#i also won!!! huge!!! first person (male or female!) to win back to back titles at this competition!!!

[stargarland]

good morning everyone 💙💙💙💙 very wonderful morning it has been! hope everyone is having a good day or night or whatever time it is🫂🫂🫂🫂

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Avengers Infinity War-First Time Watching Reaction Play-by-Play (Pt. 2)

Part 1

I wonder how many people Gamora has killed? What made her finally snap to not serve Thanos anymore?

How DID Gamora find it? Like, who told her?

How did Thanos capture nebula?

Poor nebula. She’s literally been through hell and back.

Ohhhh she snuck on board...

Thanos you suck so much. You favor one daughter over another.

Oh. Where was said map to the soul stone?

Gosh I feel so damn bad for nebula. She was raised as his daughter too but he tortured her and tore her apart. Nebula never had the chance to be her equal. She deserves so much.

Taught groot as an elective? What about all speak?

Buckle up rocket. It’s gonna get emotional.

Thor is literally all alone. He needs a time to sit alone and cry and break a whole building.

Rocket and Thor friends? Please

1500 years old? Jane, honey, you escaped.

Gotta give it up to Hemsworth’s acting chops here. Especially talking to nobody in reality. Just a bunch of cgi

Ew ew ew eye socket

Should have washed that yikes

Snuck it out by hiding it up your? Huh? You watch too many movies rocket.

Huge title card. Thank you. I wouldn’t have known where we were despite them saying their location many times.

How is that video game battery not dead?

Perceptive rabbit

I LOVE that they used a dwarf to play a giant character!!! This is brilliant! (And that dwarves are giant for some reason lol.)

Soooo again Thanos killed everyone EXCEPT Eitri despite his “morality” supposedly being balance

Poor hands

Poor nebula

Smart nebula

Maybe should have waited to be fixed fully first

Ah crap. SOMEONE PICK UP THE SPACE PHONE

MANTIS

Love how Stark asks for peters help in steering and not Stephen lmao

Nice parking job

Peter, stop popping pop culture refs

Lmao ITS ABOUT TO BE THE ICONIC SCENE

YES PLEASE

Blanket of Death. Capey has a new nickname.

Where’s Gamora

Who’s Gamora

Why is Gamora

What master do you serve?

Jesus?

I mean, yea I do. So does Pratt lmaoo.

LMAO PARKER’S FACE WHEN QUILL SAID THOR WASNT HANDSOME

Storm breaker time baby

“In theory it could summon the bifrost” who theorized this? How do you only theorize and not know?

Oh my gosh mantis is just bouncing around

Mr. Clean lmao

Kick names, take ass

Hey now, these guys saved the galaxy and universe from Ego so lmao

Oh no I know the scene coming up

Poor quill lmao

“I’m half human. So the 50% of me that’s stupid, that’s 100% of you.” “Your math is, blowing my mind.” What’s funny is that Quill’s math was actually completely accurate lol

Stephen having a stroke or a seizure? You good homie?

Soooo if Strange looked to the future and so possible outcomes, what does that mean for the TVA? According to them, there’s ONE sacred timeline, so all other branches are erased (which again messes up what smart hulk eventually says in end game. See kids, this is why you don’t mess with time travel in stories. There’s no way to go back in time without creating a time loop). Ehhhhh I’ll let it slide. Just ignore it... sigh... I can’t help it if I’ve studied paradoxes

Hmmmm not good odds I’ve gotta say...

Watch like, outside of the millions of realities that strange saw, there were like a million or billion more he missed where they won with no casualties lol

Hey Red Skull. Long time no see. How did he get here anyways and why?

Yea you’re prepared all right...

Gotta say, Lord Elrond has seen better days

I’m not ready to say good bye to this Gamora. Gamora and Loki and Nat go down as my favorite characters, gotta say. I know that Tony does and it’s sad, but his feels more satisfying because his sacrifice directly results in them winning. Loki is murdered. Gamora is murdered. Nat died just for a stepping stone for the avengers. She has no idea whether or not they will actually win in the end.

I’m hopeful they may bring Nat back like in the comics, red room clone style.

We got back vision, Loki (kinda), variant Gamora, a new captain America, why not Nat? Yea we have a prequel, but gosh I love her so much.

“You must lose that which you love.” Couldn’t that apply to like an object or something? Could I not throw my Nintendo switch over the cliff? Or my dog? (I would hate that just as much as a person, don’t get me wrong, I’m just curious about the rules)

Yea boohoo sad for Thanos... loses his favorite daughter. I don’t care about him. He deserves suffering.

Poor Gamora doesn’t think he’s willing to do it.. GIRL RUN!!!

Thanos deserves all the suffering.

He does love you Gamora... but that love... it’s selfish. It’s blind... Thanos seems to be a chaotic vigilante who is narrowminded, tunnel vision on his goal with no regards of the cost. But he is evil. If there is ever an alternate route to an end that doesn’t result in the loss of innocent lives, and you know that but you willingly choose the once that costs innocent lives, that is an evil decision. Maybe Thanos isn’t evil, but he’s not good. Far from it. He’s obsessed with this idyllic Utopia but he rushes to one method of getting there. Yes, people suffer. It sucks... it’s unfair... it’s horrible. But it is never the right of someone else to dictate whether or not said person would be better off dead. Who lives, who dies. If Thanos truly was neutral and not selfish, he would have thrown his own life into the mix of the potential 50/50 snap. Thanos is not good. He’s not misunderstood. He’s a murderer. A genocidal cult leader. I have no tears for him. Only for those who suffered more at his hands.

Rant over, time to try not to cry about Gamora...

Her face of realization

Gamora run please

Thanos, I hate you. (Great character her, but not a good person)

Poor Gamora

Oh my gosh the emotion here is great but I’ve heard this sound used as a meme on TikTok too many times aghhhh

Gamora!

What a way to die

I’m crying again. I miss her already...

Who the hell designed this place and put the stone here???? Who did this?

Cry Thanos. Suffer. My only comfort here is that you are sad. You deserve suffering. You really do...

The TVA is laughing here and I’m not okay..

Poor Peter Quill... he’s also lost a lot like Thor, but has had the “luck” of not knowing his family too close.

Wakanda babyyyy

No, you don’t want Starbucks, you want Dutch bros

Lmao I love rhodey. Poor Bruce.

BUCKY BUCKY BUCKY

HUG

NO CMON HAVE A LONG HUG

MALE FRIENDSHIPS ARE SO IMPORTANT.

Yea Shuri show em up.

Okay quick pause, I love love LOVE how Shuri is smarter. It’s a powerful moment for females BUT it’s not done in a way that’s condescending to males! It’s not saying women power because men bad, she’s just good! (And she has had access to technology they never could have but I digress). More of this please Hollywood. Don’t let being a female be the power. I don’t want strong female characters, I want strong characters who happen to be female. Ones who hold their own, have faults like anyone else, struggle, have weaknesses and strengths, but are strong without putting down others. Just a comment, just because a woman character may not be as strong as a man character, that is not saying she’s weak. If you’re the second strongest human in the world, you are NOT weak. You’re just not as strong as the strongest human ever, but that’s nothing against you. LET WOMEN STAND ON THEIR OWN MERITS WITHOUT SEX AFFECTING THEM!

Anyways

I love Shuri

I wish they had more time. She definitely could have done it. But stupid Thanos

Ughhhghhg

I know what many scenes are upcoming... with quill and peter and vision and everyone else

Let👏🏻Bucky👏🏻Have👏🏻Peace👏🏻

Thank you Nat!!! I love that Nat is so protective and selfless.

GET THIS MAN A SHIELD

Bucky needs love please. He’s my stand in, manipulated, greasy, long haired, dark and mysterious, stabby boy. (Also I need Bucky and Loki to meet. But let Loki finish his show (and come out of it alive because if he doesn’t I will sue) and be the antihero hero we need. Please. If he doesn’t get reintroduced into the mcu as a hero I will sue.

Thor, sweetie, are you a masochist?

Back to wakanda

Oh no, bad CGI, floating head Bruce banner. I’ll let it slide... sigh....

Can’t like, you just rain bombs on them forever?

JIBARI TRIBE YEA BOYYYYY

Sorry Proxima Midnight, you look like a frog and your name sounds like a middle schooler’s OC.

How nice. Diplomatic meeting.

“Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood.” Reeeeeeally wish you didn’t say that, T’Challa...

Yay big CGI battle commence! It’s like a really expensive animated cartoon at this point

WAKANDA FOREVER!

Poor Bucky. Forgot this dude doesn’t know much about the modern world.

Ahhhh Kamikazi aliens

I just wanna say that I love that Wakanda still has the artistic culture in their clothing and tradition all the while having badass, super advanced technology.

Why can’t they just rain bombs down the whole fight lol. Rhodey has those super nice bombs, like, do that they he whole time? Please? Why do you not have a barrier around the entire king.

No M’Baku, it’s not the end of wakanda. But half of all life, yea

WAKANDA FOREVER YEAAAAAAA

They should honesty all have nano tech suits like black panther lol. Or iron man suits. Fine maybe the most powerful one with the best quality material for the king, but besides that, yknow.

Wow Steve is hot with a beard.

So much happening at once. Thor, Wakanda, Vormir, Knowhere, am I missing anything?

Okay, but what IS the full force of a star? Like in Newton’s or something? Juls? Is it heat?

What’s this metal? How does it fare with vibranium?

Get off your wooden butt, groot.

“He needs the axe” are you Thor, the god of axes?

Soooo, I thought Thor didn’t NEED the hammer, it just helped him concentrate his powers or act as a conduit. Is that retconned already?

Cmon groot, put down your game. Soooo, is Groot worthy? He technically lifted it. Or is it a technicality because it wasn’t fully finished yet?

Cmon bucky, use that fancy arm of yours.

Wow they’re getting destroyed.

They need wanda to help.

BADASS ENTRANCE BABYYYY

How did Thor know to come to wakanda?

Floaty head Bruce

“BRING ME THANOS!”

Ahhhhhahahaha yeaaaaaa

Cry Thanos. Do it. I hate you.

Much more of a purple grape nutsack.

Oh gosh... I know what Peter Quill is going to do. I still don’t hate him.

“With all six stone I would simply snap my fingers. They would all cease to exist.” Orrrr, now hear me out, I know I sound like a broken record now but... MAYBE DOUBLE THE RESOURCES INSTEAD?? That’s not mercy. That’s not up to you to decide whether or not someone’s better off dead.

Smoosh

Yea quill has experience with the power stone

AIM FOR THE HEAD

Cmon it’s basic zombie tactics

I love peter quill lmao

Go capey!!!

Magic with a kick!

Poor Peter

CAPEY NOOOOOO

Wow he’s OP

Ouch quill just got majorly clotheslined

NEBULA

“Where’s Gamora?” 😭😭😭 SHE CARES AGHHHH

Restrain him! Work it mantis!!!

Why even remove the gauntlet, just slit his throat... kill him....

Quill no... stop being cocky...

Oh no

Quill please don’t

JUST SLIT THANOS’ THROAT

Quill please....

Poor quill. Just lost the person who really really loved him

Okay, I still love star lord. Idc what others think. He reacted realistically. If you hate peter quill for how he reacted, you better also hate Tony Stark for how he reacted to bucky when he learned bucky killed his parents despite knowing for a fact that bucky was brainwashed. Yes it was annoying... yes they were so close, but quill is so human here. I don’t hate him. He gets too much hate for acting like any normal person would have. Distraught, grief filled, he lost his love. Someone who helped him open up and finally move on from his mother’s death and fathers villainy.

Spider man saving mantis gives me life

How did that power stone blast not kill them?

Clearly Thanos has played Majora’s Mask. At least he has good taste.

So close vision.... but I know... I know what happens.

YES BUCKY AND ROCKET GUN CIRCLE.

Lmao give rocket Bucky’s old arm.

“I am Groot.” “I am Steve Rogers.” Comedy gold

Cmon Thor, go after the big one first.

Cmon wanda, save them. We need some scarlet witch magic up here to stop these

Okay that was so cool. AND THEN SHE USED THE BLADES

Oh no but now Shuri is alone

So close yet so far.... Dangit... vision was almost good

Ouch. Bonk to the head

YEA BLACK WIDOW

BADASS TIME

AND OKOYE!!

LETS GOOOOOOO

BADASS WOMEN

Ouch poor vision

Cmon Thor back up vision

Please

Hulk is in his feels

Cmon hulk grow up

Ooooh smart move banner

Aaaaand he’s gone

Giant blade look oit

Corvus, screw off.

YEA STEVE

WHERE IS THOR WHEN YOU NEED HIM

CMON NAT

Oh dang. Nice one wanda. But also, sheesh. Helluva way to go. But no big.

Yea vision. Stabby time.

Now vision and Steve, kiss.

Spider man saving everyone’s lives.

YEA STRANGE

Where was this in New York???

MULTIPLYING

WHY DIDNT YOU DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE????

Oh no

Well then... ouch. Soooo where’s the real stone???

Hey look Tony, you have a fan.

Okay I’m just pissed odd they didn’t just kill Thanos when they had him subdued. Like, worry about the glove AFTER he’s not longer a threat

Oof

Tony is taking a beating

HE WAS STABBED

WHAT

I don’t want your respect Thanos. That’s an insult.

They will remember him. They will remember him Thanos. When he kills you.

DOCTOR STRANGE WHAT?

You really doing this??? I guess he knows what needs to unfold for them to win... dang. I wouldn’t trust him tho.

Peter Quill in berserker mode

Where’d he go?

Name dropping the second movie

Strange knows everything about to go down. Who dies, who lives, what Thanos is about to do... he’s accepting his soon dusted demise because Stark needs to live...

AIM FOR THE HEAD UGHHHHH

Stop teleporting. That’s Loki’s gimmick.

KILL THIS RAISIN LOOKING NUTSACK UGH

Homie way too OP

Poor wanda and Vis...

HER LIP TREMBLE

PHENOMENAL ACTING

SAY I LOVE YOU

I JUST FEEL YOU

AGGHHHH IM CRYING AGAIN

Poor wanda. To have to kill her love... this.. this is a sacrifice Thanos... not your murder....

Wow Steve is holding back Thanos with pure brute

WANDA IS SO STRONG

HOLDING BACK THANOS WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY BREAKING THE MIND STONE

I LOVE YOU

AGHHHHHHHHH

And I know what happens next...

Poor wanda

Piss off thanos you understand nothing

You lost more than she could know? Bull crap. You are causing everyone to lose...

Cruel reality. Wanda has to see him die twice. RIP Vision

RIP half of all life...

AIM FOR THE DAMN HEAD

IF THOR KILLED HIM THEY COULD HAVE USED THE GAUNTLET TO BRING EVERYONE BACK TO LIFE. USED THE TIME STONE TO REVIVE THEM ALL.

How did that not kill Thanos tho. It may not have been a head shot but still.

Lil Gamora

What is this place?

Is this the soul realm?

Thanos, I hope you suffer forever. You deserve all the pain...

Rest In Peace: Vision, Loki, Bucky, T’Challa, Groot, Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Peter Quill, Dr. Strange, Peter Parker (I don’t feel so good), and everyone else...

Thank you Nebula.

Thanos, you do NOT deserve to retire peacefully—wipe that smile off of your face

Oop, Rest In Peace Maria Hill and Nick Fury too... Motherfu— (so close Sammy boy...)

Yea Thanos you didn’t really think that through. Much more than half will died since other people rely on other peoples lives

Good thing he hit that button last minute huh? I wonder how captain marvel would fare in the TVA? are her powers considered magic? I mean, she clearly doesn’t know everything since she only just learned about Thanos (which is funny because she was supposedly traversing the universe to protect people)

Welp... onto movie two!

