#like didn’t 2003 did the whitewashing first?

[maslosstuff]

I always hear 2009 strawberry shortcake whitewash “orange blossom or their designs are bad” but nobody ever talks about this?

[erikaogrady]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movies Ranked:

10)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

I didn’t watch this in theaters despite it coming out at the peak of my Turtles obsession. I only recently watched it in anticipation of Mutant Mayhem, and while there are a few good things in it, overall I wasn’t really missing much.

It’s been talked about to death but these designs really don’t work. Realistically the Ninja Turtles would probably look kind of gross IRL, but on film it really doesn’t work if we’re supposed to like them. Michelangelo especially is really hard to look at (his face is way too human with his weird turtle lips).

The Shredder is really over designed and under characterized. It’s really clear that Eric Sachs was intended to be the Shredder, and with reshoots making them separate characters the Shredder becomes really generic (not that I would have liked them whitewashing the Shredder).

I actually really like this version of April, she’s incredible unhinged. Megan Fox is definitely putting in bare minimum effort (which I can’t blame her for) and there is a lot of gross over sexualization of her (I did not need to hear Mikey talk about how she’s giving him a turtle erection). But overall she was one of my favorite parts.

There are also a few cute moments of the Turtles being brothers, like the elevator scene. The rivalry stuff between Leo and Raph being so central to the movie is kind of disappointing because thats so overplayed in Turtles media and its not particularly well done here.

9)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadows is definitely an improvement on the first film, but I wouldn’t call it a good movie. It’s really stupid, but also very fun.

Bebop and Rocksteady are a pleasure to watch, and they’re actually really well designed. Most of the jokes with them land well, and the fight scenes with them are generally pretty good. It’s a shame that they’re positioned as Casey Jones’s rivals however, because this is by far the worst version of Casey there’s ever been. He’s really whiny and a cop for some reason. The whole movie actually has some weird copaganda going on.

The Shredder is definitely more of a character in this one, but he still isn’t that interesting. Krang is well designed and cool to see in live action, but there’s nothing all that interesting done with him either.

I actually really enjoy the main emotional through line of the movie with the Turtles considering whether or not to become human so they can be accepted. There are definitely parts that don’t work (Raph destroying the mutagen isn’t probably built to, the Turtles deciding not to take the credit for saving the day at the end doesn’t make a ton of sense), but the emotional stuff is pretty good. Mikey’s reaction to the police considering them monsters is an excellent scene.

8)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

This is another one I hadn’t seen until very recently because I had always heard bad things, and honestly I think it’s sort of underrated.

I really like Mitsu and Yoshi, and their bonds with Mikey and Raph feel really real. Mikey wanting to stay behind at the end feels earned.

The costumes really let this movie. After the amazing Henson Turtle suits in the first two movies these really look cheap and break the suspension of disbelief. The humor also relies a lot on slapstick that doesn’t really land.

I imagine that if I had seen this movie as a kid (like I did the previous two live action movies) I would have ranked this a lot higher, but as is while I didn’t hate it like most people seem to it also didn’t stand out much and wasn’t all that memorable.

7)

Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever is a ton of fun. It’s actually the first TMNT thing that I ever watched. It doesn’t quite live up to the highs of the 2003 series, but it’s also definitely better than most of the final two seasons.

There’s a lot of really fun references in the movie, and seeing the drastically different animation styles side by side is a lot of fun. Adding in the mirage turtles at the end is an excellent addition, and I like that it pokes fun at all three different versions of the characters.

Where things fall apart a bit is the lack of any returning voice actors from the classic series. I know this is because the 2003 series in non-union while the original voice actors are all union so it was a legal thing, but it does make the 80s Turtles feel a lot less authentic. The replacement voices are pretty good matches though (other than Leo’s). The writing for the classic Turtles is definitely kinda off. I’ve only seen the first two seasons of the 80s cartoon but I know that the Turtles were never quite as goofy as this movie characterizes them. The 2003 Turtles are also at time a bit overly cruel to the 80s Turtles.

Overall while Turtles Forever is really fun it doesn’t have much substance beyond being a fun celebration of Turtles History. I don’t think that’s a knock against the movie, but it does keep me from ranking it any higher.

6)

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Batman vs. TMNT is pretty similar to Turtles Forever in that it’s a ton of fun and full of references, but isn’t especially deep.

I absolutely love the character designs for both the Bat Family and the Turtles (these are actually probably my favorite designs for the Turtles besides Sophie Campbell’s IDW versions).

I kind of expected that I’d rank this one a lot higher, but while I have a ton of fun watching it I don’t really have much to say about it, and it doesn’t have the emotional depth that the movies higher up on the list have.

5)

TMNT

TMNT is a bit of a mixed bag. It has some things that are absolutely excellent and others that are incredibly average.

This is another movie that has the Leo/Raph rivalry front and center, but this movie handles it so well. Their rooftop fight in the rain is both beautifully animated and emotionally fulfilling. This isn’t a case of Raph just angsting for angst sake or Leo just being a boring stick in the mud, they both have interesting character flaws that contrast each other in really compelling ways.

While Raph and Leo are handled really well, Mikey and Donnie don’t really have anything to do here. And while I understand the parallels the movie is trying to make between the Turtles and Max Winters and his brothers, it doesn’t quite work because Winters and the generals are incredibly generic.

4)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

Secret of the Ooze is a very silly movie. The changes they made from the first movie because of parent complaints are very clear, so this movie is definitely missing the gritty atmosphere that the original movie had.

I really like that this movie puts Donatello in the lead role. Pretty much every other movie (TMNT 3 being the only exception) focuses on Raph or Leo. The emotional core of the movie is really well executed. The scene of Donatello lamenting the fact that they were created by accident and Splinter reassuring him that their origins don’t change anything about who they are is really good.

A lot of the silly humor lands for me, which could be because I watched this so much as a kid, but that keeps me from being too bothered at the tonal shift between this movie and the original.

3)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

This movie is sort of the platonic ideal of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Honestly all of the top 3 are really close in quality and I could see myself swapping around the order depending on the day.

Considering the budget on this movie the Turtle costumes are incredible, and the fight scene choreography is so good considering how heavy and cumbersome those costumes must be.

While Raph and Leo definitely get most of the focus in this one Don and Mikey definitely get a lot of fun stuff to do. I love how much focus on family this movie has, and it does an amazing job of contrasting Shredder and the Foot with Splinter and his sons. This is one of my favorite versions of the Shredder and the Foot, both in terms of design and characterization.

April and Casey are both great here as well. They have good chemistry together and they both feel like real people.

I really like how small scale everything is, it allows the focus to be on character and is a nice change of pace compared to most superhero movies made today.

2)

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

Rise is definitely my favorite TMNT series. It makes a lot of changes to the characters and lore, but to me the best part about this franchise is how much things are allowed to change and evolve.

I love this version of Leonardo (this is one of the only versions of TMNT where someone other than Mikey is my favorite Turtle) and his arc in this movie is excellent. He goes through so much trauma in this movie and it’s incredibly emotional, and he comes out the other side so much more mature. His relationship with Raphael is also super interesting and such a good subversion of their typical dynamic. Their fight toward the end of the movie is so good and emotional.

Mikey and Donnie also get a ton to do, and I love how much emphasis is put on Donatello’s soft shell and how it’s treated like a disability. This version of April is definitely my favorite and it’s great seeing her get to do some reporting and continue her trend of using construction equipment.

The Krang are absolutely terrifying in this movie and really feel like a threat. There’s a lot of genuine suspense where the Turtles feel like they’re in real danger.

Overall this is a great ending for my one of my favorite versions of the Turtles that allows them all to grow as characters and come together as a family.

1)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

I came out of Mutant Mayhem with the biggest smile on my face. It might be recency bias that I have it as number one, but I also have not been able to stop thinking about this movie since I saw it.

I really love these versions of the Turtles. It’s awesome seeing the Turtles actually be voiced by teenagers, and their dialogue always feels natural. They also really feel like brothers both in how they make fun of each other but also in how they show their love for each other.

I just said that Rise April is my favorite but this April is definitely a close second. I always like when April is portrayed as weird and kind of a freak and this version definitely feels like someone whose only friends are mutant turtles.

I like how much emphasis is put on the Turtles wanting to fit in. It feels like a much better version of what Out of the Shadows was trying to do. It also makes a ton of sense for these more authentically teenage versions of the Turtles. I like how Splinter and Superfly tie into that as well and how they act as foils to each other.

I really wasn’t expecting the Turtles to actually end up being accepted by humanity by the end and I actually really like how they did it. The way that regular people played a role in the final fight was super cool and gave me Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man vibes.

I’m really excited to see the series and sequel, seeing the Turtles go to highschool sounds really fun and seeing these versions of the characters who are so young and inexperienced at ninjitsu go up against the Shredder is gonna be really interesting.

[skinks]

hi!!! what are your favourite movies? like actually good ones but also any trashy comfort movies? is IT (2017) one of them?

Hello!! IT (2017) IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THEM oh man, thank you for this, I love talking about movies!!!! This is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked me. Apologies for how absolutely off the rails this got, I just... love movies so much lmao

I’ve said this before, but opening night of IT ch1 was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, I’m so glad I got to see it with a fully packed audience who were all laughing and screaming together the whole way through. I’m a huge fan of... everything ch1 was doing, the 80s nostalgia, the summer-coming-of-age themes, the solid ghost train funhouse JOY of the Pennywise performance and scares, the washed-out cinematography, the tiny background details to make everything that much more eerie, the kids’ ACTING?!

Like, a lot of the time I find child actors can be really awkward and stilted to watch, but I remember leaving the cinema really impressed by JDG and Sophia Lillis in particular. I liked that they were all allowed to be little shitheads with potty mouths, it felt like a callback to 80s movies like The Lost Boys or Stand By Me. The whole thing worked to make me really care about what happened to the kids (even if I do still have issues with how they handled Mike. I understand even ch1 had limitations with juggling so many characters, but still). I saw it another 2 times in the cinema and have rewatched it at least, I dunno, 7-10 more times since then?

Add to all of that the retroactive CANON R+E baby pining subplot? I just love it, as if that wasn’t obvious by now given my Whole Blog. It’s a really special movie to me!

Anyway!! Ok, the main handful of movies I rewatch all the fucking time are:

Back to the Future, The Lost Boys, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jaws, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Ocean’s 11, POTC 1, The Dark Knight, Inception, Die Hard, LOTR trilogy, Snatch, The Nice Guys, Logan Lucky, Mad Max Fury Road, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Tomb Raider (2018)...

Those are the easily consumable ones that I’ve seen so many times I don’t really have to concentrate or think about them, but I really love them and unfortunately often KEEP rewatching them instead of new stuff. It would take too long to go into why I love all these movies so much because I could write the same amount as I already did for ITCH1, and everyone already knows why those movies are good, so, lol.

I think I’m gonna have to subdivide and categorise this whole post because there are too many separate criteria for... goOD MOVIES, AUUHH 😩

Okay so first off, HORROR MOVIES? I’m especially in love with Re-Animator (1985) and its sequel Bride of Re-Animator, they’re such good examples of camp and batshit 80s practical effects, and also EXTREMELY funny. I’m actually just gonna post my list of my fave horror movies that I do actually keep on my phone at all times lmao. These are in no particular order:

Wholeheartedly recommend every one of these. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was watching Hereditary in the cinema, hoo boy. Mother! by Aronofsky is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had (and I actually saw it on the same day I saw IT ch1 for the first time!! That was a fun day)

Psycho (1960) and The Fly from 1986 should also be on there but I couldn’t fit them in the screenshot.

