leqclerc · 2 years ago
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Wait, what happened? What did they do now? Ferrari, I mean
Basically, a new Charles interview dropped where he talks about the failed title bid and how the team still has a ways to go to improve and perform better.
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Something that's stuck out to people, though, is the bit where he admits the mechanics/engineers didn't always give him what he needed out of the car (he doesn't go into details though) and he candidly reiterates he prefers an oversteery car to an understeery car, which is no secret.
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Laurent and even Carlos himself admitted that the team's been modifying the car to better suit his preferences and driving style to help him get more performance out of it. The car started out being more attuned to Charles's driving style (and as such being quick and competitive against RB) and the more they tried to tailor it to Carlos, the more the package started falling apart, Charles started struggling with balance, set-up, etc. and the performance started dropping off.
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Meanwhile, the team seems to have thrown Charles a belated birthday party in Austin. Afaik he's never really had his birthday celebrated in the paddock because it tends to fall on non-race weekends, and, like, that's fine. But now there's a cake and singing and it's all on social media, with fans taking the credit for "bullying" the team into doing it... Which is great, nice cake, whatever, but it's kind of frustrating that they're busy playing found family and doing all these performative acts of support because it looks good on social media and gets them positive engagement, but then when it comes to more serious matters like preferential strategies or listening to Charles's feedback in setting up or upgrading the car, they're shutting all that down. Idk, it's just hard to constantly hear how they rate him and support him and love him but then in practice it's so hit or miss. I don't get it. Like this isn't exactly filling me with confidence that they'll try and do better by him next year, you know? But hey here's a cutesy video to smooth things over<3
If they put an ounce of the social media/PR energy into planning strategies they'd be so powerful, alas 🤧 Why can't they do both well? What's stopping them from showing everyone Charles is their team leader and their championship hope instead of just endlessly talking about it?
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coraofwales · 5 years ago
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Meghan the narcissist gets her day in court, but she’s too blind to see she’s already lost
Camilla Long
Sunday April 26 2020, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
The trial of the decade kicked off on Friday morning, with much excited fiddling online — a pre-trial hearing conducted, “trickily”, on Microsoft Teams. In one window, the duchess’s little Italian waiter QC appeared, with a plume of glossy turkey hair. In another, there was the silent, clipped, gravedigger QC for the defence, representing The Mail on Sunday and its case for printing Thomas Markle’s letter. Both were in rooms that had been blurred out, while the purring judge — a man not unlike Alan Rickman — sat in a normal Harry Potter panelled courtroom.
Along with 80 or so other journalists, I watched the whole thing from start to finish. It felt vast and important, like Leveson part two. At one point, it looked less like a trial of the matter at hand and more like a trial of the press in general. If Prince Harry has his way, it will be a monstrous, all-consuming, neverending rapture: a terrible reckoning, a Book of Revelation for the people he hates. For Meghan it will involve an end-times level of self-promotion and publicity. Guess what? She will take the stand. It is their dream circus.
Be in no doubt: this is a circus. It seemed astonishing to me that these skilled and pre-eminent men, with 100 years of experience between them, should waste any time discussing a story of such effervescing Marie Antoinettish frippery and thin-skinned triviality. There was talk of “post-Naomi Campbell jurisprudence” and a comic moment when they stopped to consider whether Meghan’s “favourite snack”, avocados, fuelled “human rights abuses, drought and murder”. That was before we got to the 75 pages of articles that had displeased the couple. First impression: neither the duchess nor Harry can take criticism.
Harry and Meghan in early March, carrying out their last function as royals. The duke may regret leaving that life behind.
Second impression: for someone who doesn’t like to talk about her private life, the duchess sure does want to talk about it. Before this trial, we knew little about her relationship with her grim Honey Bear father; now there’s little we don’t. The hearing made reference to a whole 33 further pages of mostly personal content she made available 10 days ago, including texts to her father from Meghan and Harry before their wedding.
The messages add absolutely nothing. In one, she appears concerned for her father’s “health and safety”. In another, she seems most interested in getting “security” to the hospital where he’s just had heart surgery, presumably to stop him talking to the press. So why release them? Perhaps to provide a mirage of openness, give the impression she’s happy to lay it all out when she isn’t. If anything, the couple come across as unhealthily obsessed with the press and their own image.