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 49 - Grand Final: Imperial vs Corpus Christi, Cam

For the first year since 2013 there is no Oxford college in the Grand Final of University Challenge. In that time they only won a single trophy, when Balliol beat Wolfson in 2017, with various other colleges losing five more, mostly to sides from Cambridge. Manchester’s win over UCL seven years ago also marked the last time a London University had made the final, with Birkbeck’s triumph in 2003 the last time a series winner had come from the capital 

(If you read my Preview then you may have noticed that I’m reusing it as the introdction to the review, so you can just go ahead and skip to the start of play if you’re bored already. Otherwise, get stuck into some stats)

Imperial arrived in the studio looking to add to two previous Grand Final wins, the most recent of which came in 2001 against St John’s, Oxford, and they narrowly missed out on retaining their title against Somerville, Oxford the following year. 

Corpus Christi’s sister college at Oxford was involved in the most controversial moment of UC history in 2009 when their winning side, featuring the first UC celebrity Gail Trimble, was disqualified after the fact for fielding an ineligible player. This is a first final for the Cambridge Corpus though, who had never previously made it beyond the second round in the Paxman-Era.

The past ten years of University Challenge has seen only four women lift the trophy (out of a total of forty winners). Tonight’s match won’t add to that total, as for the third time in four years the final is an all-male affair. The reasons for this are numerous, and have been written about by many people (including Corpus captain Wang). Female contestants apply in fewer numbers and (this being a reason behind the former) receive a different level of commentary to the male contestants, with comments more often unsavoury and focussed on looks, as this thread by Jesus contestant Lucy Clarke details. 

However, one promising aspect of the line-up in terms of breaking the white-male hegemony is that three of the contestants are not white. Only three winning contestants in the last 12 years (thanks again to Ian Wang’s article) have been people of colour, but that number will be added to tonight, either by Corpus stars Wang and Gunasekera or Imperial’s Brandon.

Both Wang and Brandon are players who are well on their way to becoming quizzy celebs in the vein of Trimble (and 2017s Monkman and Seagull, who have fully-fledged (pun intended) media careers now), both in terms of how many questions they’ve answered and in terms of how they have captured the public imagination. 

Corpus Captain (Grandmaster) Wang (who narrowly edges his teammates Stewart and Gunasekera out with 19 starters to their 17 and 18) has gained a following for his childlike glee whenever he gets a head scratcher right. His conferences with teammates over bonus questions can also be a delight to watch, with no stone left unturned in any discussion. 

My favourite moment like this was in Corpus’ semi final music round. The question asked for two composers, one of whom taught the other. He agreed with left-hand man Gunasekera that the first tune was by Ravel, and Gunasekera quickly identified that the second one was by Vaughn-Williams. ‘Do we know if Vaughn-Williams was taught by Ravel?’, asked Wang, wanting to make absolutely sure. ‘Well, I know its by Vaughn-Williams’, replied Gunasekera.

Imperial are also very good at conferring, with a clear hierarchy of who knows best on the various different topics (McMeel on maths, and Brooks for the classical music for example), but they have a less balanced approach when it comes to the starter questions. Brandon (outta Jamaica, Queens) has been their outstanding player on the buzzer, with 32. Captain Rich is next with 13. (The Times list his total score for the series as 482, which is interesting because its exactly 100 points less than @ jack_jmmcb gets using his scoring method. And he scored exactly 100 points in his first match, which may indicate that they missed that out of the calculation)

This is no surprise though, because Brandon has strong quiz experience, winning more than £375,000 over appearances on three gameshows in the States, starting when he was just 14. Well, like his semi-final badge and Twitter bio say, he’s not here to make friends. 

Many “commentators” on Twitter have lambasted him as arrogant, and Paxman himself hit him with a sneering ‘Oh, is this too easy for you?’ in one of the early rounds, the general belief being that he’s acting like the competition is beneath him. But then again, when he seemed to be having a grand old time in the semi final, pointing at his teammates when he knew they had the answer, he got slagged off for that too. You can never win. And I don’t think he’s acting like he’s above the competition either. Like all people who are good at things he’s practised. And practised. And then done some more practising. 

Using the techniques of Roger Craig, the famed Jeopardy contestant who personally taught him as a youngster, he trained himself to be good at quizzing. And then, by watching loads of old episodes of University Challenge, to become really good at University Challenge. 

So he’s clearly very good. But University Challenge isn’t won by one person. There are four players on each team, and when you take the total number of starters answered by Imperial (63) and Corpus (59), there is barely any gap between them. In total Imperial have scored 1170 points to Corpus’ 1075. Pretty close too.

Brandon himself was keen to stress that Imperial were not a one-man team, and said on Twitter after the semi final iwin that ‘if you’re expecting me vs Wang in the final, don’t tune in. This is his team vs our team’. 

Interestingly, there are two teams that both finalists played and beat, so that might provide an insight into who is better placed to win. However...

Imperial 235 - 80 Trinity, Cam ... Imperial 185 - 115 Durham

Corpus 245 - 80 Trinity, Cam ... Corpus 185 - 130 Durham

...they have almost identical records against those two sides.

Anyway, you all know the rules by now. Here’s your first starter for ten...

Its Brooks, not Brandon, who gets Imperial off the mark, with tea, an answer most befitting of his soft teddy beat aesthetic. Bonuses on Italian cities gave them two more in quick succession. Stewart came in early for Corpus on the next starter, but Gothic Architecture is unfortunately part of the question that hadn’t been asked yet, so he loses five points. Brooks tries his luck again, but he misses too, and then its McMeels turn to come in with a rapid buzz of asteroids on the next ten pointer. 

A correct guess of Vivienne Westwood follows, but Brandon laments that ‘This is a weird period for me’, of 1930s Italian fashion designers and they miss the next bonus. He gets his buzzer fingers involved on the next starter though, a typically quickfire attack followed by a fist-pump-y gesture at McMeel, who looked like he knew what it meant.

He picks up the picture starter from Stewart, who guessed quickly but wrongly that it was the First Crusade (it was the Third). McMeel takes his second of the night, thereby matching his best performance of the series before the halfway point. They only manage one bonus, but they are already a hundred points clear.

Wang finally gets Corpus back into positive figures with an excellent buzz on an Art Starter (an arter? No, ignore that). They answer three bonuses on songs in 7/4 time in record time, interrupting Paxman after only a few words on the second two. Indeed he wasn’t ready to hear Wang’s Dave Brubeck so early on in the question that the Corpus captain had to repeat himself.

Brandon got his third of the night to put a stop to any plans Wang might have been formulating. He wouldn’t get another starter for the rest of the match though, and looked hopefully at Brooks on the music question, hoping to pull off another buzz-by-proxy as in the semi final, but Gunasekera beat him to the punch and then spectacularly rattled off the bonuses without so much as a pause. Impeccable.

Rich, who had suffered unfair questions as to his captaincy on Twitter, then took control of the match, silencing any doubters. In his previous three matches he had only taken four starters (though his skill on the bonuses couldn’t be questioned), but he took four of the next seven, with Brooks and McMeel taking one each too, as Imperial glided serenely upwards like a swan who’s forgotten its keys at the top of a waterfall but can’t be bothered to fly. 

The one starter which went to Corpus over that stretch was the second picture round, on movies, which Wang utterly annihilated, taking 4/4 in a matter of seconds. This was unsurprising, his film knowledge has been astounding all series, but it had been clear for some time that it wouldn’t be enough, but it went some way to establishing a respectable score. A couple more starters for Stewart took them above one hundred points, which was no mean feat with Imperial in such devastating form, but at the gong it was the London side who took the applause, and Professor Andrew Wiles presented them with the trophy in Oxford, later on.

Final Score: Imperial 275 - 105 Corpus Christi, Cambridge

With a total score of 380 between them, this was the highest scoring final since 2010, when Alex Guttenplan’s Emmanuel beat St John’s, Oxford 315-100. In recent years the finals have been nervy affairs, with several matches being among the lowest scoring of their respective series. 

Congratulations to both teams for putting on a show. Imperial deserve huge credit and probably to be acknowledged as one of the strongest winning teams of the past decade. And though they were blown away by Imperial’s buzzing power, Corpus still proved an excellent team, taking 13/15 bonuses that they got.

Brandon ends the campaign with 35 starters to his name, narrowly edging out Trinity’s Hughes (34) to be the best buzzer of the series. But, as he was at pains to tell us for months, he was outshone by his teammates in the final, which gives this tweet ‘Everybody who thinks I'm carrying the team is either gonna look real smart or real dumb next wk-soz in advance xx’ a bit of context.

And contrary to what his badge says, he certainly seemed to be having a grand old time with his teammates. He may not have been there to make friends, but it looks like he did.

FIN

Thanks for reading my blog this series, or just this post! I’m very grateful and somewhat surprised that I have any audience at all, and look forward to starting next series.

If you’d like to support what I do here then I have a woefully under-promoted Patreon, here. If I get enough supporters then I might do retrospective series reviews for the ones pre-2017...

Alternatively I have a ko-fi, here, if thats not your bag.

And here is a list of the e-book compilations I’ve made for previous series, that you can get on Kindle.

Cheers, and I’ll see you in July. Stay curious.

[artificialqueens]

Paper Hearts Chapter 5 (Branjie) -- meggie

A/N: I’ve changed to using male pronouns for Brooke and female for Vanjie because it felt more natural. I hope the switch isn’t distracting!

A huge thank you to Evan, my conspiracy partner in crime. I buy 100% of your theories and live for Nancy Drew nights, babe. Thank you for being you and for letting me borrow one of your theories. ;) Thank you to pinkgrapefruit for taking a look at this before anyone else and telling me I was on the right track and to writworm42 for giving it the final once-over.

This chapter is dedicated to all the beautiful souls on the Branjie Discord because every single one of you lights up my life on the daily. Who else can I geek out with about THAT LIVE at 11 p.m. and theorize with at 11 a.m. when I’m supposed to be teaching America’s youth? TL;DR: you guys are the best and I’m so glad we’ve made our little family.

And to all of you, for reading, liking, reblogging, and commenting. Let me know what you think either here or on my personal blog @artificialmeggie. My ask box is always open and I LOVE hearing from you. You make this otherwise useless hobby of mine worthwhile. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Enjoy Chapter Five: In which Brooke regrets telling Nina, asks Vanjie what it all means, and receives an offer he can’t refuse.

It’s halfway through Monday before Brooke starts to regret telling Nina.

He and Vanessa spend Saturday talking and kissing and “getting to know each other.” Production takes them to a movie on Sunday, so they hold hands under the cover of darkness in the theater and hidden under Vanjie’s hoodie in the van.

No one really seems to be any the wiser. Silky and Nina watch them with sidelong glances, Silky through narrowed, cynical eyes, and Nina with her Disney character smile and the excitement of a mother watching her child flourish and blossom for the first time.

Brooke guesses he can’t exactly hold that against her—Nina has been like a surrogate drag mother to him, and this is a pretty big step forward for Brooke Lynn, who until this point was pretty sure he was going to die alone in his apartment and be devoured by his cats.

He’s an optimist.

What he can and absolutely will hold against Nina is choosing both him and Vanessa to be on her team for the Diva Worship challenge.

(Although Brooke will never complain about working with Nina because he adores her. Just call him Delano.)

And Brooke isn’t mad about working with Vanjie, but they had decided (together. After many shared kisses and touches) that it may be better to keep things under wraps for now. They both know that eventually this thing between them—whatever it is—will have to be revealed to the other girls, but Brooke is hopeful they can get to the top seven or eight before it becomes an issue.

Not to mention that it’s probably best they keep their distance. It will be easier to keep their heads on straight that way. Easier to not get distracted. Just a better situation all around.

(If he’s being completely honest, he had said all this while Vanessa nibbled at his neck and run her hands under Brooke’s shirt and hummed her consent against Brooke’s lips.)

But before Vanjie had left for the night, Brooke paused and pulled away and said, “Seriously. We can’t let this get in the way.”

Vanessa had smirked a little, but nodded. “You right. When I beat you I want it to be because I beat you, not ‘cause you were distracted by all this.” Then she’d taken Brooke’s hands and run them down her body until they’d landed on her hips and they’d started kissing again, long and deep and languid.)

Ballet training is about discipline, and normally Brooke has that in spades. But when Vanessa is around, all bets are off. He wants to touch her, hug her, kiss her. He longs to pull her into his lap, press his mouth against the sensitive pulse point just under her ear, and suck gently, like he’d done countless times over the weekend after he’d discovered the way it made Vanjie’s breath hitch in her throat.

But Brooke is a Professional™, and no amount of animal magnetism that draws him to Vanessa will distract him from his main goal: the crown, the title, the $100,000 he has earmarked for charity. The knowledge that he actually fucking did it. That he won the biggest pageant of his life. That he’s worthy.

There are no second chances on Drag Race for girls like him, the polished, poised, and perfect ones, the ones who should win the first time around, and Brooke knows he has to get this right on the first go. No. Excuses.

No distractions.

So. He isn’t pressed about working with Vanjie, but he doesn’t think it’s fair that he’s essentially performing two challenges in the same go, even if it’s by his own making. Because fighting the temptation to touch Vanessa is proving to be one of the most difficult things he’s encountered so far. Even though he knows it’s for the best.

Luckily Nina sees it fit to assign Brooke the role as her co-host and give Vanessa a role of her own, and Brooke sighs in relief. He’s more than happy to play second fiddle to Nina, feed off her energy, banter. That part will be easy. Finding ways to treat Vanessa like just a good Judy for the next twenty-four hours… That might not be so simple.

*****

Silky’s on their team too. Which is fine. Silky is good off the cuff. Silky will make the best of the challenge, even though she’s working with Ariel, and their relationship is more than strained after last week’s blow up. But they’re fine. They’ll be fine.

Brooke constantly feels eyes on him, and he knows they almost certainly belong to Dr. Ganache, watching him, judging him.

They fly through the challenge. He and Nina banter and it’s easy and wonderful; their years of friendship pay off again. Silky and Ariel sound great when they do their music number, any drama from last week cast aside in Britney’s name. And then there’s Vanjie…

Vanessa performs her exorcism on Yvie and Mercedes, and Brooke nearly ruins his makeup because he’s laughing so hard. And it’s that personality, the sense of humor, the sheer wit and ability to let go and be human (flawed and brilliant and totally, completely beautiful) that Brooke feels himself so attracted to.

“You messaged me,” Vanjie had said on Saturday when they were lying together in Brooke’s bed, the lengths of their bodies pressed together, her fingertips tracing the outlines of Brooke’s daisies with the lightest of touches. “Remember? Last year?”

Brooke had nodded. “When you were eliminated. I thought you should have stayed. I remember.”

“You were so nice.” Vanessa had kissed him then, soft and sweet. Innocent. Like (almost) all of their kisses had been over the weekend. “People were being nice to me because of the meme, but you were… I don’t know. It was different. Like you already saw Jose and not just Vanjie.”

“I’m surprised you remember,” Brooke had admitted, propping his head in his hands and looking down at Vanessa.  “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who messaged you.”

“No,” Vanjie had confessed. “But you were the only one that stood out.”

“Damn, I must be a better writer than I thought.”

“Sure…” She’d drawled. “Also I thought you were cute.”

“Then why didn’t you message me back?”

“I never said I was smart, Mary.” Vanjie had shrugged. “If I knew what kind of kisser you were, maybe I would have.”

Brooke had covered Vanessa’s body with his own after that, and slotted their mouths together, and time had slipped by while they kissed and caressed and whispered secrets into one another’s skin.

Brooke has just started on his third makeup wipe when Vanessa saunters up to him at the mirror. “You be lookin’ like Jinkx Monsoon in that red hair today, Miss Brooke.”

They bump hips playfully. “I was just channeling a winner,” Brooke says, carefully picking the Pros-Aide from his eyebrows with the wipe. “Don’t want a repeat of last week.”

