#kelli watches major crimes

[telemiel]

sharon and rusty's relationship can be so therapeutic actually

[livesincerely]

i was just reading back through your writer’s desks and remembered how much i loved the slideshow au! no pressure but do you have anymore thoughts on it? it’s just one of my faves <3

The outline/notes for that one are still in the very early stages but I’m happy to share what I’ve got so far!

00000

He’s waiting for Tony to come back from the bathroom, the next episode of Crime Scene Kitchen queued up on the tv, when his phone vibrates with a text from Jack.

this prod meeting is running long, probs won’t be back until late. Go ahead and watch w/o me

Everything ok?

ya but part of the set got busted during a scene change so I gotta figure when/how to fix it before tomorrow night

I’ll put your takeout in the fridge and save you some egg rolls

and that’s why you’re my favorite

Say hi to Medda for me

of course

“Jack’s not going to be home until late,” Davey announces as Tony wanders back into the living room. “He says we should start without him.”

….

“Dave,” Tony says, sighing deeply. “Why am I looking at a PowerPoint titled, “Jack Kelly + David Jacobs: A Comprehensive Argument for Maintaining Equilibrium.”

Davey pins him with a scathing look. “It’s a Google Slides presentation, you godless heathen.”

“What the fuck?” Tony asks, ignoring him, clicking rapidly through the screens. “When did you even make this?”

Davey shifts in his seat. “I mean, it’s more of a living document, so it’s never really finished—“

“Davey.”

“A couple years ago, I guess,” Davey says. “Give or take.”

Tony squints at the computer screen. “It’s saved on your old university account.”

“Okay, or maybe it was three months into junior year!” Davey admits, crossing his arms over his chest. “It was a stressful semester and I was super nervous about failing my animal science midterm and Jack was out on a date with that PoliSci major that lived upstairs and— And the when isn’t the point! The point is, according to my research, telling Jack isn’t worth the risk of ruining our friendship.”

“What are these graphs even measuring?” Tony asks, staring at one of the slides. “‘Overall Happiness, Jacobs v Others’?”

….

“Well, your math is absolute shit, for one thing,” Tony says, frowning at a graph entitled ‘Art Pieces per Subject’. Davey’s name is sitting in dead last. “There’s no way these numbers are right. Jack draws you literally all of the time.”

Davey frowns right back at him. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Uh, yeah he fucking does,” Tony disagrees. “You’re, like, one of his favorite things to make art of, period. He spends about half his time bitching about how copic doesn’t make a marker that matches your eyes—at this point I’m pretty sure he’s got more drawings of you than actual pictures.”

“I think I would’ve noticed if Jack suddenly started drawing me,” Davey scoffs, shaking his head. “It’s not like he’s subtle when something’s caught his eye. Plus, he lets me flip through his sketchbooks whenever he finishes filling one and I’m almost never in them.”

“Which one?” Tony asks.

Davey blinks. “Which one, what?”

“Which one,” Tony repeats, oddly intent. “Which sketchbook does he show you?”

“What do you mean, which one?” Davey asks, irritated. “The only one! The one he always— it’s not like it’s some big secret!”

Tony stares. Then Tony sighs.

Very quietly, Davey hears him mutter, “…pair of fucking morons.”

…..

“Okay, but, riddle me this,” Tony says. “Why don’t you just tell him? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“What’s the worst that could— I literally just went over all the reasons why that’s a horrible idea!” Davey exclaims. “It would ruin everything!”

“I really don’t think it would, Dave,” Tony says. “You and Jack… will ya at least think about it?”

“I’ve done nothing but think about it,” Davey says, and to his horror, he can feel his eyes starting to sting. “I can’t.”

“Want me to do it?” Tony offers, and he says it like a joke but Davey knows him too well to think that he’s anything but absolutely serious.

He jolts forward, arms outstretched as if to preemptively cram the words back down his throat. “Don’t you fucking dare, Tones, I am so fucking serious—“

“Okay, okay!” Tony says, holding up his hands in surrender. “I won’t snitch on your neurotic ass, even if it’d make you happier in the long run. My word as my bond or whatever.”

Davey huffs out a laugh, and it’s only a little teary. “Fuck you, my neurotic ass is the reason you made it to graduation, shithead.”

…..

“Hey, can I borrow your laptop?” Jack asks. “Mine’s dead and I left my charger at the theater.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Davey absently responds.

…..

“Davey,” Jack says, voice straining. “What the hell is this?”

“What is what?” Davey asks.

“This.” He turns the laptop around and— oh shit. It’s The Argument.

He feels his blood run cold. “Oh,” he says. “That.”

“Dave,” Jack says, his mouth set in a hard, thin line. “Did you make a fucking PowerPoint about me? About us?”

Davey swallows. “…It’s actually a Google Slides presentation,” he says weakly.

…..

“You’re telling me this is nothing?” Jack demands, incredulous. He tilts the screen back to show Davey the current slide, which is just an enlarged photo of Jack’s handsome, smiling face, surrounded by a halo of red arrows and the caption, ‘JUST LOOK AT HIM,’ written in boldfaced text. “Nothing? Nothing at all?”

“Maybe we can stop looking at it now,” Davey says, loudly. He leans over the back of the couch, making another panicked grab for his laptop, but Jack dodges out of the way, clicking to the next slide.

[samrsgyi]

Stellaride x Lieutenant!Police officer! Non-binary! Reader

A/n- I know I've been gone for a long time but that's only because I'm trying to catch up on schoolwork

Summary- The dispatcher attends all units to advised at a major scene and your one of them. During when you arrive at the scene you meet both of the fire lieutenants.

Time-11:00

Setting- Illinois, Chicago

Warnings!!!!/ Reader almost getting hurt/ Shootout/Trauma/Affection/Fluff/Comfort

................

You were at work on your shift and you only had 24 minutes before you got home to meet your firefighters. You were so happy to finally spend some time with them. You accidentally shut both of your eyes slowly, dozed off and started dreaming. Then the sound of the alarm in the police station went off, " All units be advised, all units be advised." They called every number, including yours. So you got up and headed right into your undercover police car. All of the police cars were moving at lightning speed including yours as well but also making sure not to cause an accident on the road. You arrived at the crime scene you figured out it was a crime scene. On the way you met the two Fire Lieutenants there. "Oh, you came to?" Said Stella. "Yeah, they alerted all units." Said Y/N. "Well Stella told me she's been here before, the 1349 Edna." Said Severide. "Damn, this place again? Crazy stuff happens here." Said Y/N. The two Fire Lieutenants just looked at each other. "Well me and the Sargent took a look inside the 1949 Edna, and found bullets." Said Y/N. You took out a photo and showed them bullets on the the ground covered in a little bright red blood and is shined just like moonbeams. "We don't know where the suspect fled off to but, we do know there hiding somewhere trying to plan their attack/ambush." Said Y/N. Before any of the fire lieutenants could say anything gunshots started to fire from inside of the 1949 Edna.

