#WHO LET THEM HOST A RADIO SHOW?? NOTHING THEY SAY IS RELIABLE

[go-to-the-mirror]

All Night Vale community radio hosts know how to do is come back from the dead, be gay, and lie.

[a03bkdk]

no quirks bkdk fic rec list (p 2)

thirsty gay wingman fic by lalazee

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Oct 11, 2019 "Thinkin abt besties-since-birth BkDk goin to college together, Dk begrudgingly bein Bkg's wingman w/chicks & lamenting his big gay crush. One nite, Bkg cant get laid, hes drunk in a shitty mood, so Dk propositions him, which turns into the best night ever & the WORST consequences."

My tweet got 366 likes & 66 reblogs, so that was more than enough reason to write about it.

romeo and romeo by supercrunch

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There’s a nasally howl from the neighbour’s place. Izuku looks up – it’s the very loud, very blond guy living in the unit opposite. They’re technically in separate blocks but their balconies are close enough they can see into each other’s living rooms. He’s dancing around in his pyjamas. Yodelling at the top of his lungs off-key, swinging his Pomeranian around by the armpits like a furry ragdoll. “You’re a dog! You’re a fluffy little yellow dog and you’re a pain in the ass but you’re still my favourite shit-stain, yeah!”

Izuku bursts out laughing. The neighbour’s head whips around. He yelps when he sees him, tossing the dog on the couch and scrambling out of view to hide in the hall.

Izuku drops the watering can and runs back inside to find his phone.Small Might: Guys. I've decided i have a crush on my neighbour.

(quarantine baking: a balcony romance)

mechanical bull by warschach

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Katsuki has a track record of bad choices, it's a condition, but Izuku might be the one choice that's right.

battle of the bands by roadtripwithlucifer

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'The rules are simple. Battle of the Bands. Local bands send in a single track to the radio station, and ten tracks are selected. Over the coming month, the songs play on the station and listeners vote on the top five. The top 5 play a live concert as part of a music festival, then the top 3 at a larger, indoor venue. The top two have the honor of opening on the first stop of All Might’s retirement tour – here. In Izuku’s home town. And finally, the winner gets the ultimate prize. Getting to spend the rest of the tour, forty cities, across the country as All Might’s opener. Three months. Same tour bus. Shoulder to shoulder with the greatest musicians the world has ever known.'Izuku Midoriya is a broke college student presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. But winning isn't gonna be easy, especially when one band's aggressive blonde frontman seems to be dead-set on making Izuku's life a living hell.

oh my god! they were roomates! by phatye

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“Don’t go through my shit, and if there’s a tie on the door, then fuck off!” Katsuki growled. “...what?” he asked. Katsuki glared at him. “This is fucking college, and I plan on getting laid a lot! I don’t need some nerd cockblocking me! And what is with all the fucking toys here!” Katsuki had moved over to his shelves. “Are you a fucking child or something?!” This was not what he was expecting.

shades of blue by young_crone

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Echoes filtered down the white hall as he descended the stairs toward the locker rooms, reverberating from the pool. A whistle, the sound of breaking water. He swiped the towel over his face, paused. The sliver of cerulean catching the sinking sun pouring through the skylights, the red and white lane buoys, the burn of chlorine.Izuku ran a hand through his curls, snagging on a knot. The clock on the wall reminded him how late it was. A minute wouldn't hurt. He worried his lip. Just a glimpse.

k-9 by warschach

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Izuku takes in a stray on one rainy night, except it's not a dog, it's a dog shifter who goes by the name, Katsuki. After the initial wave of panic and embarrassment, Izuku thinks his new pet/roommate is pretty cute.

sucker punch by warschach

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But, whatever, Disney Boy over there was—

Prettying up real damn good that Katsuki got kind of distracted—totally understandable, like god those CGI pine eyes—and didn’t see the straight path he made for the metal trash bin in the center of the area until he was tipping forward and waist deep in discarded bottles, plates, balled up tissues sticky with he prayed was chocolate ice cream and nacho cheese.

Mina howled behind the gate. “Look, Katsuki returned to his home.”

(or Katsuki works security at Six Flags and moonlights as a derby dude and continuously looks uncool around Izuku)

may I take your order, dipshit? by supercrunch

((6373-1/1))

So, like, maybe Bakugou wasn’t really the best choice for this whole pizza delivery shindig.

(Midoriya in love, Bakugou in denial, and way, way too much cheese.

A BakuDeku romance in thirty minutes or less. )

raise me so high (your sins become my pedestal) by stardust_painter

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After his boyfriend cheats on him, Izuku wants to do something stupid. The question is how stupid does he want to be.

The answer is very stupid apparently.

eye for an eye or whatever by tobiyos

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“I’ll make it up to you!” Izuku says brightly, lifting his head from Katsuki’s lap.

Katsuki’s eyes narrow but he isn’t still pushing Izuku away so. Progress. “Fuck are you gonna do to make it up to me?”

“Hmm…” Izuku says quietly, tapping at his chin. “Oh! You’re still a virgin, right?”

Katsuki chokes on his own spit and promptly renews his efforts of pushing Izuku away by the forehead. “Fuck off,” he wheezes, “get out of my room.”

leap of faith by ladyofsnails

((28771-4/4))

Midoriya Izuku is just a random kid who loves art, analyzes everything, and is obsessed with the (in)famous hero Mighty Spider. He's got a loving mother, a great uncle, and maybe not too many friends that aren't those two but he's working on it.

And then a random cute boy shows up at his school, a spider bites him, he meets his hero under the worst possible conditions, and it all goes to hell. Now he's got villains on his tail, a promise to keep to a dead guy, and a washed-up hobo as his mentor.

Here goes nothing.

green is the warmest color by gloriousporpoise

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“Woah, someone call the fire department,” Eijirou says, elbowing Katsuki squarely in the ribs. “That guy is smokin.’”

“I literally hate you.”

Here’s the thing, though. Eijirou’s a certified dumbass, but his current observation isn’t even a little bit wrong, much to Katsuki’s displeasure.

“Think you can get his number?”

Or, Bakugou is a painter without a muse.

you and i collide by ethereals

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And not that Bakugou’s the type to sexualize a potentially dead body; especially one that he just accidentally murdered, but the man has some pretty solid DSL’s. He would hit it, with more than just his car.

OR

in which rich fratboy! bakugou is a badass who accidentally hits poor med student!izuku with his car and chaos ensues therefore.

97.6 FM by jamjars

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Izuku can’t stop listening to the radio host with the deep voice who sounds like he’s stuck in 2010. It’s a harmless crush. That is until he starts calling into the show under the pseudonym Deku.

Or Radio Host! Baugou x Listener! Midoriya

give me that sweet love by xsxuxgxax

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Things Katsuki needs to excel at: be hot, be clever and pretend to be nice, let Izuku kiss him publicly, let Izuku fuck him privately…

(sugar baby katsuki and sugar daddy izuku pretty much)

dance with me by astralchaos

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Mina pulled up a video of a young man, seemingly teen, dancing to a popular new hit, and Izuku felt his heart drop to his stomach. His skin prickled and felt clammy as he started sweating nervously, not daring to move or make a noise. His eyes were glued to the screen but he didn’t see anything – his brain was too busy going into overdrive and freaking out.

Because Mina was showing him a video of himself. The one he uploaded last night.

How on Earth did she find this? He had barely a few thousand views, he wasn’t popular, and it’s not like he was even any good, especially compared to her or Kacchan–

“That move was sexy as hell,” Kacchan said, and that was when Izuku realized that his childhood friend – his longtime crush – also leaned in to watch the video Mina was showing him.

puppies puppies by Esselle

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"So after doing all that," Katsuki says, "you're just going to settle here? Tatting up wannabe bad boys?"

"You think all guys who have a lot of tattoos are wannabes?" Midoriya asks, so smoothly that it throws Katsuki.

"Wh—no, I mean—maybe!" Katsuki says. "You'd know best, wouldn't you? Are you a bad boy?"

The words are out of his mouth before he even realizes it, and he regrets them immediately. There's a figurative list of things that one should never do, and probably high up on it is asking dark-haired sailors with ocean green eyes and black swirls of ink all across their barely concealed muscles if they are bad boys.

--

Katsuki thinks he has everything he needs in life: a successful pet shop, an occasionally reliable assistant, and the unconditional love of the twenty puppies he’s raising for adoption. But when the tattoo parlor next door hires Midoriya Izuku, a hot sailor with an affinity for dogs, it makes Katsuki wonder if he might need something more.

Like… a piece of that ass. Maybe. He’s figuring it the hell out as he goes.

im gonna make a part 3 later ergaegrggjnjuvuh

[btsybrkr]

Please Come Dine With Me

In today’s world of Netflix originals, glossy reality series and big budget drama, it’s easy to forget about TV’s old reliables. You know, the programmes with nothing to say, but so much to give. They’re the television equivalent of an ex that you can’t help but miss, despite having brought absolutely nothing to each other’s lives. The absolute king of this brand of TV can only be Come Dine With Me, the dinner party contest that began broadcasting in 1892 and has been playing simultaneously, on all 26 branches of Channel 4, at every hour of every day ever since. Seriously, flick through the channels, I can almost guarantee it’s on right now.

Come Dine With Me, now in its 37th series (I’m actually not making that bit up), must unironically be one of the best things to ever air in this country. During a casual viewing, it seems that nothing much happens, but a quick Google search unearths an absolute goldmine of unforgettable moments. Some have already been cemented into pop culture history, destined to be repeated on ‘100 Greatest...’ clip shows until the sun swallows the Earth whole - like the man who decided to sample a sauce he was making by nonchalantly shoving the whole whisk into his mouth, or sore loser Peter Marsh’s ‘you won, Jane’ speech, which is, in my opinion, a hundred times more brutal than anything Ricky Gervais could or would ever come out with whilst presenting an awards ceremony. Others are unfortunately never spoken about, but remain a vivid memory in the consciousness of the lucky viewers who caught them, such as the moment a particularly eccentric contestant, known only as DJ Dom, drafted in indie musician Badly Drawn Boy to help him cook for his ‘Madchester’ themed dinner party, before telling the viewers “All done, just got to go and change me kecks!” and coming back downstairs in the exact same outfit, right down to the bucket hat. Or the iconic Preston week from series 7, in which we were introduced to so-posh-it-hurts Valerie Holliday, whose pronunciation of the word ‘pheasant’ (or fezzaaaunt, as she might say) is superglued to the insides of my brain, where it will stay for the rest of my days. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I’m sure we’ve all, at some point, had the ‘who would be invited to your dream dinner party?’ conversation with our friends or family, but what we should really be asking each other is “who would be on your dream episode of Come Dine With Me?”. If you think about it, they’re two very different questions, with very different answers. Of course, I’d love the chance to sit and speak with Tom Hanks, Mac Demarco and Phoebe Waller-Bridge over a glass of wine and a really good burger, but do I think it would make entertaining TV? Well, yeah, probably. But not on Come Dine With Me. That’s a horse of a very different colour.

Anyway, here’s what my dream episode of Come Dine With Me might look like. Narrated in your brain by Dave Lamb, probably.

Today, we’re in Blackpool, where our first contestant, 23-year-old chronic timewaster Betsy (that’s me!), is gearing up to host the opening night of the week, and we’re sure it’s going to be an absolute belter. Let’s see what her fellow dinner party guests make of the menu.

“A cheeseboard? As a starter? What’s that about?”, asks living soundbite and reality TV icon, Gemma Collins. She’s unimpressed with the menu, largely on the basis that it pales in comparison to the sort of luxury she’s used to, such as the gourmet camel penis she could have been tucking into on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! In 2014, had she not packed it in after three days. Actually, I think the celebrity version of Come Dine With Me might be the only reality programme that Gemma Collins is yet to appear in. Maybe we should be writing to the powers-that-be at Channel 4 and getting them to sort that out, since I’ll surely be making a strong case for her appearance here. Anyway, who’s next?

Our third contestant is equally disappointed with the offerings. “I don’t fuck with stilton”, states the self-proclaimed second coming of Jesus, Kanye West. Yes, he’s an odd choice for a daytime cookery/popularity contest, especially since I’m almost 100% sure he doesn’t cook for himself under any circumstances, and is probably only popular among people who’ve never had to try and sit through an actual conversation with him, but who cares? Kanye does what Kanye wants. And if Kanye wants to appear on Come Dine With Me, then that’s his business, and he’ll shit in the Yeezys of anybody who disagrees. Or pay someone else to do it for him, obviously. Anyway, onto contestant number four, who can surely only be disappointing after that… can’t they?

Of course not!! Contestant number four is TV’s shouty queen-of-clean Kim Woodburn, who is really excited to get her teeth into some red hot beef. Not the food kind, either. The kind of beef she dished out to Philip Schofield, while he was asking her questions about the beef she dished out in her fondly-remembered ‘chicken-livered bunch’ rant from Celebrity Big Brother. She’ll be glad to know I’m not serving any chicken livers at my dinner party, I’m sure. Not that she’ll be particularly enamoured with my cooking skills overall.

“It all looks terribly common, darling”, she says, as she holds the menu in one Marigold-wearing hand, and a glass of an expensive gin in the other. Suit yourself, then, Kim.

Contestant number five hasn’t bothered to read the menu yet, but that’s because he’s been busy begging the Channel 4 producers on set for another series of Deal Or No Deal now that his hefty I’m A Celebrity paycheck is all but gone. Yes, it’s Noel Edmonds, TV’s favourite bearded arsehole. After Alan Sugar, of course, but I’ve already written a bit about him on here, so there’d be no point in putting him in this one as well. You know, someone I knew a few years back once told me that Noel Edmonds did a guest lecture at his university, in which he offered some lucky students the chance to spend their summer doing a couple of months unpaid work experience on his radio show. Imagine that! Spending day-in-day-out with Noel Edmonds, without even a penny in compensation. I know they say ‘life’s not fair’, but that really would be pushing it. 

Anyway, that’s everyone, and as I anxiously pour boiling water into five chicken and mushroom Pot Noodles, my all-star dinner guests begin to arrive. First at the doorstep is Kim, who I greet with open arms. 

“Wonderful to meet you, luvvie”, she says. The worried glance she gives the camera afterwards tells me otherwise. Perhaps she’s unimpressed by my unshiny door handle. That’s not a euphemism. 

Gemma and Noel arrive soon afterwards, both carrying bottles of champagne that I couldn’t possibly ever afford myself. They’re not to share, of course, they were bought in anticipation that the wine I’m providing wouldn’t be up to standard, which it is, because I’m serving all my courses with a glass of Summer Berries Echo Falls. It’s £5.99 a bottle and gets you absolutely Bankered. 

We mingle in the living room, eagerly anticipating the arrival of my final guest. Just as Gemma, Kim and Noel begin bonding over the trials of being paid many thousands of pounds to sit around and simply exist for the viewing pleasures of mere mortals like myself, Kanye West teleports himself into the room, in a futuristic flash of lightning and to the tune of his 2010 hit Power, blowing a massive hole into the entire left side of my house in the process. It’s true what he says, you know - the man really is a genius.

We take our seats at the dinner table, as soon as the rest of my guests are done with the obligatory search through my knicker drawer (cue a comeback for Kim’s famous How Clean Is Your House? catchphrase, “Oh, you dirty devil!”) that happens on every edition of Come Dine With Me. You know, despite everything else on the programme, that’s the one bit of it that I’ve never really understood. Every single one of the show’s 1,647 episodes includes a bizarre sequence in which the contestants go running around the host’s home, rifling through their personal belongings and mocking them for the cameras. I’m sure the point of it is supposed to be to give the guests a chance to ‘get to know’ the host, but then I’d have thought that spending five nights eating and chatting with them would be a fairly effective way of doing that. Besides, can you imagine catching your guests doing that in real life? I wouldn’t be sitting them down for a meal and rating them for a chance to win £1,000, I’d be throwing them out, maybe even calling the police, depending on what exactly they were doing with the belongings in question. Not that I have time to think about that right now, I’ve got a cheeseboard to prepare!

First topic of conversation is, of course, TV, and as we tuck into our Ritz biscuits and Tesco Value mature cheddar, Noel gives us his opinion.

“My main issue with television these days is that I’m just not on it enough.” A valid viewpoint. We take a moment to collectively long for the days of Noel’s HQ, a drunken nightmare that was somehow harnessed and broadcast to the masses by Sky1, way back in 2008. Noel’s HQ has been mostly lost to time, except for the presence of a video on YouTube entitled ‘Noel Edmonds speaks with passion’, which is well worth a watch if, like me, you enjoy four minute long videos of TV presenters struggling to stifle their own belief that they might just be The Best Person Ever. There’s a great bit in it where he angrily declares to his delighted audience, “I don’t get paid a penny for doing this show”. Noel, I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you for your sacrifice. 

