#Venus Van Damme

[vulgar-display-of-escapism]

'A Day's Work' - Chibs Telford drabble

Ok, this was originally supposed to be Chibs x Reader X Taza smut. Alas, Adelaide took over. Some of you know this little girl runs around in my mind all the time and vision of Chibs as a single dad is something I can't quite shake. Anyway, enjoy.

The tension in the building started dissipating as the sound of engines belonging to VM assholes faded away. When the air grew quiet again, Mayans and Reaper men all took a collective breath of relief and started filling out of the room, eager to get their drink on. Chibs motioned for Taza and Bishop to stay behind. “Tha’ coulda ended very bloody.” He stated after he emptied his shot glass. “Don’t do anythin’ stupid boys. So I won’t have to come back and clean up another mess.” “We didn’t…” Bishop started to argue, but was stopped short when Chibs stood in front of him and pushed a finger right into the shorter man’s face. “Listen to me, you little shite! Ye rule yer table with that fragile ego o’ yers and yer all gonna be dead within a year!” Bishop’s nostrils flared and his entire body tensed as if he was getting ready to tackle the SOA President. Thankfully, the feud was avoided when Taza stepped between the two men. “Chibs, this matter doesn’t concern you.” “Aye, yer forgettin’ - he pointed at Taza now - Old Friend, I’ve been there. With two presidents. Redwood nearly got wiped off the bloody map because of personal feuds handled the wrong way. Ye do what ye will, but mind my words.” A knock on the door interrupted what might have been another misguided remark from Bishop. Hap stuck his head into the room, “We good here, Prez?” “Yeah, Hap. Now, where’s my drink?”

About an hour later, when the fences were mended and egos sufficiently lubricated, Chibs gave his men the signal to pack it up. As Reaper exited the building and older Mayans followed them outside, Taza clapped Chibs on the back. “You sure you don't wanna stay and party for old times sake?” “Hell nah. Man was not intended to survive in this heat,” the Scott practically scoffed. Taza made a sweeping motion with his arms, “Then walk your old ass back inside, where there’s AC as God intended.” “And ride out after dark, when it’s cooler.” Bishop added, his good humor clearly restored. “Your favorite girl is gonna be here later,” Taza added with a knowing smirk. Chibs sat on his bike seemingly pondering the offer before sighing and saying, “Wish I could. Gotta get home to my daughter.” At Taza’s and Bishop’s raised eyebrows, Hap cut into the conversation, “It’s Disney night, Frozen. Addie loves that movie.” Had anyone else said that, a good, long round of laughter and good-natured ribbing would follow. Alas, when Happy was deadly serious like that, not one outlaw dared. The silence was cut by Montez, who said, “Prez, I could call up Tig, see if the little banshee can stay with him and Venus tonight.” And then he added, “ You know how he loves singing those songs around the house.” Hap and Quinn snorted in unison, but Chibs’ expression remained serious as he replied, “Aye, and then Venus will have my balls in a jar for that.” It was now Taza’s turn to chuckle, “So use ‘em while got ‘em?” After a moment, Chibs turned to his Road Captain and said, “Aye, fine. Just make sure to tell Venus not to sprinkle glitter all over my kid. That shite sticks to everything.” “Well, I wasn’t gonna say anything,” Bishop reached to touch Chibs’ kutte. “But it sure does,” with that he plucked a spec of pink and shiny off Chibs’ President flash. “Jesus Christ,” Chibs muttered as he dismounted. “You know, Old Friend, “ Taza hooked his arm around his arms. “We still don’t know which is more shocking. You knocking up the sheriff and co-parenting with her or Tig putting his crow on a gal with a huge cock.”

A little while later, Chibs was enjoying the god-given AC and nursing another glass of Jameson, passing the time before the girls arrived, when Hap walked over to him with their family-only burner in hand. “It’s Addy. She wants to vent about school.” “Christ, seven years old and already questioning authority,” Chibs muttered as he reached for the phone. Before handing it over, Hap chuckled and mutter his own, “I wonder where she gets that from.” By a way of replying Chibs raised his middle finger, as he snatched the burner with his other hand. “Hey, little warrior. How was school?” He asked already sensing the answer. “Stupid. Boring. Miss Courtney wouldn't let me read in class,” the sound of his younger daughter’s voice filled his head as she continued chatting and venting and everything in between. When he finally could get a word in, Chibs asked, “What were ye trying to read, sweetie?” ‘Um, The Witcher?” “Addie… Where did ye get it?” “I…erm… swipped,” she stopped herself, "I mean borrowed it from uncle Juice and auntie Tristan.” After a short pause, she added resolutely, “Without them knowing.” As Chibs massaged his temple with his free hand, he thought his baby definitely took after Althea, at least in the diplomacy department.

