks. I finished something. Pls clap.

I really really hope you enjoy the conclusion! I've had the whole plot of this fic sitting in my head for a couple of years now and I'm ecstatic that it's finally out in the world. Comments are always welcomed and loved, even critiques. And if I've made an Anouie convert out of you (yes, I'm sticking to that name), PLEASE let me know :))))

Chapter title and lyrics used are from "Monday Monday" by The Mamas & The Papas.

(Full chapter text below the break)

Louie didn’t rush into work on Anoush’s first day back. He never did rush to work in the first place, and there was nothing that made that morning unique. It took a while to pick out the right color tie (the blue-and-orange paisley won) and to steam out a few tiny wrinkles in the linen suit jacket he’d already ironed last night. And he couldn’t leave for the day without inspecting every bottle of cologne in his trunk to pick out the exact right scent. Summer was bowing out in a final burst of oven-hot Santa Ana winds, and Louie prided himself on smelling appropriate for every season and occasion. After deciding to sacrifice the final spritzes in his cherished Acqua di Parma bottle, he checked traffic and was delighted to see that the 101 northbound was down to one lane and rapidly turning into a parking lot. Cruising the surface streets would take twice as long as usual. He hung up his jacket in the back seat and put in a mobile order for Coral Tree Cafe - a bacon and egg panini for himself, and strawberry banana pancakes for Anoush. Buying Monday breakfast had been their routine going back several years, and Louie didn’t want to assume Anoush would remember to pick something up, so he was being a gentleman about it. He cranked up his oldies playlist to a volume Anoush would scold him over. Maybe soon he’d take Anoush out to lunch just to argue with him about decibels.

Monday, Monday, so good to me

Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be

Oh Monday mornin', Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee

That Monday evenin' you would still be here with me

With their food secure in the back seat, Louie drove no faster than ten or fifteen miles over the speed limit when he wasn’t sitting at a light. Despite his best efforts and a couple missed turns (“ Cut me off again and see what fucking happens! Fucking Tesla bitch-ass!!”) he somehow ended up at the dealership only five minutes after nine. He ducked inside through a service entrance and held his breath as he skirted by Amanda’s office, but he didn’t spot her inside. After waving to Sheila (and ignoring Marcus the new guy) he got to his office door - which was hanging ajar.

“The hell?” Louie pushed it open and saw Anoush standing by his desk. “Dude. You just got back and you’re booby-trapping my shit?”

“Uh, no.” Anoush held up his hands like Louie was going to charge at him. “I’m not a Scooby-Doo villain.” Louie immediately clocked that he wasn’t wearing a tie, and it startled him. He wasn’t used to seeing Anoush with his top button undone at work. The charcoal gray suit was new too, slimmer fitting than his usual preferred cut; all Louie recognized on him was a pocket square in deep purple that he’d worn over and over again. Once Louie was able to tear his eyes away, he spotted two donuts on the desk, waiting on a napkin in front of his keyboard - one with chocolate on top, one glazed.

“Okay, well, you’re shifting around like a…fuckin’ shifty character,” he said. Anoush rolled his eyes.

“Takes one to know one. I guess I’ll just take these back.” He sighed dramatically and pretended to reach for the donuts. “Since I’m so shifty.”

“Fine.” Louie walked over and dropped the bag with their breakfast onto his desk. “Guess I’ll just eat your food.”

Anoush’s face lit up, and Louie felt like a king. “Wait. What did you get? I can’t believe you.”

“What d’you mean, you can’t believe me? It’s Monday, we always do breakfast on Mondays.” He tore open the stapled-shut paper bag and laid out all of the containers, ignoring the syrup that dribbled out of its leaky cup and onto a pile of inventory sheets. “Got the hashbrowns to share if you want. Made sure they put the strawberries and bananas in separate thingies like you like, but they were real snippy about it when I went in there.”

“Oh, Coral Tree? Louie…” Anoush found the foam clamshell that held his stack of pancakes. He trailed off, clearing his throat. If Louie didn’t know better, he’d think the guy was upset about something. What was there to be all emotional about when his pancakes were getting cold? “I just wasn’t expecting this.”

“You think I’d forget?”

Anoush was flushed like he’d just finished running laps around the show floor - but he smiled like he couldn’t stop. “I didn’t say that. Just…you’re being thoughtful. It’s weird.”

“Yeah, yeah, save it. Next time I won’t think about you. Excuse me.” Louie tried and failed not to laugh. He took a bite of the chocolate-covered donut and groaned. “Fuck, where’d you get this?”

“Kettle Glazed. I found it with my friend Sebastian when we were super drunk.” Anoush pulled up a chair to the side of Louie’s desk and made himself comfortable, pulling all of his goodies towards him. “And good luck with that. You’re always thinking about me.”

Louie had to fight not to choke on his mouthful of donut, and he sat heavily in his desk chair. Suffocating on Boston cream had to be one of the top three worst ways to go out, and apparently Anoush wanted him dead because what the fuck possessed him to say that ? He didn’t appreciate the smirk that Anoush was trying to hide as he arranged banana and strawberry slices in an alternating spiral pattern on top of his pancakes. Sure, the two of them fucked around with each other, like bros did - but there was an ill-defined line between fucking around and flirting. Louie was a master at operating in the fuzzy gray region, so when Anoush looked him dead in the eye and leapt over the line, he was stumped. “Yeah. Whatever, man,” was all he could think to say. And if it sounded like an admission of guilt, well…at least Anoush was pleased with himself. But he was merciful enough to change the subject.

“I met the new guy. Not the guy that started when you left. Marcus, the new-new guy.”

“He’th a fuh’in dork,” Louie said through another mouthful of donut.

“Gross. Close your mouth. Well, he seemed fine to me.” Anoush was sawing at his pancakes, creating a grid between each fruit slice. It looked like a real pain-in-the-ass process, and he hadn’t even taken a bite yet. “A little shy, I guess. How are his numbers?”

“Shitty. But everybody’s are right now. ‘Cept for yours truly.” Louie leaned back in his chair and shrugged at his own success. “I dunno, guess I got the, what the fuck do you always say…’gender say kwan’. “

“Are you trying to say je ne sais quoi ?”

“Fuck you and your fake accent.”

“It's not fake, that’s just how you say it.”

Louie unwrapped his panini and considered how much further he wanted to push Anoush on the first day back. He had to make up for lost time somehow. “So you come back here, you’re using a fake French accent, you're dressed like you’re French--”

“How the fuck is my outfit French ?” Anoush dropped his utensils, squinting at Louie with utter disdain. “It's just a suit.”

“Is this what they dress like at Cole’s? Looks like you're headed to the club and didn’t invite me.”

Anoush scoffed. “No, those assholes wish they looked this good. Most of them wore khakis and Patagonias.”

“I bet they all drive fucking Teslas.”

“You and Daniel have to get over the Tesla thing. We’re losing so much money by not stocking them.”

“See, that’s all you care about, money. We got principles over here.”

“Your principles haven't seen the commissions I made at Cole’s on the Model S alone.” Anoush was finally taking bites of his food - Louie knew arguing made him hungry. “How are those LaRusso principles working out, by the way? Isn’t that why Daniel’s in Tokyo groveling right now?”

In every thread of their banter, somewhere down the line, there was an ignition point. Whether he meant to or not, Anoush was lighting it. Louie’s pulse hopped in his jugular, running away without him.

“Hey, take it easy. We’re tryin’ to put the whole mess in the past. I don’t know what Cole told you-”

“It has nothing to do with Cole. I was here before the school fight happened, I had to deal with Daniel. He was erratic, he didn’t show up even when he promised to.” Anoush stabbed his to-go box with his fork, eyes dead-set on the rows of holes he was creating. Louie could physically feel each tiny screech and squeak of plastic on foam all the way back in his molars. “Karate…I don’t know, it’s melted his brain.”

“Look.” Louie’s back straightened, taut and strangely aching. “He’s not perfect, okay? What d’you want him to do, huh? He’s already trying to fix it. Everyone in the Valley’s breaking his balls, don’t need you doin’ it too.”

The way Anoush’s face contorted made Louie question whether any part of the last few minutes had been real. “...Okay then. I’m not breaking his balls, first of all. I have some concerns.”

“‘Cause you sound like you’re still salty.”

“I’m not -- oh my God.”

“Nothing melted his brain. What the fuck’s that about? That ain’t fair-”

“You weren’t here,” Anoush snapped. “Louie, Amanda was trying to run the whole show on her own.”

“Sounds like something she’d say.”

“She didn’t say anything, I was here! You weren’t! Everyone was fucking miserable all summer. There’s a reason so many sales staff bailed. The fight at the high school isn’t the problem around here, it’s just a symptom.”

“So the problem is Daniel, huh. That’s what you’re really trying to say.” Louie got caught in a loop where he couldn’t quit shaking his head. “So just say that.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You…you implicated it!”

Anoush was chewing on his bottom lip, staring down at his half-eaten food. He was jiggling his foot, a sign Louie knew well. “Or, you’re just putting words in my mouth and hearing what you want to hear, as per usual.”

“ As per usual ,” Louie scoffed. “Jesus Christ.”

“I haven’t said anything that I wouldn’t say to Daniel’s face. Actually, most of it I already have said to his face. So you can stop butting into shit nobody asked you to be part of.”

“You’re sat there talking mad shit about my cousin, and the way he conducts business, and his fucking private family matters. And I’m just supposed to sit here and-”

“Sit there and react like a normal adult who can regulate his emotions?” Anoush was out of his chair now, packing up his leftovers. He flat-out refused to look Louie in the eye. “Sure, that’d be nice. That’d be a pleasant change of pace for you.”

“I mean, you’re the one slandering the guy. Talk about “shit no one asked you to be part of”.” Louie didn’t budge from his spot, making air quotes to throw Anoush’s own words back at him. “You aren’t family, you don’t know him like--”

“No. You know what? No.” As Anoush looked up, Louie immediately wished he hadn’t. His dark eyes were alight with rage, and his entire frame quivered with a wrathful energy that was alien even to Louie, who had pissed him off more than anyone else on Earth over the years. He pointed right at Louie with a shaky but strong hand. “You don’t get to sit there and tell me I don’t know your family, I don’t give a shit about your family, whatever. It’s bullshit. I’ve known Daniel and Amanda for eleven fucking years. I’ve known those kids for as long as either of them can remember. You seriously think I wasn’t upset when I heard what happened to Sam? I was fucking sick over it, Louie. I didn’t even know if she was okay until a couple days later.” His voice broke, but he forged on at a volume that people passing by the office door could probably hear. “You know that’s complete bullshit. I’m trying to tell you I’m fucking worried about Daniel and you throw it back in my face. Real fucking cool.”

Louie was stuck fast to his chair by the crushing wave of hot shame that broke over him. His hands flexed, gripping the edge of his desk as if he’d fall a hundred feet if he didn’t. The Monday he’d fantasized about since Thursday was gone, destroyed by his own hand. Anoush stared, waiting for any type of response, and the pain in his expression sent Louie into a self-loathing tailspin. What kind of idiot was he to think he could claw their lost summer back from heartless, unyielding time?

“Now who’s putting words in who’s mouth,” he said flatly. He couldn’t stop himself from pushing. Anoush was right about him. Everyone was right about him. Like he’d done thousands of times, and would do thousands more, he kept acting the way everybody expected him to. If he tried to change, he would end up in the same spot or worse than if he just gave into the ever-present impulse to be belligerent and insufferable. He just pushed and pushed until he was totally alone. It didn’t matter that he wanted to reach out to Anoush and stop him from walking away. Anoush would walk away anyway. The damage was done.

“...I don’t know what I was thinking,” Anoush murmured. He didn’t elaborate further. He turned on his heel and made quick strides for the door, and a bolus of pure adrenaline shocked Louie into shouting out the words that were on a broken record in his head.

“Why’d you even come back?”

Anoush froze, but not for long. He faced him one more time. Anoush, the guy who was too intimidated by the dude behind the counter at the bagel shop to ask for a different flavor of cream cheese, was beginning to scare Louie with his intensity - and he realized all at once that he was actually proud of Anoush for standing his ground and shouting him down.

“I came back because you asked me to,” Anoush said. “I love Daniel, but it was you.”

Louie’s mind went blank. When Anoush reached for the door handle, he leapt out of his seat. “Hold up.”

They met somewhere between the desk and the exit. Louie gathered Anoush up in his arms, and he held on as tight as he could. While Anoush was smaller, that didn’t keep him from almost crushing Louie’s ribs when they embraced. As they stood still together, finally quiet, he felt the tension melt out of Anoush’s body from the top down. The shaking stopped. His head landed on Louie’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” Louie whispered.

“Don’t be.” Anoush’s voice was muffled against his suit jacket. “I’m sorry. I started it.”

“No, hey. Don’t do that. Just me and my big fuckin’ mouth. I know you care, I shouldn’t’ve said that.” Louie closed his eyes and listened to the faint whispers of Anoush’s clothes shifting against his. Taking a deep breath, he was awash in the scent of whatever soap or cologne Anoush used - something sharp, herbaceous and a bit floral. He’d never noticed any of this before, and he didn’t know why any of it mattered to him, but it did. Letting go didn’t cross his mind until it was far too late. Anoush was the one to relax his grip, prompting Louie to do the same - but he didn’t move away. When he realized Anoush’s face was stained by tears, his heart went into free-fall. He stepped back to his desk to grab a box of tissues. “I’m really sorry, Anoush. I didn’t want today to be like this-”

“You didn’t text me back,” Anoush said. He bowed his head and harshly wiped the moisture off his cheeks, despite Louie holding out a tissue to him.

“...Yeah.”

“I just thought…”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Louie hesitated. “I wanted to call. And I know that don’t mean shit.”

Anoush’s shoulders were slumped, and he seemed so small. His eyes found Louie again, and they were still wet. “Why didn’t you?”

“Well, you didn’t call me. And I get why, I’m not, like, saying it was on you to do that,” Louie said. He let out a heavy sigh. “I just…I’ve always kinda been like this, my whole life, and I already let down my whole family about a billion and one times. And I thought, y’know, hearing you on the other end bein’ disappointed…I couldn’t handle it.”

Anoush didn’t respond. Louie let himself settle on the edge of his desk, and he scrubbed at his face with the heel of his hand. He wasn’t going to cry. He didn’t cry. He wished he could. And then, Anoush was right in front of him. He brushed Louie’s own hand away from his face, replacing it with a soft palm pressed gently to Louie’s cheek. Before Louie could process the touch, Anoush leaned in and kissed him. It didn’t last, but Anoush’s lips were planted firmly on Louie’s for one, two, almost three sublime seconds. When he was done, he backed off a few inches. They stared at each other.