“Mmm. Made me wanna kiss you real bad.” Vanjie’s voice is low, barely audible even to Brooke, and it sends shivers down his back and raises goosebumps on his arms.

Brooke pauses, face still half-smeared with makeup, and places his palms on the counter. Vanessa follows suit, twisting their pinkies together. He knows he’s imagining it, but to Brooke all the background noise of the Werk Room fades to nothing. Silky’s boisterous laugh disappears, Ariel’s incessant vocal runs dissipate… All he hears is the pounding of his heart in his ears and the rush of breath in and out of his lungs that burn for Vanjie with every inhale.

“Hey, guys!” Nina drops her own package of makeup remover wipes on the counter to Brooke’s right, shattering the moment and causing Vanessa to pull her hand away suddenly.

Brooke starts at the lack of contact, and he misses it immediately, but he sighs.

No distractions.

“Great work today,” Nina says sincerely. “Both of you. You were hilarious, Vanessa.”

Vanjie gives Nina a tight-lipped smile and turns to Brooke, pulling him into a hug. “Come to my room after dinner,” she whispers into his ear. “And don’t chicken out this time.”

Brooke nods and watches as Vanessa rejoins Silky and A’keria across the room. Then he sighs heavily and looks at Nina.

“Was it something I said?” Nina asks, concern painted over her features. “I really meant it! She was great!”

Brooke just laughs. “Girl, I love you, but you really do have the worst timing.”

*****

They have dinner together in the conference room (with Silky, A’keria, and Nina; totally innocent, even with Vanessa’s bare foot rubbing against Brooke’s ankle under the table), then Brooke brushes his teeth and waits the agreed-upon fifteen minutes before he ventures into the hall and knocks on Vanessa’s door.

She answers almost immediately and pulls him in by the collar of his hoodie and crashes their lips together in a rough greeting kiss.

“Hey, papi,” he says when she pulls away with a quiet moan.

“Hi,” she echoes, palms landing flat on his chest. “Bitch, I been wanting to do that all damn day.”

“I know. Me too.”

“You got me fucked up, Brock,” Vanessa says, running a hand through her short hair and turning towards the bed. “Okay so. So… Okay. We just can’t work together anymore.”

He nods. “I told you. It’s just better that way.”

She’s pacing the room, nervously rubbing her hands on her shorts, occasionally shaking her hands out when she starts to speak.

One of his favorite things about her, he’s noticed already, is the way she talks with her hands. He’d asked her once, in the middle of a diatribe, if she would still be able to speak if he held her arms behind her back.

She’d merely raised an eyebrow, told him she was kinky, and offered to let him find out. Which had made him blush and change the subject rather quickly because too many offers like that and he was going to take her up on it. And that kind of control, he can’t afford to lose right now.

“Whatever this is,” she mutters, waving her hands wildly, “we gotta keep it separate from the competition.”

“What is this,” he responds before he can stop himself. “Exactly?” He knows it’s asking a lot. It’s far too soon for them to have this conversation, but in the microcosm of Drag Race, everything seems to be moving at warp speed. Truth be told, nothing’s ever felt as firm as whatever this is between him and Vanessa. Putting a name on it, well… It just seems like that natural next step.

Plus that’s just how he operates. He’s an all-in kind of girl.

Vanessa stops pacing and looks at him. “It’s whatever you want it to be, baby.” She shrugs. “We can just fuck around and never speak after this, we can… Shit, I don’t know.”

“Is that what you want?”

“I don’t know what I want for breakfast most days.” Vanjie shakes her head and smiles a little. “But I know I like you… A lot. And I like kissing you a lot. You’ve made being here easier and I don’t want that to end any time soon so…” She shrugs. “Whatever that means to you, Mary.”

“I like you a lot, too,” he says and grips her chin and presses his lips to the corner of her mouth, testing the waters, waiting to see how she responds.

She melts into him, body folds like origami against his sturdiness, and he uses his other hand to catch her underneath her elbow as he probes deeper into the crevices of her mouth.

This is familiar now. After their weekend spent cuddling in bed, he knows every inch of her mouth, recognizes her taste. His lips are familiar with the way hers move against his (and what a spectacular way they move). Less familiar is he with the way she grips his back, fingernails digging into the muscle that ripples beneath his t-shirt, holding on for dear life; the way she moves to straddle his thigh, the semi-hardness of her already evident in her shorts.

They could… It’s just after nine. Room checks aren’t for another hour and a half…

Desire stirs in his stomach and he shifts and reaches for her thighs, lifting her in one swift motion so her legs are wrapped around his waist, and carries her backwards to the bed as she presses gentle, airsoft kisses into his jawline.

Brooke lowers them both down softly, careful to shift his weight onto his knees and not on her as he joins her in bed. “Is this okay? We can stop anytime. Just say the word. I’ll listen, all right?” he asks, desperate for her to confirm, to beg him to continue.

“If you don’t stop talking and kiss me, I swear to god, Brock…” As if to prove her point, she tilts her hips upwards, right into where he’s most sensitive and yearning for her, and his breath catches in his throat as she grips his neck and pulls his face down to hers.

He reaches for the drawstring on her shorts, finally ready to realize every dream he’s had for the past week, when there’s a knock at the door. Vanessa pulls away and glances at the door, confusion written across her delicate features.

“Vanj? You in there? It’s Silk. I got one of the PAs to go get some snacks from the Walmart!”

“Shit. Shit.” Vanjie scrambles out from under Brooke, tugging at her shorts to cover the obvious bulge, rubbing at her lips to diffuse the redness, both to no avail.

“Ignore her,” Brooke whispers.

“Nah, she won’t go away,” she replies, running a hand through her hair. “We just… Look, turn the TV on, okay? We were watching a movie.”

Brooke Lynn sits back against the headboard (and pulls a pillow into his lap) as he flips on the TV and watches Vanessa open the door to reveal Silky standing in the hall, holding a reusable shopping bag.

“It’s not a lot,” the larger queen says as she barrels into the room, “But I got gummy bears and Pringles and—Oh. Hey, Brooke Lynn.” Silky pauses halfway between the door and the bed and glances between Vanessa and Brooke a few times.

Vanjie shifts uncomfortably from her left to right a few times and offers Silky the chair against the wall. “Brooke and I were watching a movie.”

Silky’s eyes narrow and she glances at the TV. “Yeah? Which one?”

Brooke hadn’t been paying that much attention to the TV when he turned it on, so he presses the info button on the remote and can hardly believe their luck. He clears his throat. “Umm. Deep Impact.”

Silky nods. “Should I come back?”

“No!” Vanjie says quickly and guides her to the chair. “No. No, you can definitely stay and hang with us and watch…” She glances at Brooke, “Deep Impact with us, right, Brooke?”

Brooke offers a sort of half-salute, but he feels his cheeks burn with shame. Five minutes ago, he thought he was about to get laid. Now he’s watching a bad sci-fi movie with Silky and Vanessa.

After procuring a bag of gummy bears from Silky, Vanjie crawls back in bed and situates herself underneath Brooke’s arm. She looks up at him and grins.

It’s not what he had in mind, but he guesses it isn’t the worst thing he could be doing.

*****

Ten-thirty rolls around much more quickly than anticipated when he’s spending time laughing and snuggling and sneaking kisses when Silky’s head is turned to A’keria or Nina or Yvie, filling them in on the latest gossip from the Werk Room.

But soon the head Production Assistant—Maya—raps on Vanessa’s door and tells the girls it’s almost time for room checks. So Brooke waits until everyone else has filtered out of Vanjie’s room before he lands his lips on hers and kisses her goodnight.

“Sorry our plans got derailed,” she says quietly, pulling on his hoodie. “I didn’t know she was coming.”

He shrugs. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

“Until we don’t.”

“You’re not going anywhere anytime soon, okay?” Brooke kisses her again, harder this time, to convince her just how confident in her he is already. “Especially not this week, Miss I-Thanked-Myself Vanjie.”

Vanessa closes her eyes and rests their foreheads together. “See you tomorrow, mami.”

“Good night,” he whispers and closes the door behind him.

Maya is waiting in the hallway, back against the wall between their hotel room doors.

“Hey, Brooke,” she says softly. “I’d like to talk to you for a moment. Can I come in?”

He doesn’t really think that’s a question he can say no to, so he swipes his key card, holds out his arms, and welcomes the woman into his room.

Maya is all business—clutching a clipboard to her chest, earpiece firmly in place, walkie-talkie permanently connected to her hip—and Brooke’s stomach drops because surely this can only mean one thing: they’ve been found out and he and Vanjie are both about to be sent packing. A double disqualification. They’ll make Willam’s ordeal look like child’s play.

He swallows hard and tries to smile as Maya eases herself into the chair against the wall. “What’s up?”

“First of all, you aren’t in any trouble.” Maya smiles up at Brooke, who feels the weight of the world lift off her shoulders. He’s safe. But Vanjie… “Secondly, we’ve noticed that you and Miss Mateo seem to be growing close.”

Brooke freezes,tries to carefully control his features so as not to give anything away. Maya had said he wasn’t in trouble. And there’s nothing in the contract that says relationships are forbidden… Still, at this point, it’s probably best to play things close to the chest. For everyone involved.

“We’re good friends,” Brooke finally settles on. “I like her a lot.”

Maya grins. “I know that our rules here at the hotel can seem a bit… strict, especially when it comes to keeping you girls separated at night. I know there are times this ten-thirty room check seems a bit much because I realize there are certainly nights when you’d like to stay up to chat with each other.” She raises an eyebrow. “Or engage in other activities with each other.”

Brooke can’t help it; he blushes furiously, like a 12-year-old girl caught admitting her crush.

“I’ll be blunt, Brooke,” Maya continues. “This is the eleventh season of Drag Race, and we’ve yet to have a romance despite Ru’s wish that there be one. I’m not going to ask you to force feelings if they aren’t there… But if they are developing naturally as I believe them to be, production would be willing to overlook certain rules as far as you and Vanessa are concerned.”

At first, Brooke doesn’t know if he should be offended that they want to use him and Vanessa for ratings or be grateful that they’re being given this opportunity to get to know each other more intimately.

Vanessa had been handsy over the weekend, grabbing Brooke’s ass over his shorts and running her hands under Brooke’s shirt along the broad expanses of his chest and stomach, but Brooke was hesitant to push things too far. It was too fresh, too new. And, if production caught them, who knew what would happen then?

So Brooke had to pull away and look down at Vanessa and tell her to stop, even though what he really wanted to say was, “More more more.” Like tonight. Just like tonight.

Brooke looks up at Maya. “So all we have to do is what exactly?”

“Exactly what you’re doing now,” Maya says with a shrug, “but more in front of the cameras. No need to hide the beginning of something beautiful, am I right?”

“And what exactly do we get out of it?” Brooke isn’t convinced.

“Well, nothing officially. But we’d be willing to…” Maya chews her lip, carefully choosing her words. “Overlook it if certain rules were broken. Say if one of you were in the other’s room at room checks and had an inclination to stay there… We would probably be willing to turn a blind eye.”

Brooke studies Maya’s face carefully. He’s always played things by the book, afraid to bend, let alone outright break, a rule. But here’s the lead PA practically telling him it would be okay. Still, Brooke isn’t a fool. She understands how easy it would be for production to rescind their offer if he or Vanessa made a misstep.

He remembers Vanessa’s lips leaving trails of fire down his neck and her fingertips brushing against the black outlines of the daisies on his arm. He thinks about running his tongue over Vanjie’s cat tattoo, like it was put there just for him, a beacon calling him home, signaling him to where he’s truly supposed to be.

We have plenty of time, he’d told her and meant it, confident in both their abilities to last in the competition.

Until we don’t.

Then they just can’t misstep.

“Can I talk it over with Vanessa?” Brooke says quietly, still not completely believing that he’s considering this, that it could be real, that he’s fallen into something so deep.

Maya shrugs and pushes herself to her feet. “Sure. Or don’t. Either way, I was never here. But we’ll be watching the two of you very carefully.” She pauses by the door with a hand on the frame. “Have a good night, Brooke.”

Brooke nods and watches as Maya flashes him a brilliant smile and leaves the room, walkie-talkie flashing green on her hip.

[tigerlilyhasablog]

Brit Nominations 2019: My Thoughts

Hello there! Since the nominations for the 2019 Brit Awards came out yesterday, I thought that I would give some quick thoughts on them…

British Album of the Year

All of the nominations for this category are pretty great, actually. For those who don’t know, George Ezra is my favorite artist, like, ever, so obviously I’m rooting for him here. I think he stands a very strong chance, as his sophomore album, Staying At Tamara’s, was huge this year. I am also extra-rooting for him, because back in 2015 he was nominated for 4 Brits, but didn’t win any of them.

I would also be really happy to see Florence + the Machine or Anne Marie win Album of the Year.

British Female Solo Artist

Honestly, I think that any of these women would be well deserving of the title, though in terms of relevancy, I would be a bit surprised if Lily Allen were to win. If I had to pick, I would hope for the winner to be either Jess Glynne or Anne Marie. Anne Marie has gone from success to success, and has really cemented her self as an important part of the pop world this past year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she was to win.

British Male Solo Artist

Well, this is definitely an odd list. We have Sam Smith, who was completely snubbed last year… Why a year late, Brit Awards? And I’m a bit surprised to see more obscure artists Aphex Twin and Giggs get nominated, though that is not a bad thing. George is my top pick for this category, of course.

British Group

It will probably be Little Mix. Or the 1975. I’d love to see it be Years & Years. Or Gorillaz. Just don’t let it be Arctic Monkeys. Just no.

British Breakthrough Act

Ella Mai would probably have to be my top pick for this one, though all of the artists on the list have been really huge in 2018, so it could be anyone, really. Jorja Smith won the Critic’s Choice Award last year, so maybe her, perhaps?

Critic’s Choice

Ugh. So we already know the winner here: Sam Fender. Now, don’t get me wrong, I quite like Sam’s music, and ‘Dead Boys’ is a very powerful song. However, since reading this interview, in which he attacks Ed Sheeran, Jamie Oliver and ‘guitar bands’, says that he doesn’t identify with his generation, and a load of other shit, I have found it impossible to like him.

Lewis Capaldi would have been my favorite to win this… God, what talent, and as a person he seems like such a funny dude… Not like the stuck-up, ‘aren’t-I-so-unique’ prick that Mister Fender seems to be. I’ve also recently become a fan of Mahalia, so I would have been happy to see her win. *sigh* Oh, well.

British Single

My top picks here are ‘2002’, ‘Shotgun’ and ‘These Days’. Wouldn’t be surprised at any of them, really… I think I would put my money on ‘IDGAF’.

British Video

I have to confess, I have not watched all of these videos (I know, what kind of music journalist am I? Disgraceful.) And I don’t have time to right now. So, no comment.

International Male Solo Artist

Um, I can’t say that I really have a favorite amongst this lot. I imagine it will probably go to Drake or Shawn Mendes.

International Female Solo Artist

Ooh, now this is a better list. Not sure who I’m rooting for here. I suppose Ariana Grande seems most likely, or maybe Camila Cabello. Christine and the Queens has had a great year, though… The critics couldn’t get enough of her album. Janelle Monae would be very deserving, but a win for her seems less likely. Cardi B, I have less of an opinion on, but she has been pretty huge lately, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her get it, either. We shall see.

International Group

It had better be Twenty One Pilots. Or First Aid Kit. But mainly Twenty One Pilots.

Other Thoughts

The main talking point of this year’s nominations is the increase in female nominees. You go, girls! Also, can’t wait to see Jack Whitehall host… He never fails to make me cry with laughter.

[556260caic1819-blog]

Women’s sport moving forward? Or are men still dominating the scene?

Soccer is a revelation in America that has improved drastically in the past two decades. The percentage of viewers have increased with the sport luring in fans to the stadiums.

However, soccer becoming more public, also raises the underlying issues with the sport.

