#kids fun center Los Angeles

[kidsworldfun]

Kids Worlds is a unique kids fun zone where kids can play for hours. There is a special area for adults as well, where they can sit and watch their kids playing.

[funkidsworldla]

Make your child's birthday unforgettable with Kids World LA! This place is amazing as we have different packages for Los Angeles Kids' birthday parties. Book now for a day full of joy and memories.

[mariacallous]

If you’re baffled by Skibidi Toilet, you’re not alone.

The bizarre animated YouTube series centers on an alien invasion: a swarm of singing heads, all popping out of toilets, has descended on a Los Angeles–like metropolis and triggered a surreal, cartoonish, apocalyptic war. That’s a more direct and clear explanation than you’ll find in the actual videos, since they’re all almost completely wordless. There’s no language barrier, which is a major reason why the videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times, becoming a global cultural phenomenon among Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Surprisingly for something so popular, Skibidi Toilet has garnered a reputation for being incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t a fan. Its impenetrable nature has raised serious concerns around the world. Some call it a moral outrage, foreign propaganda meant to prey on vulnerable young minds, or even a disease. In a cultural climate where it’s harder and harder to understand trends and popularity, people are searching for an explanation for how singing toilets conquered the world. On the May 22 episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert punched up a joke about the Biden campaign using Skibidi Toilet to attract the youth vote, saying that if anyone didn’t get the gag, their grandchildren could explain it “and you still won’t understand.”

As random as the videos can seem, their success isn’t. Skibidi Toilet deftly combines modern storytelling trends with nostalgic internet humor in a way that magnifies the outwardly confusing qualities of both. “It was initially appealing to young people for its utter weirdness,” says danah boyd, a partner researcher at Microsoft Research. “Parents (and many other adults) probably reacted with revulsion, as they’ve done many other times. That revulsion from adults makes it even more appealing to young people.”

That’s why the word “skibidi” has become a more general shibboleth for Gen Z and younger, in the same class as “rizz”, “gyat,” and “sigma.” Adults being shocked and confounded at kids having fun creates a feedback loop where kids want to make it even more distressing. The videos certainly have a lot of shock value, featuring surreal, disturbing, and violent imagery. In an interview with Forbes in February, Alexey Gerasimov, who creates the videos and uploads them under the name “DaFuq!?Boom!,” described the videos as being inspired by his own recurring nightmares.

In that light, it can be easy to see why the global success has been met with an equally global panic. Last August, several writers and journalists in Malaysia and Indonesia warned parents about the dangers of a “Skibidi toilet syndrome” that would cause children to refuse to stop imitating the toilet’s songs and dances. Earlier this year, Robbie Collin wrote in the Telegraph that the videos were a sign YouTube needed more strictly enforced age limits.

Other sources are going even farther, calling the surreal meme videos a threat to national security. In February, reporter Olga Sosnina claimed in a Swedish news outlet that Skibidi Toilet was Russian propaganda aimed at indoctrinating children. Russia was just as worried: In January, Moscow officials were called to investigate the videos. In April, Anna Mityanina, St. Petersburg’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, played the videos to the city’s legislative assembly as part of an annual report on risks to children. “There is no need to pretend that there are no standards of decency,” Mityanina said. “A character in the form of a toilet, to put it mildly, is not cultured enough.”

For all of the worry, there isn’t much to be concerned about within the Skibidi Toilet videos themselves. “I see these media as reflective of our societal obsessions,” says boyd. “As always, young people twist it slightly in a way that makes adults uncomfortable because they don’t want to reckon with their own passions.”

The videos, as uncanny as they can get, don’t contain anything particularly unsuitable for children. The violence is unrelenting and large in scope, but never goes beyond cartoonish explosions and punches. Characters who appear to be killed or turned to the villain’s side regularly return to fight alongside the heroes. The largely wordless storytelling, of course, puts a limit on mature themes. Ultimately, the most “indecent” element of the videos is the toilets themselves, which will always be a hit with the younger generation.

That’s not the only area where Skibidi Toilet follows a long tradition. Gerasimov (who didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment) animates the videos using the Source Filmmaker program, but he’s modified the animation interface to emulate the 2006 game Garry’s Mod. Garry’s Mod, true to its name, was initially a fanmade modification of the game Half-Life 2 that removed any structure or objective, leading to a purely creative sandbox years before Minecraft’s Creative Mode. The game was used to create thousands of machinima videos throughout the late 2000s, and Gerasimov calls these videos a primary inspiration for Skibidi Toilet.

Maddy Buxton, the head of YouTube’s culture and trends team, says this is a major factor in the videos’ success. “One thing we know about Gen Z viewers and creators is they’re interested in nostalgia. It’s hearkening back to this earlier time, even if they didn’t grow up in it themselves,” Buxton says. Skibidi Toilet was one of the top trending topics last year on YouTube, where at one point it garnered 2.8 billion views in 28 days.

Nostalgia and scatological humor can be eye-catching, but to build up the kind of sustained interest and devotion Gerasimov has, there needs to be a story in its own right. The narrative of Skibidi Toilet isn’t communicated directly, but that only adds to its intrigue for many viewers, especially younger ones who are used to having to put in extra work to get the full picture. “We’ve been looking into the role of lore in building these big fan communities,” says Buxton. “The ones that aren’t just passively watching, but digging into the backstory.”

That digging is so popular that it’s transcending traditional structures of fandom. There’s no shortage of ways to be a fan of something online, but Skibidi Toilet’s audience has spent most, if not all, of their lives on the internet, and their work comes out in extremely online forms. Acolytes flood YouTube with breakdown videos and expand on the worldbuilding with Roblox games. Then there’s the comment-section fiction: Wherever the videos are posted, the comments are filled with dozens or hundreds of people providing their own written narratives retelling the events of the video, filling the gap left by the storytelling with their own words. It’s a cross between a liveblogged reaction and fan fiction, creating lore where none existed.

The idea of lore is now fundamental to the way many people consume any fiction, but it started in the world of video games, especially games like Dark Souls that have virtually no direct storytelling. There are hundreds of unofficial Skibidi Toilet games that let players take part in the battles, but the videos themselves invite a similar degree of participation.

“People are coming at it from different entry points,” says Buxton. “Some people are coming in from the gaming world, some are coming just for the action storytelling, some like to unpack lore.” She describes these unusual fan works as “casual creation,” saying that “this idea of being a daily creator makes it much easier to be an active fan than it was five, 10, 15 years ago. Now you can engage in the subject of your fandom by creating it online.”