“That’s it?” Louie asked.

“You’re useless,” Anoush replied. When Louie caught a hint of his smile, and saw his own reflection in Anoush’s warm eyes, he was done for. He tugged on the front of Anoush’s shirt, bringing him back in to kiss him on his own terms. Anoush either lost his balance or simply threw the weight of his body against Louie’s, planting one hand on the desk behind Louie’s back to steady himself. Louie was determined not to fuck this up, this one thing that he’d wanted to do for way longer than he cared to admit. He refused to break away even once, and Anoush wasn’t going anywhere. He was bearing down between Louie’s legs, and when Louie tilted his head to deepen the kiss he heard a sound, a shaky little hmm of a sigh from Anoush. It was all too crazy for him to process. Anoush was here, Anoush was all over him as if they had narrowly escaped death in a cataclysmic war, Anoush still wanted him even though he was kind of awful….maybe Anoush wanted him because he was awful. Louie didn’t quite understand yet, but if this was the way to figure things out, he had no complaints.

They only stopped when they both ran out of air. Louie gazed at Anoush in a stupor, matching the pace of his deep, gasping breaths without realizing it.

“You didn’t disappoint me,” Anoush said.

Louie was still winded, not from physical exertion as much as the pure rush of being close to Anoush and hearing him say that. He’d known for a long time that he was a little bit gay, but he never knew he was this gay. Was it possible to be extremely gay for only one dude? He would need to do some research.

“I didn’t?”

“No. You never disappoint me. My expectations for you are extremely low.”

They both started laughing, a little nervous at first, then dissolving into uncontrolled fits of giggles. Anoush collapsed against Louie once more, hardly able to hold himself up from laughing so hard, so Louie held him up instead, arm secure around his waist. Anoush’s laugh was all he ever wanted to hear.

“I’m serious, though.” Anoush collected himself enough to look up, and he kissed Louie on the forehead. “I didn’t think that, even when I found out. I was just like, ‘yeah, sounds about right’. And I know I shouldn’t say he deserved it…but he deserved it. Wait, are you crying?”

The forehead kiss had done something to Louie. His insides hurt. He furiously rubbed at his face with his sleeve. “No.”

“Okay,” said Anoush softly, using his finger to wipe something off of Louie’s cheek that definitely wasn’t a tear.

“I did let you down, though,” Louie said. “Didn’t call you.”

Anoush shrugged. “Phones work in both directions.”

A phone started to ring. Louie huffed, perturbed by the intrusion into their space. With the blinds drawn, it was almost natural to forget where they were. He glanced over at the closed door and remembered that he hadn’t locked it, because he hadn’t come into the room with any plan to make out with his co-worker. He had to wonder whether Anoush had planned to make out with him, but there was no time to ask.

“Come on,” Anoush griped, fishing his phone out of his back pocket. His eyes grew wide. “Fuck. It’s 9:30 already? I forgot, I scheduled a call with one of Cole’s old clients. I poached like three dozen leads when I got out of there. They’re looking for a whole fleet of Mercedes vans.”

“You sure it’s today?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure he just called me, so yeah.” Anoush started to turn away, but Louie caught him by the hand and pulled him back for another kiss. “Louie…I’m already late.” He smacked Louie on the chest, but not very hard. Louie kissed him again, trailing to the corner of his mouth and then his freshly shaved jawline. “Okay… mm …I don’t even have the quote in front of me.”

“Don’t go,” Louie said, although he was aware he didn’t have much say in the matter. “I don’t wanna work.”

“You never want to work.” Anoush sighed and straightened Louie’s tie. “Tell you what. If you can sell one car before lunch, text me. I’ll meet you back here.”

“Yeah? What if I sell zero cars?”

“I will never speak to you again.”

“How about I sell two cars?”

“If you, Louie LaRusso, can somehow sell two cars in the next three hours…” Anoush thought, and then it dawned on him. He smiled in a conspiratorial way that Louie was immediately thrilled by. “We’ll both call in sick tomorrow.”

“Call in sick on your second day back?”

“Sure. We’ll both get horrible food poisoning from Coral Tree Cafe.”

“Okay. So we call in sick and do what?” Louie figured Anoush would continue to be cryptic, or even push him away - but he hadn’t learned his lesson yet, because Anoush leaned in to whisper in his ear. As he listened, Louie’s eyebrows slowly crept further and further skyward. Then Anoush gave him a peck on the side of his neck and brushed a crumb off his shirt.

“Sound like a plan?”

Louie nodded and swallowed hard. “Uh-huh.”

Anoush squeezed Louie’s thigh before he finally tore himself away. “You better start selling, then.”

When the door shut behind him, Louie sat there like a bump on a log for a few seconds, waiting for his heart rate to go down. Anoush and his mouth and his pretty eyes and unfastened top button were going to send him to an early grave. At least he’d die very, very happy. Louie checked his watch, swore to himself, then grabbed the iPad off his desk and dashed out to the show floor to hunt down his first mark. If Anoush wanted him to sell two cars before lunch, he was going to try and sell three. Louie couldn’t wait to see the look on his face.

#cobra kai #cobra kai fanfiction #ck #anoush norouzi #louie larusso #anouie #anoush x louie #cobra kai headcanons #squidward kissing essay gif #pls let me know if you read it even if you don't like it !!!! <3 #my fics

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kayluh1915 · 6 years

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My Final Post on Anthony*

*until he gets his shit together

So, as you all may or may not remember, I made A POST after Anthony’s atrocious April Fools day video claiming that I was DONE with Anthony... and I was... but not fully. While I did unsub from his channel (which was long overdue) I still followed him on Instagram and Twitter and actually left my tweet notifications on for him. I also answered SEVERAL other questions about Anthony through my inbox. However, this post is the last time I am mentioning Anthony on this blog as an independent creator.*

This post is nothing more than one big ass critique of Anthony and his content. This is my last shot at trying to reach out to Anthony to make some changes because after this, I’m done.* I WANT him and his channel to succeed so bad that seeing him fail like this and knowing that it’s his fault makes me sick. This post will show you why me and so many others are SO angry and will show you that Anthony knows what he’s doing, but for some reason continues to ignore us while he quietly loses subs and followers by the THOUSANDS monthly in the background. I CARE about Anthony and WANT him to succeed. That’s why I’m making this post. To try and help him (if he’ll listen) and show people that he is MUCH MORE than the content he’s putting out. However, if he doesn’t care, then I can’t care anymore. LAST SHOT!

Feel free to send this link to him through Twitter if you have the balls (cause I sure as hell don’t)! I WANT him to see it.

Buckle up, kiddo’s! It’s a long one!

Anthony’s content changes at the drop of a hat. I’ve honestly seen more consistency out of a fucking camelaian. You CANNOT be inconsistent on YouTube if you hope to succeed. Sure, changing things up once in a while isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but changing every few months just pander to some people is channel suicide. It may get you a couple of extra views at first, but you will lose the audience you already had because you are no longer who they subbed to in the first place.

When he first left S*osh, I think his plan to build an audience was to ride over most of the subs he had from S*osh while also collabing with a few well known solo creators to gain attention from people who didn’t watch S*osh. Not a bad plan to start off with, however he most likely did not gain as many S*osh subs as he thought he was going to, so he panicked and started using the dirtiest tricks in the book to get seen such as clickbait and LOADS of collabs as seen below which was the wrong response. The correct response was just to continue with what YOU wanted to make while also finding a balance with videos WE wanted to see and eventually the subs would have followed because they liked who YOU were... but he did not do this.

After the collab phase (which lasted about three months), I believe he tried to move on with videos he wanted to make which was the videos where he portrays a socially inept character. This within itself IS NOT the issue, it’s HOW he went about it. When creating a character persona separate from yourself, it’s important to let the audience know when you’re the character and when you’re you. You don’t have to come flat out and be like: “Yo, I’m Anthony today guys!” you can easily do this by giving your character a name or by SEPARATING how YOU act and how your CHARACTER acts. It’s just enough context clues for your audience to figure it out. Anthony fails at this. When your audience doesn’t see the character line, they get confused and wonder why the hell you’re acting so foolish. Most don’t get it. It makes the line even more blurry when you market a channel and social media as YOU and instead just use it as another outlet for your character or for promotion of said character. Newcomers have no line to see and it makes it almost impossible for the average viewer to get what you’re doing. You just look like an idiot to them... which most won’t subscribe to.

This is why, I believe, his videos without another popular creator or subject in the title barely breaks 100k which is MUCH lower than he probably anticipated which, again, caused him to panic and go back to clickbait. His titles ARE NOT creative and is using basic psychology to draw people in weather he realises it or not. Using titles like “I’M SORRY!”, “COUPLE GETS THEIR TEST RESULTS!” and “THE REAL REASON WHY I LEFT S*OSH!” makes you wonder. Why is he sorry? What did he do? What test? What test did they take? What’s the real reason? Our brains naturally want to complete things, so the average viewer will click on it because they HAVE TO KNOW by the nature of their brain. In my personal opinion, it is a DISGUSTING tatic of trying to get an audience. If you rely on clickbait, it shows me that you’re either:

A) Uneducated with the YouTube algorithm and don’t know a better way...

Except Anthony DOES know a better way and is well educated about the algorithm. How do I know? Well, in THIS episode of Game Theory, MatPat mentions that he worked with Smosh (AKA: Ian and Anthony) to help them with their audience. He’s also mentioned working with them several other times in other meta theories that he has done. So Anthony:

B) Understands how to properly build an audience and is WELL educated with the algorithm, but instead uses the knowledge to manipulate people into subbing instead of showing them that he is deserving of their sub.

While collabling and clickbait CAN help reach out to more people who would otherwise not see your channel, COMPLETELY relying on it is just PURE LAZINESS. I can understand using those tactics like once a month or further apart, but every other video!? If you want to succeed, you have to maintain a BALANCE between what people want to see and what you want to make. Just flat out relying on the algorithm to build your audience for you isn’t going to get you very far.

As gross as these tricks are, it didn’t boost him too much. He’s gaining in views, but his sub count is unsteady. The appropriate response to this is to continue doing what you were doing but start making subtle changes to help draw a character line and to subtly help the average viewer get your humor by dumbing it down a bit. I personally don’t think his humour is funny. The timing is TOO LONG and there’s no base for his joke which leave many seeking out Google to get the punchline. Dumbing down the humor and finding a balance between your normal humor will help bring in more average viewers. Also finding a balance between manipulative tactics and YOUR OWN content would also be a WONDERFUL response. This will in turn eventually grow your subcount to where you don’t even have to manipulate people into watching your content or subbing to you. My channel is practically dead and even I know that you can’t pull the BS that’s he’s pulling and make money off of it to pay for your fancy house that Gerard Way used to own.

To this very day, his sub count is EXTREMELY unsteady. According to his SOCIAL BLADE, while he is gaining a little subs, he’s losing a lot too. He’ll go for about a week or two gaining anywhere from 50 to 300 new subs a day to losing 100-400 a day for a solid 4-7 days.

It’s not a steady a count that you see with most successful channels. For example, many consider S*osh to be dead now, but their Social Blade tells a TOTALLY different story.

While not that impressive, at least it’s STEADY. They gain an average of 1,500 a day with only one bad day within a two week time span. THEY’RE GROWING... not fast, but still growing.

Between April 29th to May 8th, Anthony gained 1,484 subs, but between May 9th to May 14th, he LOST 1,913 which means that even on his good days, he ends up losing them later on during his bad weeks which isn’t great if you’re hoping to build an audience. He’s not growing... wonder why, guys?

THIS is why we’re angry at Anthony. We KNOW he’s better than riding off of the algorithm. He is a genuinely funny guy when TRIES to be, but all this pandering bull shit is pushing people away from him. He thinks it’s getting more views and subs, but it’s not. In fact, his Twitter and Instagram is FAR worse than his channel.

His TWITTER only had ONE good day in a two week time frame.

His INSTAGRAM is worse, losing an average of 600 a day and 19,000 within a month.

Weather you agree with me or not, numbers don’t lie and it’s CLEAR that he is doing something wrong to be losing so many followers and subs. Also, that “SUPER HILARIOUS” 4/20 JOKE he made the other day on Twitter with who he’s following, yeah he did that on purpose just to make a weed “joke.” It’s equivalent to your 10-year-old brother who just found a YouTube playlist full of MLG meme comps.

Don’t believe me? CHECK IT.

The dates even line up.

He keeps using these minuliptive techniques and won’t even TRY to make regular content and his numbers are suffering for it. For someone who’s obsessed with them, he sure doesn’t seem to want to build them.

Also, this isn’t about me being upset with his content. As long as he’s happy, I don’t care what he makes AS LONG as it lives up to his potential. IT DOESN’T. It doesn’t even come CLOSE to what he’s capable of. He could EASILY be one of the top YouTube channels if he gave a damn and TIRED. He’s not trying, HE’S MANIPULATING and it’s ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE for someone who once shone brighter than the sun not just to me, but everyone else. This new channel and “Anthony’s” behavior his A MESS and a disaster waiting to happen. You may have your mindless subs who buy your poorly made merchandise fooled, but you don’t have me fooled. If you have ANY hope of wanting to pay for your fancy house, bills, or anything you want, YOU BETTER start making some changes because you ARE GOING TO FALL eventually. You can’t keep running from who you are. Eventually, you will grow tired of trying to be someone you’re not and when you do, the people you tried so hard to please will be gone. You’ve already lost me who’s been nothing but loyal to you and Ian for over four years... who’s next?

I’m FUCKING COMPLETELY DONE!!!!!!!*

#so done #anthony padilla #kayla's ramblings #The Long Ass Anthony Critique #done #this is the last I want to hear about anthony unless a miracle insues #or if he does something with ian #those are the only exceptions

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lunannex · 3 years

Note

LUNA LETS HEAR YOUR IN THE HEIGHTS CHATTER

*pulls up a chair* SO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT IN THE HEIGHTS–

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't watched it yet!!!

I've been waiting for this movie ever since it was first announced since I'm a HUGE fan of the musical, and yes, I absolutely DID cry while watching it WHAT ABOUT IT.

I remember the moment when I first discovered it so vividly because, as a Latina of color, I was SO beyond excited to see something that featured Latinos at the center of the story! So yeah, the musical means a lot to me on a personal level. That doesn't take away from the fact that I can be critical of it though because it absolutely DOES have flaws.

My main issue: the film does have issues with colorism and whitewashing. The population in Washington Heights consists of a lot of Afro-Latinos, which is why I'm pretty disappointed that the movie didn't feature any dark-skinned Black Latinos as leads. Benny doesn't count because Corey Hawkins is African-American and doesn't belong to the Latino community. And the rest of the main cast are light-skinned Latinos so I feel like they dropped the ball on that part, which isn't surprising considering that Hollywood prioritizes whiteness over everything but it's still disappointing nonetheless.