You got down to take cover, but to your surprise when you turned to look at the cops, your eyes shot wide open. The cops including the Sargent were shot. Red leaking from them. Tears started to form in your eyes. The shooter wouldn't stop shooting untill EVERYONE WAS DEAD. You got up and looked at all the dead dead body's. Your vision almost getting blurry because of the tears in your eyes. Everything went black. You could barely hear Stella and Kelly call-out your name. You didn't even notice the bullet almost about to hit you. So Stella grabbed you and put the axe in front of her face which made the bullet bounce off but did leave a mark. It headed right for the shooter and killed him.

Stella and Kelly took you inside the Fire truck and went black to the station. After all of you left and got in Severide's car, all Stella and Kelly could here was your soft little sobs. Once you guys got home and arrived in the apartment Stella and Kelly decided to make a decision, either watch a movie with them together to help you cool off or, cuddle with you in bed. Cuddle with you in bed it was.

You stumbled in sobbing softly and fell right on the couch. Stella and Kelly looked at you in pain and felt sorry. So Stella picked you up and went in the bedroom with Kelly following behind. Stella then laid you down in bed. Kelly and Stella laid in bed with you as well and cuddled you. Your sobs started to disappear and Stella kissed your forehead, "Hey it's ok alright? We're here ok?" Said Stella. "You don't need to fear."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

End

[storiesofsvu]

Personally not a fan of Rollisi and how they show more of them as a romantic couple and lessening them as individuals in their roles if that makes any sense

I think L&O needs to cut down on the amount of shows. It’s like the Chicago shows where writing, scripts and everything is watered down or rehashed or like with Shondaland shows affecting Greys quality - I say cut Organized Crime, keep the rebooted Original L&O and SVU

Carisi and Rollins have both been neglected as individuals for the sake of a relationship suddenly put together because writers pander to Twitter fans, I personally don’t understand them suddenly getting together after so long as friends, her pregnancies, her past treatment of him, them both having relationships before etc

it does make sense. and honestly, i don't think we would have seen much of carisi at all without rollisi. because we don't see the courtroom much anymore at all. and kelli just wasn't around a lot in the last couple of years either, so when they've got them both they'll give us the teeny snippets of their relationship. I would have loved to see more.

(this got long so it's going under a readmore)

i personally think l&o is doing fine. they've gotten into the groove of OC, OG has had its first trial season done to see what direction works and who works cast wise and the like. i think last week's episode was super good. and same with SVU, after a lot of shitty episodes, i think we may finally be heading in the right direction? (though i do still say they should actually do For the Defense cause it'd be bomb)

as for the one chicago/shondaland shows... i can't comment too much. I only watch PD and i'm enjoying it. Shonda i only watch Grey's, the only interest i have in station 19 is... oh FFS, the girl Deluca, why can't i remember her first name rn?! and i loved her on greys and they just sniped her over to 19 because of her wife. which yes, wlw representation but like, can we see her on grey's again? anyways, side tangent.

Organized crime certainly isn't going anywhere until meloni wants it to go somewhere or is done with it. and considering he's an EP, i doubt that's happening anytime soon. they also have different teams of writers, showrunners and the like to balance out each show. i think they're doing fine, they each have their own vibe and work well on their own (that "crossover" season premier was absolute *trash* though)

sonny & amanda have proven time and time again that they were the "right person, wrong time". Sonny was never in it for a hookup, we know that, he was probably crushing back from the start, and deserved something real, something more. Amanda had to grow up, she had to go through some shit, deal with her past trauma and the way it affected her adult relationships. she had to bloom more into the woman that sonny deserved. compare little baby s13 amanda to the amanda we have now and she's finally an adult, she finally feels *worthy* of the love and care that she knows sonny will and can give her. when you're that good of friends with someone for that long, it doesn't matter if you've watched each other go through relations with other people, you've always been there by each other's side, helping each other through life, and they truly have done that. Say that amanda was taking advantage of him coming over to cook or help with jessie/billie when they were first born all you want, but sonny would have done that for *anyone* not just someone he might still be holding some feelings for. it's something i would do/have done for a completely platonic friend. The arguments in like, s21 or whatever between the two of them aren't like, fights, they're amanda feeling like one of her biggest supporters (and previous work partner) is abandoning her, and we all know she's got some major abandonment issues. she doesn't know how to properly express emotion and when working 30 hrs straight, it comes out as attitude. As for the moment in Intent, where they're flirting and then she hooks up with the bartender instead, I've lowkey already covered it. That would have led to just a one night stand between them, they weren't ready for each other then, and it would've ruined things. they worked through it and came out on the other side.

as for her pregnancies, i'll forever be salty they were BOTH written into the show, it doesn't make sense, and i *hate* that both dads expressed wanting to be in their daughter's lives but we never even get a "oh yeah, al sent a cheque" offhand comment. like, how tf is amanda affording two kids and a dog in manhattan on an nypd salary? but that's beyond the point.

anyways. i think they've finally reached a point where they're able to be together romantically and i think it works. if they were still partners/sonny was still a cop it would be more problematic (and would be EO 1.0 all over again, the ep where liv gets cut by a perp and el chooses to stay with her over chasing the perp) but with him as ada they're able to keep the lines of work and personal seperate more. anyway, i think i'm done talking now lol

But yeah, to each our own. We’re all allowed our own opinions & theyre all valid (mostly lol) if you dont like rollisi that’s chill

[sincerely-krp]

r kelly is notorious creep, but you’ll still find artists and fans looking up to him, listening to his music. i’m sorry but this won’t die down. this is now a mark on all these male idols. if you choose to roleplay those faces, you’re choosing to side with his interests or “hobbies”, you’re choosing to side with the author of that series, you’re choosing to be neutral. but as a community, we should not forget this. we should not forget how our discomfort was placed last in favor of an idol. // the difference is that r kelly is a convicted criminal, serving a literal sentence, with actual victims. r kelly, if anything, is also more closely tied to his work than the mangaka is (like you don't see the mangaka's face and hear his voice when you read/watch mia). even some ppl in this discussion didn't even know how creepy the mangaka was until others brought it up. if you look up the mangaka's name, all you find at first glance are articles disproving rumors that he was arrested because he never was. you have to do a deeper dive to find out that he's a creep, and the censored anime/manga on its own just isn't enough for some ppl to clue them into that fact. you literally have western artists still working WITH chris brown, and they aren't canceled by the majority of the public. and idols are what.. mentioning that they once watched a highly-rated, censored version of a show made by a creepy guy?

you could make the argument that "they should have known better. they should have seen the signs :((" but these idols have literally mentioned this anime in passing once or twice. idols are real people, with busier lives than most. they made a mistake in mentioning mia. but you guys are grasping at straws finding ways to ruin their lives and careers + convert everyone else to be on your side to do so. this is not infantilizing them; you guys know how much harsher k-netz and even int'l fans are these days in tearing idols down compared to other types of celebrities. people who disagree with you also have the capacity to think critically. no one who is giving an alternate viewpoint to yours and also coming to their own conclusions is siding with the author or approving of the content matter??? give me a break.

let's compare the two: your discomfort as an anon in the krpc talking on an rp vent blog VS. idols who literally live in the public eye, have careers built on parasocial relationships with fans, and face scrutiny from their own country as well as millions around the world. forgive us for wanting to give idols the benefit of the doubt for doing something that isn't a crime. if you feel discomfort, by all means, unstan them. stop streaming. burn your photocards. whatever. but don't act like anyone is forcing you to rp in a group with these faces. write indie. write in a private group with friends, or in a group with admins who share your viewpoint. and don't blame admins for not making a decision on the matter in 48 hours, when the idols' companies haven't even addressed the situation yet.

