#but still very much jamie in so many of the ways that trevor has Missed him | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fluorescentpipedream · 3 years

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Updated a few of my characters’ pictures last night when I was having an ADHD moment while playing WoW.

So...

Daryl “Mason” Knox - This version of Daryl is part of our Zombie storyline (the premise of which I barely remember) and currently in the mountains above Colorado. He is a survivalist already, tanner, taxidermist and wicked good shot and when the virus began circulating, he packed up his pickup truck and headed as far into the mountains as he could. He had been in Tennessee for a little while but left there when the area started to fall as well, moving around a lot for a while before settling high in the mountains where it’s coldest, realizing the undead have a hard time moving through the snow and it seems to make their bodies more brittle. He stumbles upon Ryki and Kristy’s group (shortly after they get Mikael back from the roaming motorcycle gang (see Widower/Simon). Daryl was under the assumption that most of his family had died when the virus first took hold and started using his middle name, Mason, instead of his last name.

Daryl Knox - Daryl is the survivalist of the Knox men, the youngest but the one who has his fingers the most in the various family businesses and also the one who discovers that a good portion of the Knox family land that backs the Blue Ridge Mountain range actually belonged to the Cherokee tribe and gives it back to them, only asking if they can continue to use the land as the hunting area he currently has it set up as. Daryl and his brothers also took a portion of the money made from the Knox Lodge (a small series of cabins built closest to the Chattahoochee National Park people can rent and go fishing and hunting for deer, quail and even armadillos) and give it back to the slave families that their great great grandfather had working for them. Daryl is quieter than the rest of his brothers, sticking to living away from nearly everyone and only coming down from the mountains when he is dropping off supplies at the Knox Family General Store in Jasper, Georgia where the family is primarily from. The general store is very rustic looking, with the old fashioned candy jars behind the counter and a small restaurant in the back where the family sells their homemade pies. (They also sell locally made and sourced jellies and jams, as well as jerky and unique gifts. Think trading post for the interior) A skilled taxidermist, Daryl has a special he runs through the Lodge that if you shoot it, he’ll stuff it (for a fee of course).

Schyler Lewis - A former Scorpion and currently a Slayer in Los Angeles, Schyler is quiet but loving and loyal. He’s also one hell of a shot with pretty much anything, though he prefers knives over everything. He has a deep respect for RJ Jamison, as well as the former leader, BP and keeps a protective/big brother kind of watch on Queenie. He and Simon are pretty good friends, he often tries to keep an eye on the older man to keep him from going crazy.

Trevor Phillips (nothing changed, just both versions of him are going to use the same picture)

Simon Knox - Simon is the middle Knox brother, only a few years older than Daryl though he’s not particularly close to most of his family anymore. He and Jericho had once been vying for the same girl’s attention, but when he was sent to prison for a bar fight/blackout he missed the chance to be with her, even though he does very much still love her. When Simon was released from prison, Jericho gave him the chance to come home and get back on his feet again (the courts and mental health professionals released him on account of him having absolutely no memory of the bar fight other than some kid pushing him too hard and spitting on him. His anger flared up and he didn’t remember anything that had happened after that point. It wasn’t until an officer hit him on the back of the head did he come around again) and while he’s there, he and Maggie ended up in bed together after he told her what had happened. He had a ring and had been going out with a few friends the night before coming to see her. He is actually Ryder’s father, and Jericho does know. Following Ryder’s first outburst and slamming his head into the wall, tearing a stuffed animal and general unprovoked rage, Jericho had come to bed with a few scratches on his arms and gently kissed Maggie’s forehead, not coming right out and saying anything about the possibility but just telling her that whatever thing that’s weighing on her heart right now, it’s okay and he forgives her. (Ryder has similar violent outbursts like his father, though recognizing it as was what going on with Simon, Jericho instead got his son therapy to deal with the outbursts as well as getting him involved in boxing.)

Following Ryder’s birth (and Simon getting to hold his son), Simon leaves and joins the Outlaw motorcycle gang though moves around a lot after that, winding up “settling” with Haven for a while before finally establishing a place with the Scorpions. He made quick friends with Schyler, despite a several year age gap, and when the Scorpions were assimilated into the Slayers in LA, he stayed on with them. He is prone to blackouts and violent outbursts and unfortunately does not possess much in the way of empathy toward nearly anyone. He does very much like children, and wouldn’t mind finally getting to have a family of his own. He is pansexual and it doesn’t seem to matter to him who he’s with, as long as they’re over a certain age. He’s not overly thrilled with the relationship RJ has with Jamie but she’s safe and not in any danger so he doesn’t say much about it either way. He and Floki of the Vikings have rolled around a few times, but generally speaking he is still very much in love with Maggie. Part of the reason he stays away from his family is because of how Jericho has been treating his “dying” wife. (Jericho is having an affair with a younger nurse/friend of his daughter Lorelei, while his wife is presumed to be dying from stage 4 cancer. She does make a rather miraculous recovery though, leaving him and going out to the man who has always loved her)

Simon has some seriously reckless traits and has actually had to be sedated by members of his own gang because his anger will flare up and he goes berserk. He has NO control over his actions whenever he blacks out either. Following BP and his wife’s untimely death, Simon is taken by the Slayers along with several others and thrown into the Pit, basically an abandoned warehouse near the docks that has been hollowed out and made into a fight arena. Because of his anger issues there’s a few that believe he could have been pushed to a breaking point and lashed out, though BP never pushed his buttons and he has no desire to take the gang over. When Rollo and a handful of the Vikings reveal themselves as the masterminds (and hired by Marcone to do the deed), Simon is the one who takes an axe off of Floki’s hip, throwing it into the back of Rollo’s head before kneeling down in front of Queenie and telling her he’s always been loyal to BP and subsequently, to her.

Widower (Simon Knox) - This version of Simon is for our zombie alt world and currently in Tennessee with the Savior gang run by a Negan type. In this world, Simon was able to remarry Maggie and the two of them were living quiet happily, considering starting their family when her cancer makes a return and is incredible aggressive. As the virus starts to spread through Atlanta and they begin seeing how it eats away at the host’s body only to reanimate them, Maggie begs Simon to shoot her so she doesn’t have to suffer through her cancer and the possibility of getting the virus. At first he refuses to do it but after the hospitals shut down due to too many people contracting the virus, he takes her up to one his brother’s hunting cabins and shoots her, burying her in the backyard. He had attempted to shoot himself as well but the gun jammed and he ended up throwing it into the river instead. After Atlanta falls and the zombie virus appears to be spreading through the small towns, taking the Knox family out as far as he can tell. He and Daryl were traveling together for a little while but were separated and Simon lost track of his little brother. Assuming that his family is dead (since there’s no trace of any of them and the communications network was the first thing to go down) he gets on the back of his motorcycle and leaves. He first meets Morgan (Negan) and his group, Haven, when they stumble upon one another trying to refuel and get supplies. Simon is unhinged and no longer even trying to hide his homicidal side, since no one is there to hold him back any longer he’s completely off his rocker. He initially told Morgan and the rest to call him Widower, as he didn’t even want to link himself to the man he used to be. If the virus is ever contained, he isn’t sure there’s going to be much of a world left for him.

Widower, Morgan and I think there’s an NPC version of Schyler with them as well find 5 yr old Mikael after the little boy panicked and ran from his aunt and uncle’s convoy during one of the zombie attacks. Morgan grabbed the boy as he was crying by the back of his jacket and puts him onto his motorcycle leading Kristy and Ryki and their group to give chase to get him back. Morgan had a son once and may have done this in order to protect him, not initially seeing the small group of survivors on the road. Widower takes over kind of protecting the little boy when their group stops at an old warehouse they use as a base.

Morgan Caldwell - I haven’t actually decided if I’m going to make Morgan but he is Sam Caldwell’s older brother and Martin & Lynn’s uncle. He is the leader of the Haven motorcycle gang which moves around a lot and Simon was part of for a while. He is incredibly disappointed in how his little brother acts and very much wants to meet his estranged niece and nephew.

Morgan “Negan” Caldwell - The zombie-verse version of Morgan, I know little about the man other than Widower is his right hand man and fiercely loyal to him. He genuinely seems to be concerned for Mikael and after meeting Kristy and finding out she’s pregnant while going through the virus, he may offer their services to them, as protection (or he may try to keep Kristy with him and his group masking using the air of wanting to protect her until she gives birth) There’s a lot of ways this guy can go. He isn’t particularly trustworthy, and has said one thing only to do the direct opposite of that less than a few minutes later.

Kevin Reynolds - the oldest Reynolds brother and also the only one that’s biological to the Reynolds family. Kevin was 10 when Matt was adopted and 12 when Vartan came to live with them as well. The family typically fosters children, and seeks to give them a better life than the one they had. Kevin is currently in his later 40s, and lives in Chicago where he owns an old-fashioned record store (with actual records on the upstairs level) called Empire Records, or just The Empire by his teen/20-something staff. Kevin is gay and actually just lost his husband Jimmy to AIDS. Jimmy was the drummer for his brothers’ band Silex, and actually younger than Kevin was as well. He is currently having issues with depression following the loss of the only love in his life (up til now, obviously), though he actually has clinical depression as well. He and Matt absolutely cannot stand one another, mostly due to Matt’s homophobia, though Kevin has always been out so he’s not sure exactly where that stems from. He and Vartan are close, despite the 12 year age gap. Empire Records is a somewhat failing business, though is eventually brought under the wing of Revolver Records for its vintage, throwback to the late 80s/90s music scene and often becomes the site of the Revolver bands’ signings, which boosts their sales quite a bit too.

Ryder Knox is getting a new picture, I just need to figure out who he actually looks like, taking his dad into a bit more consideration right now. The Knox men also all have a very distinct smile, so gotta find someone that fits. I’m stuck between these two:

Ryder is 22 years old and lives in an apartment on his own which he pays for by an OnlyFans account. With close to 1000 subscribers, he makes money selling pictures of anything from his feet to being shirtless (sometimes in his underwear) on parts of the Knox farmland. Very gay but not very out about it.

@musesnotebook

#Jeffery Dean Morgan #Zombie storyline #picture updates #norman reedus #steven ogg

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thestray · 4 years

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The 62 2020 Movies Releases I Watched During 2020 Ranked

Like the awkward title says, I’m going to rank (and talk about) all the 2020 movies I watched in 2020. This is not meant as any empirical list of what was best, it’s ranked by what I liked the least to the most, and my main criteria is what kind of impact it had on me and/or how much I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

Little bit about myself, I went to art school for animation, then after art school I went to a community college where I studied screenwriting. Never ended up pursuing either thing professionally, but I still write screenplays in my free time and read screenwriting books and listen to screenwriting podcasts. I'm the type of person that loves special features, seeks out behind the scenes information and director interviews, and watch youtube videos analyzing films. I love film, and thinking about film and talking about film and sharing the films I like, and maybe one day making films of my own, who knows.

Ranking and reviewing 62 movies was a more ambitious and challenging task than I anticipated, I rearranged this list swapping titles back and forth so many times, and then I’d remember a movie I forgot I watched and have to add that and figure out where it ranks. I started this on January 1st and am just now ready to post it on the 17th, I was still switching rankings right up until posting this. Even looking at it now there are some kinda want to switch but I’ve accepted that this is more or less arbitrary, lol.

The more I learn about film and what goes into creating a movie the more lenient I am about them. It’s not like I’m never critical of films, but I try to consider both the good and the bad of a movie instead of thinking in a binary of films are either amazing or trash. Some of these films aren’t great, but I typically still enjoyed them to some degree. Except Mulan, lol. I’m sorry Mulan. Speaking of Mulan...

62. Mulan

I'm going to try to say something nice about all these movies even if I didn't like them at all. So... I like the cast, and there are some nice visual moments. I actually was looking forward to this movie before reviews started coming out, it has 2 of the martial arts G.O.A.T.s in it, Donnie Yen and Jet Li, and also Jason Lee as the bad guy, so I figured it might at the very least have some decent action, but they were all underutilized. There’s not a single moment in the film where I felt anything at all. I think all these Disney live-action remakes are doing is making a case for how effective animation is for storytelling.