[politelymenacing]

wild theory: dani and jamie get hitched and van damme officiates

There are no flowers anywhere to be seen at the venue and some of the team are starting to freak out because they know Jamie was in charge of ordering them and surely he wouldn't be that much of an idiot? He is occasionally smart!

Van Damme is off in the corner going over what he's going to say (and seeing if he can somehow cram one more reference to Dani breaking his nose into the ceremony) while the others are trying to work out what has happened.

"Maybe they got delivered to the wrong venue?" says Sam. Isaac reckons they just forgot. Richard is confident that Jamie was the one that forgot. Colin wonders if the florist was in an accident, and the less said about Bumbercatch's theory the better.

Jamie eventually calms everyone down and says he's got it all sorted.

When Dani walks in, Jamie presents him with a single tulip.

There isn't a dry eye in the house.

[witchthewriter]

Hi, I’m doing a character thing for Jax Teller, and I’ve been trying to figure out how his birth chart would be. And I was wondering if you could help me? If you don’t know much about astrology, that’s alright, even the smallest input or changes would help a lot. Here’s what I have so far.

Sun: Aries

Moon: Cancer

Mercury: Gemini

Venus: Leo

Mars: Taurus

Ascendant: Gemini

I haven’t figured out the rest yet😅

Would you say that’s accurate? Would you change anything? Thank you!

Hi honey! Awesome question, I love this kinda stuff xx

So I think of Jax with a Leo Sun, Gemini Moon, Aries Rising, Leo Mercury, Gemini Venus, and Gemini or Scorpio Mars.

Leo Sun

Leos are renowned for their stability, loyalty, and consistency. Leo's are relatable. They're the monarch of the zodiac, also known as the king of the zodiac. They're confident, and comfortable being in the lime light. That's not to say Jax loves being the centre of attention, but he doesn't mind the pressure of it.

Gemini Moon

Moon in Gemini people almost always have a way with words. They are clever and witty, open to new ideas and way of doing things. When problems arise, the first instinct of Moon in Gemini natives is to talk things out. Gemini's are the communicator, the adapter.

Aries Rising

Confidence, confidence, confidence; that's what they radiate, even if they feel confident. It's the aura they give off. They not only ask for respect, but they also earn it. Known as the warrior of the zodiac, the leader, but also at times ... the baby.

Leo Mercury

Definitely Leo. When Leo is in Mercury - for better or worse, they stand by their decisions. They take responsibility when their decisions are wrong. They're unpretentious, responsible, and sincere.

Gemini Venus

A Gemini Venus is a playful and teasing partner. They're quick-witted, and have stimulating conversations. I think that's why Tara and Jax work out so well - she's very intelligent, and he can keep up with that because of his own wit that he's learned.

Mars

Either are Gemini Mars or Scorpio. The thing that sets Jax apart from Clay is that he's thinking in the long run. He doesn't retaliate straight off the bat, he takes the time to think about all the options. For example, when they blackmailed that important guy with photos of Venus Van Damme and himself.

I just want to point out that Cancer is the divine mother of the zodiac. It has a lot of feminine energy. The divine father of the zodiac is Capricorn. Which could be in Jax's chart, but it usually means there was issues with the mother in their childhood.

[oh2e]

I have known Venus Van Damme for five seconds but I love her

[hotdamnhunnam]

Sons in Vegas is in progress…

So I’ve come up with the full cast for the SAMCRO / Hangover AU fic that I’ll be writing (per this ask) and… it’s a shitfest to be honest…

_____________________________

I mean the roles don’t exactly align perfectly but hell they work for me 😂

I swear this shit is gonna be so different from any other fic I’ve written 🙈

[bailwhoreganaxoxo]

what your fave did during quarantine: sons of anarchy pt 2

Juice Ortiz: Watched Clone Wars, Rebels, & all the movies  30 times then got so inspired he started a Star Wars podcast with the 19 year old stoner at his local gas station.

Venus Van Damme: Has become TikToks queer mom. Her page is a safe space for sex workers and lgbt people. She also dom stuff over the internet so it’s socially distanced.