But then, the duchess is someone who thinks she can win at anything; be the centre of all attention; have the moral upper hand in any dispute. Her own ego blinds her; it even blinds the people working for her, like her poor QC struggling to keep up with the vastness of her pompous submissions. I am no fan of the royal family, and in many ways I’d hoped she would expose them as the pale, stale charisma vacuums they are, but at least they have the humility to know when to stop, instead of throwing themselves into this extraordinary trial and its ramifications — the hundreds of pages of overshare, plus the added negative publicity that will never end.
Who wins is irrelevant — in many ways she has already lost. There will be a day’s headlines if she prevails after two, three, even four weeks of lashing stories about her destructive ambition and unedifying obsession with her image. Meanwhile she is reducing the pair of them to supermarket magazine fodder, telling Harry he’s getting better, when he is in fact getting worse. She will brush the whole trial aside as yet another injustice, whatever happens: “See what they made me do,” she will say, by way of explaining the roomfuls of dirty linen about to be laundered. It’s as mad as a box of prancing kippers.
By the end of it, Harry will secretly wish to go back to the relative anonymity of being a royal, living in peace at Frogmore, able to fully disappear once he’s clocked out of the day’s work, just like a normal person would. Royals are the most anonymous celebs in the world — Prince William, for example, lives in obscurity. We don’t know where he buys his clothes, gets his food, even where he goes on holiday. He had a whole job and none of us knew anything about it. As he appeared outside his house on Thursday to clap the NHS, I realised I didn’t even know whether he would like his own front door. All those riches, and all that power and no effort — it is the dream, and Harry is probably already missing it.
What not to bare — your boyfriend’s bum on camera It appears we’ve reached the “accidental bum” stage of lockdown. On Thursday the ad guru Charles Saatchi appeared naked behind his girlfriend, Trinny Woodall, as she livestreamed beauty tips on serums.
“I’m unsure if she knew he was in camera shot,” squeaked one viewer, Tracy Baker, because the television presenter had a £400 LED light mask on “so I didn’t see if she was embarrassed or not.”
Come on, Tracy, do you really think you’d be able to tell even if Trinny “Botox” Woodall’s magnificently frozen features had been revealed to the world?
It is testimony to the great woman’s sheer obduracy that you’re never able to tell what her face is saying — but my guess is she’s delighted, already planning the next “accidental” ratings hit.
As for Saatchi, he’ll be gutted after a lifetime dedicated to looking cool.
Fashionable potshots at Posh are way below the belt And so begin the great corona culture wars, in which rich people are shown as heartless, ruthless and greedy, and the rest of us are being mercilessly fleeced. Last week, fashion’s premier gloves clown, Victoria Beckham, was criticised for using the government furlough scheme to prevent her fashion label from collapsing. It was a shameless attempt to bolster her “profits”, screamed the internet, for her vapid vanity fashion label.
I hesitate to defend the grasping Beckhams and I’m no fan of the entitled mean girl that is another fashion designer, Stella McCartney, who came in for the same criticism.
But doesn’t a small misogyny underlie all this — the idea that fashion doesn’t somehow deserve proper treatment? The idea that women’s clothes are unimportant and it doesn’t matter if these labels fail?
If Beckham were manufacturing vuvuzelas or footballs, I doubt there would be this level of vitriol and attack. She can’t use her own “profits” to support the brand anyway — she doesn’t have any. The whole thing’s effectively a charitable enterprise, supported by David Beckham.
@the-best-soap-opera-ever here is the whole thing
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I was tagged by @vildeliens thank you Queen (of clowns and headcanoons) ❤️
Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions, don’t cheat. Tag 10 (or however many) people.  
Oz
Skam France
The Walking Dead
Doctor Who
Torchwood
1. Who is your favourite character in 2? Well that one is easy as hell. Lucas Lallemant, without the shadow of a doubt. I just adore that boy... I really do believe that he’s the most developed character of the whole skam universe. Also, i relate to him so so much, being parisian and 17 and queer and just, globally similar. And that Acting (TM) sure helps (will i ever be over axel’s acting? I dont think so)... I am gonna stop before i write essays (you all think this is a joke but i actually write random stuff about Lucas when i get bored in class, thats how bad it is). I just really love this boy folks...