Speaking of The Best Person Ever, Kanye is noticeably quiet. But then, Kanye isn’t here to share his views. Kanye isn’t particularly here to do anything. Kanye is simply here to observe - to greet his subjects, and work out what makes them tick. Kanye can sense our excitement to be sat in his presence, and Kanye enjoys this. It feeds Kanye. Far more than my meager dinner offerings ever could.

I press Gemma for her own opinions on TV, as someone who is literally always on it. Gemma Collins gets where Domestos can’t. It may sound like I’m being flippant, but in all honesty, I love Gemma Collins. I’m not even sure why, I just know I do. She’s famous for the sake of being famous, and she’s bloody good at it. She’s also quite possibly the most quotable public figure since Shakespeare himself. Maybe even more than Shakespeare. Think about it. What inspires you more? “To be or not to be?”, like anyone knows what that actually means, or “Nah, fuck this, I’m out of here. Get that fire exit door. Am off.”, a poetic sentiment, which conveys an emotion we’ve surely all felt at some point in our lives? I know who gets my vote.

Kim misunderstands the question “what do you think of television today?” as “how clean do you think my television is?”, and responds by pulling out a five pack of dusters and a can of Mr Sheen, and getting to work on the flatscreen in the corner of my living room. Oh well, at least all that cleaning will make her hungry in time for the main course. Speaking of which, maybe it’s time I got on with that.

Despite their disappointment with the starters, the main course - Super Noodle sandwiches, with a generous side-helping of curly fries - appears to delight all my guests, except Kim, who mutters under her breath that it all seems very tacky. I won’t let it get me down. It’s my heartfelt belief that anything can be a sandwich filling if you’re brave enough, and my other three guests agree with me. Kanye lets out a satisfied ‘hm’. Excellent. 

We sit down to dessert, and another glass of Echo Falls. The wine is going down surprisingly well, especially with Kim, who has started subtly rolling her eyes at the conversation between myself and Gemma Collins, who are bonding over how much we love Gemma Collins. Kim purses her lips. Her Spidey-senses are tingling. There’s conflict afoot. 

I quiz Noel about an article that I saw in 2015 and have never forgotten. It was featured on The Independent, and was headlined ‘Noel Edmonds says that ‘death doesn’t exist’ and that ‘Electrosmog’ is more deadly than Ebola’. I know that this sounds like something I just came up with, but I regret to tell you that is absolutely something he said. In real life. I’ll give you a minute to take that in.

Noel Edmonds reaffirms this view to me, speaking with the same unnerving passion he did in the YouTube clip I mentioned earlier. I nod politely. I begin to wonder if everyone’s had a little too much Echo Falls, and if I can really handle another four nights with these people. It’s at this moment that, for the first time all night, His Almighty Westness speaks. 

“I really feel what you’re saying right now”, he tells Noel. We wait together for the next part of the statement, but it never comes. Kanye West outstretches his arm to Noel Edmonds. They shake hands. None of us can quite believe it. And for a moment, Noel and Kanye are right. It does feel as though death doesn’t exist. Nothing exists outside of this dinner party. Everything that matters is happening around my dining table at this very second. 

The silence is broken by Kim Woodburn tutting into a wine glass. 

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” she drawls, rolling her eyes, “What a load of nonsensical tosh.”

“Excuse me?”, asks Noel, still hand-in-hand with Kanye West, an alliance he is clearly eager to keep going for as long as possible, on the off chance that he fancies funding another series of Noel’s House Party, “I don’t see you bringing anything to the table here, Kim.”

She widens her eyes, taking another generous gulp of Echo Falls - and I know exactly what she’s about to bring to the table. A big old fight. 

Gemma Collins throws in her two cents. 

“I think we should all calm down a little bit, d’ya know what I mean? I’m having a lovely meal at a fan’s house, I can’t be arsed with an argument.” Wise words, as always, Gemma. Wise words.

It all kicks off.

“You can be quiet, you talentless, orange foghorn!”, sneers Kim, “You’ve contributed nothing to the conversation this evening, other than talking about yourself.”

Gemma’s eyes seem to cloud over with anger, as her complexion quickly transitions from Dulux shade Tangerine Twist to Cranberry Crunch. She knocks the rest of her wine back. Everything goes quiet again for a moment, as Noel, Kanye and I watch the two TV divas stare at each other. It’s like a scene from an old Western, but with diamonds and veneers.

With a violent roar, she launches herself across the table, grabbing Kim by her fake ponytail. I jump up to hold her back, as Kanye leaps from his seat to hold Kim from Gemma. There’s a mad blur of acrylic nails and tufts of bleach blonde hair flying between them, some of it landing into the banoffee pie I had worked so hard on. Noel stands back, arms folded, watching the action in dismay. If you could see the whole picture, it might resemble a renaissance painting, the sort that could be hung in a gallery anywhere in the world and analysed for it’s artistic importance. ‘Nous aimons le boeuf’, it might be called. French for ‘we love the beef’. Doesn’t really matter it means, though, to be fair, as long as it sounds clever and artsy.

Noel shakes his head. 

“What the hell am I doing here?”, he asks, frustrated, “I’m a huge TV star.”

Security eventually intervene, somewhat reluctantly, given the fact this is the most action they’ve seen on a shoot for Come Dine With Me, possibly ever. Producers watch back the footage of the fight on an iPad, sat on my sofa, attempting to mask their delight at what they’d caught on camera.

Kanye eventually stands up, soberly taking in the scene in front of him. Is this how Jay-Z felt as he left the elavator?, he wonders.

“I’m gonna take off”, he informs everyone, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room in the aftermath. But before he can teleport out of the room again, possibly blowing a hole in the other side of my house, the producer speaks up.

“Same time tomorrow? It’s Gemma’s night.”

Four more nights of this… four more nights, all for the chance to win £1,000… is it worth it? 

Of course it is. It was a blast. Same time tomorrow, indeed.

To see some highlights from the iconic Preston week of Come Dine With Me, click here. To see Noel Edmonds speak with passion, click here. To follow me on twitter, click here, or here for instagram :)

[jennifersylvesters]

on the air ( prologue )

Synopsis: Your radio program receives its first ever caller...only to complain about a certain segment. Little do you know that he’s not going to stop bothering you both on the air and off. Pairing: uni!Harrison Osterfield x reader Word Count: 3.1k~ A/N: i’ve got absolutely no knowledge about radio stations so i’m so sorry if anything’s wrong. also - laying all the foundation for this - probably will start to pick up in part one. as always, i appreciate any - if at all - feedback. aka please give me feedback.

There were certain aspects that made autumn reign the supreme season in your mind. From the colorful leaves that swirled around to coziness of the sweater weather, you lived for the moment the air turned crisp and autumn came to visit. While others considered January the start of a new change, your heart said that fall season signaled new beginnings. After all, autumn meant the start of a new school year which had just as many resolutions as a new year did. 

You knew it wasn’t a popular opinion, but you loved coming back to campus after break. Summer was great, but there was something comforting about returning back to the quad. Yes, of course lugging up all your belongings into your new dorm room was always a pain. Yet there was a satisfaction when you finally tidied up your room making it feel like a home away from home, a small victory that you relished.

And nothing excited you more about arriving back on campus than getting to see your uni friends. Even though it had only been a couple months, you would break into a sprint and crash into all your closest friends with a hug when you spotted them; the reunion may have been a bit dramatic, but text messages and FaceTiming didn’t have quite the same effect as seeing someone in person.

Coming back to campus also meant another year of being a radio host. What started off as a fun proposition during your university’s activities fair turned into one of your favorite activities. 

The concept seemed simple enough. The station managers explained that all you needed to do was submit a radio proposal on what you planned on broadcasting. They would show you how to work the equipment and because it wasn’t a particularly popular activity, the station accepted just about every proposal thrown their way. 

In the couple of years that you broadcasted, you mostly kept to yourself. Of course you politely smiled at passing DJs, but you didn’t branch out fully with them. It wasn’t as if you viewed them as competition so much as you weren’t sure what to say to them. The only people you really spoke with were the station manager and the engineers.

Most of the engineers who worked at the station were students, taking the job in order to enhance their resume. It also helped that the position was an easy gig. Rarely did things go wrong and if it did, they were tiny blunders that engineers could quickly fix.

Which is how you came to work with George. For the most part he kept to himself, occasionally commenting a one word response. You were well aware of how he tended to tune out your broadcast, focusing on homework. Yet he was a reliable fellow, quick to fix whatever mistakes arose without being asked and never casting blame on you. 

About a year into knowing George, you suggested the idea of interviewing him which he surprisingly agreed to. It shouldn’t have surprised you how poorly the interview went. The struggle to have interesting questions combined with his stoic personality made for a terrible segment. The only positive outcome of the broadcast was that you learned three odd yet interesting facts about George: he typically had terrible luck with the exception of technology, he hated his roommates, and he was Greek. 

By now you and George mutually understood one another. He got the gist of your programming, knowing that you still struggled with cues and always lent a helping hand during those difficult moments. You understood he was friendlier to you on the days when his roommates weren’t being as annoying as usual.

Unlike some radio presenters that attempted to broadcast new, fun and exciting concepts, you kept your proposal simple: half of your program would be a talk show while the other half would play whatever music interested you at the moment. “So basically like a regular radio show?” the managers confirmed when you pitched, to which you slowly nodded your head. Your proposal wasn’t extravagant, and they could work with that. You requested if at all possible to you go by a pseudonym which they had no problem with. The station managers understood you weren’t trying to be ambitious; it was the presenters who wanted multiple sound effects and crowded the booth worried them more than your show. 

You settled for taking the nine to midnight slot on Thursdays, not wanting to fight for prime times the way other presenters did. This meant you couldn’t party with your friends that day, and you secretly loved using it as an excuse. You assumed no one except your group of friends actually listened to your show when they weren’t going out, and you didn’t mind. At least someone was listening. 

The music aspect of your show came naturally to you. Every week you would decide on a genre and let whatever music peaked your interest play freely. While you knew it was expected to make a set playlist, you found the managers let you skate by on that expectation because it wasn’t particularly busy that late at night. 

You found the talk show aspect was more difficult than you expected. Speaking about different subjects for an hour and a half took more work than you realized. Still, you always managed to find a couple of topics that peaked your interest to discuss on your show. 

Your favorite segment that you always included was something you dubbed “Romance Report” where you discussed the adorable romances you noticed on campus. You gushed about the cute couples, vividly describing certain people and the gestures that made you believe how in love they seemed to be. While you didn’t personally know any of the couples, you chose to give them the benefit of the doubt that their relationships were going strong.  

After a month and a half of being back on campus, you finally found your rhythm once more with programming. As you gently bopped along to the beat of Kehlani’s “Distraction”, you situated yourself to start “Romance Report” once the song ended. 

This week you spoke about a certain couple you saw where the boyfriend lovingly tucked a dandelion behind his girlfriend’s ear before kissing her on the forehead. The two of them laced their fingers together as they walked away from your vision, but the interaction left you full of butterflies in your heart. As you jabbered on about how adorable the gestures were, the phone line lit up. You stared quizzically at the blinking button, almost unsure if it was truly happening. The phone line only lit up when it was just your friends wanting to chat with you, but they normally texted before actually calling the station. It took you by surprise when you answered and an unfamiliar voice spoke. 

“Hey. Uh, yeah, would you please just shut up about the couples on campus?” the voice berated you, irritation laced in their tone. Naturally you were taken back. The first actual caller you got was upset with your programming? 

“I-I’m sorry?” you stuttered, unsure of what was occurring. You looked up to see George looking up at you. Like always, he rarely had an expression on his face but it was odd for him to pay attention unless something interesting was happening.

“Listen” the unknown voice sighed. “I’m not trying to be that person, but hearing this whole “romance report”...Honestly, it’s idiotic.”

The caller certainly wasn’t one to mince words. The comment stung, but you tried your best to remain civil. “Well, you don’t have to listen if you don’t want to?” you slowly responded, not wanting to offend the caller. 

“Yeah, but my mate says the music you usually play is pretty good. Which, yeah, you do have good music taste. So can you just stick to that?” It sounded more like an order than advice, and you could feel yourself becoming vexed. 

“No. You know what? I think I’ll keep talking about this couple” you decided promptly. You heard the caller on the line groan. “Listen pal, just change the station if you’re really that upset.”

“Or maybe just stop doing this segment in general.”

“This is my radio show” you snapped. “I’ve literally been doing this since I started.”

“So I’ve heard” the voice grunted. “And some of the couples you choose are ridiculous, you know that? Absolutely ridiculous.”

“How are they ridiculous? You don’t know what you’re talking about” you scoffed. 

“A couple weeks ago you talked about some couple sharing a croissant near the library’s coffee shop. You went on and on about how they must share everything. Pretty sure he’s not sharing the fact that he’s cheating on her.”

Your eyes widened at this statement. “What are you talking about?”

“Not to call him out on the radio, but he’s probably not listening anyways. So the guy you were talking about: his name’s Marcus. Saw him hooking up with some girl that was definitely not his girlfriend last week at that bar, Checkers.”

You exchanged glances with George. Even for someone so stoic, you noticed how he raised an eyebrow at that statement. Clearly this wasn’t what he expected during his shift. 

“Y-You don’t know that” you stammered out. 

“But I do” the voice insisted. “Love’s a joke. People like you think that it’s this everlasting magical feeling when it’s not. It’s work and when people realize that, they leave.”

“You’re being cynical” you retorted. 

“And you’re getting played by the biggest con job of them all.”

“N-No, I’m not” you defended yourself, but you heard how weak your response sounded. 

“Stop living in a fantasy world, romanticizing couples like that. It’s not real.” The comment cut deep, triggering something in you that you weren’t particularly sure you liked. 

“I think that’s all for now” you dismissed as you cut the line. You didn’t wait for the caller to respond, done with his attitude. 

You fumbled around with the controls before playing something - anything - to buy you some time. Somehow you managed to start up Mahalia’s “Never Change”, letting her song kill three minutes so you could formulate what to do for your remaining air time.

Glancing up, you noticed George still looking at you. You swallowed nervously, unsure if you wanted him to say anything or not. 

“Christ. Thought that’d be one of your friends” he finally commented before taking a sip of his coffee and returning back to his studies. 

“So did I” you agreed, leaning back in your chair. A loud sigh escaped your lips before you sat back up and began queueing up songs, at least long enough for you to compose yourself once more. The caller’s comments rang in your mind as you tried to process what just happened.

Despite your consistent praising of love, you hadn’t truly experienced it yourself. While some of your friends had significant others in high school, you only had a handful of crushes that eventually fizzled out. You never bothered to get a boyfriend, believing you would eventually get one in uni. Yet somehow that expectation never came true. 

The last thing you wanted to focus on was searching for someone to date. The majority of your time was spent hanging out with your friends or studying anyways. Occasionally your friends dragged you out to parties and bars, but you believed that no serious relationship could start at these locations. So you politely declined the idea of hook ups or handing your numbers out to strangers who offered to buy you drinks. 

You found solace in your radio show, just enjoying the idea of love rather than putting yourself out there. Because you wanted something cute, something real. But it didn’t seem likely on your campus. 

Still, you enjoyed the fantasy loves in your life. They were attractive guys whose small acts of kindness fueled your fantasies of what love could be. 

There was Kendall, the barista whose eyes always crinkled happily when you thanked him for your drink. During freshman year you generously tipped and politely thanked him after a huge rush, never once pestering him about how long he took to make the drinks. From discussing the different types of roasts to asking about his day, you always made polite small talk with him. At this point he memorized your usual order and always had it prepared by the time you finished paying. 

There was Logan, one of the student librarians who always let you eat in the biography section of the library despite no food being allowed near the bookshelves. You suspected it was because you consistently visited the place that he gave you a free pass. But you liked to believe it was due to you helping him shelve books during a particularly awful finals week. Whenever you passed him on campus, he would nod in your direction and the two of you would share an understanding smile of the secret that you both kept.

And then there was Harrison, one of the students in your art history class. If there was one thing that made an eight in the morning course more bearable, it was getting to see him. You couldn’t help but steal glances at the boy whose disheveled hair somehow looked so perfect.

Two weeks into the class you curiously watched as he fumbled through his pockets before letting out a low groan. You were caught off guard when he turned towards you asking to borrow a pen. After a brief moment of rummaging around your backpack, you pulled a pen from the front pouch. As you began to hand the pen over, you spotted bagel crumbs scattered on his shirt. 

You held out the pen to him, nervously silent. But something told you to let the cute boy know about the crumbs. “Don’t mean to be rude, but you have a little mess going on there” you whispered, leaning in towards him. 