I feel like this particular critique of the movie gets brushed off a lot by certain people because they think we should just "be grateful for what we got" which...okay. fine. whatever. But we should never stop pushing for change and improvement, you know?

The characters in the movie really DID feel like a community of Latinos coming together, and I can say this because I'm around that kind of environment every single day, but –as I've seen Afro-Latinos point out– it's not a very accurate depiction of Washington Heights itself. I think they glamorized the struggles that Latinos face in America just a little but I'm not the most appropriate person to comment on that so anyways.

That's my main critique of it, but as for some other smaller ones:

I'm so bummed that they cut out Nina's mom. What was the REASON!!! I know that they DID do it for a reason but Camila I miss you :(

"Breathe" didn't hit as hard as it did in the musical? Don't get me wrong, Leslie Grace's voice is beautiful, but I just don't think it's particularly strong enough for a song like this. She still did great, though! But "Everything I know" my beloved I can't believe they didn't include you....hate it here😭

Nina and Benny!!! They didn't include Sunrise or the conflic between Benny and Mr. Rosario aaaah. It was still great seeing them interact on screen, but I feel like they didn't give them as much spotlight here as they did in the musical, which is understandable considering what a massive cast of characters they had but STILL. Having a huge cast of characters was a double-edged sword here. It definitely did benefit them in some aspects since it made the neighborhood feel more alive and real, but due to that, some characters didn't get the spotlight they deserved.

They didn't give the audience enough time to really get to know Abuela Claudia before her death, so her passing didn't feel as impactful as it did in the musical, imo. It was still a really tragic moment and made me shed more than a few tears, especially due to Antony's acting during the scene and the narration. "Alabanza" never fails to make me sob.

And I really wish they kept the part in "Paciencia y Fe" where she says "so what will I do with this winning ticket" because that was such an "OH SHIIIT" moment in the musical. But that being said, Olga Merediz did SO WELL and it was shot beautifully!

The pacing was a bit weird in some parts??? Like, I don't wanna give much away and maybe it's just me being nit-picky but that's just how I personally felt.

Ok now onto some of the positives because I know that it seems like I didn't enjoy this movie that much but I REALLY DID!!! I'm just critical of everything I consume.

Anthony Ramos as Usnavi! He did so good!!! I loved that he made the role his own. Same with Olga Merediz as Abuela Claudia, which I'm not surprised by because she was AMAZING in the musical. But tbh, this goes for most of the cast??? I really enjoyed seeing Vanessa, Benny, Nina, Sonny, Carla, Daniela, etc. They were all such great and unique characters!!

The opening song (In The Heights), 96 000, and Carnaval del Barrio were just *chef's kiss* and part of the reason as to why I enjoyed them so much was because of the cinematography and choreography. Especially for 96,000 because OH MY GOD!!!!!!

Adding on to the whole cinematography thing. Holy shit was the cinematography incredible😭 Anyone who's heard me scream about cinematography in film knows just how much I go feral over it when it's done well. And this movie was visually really beautiful!! I am. spontaneously combusting.

I liked that they gave Vanessa and Sonny a bit more development here!! Sonny telling Nina "I was gonna be like you" during the protest absolutely broke me.

Vanessa and Usnavi's relationship was sweet!! Except for. You know. The "you've been shaking your ass for like half of the Heights" line. Which... was definitely NOT in the original musical and felt so out of place.

Usnavi and Abuela Claudia. I love they. I love they so much.

Seeing Merengue and Bachata in the movie made me scream

I cried in so many parts and the ending was no exception. Home is where you make it my dudes!!!😭

tl;dr: the movie has its flaws and it could've been better in a lot of aspects, but I still think it's really enjoyable nonetheless and watching it was a whole other experience all on its own. I could definitely go on and on about it but this is getting really long so I'll leave it here!

#in the heights spoilers #???#kinda #luna answers #seek tag #this is so long oh my god #but THANK U FOR GIVING ME AN EXCUSE TO RANT ABT IT <3 #in the heights #long post

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pipparossi · 3 years

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[ PHILLIPA ROSSI, SHE/HER, CIS WOMAN, NATASHA LIU BORDIZZO ] is a THIRTY year old NURSE from PROSPER, WV. They are GIVING and KIND but also TIMID and WITHDRAWN. She reminds me of oversized sweaters, worn leather satchels, handmade soaps, and pressed flowers.

BASICS

FULL NAME: Phillipa May Rossi

NICKNAME(S): Pippa, Pip (if you’re really close to her)

BIRTHDAY: June 25, 1967

AGE: Technically 29, turning 30 like 4 days after the Summer Solstice (yes, there will be a starter of her having a breakdown at the Windy Shot over it)

HOMETOWN: Prosper, WV

BIRTHPLACE: Prosper, WV

RELIGION: Christian

FAMILY

“FIANCÉ”: Matthew Sullivan

MOTHER: Xiu Ying “Suzie” Rossi (née Wen, deceased)

FATHER: John Rossi (deceased)

AUNT(S): Tessa Morley (née Rossi), Denise Weber (née Rossi)

UNCLE(S): Allister Morley, Anthony Weber

SIBLING(S): None

COUSIN(S): Dominic Morley, Jackson Weber, Cindy Weber

PET(S): Thicc orange Tabby cat named Pappardelle

APPEARANCE:

Phillipa stands at 5′5″. She has dark hair and often wears it down with a side part. When she’s at work, she ties it up with a few stray strands on either side of her face.

She doesn’t have any tattoos but she’s been tinkering around with the idea of getting one recently; she’s just unsure of what she wants.

Big ChapStick gal. It’s a staple in her make-up routine. Phillipa often goes light on make-up. She fills in her brows, puts on a bit of concealer and blush, and calls it a day.

STYLE:

Phillipa’s sense of style can be described as comfy and cozy.

She’s a big fan of over-sized sweaters that engulf her. She loves to pair it with a plaid skirt. Though when it’s colder out, you can find her in a pair of light-wash jeans or pants.

Since the age of 15, she’s been wearing a silver necklace with her now-ex’s initial on it. Despite knowing she should no longer wear it because they’ve split up, she still wears it because she’s not over their nearly 15 year-long relationship.

FAMILY: (TW: parental death, mention of terminal illness)

John Rossi was a Site Manager at the Mines and passed away during the explosion. Before Pippa, Suzie used to work as a Clerk at the Post Office but quit when she was close to giving birth. When Pippa was older, she took a job doing admin at the Old Forge Bible Church and Community Center because she’s the type of woman who liked to keep busy.

Phillipa is a daddy’s girl through and through. When her father was alive, they were extremely close. He taught her how to make pancakes and play baseball.

Unlike her bond with her father, her relationship with her mother was strained and a big reason for that was the language barrier. Pippa’s mom had difficulty speaking English despite her many years in America, and though Pippa understood Chinese, she didn’t care to learn how to speak it. (She went through a whole ‘I hate being half-Asian’ phase. Narsty but she grew out of it and took her head out of her ass.)

Another reason for their difficult relationship was that her mother wasn’t the most communicative person unless she was telling Phillipa to do something or reminding her about this extra-curricular or that. Hardly a word of praise, always a critique or judgment. It was easy to prefer her father to her mother when her father was laid-back and fun-loving and her mother was so stern and reserved.

It was only when Pippa was in her mid-twenties that her relationship with her mother improved immensely. Her mother had colon cancer and for the longest time left it untreated. It was only when she was bed-ridden with barely any time left that she finally told Pippa. Finding out broke Pippa’s heart and she briefly returned to Hazzard during her mother’s final days to take care of her and they shared some very healing moments.

Most of Pippa’s extended family has moved away from Lockhorn County. The only member that remains is her cousin, Dom, who lives in Prosper and is an officer at the Old Forge Sherriff’s department.

FRIENDS:

Pippa was extremely popular growing up. She was the pretty girl with the quarterback boyfriend. If you didn’t want to be her, you wanted to be friends with her. It would be easier to hate her if she wasn’t so nice.

She and her boyfriend, Matt, were always seen together, always hung out with the same group of friends. They didn’t have lives outside of each other and they thought that was #socute.

Pippa lost touch with her closest friends when she moved away for college. She was under the impression that her boyfriend was all she’d ever need and she’d be so busy with their new life upstate that it wouldn’t matter. Considering how things have turned out, she deeply regrets it and now that she’s back in Lockhorn County has zero friends to show for.

LIVING SITUATION:

Pippa lived in a nice home on Prosper’s main street until the age of 17. After her father’s passing, they relocated to Hazzard. It confused Pippa greatly because she knew there had to be insurance of some kind considering the way her father died but given the state of grief she was in over the loss of her father, she didn’t put up a fight against her mother’s decision.

It wasn’t until many years later that she found out why her mother had sold their home and cut their expenses by that great of an amount. It was so that Pippa could have enough money for college after her father’s death.

Currently, Pippa lives in Prosper in a converted space above her cousin’s garage. It isn’t the greatest place to live but it’s enough for her and has everything she needs. A tiny kitchenette, a place to shower and use the toilet, a bed, and enough leftover space to fit a desk and chair.

WORK:

Since moving back to Prosper six months ago, Pippa has taken on a job as a nurse at the local hospital in Prosper. She loves her job and does extremely well at it. Are there better places to be a nurse? Absolutely. But people in Prosper need nurses too don’t they?

SCHOOL:

Phillipa has always done very well in her studies, from the moment she started school to the second she finished her degree. She’s naturally studious and extremely diligent, and on top of that, very involved in her student community.

During her high school years, she was part of several clubs, tutoring a handful of kids, and always seen at every game her boyfriend had. All of the adults found a perfect student and citizen in her – a good girl through and through.

A lot of people might say that made her boring and her years in school uneventful, and for a long time Pippa disagreed. But now? Now Phillipa’s realizing that maybe those people might have been right. She wished she colored outside of the lines more. Wished she did anything other than be on her boyfriend’s arm. Thinking back, her experiences growing up were bland and all of her memories doing anything remotely fun involved him. It made her sick.

ASPIRATIONS:

The thought of aspirations made Pippa laugh. Not because they were elusive but because she got close to realizing most of hers and she still hasn’t felt this divine happiness one would assume a person would feel at accomplishing their hopes and dreams.

Go to college? Check. Become a nurse? Check. Marry the love of your life and live happily ever after somewhere that wasn’t Lockhorn County? Not quite...

She was in a committed relationship with Matt for nearly 15 years, engaged for five of them, only to find out he’s been cheating on her for the past three. It tore her apart.

Her whole life revolved around him and their plans together, and now she has no idea what she wants out of life or what to do. Hell, she hardly knows who she is outside of him.

RIVALRY:

Pippa never felt strongly about the rivalry when she lived in Prosper, but her feelings quickly changed once she moved to Hazzard following her father’s passing when she was seventeen.

When she lived in Prosper, it was easy to be ignorant of why the two sides butted heads, only understanding things at the most surface level. It was solely once she was in Hazzard that she truly felt and understood the class difference, and how being from somewhere instantly changed how someone saw you.

If Pippa was indifferent to the rivalry before, she tried harder to care even less about it once she was a part of Hazzard because she didn’t want it to affect her life, insistent that just because the two towns were aesthetically different didn’t mean that one was better than the other. (Her denial? Through the roof babes!)

Thankfully, she didn’t have to deal with the rivalry and the foolishness that came with it for too long, leaving Lockhorn County and its folly behind for college and bigger and better things with her long-time boyfriend... That is, of course, until she inevitably found herself back in Lockhorn County after her decade and a half long relationship came to an end.

After all of these years, she still doesn’t care for the rivalry. In fact she does her best to quell any situations involving it. And not that she’d care to admit this to herself, but she’s always harder on any Prospites giving Hazzardians a hard time. After seeing how the other half lived, Prospite snobs left a bad taste in Pippa’s mouth.

TLDR:

Pippa was a Good Girl™ who didn’t have a personality / life outside of her long-time boyfriend, so now that they’re broken up she has no idea what to do, what she wants or who she is.

She’s been back in Lockhorn County for 6 months now, working as a nurse and lying about the whereabouts her of “fiancé” and state of their “relationship”. It’s a classic case of Terrible Liar Has To Lie On The Spot And Hasn’t Had The Guts To Amend Her Lie So It’s Just Spiraling Out Of Control.

Needless to say, she’s still pretty broken up about the state of their relationship – or rather, lack thereof – and is taking this time to put herself back together and try to figure herself out.

#dphq:intro #about / pippa.#i........ did not proofread this </3

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cloveroctobers · 4 years

Text

ELLADINE SARABI

IG info/bio: @/ellasardineabi | 18.5k followers | Artist | i was born with glass bones and paper skin♡

25 years old

Born & raised in Cardiff, Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Father was in the n*vy and moved his family around a few times until he and his wife came to a agreement that it would be best for the family to grow up in one solid place

whereas he would leave for months at a time living elsewhere

Which was hard on the family at times since he is viewed as the rock of the family

He eventually left the n*vy after serving 20 years & was so thankful to, he hated it and how it messed with him mentally

He’s also of Iranian heritage

Her mother is of German heritage

Has her own restaurant that serves authentic German food

Both of her parents instilled hard work, discipline, generosity, and how to be practical in their children

Elladine is the middle child

Has a brother that is ten years older than her and then a younger sister who is seven years behind her

Canon: there is currently a discussion going on if they are going to bring their (maternal) nan/mam-gu home since the nursing home isn’t providing the proper care their nan needs

Her mother has a rocky relationship with her mother that she doesn’t like to discuss with her children but her husband knows all about it

Her nan has Alzheimer's and is becoming violent

it has become difficult seeing her most days

Elladine came into glassblowing after being involved in many classes in secondary such as workshop class

which became her fav since she was able to manipulate many materials such as metal, wood, and glass

She also took a auto body class which was interesting but she wasn’t too thrilled about it. Got away with a B- but knew she could do better if she really wanted to but she didn’t need the class to graduate so allow it

Currently works in a glass studio where her work is displayed/sold and she’s one of the main ones that makes great profit

has bought her own space for her own studio and is slowly making it to her liking with her assistant, yes she’s got one!