・❥・

[allseoreg]

Delve into an intriguing video later today now

Movies have always been an important part of popular culture and entertainment. From the early days of silent films to the modern era of blockbuster hits, movies continue to captivate audiences around the world. In this article, we will explore the history of movies, their impact on society, and some of the most notable films of all time.The History of MoviesMovies began as a novelty in the late 19th century, with short films depicting everyday activities such as workers leaving a factory or a train arriving at a station. These early films were shown in nickelodeons, which were small theaters that charged only five cents for admission. The first feature-length film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was released in Australia in 1906.The golden age of Hollywood began in the 1920s and lasted until the 1950s. During this time, major studios such as MGM, Warner Bros., and Paramount dominated the industry and produced iconic films such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and Casablanca. The 1960s and 1970s saw a shift towards more experimental and socially-conscious films, with movies like Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, and Jaws breaking box office records.The advent of new technologies such as home video and streaming services has drastically changed the movie industry in recent decades. While theaters continue to be a popular destination for moviegoers, many people now prefer to watch movies in the comfort of their own homes. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have also created new opportunities for independent filmmakers to showcase their work.Impact of Movies on SocietyMovies have had a profound impact on society throughout their history. They provide a means of escape from the stresses of daily life and offer a window into different cultures and experiences. Movies have also been used as a tool for propaganda and political messaging. During World War II, for example, Hollywood films were used to promote patriotism and support for the war effort.Movies have also been instrumental in shaping popular culture. Iconic characters like James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Luke Skywalker have become household names, and movie quotes like "Here's looking at you, kid" and "May the force be with you" have entered the lexicon of everyday speech.Notable FilmsWith so many movies produced over the years, it can be difficult to choose which ones are the most notable. Some films, however, have stood the test of time and continue to be beloved by audiences decades after their release.One such film is The Godfather, a 1972 crime drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie tells the story of the Corleone family, a powerful mafia clan, and their struggle for control of organized crime in New York City. The Godfather has been praised for its complex characters, intricate plot, and stunning cinematography.Another iconic film is Star Wars, which was released in 1977 and spawned a massive franchise that includes multiple movies, television shows, and merchandise. The movie tells the story of Luke Skywalker, a young farm boy who becomes embroiled in an intergalactic conflict between the evil Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon and has had a lasting impact on popular culture.ConclusionMovies have been a part of human culture for over a century, and they continue to be a major form of entertainment and artistic expression. From the early days of nickelodeons to the modern era of streaming services, movies have evolved with technology and the changing tastes of audiences. Whether you prefer classic Hollywood films or independent art-house movies, there is something for everyone in the world of cinema. Posted on: 80 xnxx

[drgreg]

Dr Gregory Images

This old story of love discovered, and love lost is advised in a fresh and new method. Cathy reflects on their relationship from the tip to the first meeting, whilst Jamie’s story strikes chronologically. Three Social Work lecturers throughout the School of Applied Human Sciences, Dr Sibonsile Zibane, Dr Thembelihle Makhanya and Mr Livhuwani Ramphabana have been a part of World Social Work Month actions during March. UKZN’s Centre for Civil Society hosted a webinar to review the Conference of the Parties’ position in addressing local weather change in Africa. The team notes that they're pleased to lastly launch the app in its seventh market as most of them have strong roots in South Africa.

While science is an unparalleled technique of understanding the world, it also provides alternatives to make the world a better place, for all life in it, including people. It has given me great alternatives and allowed me to do some fascinating issues. I had all the time needed to work in wild locations and so arriving on Marion Island for the first dr gregory images time was like arriving in paradise. Not only was it lovely and challenging, but it also allowed one the opportunity to watch animals pretty closely and marvel about their lifestyle and behavior. How did these very distant family members of our survive in an surroundings so hostile to us?

It was not their fault I was indolent, however a variety of the indolence came from a refusal to purchase into the present fashions, which had been flat, hardedge, and to me, sterile and pointless. I was a cocksure little bastard, for certain, and deserved everything I didn’t get from the brilliant lecturers who ran the show. The tuition fees for Prince Albert & The Crags are R2 800 and for PE R2 600. Other expenses are journey, accommodation and meals and artwork equipment.

Her follow intends to deal with the wants of youngsters and adolescents with emotional, scholastic and behavioral difficulties, and psychiatric disorders whereas supporting and guiding dad and mom and households in the course of. She stays an energetic member of the local subgroup of SASOP and is a member of the Gauteng Association of Infant Mental Health . She is registered as a sub-specialist youngster psychiatrist with the HPCSA. Dr Duncan’s expertise in psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry is broad.

Starting in mid-February, North Carolina Museum of Art will host 'Far from Home', an exhibition which incorporates art that addresses the worldwide displacement of people and populations as they relocate for economic, political, or different reasons. The exhibition options photography, work and sculpture by artists of various nationwide and cultural origins. The roughly dr gregory images 20 rising worldwide artists, who hail from eleven African nations, reside primarily in Europe and North America and journey to and from Africa regularly. The majority of the featured artists have never been included in main US museum exhibitions. 'Flow' is modelled after 'Freestyle', the Studio Museum's landmark 2001 exhibition, which was adopted in 2005 by 'Frequency'.

I turned on LM Radio to set the mood kind of and am now feeling that Time Machine has been appropriately resurrected. It was odd doing touch-ups as a result of I was so tempted to "improve" issues, however I did restrain myself in deference to the younger Greg and his wild brushes and large colour. But once again in, I went nuts and made about 40 huge oils that I showed in 1985 on the Karen McKerron Gallery in Bryanston.

CEO and co-founder Gregory Levey and Director of Communications and Partnerships Kelly Aizicowitz had been both born in South Africa, while Chief Medical Officer and co-founder Dr. Joshua Landy’s father was raised in South Africa. Get access to ALL DispatchLIVE content material from only R45.00 per 30 days. In this week’s episode of True Crime South Africa, we chat to Van Staden about her work, her new television collection Outopsieand her upcoming e-book.

[don-lichterman]

Morning News NOW Full Broadcast - Sept. 15

Morning News NOW Full Broadcast – Sept. 15

The White House reaches a tentative deal to avoid a major railroad strike, R. Kelly is found guilty on additional child sex crime charges and tens of thousands of mourners line up to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news…

[telemiel]

"i hate to ask, but are you sleeping with this man?" "of course not. he's my husband."

[kp777]

By Jordan Green

Raw Story

Sept. 14, 2022

Department of Justice screengrab.

Correction: This story initially misidentified the person who recorded the Zello chats.

The federal judge presiding over the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy case is considering whether to suppress audio recordings of Zello chats from evidence at the request of the defendants.