Looking down, he spotted the little bits of his breakfast scattered on his shirt. He lightly blushed before mumbling a thanks, wiping the crumbs to the floor. 

A week later as you studied on a bench in the quad, you felt a light tapping on your shoulder. You looked up to see Harrison smiling down at you. He made brief small talk before asking to borrow your notes after missing the previous class. You pretended that you hadn’t realized he hadn’t shown when in reality you glumly spent the first couple of minutes of that class staring at the empty seat besides yours.

You handed over your notes as he thanked you. Harrison paused, opening his mouth to say something but stopped upon hearing someone call his name. Both of you glanced around only to spot a boy a couple feet away waving his arm excitedly. Harrison nodded towards whom you assumed was one of his friends. “Well, I’ll see you in class” he said as he headed towards the cheerful fellow.

As the next week rolled around and you tiredly staggered in to the art history class, you were caught off guard by something you weren’t expecting to see: on top of your usual desk were your notes along with the pen Harrison borrowed weeks before and an iced coffee with two sugar packs on top of the lid. The kind gesture touched you, especially since you hadn’t been able to stop by your usual cafe and were in desperate need of caffeine. You tore the sugar packets into the coffee before stirring, thoughts swirling of how Harrison must’ve noticed your preference of coffee. You gratefully sipped on the beverage before the professor walked in and began the lecture.

By next class, you found yourself buying him a breakfast muffin. You knew he only bought the drink as a gesture of showing thanks, but it was too sweet and kind for you not to thank back. It took all your courage not to chicken out, but you placed the pastry on his usual spot before class started. 

Upon seeing Harrison enter the classroom, you whipped your head around and immediately pretended to focus on your notes. The sound of his chair sliding out indicated he was next to you, but you ignored it. It took a brief moment for him to actually take his seat, which you figured meant he saw what you left for him. You could feel his gaze on you, but you continued  to stare down at your notes as your face heated up. It wasn’t until the professor walked in that you finally looked up. 

The first couple of minutes you desperately tried to concentrate on the subject at hand, refusing to look anywhere but straight ahead. But a soft tap on your arm brought you out of your trance, and you turned to Harrison who had halved the muffin and was offering a part to you. 

Your face heated up once more as you politely shook your head and raised a hand to indicate “no thanks”. But there was something about his gentle smile and him gesturing once more for you to take it that you eventually caved in. 

And that was the start of your art history tradition with him. One of you would bring in a breakfast food and split it with the other. No words were exchanged except the occasional thanks. While you couldn’t help but think that it didn’t mean much to Harrison, it only fueled your imagination about the potential of falling in love with him. 

Out of all your fantasy crushes, you enjoyed your thoughts about Harrison the most. Perhaps it was because you spent the most time with him, even if it was during a two hour lecture course filled with silence between the two of you.

You knew about Harrison even before this course. He was one of the many foreign students on campus that people fawned over. Perhaps it was his personality or maybe just his looks, but there was something about him that had girls hooked. You occasionally saw him at parties, but girls always clamored over him that you hadn’t paid mind until recently.

Fantasies now plagued your mind of him being yours, him taking you out to bars not to get drunk but to show you off as his girl. You couldn’t get over the idea of Harrison laughing along with your mates while his arm casually wrapped around your waist. And that at the end of the night, the two of you would go back to his dorm room and cuddle, falling asleep in one another’s arms. When his alarm would go off in the morning, you’d bundle up in his sweater and stroll hand in hand to the art history lecture hall. 

But of course you knew it was just fantasy. Still, you loved the idea of love and scowled at the idea of love being a joke like your caller implied. 

[ayaanle-yuusuf]

When I first got into this business gold was selling for around $300 an ounce. Gold went as high as $1900 an ounce and today gold is selling for over $1,200 an ounce and experts forecast it to go higher – much higher!  I have seen forecasts by reliable writers that Gold could reach as high as $5000 an ounce in coming years.

The United States is the largest jewelry market in the world and millions of Americans have old, broken or just out-of-fashion pieces of jewelry sitting in their jewelry boxes. Just last week my wife came across a single 18K gold erring. She lost the other earring in the set about ten years ago and the remaining earring has just been sitting in her jewelry box since then. I put the earring on my gold scale and it weighed 8 grams. At today’s prices that one earring was worth over $300 –which is more than she paid for the pair ten years ago.

There is literally a fortune in gold –billions of dollars worth, sitting around collecting dust. But the high price of gold today is bringing it out of the woodwork. And all you have to do to get your piece of the pie is to ask.

You might be wondering how long this business can last. I recently spoke with the owner of a large gold refining company and I asked him how long this business could continue. He said:

“Every year all the refining companies in the US combined refine less than one percent of all the scrap gold jewelry in the country. And new jewelry sales grow over five percent a year. So there is pretty much an endless supply. We have been in this business for 33 years and we expect to be doing this for at least another 33 years.”

How much can I make buying gold?

Unscrupulous gold dealers like the ones that advertise on radio and TV ask you to mail your gold in to them. They typically pay between 10% and 20% of the value of gold. Most pawnshops pay about 30% to 35%.

Legitimate dealers pay between 40% and 65%. 40% to 65% may seem low to you, but remember, the gold you buy has to be smelted, refined, assayed and poured into ingots before it can be resold. Refiners who do this will pay you between 85% and 92% of the spot price of gold.

Lets look at a typical sale. The average person tends to bring in three or four items that altogether weigh about 2 ounces. Most items people bring me are 14K gold which is 58% pure gold and the rest is alloys to lend gold its color and hardness.

Two ounces at 58% works out to 1.16 ounces of pure gold. Lets say for example you pay that person 50%, which is typical of most legitimate gold dealers. At $1400 an ounce, that comes out to $812. Now you send the gold to a refiner who will pay you 95% of the spot price. I will let you do the math, but this works out to a very nice profit from just one transaction. Many experts predict that gold will go as high as $5000 an ounce. I don’t know if that will happen, but imagine how profitable this business will be if it does.

Do that 3 or 4 times a week and you are looking at some real money! And it’s 100% legal.

Skip McGrath’s book on gold buying is amazing. He also has extremely good one on one support. He cares about his customers. Thanks Skip! ~ Michael

Where do you find people with Gold to sell?

I live in a small town of about 12,000 people. I was driving to the supermarket on a recent Saturday and saw several signs that said: “Cash for Gold and Silver Today at the Majestic Hotel.” After I left the market, I drove over to the Majestic Hotel to see what was going on.

There was a gentleman in one of the meeting rooms off of the lobby with a table, a scale and calculator and a cash box. He was meeting with a lady while two more people waited their turn. I didn’t want to bother him, but the lady who works at the reception desk is a friend of mine, so I asked her how he was doing. She told me he has had a steady stream of customers all day. Imagine if each person brought in just one ounce of gold and he saw 20 or 30 people that day. That is a huge amount of money

There are two factors driving the gold business today:

A recovering, but still tough economy with millions of people out of work

Relatively high prices for gold and silver

The gold business has always been a good business, but nothing like it has been since 2008 when gold prices started rising as the economy began the downturn. These two facts have combined to bring millions of people out of the woodwork with gold to sell. Either they need cash, or they just want to take advantage of today’s high prices.

It is very easy to find these people. You can set up in a hotel room like the person in the example above. You can advertise in local papers or even on radio. You can also advertise for free on sites such as Craigslist. Another popular method is using door hangars. You can get them made for about 2-cents each and hire school kids to hang them for you. But none of these methods work as well as one simple, low cost advertising method I am going to show you in one of your free bonuses.

Do you like to travel? A couple of years ago I met an older gentleman and his wife who roam the country in an RV, buying gold at every town they stop in. They even have a sign on the side of their RV that they buy gold and people come up to them in the RV parks.

Gold Parties are a booming business

One of the things I show you how to do with my system is throw gold parties. You have all heard of home parties for Tupperware, cosmetics or cooking gadgets. Well at those parties people spend money. When people attend a gold party they make money! If you can get 10 people to a gold party you can buy several ounces of gold, -potential profit of up to 45% on each ounce And the hostess, who put on the party, will get 10% of what you make. Now that’s what I call a “win-win.”

My system includes complete instructions on hosting a gold party of your own and how to market gold parties to others. Besides the instructions I have also included flyers, brochures, ads and invitations. All of these are in simple Word docs, so all you have to do is add your contact information an

[jojosbizarrebaratiddies]

Affections Over The Airwaves (Josuke/Reader)

You've loved Josuke for as long as you can remember. Now that you're all out of high school, that still hasn't changed. In fact, it's gotten worse. You want to tell him but you're terrified of ruining your friendship or making it weird. After a nudge from a couple of your friends, you decide to try something to get your feelings out: Confess over the radio with a letter and a song that sums up your feelings. How it'll go you're not sure, but then the surprising happens...

OK THIS IS MY FIRST JOJO RELATED WRITING SO PLEASE HAVE MERCY. I’ve been writing general fics and stuff for years but this is my first one related to the JJBA universe so I hope it’s not too bad;; I thought I’d do something for Valentine’s Day so why not some sappy stuff with everyone’s favorite Morioh good boy?

Tried to keep it as gender-neutral as possible // Everyone/Most Characters Live AU

You're not sure how anything like this could happen. At least to you of all people.

This whole situation started a couple days ago. Listening to the familiar voice of everyone's 'favorite neighbor' in Morioh on the radio, Kai Harada, you had heard him doing a segment he had added back in December; he answered people's letters and messages for advice on just about anything. It was a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day so he was doing mostly love letters and confessions from listeners, and you had actually sent a letter in yourself. Anonymously, of course, under a name you thought of on the spot. It was mostly at the suggestion of Yukako and Aya, who you had met through your friends in town. 

"Why not give it a try?" The longer haired young woman had asked you. "It might help with this 'issue' you have going on."

"It wouldn't hurt, and if things went sour, you could just forget about it all; We just want the best for you _____-san," the older woman added, a comforting hand on your shoulder.

What were they talking about? Oh, nothing much... just your ridiculously huge crush on the town's golden boy is all.

You had met the so-called 'Morioh Gang' when you had come to the town with your family and you ended up at the local high school. You had actually met Koichi first since you had classes with him, but soon enough met Yukako and, oddly enough, you two got along. Well, after you assured her for the 100th time you weren't interested in the grey-haired boy. Soon enough, you had met the others in their group. A rough-looking but funny and friendly young man who cared for others more than himself who you came to know as Okuyasu Nijimura, a manga artist who only seemed to show little if any friendliness towards Koichi, Rohan Kishibe (who seemed personally offended you had no idea what Dark Pink Boy was and shoved the first volume in your hands the next time you saw him), and the talk of many students who's name was whispered on their lips, especially from the females of the school: Josuke Higashikata. 

Was it his big heart? That beautiful smile with a voice to match? That retro-chic hair he prides himself in? The fact he seemed to tower over you by what seemed like at least half a foot? Or maybe it was that pair of beautiful baby blues he looked at you with as he listened so intently to whatever you had decided to talk about? You're not sure what it was that drew you to the popular boy, but when it happened, it happened hard. Everyone, most of them at least, were such nice people, and Josuke was no exception. As the school years went by, you grew close to a lot of them and before you knew it, you were a part of them too. Unfortunately for you, your heart figured befriending the pompadoured Prince fan just wasn't enough and before you knew it, you were in full on schoolgirl-crush mode. Even after graduating, the feelings didn't cease. It didn't help that everyone ended up at the same university either.

So now here you were, cheered on by Yukako and the woman she had introduced you too later on, waiting to see if Mr. Harada would read your on-air confession. Admittedly though, you had a feeling it might, especially considering the special guest he had called on for the corner to help with love issues.

"Thank you for joining us tonight, Miss Tsuji; You've been great help in answering some of our lovesick viewers," the host thanked the woman, who gave a hum in reply.

"Of course, Harada-san; anything to help people's dreams come true. I am the godmother of Morioh, after all~" she responded, a sigh leaving her lips after. "What's more beautiful than finding someone who makes you feel so happy and carefree? That's the main reason why I created my salon in the first place: to help others make their dreams come true; Finding that special someone is something I think everyone strives for and I simply wish to help them do so."

"Well said, Tsuji-san. Now, this next letter you had said caught your eye out of our pile here. Why is that?"

"Ah, I'm not so sure myself. I suppose it called out for me." You could hear that coy tone in her voice; you don't know how many times you had heard that tone in person, it generally meant she knew exactly what she was doing, which could only mean one thing... The sound of an envelope being opened could be heard, Kai clearing his throat.

" 'Harada-san, I hope that you can help my feelings call out to the person they're meant for. There's a guy I've known for a few years now and I couldn't ask for a better friend. He's kind and sensitive and the most loyal and reliable person you could meet. I don't want to say names but let's just call him 'my prince charming' for now. Over time, however, these feelings have changed and I'm...I'm so scared. I've talked to my friends about this and they encourage me, which I appreciate, but I've never been in a relationship before. I cherish the friendship I have with my prince like it was a treasure, and I'm terrified that I'll change what we have. At the same time though, my friends are right and I need to do something or I'll regret everything and hate myself for not even trying'."

"Such strong wording, they must have been struggling with this for a long time," the woman commented, Harada being the one to make a noise of agreement this time.

" 'That's why I've written in'," he continued to read. "Ah, they have their confession here... 'I haven't known you as long as I'm sure other people in this town have, but you make me so happy. You shine like a sun in my life and you've made every day I can see you and your dazzling smile or beautiful blue eyes is one I hold dear. I know there are others after your heart, but I can't help myself. If I don't say it now, I may never say a thing, so here are my affections over the airwaves . With Love, Stargazer'. They also have a request attached but we'll leave that a surprise. Ah...such heavy emotion."

"What a peculiar psuedonym," Aya pondered. "Would you like my personal advice or would you like to give them a word, Harada-san?"

"Please, after you."

"Thank you. Now to this star-crossed lover, no matter who you are, I only have this. I know affairs of the heart can be frightening, especially if you've never experienced it at quite this level, but it's something that must be done lest you live with regrets the rest of your life. Whether you say it yourself or ask for a friend's assistance, if you truly want to see if your prince will ride with you into that happily ever after, you need to take that next step." There was a pause as she collected her thoughts. "Cinderella made it to the ball and kept hope in her heart that her own prince would come for her, even when the clock struck twelve and her gowns turned back to rags; although she had the help of her fairy godmother, she took those steps up in her glass slippers herself when she was given the opportunity to go to the ball. I can only imagine how much courage it took for you to declare your love for this prince for all of Morioh to hear and for that I'm proud of you. Consider our reading your glass slippers and golden carriage; Much like the fairy godmother comes to Cinderella in her time of need, I hope that we're able to make some magic for you by reading your message and playing your song."

"Beautifully said, Tsuji-san. And now, the request."

You swore your heart was in your throat, or at least part of it was. You wanted to thank Aya and curse her out at the same time. She knew exactly what she was doing and it made you so anxious. Hopefully the name you picked gave enough away without being too conspicuous. You liked seeing the night sky and all so why not go with something like that? Simple enough, right? It felt like your heart was gonna burst out of your chest as the song of your choosing played. You could only hope your feelings got across loud and clear.

The radio show continued to go through other letters after, some people in similar situations (though braver by using their name and the name of the person they liked), some who went through breakups, even some who wanted to share their stories related to Valentine's Day, White Day, and Christmas in an attempt to support others in their missions for love. Or possibly deter them/help them save face with some of the stories told.

It was near the end of the corner after Aya had said her goodbyes to Harada before the host had one last thing to read.

"In a peculiar turn of events, we had a last minute e-mail marked with urgency for the corner. I'll end our little program with this. 'Harada-san, a letter you had read earlier caught my interest and, surprisingly, I think it might've been for me, or at least I hope so. No one's ever done anything like this for me and I have to say I'm flattered. Stargazer, I think I might know who you are, or at least a good idea of who you could be. If it's not too much, I'd like to meet you; we could go to the cafe in town! I'd ask you to meet me on Valentine's but I'm pretty sure the place'll be packed by then, so let's make it tomorrow around noon.' Whatever happens, one of you please keep me in the loop; the build up is tearing me apart! Could this be a love story in the making? Only time will tell. For Kai's Corner, this has been your neighbor, Kai Harada. Now back to your favorite tunes..."

It was a good thing you were sitting on your bed because you probably would've lost your footing hearing that.

At this point, you were second guessing yourself.

Dressed in you casual nicest, you sat nervously at Deux Magots. It was a usual spot for you and the others to go aside from Tonio's place, specializing in various coffee and tea drinks along with desserts. You just hoped that if things went awry, you wouldn't be too embarassed in public. You didn't dress up too much, a nice outfit but not overly done, and you had ordered a glass of a fruit-flavored tea to help soothe your nerves. The place seemed more packed than usual and a part of you wondered if it was because of the Kai's Corner from last night, people coming to see if this story had a happy ending or, if this Stargazer person would be heartbroken. Good thing no one knows that person was you.