Hopes to be in that space within the next 6 months...it would have been a little sooner if we weren’t dealing with a global p*ndemic!!! but ya know life f*cking sucks sometimes!!!1!!:) especially if people don’t gaf

Moved back in with her parents so that she could not only help with her nan but get her studio ready, her parents approved since she was working towards something and realized her talent

I definitely see elladine going through a grunge phase and it probably still slips out every now and then lol

Her childhood room is still in shades of raspberry, gray, and a deep purple

always been plus-sized/fuller than the rest but it’s literally hereditary since her mom is built the same way who got it from her dad

Her family never made her feel ashamed as they shouldn’t and none of her true friends made her feel different since they were all of different sizes!!! besides who’s really friends with someone because of their bodies? Ur really ugly if that’s how u roll js

Always a respectful student and not too afraid to spark up a convo with you but can be a little nervous if the person is more of a “I have to warm up to you first” since she’ll feel like she’s annoying you if she carries the convo at first

Takes her time in relationships because she’s scared of getting hurt, cause breakups are not fun! Especially if theyre your friend on top of that

Although Friendship breakups are much worse let’s be honest here!!!

Has noticed that a few of her exes like to bring up that she’s controlling or too bossy in relationships and that makes her a little insecure since she doesn’t view it that way??

She knows what she wants and likes things a certain way, and she can see how it can kinda come off that way based on how she approaches/says things and tries to be better at toning it down and not being offensive to her significant others

Always has a plan and likes to follow it, she definitely keeps to-do lists on a daily

Takes trips to see Nicky often and vice-versa, every moment they spend together feels like it’s meant to be, even when it’s them just simply chilling in each other’s spaces, he’s truly one of her best friends and he feels like the missing part of her life

He offered for her to move in with him but elladine didn’t accept it since she wanted to be there to help with her nan and in fact—she wanted to be the one to ask HIM to move in with her

but if they make it long enough, they’ll go house hunting together...maybe

I get Shawn/Angela relationship vibes from them (boy meets world for those who aren’t aware of this couple and I’m not just saying this because they’re interracial as well lol) did I say this already about someone else? Brain fart lol

everyone relationship has their flaws so when they hit a bump in the road...elladine immediately wants to fix it but it comes off as more critiquing, moodiness/blaming the other

while Nicky can be defensive/argumentive/a little condescending on his end

To get through it, they normally go on a walk together in complete silence until they’re ready to speak again or they take a break from each other

I think words of affirmation is her love language

Taurus sun + Virgo moon + Capricorn rising?

“The girl on the motorcycle” is one of her fav films — no this is not metaphoric to her love life

Loves watching things with captions on since she always finds herself doing something else while watching anything (which irks Nicky a little bit but that’s just the way elladine is and he loves her so he deals with it)

Will rewind something if she missed it too

Canon: never had morning sex before

but can now say she has ;) & understands the pros people say about it and it outweighs the cons in her book

Will start the whole song over too if she missed her fav part in it

She also enjoys billiards since her brother used to work in a pool hall and when he had to watch her because she was “too young” in her words to stay home by herself he would take her there even tho technically she wasn’t supposed to be there but he was screwing his boss’s daughter so it was quite fine

her sister has a crush on Gary & ships elladine with him, which they joke about every now and then + he doesn’t follow her back, which is okay! Not a big deal but her sister keeps sliding in his dms (he’s now single)

She NEVER thought she would be on THE love island and wasn’t that confident that she’d find a real love that carried on outside of the show but Nicky has proven her wrong 🥲

She’s 5’5–5’6

Probably shops at Zara & top shop and has no issue picking pieces that flatter her “pear” figure, she loves all that is of her body: the pudge, love handles, cellulite and all (she’s very confident and won’t let anyone see her moments of doubt when it comes to her frame)

Loves mythology but will tell bill stfu if he comes near her trying to argue about anything in that subject

Very competitive and will rush through certain things, leaving one to think that she’ll fail somewhere but rarely does

If she’s not near or away from the mountains or the sea for long period of time she gets very moody!!! Guess that’s the Welsh in her huh?

Loves fireplaces, they’re super cozy and very romantic if you catch ella’s drift 😏

Probably smells like jasmine & pink pepper idk

Wants to travel to Iceland one day

Knows her way around a car but dreads having to get it fixed or fixing it herself?

Loves driving until her road rage kicks in? Oh you’re gonna go around her to get in front of her? Never that. She’ll always be in front of you and will break check you if you try her “Drewgi” she mutters

Early riser and goes to bed early too lol

She’s the crying drunk lmao

Automatically vieve has become one of her best friends from the villa but it deff didn’t feel forced like it normally would have just because their bfs have a podcast together, they talk about everything together. EVERYTHING! It feels like she’s the big sister she never had, yet they’re only a year apart lol

They have ft sleepovers and man is it fun!

Forgave lily but at the same time can’t fully see herself being friends with her like vieve tried to encourage before they went on the yacht...sorry everything can’t be Kumbaya over here sis

It sucks to say but it was easier? She doesn’t know if that’s the right term or not... for her to forgive rafi than it was lily and it’s fucked up but that’s the way it is. It’s not like she contacts him on seperate messages or anything like that! She’ll talk to him via group chat and that’s pretty much it. She knows it was all part of the show and production’s bs for ratings but that doesn’t mean it still didn’t hurt

Wishes him success on his shows/movies but doesn’t engage/watch them

What does she post? I feel like she posts maybe three times a month and a lot are outfit pics but tends to go live more so to chat with the people! She’ll also show all what glassblowing entails while chatting away! She loves that part and is pretty open about things but knows how to keep some things private

Personally wasn’t the biggest fan of season 1 but admits she wishes she had mc’s balls in terms of what she would have done if she was in elladine’s place when lily picked Nicky, “ugh! I wish I had her strength rising through my veins in that moment. Absolute riot. Adore her.”

‘“Licky” is a ugly ass ship name anyways so who’s really winning here?!’

Celeb crushes? Iwan Rheon, Henry Zaga, Anthony Welsh, jason derulo, & LaRoyce Hawkins

Listens to: soleima, Marisa Maino, Ava Max, poppy, Caroline polachek, Donny Hathaway, Phil Good, & SAINt JHN

Anthem — M.I.A. “Bad Girls”

#litg #litg3 #litg s3 #litg elladine #litg Nicky #litg genevieve #litg oc #litg mc #litg headcanon #litg headcanons #litg rafi #litg boat party #litg lily #litg moodboard #I like elladine and I’m in love with her design #wish they did more with her and many of the other characters too!#I hope this was sorta satisfactory lol!#can you tell I’m running out of artists and celebs/well known ppl lol!

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romeoandjulietyouwish · 5 years

Text

Whumptober Prompt 20 - Trembling

Read on ao3

Summary: Peter meets Howard and Maria Stark

TW: light mention of past sexual assault, flashback

Peter Stark had never met his grandparents. It was hard to imagine Tony’s parents as his grandparents, no matter how many times Tony had reassured him over and over that they were. And he had heard too many stories about how awful Howard Stark was that he never even wanted to be in the same room as him. But after Peter’s adoption, Tony’s parents had reached out to him and asked to meet him. Peter was understandably nervous because of his dad’s shaky relationship with his parents. But Tony thought it would be a good idea. So here they are, Tony and Peter Stark, waiting for Howard and Maria.

“You nervous?” Tony asks as he brushes some lint off of Peter’s shoulder. Peter nods and Tony gives him an affectionate smile, “It’ll be okay. They’ll love you.”

Peter looks up at his dad, “What do I call them?”

Tony sighs, “I don’t know, Pete. When I was little I called my grandma Nonna.”

“Nonna?”

He nods, “Yeah, she was Italian. I’m sure mom will love it if you call her that.” Tony smiles and squeezes Peter’s shoulder. “As for dad, he’ll tell you what to call him.” Tony, still seeing how nervous Peter is, pulls him into a tight hug. “It’s going to be fine, Peter.” He kisses the top of Peter’s head.

“Dad?” Peter asks softly. Tony pulls back from the hug enough to see Peter’s face. “What if they don’t like me?”

Tony smiles, “It’s impossible not to like you kid.” Peter frowns, he clearly doesn’t trust his dad’s words.

“Boss, they’re here,” FRIDAY interrupts.

Peter freezes, but Tony just smiles at him and squeezes his arm, “Come on, Pete.”

Tony gently leads his son out of the living room and to the elevators. He keeps his arm around Peter’s shoulders as they wait for the elevator to bring his grandparents to them. Peter presses his hands against his legs to still their shaking. He takes a deep breath.

The elevator bell dings and then the doors open. Howard and Maria Stark stand behind them, Maria with a wide smile and Howard with a stoic frown. Peter gulps and shrinks back into Tony’s arms.

Maria approaches them first, moving to give Tony a tight hug, “I missed you, caro.”

Tony smiles, letting go of Peter to hug his mother, “Hi, mom.”

Maria kisses his cheeks before turning to Peter with a soft smile, “You must be Peter.” Peter nods shyly. Maria gently brings Peter into a hug, “It’s wonderful to finally meet you, tesoro.” Peter instantly loves her. Her hug is strong and supportive while also feeling protective and comforting.

“You too, Nonna,” Peter says softly. Maria must hear him because she pulls back enough to look in his eyes before hugging him even tighter.

She kisses his cheeks before turning to Howard and saying, “Your turn.”

Howard lets out a displeased noise before extending his hand to Tony, “Anthony.”

“Dad.” Tony shakes Howard’s hand stiffly. Peter gently presses himself back into his dad’s side. Tony wraps his arm back around Peter as Howard turns to the boy. “Dad, this is my son, Peter.”

Howard extends his hand to Peter who shakes it, “You can call me Howard.” Peter does not like Howard. Howard gives Peter a nods of approval, “You have a good handshake.”

“Thank you,” Peter says.

Maria, bless her, interrupts the conversation, “Can you give us a tour of the building, Anthony?”

Tony smiles at his mother, “Sure, mom.”

Howard scoffs, “I don’t need a tour of my own building.”

Tony tightens his arm around Peter, “It’s not your building anymore.” He looks down at Peter to check on him before saying, “Let’s get on with the tour.” Tony leads the family back into the elevator and tells FRIDAY to take them down to the labs.

“How have you both been?” Maria asks.

Tony nudges Peter’s shoulder, indicating he should answer. He takes a slow breath before saying, “Good. Um, dad and I have been working in the lab together a lot and we cook together. I haven’t been at school these past few days so-”

Howard interrupts him stiffly, “Why aren’t you in school?”

Peter shifts nervously, eyes flashing up to meet his dad’s, “I, um...”

Tony thankfully helps him out, “He’s been dealing with some mental health issues recently so I decided to pull him out of school for a few days until he’s feeling better.” Peter looks at his shoes, tugging anxiously on his sleeves.

“That’s no excuse to miss school,” Howard says coldly. Peter moves a little closer to his dad. “He should be going to school every day and pretending to have some issue-”

“Dad,” Tony says sharply, “I am raising my son how I see fit. I didn’t invite you here to critique my parenting.” The elevator stops. “We’re here.” Tony leads the way out of the elevator and into the workshop, Peter following close behind, Maria and Howard trailing behind. As Tony tells them a bit about what they’ve been doing, Maria looks at drawing and schematics they have on the screens.

Maria smiles, “This is very impressive, cucciolo.” Tony rolls his eyes at the nickname. “Peter, can I see some of your work?”

“Uh,” Peter looks to his dad for confirmation, “sure.” He leads her over to his desk and begins to explain his work with Spiderman and how he is currently working on making his own AI.

Maria grins at him, “I don’t think even your dad was working on things this complicated at your age.” Peter blushes, but whether it’s at the compliment or Maria calling Tony his dad, he doesn’t know. She ruffles his hair, “You’re a regular little Einstien.”

Peter’s breathing stutters instantly. Hey, Einstein. Ready to play a game?

“Dad?” Peter whispers, he fights to keep his voice even. His breathing isn’t right. He’s nine years old again. He’s in his bedroom. Someone’s hands are touching him. He wants them off. Off. There are too many hands and it hurts so much. He knows he’s sobbing and screaming and crying, but he can’t hear it.

All he can hear is the same voice repeating the same nickname over and over and over. Einstein. Einstein. Einstein. Einstein. Einstein.

The hands go away and something is being pressed into his palm. It’s cold and watery. Peter frowns. What? He squeezes the object. It’s hard and cold. A menacing voice echoes in his mind. But then another voice comes. Someone closer. “-cus on the ice, Peter. It’s cold, right? Think about it being cold. It’s 2019. You’re in our lab. No one here wants to hurt you. It’s just you and me now. It’s 2019.” Peter nods. That sounds right. He trusts this voice. It’s comforting. The voice guides him through vaguely familiar breathing exercises. After a few minutes, Peter’s breathing slows and the voice says, “You’re doing so well, Peter. Can you open your eyes for me?”

He hadn’t even realized his eyes were closed. He slowly opens them, eyes scanning the room in search of that horrifyingly familiar face. But all he sees is his dad in front of him, eyes soft with concern. “You back with me?” Peter nods. He lets the ice cube drop between his fingers, wiping his wet hand on his pants. His cheeks are wet and his eyes hurt. Peter puts his face in his hands and does his best to wipe away the tears.

“I’m sorry,” Peter says softly, his voice hurts to talk. He’d been yelling.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Tony says. “Can I give you a hug?” Peter nods. Tony slowly scoops him into a tight hug. Peter sniffs, his chest stutters with a sob. “You’re still shaking,” Tony remarks. Tony sighs, “He’s never going to be able to hurt you again,” Tony whispers. He drags his fingers through Peter’s hair in what he knows is a comforting motion. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I didn’t warn them-”

“You should have to,” Peter mumbles dejectedly. “I should be getting better. I should be having these anymore.”

Tony takes Peter’s face between his hands, forcing the boy to look up at him, “Don’t say that, Peter. You are doing so much better. It didn’t take me nearly as long to get you back. It’s progress, Pete.”

Peter shakes his head, “Not enough.”

“As long as it takes, I will be right here,” Tony brushes Peter’s hair out of his eyes.

Peter pauses before asking softly, “Nonna?”

“I told them to go upstairs and wait for us,” Tony explains. “We can go up when you’re ready.”

Peter nods, “I want to see them.” Then he pauses and rephrases. “I want to see Nonna.”

Tony sighs, “I get it, Pete. Dad can kind of be an ass, but he’s worried about you too.” Peter gives him a disbelieving look. “It’s not for the right reasons, but he does care.”

“Do we have to tell them what happened?” Peter asks shyly.

Tony shakes his head, “No, bambino. I know you don’t want that. I’ll tell them you had a panic attack. It’s close enough to the truth.” Tony stands up and extends a hand down to Peter, “Ready?” Peter takes the hand and is pulled to his feet. As they ride the elevator up, Tony keeps his arm around Peter.

In the living room, Maria is anxiously pacing the floor, biting at her thumbnail. Howard is lounged on the couch, the only sign of stress is his slight frown. Tony coughs to alert them to his presence. Maria whirls around, exhaling a soft sigh in relief at the sight of her son and grandson.