61. Color Out of Space

I heard a lot of good things about this movie, and it’s really cool visually, and I love Nicolas Cage always, but I really couldn’t get into it. I guess my main issue is that it starts off already too campy for any of to the Lovecraftian horror to really hit. It felt like a B-movie with great production value, and maybe that’s what they were going for? I really wanted to like this but I really just did not feel invested in anything going on, did not relate to anyone in the family, so I don’t think I got much out of it besides the cool visuals.

60. Bloodshot

I think the main flaw of this movie is that is that Vin Diesel was a producer on it, and Vin Diesel should be kept away from making creative decisions on movies. How Did This Get Made did a great podcast episode on this movie. It’s absolute nonsense, it has a couple of cool sequences and special effects in it, and Lamorne with a British accent is great, he’s the main redeeming value of this movie.

59. The Midnight Sky

It seems like this movie wants to be Interstellar, it’s structured in a very similar way, but it just didn’t quite have that same emotional punch. It looks very good, it’s well-acted, it has it’s moments.

58. The New Mutants

It's not as much of a trainwreck as people make it out to be in my opinion, I think the cast is good and it has some good character interactions, but it mostly suffers from the fact that it's way too predictable, from the beginning you're way ahead of the characters, and it doesn't help that they're in this confined setting so there's not a lot for them to actually do. But I appreciate the attempt at using mutants to do a horror breakfast club thing, good concept.

57. Vampires vs The Bronx

Vampires as a gentrifiers taking over the hood, great idea. Mero is in it, the brand is brolic. It was a fun set up, but it was neither funny enough or scary enough in my opinion. The vampires die so easily it's like okay whatever. It's like a really long Goosebumps episode.

56. Freaky

I don't think the execution lived up to the great concept, but Vince Vaughan was really great in those sincere moments playing a teenage girl. Horror fans will appreciate the gory kills. I'm not going to spoil anything but I do think there are some narrative issues that keep this from being stronger than it could've been. If you made the killer a creepy janitor at the school or even one of the teachers, then I think that would've created more interesting situations.

55. Eurovision

I love Will Ferrell, I even love some of his flops like Casa De Mi Padre and Kicking and Screaming, and even the House I think had a lot of really funny moments. This was definitely one of the least funny movies he's done to me. I think the director David Dobkin couldn't commit to being silly the way Adam McKay can cause there's a lot of this movie that just has no jokes, and the movie is over 2 hours long which isn't normal for comedies so you spend a lot of time watching unfunny scenes and extended musical numbers.

54. The Wrong Missy

I'm not a big fan of most Happy Madison movies, the jokes are very hit or miss for me. I'm a big fan of Lauren Lapkus though so I watched it to support her, and she plays an absolute psycho in this. It's so over the top it's like this character is not a human being, but I have to admit there are a few moments where she made me laugh pretty loud. I'd never watch this movie again, but maybe I'd look up certain parts on youtube.

53. The Platform

High concept dystopian sci-fi horror. Reminds me of the Cube. It's one of those things that makes you think about what you'd do in the same situation. It's a very on the nose allegory, so by the end of it my only takeaway was "Yeah, it really be like that."

52. Archenemy

Another high concept movie. Joe Mangienello is good in it, but Glenn Howerton and Paul Scheer are my favorite parts of the movie, it's fun to see comedy actors play bad guys. My main problem with the movie was that I did not find the teen character to be interesting or relatable at all, in fact he can be kind of obnoxious. In his introductory scene he's REALLY bothering this random guy minding his own business, not respecting his boundaries at all. Then the rest of the movie is about him exploiting a homeless man and being really pushy for likes on some app, and he doesn't really have a character arc. Also wasn't a big fan of the animated sequences but I forgive that knowing this was a low budget movie and those sequences were done by a team of just 3 people.

51. Power

Jamie Foxx is great. I think he makes almost anything he's in watchable to some degree. The idea of this movie is fun but I think the action sequences are kinda underwhelming, but Jamie makes it worth watching in my opinion.

50. Birds of Prey

This movie was all style and absolutely no substance. When your main character doesn't have a solid purpose or goal you're really just watching shit happen, and that can be okay if the shit that's happening is occassionally fun or funny, but it doesn't really make for a memorable story in my opinion.

49. Wonder Woman 84

The most panned movie of 2020 maybe? It's got flaws for sure and some narrative choices I just can't understand why they made. It has some fun performances though and I ultimately appreciated that our superhero wins not by using her fists but by appealing to goodness. I feel like you rarely see that kind of idealism any more. It may not be realistic but I think that's one of the things fantasy is good for, showing us a way things could be better to strive for. But yeah, the Steve Trevor things was fucking weird, why'd they do that? And neither Steve or Diana seem concerned with about this random guy's fate. I'd probably rate this film higher if they had Steve simply appear out of thin air, I mean why not? It's magic. But I loved Kristen Wig and Pedro Pascal in this. Pedro is performing with his whole body, did he film this after season 1 of the Mandolorian? Maybe being under that helmet for a season made him want to be really expressive. The films overall kinda campy but I didn't necessarily mind that.

48. Peninsula

Sequel to the already classic Train to Busan, this film decides the up the scale, which is what sequels often do, but I think it was a mistake in this instance. This is more of an over the top action movie than a character-driven horror film like the first. There's a climactic Mad Max-esque car chase scene that is almost entirely CGI. I don't think it was a bad movie, it's an okay popcorn flick, but it definitely doesn't live up to the original.

47. The Old Guard

In terms of action I don't think it did anything interesting, but I like how they explored how horrific and heartbreaking it would be to be immortal. Coming to terms with your own mortality is a tough thing to do, but we often don't consider the idea that death is a blessing we take for granted.

46. Sputnik

A Russian sci-fi thriller about a young doctor being tasked with trying to figure out how to separate an alien parasite from a Cosmonaut that's returned from earth. Good performances, creepy vibe, and lots of interesting questions about ethics. It has a sort of epilogue ending with a reveal I didn't quite understand the significance to the story, but didn't take away from either. Solid.

45. The Invisible Man

Fun sci-fi thriller about toxic abusive relationships and gaslighting. Elizabeth Moss is great in it and my favorite sequences are before her character actually catches on and you have moments where the camera is just focusing on a random place, very creepy and effective.

44. Sonic the Hedgehog

Personally I would've preferred a fully animated film taking place in Sonic's world. I don't know why they always feel like they need to make these movies about human characters and then spend a lot of time having to hide your CG character and having people do comical reactions to them. It feels very played out to me. BUT Jim Carrey is great in this, of course. Jim Carrey is the reason to watch this movie. He makes the movie. And it goes without saying thank God they changed that character design.

43. 2067

What I liked about this dystopian future is that the cause was basically everything. War, famine, ruining the environment, pandemics, just all our collective fuckery has resulted in a world where the human race is on the verge of extinction, plants are extinct, and oxygen is synthetic. Enter time travel, a young man is tasked with traveling into the future to bring back the solution to saving the human race. Very timely obviously. I liked it.

42. Monsters of Man

Some asshole tech bros let some killer robots loose on a remote southeast asian village as a trial run. It has lots of flaws but I give it some leeway because this is the first film of a guy who wrote, directed and was the cinematographer by himself, he didn't have a huge budget or much experience, so it's hard to expect perfection. My biggest criticism is that the film centers a white guy living in this village and some westerner medics, not the actual Asian people of the village. Could've been so much more of interesting commentary about racism and eurocentrism dropping these robots in a village of brown people no one will miss just for practice. That aside though I think it was a solid enough thriller and the robots looked pretty good.

41. Family Romance LLC

An interesting movie about a Japanese entrepreneur who has a business where he'll play whatever role in your life you need. Father, husband, coworker, etc there's a scene where someone even pays him to be scolded in his place by his boss. The main thrust of the film though is him playing the role of a girl's absentee father, pretends to reconnect with her and take her out on the town for activities. It's shot very documentary style, and there are a mixture of first time actors and non-actors. Sometimes there are long awkward conversations that feel just as awkward as real life. I really liked the premise, and the only thing that keeps it from being higher on my list is it doesn't have a strong enough conflict nor does it really have a satisfying conclusion.

40. Over the Moon

Directorial debut of animation legend Glen Keane, I really liked this visually. It was sufficiently enjoyable, but it doesn't have that emotional gut punch that Pixar or Disney films tend to have. But I guess cartoons don't NEED to make you bawl your eyes out to be good. I think there were some missed opportunities narratively, like I guess this is spoilery so just scroll ahead if you don't want to know, but she gains a step brother that she doesn't like and doesn't want to spend time with, once the adventure starts on the Moon they get separated very early on, and don't ge reunited until towards the end, but she somehow now cares about him and considers him her brother. I didn't feel like that was really earned, they should've been together throughout the adventure getting to know each other. But I otherwise liked the story aside from that nitpick. Loved the colors of this movie, almost everything in the moon world is luminescent which provides some nice visuals. Hope to see Glen direct more in the future.

39. The Croods 2

Nothing revolutionary but it has some solid physical comedy and great voice acting. All of Nicolas Cage's overacting is perfect for animation, and I liked Peter Dinklage as Mr. Betterman as well. There's a lot going on thematically but it all works pretty cohesively.

38. #ALIVE

Another Korean zombie thriller. I really liked this because I felt like as far as zombie outbreaks go this is the most realistic scenario. Once you realize what's going on you will just stay in your house rather than risk going outside and fighting zombies. But that poses the problem of a limited supply of food and water. The main thrust of the movie is not how this character survives though it's about him trying to retain his will to live. It's the perfect pandemic isolation allegory.

37. Love and Monsters

It looked kinda corny but I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I like Dylan O'Brien, I love Tom Holland as Peter Parker but I've always felt like Dylan O'Brien would've been a great choice too, he has a good everyman relatable quality. There's also a dog in the movie that I loved. Put a dog in peril in a movie and I will be on the edge of my seat guaranteed. It's a fun movie with some interesting creatures in it and a solid character arc for our main protagonist.

36. Extraction

I love the trend of stunt coordinators directing films. That's the main reason why the John Wick series is so good, and the reason why this also has some very solid action. Nothing crazy here in terms of story or themes, everything is an excuse for Chris Hemsworth to fuck people up and it delivers on that. There's one scene where he slaps around some kids attacking him that I found hilarious as well. Fully welcoming an Extraction 2.

35. Save Yourselves

A couple decides to take a break from social media and get away to a cabin outside the city. While they're disconnected from the world an alien invasion occurs, furry little basketball sized poofs. This movie was pretty funny. I'm a little ambivalent about the ending but I enjoyed these hipsters arguing about what to do about aliens.

34. Bill and Ted Face the Music

A most bodacious movie. Fun gags and a robot that steals the show. It's not as good as the first 2 but I don't think that's any surprise. I think it borrows a little bit too much from the previous films, like the collecting legendary musicians thing, could've done without that. It was a fun movie though, and the daughters really worked.

33. An American Pickle

Seth Rogen playing an orthodox Jew who's been preserved in pickle juice for 100 years and his modern day app developer grandson. I think this may be Seth Rogen's best acting role, as silly as this movie is he's kind of endearing as this character from 100 years aro, and as the grandson he's a lot more understated than he usually is in movies.

32. Tenet

Tenet! Is it controversial that this is not higher up on the list? I really like Nolan's films, actually been a fan since watching his first film Following in a film class. Nolan likes playing with time in his movies so it was inevitable that he'd do something that addresses it very directly eventually. I love the time travel genre and I think this is one of the most ambitious and unique approaches to it to ever done. I actually braved theaters to see this because I did not want to miss the opportunity to see it on the big screen. I did it as safely as possible and booked a reserved seating theater where I knew I wouldn't be sitting by anyone, had a mask, gloves, antibacterial gell on deck, sanitized my seat with wipes, etc, there only 2 other people in the theater all of us sitting way for from each other. Weirdest moviegoing experience I've ever had but glad I saw it on the big screen because the visual spectacle of this is excellent. The reason it's not higher on the list is because as conceptually cool as it is as I did not feel invested. Just on a story level having a character we know very little about pursuing a goal he knows very little about for no clearly defined reason makes it feel like... we're just watching events unfold as opposed to watching a character-driven story. There's a moment at the end that you can tell was meant to be an emotional moment, but I felt nothing. They try to introduce some emotional stakes with the female character, but idk, since it wasn't tied to the inciting incident it felt more like a b-plot than fundamental to the story. So it was a really fun cool looking puzzle, more like watching a cool Rube Goldberg machine, but not something I really thought much about after it was over.