As you were sitting, a friendly voice called out to you. You turned to see who it was and oh god are you blushing? You're pretty sure you're blushing. This would be so much harder without everyone else here.

"What's up, Jojo?" you responded with a wave, a hitch in your throat as he approached. "I figured you'd be sleeping in since it's the weekend, or did your mom kick your ass out of bed?" A laugh left the other as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Y'know, just...felt like takin' a walk here, that's all!" There it was, that sweet voice you had grown accustomed to. Something about him seemed different, though you couldn't put your finger on it. "Y'mind if I sit with ya? Unless you wanna be alone or somethin'-!"

"No, it's fine, go ahead!" you assured him with a smile, watching as he took the seat in front of you. "So, what brings you here? I thought you and Oku were gonna work on that final boss in that game you guys were stuck on last week."

"We still are! I just didn't wanna wake him up. When I called him earlier, he picked up for about 4 minutes and then I heard the other end go quiet. Th' next thing I know I get this loud snore in my ear," he laughed at the recent memory. "I guess it'll just be later, y'know?"

You couldn't help laughing yourself. Seems legit considering how those two could be. Anyone help the person who was in the same room with a snoring Okuyasu and Josuke like you were when you all stayed over at Yukako's place that one time to study. It was like being right next to two lumberjacks sawing at a tree.

"Yeah, it's probably better to let the poor guy sleep; he's been working pretty hard," you commented before looking around. "The cafe's pretty packed today, huh?"

"Yeah. It's pretty busy most've the time anyway but it looks super busy today" he commented, glancing around himself with a grin. "It's not too long before Valentine's 'n all so that might be why. So, got a date or somethin' for then~?" 

You rolled your eyes playfully at his teasing tone and the smirk that followed. "Don't talk to me about dates, Mr. Popular," you poked back. "I'm sure you're gonna be pretty damn busy the 14th. Just don't take too many chocolates or you'll have a lot of treats to pass out when White Day rolls around!"

"Not really," he sighed through his nose before glancing over at his hand on the table. "I still got admirers n' all but it's nothin' like high school. I'm actually kinda glad about that; bein' the popular guy in school can take a lot out of ya..."

"Oh? I figured with all the new people that come into Uni every semester, you'd be swamped. I'm glad about it too though, you looked so tired some days and I know a giant group of people surrounding you probably didn't help, cheery personality or not."

"...Y-Yeah," he muttered, going oddly silent. And did he just stutter a little? The atmosphere became different and the white noise of patrons talking around you and clanking cups and plates filled the air. You were both quiet for a few minutes until Josuke spoke up once more. "Hey ____-san, you still listen to Morioh-Cho Radio, right?"

"Of course, who doesn't? It's nearly everyone's favorite station. Why do you ask?"

"I was just thinkin' about that advice corner from last night. Y'know, the one that Aya-san went on about the Cinderella story after? I wonder how that'll turn out. Must've took 'em a lot of guts to send in that letter..."

"Oh, the Stargazer one? Yeah, they must really be in a pickle," you commented. "I mean, to be in love with someone who's such an amazing friend to you must be scary. I would imagine they sent the letter in because they were too afraid to admit their feelings to the person's face." You looked down into your cup of tea, the reflection of the lunchtime sky moving gently on the surface as you thought through your words. "I know there's been some stories of people confessing and they were still friends after but-"

"-they were still afraid they wouldn't be friends anymore after," he finished. You looked up at him, your mind racing at how hard he had just hit the metaphorical nail on the head. The air felt thicker around you, a true sense of nervousness sitting in. Since he was here now, you might as well bite the bullet and hope for the best. 

"Hey, uh, Josuke, there's something I need to tell you, and-"

"I like you." His words pierced the air before you could even think about confessing.

Wait. W a i t.

W H A T!?

You could only watch as his larger hand engulfed yours on the table, his gaze down at the table in front of you. You could see him bite his lip in thought, as if collecting the words he wanted to say in his head; it's something you had noticed about him when he was thinking about things. This was like something you could only dream of, but it was actually happening. The taste of the tea on your tongue was sweet, the light of the sun was warm against the chilly air, and the feeling of your hand in his was oh-so real and soft. You could only see his mouth considering how proudly his hair stuck out from his head as it was ducked down. As much as you wanted to see his face, his words were the most important thing in this moment.

"______, I-" he paused, not quite sure of the exact words to say. "I know we've known each other for a while now and- Shit, that's not it..." He let out a harsh sigh from his lips, as if releasing a held breath, before looking up towards you, eyes intense and focused as his cheeks bloomed into a light shade of pink. "I like ya. A lot. I have for a long time and I've honestly been too afraid t'say anything 'cause you're such a great friend and I don't wanna be that poor sap that got a crush on their friend just t'get their heart broken and have their friendship be all weird after. When I heard that letter last night, the way that person wrote it reminded me of you and...and..." Josuke's focused gaze softened, glancing down at your conjoined hands for a moment before looking back up at you, those pretty blue eyes staring through your soul as much as ever. "...and I was hopin' that it was you, since you like stars n' all that stuff...and you were talkin' about me..."

You had never seen this boy so nervous before. Well, the only time that could come close is when that fountain turtle crawled up on his leg without him knowing until he looked down and he didn't want to jump up and accidentally hurt the little thing. But other than that, this was the most unsure yet most sincere you had seen him, and that was saying a lot considering he was the most sincere person you knew.

"Josuke, I-" you could feel your heart in your throat. His face looked like how you felt, scared, eyes telling you he was so sure you would tell him you didn't feel the same. "It...was me," you finally managed to get out, the lights in his eyes coming back as your other hand came up to cover his. "You're the best friend I could ask for and I love every moment I get to spend with you; even if I had an awful day, you always managed to make it feel better. I've felt like this for a long time, but I didn't say anything 'cause you're always surrounded by others who love you and you're so popular. I was so sure you deserved better than me-"

"Are you kidding, babe?!" He exclaimed, clearly shocked at your words, and possibly how easily that term of endearment slipped past his lips. "You're the best damn thing to happen to me! I don't want better 'cause I got the best. I've got you."

Oh geez, you knew Josuke was a love kind of guy but you didn't know just how much love this one man had in his body. If you weren't blushing before, you definitely were now, and it showed through how pleased he looked at your reaction. 

"So, you think you wanna give this a chance? U-Unless ya need some time to think or somethin', I'm sure this is a lot for ya to take in!" The most popular guy in all of Morioh was a blushing mess in front of you, and all because of you. Admittedly, it made you feel a little proud.

"I wouldn't have sent that letter in if I wasn't sure and ready, you dummy," you replied, a relieved smile coming to your face. "I've wanted this for years." You could see him release any tension he had building up immediately, a happy expression now on his face. 

"God, you don't know how happy y'just made me. I promise I won't make ya regret it!" You swore his eyes were literally sparkling. It's so adorable you think you might die.

The rest of your time at the cafe was mostly talking and having some sweets while you were there, which Josuke insisted you guys share and that he feed you a bite or two. Needless to say he got a head start on that promise of his in the best way possible.

"...and that's all for updates in Morioh. Before we end this edition of Kai's Corner and wrap up our weeks of love specials leadng up to Valentine's Day, we have an e-mail here that I'm sure some of you will be glad to hear. 'Harada-san, this is Stargazer from the other week. I should thank you and Aya-san from the salon as I have some good news. The last letter of that same night was indeed the young man I had my eyes on and, in a twist of fate, he had the same problem as I had. Neither of us wanted to mess up the friendship we had, but as it turns out, that friendship was the very thing that helped bring us together. I can happily say now that we're currently dating and, although it's only been a little bit, we're very happy.' Ah, what a nice conclusion to that story. We here at Morioh-Cho Radio congratulate you both on your newfound relationship, and may you stay together for years to come. This has been your neighbor, Kai Harada; now back to our regular music broadcast..."

THERE IT IS. I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope it came out alright; I said it in an earlier post, but this idea actually came from a thought I had regarding if the OC I’m working on was in the part 4 universe and ended up crushing on pomp boi. Originally, Josuke was gonna be the one who sent in the letter and the request but I changed my mind in the middle of writing this;

I ended up making the Kai’s Corner thing for fun. I remembered this old radio show that would come on around 6pm or so around here where I live; this woman did requests and advice stuff related to love and couples=, like someone in a long distance relationship dedicating a song to the person they love or whatever. It seems like something that could happen on Morioh-Cho Radio so I threw it in.

[littleemptyspaces]

a glimpse of me & you

A city wide lunar new year festival planned by Orchid Events brings joy to all of Seoul, the heirs to some of Korea’s biggest companies included. Dealing with their own issues of and with succession within their own families, seven young men have only really had each other to share their problems with. They all had similar backgrounds; no one outside of their world would understand.

But the Year of the Rooster has other plans.

(sfw.)

one | two | three | four | five | six

When she got home, she found her mother and father relaxing in the living room, watching some variety show on TV. Neither of them looked distressed in any way. This perplexed her.

“I’m home, what’s wrong?”

Her father looked up and smiled at her. “Welcome back! Nothing’s wrong. At least not with us.” Her mother shook her head beside him. “Did you have fun with your friends?”

Mi Sun nodded. “I did. Where’s Dong Woo?”

“Sulking in his bedroom,” her mother answered.

The lawyer dropped her stuffed animals onto a chair and laughed as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. Her brother lived at home still, but it was more out of necessity than the fact that he couldn’t fly the coop. He was a successful chef and was a few years away from inheriting the family restaurant. On top of that, their parents were getting old and he had no qualms in being the one to take care of them and the family home. Mi Sun hoped that he would find a wife - or a girlfriend at least - that would be happy with doing the same. She knocked on her brother’s door. “Dong Woo? It’s Mi Sun; mom said you need to talk to me.” No answer. “I’m coming in.” Opened the door to find her brother sprawled on the floor of his room. She narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What have I done so wrong in my life that God has given me such a terrible little sister?” he wailed, kicking his legs.

Mi Sun rolled her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“You! Running around town, fraternizing with my nemesis!”

“Nemesis? Now you’re just being dramatic.”

Dong Woo stuck his arm out to his little sister, phone in hand. “Look at that. Look at you and that Kim Taehyung!”

“What?” Mi Sun took the device from her brother and looked at the photo on the screen. It was her and Taehyung alright, in one of the moments where he had latched onto her arm after winning her the first of many stuffed animals. He was smiling, she was smiling, albeit at the plushie, but nevertheless, it was an altogether fetching photo. Mi Sun frowned. “Who took this?”

“My friend was Olympic Plaza and saw you together. How could you?! Don’t I treat you well enough?” He draped his arm across his eyes and sighed heavily.

“Just because you don’t agree with his opinion on what a candy is or isn’t, doesn’t make him your nemesis, Dong Woo. Stop this.” Mi Sun tossed the phone back to her brother; it landed on his stomach with a thump.

He shot up and stared at her. “You KNEW why and you were still with him?”

Mi Sun was about to retort when her mother flew into the room. “With who? You were with who? Is it Mr Park?”

The lawyer massaged the bridge of her nose. “No, Mom, it’s not Mr Park. He’s my boss.”

“But he’s so good to you. And so handsome.” Dong Woo handed his phone to their mother to see the cause of his anguish. She looked at the photo and her eyes widened, excitement rising ten-fold. She grabbed her daughter’s hands. “Is it true?! Are you dating Kim Taehyung?!”

“MOM!” both kids yelled, both protesting their mother’s enthusiasm for very different reasons.

“Okay, if this is all the problem is, Dong Woo, I’m going to go. I have to work tomorrow.” She slipped her hand from her mother’s grasp and started to head back downstairs. “Bye mama.” Mi Sun collected her toys from the chair and waved at her dad, still comfortable on the couch. “Bye Dad!” He waved as she slipped out the door.

Haru and Hye Ji, Jimin’s older and younger sister, respectively, sat at the breakfast table early Monday morning, having breakfast with their mother and grandmother. The girls had come home for the new year - their husbands had to work but promised that they would  visit their in-laws before the celebration period was over. The women ate and talked, laughing as they did; the older women asked when there would be children visiting.

“Soon grandma, I promise,” Haru said, holding up crossed fingers. “What about our Jimin? Has he found himself a girlfriend yet?”

Their mother shook her head. “Not yet, but he is, at least, testing the waters.”

Grandma harumphed. “Testing the waters but catching nothing. Who’s going to make dinner for him when he takes over the business. He and his friends are all the same. None of them are getting married any time soon.”

The sisters exchanged glances. They, of course, were active on social media, and had seen the circulating pictures from the boys’ most recent outing at Olympic Park. None of the pictures were clear - all taken from great distances - but what was clear was that Korea’s most eligible bachelors were courting some lucky women. Local gossip outlets had probably already gotten their hands on the pictures, and it was only a matter of time before the ‘news’ broke and was featured in newspapers citywide.

Fortunately, his grandfather’s house was large, and thankfully Jimin was out of earshot of his grandmother’s grumbling about his lack of suitable partner. He had other things to worry about today. Sunrise was his grandfather’s real estate company that was one day going to be his real estate company. He spent a great deal of time learning the ins and outs of conducting business, and had already formed significant rapport with clients already in the books. He’d even already managed to seal the deal on a few large lease agreements. But all this was not enough for this middle son to step out of his father’s marred shadow. From his grandfather’s sharp comments, Jimin’s father was not at all real estate savvy, messing things up one too many times, before the infidelity to his mother was even an issue. He had no father figure after the age of four, and Hye Ji had no idea what her father was like at all, as he had been disowned shortly after she was born.

Jimin knew he had to go into the office today. With any luck, his grandfather would either not be in or just not in the mood to see him. The poor boy didn’t know what he could possibly do better, or differently, to make his grandfather see that he was not his father. He wasn’t going to make the same mistakes and let the family down. He rolled over in his bed and started looking through his social media on his phone. The first thing he saw was a picture of Namjoon smiling at Jae Eun. Not that anyone would know it was her - her back was to the camera. But it was very clear that he was smiling at a woman. Jimin knew that this was the beginning of a very rocky road.

Jimin: Namjoon -- we have trouble. www.eyesaroundseoul.com.kr/new-year-festival-olympic-park

Radio!K was a very relaxed environment for a place that had so much traffic. Production staff, and hosts, and assistants ran around constantly but no one seemed to get flustered by anything. Hoseok was at the station to meet a potential new signee to Gwangju Sound. His uncle had called him in the middle of the night saying that the agent for a new, indie solo artist had asked for a meeting. Since he was already in Seoul, Hoseok would conduct the meeting on his uncle’s behalf.

The artist was currently on air doing an interview with the DJ, with Hobi waiting outside the soundbooth. The teenager inside definitely looked the part of indie singer-songwriter, with his windswept hair and country-chic clothes; Hoseok was excited to meet with his first potential client. His phone pinged from inside his pocket, prompting the man to both turn his ringer off and check the message.

Namjoon!: Eyes Around Seoul found us at olympic park. There’s a picture of you leaving with miss teacher.

Namjoon!: You can’t see her face but it’s still a picture of you with a girl.

Namjoon!: Be prepared for a little chaos.

Hoseok frowned. Things were going to get a little wild for the next few days. They - the group of them - would have to make sure that the girls were okay. That no one found out who they were. After all, they were the ones that asked them to come out the day before.

He started a new message to Jin. Hobi: Eyes Around Seoul has pictures of us with the girls. Be careful.

Jin /rose emoji/: Yeah, Namjoon just let me know too. About to go into a meeting - will talk later.

And another message to Taehyung. Hobi: Eyes Around Seoul has pictures of us with the girls. Be careful.

TaeTae /tiger emoji/: What?! They don’t show their faces, do they?

Hobi: No, just their backs. But the pictures are still out there.

TaeTae /tiger emoji/: OK.

TaeTae /tiger emoji/: I will keep an eye on it too.

Hobi smiled. Taehyung often acted like he was a teenaged boy, but when it came down to the important things, he put on his metaphorical work gloves without hesitation to do whatever needed to get done. Part of it came from him being involved in his family’s company from such a young age, but most of it came from him simply being a reliable person.

When he looked back up, he could see that the interview was wrapping up, and that he would be stepping into the role of Manager Jung Hoseok for the first time. The artist exited the soundbooth and his agent corralled him towards Hobi.

“It’s great to meet you. I’m Jung Hoseok from Gwangju Sound,” he greeted with a respectful bow. “I’m looking forward to hearing about you and your work.”