Of course, Skibidi Toilet itself could be categorized as a fan creation, containing numerous echoes of Garry’s Mod and the Half-Life games. Like many recent works that emerge online, from streetwear trends to unauthorized TikTok musicals, Skibidi Toilet blurs the line between fan work and original work. “Lots of the kids who got into Skibidi Toilet don’t know anything about where these characters and assets are sourced from,” says Phillip Hamilton, an associate editor at Know Your Meme.

Beyond the actual content of the videos, their release schedule is also a factor. “Skibidi Toilet is huge with people (namely kids) who always want more,” says Hamilton. “Each episode is about a minute long and they blast by so fast, with episodes coming out super frequently.”

During the first wave of the videos’ popularity in mid-2023, Gerasimov was uploading at least two videos each week for months, sometimes uploading a video every single day. Social media algorithms have prioritized more frequent uploaders for years, and Gerasimov had been animating in Source Filmmaker for more than a decade, giving him enough experience to crank out the videos fast enough to satisfy YouTube’s algorithm.

This isn’t the first time the algorithm has popularized content that adults find inappropriate for children. In 2017, YouTube faced a public outcry when it was found that the platform was promoting hundreds of disturbing videos, and allowing them to be viewed on its family-friendly YouTube Kids app. The controversy would be known as “Elsagate,” since the offending videos featured popular children’s characters like Elsa, Spider-Man, and Peppa Pig undergoing gory medical procedures, getting kidnapped, and more.

These videos were transparent attempts to game YouTube’s recommendation system for ad revenue. Many of them had hundreds of seemingly inauthentic comments to boost engagement metrics, and a report by the New York Times found one prominent channel was creating videos with a team of roughly 100 people.

YouTube made changes to its algorithm to disincentivize scammers from making these videos. They can’t do the same to flush away Skibidi Toilet, because it wasn’t made to satisfy the algorithm in the same way. It’s a much smaller operation, made with genuine craft and artistic intention. Gerasimov made the videos longer and more ambitious as the series grew in popularity, but that growth happened thanks to people actually enjoying the series, not for associations with popular characters.

Nonetheless, they’ve become even more of a hit among the younger generation, and for parents, this seems to be the real underlying fear. “I think Skibidi Toilet’s ‘negative effects’ on kids are mostly just the obsessive, seemingly addictive aspect,” says Hamilton. “It’s the same reason parents worry about short-form video platforms like TikTok.” The videos took off at the perfect time—after the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a general shift away from in-person social interaction—for their weirdness to feed into paranoia about what a screen-mediated life might be doing to impressionable young minds.

When it comes to children’s browsing habits, there are many scarier things they might find online than Skibidi Toilet. As strange as the videos are, they wouldn’t do very well as propaganda or even advertising. There’s no agenda, for good or ill, besides the entertainment value. In the Washington Post, Taylor Lorenz compared Skibidi Toilet to “harmless entertainment” like Cocomelon and other children’s videos. Not everyone is happy about the popularity of Cocomelon, but that popularity hasn’t caused the same kind of panic.

[my18thcenturysource]

Portrait of Vivienne Westwood by Christian Shambenait

It took me a few days, but with the death of icon-goddess-genius Vivienne Westwood, I had to make a post here about her work and how massively influential she was during her lifetime, and why her influence will remain for years to come.

"I take something from the past that has a sort of vitality that has never been exploited – like the crinoline – and get very intense. In the end you do something original because you overlay your own ideas." Vivienne Westwood

Born in 1941 in Tintwistle, Cheshire, Vivienne Westwood (nèe Swire) did not have a "traditional" path into fashion and design, even though she took a course of jewellery at the Harrow Art School (she thought it was not for her, being a working-class girl), she became a primary school teacher and got married with Derek Westwood, had a kid... But she was a maker of things and a creative mind, and made her own wedding dress and jewellery that she sold at a stall.

Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at the Let It Rock store (London, January 1972).

But all of that was about to change when she met Malcolm McLaren. She got divorced, moved with him and had another son. McLaren became the manager of the Sex Pistols and with Westwood, they became a creative duo who dressed the band and became VERY influential during th punk era. We must add the after that they opened a store called SEX, which was the meeting place for the punk scene in London in the 1970s. So, yeah. punk wouldn't look like it does without Vivienne Westwood.

"Vivienne and Malcolm use clothes to shock, irritate and provoke a reaction but also to inspire change. Mohair jumpers, knitted on big needles, so loosely that you can see all the way through them, T-shirts slashed and written on by hand, seams and labels on the outside, showing the construction of the piece; these attitudes are reflected in the music we make. It's OK to not be perfect, to show the workings of your life and your mind in your songs and your clothes." Viv Albertine

This era of Westwood's design has a lot of collaboration, especially with McLaren, and they produced under the Worlds End label until 1985. These collections have each a theme and a name, and here is when we star seeing Vivienne Westwood's eye and curiosity for historical fashion, as well as nods and details especially from the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course, it was the 80s and all was way more colourful than what we thing of more contemporary Vivienne Westwood, but you can see that EVERYTHING was already there in the period which she dubbed as "New Romantic" with collections like Witches, Punkature, and Pirate.

Raincoat and belt, from the 1983 Witches collection, Victoria & Albert Museum.

Ensemble from the 1982 Pirates collection, Victoria & Albert Museum.

Knitted top from the 1983 Witches collection, featuring Keith Haring's graffiti.

The 1988-1991 era is called "The Pagan Years", and we can see the change of the main looks from punks to girls in clothes that parodied the upper class. And it is then that I think the ultimate Vivienne Westwood is seen: corsets, crinolines, tartan, colourful stripes... Here is when we begin to see the historical references taken to a extreme, mixed with the modern word and sense of humour, while always being perfectly made and patterned and fun for all genders.

Here some of my favourite ones:

Vivienne Westwood black satin corset with metallic gold pattern, ss 1992 Stays, late 17th-early 18th century, Met Museum.

Vivienne Westwood autumn/winter 2020.

Fashion illustration on L’Elegant, 1853.

Carmagnole Jacket, France, c. 1790 / Sans-culotte Trousers, France, c. 1790, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Vivienne Westwood, autumn/winter 2021.

"Watteau" evening dress, 1996, Vivienne Westwood, Victoria & Albert Museum. "L’enseigne de Gersaint" (detail), Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Vivienne Westwood, autumn/winter 2022.

Portrait of Madame X, 1884, John Singer Sargent.

Madonna in her Fever video, 1993, wearing Vivienne Westwood. Gold leather corset, sleeves and mini skirt, 'Time Machine' ss 1988, Vivienne Westwood.