Gemma Teller-Morrow: Only follows Covid guidelines so she can babysit her kids. Lowkey when no one is around she’s that person who pulls off their mask to take a deep breath and wears the mask under her nose.

Happy Lowman: Has somehow been there for everyone's antics including Chibs antics running away

Piney Winston: Stays at home 24/7 makes Opie do all his errands and groccery shopping for him. Won’t even let anyone in the house they have to leave everything on the porch no way he’s catching Covid.

Herman Kozik: Went down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and was so fascinated that he joined 30 alien discussion boards and is now sure that he was taken by aliens when he was 12

Kerrianne Telford: Cut all her hair off, came out as gay, and ended up Tiktok famous because pretty gay girl who wouldn’t love.

Ratboy Skogstorm: Learned martial arts then joined an underground fighting ring when he makes surprisingly good money.

Clay Morrow: Got Covid but it wasn’t that bad so now he’s team “it’s just the flu get over it” and gets in fights about wearing a mask on the regular at grocery stores.

[sl-ash-er]

Less Tara and Jax, more Venus and Tig

[reapermet]

Muse Alert. Selective. Venus Van Damme, Joey’s mama, also known as Mama V by @charmingkat​

[crowflystraight]

Sons of Anarchy - Introducing Venus Van Dam Sunday Strollback Walton Goggins as Venus Van Dam on Sons of Anarchy Walton Goggins#WaltonGoggins #VenusVanDam #SonsofAnarchy name play off #TheShield #CletusVanDamme

[noise-vs-signal]

“Lilith” by Diana Van Damme (2016).

The Eight Pointed Star behind her indicates that her other forms are Ishtar/Inanna/Venus i.e. the Queen of Heaven.

In this image she appears as the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal. As a multi-dimensional being the Goddess has many facets, both Dark and Light and every colour in between.

[vulgar-display-of-escapism]

Tig and Venus are soulmates ❤️

You have no idea how much I treasure this statement. 😀

From the moment she said 'Salutations', I've been their number one fan.

[babbling-idiot]

Venus Van Damme

Sons Of Anarchy

Venus Van Dam Prompts: Comforting her

Fluff headcanons

An offer you can’t refuse: x reader

She insists you stay the night

You introduce a new idea in bed

[jartitameteneis]

LIBRA. Equilibrio, belleza y justicia. Nacidos del 23 de Septiembre al 22 de Octubre son el séptimo signo del zodiaco y es un signo de aire regentado por el planeta Venus. Su signo opuesto y compatible es Aries.

La balanza que simboliza a Libra proviene de la hija de Zeus y Temis, la diosa Astrea. Ella personificaba la justicia en el mundo de los hombres.

Las personas nacidas bajo el signo de Libra se encuentran entre los signos más civilizados del zodiaco. Son pacíficas y justas. Personas amables que odian estar solas. Tienen encanto, elegancia y buen gusto. Les gusta la belleza y la armonía y son capaces de ser imparciales ante conflictos.

Para un Libra la calidad está siempre por delante de la cantidad. Son amantes de las cosas hermosas y suelen estar rodeados de arte, música y espacios bellos.

En general, son personas muy sociables. Cooperativos por naturaleza, saben valorar los esfuerzos de los demás y les gusta vivir y trabajar en equipo. Valoran contar con el apoyo de los demás y tienden a ser sensibles a las necesidades de aquellos que lo necesitan.

A Libra le fascina la simetría y el balance. Los nacidos bajo este signo tienen un tremendo sentido de la justicia y prefieren la igualdad. Son incapaces de tolerar injusticias, aunque normalmente eviten meterse en cualquier tipo de conflicto y prefieran mantenerse en paz, mientras que eso sea posible. Habitualmente les cuesta decidirse cuando se les obliga a tomar un bando, ya que son indecisos por naturaleza.

En ocasiones pueden resultar frívolos y es fácil verles cambiar de opinión. No les gusta la rutina y muchas veces les falta la capacidad de enfrentarse a los demás. Les encanta el placer lo cual les puede llevar a cometer ciertos excesos en su vida. Curiosos de nacimiento, invierten mucho tiempo en descubrir nuevas cosas, aunque también les conlleva a meterse demasiado en la vida o los asuntos de los demás. Los libra son personas emocionalmente equilibradas, tal y como destaca su símbolo, y miran mucho por su interior. Prefieren controlarse y no actuar de forma impulsiva y desmedida. Les encanta mantener conversaciones con muchas personas, no únicamente por los conocimientos que pueden extraer de ellas, sino porque siempre quieren conocer las opiniones y las ideas de las personas que pertenecen a su círculo cercano. Una de sus mayores cualidades, es que en una discusión, si no la ganan, la empatan.