Despite being given the green light to take a few days off work, Namjoon found that a lot of his friends were, in fact, working. Hoseok was meeting a recording artist, Jimin was dealing with grandfather-related business, Jin was in a meeting - he guessed that he would have to get ahold of either the young ones, or Yoongi, in the meantime. They had a lot of things to discuss - namely what to do about the slowly surfacing pictures of them with the girls.

Namjoon looked at the clock - it was only noon. Yoongi probably wasn’t even awake yet. But he didn’t get much farther than that when a text from Jeong-Guk dinged on his phone.

Jeon JK: The paper’s out. It’s not good.

The silver haired man immediately scrambled off his bed, and down the stairs, hoping to intercept the publication before it ot into his father’s hands. He was a little too late; when he got to the foyer, his dad was already scanning the front page headlines. There was no sign of alarm, so it didn’t look like he and his friends had made front page news, but they would likely be splashed all over the ‘social’ - a nice way of saying gossip - section.

“Oh! Namjoon! I didn’t see you there!” his father said, looking up at son while he opened up the paper. From where he stood on the last step, Namjoon could read the small, but still present, cheesy headline: Is Love in the Heir? He cringed inwardly - was that really the best they could come up with?

“Are you going to read all that now?” Namjoon asked.

“I was planning to, while I ate lunch. Would you like to join me?”

“Sure, Dad.”

As father and son enjoyed their noontime meal together, Namjoon was being caused some real anxiety from the slow pace of his dad’s reading, and his inevitable discovery of the gossip. His phone buzzed and he discreetly checked the message under the able.

Jeon JK: You and Jae Eun look nice together

Namjoon: Is her face in it?

Jeon JK: Nope. Just yours.

Namjoon was thankful for this - it would seem that the same pictures were being shared between Eyes Around Seoul and this third rate local newspaper. As long as the girls’ faces stayed offline, this was a situation that could easily be dealt with.

“It seems like the festival is going well,” his father commented, nodding as he read about the impressive turnout at most of the venues. He turned the page to see his son’s face smiling at someone; this was odd. Namjoon was usually very particular about not being caught so overtly on camera. “Oh? What’s this?”

“Dad… don’t freak out. She’s just a friend.”

Hyung Seok looked up with a smile. “You were out with a girl?” His hopes for his son finding a girlfriend before he died soared. “Is she nice? What is she like? When do we get to meet her?”

Namjoon’s mouth hung agape in surprise. “What?... ”

“Do you know how long we’ve been waiting for this to happen? Your mother was considering starting to send you on marriage dates like Seokjin’s been doing.” Hyung Seok poured himself a cup of coffee. “What does she do?”

Full lips spreading into a dimply smile, Namjoon shook his head, wondering why he thought his father would have had an adverse reaction at all. “She’s an event planner. One of the planners who made the festival happen, actually.”

His father laughed heartily. “How excellent! You will have a spectacular wedding.”

.

.

.

[nageki-yuki-blog]

TsukiPara Drama - Chapter 10 Translation

[This chapter is about Six Gravity preparing for the joint live. Enjoy under the cut~]

10章 – Chapter 10

合同へ！～グラビ編～

Towards the joint live! ~Gravi Version~

1話 – Part 1

「ツキウタ。ラジオ」の時間です！

It’s time for “Tsukiuta Radio”!

Koi:  Okay! We will begin again today! Delivered to you in a live broadcast, it’s time for “Tsukiuta Radio”, abbreviated “TsukiRadi”!

 Kakeru:  Your hosts will continue to be the same, December’s Kakeru Shiwasu and…...

 Koi:  February’s Koi Kisaragi, bringing it to you!

 Koi:  Today’s broadcast will feature the special tour for our game app “Tsukino Paradise” so…...

 Koi:  Wow! After a long wait, every member of Six Gravity is gathered, making this a special version episode!

 Kakeru:  Yay! Applause!  Then I’ll hand it over to the representative, Hajime-san, for a greeting!

 Hajime:  Hello everyone.  It’s been a while since I’ve been on TsukiRadi, hasn’t it?  I am Gravi’s Hajime Mutsuki.

 Hajime:  I’ll be with you for only a short while today but, I believe all of our fan’s will have a good time.  Please take care of me?

 Kakeru:  …...And there you have it!  Everyone, are you ready?  All of our listeners, say it together with us!

 Koi:  The “Tsukiuta. Radio”, abbreviated TsukiRadi, special episode is…...

 Everyone:  Starting now~!

 Kakeru:  Good work guys!

 Haru:  Yes, good work.

 Aoi:  It’s been a while since everyone has gathered together for TsukiRadi.  Live broadcasts make me nervous but, it was fun.

 Arata:  It really surprised me when Kuroda barged in though.  Isn’t he already beyond regular*?  How did he get in the studio anyways?

[*I think he means that he’s no longer acting like a regular or normal rabbit]

 Hajime:  Now that you mention it, where did Kuroda go?

 Haru:  Tsukishiro-san got one step ahead of us and already took him back to the dorms.  We could have left him in the waiting room but…...he’s a little big.

 Koi:  Yes he is.

 Arata:  Well then, we have solved the matter of Kuroda for the time being.  Now that I’m relieved…… I’ve gotten hungry.

 Kakeru:  Me too me too!  Let’s eat something and go home!

 Koi:  Oh!  It has to be meat!!  I’m in the mood for yakiniku*!

[*grilled meat dish]

 Aoi:  What? But I’m pretty sure they said there was a meeting right after this?

 Kakeru:  Oh, I guess you’re right.  We still haven’t decided what to do for this Tsukipara Live Festival.

 Koi:  Oh…...Goodbye!  My yakiniku!

 Haru:  Yakiniku would be difficult but…… How about we chow on some pizza while we’re talking together in the dorms?

 Arata:  I have no objections.  Let’s do that.  It’ll be a pizza party with everyone.

 Hajime:  And it’ll be a business meeting, okay?  Well, we might get some good ideas from it.

 Hajime:  …...Well, now that we’re full, we should talk about the Tsukipara live…...

 Haru:  Has anyone come up with any good ideas?

 Kakeru:  I haven’t. I’ve thought a lot about it since we talked with Procella but…...I haven’t been able to think of anything.

 Arata:  Me too, I’ve been seriously thinking about it every day before going to sleep.  Because of that…...

 Aoi:  Have you been unable to sleep?

 Arata:  Nope, I’ve been sleeping very soundly.

 Koi:  Don’t fall asleep!

 Arata:  That’s just how hard I’ve been thinking about it.  But, I haven’t been able to think of anything good enough~

 Everyone:  Hmm…...

 (To be Continued)

2話 – Part 2

珍しく恋が残念じゃないアイデアを出しました

Unusually, Koi has come up with an idea that’s not disappointing.

Hajime:  …… It’s just like Tsukishiro-san and Kurotsuki-san told us before, that thinking too hard will have the opposite effect, right?

 Haru:  That’s right. Let’s just take it easy while we’re thinking.  I think it would be best to do it in a way that allows us to be completely relaxed and enjoy ourselves.

 Kakeru:  Be completely relaxed…...

 Aoi:  …...Speaking of being completely relaxed…...

 Aoi:  We could do something like “TsukiRadi”.  Well, I somehow got the idea just now.

 Haru:  Oh, that might be a good idea, “TsukiRadi”.  We’ve been doing that program for a long time so our fans will know it…...

 Haru:  We’re also accustomed to it.  Even during today’s editing, we were able to continue it, without getting too worked up, so we were naturally completely relaxed.  Don’t you all feel the same?

 Koi:  Ahaha, it is certainly true that I was completely relaxed to the point that I could say there was too much freedom~!

 Hajime:  That seems like it would be good as a main focus.  “TsukiRadi” on stage…… It sounds like it could be interesting?

 Haru:  But different from being on the radio, we will be right in front of the fans, so I want to be able to get them excited.

 Arata:  So we need to do it in a way that both the audience and us get roused up, huh…...

 Aoi:  If you think about what the appeal of “TsukiRadi” is, it would be that we could deliver our voices directly to them live.

 Koi:  Okay! Let’s do a lot of ad-lib!  We won’t know what will occur!  But, that’s what’s so fun about it!  …...That’s what I think we should do.

 Kakeru:  For Koi and me, who are the regular hosts, we always feel some tension each time though. But it’s worth doing.

 Haru:  It’s important that we don’t forget that this time we’ll be “linking it to the game”.

 Hajime:  That’s right. This is originally a live for everyone who enjoys playing “Tsukipara” anyways.

 Koi:  Ding ding! I’ve thought of something!  If that’s the case, why don’t we do a “game live broadcast”?

 Koi:  We could project the game onto a giant screen, and then we could play it there! Then it would be a live broadcast of the game…...

 Kakeru:  Oh! Unusually, Koi has come up with an idea that’s not disappointing!

 Koi:  Stop saying I’m disappointing!

 Arata:  A live broadcast huh.  That could definitely be interesting~.  I’ve watched videos of those once in a while when looking around online.  Not too long ago, those types of videos were really popular too~.

 Aoi:  I know what those are just by hearing the name but, I’ve never actually seen one before. It sounds interesting…...

 Hajime:  I’m the same as Aoi.

 Aoi:  Later on, let’s ask Arata and Koi to show us some videos.  Hajime-san.

 Hajime:  We should.

 Haru:  That sounds great.  The audience can enjoy it together with us while watching the screen, and if we can convey to them the merits of the game, it would be best if they could see it in reality.

 Haru:  Hmm, so have we decided on doing a live broadcast?

 Hajime:  Yeah, I think it would be good?

 Koi:  Hurray! We’re using my idea!

 Hajime:  …… Now that we’ve decided that, we need to verify if it’s actually possible to implement it on stage.

 Haru:  I guess you’re right.

 Kakeru:  …...And if that’s the case?

 (To be Continued)

3話 – Part 3

それじゃあ今から皆で練習しましょう

Well then let’s all start practicing from now on.

Hajime:  First we need to have someone make and install equipment that will be able to use a screen.

 Haru:  After that, we also have the problem of figuring out what would be the best way to place it on stage.

 Haru:  If we just leisurely play the game it will be too simple, so we need to think of how to broadcast it in a way that excites the audience too.

 Aoi:  I guess you’re right…...

 Hajime:  …… And that also means, we need to be able to play the game to a certain degree.

 Haru:  That’s for sure.  If we show an uncool play, it will give us a negative image in many ways.

 Hajime:  You got it right.

 Arata:  If that’s what you’re trying to say, then I might be in trouble~.

 Arata:  I play the game now and then but it’s not like I’ve gotten that high of a score.

 Aoi:  Arata is the type that wants to play at his own pace, rather than aim for a high score.

 Haru:  If you say that, I wonder if the person who suggested it, Hajime, will be okay?

 Hajime:  …...

 Hajime:  …… The truth is, I don’t have any more confidence than Arata.

 Kakeru:  Huuuuuh!? There are times when even Hajime-san doesn’t feel confident!?

 Hajime:  What kind of guy do you see me as?

 Hajime:  It’s just an excuse but, I’ve been so busy I haven’t played it much in the first place.

 Kakeru:  Oh-…...

 Hajime:  Since I don’t play them often, I’m still not really used to playing any types of games anyways.

 Kakeru:  I see……. I want to give you Koi’s useless video game skills and some free time…...

 Koi:  I heard you say useless!

 Haru:  Hahaha…… Hajime has only just begun playing app games after hearing the explanation of what they were.

 Hajime:  However, if you can show skill in the live, it won’t show that kind of dependency.*

[*I’m not sure about exactly what this means, I think it means that their skills would show that they don’t need to depend on anyone else]

 Arata:  Oka-y. Well then let’s all start practicing from now on.  Let’s do this.  Hajime-san and I will do nothing but extensive training.

 Kakeru:  That’s right~.  If we all give each other advice, I think we will improve fast!

 Aoi:  I don’t have a score that’s good enough to be proud of either so, let’s work hard……!

 Koi:  Heh heh heh…...

 Koi:  Hehehe, hehahahaha!  It’s here----!!!  This is my time to shine!

 Koi:  Gravi’s number one gamer Koi-kun, will become everyone’s proper and reliable teacher!

 Arata:  Pink head is getting carried away as expected.

 Aoi:  Hehehe, actually, he’s being pretty reliable.

 Koi:  Now then, everyone.  First let’s get an accurate grasp of the situation!  Show me your scores.

 (To be Continued)

4話 – Part 4

君もきっと一人前の音ゲーマーになれるぞ！！

I’m sure you could also become a public music gamer!!

Kakeru:  Okay!

 Hajime:  …… To display the score.  Where do I press?

 Haru:  …… Hajime, you really aren’t used to operating games are you.

 Hajime:  …… Haru.

 Haru:  Okay okay. Here, let me see.  The score display is…… umm, here.  It’s right here.

 Koi:  Let’s see what we have here…… Everyone’s skills are……  Oh!  Kakeru and Aoi’s scores are pretty good!

 Aoi:  Huh, is that so?  I’m a little relieved.

 Kakeru:  Hehehe-. I guess since it includes our songs, it was easy to get used to. I got better really smoothly!

 Koi:  With this amount, I wouldn’t have any worries about Kakeru and Aoi during the main performance.  Now for Haru-san…...

 Haru:  I’ve tried really hard but, I don’t think it’s as good.

 Koi:  Ah~, but, it’s not that bad.

 Koi:  I’ll show you the tricks of how to play, so if you remember it and practice then I’m sure you’ll get better!

 Haru:  Please teach me.  I don’t want to show the fans an embarrassing side of me.  I want to raise my level before the day of the performance.

 Koi:  To continue on, Arata’s score is………… Huh?  It surprisingly isn’t that bad.

 Arata:  …… Really? I don’t really know what the normal score would be.

 Koi:  It’s not bad. What-, I thought it would be way worse. I think it may be even better than the average score?

 Arata:  Oh…… Is that right.  Good job, me. I feel like I can do it now.

 Koi:  With this score, I’m sure you could also become a public music gamer* after I attentively guide you!!

[*meaning someone that can play music games in front of an audience]

 Arata:  I don’t need such weird and disgusting guidance.

 Koi:  Last is…… Hajime-san!  Can I see your scores?

 Hajime:  Yeah, is this good?

 Koi:  Yeah. …...Huh?  Hajime-san, you haven’t played anything except easy mode?

 Hajime:  I can have enough fun just playing easy mode.

 Hajime:  …… Or rather, to be honest, this is the first time I’ve heard that there are other modes.

 Koi:  I have to explain from there!?  Geez, how many times have I had to say that line!

 Koi:  O-Okay. Nevertheless, I think you can still raise your score a little bit more.  With your reflexes it’s possible.

 Koi:  Hey Hajime-san, it doesn’t matter if it’s the easiest song for you, but could I watch you play once?

 Hajime:  Yeah…… Then, I’ll do this one.

 Haru:  Huh? Hajime, the way you’re holding it…...

 Kakeru:  Ha-Hajime-san!?  It’s not like you have to play it with one hand you know!?

 Hajime:  ?  Is that true?

 Aoi:  N-Now I see…...

 Arata:  All of a sudden, we have solved the riddle of why Hajime-san’s score is so low.

 Koi:  Umm…… Hajime-san.  I’m going to play it now so, can you watch me?

 Hajime:  Okay.

 Koi:  Well then…… Koi Kisaragi, is here!

 (To be Continued)

5話 – Part 5

ゲームの腕前もしっかり磨いておけよ？

Make sure you also steadily refine your game skills, okay?

Aoi:  Wow! That’s amazing!  Such smooth movements!

 Haru:  He’s getting them all perfect.

 Kakeru:  He’s really skillful for just playing it casually…… Even if it’s because he’s sacrificing sleep and his tests……!!

 Arata:  I know what you mean.  He’s the type that as he raises his game level, his real life level lowers.

 Koi:  Just wait a minute~!?  That just plain hurts!?

 Haru:  Score S! As expected…!

 Koi:  Heh, I just unconsciously played seriously.

 Koi:  …… Well, I was trying to look cool but, that’s pretty much how it is.  It’s okay to use both hands.

 Koi:  You can hold it in whichever way is easiest for you.

 Hajime:  I see. That was great, Koi.  Well done.

 Koi:  E-Ehehehehe~

 Hajime:  Now I feel like I understand by watching how you played it.  …...I think I’ll get a little better after this.

 Aoi:  Huh? You are going to try it again already?

 Hajime:  I think I can do it a little.  For the time being, I’ll just try it.

 Hajime:  …… Heh.

 Kakeru:  W-Woah!? Hajime-san, you suddenly got really good!?

 Aoi:  The awkwardness you’ve had until now, has completely disappeared…… It’s like a different person is playing.

 Haru:  Ahaha, that’s just Hajime, as expected.

 Hajime:  It’s certainly true that, now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, it has become much easier to play.