Always a creative force and a punk at heart, Vivienne Westwood was also an activist, putting front and center important causes like climate change, or sustainability and transparency in the brand's supply chain.

Rose McGowan walking the autumn/winter 2019 Vivienne Westwood catwalk.

Designer Vivienne Westwood looks through the glass toward the media during a photocall at a retrospective exhibition to celebrate her 30 years in the fashion industry, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Tuesday March 30, 2004.

What is your favourite look/garment of this iconic designer? And does it have an historical reference? Let us all know!

[sibylsleaves]

hello! <3 dunno if you ever wrote about it already, but do you have any headcanons on what they'd enjoy doing during their free time? some favourite pastimes?

Between work/raising a kid/seeing friends/regular adult life i don't think they don't have a TON of time to pursue hobbies. So it's basically what we've seen them do in canon--they definitely enjoy playing boardgames with Chris/occasionally with Madney and HenRen. Buck obviously loves to cook/bake and try out new recipes, and that's something he and Chris do together--pick a new recipe, go shopping for ingredients, and experiment in the kitchen. Eddie still sometimes attends his secret underground poker nights, practices Muay Thai/follows MMA/goes to basketball pick-up. And of course a lot of video games. Chris is A Gamer and while he probably prefers playing video-games with his friends, he does still allow Buck and Eddie to play with him on occasion. I've also read so many fics also where they start a garden at the Diaz house, so I think they probably spend some time gardening too.

They go to a handful of Dodgers games per season as a family. Someone at the 118 is a HUGE Dodgers fan and has season tickets with great seats and offers up those seats for cheap/as a thank you for when someone covers their shift. Eddie is a Rangers fan and Chris is a Dodgers fan and Buck doesn't really follow baseball that closely but he LOVES baseball history and is always spouting off fun facts like did you know that the high-five was invented by Glenn Burke, a gay baseball player who played for the Dodgers in the 1970s? Buck does, and he read his entire autobiography. They also always attend the Dodgers First Responders night and I wanna say that at some point after the 118 does something extremely heroic Bobby gets invited to throw the first pitch for First Responders Night and the entire 118 attends to cheer him on.

They also love family beach days on nice weekend days when they're off work. I imagine Chris is still taking surfing lessons and Buck and Eddie will go and take him to his lesson and walk around on the beach together/rough-house in the waves and then they'll have a picnic. Sometimes they'll also invite Madney/HenRen to join them.

Buck and Eddie go to the gym together relatively frequently on their days off. I think they also like taking long drives together when the weather's nice and traffic isn't bad (which is basically just from the hours of 10am to 1pm...). Buck will drive them up the coast to Malibu or even Ventura County or down to Huntington Beach.

And I think they generally like trying new activities as a family. I think Buck is very active on the Los Angeles specific subreddits and is always in search of fun, accessible activities and events for them to attend. Go Karting, the Renaissance Faire, food festivals, the Rose Bowl Flea Market, escape rooms, various museums and science centers, the windmill tour in Palm Springs...the list goes on.

[thekidsare-not-alright]

tourdust lyric shirts color coded by song

Key heaven iowa / lftos / baby annihilation / smfs / hold me like a grudge / fake out / so good right now / I am my own muse / flu game / kintsugi kid / what a time to be alive

Chicago, IL: "when the party ends / will you still love who I am"

St Louis, MO: "what would you trade the pain for / I'm not sure"

Bonner Springs, KS: "time is luck / and I wish ours overlapped more or for longer"

The Woodlands, TX: "I think I've been going through it / and I've been putting your name to it"

Dallas, TX: "Part time soulmate / full time problem"

Phoenix, AZ: "I"ll never go / I just want to be invited"

Chula Vista, CA: "Nowhere left for us to go / but heaven"

Los Angeles, CA: "In another life / you were the sunshine of my lifetime"

Mountain View, CA: "Fever dream / tangerine sweat"

Salt Lake City, UT: "I'm just a cherub riding comets / through the night sky"

Greenwood Village, CO: "The world is always spinning / and I can't keep up"

Rogers, AR: "You put the 'fun' / into dysfunction"

Somerset, WI: "My mood board is just pictures of you / but I'm not sad anymore"

Cincinnati, OH: "We did it for futures that never came / and for pasts that we're never gonna change"

Noblesville, IN: "I will never ask you for anything / except to dream sweet of me"

Cuyahoga Falls, OH: "I closed my eyes inside of your darkness / and found your glow"

Bristow, VA: "And all of my wildest dreams / they just end up with you and me"

Charlotte, NC: "Here I am / not sure you should take a chance"

Virginia Beach, VA: "Trumpets bring the angels / but they never came"

West Palm Beach, FL: "All this effort / to make it look effortless"

Tampa, FL: "I carved out a place in this world for two / but it's empty without you"

Atlanta, GA: "Felt you at the beginning / needed you in the end"

Clarkston, MI: "We're out here / and we're ready"

Toronto, ON: "The stars are the same as ever / I don't have the guts to keep it together"

Forest Hills, NY: "So much for stardust / we thought we had it all"

Boston, MA: "Screaming at the stars / like night lights"

Darien Center, NY: "Buried alive inside my dreams / but it was all a fake-out"

Holmdel, NJ: "When the party ends / will you still love who I am"

Camden, NJ: "Twice the dreams / but half the love"

[d-criss-news]

[UHQ] TheStandard_Vol11_Issue3 March, 2023 (PHOTO CREDITS: Amanda Demme: Blue NY Bomber Jacket, Bright patterned jacket / Lindsey Byrnes: Red back drop photos / Pierre Hennequin: B&W photo)

DAP Health’s 2023 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards | The Standard

The Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, DAP Health’s biggest annual fundraiser, also fondly known as The Chase returns to dazzle donors outdoors at the Palm Springs Convention Center on the evening of Saturday, March 25. Fashion, medicine, and music will take center stage at the starry annual benefit gala.

—

Up Close with Headliner Darren Criss

Darren Criss — the 36-year-old “Glee” alum who won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan in Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” — may be making his professional desert debut when he headlines the 2023 The Chase for DAP Health, but he’s no stranger to the Coachella Valley. Since he reports he has a “significant amount of family in the Palm Desert,” he’s somewhat of a regular. “I’ve got all my favorite spots, let’s put it that way.” He even made it to fellow performer Harry Styles’ last North American “Love On Tour” stop (and impromptu birthday bash) on February 1 at the new Acrisure Arena.

I chatted with Criss over Zoom while he was in Los Angeles to talk about what we can expect at his show, his love of all things show biz, and his ties to queer audiences.

