#it’s been a blast meeting some of you and helping people understand Eddie’s character

[survivoreddie]

PSA: Next steps of this blog

My hard drive is not working and I haven’t had time to download all the things I had saved of Eddie, so right now some of the bts of this season are gone.

Also, I don’t have the time nor the patience to update the scenes as I’m travelling for the next two months, so it is possible that the next episodes will be updated when I feel like it (if at all 🫶🏻).

[roc-thoughtblog]

Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 15

Chapter 18, Pages 83-88

Past two weeks have been... rough isn't the right word, that implies a specific level of hardship. Mismanaged implies that I made management decisions at all. I think "thoroughly paralyzing" and "difficult to manage" were what it was. If I ever mention emails in the preamble again you can be sure there's a 50% chance I'm imminently falling apart and disappearing for a while under the pressure. I still haven't conquered them at the time of writing this, but I've made some progress..

Over the weekend two sets of friends dragged me out, so that's helped a lot in resetting my mind to a less frozen space. I got to see a bird art exhibit and pick up a friendly kitty! I have no idea where yesterday went but I finished DDLC the day before, which was fun and I'd like to write something about.

This week's looking better.

Anyway! Previously, Edward Ferrars has returned, and makes his greatest spoken appearance thus far with all the sisters; and in the comfort of their familiar company he sounds very much at ease and how Elinor would refer to as "as himself." It's very sweet, but it also sounds like he's nursing something broody underneath it all.

Geez it's been almost two weeks.

It took me a good four hours today to get back into reading again, but I'm glad I did. This chapter was so sweet, and I feel like it's helping me get my life rolling again.

Readthrough below.

Chapter 18

Edward Ferrars is doing a good impression of me during social outings. Poor Elinor, he's so despirited she's not able to even read if he still loves her/wants to see her;

and the reservedness of his manner towards her contradicted one moment what a more animated look had intimated the preceding one.

Another for the nice line stack. I really know the feeling though; that you should or even are genuinely happy to be there but something weighs on you in a way that whatever you should naturally feel gets swallowed. Like happiness is a poor signal being intermittently obscured by static and noise. And other people can pick it up easily even if they don't know the cause; poor Elinor is feeling insecure right now being made to guess what it could be.

Edward's behaving oddly, not just in Marianne's opinion but in mine as well I think. Or at least, very detachedly. He skips breakfast with Elinor to go a walk around town to admire the scenery; I have to pause my train of thought for this actually:

"I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold; surfaces strange and uncouth, which out to be irregular and rugged; and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of hazy atmosphere. [...] I call it a very fine country - the hills are steep, the woods seem full of fine timber, and the valley looks comfortable and snug - [...] I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me."

When Marianne tries to press Edward for the details of his aethstic opinion after his walk, he gets pre-emptively defensive over his inability to meet her standards of aesthetic appreciation. Asides from illustrating that Edward knows how to describe what he lacks, it's really helpful to me for being an incredibly easy to reference breakdown on the difference between observations made from aesthetics versus utility.

Steep hills, out of sight objects, comfort and resource presence are all practical concerns. Meanwhile, uncouth surfaces imply personality, a hazy distant skyline adds atmosphere, promontories are dramatic and grey moss and brush wood are appealing visual details. I haven't really stopped thinking about narrative voice, so I'm suddenly struck wondering about a detective/reporter dynamic where two characters cover the same scene but one is practical and the other is poetic, and seeing the difference... Well it's probably been done and I should nix this train of thought before it takes me interstate.

Amusingly, Elinor undercuts her beau by explaining to Marianne that Edward is not nearly as exclusively utilitarian-minded as he acts... he just masks the latent poetry within his soul because he holds a slight reactionary bias against aesthetics, because he finds some aesthetic appreciators to be fake and pretentious. Oh dear. :'D

Fortunately for Edward, Marianne agrees that florid language has been done to death. Unfortunately for Elinor, Edward refutes her claim that he has any hidden poetic appeal. He goes as far as to use language like "crooked, twisted, blasted trees" while doing so too, which, I think we can all agree it's a waste that he doesn't employ them more often. :'D

Marianne looked with amazement at Edward, with compassion at her sister. Elinor only laughed.

Same. :'D

Oh, oh no.

Next paragraph Marianne spots that Edward has a new ring and blurts out the observation for a conversation topic. Oh no, no that can't be any kind of good in general. A surprise new ring? In a romance novel? Murder! Bloody murder! It's like finding a bloody handprint in a murder mystery; Edward what have you done??