 Hajime:  I’m still not at the level where I can play in front of other people but, if I practice, I should be able to raise my score.

 Arata:  Hajime-san has gone into serious mode.  Alright, with this, I have a premonition that out of all of Gravi’s members, I have dropped to the bottom of the list!

 Koi:  So he’s being serious…… By watching me play it just one time, he improved this quickly…...

 Kakeru:  As expected of the king……!

 Aoi:  So you got a score rank of…… A.  Oh! Just a little more and you’ll reach Koi’s score!

 Koi:  Ugh…… My precious student, has suddenly improved and become my rival!

 Koi:  I also have pride as a gamer!  Even if it’s against Hajime-san, my game score won’t lose!

 Kakeru:  Oh…… Koi has gotten fired up!

 Haru:  Ahaha. But trying to do this, is pretty fun. We should be able to get fired up during the real live too don’t you think?

 Hajime:  You’re right. With a little more practice, all of our skills will be equally matched.

 Aoi:  We’ll also be trying a little bit to level up, right Kakeru.

 Kakeru:  That’s right, Aoi-san.  Let’s devote ourselves to it.  Otherwise, we’ll be surpassed by Hajime-san in the blink of an eye.

 Hajime:  After that…… well.  I guess we should do something like a score showdown with Gravi and Procella?

 Koi:  Oh, that would be good!  The fans would also be able to participate by cheering!

 Arata:  The fans will be cheering, huh.  Then, we seriously must do that.  I want everyone to see me at my best.

 Hajime:  Alright, I guess we should propose this idea to Procella.

 Hajime:  You guys, in preparation for the joint live you should refine your singing and dancing. And after that, make sure you also steadily refine your game skills, okay?

 Everyone:  Okay!

 ~END~

[Next chapter is Procellarum’s version~]

[allenmendezsr]

Make Money Buying And Selling Gold

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/make-money-buying-and-selling-gold/

Make Money Buying And Selling Gold

 Buy Now    

By: Skip McGrath, Updated November 2017 Most of you know me for my books about selling on eBay and Amazon, but I have done a lot of other things in my life too. One of them is buying and selling scrap gold.

Gold is recovering nicely – Could it go to $3000 an ounce?

When I first got into this business gold was selling for around $300 an ounce. Gold went as high as $1900 an ounce and today gold is selling for over $1,200 an ounce and experts forecast it to go higher – much higher!  I have seen forecasts by reliable writers that Gold could reach as high as $5000 an ounce in coming years.

The United States is the largest jewelry market in the world and millions of Americans have old, broken or just out-of-fashion pieces of jewelry sitting in their jewelry boxes. Just last week my wife came across a single 18K gold erring. She lost the other earring in the set about ten years ago and the remaining earring has just been sitting in her jewelry box since then. I put the earring on my gold scale and it weighed 8 grams. At today’s prices that one earring was worth over $300 –which is more than she paid for the pair ten years ago.

There is literally a fortune in gold –billions of dollars worth, sitting around collecting dust. But the high price of gold today is bringing it out of the woodwork. And all you have to do to get your piece of the pie is to ask.

You might be wondering how long this business can last. I recently spoke with the owner of a large gold refining company and I asked him how long this business could continue. He said:

“Every year all the refining companies in the US combined refine less than one percent of all the scrap gold jewelry in the country. And new jewelry sales grow over five percent a year. So there is pretty much an endless supply. We have been in this business for 33 years and we expect to be doing this for at least another 33 years.”

How much can I make buying gold?

Unscrupulous gold dealers like the ones that advertise on radio and TV ask you to mail your gold in to them. They typically pay between 10% and 20% of the value of gold. Most pawnshops pay about 30% to 35%.

Legitimate dealers pay between 40% and 65%. 40% to 65% may seem low to you, but remember, the gold you buy has to be smelted, refined, assayed and poured into ingots before it can be resold. Refiners who do this will pay you between 85% and 92% of the spot price of gold.

Lets look at a typical sale. The average person tends to bring in three or four items that altogether weigh about 2 ounces. Most items people bring me are 14K gold which is 58% pure gold and the rest is alloys to lend gold its color and hardness.

Two ounces at 58% works out to 1.16 ounces of pure gold. Lets say for example you pay that person 50%, which is typical of most legitimate gold dealers. At $1400 an ounce, that comes out to $812. Now you send the gold to a refiner who will pay you 95% of the spot price. I will let you do the math, but this works out to a very nice profit from just one transaction. Many experts predict that gold will go as high as $5000 an ounce. I don’t know if that will happen, but imagine how profitable this business will be if it does.

Do that 3 or 4 times a week and you are looking at some real money! And it’s 100% legal.

Skip McGrath’s book on gold buying is amazing. He also has extremely good one on one support. He cares about his customers. Thanks Skip! ~ Michael

Where do you find people with Gold to sell?

I live in a small town of about 12,000 people. I was driving to the supermarket on a recent Saturday and saw several signs that said: “Cash for Gold and Silver Today at the Majestic Hotel.” After I left the market, I drove over to the Majestic Hotel to see what was going on.

There was a gentleman in one of the meeting rooms off of the lobby with a table, a scale and calculator and a cash box. He was meeting with a lady while two more people waited their turn. I didn’t want to bother him, but the lady who works at the reception desk is a friend of mine, so I asked her how he was doing. She told me he has had a steady stream of customers all day. Imagine if each person brought in just one ounce of gold and he saw 20 or 30 people that day. That is a huge amount of money

There are two factors driving the gold business today:

A recovering, but still tough economy with millions of people out of work

Relatively high prices for gold and silver

The gold business has always been a good business, but nothing like it has been since 2008 when gold prices started rising as the economy began the downturn. These two facts have combined to bring millions of people out of the woodwork with gold to sell. Either they need cash, or they just want to take advantage of today’s high prices.

It is very easy to find these people. You can set up in a hotel room like the person in the example above. You can advertise in local papers or even on radio. You can also advertise for free on sites such as Craigslist. Another popular method is using door hangars. You can get them made for about 2-cents each and hire school kids to hang them for you. But none of these methods work as well as one simple, low cost advertising method I am going to show you in one of your free bonuses.

Do you like to travel? A couple of years ago I met an older gentleman and his wife who roam the country in an RV, buying gold at every town they stop in. They even have a sign on the side of their RV that they buy gold and people come up to them in the RV parks.

Gold Parties are a booming business

One of the things I show you how to do with my system is throw gold parties. You have all heard of home parties for Tupperware, cosmetics or cooking gadgets. Well at those parties people spend money. When people attend a gold party they make money! If you can get 10 people to a gold party you can buy several ounces of gold, -potential profit of up to 45% on each ounce And the hostess, who put on the party, will get 10% of what you make. Now that’s what I call a “win-win.”

My system includes complete instructions on hosting a gold party of your own and how to market gold parties to others. Besides the instructions I have also included flyers, brochures, ads and invitations. All of these are in simple Word docs, so all you have to do is add your contact information and print them out.

What kind of gold do you buy?

Here is a list of some of the gold pieces I see every day:

Outdated jewelry

Broken or bent items

Gold chains

Class rings

Bracelets

Pins

Broaches

Wedding or engagement ring from an ex-spouse

Retirement pins

Watches

Tangled bracelets and chains

Wedding bands

Items with missing stones

Single earrings

Those giant earrings from the 80’s

That promise ring from the ex-boyfriend you would like to forget about.

If you are a woman reading this, I bet you have one or more of these in your closet or jewelry box. If you are a man, just show this to your wife or girlfriend and they will tell you how common this is.

Purchase How to Make Money Buying and Selling Gold for only $37

Is this only about buying jewelry?

There is no question that jewelry is the easiest, most plentiful market to do this in. But I am also going to show you how to make money from discarded electronics including cell phones, stereos, computers, microwave ovens and more.

Last week I was donating some things to our local thrift shop. When I arrived the helper was in the process of throwing several older electronic items in the dumpster. I asked why he was doing that and he said “Well they don’t work so we can’t sell them. “ I asked if I could have them. One of the devices was a ten-year-old tower computer and the other was a cassette tape deck and amplifier.

With about 30 minutes and a screwdriver I recovered almost $200 worth of gold from just those two items. Most of you won’t want to bother with this aspect of the business because buying jewelry is so easy, but there are plenty of people who make over $1000 a week collecting and taking old electronics pieces apart and sending the parts to refiner who will pay them 80% of the spot gold price.

You can even get these items for free. Just advertise that you recycle old electronic items and people with bring them to you rather than taking them to the dump.

How much money do I need to get started in this business?

You will need a gold scale, a gold testing kit and a couple of simple tools. All of this will cost less than $30.

You will have to spend about $25 to $50 on local advertising to find your first few customers.

Lastly you will need some cash to purchase your gold. I would say you would need about $500 to buy your first few pieces. But don’t worry. If you don’t have that, I will show you two ways to get started with no cash at all and bootstrap your way to your first few sales.

Skip: What does your system include?

Here is what you get:

50 page eBook, How to Make Money Buying and Selling Gold. – My book contains everything you need to get started. Please Note: My eBooks are set to allow printing. You can print it out on your computer printer, or you can send the file to a local copy shop and they will print and bind a copy for you.

Bonus Resource – A bonus package that contains all of the ads, flyers and invitations you need to market your business. It would cost you hundreds of dollars to create these from scratch.

Bonus Resource – My personal list of refiners who will pay between 92% – 96% for your gold

 Bonus Report  – Tools of the Trade

Bonus Report – Sandwich Board Advertising

My No Questions Asked, 100%, 60-day Money-back guarantee!

OK– How Much does it cost?

My complete Gold Buying Training System only costs $37!

One more bonus: I am going to give you a very short, but free report that shows you a fail-safe local advertising method that will cost you $38 for every 1000 people who receive it and can generate generous returns for each dollar you spend.

[highbuttonsports]

Made in China: Calgary Flames Past year & Future.

Made in China. We see it on everything. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with the whole buy local, support home thing. Made in China had a different meaning for the Calgary Flames this year. The start of a new year, a new season, a new journey to the Stanley Cup. Anyone who has played hockey before knows that heading out on a road trip is the best time to get to know the boys, bond and hang out. Although the travel was gruelling, it was setting up to be a good start. The Flames were beginning the year with some fresh faces in the lineup this year thanks to some work by GM Brad Treliving. The additions of Noah Hanafin on the blue line, Elias Lindholm and Derek Ryan up front. Free agent signings of Austin Czarnik and James Neal, the summer sun wasn’t the only thing that was bright in Calgary. All these new faces mixed with this early road trip things were looking up after a lacklustre season in 2017-2018. 

Fast forward to October, and the dreaded home and home with the Canucks is on the docket to begin the year again. The Flames got off to a decent start at the beginning of the year. Nothing that would of gave anyone the assumption the team was going to have a record year. The talk around the town was the same as usual. Win some games, lose some games, let’s see what this team can do. Goaltending this, forwards that, nobody was happy about all the pieces together. Talk radio was riding Mike Smith’s lacklustre starts, James Neal was bouncing up and down the lineup, it was a typical October in Calgary. I remember watching a game early on against Colorado when David Rittich absolutely stood on his head and the Flames won 3-2 in OT. I said to myself at that point, and although still early, this is going to be a fun year. Boy, was I right, to an extent. October was very mediocre for the Flames, basically winning a game, losing a game, winning a game, losing a game. October 25th, 2019 was the true turning point to the season, and you can ask everyone in the city, on the team, in the media about that game. I remember sitting up high in the 200’s, hands in my face sitting there saying WTF is this. What are we watching. Why did we just pay money to be here. Thank god the Saddledome beer is like gold, because it was needed by all. An absolute thrashing from the Penguins, 9-1. The only upside, James Neal scored, one of his 7 goals on the year. You don’t hear the term rock bottom thrown around a lot, but in those post game scrums it was used more than once. It was the low of lows. I think everyone in that dressing room used that thrashing as motivation, and if you look at the season totals after that game you can see it definitely struck a nerve. The Flames started rolling. A 9-6 win over the Blue Jackets in an absolute gong show of a game, a 7-2 win over the Blues, 7-2 over the Knights, 6-3 over the Jets. It goes on and on. Night in and night out the Saddledome started to fill up even more, get louder. The buzz was finally hitting this city like you’d expect any NHL city to do night in night out. Obviously there was still many speed bumps, many obstacles and many questions to be answered throughout the year, but one thing that was for sure, is this team was for real. 

The real test was still yet to come, they still had the Christmas break and the All-Star break to get through. You know how easily that can cool off a hot team. Unfortunately it cooled the Flames off for a little bit. The true trying time was after the All-Star break followed by the mandatory 5 days off. Sure it was great for some ailing bodies, some lingering injuries, but I bet if you asked most guys in that dressing room they would of fathomed to keep going. Why stop now. You know when you get in that groove, and then all of a sudden you fall out of it. For most of us average folk how hard is it to get back into that grove. I can’t imagine the pressures of the NHL and being at peak performance all the time and hitting this lull. The Flames had a hell of a schedule coming up in February with multiple trips out east, back west, back east and then home. Let’s sum February up with this. 17 days on the road, finishing with a record of 8-3-2. That’s pretty impressive. Can you imagine travelling for 17 days straight, competing at the highest level of your profession night in an night out, and surviving like that. *Insert applause here*. The home stretch to the end of the year was now upon us, and the Flames were battling night in and night out. 

St. Patricks Day, the ol’ luck of the Irish. The Flames were in. Playoff bound, here we go. As I mentioned earlier the city was buzzing for a good portion of the year, but now, the C of Red was alive. The city was taking it to the next level. We know our Flames were going to be hosting a Stanley Cup playoff game. We knew the city was going to be jumping behind the team as support whether it was the bandwagon or not. Do you know how cool it is to be in a city where everyone cares about the same thing for once. Political views out the window, life views out the window, nobody cares who you are, where you come from, we are all Flames. How cool is that? Calgary ended the year with home ice, and drew Nathan Mackinnon and his Colorado Avalanche in the first round. Playoffs, everyone knows it can go either way. It doesn’t matter where one team finished, who clinched when. It’s a new season. You can look at Colorado in a sense they clinched so late, they had to play at such a high level late that they could roll right into the playoffs with the hot hand. But hey, Calgary has had some guys get some much needed rest, they’ll be fresh, maybe they have the upper hand. Calgary opened with a win in game one, and everyone was satisfied. This is what was expected. What wasn’t expected is what happened in the next 4 games. Game 2, Saturday night live in Calgary. The city was insane. The rink was insane. It was a lot of run, and hey! We got overtime on a Saturday night. Anything can happen, and who finishes it but my hometown boy Nate. A pure snipe. What could you do. 1-1 heading down to Denver. I can go on and on about the rest of the series, but everyone knows how that ended up. Colorado absolutely dominated. They skated circles around Calgary. I was in the building for the final game in Calgary, game 5. A couple of jerseys were thrown on the ice late, and the building was silent. I don’t think anyone in that building had any thoughts running through their head. Sure there was frustration, but we all know you can’t think clearly during times like that. The season came to an abrupt end. Treliving described it perfectly, “It’s like running a 100M dash in a 80M gym”.

 Everyone was in shock. There were so many questions, so many frustrations. Where do you begin? Everyone new this was stepping up to be a special year. Many thought it was our time. Such is hockey, such is playoffs, such is life. I can go on and on about where I thought it went wrong, what I wasn’t happy with, but realistically we just have to move forward. There were a lot of good things to come out of this year. Rasmus Andersson showed that he can play top pair minutes and stick there. Noah Hanafin and Travis Hamonic put them selves up as one of the top D pairs in the NHL. Jusso Valimaki although hindered by injury most of the year showed he can hang with the big boys as a 19 year old. Elias Lindholm, Johnny Gaudreau had career years. Mike Smith and David Rittich played the 1A, 1B tandem to a near perfect T. Although goalie questions came up all year long, Mike Smith showed he belonged in the playoffs. Sam Bennett was an absolute beast and truly found his own this year. Garnett Hathaway was probably one of the best penalty killers in the NHL this year. Let’s stick to the positives, and leave the negatives aside. We can build off both, but having a positive outlook on the negatives can go a lot further than tearing someone down. There were a lot of great things this year, a lot of experiences had that I truly think this can be built off of. Calgary can do it again, they will do it again. Looking into the future, there are many great pieces sitting in the cupboards. There were a few prospects like Dillon Dube had signs of a full time NHLer when he was called upon this year. Alan Quine played only 14 games with the big club this year, but showed that he can be a reliable speedy third or fourth line player.  Although a few questions will be raised, and a busy off-season will be had. Brad Treliving reiterated that “there will be changes”. One can only begin to guess what changes will be made, but lots of rumours are floating around. Calgary qualified Matthew Tkachuk, David Rittich and Sam Bennet, all who are going to be key pieces moving into the coming pieces. Andrew Mangiapane was also qualified, and he turned out to be a firecracker out there this year splitting time between the third and fourth line. This goes to show you the depth that these scouts go to to find guys that can hang at this level after almost being counted out just based on draft position alone. The biggest question mark is who will be tending the pipes next year. Part of the puzzle has been all but decided, but that is one cupboard that is missing a few solid pieces. 