Dispuestos a ayudar a los demás sin pedir nada a cambio. Son personas con los sentimientos a flor de piel y no soportan las posibles carencias ajenas. Disfrutan de ayudar a las personas que requieren algo de ellos sintiéndose así también realizados.

Son excelentes amigos dispuestos a comprender la postura de la otra persona y a ser tolerantes con los defectos de los demás antes que perder una amistad. Son capaces de ver todos los lados y puntos de un debate al igual que moderar entre dos puntos de vista que no estén de acuerdo.

Respecto al amor, son cariñosos, románticos y confiados pero también posesivos. Aman de verdad e intensamente y necesitan que la persona que esté a su lado pueda ofrecer lo mismo.

Pasan mucho tiempo pensando en nuevas aventuras o cosas emocionantes que poder hacer en su tiempo libre. Es por eso que en la búsqueda de algunas emociones nuevas siempre están dispuestos a tomar el mando con el fin de convertirlo en una gran aventura.

Los Libra tienen una forma especial de hacer las cosas que hacen disfrutar enormemente a los demás. Tienen muy buenas relaciones con las personas que les rodean y suelen ser muy extrovertidos. Tienen la cualidad de saber escuchar y son capaces de contar aventuras o historias siempre interesantes.

Aunque la idea de la pereza siempre va ligada a ellos, lo cierto es que algunos Libra tienen ambiciones que apuntan muy alto.

Algunos famosos que nacieron bajo el signo de libra: Gandhi, Miguel de Cervantes, John Lennon, Julie Andrews, Julio Iglesias, Oscar Wilde, Pedro Almodovar, Susan Sarandon, Maribel Verdú, Pancho Villa, Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ralph Lauren, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bimba Bosé, Charlton Heston, Brigitte Bardot, Luciano Pavarotti, Rocio Durcal, Vladimir Putin, Margaret Thatcher, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Sting, Paco León, Matt Damon, Sergio Dalma…

[architectnews]

The Ranch in Orlando, Florida

The Ranch, Orlando House, Florida Real Estate, American Luxury Architecture Interior, Images

The Ranch in Orlando

Aug 31, 2020

The Ranch in Florida

Architects: VSHD Design

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA

Tuscan Transformation: Dubai-based VSHD Design expands its international portfolio with the completion of their first U.S. residential project – The Ranch

VSHD Design, a Dubai-based interior architecture firm specializing in residential and commercial projects, is proud to unveil a luxurious residential design within the Four Seasons Orlando Resort in Florida. With 22,000 sq. ft. this project marks the first residential undertaking of the firm in the United States.

“From the onset, we realized that we were facing numerous challenges with this project,” notes Rania Hamed, interior architect and founder of VSHD Design. “In addition to strict regional building and environmental codes, there were requirements imposed by Four Seasons Resorts to ensure that the residence blended stylistically with its neighboring properties.”

A modern Tuscan approach In approaching the external Tuscan theme exhibited by homes within the exclusive development, the challenge was to maintain some existing structural elements, while delivering on the client’s vision of a modern home that would be luxurious, yet warm, comfortable, and ideal for entertaining guests. The client envisioned a sort of boutique-style hotel environment that would provide family and friends with privacy and luxurious amenities, even in the absence of its owners. To achieve that challenging balance, Hamed embarked on a mission to modernize the external Tuscan façade, while infusing contemporary luxury into the home’s interior to align with the client’s vision.

While Tuscan architecture in its purest form embraces natural, rustic elements, VSHD Design avoided abundant use of materials such as brick and wrought iron in lieu of a modern interpretation. Gray brick overhangs positioned above the external façade’s windows and passages pay homage to Tuscan influences. Black frames of expansive French windows, certified to hurricane standards, provide contemporary contrasts to the façade’s white walls, culminating in a modern Mediterranean style that adheres to the Four Seasons aesthetic requirements.

To complement the structural design, VSHD Design developed all of the home’s outdoor spaces, beginning with its swimming pool. European limestone tiles, stylistic planters, and luxurious sunbeds from the Italian design house, Gervasoni, provide the exterior spaces with an authentic Mediterranean look and feel.