The chats were recorded by Micah Loewinger, a reporter at New York Public Radio's "On the Media," from an open channel named “Stop the Steal J6” that was created by a user named “1%Watchdog.” The chats capture defendant Jessica Watkins narrating her experience as she and other Oath Keepers stormed the Capitol as other participants provide encouragement and real-time information gleaned from news reports. Loewinger and co-author Hampton Stall reported on the chats in a story published by the Guardian seven days after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, and the recordings were aired on “On the Media” on Jan. 15.

Watkins, along with defendants Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson, are seeking to prevent the government from introducing the Zello chats into evidence at the upcoming trial, claiming that they’re inadmissible hearsay and are likely to prejudice the jury.

During a pretrial conference on Wednesday, Judge Amit Mehta indicated he isn’t sure the jury should be allowed to hear statements of the other chat participants, expressing doubt about whether they influenced Watkins’ actions. He said he wouldn’t make an immediate decision, adding that the arguments from counsel for the defendants and the government had given him “a lot to think about.”

The chats provide an example of how Oath Keepers and other rioters discussed taking lawmakers hostage when they reached the Capitol. Shortly after “1%Watchdog” opened the channel at 1:48 p.m., a transcript of the recording shows him discussing Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to stand up to pressure to set aside electors from a handful of states narrowly won by Democrat Joe Biden.

“Everybody can hear and talk, so their barricades in the national Capitol are being challenged, and — yeah.” “1%Watchdog said. “It looks like Pence is doing his traitorous bullshit, and the election stealing progress — it looks to me, at this point, that that’s a felony high-crime and treason in process inside the national Capitol building, headed by the president of the Senate, Vice President Pence, at this point.”

Judge Mehta said on Wednesday he is troubled that more isn’t known about the identity and relevance of “1%Watchdog.”

“1%Watchdog is someone who’s howling at the moon, saying outrageous things, sitting at home watching television,” Mehta said. “I would feel much better about this if the government could demonstrate that this was someone she knew or someone she was taking direction from. I’m not sure he’s anything more than a guy spouting off on a Zello chat.”

READ: Democrats attack 'shameless' Republicans for running a 'lawless cult' that refuses to hold Trump accountable

Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said the government believes the jury should have the opportunity to hear the recordings because they shed light on Watkins’ state of mind at the time she invaded the Capitol.

“Ms. Watkins gets into the Capitol and she goes into the Zello channel and celebrates what she had done,” Nestler said. “It was obviously important to her…. Our point is that the other individuals’ statements are probative of Ms. Watkins’ state of mind, which is why they should be admitted. And we believe it should be a jury question as to how much weight to ascribe them.”

At 1:49 p.m., according to a transcript of the chats, “1%Watchdog” denigrated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Bitch McConnell,” complaining that he had “rebuked those who are challenging the Electoral College votes that constitute the f***ing communist revolution election steal of 2020 by these treasonous f***ing bastards.”

Read more.

[uncpanda]

Back to the Navy Yard: part 4

AN: Good news is this is coming much easier to me now thanks to my betas who are allowing me to bounce ideas off of them!

Notes: Eli David and Jackie Vance are both alive, also the timeline between Ziva and Tony was sped up, because slow burn is only good for so long. 

Master List

You wake up early, it’s a side effect from having an eight year old at home. Ziva seems to be in the same position, and is up even earlier than you. You come out of the room to find her cleaning her gun. Callen is on the couch, passed out and snoring, and your dad is nowhere to be seen. 

Ziva doesn’t even have to look at you to know your question, “He is outside talking with the director. The next guard shift will be here soon to replace us. Your people I believe?” 

You nod, “If things haven’t changed it’ll be Rossi and Morgan.” 

“You are very close with your team, aren’t you?” 

Your lips twitch, “You have no idea. Doing what we do . . . we rely on each other, maybe a little too much?” 

Ziva smiles, “As if our team is not the same? Doing what we do requires a special person, finding someone who understands that is also important. I believe that is why rule twelve is broken so much.” 

You feel your phone buzz and pull it out to see a picture of Aaron, you answer immediately, “Hey. What’s up?” 

“Wanted to let you know that the security detail has been changed up: big time. Agent Pride, Director Vance, and Dave are coming your way. The rest of us are staying behind to follow a lead.” 

“A lead as in you got a tip, or a lead as in there’s another body?” 

“The latter.” 

You hesitate for just a second before asking, “It’s not good, is it?” 

“There’s a new name.”

 You take a deep breath, “Who?” 

“Ellen Wallace, but we can’t figure out how she’s related to your dad.” 

You debate telling him, you actually debate it, “I need to talk to my dad first, but she’s connected.” 

“Can you give me anything?” 

This is the job, this is how they’re going to solve the case. You tell that to yourself, as you step out of the cabin. Your dad is on the front porch, and he raises an eyebrow at you. You muffle the phone against your shoulder and say, “New crime scene, with the name Ellen Wallace. They want to know the connection.” You don’t know what you’re expecting, some sort of reaction, but there isn’t one, or maybe you just can’t read him anymore? 

“Give it to them.” 

You lift the phone back to your ear, “Ellen Wallace was engaged to my dad. She died in 9/11, and he broke off the engagement two months before she died. She was a Major in the marines, and worked at the Pentagon. Her father is a retired general, I believe.” 

Aaron is silent for a minute, “You knew her.” 

“Yeah. I knew Ellen . . . really well.” 

“I’m sorry sweetheart. I’ll call back in a little bit if we find anything, love you.” 

“I Love you too, by the way, I told my dad about you and Jack.”

There’s a second of silence before he asks, “So, I should be on alert for snipers?”

“Nope, just bad nicknames.”

There’s a small chuckle, “Let me know if I need to run. Love you.” 

You never get tired of hearing that, “Love you too.”  You never get tired of saying it either. 

Your dad is staring at you when you hang up, and you’re a little surprised when he says, “I’m really glad you can say those words . . . that you can let people get close. I was so worried you were going to turn out like me; a mess of divorces with a missing piece.” 

You lean against one of the porch posts, “My entire childhood. . . you never once hesitated to hug me, or kiss me, or play with me, or show me any type of affection. If I asked for a hug you gave it, if I asked you if you wanted a hug, you said yes. Rainy days were spent with you showing me how to work with wood in the basement, or cuddling on the couch and watching Disney movies. You focused so much of your love on me, because I was there before it happened. I’m a part of a past you wish was your future. 

“But when Mom and Kelly were killed, that loss . . .that pain stopped you from ever letting anyone else fully in again. Diane, Rebekah, Stephanie, Ellen, they were good women. They were kind. They were nothing like the evil stepmoms in the movies we watched. I loved each of them. 

“But you were so scared that moving on meant forgetting mom, or replacing her and Kelly that . . .” 

He finishes the sentence for you, “I screwed them up? Drove them away? I know. And they loved you, they were all good with you. Hell, Diane tried to get you in the divorce.”

You laugh, “I think that was more about making you suffer than anything else. She loved you fiercely.” 

There’s several moments of silence before he says, “How the hell did they find out about Ellen? Neither of us used social media, there were no camera phones regularly available . . .”

“But there was an engagement picture. Remember? She made sure to include me in it. It talked about family more than the two of you though. Maybe that issue was archived or digitized?” 