31. Guns Akimbo

I really have been enjoying Daniel Radcliffe's post-Harry Potter career, he'll do some solid dramas he seems to prefer doing fun weird shit like Swiss Army Man, Horns, his role on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, etc. This is in that vein of fun weird shit, a guy who gets guns bolted to his hands and is running around the city in a robe trying to survive essentially a real life video game. A lot of the movies lower on this list had fun concepts but were lacking in execution, but this is one that is just as fun as the idea sounds, even more fun actually, it's funny, the action is good, and there are some great visuals. I found it all around enjoyable.

30. Let Them All Talk

Glen Close as a celebrated author who invites her nephew and 2 estranged best friends on a cruise with her. It's a very light-hearted movie with some underlying conflicts that the characters are afraid to address head on. Glen Close is great, obviously, she plays this pretentious self-important woman with affectations but is still likable and warm. It's a fairly pleasant almost slice-of-life until the 3rd act where everything comes together. To me it was a movie about communication, saying what you mean, saying what you feel, and those unspoken assumptions of what those around you are thinking or feeling about you. I know I can relate to the idea of wanting an apology from someone who might not even be cognizant of the fact that you feel slighted by them, or vice versa finding out someone's had a long standing problem with you when you thought you were cool. One sided grudges do no one any good.

29. True History of the Kelly Gang

I've heard of Ned Kelly, but I've never seen the Heath Ledge or Mick Jagger movies about him and I don't know much about him other than he's a famous Australian outlaw and something of a folk hero to some. The performances and cinematography if this are great. George MacKay from 1917 is the lead and he's amazing, sometimes vulnerable and soft, other times a madman. It spends a lot of time in his childhood and the child actor who plays Ned is great as well. It's gritty and sometimes surreal in it's imagery. From what I can gather previous films seemed to focus more on what happened with him and his gang, while this movie seems to focuses more on everything in his life that led up to him becoming who he is and forming that gang. Like a 3rd of the movie is spent in his childhood, and once the gang is actually formed things move at a pretty brisk pace, seemingly skimming over the exploits of the gang to the conclusion. The film feels very raw and gritty and very fuck the police which I always appreciate.

28. Lucky Grandma

A stubborn grandma in New York's chinatown gets her fortunte read and is told that she's going to be very lucky and come into a fortune, she then comes into possession of a bunch of money that belongs to a gang and she decides to try to keep it feeling it's owed to her by the universe. A funny crime drama with the unlikeliest of protagonists.

27. Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee is an icon but he can honestly be a little hit or miss for me. I don't always enjoy every choice he makes, for instance he uses real footage of war attrocities in this, and it's really upsetting to see REAL people, including children, be killed, when you're not expecting that. I understand it's meant to be upsetting, but it does make the movie something I'll probably never rewatch. Spike Lee's films to me can also feel at times heightened to the point that it feels a little cheesy (Miracle At St Anna), and there moments in this that kinda took me out of it to be honest, but overall I enjoyed it. The performances were great, Delroy Lindo in my opinion is one of the most underrated actors of all time, he's just always good no matter what he's in, everyone else in it is good too, but of course I have to mention Chadwick Boseman who was great. At the end of the day it gave me a lot to think about in terms or race, war, America, forgiveness, trauma and so many other things.

26. The Devil All The Time

There's a LOT going on in this movie, maybe a little too much, it's like 2 or 3 movies smashed into one, but... I really liked it, and that's probably because Tom Holland is so good in it. Really liked Robert Pattinson in it too. I can’t really think of more to say about it say I won’t. Next movie.

25. Bad Education

A true crime movie about school district officiala who stole from the budget of a highschool. Hugh Jackman is great in this. I loved Jackman as Wolverine, but now that he's done with that I'm excited to see him other stuff cause he's always interesting to watch; The Fountain, Prisoners, The Prestige, he's always solid. I enjoyed this, it was done with nuance, it doesn't let them off the hook for what they did but it doesn't paint them as absolute monsters either. I really have to ask myself, if I could get away with stealing money that no one would miss... I don't know, I think I'd not do it out of fear not altruism, lol.

24. My Octopus Teacher

This is a documentary on Netflix about a diver who immerses himself in the world of underwater life and documents the life of an octopus. It's really beautiful, both in terms of visuals and in content. There's not a lot to talk about because it's fairly straightforward, but it was really fascinating to learn about this octopus and see the bond they mutually formed, and again I can't talk about how great this movie looks, it's like you're in a different world. This is something I could put in and mute while I draw just for the ambiance.

23. Kajillionaire

A quirky dramedy about a family of really obtuse poor scam artists. As absurd as their behaviour is I can totally imagine a trio of weirdos like this living in Los Angeles ( I can say that cause it's my hometown and where I lived most of my life. It's Evan Rachel Wood's best role, I never would've imagined her doing something like this but she's great as "Old Dolio". It's funny, at time sad but not in a hammy melodramatic way, and I feel it had the perfect ending.

22. The Gentleman

Guy Ritchie doing what he does best. It's fun, stylish, witty, has layers and twists and reveals. Everybody's good in it. It doesn't have anything poignant to say, but it's fun to watch the entire time

21. Run

A thriller about a wheelchair bound teen who suspects her mother is drugging her and tries to get to the bottom of it. You can tell this director is a Hitchcock fan because it definitely has that Rear Window vibe but takes it a step further, and in many ways it's even shot and paced like Hitchcock. The lead actress is actually wheelchair bound herself so it really adds to the realism of all the things she does in this film. Oh, and Sarah Paulson is the mom, when is Sarah Paulson ever not good?

20. Horse Girl

Alison Brie is an awkward neurotic woman getting over recent grief and a history of mental illness in her family, she starts to have weird dreams and then notices people from her dreams in real life, starts blacking out and having gaps in time, and starts to believe it's due to alien abduction conspiracy. Is she losing her mind or is it really happening? Alison Brie is really really good in this, and she co-wrote it too, it has a lot of moments where you really feel sorry for her or scared for her and you start to question what's real yourself.

19. Swallow

I found this movie really fascinating, it's like what if you turned one of those My Strange Addiction episodes on TLC into a movie. It's about this woman who ostensibly, at least from appearances, has the perfect life (at least by societal standards), she came from nothing and is now housewife to a rich successful man, and behaves almost like a Stepford wife. Then develops a compulsion to swallow inedible things, like marbles and batteries and thumbtacks, which is a real condition called pica. Its the kind of movie that gives you a lot to think about but no easy answers.

18. Time to Hunt

A Korean heist thriller set in the near future. A bunch of childhood friends rob the wrong person and have an Anton Chigurh-esque killer sent after them to retrieve the money and kill them. It's a really tense cat and mouse thriller with good performances. The ending seemed to turn a lot of people off based on a lot of youtube comments I read, but I didn't mind it. My only real gripe is that they set this in the near future but aside from some imagery in the beginning it doesn't seem to come into play that much, this all could've taken place in modern day or even the past with no alteration of the story. I think the future setting was more just for some social commentary that maybe went over my head a little bit because I'm not from Korea, but I think if they were going to do near future they could've added some futuristic weapons or something. But that's just nitpicking, while the future setting didn't add to the story much it didn't take away from it either.

17. Tigertail

As I get older one of my worse fears is making decisions that I will regret for the rest of my life, so this movie really hit home as a cautionary tale. It's a kind of quietly devastating movie. There's no huge tragic horrific even, just a huge miscalculation. Decades of your life of work and unhappiness go by and all you can do is wonder what things could've been. I also especially appreciated the cinematography and music of this film.

16. Mother

It's been a while since I hated a character this much, but this titular mother really pissed me off. She's a neglectful mother who only sees her son as a tool, but he sticks by her cause he loves her. It's definitely not a fun movie to watch, but it made me feel a lot and meditate on the idea of love and whether it in itself has innate value.

15. Call

I went into this movie cold, having no idea what it was really about other than that it was a thriller that revolved around a woman getting mysterious calls. I'm glad I had seen no trailers and did not know the gist of the plot becuase it went places I really was not expecting. One of the most fun thrillers I've seen in a while. So, I'm not going to talk about the movie but what I will say is that Jeon Jong-seo, who played the woman in Burning is in this, she was great in Burning and she's great in this. After watching it I googled her to see what else she's been in that I can watch and this is only her 2nd film. Apparently Burning was her first audition EVER and she BOOKED IT! Like, one a million success story right? But she deserves it cause she's great and I look forward to seeing what else she does.

14. Possessor

This was directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of David Cronenberg, big shoes to fill, and I think he's going to fill them fine cause this is already a cult classic in my opinion. The visuals in this, which look like they were mainly created with practical and in camera effects. There is some very graphic very realistic violence in this. The movie is about an assassin who works for an organization and uses some type of scientific process to "possess" people to carry out hits. When she's in a body for too long who's in control starts to blur. It's really fucking trippy, like a fucked up Black Mirror episode.

13. Borat 2

Been a fan of Sacha since the old Da Ali G Show days when Borat was just a side character. I'm amazed with out Sacha can stay in character the way he does, especially when later on in the movie he shelters in place with some Qanon conservatives with who knows how long staying in character. Maybe they'll reveal they were paid actors who knows, but whatever I fucking laughed a lot at this movie. There's a black woman in this movie that I hope to god was not an actress cause I loved her and her reactions so much. It was a breath of fresh air to watch something that's just goofy in 2020 because it wasn't a good year for comedy. As much as I love film sometimes I got a little fatigue from watching so many things with very heavy themes, this also had heavy themes it was satirizing, but also chimp pornstar jokes, so.. a fun time.

12. A Sun

A drama about a family's eldest son going to juvenile detention for his involvement in a violent crime. We see how his father, his mother, his brother and his pregnant girlfriend all deal with this. I found it very engaging. My only gripe is that there are some moments of levity where they use this really generic comedy music score it and it really takes you out of the film. No music at all is better than bad generic music. Other than that I really loved it and the ending is great. I really thought this would end up in my top 10 but the following films just had more personal relevance or were more fun to watch.

11. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman, this movie is like an acting showcase for him, he has so many great monologues here, the ending really took the wind out of me. It's also packed with really still relevant commentary on race.

10. Onward

You already expect a Pixar movie to make you cry, but this came from angle I was NOT expecting and I bawled hard at this. This movie was so applicable to my life experience it's like they specifically engineered it to make me personally cry. Honestly there are better movies lower on this list, but movies are just like any other art, when a song touches you on a personal level it doesn't need to have complex instrumentation cause it's how it made you feel that matters.

09. Palm Springs

A comedy released during a pandemic about trying to find stimulation and meaning when every day is the same thing? Ya don't say! Another take on Groundhog Day, which at this point I feel like it's its on genre with the amount of times the concept has been done, but I'm not complaining, I typically enjoy a good time loop movie (or show; Russian Doll). I don't know what else to say besides that it's really funny and Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are both charming and great in it.

08. Scare Me

This movie was funny, creepy, the performances were great, and it's just really unique and clever. Written, directed, produced, and starring Josh Ruben, who I know primarily does really idiosyncratic "impressions" on instagram. It's 2 people alone in a cabin telling each other scary stories, they don't cut away to the stories you just watch them act it out. 4 people in the cast, one location, and it still manages to be a fun ride of a movie and manages to touch on some good themes in the overall story. I really hope to see Josh Ruben direct more films because I think he's really creative.

07. Ride Your Wave

A romantic comedy about a woman trying to find joy and purpose in her life. I often go into movies very cold, so I didn't know much about what this movie was about, just knew that it was from an animation studio and director that I really respected. It's very beautiful, very grounded, until it's not. Kind of movie that breaks your heart so it can uplift you later.