I might be having a little trouble following what comes now though. So there's a hair inlaid in the ring (what is it with people keeping each other's hair?), which Marianne asks if it's Fanny's. The hair's not the right colour to be Fanny's, but Edward makes an excuse while glancing (guiltily?) at Elinor. So now, both sisters think it's Elinor's hair, and he's lying about the source because he's embarassed? Marianne thinks it Elinor gave to him, but Elinor thinks he secretly stole it from her?

I think that's what happened?

Elinor doesn't even like... particularly mind that her hair might have been stolen to make a ring.

That hair is definitely not Elinor's though, which I think she will mind.

[Elinor] internally resolved henceforward to catch every opportunity of eyeing the hair and satisfying, beyond all doubt, that it was exactly the same as her own. [...] how little offense it had given to [Elinor].

Elinor's natural skepticism, at an 11 for Willoughby, is turned down to a 1 for her beau. In fact, her natural skepticism is playing second fiddle to her basking in attention; from the rest of the context it sounds like she's just using it as an excuse to admire her beau apparently wearing her hair. We've seen paranoid hyperaware Elinor, and this is definitely not her. This is a new Elinor, this is aaaaaaaaaa my beau has a secret memento of me aaaaaaaaa i can't betray my secret internal happiness aaaaaaaaaaa Elinor.

I don't even think I'm reading too much into the secret internal happiness thing, girl has feelings and biases. If it were Willoughby with the strange ring of hair she'd be driving herself up the wall with concern, but that it's Edward she's already half-convinced herself of his fidelity. Either it's not her hair, or he stole her hair behind her back, and neither is a good thing! In fact, the latter is quite a stretch, and Edward seems like an awful liar. And even though she assumes the latter option, that he stole her hair without her consent, she's not even upset! That's not just creepy nowadays, Elinor acknowledges in the text that she should be affronted! It's creepy then too! Poor girl has it bad.

Mama Dashwood are you gonna say anything? I don't think Marianne is useful here, she's just happy to see signs of love.

Oh boy, there's not even much of a reprieve before Sir Middleton and Mrs Jennings show up to meet the new lad in town. 0 seconds for Mrs Jennings to figure out Edward is Elinor's secret beau. Poor Elinor is gonna get her match made so hard. I expect exponentially increased amounts of unwanted advice.

Sir Middleton invites them to more parties, as he do, which may or may not be the coming chapters. Marianne is still despirited that Willoughby is absent. Edward catches on to all these mentions of a mysterious Willoughby and Marianne's despondent reactions, and pieces things to together to come out and ask Marianne privately... if Willoughby hunts.

He just made a joke, that cheered Marianne up. That's adorable, I love it so much. Bonding... :')

Not just him too, the entire narrative was setting that one up for the reader, trying to build it up into some kind of serious question or confrontation so that Willoughby could deliver the punchline on Marianne. On a dry technical level it conveys the same bare minimum of information that it otherwise could have (that Edward has figured something out and confronted Marianne about it), but on every other level it's so much more heartwarming and just adds such a fine, tender touch to an interpersonal relationship that really doesn't get all that much positive attention.

And beyond touched, Marianne is all of happy, anxious and certain that Eddie would be great friends with her Willoughby, which, I need many new sentences to express how incredibly meaningful that is.

Marianne's relationship with Eddie up until now has been marked by a frustrated inability to understand him, and mostly held together by the good words and attention of her sister. They're established to be friends and positive, but there's always a fraught element to it, especially since we've seen that she and Willoughby together have had a similar antagonistic relationship towards Brandon, and that doesn't play out well even with Elinor's defense. Given how much she insists that she shares her heart and mind with Willoughby, we can reach the implication that she treats her opinion or place as interchangeable with Willoughby's. If she can confidently opine that Eddie will like Willoughby, then I think this is that tender moment where we can see that, no matter how or if they fight or disagree, Marianne truly believes that Eddie deeply likes and appreciates her, because that's what's necessary to like Willoughby.

And Eddie reciprocates! "I do not doubt it." He has no reason to know that Willoughby and Marianne have appreciably interchangeable level singlemindedness, so he just likes Marianne enough to be ready to accept whoever it is that she loves.

It's such a lovely note to end an otherwise tense chapter on. That interaction alone might have made it one of my favourites so far.