Seamless transitions While the exterior exudes modern interpretations of mandated styles and standards, VSHD Design approached the interior of the house as somewhat of a blank canvas. Working with a timber structure, as opposed to concrete columns and beams, was a new experience, however, Hamed found inspiration in the challenge.

“I saw beauty in some of the original structural elements and I wanted to maintain as many of them as possible,” she explains. “I decided to leave some of the exposed beams intact, as opposed to hiding them behind a layer of gypsum.”

Exposed wooden beams reflecting the original structure’s integrity were maintained, with layers of dark stain and black metal trim added to provide a more industrial feel. Hamed also focused on ensuring seamless continuity between the home’s interior and exterior spaces. Upon entering the house, Carrara marble flooring carries the influences inward, where Tuscan-style arches define the separation of the home’s interior spaces, reinforced by clean, modern, and slightly protruding architraves. The architraves, composed of black matte stained oak, contrast with the interior’s white walls and light gray marble flooring, providing the home’s public areas with a very contemporary look and feel. In living spaces designed for more intimate experiences, Carrara marble flooring gives way to hardwood floors.

“Marble can have a bit of a cold feel to it, particularly when framed by white ceilings and walls,” explains Hamed. “We created a transition to hardwood floors to provide certain spaces, like the living room and the study, with a much warmer ambiance.”

Boutique-style accommodations The main floor houses the master bedroom, highlighted by a luxurious contemporary décor and direct access to the adjacent pool area and outdoor shower, designed as part of VSHD’s vision of an indoor/outdoor lifestyle. The master bedroom’s spa-inspired adjoining spaces include a freestanding bathtub as the centerpiece of a spacious bathroom that also features an individual toilet and shower cubicles. The bathtub is flanked by a wall of floor-to-ceiling French windows on one side and dual washbasins with custom-designed mirrors on the other. Completing the spa-like theme, a small spiral staircase leads to an upper-level gym area featuring a steam room and waterjet shower.

The spa-like feel and amenities extend to the home’s 6 upper-level guest suites, half of which offer private external access for guest stays while the owners are away. Each self-sufficient guest suite features a unique decorative style and is equipped with a mini kitchen, a small pantry, and a spa-inspired bathroom.

“The client’s brief focused on a concept where each room should have a completely different, yet thoroughly modern theme,” explains Hamed. “We incorporated Chinese, Spanish, and multiple other influences in order to provide each suite with its own distinct character and mood.”

The client’s vision of a boutique-style hotel extends to the home’s main dining room, inspired by Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. A ‘modern-retro’ black and white console from Italy contrasts against a wall panel of gold leaf wallpaper, bordered by marble. The panel’s adjacent walls are characterized by ribbed white paneling with a stained wood base, while a cloud lighting fixture from New York’s Apparatus Studio provides adds a celestial touch to the room.

Pièce de résistance In order to tie the interior spaces together, VSHD Design embarked on an ambitious plan to develop a new patio space at the center of the house to create stimulating visual links between multiple areas of the house. To separate the pool area from the patio, and to connect the master bedroom to the living spaces, the design team built an enclosed lanai with four expansive French windows on each side, which infuse the passage with natural light. The abundantly lit corridor is lined with wicker chairs, creating a fabulous reading room with the feel of an open space courtesy of pool views to the left, and patio views and greenery to the right. At the end of the passageway, a staircase to the left ascends to the second level of the home alongside floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the patio and offer views of the lanai and other external spaces.

“By blending traditional elements with a modern contemporary mix, we succeeded in achieving a contrast that works well,” notes Rania Hamed. “We didn’t want that contrast to be too soft, so the use of black and white, with Carrera marble flooring, provides the home with a strong modern-vintage look.”

The Ranch, Orlando, FL – Building Information

Architects: VSHD Design Location: Orlando, FL, USA Area: 2200 sqm Lead Designer: Rania M Hamed

About VSHD Design Founded in Dubai in 2007 by interior architect, Rania Hamed, VSHD Design is a multiple award-winning interior architecture firm renowned for the style, functionality, quality, and attention to detail of its projects in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, London, Amman, and Florida. The firm combines extraordinary talent and global experiences to create exceptional spaces that are as “cutting edge” or “timeless” as each client’s vision.