“Are you alright, tesoro?” Maria asks gently and she walks slowly towards the pair.

Peter nods, “I’m okay.”

“Can I give you a hug?” Maria asks. Peter nods and Maria wraps him and in a soft hug. “I’m sorry, Peter.”

“It’s alright, Nonna,” Peter whispers.

“What’s wrong with your son, Anthony? I can’t have someone with issues running my business.” Howard doesn’t seem bothered at all.

Tony’s face hardens, his mouth stiffening into a flat line as he glares at his father, “What the hell?” He takes three quick, angry steps towards Howard. “Why would you say that? My son just had a panic attack right in front of you and all you ask is what’s wrong with him and tell me he’s not fit to run my business? You couldn’t even ask if he’s okay?!” Maria takes Tony’s place in holding Peter close to her. “Get the hell out, dad!”

“What-”

“I tolerated your bullshit, I could take it!” Tony sounds madder than Peter’s ever heard him. Tony has never once raised his voice at Peter. Hearing it now is quite terrifying. “But I will not sit here and let you do the same to my son! Get out.” Tony’s voice is low and dangerous. Even Howard seems shaken by Tony’s voice. Howard stands and stalks out of the room without a word. Maria kisses the top of Peter’s head. “I’m sorry, mom,” Tony says.

Maria waves him off and hugs her son close, “It’s finally time someone finally told him off. I’m proud of you.”

Tony smiles, “You’re welcome to visit anytime.” Maria thanks him, gives Peter a hug, and follows her husband out of the room, leaving the father and son alone.

Peter nearly runs to hug his dad, “Are you okay?” He asks, his voice muffled by Tony’s shirt.

Tony fondly shakes his head, “I should be asking you that.” He buries one of his hands in his kid’s hair and holds him close. They’re okay.

Tag list: @just-the-daydreamer, @irondad-is-cannon-bitch, @anxiousangstyangel, @wicked-starlight-collector, @bookstorebunny

#whumptober 2019 #peter parker #tony stark #howard stark #maria stark #spiderman #iron man #spiderson #spiderson fic #irondad #irondad fic #tw past trauma #tw flashback

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scifrey · 5 years

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My Very Spoilery Endgame Review - What I Liked, What Annoyed Me, and Two Questions I Am Left With

I was very satisfied and enjoyed it very much. The theater burst into applause in several instances and it was great to celebrate the end of an era with fellow fans.

Now for the spoilery critiques and praise.

My favorite moments were:

Thor reconciling his self-image and self-worth with his mother

“I’m still worthy.”

Loki escaping and (hopefully) living in at least one timeline - because if Steve went back to “trim the branches” then this means he returned the Tesseract to 1970. Which means the branch where Loki snagged the Tesseract and was not imprisoned on Asgard may have endured*.

Ken Jeong’s cameo.

Stan Lee’s cameo.

Banner coming to terms with who and what he is and living comfortably with the Hulk.

Basically everyone really leaning into the self-love and self-value by the end of the film.

“That is America’s Ass”.

“I could do this all day.” “Yeah, I know.”

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”

“Ha! I knew it!”

“I am Iron Man.”

Scott finding Cassie alive.

Wong’s exasperated reply to Strange’s “Is that everyone?”

Nebula’s redemption. This is a princess (as Squidward calls Thanos “sire”) who saves her own damn self.

How the thing that gave the game away to Thanos was actually really clever and well executed; this wasn’t a “heroes are just stupid this one time” (like how Quill screwed the pooch in Infinity War when they had the damn glove). It was something that I genuinely hadn’t thought of, and I assume no one, not even Nebula, would have thought of. It worked. And it worked well.

All the ladies supporting Carol in the final battle - which was awesome but also felt a bit like the moment was added only so the Russos could check it off a “don’t piss off the feminists” list.

How the final battle set it up well for the next phase - I liked how the Glove Relay was from an OG Avenger (Hawkeye) to the new Avengers - Black Panther, Spider-man, and Captain Marvel.

“I love you 3000″.

Falcon!Cap - finally! Yay!

The sound of the armor that started it all being forged as the endcap of the credits.

However.

I wish Bucky and Steve had also had a meaningful moment at the end, like Steve and Sam, something that made it clear that even though Steve was older now, he was no less Bucky’s best pal.

I'm very, very annoyed that they Fridged Natasha. I mean, I get it. Someone had to die. And we all knew Hawkeye was going to go back to his family, so it wouldn’t be him. And I do love how they did the death, how Nat and Clint fought with one another to the be the one to make the sacrifice. And her death would have been especially cheap if Bruce had just Snapped her Back. I get it.

And if there wasn’t a long history of Fridging female character to ensure the male ones have enough Man-Pain to have a character arc and impetus to be a hero, then you know what? This would have been a really moving sacrifice. It would have really worked.

But there is. And in light of that, it’s left me... itchy. Uncomfortable. Because in the context of the film alone it was a great death. But in the context of the history of comic book narratives, it sucked.

Also, what does this mean for the Black Widow movie? Will it actually be a prequel? Will it be Budapest? And if it is Budapest, will they use the same actors, or cast new, younger ones?

I also don't understand the narrative reason why they had to make so many fat jokes around Thor.

I mean, yeah, it makes sense he was depressed and stopped taking care of his heath, and self-medicated with booze and food. This was a strong and meaningful narrative and I really liked that he was given the opportunity to mourn, to question his purpose, to become more than just muscles and a hammer in terms of character construction. That he could grieve and struggle, and be filled with crippling regret that kept him indoors and hiding, and filled self-loathing.

As a character choice it made sense. And I liked that he was still a powerful warrior while chubby, and that he didn’t magically become slim again when he suited up. It was wonderful to see him be no less powerful, dangerous, dedicated, and no less kick ass while sporting a keg instead of a sixpack.

But they leaned awfully hard on that “fat joke” button and by the time Rhodey said “Cheez Whiz?” I was over it. Its got tedious and frankly a bit insulting.

Teasing someone for suffering because he lost literally everyone he loved is not cool. The jokes fell flat, for good reason. They were cruel.

And when the Russos announced that they had included the MCU's first openly gay character I was hoping that it would be a main character, not some rando dude in a talk therapy meeting. I wanted Bucky and Sam to confess feelings, or Bucky to Steve even if Steve couldn’t return them, or Valkyrie to at least have a wife in New Asgard, or something.

But TBH it didn't surprise me that they made it some nameless dude in group support. Like J.K. Rowling, the Russos are happy to queerbait but too cowardly to commit, and they always have been. I’d be annoyed but it’s not worth the energy.

At least when the guy mentioned his boyfriend it was a “no big deal” mention, and nobody made a “are you cool with this, Cap?” thing to really point out that ooooo, this dude is queer.

But those are my only gripes. The rest of it was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying.

Especially all the little call backs. The "I am Iron Man" and “I could do this all day” stuff - it felt like little gifts to the fandom.

However, I have two questions.

1) When people were Snapped Back, were they Snapped to their previous exact geographical location? Because if so, what about people who had been in transit? Did people who were Snapped Away while in a plane just... appear mid-sky and plummet to their deaths? Were people on spaceships Snapped Back into the void of cold space? We saw in Infinity War that helicopters crashed into city streets - the pilot, that means, was Snapped Away. When that pilot came back, where did he come back? Did Bruce think to Snap them all into safe places? (I mean, I assume the Stones accounted for Spacial Drift and the location of planets in orbit... maybe it accounted for people who would have Snapped Back into deadly situations?)

2) I do love that Steve and Peggy got their life together At that point Pegs would have been like... at least 10 years older than Steve? Maybe 15? What would her neighbors think of Sugar Momma Peggy Carter and her Very Much Younger (Looking) Husband?

Did she introduce him to anyone? Did they have neighborhood BBQs? At that point everyone would have known who Captain America/Steve Rogers was so did no one recognize him? What did they say? (Did we get Beardy Steve back???) They had kids, canonically, so was Steve able to attend their T-BAll games and school plays?

One assumes that Sugar Baby Steve would have been the House Husband, because Pegs was running Shield and Steve was out of the game. He’d never be able to show his face at SHIELD because Howard would recognize him, and so would Arnim Zola, so HYDRA would have known that Captain America survived and I imagine they would have given anything to get him into the Chair.

It makes me think that Sugar Baby House Husband Steve would have been very isolated and possibly lonely. Maybe he had a few neighbor friends, but can you image how torturous it must have been to live so privately? To know that Bucky was out there suffering and being tortured and brainwashed and that he couldn’t do anything about it? He couldn’t go save his best pal?

That Peggy could never bring him to the SHIELD Christmas party, to visit her new baby godson Anthony, never attend anything with him.

And it makes me think Steve had to vanish from her life right when his earlier self entered it so like... as soon as she started getting sick enough with Alzheimer's he had to leave.

Because that’s when younger Steve came into her life, and started visiting her in the nursing home.

But he had to abandon her when she needed him most, and that is very tragic. How did Steve reconcile that with himself? Especially with returning to a future where she was dead and his friends were alive and he didn’t need to be the Secret Sugar Baby House Husband any more?

All in all, it was very enjoyable and I will watch it again.

And I look forward to the FanFic.

* This means that Loki in that branch also likely did not participate in the battle against the Dark Elves. His character growth in that moment was likely delayed, but I believe he ultimately would have processed his extreme confusion, self-loathing, and hatred of his betrayal by his “family” Thor enough to join forces with him against the destruction of the universe when it mattered. Perhaps having the extra time to do so might have even served him better. I don’t know if this means Odin chose to die and Hela was released, thus triggering the destruction of Asgard. I don’t know what this would have meant for Ragnarock - possibly with Odin as the King when he died the defenses would have been better (though I argue the culture and peace of Asgard thrived under Loki, especially with his dismantling of the Empire and the valuing of the Arts) and they would have saved Asgard or at least not lost so many.

And if Asgard had not survived, perhaps in this version something different may have happened, and Loki wouldn’t on the survivor ship. Perhaps he was on a different ship. Perhaps he wasn’t present for the battle at all and in a completely different part of the universe.

If he was elsewhere this means

a) The Asgardian survivors would have lived because Thanos wouldn’t have targeted the ship, and Thor would have been less self-loathing.

b) When Thanos found Loki with the Tesseract in this branch, it’s likely Loki was able to ingratiate himself to Thanos and gave the Stone to him without Thor there to tip his hand toward an immediate betrayal murder attempt. I subscribe to the theory that Loki was just as mind-controlled during The Avengers and the Battle of New York as Barton (though I wouldn’t call Loki totally innocent in everything) and that he had been suffering from extreme mental health issues following his unsuccessful attempted suicide. In this case, he would be willing to play the long game to get his revenge on his abuser Thanos. Then, later, hopefully, he joins Thor’s side to save the universe against Thanos (as he did against the Dark Elves)- betraying Thanos and perhaps stopping the Snap before it happened in that timeline. Or if not stopping the Snap, perhaps being a part of the new Avengers if he survived it, or joining in the final battle if he was Snapped Away.

Anyway - I have lots of Loki Thoughts. Feel free to adopt any Plot Bunnies this may have generated in reading this.

#Avengers: Endgame #Review #spoilters #Endgame #Avengers #Storytelling #Loki #Endgame Loki #head cannon #theories #loki theory

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years

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“Need a video of Derrick Lewis critiquing the Wizard Of Oz” The UFC in Kansas Preview

The UFC comes to Wichita, Kansas for a relatively intriguing fight card! Every once in a while the UFC will book a venue somewhere and instead of giving it an ass card which you would explain for what the WWF in the 80s or 90s would call a B Town, they bring out a pretty compelling fight night on paper that goes entirely under the radar. We saw it when they loaded up for Norfolk, Virginia with Poirier vs Pettis, Matt Brown vs Diego Sanchez, Andrei Arlovsky and a loaded undercard. We saw it with Boise's card last year that had JDS vs Ivanov, Sage Northcutt and plenty other really good name fights. Now we get it here as Wichita gets JDS vs Derrick Lewis, Ben Rothwell vs Blagoy Ivanov, Curtis Millender vs Elizeu Zaleski and a host of fighters on the undercard who you've heard of like Omari Akhmedov, Tim Boetsch, Drew Dober, Tim Means, Marion Reneau, Anthony Rocco Martin and Louis Smolka. There's some damn good compelling matchmaking on top of that as well! This is my kinda show with WW violence and a heaping helping of big doughy guys throwing fists at one another. Also let's not forget this card starts at 8 PM so it won't take you into mid Sunday morning either. All in all, the UFC is giving Wichita a solid fight card worthy of your time.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Jeff Hughes, Grant Dawson

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Daniel Spitz OUT, Maurice Green IN vs Jeff Hughes)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 7 (Derrick Lewis, Junior Dos Santos, Blagoy Ivanov, Ben Rothwell, Louis Smolka, Beneil Dariush and Tim Boetsch)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 1 (Alex White)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Matt Schnell, Junior Dos Santos, Curtis Millender, Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos, Anthony Rocco Martin, Sergio Moraes)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 24-13-1

Junior Dos Santos- 2-1 Derrick Lewis- 4-2 Curtis Millender- 2-0 Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos- 5-0 Niko Price- 3-2 Tim Means- 2-3 Blagoy Ivanov- 0-1 Ben Rothwell- 0-0 Beniel Dariush- 1-2 Drew Dober- 3-0 Omari Akhmedov- 1-0-1 Tim Boetsch- 1-2

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Welterweight- 4 (15) Heavyweight- 3 (7) Lightweight- 2 (14) Bantamweight- 1 (12) Featherweight- 1 (8) Middleweight- 1 (5) Women’s Bantamweight- 1 (2)

Light Heavyweight- (8) Women’s Strawweight- (6) Women’s Flyweight- (7) Flyweight- (4)

2019’s Records We Keepin Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (5-12): Jeff Hughes, Grant Dawson

Short Notice Fighters (5-5): Maurice Green

Second Fight (17-3): Maurice Green, Dan Moret, Louis Smolka

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (4-7): Ben Rothwell, Omari Akhmedov

Undefeated Fighters (7-8):

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (1-3): Alex White, Matt Schnell, Tim Means, Omari Akhmedov

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (6-5): Matt Schnell

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- So what's next for JDS if he wins? I would've put a halt to JDS ever fighting for the title again after getting smelted by Stipe in May of 2017 but since that point he's beaten Blagoi Ivanov and Tai Tuivasa, both pretty emphatically. The Tuivasa one was particularly interesting since JDS got hurt, recovered and then finished him in the next round. It also helps that Miocic is pretty much missing in action right now and the new champion is a guy with one foot in the door and one foot out. Assuming the Brock situation doesn't pan out, JDS on a three fight winning streak might eek him over Ngannou. Now WOULD you do Ngannou vs JDS? They tried that previously and it fell apart with JDS getting caught up in one of those Brazilian tainted pill situations. Once cleared, it feels like a JDS vs Ngannou fight would make a lot of sense BUT if you needed a #1 contender on the fly for Cormier, who could you even rely on if Ngannou and JDS are tied up?