I’m a HUGE fan of a ton of martial arts movies too, like Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man, The Raid movies, John Wick 3 is my fave of the trilogy, Drive from 1997 with Mark Dacascos is incredible, SPL 2, Ong-Bak, Operation Condor, Project A, Iron Monkey, and Zatoichi (2003) are some favourites.

My favourite Tarantino is Reservoir Dogs, fave Coen brothers are Raising Arizona, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and O Brother Where Art Thou. Love some old-timey colour correction and weird offbeat dialogue. I also love Goodfellas!!! And Donnie Brasco! And The Firm, I’m so easy for any good crime/law/gangster/heist procedural like that, especially if they’re from the 80s or 90s in a super dated way.

Fave Disney movie is Tarzan, favourite Ghibli movies are Spirited Away and Lupin III. I remember watching Spirited Away during a thunderstorm one time and it being.... god! Transcendent! Favourite Pixar movie is The Incredibles (the first one. ALSO the documentary “The Pixar Story” is great and well worth a watch, it’s very comforting for some reason) and my favourite Dreamworks movies are HTTYD1 and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.

I tend to watch more anime movies than tv shows, so stuff like Akira, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Journey to Agartha, and my ultimate fave anime is Sword of the Stranger (2008). The climactic fight in that movie is fucking stunning and should be counted in “bests fights” lists right alongside anything live action

Also if we’re talking animated movies another hearty favourite is Rango, and a Belgian stop-motion (which at one time I considered my favourite movie ever) called Panique Au Village (2009) which is one of the funniest movies ever made imo.

As for TRASHY movies, I’m not sure if that’s the right word for how I feel about these ones but.. dumb/silly/slightly guilty pleasure movies? Ones that I feel need some kind of justification lmfao

Troy - something u must know about me is that I’m a giant slut for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, so if a movie smashes historical and mythological nonsense together with fun costumes and sword fights, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Even if they should have made Achilles and Patroclus gay. Other movies in this vein are King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Immortals (2011)

Gods of Egypt - I know all the reasons this movie is whitewashed bullshit. But it was already bullshit with giant Anubis mecha and giant snakes and bad acting and ridiculous CGI and frankly I had a blast at the cinema (my friend who I forced to come with me did not have a blast. Sorry H***)

Avatar - yes, the one with the big blue people. This movie gets a lot of flack nowadays but I really do enjoy it just for the spectacle. The full CGI world technology was so new at the time and I love to wallow in the visuals and daydream about riding a cool dragon around in the jungle

George of the Jungle - I’ll defend this movie to the death ok this movie shaped me as a person, it is fucking hilarious and Brendan Fraser is the himbo to end all himbos. It’s perfect. The song Dela is perfect. I still want to write a reddie AU about it. It’s one of the best movies ever made and I’m not being ironic

Set It Up - I KNOW this is a dumb Netflix original romcom but consider this; it was funny and the leads had great chemistry. I got butterflies. I once watched it and then literally immediately set it back to the start so I could watch it again

The Brady Bunch Movie - when people talk about great satires or parodies you will see them bring up the same movies over and over again, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap etc, but they never talk about The Brady Bunch Movie from 1995 for some reason, which they should. It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and every time i watch it somehow it gets funnier

Some more general favourites that I do still love but don’t rewatch as often, and don’t wanna go into more detail about are:

Moon (2009), Crna Mačka Beli Mačor, The Sixth Sense, Parasite, The Handmaiden, Tremors, Wet Hot American Summer, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, The Secret of My Success (I love kitschy 80s movies, is that obvious by now), The Green Mile, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, The Odd Couple, Breaking Away, Pan’s Labyrinth, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Artist, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Call Me By Your Name, Master and Commander, Pacific Rim, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legend (1985), Emma. (2020), Flash Gordon, Trolljegeren, Hross í Oss, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, WarGames, District 9, Ajeossi (2010), Tracks (2013), Sightseers, Mud (2012), Pitch Black, Four Lions, Shaun of the Dead, Starship Troopers, The Truman Show, Withnail & I....... Jesus Christ ok I need to stop

NOTABLE EXTREME FAVOURITES that I didn’t include in the regular rewatch list because they’re too heavy/not as well known/require more attention.:

Thin Red Line (1998), Badlands (1973) both dir. Terrence Malick

Malick’s brand of dreamy impressionistic filmmaking is something I find really appealing, both of these movies are gorgeous and unusual and poignant and, in the case of Thin Red Line at least, have a lot of things to say about a lot of rough subjects. I don’t totally understand all those things sometimes, but a theme with a lot of my favourite movies is that I’ll be more likely to love something long-term if it raises unanswered questions, or is surreal/esoteric etc. Plus the cinematography is incredible, and I wish there was a way to get Jim Caviezel’s narration from The Thin Red Line as an audiobook because it’s very poetic and soothing.

Let the Bullets Fly (2010) dir. Jiang Wen

This movie is WILD, it’s so much fun. It’s sprawling and intricate and epic and smart and really fucking funny, it! Has! Everything! A gang of very tolerant outlaws!! Jiang Wen’s beautiful broad chest!!! Chow Yun Fat absolutely DECIMATING the scenery, and the two of them outsmarting each other in order to gain control of a small Chinese town!!! Plus it’s long, but it packs so much nonsense and intrigue that it goes by really fast. Wow what a flick

A Field in England (2013) dir. Ben Wheatley

I know I included this in my horror list but aaaaahhh ahhhh Wheatley is one of my favourite directors (he also made Sightseers, and is directing the Tomb Raider sequel which makes me absolutely rabid.) This is a surreal black-and-white psychological horror black comedy set in the English Civil War about some deserters who may or may not meet the Devil in a field. People eat mushrooms. It’s bonkers. I love being blasted in the face with imagery that I don’t understand

Mandy (2018) dir. Panos Cosmatos

Speaking of being blasted in the face!!!!! This movie... I saw it in the cinema and I can’t even begin to explain the experience, but I’ll try. My favourite review site described it like this:

“...somewhere between a prog album cover come to life and a metal album cover come to life, and subscribes to both genre's artistic tendency towards maximalism: what it ends up being is basically naught else but two glorious hours of being pounded by bold colors...”

So, prog and metal are my two favourite genres of music. This movie opens with the quote “When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead.” and then a King Crimson song, it is SURREAL to the nth degree, it’s violent and bizarre and Nic Cage forges a giant silver axe to destroy demonic bikers and there is a CHAINSAW DUEL. A galaxy swirls above a quarry. Multiple animated horror nightmare sequences. At one point a man says “you exude a cosmic darkness” and releases a live tiger. At another point Cage says, in a digitally deepened voice, “The psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You’re drowning. I’m swimming.” and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years

Paper Moon (1973) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Really fantastic movie set in the Great Depression (and also in black & white) about a conman and a little kid who may or may not be his daughter, running cons across the Midwest. It’s beautifully shot, so sharp and sweet and the progression of their dynamic is really well done because they’re played by an IRL father and daughter. Tatum O’Neal was NINE YEARS OLD and she’s so amazing in this movie she’s actually the youngest person to win a competitive category Oscar. I keep trying to get people to watch this fbdjfjdbf it’s wonderful

Alpha (2018) dir. Albert Hughes

THIS MOVIE IS A VICTIM OF BAD MARKETING ok, the trailers made it look like some twee crappy sentimental Boy And His Dog Adventure, plus it had voiceovers in American-accented english? That’s a total disservice to one of the coolest things about this film; the fact that they got a linguist to construct an entirely original Neolithic language that all the characters speak for the entire runtime. And yes, it is eventually a Boy And His Wolf adventure, but it’s COOL and fairly brutal, and it has some really incredible cinematography. The landscapes are so strange and barren and alien, you really get the sense that this is an ancient world we no longer have any connection to. And it’s also about like, the birth of dog & human companionship sooo it’s perfect.

Free Solo (2018) dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

The Free Climbing Documentary. I loved climbing as a kid, I love outdoor sports, and I love movies that elicit a physical reaction in me, whether that’s horny, scared, real laughter, overwhelming shivers, or in the case of Free Solo - HORRIBLE SWEATING TENSION. Like, I knew about Alex Honnold beforehand because of this adventure film festival I go to every year and I followed him on IG so obviously I knew he lived, but the actual climb itself was torture. My hands sweat every time I see it!! It’s incredible, such a cool look into generally what the human body can do, and more specifically, why Honnold’s psychology and life means he’s so well suited to free soloing. It’s such an exercise in getting to know an individual and get invested in them, before they attempt something very potentially fatal.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

I can’t even talk about this. When I was around 13 I snuck downstairs to watch this on TV at 11pm in secret, and my life was forever changed. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t seen Brokeback at the age I did. I seriously can’t talk about this or I’ll write an even longer essay than this already is

God’s Own Country (2017) dir. Francis Lee

The antidote to Brokeback Mountain, I’m so glad I managed to see this one in the cinema too. It makes me cry every time, as someone who’s spent years working on a cold British farm with sheep it was very realistic, which is expected since Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire. I love that this movie isn’t really about being closeted, but about being so emotionally repressed and self-loathing that the main character finds it so hard to accept love. Or that he deserves to be loved. The cinnamontographies.... lordt... but also the intimacy and sex scenes are fucking searing wow who hasn’t seen this movie by now. 10 stars. 20 stars!!!

Tomboy (2011) dir. Céline Sciamma

I saw this years ago but I’ve never forgotten it, it cut so deep. It’s from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it’s about a gnc kid struggling with gender and misogyny and homophobia in a really raw, scrappy way, it reminded me very much of my own... childhood... ahh the central performance is amazing for such a young age. I haven’t seen Portrait yet but I feel like if you went nuts for that, you should definitely check this out, it’s lovely.

Donnie Darko (2001) dir. Richard Kelly

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS MOVIE I UNDERSTAND LESS AND LESS and that’s what I love so much about it. I love surreal movies, I love time-fuckery and stuff about altered perception etc etc and Donnie Darko scratches all my itches. I wish I could find a way to figure out an IT AU for it, because I know it would work! Somehow! Plus it’s got the subdued 80s nostalgia and I found it at an age when I was really starting to explore movies and music and the soundtrack FUCKS.

Offside (2006) dir. Jafar Panahi

I wish more people knew about this!!! It’s an Iranian film about a disparate group of women and girls who are football fans and want to watch Iran’s qualifying match for the World Cup, but women aren’t allowed into the stadium, so they all get thrown into the Stadium Jail together? They don’t know each other beforehand, but it’s about their changing relationships with each other and the guards and just, their defiance alongside hearing the match from the outside and WOW it’s so lively. Great dialogue and very funny, and such a different kind of story from anything you usually see from Hollywood.

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

This movie... I guess it’s the ideal. This is the platonic ideal of a film for me, it has fantasy, magical realism, glorious visuals, amazing score and costumes and production design and a really interesting, heartbreaking relationship at the core of it. I don’t know why so many of my favourite films feature incredibly raw performances by child actors but this is another one, Catinca Untaru barely knew any English and improvised so much because of that, and it’s fascinating to watch! Also the dynamic with Lee Pace is one of my favourites, where a kid forms a friendship with a guardian figure who isn’t their parent, but the guardian grows to really care for them by the end. It’s like Paper Moon in that sense. What is there to even say about this movie, it’s pure magic joy tempered and countered by genuine gutwrenching emotional conflict in the real world, it’s also ABOUT old moviemaking, in a way, and it’s stunning to look at!