Tell me a bit about the show you’ll be presenting at The Chase.

When I have the opportunity to play events like this, which are very fun — I know The Chase is very big and I’m very thrilled to be there — I’m the court jester. I’m just making sure I’m servicing people having a good time. So, I tend to stray away from deep cuts [in favor of] any smattering of things that people would be familiar with from, Broadway or the stuff I did on “Glee” or just covers in general that are fun to play and that kind of seem appropriate for the vibe. I’m notorious about not coming up with a set list until a few days before. I’ll have a band [that night], so I have to be a little more fastidious with the organizing of that. The nice thing about being a musician is you’re your own accompanist. If this was just me, I wouldn’t have an answer for you. Maybe about an hour before I went on stage — ’cause I would go to the party, kind of get a vibe from people, have a couple drinks — I’d go, “OK, I think I get the playlist,” and then I’d just do it… I’d just show up and try to make people happy. You can quote me on that.

Acting, singing, or songwriting and producing — what would you say is your favorite?

That’s a great question, because usually the question is, “Which one do you consider yourself?” And my answer is, they’re all the same because they’re all connected. They’re all storytelling. It’s just different tailoring. Different dress codes. But it’s the same party, the same venue….

You know, I’ve been very lucky, where I’ve gotten to do everything. I will say the most fulfilling would probably have to be songwriting…. Songwriting and producing probably consume most of my soul.

Talking acting, is it film, TV, or theatre?

Nice work if you can get it. Listen, I’m a mercenary. I’ll be very happy to have the opportunity to work in any of those fields if they invite me to the party. Lucky me. And I’m always grateful and cherish every opportunity that comes my way. Obviously, I come from the theatre, so it kind of has my heart and soul because there is an immediacy to it. So, yeah, that might be the leading player on the field.

Between “Glee,” Ryan Murphy, and Broadway, you clearly have a lot of queer fans. Thoughts?

I think the simple answer is I’ve always felt so privileged to be included at what I deem to be the cool kids table. And that’s not me trying to be charming or sucking up to a certain demographic. I’ve spent a lifetime chasing my heroes, wanting to have the people I think are cool think I’m cool. And I’ve worked very hard for that. I’ve educated myself. I’ve tried to cultivate my life so that people I respect might go, “Hey, this kid ain’t so bad.” And a huge [number], if not the majority, of those people come from the queer community. I feel very privileged to have anybody’s attention, much less that of a community of people I think are rad. I’m just so pleased to have a seat of the table, and I hope that my conversation is interesting enough to hold their attention and to be worthy of their time.

As you know, The Chase is DAP Health’s largest annual benefit, and the organization began in 1984 as Desert AIDS Project. How have HIV and AIDS touched your life personally?

I was born in the eighties, raised in the nineties, in San Francisco. I’m from a very, very queer city during a very troubled time that didn’t see everybody survive. People’s uncles were dying. I was a little boy. You’d notice, and you’d go, “Wait, what’s going on?” But it’s something that didn’t really hit me until much later in life. When you’re old enough to understand and realize, “Holy shit, that was a pretty insane time.” I’m very lucky because I’m of a generation that got to benefit from the slow de-stigmatization and more healthy conversations around HIV and AIDS. The men and women in my circle who are living with it, when we talk about the sort of dark days of AIDS in the United States, they and I are just supremely aware of the people upon whose shoulders we get to live our day-to-day life. I consider myself very, very lucky.

Well said. Shifting gears to a lighter subject, The Chase can be quite the fashionista extravaganza. So, here’s the most important question: Have you picked out your outfit?

Oh, girl. Um, no. [Laughs] And I’m not proud about it. I gotta get on it. Thanks for reminding me. I gotta get a set list together and an outfit. It’s literally the two things that are required of me. And I don’t have either one right now.

PHOTO CREDITS: Amanda Demme: Blue NY Bomber Jacket, Bright patterned jacket / Lindsey Byrnes: Red back drop photos / Pierre Hennequin: B&W photo

[ncisfranchise-source]

The CBS fall 2024 season takes one of its most popular franchises back in time with NCIS: Origins. The NCIS prequel is set in 1991 and centers on a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) earlier in his career as a special agent at the fledging (NIS) Naval Investigation Service’s Camp Pendleton, which eventually becomes the iconic NCIS division we know today.

Gibbs joins a ragtag team led by Mike Franks, with Kyle Schmid stepping into the role originated in the flagship series by Muse Watson. The weight of taking on this legend is not lost on Schmid. It’s arguably the biggest gig to date for the Canadian who got his start on Disney Channel in the early ’00s and whose recent resume includes starring on the History military series Six and recurring on Syfy’s Being Human and ABC’s Big Sky.

Despite being fatally stabbed in Season 8 of NCIS, Mike Franks would appear from time to time to guide mentee Gibbs (Mark Harmon) as an almost guardian angel. Here, Schmid, who is expecting his first child with his wife Caity Lotz, gives us an early tease of what’s to expect from the flashback spinoff.

What does it mean for you to be part of the legacy of this NCIS franchise? What kind of resource has Mark Harmon been for this new cast? 

Kyle Schmid: I think it’s a great opportunity to be part of something grandfathered into the industry as a standard for procedural television. It has been running for what’s going to be seasons. Mark Harmon did it and put his stamp on it and kind of led the way for everybody. It has been a really neat experience because he has lent his expertise and advice and help to all of us through emails and calls. Just time spent piquing his brain has been really important.

At a stage of your life where you’ve gotten married, having a kid and you get to shoot at Paramount in Los Angeles. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. I can’t wait to continue to work with the cast that was put together. I’m a legitimate fan of everybody they put together for this show. Incredible wife, job, house, and a baby on the way. My life has just become very complete, so I’m very lucky.

Have you had much communication with Muse? 

He and I have become friends. We talk every couple of weeks and catch up on life. Having his blessing to play a younger version of a character he developed has been very cool.

How would you describe where we’ll be introduced to Mike at this point in his life and career? 

He had been part of NCIS for a while. In 2001, when you meet him he is a little older, a little more jaded. He has seen a lot that I think he wished he could have had more control over. So, we’re seeing him at a point in his life where he has paved his own way and earned the respect of the agency. Now he has the opportunity to build a team that he sees as being some of the most promising agents in NCIS. We get to meet those people and see those people grow. He is still at a point where he gets to mentor Gibbs. I think we’ll get to see why Gibbs was who the world fell in love with in the original NCIS and how he came to be that way. And Mike Franks is a big part of that.

With the show taking us back to the 1990s, what kind of vibe do you see us getting? I’m looking forward to feeling that nostalgia. 