I’ll leave you with one lasting thought until next time. Buckets. What the hell does this guy mean about buckets. Well let me explain. Buckets was a term that was used when describing last year. We had guys in this bucket, and guys in that bucket. One bucket was half full with guys that wanted it, the other bucket was full of passengers. Let’s up that size of bucket so everyone wants to be in it no matter how tight, and everybody is driving.  The everlasting Flame from the C of Red is definitely shining a little brighter.

-Mike Murrant

[wellhalesbells]

i’ve been getting a lot of messages lately (and unsurprisingly, considering how unrepentantly i’ve been reblogging stuff from them) from followers asking me for podcast recommendations - and i love getting those so thank you, guys! - and i thought i’d make a masterpost of what i’ve both a) finished and b) enjoyed since i’ve started bingeing them.  and, as an extra added bonus, what has canonical lgbt+ representation (since i know what you guys are into [waggles eyebrows]).

1. the bright sessions

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  this is definitely the first podcast that i’ve fallen in love with as hard as my original gateway podcast: welcome to night vale.  it’s so well-written, the characters well-drawn, the premise fascinating - atypicals, or people with some sort of special ability, in therapy - and it’s such a positive story and experience that i can’t help but feel better on days i listen to it.  it really believes in humanity and that’s such a wonderful thing in this day and age.  plus, the voice acting is killer.

2. eos 10

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  i don’t think it’s been officially confirmed that dr. dalias is, at the very least, bisexual (in fact, the official channels seem to be dancing around it, possibly so as not to spoil anything in the upcoming season), though it’s been hinted at plenty in story.  especially as i don’t know how else you can explain a supposedly “straight” male character getting called out on repeatedly thinking about a naked man during a group mind-link experience.  that aside, it is freaking hilarious.  the premise is doctors in space, one formerly drug-addicted doctor helping to stabilize a currently alcoholic one with amazing side characters including nurse jane johns and levi, a hypochondriac alien and deposed prince who seems to have a personal vendetta against wearing pants.  it’s well-acted, cleverly written and a freaking joy to listen too.  so funny and so smart, i can’t recommend it enough!

3. the penumbra podcast

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  so much queer representation it’s bananas.  this ask the creators got is actually pretty representative of their approach to the show, slyly funny and very gay.  our main character is a genderbending queer private investigator who’s lost his heart head over a sweet-smelling thief with a heart of gold and more aliases than jennifer garner, all set against a noir backdrop.  oh, and on mars.  yeah, you read all of that right.  there are a few awesome side stories as well, including a couple of horror ones (that have no effect on the main juno steel story line, so can be skipped - and the creators are VERY GOOD about warning what’s to come in the episode notes), as well as lesbian outlaws and a disabled knight.  there’s literally nothing not to love.  EXCEPT FOR HOW JUNO STEEL WON’T LET HIMSELF HAVE NICE THINGS.

4. the black tapes

hey, hi, if you’re into horror, suspense, creepery or demons, this is so very much for you.  the premise is that alex reagan, our host, begins a podcast to interview people with interesting professions.  she starts out with dr. richard strand, a paranormal investigator whose mission statement is to debunk all things paranormal.  he even has an institute that offers a one million dollar prize for proof of the paranormal, which he has never even come close to having to part with.  while alex is interviewing him, she comes across a handful of black vhs tapes: the only cases that strand hasn’t been able to definitively solve yet.  the technology to disprove these incidents simply hasn’t come far enough, in his opinion.  needless to say, she never moves on from dr. strand and the mystery of the black tapes.  each episode, alex investigates another of the black tapes and much later on realizes it’s possible that they’re all connected.  oh my god, i almost got chills just writing that, it’s so good, it’s so real, because dr. strand is such a good anchor to reality.  alex will occasionally lose her skeptic’s perspective; dr. strand does not.  and once alex starts experiencing intense insomnia, making you realize your narrator might not be so reliable?  things somehow manage to get even murkier.  i really, really adored this one.  it’s paranormal set in the most normal of normal worlds, only making it that much spookier.  or, alternatively, avoid this like the motherfucking plague.  [curtsies]  if you’re still intrigued, stop after season one.  two, if you can’t find it in yourself to get off the ride any earlier.  ZEUS HELP YOU IF YOU CONTINUE ON, I AM THE OLD MAN AT THE GAS STATION WARNING YOU TO GO BACK BEFORE YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR, ON YOUR HEAD BE IT IF YOU DECIDED NOT TO HEED IT.

5. wooden overcoats

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  okay, well, if you’ve ever watched black books?  this is kind of like black books, aka one of my all-time favorite shows.  rudyard funn is just as incapable and universally disliked as bernard black, which was all well and good when the village of piffling vale (which is very nearly a town, you know!) only had one funeral home to choose from.  unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore.  eric chapman has moved his funeral home right across the street and stolen all the business from rudyard, his embalmer (cum part-owner) and twin sister, antigone, and georgie, their assistant.  to add insult to injury, he’s charming and universally adored by everyone except those at funn funerals.  very british, very ridiculous, and very funny!  WE GET THE BODY IN THE COFFIN IN THE GROUND ON TIME.  (well, like that one time they did.  [coughs])

6. ars pardoxica

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  i listened to this one pretty slowly, for me.  it’s very much plot over character, at least in my opinion.  which is fair since there’s quite a lot of plot and set dressing to establish.  we’re following (dr.) sally grissom, a scientist from the twenty-first century who accidentally creates time travel and ends up stuck back in the 1940s.  think a bombs and eisenhower.  it was always interesting, and the paradoxes created by the time travel experiments they kept doing were fascinating (i love time travel stuff because of the paradoxes it creates) but i didn’t get really ravenous for it until season two, which is when i really felt it picked up speed.  you’ve got anthony stuck in a literal CAGE - a “blackroom” bubble set outside of time, sally trying to garden (oh god), a gang consisting of a veteran, a (former) widow and time doubles trying to bring down ODAR (the company sally used to work for, and that anthony still does) and esther sliding down the ladder of morally unsound one determined rung at a time and it makes for a REALLY grabbing audio drama, eh?

7. the strange case of starship iris

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  i’m already in love with violet liu, all right?  she’s a science officer on starship iris--well, what was starship iris.  when we first join violet, every single one of her crew mates has just died in an explosion on the pod they were traveling off ship with and the starship iris is in its last throes as well.  luckily(?) a passing ship comes along with a plan to get her to safety.  this has a real illuminae vibe to it (which is an amazing book btw) and all the characters are already so freaking likable.  it’s only on episode two and already shaping up to be a favorite!

8. the orbiting human circus (of the air)

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  if there’s a more heart-warming podcast out there, then i haven’t run across it yet.  first of all, julian koster’s voice is so vulnerable and soft that i would use myself and everyone i know and also puppies as a shield against everything terrible in the universe for him.  second, the rest of the cast - leticia especially - is just as freaking talented.  the premise is that julian is the janitor at a radio show that broadcasts from the top of the eiffel tower and has strange and impossible acts every night, from tale-telling crickets to singing saws to the orkestral, a bird that can play every orchestral instrument (except that it refuses to play the viola, because reasons).  it’s fun and cute and breaks your heart with happiness regularly and often!

9. alice isn’t dead

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  this is a horror podcast about a truck driver who is looking for her missing wife.  jasika nicole has to have one of my favorite voices around and having it be so heavily dependent on that makes me ridiculously happy.  throw in the story-telling of joseph fink, the depth and cohesiveness of his writing, and there is nothing not to love here.

10. within the wires

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  this is really sufficiently creepy considering it’s not often overtly creepy.  this is set up as a series of relaxation tapes, which progressively get more and more interested in helping the listener break out of the facility in which she’s being kept.  super chilling at times, because the voice is so calm and the action so dangerous.

11. welcome to night vale

canon lgbt+ is a ✓.  okay, well, what more can be said about this at this point?  if you’re not listening to it, you’re wrong.  why wouldn’t you want to visit a town that can’t be visited and where every conspiracy theory is real and a part of everyday life?  yeah, everyone knows about the vague yet menacing government agency, steve carlsberg, you’re not hitting on anything new there.  there’s a dog park that doesn’t allow dogs, angels that are never to be identified as angels, mountains that aren’t real, a glow cloud that--ALL HAIL and a love story so complete and perfect that it can and will utterly steal your breath at times.  go, listen, inhale.

[theragnatelarp]

Name: Daniel Lovett Hurk Gender: Male Hometown: Boston Age and birthday: 4th April 1985, age 32 Occupation: Part-time DJ/RJ at a radio station and instructor at Forever Fit Faceclaim: Harry Shum Jr

Traits: + Confident, compassionate, cool-minded -  Manipulative, holds grudges, unpredictable

Interview with The Landlord

001. Describe your childhood and your relationship with your family. He reached up to scratch lightly at the bit of stubble by his mouth and shrugged, smiling straight at the man with his gaze held steady “Nothing much to describe really. My father worked as a small time accountant and my mother was bartender at this lavish bar around Downtown Boston. We lived in an average apartment with three rooms and lots of people to entertain. Apparently, both my parents had several mutual friends. Rich ones. At times they would gather up and talk of ‘business’ and me being the curious one…well I would try to listen in. Got me in trouble but I always sensed my parents were somehow also proud of me for having been an eavesdropper. “ he chuckled quietly and grew reserved, silence followed momentarily “Life wasn’t exactly luxurious or a smooth run but it was alright.”

002. Are there any points in your life that changed you as a person? “Business, whatever that was, was doing well. There was ample money saved up in the back account to pay for College but by the time I graduated High School I thought—why not lend the parents a hand? So I did, started helping mother at the bar. Then this one day the Bar’s owner caught me dancing and he thought I was talented” he stops and held up his hands with a playful smile “ His words, not mine. So I started performing at the club now and then, got me enough cash. Ah the stage would be lit up in lights and all sorts of dancers would be flaunting their skills and bodies. I truly felt like a performer up there. Inspired me enough to go hunting for roles in theater plays but it didn’t quiet work out. I ended up applying for commercial ads on TV, did some photo shoots as well and through some connections ended up as a RJ and one of the many radio shows.I still continued dancing at the club in fact if I may say so myself, I was an absolute hit with the audience” he was positively glowing with pride and smirked, yet he always seemed to get pulled back and grew reserved for a couple of minutes. As if something kept pulling him back. As if he was processing something.

003. How do you believe people generally perceive you? His thumb and index finger roamed thoughtfully over his chin, the man was filled with praise for himself yet he was actually giving this a thought “ Talented ? Perhaps somewhat full of myself” he couldn’t hold back a mild eyeroll “It’s called being confident in yourself. I suppose those who enjoy my company and like me for my bold ways and spontaneous actions, they might say their lives would be a boring tragedy without me. Maybe” he shrugs, brow quirking “I would like to think that those who know me, even slightly, know that I’m not the kind of a man to leave my friends and family in trouble, they can depend on me and that helps—knowing that I am considered reliable really helps my self-esteem.”

004. What are your expectations and plans for your new life in The Ragnatela and/or the future in general? He let out a sigh, expressions doubtful yet the clearly hopeful look couldn’t be missed “I plan on making a new and a better life for myself and my parents, to be honest” he wasn’t being exactly honest but no one needed to know that—atleast not yet “Besides, the entertainment industry is all saturated in the big cities, places like Boston, New York and oh God, especially LA” he shudders  playfully “the market for radio show hosts is pretty saturated as well, so hopefully I’ll be getting more oppurtunities here. Having a dancer’s background I’m pretty sure I’ll do well as a Gym instructor too, I’ll make whatever money I can and start saving up. It’s never too late. Life is Boston was alright but there is just something about this place—it fills me with hope for a better life.” His eyes gleam, ambition and anticipation of the future clear in them.

005. Why have you moved from your previous home to The Ragnatela? His gaze drops, flickering away from the man at the question but he makes himself look right back at him “ As I said, a new and a better life. It just feels right too, this move of mine and eventually I’ll have the parents moving here too. Give them a taste of the fancy life” he chuckles softly, fingers tapping a ring he wore in the other hand.

006. What are your housing preferences? Would you prefer to live alone or with a roommate? “Oh my, I get to choose” he retorts with a playfulness to his mannerisms. He pretends to have grown thoughtful when he was already pretty clear on that “As much as I would love having my own place, I know that might require some time—and increased money to fund the purchase. Hence, I would prefer—at this point in time—to have a roommate for sure. Helps with the whole affordably thing besides I’m more of a people person. Better to have someone around, unless they’re totally annoying then they can just get the hell lost. Sorry, I promise I’m nice. Really, try me” he nodded with a somewhat smug smirk playing upon his lips.

[patriciaselina]

[VNT 60] TO THE TOP!

Komatsu: During the drinking party of the first anime I'd starred in, the one who'd kindly talked to me, who didn't know his right from his left, was Terashima-san. Terashima: Actually, at that time, Hamano-kun was also there. Hamano: Ee, I didn't know that! Terashima: That we'd have ended up in the same unit in the future seems awfully fated, doesn't it.

Voice Newtype 60 interview featuring Terashima Junta, Komatsu Shohei, and Hamano Daiki of the Idolm@ster Side M unit THE Kogadou! This is crossposted onto Wordpress for archiving purposes but the entire interview can also be found under the cut!

Interview: THE Kogadou (Terashima Junta x Komatsu Shohei x Hamano Daiki) THE Male Friendship nurtured by ramen!

THE Kogadou, a unit of physical martial artists. Introducing these three men, passionate rivals from the same generation, into the world of “Idolm@ster Side M”!

What impressions did your roles leave on you?

Terashima: With Takeru, there wasn't any of the hesitation I felt during the roles I'd previously auditioned for, so I got to portray him easily. Personally, from the beginning I was a person who gets tongue-tied easily, not the kind of cheerful, chatty person at all, so the shy parts of ourselves resemble each other. And since he's a former boxer, I tried to get into the mental state of an athlete, from his mindset to the way you'd expect him to move. Hamano: Did you go meditate under a waterfall or something (lol) Terashima-kun does things at his own pace, but he's a guy who's got stuff bottled up inside, like Takeru. Komatsu: During the drinking party of the first anime I'd starred in, the one who'd kindly talked to me, who didn't know his right from his left, was Terashima-san. Terashima: Actually, at that time, Hamano-kun was also there. Hamano: Ee, I didn't know that! Terashima: That we'd have ended up in the same unit in the future seems awfully fated, doesn't it. Komatsu: Ren, the former martial artist, has speech and conduct unbecoming of an idol, I think he lacks common sense, thinks of life as a game, seems to just have a big mouth but also has real strength to him, and I really, personally think he's an honest kid. He's a completely different type of guy from me, but I'm also quite a sore loser myself, so I think that's the part of him I understand. Hamano: Komatsu-kun is a diligent person, so without a doubt he doesn't like losing, does he.  Terashima: I've been wondering why everyone just lets Ren off the hook. But when Komatsu-kun voices him I think isn't that the charm of this brat, perfectly taking on Takeru like this (lol) Komatsu: Ren also has times when he encourages Takeru when he's feeling down, so I also think he's a cute brat sometimes, and there's a lot of mysterious things about him that I want to know about. Hamano: My first impression of Michiru was “Eh? He makes ramen!?” (lol) Terashima: He was a judoka before he became a ramen shop chef, wasn't he. Hamano: I'm harsh on myself, but I've been told that I deal with people kindly [like Michiru does]. He's tolerant, and is the kind of guy one would get hooked on like [they would] his “Otoko Michi Ramen”. Terashima: Hamano-kun's the same age as me and a year older than Komatsu-kun, but you wouldn't think that, because he's the calm one. Hamano: Nope, nope, that's just my voice. Komatsu: Within THE Kogadou, Michiru's always making them large, heavy [meals], so Takeru and Ren let him do whatever he wants. Hamano: You'd pretty much see it from the first time they talk, but Michiru doesn't see it as him being saddled with those two, they're his friends and good rivals so he thinks of them as equals. The team's bonds are strong. Komatsu: I think the fact that they mutually acknowledge each other is an important point about THE Kogadou. Terashima: It's not weird that they became friends; the part where they encourage each other is good. And it ends up in Michiru-san making ramen for them. Hamano: There's an image of “Settle this in one blow! And if you end up being defeated, get along [with the winner].” Terashima: THE Male Camaraderie, isn't it.