That issue is the Gender pay gap, it might be over 50 years since the US passed the Equal Pay Act, but women still get paid less than men - in many cases for doing the same work.

But in recent times, members of the US soccer team (or football, for the rest of the world) decided it was time to take a stand, and have filed a wage-discrimination action against the US Soccer Federation. One of the claimants, goalkeeper Hope Solo, explained why they acted: “We are the best in the world … and the men’s team get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”

So, it seems the difference is staggering, but what is the average figures for people viewing mens soccer in comparison to women’s? Well, the figures show that the average attendance for the women’s soccer league eclipsed the 6,000 mark for the first time in 2018. Compare that to MLS (Major Soccer League), the average attendance hit a whopping 22,000, almost four times the number brandished for the women’s game.

In the US professional soccer leagues, the governing body put a ‘pay ceiling per player’ salary cap in place. According to the article in ‘Money’ titled ‘Here’s how poorly women soccer players are paid compared to men’. The figures show that women trail by a substantial amount with $37,800. That’s compared to an average of more than $300,000 and a median of about $100,000 for men’s Major League Soccer.

Alex Morgan, the poster girl for womens football, racks up a reported $450,000 for NWSL team Portland Thorns. Whereas, Landon Donovan, male US footballer and international earned a staggering 2 million salary just from his team alone.

The prize money that women and men compete for also has a substantial difference too. In the 2014 World Cup, the men's national team took home $9 million in prize money for getting knocked out in the round of 16. Whereas, the females took home $2 million for winning the tournament a year later. But, the total prize pool for the women’s tournament was $15 million, in comparison to the World Cup prize pool, a whopping $576 million - 40 times the women’s haul. The mind boggling difference between the two genders doesn’t seem fair, but a 2015 Business Insiders article titled ‘Here's why it's fair that female athletes make less than men’ suggests there is a valuable reason why males earn more.

Relating back to the point made earlier about revenue and the contrasts of viewership between the two genders, this article portrays views that acknowledge women are striving to be equals to men. But delves into the possibility that women struggle to attract the attention of people and women don’t receive the same support that males do. There is an interesting quotation in the article that perfectly describes the issue; ‘The lack of attendance and sponsorships contribute to a chicken-or-the-egg problem when it comes to getting women's sports up off the ground.’ Sporting organisations can’t afford to pay women salaries that equal the proportion of a males if the females fail to attract sponsor deals, deep pocket investors and the thousands of fans purchasing tickets and food inside the stadium. Unless the women’s game suddenly has a huge investment from the hierarchy or manages to provide the entertainment that the males have dominated for a century then the issue of the gender pay gap won’t be resolved.

Despite struggling financially to keep women’s soccer afloat and the issues with the gender pay gap, there has been a revolution in the past decade. After failing with their last two organisations; the Women’s United Soccer Association (2001-03) and Women’s Professional Soccer (2009-11) previously shared the record with three seasons of play. However, the National Women’s Soccer League has outlasted its predecessors by double. Whilst the men’s soccer team went into the realms of unknown by failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the womens game has become increasingly stable.

Stability is something that the women’s game has struggled to the maintain and where the men struggled to reach their targets, that will surely push the women on to strive for success in the future. The success that women’s game has reaped in the past decade can only mean for a more promising future in the sport. In 2016, women dominated the ‘Best of US soccer’ awards; Alex Morgan won goal of the year, Carli Lloyd and Jill Ellis win FIFA World Player and Coach of the Year and Crystal Dunn took home the award for individual performance after scoring five goals vs Puerto Rico.

But with all this positivity, there is still an issue of gender which seems to be a dark cloud that hovers over and waiting to cause a storm. After discovering the issues the sport has with gender pay and attracting the large investors for the women’s game, there is also an issue with the US Soccer Presidential election. An article in SBNation titled ‘The U.S. Soccer presidential election has a gender problem’ speaks about how the race for this election contains only males and reasons why women might be reluctant to run for a high a profile role. There is a quotation in the article ‘Women who are in or seek leadersh ip roles tend to get a lot of abuse, especially online, much of it personal and not pertaining to the job whatsoever. Is it worth it to stick your neck out only to have strangers beat you down?’. The author goes on to state that there is a long history of women doing free labour and getting no credit for it. However, in a country where girls and women’s soccer is so prominent, where the US are the most successful country in terms of female soccer, having no women candidate does seem bizarre.

So, in the future, who is going to pioneer the success of women’s soccer? Who is willing to put in an influx of cash to support the academy teams and further improve training facilities? How are you going to attract fans to womens soccer matches on the scale of mens? Will there ever be the popularity associated with women’s soccer? Or is the average fan waiting till 2117 for a breakthrough to happen? These are all unanswered questions, but what I know is that women’s soccer is moving in the right direction.

[kaylmurray]

BELOW IS A TRANSLATION OF AN INTERVIEW I CARRIED OUT IN SPANISH WITH  http://madridistareal.com

THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW IS THE POST PREVIOUS TO THIS ONE.

Tell us a little about your new adventure in Miami.

I came to Miami from Spain to work for beINSPORTSUSA 5 years ago. I came to take on a new challenge and to helpwith the growth of LaLiga in the USA. The channel also has the rights to Serie A, Ligue 1 and many other sports.

Madridismo remembers you as one of the well-known faces from the international version of Real Madrid TV. How do you remember this time?

It was one of the best experiences of my life, I lived there for 6 years. Everything changed for me, not only in my professional life, but on a personal level too.

With Real Madrid, I travelled to many places around the world and I experienced some very special things.

My first season was the “Juntos Podemos” **  and my last season was the final season of Mourinho.

I missed the tenth, eleventh and twelfth Champions League wins but I was there for three Liga title wins, a Copa del Rey, Cristiano’s arrival, the return of Florentino Perez and the final year of Beckham, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo. It wasn’t such a bad era.

**Juntos Podemos “Together We Can’ was basically a promotional campaign from the local media the club and the fans to urge everyone to unite in the final stages of the season to garner the belief that Real Madrid could beat Barcelona (and Sevilla) to the league title. Real Madrid won the title on the final day of the season. Real Madrid finished level on points with Barcelona but had a better head to head record (2-0 at Bernabeu and 3-3 at Camp Nou).

How does a girl from Middlesbrough end up at the Santiago Bernabeu?

I started my career on Boro TV, the official club channel of my hometown team, Middlesbrough.

After that I studied journalism and during my studies, I saw a casting for the international version of RMTV, which back then was a new project. I screen-tested but I didn’t get the job. A year later, another position became available and this time, I did get it!

Were you already a Madrid fan before you worked at RMTV or did you become a Madrid fan during your time in Madrid?

Before working at RMTV, I wasn’t really a Madrid fan but I remember reading the press when Beckham was going to leave Manchester United and back then, no one was sure whether he’d go to Madrid or Barcelona, and I remember thinking, ‘It has to be Madrid,’ and I don’t know why I thought that.

At that time, I had no idea that one day I would be working at RMTV. But it was impossible not to fall in love with the team after a season like that of 06/07.

What was it like for you as a club insider to experience those team triumphs?

Incredible and unforgettable! I have wonderful memories. Memories like running onto the pitch in Pamplona to interview the players after winning Liga number 31, with security guards chasing me! Celebrating in the mixed zone with the players while they sprayed champagne all the journalists with champagne. I returned to Madrid that night (on a bus)  with my friends from “Cinco Estrellas” (one of the well-known Madrid fan clubs).

The journeys back on the team plane after a victory were always a lot of fun too. The memories of the parties with my colleagues in Madrid and Valencia after winning a league or a Copa will also live with me forever.

During the 7 seasons you spent with RMTV, you shared some special times with players an coaches from the first team. Do you have any interesting anecdotes you can tell us?

Many! There were times when some of the Spanish players had to speak in English for promotional campaigns or video messages. It was always fun to teach them to speak English. On the away trips, the players were always telling jokes between themselves and my colleagues at RMTV. I even remember Cristiano putting on the Manchester accent, which made me laugh!

The worst memories were in my first few months in Valdebebas (Real Madrid’s training ground), where Cassano would try and strike the football at me. Back then I didn’t know a lot of Spanish and I didn’t know how to ask him to stop doing it! But guess what? He missed me everytime!

Who is the player or manager you had the best professional/working relationship with?

I’m clear on this one - Ruud Van Nistelrooy. We arrived at the club in the same season, he spoke English and he always had time (he was very kind) for the international version and for our families and friends.

Once Mourinho came in, the Spanish press were at first very belligerent. What do you think this animosity was down to in the pressrooms?

Perhaps it’s because his style as a manager was very different and they weren’t used to a manager like him, especially because the access to the players had been very easy before his arrival. I had never seen journalists with such free access to the players like I had in Spain. But Mou’s mentality to convert the training ground into a “bunker” didn’t go down well.

I know that Mourinho’s era didn’t end well and that there are many people who speak negatively of it, but it’s also worth remembering that he also changed a lot of important things, like the mentality of the team to believe that they were capable of competing with Pep’s Barcelona and he also brought an end to the curse of the Last 16 in the Champions League. *

* For six straight seasons, Madrid did not get past the Last 16 of the tournament.

What’s your opinion of Mourinho of a manager? What was it like to work with him? And with Cristiano Ronaldo?

At first, it was very easy to work with Mourinho, he was very kind with everyone working in and around the club, including those of us from the official channel. In his last season, it was a little different, due to the atmosphere surrounding the club.

I only have good memories of Cristiano. Never in my life had I seen so many people demanding the attention of one single person. But despite this, he was always very kind to us, speaking in English and even on the days when he didn’t have time to speak with us in the mixed zone, he would always say: “I’m sorry! Not today but for sure we can do it next week!”

You presented the Ballon D’Or twice. Was that a lot of pressure?

A lot of pressure, but a huge honour too, one of the biggest honours of my professional life. However, it’s better for Cristiano that I’m not the one presenting the Ballon D’Or because on the two occasions that I did, Messi won! In my defense, I will say that I was the presenter on the ‘Green Carpet’ for the FIFA THE BEST awards last year and Cristiano won, so I’m not the jinx anymore!

I was asked before the second-leg semi about Bayern as a rival.

It won’t be easy, but the Champions League for Madrid is like spinach to Popeye….it makes them stronger!

Do you think Madrid have the chance to win their third consecutive Champions League this season? What percentage? Knock yourself out!

Of course I think there’s a chance but I don’t want to tempt fate. I’ve seen so many strange and unexpected things this season that you never know. Anything can happen!

Recently, Real Madrid have started to find their stride. There are players like Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez and Mateo Kovacic, who began as fringe players/subs and are now taking important steps forward in recent months. What quality would you highlight for each one of them?

I’m a big fan of the three…and who said that Real Madrid did not have a Plan B?!

MARCO - A golden left-foot

His confidence is not for nothing. It’s because he knows better than anyone else just what he is capable of.

LUCAS -  Very, very dependable.

The fact that he asked to take the penalty in the shootout in the second final against Atleti and also that he was the first to take it - and scored,  tells you everything.

MATEO - His through-balls. For me, he’s very underrated.

Has the fact that you’re a female sports journalist specializing in football presented any kind of handicap for you. Throughout your career, have you had to prove yourself more than a male in your profession might have to?

Sometimes, but a lot less these days. Spain gave me more opportunities as a female in football than my own country did. I am eternally grateful for that.

Finally! Do you miss living in Madrid?

Very much so! And even more so recently because over here everybody’s obsessed with “Money Heist” (a Spanish show, based in Madrid, on Netflix) and when I see Madrid and hear the accent, it makes me really want to return! I’ve always felt at home in Madrid. I’ve been back a few times in the last few years and I am going to keep on doing so.

Thanks for your time, Kay.

Thank you to all of you.

[inazuma-eleven-translations]

Animage June 2013 Kobayashi Yuu & Oohara Takashi Interview

Full scans can be found here: http://inazuma.pmsinfirm.org/?p=317

Animage June 2013: Highlight: Grand Prix Kobayashi Yuu (Kirino Ranmaru) and Oohara Takashi (Tsurugi Kyousuke) Interview

Translator’s Notes: THIS is the extent of Inazuma’s popularity in Japan! First place for three years in a row in one of the biggest anime magazines, Animage, not to mention a song from the anime being displayed on a huge screen in Shibuya! I’ve seen them – those screens are massive and I can’t believe IE GO was playing on one! Ares, I eagerly await you. Make my boys popular again~

Regarding the voting method for The 35th Anime Grand Prix: The target of the votes cast were characters who appeared from December 2012 - November 2012 (excluding flashback episodes). This includes Inazuma Eleven GO, Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone, and Inazuma Eleven GO The Movie Kyuukyoku no Kizuna Gryphon, but all votes for characters that appear in more than one series were added together.

Like a Gallant Flower

Male Character Division First Place

Kirino Ranmaru

Raimon Junior Second Year/ DF Shirt Number 3

A humble boy who contributes to the team with his common sense. It’s a shame he was separated from the main characters in the new series. His gorgeous Keshin Armed form can be seen on page 26.

Flowers Bloom!

Since both winners of the male and female division have flower-based names, we decided on a flower theme feature this month!

BIG NEWS

In response to fans’ ranking of all Inazuma characters!, we can announce a project to turn the most popular characters into figures! For more information, please see page 15.

Male Character Division Second Place

Tsurugi Kyousuke

Raimon Junior First Year/ FW Shirt Number 10

The strong, silent type. He’s usually cool, but when he makes a special move his cry stands out with passion. Be it Keshin Armed, regular clothes, or French armour - any style seems to suit him well.

BACKSTAGE

Kobayashi Yuu

Since Kobayashi-san is used to taking many kinds of photos, even though it was her first time to use a bangasa (oil paper umbrella), as expected she looks wonderful with it~ By the way, the bouquet of flowers on the first page is, naturally, a bouquet of orchids – Ranmaru’s flower. ‘You made your Mom proud. Thank you!’ she said with a smile as bright as a bouquet of flowers~

Oohara Takashi

Oohara-san confessed nervously that he was not used to taking photos ‘It’s my weak point, so I’m really sorry,’. Not to mention, taking a photo alongside Kobayashi-san - ‘Taking a photo with a professional model – this kind of pressure is no joke!’. Don’t worry, you look really cool, Oohara-san~

Thanks to Inazuma Eleven Fans’ passion, it’s a third consecutive victory for Inazuma!

Inazuma Eleven GO took first place in our Anime Grand Prix. Congratulations on your 3rd consecutive victory!

Oohara/ Kobayashi: Amazing! Thank you so much!

First of all, since Kirino Ranmaru took 1st Place, and Tsurugi Kyousuke took 3rd place in the male character division, please share a few words about your victory.

Kobayashi: As with last year, to receive this title is a huge honour and I’m deeply moved. Since I have the wonderful opportunity to play Ranmaru-san, I want to congratulate him! And I also want to thank everyone who voted for him!

Oohara: Putting the fact that he was up against so many great characters aside, I was surprised Tsurugi came third. I really want to express my thanks. I really believe that it’s all thanks to everyone’s support that Tsurugi was able to come this far.

In addition, Tsurugi, Tenma and Aoi’s character song ‘Te Wo Tsunagou’ won first place in the anime song division.

Both: Ooh! (Applause)

Oohara: That was unexpected (laughs). But to be honest, I was really pleased with Tsurugi’s ‘Darou?’. I have a feeling I won’t get another chance in my life to say a better ‘darou?’ than that… Ahh, I got a little carried away.

Kobayashi: Get carried away!

Oohara: No, it’s all thanks to KMC-san (T-Pistonz + KMC) - it was their idea when they wrote the lyrics. I’m really happy that I got to sing with Tenma and Aoi-chan. Thank you so much.

Next, while we call out a few of the top places in each division, let’s look back over the past few years. Second place in the TV Show division was episode 24 ‘Chikai wa kono Kata no moto ni’, the last episode of the Medieval France arc.