06. Uncle Frank

I really did not expect a lot from movie, not that I thought it would be bad, I just thought it be your middle of the road movie. It's about a teenage girl who really looks up to her uncle who she learns is a closeted gay man, in an era where that was potentially dangerous to be. They go on a road trip home when his father dies and learn about each other and themselves, it sounds kinda cookie cutter, but it really surprised me. Paul Bettany is so very good in this, and it made me cry. Easy way to get on high on this list is to make me cry lol.

05. Children of the Sea

This film had to be in my top 5 because I'm an animation nerd and this is one of the most beautiful animated films ever. Ever. It's right up there with Akira and the Ghibli catalogue, and the works of Satoshi Kon, and all the Disney movies and everything else. It focuses on details and nuances in a really gorgeous way. The story is VERY ambiguous and gets very metaphysical towards the end, the climax is like watching an acid trip. It's about a girl who meet 2 young boys who have adapted to living underwater, and they form a bond, and then... uh... there's no way I can concisely explain it. The creator has said it's not supposed to be understood logical, instead it's supposed to be felt. There's a lot of symbolism and metaphor, it's very philosophical and explores themes of connection and the cycle of life. It's produced by Studio 4°C, which is my favorite animation studio because they really push the envelope, they're responsible for Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet, and the recent Mutafukaz, and other, if you've never heard of any of those definitely look them up, they're unlike any anime you've ever watched before. Anyway, beautiful movie and the cryptic plot allows for you to rewatch it multiple times and take different things away from it. I can't wait to own it on blu-ray.

04. 37 Seconds

I saw this very early in the year and love it. It's about a young woman with cerebal palsy who is also an aspiring hentai artist trying to get laid. Her mother who takes care of her like a child smothers her, so it's not only about trying to get laid but trying to have some independence. Firstly the performance of this woman who actually does have cerebral palsy and is a first time actor is so natural and endearing, secondly there are things they portray with an uncomfortable amount of realism and awkwardness that it really draws you in to the nitty gritty of her reality and what it can be like for someone who is wheelchair bound to try to have sexual experiences. I like that there were 2 films this year about characters in wheelchairs that used unknown actresses that face the same things their characters do, it adds to the authenticity of either film. Films like this are why I think diversity in film is not just about doing something for the demographic you're depicting but also giving everyone else not of that demographic new unique stories and perspectives.

03. Soul

I guess spoilers if you haven't seen this because it's easier to talk about why I liked it if I talk specifically about the plot. I wasn't expecting much from this when the initial trailer dropped, it made it seem like it was going to largely take place in this imaginary soul place with these blue things, and for most of the first act it seemed like that's what it was going to be, but when they come back to earth and the story really starts I really started enjoying it. This movie tricks you into thinking the film is about finding or fulfilling your purpose, only to throw a curveball that living life in and of itself is the "purpose", and this movie resonated so much with thoughts that were already on my mind. I relate so much to Joe as a creative person myself with so many unfulfilled dreams, at 36yrs old, having to put many of my goals on the backburner just to survive, and generally having that feeling that I'm still waiting to live life because I'm not fulfilling my "purpose". Sure reaching for goals is great, but I think our culture breeds this idea that happiness is a destination, an accomplishment, a certain amount of recognition, a monetization of your passion. I really loved how the film depicted that there's a dark side to focusing on your passions and how it can become a source of stress and unhappiness. This movie is just about savoring life itself, which people have been expressing through platitudes since forever but this film illustrated it in a way that words fail at, and that's what makes film such a great form of art.

02. Sound of Metal

This movie had one of the best trailers of 2020, I couldn't wait to watch this movie. FIrst of all I love RIz Ahmed and think he's an underrated and underutilized actor, he's fucking amazing in this, he needs an Oscar nom FOR SURE. His frustration is so palpable and he feels so natural in this movie. It follows a metal punk drummer who loses his hearing and goes to stay in a deaf community to acclimate. One thing I think is absolutely brilliant about this movie is the sound design. I'm not deaf so I can't speak from any type of experience, but they try to replicate what going deaf sounds like, what the audiologist tests sound like, what hearing aids and cochlear implants sound like, it's very immersive. I almost think of it like a companion piece to Soul, cause I had almost the same take away, it's just coming from it at a different angle.

01. I'm Thinking Of Ending Things

Okay, so I’m going to have a lot to say about this movie.

Maybe a very controversial pick for my number one because so many people absolutely hated this movie, lol. I am biased given that I'm a huge fan of Charlie Kaufman, he's my favorite screenwriter, and his films have only gotten weirder and weirder, so I know to expect the unexpected when going into one of his films. I can understand how this would be an offputting experience if you're expecting the conventions of normal narrative structure. It was surprising and perplexing to me how this film unfolded but I've watched non-narrative and experimental films before so I was intrigued rather than frustrated. You think it's about a woman who is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend as they head to meet his parents. Once we get to his childhood home things start getting surreal, and that surrealism just escalates to the point where you realize this film is not at all attempting to depict reality and doesn't even have any continuity. This is the most a movie has ever felt like one of my dreams. I don't know how other people dream but this was so much like every weird nightmare I've ever had where I feel trapped in a situation.

There's a scene where the family is talking about art, the dad says he hates abstract art because it takes no skill, he prefers paintings that look like photographs because that takes real skill, the son asks why make a painting look like a photograph when you can just take a photograph, the woman states she paints pictures of landscapes and tries to imbue them with a sense of interiority, capturing the way she feels, the dad asks how can a landscape be sad if you don't have a person in it looking sad. I felt like this was a bit of meta commentary on the film itself. After I watched this movies I had my own theories, I watched some analysis videos on youtube that confirmed a lot of my ideas and gave me insight on other parts of the film, I watched the film again and formulated more ideas, it's so dense with things to project meaning onto and interpret it. I went on instagram and ended up having lengthy discussions about what the film meant both with people who loved it and hated it. Everybody I spoke with had slightly different interpretations and takeaways. One woman who initially did not like it came away with an appreciation for it after we had a lengthy discussion about it's meaning.

All of this is why it's my favorite film of the year, not only did I relate to it on a personal level because I'm in a stage of my life where I'm approaching middle ages and afraid I'm going to end up like the guy in this film, but I can't remember the last time a film led to such meaningful conversation about life, death, love, mental health, loneliness, trauma, etc. So like the scene where they're talking about art, I think this movie is neither intended to be abstract or realistic, it's supposed to be imbued with a sense of interiority. I know I sound way pretentious right now, but I just really appreciated Charlie Kaufman for making something unabashedly expressionist and serving it up to mainstream audiences. I really feel like I grow as a person and an artist every time I watch one of his films.

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So there ya go. That’s it. That concludes this arbitrary exercise in ranking the movies i saw last year, thank you for wasting your time on this, lol. I think it was a very good year for movies.

If there was a movie you were expecting to see on the list and it’s missing I just didn’t get to it in 2020, I may do an unranked follow up list of 2020 movies I missed in 2020, maybe.

That’s it.

End of post.

Bye.

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randomvarious · 4 years

Audio

Elisha - “Elisha’s Not at Home” Bravo Black Hits, Volume 1 Song released in 1998. Compilation released in 1999. R&B / Neo-Soul / Hip Hop

You’ve probably never heard of Elisha La’Verne, but she is, without question, an R&B queen. La’Verne has eight albums to her name and she’s been around since the mid-90s, but she hasn’t released much of anything in the United States and she doesn’t have much name recognition in her home, the UK, either. However, La’Verne has been an absolute star in Japan. Her 2011 album, 361 Degrees, which marked her seventeenth year in the industry, reached #2 on the country’s iTunes charts, and her subsequent tour of Osaka and Tokyo sold out, too. La’Verne’s also evidently had hits in Germany as well, like 1998′s “Elisha’s Not at Home.”

How La’Verne originally became a sensation in Japan though is laid out in her Discogs profile:

Elisha’ was an aspiring singer from a very young age and as she grew older she was constantly involved with music, be it studio work, shows or musicals.

In her late teens she worked with a producer called Trevor Davy who introduced her to Maxi Priest’s Dugout Productions. Maxi, his brother Martin Elliott (4) and Tony Hearne (personal manager) helped Elisha to create her debut EP “Just Landed EP”. Her second single, (I Like What You Do To Me) was being sold in HMV Tokyo Japan and eventually got to the ears of Ken Sato head of A&R for international acts at Avex Inc. Japan, Leading to Elisha signing a Major recording deal with Avex Group.

That Avex contract resulted in a total of four studio albums and a double LP with a bunch of remixes, all released on Avex sublabel, Cutting Edge.

La’Verne’s second album, a 1998 self-titled release, contains one of her biggest hits, “Elisha’s Not at Home,” which was then packaged the following year as a 12-inch and maxi-CD single by Epic and distributed throughout Europe. In the same year that the song was released as a single, it also appeared on the first installment of German magazine, Bravo’s, long running series, Bravo Black Hits, which highlights the country’s biggest R&B and hip hop hits, which are all made by black artists.

And like La’Verne, you’ve probably never of heard of Sean Hall, the producer of “Elisha’s Not at Home,” either. But if you listened to top 40 radio at all back in the year 2000, it was hard to miss a song like 3LW’s “No More (Baby I’ma Do Right),” which he also produced, and as it turns out, has a similar production palette to that of “Elisha’s Not at Home.” Hall is actually a veteran producer of R&B and pop though, with a career that dates back to the early 90s and includes credits for such acts as Color Me Badd, Bobby Brown, The Braxtons, P!nk, Jamie Foxx, Maroon 5, 98°, Xscape, Tyrese, Tamia, Lionel Richie, The-Dream, Gym Class Heroes, and Mariah Carey.

A song like “Elisha’s Not at Home” belongs on your nostalgic, late 90s/early 2000s female R&B playlists. No, you’ve probably never heard it, but it still smacks of all those old Brandy, Monica, and Mýa hits that dominated the charts back then, and if you happen to be seeking out that type of vibe, then this song definitely fits. La’Verne also sounds just as good as those aforementioned ladies.

This song has that slow, but pounding R&B bass bounciness that so many R&B hits at the time seemed to have and the chorus is damn catchy, too, which is why it’s a bit surprising that it never made it stateside. Sean Hall does some interpolating of the opening bars from the reggae-flavored 70s funk tune, “Fun” by Brick, by constructing an R&B beat that consists of a thick, leading, bluesy guitar melody that’s heavily accentuated with bass, and is accompanied by some backing acoustic guitar and a very quiet, thin string synth. L.A. underground producer-rapper, Vooodu (if you’re a real underground head you might be familiar with his work with Ras Kass, Mykill Miers, or Key-Kool & Rhettmatic. He’s also made a beat for Snoop Dogg.), who also released a single in Germany through Epic in 1999, does his best skinnier Biggie Smalls contemporary pop-rap impersonation before La’Verne jumps back in with her passion raised up a notch to close this hit out.

This R&B star deserves way more attention than she’s ever deserved. At least Japan knows what’s up.

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sports-balling-blog · 3 years

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NFL 2021 Power Rankings

Two weeks down it’s time to over react!

32. Jacksonville Jaguars- meet the new boss same as the old boss. Urban Mayer and Trevor a Lawrence are starting off their NFL careers about as expected. Lawrence will have a second season at least but if things don’t turn around the same might not be able to be said about Urban. Maybe fake a heart attack?

31. New York Jets- back to back blowout losses is not how mean green thought they’d start 2021 but it’s certainly not a surprise. Any time your star QB ends the half with as many interceptions as completions it’s time to panic.

30. New York Giants- and the Jets stadium partner is also their partner in sadness. Big blue isn’t much better off with the derp know as Daniel Jones under center and a terrible running game to start 0-2 and making the case for the #1 overall pick. Will either Jones or Judge be around next year? For the sake of Giants fans I hope the next coach can help eliminate penalties.

29. Atlanta Falcons- the best thing to come out of Atlanta the last two weeks is Secret Base’s video series about them. The ATL was surprisingly close to upsetting Tampa this week but reality comes back. Matt Ryan hasn’t been playing great this year but neither has anyone else playing in the black and red. The way things are going it’s only a question of when not if the Falcons decide to move on from Matty Ice.