“Think you can find it?” 

“Maybe, but I know a technical genius who can do it faster.” 

Your father’s brow furrows, “McGee taught you everything he knows, you can go head to head with him . . . or at least six years ago. . .” 

“I wasn’t talking about McGee.” 

You scroll through your contacts, hit the call button, and put it on speaker, “Speak and the wizard shall hear your request.” 

“Hey Penny.” 

“Hey there kitten! How’s time with your dad going? Have you made up? Are you safe?” 

“We’re in the middle of nowhere and we’re working on it. He’s actually right beside me, and you’re on speaker.” 

“Well hello Agent Gibbs! It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” 

You hear Pen chuckle before she asks, “What can I do for my favorite father-daughter duo.” 

“You hear about the latest crime scene?” 

“Yep. Bunches of horrible photos, and the name, of course. I’ve found out a little bit about Major Wallace, but not much. She died before social media became a big thing, so there are no obvious connections between her and your dad. . . but you would know that because you knew her. . .I’m sorry sugar, I didn’t mean to be blase.” 

“All good. But dad and I were talking, we think the killer might have found out about her through an old engagement announcement. It ran in the local papers in January of 2000. I’m thinking the paper might have been digitized?” 

“Give me a few minutes to run my searches, and narrow things down, and I’ll hit you back. Meow Kitten.”  

Your dad stares at your phone, “You’re going to have to explain that nickname.” 

“In due time.” 

He just rolls his eyes, and wraps an arm around your shoulders. A second later he pulls you to him and presses a kiss to your temple. It’s so familiar it makes your heart ache, and you can’t help but lean into it. When he pulls back, the arm stays in place as he leads you back towards the door, “Let’s get something to eat.” 

Breakfast is a fairly low key affair. Ziva asks you questions about Jack and Aaron, and your dad listens. G. on the other hand refuses to eat and just pouts. You’ve been around enough tantrums in your life to know when someone is looking for attention. You ignore the big baby. 

You understand it on some level. You had spent a lot of time with G. as a kid. He’d taught you and your dad bits of Russian, and whenever your dad and Stephanie had gone out for the night in Moscow, G had been your babysitter. You had texted daily up until you had made your announcement. You’d expected some sort of support from him, but he’d been firmly on your father’s side of things. 

You’re in the middle of cleaning the dishes when the door opens, and a second later a boisterous voice asks, “Gibbs! Gibblet! You in here?” 

You take a deep breath, “Hey uncle Dwayne, Uncle Leon.” You smile, and bypass them to hug Dave when he comes in. It’s reassuring to have a small part of your normal here, “How’re you holding up kid?” 

“As well as can be expected.” 

He holds up a bag, “Gifts from Aaron. A few more pairs of clothes, your favorite sweets, and I’m sure some other stuff.”��

You take it and toss it into your room, “Thanks Dave.” 

“I also brought wine. I feel that wine helps with family reunions.”

You kiss his cheek, “Thank you.” 

Your dad’s eyes follow you as you walk the bottle to the kitchen, and your Uncle Dawyne asks,“You need alcohol to spend time with us?”

You scoff, “When I turned 21, you and dad took Laurel and me through most of Bourbon street. You got us hurricanes as our first official drink.” 

Your dad and Dwayne exchange looks, “What’s your point?” 

“Wine does nothing for me.” 

He grins, and looks around you at Dave, “I’ve known this little girl since she was seven years old. She and my daughter Laurel are like sisters, thick as thieves.” 

“Laurel was also the only one who stayed in contact when I joined the FBI.”

Dwayne clears his throat, “They’re both NCIS babies. Little bit and Gibbs would come down to New Orleans several times a year, and then Laurel and I would come up. We’d do fishing and hunting, and then when the girls got older we’d do spa days and beaches.” 

Dave nods, “The joys of parenthood, or so I’m told.” 

Leon leans against the counter, “No kids?” 

You laugh, “Dave has the same number of ex-wives as dad. But when they left they still seemed to like him.” 

Dave rolls his eyes, “Watch the claws kitten.” 

Ziva and Callen head out. Ziva with a hug, and Callen with a nod. Ziva promises to check on Aaron for you, and then they’re gone. You look around the room at the father figures in your life and your actual father. It’s going to be a long shift. 

[halohamilton]

It's just really strange reading some of the stuff in lewis' tag on Tumblr where max fans have stated their "opinions" because majority of it is just... Sad. Like I don't mean it to cause a fight or drama or whatever the hell else people accuse either side of fans for starting. I'm saying it because majority are ignoring so many factors to prove a point about their fave being hurt™

I've seen people say there's no point bringing up Max's comments when Grosjean crashed because it has nothing to do with this. Um... It does actually. Max is accusing people of celebrating a win when he did the same thing himself and made a crude comment on top of that. It's to point out the hypocrisy and it has everything to do with it because of that reason. He cannot criticise a driver for celebrating a win when he himself said the race must carry on and Grosjean should race otherwise he should be fired.

Another is blowing smoke up lewis' ass even though he caused a crash?.... I have a lot to say about this but I'll keep it to a minimum. I urge you to watch literally any race before that involved Schumacher or senna and maybe educate yourselves a little on how racing works. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Max expected lewis to back off and because lewis didn't (he had no obligation to), Max crashed. Max has pulled that move on lewis plenty of times before and Lewis was the one who had to back off, like Karun explained and literally showed footage of. I am not saying max was to blame for his crash. I'm saying they both were driving aggressively and max didn't expect that from Lewis' end. It's not uncommon for drivers to drive wheel-to-wheel. Literally just educate yourself more on that. Max has done it countless of times before. He's notoriously known as the aggressive driver, mind you and somehow when he does it he's "a great driver" and "confident" and "makes the race exciting."

But Lewis does it one time and it's a controversy? Why? Ask yourself why you're celebrating the white driver being so aggressive and dirty but the one time lewis pulls a move that wasn't clean he's being blamed and called names and slurs.

I really want anyone who's taking the whole situation: Christian Horner accusing a black man of a crime as if lewis purposefully wanted to kill max (???)bloody well knowing the harm he'd cause by doing so, Max fueling to the fire with a really nasty post that he knows will urge his fans to spew out racist shit on a driver who's already racially abused enough on the daily, Kelly's unnecessary add-on when her family have done much worse so she has no right to point fingers in the first place when she didn't hold them accountable - - - to put yourself in lewis' shoes.

Truly for a second just put yourself in his shoes. Think about if this were the other way around (which it almost was in Spain and Christian made an effort to say that Lewis would have ended up in the fence had he not backed off, something max didn't do this time around) do you really think max or redbull as a whole would not celebrate a win?

If you do then I don't think you know the team very well at all.

[hugheswrld]

introductory post!

💿- name: ally / als

🧸- age: 15

🪐- country: united states

☁️-fav teams: new jersey devils, anaheim ducks, boston bruins, montreal canadiens, and the vancouver canucks.

🏹- favorite color: black, red, hot pink and orange

🏒- hobbies: watching sports, watching true crime youtubers, sleeping, reading

⚾️- favorite sports: hockey, baseball, football and cheerleading.