Kobayashi: I remember those few episodes well. Even just hearing the word ‘Kata’ (flag) brings back memories. Ranmaru-san was troubled over what kind of role he played for the team, felt some jealousy towards Shindou-san, and after all that thanks to Kariya pushing him forward he was able to travel to Medieval France. I thought together with Ranmaru-san about what kind of role he should play to benefit the team to the best of his ability. I was also moved by Ranmaru-san supported Jeanne-san with those words of encouragement. I thought he was speaking to himself too with those words.

What did you think of his Mixi Max with Jeanne?

Kobayashi: His hair suddenly grew longer, and he wore glasses; it was really beautiful. I wanted to congratulate Ranmaru-san on his full-body transformation.

Oohara: Chrono Stone episode 21 is a top contender for one of my favourite episodes too.

Kobayashi: Oh, thank you!

Oohara: The catalyst for everyone’s Mixi Max is different for each person, but in Kirino-san’s case, he first had to accept himself - he supported Jeanne with his words of encouragement ‘If I can do it, so can you!’. Then it happened all of a sudden. I also like the words Kirino-san said just after he summoned his keshin Brynhildr. ‘My role isn’t to stand at the front line. In order for Shindou and everyone else to focus on attacking, my job is to support everyone!” is what he said.

Kobayashi: That’s it exactly! Thank you for remembering!

Oohara: It made me think that apart from participating in the heart of the battle, it also takes strength to encourage and protect.

Kobayashi: Listening to Oohara-san talk about it now makes me think that everyone in the Raimon Eleven also feels that Ranmaru-san is looking out for them. They know that in a team people who defend are just as essential as people who attack.

To continue, 3rd place was Inazuma Eleven GO episode 44 ‘Ten made Todoke! Minna no sakka!!’, the climax of the first series.

Kobayashi: Fire Tornado DD was so cool!

Oohara: They finally mastered it! That’s how I felt. Could you say it was the showpiece of the first series? After winning the tournament, Tenma says ‘Soccer is definitely happy too. Right, Tsurugi?’ and Tsurugi replies ‘Don’t ask me!’ but in reality I really liked that conversation.

From Oohara-san’s point of view, how was the young Tsurugi that Kobayashi-san played?

Oohara: If you take away Tsurugi’s thorniness, he becomes a very honest child. I thought it was wonderful. Especially the scene where he cries out ‘Nii-chan not being able to play soccer any more is a lie, right??’ - I was really moved. Back then, before we recorded, Kobayashi-san came to me and said very politely ‘This time I’ll be playing young Tsurugi. Thank you for the honor,’. Actually, I should be the one saying thank you! (laughs)

Kobayashi: It was a great honour.

Oohara: Naturally I did kind of want to try playing young Tsurugi too, but I think I couldn’t beat Kobayashi-san’s performance.

Speaking of Tsurugi, he’s had a pretty rough life. He underwent Spartan-style training on a solitary island at distant sea.

Kobayashi: That’s one of Tsurugi’s attractive points, that there’s a lot to him. And when he’s crying out the name of his special moves, it looks really cool. Even though he’s normally calm and composed, he suddenly bursts into blue flames. It always makes me think, ‘how wonderful!’ after recording!

Kirino’s development happened thanks to Kariya nonchalantly pushing him forward.

To continue, in fourth place was episode 29 ‘Jidai o tsukuru otoko tachi’.

Oohara: That’s the episode Tsurugi Mixi Maxed with Okita-san. I was interested in how Tsurugi would persuade Okita-san, but it was more to do with his actions and behavior rather than persuading him with words. I thought that was very Tsurugi-ish.

Kobayashi: Tsurugi is always calm, and everyone watches him from behind, while he tells things like it is. He’s quite intellectual. That episode showed another side to him too. Okita-san might have reminded him of his brother, Yuuichi-san~

Oohara: His brother being in hospital has taken his toll on him.

Kobayashi: I think that’s understandable.

Oohara: Oh, thankfully Nishiki-san and Sakamoto-san also Mixi Maxed. Since they have the same first name, when Nishiki-san Mixi Maxed I thought it was amusing that he said Sakamoto’s full name - ‘Mixi Max - Sakamoto Ryouma!’. I also like the relationship between Zanark and Nishiki. Since the ending was a little bit rushed, I wanted to see more.

Fifth place was episode 18 ‘Minna ga kaettekita!’, the episode where Kinako and Zanark appears and there’s quite a bit of drama.

Oohara: The one where Kurama-san used ‘Winder while wearing his casual clothes. Against some delinquents.

Kobayashi: That’s right, a casual-clothes Sidewinder. There was many different scenes of many differents places in that episode. I was happy about that. Stuff that hasn’t appeared yet in the main story. Even though every character has surely got their own lives, we could only imagine what they’re doing in their personal time so far.

That episode became a turning point for Kirino.

Kobayashi: Ranmaru-san started to show he’s worrying over Shindou-san. Since these feelings are a delicate part of Ranmaru-san’s heart, I tried my very best to portray that was gently as possible. But Kariya-san, with those wonderfully sharp eyes of his, notice Ranmaru-san worrying and reached out to him. I was really glad.

Oohara: Kariya’s developed quite a bit, in these surroundings.

Kobayashi: He has. He went as far as to feign a stomach ache and gave up his place to Ranmaru-san for the Time Jump, since there was a limit. Even the way he talked to Ranmaru-san about it was very Kariya-san-ish. He read Ranmaru-san’s mind. Ranmaru-san, you really owe Kariya-san one!

Oohara: Since we haven’t really seen such a human-like drama like this before, I was happy. I thought it was very tenacious.

In the new series, the troubles continue for our Playmaker!

Now we’d like to ask about what you think of the male character division. Following Kirino, Tsurugi and Kariya, Shindou took 9th place.

Oohara: As always, Shindou-san had a year full of worries (dry laugh). Since he had the best view of everyone’s individual situations, I felt it was expected of him to worry so much but he’s gone through a lot.

Kobayashi: Yes, in the new series too he’s also put through a lot of trouble…

Oohara: Soon enough, there’s going to be a hole in his heart with worry.

Kobayashi: Oh no! We need to take care of him. Ranmaru-san, I definitely want you to escort him if he needs to go to hospital! In the last series when Shindou had to go to the infirmary, Ranmaru-san escorted him there!

When Shindou was Captain of El Dorado Team 02, that was also pretty tough.

Oohara: Out of al three teams, I think Shindou got the worst deal (laughs).

At that time, Kariya was bickering with Beta and started running wildly.

Kobayashi: If Ranmaru-san was there in that situation, I think he’d definitely scold Kariya-san. While I think his mischievousness is one of Kariya’s attractive points, it was just too much for Shindou-san at that time! (laughs)

Kobayashi-san, you’re still a huge Shindou fan like always?

Kobayashi: Yes, I love him! As Tenma-san adapts to being Captain, Shindou-san supports him and looks out for the team. He’s really a person that all the members can rely on! A big part of why I love him is also because of Saiga Mitsuki-san (Shindou’s voice actor).

Oohara: Oh yeah.

Kobayashi: Saiga-san also really looks after everyone after we finish recording. She’s a kind and wonderful person.

When Kirino was watching El Dorado Team 2’s match who was constantly muttering to himself ‘Shindou, Shindou…’

Kobayashi: Yes!

Oohara: In the original script he said ‘Now of all times I can’t be by Shindou’s side…’

Kobayashi: That’s right, he did!

Oohara: I thought ‘Oh, that’s a very typical thing of Kirino-san to say!’ but in the final version it was omitted.

But even without him saying it, the viewers could definitely understand it’s what he was thinking. (laughs)

Kobayashi: But I really, really wanted to say that line so it’s a pity! That’s what I really thought Ranmaru-san felt, from the bottom of my heart. His was urging Shindou-san on with his gaze alone.

Oohara: Kirino-san and Shindou-san have a bond of trust so deep that it would make you jealous. You can really feel those two support each other together. I want to see them together when they were younger. I wonder how they met?

Kobayashi: Me too, I want to see that too! Of course, I’d also like to see more about Tsurugi-san and his brother. I think their relationship as brothers is great.

Since Kobayashi-san is an only child it seems like you admire sibling relationships.

Kobayashi: I do!

Oohara: I wanted a younger sister (laughs).

Kobayashi: I like Oohara-san’s older sister a lot!

Okay then, Oohara-san – out of Kinako (Female Character Division 1st Place) and Beta (same division 3rd place), who would you prefer to have as a younger sister?

Oohara: Kinako!

Kobayashi: That was a quick reply!

Oohara: What I like about Kinako is that she’s so innocent and she really thinks about the feelings of everyone around her, and is kind to everyone. It left a big impression on me when such a cheerful kid like her joined the story during such a difficult time for the Raimon members.

Kobayashi: Her first appearance was funny too. She was wearing the number 10 uniform.

Oohara: Tsurugi lost it to her in a shoot off.

Kobayashi: I’d like to see that story drawn one day. Kinako-san’s Mochi Mochi Kinako Mochi looks delicious. I want to eat it!

Oohara: As for Beta on the other hand, her cuteness and her brutality are two sides of the same coin – I think I like that. She’s a little bit scary, but it’s quite realistic. It’s refreshing to see her voice actor change her voice from sweet to scary in an instant.

Kobayashi: Beta-san makes me a little bit nervous.

Oohara-san and Kobayashi-san’s personal Anime Grand Prix are?

So, we’d like to hear about your personal choices out of Inazuma for the Anime Grand Prix.

Oohara: Out of the TV series, if I look from Tsurugi’s point of view, it’s Inazuma Eleven GO episode 41 ‘Kessen! Amano Mikado Stadium!’.

The one where you practice Fire Tornedo DD.

Oohara: Tsurugi said to Tenma ‘You showed me how soccer should be played,’. They’ve come this far and he was able to express his feelings in words to Tenma. Therefore, I think it was a very important scene. Of course, there are a lot of episodes that I really like, but for Tsurugi episode 41 is unforgettable.

As for the Male Character Division?

Oohara: I wish I could say Sangoku, but (laughs) I’ll have to go with Tenma. If it wasn’t for Tenma, I don’t think Tsurugi could have played real soccer again, nor could he have made such good friends and even his relationship with his brother might have become strained. Tsurugi is who he is today mostly because of Tenma.

You always say you like Sangoku, but what is it about him that you like?Oohara: He was cool from his very first line! I thought his conversation with Shindou-san was really cool. Didn’t you feel it?

Kobayashi: I felt it! The whole team loves Sangoku-san. The time he invited Tenma-san to his house and made roll cabbage for him – I get the feeling whatever he served would have been delicious.

Oohara: All in all, I think he’s a good man, with a good balance.

Kobayashi: When he entrusted the goalkeeper position to Shinsuke too, that was very masculine. No matter how many goals are scored he stays optimistic.

Oohara: He keeps standing up again and again. He doesn’t get discouraged! (laughs)

When Sangoku-san speaks, everyone becomes roused up (laughs). To continue, your second-place character.

Oohara: My favourite female character is Kinako-chan. I was happy when she gave Tsurugi candy. He was standing a little bit further away from everyone, so she took the time to go over to him and he said the candy was ‘Umai’ (*delicious – masculine version) (laughs). In the Anime Song Division, I liked the movie version of the song ‘Niji o Koete Ten Made Todoke!’. I always liked Ten Made Todoke, and Terasaki Yuuka-san (Tenma’s voice actor) said that this song has the power to bring tears to your eyes. You can really feel the characters power up. And in the opening, they literally soar to the heavens and fly through space (laughs).

Kobayashi-san, it’s your turn.

Kobayashi: It’s so hard to pick a favourite episode from the TV series… From Ranmaru-san’s point of view, the Medieval France arc, episodes 18 – 21. In those four episodes I became completely absorbed in playing him. Especially in the last episode, 21, since Ranmaru-san was helping Jeanne-san and everyone else it was very moving. As for the male character section… I gotta pick the whole team!

Oohara: Huh, you can do that? I should have said that too! (laughs)

You feel like you can’t pick just one?

Kobayashi: I just really like everyone! Shindou-san, Kariya-san, and of course Tsurugi-san and Tenma-san. So please let me pick everyone! What should I say for the Female Character Division? I really like Kinako-san and all of the managers, but I think I’ll go with Jeanne-san. She made Ranmaru-san’s heart stronger.

Finally, the Anime Song Division – the ending theme Kirino sang ‘Bokutachi no Shiro’ was left out of the vote ranking this time.

Kobayashi: In the TV series, Bokutachi no Shiro was a duet between Tenma-san and Tsurugi-san – it was wonderful~ Everyone please vote for it next year! Okay, I pick ‘Te o Tsunagou’. I thought it was a wonderful song, like something they’d sing at a get-together or party. It was refreshing to see everyone wearing headbands, and you get the feeling that anything is possible. I once saw that ending displayed on a big screen in Shibuya.

Oohara: Seriously??

Kobayashi: Yes! I just happened to be walking through the street and by chance I saw it playing on the big screen. I was really moved. So it’s left a deep impression on me.

So Tsurugi’s ‘Darou?’ rang out for all of Shibuya to hear?

Kobayashi: Yes~ Tsurgugi-san, you were so cool~

Does Kirino appear in Galaxy?

Finally, let’s talk about the highlights of Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy. In any case, the first match against Teikoku was a bit of a mess, and ended in a loss.

Oohara: Right? I wonder what’s going to happen afterwards. None of us were told anything about what happens next.

Kobayashi: Yes. From the title ‘Galaxy’, I wonder does it imply something to do with outer space?

Oohara: It’s got the longest name so far. It’s really thanks to everyone’s support that the Inazuma series has come this far. From here one too I think exciting things are going to happen, so please continue to support us.

Kobayashi: You can tell from the title it’s going to be a fantastic series. We can only imagine what’s going to happen! I’d be happy if you could get together with your friends and watch Galaxy! Thank you for all your support!

I think perhaps that many readers are wondering when Kirino will next appear in Galaxy (laughs).

Oohara: As expected of such a popular character (laughs).

Kobayashi: What a great honour. I’ll also wait impatiently along with the readers for Kirino’s next appearance! 

--

Kirino and Tsurugi ‘Souji Jikan’ (*Souji is the designated time period where students work together to clean their classrooms and the rest of the school…)

Kirino and Tsurugi haven’t had many chances to interact a lot up until now - what do you think would make them bond?

Oohara: Speaking of which, the first person Tsurugi used keigo towards was Kirino-san. (Translator’s Notes: Keigo is polite Japanese - for example, kouhai should use towards senpai. I made a post about Tsurugi using keigo towards Kirino here:  http://inazuma-eleven-translations.tumblr.com/post/158941896068/use-of-language-to-show-character-development  )

Kobayashi: It was~

Oohara: Since Kirino was very annoyed by Kariya, he asked Tsurugi ‘Don’t you think he’s a Seed?’ but Tsurugi told him something like, ‘Chigaimasu yo~’ (I don’t think so).

Kobayashi: Wah, Tsurugi-san! (She smiles FULL of affection)

Oohara:Well, wasn’t that what he said?

Kobayashi: Yes! They had the conversation under the shade of a big tree (laughs). I’m sorry, but the way Oohara-san said that just now was just wonderful! (calms down). For sure, the first time Tsurugi used keigo left a deep impression. I thought he was someone who understood the importance of being polite to his upperclassmen.

Oohara: He’s quite sportsmen-like, Tsurugi. (Note: Sports clubs are particularly strict about kouhai using keigo with senpai)

When he was a Seed, the importance of sportsmanship was probably pounded into him.

Oohara: Tsurugi’s social etiquette is better than you think. He shares that in common with Kirino-san... I think they could bond over some kind of volunteer activity. Like cleaning the school.

Kobayashi: Wah, souji! Yes, they’d do it to the best of their ability!