28. Detroit Lions- 0-2 has never looked quite as good as Goff and the lions putting up a big fight to both the 49ers and Packers. After two weeks it’s clear this is not the NFC’s worst team by a mile but that is not going to turn into vary many wins considering the schedule ahead of them. Trading for Jerod Goff wasn’t as much a tank job as previously thought, I don’t think Mathew Stafford could have turned either of those losses into wins.

27. Cincinnati Bengals- “reworked” offensive line huh? How’d that work for you bengals fans? Only two games into the year and Joe Burrow has already been sacked 9 times and hit another 16 times. Forget a winning record if Bengals fans want to see Joe have a career longer than 5 years you need to make some changes need to be made!

26. Philadelphia Eagles- Week 1 Jalen Hurts played out of his mind and lead the team to the win but Week 2 Hurts lived up to his name in a close but pedestrian performance. Seriously how do you get a 91 yard completion and not get ANY points?!

25. Chicago bears- how ironic that the Andy Dalton revenge game is what leads to his end as the starting QB. That being said how well Justin Fields plays now as the starter will decide how far this team goes and if they can snag another playoff spot in a tough NFC.

24. Houston Texans- I’m just as surprised to see them up here as you are. Tyrod is showing he can still play a starting roll by running all over the jags and almost upsetting Cleveland at home. Honestly if he didn’t get injured the Texans might have been 2-0 right now. Houston has made it clear that they are not the push over we thought they are this year.

23. Minnesota Vikings- the Vikings were one missed Morten Anderson extra point…I mean Greg Joseph field goal from beating the cardinals in a game they absolutely should have won. That and a Dalvin Cook fumble is all that stands in the way from a 2-0 start for Minnesota. Now that you’ve been punched in the mouth it’s time to see how you react.

22. Indianapolis Colts- a painful 0-2 start for a team that like the Vikings could have been 2-0. The Colts played two good teams in the Seahawks and Rams to start the year and have both a run for their money and fought hard. In a perfect world I would pick them to be the 0-2 team most likely to make the playoffs but this isn’t a perfect world and with Wentz injuring both ankles it’s up to Jacob Eason to try and avoid an 0-3 death nail.

21. New England Patriots-Belichick gonna Belichick I guess. Not that focusing on defense and running first is a bad strategy especially with a rookie QB. It certainly is working better than whatever the Jets are trying.

20. Miami Dolphins- I’m not sure what hurts more for Dolphins fans seeing Tua get injured or getting shutout at home to a rival. 35-0 is a hard pill to swallow. Now I don’t think having Tua would have made much of a difference last week against the bills but going forward at least one week with Jacoby Bresett under center is only going to make things harder for a Dolphins team with playoff aspersions.

19. Washington Football Team- 0-1 with Ryan Fitzpatrick and 1-0 with Taylor Heinicke and a share of the NFC East for the moment is about all the nameless ones can ask for at this point in the season. Unfortunately for the Team you’re facing the Bills next week and your defense has not been playing up to expectations.

18. New Orleans Saints- the Saints domination of the Packers in week one inspired hope for the Brees-less era but the teams follow up against Carolina brought them crashing down as Winston regressed to his typical Tampa form. Week four’s test against Mew England with show how well this team bounces back and how competitive they will be.

17. Pittsburgh Steelers- this team will be pulled along by its defense kicking and screaming. Lucky for the black and yellow they get to beat up on the bengals next week but you better be ready to show up to your week four game against Green Bay.

16. Denver Broncos- 2-0 is 2-0 no matter who you play right. That being said it’s hard to tell how strong this Denver team is after watching them play against the two children in a trench coat known as the jags and giants. Lucky for the Sutton-less Broncos they get to play the Jets in week 4 before a real test (and probably loss) in the form of the ravens.

15. San Francisco 49ers- the 49ers as lead by Jimmy G might be the weakest 2-0 team in the NFL right now. Scoring a measly 17 points against Philadelphia and almost letting in the Detroit Lions the week before has done nothing to inspire confidence with diet Alex Smith. This team as it currently stands is in peak form to meander around and do nothing and given the rest of the division that is a death sentence.

14. Los Angeles Chargers- the bolts find themselves sitting at 1-1 after absolutely refusing to get out of their own way in the form of 99 penalty yards against the Cowboys. Justin Herbert has been playing week but far from light(n)ing the world on fire as exemplified by the pair of picks he throw last week. Monday night’s game against the now Las Vegas Raiders will be a big test to see how far the team can go…also FYS, if you know you know

13. Seattle Seahawks- the Seahawks live on the razors edge. The defense has been as good (read bad) as expected but the offense has not been playing up to expectations and because of that they almost let the lions comeback on them and then proceed to let the Titans score 17 unanswered to win. If this trend continues chief Wilson will not only bring sitting at home come the playoffs but will do so in last place.

12. Tennessee Titans- speaking of that Seattle-Tennessee game… next up is the Titans who have to not be feeling good about how their season has gone so far. The super bowl hopefuls started out getting flattened by Arizona before almost falling to 0-2 before just pulling out an overtime win. Much like Seattle the defense side of the ball is what will hold the team back.

11. Carolina Panthers- probably the biggest surmise so far is the 2-0 (well now 3-0 because I’m doing these late) Panthers. Granted two of those wins are against the Texans and Jets but the blue and blacks do get credit for shutting down New Orleans and Jamis Winston and that why the end up here knocking at the door of the top ten.

10. Dallas Cowboys- by the edge of their teeth the Cowboys find themselves at number 10. After giving the Tom Bradys all they can handle in week one they get their first win (barely) against a very good Los Diego Chargers team thanks to them shooting themselves in the foot a little less then their opponents. Lucky for the jerryworld inhabitants they get a freebie on Monday against the Eagles.

9. Green Bay Packers- it took a six quarters but the Packers finally showed up for a football game! Now we’ll see if that’s a giant in the making like the last few years or a flash in the pan has yet to be seen but of course there’s still plenty of football including a good yardstick against San Francisco in a chance to right an NFC Title game loss.

8. Los Vegas Raiders- the Raiders have beaten the Steelers and ravens and I think that makes them the AFC North’s best team? All jokes aside the Raiders have started out 2-0 and in a good position to start off the year. If they continue to play up to this new standard they very well could be the AFC West’s champion

7. Cleveland Browns- Maybe almost beating KC in week one gave the browns a hangover and that’s why the Texans were as big a threat as they were? On the bright side even with the injury concerns Cleveland is still playing great football and even get to get their team in order going up against a pair of NFC north teams.

6. Arizona Cardinals- the Redbirds benefitting from a missed field goal? After seeing last season I’m shocked. These Cardinals are fun to watch and K1 is playing up to his billing as the number 1 overall pick. I don’t know what to do I’m not used to being excited about something that isn’t the draft…ugh sorry A’s fans for taking him away?

5. Buffalo Bills- ok now things are getting serious. After loosing to Pittsburgh to start the season the Bills took out their frustrations on a helpless Dolphins team to the tune of a 35 point shutout. The Williams are still one of the best teams in the NFL and you need to come prepared.

4. Los Angeles Rams- despite the Colts best efforts Stafford is still perfect as a non-lion quarterback. It wasn’t perfect but the Sheep pulled out a win and showed why they are a super bowl contender.

3. Baltimore Ravens- what a difference a week makes. From licking their wounds loosing to the Raiders to giving the chiefs and Patrick Mahomes his first loss in September. The Ravens put down any doubts from anyone that they are not a championship contender as a reward get to beat up on Detroit.

2. Kansas City Chiefs- The aforementioned loss to Baltimore not withstanding Kansas City is still a powerful team. It’s hard to fault the 2 time AFC champions for a 1 point loss on a fumble to a playoff team. They’re good who knew?

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers- you’ve got to beat the best to be the best and so far TB is 2-0 so they’re number one in the rankings. Don’t have much else to add.

#2021 nfl season #nfl #power rankings

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ultrabesttop10love-blog · 4 years

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Positioning the main 10 school football crews in 2020

2020 was one of the most stunning long stretches of school football in ongoing history. Alabama missed the College Football Playoff unexpectedly, Texas was (still) not back, and some person named Joe broke pretty much every record there was. You can check out Best of Top 10.

10. Coppery Tigers

Coppery's 2019 season was portrayed by blazes of significance damaged by conflicting play and a merciless timetable. On occasion the Tigers seemed as though a season finisher group, as they gave LSU its nearest call of the period and beat both Alabama and Oregon. However, Auburn additionally finished the season with four misfortunes, including tumbling to thirteenth positioned Minnesota in the Outback Bowl.

9. Penn State Nittany Lions

Under lead trainer James Franklin, Penn State has gotten back to its previous status as a higher class school football program. It has mind blowing ability on the two sides of the ball, and another strong enlisting class coming in. Linebacker Micah Parsons may be the best cautious part in all of school football.

8. Florida Gators

For Florida, the unavoidable issue the previous barely any seasons has been whether it can beat individual SEC East part Georgia. Doing so would very likely gain the Gators an excursion to the SEC Championship game, and offer them a strong chance at a season finisher offer. Shockingly for Florida, it has neglected to best the Bulldogs for three straight years at this point. Going into 2020, the Gators by and by gloat an exceptionally gifted program.

7. Oklahoma Sooners

Despite the fact that it has had an extraordinary spat late occasions, including five straight Big 12 Championships and four season finisher offers over the most recent five years, Oklahoma presently can't seem to arrive at the Championship game. A year ago, likewise with numerous different years, the Sooners' enormous issue was safeguard. They were 64th positioned in focuses permitted per game last season, and surrendered an incredible 63 to LSU in the elimination rounds.

6. LSU Tigers

They're the dominant public bosses, new off an undefeated season in which they dominated matches by a normal of over 26.5 focuses. Many would contend they ought to be positioned higher. However, next season's LSU Tigers aren't last season's LSU Tigers for one main explanation: Joe Burrow is no more. One player doesn't win a title alone, yet Burrow's unforeseen greatness was a colossal aspect of LSU's strength. Under Burrow, LSU's offense was notable, averaging more than 400 yards for every game.

5. Oregon Ducks

Since Head Coach Mario Cristobal took more than two years prior, the Ducks have been on a lofty upward pattern. They went from 7-6 of every 2017 to 9-4 and 12-2 in Cristobal's initial two seasons. On the off chance that they improve again in 2020, they'll unquestionably be Playoff competitors, in spite of the fact that it would probably take an ideal or one-misfortune season for them to remove any of the more customary top choices. Fortunately for the Ducks, they surely will have the ability to do as such. They're adding three five-star enlisted people to a protection that was at that point top 10 in the country.

4. Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama had a disillusioning season by all accounts in 2019, completing the year positioned thirteenth in the country by the College Football Playoff choice council. For most groups this wouldn't be really awful, yet for the dynastic stalwart that is Alabama, this was by a wide margin its most noticeably terrible completion in the season finisher time, and the first run through missing the season finisher itself. With many Crimson Tide stars leaving for the NFL, it's enticing to state Alabama's battles will proceed.

3. Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia will be without a year ago's starter at quarterback in Jake Fromm, however this won't shield it from assembling another fruitful season. For one, they included previous Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman as an exchange, who has demonstrated himself to be a quality double danger alternative. For another, last year their quality was really protection, not offense. The Bulldog safeguard permitted the least yards per game in the nation, right around 10 full yards not exactly second-place San Diego State, in spite of playing in the consistently stacked SEC.

2. Ohio State Buckeyes

In school football, having the best player all the time prompts including perhaps the best group. Ohio State and Heisman most loved Justin Fields will hope to prop that pattern up next season. A year ago was the two Fields' and Head Coach Ryan Day's first with the Buckeyes, and they barely missed a Championship appearance, tumbling to Clemson 29-23 in the elimination round. They will lose numerous champion guarded pieces to the draft, including potential top-five picks Chase Young and Jeff Okudah, however the Buckeyes' list is as yet stacked with top-level ability.