The music is what excites me. I was born in the early 1980s, so I like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Those are still on my daily playlist. I failed to mature with music and am stuck in the 1990s. We have incredible music. I think it’s fun to play with the dynamics of the male-female relationship in the workplace. We get to live in a world where things are a little backward compared to today. I think it’s going to be really interesting how David [J. North] and Gina [Lucita Monreal], who are our showrunners and are phenomenal, decide to tackle that.

We get to see how Mike Franks gets to play a 40-year-old in an industry in 1991 that we in present-day America have forgotten, and have tried to change. I think that will be really interesting for the show. I did a show with Tom Fontana a few years ago. He is one of the best writers I’ve ever worked with. He said to me that there are no black-and-white characters. There are only gray characters. The people who are the bad guys don’t know they’re bad guys. They are just doing the best they know. I think 1991 in Los Angeles is a very poignant point in history with a lot that happened. We’re going to be able to explore all of that with phenomenal directing. I think with a younger and edgier cast, it will make for an edgier show in the process. This is super exciting because we have phenomenal actors who really get to dig into this stuff that I’m hoping will blow teh doors wide open.

You’re going into filming this show at a time when you’re becoming a dad. Just moved into a new house with Caity still working as well. How are you all preparing for all that? 

It’s a good question. Luckily, I have the best wife in the world. Caity’s mom is going to come to town. My dad’s coming to town. I love working. Working is something that gives me energy. I get to go to work, which I love, and then come home to a family I love. I’m absolutely burning the candle at both ends with this.

[gonehollywoodrp]

JOIN US ON A SEA DAY.

While we're en route to our next destination, there are plenty of activities on board the ship! And whether you're into planning a fun day of all our options or just kicking back and relaxing, we have a list of fun selections that have something for every passenger.

Shows: Watch incredible 30 ft. high dives from Olympic level high divers in a dramatic edge of your seat performance at the AquaTheater. Come and see all the glitter and glam of ice skating in our sea day Ice Shows! Every act includes professional skaters from around the world, along with dazzling costumes and choreography to match.  And for a film night, attend our Dive-In Movie theater where you’ll get to lounge outdoors on the pool deck, with the night sky as a backdrop for your favorite films. And no film experience would be complete without popcorn, provided by the theater.

Entertainment: Put the music into your days and nights with Spotlight Karaoke! You can choose to belt your favorite tunes out on the main stage, or host your own show with family and friends in one of our private karaoke rooms. You can also try your luck by visiting our casino and seeing how many games you can win! But the casino isn't the only place to find competitive games when you can also try your luck in our bingo hall and at our old-fashioned arcade! Battle your family and friends or even strangers for winner bragging rights. For places to take the kids and have a little fun, our Wonder of the Seas Water Park will keep everyone plenty busy with our water attractions and pool deck! If mini-golf is more your speed, take a crack at our mini-golf course and see how you do! Feeling like seeing a film? For those into relaxation, book an appointment at our spa and fitness center to experience five-sense fulfillment. And if you'd like to shop, our stores and boutiques have all the beauty and high fashion you can ask for!

Athletics: For those of you who like to keep it moving and feel the burn with more athletic activities, we have plenty on board the ship to suit! You can sign up for our fitness classes headed by top instructors. We also have an ice skating rink, a sports court for setting up some basketball games, and spaces for Pickleball for something different from the traditional games. For any of our thrill seekers out there, check out our ziplines and rock climbing wall!

Food & Refreshments: On board, we have a wide variety of restaurants to fill your every food craving! Are you a foodie who's interested in taste testing some cuisine to expand your palate? Place a reservation with Wonderland Imaginative Cuisine for exposure to dishes based on five elements: earth, sea, fire, ice, and sun. We also have wine taste testing available for all our wine connoisseurs, and plenty of bars available for bar hopping and and a fulfilling night life! However, if relaxing in your suite is more your speed on sea days, we have room service all day and night.

These are just suggestions for your sea day itinerary, and you're welcome to look over our site for more options! Additionally, as a note to those attending the VMAs on May 7th, you can forgo this sea day and leave for Los Angeles after CocoCay. We have a private jet available for your transport, to fly you to LA and then afterwards, to St. Maarten to start your next port day!

[kidsworldfun]

Check out Kids World, one of the best Family Fun Centers in Los Angeles to enjoy spending time with your family. We are the most coveted destination with many facilities, including a dedicated toddler area, delicious food, and a laser tag arena to ensure everyone has the best time.

[funkidsworldla]

Are you tired of the same old indoor birthday party routine? Why not take the celebration outside and let your child's imagination run wild? In this post, you will capture some of the enticing advantages of arranging outdoor Los Angeles Kids Birthday Parties. Stay connected!

[baronvonkrieger]

November Greetings from the Land of the Remembered.

Each November, in the U.S. most Americans celebrate a feast with family and loved ones, and give thanks for what blessings they’ve received throughout the year. In the same month, Mexico also has families providing a feast for loved ones. A difference in Mexico though, not all the family members invited to the feast are among the living. During the celebration of Dia de los Muertos, many of those being invited to the feasts are family members who have passed on. 

This feast has began making inroads into Mexico’s neighbor to the north, and having grown up in Los Angeles, I used to see the celebration being brought up on Olvero Street over the years, where it was made very clear that this was not Mexico’s Halloween. However, considering how prominent skulls and skeletons are in festival decorations, it’s not hard to see how that misunderstanding can be made, and why I’m doing this particular blog around Thanksgiving, which is a celebration of family, and not in October, when we celebrate Halloween. 

As time has gone on, we have seen increasing notice of the festival in popular media. The first time I remember seeing Dia de los Muertos in a TV show, was “The Halloween Tree” (1993). In order to explain the origins of the costumes the kids are wearing,  Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud (Leonard Nimoy) let’s the boy wearing the skeleton costume know about Dia de los Muertos. The film reinforces the idea that because they are celebrated on adjoining days, that somehow Dia Del Muerte is Mexico’s Halloween, but things would change about two decades later, when  Guillermo Del Toro, gave us his film about “Dia de los Muertos, which was “Book of Life” (2014)

The film starts with Children arriving at a museum, where they soon are told a tale of three child hood friends, using wooden figures, and the story is told using animated characters, that look very much like the wooden figures. One day, during a Dia de los Muertos festival, two gods decided to do a wager using these three children. La Muerte, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, see young Manolo Sánchez and Joaquín Mondragon competing for the love of young María Posada. They strike a wager: if María marries Manolo, Xibalba will no longer interfere in mortal affairs, but if she marries Joaquín, La Muerte and Xibalba will swap realms. Manolo comes from a bullfighting family, but would rather play a guitar. Their friend Joaquin, would rather be a warrior and protect his village. Since Maria is an animal lover, that Manolo turns his back on bullfighting, ends up causing Maria and Mandolo to fall in love. Being a rascal, Xibalba cheats. Sending a snake to bite Maria, she appears to have died. Xibalba offers to take Mandolo’s life, so they can be together, and after Mandolo allows the snake to bite him, he ends up in the land of the remembered, but Xibalba insures Maria is alive to marry Joaquin, so he can win the bet, and rule the Land of the remembered, while La Muerte, is forced to rule the land of the forgotten, where those spirits who the living have forgotten end up. It’s up to Mandolo to make things right, as he becomes reacquainted with his mother and other deceased relatives.  I decided to watch this film a few days ago, and it was as much fun as I remembered. 