🦴- favorite artists: machine gun kelly, taylor swift, khalid, the weeknd

🕊- favorite foods: pickles, salad, fries and nachos.

🐇- favorite drink: pepsi, water, and juice :)

I've been a fan of hockey and baseball since birth, i grew up in a sports family. the new jersey devils and anaheim ducks are my #1 as i have been watching them for the longest but i also really love the canadiens, canucks and the bruins (i watch the bruins the most though!). i have a lotta love for many players but jack hughes and jamie drysdale have a special place in my heart.

my favorite nhl players

- the entire devils roster, alex turcotte, trevor zegras, all of the hughes brothers, cole caufield, jamie drysdale, david pastrnak, trent frederic, jake debrusk, rickard rakell, sidney crosby, mitch marner, mathew barzal, owen power, thomas bordeleau, brandon tanev. these are the tops, cause this list could go on for hours lol.

what sports do i write for

major league baseball

national hockey league

umich

bengals ( joe burrow )

finally last but not least

i think that's all i have really to say, but feel free anything you wanna say or ask in my asks box and i'll do my best to answer it and i'll try my quickest to answer it. requests are also open for imagines, instagram edits and head cannons so leave anything you want me to write in there also! sending love, stay safe. xoxo- al's 🤍

[we-are-inevitable]

okay the fic title is "no body, no crime" yeah it's a taylor swift song i wanna see what you do with it

okay listen @proud-and-defiant has a fucking AMAZING au where jack resorts to murder for a good headline and thats EXACTLY where my mind went with this prompt. he kills people to be on front page news. he makes sure that his boys can afford to eat, to live, to save, and in doing so, Jack Kelly becomes a murderer. "no body, no crime" in this instance would basically refer to jack being the body that is never found, aka people never find out that it's him doing the killing.

but that's not what im gonna talk about here.

what im talking about here is a modern au.

MAJOR TW: character death, suxcxde under the cut

david jacobs is a hitman. he was born into it, he'll probably die in it. he's been trained since he was a child to cover his tracks and think of every possible outcome for every possible scenario. his first hit comes when he's fifteen.

by the time he's twenty-five, he's a natural.

and he's also gotten himself into a bad situation by falling for jack kelly, a kindhearted, normal civilian who just got mixed with the wrong crowd. some of his friends are in a gang, some of his friends have some pretty big debts, some of his friends are just horrible people.

occasionally, david will be hired to kill one of them, and he does. he does, and goes back home to his apartment he shares with jack. and he pretends to be shocked when jack tells him the news.

one day, though, jack is in the wrong place at the wrong time. he sees something he shouldn't. he's suddenly being watched by every bigwig in the city.

somebody hires david to kill a man. david takes the job without asking the name first, like he always does.

the name is jack kelly.

if david doesn't do it, then someone will come after them both and they'll have no mercy. if david does do it, he knows he'll never be able to live with himself.

the headlines make it out to be a double homicide. someone broke into the apartment and killed david jacobs and jack kelly. soft Spanish lullabies were still playing on a speaker when the police arrive.

david jacobs isn't able to live with the fact that he killed his lover. he justifies it. he's saving him, don't you see that? saving him from a worse death from someone who doesn't care. saving him from a painful and slow torment, no doubt. one quick bullet is nothing compared to what david knows would happen with someone else.

so he shoots jack. trashes the apartment. breaks the lock.

and when the sirens blare down the street, david takes his own life, because if jack is gone for no reason then david has no reason to live either.

and jack never finds out what david really does for work.

a bittersweet win.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x15: Trust - Details

Okay, let's talk details. 

***As always, spoilers abound below for the episode. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

The first thing we see is Daryl looking at the bodies at the Complex. He's clearly taking in the information in, trying to figure out what happened. I noticed that there were little crime scene cards with numbers on them. Much like we have today at crime scenes. 

The numbers we see are three and four, both of which could be important. Not only because of the numbers, but it’s more of the cop/detective theme around Daryl.

Up on the roof, Daryl defends Aaron and Gabriel, and Lance announces they're going to go to hilltop.

We then shift to Princess and Mercer. I love these two! They're so cute together. We see Mercer's clock change from 5:44 to 5:45. I’m not sure exactly where we’ve seen these numbers before, but I know we have. I remember saying before that issue 44 of the comic books was when Andrew was shot and issue 45 is when she's revealed to be alive and to have survived the gunshot wound to the head. Of course, there’s a five in front of both of them that but that just points us back to S5. And this is how I know the scene is exact numbers before, because I remember saying that before.

I also noticed Princess is using a yellow blanket here. I do think that's significant. I wouldn't say that she and Mercer are super strong proxies of Beth and Daryl, but they do have some elements of them. I think it just shows that Princess and Mercer are a true love couple and so they have some parallels to Beth and Daryl.

Then we see Lucy and Eugene telling Connie and Kelly about the Sebastian situation. Connie shows them the list of names and says they need inside access if they can figure it out. Eugene immediately thinks of Max.

I loved this Carzekiel babysitting situation. I mean, it's not major, but clearly Carol looking after the kids while Daryl is gone. During the scene, Zeke tells her that he trusts her more than anyone else and that she’s stuck with him. Yet another piece of evidence that these two are going to get back together, and soon.

Then we have the scene where Lance makes Aaron and Gabriel take care of the walkers and Daryl helps them. This is where the serious mention was. I talked about that yesterday.

Zeke attempts to recruit Tomi to help him with patients outside the system. Tomi is drinking and says that he lost a patient that morning. Honestly, I think this endeavor with Ezekiel is really good for Tomi. It may give him back some sense of purpose in his life and help him get through the times when he does lose patients and it gets dark.

Tomi later had an apple mention. He says, “why disturb the applecart when it's protecting you?” Remember that the apple probably means separation followed by reunion. And it is Tomi that says it, so it might mean something for him. But it also might just be another way to point to Zeke's coming death fake out. Zeke answers that that is the struggle. Whether to protect ourselves or others. I kind of think that means that when Ezekiel's death fake out comes, it will probably be because he's trying to protect someone else.

We also made note of the fact that when Zeke and Tomi are caught with the supplies, they’re put in handcuffs. I’m not sure exactly how to interpret them here, or we even should be for this particular arc, but I made note of them because they’ve been important Beth symbols in the past. If this small arc is in any way a foreshadow of Zeke’s death fake out, maybe there will be a “prisoner” element to it. Or maybe I’m just reaching for things that aren’t there. I won’t really know until we see it play out, which probably won’t be until 11c.

I also had to smile when Zeke took Carol and Tomi to his little clinic, because someone said, “Hey Zeke!” I always call him Zeke, mostly because it takes less time than it does to type his entire name. But it just made me smile to hear it in the show.

Once again, Eugene brings the greens to go see Max. He asks her to steal the secret files. She resisted at first until she finds out it involves the Miltons. She tells him he should have led with that. They don't get to talk very much more before a repair guy comes in and they have to be formal again. She also finds out Mercer knows about this and goes to confront her brother. They have come with an angry discussion about it while he is exercising. (Man, who's that guy is personal trainer?)