1. Clemson Tigers

They may have lost the National Championship to LSU, however the Big Bad Burrow is currently a Bengal, and that sets up different Tigers with a make way to proceed with their pattern of even-year Championship wins. Clemson returns huge numbers of its key pieces from a year ago, including Heisman-most loved Trevor Lawrence, stud wide beneficiary Justyn Ross and unequaled driving rusher Travis Etienne. This triplet will give Clemson the best offense in the country. The Tiger guard lost some significant pieces, yet Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables' unit should at present be sufficiently able to take care of business close by their predominant offense.

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bermudaroad · 4 years

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Personal History: Summer of ’91

My kids Walker Roe and Clayton, ages 18 and 20, his girlfriend Adrian and their friends Reed, Shelby and Trevor spent the covid spring and summer of 2020 hanging out together, swimming, kayaking, watching movies, lamenting their lost semester and generally not following recommended guidelines for social distancing. Clayton was able to continue work while the rest finished spring classes online, which was a total bummer. With businesses and restaurants shuttered for quarantine, there hasn’t been much else to do. Walker and Reed had internships lined up that were cancelled. Adrian did some housecleaning and as soon as a few restaurants did open back up, she and Trevor, who both used to work at the pub, got part-time jobs. Reed cuts grass. The rest of their time is spent mostly at leisure.

In seeming unrelated news, Thomas, one of my oldest friends, became a grandfather last week. Because of covid, no visitors could go into the hospital, so when the baby was born, the new dad held her up to the hospital window and the grandparents all held up posters and signs of congratulations outside. It was shared on Facebook, so I sent Thomas a text. I could tell from his response how giddy he was. They didn’t get to actually hold the new baby for three or four days.

The quarantine, my kids’ spring and summer getting derailed and Thomas becoming Pawpaw got me thinking about the summer after our first year of college, back in Many, the summer of 1991. I spent that time mostly with a small group with whom I had been friends since first grade: Thomas, of course; Ginger who was home from school in Oklahoma, Jeff and Andy who, like Thomas and me had been going to Northwestern State, and Ginger’s brother Clay who had just finished 10th grade and had finally stopped being a complete jerk. Sometimes there would be one or two others, but that was the core group.

Except for Clay, we were 18/19 and had just got our first big kid jobs. Thomas and Jeff went to work at the mill in Florien, Gin got a job at the radio station and I was tellering at Sabine State Bank. I can’t remember what Andy was doing, probably working for his grandpa, and Clay, who was 16 and fast growing into a giant of a man, tooled around in his truck and worked out at the gym. We no longer had curfews and seldom felt the need to ask our parents for anything.

We were all single, too, which probably explains why our group was small and close.

Ginger had come home from Oklahoma unsettled. The previous Christmas, she had appalled her family by getting engaged to her long-time boyfriend Nathen, the same person who had been fooling around with our other friend Jamie behind Ginger’s back for most of the time they were dating. Ginger found out about it in the middle of our senior year which was pretty much wrecked after that, but she and Nate stayed together, even though neither was happy. Her parents had hoped that when she shipped out for Oklahoma and Nate left for LSU, things would fizzle between them, so their surprise engagement at Christmas 1990 was less than joyous. By February, Ginger had come to her senses. She mailed Nathen back his pitiful little ring and he decided to stay in Baton Rouge for the summer, thankfully bringing that awful drama to an end. Also, she had met someone new in Oklahoma.

Clay’s girlfriend Anna had broken up with him right after Prom. She was a classy girl, also a friend of ours, and she returned the jewelry Clay had given her, which Ginger divided up with me. Thomas and Jeff had recently split with the girls they dated through and beyond high school. Andy was always single, even though he carried a torch for Jamie for years. They were funny, affable guys and great pals.

I was fractured, too. My first love Patrick and I had outgrown each other and he had broken up with me in the spring, which was for the best, but I missed him terribly. He was already seeing someone else. I was on a mission to get over Patrick, lose the freshman 15 I had packed on and have fun with my friends – Thomas being chief mischief-maker and proponent of fun.

Riding around town, “making a drag” as we called it, wasn’t for us anymore as we tried to avoid our old flames, which was hard to do in Many. Most of our friends had significant others to absorb their spare time and several had jumped straight into adulthood, going to work in the oilfield, joining the military or getting married. We, on the other hand, aside from work responsibilities, could do pretty much whatever we wanted.

Often after work, we would meet up and go hang out somewhere on Toledo Bend, the long pier at Pendleton or my parents’ place down near Quiet Cove, to drink wine coolers and talk nonsense. Weekends we went swimming at LaNan or San Miguel and a couple of times Andy drove his grandpa’s barge across the lake to the cliffs on the Texas side where kids used to shinny up a frayed rope as thick as my arm to the top of the bluff and jump off. The boys listened to the Beasty Boys, N.W.A., Sir Mix-A-Lot and Color Me Bad (I wasn’t a big fan of any of it) and Ginger had discovered Garth Brooks. We went to our friends’ weddings, stayed out too late, crashed at each other’s houses, made it to work on time and irritated our parents.

There were some long serious talks, too, as we commiserated and sorted out our broken hearts. Clay even opened up about his lost love. It was a bonding period for Clay and Ginger who had spent most of their childhood fighting, and for he and I as well.

I hope my kids aren’t as stupid as we were and I’m eternally grateful that social media did not exist. One night – I don’t know what go into us - we got a wild hair and vandalized a dumpster with spray paint. Thomas and Jeff frequently made a contest of pitching empty beer bottles at road signs going 4/60 down the highway headed to the lake. Under a full July moon, Andy took us armadillo hunting at his grandpa’s farm. Riding four-wheelers and armed with .22s and homemade pipe bombs, we crisscrossed the pasture in the moonlight firing at will in the humid night that was thick with recklessness. Another time Thomas and I were headed to Natchitoches in his monster old Bronco when I told him I wanted to smoke a cigarette. Thomas habitually swiped packs of Marlboro Reds from the carton his dad kept on top of their fridge. He offered me a light and told me what to do. And so it was that I smoked the inaugural cigarette – the very first one -- in the drive-thru at Maggio’s, coughing and turning green and reveling in my rebellion. I even remember the music we were listening to: a cassette single of “I Wanna Be with You” by Pretty Boy Floyd. I don’t know why that detail has stuck with me.

At some point, Jeff and Andy both noticed charms about Ginger that had never been obvious to them before. This was typical of Andy but surprising for Jeff. Thomas and I were greatly amused. Jeff made the first move, asking Ginger on a date that Clay offered to chaperone. They went to see “King Ralph,” and the rest of us chased them down at Hardee’s after the movie. I remember gathering around Jeff’s white Dodge stepside in the parking lot and snickering because Gin was sitting next to him in the cab. We all knew it wasn’t going anywhere; it was just a lark. It wasn’t long before Ginger’s beau from Oklahoma couldn’t stand the separation anymore and hauled it down to Louisiana for a visit, which is how I met Brent and was maid of honor at their wedding a year later.

With Ginger unavailable, Andy turned his attention to me and was rebuffed again. But he wasn’t too disappointed.

As summers do, it went by in a blink and in mid-August, it was time to get back to business. Clay started two-a-days, Gin packed up for Oklahoma and I, who had starved myself down to a wafer, moved back to Natchitoches. Thomas and Jeff were supposed to commute together, but Jeff dropped out of school to work full-time. Andy transferred to LSU. Thomas fell in with my college buddies and we share those memories as well. It wasn’t our last summer of fun – we had a few more in store before adulthood really caught up with us.

Now we are in our late 40s – the summer of our lives. Thomas and Jeff still work together. They are deacons in their church, volunteer coaches and planners of wholesome youth activities. Ginger and Brent have been over in Nacogdoches for over 20 years and active in ministry in their community. Andy married a girl from Baton Rouge and lives on his family’s farm. Clay went on to play football at Louisiana Tech, but personal troubles have always dogged him, even unto today. I married a nice guy I met in journalism class and have lived in Natchitoches ever since. We have seen each other quite a bit over the years, most recently when Ginger and Clay’s dad died, an occasion marked by the same old sense of camaraderie, nostalgia and some measure of sadness.

It’s been a strange year, this spring and summer of covid. It’s nice to see Clayton and Walker spending quality time together. Interestingly, during the pandemic, Walker and her college friends have been writing old-fashioned letters and mailing them to each other, a true novelty for them.

It brings to mind the contrasts between the now and then. In 1991 we had no cell phones, no email, no Internet, no Netflix, no Twitter or Snapchat. Our parents had no idea where we were or what we were up to most of the time. We had to make plans and sometimes locate each other by that peculiar friend-radar teenagers used to have. We could buy alcohol and never wore seatbelts. Most blessed of all, youthful indiscretions were not splashed all over the social media, although I do have some lake photos boxed up on a high shelf. It seems like our freedom was much greater in many ways. Some things change and some things stay the same.

It’s hard to believe it was almost 30 years ago. Summers always go by too fast.

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newagesispage · 7 years

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OCTOBER 2017

*****The beautiful dino, Sue will be moved to her own gallery in Chicago’s field museum. New to her long fixed spot will be a cast of patagotitan mayorum, the biggest dinosaur ever found.

*****Richard Thomas is selling his NY midtown coop for $2,995,000 and is located at 7th Ave. and w. 58th.

*****California is waiting for Jerry Brown to sign a bill that bans puppy mills.

*****WWF has released wild tigers back into Kazakhstan. Scimitar horned oryx were released into the Sahara desert and indigo snakes were reintroduced into Florida.

*****Toys “R” Us has filed for bankruptcy.

*****Tom Price, health and human services secretary, has resigned after hic charter flight scandal.

*****After 50 years Rolling Stone may be up for sale.

*****Doc Martin is back on Acorn for series 8.

*****As social media has been telling us, we don’t need a border wall. Tourism is down about $37 billion. Thanks Trump!

*****Trump supporters don’t seem to like him fraternizing with the Dems and waffling on DACA. They have been burning their red hats but scary clown already got the money for selling them so what does he care. Anne Coulter wonders if there is anybody left who does not want Trump impeached.** Some states are suing over DACA.

*****”Holes separate men and women.”- Billy Connolly

*****The dreamer program has been signed away. The Deferred Action for Children’s Arrival has been handed to congress for 6 months to deal with. The administration says it violates the rule of law.

*****The Peoria Blues and Heritage fest went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect and we should all be looking at the Jamiah Rogers band, these guys are fucking awesome. John Butler checked them out before his own set and was great with his fans.

*****Bill Withers has his first solo record since 1985 with a cover of (You’ve been quite a doll) Raggedy Ann.

*****In this country, a woman dies every 2 hours of cervical cancer because of improper health care.

*****Can I just say that I do not want to see reporters in the middle of hurricanes. Can they just stay safe in a room and fix a camera outside? I would much rather see different angles of the storm and see no people out there. It was often impossible to hear then anyway. The communication between the studio and location was fucked up and did not help anyway. It also seemed like they showed an awful lot of Shell stations. JS

*****An estimated 70 million Americans saw the fake Russian ads during the campaign. No impact??

*****The Stones are on their No Filter tour in Europe and they brought out ‘Dancin with Mr. D’ which hasn’t been played live since 1973.

*****Trumps lawyers seem to want Jared out.

*****Steve Bannon’s Great Great Grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland who needed no papers to get in this country.

*****Montgomery , Alabama is going to open a Museum of lynching. There is a wall lined with jars of dirt that were collected from sites of lynching’s from around the country. Very powerful.

*****Thanks Trump administration for removing references to ‘LGBTQ’ youth from a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. It also eliminates funding to international groups that provide abortions. This comes from mostly evangelical lobbyists who are reporting that they are having more discussions with this administration than they ever had with any President.

*****Vanity Fair has their best dressed list out which includes Harry Styles, Rihanna, Solange, Jack Schlossberg, Justin Trudeau, Janelle Monae, Dev Patel, Cate Blanchett, Zoe Kravitz, Ruth Negga, and Donald Glover. The hall of fame mentioned Lauren Hutton, Jeremy irons and Prince Phillip.

*****More police brutality against the black man with the subduing of the Seahawks Michael Bennett for no apparent reason.