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

I know I included this in my “most rewatched” section but it deserves its own thing. We all know why this movie is fucking incredible. I remember clutching my armrests in the cinema and feeling like my skeleton was being blasted back into the seat behind me and tbh that is the high I’m constantly chasing when I go to see any movie. What a fucking gift this film is

Théo et Hugo dans le Même Bateau (2016) dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

I only found this movie last year and it became an instant favourite. Initially I was just curious because I’d never seen a movie with unsimulated sex before, but it’s so much more than the 18 minute gay sex club orgy it opens with. No, not more than, AS WELL AS. The orgy is important because this movie is so candid and frank about sex and HIV treatment in the modern day, it was eye-opening. Another thing that really got me is that I’d never seen a real-time film before. It’s literally an hour and a half in the lives of these two men, their intense connection and conversation and conflict in the middle of the night in Paris, with some really nice night photography and just!!! Wow!!! AMAZING CHEMISTRY between the actors. This is such a gem if you’re comfortable with explicit sexual content.

Ok. This is already over 3k but film is obviously one of my ridiculous passions and I can and do talk about it for hours. I’ve been reading magazines about it for years, listening to podcasts and reading review blogs and recently, watching video essays on YouTube because the whole process is so interesting to me and I want to learn more!!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of valuing form over narrative. The idea that story can often come second to the deeper physical experience and emotional reaction that’s created by using ALL the elements of filmmaking and not just The Story, y’know? Whether that’s editing, shot composition, colour, the sound mix, the actors, how it should all be used to heighten the emotional state the script wants you to feel. And so, I think for a few years now this approach has been influencing the types of films I really, really love.

I think I love surreality and mind-bending magical realism in films specifically because the filmmakers have to use all those different tools to convey things that can be way too metaphysical for just... a script? I’m always chasing that physical response; if a movie can make me stop thinking “I wonder what it was like to set up that shot” and instead overwhelm that suspension of disbelief, if I can be terrified or woozy or crying for whatever reason, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I watch so many fuckin movies, and why I’ll always remember nights like seeing IT (2017) for giving me another favourite.

Thank you again for this question, I didn’t mean to go so overboard. Also there’s no way to do a readmore on tumblr mobile so apologies to anyone’s dashboard 😬

[padawanlost]

How do you personally reconcile TCW in areas where it contradicts the EU (which is to say most prominently the clone inhibitor chips and the Mandalorians basically wiping out Karen Traviss's stuff, less prominently stuff like Ventress). Do you prefer one over the other (clones doing it voluntarily vs. involuntarily, pacifist Mandos vs. warrior ones), or do you just kind of shrug and not really take it as a big deal, or some other approach? :O

Tbh, i didn’t have to reconcile TCW with the older canon because I only got deep into the EU after watching the show. Before TCW I had only read a few novels and comics and since I was never a big fan of Clone wars (2003) accepting the new canon wasn’t hard at all. sure, now that I do know more about the preexisting canon, there’re some things I wish they had done differently but nothing bothered me as I watched the show for the first time. Beyond the obvious ‘Anakin never had an apprentice!’ initial show, the only time I was upset because the show deviated from the canon was the Slave of the Republic arc. I love that storyline and I incredibly excited about watching it but, in the end, it did disappoint me. Other than that, I can’t think of anything else that me immediately go ‘I don’t want these’ :P

I still remember being shocked by Cody’s betrayal when I watched ROTS for the first time but looking back I realized I never saw the clones as ‘evil’. My interpretation was that they were following Orders, that they didn’t know who Palpatine really was or why he gave the order to kill the Jedi. idk, I’m conflicted. The idea it was voluntary gives the clones agency as people and that makes them more dynamic characters to explore. On the other hand, the chip plot makes it abundantly clear they were the victims as much as the Jedi and judging by the lengths some jedi fans go to dehumanize clones and their suffering I’d say it’s better that way. I mean, it makes much harder for people to go out of their way to pretend the clones slave status did not matter so I’m okay with that. I support anything that makes the lives of slavery apologists harder :P

As for Mandalore, i knew nothing about the planet or the people beyond the Fetts so there was nothing to reconcile there. My main problem with Mandalore in the show is the whitewashing, that bothers me way more than they being portrayed as pacifists.

[jyndor]

paul krugman and the art of doubling down on shitty takes

so on september 11th, famed nyt editorial writer, keynesian economist and fave of your racist liberal uncle, paul krugman, wrote one of the shittiest takes I have ever seen on twitter, which is SAYING SOMETHING.

krugman famously tweeted this:

and got a million virtual shoes thrown at him for being so ignorant, because anti-muslim hate crimes did actually escalate after 9/11, and the bush administration eagerly fanned the flames of islamophobia in order to make their illegal wars in afghanistan and iraq popular with the public. muslims, sikhs, indians, literally anyone vaguely brown, and lots of black ppl too, were terrorized by their neighbors, (former) friends, classmates, coworkers, etc. and anyone with a muslim friend knows this happened because they've told us about it. and these attacks were reported on. they were, I remember reading about them when I was a kid.

(paul krugman works for the new york fucking times, and while I think the nyt is warmongering centrist garbage, they do actually report on things that happen in the world. he writes editorials for them, surely he reads the damn paper once in a while).

so today, I log on to twitter and see he has decided not to apologize, but rather do the ol' double down, which always works out well.

here are some highlights:

okay so first thing's first, no apology (obviously) since this is a double down. but we got a chart, and liberals do love a good chart when they are being racist and ahistorical.

he admits that the chart is actually inaccurate because it excludes all the other victims of anti-muslim hate crimes who weren't actually muslim (read: the innocents). okay. so already he is losing credibility because he is using an inaccurate chart as the basis of his double down, and really, we love to see it.

after this there's some shit about how he didn't say there wasn't an outbreak of white americans attacking muslims and people mistaken for muslims, but rather that it could have been worse. lol well anything can be worse than it was, as 2020 has taught us. it’s a pedantic mess and I didn’t feel like that was the meat of the double down.

so first off, the iraq war was definitely started for many reasons, but islamophobia was part of it. the bush administration wanted to invade iraq and depose saddam hussein, and steal iraq’s oil for multinational oil companies lbr, and so they exploited americans’ fears about muslims by propagandizing about how it was important for us to attack them over there before they attacked us over here with their weapons of mass destruction, and of course they would attack us over here if given the chance. why? because they hate our way of life here, our freedom. those things were LITERALLY said by bush people and also by their stans at fox news and the wsj, and yes, in the editorial pages at the nyt.

so to someone like paul krugman, who knows lots of conservatives who don’t seem racist, or are educated and distinguished and just... like war? idk but to him, he sees people like them and says, well... they’re not like uneducated filthy poors in west virginia, not that kind of racist.

but what he doesn’t get, or he is being deliberately obtuse about, is that in order for the bush people to dehumanize muslims the way they did, they had to personally place less value on the lives of iraqis than on the value of that sweet crude oil. they were willing to go to war, sacrifice hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process (as well as thousands of american soldiers, but this isn’t about them) because they didn’t see them as anything but collateral damage. and that is fucking racist.

and while I have no interest in playing the “which racist is worse” game, when the west virginia uneducated racist endangers those around them, the politician rich harvard educated racist writes policy and lies us into illegal wars that endanger millions. both are bad, both are racist.

and by the way, him “sticking his neck out” to speak up against going to iraq was brave and necessary, especially because the nyt was pushing the invasion. but when you put it like that... you just sound like a tool. like it was a burden to call out the liars and imperialists. bitch, you’re paul krugman, a nobel laureate and renowned economist. I do not want to discount the IMMENSE pressure and blacklisting that opponents of the bush administration experienced, because showing any opposition to the wars at the time was risky. but idk the way he put that just irked me, especially since he didn’t even lose his job like many in the media did when they spoke up.

usually what liberals do when they fuck up publically is a fake ass apology and a few hail marys, and I assumed he would be on twitter begging for forgiveness on this one since his garbage take went so viral and pissed off so many people. and of course was wrong.

but then he does this:

yeah. your eyes are not deceiving you. that chart is measuring anti-black, anti-lgbtq and anti-”islamic” (lmao who says that bro just say anti-muslim or islamophobic) hate crimes. shut up leftist twitter, black people have it worse than muslims according to my inaccurate chart. so stop attacking me, a rich white man who doesn’t really care about anything other than my reputation.

there is a lot to unpack here, namely that paul krugman is using faux concern for black people as a way to deflect from his shitty ahistorical take about how much restraint white americans showed after 9/11 towards muslims. maybe krugman doesn’t know any black muslims, but they exist. also oppression olympics is stupid even when used by well meaning essentialists, let alone by milquetoast academics.

not to mention that he has already discounted his own shitty chart by saying it doesn’t show the full picture of what happened in these anti-muslim attacks. but even if we take this chart seriously, it actually does not really support his point. look at how many more hate crimes there were against muslims in 2001 than there were in 2000. there are significantly more black people than muslims in the united states. I am not good at math, and surely I am no nobel laureate, but it seems to me that hate crimes against black people increased a little, and hate crimes against muslims increased a lot. and this chart only takes into account three years, and only two of which are post-9/11. so... idk man maybe we should look at what happened in, say, 2003? 2004? how about all of the 2000s?

(source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-12/data-hate-crimes-against-muslims-increased-after-911)

oh, that is actually pretty consistently bad! yes, there was one spike in 2001/2002, but it isn’t like we went back down to pre-9/11 numbers afterwards. and I am not sure if this information includes non-muslims targeted for “looking muslim” but I would say it is unlikely, since the data seem pretty similar to krugman’s olympic shit.

I am not writing this because paul krugman is particularly shit-for-brains, or because I hate him more than like... idk any other moron on twitter. there were plenty of anti-muslim takes on twitter friday like there are every 9/11, and every day. but krugman is actually someone liberals respect. he is, after all, a nobel laureate and a keynesian economist, and fairly mild mannered. when people in the media like krugman write these ahistorical shitty takes they are, as chomsky wrote, MANUFACTURING CONSENT. it is a deliberate tactic, and it works. and if you want to learn more about this theory, check out this short clip by al jazeera narrated by amy goodman (of democracy now). the media manufactured american consent when they pushed the wars. they continue to do so when they try to rewrite george bush’s history by making trump seem uniquely terrible to muslims.

elites in the press and in government have been trying to whitewash and rehabilitate george bush’s reputation for YEARS, and they are succeeding. and why would they want to do that? well, there are a lot of reasons. one, a lot of people in washington are complicit in bush’s crimes. two, democrats think they need to appeal to moderate republicans (lol) in order to win elections, and I guess they think there are moderate republicans left (lol!), and that those moderate republicans like george bush (LOLLL). three, they want to make trump look uniquely terrible. if they do that, then no one but trump needs to be held to account for his government’s failings. but these are just my speculation.

do not let them rehabilitate george bush any further than they have. it is a fucking shame he will never be held to account for war crimes, but an extra slap in the face to all of his victims when we act like he didn’t do things he did. like stoke anti-muslim hate. he invaded muslim countries with a smile on his face, and that is pretty fucking hateful.

paul krugman doubled down and tried to use Black Lives Matter like a human fucking shield. seems a bit racist imo.

[aishicc]

Sailor Moon Whitewashed? WTF Twitter?

Has Twitter ever seen an Anime in their lives? Seriously Anime is not as a rule atomically accurate, racially accurate, or any of that nonsense. Is is crazy shit happening to interesting people, henti aside. Once again American’s on Twitter are trying to tell Japan how to think,feel, be Asian, all that shit one country should not be doing to another. I love some of the translated responses coming out of the Sailor Moon Redraw Challenge.

Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon or Pretty Solider Sailor Moon shorten to Sailor Moon for the rest of this, was created, as in written and illstrated, by Naoko Takeuchi who in case the name didn’t clue you in is Japanse. The Manga came out on December 28, 1991.The title character being a MOON princess from the MOON the Senshi/Scouts being princess from the other planets besides Earth.

After almost all life in our solar system was wiped out she and her Shenshi/Scouts were reborn on Earth a long time later. As you can see quite a few inhuman hair colors here as is common in Anime/Manga. Now once everyone is alive and activated they all look the same as they did when they died pretty much. Usagi, Moon, and Haraku, Uranus, can have either White or Blonde hair and it’s fine.

The first Anime came out March 7, 1992. A Live Action Sailor Moon came out in 2003-2004. Here are what the Senshi/Scouts looked like in the Live Action adaption made in Japan by Japanese people.

Sailor Moon Crystal, a second Anime with a more Manga art style came out in 2014. The Inner Senshi, as the 5 main are collectively called kept true to their Manga/Anime colorings.

There is also a Live Action stage show where they look like this.

So since the early 90s Japanese fans have loved Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon in every depiction is BLONDE or WHITE haired. In the Live Action TV show the Inners all have normal human coloring when not transformed. 

However in the Live Action Stage Show Usagi is still BLONDE.

As is Haraku.

So at best they, and other Anime characters, can be interpreted as Japanese with Western or Inhuman coloring, blue, teal, green, and pink hair anyone? However as those translated quotes suggest Anime characters are not meant to look Japanese by default and demanding they be drawn that way is at best ignorant of Anime’s and Japan’s history and culture and worst the typical American’s know best racist shit Twitter was being called out on. This series is decades old and anyone of any color or gender can wear a fuku and defend the Earth from evil aliens. Talking cats not included.  

So seriously stop trying to police everything and tell others how to think and act. Humans have been bonding in this Fandom for longer then Twitter has been a thing and we and Anime are not going anywhere anytime soon.

[greennct]

chenle in your camera lens

fansite!au, i've had this idea for ages, i thought it was super cute!! let me know what u think, i tried to make it as fluff-y as possible bc chenle is my baby! it’s also bullet pointed bc i wanted to see how it would feel to write in that style & honestly i was literally just trying to write like @warmau​ bc she’s super talented & i love her im so sorry i had to drag u into this 💞💖💘

edit!! i just posted a part 2 to this fic, which you can find here!

(3.2k words yo what, no triggers apart from chenle making cute meme faces which genuinely actives my soft sad hours)

song rec: notice me by spinn

not to brag, but like,,,, you were pretty famous as far as fansites go

part of it was because you had just been around for so long, taking photos of zhong chenle pretty much since the first day of his debut

and part of it was how talented you were at capturing the boy so authentically

but the main reason nctzens knew/loved/worshipped you, was because of how effortless and pure your interactions were with him

before you had even heard the word kpop, your passion had always been photography

however since you were still in high school, you were broke and unable to really pursue your dream properly

like seriously, apart from one half-broken digital camera you were pretty sure hadn’t been upgraded since 2003, the photography department at your school was pretty much nonexistent. you found yourself getting more and more upset about the fact you weren’t allowed to do what you loved every day

so it really was only a matter of time before you decided to take matters into your own hands

immediately after having spent a ridiculous amount of money on a mediocre, but at least functioning camera, you decided to take it out the next weekend you could, to try and capture some action in the streets of seoul

you were expecting cute photos of couples, candids of children playing, maybe even some views of the city (if you could be bothered to find a rooftop), or anything else that struck your fancy

what you were not expecting, was a world-famous boyband filming some kind of variety show on your local high street

what you certainly did not expect at all, was to suddenly find yourself staring at the cutest boy you had ever seen in your life

there were seven or eight people with cameras already at the scene, furiously clicking away. you sidled up to the closet person you could find, and half-whispered to her, scared of disturbing the lighting speed of her shutter closing, to ask if she knew what the boy with the ash brown hair was called

you were told his name was chenle, & without having to think, you lifted the viewfinder to your eye, and snapped your first photo of him. you still have it today, it’s the first thing that pops up when someone searches your blog, a candid of him laughing at something jisung had said.

every time you look at it, you get this little fuzzy feeling in your stomach, reminded of the very first day that he had caught your eye, by doing something as simple and normal as laughing at a joke

since then, there was no looking back. you steadily made a name for yourself as a chenle fansite, with your amazing photography skills

and sure, your action shots of him dancing were ethereal, and your lack of whitewashing gained you popularity from a lot of fans, but your specialty, the reason everyone flocked to your blog directly after every awards show, was because of your candids of chenle

somehow, you had a knack for knowing exactly when to capture a giggle, pout or shocked reaction to one of the dreamies antics, managing to encapsulate chenille’s bubbly personality within a single frame

people who had met nct dream started referring your photos to international fans, claiming that your photos were the closest thing one could get to actually seeing what chenle was like irl

but even that wasn't the full reason that you became to famous and loved by nctzens

seriously, when the regular/irregular album came out, your inbox was fukk of messages from nctzens begging you to break into sm and reshoot the whole photobook

however, even though you loved taking photos of chenle, the problem was that you were basically his age

you were still in high school, living with your parents, and essentially under their control

having to originally been monitored by your mother every time you went to any kind of nct dream event, you quickly made friends with the other fansites, so that you wouldn’t have to  chaperoned, but instead was supervised by people you trusted, who were responsible adults

however, this didn't stop the older photographers from always teasing you, when you had to leave an awards show at 10pm with the rest of the underage members, were slightly late to an interview, because you had to rush from school, or even from time to time when you whipped out your laptop at a schedule, balancing it precariously on your raised knee whilst waiting for chenle, needing to submit an assignment to your teacher within the half hour

it quickly became a joke within the nctzens, the tiny, underage chenle fansite, who everyone loved to baby, with more talent than half of the adult photographers

what's more, you work didn't go under appreciated by the dreamies themselves

((((not to brag or anything,,,, but like,, you had the highest percentage of photos with chenle directly smiling at your lens than pretty much any other fansite))))

he knew that you were the same age as him, and mentioned it from the first fansite you went to. he told you to drop any formalities since you were “friends now,” and always teased you whenever he saw you

one of the ways that chenle would do this, was by always making a silly face before posing properly, sticking out his tongue, crossing his eyes, or doing some other dumb facial expression

he did it to tease you, trying to ruin your photos, as he had always asked why you couldn’t eve seem to take a bad photo of him

of course you had replied that it wasn't your skills that made the photos so pretty, it was him (with an extremely red face lmaoo), & so chenle tried to take that as a challenge

whenever he was sure no one else was looking, he would pull the most horrible faces for you to take photos of, trying to sabotage your photography

and of course you whined to yourself that he still managed to look incredibly endearing even with cross-eyes and some drool dripping off his chin

and you were sure other nctzens would die as much as you did with how sweet he looked in the photos - after all, the candid shots were completely on-brand for you

but somehow you could never bring yourself to upload the photos online, deciding there was something that would make your heart hurt a little bit at allowing other people to see those photos

even though you knew better,,,,, you wanted to pretend his expressions were just for you

of course you had a crush on chenle, it was hard to follow around such an effervescent & cheeky boy for so long without developing at least some kind of feelings for him

& though you felt your heart flip a little every time he complimented your photos, or told you that you looked nice that day,,,

you also weren't delusional. you knew that you didn't have a chance, you were literally just a fansite, & it was chenle’s job to be nice to you

because you were so conscious of coming off as creepy with your pretty obvious crush, you always made sure to completely respect his boundaries

you prided yourself on turning off your flash if you thought the dreamies looked tired, and when you started making enough money from your photos to follow them to different countries, you made sure to take different flights and stay at other hotels, if their details ever got leaked, not wanting to feel like you were stalking them

instead of ever acting on your emotions, you stayed content with the stupid faces he made you, convincing yourself they were just for you, and tried to shove your feelings deep, deep down

& for a while,,,, it worked. you & chenle stayed,, not friends but,, something closer than just a casual fan

he knew your name, he would always wave in your direction when he recognised you, and you would always hide your furious blush behind the camera lens when he sent you the occasional wink or finger heart

& that was enough for you,, until unfortunately, life started getting in the way

college was drawing closer and closer, & you had to start scrambling to put together a portfolio of your photography to apply to schools with

you realised you probably needed some more extracurriculars, so signed up for a copious amount of clubs, started volunteering for extra credit, actually studying for tests, and even hanging out a lot more with your friends, having realised with a shock, that you had limited time left to share with them before you all went to different schools

with all that going on, you barely had time to scroll through your social media accounts when you finally got to bed,

you spent the half an hour before your eyes drooped so low you were forced to turn your phone off scouring furiously through the photos other fansites had taken of chenle, scouring for any photos of the weird faces he made, if he had started doing them for someone else now that you had been away for a while

searching for a sign they weren’t just for you, and you had been delusional for hoping against hope this whole time

funnily enough, you actually ended up receiving the exact opposite of what you feared

upon opening your twitter one night, you discovered you had a lot more mentions than usual, all tagging you in one video

clicking on it, your stomach dropped slightly. it was taken at an award ceremony, previously your favourite time of the year, because it meant you got to see chenle almost every day. now you just felt a pang in your stomach - you couldn’t see chenle at all at the moment

it was a video of him turning to converse during an ad break with a jaemin fansite, one who had taken care of you a lot when you had first started to take photos

he mouthed the name of your fansite, raising his hands in a quizzical manner. you almost dropped your phone. upon calming yourself, and reasoning that of course he knew the name of your fansite, he spoke about it with you all the time, you resumed the video

when she didn’t understand what chenle was trying to communicate to her, he said you name (your felt your heart do a triple flip where is was beating sporadically in your throat), and asked where you had went

she replied “college applications!” and he pouted, suddenly blinded by flash as the fansites around him tried to capture the moment

“tell her to come back soon!” he said, and turned back around

you rewatched the video at least 20 more times to prove to yourself that it wasn’t fake

this sudden recognition and blatant affection that you were shown, was pretty much unheard of, and not only did you know that, but the whole of twitter knew it too

before you could even like the video, your whole account was filled with  messages from delusional stans either convinced you were dating and sending well-wishes, or threats to stay away from chenle indefinitely from slightly less sympathetic fans.

to be honest, you didn't know which reaction was worse

after all, though it was certainly blush-inducing, it wasn't anywhere close to a love confession, wasn't everyone overreacting slightly?

you sighed, turning off your phone. right now was an important time of your life. though there was still a significant amount of people telling other to back off, and simply being happy you had received such high praise from chenle, the last thing that you needed was your phone pinging all day with messages from everyone else, demanding some sort of explanation about the video from you, when you knew the exact same amount of information that they did.