[njawaidofficial]

'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Snoop Dogg ('Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party')

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/25/awards-chatter-podcast-snoop-dogg-martha-snoops-potluck-dinner-party/

'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Snoop Dogg ('Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party')

“I’m like a cat, man, I’ve got nine lives,” says Snoop Dogg, one of the most popular and influential music artists of the last quarter-century — a trailblazer in the world of gangsta rap and hip-hop who has received 17 Grammy nominations over the years, thanks to hits like “What’s My Name,” “Gin & Juice” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot” — as we sit down to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘s ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast. We’re deep inside The Compound, a well-fortified building in Inglewood, Calif., that he owns and that’s filled with recording studios, screening rooms, a basketball court and ample supplies of marijuana, several blunts of which he smokes during our time together. “I’m connected,” he continues, explaining his secrets of survival. “I keep my ear to the streets, I never play the role of being too big or too grown or too much. I actually converted myself from big ‘Snoop Dogg’ to ‘Uncle Snoop’ — that’s the new thing. The rap generation treats me like I’m their uncle because I’ve always treated them like my nephews and showed ’em love and respected ’em and taught ’em and showed ’em the right way and never tried to get ’em in trouble and helped ’em out and just done that uncle thing that was never done for us in hip-hop.”

The rap generation isn’t the only one that loves Snoop Dogg. In fact, it’s hard to find anyone these days who isn’t high — pardon the pun — on the 45-year-old, a cool and colorful character who always looks like he just smoked (he probably did), never raises his voice and constantly finds way to reinvent himself and appeal to new and unexpected groups of people. Case in point? Snoop and Martha Stewart, of all people, are currently not only co-hosts of a VH1 cooking show, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, but also each other’s biggest fans — and together are frontrunners to win the Emmy for outstanding host for a reality or reality competition program. “I find ways to make it interesting and still remain me at all times,” he says of life itself. “I’ve been able to be as gangsta as I want to be and be as positive as I want to be because that’s all part of me.”

(Click above to listen to this episode or here to access all of our 172 episodes via iTunes. Past guests include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Meryl Streep, Eddie Murphy, Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Emma Stone, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Louis C.K., Reese Witherspoon, Harvey Weinstein, Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld, Jane Fonda, Ryan Reynolds, Nicole Kidman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Taraji P. Henson, Justin Timberlake, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Moore, Kristen Stewart, J.J. Abrams, Helen Mirren, Denzel Washington, Brie Larson, Aziz Ansari, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Warren Beatty, Jessica Chastain, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Sting, Tyler Perry, Amy Schumer, Jay Leno, Mandy Moore, Ricky Gervais, Kris Jenner & Jimmy Kimmel.

Snoop Dogg, who was born Calvin Broadus, Jr. and raised by a single mother in Long Beach, Calif., first burst onto the scene in 1992 as “Snoop Doggy Dogg.” He had been given the first part of the nickname by his mom, who felt that he loved the Peanuts character so much that he started to look like him; the second part was a play on the nickname of his cousin, who went by Tate Doggy Dogg. Snoop grew up singing in church and listening to old-school R&B music, but when gangsta rap first emerged in the 1980s, he fell in love with it and began singing it in the hallways at school, drawing crowds even then. Though he was a peacemaker inside the building, Snoop was drawn to the gang life just outside of it, perhaps seeking a father-figure. And though his activities with the Crips ultimately landed him in jail, he still says, “I’m thankful to have been part of a gang because that taught me leadership, brotherhood, understanding, right from wrong.”

While in jail, Snoop began rapping about fellow prisoners, some of whom convinced him to stay on the straight-and-narrow (more or less) so that he could realize the full potential of his gift. Once back on the outside, he teamed with Nate Dogg and Warren G to form the group 213, and audio cassettes of their music soon began selling like hotcakes out of car trunks. One tape made it into the hands of Dr. Dre, who was impressed and took Snoop under his wing; some Snoop-written songs (“Nuthin’ But a G Thang”) and many Snoop-rapped verses can be heard on Dre’s first album apart from NWA, 1992’s The Chronic, which proved a hit and led to Snoop himself signing with the same record label that repped Dre, Death Row Records. A year later, Snoop’s own debut album, Doggystyle, was released and, on the back of singles such as “What’s My Name” and “Gin & Juice,” debuted at No. 1, went multi-platinum and made him the face of Death Row — just as he was facing murder charges in connection to an incident that he suggests was a misunderstanding.