*****Leslie Van Houten has again been granted parole. As last year she is waiting out the 120 days to get the word from Gov. Jerry Brown.

*****Lovin’ Greg Garcia’s The Guest book on TBS. What is not to love about seeing Charles Robinson and Carly Jibson again. It made my day to see guest Orson Bean!!

*****The U.S. office of government ethics has changed a policy that will now allow lobbyists to donate to staffers legal defense funds.

*****Cameras have taken the first pictures of white giraffes in Kenya.

*****The Simpsons will be going to New Orleans this season!

*****The Middle is starting its last season. We will miss U!

*****Jay Pharoah has a new show on Showtime. White Famous is loosely based on the life of Jamie Foxx who is the executive producer.

*****John Davis Washington, son of Denzel may head the cast of Black Klansman. Spike Lee will direct and Jordan Peele will produce the true story of an African American who in 1978 infiltrated the KKK. Ron Stallworth used phones and his own writing to communicate with the organization. When he had to appear in person he sent a white officer in his place. They were able to sometimes sabotage cross burnings and other activities.

*****IT just had the biggest horror movie opening ever. The acting is quite nice for chapter 1 but the ending a bit long.

*****Netflix is bringing a delicious doc : Jim and Andy The great beyond featuring a very special contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton. Spike Jonze is producing with the hundred hours of footage from Man on the Moon. ** Other new docs on the way look at Eric Clapton, Grace Jones and Sammy Davis Jr. It is the first time that Kim Novak will talk on camera about dating Sammy.

*****September 16 brought the Juggalos march on Washington. They have been bringing awareness about their gang designation and the harm that it has caused. The running man with a hatchet is considered a gang symbol and gives cops probable cause to search. The FBI labeled Juggalos a hybrid gang in 2011. Also marching were some of the alt right calling their march the mother of all rallies but it only produced about 500 people.

*****Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin requested use of a government jet for his honeymoon and he later withdrew that request.

*****Finally there was a confirmation from a charity that Trump claims to have given to after the Hurricanes. Direct relief received 25 thou. ** There have still been no charities that received money from the inauguration fund.

*****WGN is bringing us a new show called Bellevue.

*****Howard Buffett will be the new Sheriff of Macon county in Illinois. His father Warren had donated millions to the area.

*****Prophets of Rage are here to raise awareness with members of Cypress Hill, Rage against the Machine and Public Enemy.

*****LA summer Olympics in 2028?!

*****Sean Spicer landed on Jimmy Kimmel. Wow.. What a kiss ass whiny bitch. He tried hard to stay in Trumps good graces with compliments for the Pres and constant berating of the press. He reminded me of a ventriloquist dummy with a hand up his ass.** His cameo at the Emmy’s did not go over very well either.

***** Model Monroe Bergdorf was fired by L’oreal because of her anti- racist remarks. She has now been hired by Illamasqua.

*****Boycott Dragon Dumps! Don’t pay your bill on time and the owner dumps garbage on your lawn.

*****It looks like Trevor Noah will stay with the Daily show until at least 2022.

*****James Woods used his twitter account to try and shame a movie about a gay romance between a 17 year old and a 24 year old. Amber Tamblyn tweeted that Woods had hit on her for real when she was only 16.

*****Scientists are trying to bring back the chelonoidis elephantopus Galopagos turtles. 80 blood samples of modern day island turtles have genetic traces of the lost species. Even though they have been extinct for 160 years, scientists think they can reproduce though not to 100%. Could they reverse the negative effects that humans cause in the environment?

***** Why do bullies feel the need to use the art of artists who want nothing to do with them? It is like using ‘You can’t always get what you want’ for Trump when there are plenty of artists who agree with you that would love for you to use their art. Now Universal music and American recordings had to send a cease and desist letter to the white supremacist site Stormfront to stop using Johnny Cash’s version of ‘I won’t back down.’ The host blames the Jews.

*****Tru tv will bring us At home with Amy Sedaris.

*****North Dakota paleontologists have been uncovering so many bones that they are inviting the public to help. It sounds like a dream come true.

*****Paul Newman is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Godfather. JS

*****St. Louis exploded into protest with yet another acquittal of a police officer after the shooting of a black man, Anthony Lamar Smith. Peoria, Il is also dealing with the shooting of an alleged bank robber who was shot 18 times.

*****The NFL is standing together in solidarity for equality and scary clown is sniping at them like a bitch. Our leader would not know respect and maturity if it bit him in the ass.** The Packers asked their fans to stand arm in arm with them on their Thursday night game with the Bears. Respect to Aaron Rodgers and the guys for speaking out before the game on equality. Some ‘fans’ are burning their Packer stuff. .. Why do these Trump supporters always want to burn everything? Do they have any idea how racist and ridiculous that looks?

*****Veep is going to bring us their last season while Julia is battling breast cancer. Joe Biden tweeted that us Veeps must stick together to show his support.

*****The Emmy’s with Stephen Colbert have come and gone. My best dressed were Ellie Kemper, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Leslie Jones, Matthew Rhys, Claire Foy, Evan Rachel Wood ,Gabrielle Union, Donald Glover, Emmy Rossum, Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman and Julia- Louis Dreyfus. My worst dressed were Uzo Aduba, Debra Messing, Anna Farris, Tracee Ellis Ross and Prianka Chopra. I love Sarah Paulson and the back of her dress was great but …?? There was so much black fabric which was awesome. Was it mourning for the earthquake and hurricane victims or just a general sadness for the country? Whatever the reason.. hooray black!!**Also happy that hairstyles were mostly long and loose.** I was happy to see Laura Dern win for supporting actress in a limited series or movie. ** The Handmaids tale won for show, directing and writing , for Anne Dowd who looked more shocked and appreciative than I have ever seen and Elisabeth Moss. ** I was happy for Alec Baldwin for best supporting actor but was really routing for Louie Anderson. ** When the noms came out, I could not imagine anything beating out FEUD but everything did. ** The girls from 9 to 5 stole the show with their mention of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. ** Donald Glover won for directing and acting. **Alexander Skarsgard won which gave he and his brother quite a week. ** John Oliver won two and he again flew in his whole staff. ** Julia- Louis Dreyfus has now won the most Emmys for the same character in the same show. Veep got best comedy.**It was a wonderful moment when Carol Burnett and Norman Lear came out but DeNiro looked so disinterested.** Cicely Tyson has often been described as a bit of a diva and seemed a bit out of it on the broadcast but her counterpart saved the day.** So sad that Bob Odenkirk did not win but kudos to sterling K. Brown. They seemed to play him off too quickly while Nicole Kidman and big little lies had all the time in the world.

*****Bobby Moynihan stars in the new ‘Me Myself and I’ on CBS.

*****Word is that the Trump campaign is asking supporters to contribute money to build the wall.

*****Can we pay a little more attention to Puerto Rico? Why is the Pres giving them grief? Things were tough enough before the devastation. Puerto Rico has no bankruptcy and running a business is so costly there. Companies there must buy American which we don’t have to do. Forty percent of residents don’t have insurance. So many of the supplies sent to help are just sitting there in San Juan.

*****Angela Merkel has won a 4th term as German chancellor.

*****Singapore got their first female President, Halimah Yacob. She was the only candidate.

*****There was a settlement in a lawsuit against Club Cabaret. Dancers sued to be employees instead of individual contractors. The dancers won a million and cost of legal fees.

*****Art Garfunkel has a memoir/diary/ book of musings out called ‘What is it all but luminous.’

*****The personal account of Ted Cruz hit ‘like’ on a porn site on 9/11. He calls it a mistake by a staffer. A college roommate of Cruz said that he was not surprised.

*****After a tweet from the Pres about hitting Hil with a golf ball, Stephen King tweeted: Thinks hitting a woman with a golf ball and knocking her down is funny. Myself, I think it indicates a severely fucked up mind.

*****Brooklyn 99 is back and funnier than ever with the same great cast and opening.

*****Bill Maher and Jimmy Kimmel are rated number 1 of tv personalities based on Facebook, Instagram, twitter et al.

*****R.I.P Richard Anderson, Walter Becker, Don Williams, David Tang, Troy Gentry, Murray Lerner, Mexico’s earthquake victims, those lost to hurricane Irma, Frank Vincent, Len Wein, Grant Hart, Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Rounds, Bonnie Angelo, Hugh Hefner, Jake La Motta, Eddie Russell Jr., Edith Windsor, Tony Booth and Monty Hall.

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thejistblog-blog · 6 years

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After a long hiatus from this blog for many reasons (which include being locked out), I am happy to announce The Jist Blog will be back full time! And there is no better way to start than to finish off the Nascar season. It was an epic showdown between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr, with Logano getting the best of Truex.

Rather than go in-depth about in-season incidents, let’s rank the top 50 drivers currently in NASCAR. In order to rank, I will take into account categories such as performance, wins, consistency, talent and experience. Here is my current list:

1. Kevin Harvick: After an 8-win season and many dominant performances, this is a clear pick for 1. 2. Kyle Busch: An 8-win season for Kyle but not as dominant as Harvick overall. A close second. 3. Joey Logano: When you win a championship and finish 3rd overall, it shows you just how great the class of the field is. 4. Martin Truex Jr: It was a great season, however a lack of aggression at key points drops him down a bit. 5. Brad Keselowski: When you win two crown jewels in a season, you have to be near the top. 6. Chase Elliott: Three wins on the season. Drive 9 really hit the map this season. 7. Kyle Larson: While Larson had no Cup wins, he had a few Xfinity wins and showed overall he had tremendous speed at times. 8. Jimmie Johnson: While Jimmie struggled for most of the season and went winless, he’s still Jimmie Johnson and deserves our respect to keep him in the top 10 as a 7-time champ. 9. Ryan Blaney: While there is a strong group of drivers grouped together, Blaney led quite a few laps and looked pretty good for a first-year team. 10. Kurt Busch: Towards the end of the season, Kurt looked stronger and stronger. His short track program seemed to be as good as anyone. Definitely a bit of a rebirth in the former champ’s career. 11. Clint Bowyer: Two wins for Clint. One of the top drivers, he fell back a bit from where he would have liked to be near the end of the season. Still pretty good. 12. Aric Almirola: First year at SHR. Showed he’s got talent for the team, came on strong at the end. Deserved that win and will continue to win races with this impressive form. 13. Denny Hamlin: First time in forever that he has a winless season. Looked very strong especially at short tracks. 14. Erik Jones: Got first career Cup win. Towards the end of the season, showed impressive speed. Should be fun to watch for years to come. 15. Austin Dillon: A Daytona 500 win always boosts your position. Definitely Dillon outperformed ability of his racecar at times. 16. Alex Bowman: Made the playoffs in his first year at Hendrick. Showed impressive talent and if Hendrick improves he should improve with them. 17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr: A disappointing Daytona proved costly for Ricky. He has shown he has the ability to compete for top 10s. Roush equipment must improve as Ricky can compete with top guns in right equipment. 18. Ryan Newman: Easily a top 20 driver in the sport. Last couple seasons however it’s been more of a struggle. Most difficult driver to battle against. 19. Matt Kenseth: While not a full time driver, Kenseth deserves to be in the top 20 because as proven in Miami, he’s still got it. With a top ride he can win. 20. Jamie McMurray: Not quite the overall speed he would’ve liked, however a consistent top 20 runner and impressive top 5 runs at Charlotte and Texas. 21. Daniel Suarez: A sophomore slump of sorts. Suarez wasn’t as close to his 3 teammates as he would’ve liked. Considering his equipment, he probably won’t be too happy with his finishing position. Very impressive run at Pocono. 22. Paul Menard: First season with the Wood Bros. Didn’t have speed compared to Ford teammates, but did manage a stage win and pole. 23. William Byron: Rookie of the year. Some struggles but expected for a rookie campaign. Should begin to see massive improvements next year. 24. AJ Allmendinger: Not as strong on road courses as he would have liked. Able to pull off surprise finishes once in a while. 25. Chris Buescher: Had some very good runs. Shows some very good talent when he’s on his game. 26. Matt DiBenedetto: For an under-budget team, Matt performs above expectation most weeks. Should be better next year with better equipment. 27. Bubba Wallace: A rookie campaign with many bruises. A few less wrecks next season and Bubba could be the most improved driver, easily. 28. Michael McDowell: There were some very competitive runs from this team. Not much to expect when budget differences are so high. 29. David Ragan: Very good from Ragan’s team as well. Not much more to be expected from them. 30. Ty Dillon: A very trying season for Ty. Towards the end, improvements had begun and results did begin to show. 31. Kasey Kahne: A great career for a great driver. Too bad he couldn’t end 2018 on his own terms in the car. 32. Regan Smith: For someone who got in the car last minute, he had some pretty good runs. Regan can be competitive with good equipment. 33. Cole Whitt: A driver who always had the ability to outdrive his equipment. He’s now retired, but what if he had caught that break to succeed. 34. Ross Chastain: First non-Cup driver. Chastain had a few runs in Cup, however the results are more Cup-based and you must prove yourself in a Cup car to be higher on this list. 35. Trevor Bayne: Asked to step away from the vehicle for a number of races, Bayne showed he can still wheel a car when he did drive it. 36. Christopher Bell: A very impressive young talent. Bell is a former truck champ and has had very good speed in Xfinity. He’ll move to Cup soon. 37. Justin Allgaier: A great season from a driver who has shown to be part of the class of the Xfinity field. 38. Daniel Hemric: Daniel appears to be the real deal. Only one thing drops him down: no wins as of yet. 39. Tyler Reddick: Moved up the most. That was one might impressive performance at Homestead in Xfinity. 40. Brett Moffitt: Lack of sponsorship didn’t prevent Moffitt from being clutch in massive moments. 41. Cole Custer: Custer has shown speed at times, and given the right equipment he can win races in Xfinity. 42. John Hunter Nemechek: Probably wouldn’t have put him so high, except he always impresses when it counts in both trucks and Xfinity. 43. Noah Gragson: How do you follow up a speedy season? Start working for Xfinity and let’s see if the good mojo continues. 44. Todd Gilliland: Unfair but Todd was competitive and did almost win a couple races. 45. Johnny Sauter: Many wins for Sauter, except he struggled the last two events. 46. Chase Briscoe: If this guy had a full time ride, he’d win in Xfinity or trucks. Limited starts in either series but 2 wins total. 47. Justin Haley: Haley wasn’t over-the-top great, but he did manage three wins in a season. Also he almost and should’ve won Daytona in July. 48. Grant Enfinger: An upset win late in the year and an impressive display of speed near the end of the truck season. 49. Matt Tifft: A driver with not much expectation who performed very well at the end of the season. 50. Elliott Sadler: Struggled at the end, but it was an impressive display of consistently from Sadler all year. He will be missed in the garage.