Oohara: Also, since Kirino is a second year, he could tutor Tsurugi in the library.

Kobayashi: Wah, if they did that kind of thing I’d be so happy! I think Ranmaru-san would do his best to revise as he tutored Tsurugi-san. Both of them are hard-working so they’d definitely bond!

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/sports/tennis-gave-me-the-ability-to-be-somebody-the-trailblazer-who-defied-depression-bipolar-and-abuse/

'Tennis gave me the ability to be somebody': The trailblazer who defied depression, bipolar and abuse

That she is willing to tell her story on the eve of a first major public appearance in the tennis world in seven years is all the more remarkable, given the emotional strife and mental illness she has both faced and fought.

Heldman enjoyed a hugely successful playing career, winning 22 singles titles in an era awash with some of the women’s game’s most iconic names — she can lay claim to victories over Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Virginia Wade.

Indeed, she sits among the most significant figures in the history of women’s tennis. She was one of the Original Nine, the group of female players who would forego the threat of suspension in order to join the Virginia Slims Circuit, which would eventually form the basis of the WTA Tour.

It was a rebellion; a revolt against the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) overseeing a startling inequality between the prize money paid to male and female players. At the 1970 Italian Open, Ilie Nastase received $3,500 for winning the men’s title, while King took home just $600 for victory in the women’s event.

The women’s game would change further in 1973, with King’s famous Battle of the Sexes victory over Bobby Riggs providing impetus to the burgeoning world of women’s professional tennis. However, it remained a tough school for any female athlete.

“It was very difficult to be taken seriously,” Heldman recalls. “You have to take into account this inherent prejudice — that men should be in charge and that the women should be left to do what they do.

“Each one of us was seen as outcasts. We had muscles at a time when women weren’t meant to have muscles; some of us were gay; some of us were trying to do something that women were supposedly not meant to do.

“We were being attacked so often by the men, so we always had this togetherness — whether we liked each other or not. There was not one other girl in my high school who competed in sport. What happened back then was like another world. We had to be the trailblazers.”

There is, though, a rare complexity to Heldman’s relationship with tennis — a sport in which she was once ranked as the world’s fifth best player, but also one that saw her at her most troubled.

The daughter of Gladys Heldman, an indomitable driving force in the advent of the Virginia Slims tour, hers is a tale of an impossible struggle, centered on the relationship between mother and offspring, emotional abuse and survival amid decades of undiagnosed mental illness.

Since the release of Julie’s memoir last year, Driven — a catalogue of strength in adversity, laying bare the details of a deeply complex life has become easier; the placing of pen to paper serving as a catharsis to a lifetime of bottled-up secrets.

“It is absolutely extraordinary,” Heldman reflects of her upcoming return to the tennis world. From the thrill in her voice, it is clear that she means it.

Given all that she has faced, in many ways, this is a personal triumph that outweighs much of what the former US No.2 achieved with racket in-hand. It says much for the debilitating power of mental illness that someone who thrived in front of a watching audience — both as player and then as broadcaster — has felt so unable to show face.

“It is always more of a struggle for me when there are a lot of people around,” she confesses. “The fact that I can even think about going is pretty thrilling.”

The effects of a childhood of emotional abuse have seen her face a lifetime of difficulty. Long after the end of her playing career, Heldman was diagnosed with bipolar, a disorder that has — at least — given context to some of her difficulties.

While Gladys played an immense role in putting the building blocks in place for the future of the women’s game, her treatment of Julie was cruel. It was motherhood, but without the mothering. Julie would spend the majority of her formative years in isolation, starved of empathy, regularly belittled.

At the same time, however, there is an undying pride in what her mother achieved. Gladys, for her faults, had also suffered from a childhood devoid of maternal compassion. In 2003, she would take her own life.

She was a fearless woman championing the female cause in what was, almost exclusively, a man’s world. Indeed, Gladys would be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979 — some feat for a promoter and publisher; she founded the highly influential World Tennis magazine.

“One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to explain this amazing thing,” Julie explains. “I am completely proud of my mother and all that she did for tennis and all that she achieved.

“Did she love me? I think the answer is yes. But she was, in many ways, incapable of showing empathy. Emotion was very difficult for her to show. Even though some kind of love was lurking underneath, it was very difficult for her to show it in normal ways.”

In her memoir, Julie describes her family as possessing all the characteristics of a cult. She writes of ‘an exceedingly strong leader; isolation from the rest of the world; control, coercion and abuse by the leader.’

It is a cocktail of sentiments that left her with a deep internal conflict. “Differentiating my mother from the woman who did so much for women’s tennis has been, for many years, close to impossible,” she says.

In 1970, Julie would attempt suicide. But, nearly half a century later, it is a time in her life that Heldman, now 73, can look back upon without resentment and with a clarity of what was driving her actions.

“It is important for anyone — those in sport and not — to be able to know that if something is going wrong, that there can be help,” she says, unprompted, with an experienced wisdom and the self-awareness of someone all too aware of the challenges that come with living with mental illness.

“Help can be a friend who listens; help can be someone who’s trained to give guidance. But if you think you’re on your own or if you grow up in an environment where you think that you absolutely have to win, that is going to cause its own damage.

“To find the place to turn to is really important. What I have seen in sport is that, with all the money and with all the people involved, a person might feel like they are getting lost in the cracks. There is always a place somewhere for competitors to turn to.”

Of her own experience, she admits that, at her lowest, she lacked any such safe haven. “After my attempted suicide, I did not know where to go. The only place I knew to go to was back on the tennis court. Yet, nobody had any idea what I was going through. The fact that nobody knew had a massive impact on me.

“In many ways, tennis and winning at tennis and being successful was a saving grace because it gave me the ability to be somebody.

“That’s how I would feel when I won. So, tennis became the one thing that I could turn to; but in itself, tennis was also harmful to me.

“With my mother, if I won she would say that I was the best thing ever, but if I lost I felt terrible. But either way, even if I was the best thing ever, she would often undermine me. It felt like I was living on a razor’s edge — damned if I won and damned if I lost.”

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The real pull of the career was the traveling, with Heldman’s status among the world’s best seeing her paid to fly to Buenos Aires, South Africa, London and Australia at a time when such a lifestyle was both enviable and uncommon. However, her own personal situation brought with it a pressure that, she says, made life as a professional tennis player difficult to appreciate.

“I enjoyed hitting a hard forehand, I enjoyed constructing a point well. But I didn’t get pure joy out of walking out onto a tennis court,” she admits.

“There was so much wrapped up in tennis, including the fact that my mother dominated the tennis world. She was involved in what I was doing, which felt dangerous to me. People would tell me how wonderful she was, so in some ways, I was stuck in a world where I was almost doubly trapped.

“Nobody [in tennis] knew and nobody in my family spoke about [the abuse],” Heldman recalls. “I did not actually have an understanding myself that what I was going through was significant. That was and has remained one of the most difficult things for me — that feeling that nobody would understand, but then I didn’t either.

“It was, therefore, close to incomprehensible that other people would have considered the way I grew up as being difficult at all. Putting that all together has been the hardest bit.”

Quite simply, having spent much of her childhood alone, hers was the only upbringing she knew. There was no reason to disbelieve it.

The process of beginning to understand, she explains, has been multifaceted. It began with therapy: “I cried for three days,” she says of being told by her therapist that her childhood experiences had not been normal.

“It was only a few sessions in that she explained that other families would not have treated me this way. She told me that this didn’t have to happen.”

Perhaps, though, what is most significant in explaining Heldman’s lifelong struggle with herself is that she has come to understand her own set of circumstances.

Not only can she now comprehend an often tearful and lonely youth, but she has been able to recognize the root of what she describes as her “volatility” on the court.

Heldman pauses as she recalls an anecdote from the recent past. “One of the old players said to me: ‘I like you more now than I used to’, and I began to understand that I could have been jarring and I could have been difficult.

“That was because I didn’t understand what was going on and because I wasn’t receiving help a lot of the time. It was hard to be otherwise — I never wanted to be jarring and difficult.”

It is a story that summarizes all that bipolar brings — the episodes of depression that accompany the periods of manic energy.

“Mania, for me, feels like second nature,” Heldman explains. “I have always pushed too hard, so I do not know that things are going wrong if I start functioning at a very high level. It hooks into what I do, which is to be driven and to do as much as possible.

“Depression, on the other hand, is very clear to me. When I start feeling bad, I often stop being able to function — even to get out of bed or to talk to people on the phone. Using a telephone can feel daunting. There were many years when I had no clue as to why it was happening.

“It happened sometimes when I was playing on the tennis tour, which was difficult because I couldn’t function. The upside can be so startling, but the downside can be terrible.

“If I can’t function, I can’t succeed. If I can’t succeed, I can’t feel good. It has always been that way.”

READ: Laslo Djere wins first ATP Tour title, dedicates victory to his late parents

Alongside her childhood trauma and the inherent stresses of tournament tennis, she counts her bipolar — and the harmful effects of her medication — among the four major culprits of her mental struggle.

Yet, Heldman also pinpoints the revelation of her bipolar as another crucial step on her pathway towards comprehending the events of her own existence. “My brain chemistry was going in different directions at the same time,” Heldman explains. “They said I had a dual diagnosis — both the childhood abuse and the bipolar.”

With the help of therapy, it was also a diagnosis that has allowed Heldman to put together the pieces of her lifelong jigsaw.

“I can look back now and see why I went through certain things,” she says. “I thought about why I used to get upset so often and why I used to think that I didn’t have friends. The truth is that I didn’t have friends because I didn’t know people. I grew up without others.

“It’s why I got upset so often — something was deeply churning inside of me and it was something that I did not understand. There are a lot of people out there on the tennis tour who have ‘stuff’ [that drives them]. Mine was my story and what happened to me was severe.”

With the passing of time, Heldman has found a way to add nuance to the win-at-all-costs mantra that was force-fed into her psyche as a child and that heightened the issues she has faced in adulthood.

A cataclysmic breakdown that forced her to retire from the business she co-controlled alongside her husband, Bernie, has also — paradoxically, perhaps — played its part.

“Once that happened, I couldn’t do much,” she explains. “It taught me a lesson in itself — that I could have a life even though I wasn’t achieving, that there was a lot to be joyful for in waking up every day and having a family.

“Before, I felt great if I won, but I immediately felt lousy because I’d feel like something awful was about to happen. Now, I can sit back and understand that I did some good things. I can finally look at that and realize — I’m proud of what I did and I’m able to feel that pride now that I feel more at peace.”

As a captivating chat comes towards its end, Heldman briefly goes silent as she ponders the notion of regret. Could her career and her adult life have followed a different path had she belonged to a different time? Could the modern-day appreciation of mental illness have provided her with a greater and earlier understanding of her own troubles? Could an alternative childhood have led to an even greater tennis career?

Her response — when it comes — is fascinating. It highlights, perhaps better than any other moment in a truly heartening hour, the value of Heldman’s own long-term introspection.

“It was an era when there wasn’t much help,” she acknowledges. “It is hard to undo the daily indignities of a child. Once it happens every single day of your life, it is hard to think that you could have been a different person.

“I was that driven child who had to win and who felt better from winning. Had I had a different life, who knows? I wonder whether I would have won so much had I not been so driven.”

[torentialtribute]

French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova has the world at her feet

There is only one question that leaves the bustling Marketa Vondrousova struggling for an answer.

& # 39; Hmm … drop shots & # 39 ;, she concludes. & # 39; But it is so-so. & # 39;

[Engels] [Engels] [Portugees] [Portugees] [Portugees] [Portugees] [Portugees] [Portugees] [Portugees]

] <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "https://ift.tt/2YnCqAn" height = " 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "https://ift.tt/2FV4fsH a-60_1561919682072.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "https://ift.tt/2FIjtkl /19/15452448-7198265-image-a-60_1561919682072.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "https://i.dailymail.co. uk / 1s / 2019/06/30/19 / 15452448-7198265-image-a-60_1561919682072.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "https : //i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/30/19/15452448-7198265-image-a-60_1561919682072.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b172eef0218dea28" src = "http s: //i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/06/30/19/15452448-7198265-image-a-60_1561919682072.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt ="] Carefree Czech phenomenon Marketa Vondrousova is a tennis ace and a huge fan of shoes Carefree Czech phenomenon Marketa Vondrousova is a tennis ace and a huge fan of shoes

Vondrousova goes to Wimbledon as the youngest player in the top 20 "class =" blkBorder img-share "the top 20

First the shoes. Vondrousova has built up more than 200 pairs over a five-year period, with her footwear only exceeding her performance on the tennis court.

& # 39; I just love sneakers & # 39 ;, she says. & # 39; When I was 14, I started to buy everything I could get. I have a new pair and I buy them and they keep coming and coming. & # 39;

Victories also keep coming and coming. Vondrousova is in 16th place in the world, the youngest player in the top 20 and one of only 10 teenagers, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam final this century.

She grew up in the small town of Sokolov, a two-hour drive from Prague. There had been whispering of this unique talent among tennis circles for years, but it was in Paris that she made herself known to the general public.

& # 39; I started playing when I was four with my father & # 39 ;, says Vondrousova Sportsmail . & # 39; When I was 14, I moved to Prague alone. I only lived in the club. & # 39;

Somehow from these strange teenage years, who lived alone in the tennis center and then exploded in the Grand Slam scene in Paris, Vondrousova seems to have emerged as a well-adjusted 19-year-old.

Some wonderful players her age are already struggling with life during the tour, but Vondrousova is an unstoppable smiley. & # 39; I'm just trying to be a normal teenager, & # 39; she says.

<img id = "i-3c22ed46cf620b2d" src = "https://ift.tt/2Yr57wm image-a-62_1561919693708.jpg "height =" 813 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-3c22ed46cf620b2d" src = "https://ift.tt/2Yb9ewe /30/19/15452454-7198265-image-a-62_1561919693708.jpg "height =" 813 "width =" 634 "alt ="

<img id = "i-3c22ed46cf620b2d" src = "https: // i .dailymail.co.uk / 1s / 2019/06/30/19 / 15452454-7198265-image-a-62_1561919693708.jpg "height =" 813 "width =" 634 "alt ="

Martina Hingis

She has recently reached the finals of the French Open and has drawn parallels with Martina Hingis

Her carefree personality is reflected in her freewheeling, all-court tennis. at 5ft 6in she won't blow anyone off the field, but instead she dissects her opponents by dragging them back and forth. think of another teenage prodigy, Martina Hingis.

A pleasure to look at, Vondrousova must go mad in the face. She credits her unique playing style to coach Jan Fuchs, an early mentor in Sokolov.

& # 39; I had this coach in my hometown when I was 12 and I played like that, so I ran all over the field. I thought & # 39; I want to play like this & # 39 ;. & # 39;

In Paris, Vondrousova let her opponents clamber through the field, just as she was twelve. & # 39; They were very surprised about my dropshots and everyone was talking about it & # 39 ;, she says. & # 39; I thought it was normal! & # 39;

She met Konta in a semi-final, in which the British served number 1 for both sets before losing 7-5, 7-6. The pivot moment was at the set point in the first set when Konta clenched fairly long to linear salvo. Could Vondrousova feel that her opponent is feeling the pressure?

& # 39; Of course & # 39 ;, she replies. & # 39; It was a semi-final so it was tough and it was 5-3 and she missed an easy volley. When that ball was in the air, I thought, "I'm done, this set is over," but she missed.

<img id = "i-b037ec9db5908166" src = "https://ift.tt/2Yq0Ed4 image-a-63_1561919698655.jpg "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt =" She is a master in the dropshot and has also revealed that she has more than 200 pairs of trainers.] <img id = "i- b037ec9db5908166 "src =" https://ift.tt/2FI9JH8 "height =" 423 "width =" 634 "alt = "

She is a master in the dropshot and she has also revealed that she has more than 200 pairs of trainers. , and she also revealed that she owns more than 200 pairs of trainers

& # 39; I have played some good points, but I think she was nervous. & # 39;

Vondrousova admits that she herself was nervous at the end when she was defeated by Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-3.