the next day, you texted the jaemin fansite to tell her you'd be staying off of social media for a while. you deleted all your apps. you had decided to ride out this ‘scandal’ until you were at least done with your application, and you had to admit, not having the pressure of everyone scrutinising your every move was quite liberating

though the rest of the year was actually a lot of fun, and you ended up spending a lot more time pursuing things you didn't have time to previously, and spending time with friends,,,,

there was always that small ache you felt whoever your friend texted you saying chenle had asked about you again, or seeing a billboard of his face in the city, hearing an nct song playing in a café, reminding you of the lifestyle that had consumed you just months previously,,, that you missed more than anything,,,,,,, the boy you couldn’t stop thinking about,,

you tried to push the feeling down, reasoning that there was no way chenle was as bothered as you were about the separation, & carried on with your life, no matter how awful you felt at times

of course, the school year did have to end at some point, though. after what felt like years, your college decisions came back!!! you were so glad that your hard work had paid off!!!! (of course you got in to your dream school what kind of au would this be if u didn’t lol)

your friends wanted to take you out to celebrate, but you declined politely, knowing exactly where you were going

nct dream had just had a comeback, and your jaemin fansite friend had won you an extra ticket to their fansign “just in case,” since she know you were about to finish your schoolwork

you missed chenle too much to stay away from him much longer, no matter how stupid you knew your feelings were

let me tell you,,,,, the moment you walked into the hall, the tension in the fansign literally hit the roof

you practically ran into your seat, ducking behind your camera lens, trying to capture chenle without actually having to make eye contact with him

everyone was whispering about your sudden return after months of silence on social media,, you caught some people trying to take photos of you sneakily

the dreamies noticed your presence too, of course

haechan caught sight of you first, and nudged chenle, who was standing next to him, pointing him in your direction

the whole room literally squealed at the way chenles entire face lit up at the familiar sight of your camera

& you,,, well you were just glad your face was covered because hOly hECk you were blushing,,, you tried to keep your face hidden, until you had to go up to get him to sign your album

when you left your seat, the whole room collectively held their breath, like im not even kidding, there had been so much speculation over whether or not you had left the fandom over the controversy, so your sudden unexpected return to the fansign was a huge

now of course chenle was the last in the line, so you had to deal with the rest of the dreamies teasing beforehand, while they signed your album. though you were friendly with them, and they knew your name of course,

however whoever you had talked it had always been sweet and innocent,, they had never made you so,,,,,, uncomfortable before

even jeno, the shyest of the lot gave you a knowing smirk when he said “welcome back!”

jisung told you he couldn’t draw a heart, otherwise chenle might get jealous, and mark just gave you a cryptic look.

“chenle’s been pretty worried about you.... don't break his heart.”

you kind of just laughed awkwardly, and moved down the queue to jaemin. there was no way that he was being serious. nct dream were acting weird around you

you tried to quell the nerves in your stomach when you finally faced chenle

“hi!” you managed

“i missed you!!!! don’t ever leave me for so long again!” chenle pouted, skipping the formalities of small talk. you tried not to giggle like a twelve-year-old

“i'm sorry, chenle, i had college-”

“applications!” he finished “how did they go? have you heard? did you get in? you wanted to go to the arts one in daegu, right?”

you blinked, surprised he remembered such a small detail about your life. you could barely remember telling him about it. “um, ye-yeah! i did!”

“woooaaah!” he cheered loudly, “i always knew you were smart!!” taking your hand in his, he waved them together in the air. you could hear gasps and clicks behind you

“this is gonna be all over twitter tomorrow, you know, chenle.” you blushed, gently trying to extract your hand in order to make sure he was comfortable

chenle simply tightened his grip on your intertwined fingers, pulling them closer to his face, as he leaned his head against them. “they seem to like us together, don't they?” he agreed. you let out a little gasp in spite of yourself, cheeks extremely flushed.

“i don't mind...” he continued, “unless you do?”

you shook your head slightly, not trusting yourself to speak. chenle had always been flirty with you, the same way he was flirty with all the other fans he met, but this behaviour was a huge step up from what you had experienced beforehand. your brain started working overtime, putting pieces together at 100 miles an hour

the weird faces, the asking about you, the trivial facts he remembered,, was is possible,,, chenle also-

“miss? your time is up” a manager started trying to hurry you along, as there were already two or three people queuing behind you. “wait!” chenle said, finishing his signature in your album, scribbling furiously

he then looked up at you, offering the pinky finger of his free hand up with a solemn expression

“promise you won't run away again?”

you joined your fingers with his, unable to do anything but nod at his forward behaviour

“you gotta promise!!”

“i promise!” you half whispered

chenle pressed a small, chaste kiss on your fingers

it was so fast that it could've been mistaken for him simply waving your hands together

however you and chenle, with matching blushing faces knew exactly what the gesture had meant

the rest of the afternoon, you tried to ignore how the butterflies in your stomach had suddenly morphed into huge stallions, kicking up all of your emotions all over the place

it certainly didn’t help that he kept looking over at you. winks, hearts, kisses, pouts were all thrown your way

and of course, from time to time, he would go to your side of the auditorium, lean close into your huge camera lens, and make a horribly ugly face

every time he did, you found your heart swelling just a little more, because you knew, you knew

that those faces had always been for you

& when you got home, and read the message chenle had left in your album, a small paragraph simply stating he thought you were “seriously, like ridiculously beautiful,” you knew that he hadn’t written a series of digits underneath his signature for anyone else

you finally understood, that everything had always been just for you

[wizardysseus]

if you're still doing the top five thing, top five superhero adaptations

ASK ME MY TOP 5/TOP 10 ANYTHING

adaptations to film/tv, i assume? like i can’t just list ultimate daredevil and elektra as my fave au and call it good?

captain america: the winter soldier

still in my top movies, full stop. when it came out i ran around campus trying to find my friends and begged them to go with me. i sat next to a friend who’s a very casual superhero fan herself (stays out of fandoms) and made her laugh because whenever she looked over i was, like, clawing at my own face. i cried pretty solidly on her shoulder through the credits?? i believe @a-corndog-named-schibbs was there, too, and should be able to attest. later i read the source material, which got me into other cap and winter soldier comics, which made me into the bitter bucky stan you know and love.

it’s just… a dang good film. it’s suspenseful and funny and heartfelt and sad and hopeful, and every time i watch it, i leave feeling a little more the way “trouble man” sounds.

batman: the animated series

this is just my opinion which is correct, but kevin conroy is the best batman. The Best. if such classic and unbeatable performances as this weren’t enough, there’s also mark hamill’s iconic joker, og harley, the al ghuls, and the rest of the gotham rogues. btas has absolutely hysterical episodes like “almost got ‘im” (the rogues wonder who invited joker to their weekly poker game), “harley’s holiday” (i personally award her a gold star that says You Tried A Little Bit), and “the man who killed batman” (kazoo eulogy. that is all anyone needs to know.) — and then it brings the emotion of two-face’s origin, mr. freeze’s tragic love story, and bruce being trapped in a dream where his parents are alive. i love the theme song. i love the old school gotham vibe. i love my weird loser family of villains who cannot function without an aesthetic. i love everyone in this bar

x-men: days of future past

another of my top movies, not just for the sheer delight i have in anything to do with time travel. i’ve watched it again, uh, a lot, and i will say its flaws bother me more now than they did the first time. but charles’ and raven’s character arcs still hold up, and that’s the core of why the film matters to me. charles struggling to confront his intensely painful empathy (well, telepathy, but in a narrative sense, empathy). logan telling him to form the x-men — even if it does all go to hell someday, still bring the family together. raven paving her own path, making mistakes, but wanting to do the right thing; eventually choosing mercy over vengeance, and it saves her people in the present and the future. that was powerful for me.

i also love that when they send logan back they’re like “ideally charles would go, but you’re the only one who can make the trip, so have fun.” and then everyone in the past goes “wow, you were the exact wrong person for this job” and logan nods good-naturedly like “thanks, i’m aware”

the dark knight rises if i’m being real

i have my bones to pick with nolan, i do (cough whitewashing the al ghuls cough)! but !!! BUT !!! 

tdkr was the movie that finally hooked me on batman. i enjoyed the other two films — the heavy-handed philosophical drama of nolan’s whole trilogy really works for me, which made it a good intro. but tdkr specifically did something beyond that. nolan!batman gets a lot of shit for being too dark, too gritty, too scary. but tdkr is about the reversal of those things — truth and its consequences, hope, sacrifice, and hard-won rest. it’s practically eucatastrophe. and i’m just glad there’s a universe where bruce retired with selina and is at peace. i only want the best for him, you know?

besides, the track “why do we fall?” alone could get it on the list. thanks hans

wonder woman (2017)

there was a time in my life before i saw this movie 3 times in 6 days, but thank god, better times have come. 

diana means a lot to me, as a character. she’s one of the first i called “my wife” and meant it (i think the others were claire temple and avatar korra? so that should tell you something about me). i didn’t need the movie to be flawless, but i needed something genuine to who she is. like her, the film is genuine, tender, badass, and philosophical. maybe humanity doesn’t deserve all of that from her, but she loves them us anyway, because her conviction lies with love itself. that message is close to my heart, and despite a misstep with her backstory, it’s very diana.

i also happened to see the film (the first time) with the same Extremely Casual Fan friend i took to catws, and once again cried on her through the credits. she is good to me.

honorable mentions

batman returns

logan

before s2 came out i would have said netflix daredevil, and i do still love the first season, but i’m also Betrayed™, so y’know. that said:

daredevil 2003 (it’s the worst movie ever, i’ve seen it twice this year)

[jasonmcgathey]

Riots Of Passage

  Well, like everything else, this book has taken much longer than expected. But Riots Of Passage is finally complete, and now available for Kindle. A paperback version will soon follow at all of your favorite retailers. So though it always feels tremendously awkward, I’m forcing myself to insert a little self-promotion here – although considering it documents a year of living on OSU campus, this book counts as legitimate Columbus history, and so might a little bit about its creation, too.

I finally got around to getting this in shape for publication in December 2017. The first draft was finished clear back in the fall of 1998 and the second in the summer of 2003. More than fourteen years would pass, then, before I even looked at this stuff again. Most of the delay was due to working on other projects, but any time I would think about this book, I was having a tough time mentally sorting out the length and the structure.

For eons I’ve been telling everyone that the campus years would be a trilogy (the first installment, One Hundred Virgins, was published in 2006). But I could never quite figure out a division point that felt right between two and three, so Riots Of Passage ended up being both. The most natural seeming break occurs after coming home from the New Year’s party, and that was always the plan, except I didn’t like where this meant starting off the last book. It would kind of leave the middle book as one long preamble, as just about all of the payoffs seem to happen in the last half of this finished project.

The major cuts all came with this third draft I began in 2017. That second draft from 2003 clocked in at over 900 full size (8 1/2 x 11″, that is) pages, something like 940, whereas the third one came in at exactly 500. So I wound up cutting out or condensing nearly half of the material. But even throughout this process, which took a year and a half almost to the day, I was still kind of stalling on the decision whether to split this into two books or not, telling myself I would know the answer and could make that call when the draft was complete.

But the truth is, you’re never entirely certain you made the right call on anything. In this instance, it felt too short for a pair of books yet too long for just one. It helps considerably with the editing process, though, that I would say – somewhat unexpectedly – that I really don’t care about any of the personal dramas now, stuff which seemed so important at the time. This is one advantage of taking so long to put something together, I suppose. In some instances entire people got the axe, along with subplots which dragged on for a month. The only consideration was whether or not it seemed essential to this central story, and if not, it got the heave ho.

Some of the decisions were pure pacing ones. In the beginning and the end especially, I was going for more of a breezy clip, therefore condensing was unavoidable. This meant that often highly interesting occasions were reduced to single sentences, or maybe even deleted altogether. In two instances I can think of, complete paragraphs which were among my top five favorites, I had to conclude didn’t fit, however painfully, and got rid of them. It sucks, but you can always console yourself with the knowledge that they might find use in other projects down the road.