#nascar #top50 #drivers

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thrashermaxey · 7 years

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Ramblings: Evander Kane Pops Four; Kuznetsov Injured; Forsberg Friday – March 17

While the Sabres wouldn’t commit to it, Jack Eichel looks ready to make his return to the lineup Saturday for their afternoon tilt against Chicago. He has missed 15 games with an ankle injury.

For those on their way to the head-to-head semi-finals, this is huge. The team has four games next week including the Rangers, Canadiens, and Coyotes. If he was on your roster and you’re out of H2H playoffs… better luck next year?

Kyle Okposo also skated having been sidelined with concussion issues but he’s further away from suiting up.

James Neal returned to the Golden Knights but did so on the top line with Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson. The coach wanted to leave the second line of Perron-Haula-Tatar together. I suspect that once Reilly Smith is ready to go, however, Tatar returns back to the third line and the top-six returns to the iteration we have seen the majority of the season.

TJ Oshie has now scored in back-to-back games with his first-period power-play tally against the Islanders last night. It’s the first time since games 2 and 3 of the season that he scored in consecutive contests. For perspective, he did it six times last season in just 68 games played, including a stretch where he scored in four straight. He needs one more power-play point to tie a career-high in this regard.

Jakub Vrana had his first multi-point night since November 22nd with a goal and an assist. He did that in under nine minutes of ice time. He has six points in his last eight games while averaging under 11 minutes a game. Maybe give him some more ice time?

For fun: since time on ice started being kept 20 years ago, there have been 65 forwards to play at least 75 games and amass at least 25 points while totalling under 1000 minutes (he won’t reach 1000). Vrana, should he play the balance of the season, would make 66. Should he get to 30 points somehow, he’d be just the 29th player to do so.

Evgeny Kuznetsov assisted on Oshie’s PP goal and it was his 70th point of the year.

Things took a turn for the worse for Kuznetsov, though. Very late in the second period he was on a partial breakaway and after a slash from Jordan Eberle and what looked like getting tangled in the goaltender’s stick, he went crashing into the boards. He stayed down for a few minutes and looked to be holding his left wrist skating off. He did not return and we won’t get an update until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.

In the short-term, the Caps left their second and third lines together and just moved Travis Boyd up to play with Ovechkin. I’m fairly certain that won’t be a long-term solution should they need one.

Tyler Seguin set a career-high in goals with 38 with his own first-period power-play marker against the Senators. Alexander Radulov had an assist on the goal and now each of Dallas’s Big Four has at least 20 power-play points.

It was a pretty tic-tac-goal, too:

Passing perfection leads to a @tseguinofficial goal. pic.twitter.com/q4Vqyi1VlM

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 17, 2018

Mike Hoffman came up big for the Sens, assisting on Ottawa’s late third-period goal that would help push them to overtime (the Stars tied it up late) and then scoring the overtime winner. He had three shots total, giving him 225 on the year. He needs 18 more to set a career-best. The assist on the team’s second goal was his 50th point of the year.

Jamie Benn had a huge game for roto owners, racking two assists (one on the PP), five shots, a blocked shot, and a hit.

Erik Karlsson’s two assists puts him two points back of John Klingberg for the league lead among blue liners.

Evander Kane was a game-time decision for the Sharks. Luckily for them, he ended up in the lineup. Kane scored four of San Jose’s seven goals on the way to the win. He had seven shots total.

It was Kane’s first four-goal game of his career and the fourth in the NHL this season (Connor McDavid, Patrice Bergeron, Alex Ovechkin).

Oddly enough, on seven goals, Kane and Tomas Hertl (goal and assist) were the only players with multi-point games. Hertl needs one more tally to reach 20 on the season.

Mike Smith was pulled after the sixth goal.

Micheal Ferland had a solid night for himself with a goal, assists, one additional shot, two blocks, and three hits. That’s how you stuff the stat sheet.

Filip Forsberg had two goals on five shots to lead the Preds over the Avs and Forsberg has now reached 20 goals for the season.

PK Subban had a monster fantasy night with an assist, a plus-1 rating, five shots, one block, four penalty minutes, and two hits.

I know this is of interest to Dobber: the Professional Hockey Writers Association announced that after a vote of their members, they will be making ballots public. This is an effort to boost transparency.

Dobber already does this for his ballots, as do many others. But now we get to see which members voted for which players and that should help readers identify writers who, let’s say, lean favourably more towards certain teams.

It’s pretty cool to see Andreas Athanasiou having the season he’s having. He was a guy held down by the organization for a couple years and even when he was with the big club often found himself in the doghouse. He was jerked around at contract time and is making the team look foolish for doing so.

Here’s what’s impressive to me: he’s inside the top-30 forwards in individual shot attempts per 60 minutes this year at five-on-five, ahead of prolific shooters like Max Pacioretty and Nikita Kucherov. It’s at this point where it’s worth noting the Habs are seventh in the league in team shot attempts per 60 minutes and Tampa Bay is 11th. Detroit is a bottom-5 team in shot attempts, ranking just ahead of Vancouver. On a 15-minute basis, Pacioretty takes 6.9 percent of the team’s shots. Kucherov takes 6.8 percent. Athanasiou takes 7.8 percent.

Athanasiou is piling up the shots on a team that doesn’t pile up the shots.

I thought I would go through some other players doing the same, just to keep in mind for next season.

Tyler Toffoli

Despite a horrific streak from early January through late February that saw the sniper pocket just one goal, Toffoli has 23 tallies on the season, tying him for second-most of his career. He’s on pace for 27 goals and is doing so with a shooting percentage (10 percent) lower than his career average (11.6 percent). A big reason for that is shot volume. While we’re accustomed to Toffoli shooting a lot, he’s currently at a career-best 20.58 shot attempts per 60 minutes at five-on-five. He’s also taking 8.9 percent of the team’s shots per 15 minutes, which makes the numbers Pacioretty, Kucherov, and Athanasiou look like a pittance. He’s been a machine this year, but it’s as if Sutter is still behind the bench seeing as Toffoli is earning just 16 seconds more per game of five-on-five ice time than Trevor Lewis. C’est la vie.

Taylor Hall

I mean, what more needs to be said at this point. Hall is almost single-handedly dragging the Devils to a playoff spot and earning himself Hart Trophy conversation at the same time. It should come as no surprise, then, that he’s leading the Devils in market share of shot attempts. He’s currently taking 7.9 percent of the team’s shots per 15 minutes with Miles Wood not far behind at 7.3 percent.

Wood seems to have a pretty bright future. His on-ice speed is something to behold. I don’t want to put him in the Michael Grabner conversation, but it almost seems at times that the Devils have a set play when he’s on the ice and they’re in the defensive zone. The set play is “get the puck into the neutral zone and let Wood skate.” Not a bad plan.

The problem is I’m not sure how much consistent fantasy relevance he can have. The one spot this team is deep is left wing. Should they keep Patrick Maroon or Michael Grabner around in the offseason, and Marcus Johansson is healthy, Wood could be the team’s fourth-line left wing next year. Good for the team’s depth, bad for his fantasy value.

Jake Virtanen

Out of 331 forwards with at least 500 minutes of five-on-five ice time, Virtanen is in the top-50 of individual shot attempts per 60 minutes. Not as a percentage of his team, just overall in the league. That’s ahead of even Brock Boeser and Auston Matthews.

Now, I am absolutely not comparing Virtanen to Boeser or Matthews. All I’m saying is that following a season where he was stuck mostly in the AHL, he’s returned to being a pretty good shot-volume guy in a limited role as he showed in his rookie season. He’s even tied for the team lead in expected goals per 60 minutes with Daniel Sedin. Not bad!

When I asked fellow Dobber writer Cam Robinson for some thoughts on Virtanen, here’s what he had to say:

Virtanen got a look on the top line but they refuse to play him in Boeser’s usual spot on the PP despite him having a rocket for a shot. Travis Green just keeps throwing Sam Gagner out there and watching teams sag off him because he’s really not a threat at all in that area. The Canucks are a tire fire but they could be doing more to facilitate the team’s youngsters. This is the perfect time to wheel a guy like Virtanen out in all situations. Ah well, maybe they’ll score a goal again next season when Boeser rejoins the fold.

He would know better than I.

Jared McCann

The played acquired in the Erik Gudbranson trade is fifth among Panthers forwards in primary points per 60 minutes at five-on-five (1.25) behind Aleksander Barkov, Evgenii Dadonov, Nick Bjugstad, and Jonathan Huberdeau. Yes, McCann is well ahead of Vincent Trocheck (1.03) in this regard, and it’s despite McCann shooting just 4.9 percent at five-on-five. It’s been a revelatory season for the 21-year old centre.

He’s not been as prolific in his shot share of the team (6.6 percent) as some of the aforementioned players but he’s still shooting at a career-best rate by a wide margin and is settling in nicely into that third-line role for the team.

Of course, fantasy relevance is going to be hard to come by. He’s stuck behind Barkov and Trocheck for the next, oh, half-decade or so, and will likely not sniff the top PP unit in the meantime. Third-line players with minimal power-play time don’t often lead to a lot of fantasy production. He is, however, showing promise for deep league and dynasty owners, which gives hope he can be a Lars Eller-type player, posting 15-goal, 30-point seasons even in a minimal role.

Can I just repeat how enamoured I am with Tyler Toffoli? Is it getting a bit much? It’s getting a bit much. I’ll stop.

For now.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-evander-kane-pops-four-kuznetsov-injured-forsberg-friday-march-17/

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