After those whirlwind Paris for two weeks, she managed to return to her hometown without any fanfare.

& # 39; It is a small town, 25,000 people. I literally didn't tell anyone that I was coming, so I was just at home with my family and my sister. It was so crazy those two weeks. Everyone in the Czech Republic was interested in me and I thought: oh no I don't want to do it. I don't like to be in the spotlight. & # 39;

This might not be particularly conducive to avoiding the limelight, but an expert doubles player with two junior Grand Slam titles, would Vondrousova be interested in pairing with Andy Murray in the mixed SW19?

& # 39; Yes! It would be great, & she answers immediately. & # 39; It's Andy! & # 39;

<img id = "i-bc30ac9de034c816" src = "https://ift.tt/2YnIUzb image-a-64_1561919702343.jpg "height =" 471 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-bc30ac9de034c816" src = "https://ift.tt/2Yb9ewe /30/19/15452434-7198265-image-a-64_1561919702343.jpg "height =" 471 "width =" 634 "alt ="

] Marketa Vondrousova is also a double specialist and would love to play with Andy Murray. "

Marketa Vondrousova is also a double specialist and would like to play with Andy Murray

There is a good tradition of left-wing Czech champions on Wimbledon, from Martina Navratilova to Petra Kvitova and Vondrousova could hold the torch for a new generation, and she still has to win a match at the All England Club, but it is only a matter of time before she finds the right combination of dinks and slices to thrive on the grass. She has a good chance today to break her duck against Madison Brengle from the US.

& # 39; It is my favorite tournament although I have been lost both times in the first round & # 39 ;, she says. & # 39; I have never won a competition, but I have always enjoyed it since I was a child. & # 39; Vondrousova has just turned 20, she is at her favorite tournament and her best friend has come from Prague for the she is a young fri old with a lot to celebrate and £ 1 million from the French Open that is putting a hole in its pocket.

The shoe shops of the village of Wimbledon could have prepared better for an attack.

The Dubai Duty Free WTA Summer Party celebrated the biggest champions in the women's tennis game before the Championships, Wimbledon

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High-flying Flanagan seeks 1st Canadian cross-country title, world berth

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/high-flying-flanagan-seeks-1st-canadian-cross-country-title-world-berth/

High-flying Flanagan seeks 1st Canadian cross-country title, world berth

Ben Flanagan has often benefited from being a hard-working, disciplined distance runner.

“But there have been times in my career where I’ve been a little too driven to try to make the next level and maybe had the tendency to overdo things, which either led to some compromise in the quality of my workouts or injuries,” the Kitchener, Ont., native said ahead of Saturday’s Canadian cross-country championships (CBCSports.ca, 8:50 a.m. ET).

In preparation for his debut run in Kingston, Ont., Flanagan and his coaches have been mindful to not sacrifice the “ultimate goal” of qualifying for next year’s world track and field championships in Doha, Qatar.

Ben Flanagan leaps through the finish line to win the men’s @FalmouthRR. pic.twitter.com/VWja7DwcJz

—@chasshill

No doubt he saw bigger and better days ahead on the track in 2016 after winning the first of two Big Ten 10,000-metre titles, but a foot injury sidelined him that fall. A sacral stress fracture in Flanagan’s lower left back kept him out long-term early in 2017, while right foot discomfort late in 2017 resurfaced earlier this year.

“The back injury was a big learning experience of what [level of workload] my body was able to handle,” said Flanagan, whose graduate studies in social work at the University of Michigan don’t end until December. “This year, we were able to get a long, consistent training block and that’s when progress snowballed into very noticeable improvement in my running.”

Race schedule

Masters 8K: 9:45 a.m. ET​

U18 girls 4K:  11 a.m.

U 18 boys 6K: 11:30 a.m.

U 20 women 6K: 12:15 p.m.

U 20 men 8K: 1 p.m.

Open women 10K: 1:45 p.m.

Open men 10K: 2:45 p.m.

Course update: course is in awesome condition. Very little snow, no icy spots, great footing. Hope this holds till Saturday. #acxc2018 @ Fort Henry https://t.co/vpatiQ9uC6

—@XCNationals

A banner 2018 campaign has followed Flanagan’s 2016 breakout when he set personal bests in the 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000. Since reclaiming his Big Ten title in May, the accolades have piled up for the Canadian:

He won the 10,000 at NCAA Division I championships in 28 minutes 34.53 seconds, showcasing a huge kick to beat race favourite Vincent Kiprop of Alabama.

BEN FLANAGAN WITH THE CRAZY KICK FTW & #ncaaTF 10K 🏆! pic.twitter.com/agTOqynodF

—@NCAATrackField

Flanagan placed third in the 5,000 (14:36.66) at the Canadian track and field championships behind 2018 Commonwealth Games double silver medallist Mo Ahmed and Reebok Boston Track club teammate Justyn Knight, a three-time NCAA champion.

In only his second road race since Grade 9, Flanagan outkicked American professional runner Scott Fauble to become the first Canadian, male or female, to win in the 46-year history of the Falmouth Road Race, an 11-kilometre event in the coastal town on Cape Cod, Mass.

On Long Island, Flanagan clocked 3:57.75 to break the four-minute mile for the first time.

In September, he won his first national title and set a Canadian soil record with his winning time of 13:56 at the Canadian 5K Road Championships in Toronto.

‘I want to take smart risks’

Flanagan said Saturday’s senior men’s 10K race, contested on a 2.5 km loop at the famed Fort Henry course, is a good platform to show where he stacks up against Canada’s best distance runners, including defending champion Lucas Bruchet, three-time defending Canadian 1,500 champ Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and 2018 Canadian men’s 10K winner Evan Esselink.

It will mark Flanagan’s first race at the senior level of the Canadian event after competing in the junior 8K in 2010 (17th at Guelph, Ont.) and at Vancouver in 2011 (7th), 2012 (2nd) and 2013 (2nd).

A more difficult course like this would probably fall in my favour if people tire a little earlier than expected.— Pro runner Ben Flanagan of Reebok Boston Track Club

“I want to take smart risks and run intelligently,” said the first-year professional runner, who trained for the rolling course in Kingston by running hills and other challenging terrain. “The goal is to stay in contention for as long as possible.

“A more difficult course like this would probably fall in my favour if people tire a little earlier than they expect. Being patient with my moves and effort could really pay off in the last two kilometres.”

For defending senior women’s champion Claire Sumner, this year’s race brings with it greater pressure to perform well.

A graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, the 23-year-old is excited to compete on her “home” course and visit with friends following a move to Edmonton to attend medical school at the University of Alberta.

Former Queen’s University runner and 2016 U Sports cross-country champion Claire Sumner says she feels greater pressure to perform well in the senior women’s 10K on Saturday as defending champion. (Submitted by Tim Huebsch/Canadian Running)

“I wasn’t expecting to win last year,” said Sumner, who prevailed in 34:48.9 after taking the lead for good on a hill and breaking away from Victoria Coates, Canadian half marathon record-holder Rachel Cliff and Natasha Wodak, the fastest Canadian woman in the 10,000. “I definitely believe in myself more this year.”

The Calgary native placed 30th in 2014 and climbed to third just two years later. She attributed the drastic improvement to familiarity with the Fort Henry course and thriving under Boyd, who remains her coach and emails workouts.

“The course plays to my strength because I like the hills and the [usual] mud and tough conditions,” said the 2016 U Sports cross-country gold medallist. “I just trust what [Boyd] tells me to do. He puts a lot of thought into each workout and there is a purpose with each.”

Much of Sumner’s training in recent months was on the road preparing for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October, where she placed third in the half marathon and reached her goal of sub-75 minutes with a time of 1:14:28. Sumner also squeezed in one cross-country race before cross-country nationals.

New world championship qualifying process

“There’s more in the tank,” Sumner said of Saturday’s competition.

For the first time, senior athletes won’t have to race at cross-country nationals to represent Canada at the world championships on March 30 in Denmark.

The top four finishers in the men’s and women’s senior races will receive an automatic berth.

The other two spots will be filled by athletes who met a specific standard in the last 12 months, or rank top 32 in the world, in either the 5,000, 10,000, 3000 steeplechase or marathon. They would be placed in rank order based on their performance relative to the standard.

Should spots remain, athletes would be selected by Saturday’s order of finish from fifth to 10th.

In order of eligibility, the following athletes would qualify under Step 2:

Men

Women

Natasha Wodak (10,000)

Rachel Cliff (10,000)

Andrea Seccafien (5,000)

Kate Van Buskirk (5,000)

Jessica O’Connell (5,000)

Geneviève Lalonde (3,000 steeplechase)

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[collectingroomtone]

Andy Marken on Sundance

Maybe the Problem of Sundance is the Distribution, Not the Content

"My mommy always said there were no monsters. No real ones. But there are." – Ripley, Alien: "Resurrection," Brandywine Productions, 1997

The reason a year seems to pass so quickly is that it starts so darn fast and the only constant is fast, faster and fastest change. The M&E (media and entertainment) industry took up a lot of attention (and space) at CES – the everything for everyone show. Even before all the screens, cameras and storage solutions were packed up and shipped home; people were unpacking their skies, parkas, cameras, storage and hopes in Park City, Utah for Sundance, the first huge film festival of 2018. Studios, cinemas and networks had raised ticket prices, monthly cable fees and ad rates to stay in the black. And they had rehearsed their reasons for the slump in theater attendance and declining home screen eyeball numbers. Obviously, the downturn wasn't because of sequel fatigue or weak lineup of films/shows. Of course, it was all because of FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google); BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent); and the insatiable millennial appetite for new/different OTT (over the top) content.

New Beginning – At the opening session at this year's Sundance Film Festival, founder Robert Redford made it abundantly clear that the event would set itself apart from the Hollywood stigma and focus on fostering new and open conversations in the industry.

Back in 1978, the state and city fathers had no idea what they were getting into when Robert Redford, Sterling Van Wagenen, John Earle and Cirina Catania put together a modest, once-a-year event to attract to filmmakers to Utah.

The independent American-made filmmaker testing ground has arguably become the worldwide event for self-made film artists and the place to show off, be seen, explore new creative endeavors/techniques in addition to launching a successful video production career.

This year's Sundance Film Festival had all of that – and more/less.

It set the stage for the broader and more defining/more diverse role films, shows and video content can play in the future.

Stories and talent from under-represented communities found their way to Park City where The Sundance Institute gave them the national/international stage to be seen/heard as well as the chance to be picked up by distributors for an even larger audience.

Institute founder Robert Redford drew a line in the snow on the opening day, saying that the event was moving beyond the Miramax founder. Going forward, the event would provide a platform for filmmakers to examine, air and creatively discuss events of the day. He made his position very clear when he said, "The role for men right now is to listen. To let women's voices be heard and think about it."

But Sundance has typically been ahead of Hollywood in promoting women filmmakers.

Lower, Higher – Slated recently reported that females in the film industry were generally given smaller budgets and lower salaries, even though they brought in greater returns for investors than their male counterparts.

Despite the Sundance focus, there's still a gender disparity with male directors getting nearly three times the number of screens for their projects than females. While according to Slated, the female ROI (return on investment) is greater, they still get fewer opportunities, resources and lower compensation. To deliver balance this year, Sundance judges selected projects from 43 female feature-film directors and 42 percent of the short films were directed by females (37 percent of the 122 feature films premiered). The crop of new films, documentaries and long/short series presented enlightened, bold, humorous, thoughtful and thought-provoking stands on race, gender, history and world issues. For the indie filmmakers – male or female - the big question was (as always) sales. The days of brokering deals and hobnobbing with both Hollywood's elite and soon-to-be elite has changed dramatically in recent years. It reflects the industry change. It used to be content companies/studios made TV shows and movies and sold them to pay-TV distributors, who sold them to consumers. With the increase in mergers and the aggressive nature of FAANG and BAT, it's a new landscape. This year's festival featured 110 films from more than 13,000 submissions from 29 countries, in 14 categories including premieres, docs, indie episodics, shorts and younger lives works. And while having people cheer and praise your creative work is still high on any indie filmmaker's wish list, so is money.

Major Shifts – With the growing presence of FAANG and BAT competitors and major growth in OTT viewing opportunities, the traditional Hollywood landscape is changing dramatically with significant M&A (merger & acquisition) activity.

Perhaps because of the bloat of overpriced sales in recent years and the growing number of dealmakers and wanna' bes who increasingly attend Sundance, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) panel discussion during the 10-day event was SRO (standing room only). Hosted by YouTube, even veteran Sundance attendees wanted to pick up new hints from 'How to Get Your Film Out There - The Digital Experts Weigh In' panelists. The panel session wasn't a roadmap to financial success, but folks were taking lots of notes. That's because indie institutions like Fox Searchlight (acquired by Disney) and Focus Features have seen tough competition emerge in recent years. The deep-pocketed FAANG and BAT crowd were back again this year with checkbooks and viewing schedules, looking for worldwide streaming rights to content for their subscribers. At the same time, distributors were cautious this year because so many done-deals had unraveled after filmmakers faced misconduct accusations and high-stakes bidding failed to produce sales at the box office or on the multitude of streaming screens. Despite the obstacles, distributors came to Sundance because it's a launching pad for titles and a great opportunity for them to discover new movies to acquire and for new filmmakers to work with in the future. Hope springs eternal! While diversity and gender issues were in the back of the minds of many attendees and distributors, it didn't hurt that two of last year's biggest entries - "Get Out" and "Mudbound" - were serious Oscar contenders this year. "Call Me By My Name" also deserved to be mentioned and there were even more recognized in other competitions. Sundance and the financial winners like to talk about the major deals, even when the content produces nothing but red ink. While Sundance always features diverse voices; this year, the quality was promoted as being even better and there's nothing like a great crowded screening at the Eccles Theater or at the new 500-seat Ray Theater that featured completely immersive audio, thanks to the inclusion of the Dolby Atmos sound system.

Unique Search – Sony was one of the first to sign a big check for the highly unusual and tense film "Search."

Search is a hard film to explain but it worked for Sony because they picked it up and it makes you feel that they just might have drawn some of it from your family, you. Shot entirely on computer screens, John Cho's daughter is missing; and over the course of the drama, you see how little he knows about her and what she does. You reflect on your own family and say," Jeezz, I don't have a clue." It has more twists and turns that keep you guessing and make you feel you should go home, throw away all of the devices in the house and do something weird, like sit down and talk to your family. Search was one of the few films at Sundance that made you think at Sundance. While some of the dealmakers called the parade of content "awful," "boring," or just plain "weak," I disagree with the feedback because each had a message a filmmaker had a burning desire to share with the world. That's damn brave and something the people with the check books wouldn't have the guts to do. All the dealmakers were looking for some magic, something that would make them a hero to their bosses because it made a boatload of money. Those miracles only come along once in a blue moon; and even then, most of the distributors only see it in the rearview mirror and by then, it's a little late. Many of the films had vision and quality and there were even a few that had broad viewer appeal--even if the purchase prices weren't astronomical. Some buyers were pleased with their festival experiences, arguing that there were many films of vision and quality, even if there were fewer films that had broad appeal. Getting that global appeal is becoming more difficult as theater tickets continue to rise and distributors toy with simultaneous theater/payTV distribution, international releases and OTT ad-supported viewing. At the same time, they have to more aggressively combat torrent sites that are hell-bent on stealing from filmmakers, crew, distributors, everyone in the industry. But this year, all 360-degrees of VR (Virtual Reality) proved it has a decided place in visual storytelling. After director Alejandro González Iñárritu's VR experience, Carne y Arena, won a special achievement award at the Oscars last year, the technology made a major leap forward in becoming a legitimate artform.