A few years later, Pixar would give us “Coco” (2017), their own film based on Dia de Los Muertos Although it is centered on the same festival, it does so in a very different way. Miguel, a village boy, wants to be a musician, but his Grandmother opposes this, because of how years earlier, an ancestor who had been a musician deserted his wife and young child. They want Miguel to enter the family trade of making shoes,but he rebells, and stealing a guitar that was owned by an idolized singer, gets his sent to the Land of the Dead. He only has so long to receive a blessing from a family member, or he can not return to the land of the living. He meets Hector, who is desperate to get to the land of the living before his daughter forgets him, and he ceases to be in the Land of the Dead. It’s a fascinating tale of betrayal, as well as the importance of family, 

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these films, and strongly recommend them, As for myself, I have set aside a small area for displaying the pictures of loved ones who have passed on. As much as I love the skeletons and skulls which are popular Dia de los Muertos, the festival is at it’s heart, remembering our loved ones.

[jaydonsjam]

Werewolf By Night XII

Werewolf By Night #22-23

Werewolf By Night #22-26 - writer: Doug Moench | penciler: Don Perlin (22-26) | inker: Vince Colletta (22-24), Don Perlin (25-26)

The Werewolf fights a disfigured actor! Steve Rand is out for vengeance on everyone who worked on the movie that caused his disfigurement. I gotta wonder if Jason Voorhees’ face was based on Rand’s (or Atlas as he calls himself) because it’s a spitting image of Jason. I checked the dates cause it was bothering me and Friday the 13th didn’t release until 1980 while this comic came out in 1974. Just to put it to bed, since you aren’t hearing my voice or tone, I’m kidding but look at that resemblance!

Anyways, I liked the story here but it does hit on the same type of themes that we’ve seen this comic cover already. Jack fights another monster and accidentally plays hero. I did enjoy the framing around Hollywood and movie sets. That made for an interesting backdrop into the motivations for the villain. Don Perlin did a great job drawing the action sequences and fights. A fun read but it’s also been a couple weeks since I last read this comic so maybe I just missed reading this series but either way, I liked this arc. Plus Buck Cowan actually had stuff to do and a real reason to be in this storyline which I loved.

Werewolf By Night #24-26

The Hangman returns! We get two antagonists in this three issue arc which ends in a three-way-fight at the end of #26. We find out a Doctor by the name of Winston Redditch has developed a serum which is meant to remove the “evil” animalistic side of humans leaving only the “good side”. The problem is that he’s a terrible scientist and doesn’t label his own beakers so he accidentally mixed it wrong and in a Jekyll and Hyde type situation he drinks the evil one! Seriously this dude is an idiot but whatever I can look past it. He then becomes DePrayve and starts wrecking havoc on Los Angeles. Now what does this have to do with Jack Russell? Well Buck wants to get the serum and see if it cures Jack of his lycanthropy. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work. How does The Hangman come into the story? Well he tracks the carnage that DePrayve had wrought and found Redditch and Werewolf fighting. Instead he bides his time and strikes at Jack when he’s running through the city and in a callback to his previous appearance, strings Jack up by his noose. It was interesting to see The Hangman come back but he ultimately gets captured by cops. I still find the idea that he sees everything as black and white and if you stray in between at all, it means you deserve to be punished and dead. The three-way-fight was cool enough. I dug all of the action and I’m glad they took care of The Hangman pretty quickly because that was already starting to feel like a retread. The Jekyll and Hyde wannabe DePrayve plot line with the serum ended up not working so it felt like a waste. It was just another reason and monster for our Werewolf to fight. It does seem like Lissa is going to take center stage soon so I’m interested in that Werewolf plot line with her to be tied up but besides that and Moon Knight coming up, this book seems to just cycle through similar antagonists a bit too much.

[danderoisen]

➽ lux et veritas! welcome to yale, ( DANIEL ‘DANNY’ PARK ). you’re a ( STUDENT ), aren’t you? your form says you’re ( TWENTY-THREE ), go by ( HE/HIM ), and excel in ( ANTHROPOLOGY ). but looking back at your college essay, i’d describe you as ( GETTING CAUGHT DAYDREAMING OF ADVENTURE DURING CLASSES; CRUSHED ENERGY DRINK AND BEER CANS IN OVERFLOWING TRASH CAN; LAUGHING AT 2AM UNTIL YOUR STOMACH HURTS ). keep out of the shadows!  [fc: jeon jungkook]

danny park, just your average twenty-three year old friendly neighborhood spiderman nobody. a kid who you spot at the grocery store, trailing after his extremely loud but good-natured korean mother, sullenly adding things into the cart as she shouts them out. a kid who you might have known in high school for making that one winning shot for the basketball team, but then missing every game afterwards because he broke his ankle skateboarding. a kid who just left for yale university, way over his head amongst all the wealthy, well-educated elite students who made it here based on their own merits, not their uncanny ability to somehow manipulate elements (completely by accident, most times). danny shuffles behind the crowd in his baggy t-shirts and black cargo pants, wishing he could erase smell of despair and impending student debt.

his story? well, it began when his parents immigrated from south korea to los angeles, full of big dreams and empty pockets. his father was a bellman at a luxury hotel near koreatown, and his broken english was no hinderance when his enthusiasm took center stage. he guided those tourists to the best routes, found them discount tickets, booked them taxis to grand restaurants, showed them all the facets of LA his little family could never afford. his mom found work in a korean restaurant, and that’s where danny remembers most of his childhood, kicking the back of his brother’s seat as he ignored homework in favor of stealing slices of meat from the kitchen.

his, um, talents developed sometime around his tenth birthday, when the pool party he was hosting turned into some sort of tsunami. a neighborhood kid had been picking on him, making fun of the banchan his mom had set out beside the chips and dip, threatening to push him in the pool. danny’s anger exploded, and somehow the pool did too, the water churning dangerously and wiping out the lawn chairs with enormous waves. the kid got knocked into the pool, and the fear in danny’s gut had somehow ended the waves. the kid was okay, and ran from danny for months.  