Toward the end of the episode, Max and Eugene talk again, this time in his apartment. One thing she says is really interesting. She says if what he is saying is true, and “that stuff” is really happening there, it's really bad. It's kind of a weird thing to say. I can't help but wonder what she means. I mean, obviously, if anyone is disappearing, that's really bad. So why is she saying that it's particularly bad if this is happening here? Makes me wonder what she may or may not know about people disappearing, or the CRM.

 It's also important that we see Max and Eugene kiss here. I don't know if I actually put this in any of my posts, but this is something that we were expecting. It's very significant that we didn't see the relationship develop between Stephonie (Shira) and Eugene. We did see their first kiss or their first date. Really all we saw was them walking around talking when he first arrived. We just didn't see much romance between them. They were suddenly there, in bed together, and in a relationship.

Again, we kind of figured that was because she wasn't his true love. If there's going to be relationship that develops, and it's meant to be the true love, long term, soul mate relationship, the show always shows us the development of it.

We’ve seen this pattern with other characters as well. We didn't really see Carol's relationship with Tobin develop. It was kind of a surprise when she kissed him the first time because obviously, they were already in relationship and the audience didn't know about it. But the opposite was true with Ezekiel. We definitely saw it develop. In a way, it's not even the physical part of it that's important. We need to see the emotional development of the relationship, which means them talking, connecting, bonding, and of course the kissing part is always nice. So, with Eugene, we figured we would see his relationship with Max develop, and hoped we would see first kiss. And we got it.

The main reason I bring that up is because we didn't see that development with Daryl and Leah either. Sure, we saw them talking at various times about Matthew and such, but we didn't truly see the development of the relationship. What we saw, if it hadn't turned into a romantic relationship, could really be classified as more of the development of mutual respect or friendship. But that definitely won't be the case with Beth. We've already seen a great deal of emotional development between Daryl and Beth and when she returns, we do believe we'll see a lot more development, both the emotional area and in the physical area.

Let's return to Maggie and Daryl at Hilltop. While they didn't tell us what happened to the inhabitants of the Complex in this episode, you could tell that Maggie was up to something from the beginning. For one thing, when we left off last episode, she made the statement that something needed to be done and we needed to get those people out of there. And since they were gone when Lance arrived with Daryl, we can surmise that they went with Maggie. We just don't know exactly where she's hiding them in this episode.

Another thing that jumped out at me is that while she was refusing to let Lance in, she actually nods to Elijah and he disappears. Then, when she agrees to let them in, Elijah is simply standing behind the gate and opens it for them. If you think about that, it means Maggie basically nodded to him and sent him to open the gate before she talked to Daryl and agreed to let them in. So, she was always planning to let them in. Her resistance was all for show, so that she could claim the people from the Complex weren’t there. And they probably really weren't, or Lance’s guys would have found them. But it's just Maggie retaining her plausible deniability.

Of course, we reached the moment from 11x09 where Daryl and Maggie talk across HT’s fence. It's a little different than what I thought. Remember I said that I didn't think Daryl was working for the Commonwealth or that he and Maggie would really be at odds. I thought it would be more of a fake out on his part and that he would turn on the Commonwealth and be on Maggie’s side.

Well, that is kind of what happened, but it just wasn't really a matter of him pretending to be on the Commonwealth’s side. It was more of him acting as mediator, trying to keep things on an even kill. Of course, that didn’t work for long, and when things got heated, clearly, he took Maggie’s side.

I really this loved the scene though. It was super tense and great! They finally gave Daryl an F bomb. The fandom at large has been campaigning for that since S4. If not earlier. We thought maybe they would put it on the app but mute it when it aired on TV. Especially because his mouth was behind the rifle when he said it. But no, they let it air that way. Which I thought was cool. I also really liked the way they used it. It wasn’t for something comedic or even just Daryl getting pissed about something. The way they used it make the scene that much more tense and emotional. Which was kinda hot. ;D

Me when Lance tried to get Hershel to turn on Maggie:

I feel like the fact that he had Hershel’s hat is symbolically significant. We didn’t actually see him find it, but it must have gotten left behind at the Complex. I’m wondering if it could be a stand-in for the sheriff’s hat, perhaps? Not sure. Really just throwing out ideas.

I loved Elijah even more for throwing Lance against the wall. And let’s face it, even Hornsby’s final line to Maggie, “Shame we couldn’t be friends,” is a veiled threat.

In terms of the blue truck, here are some things I didn't mention yesterday. Lance claims he’s come from a long line of "gearheads." That’s not odd by itself, but remember that when Daryl fixed the music box, he said there was some grit in the gears. In that case, we had the music box that was kind of playing dead and then ended up springing to life after Daryl fixed it. He fixed it by getting the grit out of the gears.

Lance tries to do the same thing here. He says he's a gearhead, and by that, he means someone who fixes cars. He then attempts to fix the car, but he fails. I’m just saying they’re using the same terminology here, and coupled with all the other things that made me side-eye this sequence, I think that’s important.

He also talks about the ethanol conversion. Ethanol is obviously a form of alcohol, but we see that very specifically used in various plot lines, especially around Beth symbolism. For example, we set we saw it used in FTWD a few seasons ago when one of the villains poisoned our good guys’ water. And the cure for the poison was ethanol. So once again, I'm just saying that they're using a lot of the same symbolism that we've seen before, and these things are super significant.

I noticed that when the car doesn’t start, Maggie says to Lance, “you and your people have until sundown.” I wondered if that might be part of the “new dawn” theory. And it doesn’t play out in this episode, but it will in 11x16, so just remember that line from her, and I’ll point out more about this theme next week.

We also got a nice scene between Princess and Mercer where he finally opened up to her. And this was yet another time that I got Beth and Daryl vibes. Not because I think their arc will necessarily be like Beth and Daryl's, but more just because they’re a soulmate couple and so it feels very similar.

In fact, something Mercer said reminded me a lot of Daryl. He said he’s spent most of his life trying to make others feel safe. It's what he does and what he's good at. That pretty much describes Daryl to a T. So, Mercer = Daryl, and Princess = Beth. And Princess was using a yellow blanket.

I think that’s all I have for this episode. Anyone see anything I missed?

[i-watch-too-many-movies]

5 Favorite First Viewings of July 2021

Quick note: Hi everyone, I'm back, things have honestly been getting better for me, and I'm glad to be on this site full of cinephiles, people that are too horny, and cinephiles that are too horny. I'll be more active on here. But anyway, let's talk about some movies.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (dir. Russ Meyer)

CW: Abortion mention

What a picture. What a gorgeous, sexy, horrifying slice of what Hollywood and star life can do to a bunch of bright-eyed young people looking for success. Also is a critique of how macho nature can ruin friendships and romantic relationships with total ease. I was obsessed with the scene transitions, like Pet pouring pancake mix onto a plate after the abortion scene, or Kelly singing after someone screams before their murder in the opening scene.

Great, campy flick with exceptional music too.