These decisions, though, make you realize that you can’t really term anything the “definitive” history of an era or a subject. This is just one minuscule slice of history from that time and place. For a while, and this was true of the first book as well, this whole notion of cutting out people completely was bothering me. It feels like you’re trying to alter history based on personal preferences. Except one day I had an epiphany of sorts – I happened to be reading a Civil War book at the time, though it could have been anything – that, you know, they couldn’t possibly mention every single soldier who fought in a war, in the course of the narrative. Attempting to shoehorn in every name even if you have nothing interesting to say would make it clunky and unreadable. This doesn’t make it untrue, or mean that you are attempting to alter history.

One great example of this would occur near the end of this third draft, when I realized that an extremely entertaining cook we worked with at Damon’s hadn’t been mentioned at all. His name just hadn’t come up in any of my writings. Some of his specific episodes I had in my head the whole time, and kept thinking they were going to crop up at some point – after this many years, it’s hard to remember what you included and what you left out of a previous draft – but they never did. Instead of backtracking, though, and attempting to figure out where they belonged, I took this as a sign that these detours probably weren’t needed. And nothing personal against the guy, they just weren’t essential to these particular chapters.

Other times the opposite policy applies, where you figure, you know, I’ve got fifteen scenes at Woody’s in here, or whatever, and these are the ones which felt most crucial. There’s no reason to mention every trip you made to the bar for a solid year. In this sense, some of the lengthier scenes were paradoxically easier to cut out entirely, or categories where I was able to make some kind of broad editorial decision – so for the most part, major concerts, sporting events, and movies attended were easily gotten rid of. Writing sex scenes, too, has always been awkward, and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanted to read about these icky details either.

So it is that, paradoxically, smaller decisions somehow become the most agonizing. These open up philosophical angles that are often unexpected and fascinating. Though this admission might seem monstrous, I can honestly say that while some of the things I did in these pages should bother me, none of it does. Instead what proves cringe inducing is to look back upon what music you were listening to, the dumb stuff you were talking about, and your inane sense of humor at the time.

Somehow we have all grown accustomed to the notion that our clothing and hair choices of the past were usually questionable, and this we are okay with, dismissing them with wry, morbid humor as a fitting commentary on those hilarious times. Other details prove trickier to navigate, however, and among these I would count a) things you no longer find funny, as well as b) things you no longer believe, and c) things you said, but turned out to not be true.

To leave out these sorts of things, you are then wrestling with the notion that you’re trying to make yourself and your friends seem smoother than you actually were at the time. But I think our various personalities are well established and accurate. Omitting some of the goofier, poorly aged wisecracks or whatever isn’t distorting anything. Also, to include them produces the thought, why would I intentionally write a bad book? Sometimes, particularly with point B up above, you can maybe weave around this by explaining, “here’s what I thought at the time, but I now believe this.” Unless this insight actually occurred during the period in question, though, this is also technically assigning yourself a wisdom you didn’t have.

Thornier still are questions of how you’re going to handle behavior and/or remarks which let’s just say haven’t aged so well, yet they are important if you want to be truthful about these times. You can’t just delete them and pretend they never happened…even though including such makes it seem as though you’re endorsing them. I think you just have to try and keep yourself in the mindset of that time frame as much as possible. It always bugs me when you’re watching something that’s supposedly set in an earlier era, but they’re using slang and catchphrases which didn’t exist back then. I tried to avoid that as much as possible, true, but also more importantly to avoid putting a current spin on these old situations. It’s probably not entirely possible, but I really don’t want to ascribe what I (or anyone else) thinks about these episodes now, only what we actually thought about them back then.

Even so, of course, you end up agonizing over specific words. Some of these sentences remain intact as-is from the late 90s, but there are others, I can tell you, I was still tinkering around with yesterday. Some were bugging me as I went to sleep last night. But at some point you have to tell yourself, good enough. Let it go.

But what really has you in knots most of all, is how you say anything negative whatsoever about your friends. You’re trying to write your interpretation of events, which everyone might not agree with. You don’t want to be unnecessarily mean, but at the same time, if you’re going to excise every negative, then it’s whitewashed and toothless and no longer accurate. It’s easy to fall down additional rabbit holes from there and begin thinking, hey, maybe I’ll just leave in unflattering comments if the person in question was a jerk to me, and on the flipside, delete everything less positive if they were cool. Of course, once you start rationalizing like this, you are doomed. Maybe it’s a tie breaker, if someone is in your good graces, determining how hard you try to paint them favorably, but you cannot just start wiping out every unkind comment about your friends.

Basically I think you just have to ask yourself, is this fair? And is this a necessary reference, or can I cut it out? Have I said this as tactfully as I can manage? It does help that, by this point, hopefully everyone understands this stuff falls in the good natured ribbing department, anyway – as mentioned earlier, I don’t actually “care” about this material on a personal level after this many years, none of it. The only question is if it’s important to this book, this little slice of history I’m covering.

In many of these cases, it’s often an accidental blessing to have not captured a ton of concrete information. Sometimes I am being deliberately vague for dramatic purposes within the structure of the book, other times as some kind of strategic decision I’ve stumbled onto in the real world. But far more common are the instances where I just don’t have the details at this point. You can’t exactly Wikipedia who was at some campus keg party, or what was said at the Out-R-Inn on such and such night from 1998. Work schedules are for the most part toast or would never be made available to you, especially if canned from a place, and you can’t trust memory all that well after this many years.

One thing you may notice is that I do have slightly greater detail as the book progresses. This actually did occur to me at the time, and was an unintended benefit of buying a computer about halfway through this epoch. The whole mindset for acquiring one was that it would help me type up my first novel, yet it would soon turn out that detail and speed in future projects like this were of far greater importance. I was doing an okay job handwriting various facts in my journal, what we did and where we went on such and such day. It helped, too, that I had a job – waiting tables – where standing around scribbling things into a tiny notepad was totally normal. I just often wasn’t writing what they might have expected. But the level of detail is missing beyond this, until able to type it up and capture it quickly with a decent word processing program. And the biggie here is actual quotes, real life soundbites from people, which are somewhat lacking early on.

So if I don’t really care about any of these piddly dramas at this point, beyond their structural purpose in my history, what I do find fascinating now is specific details about anything whatsoever from the distant past. Things said, yes, but also prices, menu items, songs on a band’s set list. Which business existed at a certain address. It does make me lament my focus and choices at times, that I hadn’t concentrated more in certain areas and less in others, but there’s really nothing you can do about that.

Ultimately, this is what a book like this ends up being about: the city itself. Although by the nature of this project forced to insert myself into the middle (fun fact: I did try writing this campus period as a novel with invented character names at one point, many years ago. It didn’t work), it helps considerably to recognize that I am not the story. These experiences on the personal level are for the most part anonymous and commonplace. Though some of this weird behavior I guess is sort of amusing in sports, for the most part, I’m just melting into the background – and that’s exactly as it should be. So while it’s easy for all of us to trick ourselves into thinking, which we probably all have at times, “wow, I’m kinda like the Forrest Gump of this scene or something, all this wild stuff seems to happen when I’m around!” that’s not really not how it is at all. It’s more accurate to realize, well, I was present for 100% of the stuff I was present for. That’s why it seems amazing. But there were a million equally crazy things happening all over the place, which I missed. And this swirl of activity, this flood of information and colliding personalities, mixed in with the era and the locale itself, this is really what all such stories are about.

In the end, all you can really control is making a historical record as accurate as possible. Try to make it match what that period felt like as best as you are able to, and move on. The first time around, with One Hundred Virgins, this manifested itself in me thinking I wanted to get the timing right on a typical day. As I was working on that project, it’s true that there were almost no hard decisions whatsoever, as the pacing and flow and questions about which scenes to include almost seemed to be snapping themselves into place, in a way that hasn’t happened before or sense with anything I’ve written. But the one area I made a determined effort to focus upon then was to not include only the fireworks, to deliberately insert some boring stretches because this was more realistic. I do regret some of the florid language used in that book – to read some passages now, even I have no clue what I was trying to say there – but otherwise think it accurately captured, you know, that we weren’t partying nonstop, that there were nights I’d sit at the kitchen table alone for hours with the radio and a crossword puzzle.

The period covered in this second volume, however, is completely different. There is much less information about what else is going on around the city, because our lives have gotten more action packed, and I’m also not exactly sitting around reading article after article about Angsto The Clown or whatever, as I had been in our earlier days. Here I think the length of the book is actually more beneficial and accurate, and if I’ve decided to focus less this time around on making every sentence as artfully complex as possible, I do believe that some situational confusion serves it well, because this is how it was to live it. Therefore if you think it’s a bit brain scrambling that there are five or six Carries in this book and most of them have dark hair but no last name, are often explained away as a coworker, well, trust me, this neatly matches our experience. If sometimes you can’t quite decipher what happened or what’s really going on, yeah…welcome to the club.

Even so, I’ve never been nearly this nervous about anything else I’ve written. There are conversations I’ve successfully avoided having for over twenty years now and am dreading to some degree, once a couple of these episodes are revealed. The reception itself otherwise seems almost not nearly as important – as any of you other writers out there know, though you feel compelled to crank this stuff out for some reason, there are always conflicting emotions about it anyway. Am I hoping that nobody reads it? Of course not. Am I hoping that people do read it? I think so…yet it’s still kind of a terrifying prospect to actually sit around and ponder. I mostly try to block out that thought, too.

That last “S” fell off: original cover for “Similar Shapes” as it looks now.

Regarding the title, and the picture above, it’s true that I’ve been wrestling off and on with these names for over two decades. At one point, I intended to call that first book Similar Shapes. There are still times I wish I had. But somewhere along the line that name began to seem too generic to me, and I also became enthralled with this idea, based around this running joke that Robert Smith (from The Cure, not the legendary OSU running back) always had, whenever asked about the title of their next album: he would say One Million Virgins, though they never wound up calling any of them that. When still intending this as a trilogy, I planned to run with that concept in tying them all together, starting with Hundred and then Thousand, finally Million. 

Though loosely based upon discussions we were actually having at the time, this numbering pattern eventually lost its luster. True, I could always pull an Agatha Christie and rename that first book. But really, I think I’m saving Similar Shapes for a day down the road, when I might decide to combine these two projects and issue them as one. Half the time I think that will probably happen at some point. It actually makes the most sense of all, and kind of comes full circle to that maroon binder full of pages.

Anyway, if you’re really worked up into a mad fervor and can’t wait to get your claws into a copy, as I mentioned, the Kindle version is now available on Amazon for 99 cents. I basically plan on jacking up the price by a dollar every week, as some sort of cheap stunt to inspire you to order a copy right now.  So here is the link for that:

Riots Of Passage 

Let me know if you spot any errors, of course. If caught early enough I might be able to squeak in corrections before the paperback version goes live. Otherwise, I guess they will wait for the inevitable revised edition. As always, thanks for reading this or anything else that pops into my head. It still seems amazing to me that anyone would do so, and I hope to never lose sight of that.

            The post Riots Of Passage appeared first on Love Letter To Columbus.

from WordPress https://lovelettertocolumbus.com/riots-of-passage/

[carolinehernandezme-blog]

The Hussey Brothers

Ian Bell and Shaun Marsh are running away with the game. Hussey needs one of his bowlers to step up the same way Mitchell Johnson did earlier in the day. But it wasn't to be. His team, the Melbourne Stars, made the semis for the 6th time out of 6, and lost in it for the 5th time out of six, the streak broken up by a defeat in the finals. Hussey was planning on retiring at the end of the tournament anyways, but it came a game sooner than he would've liked. The retirement came on a dour note rather than a euphoric one. 28529 runs across all formats in a career that spanned almost 15 years went with it. David Hussey was a living legend, one that we wouldn't get to see again.