( danny spent the next year thinking he’d get a hogwarts letter. it never came. ) 

after that fateful day, danny felt like he couldn’t escape his newfound powers. they came unexpectedly - one day, he’d forgotten to start the oven for his mom, and terrified of getting yelled at, he pleaded with the oven to heat up quickly. it shot to 500 degrees in a minute, and danny almost burned his hand checking. or the time he was hiking with friends in high school and rocks slid down the side of the mountain, almost knocking them off the ledge, until danny’s fear became so overwhelming that the rocks bounced over the small group, as if they were under a bowl of air. 

there was no rhyme or reason, and it happened so infrequently that danny could uneasily write it off as coincidence. until his third year at community college, when he decided to join the soccer team - and the wind would shift every time he got near the goal, sending the ball soaring through the air straight into the corner of the goal. everyone lauded him as the next big thing, and reps from universities came to watch him play. it felt ridiculous, danny knew he was mediocre at best at sports, but this? out of nowhere, he made every single goal? this was insane. 

and then one day, he was visited by a representative, and took an exam that made absolutely no sense, and two weeks later he got an offer for a full ride to freaking yale university. he was twenty-three, only one year from finishing an associates degree and maybe finding an admin job somewhere, and now yale wanted him to attend their prestigious school, sit next to prestigious future lawyers and businessmen and senators? and play soccer, but that part didn’t really matter - it was almost like an afterthought. 

his parents were thrilled (if not bemused), and danny couldn’t really decline such an incredible offer. they also said he could choose any major, so he went with his imagination and chose anthropology. all those Indiana Jones movies he binged as a kid endlessly were finally making good use. so he packed his bags that summer and moved into the dorms two weeks before the semester started - only to be met by the Admissions Director, Madeline Gaines, and told that he had magical abilities and would need to protect the country from a portal to hell. 

so it’s been a weird two weeks, to say the least. his emotions are all over the place - at one moment, he’s happy he’s not alone in his magical abilities, but then he’s also scared shitless as the prospect of learning to control it, and then intimidated by all the other members who somehow have their shit together and understand their magic. and yale is enormous, and he gets lost ALL THE TIME. 

he’s glad he’s got his roommate (WANTED CONNECTION) to help him along the way. 

personality wise, danny is just a goddamn sweetie pie, head filled with more fluff and laughter than actual serious thought. he enjoys being a watcher rather than a participant in activities, and when you think he’s just in the corner dozing off or glancing into space, he’s usually taking in everything and storing it away for later. but you can trust him (unless he’s one too many drinks down, and then you can never know what’ll come out of his mouth).

[waywayoutzp]

An old news article about the creator of Zula Patrol from 2009 providing some background on the show.

Will port the news article in a read more.

The gig: Creator of “The Zula Patrol,” a Saturday morning cartoon watched by 2 million children a week on NBC and public television stations, and Zula World, an online hangout for kids built by IBM Corp. In Los Angeles, the show airs Saturday mornings on NBC and Monday mornings on KCLS public television.

First career: Manchester, 52, was an audiologist in Ohio for 15 years.

Eureka moment No. 1: In 1994, she sold her audiology practice and enrolled in a two-year animation program at Ohio State University. “I always told myself that if I stopped having fun with my job, I’d become an animator.” It took 11 years after making the career switch until her first show aired.

How she came up with Zula: While in animation school, Manchester tore her left Achilles tendon and was in a cast for six months. She tried to find a cover for her cast that would keep her exposed toes warm in the winter. Finding none, she decided to design and sell one. She contracted with a textile manufacturer to produce the covers, which she sold to pharmacies and medical supply shops. The covers for kids sported friendly alien creatures she had designed.

She wrote a children’s book to go with the covers. In 1999, she took it to a book fair in Los Angeles, where she met three television producers scouting for new properties. One hooked her up with Phil Roman, executive producer of “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.” Roman encouraged her to create a demo. She made two, each 15 minutes long, which she pitched to network executives for the next two years.

The low point: All the networks rejected her. “The early rejections were heavy blows. But honestly, they just made me dig in deeper and work harder. A lot of times, people look at a roadblock and think it’s the end of the road when it’s not.”

How she dug out: Between 2000 and the fall of 2005, when her show debuted on public television, she visited more than 100 schools to get feedback from students and educators. She also pitched her show to science museums. Two of them, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, used her cartoons in their children’s programs.

To scrape by, she made money designing websites and working as a part-time audiologist.

The big break: In 2002, American Public Television said it would distribute her show if she could get the funding needed to make the episodes.

Manchester landed a fellowship in 2003 with Springboard Enterprises, a nonprofit group that helps female entrepreneurs connect with investors.

After spending six months developing a business plan and fine-tuning her pitch, she made a 10-minute presentation at a Springboard event in Chicago that caught the eye of the proverbial “someone who knew someone.”

Her benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, was also a supporter of the Adler Planetarium.

“Usually children’s shows are funded by numerous entities. It makes producing the show difficult from a creative standpoint. By the time your show gets done, it’s a watered-down version of what your vision was.”

Her benefactor took the opposite tack.

“He left me with complete creative control. He told me, ‘If you succeed, it will be your success. If you fail, it will be your failure.’ That’s been incredibly helpful.”

What next: Manchester anticipates that her company will be profitable this year for the first time. She’s teaming with IBM for this month’s launch of Zula World, a subscription website where children will be able to explore and learn about science topics as diverse as tide pools and tundras, atoms and asteroids.

[mcktub]

𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐘

“it is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.” ― René Descartes

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒

𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 : noelle amelia kennedy . 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 : december 22 , 1987 . 𝐚𝐠𝐞 : 36 . 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 / 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 : los angeles, california . 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : jonathan & kathy kennedy . 𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 : jordana, mackenzie, jonathan, finley & eloise . 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 : cis woman . 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬 : she + her . 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 : blue . 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 : dark brown . 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 : 178cm / 5'9" ft . 𝐦𝐛𝐭𝐢 : entj ( the commander ) . 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : heterosexual + heteromantic . 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 : married . 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 : noemi kartal . 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : retired equestrian / reality tv star .