2. Who is your least favourite character in 1? Well that’s an easy one too. Vernon Schillinger, because he is a neonazi, which is enough. And he is just plain BAD (rapist, murderer, coward, blackmailer... you name it)... And it’s not even a love hate situation, i despise the guy so  much, he makes me wanna crawl off my skin whenever he is on screen. Also i think he’s quite one dimensional which is very weird for that show but yeah. He is The Bad Guy.
3. What is your favourite episode of 4? Well that’s a harder one lmao, because you know, the show has been going on since 1963, which means i have many many favourites... Imma go only with reboot, cause thats the one i know better and i have to say it’s the one i enjoy the most. I think my all time fave is the two parts one, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, because those are just so perfect in every aspect imo. But i also love love love the library arc from season 4 (i think lmao) because KUDOS FOR MAKING US INSENSITIVE ABOUT A CHARACTER’S DEATH ONLY FOT IT TO KILL US LATER (and overall the episodes are so so good). Also, because i’m a hoe for big dramatic moments, the episodes with the Master (end of s3 and end of s4 mainly, i dont really like Missy) and the two parts The Stolen Earth/Journey’s end (i remember being so hyped by all of them squading up). Also, it’s not an episode but it deserves its place there: the entire season 6. Because Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Alex Kingston and Arthur Darvill are just so good. I didnt really enjoy seasons 8 to 10 (even tho i adore Peter Capaldi), but season 7 also has some that i loved (Angels in Manhattan and The Name of the Doctor killed me). And the 50th anniversary. I MEAN THIS IS COMPLICATE I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH IT HAS SO MANY GOOD EPISODES (and it’s the first show i got obsessed with so theres that)
4. What is your favourite season of 5? I think i’ll go with season 2 (?), because i love the og squad and they were all in it in s2, and i think the arcs were done really well (and the last episode, haha, me dead)... S3 and 4 i enjoyed less cause i think the teams didn’t really work without Tosh, Owen and Ianto... I couldn’t really find that magic again (and yes i’m still bitter). 
5. Who is your favourite couple in 3? It’s hard to find ALIVE people to form couples with lmao so i’ll go with one that is in kinda stand-by... it’s complicate...  Rick and Michonne cause i loved how they were best friends first and how their whole story was built... It made a lot of sense to me. Also i love the show less nowadays but i think those are still strong characters (minus Rick now lol)
6. Who is your favourite couple in 2? I had to snort. I know, it’s going to surprise you all, but it’s Manon and Charles OF COURSE. Kidding (pls. break. them. up). It’s Eliott and Lucas (how many of you all are surprised) because. Do i need to explain. Just. Everything. I can’t even put it into words. they’re just a perfect match and so in tune and so in love and i should stop now but i won’t so i’m sorry. I love how they complete each other and understand each other, and i loved how Lucas made Eliott’s dream real (polaris), and i love how they arent perfect yet they learn with each other and they make each other better . I love how cute they look and how in love and how raw. I love the way Lucas’ voice softens when he talks to eliott, and the way eliott’s eyes are so full of wonder. Also the way they fight sometimes but always come back to each other and love stronger. And their ship names literally means “chosen one”, how could I not ship? LISTEN THEY JUST FIT OKAY AND I WONT TAKE ANY CRITICISM
7. What is your favourite episode of 1? oh god i don’t remember them all at all lmao but imma try to come up with one (not 22838 like i normally do). So i’d say 4x11 (revenge is sweet)?? but honestly the show is so continuous that its hard to choose one ep... id say s4 is my favourite hands down though
8. What is your favourite episode of 5? YES THAT I CAN!! it’s from season 1, even though i love s2 better overall, Countrycide. I loved everything about that ep, and it still sends shivers down my spine when i think about it. I particularly enjoyed how it depicted the team’s relationships and how it showed that monsters can be amongst mankind (which, we been knew, but still. it was very well done for a show that fights aliens to fight humans)
9. What is your favourite season of 2? Another easy one! Season 3, as my entire blog can attest. It’s just. A masterpiece. That’s it that’s the post.
10. How long have you watched 1? I bingewatched it in like two months (cause i had to take breaks because school) in 2016. It’s a show that ended around 2000 so it’s not like i HAD to wait, and the episodes aren’t really stand alone so i had to watch them in a row.
11. How did you become interested in 3? I started watching with my dad because he is a cinephile that shows me loads of movies and tv series, then showed it to my mom. And now my dad stopped watching so i watch it with my mom exclusively even though i dont enjoy as much as i used to (still love it though). 