VSHD’s mission is to develop architectural and interior design experiences that are distinctive, compelling, and of superb quality. Infusing modesty and elegance into the transformation and repurposing of spaces, the firm has garnered international recognition for the beauty and subtle luxury of its projects.

Photographer: Koen Van Damme

The Ranch in Orlando images / information received 310820

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA

Orlando Architecture

Orlando International Airport South Terminal Complex, Florida Design: Fentress Architects image from architecture office Orlando International Airport Building

1600 Lakeside Residence, Audubon Park Design: Interstruct, Inc. photograph : Steven Allen 1600 Lakeside Residence in Audubon Park, Orlando

Guidewell Innovation Orlando, Lake Nona Medical City Design: Affiniti Architects & Marc Thee image from architects Guidewell Innovation Orlando Building

Citrus Bowl Stadium, Orlando Design: HOK Sport image : HOK Sport Orlando Venues Building

Florida Architecture

Grove at Grand BayBuildings, Miami Beach Design: BIG architects image from architects firm This sold-out development mark Bjarke Ingels’ first completed condominium design in the USA. The pair of twisting 20-story glass towers is helping to lead the rejuvenation of Coconut Grove’s business district.

Miami Marine Stadium Building Renovation photo : Rick Bravo

Georgia Architecture

Comments / photos for the The Ranch in Orlando page welcome

Website: Orlando

The post The Ranch in Orlando, Florida appeared first on e-architect.

[imagineredwood]

I'm watching SOA again and I just realized that there are two Venuses. There's Venus Van Damme, whom we all know and love, and Venus Bell, who shot and killed Trammel. Both trans women with the same deadnames and same names post-transition. Sounds like the writers got lazy. Writer: We have a new character. Trans woman, works for Nero. Hmm, no one's gonna remember Venus Bell from season 2, right? The other trans character? Great, that's this new character's name. Hm, change the last name. Perfect

Yeah, I actually had to clarify a couple of years ago because someone thought the most recen Venus was the one who shot him. I went over it here

I mean I feel like maybe they wanted to use names that are common in the community but like come on. The same name? Lazy writing I agree.

[oscopelabs]

Telling Lies In America 1985-1995: The Joe Eszterhas Era by Jessica Kiang

“Written by Joe Eszterhas” is a phrase that has not had much of a workout on US cinema screens in over twenty years—and it’s arguable whether the 1997, 19-screen nationwide release of certifiable shitshow Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan Smithee Film exactly qualifies as “a workout.” But for those of us who had the parental training wheels come off our theatrical filmgoing in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, there were few individuals more central to our cinematic coming-of-age. And with perhaps the sole exception of Shane Black, a different animal in any case, none of the others—the Spielbergs, Camerons, Tarantinos—were exclusively screenwriters. For over a decade, the Hungarian-born, Hollywood-minted superstar writer of Basic Instinct bestrode the adult-oriented commercial screenwriting mainstream like a smirking colossus in a tight dress wearing no underwear. And given that Hollywood is primarily how the USA, the most loudly, proudly self-created of nations, expresses itself to itself and to the rest of the world, by the man’s own bombastic standards it’s only a slight exaggeration to suggest that America, between the years of 1985 and 1995, was written by Joe Eszterhas.

But for all the dominance he exerted, the rules he rewrote and the sheer money he made, examining Eszterhas’ heyday today feels like an act of paleontology, even for those of us who lived through it. 1992 is not so very distant; in a variety of ways it is still with us. It was the year Quentin Tarantino, whose latest film is in theaters right now, broke out with his first, Reservoir Dogs. It was the year the current loathsome, racist, tinpot President of the United States made a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, back when he was merely a loathsome, racist, tinpot property tycoon. It was the year that the number one box office spot was taken by Disney’s animated Aladdin, which felt close enough in time that the live-action remake which—and I’ve checked my notes on this, apparently was a thing that happened to us in 2019—felt entirely too soon.

But it was also the year of Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct, the sine qua non of Eszterhas-penned films. And if Sharon Stone’s lascivious leg-cross (Verhoeven’s invention, incidentally, not Eszterhas’) provided posterity with the most iconic upskirt of a blonde in a white dress since Marilyn Monroe’s encounter with a subway grate, that is largely all that remains to us of it today. Well, that and the instantly forgotten sequel (sans Eszterhasian involvement) that already seemed wildly anachronistic in 2006. The original film, its writer, the erotic thriller genre it exemplified, the dunderheaded sexual politics it upheld while attempting to subvert, the whole idea of a mainstream screenwriter having a brand at all (even one as loosely defined as “writer of films you don’t tell your parents you snuck into”), all seem like ancient relics. These are the artifacts not only of a bygone age but of an extinct genus, a whole evolutionary branch that was nipped in the bud so comprehensively that even now scientists might argue over how closely the skeletons of certain bird species resemble the bones of Basic Instinct.