2- Derrick Lewis in the past has said that the guys who REALLY give him problems aren't the big tough wrestler types who take him down (Daniel Cormier being the exception) and it's the strikers who can throw down with him who give him problems because he doesn't fight well going backwards. Case in point guys like Matt Mitrione, Shawn Jordan, Mark Hunt etc etc. This is a rough ugly stylistic match up for him but I would not at all rule out Derrick Lewis.

3- Is Derrick Lewis beginning to be settle into a niche as a Cowboy Cerrone for HW? A popular dude who exists in the middle of the division who is there to bolster up cards and occasionally pop a nice number as a headliner?

4- Elizeu Zaleski vs Curtis Millender should be five rounds. Don't give me any other measures.

5- Ben Rothwell hasn't fought since 2016 and I wonder if he's still a top 10 heavyweight. Rothwell's super limited athletically but he's got a surprising toolbox of things he can go to to pick up wins. He hits surprisingly hard, he doesn't panic in the face of pressure, his ground game is solid for a big guy and he's really durable. So can Rothwell still be a top 10 HW? For point of reference, Marcin Tybura and Aleskei Olynik are 9 and 10 in the top 10 currently.

6- Tim Means vs Niko Price is either a lock for 50K in some form or fashion or it'll be the blur nobody remembers the next day.

7- Maybe I watched waaay too much Victory FC but I really do like Grant Dawson as a potential prospect for the future. Dawson is just one of those guys from the Mid West who you can see having a big long term future with the right amount of matchmaking. Dawson's wrestling chops on their own combined with his quicks should give him a shot to make it pretty far in the UFC even if his striking needs a TON of work. We also don't necessarily know what he's gotten better at after a suspension in 2017 after signing his UFC deal. He has Julian Erosa which is a really interesting prospect vs regional level gatekeeper type fight.

8- I'm having a tough time getting a read on Rothwell vs Blagoy Ivanov currently. Rothwell's been gone obviously for quite a while and that, in turn, opens the door as to whether or not he's cooked. On the other hand, Ivanov looked pretty much out of his depth when he fought JDS in July. It's been said that he was hurt going into that fight BUT Ivanov was kind of developing into a clunky doughy guy down for the WSOF/PFL anyways. Ivanov also has some statistical crash padding here with a 17-3 record for fighters on their second fight so he's got "the odds" in his favor as well. Something tells me this one could be pretty ugly.

9- Keeping with second fight numbers, you've got Maurice Green back in action! It's a short notice call up and a rematch in a fight he lost BUT Greene is a big long HW who can cut it on the feet and has the sort of hips you don't see at HW to throw up triangles. He's coming off a win over Cuban HW Michel Batista. Across from him will be Jeff Hughes, a Contenders Series guy who probably should've just been signed up to the UFC without any hurdles to jump.

10- Tim Boetsch vs Omari Akhmedov is going to be somethin'. I don't know WHAT but it'll be somethin'.

11- If Yana Kunitskaya beats Marion Reneau, how far away is she REALISTICALLY from a title shot. That'd be two in a row at 135 lbs after getting smelted by Cyborg in a division where Holly Holm is really the only fresh fight for Amanda Nunes. If Nunes is retiring at the end of 2019, does it make sense to just keep Yana away?

12- This is the first time since July that we've had back to back shows with fights at women's bantamweight. Do something with this division, man.

#MMA #UFC

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better-inwriting · 6 years

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Dyin' to Do That

Spot Conlon/ Racetrack Higgins fluff

Word Count: 1,006

The breeze was cold enough to make Race shiver but not cold enough to make him consider getting down from the rooftop. After the strike ended three months ago, Jack and Katherine got a real place together and Race has been staying on the rooftop where Jack stayed ever since. Sometimes Crutchie stayed too but it Jack and Katherine would let him he went to their place.

Down below, in Newsies Square, most of the other guys were still there messing around. Race had run away from the gathering a few minutes early. On account of because he can't be around Spot Conlon any longer than necessary. It isn't because he doesn't like him, it's quite the opposite, in fact. He's madly in love with him. Unfortunately it's 1899 and there's no way a guy like Spot Conlon is into a guy like Anthony “Racetrack” Higgins.

Race hears footsteps behind him and whips around to see who is invading his privacy. It's Spot. Race returns to his previous position of looking sadly down at the ground so that Spot can't see his face.

He waits for Spot to say something or just leave. He doesn't expect Spot to get onto the railing and sit beside him. Neither of them say anything. Race wants to shuffle away or leave but they're in his place and that wouldn't make sense. He desperately wants Spot to say something first.

Spot doesn't do well with comfort. He saw Race rush off out of Newsies Square and knew something was up. He doesn't make a habit of visiting Manhattan but since the strike was settled, he found that he actually enjoyed the company of most of the Manhattan newsies, especially Race.

He liked Race. He liked his smile and the way he was always laughing. He made the dumbest jokes but Spot still thought they were funny. He always had something to say, too. He always had an opinion and he was never afraid to say it. He was always energetic and happy.

Now, looking at Race, Spot doesn't see any of that.

After five or so minutes of the awkward, tense silence, Spot clears his throat, “Whatsa matter?”

Race doesn't respond. He can't exactly say that Spot is the matter. “It's nothin’,” He settles for instead.

“Oh come on,” Spot sighs, “Jus’ tell me. I won't tell the others.”

Finally, Race dares to look up at Spot. He can see the concern in Spot’s eyes but he still can't say it. Guys like Spot aren't like guys like Race. They don't fall in love with other guys. They don't get this worked up over anyone - guys or girls.

Race looks up at Spot and he recoils a bit. He's never seen Race like this. He isn't talking, he isn't smiling, he isn't laughing. Spot thinks he's never seen Race so sad before. He doesn't know what to do or say. He's never been good with comforting people. The guys in Brooklyn don't ever seem sad. This is almost a new concept for Spot.

Just when Spot thinks Race is going to open up, he looks away again. “It's nothin’, really. You don't have to sit up ‘ere with me. I'll be fine.”

Spot claps a hand on Race’s shoulder, regaining his sorrowful gaze.

Race sighs sadly, “‘m sorry.”

“Don't be.” Spot insists with a smile that makes Race’s heart beat spike.

He gets a sudden burst of confidence. He knows Spot could easily kill him. He knows the risks. Still, he can't help thinking he may never have an intimate moment like this with Spot ever again. If he's going to get his ass kicked it might as well happen without all the other newsies around to laugh.

He leans forward and kisses Spot, as fast and hard as he knows how. After a second without any reaction from Spot, he pulls away. He tries to look sheepish but he really just looks smug. The look on Spot’s face makes him feel more sheepish than he looks. He doesn't look angry or like he wants to kill him. He definitely looks shocked.

“So, um,” Race starts trying to explain himself but Spot cuts him off by grabbing a fistful of Race’s blond curls and pulling him in to kiss him again, just as rough. Just as Race had always imagined kissing Spot Conlon would be.

They go on kissing for at least three minutes before Spot pulls away again to breathe. Now it's Spot’s turn to look smug. He never thought about Race in such a way before but now that he's thinking about it, he's swooning. He now had beautiful to add to the list of things he loved about Race.

“I've wanted to do that for a long ass time,” Race mutters.

“Wanna do it again?”

Race nods eagerly and Spot helps him off the railing of the fire escape. They lay in the pile of blankets Race sleeps on and make out.

It's at least half an hour before someone finds them. That someone is Albert.

He smirks and calls down the others, “Guys I found Race and Spot! Specs, you owe me a dime!”

Spot and Race look up awkwardly at Albert and Spot notices a dark red blush that covers Race’s face.

Spot laughs, “Now you wanna be bashful?” Spot gets up, much to Race’s disdain, and readjusts his clothes. He reaches a hand out to Race. “They won't leave us alone now.”

Race agrees and accepts Spot’s help. He fixes his own clothes and hair and they go to join the others.

Before descending the fire escape, Spot pulls Race close to him. He whispers lowly in Race’s ear, “We’ll pick this up later, eh?”

Race wants to melt at his words but decides to attempt to keep a tough facade. He whispers back, “Good. I’s got a few more things I been dyin’ to do with you.”

Now it's Spot’s turn to blush and kiss Race one last time before joining the others.

First time writing Sprace fanfic. Suggestions and critiques welcome!

#newsies #racetrack #race #spot conlon #sprace #ben cook #tommy bracco #fluff

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qqueenofhades · 7 years

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March is Women's History Month and I got myself thinkin' about how grateful I am for the gal pals in my life (of which you are most definitely one!), and I was wondering - what are some of your favorite historical female friendships and why?

Happy Women’s History Month indeed. Let’s get some ladies up in this joint and do some learning.

Below, in (approximately) chronological order:

1. MurasakiShikubu and Empress Shoshi (10th/11th century)

Murasaki Shikibu was a lady-in-waiting to the Japanese empress Shoshi in the late 10th/early 11th century, and is credited as the author of the first novel, The Tale of Genji. She also kept the Diary of Lady Murasaki, which records details of court life and her relationship with the empress, who was her patron and supported her literary pursuits. Allegedly, Shoshi asked Murasaki to write some more stories when she needed something new to read, and they eventually retired together to the country once Shoshi’s son became emperor. Shoshi herself was a shrewd political operator who carefully managed her family and dynasty’s fortunes, became a Buddhist nun, and died at the age of 86.

2. Christinede Pizan and Anastasia (14th/15th century)

Christine de Pizan was an Italian-French author in the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century, who wrote what are often characterized as many early feminist texts and literary critiques. She wrote blazing responses to popular romances written by men (which were often horrendously misogynist) and was in demand as an author; her texts were commissioned by royalty and kept on elite library shelves. She also sought out other women to collaborate with, including Anastasia, who we know only by her first name. Christine praised her as the finest manuscript illuminator and illustrator in Paris, whose work was hotly in demand, and who had worked on several projects for Christine herself.

3. The Rain Queens of the Lovedu (16th century-present)

This is technically about mothers and daughters, but shh, it counts. The South African tribe of the Lovedu has been ruled for centuries by a “rain queen,” whose wisdom passed from mother to daughter, and who was presented with wives by surrounding chiefs in recognition of her magical powers. If it doesn’t rain, the queen doesn’t get blamed, her (male) rain doctors get blamed instead, and any children of her “brides” are regarded as hers. It created a mystical, matriarchical tradition in the tribe throughout generations, though in the 21st century it has run into modern political difficulties.

4. Queen Elizabeth I and Grace O’Malley (16th century)

Queen Elizabeth I needs no introduction, but Grace O’Malley was an Irish pirate queen who ruled around the Connaught area of Ireland in the late 16th century. When she and her sons ran afoul of English justice, she applied to Queen Elizabeth directly for an audience, which eventually happened at Greenwich in 1593. Elizabeth spoke no Irish and Grace spoke no English, so the two women spoke Latin to each other. Grace must have also made quite an impression on her fellow queen, as Elizabeth released her sons and granted her a pardon, as long as she didn’t return to her reaving ways.

5. Julie d’Aubigny and Fanchon Moreau (17th century)

Julie d’Aubigny, or “La Maupin” had an almost ridiculously eventful life. A cross-dressing, bisexual, sword-fighting opera singer, she famously burned down a convent to run away with her nun lover, kissed a girl at a society party and beat all three of the noblemen who challenged her to duels as a result, and had a noted career in French theater. Fanchon Moreau was one of the actresses that Julie fell in love with, allegedly trying to commit suicide when Fanchon took up with another lover. She later died at the age of only 33.

6. Christina,Queen of Sweden and her many female friends (17th century)

To speak of impossibly colorful and interesting 17th century women: Christina, Queen of Sweden was also a cross-dressing expert swordswoman, rider, and hunter who spoke ten languages, ruled as queen of Sweden for twenty-two years, then resigned the throne and went to Rome, was ferociously brilliant and educated, and has been sometimes regarded as possibly intersex or trans, though she denied that she was a “Male or Hermaphrodite,” as she had often been accused of. She was also either bisexual or a lesbian, who had many relationships and friendships with women, including possibly with Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Montemart, a dazzling beauty and wit who was the older sister of Louis XIV’s famous mistress, Madame de Montespan. (Gabrielle’s BFF was also the openly gay Philippe, duc d’Anjou, Louis XIV’s younger brother.)

7. Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill (18th century)

Queen Anne was known for her passionate and long-running friendships with women, as I wrote about in the post above, and Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, was the longest-lasting and most influential of these. Anne was in love with her, while Sarah was more pragmatic about her relationship with the princess and then queen, and used her considerable intellect and political opinions in the early years of Anne’s rule. Their relationship broke down in 1708, at the death of Anne’s beloved husband George, and Sarah’s unflattering portrayal of Anne would hold sway for many years after.

8. Anne Bonny and Mary Read (18th century)

If you’ve watched Black Sails, you know about these two, but their real-life counterparts were probably even more colorful. They were swashbuckling female pirates who drank, fought, swore, and fucked as hardcore as their male counterparts, and who fought to the end when their ship got captured, while Calico Jack Rackham hid below deck. (Sorry, Jack, but Black Sails was definitely nice to you.) And yes, the real Anne and Mary were probably in a relationship, though we don’t know for sure.

9. ElizabethFreeman and Catharine Sedgwick (18th/19th century)

Elizabeth Freeman, or “Mum Bett,” was a slave who sued the state of Massachusetts for her freedom – and won – in 1780, and after telling her former master to get fucked, took a paying job with the Sedgwick family. She raised Catharine as a child, and Catharine later wrote her life story, the reason we know about her. Catharine grew up to be a successful novelist whose heroines often rebelled against the strictures of 19th-century American society, and she and Elizabeth are now buried side by side in the Sedgwick family plot. (Does anyone else suddenly have something in their eye? Just me?)

10. Ada Lovelace and Mary Somerville (19th century)

Ada Lovelace, nee Byron, was the only legitimate daughter of the infamous Lord Byron, a brilliant mathematician, and the founding mother of computer science, along with her friend and colleague, the great Victorian inventor and eccentric Charles Babbage. However, she was tutored in her young adulthood by the equally brilliant Mary Somerville, a prolific scientist and author of mathematical and astronomical papers and textbooks, and they were close friends; if Ada had a pressing mathematical problem, she would stop by Mary’s for a cup of tea and a brainstorming session. Somerville College in Oxford is now named in Mary’s honor, after she died at the age of ninety-two.

11. Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin (19th century)

They were sisters, but shh, again, it counts. Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president of the United States (in 1872, with Frederick Douglass as her running mate) and she and Tennessee were journalists, stockbrokers, and advocates of free love who fought with Party Pooper Extraordinaire and self-appointed guardian of 19th-century American virtue Anthony Comstock, as is written about in the Historical Hour With Hilary entry above. They lived in New York together and ran Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, a newspaper, and gave blazing speeches for female suffrage and equality.

12. Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt (20th century)

Ukrainian-born Lyudmila Pavlichenko was the best female sniper of all time, serving in the Red Army during WWII and recording a total of 309 confirmed kills. That was a lot of Nazis, and she was very proud of killing them. She was one of the rare Soviet citizens invited to America for a victory tour, where the American press fixated on idiotic questions about whether she wore makeup while fighting and that her uniform made her look fat (no, really). However, Lyudmila also met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and they struck up an unlikely friendship. Eleanor helped Lyudmila tell the sexist asses where to stick it, and they ended up remaining friends for the rest of their lives, including a meeting 15 years later, in 1957, when Lyudmila was living in quiet obscurity in Moscow.

#history #women in history #queer history #women's history month #prairiepirate #ask

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desperadodeadeye · 7 years

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Gorillaz - Humanz - Album Review

(Warning: this is a very long one. Summary is at the bottom if you don’t want to read it all)

This is gonna be an interesting review for me, if for no one else. My reviews up to this point have been almost entirely about rock and metal music, reflecting my general listening habits. But I have also been a fan of Gorillaz for a few years now, even though Gorillaz is about as far from rock/metal as you can get. But I respect the originality and innovation on display in so much of their music, and I love the virtual band concept as well. Just for context, my favorite Gorillaz album is still Demon Days, with Plastic Beach as a close second. Both are great in their thematic focus that is shown throughout the album, with themes of politics and environmentalism on display on both albums. With this in mind, I was hoping for a similar level of thematic focus on Humanz, especially with interviews with Albarn stating essentially that many of the songs were written as a response to being in a world where Trump is president (which at the time of the recording was only hypothetical). So for Humanz, I was expecting a focus on political and social themes with the level of tightness and eloquence of Demon Days.

I do have to say that Humanz is certainly not very focused musically or thematically though. However, this does not mean the album isn’t good, not by a longshot. It’s hard to cover this album in broad strokes, and yet I don’t want to just dive headfirst into a track-by-track critique, so I’ll mention the few broad strokes about the album first.

So Humanz strengths lie in its infectious beats that are in nearly every song. Even the songs I like less have a great rhythm, in one way or another. Many of the guests are top notch as well, with my personal favorites being Peven Everett, Popcaan, Mavis Staples & Pusha T, Kali Uchis, and Rag’n’Bone Man, Zebra Katz & RAY BLK.

However, the weaknesses of Humanz are much more apparent on a first listen, namely the overabundance of guests. There are hardly any songs where 2D’s (Albarn’s) voice carries an entire song, the few instances being Busted and Blue (the only song with no features), and most other songs relegating him to a chorus at best, or even just a short bridge verse. I’m aware that Gorillaz have always collaborated with other artists, but it feels like they went a bit overboard on Humanz, causing the ever hard to define Gorillaz sound to be nearly non-existent, drowned out in a sea of other talented artists. And there are even some songs where I think certain guest artists actually decrease the overall quality of the song, which I’ll get into later.

The other major malady that I kept noticing throughout Humanz was the lack of any momentum building, or really any variation within individual songs. This makes me sad, because there are many songs that, if they had a bridge that added just a bit more energy, or a different rhythm, they would go from songs that are simply solid to really great songs. I’ll also point these songs out later.

While it’s much easier to talk about the broad negatives of Humanz in comparison to the positives, I’ll say once more, this doesn’t mean I dislike the album. The songs are so varied that it’s really difficult to discuss what I like about it in broad strokes, so from here, I’ll go into what songs I liked and why, as well as the ones that fall short and why they do.

Well, here we go, track by tracking a 26 song album (although I’m not gonna mention the Interludes. They’re there but they don’t really add anything, so it’s really 19 songs).

The album starts off fairly strong with Ascension, featuring Vince Staples. I’m just gonna say here that I haven’t heard of him before, and the same can be said of almost all of the guests on Humanz for me. But his voice has a unique sound to it, and his flow and rhythm are really good. The only thing that holds this song back for me is that I don’t much care for the lyrics of the chorus. It’s overly repetitive and I’m not a fan of the main line being about dropping asses. However the verses are great to counterbalance it a bit.

Strobelite, featuring Peven Everett, was an immediate favorite for me. The beat is fun and funky, and had me bobbing my head on the first listen. Everett’s soulful vocals are also just fantastic.

Saturnz Barz, featuring Popcaan, is another favorite song of mine, but it reached that point over time, with me not liking it very much at first. Popcaan’s vocal style and rhythm are great, if a bit hard to understand at times. And 2D’s parts on the chorus and bridge are just amazing, bringing a down and somewhat eerie tone. This combined over the fantastic beat makes for one of the best songs on the album for sure.

Momentz, featuring De La Soul, was a song I was looking forward to, since they’re also on Feel Good Inc., arguably Gorillaz most well-known song as well as my personal favorite. Unfortunately, Momentz falls short for me. Not bad, but one of the weaker songs on the album. Lyrically it doesn’t do very much at all, and its beat is okay at best. It also feels a bit disjointed, with the various parts of the song not really meshing or flowing together very well.

Submission, featuring Danny Brown and Kelela, is another great song that has just one bit I’m not huge on. Kelela’s voice is fantastic, and the lyrics are also great. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of Danny Brown’s contribution to the track. Lyrically the bridge is good, but his voice is just, I don’t know, weird. It clashes a bit with Kelela’s beautiful voice on this track, and brings it down just a bit for me.

Charger, featuring Grace Jones, is pretty much the only song on the album that uses a guitar sound. It uses the same gritty riff throughout the whole song, so it’s a good thing that it’s an infectious riff. 2D’s vocals sound oddly loose here, almost like he’s drunk or something, but that’s not a bad thing really, it works with the rest of the song’s feel. Grace Jones contributions to the song aren’t huge, although her voice is great. A personal favorite that I could see other people not liking as much, and I would understand that.

Andromeda, featuring D.R.A.M, was another immediate favorite, and as such was a great choice for a single. A more dance-y track, something that wouldn’t be out of place playing in a club of some sort. The beat is simple yet infectious, getting you to bob your head and bounce your feet almost immediately. 2D’s vocals are great, and so are D.R.A.M’s. One of the best songs on the album.

Busted and Blue, being the only song on the album to have no features on it (despite having a section with a female vocalist, who is uncredited in the title. After some research it appears that it is Kelela), had a lot to live up to for me, in terms of the expectation of delivering a more classic Gorillaz sound. The song itself is a very quiet, subdued one, with minimal instrumentation and lyrics that seem to be about technology, but I’m not entirely sure what it’s going for. I want to love this song, but I can’t really. I like it, but it exemplifies the problem I stated earlier about songs feeling like they never really go anywhere, it sort of just wanders aimlessly until it ends.

Carnival, featuring Anthony Hamilton, is a track that, if it were a minute longer, would be amazing, but it’s still great at its 2 minute runtime. Hamilton’s great voice combined with the darker sounding, drum-heavy beat create an imposing and eerie atmosphere that I really like. It’s unfortunate that the song feels like it ends just a bit too soon.

Let Me Out, featuring Pusha T and Mavis Staples, was another immediate favorite for me. Pusha T’s rhythm and flow are fantastic in the verses, as are the lyrics. Mavis Staples voice on the chorus is amazing, and the politically charged lyrics throughout the song are great as well.

Sex Murder Party, featuring Jamie Principle & Zebra Katz, is another song that I wish I liked more than I did, but it falls just short. The drumming beat throughout the song is great, and 2D’s voice on the chorus is fantastic. However, I don’t quite get what the lyrics are really going for here, and that holds it back a bit for me.

She’s My Collar, featuring Kali Uchis, is fantastic. An immediate standout on first listen, and a song that I like more than most of the singles. It’s beat is fantastic, and 2D takes center stage on the song, with Kali Uchis only coming in for the bridge and final chorus. Uchis’ voice is great, and the lyrics for the song are good as well.

Hallelujah Money, featuring Benjamin Clementine, is an interesting experiment if nothing else. It doesn’t do much for me musically. Clementine’s voice is interesting, but the rhythm of the song feels off, almost spoken word but not quite. The implicitly political lyrics are good, but this isn’t really a song that I come back to.

We Got the Power, featuring Jehnny Beth, is great. It stands in stark contrast to most of the darker toned songs on the album, providing a pop-tinged message of power through unity. I’ve seen many people say they don’t like the song because of that, but I love it because of that. After most of the album has been darker or political, it’s a good change of pace just before the regular album ends.

Now this is where the regular album ends, but the deluxe version includes 6 (really 5, with another interlude) more songs. So let’s get to them.

The Apprentice, featuring Rag’n’Bone Man, Zebra Katz, and RAY BLK, is awesome. One of my favorites for sure. I can see why it was relegated to the deluxe album, because as great as it is I can see that it doesn’t exactly flow with the other songs on the album. The song itself has an amazing beat, and all of the artists on this song have incredible voices that bring a soulful sound to the song. The only negative I have is the bridge, and not because its bad, not by a longshot, but I feel it clashes with the verses and chorus a bit. The bridge is explicitly political in its lyrics, and the verses and chorus are less so, if at all. Overall though, another favorite track.

Halfway to the Halfway House, once again featuring Peven Everett, has a great beat and Everett appears once again with his great voice. However, I may just be missing something, but I don’t quite understand the lyrics of this one (like why is “Cherryage fountain” repeated again and again?). Not a bad song, but one that I wouldn’t call great.

Out of Body, featuring Kilo Kish, Zebra Katz, and Imani Vonsha, is a strange song. Kish’s voice is... odd, and I’m not really sure how to describe it at all. It’s not bad, as once the song gets going, her rhythm and flow are great. But the song itself just doesn’t do much for me outside of great vocal rhythm.

Ticker Tape, featuring Carly Simon & Kali Uchis, is a slower affair, but a solid one for sure. 2D’s voice is great, as are Carly Simon’s & Kali Uchis’. The lyrics are great as well. I feel like this song is closer to what Busted and Blue could’ve been.

Finally, the album closes with Circle of Friendz, featuring Brandon Markell Holmes, is odd. The vocals from Holmes are fantastic, but the song consists of very few unique lines, and musically, it doesn’t really go anywhere. It kind of works as a thematic close to the album, but doesn’t really stand on its own very well.

And there you have it. All of my thoughts on Humanz. The album is far from perfect, but it’s pretty darn good. It’s certainly not better than Demon Days, and just barely edges out Plastic Beach for me. It’s an album that is well worth your time. Whether you’ve been a fan of Gorillaz or not, there is probably something on this album that you can enjoy.

(Also I can’t wait to see Gorillaz live in October, if nothing else I have Humanz to thank for allowing me to actually do that.)

FINAL SCORE: 8.62/10

BEST SONGS

She’s My Collar

The Apprentice

Andromeda

Saturnz Barz

Strobelite

We Got the Power

#gorillaz #humanz #album #review #music #rap #hip hop #dance #alternative

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kayluh1915 · 6 years

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I’m Done.

Long post inbound. Sorry, not sorry.

Last year, before Anthony left, I was a HUGE Smosh fan and loved Ian and Anthony unconditionally. Was their brand perfect? No. Absolutely not, but I loved and watched them all the same. Almost a year later, nothing about that has changed. I may not watch Smosh as much as I used to, but I still love Ian and support him in whatever he does. The same applied to Anthony too… until today.

I’ve found his content to be awful since the day he left, however I’ve remained subscribed to him all this time because I love him and I want to support him even though his content is like… REALLY bad. However, this past month he has shown me that he doesn’t care about fans like us and see us as nothing more than free promotion. When I come onto this platform I have been blessed with and criticize Anthony’s content, its LEGIT concerns and critiques that any solo YouTuber would listen to. Anthony, however, sees it as someone’s whiny hatred that helps his channel in the long run… Uh uh, honey.

When I say that his videos are a shadow of his true potential or that they’re just tone deaf completely in the humor department, I MEAN IT. I say these things because I want his channel to live up to the potential he has. We all know that Anthony’s funny. He was funny for 11 years on a completely different channel, but now he’s unfunny and DOESN’T CARE. Even now when he’s losing money and fans left and right, he STILL doesn’t care. He’s so consumed by the numbers that he could care less about criticism and just thinks that it’ll boost his channel. When you’d rather take a sponsorship from a fucking ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION MEDICATION than make content that will make your fans happy and WANT to support you… it just really shows where your priorities are. But we’ve all been dealing with that for a while, right? Nothing new from Anthony. Same shit, different day. However, today was different. Today was the nail in the coffin for me. Today is where I draw the line.

On Friday night, Anthony posted THIS TWEET.

Naturally, this sparked me to check what his most popular video was… It was his “why I left Smosh” video. Naturally, I got excited. Was my THEORY actually right for a change? Was there really another reason? However, last night when I came home from work, I realised that today was April Fool’s day. Immediately, all of my excitement went out the window. I knew exactly what he was doing based on what the fuckers pulled on us LAST YEAR. But… there was no way he’d take the heartbreak of his fans and use it as a cheap shot for an April fools prank to garner a couple of views… Would he?

Seriously!? FUCK YOU, ANTHONY! I’ve tried my hardest to stand by your side and support you through these times, tried to understand that you’re still learning and gritted my teeth to try and not hit that “UNSUBSCRIBE” button for MONTHS. However, if THIS is how you’re going to show your gratitude, you can kiss my ass. Instead of hearing us out, you exploit us for a cheap joke and to grab some quick views. It’s SICKENING and I hope to God that you see this so you can feel the heartache and disappointment seeping out of us right now. I’ve loved and supported you for YEARS and have taken up for you when I shouldn’t have, but no more. My criticisms and concerns ARE NOT exploitable free promotions! If you don’t care about your shitty content, then I don’t care anymore. If you don’t take care of your audience, then how do you expect us to take care of you?

I’M FUCKING DONE!