12. Who is your favourite actor in 4? Matt Smith (even though i adored Eccleston, and couldn’t appreciate Tennant’s AMAZINGNESS cause i was too sad to see 9 go aoimjdk). But Matt Smith is the funniest, most Doctor-ish one imo.
13. Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? This is gonna sound like a betrayal to shows i’ve watched for so many years but Skam France, hands down. (i’m obsessed okay)
14. Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? 3 because it has more eps and i’m caught up with both, so logically its 3.
15. If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? Umh i think i’m kinda similar to Clara in some ways (?). Maybe. Like in the way we’re both hopeless romantic in search of an adventurous life. Plus, she is a lgbt+ icon and you can’t convince me otherwise so there’s that. i mean i think i globally identify with companions cause i wanna be them so bad lmao (imagine how cool it would be for my nerdy self ugh). But i look like a Sontaran so. Mayhaps i’d be one of those instead
16. Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? umh that’d be funny as hell. The Doctor just jumping in a zombie apocalypse. Though i think they’d find a way to stop the apocalypse, so the second show would be annihilated by the first one. Mmh. Interesting still, up for it (i’m up for anything tbh)
17. Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? That’s the hardest one i had to answer GOD. I’d go with the crack ship, Ryan O’Reilly and Miguel Alvarez, tho they would both kill me and then burn my body if they ever saw this
18. Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? Weeeelll i think The Walking Dead used to have an amazing storyline (the Governor’s arc was spectacular), but now i’d go with Torchwood cause sometimes (a lot of times), shows that don’t try to make it last for ages tie everything better. And Torchwood did tie things well enough imo (even tho i’m forever sad and bitter)
19. Which has the better theme music, 2 or 4? I don’ think Skam France has a theme music?? more like soundtracks (amazing ones)??? But i mean even if it did Doctor Who would still win cause the themes are fantastic (yes i went there)
This was so fun guys so imma tag @evnisak, @isak-valterssen, @jebentnietalleen, @demauryy, @srodvlv, @takaoparadise, @starcassstic, @thebananaslug, @sleepingthroughmyproblems, @akalousthings and anyone else i forgot, or anyone wanting to do this really
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junker-town · 3 years ago
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Kwame Brown is blasting everyone in sight for joking about his NBA career
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What is even happening here?
It’s totally understandable if you’d moved the name “Kwame Brown” to the archival part of your memory along with your college address, the zip code of your parents’ house, or the old door code of a building you long since moved from. I had as well, until this week, and I promise you that you’re not ready for what’s going on.
Brown, now 39-years-old and almost a decade removed from playing in the NBA, is back in the headlines again after a beef started from a podcast. It’s led to people unpacking Brown’s online life, which is full of old stories and conspiracy theories.
It all kicked off because of a podcast.
The “All The Smoke” podcast is a long-running show hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. Last week Gilbert Arenas was on the show on as a guest, and he began sharing stories from his time as the star of the Wizards in the early 2000s.
Brown’s name came up during a section discussing how Arenas helped turn the woeful early ‘00s Wizards into a contender. Now, to be fair, Arenas began by seeming extremely sympathetic to Brown’s entry into the NBA, highlighting how difficult it was to be entering the league as a teenager, being drafted by Michael Jordan who had unrealistic demands of Brown as a rookie, even bullying him in front of teammates, and pointing out that Brown had the tools to be great, even comparing him to Anthony Davis — but circumstance got in the way.
However, in making his point, Arenas used two phrases that served as a flash point for this beef. He called Brown a “man child,” as well as a “show pony.” Two terms that were innocuous enough considering the conversation, but seemed extremely disrespectful considering the conversation launched off with Stephen Jackson clowning on Brown, mockingly saying he was “the best No. 1 pick of all time,” then immediately laughing at his own statement.
Then Brown responded ...
A few days later Brown listened to the podcast, and he exploded. Taking to his Instagram account to drop a tirade aimed not only at Arenas, but Jackson too. The two minute clip was full of insults hurled at the two, but also a promise: That he would take the time to set the record straight.
Brown did just that on YouTube, and the world was not ready. Much of his ire wasn’t directed at Arenas, but rather Jackson — who seemed to be poking fun at him the most on the podcast. The video, which was over an hour, unloaded.