VR Landing – Giving viewers a first-hand and very personal view of the universe that surrounds us, "Spheres" was the first VR film to crack the seven-figure sales mark at this year's Sundance.

That was also shown with hard cash when Spheres – a three-part series that lets you explore the depths of space in VR – sold for a solid seven figures to CityLights. The key now will be getting people to pay to watch. There are still naysayers who proclaim that VR is just like 3D, a passing fancy. We asked Andrew Shulkind, an award-winning cinematographer, who stopped by the OWC event at Sundance, about the state of VR. Shulkind has shot traditional films like The Ritual, The Vault and Panic Room as well as over 40 of the top cinematic VR projects for top brands, studios and sports leagues. "There are exploratory, definitive pieces like Dinner Party that easily fit into the traditional film festival format," he said, "but then there are super edgy, experimental pieces like Spheres and Dispatch that really lean into the complete potential of what we can do with virtual environments and the efficiencies of AI to deliver both singular and social experiences." Shulkind, who was at Sundance with Intel and Google showing the near and long-term potential of VR, noted he had taken a work break to check the work of friends at Starbreeze Studios, StarVR and iNK Stories.

New Frontier Highlight – The VR experience of "Hero" gave Starbreeze Studios the opportunity to show people the full potential of VR and personal action/reaction.

"If you want to experience the full potential of VR right now you've got to check out 'The Hero Experience'" Shulkind emphasized. "It's extraordinary and meaningful and exactly what VR should be at this minute." "For decades, motion pictures were the most refined example of nuanced storytelling. But the interactivity of gaming, with the advances of processor power that allow for hyper-realistic graphics and better shading has created a massive industry that is outpacing the motion picture business and encourages its own brand of nuance. Combine those two powerful legacies with the efficiencies and ubiquity of mobile devices, cloud computing and increasing content spends and you have the makings of a completely new form of expression at levels of immersion never possible. Modern versions of content will require something of the viewer, both from an engagement standpoint, but also in terms of user information. These experiences will be underwritten by the value the user's shared data brings to the platform." The Hero Experience literally puts users in the danger zone as never before and it is impossible to come out of the experience unchanged. Shulkind added that Hero Experienceand a few other mixed reality projects that tap the talents and storytelling possibility of filmmakers make the experience deeper, richer and constantly changing. Shulkind doesn't see virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, traditional commercials, or movies as separate verticals. "Cinematic imaging is imaging, no matter how big the screen; and we need to start defining entertainment (or content, if you insist) more broadly to encompass all of these types of storytelling." Meanwhile, he's keeping his feet in both camps, having recently shot content for a Chinese theme park, projects with Intel's volumetric studio, TrueVR and the NFL that was debuted at CES, as well as a Pepsi commercial for the Super Bowl. Sundance has always been a place for all voices, but it feels especially poignant this year when the contradictions of race and gender inequality are finally coming to light industry–wide. "Big changes are finally afoot, both in terms of the quality of stories being told and who gets to tell them," he noted. "That goes for content creators and distributors. The splashy parties used to be Miramax and Sony Picture Classics and Fox Searchlight; and now, the biggest parties in the best locations are Oculus, Kickstarter, Google/YouTube, Intel, Imdb.com Netflix, and Amazon. The quality of immersive entertainment doesn't yet match up with the award–winning commercials and movies that we know and love, but that day is coming." Sundance 2018 may not have been hugely profitable for filmmakers; but then, overnight sensations usually take time to be discovered.

Or, as Ripley said, "I don't know. I'm a stranger here myself."

[foundtheworl]

New Post has been published on Found The World

New Post has been published on https://foundtheworld.com/couchsurfing-best-worst-way-travel/

Couchsurfing: the Best and the Worst Way to Travel

Couchsurfing is a budget traveler’s best friend; it is sleeping on a strangers couch for a period of time while in a different country. It is defiantly a unique form of accommodation, and creates some of the best or worst memories abroad. Through the couchsurfing site, people can create profiles, which resemble Facebook. Here they list who they are, their interests, languages they speak, countries they’ve visited, people can also add friends and be a part of groups. Yet, the most used feature of this site is to search for people who are willing to host travelers in their home.

While this concept might seem a little strange, it can save hundreds on travel expenses. In Europe the average cost of a hotel is around $100 per night, taking a vacation for 2 weeks suddenly has a base cost of $1400. Being able to save all of that money allows for that $1400 to be used in a different way, eating at nicer restaurants, indulging in more expensive sight seeing, maybe even shopping. It sounds like the perfect way to travel; the only downside is you are staying with a complete stranger.

Humans are very interesting in general, now applying this to sharing accommodation with someone you have never met, makes couchsurfing comparable to playing roulette. It is one of the best ways to meet locals, practice a new language, and cuts more costs because usually guests can use the kitchen to cook instead of going out to eat. Each time that I have stayed a strangers house, I always had the opportunity to experience new activities that I would never have imagined myself doing.

When I was backpacking in Europe last year, after staying with my relatives in Germany I went to visit my friend in Madrid, however on a whim she decided to go to a concert in England, leaving me homeless, luckily for me through the couchsurfing site there was a group of people from Portugal renting out an apartment in Madrid and invited me to stay there with them for 3 days. During this time, they cooked for me; they brought me to restaurants and bars that no tourists have discovered.

Being in Europe during this time would have been a dream for anyone interested in the European soccer league. The rival teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona FC were fighting for the championship title. Without even realizing it, I was in Madrid while this game was going on, my couchsurfing hosts from Portugal told me they were taking me to a sports bar to see the game. Little did I realize how big of deal this game really was, practically the entire city was shut down to watch the sports match. Yet, the biggest surprise was seeing how Madrid reacted when Real Madrid won.

I have been to Dublin on St. Patrick’s day, and the party to celebrating the winning team was huge. So many of the streets were shut down, everyone was drinking, a massive concert was held in the city center. I have never seen so many ecstatic people running around a city so full of joy. If I didn’t stay with this group of guys, I would have never been able to experience such an extraordinary event. After leaving Europe I developed an interest in European soccer and now I am especially glad that I had the opportunity to go there and be a part of it.

Outside of asking for places to stay there are also many groups that connect communities of people around the world. I turned to one of these groups for help because I wanted to go back to the Dominican Republic for a little while but hoped to live in another part of the island and work at a hostel. Prior to reaching out this couchsurfing group, I had searched and found no leads, and was getting really discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to return because I didn’t have enough money to rent an apartment. I created a post and within a day I was connected with the manager for a hostel and was employed. Outside of that message so many people messaged me saying that they could help me and knew of places to stay. All around the world there are groups on couchsurfing for different events, and they are a great way to make connections.

After getting situated working for the hostel in the Caribbean, I was sitting around the living room with my coworkers, and we were all talking about our couchsurfing experience’s. This is where I learned that couchsurfing is the ‘tinder’ of the travel world. As something I would never assume, I learned that some people offer accommodation to who they are attracted too. Some of my coworkers had stayed with random people from the site for really long periods of times, sometimes they had dated their hosts, other times became friends, and really anything is possible because of the site. Most people have fantastic experiences, it takes like-minded people who are crazy enough to let strangers into their home and to stay at a random persons homes. Usually stories of couchsurfing are really positive, however some of them are unusual or disastrous events.

There are things that you can do to avoid really bad situations before you stay at someone’s house. First of all it is a good idea to check out their social media, make sure they seem normal, and talk to them for a while, and get a feel for their personality. Because couchsurfing is so interpersonal compared to hotels, finding accommodation is a lot more stressful due to the fact that plans can so easily change. The host last minute can say that they can no longer provide accommodation or their home could look a lot different in person than how it was described online. Many hosts and couchsurfers have reviews on the site, but meeting someone in person is a lot different than meeting online. Be captious, always be prepared for the worst, and have a back up plan of a hotel just incase something happens.

Saying all of this, strange things happen when people couchsurf, while nothing awful has ever happened to me, you can probably imagine some of the colourful and awful situations people have gotten into.

The worst that ever happened to me was in Spain, when I was searching for a place to stay because my friend last minute was traveling to England for a concert. There was a man that saw I was looking for a host, and he decided to offer me a place to stay, which was really nice. However, after talking to him I realized that he had a very unusual job, he was a cameraman. Yet he specialized in shooting for a porn company. Not only was this his career, but he told me that he worked from home. As you can imagine, I declined his offer to sleep at his apartment.

Other people I have talked to have told me stories about the strangest and weirdest people they have come across. One girl I’ve met came across a catfish of the traveling world. In Europe she was expecting to stay with a white women who turned out to be an Indian man. She said he was still a really nice person, yet it was concerning that he was using a fake account to get people to stay at his house. Usually the issues with couchsurfing are similar to typical roommate problems but amplified because both parties are strangers. Problems of cleanliness, social norms, and political and religious views are often areas of potential conflict. As I previously said, people use couchsurfing as a dating app, the only difference is that using the site to find love is like tinder on steroids. My coworker stayed at male hosts’ house for a week and he was really attracted to her but she didn’t have romantic feelings for him at all, which made for a very uncomfortable experience. Even if people don’t have social problems with each other, if you are really neat and your host is a hoarder, this can cause issues. One of the worst stories I’ve been told is of a female who stayed with at a man’s home, he lied about having an extra bed and his house smelled awful. For some reason the girl decided to stay at his place and sleep in the same bed as him, but was less than enthusiastic to wake up to find him watching her sleep.

Couchsurfing is a risk but the connections that can be made through the app can be incredible. It is possible to find a place to stay, save money, experience love, make new friends, and maybe even get a job just by messaging strangers and asking them to host you. Remember to be smart about who you offer your home to and who you decide to stay with, because humans are very interesting creatures.

[foundtheworl]

New Post has been published on Found The World

New Post has been published on http://foundtheworld.com/couchsurfing-best-worst-way-travel/

Couchsurfing: the Best and the Worst Way to Travel

Couchsurfing is a budget traveler’s best friend; it is sleeping on a strangers couch for a period of time while in a different country. It is defiantly a unique form of accommodation, and creates some of the best or worst memories abroad. Through the couchsurfing site, people can create profiles, which resemble Facebook. Here they list who they are, their interests, languages they speak, countries they’ve visited, people can also add friends and be a part of groups. Yet, the most used feature of this site is to search for people who are willing to host travelers in their home.

While this concept might seem a little strange, it can save hundreds on travel expenses. In Europe the average cost of a hotel is around $100 per night, taking a vacation for 2 weeks suddenly has a base cost of $1400. Being able to save all of that money allows for that $1400 to be used in a different way, eating at nicer restaurants, indulging in more expensive sight seeing, maybe even shopping. It sounds like the perfect way to travel; the only downside is you are staying with a complete stranger.

Humans are very interesting in general, now applying this to sharing accommodation with someone you have never met, makes couchsurfing comparable to playing roulette. It is one of the best ways to meet locals, practice a new language, and cuts more costs because usually guests can use the kitchen to cook instead of going out to eat. Each time that I have stayed a strangers house, I always had the opportunity to experience new activities that I would never have imagined myself doing.

When I was backpacking in Europe last year, after staying with my relatives in Germany I went to visit my friend in Madrid, however on a whim she decided to go to a concert in England, leaving me homeless, luckily for me through the couchsurfing site there was a group of people from Portugal renting out an apartment in Madrid and invited me to stay there with them for 3 days. During this time, they cooked for me; they brought me to restaurants and bars that no tourists have discovered.

Being in Europe during this time would have been a dream for anyone interested in the European soccer league. The rival teams of Real Madrid and Barcelona FC were fighting for the championship title. Without even realizing it, I was in Madrid while this game was going on, my couchsurfing hosts from Portugal told me they were taking me to a sports bar to see the game. Little did I realize how big of deal this game really was, practically the entire city was shut down to watch the sports match. Yet, the biggest surprise was seeing how Madrid reacted when Real Madrid won.

I have been to Dublin on St. Patrick’s day, and the party to celebrating the winning team was huge. So many of the streets were shut down, everyone was drinking, a massive concert was held in the city center. I have never seen so many ecstatic people running around a city so full of joy. If I didn’t stay with this group of guys, I would have never been able to experience such an extraordinary event. After leaving Europe I developed an interest in European soccer and now I am especially glad that I had the opportunity to go there and be a part of it.

Outside of asking for places to stay there are also many groups that connect communities of people around the world. I turned to one of these groups for help because I wanted to go back to the Dominican Republic for a little while but hoped to live in another part of the island and work at a hostel. Prior to reaching out this couchsurfing group, I had searched and found no leads, and was getting really discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to return because I didn’t have enough money to rent an apartment. I created a post and within a day I was connected with the manager for a hostel and was employed. Outside of that message so many people messaged me saying that they could help me and knew of places to stay. All around the world there are groups on couchsurfing for different events, and they are a great way to make connections.

After getting situated working for the hostel in the Caribbean, I was sitting around the living room with my coworkers, and we were all talking about our couchsurfing experience’s. This is where I learned that couchsurfing is the ‘tinder’ of the travel world. As something I would never assume, I learned that some people offer accommodation to who they are attracted too. Some of my coworkers had stayed with random people from the site for really long periods of times, sometimes they had dated their hosts, other times became friends, and really anything is possible because of the site. Most people have fantastic experiences, it takes like-minded people who are crazy enough to let strangers into their home and to stay at a random persons homes. Usually stories of couchsurfing are really positive, however some of them are unusual or disastrous events.

There are things that you can do to avoid really bad situations before you stay at someone’s house. First of all it is a good idea to check out their social media, make sure they seem normal, and talk to them for a while, and get a feel for their personality. Because couchsurfing is so interpersonal compared to hotels, finding accommodation is a lot more stressful due to the fact that plans can so easily change. The host last minute can say that they can no longer provide accommodation or their home could look a lot different in person than how it was described online. Many hosts and couchsurfers have reviews on the site, but meeting someone in person is a lot different than meeting online. Be captious, always be prepared for the worst, and have a back up plan of a hotel just incase something happens.

Saying all of this, strange things happen when people couchsurf, while nothing awful has ever happened to me, you can probably imagine some of the colourful and awful situations people have gotten into.

The worst that ever happened to me was in Spain, when I was searching for a place to stay because my friend last minute was traveling to England for a concert. There was a man that saw I was looking for a host, and he decided to offer me a place to stay, which was really nice. However, after talking to him I realized that he had a very unusual job, he was a cameraman. Yet he specialized in shooting for a porn company. Not only was this his career, but he told me that he worked from home. As you can imagine, I declined his offer to sleep at his apartment.

Other people I have talked to have told me stories about the strangest and weirdest people they have come across. One girl I’ve met came across a catfish of the traveling world. In Europe she was expecting to stay with a white women who turned out to be an Indian man. She said he was still a really nice person, yet it was concerning that he was using a fake account to get people to stay at his house. Usually the issues with couchsurfing are similar to typical roommate problems but amplified because both parties are strangers. Problems of cleanliness, social norms, and political and religious views are often areas of potential conflict. As I previously said, people use couchsurfing as a dating app, the only difference is that using the site to find love is like tinder on steroids. My coworker stayed at male hosts’ house for a week and he was really attracted to her but she didn’t have romantic feelings for him at all, which made for a very uncomfortable experience. Even if people don’t have social problems with each other, if you are really neat and your host is a hoarder, this can cause issues. One of the worst stories I’ve been told is of a female who stayed with at a man’s home, he lied about having an extra bed and his house smelled awful. For some reason the girl decided to stay at his place and sleep in the same bed as him, but was less than enthusiastic to wake up to find him watching her sleep.

Couchsurfing is a risk but the connections that can be made through the app can be incredible. It is possible to find a place to stay, save money, experience love, make new friends, and maybe even get a job just by messaging strangers and asking them to host you. Remember to be smart about who you offer your home to and who you decide to stay with, because humans are very interesting creatures.