This containment, however, is what makes looking back at the Eszterhas era so fascinating. His brief Hollywood hegemony is a microcosmic event in cinematic history, one with a beginning, middle, and an end (barring some late-breaking epilogue, or a post fade-to-black pan down to an ice pick under the bed). And it didn’t start with his first produced screenplay, for the leaden Sylvester Stallone truckers-union drama F.I.S.T. (Norman Jewison, 1978), although the glimmer of future feats of financial alchemy was already present in the reported $400,000 he received for the novelization. Dawn really broke for Eszterhas, as it did for three of the only other people who could legitimately be termed his peers as purveyors of massively popular, high-concept, low-brow ‘80s sensationalism (producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, director Adrian Lyne), with 1983’s Flashdance.

It was an improbable success, less a film than an aerobics video occasionally interrupted by some awkward sassy banter and Jennifer Beals’ popping-flashbulb smile. Its vanishingly thin story, which Eszterhas co-wrote, is of an 18-year-old welder in a steel mill, who moonlights as an exotic dancer while aspiring to become a ballerina—a logline that sounds like a hoot of derision even as an unadorned description—and is full of Eszterhasian hallmarks. There’s the high degree of preposterousness. There’s the gym scene, during which the ladies of the cast grimace and lift weights in full makeup, and while here the frictionless unreality of Lyne’s TV-commerical aesthetic makes the sequence abstract, the peculiar faith in the erotic potential of a workout would recur in the squash sequence in Jagged Edge (Richard Marqund, 1985) and the ludicrous gym date in Sliver (Phillip Noyce, 1993).

And Flashdance also prefigures almost the entire Eszterhas oeuvre in being a story that centers on a woman’s experience and that laudably—if here laughably—positions her career ambitions as at least equal to her romantic aspirations in the mechanism of the plot. But, as elsewhere, it’s a view of women constructed by a proudly unreconstructed man, directed and photographed by men. (Eszterhas’ hard-drinking, womanizing, hellraising, Hunter S. Thompson-of-the-movies persona is enjoyably self-mythologized in his memoir Hollywood Animal.) If anything, what comes across most strongly in Eszterhas’ conception of a “strong woman” is his bafflement when tasked with imagining what such a woman might have going on inside her brain. His filmography may be full of female-fronted titles, and may contain the most famous mons venus in film history, but most of Eszterhas’ work could not be more male gaze-y f it were written from the point of view of an actual phallus, like the closing chapter of his 2000 book American Rhapsody, which is narrated by Bill Clinton's penis, Willard (I am not making this up).

This powerfully eroticized dissociation, this sexualized incomprehension of women as people with interior lives, is the animating idea behind the most Eszterhasian of Eszterhas scripts. But it’s a blank space in which directors, and especially actresses, could sometimes find room to create for themselves. Sharon Stone is genuinely, in-on-the-joke fantastic in Basic Instinct—who else could have delivered “What are you going to do, charge me with smoking?” as if it were an unreturnable Wildean riposte? Costa-Gavras’ Music Box (1989) is by some distance the sturdiest and least dated of Eszterhas movies, a lot due to its comparative sexlessness, but also because of a great, warm, real performance from an Oscar-nominated Jessica Lange. Debra Winger just about wins out in her more thankless role in Costa-Gavras’ first Eszterhas collaboration, Betrayed (1988). And Glenn Close imbues the heroine of the superior thriller Jagged Edge with such shrewdness that it’s almost a liability to the believability of the central deception.

But live by the sword, die by the sword, and when the director/actress combo fails to operate in similar sympathy we get Stone horribly miscast as a… sexy wallflower?… in Sliver, or Linda Fiorentino visibly flailing as a… downtrodden femme fatale?… in Jade, or poor Elizabeth Berkley thrashing wildly about in the neon-lit swimming pool of kitsch that is Showgirls. In these failures, the writer’s almost panicky vision of women as vast, dangerous cognitive black holes is best revealed. But then, mistrust of the opposite sex is only one aspect of the wider mystery that underpins even Eszterhas’ outlier titles: his entire output is preoccupied with how little any of us can ever know anyone.