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘

there's little to be said about her childhood other than she had one. the regular one most rich kids have: between mansions and servants, nannies and tutors, private everything and rarely ever hearing no. she was well aware of her family's power from day one and learned to use it to her advantage so early it is no wonder she's almost a master of the craft at this point. since, unlike masters, she isn't one to share her wisdom to those with less and in need ( which noelle considers to be everyone ). the level of pressure applied on a kennedy by other kennedy's toughened her faster than she learned to speak cohesively. but the counterpart was that she grew up with so many siblings it stole attention from her; she didn't have her parents' eyes on her all the time, they didn't have all their faith in her, she very quickly realised that if she'd done enough to keep them happy, noe could get away with just about anything. and that she did. contrary to what it may sound, though, she wasn't an evil child. just one not to be messed with. she wasn't one of the school bullies, but they would think thrice before attempting to bully her. if not for knowing the weight of her surname, for knowing the sharpness of her tongue and just how rarely she held back from slicing one up with it.

“except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” ― René Descartes

her love for horses and riding them started so early noelle herself wouldn't be able to tell you how old she was when it was awakened. she simply knows once she sat on the poor pony's back, she realised that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. thank god she was already manipulative enough back then that her actions kept her on her parents' good graces and they still didn't say no to her requests yet. soon enough she was practising every other day, and then every day, and then twice a day until she started competing. locally, unpretentiously, with no real motive other than enjoying it. that was her thought at least, her family had other plans which she knew nothing about. still, she made it far by just having fun. at mere sixteen she got the opportunity to qualify for national dressage, a huge deal. but then she didn't. she was just out, first on the list of people who almost made it but didn't. that was noelle's first ever real disappointment in life, the first time she felt helpless. being father's favourite comes with perks though: he didn't enjoy seeing her so desolated. not too much later the one who did make it one spot above her got investigated on doping because of an anonymous tip and wouldn't you know the tests not only came positive, but substances were also found in the locker room of her training center. noelle knew right and well how that had happened and why but she couldn't bring herself to care. she was in the nationals. she won. she made a name for herself and her career was consolidated. why worry about someone else ? her trophy room would end up being large and filled with shiny medals because of it. the ends justify the means.

“i desire to live in peace and to continue the life i have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen” ― René Descartes, The Principles Of Philosophy

the reality show was never really her favourite thing but it was the family business and she understood why it exists. didn't change the fact that she'd rather be anywhere other than where filming took place that day. still, she'd put on a nice little face and play the part. unless she had valid excuses not to show herself; preparing for a tournament and had to practice long hours, couldn't film practices to not give opponents a look into her tactics. it was all well thought out, from how much time she spent on it to how she'd justify not appearing in every episode. the truth was that noelle was much more private than most assumed her to be. the one they'd see on tv a persona to make showrunners and her mother happy, nothing less. a fraction of her true self she was comfortable showing. she met soyer in 2013, when accompanying a friend to a football match she did not much care for. her friend had backstage passes and she went along. they met, flirted, exchanged numbers and he was on her hotel bed the next day. it was a fairly simple thing, not meant to last longer than the one week she'd be staying in madrid. and it didn't at first, but a couple months later she was just in italy and thought it wouldn't hurt to visit spain once more for a little fun. before they knew it they had come to an agreement. they were together as long as they were in the same city. anything that happened outside of that didn't matter. it just so happened that they found themselves in the same cities a lot after that. and it wasn't unintentional. that became clear once they started planning trips to see one another. it took the public a few months to catch on to it but, once they did, they were forced to put a label on it. being a couple felt like too much at the time, they barely spent any real time together and weren't even exclusive. but those were things they couldn't let the world know about so the title they claimed had to be the one they didn't see fit their relationship.

“divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” ― René Descartes, Discourse on Method

the first three years of their relationship, whatever that was, were turbulent. no one really knew when they were together and when they weren't. even they didn't. a classic on-again, off-again that lasted far too long to be taken seriously in any way. but she enjoyed two things it had to offer: time away from family and sex. enough to keep it going. but the public for some reason loved it, loved seeing them together and adored them as a unit. the reason why was beyond her. it was in 2016 that they decided to welcome the adoration with open arms. she came back home after the olympics announcing her engagement and that she would permanently be moving to italy. it was a way to escape everything she did not enjoy about her life, which all resided in california, and add new figurative medals to her collection by doing what would make her even more loved in the public eye. it wouldn't change much for her career; she already travelled too often for it, she could just go back for any national competitions, it was doable. and she did it. if you think the dynamics in their relationship changed after marriage, though, you are oh so wrong. it continued exactly the same way yet now with a more appropriate term: open marriage. and it wasn't an issue for either of them at all. the issue was that soyer had had a girlfriend before noelle. in fact, he had said girlfriend when they had met the first, second and third times. and noelle isn't a jealous person, she couldn't be with her track record and the way they conducted their marriage, but she did not enjoy having to deal with the bad press of his ex being at his games just a few chairs from her. or knowing they had gotten back in touch. the issue was there had been feelings there. for her, she knew her own affairs wouldn't ever hurt their marriage because she grew no attachment to any of them. and she was fine with him having his own affairs if they were on the same pretences. but alas he had added to his list a name he'd once seen as a potential wife. someone who'd be in her place. and noelle kennedy is nothing if not petty and vindictive. so she added to her list the name of one of his teammates and friends. they break up once more but it lasts all of two days, in their true fashion. this time, though, an entire discussion ensues and ends with the decision to close their marriage.

“each problem that i solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems” ― René Descartes

no more than two months later noelle got pregnant. noemi was born in 2019, in germany of all fucking places. noelle is now thirty-two and comes to the conclusion that she's had a good run, her career was beyond excellent and she could put an end to it now. so she announced she'd be retiring after the tokyo olympics the next year. stay-at-home mother wasn't a title she ever thought to attribute herself to but it somehow worked well in practice. the following year from her retirement though her husband decided to do the same and they had a long conversation that led to the decision to leave Europe and go back to the states in 2021. she knew it meant having to go back to the life noelle did not find the best one for herself but she now had no more excuses to give. no more career, no more husband with a job overseas she wanted to support. and so they moved back to los angeles to restart their life there.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

"a raging fucking bitch." ― johnny kennedy.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

unlikely friends : tbf it is unlikely that she has any friends so most people can fit this .

exes : anybody she could've been with before or during the thousands of break-ups with soyer / their open marriage. one night stands or short-lived flings, doesn't matter. definitely zero attachment on her end .

hateship : could be anybody from your mother to your dog, your hate for her is probably justified .

family friends : their relationship is tbc bc she does not care for her family's general consensus but i'm doing this bc i'm lost and don't know who the kennedy's are connected to so pls help <3 .