A year earlier, Michael Hussey was watching in the dugout as his team, the Sydney Thunder, comfortably the worst of the 8 teams over the preceding 4 seasons, needed 4 from the last over to win BBL05. 2, dot, 6 then Hussey came out with the rest of his team to celebrate. Everyone knew it was his last game, but he hadn't announced it before then. With the BBL won, against his brother's team, he officially announced that this would be his last game in Australia. When he went unsold at the IPL auction, he retired from everything. 39475 runs went with him, made over 21 years.

Michael was two years senior. He wouldn't have played cricket for the first time for years after he first did if it weren't a happy accident: his dad had to, and he had never played cricket before, so he practiced some bowling to little Michael, the only one of the brothers who could stand and walk properly at the time. Michael immediately looked like he had a future in the game. His dad was no expert, but Michael was hitting pieces of gravel with a wooden stick and looking good while doing it. Seeing his eldest son's enthusiasm and talent for cricket, Ted (his dad) upgraded the cricket equipment from homemade gravel balls to tennis balls, and from pieces of wood to homemade bats. Ted's awful bowling became excess too, but David had grown up enough by then to do the job of bowling to Michael during his marathons. But David had an advantage, Michael wanted to play, so David could threaten to not play at all unless he batted first. These games were grudge matches; both wanted to do nothing but bat, and tantrums were natural since they were young kids. Neither would admit to nicks, they'd chase each other around the backyard when one of them thought the other was clean out, David would lock himself in the car sometimes because he didn't want to bowl to Michael. The pitch they played on was awful, and the reluctance to bowl for hours made survival on a pitch that did everything was integral to both of the brothers' development and their signature styles came from it. David would charge and charge at Michael since he wanted nothing more than to beat him, Michael would wait and wait and wait until David erred, then capitalize on it.

Michael played organized cricket first: for the U12s of a local club. He was smaller than most, so he relied on his defense. His coach and dad both told him to focus on technique and defense; everything else would come later when he's stronger. Michael listened well, and his big runs came later. Ted never played cricket until much later in life, but he influenced both of the siblings' careers in a large way. He saw that cricketers run a lot, so, as a former athlete (in athletics), he taught the brothers the proper stance for running, which would also get their feet moving in the crease and help with quick singles. He saw that the best cricketers were tough, physically and mentally, so he had them wake up early in the morning on Sundays to run through sandy hills, swim at the beach, lifting weights at an old, broken down gym, with rusted barbells in a cold and damp environment. Ted did everything he could to make his sons successful in a sport he had no interest in and when he passed in late 2014, Michael and David lost not only their beloved father, but the man who shaped both of their careers.

Michael's childhood hero was Allan Border. Michael started as a right handed but switched to left in order to bat like Border. And growing up in Perth, Michael and David both had an excellent advantage being in the late 70s: the explosion of indoor cricket. For someone as obsessed as him, it meant that he had nets available all day all year. By now, he had a coach too so he would go practice there with him a few times a week, playing around 1000 balls a week, almost the equivalent of 2 days worth of tests. He went a step further one day when his club had a game cancelled; he set up a 6 hour session, divided into 3 two hour sessions like a test, where he just batted and batted with the coach feeding balls into the bowling machine. His coach fell asleep by the end of it, but when he woke up and asked where Michael went, he was told that, “He went for a run.”

sMichael played his first game for Western Australia in 1995. He made 16. But over the next three years, he scored much more, averaging over 40 in the subsequent three seasons which earned him an A team call up. On one of them, Allan Border jokingly said that the boys on tour should learn how to bat a full day. Michael took his words to heart and repeated what he did a few years earlier by batting 6 hours in the nets spilt up into 2 hour sessions. Two more good seasons followed, then came a county contract for Northamptonshire. In his first season, he broke the county record for the highest score, when he made 329*. He made another triple next season, and then broke his own record the season after that. All 3 of his triples were unbeaten, and they all came in England for Northamptonshire, who he would part ways with after 2003. He had proven himself to be a master of English conditions, but he struggled more in Australia. 2005-06 would be the first time he made a double ton in Australia, and only the second time (and first time since 1999-00) that he averaged over 50 in a Shield season (for comparison, the only time he averaged under 60 in England was in 2004). But things looked up in 2005. He got his nickname of “Mr Cricket” that season when playing for Durham, because of his unmatched love for the game, and after a strong start to the season, he was picked to replace Justin Langer for the first test of the summer. Almost two years after first representing Australia in ODIs where, after a year, his numbers were extraordinary (18 matches, and average of 123.5), he was finally playing his first test. He had made more first class runs than any other Australian making their test debut and in only his second test, he made his maiden hundred. A legendary career was launched, if later than it should've.

David played his first full season in 2003-04. He was playing for Victoria, having moved there a few years ago from Perth. David was not his brother, and that was evident in many ways. David was far more aggressive, his maiden hundred was a double that came at almost run a ball to marshal a chase of 452, he didn't have Michael's undying enthusiasm for the game (but few people did), and his conversion was a problem. Michael hit 3 unbeaten triple centuries in 3 years, David never made one. David's strongest point was his consistency; between 2003-04 and 2007-08, which includes county stints for Nottinghamshire whom he eventually captained, only twice did he average under 40. But like Michael, he was overlooked for far too long, and his strongest moments came in England, not least his 2004 winter, where he made 7 hundreds in 17 games, and his three highest scores, 275 off only 227 (in 2007), 251* (in 2010), and 232* (in 2005). His strike rate was another striking thing about his game; it was just under 70, and combined with his average of 52.5 (higher than his brother and other greats like Graeme Hick, Mark Waugh and Herbert Sutcliffe) made him a devastating force for over a decade. But it would be until 2008 when he would make his international debut, and he never did play a test. He would only make a solitary international hundred, but he was never picked for his best format: first class cricket. He saw people like Michael Clarke, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, George Bailey and Marcus North debut ahead of him, all of which had worse performances than him. He could've given up and, gone after T20 leagues and called it a day with first class cricket and Australia, but he didn't. He played on until the 2014-15 season, playing a crucial part as Victoria won it. No man in the 21st century has made more first class runs than him without playing a test.

Michael's international career was full of highs, like his maiden hundred against the West Indies, 122 in a partnership of 107 with Glenn McGrath to deflate South Africa later that summer, his role in the “Amazing Adelaide” victory, where he made twin fifties, 134* against Pakistan to overturn a large deficit and seal a whitewash, his utter disregard for Saeed Ajmal's magic as he slammed him for 23 in five balls to single handedly take Australia to the World T20 final and his long role as Australia's finisher in ODIs at 5 and 6, much like Michael Bevan before him. Michael had a marvelous cricket brain, and was a genius at judging pitches, batting and captaining.

David and Michael are two giants of both the county game and Shield cricket. Both would have dearly loved to have played more, but can be content with what they've achieved. Michael gained all the accolades, but David definitely had his moments. Few would deny either a place in the history books as two of the greatest players in Australian cricket history.

The post The Hussey Brothers appeared first on Click Cric.

[alicebrenner]

The Hussey Brothers

Ian Bell and Shaun Marsh are running away with the game. Hussey needs one of his bowlers to step up the same way Mitchell Johnson did earlier in the day. But it wasn't to be. His team, the Melbourne Stars, made the semis for the 6th time out of 6, and lost in it for the 5th time out of six, the streak broken up by a defeat in the finals. Hussey was planning on retiring at the end of the tournament anyways, but it came a game sooner than he would've liked. The retirement came on a dour note rather than a euphoric one. 28529 runs across all formats in a career that spanned almost 15 years went with it. David Hussey was a living legend, one that we wouldn't get to see again.

A year earlier, Michael Hussey was watching in the dugout as his team, the Sydney Thunder, comfortably the worst of the 8 teams over the preceding 4 seasons, needed 4 from the last over to win BBL05. 2, dot, 6 then Hussey came out with the rest of his team to celebrate. Everyone knew it was his last game, but he hadn't announced it before then. With the BBL won, against his brother's team, he officially announced that this would be his last game in Australia. When he went unsold at the IPL auction, he retired from everything. 39475 runs went with him, made over 21 years.

Michael was two years senior. He wouldn't have played cricket for the first time for years after he first did if it weren't a happy accident: his dad had to, and he had never played cricket before, so he practiced some bowling to little Michael, the only one of the brothers who could stand and walk properly at the time. Michael immediately looked like he had a future in the game. His dad was no expert, but Michael was hitting pieces of gravel with a wooden stick and looking good while doing it. Seeing his eldest son's enthusiasm and talent for cricket, Ted (his dad) upgraded the cricket equipment from homemade gravel balls to tennis balls, and from pieces of wood to homemade bats. Ted's awful bowling became excess too, but David had grown up enough by then to do the job of bowling to Michael during his marathons. But David had an advantage, Michael wanted to play, so David could threaten to not play at all unless he batted first. These games were grudge matches; both wanted to do nothing but bat, and tantrums were natural since they were young kids. Neither would admit to nicks, they'd chase each other around the backyard when one of them thought the other was clean out, David would lock himself in the car sometimes because he didn't want to bowl to Michael. The pitch they played on was awful, and the reluctance to bowl for hours made survival on a pitch that did everything was integral to both of the brothers' development and their signature styles came from it. David would charge and charge at Michael since he wanted nothing more than to beat him, Michael would wait and wait and wait until David erred, then capitalize on it.

Michael played organized cricket first: for the U12s of a local club. He was smaller than most, so he relied on his defense. His coach and dad both told him to focus on technique and defense; everything else would come later when he's stronger. Michael listened well, and his big runs came later. Ted never played cricket until much later in life, but he influenced both of the siblings' careers in a large way. He saw that cricketers run a lot, so, as a former athlete (in athletics), he taught the brothers the proper stance for running, which would also get their feet moving in the crease and help with quick singles. He saw that the best cricketers were tough, physically and mentally, so he had them wake up early in the morning on Sundays to run through sandy hills, swim at the beach, lifting weights at an old, broken down gym, with rusted barbells in a cold and damp environment. Ted did everything he could to make his sons successful in a sport he had no interest in and when he passed in late 2014, Michael and David lost not only their beloved father, but the man who shaped both of their careers.

Michael's childhood hero was Allan Border. Michael started as a right handed but switched to left in order to bat like Border. And growing up in Perth, Michael and David both had an excellent advantage being in the late 70s: the explosion of indoor cricket. For someone as obsessed as him, it meant that he had nets available all day all year. By now, he had a coach too so he would go practice there with him a few times a week, playing around 1000 balls a week, almost the equivalent of 2 days worth of tests. He went a step further one day when his club had a game cancelled; he set up a 6 hour session, divided into 3 two hour sessions like a test, where he just batted and batted with the coach feeding balls into the bowling machine. His coach fell asleep by the end of it, but when he woke up and asked where Michael went, he was told that, “He went for a run.”

sMichael played his first game for Western Australia in 1995. He made 16. But over the next three years, he scored much more, averaging over 40 in the subsequent three seasons which earned him an A team call up. On one of them, Allan Border jokingly said that the boys on tour should learn how to bat a full day. Michael took his words to heart and repeated what he did a few years earlier by batting 6 hours in the nets spilt up into 2 hour sessions. Two more good seasons followed, then came a county contract for Northamptonshire. In his first season, he broke the county record for the highest score, when he made 329*. He made another triple next season, and then broke his own record the season after that. All 3 of his triples were unbeaten, and they all came in England for Northamptonshire, who he would part ways with after 2003. He had proven himself to be a master of English conditions, but he struggled more in Australia. 2005-06 would be the first time he made a double ton in Australia, and only the second time (and first time since 1999-00) that he averaged over 50 in a Shield season (for comparison, the only time he averaged under 60 in England was in 2004). But things looked up in 2005. He got his nickname of “Mr Cricket” that season when playing for Durham, because of his unmatched love for the game, and after a strong start to the season, he was picked to replace Justin Langer for the first test of the summer. Almost two years after first representing Australia in ODIs where, after a year, his numbers were extraordinary (18 matches, and average of 123.5), he was finally playing his first test. He had made more first class runs than any other Australian making their test debut and in only his second test, he made his maiden hundred. A legendary career was launched, if later than it should've.