In Eszterhas’ semi-autobiographical Telling Lies In America (Guy Ferland, 1997), a teenage Hungarian immigrant (Brad Renfro) is dazzled by Kevin Bacon's smooth-talking DJ, but blindly unable to work out if he is friend or fiend. Music Box details a lawyer’s dawning disillusionment over her adored father's murderous past—eerily mirroring Eszterhas’ discovery of his own father’s collaboration with the Hungarian Nazi regime. Betrayed has Winger’s FBI agent falling for Tom Berenger’s farmer only to discover he is, in fact, the neo-Nazi she insisted to her bosses he was not, in similar vein to Jagged Edge, in which Close’s lawyer discovers that the lover she successfully defended actually dunnit after all.

Oftentimes, the credulity-stretching ambivalence of these characters is all that powers the suspense, as in the is-she-gonna-kill-him-or-is-she-just-orgasming moments in Basic Instinct. In the misbegotten Nowhere to Run (Robert Harmon, 1993) Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a ruthless ex-con turned valiant protector, his blockish inertia apparently meant to signal that inner ambiguity. More often, it leads to final-act fake-out twists so unmoored to anything like recognizable motivation that they become weirdly weightless, as in Sliver when Stone’s Carly does not know if she’s killed the right man until the final four seconds of the film, and where, had the coin-flip gone the other way, it would still be equally (un)believable.

If it’s part of the egotistical remit of the writer to believe they have an insight into human psychology, it’s remarkable how much of Eszterhas’ oeuvre pivots around how fundamentally unknowable people are to one another. And while that schtick, by which you can’t tell if someone cares for you or is simply a talented sociopathic mimic, resonated briefly at the exact moment when the grasping, solipsistic ‘80s were segueing into the untrustworthy, PR-managed ‘90s, it proved not to have much long-game sustain. Critics had always been sniffy about Eszterhas, who clearly mopped up his tears with massive wads of 100 dollar bills. But when audiences started staying away, like in the Showgirls and Jade-blighted annus horribilis of 1995, the inflationary bubble that allowed Eszterhas to command millions for two-page outlines scribbled, one suspects, on the back of strip club napkins, abruptly burst. The idea of screenwriter-as-auteur, or rather as reliable bellwether of commercial success, proved a fallacy, an expensive experiment that began and ended with Joe Eszterhas, its earliest progenitor, luckiest beneficiary, and biggest casualty.

Glossy, vacuous, adult-themed thrillers were not the only thing going on in Hollywood, and Eszterhas was not the only big-name screenwriter. Shane Black, writer of Lethal Weapon, also commanded astronomical sums for his early ‘90s scripts, but the key difference is that Black wrote in the register of the franchise-able action-spectacular blockbuster that would eventually trounce all others as the Hollywood model for the future. Black has gone on to become part of the Marvel machine as a writer and director, while aside from one Hungarian-language period film, Children of Glory (Krisztina Goda, 2006), Eszterhas’ contribution to the pop cultural landscape post-2000 has been in the form of self-aggrandizing memoirs, or highly public fallings-out with celebrities, like Mel Gibson, of a similarly corked vintage.

The tastemaker point of view has historically been to consider Eszterhas among the worst things that ever happened to Hollywood—so much so that disdain-dripping sarcasm seems to be the fallback for critics summarizing his impact. But while no one is going to make the case for the man’s filmography as some sort of artistic landmark, the Eszterhas era did represent one of the last gasps of a Hollywood that believed, however misguidedly, in personality over product, when the idiosyncrasies, idiocies and ideologies of a single person—a writer at that—could, with studio backing and a 1,500 theater release strategy, influence the cinematic development of an entire generation. That might not have seemed like a good thing but retrospect, like cocaine, is a helluva drug and in 2019, with blandly anonymous, market-tested content churned out by mega-corporations bi-weekly to siphon your hard-earneds away, the kind of salacious tackiness Eszterhas represented feels oddly adorable, even quaint. Now that singular talents—even the obnoxious and objectionable ones—who could make decent returns on mid-budget, adult-oriented mainstream fare, have been steamrollered by infantilizing, monolithic billion-dollar mega-franchises, it’s hard not to be a little nostalgic for the vanished hiccup of time when Hollywood briefly uncrossed its legs for Joe Eszterhas, and Joe Eszterhas told us all what he saw.