Snoop ultimately was found not guilty and emerged back into society just as gangsta rap’s East Coast-West Coast rivalry was reaching a boiling point at and after the 1995 Source Awards, catching some of his closest friends in the crosshairs. “None of the rappers were violent, but their homies were,” he explains. And by the time he put out his second album, The Doggfather, in 1996, his good friend Tupac Shakur was dead, Death Row chief Suge Knight was headed to jail and, with “everybody gone,” Snoop decided, he says, that he “just didn’t wanna be gangsta no more.” He began turning away from gangsta life and towards “pimp life,” with which he “was always infatuated as a kid,” and he feels that may actually have saved his life: “Without me having that strength to pull away, I don’t think I’d be here today.” By 2000, Snoop was projecting a friendlier version of himself, peppering his speech and songs with the idiosyncratic suffix “izzle,” starting with 2000’s “What’s My Name (Part 2)”; creating a youth football league in 2005; and even receiving an invitation to the White House to meet President Barack Obama (“a beautiful person”) in 2013.

Through it all, weed remained omnipresent in his life — but then again, that only made him look even more ahead of the curve, as the rest of the country began catching up. Snoop says he first stole a puff at the age of 6 and never turned back, because, in his view, why should he? “Look how good I look! Look how my mind works! Look how I’m on-point and I’m spontaneous in my answers and everything is flowing! Look how smooth my skin is! Look how long my hair is! Look at how I breathe! You understand me? I don’t do no alcohol, I don’t smoke no cigarettes, I just do this right here, and this is the results of it.” He reveals that the only person who ever out-smoked him was Willie Nelson (“He fucked me up … in Amsterdam on 4/20 about eight years ago. … It was like the mothafuckin’ Olympics”) and that his favorite munchie is Funyuns.

So how, you might wonder, does a man with this background wind up working alongside Stewart, the pride of lily-white Westport, Connecticut? “She’s been loving and caring towards people in hip-hop since day one,” Snoop asserts, noting that he also was “a fan” of hers and twice was a guest on her home living TV show. “She was always ‘hood’ to us.” The two wound up seated next to each other at Comedy Central’s 2015 roast of Justin Bieber, meaning Stewart inhaled a lot of second-hand smoke that, she later joked, left her feeling high. Whether or not she actually was, her roasting of Bieber was hilarious and went viral — “She fuckin’ stole the show,” Snoop recalls — and one of many who noticed was Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, VH1 & Logo, who was looking for a cooking show that might appeal to millennials. He pitched Stewart and Snoop, both said yes and, in tandem with producer SallyAnn Salsano (Jersey Shore), they hit the kitchen — or at least a set with side-by-side kitchens — along with celebrity guests ranging from Seth Rogen to Wiz Khalifa.

Snoop and Stewart look like they’re having a blast on the show, which Snoop says he does only because he enjoys hanging with Stewart, not because he needs further fame and fortune. With her, Snoop has a dynamic that shifts between mother/son, brother/sister and boyfriend/girlfriend. “She gets me white-boy wasted and I think it’s on purpose,” he chuckles, while confessing that he may have introduced Stewart, who doesn’t knowingly consume marijuana, to some anyway: “I may have dropped a few seeds here and there, ya dig?” More seriously, he says, “I’m learning from her a few things, and I’m also teaching her a few things,” adding, “She’s a survivor and she’s a beautiful spirit and I just love being around her ’cause she teaches me so much on etiquette and presentation and just how to be a better person. I’m thankful to have her as a friend and have her as a companion on television.”

Snoop continues, naughtily, “She’s beautiful, too! Did you see her old pictures when she used to rock them bathing suits? She was cold. She had those minks and she was sitting on the hill. She had nothin’ but bosses. She didn’t date no regular mothafuckas; you had to have at least a billion. ‘A hundred thousand? If you don’t get outta here! How many boats you got? You own what?'” More importantly, he emphasizes, she’s a role model. “Her age is the same age as Donald Trump,” he reasons. “You see his racist ways? That has nothing to do with right now. That’s the shit that’s in him, as far as how he was raised. If you’re raised that way, you’re raised that way; she wasn’t raised that way. She was raised to love people and have a kind spirit. She opens her home up, she feeds kids, she does things — she’s just a beautiful spirit. That’s attractive to me. It makes me want to be around that, because I want to grow to be her age and to be known for that — for somebody who’s not from my culture or not from my background to be able to do something with me and say, ‘Man, me and Snoop Dogg, we hit it off, and you would have never thought.'”

Man, me and Snoop Dogg, we hit it off, and you would have never thought!

Martha Stewart VH1

#Awards #Chatter #Dinner #Dogg #Martha #Party #Podcast #Potluck #Snoop #Snoops