“It’s okay to have an opinion, but it’s another thing to do what you guys are doing and then be in my face. Stephen Jackson — we was teammates and I seen you crying every time Charles Oakley ‘bout to slap the s*** out you, so I know you.”
He went on to call Jackson an embarrassment, and said that he “quit on the team” when Jackson and Brown were playing together in Charlotte. Brown also took exception to Arenas, not so much the direct phrases he used this time, but rather the softness of tone, and acting like he defended Brown when they were teammates on the Wizards.
“[Gilbert] he’s a little boy on the inside. He ain’t no man. He was at a draft camp, he was in our pre-draft camp and they asked him “What are your goals after basketball?” and he said “I wanna be a motherf***** pimp.” This boy had a child’s mind. So that’s why the guns, and all the dumb s***. He’d been doing dumb s*** the entire time.”
Brown also went in on Barnes for goading Jackson into talking trash using some pretty off-color racial remarks about him “not being black enough to hang with the black folks, but too dark to kick it with the whites.”
Whether or not the trio from the podcast deserved the response from Brown, he took offense at them talking about him at all, and had enough.
Brown’s history with the NBA is complicated
Perhaps the most interesting footnote of Brown’s response came early, when he rejected the widely-held assertion that he was drafted to be the face of the Wizards, and move the team on from the Michael Jordan era. On the contrary, Brown asserts that Washington had a trade in place on draft night to trade Brown to the Chicago Bulls for Elton Brand.
At the time Brand was becoming a true superstar. A double-double forward averaging over 20 points, but woefully unhappy in Chicago. Brown says that Brand was viewed by Jordan as the missing piece in No. 23 getting one final playoff run, but the deal was nixed at the last second by then-owner Abe Pollin, who was concerned the team was making too many trades, and was reluctant to send away Kwame Brown. The Bulls would later go on to trade Brand to the Los Angeles Clippers for No. 2 overall pick Tyson Chandler.
This revelation, if true, casts Brown’s arrival in Washington in a very different light. Instead of simply not living up to Jordan’s impossible expectations of becoming the face of the franchise, Brown was a scapegoat for the legend’s frustrations with the organization.
Over the years there have been claims, and counter claims about Jordan’s actions towards Brown. Some ex-Wizards players say that nothing happened between the two other than Brown being unable to live up to Jordan’s goals for the young player. Others detail ridicule and humiliation bordering on abuse, with Jordan routinely inviting players over to his house only to mock Brown in front of his team, break down his confidence, and even use homophobic slurs to berate Brown.
Whatever the result, there remain people on both sides of the fence who believe Brown just never had it, and those who think he had the potential to be a transcendent player, but was destroyed by Jordan’s actions.
To his credit, Brown went on to have a long NBA career. Whether it was a case of his youth, or just team, after team thinking they could finally unlock the potential he flashed in high school, Brown would go on to play 12 years in the NBA for various teams, often serving as a rotational center.
Brown is living his life, but it’s a little odd
Through all this we learned a lot more about Kwame Brown. At 39-years-old he’s taken his NBA money, channeled it into various businesses, and seems to be doing well for himself. Really, retiring in your early 30s a multi-millionaire is the American Dream, and aside from constantly being made fun of for being a NBA Draft bust, in general Brown seems happy.
That said, this whole fiasco took people deep down the rabbit hole of Brown’s YouTube channel.
Before the 2020 election he defended Donald Trump, saying black people were “brainwashed,” while admitting he’d never met the then-President.
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He made his own toilet paper out of t-shirts.
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He went on a near two hour rant about his perceptions of media propaganda.
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And said the Black Lives Matter movement was “playing the race card” in a drawn out video in which he also defended police, saying that black people were “already on guard when the police come” because of the media.
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The beef is still going
Barnes and Jackson, hosts of the “All The Smoke” podcast have tried to make amends. Jackson released his own video, saying he has “nothing but love” for Brown, while Barnes denies any wrongdoing.
That hasn’t been enough to squash it. Brown is still releasing more YouTube videos, still directed at the players who dissed him, and expanding to media personalities, NBA writers, and anyone who’s discussed this latest situation.
Nobody has any idea when this will all end, but at the very least Brown picked up a few thousand more YouTube subscribers — and maybe that was the goal of this all along.
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