#kayla's rants #anthony padilla #i'm furious salty and heartbroken #i can't believe that he did this #all this time i've dedicated to him... for this #thanks for nothing jackass #ianthony #becuse i can

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sartle-blog · 7 years

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Titanic 20th Anniversary: Artworks Lost and Found at Sea

Twenty years ago on December 19, 1997, Titanic splashed onto the big screen, shattering box office records. It is one of those quintessentially ‘90s films that reminds an entire generation of being a certain age at a certain time in a certain place, particularly resonating with young people for its Romeo and Juliet get wet theme. The two intervening decades are enough to make us kids who came of age back then feel like old Rose.

Like its contemporary pop-culture opus, Clueless, which featured a work by Claes Oldenburg and coined the phrases “Botticelli chick” and “full-on Monet,” Titanic is liberally peppered with high-brow (albeit obvious) art history references. Rose’s first act upon boarding the ill-fated liner is to decorate her stateroom with what Cal calls her “finger paintings,” a collection of works by Monet, Degas, Cezanne, and “something Picasso.” Cal densely critiques, “Something Picasso...he won’t amount to a thing...at least they were cheap.”

Kate Winslet as Rose inspecting her “something” Picasso, based on Les Demoiselles d’Avignon that Picasso had finished five years before the Titanic sank.

Jack later admires her taste in art before adding his own contribution, the iconic nude sketch of Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean.

The priceless masterpieces ultimately drift beneath the surface as the stateroom floods (by far the most tear-jerking scene for art nerds), and fortune hunters recover and restore Jack’s risque drawing almost a century after as the pivotal clue to the whereabouts of the diamond. Of course, art historians dispute that works by those artists went down on the Titanic, and a drawing on paper surviving 84 years under miles of ocean may seem a bit far fetched.

Even so, here are some true cases of artworks lost and/or found at sea which prove that there was more than a kernel of plausibility to James Cameron's epic.

Titanic: The Real Story

Copy of La Circassienne au Bain by John Parker, after an original by Merry-Joseph Blondel (left). Hecuba and Polyxena by Merry-Joseph Blondel, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (right), giving some idea of what the original might have looked like stylistically.

The fictional plot points of sunken masterpieces, a nude artwork, and an insurance claim on an outrageously expensive diamond lost aboard the Titanic have echoes of the real-life story of La Circassienne au Bain. The enormous neoclassical painting of a nude beauty debuted at the Louvre in 1814 to limited fanfare, but grew in reputation and popularity over time. Tragically, the work went down on the Titanic while in the possession of Swedish businessman Mauritz Hakan Björnström-Steffanson. Steffansson, who survived the disaster, filed a compensation claim for over two million dollars in today’s money. Thus, the painting was the most valuable item lost in the sinking, analogous to the famous “Heart of the Ocean” in the film.

HMS Colossus

Sir William Hamilton by George Romney, at the National Gallery of Art Washington DC (left). Lady Hamilton as Bacchante by Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, at the Lady Lever Art Gallery (right).

Sir William Hamilton is known for his diplomatic service on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars and his scandalous open marriage with Lady Emma Hamilton. Emma was a famous beauty and artistic muse who inspired the likes of Vigee Le Brun, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Angelika Kauffmann, and George Romney. She also just happened to be the mistress of Britain’s greatest hero, Admiral Horatio Nelson, himself a married man.

Sir William’s scandalous personal life overshadows his artistic contributions. While British Ambassador to Naples on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, he accumulated a plethora of artistic treasures and antiquities, contributing immeasurably to the collections of such venerable institutions as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Unfortunately, part of his priceless collection of classical Greek vases went down aboard the HMS Colossus en route from Naples to Britain in 1798. However, salvage diver Roland Morris discovered the wreck in 1974, including shards of the broken vases. After nearly 200 years in darkness on the ocean floor, the reconstructed vases now sit proudly in the British museum for all to see.

Vase reconstructed of fragments recovered from the Colossus, at the British Museum (left). Replica of the Portland Vase from Sir William’s collection, at the Victoria and Albert Museum (right), hinting at the original splendour of the vases damaged in the wreck.

Vrouw Maria

Illustration of the Vrouw Maria before her sinking (left). Catherine II by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, at the Museum of Art History Vienna (right).

In 1771, the Vrouw Maria set sail from Amsterdam to Saint Petersburg laden with masterpieces by a who’s who of the Dutch Golden Age, including Paulus Potter, Gerard ter Borch, Cornelis Coedyk, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard Dou, and Philip Wouwerman. Especially notable among the works were Potter’s Large Herd of Oxen and Borch’s Woman at her Toilette. The paintings were personal possessions of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, bound for her newly founded State Hermitage Museum, but the ship went down in a storm off of Finland.

The Young Bull by Potter, at the Mauritshuis (left), probably in the style of Large Herd of Oxen. Surviving version of Lady at her Toilette by ter Borch, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (left), probably similar in composition to the lost version.

Yet, the story doesn’t end there. When the wreck was discovered in 1999, the cargo hold was intact and undisturbed, meaning that the contents must still be inside. The cold temperatures and low salinity of the Baltic Sea are ideal for the preservation of soft, organic materials such as canvas and wood. Furthermore, the works were sealed in wax for shipping, so if water hadn’t penetrated the seal, the paintings may very well survive in near-pristine condition after two and a half centuries. Hopes to salvage the paintings have thus far come to nothing, but recovery efforts continue, led by the Finnish National Board of Antiquities.

SS Normandie

History of Navigation by Jean Dupas, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The French government subsidized the lavish design and construction of the SS Normandie, even as millions starved in the Great Depression and the spectre of World War II loomed on the horizon. She dwarfed all earlier liners (including the Titanic) in size, speed, luxury, and elegant aesthetics, winning an unofficial reputation as the most beautiful liner ever built. This was due in large part to Jean Dupas’ breathtaking Art Deco murals that adorned the first class salon. In fact, the Normandie’s sleek interiors were so influential that “ocean liner style” was synonymous with Art Deco throughout the 1930s. Fittingly for a ship described as a “temple of beauty,” the Normandie played host to the world’s rich and famous during the golden age of travel, including art world celebrities like Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dali.

Photographs of Kahlo and Dali taken aboard the SS Normandie at the height of her glamour.

When France fell to the Nazis in 1939, the US commandeered the Normandie to serve as a troopship, and stripped her of most her decorative fixtures and (ill-advisedly) her fire containment system. Consequently, the ship caught fire in 1942 and capsized in the Hudson River, thankfully sans Dupas’ murals. The section in the Met (top) is the only full corner surviving intact, giving a taunting glimpse of the overall effect.

Demise of the SS Normandie in New York Harbor, 1942. Fun fact! Alfred Hitchcock used the shipwreck in the filming of his wartime thriller, Saboteur.

Dress from the Deep

Dress circa early 17th Century, at the Kaap Skil Museum, Netherlands.

In 2015, divers off the coast of the Netherlands discovered this 17th-Century silken gown, kept incredibly well-preserved under the protective sand for nearly 400 years. The odyssey of this dress and the woman who wore it unfolded in a swashbuckling tale fit for a James Cameron blockbuster in and of itself. In 1642, Queen Henrietta Maria of England’s retinue set sail for the Netherlands with the purported purpose of escorting her daughter to be a royal bride, but actually on a top-secret mission to hock the crown jewels to raise funds for the English Civil war. Entrusted with this mission was the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Jean Kerr, Countess of Roxburghe. Jean was an adept spy who had previously funneled communications to the King of Spain in the service of her former mistress, Anne of Denmark. The voyage went sour when part of the royal fleet sank in a storm.

Jean Kerr, Countess of Roxburghe by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, in a private collection (left). Princess Henrietta Maria of France, Queen Consort of England by Anthony van Dyck, at the San Diego Museum of Art (right), wearing clothing of the period.

Historians might never have drawn the connection between Jean Kerr and this dress, had not a 1642 letter resurfaced referring to the Queen’s ladies losing their wardrobe at sea. Additionally, a book discovered alongside the garment is embossed with the coat of arms of King Charles I, husband of Henrietta Maria. Researchers singled out Jean Kerr among the royal entourage, since the dress matched her measurements and the style she favored. No doubt, this miraculous rediscovery gives hope to the millions of fangirls hoping to get their hands on some of Rose’s bomb-ass wardrobe in Titanic.

Thus, our story comes to a close with the same moral lesson as Titanic: It’s never too late to get back your long-lost bling...

...or your long-lost art.

By Griff Stecyk

#pop culture #history #titanic #leonardo dicaprio #kate winslet #art in film #movies #fun stuff #lost treasures #lost art #art #art history #art museums #20th anniversary #anniversary #sunken treasure

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thecosydragon · 7 years

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My latest blog post from the cosy dragon: Interview with Christopher Slayton

An Interview with Christopher Slayton, author of Chaos Company

Everyone has a ‘first novel’, even if many of them are a rough draft relegated to the bottom and back of your desk drawer (or your external harddrive!). Have you been able to reshape yours, or have you abandoned it for good?

I’m glad you asked! I’ve had a rough draft of my first attempt at book writing still saved in my files and I’m currently finishing it in hopes to have it published this fall! I wrote the first few pages back in 2009 while in college but didn’t feel confident to write a full manuscript for it. The story follows a young man who is forced to become a masked vigilante after his brother, a gun-wielding batman-like hero suddenly dies. I think with the complexity I wanted to put into this story was more than I was able to handle then. I believe that after writing Chaos Company I have what it takes to deliver a complex story within my first manuscript.

Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to get a beautiful novel?

Well, the truth is I know I have a number of stories from start to finish I can’t wait to get to! I even have a dozen of them outlined! I can’t speak for other writers, but inspiration isn’t a problem for me. I try to find it everywhere, from current events and life experience to traveling. The biggest issue for me is time. Until a year ago I didn’t have the time to write, mostly because after working a 40hr/week job, exercising and being social I didn’t have enough to put my ideas down. But now since I work for myself I have the time needed to put my ideas into writing.

I have heard of writers that could only write in one place – then that cafe closed down and they could no longer write! Where do you find yourself writing most often, and on what medium (pen/paper or digital)?

I often write on my laptop either in my bedroom or the living room. That being said I have written in other places such as the common area of my former college, and even at my old job while I was on break. Heck, I’ve even written when I was on vacation in Spain lol. To me there isn’t really a special place for me to write. There is however a mindset I like to put myself in through music in order to write. For example, if I’m writing a lot of dialogue I like to be listening to alternative rock or instrumental music, and when it comes to me writing action scenes I find it easier to do so while listening to hardrock or EDM.

Before going on to hire an editor, most authors use beta-readers. How do you recruit your beta-readers, and choose an editor? Are you lucky enough to have loving family members who can read and comment on your novel?

Unfortunately I can’t trust my family to read for me because most of them see critiquing me as them being rude. When it comes to beta-readers I have only one. Her name is Tessa. She’s been a friend of mine for seven years now and I can trust her to not only tell me exactly how she feels about my work, but also provide ways on how I can improve on a story. I trusted her taste in storytelling and her suggestions when I had her take a look at Chaos Company, and I know I can trust her going forward.

Now when it comes to hiring an editor I am very picky on whom I choose. I got lucky with Chaos Company. Before being let go with publisher Desert Breeze Publishing they had already edited my book for me and had spent over five months and two editors on the project. But now that I am on my own again I’ve learned to ask various questions before hiring an editor, and have them edit a chapter of my work before hiring them. That way I know what I’ll be getting from when they are working on an entire manuscript.

I walk past bookshops and am drawn in by the smell of the books – ebooks simply don’t have the same attraction for me. Does this happen to you, and do you have a favourite bookshop? Or perhaps you are an e-reader fan… where do you source most of your material from?

I am an e-reader. My mom got me a device years ago and I’ve been using it ever since. That being said, I am a sucker for having a physical book in my hand from time to time. I usually get my physical copies from amazon and the same for ebooks.

I used to find myself buying books in only one genre (fantasy) before I started writing this blog. What is your favourite genre, and do you have a favourite author who sticks in your mind from:

1. childhood? – Dr. Suess. His work was and still is a great stepping stone for young readers. I could do without the films made from his work though lol

2. adolescence? – R.L. and the Goosebump books. Especially the choose your own adventure stories. I remember when I choose the wrong page and quickly flipping back to the previous page to try again! I also remember reading the Halo series based on the video game because I wasn’t allowed to play those games as a kid so I thought reading the stories was the next best thing.

3. young adult? – The Alex Rider novels by Anthony Horowitz. That series really got me through high school and inspired me to try my hand at writing, which I would later fall in love with. I read somewhere that Mr. Horowitz wrote a James Bond novel and I can’t wait to get to it!

4. adult? – As a fan of The Walking Dead show and Graphic novels I am currently making my way through the tie-in novels for the comics. The novels are written by series creator Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga who both do an excellent job portraying a dreadful and cruel world in these stories. I’m almost done the second book now and am grateful to have 6 more books in the series to go!

All that being said, I am a sucker for a good action novel. If it has anything to do with spies, bad-ass one man armies, super heroes or epic individuals, I am all over it!

Social media is a big thing, much to my disgust! I never have enough time myself to do what I feel is a good job. How do you manage it?

If I’m being honest I don’t spend too much time on social media. I have a facebook and twitter account so that’s about it. And my facebook is used mostly for personal reasons, which only leaves me with twitter to promote myself and my work. I may put 2hrs towards social media a month because I just don’t have the time for it right now. With my schedule the way it is and how many projects I want to release by next year I have to put social media on the back burner. When it comes to twitter I at times feel like I’m just yelling into a void hoping people catch wind of my words. That is why I tend to stay away until I’m ready to promote more material and announce when I will be making appearances. Hopefully when writing is my official full-time job I’ll be able to be more active with social media. But until then I refuse to be a part of something I believe has gotten out of hand when it comes to making it as an artist. A true artist’s work should be based on their artistic merit and vision and not how many followers they have.

Since you don’t use social media to promote your work, what do you do? What do you do instead?

– I work as a driver for Uber/Lyft and do odd jobs through the website Taskrabbit. Both jobs require me to meet so many new people on a daily basis and to me that’s a potential new reader/fan I can introduce my work to. It may seem like a slow way to draw in a fanbase, but I get to have a one on one conversation with potential readers and fans and I believe that is worth more in the long run. But, with this method only time will tell if it works.

Answering interview questions can often take a long time! Tell me, are you ever tempted to recycle your answers from one to the next?

No. Well, at least not yet lol. When people are kind enough to interview me the least I can do is be as authentic as possible when answering them. Now if someone asks me a question I’ve had before then yes there will be a few points I may repeat from a previous interview. But I do not just copy and paste an answer and I will do my best to never do that in an interview. It’s not fair to the people interviewing, or the people who have read previous interviews I’ve been in.

from http://ift.tt/2sXEwH7

#book bookreviews authorinterviews lovereading bookworm

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