Deep Cover (1992) (dir. Bill Duke)

Laurence Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a Cincinnati police officer who hopes to do well by the community, to make a difference. He’s traumatized by the death of his substance-abusing father, and wants to make sure that he can help the people of his own town. He goes undercover on assignment as a drug dealer, where his boss orders him to take down the kingpin. Stevens realizes the police’s own failings while on assignment. The racist abuse he takes from Agent Carver, and the realization that the police department is protecting drug kingpins like Gallegos and Barbossa. Giving drugs to Black kids and Latinx kids so there will be less of them. The cops are no different than the drug kingpins looking to make filthy amounts of money.

Fishburne’s performance is excellent, as Stevens feels he has to maintain a stone face so he doesn’t get caught by Jason or Barbossa or any of his cronies, but also he maintains a stone face to try and hide his emotion, his trauma. But when he gets pissed, Fishburne acts it beautifully, as is when he has to deliver a funny quip to counter Jason’s douchebaggery. And the production design, holy fuck, the sets and the lighting.

A perfect neo-noir for the HW Bush years, arguably one of the most timeless commentaries on the era, as well as the police as a whole.

Fast Five (2011) (dir. Justin Lin)

I was torn between including this or Furious 7, but I ultimately went with Fast Five because it felt like an important turning point in the series, it's a great heist film, and it reached the same chaotic highs and genuinely excellent filmmaking that I had been waiting for since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift.

Fast Five opens where Fast & 4ious left off. Dom is hauled away to prison on a bus. Mia and Brian drive in their high-tech cars and knock the bus over, helping Dom escape. The title drops. Fast Five. It’s such an intense yet short action scene, and dropping the title immediately after it lets the viewer know that this movie is not fucking around. It’s arguably gonna be more intense and insane than the previous one.

And it is. The filmmakers made the decision to use a lot more practical stunt work for the film, and as a result, it leads to, so far, the best action in the entire series, since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift. It’s not just how it’s shot or edited, it’s the geography of the locations, the rooftop chase echoes the rooftop chase of Jackie Chan’s masterwork Police Story, particularly the way each character bounces from top to top.

And of course, there’s the silliest moment in the movie, the one that matches the intensity and kineticism of a film like 2 Fast, which is driving the Reyes’ bank vault throughout the street, getting chased by corrupt cops.

I know we make fun of Vin Diesel for saying “family” all the time in these films, but there’s a reason we remember him saying all of these impassioned monologues. Because he’s unbelievably sincere, and has so much love in his heart for every single person in the room. Anytime he delivers a speech to any of them, it’s genuinely heartwarming.

This is the film that finally shows La Familia in their best environment, which is working together, in a movie genre that allows them to work together, which is a heist film. And a great one at that.

Last Days (2005) (dir. Gus Van Sant)

CW: Mention of suicide

Several films have been made about legendary rock artist Kurt Cobain, and for good reason. He is one of the most tragic figures in rock and roll. A tortured genius who has written and performed classic song after classic song with his band Nirvana. He was called the voice of a generation, and helped change the face of mainstream alternative rock music as we know it. But with that fame, and all of those expectations came a worsening depression and further drug abuse, and his eventual death. But most of the films about Kurt Cobain ask one question which gets under my skin way too much:

“Who REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY killed Kurt Cobain?”

It was him. He did. And it’s okay, I’m sad too. Thinking that Kurt Cobain was murdered is completely ignoring the depression that he faced. And despite Last Days being more inspired by the death of Cobain rather than actually about it, it feels much more honest than the conspiracy documentaries on his death, wanting to leech off of his dead body.

This is the last installment of Gus Van Sant’s “Death Trilogy”, the previous two installments being Gerry (2001), and Elephant (2003). While I have not seen Gerry, I have seen Elephant though, and love that film for its minimalist, raw nature, and its boldness for not romanticizing the school shooter or the lives they had taken. Last Days falls into that trap once, as I don’t agree with the shot of Blake’s soul climbing up a ladder, that always struck me as cheesy in a film that is anything but.

Last Days is similar to Elephant in terms of the way it is filmed. Its usage of long takes, and still shots of characters doing various things, such as Blake playing his guitar behind a drum set. The way these moments are shot is similar to a Chantal Akerman film, particularly Jeanne Dielman. Where the acts of the mundane are the stars of the film. Blake wanders around an empty house, and the viewer can feel the pain, not just through Michael Pitt’s acting, but from the house itself. Its decay, its paint peeling from the walls, from the soft glow of the lamp that lights his face.

I say this is the most honest film about Kurt Cobain, because, despite the characters technically being fictional (the main character who looks, walks, and acts like Cobain is named Blake), this film focuses on the mental state of a person before they eventually take their own life. They’re still working, still making music, still trying to talk to friends and bandmates, but the depression lingers on. Not once does this film try to make you believe that someone else killed him, because you can see the signs of his own suicide taking place just through the film’s excellent cinematography by Harris Savides, showing his mental state only growing worse through the production design.

And it’s empathetic with him. There’s no judgement for leaving rehab, there’s no finger-wagging at him or the people he was with, there’s just a silent prayer at the end of the film, hoping that he is in a better place than he was.

Sometimes you don’t need to show every event that led you to where you are, all you can show is the moment, which also makes this better than most biopics as well, as it never feels messy or muddled, just showing one moment of Blake/Kurt’s life.

I really loved this film, and I’ll be writing about it in full soon.

The Village (2004) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

The Cracked.com/Channel Awesome audience stuck in 2012 will tell you that this was the beginning of the end for Shyamalan. That this was when people stopped taking him seriously, that this was when he became more of a punchline because of his twist endings.

But why?

The Village was released in 2004, deep in the Bush administration, during the early stages of the Iraq War. The leaders of the time were talking about imaginary boogeymen, terrorists that would attack the civilians if they could. Because of 9/11, politicians could get away with these false ideas with the majority of Americans fully believing them. The boogeymen in The Village are “The People We Don’t Speak Of”, monsters attracted by the color red. Yet we find out that they are all costumes made by the Elders of the land, designed to prevent people from going outside the land. They rule by fear disguised as love. They’ve gone through their own traumas through the deaths of their family members, but they’ve decided to completely abandon the lives that they’ve had and have their children living lies.

9/11 impacted American life by teaching citizens to live primarily by fear, to not trust anyone but their own people. And yet, post-9/11, all that increased was not “coming together”, but hate crimes against South Asian people. The rage white Americans had felt led to conservative politicians pushing fear-mongering agendas, and said white Americans blindly accepted. The outside world was progressing, but too many people were fine with living with further conservative politics only regressing American life further and further back, all for the illusion of safety. Meanwhile, the only threats to them were not the brown citizens outside of America they were so afraid of, but the white elders, the white politicians.

The Village explores these fears so eloquently, all while having a terrifying atmosphere, an enchanting score, and brilliant sound design. I enjoyed this movie very much.

Other viewings I enjoyed:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) (dir. Mike Judge) (re-watch)

Blow Out (1981) (dir. Brian de Palma) (re-watch)

Clueless (1995) (dir. Amy Heckerling) (re-watch)

Furious 7 (2015) (dir. James Wan)

The Long Goodbye (1973) (dir. Robert Altman)

Lupin III: The First (2019) (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

Unbreakable (2000) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan) (re-watch)

Velvet Goldmine (1998) (dir. Todd Haynes)

The Visit (2015) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)