Komatsu-san has experience as a stunt man, doesn't he.

Komatsu: In a local show, I'd engaged in battle as a hero role. Terashima: He's the reliable action leader. Komatsu: Eeh. The three of us are leaders in our own ways. Terashima: With [our own] specialties? I'm always smiling, so I wonder if I'm the smile leader. Hamano: All that I can do is at about the amount needed for rugby, yanno. Komatsu: Action, smile, rugby leader... Hamano: That last one has nothing to do with being an idol! Komatsu: Baritone leader, then!

Give us a bit about your unit songs.

Hamano: I wonder how (lol) One song is up-tempo and pitched like rock music, and within the various kinds of tones, the image of three people diligently striving with the music joins in. Terashima: You'd feel their relationship in the lyrics “We're not so soft as to have pity on those fallen brats”. They're aiming for the top together, so they think, “wouldn't we be infallible, then?” Hamano: It reminds you a bit of those nostalgic shounen manga and passionate battle anime series, doesn't it. Terashima: Like a tiger's aura would emerge from behind 'em. As for the second song, it feels like what one might expect from an idol song of yore. Hamano: THE Kogadou's music is somehow nostalgic, isn't it. Komatsu: There's some kind of dialogue-like bargaining, and it colors this with passion. If one were to dance to this while singing it would definitely be cool.

Was there anything you kept in mind while singing DRIVE A LIVE?

Komatsu: Ren is the type who doesn't wait for what the other party would say, so I sung as if he kept finishing his sentences [quickly]. Terashima: For me, more than singing well, I thought it'd be better if I took great care with [portraying] Takeru's stoic, awkward parts. Hamano: With Michiru, it feels as if he's throwing out power with all his might, so he sings earnestly. He's the kind who'd say “let's do this over again!”, trying again no matter how many times, treating [singing] as a sport.

Your unit is under 315 Productions, so what are the “best” moments of everyday life for you?

Terashima: The moment when you and your costars make a toast at a cast party for work. I wanna taste that for THE Kogadou soon! Komatsu: I've just entered this world [of seiyuu], and thanks to SideM, I've had lots of new encounters and I think that's the best part of it.  Hamano: Within SideM, there are members close to me in age, as well as friends I've known for a while, and within this industry, I think [working with] people the same age as you is exciting, and the fact that we're all able to do our best together as part of the same production is the best!

Passionate, aren't we. The three of you, what kinds of things would you want to make?

Komatsu: I want to try hosting a radio show. Hamano: It would be good to call out the other manly guys and make a radio show with a rowdy feel to it. Terashima: I want us to become the kind of unit that even outsiders talk about, like “There's some kind of unit called THE Kogadou or something,” Hamano: As we get to do new things one by one, the potential that one of those might be beneficial to us in the future increases. If we keep on aiming for the highest point, as the days pass, we'll get to reach even higher up. Komatsu: [Ren voice] “You guys, let's go at it together 'til we reach the top!” Hamano: Ooh!!! Komatsu-kun, your face is all red though (lol) Komatsu: I'm still so lost as to if it's alright to call everyone “you guys”...but, if it's during a live, I'll hype everyone up fast! Terashima: I'll also enjoy lives in Takeru's way - I'll lock eyes with you all one after another! Hamano: When we'd get to spar with you, Teacher, forget everything else in the face of Michiru's resilience and have fun with us during our live!

(Left) Hamano Daiki／Born March 30／Hometown: Tokyo／Arts Vision／Known roles are Dante Mogro (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans), Gohonmatsu Masaru (ACTORS), etc.

(Middle) Terashima Junta／Born August 11／Hometown: Nagano／Kenyuu Office／Known roles are Ichijou Shin (KING OF PRISM by PrettyRhythm), Yukimura Hyouga (Inazuma Eleven GO), etc.

(Right) Komatsu Shohei／Born April 14／Hometown: Fukuoka／Ken Productions／Known roles in My Hero Academia, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, etc.

Omake: Talk theme: 60

Komatsu: Every night before I go to sleep, I train for 60 minutes. I can't miss out on at least flexibility and weight training. Terashima: You're way too conscious about that! I can't lose to Komatsu-kun: every night, I eat pudding. I'd like to eat around 60 of 'em! Hamano: If you [Terashima] wanna discipline yourself like Takeru, first off, stop doing that (lol) I think that if I got more than 60 jobs in a month, I'd be happy.

my translation index

If you appreciate my translations, please consider buying me a coffee!

The siren song of “Kogadou photoshoot and joint interview” was way too strong, so I ended up buying the magazine (I am a bad influence to myself) - all text and pictures in here are from my copy of Voice Newtype 60! I ended up translating it to practice reading Japanese but ended up using my phone camera to take pics of kanji so I can zoom in on them more LMAO

I have. Really. REALLY bad eyesight...

Please don't redistribute or otherwise reuse this translation, and/or its attached media (pictures)!

Speaking of pictures - yes! This is the article I get both my current Tumblr and Twitter headers from!

I wanna cry - in Daiki's "And if you get defeated, get along" line, there's the phrase 寝転んで, which is the te form of 寝転ぶ, "nekorobu". Daiki hosts a cat cafe show named "Nekorobi Danshi". Junta has guested in it. I'm,

The second question refers to Shohei's time as part of HIROZ, an action/stunt/idol group that used to do daily hero shows for a local theme park. For this alone, he arguably has the most experience with lives amongst the newer seiyuu.

[Junta voice, Cho Ongakusai 2017] "I'm here for NicoNico [Douga's event], but even in daily living I'm always niconico {grinning}"

Daiki used to play rugby! He's the sporty one of the three (Shohei is plenty athletic but bad with ball games, and Junta is...Junta) and tends to invite the other two out to play games with him.

The first song they refer to ("we're not so soft as to have pity on those fallen brats") is Tsuyoku Totoki Kemono-tachi (Strong, Noble Beasts); the second song (with "dialogue-like bargaining") is Jounetsu (Passionate)...FIGHTER.

The dialogue in question:

Ren (Shohei): I want to be strong, stronger than just about anyone! And I'll only knock you dead...

Michiru(Daiki): Now, now, calm down!

AND THE BEST THING IS THAT MICHIRU'S "Now, now, calm down!" IS ACTUALLY THE HIGHEST KEY HE SINGS.

Their characters' company name is a pun - in Japanese you can pronounce 315 as "sa-i-kou", "the best", hence that question "what are the 'best' moments"

The specific word Junta uses for "cast party" can either be used for a party before the start or after the end of a project. I am assuming he means 'after Kogadou release event is done', but he could also mean 'before Kogadou's major debut'.

Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy - this magazine was originally released June 2016. Come January 2017, the three of them co-hosted 315Pro Night, Side M's radio show, for the first quarter of 2017. Junta's cohosted radio before, this is Daiki's second radio as co-host (the first one being Voyage Wave), and also Shohei's first time co-hosting a radio show.

"You guys" doesn't have the same pizzazz as Ren's "omaera!!" but we'll have to make do...

"I'll lock eyes with you all one after another" - Per the in-game manga, some fans in-story have noticed that Takeru tends to look everyone in the audience straight in the eyes - he became an idol in the hopes of being found by his siblings, and thus always looks for them in a crowd.

What I translated in Daiki's last line from the main interview as "Teacher" is 師匠 ("Shishou"), a respectful term for a martial arts teacher, usually, more specifically, a judo teacher! Not surprising, considering Michiru's judo background. Michiru only refers to the player's producer character with this, and Daiki follows suit, only ever referring to Side M fans as 師匠 as well.

If you've noticed something with their cast profiles at the very end - yes, Ren is actually Shohei's first named character role, hence why his bit, at the time the interview was printed, only has series titles listed. (Shh I am not emo)

Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!

[nexusradiodance]

Hollywood Jade and Canada’s Drag Race: You Either Rise to the Occasion…or You in Danger Girl!

Ahead of this week’s Canada’s Drag Race finale, we caught up with Hollywood Jade to get the tea on his experience choreographing this season’s queens, his creative process, and the Drag Race dance sequence that made his jaw drop.

Canada Drag Race’s Hollywood Jade

Hollywood Jade is a dancer turned choreographer with a knack for production and direction for both theater and video. Having worked in the entertainment industry for over 10 years, Hollywood has been featured as a dancer, actor, tv personality and host, and reality show judge. Some of Hollywood’s most notable clients as a choreographer include Snoop Dogg, The Dream, and Divine Brown, and he has appeared as a dancer in music videos for artists like Jully Black, Hillary Duff, and Kelis. In 2011, Hollywood produced his first full-length show called “Hollywood Presents Urbanesque.”

Hollywood’s creative passions are evident when you talk to him about his work. On the dream artist sequence he’d love to create for Drag Race, Hollywood said:

“Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, or Jully Black. I am very familiar with these women’s music catalogue (live & recorded) and I would be able to breathe some fresh light into a Drag presentation of their work.”

When we asked what has surprised him most about working with the queens this season, he laughed:

“Nothing!! Hahahahaha!! I started working with Drag queens early on in my dance career (I may or may not have even done drag myself once or twice and won a pageant or two), so I understand the challenges that they face with not only retaining the choreography but also showing up and performing it, with all the tucking, tapping, syncing, gluing and not to mention the wigs........ it’s a lot harder than any of them make it look. The most surprising thing about working with the queens on Canada's Drag Race, for the few that I was familiar with, was seeing how the environment changed even the way that they learned. Drag Race is no joke y'all!!!!”

Canada Drag Race’s Priyanka

Canada Drag Race’s Tynomi Banks

Hollywood also spoke about his creative process, and the narrative components of choreography and dance, saying:

“It all starts with the music!!!! I am a lover of a good narrative and that’s why I love Drag Race so much. The songs always have great speaking points which makes them easy to create from, and it always goes back to finding common ground with each performer. In the "Not Sorry Aboot It" challenge, each girl had a verse, that’s 10 verses, each with its own narrative and point of view, giving Tynomi Banks what I designed for Priyanka would have made no sense in context, so it all starts with the music and I let it be the leading force…I am a firm believer that as a Choreographer/artistic director that it is my job to enhance what is presented to me, take what natural abilities people have, and highlight and showcase that. There isn’t a secret per se, its more about having a vision when you enter, but being able to adjust that so it is reliable to each performer… and in true drag form, you either rise to the occasion or you in danger girl!!!”

Canada Drag Race Queens: Back Row, BOA, Jimbo, Rita Baga, Kyne, Priyanka, and Tynomi Banks Front Row: Iilona Verley, Scarlett BoBo, Kiara and Lemon

In wrapping things up, Hollywood left us with his best advice for up-and-coming queens:

“Hone your skillset and honor your craft!!!!! Though Drag has become a universal phenomenon, it is still an individual sport. You have got to know who you are at your core and stand firm in that. Do your homework - Study the art form, know who has paved the way for you and give respect, some queens have been working longer than most young queens have been alive and we must give those of them who are still here their dues.”

Catch the finale of Canada’s Drag Race this Thursday, September 3! US viewers can stream the finale on WOW Presents Plus or on Mondays on LogoTV.

from Dance Music – Nexus Radio https://ift.tt/31PBybZ

[bountyofbeads]

Fox News has no comment on its venomous rhetoric

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/12/fox-news-has-no-comment-its-venomous-rhetoric/

Fox News has no comment on its venomous rhetoric

By Erik Wemple | Published August 12 at 6:16 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 12, 2019 7:59 PM ET ¦

In his 2,300-word manifesto, the gunman who killed 22 people in El Paso earlier this month laid out his views on many topics including the environment, corporations, economics, automation and, most forcefully, the “invaders” who arrive in the United States from other countries. Speaking of Democrats, he wrote, “They intend to use open borders, free healthcare for illegals, citizenship and more to enact a political coup by importing and then legalizing millions of new voters.”

Compare those thoughts to what Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on air on May 17. In a standard anti-immigration riff, Carlson laid out what he saw as the partisan dimensions of the topic:

The left has aligned with business interests that profit from cheap, obedient workers. Low-skilled immigrants have a harder time assimilating into the American mainstream. They stay poor. They learn English more slowly. They’re more likely to remain an ethnic underclass, all of which makes them much more likely to vote Democratic long term. That’s the point, obviously.

Skilled immigrants might assimilate and become less reliable Democratic voters. They might even compete with the children of our ruling class. That’s not allowed. It’s safer to import serfs, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. Don’t let them tell you it’s about civil rights. It’s not; it’s about their convenience and their power.

SEE THE OVERLAP?

Many passages of the shooter’s manifesto, titled “The Inconvenient Truth," read like poorly articulated versions of a Carlson rant. Importing voters? Check. The ills of corporate America? Check. Unwise foreign wars? Check.

In an analysis published on Sunday, the New York Times cross-checked portions of the manifesto with the rhetoric broadcast on conservative media, including Fox News. It found a “shared vocabulary of intolerance that stokes fears centered on immigrants of color. The programs, on television and radio, reach an audience of millions.” Whereas the Texas gunman — who has confessed to killing 22 people at a Walmart — wrote of the “great replacement” of U.S. citizens by immigrants, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” pumped that theme on repeated occasions; whereas the Texas gunman wrote of an immigration “flood,” similar language was common on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show; and whereas the gunman spoke of “invaders," more than 300 Fox News programs across the network lineup in the past year have referenced an immigration “invasion,” according to the Times.

Do the findings draw a causal line between certain media organizations and the El Paso shooter? No. The man’s influences remain shrouded, though he did include this note in the manifesto: “My ideology has not changed for several years. My opinions on automation, immigration and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I putting this here because certain people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack.”

All that said, it’s hard to avoid Fox News’s influence on immigration or any other contemporary controversy, especially for those inclined to seek out conservative news on the Internet. The influence is malign, too. Yochai Benkler, a scholar affiliated with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, has studied the network’s ability to seed its ideas across the web. He told The Post last year:

Our data repeatedly show Fox as the transmission vector of widespread conspiracy theories. The original Seth Rich conspiracy did not take off when initially propagated in July 2016 by fringe and pro-Russia sites, but only a year later, as Fox News revived it when James Comey was fired. The Clinton pedophilia libel that resulted in Pizzagate was started by a Fox online report, repeated across the Fox TV schedule, and provided the prime source of validation across the right-wing media ecosystem.

In 2017 Fox repeatedly attacked the national security establishment and law enforcement whenever the Trump-Russia investigation heated up. Each attack involved significant online activity, but the spikes in attention and transition moments are associated with Hannity, “Fox & Friends” and others like Tucker Carlson or Lou Dobbs.

Which is to say, it is difficult to avoid the influence of Fox News. The Carlsons and the Ingrahams and the Hannitys — they’re the people who coin the language and forge the tone of the country’s immigration debate. If they say there’s an invasion, there must be an invasion. If they say there’s a replacement conspiracy afoot, well, believe it!

The rhetoric was dangerous before the emergence of the El Paso shooter’s manifesto; it will be dangerous once the document fades into the abyss of mass-shooter history. Consider that Carlson last December said that immigration makes the country “dirtier”; that Mexico is trying to change U.S. demographics; and that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was “living proof” of U.S. immigration failures. When Carlson unleashed his monologue on Omar, he teetered between policy critique and call for action:

Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately.

Maybe that’s our fault for asking too little of our immigrants. We aren’t self-confident enough to make them assimilate so they never feel fully American. Or maybe the problem is deeper than that. Maybe we’re importing people from places whose values are simply in antithetical to ours. Who knows what the problem is, but there is a problem and whatever the cause, this cannot continue. It’s not sustainable.

So Fox News provides the hatred of immigrants; what viewers may choose to do with that hatred is up to them. Some may ignore it; others may vote only for politicians with hard-line stances on the topic; others may denounce immigrants at social functions or shout them down in person. Could yet others grind it into violent ideations?

Whatever the perils, Fox News isn’t talking about them. It had no comment for the New York Times. A follow-up from the Erik Wemple Blog fetched nothing. The same nonresponse greeted this blog’s inquiries about Cesar Sayoc, the confessed domestic terrorist — he mailed improvised explosive devices to prominent Democrats and CNN; they didn’t detonate — whose lawyers claimed in a court filing that he was radicalized in part by Fox News.

It’s gut-check time for Fox News, in other words. The work of its opinion-side hosts in siding with Trump’s racist, anti-immigration agenda is creating fresh exposure for the network, with clear warning signals on the public record. As Peter Maass wrote in the Intercept after Carlson’s attacks on Omar, the outrages are rightly laid at the door not only of the Fox News hosts but more appropriately the Murdoch family, whose trust owns 39 percent of Fox Corp.

How comfortable are the Murdochs with the echoes between a killer’s manifesto and their network’s bread and butter?