David played his first full season in 2003-04. He was playing for Victoria, having moved there a few years ago from Perth. David was not his brother, and that was evident in many ways. David was far more aggressive, his maiden hundred was a double that came at almost run a ball to marshal a chase of 452, he didn't have Michael's undying enthusiasm for the game (but few people did), and his conversion was a problem. Michael hit 3 unbeaten triple centuries in 3 years, David never made one. David's strongest point was his consistency; between 2003-04 and 2007-08, which includes county stints for Nottinghamshire whom he eventually captained, only twice did he average under 40. But like Michael, he was overlooked for far too long, and his strongest moments came in England, not least his 2004 winter, where he made 7 hundreds in 17 games, and his three highest scores, 275 off only 227 (in 2007), 251* (in 2010), and 232* (in 2005). His strike rate was another striking thing about his game; it was just under 70, and combined with his average of 52.5 (higher than his brother and other greats like Graeme Hick, Mark Waugh and Herbert Sutcliffe) made him a devastating force for over a decade. But it would be until 2008 when he would make his international debut, and he never did play a test. He would only make a solitary international hundred, but he was never picked for his best format: first class cricket. He saw people like Michael Clarke, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, George Bailey and Marcus North debut ahead of him, all of which had worse performances than him. He could've given up and, gone after T20 leagues and called it a day with first class cricket and Australia, but he didn't. He played on until the 2014-15 season, playing a crucial part as Victoria won it. No man in the 21st century has made more first class runs than him without playing a test.

Michael's international career was full of highs, like his maiden hundred against the West Indies, 122 in a partnership of 107 with Glenn McGrath to deflate South Africa later that summer, his role in the “Amazing Adelaide” victory, where he made twin fifties, 134* against Pakistan to overturn a large deficit and seal a whitewash, his utter disregard for Saeed Ajmal's magic as he slammed him for 23 in five balls to single handedly take Australia to the World T20 final and his long role as Australia's finisher in ODIs at 5 and 6, much like Michael Bevan before him. Michael had a marvelous cricket brain, and was a genius at judging pitches, batting and captaining.

David and Michael are two giants of both the county game and Shield cricket. Both would have dearly loved to have played more, but can be content with what they've achieved. Michael gained all the accolades, but David definitely had his moments. Few would deny either a place in the history books as two of the greatest players in Australian cricket history.

The post The Hussey Brothers appeared first on Click Cric.

[hakimratin]

The Hussey Brothers

Ian Bell and Shaun Marsh are running away with the game. Hussey needs one of his bowlers to step up the same way Mitchell Johnson did earlier in the day. But it wasn't to be. His team, the Melbourne Stars, made the semis for the 6th time out of 6, and lost in it for the 5th time out of six, the streak broken up by a defeat in the finals. Hussey was planning on retiring at the end of the tournament anyways, but it came a game sooner than he would've liked. The retirement came on a dour note rather than a euphoric one. 28529 runs across all formats in a career that spanned almost 15 years went with it. David Hussey was a living legend, one that we wouldn't get to see again.

A year earlier, Michael Hussey was watching in the dugout as his team, the Sydney Thunder, comfortably the worst of the 8 teams over the preceding 4 seasons, needed 4 from the last over to win BBL05. 2, dot, 6 then Hussey came out with the rest of his team to celebrate. Everyone knew it was his last game, but he hadn't announced it before then. With the BBL won, against his brother's team, he officially announced that this would be his last game in Australia. When he went unsold at the IPL auction, he retired from everything. 39475 runs went with him, made over 21 years.

Michael was two years senior. He wouldn't have played cricket for the first time for years after he first did if it weren't a happy accident: his dad had to, and he had never played cricket before, so he practiced some bowling to little Michael, the only one of the brothers who could stand and walk properly at the time. Michael immediately looked like he had a future in the game. His dad was no expert, but Michael was hitting pieces of gravel with a wooden stick and looking good while doing it. Seeing his eldest son's enthusiasm and talent for cricket, Ted (his dad) upgraded the cricket equipment from homemade gravel balls to tennis balls, and from pieces of wood to homemade bats. Ted's awful bowling became excess too, but David had grown up enough by then to do the job of bowling to Michael during his marathons. But David had an advantage, Michael wanted to play, so David could threaten to not play at all unless he batted first. These games were grudge matches; both wanted to do nothing but bat, and tantrums were natural since they were young kids. Neither would admit to nicks, they'd chase each other around the backyard when one of them thought the other was clean out, David would lock himself in the car sometimes because he didn't want to bowl to Michael. The pitch they played on was awful, and the reluctance to bowl for hours made survival on a pitch that did everything was integral to both of the brothers' development and their signature styles came from it. David would charge and charge at Michael since he wanted nothing more than to beat him, Michael would wait and wait and wait until David erred, then capitalize on it.

Michael played organized cricket first: for the U12s of a local club. He was smaller than most, so he relied on his defense. His coach and dad both told him to focus on technique and defense; everything else would come later when he's stronger. Michael listened well, and his big runs came later. Ted never played cricket until much later in life, but he influenced both of the siblings' careers in a large way. He saw that cricketers run a lot, so, as a former athlete (in athletics), he taught the brothers the proper stance for running, which would also get their feet moving in the crease and help with quick singles. He saw that the best cricketers were tough, physically and mentally, so he had them wake up early in the morning on Sundays to run through sandy hills, swim at the beach, lifting weights at an old, broken down gym, with rusted barbells in a cold and damp environment. Ted did everything he could to make his sons successful in a sport he had no interest in and when he passed in late 2014, Michael and David lost not only their beloved father, but the man who shaped both of their careers.

Michael's childhood hero was Allan Border. Michael started as a right handed but switched to left in order to bat like Border. And growing up in Perth, Michael and David both had an excellent advantage being in the late 70s: the explosion of indoor cricket. For someone as obsessed as him, it meant that he had nets available all day all year. By now, he had a coach too so he would go practice there with him a few times a week, playing around 1000 balls a week, almost the equivalent of 2 days worth of tests. He went a step further one day when his club had a game cancelled; he set up a 6 hour session, divided into 3 two hour sessions like a test, where he just batted and batted with the coach feeding balls into the bowling machine. His coach fell asleep by the end of it, but when he woke up and asked where Michael went, he was told that, “He went for a run.”

sMichael played his first game for Western Australia in 1995. He made 16. But over the next three years, he scored much more, averaging over 40 in the subsequent three seasons which earned him an A team call up. On one of them, Allan Border jokingly said that the boys on tour should learn how to bat a full day. Michael took his words to heart and repeated what he did a few years earlier by batting 6 hours in the nets spilt up into 2 hour sessions. Two more good seasons followed, then came a county contract for Northamptonshire. In his first season, he broke the county record for the highest score, when he made 329*. He made another triple next season, and then broke his own record the season after that. All 3 of his triples were unbeaten, and they all came in England for Northamptonshire, who he would part ways with after 2003. He had proven himself to be a master of English conditions, but he struggled more in Australia. 2005-06 would be the first time he made a double ton in Australia, and only the second time (and first time since 1999-00) that he averaged over 50 in a Shield season (for comparison, the only time he averaged under 60 in England was in 2004). But things looked up in 2005. He got his nickname of “Mr Cricket” that season when playing for Durham, because of his unmatched love for the game, and after a strong start to the season, he was picked to replace Justin Langer for the first test of the summer. Almost two years after first representing Australia in ODIs where, after a year, his numbers were extraordinary (18 matches, and average of 123.5), he was finally playing his first test. He had made more first class runs than any other Australian making their test debut and in only his second test, he made his maiden hundred. A legendary career was launched, if later than it should've.

David played his first full season in 2003-04. He was playing for Victoria, having moved there a few years ago from Perth. David was not his brother, and that was evident in many ways. David was far more aggressive, his maiden hundred was a double that came at almost run a ball to marshal a chase of 452, he didn't have Michael's undying enthusiasm for the game (but few people did), and his conversion was a problem. Michael hit 3 unbeaten triple centuries in 3 years, David never made one. David's strongest point was his consistency; between 2003-04 and 2007-08, which includes county stints for Nottinghamshire whom he eventually captained, only twice did he average under 40. But like Michael, he was overlooked for far too long, and his strongest moments came in England, not least his 2004 winter, where he made 7 hundreds in 17 games, and his three highest scores, 275 off only 227 (in 2007), 251* (in 2010), and 232* (in 2005). His strike rate was another striking thing about his game; it was just under 70, and combined with his average of 52.5 (higher than his brother and other greats like Graeme Hick, Mark Waugh and Herbert Sutcliffe) made him a devastating force for over a decade. But it would be until 2008 when he would make his international debut, and he never did play a test. He would only make a solitary international hundred, but he was never picked for his best format: first class cricket. He saw people like Michael Clarke, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, George Bailey and Marcus North debut ahead of him, all of which had worse performances than him. He could've given up and, gone after T20 leagues and called it a day with first class cricket and Australia, but he didn't. He played on until the 2014-15 season, playing a crucial part as Victoria won it. No man in the 21st century has made more first class runs than him without playing a test.

Michael's international career was full of highs, like his maiden hundred against the West Indies, 122 in a partnership of 107 with Glenn McGrath to deflate South Africa later that summer, his role in the “Amazing Adelaide” victory, where he made twin fifties, 134* against Pakistan to overturn a large deficit and seal a whitewash, his utter disregard for Saeed Ajmal's magic as he slammed him for 23 in five balls to single handedly take Australia to the World T20 final and his long role as Australia's finisher in ODIs at 5 and 6, much like Michael Bevan before him. Michael had a marvelous cricket brain, and was a genius at judging pitches, batting and captaining.

David and Michael are two giants of both the county game and Shield cricket. Both would have dearly loved to have played more, but can be content with what they've achieved. Michael gained all the accolades, but David definitely had his moments. Few would deny either a place in the history books as two of the greatest players in Australian cricket history.

The post The Hussey Brothers appeared first on Click Cric.

[blogcorrineblake-blog]

The Hussey Brothers

Ian Bell and Shaun Marsh are running away with the game. Hussey needs one of his bowlers to step up the same way Mitchell Johnson did earlier in the day. But it wasn't to be. His team, the Melbourne Stars, made the semis for the 6th time out of 6, and lost in it for the 5th time out of six, the streak broken up by a defeat in the finals. Hussey was planning on retiring at the end of the tournament anyways, but it came a game sooner than he would've liked. The retirement came on a dour note rather than a euphoric one. 28529 runs across all formats in a career that spanned almost 15 years went with it. David Hussey was a living legend, one that we wouldn't get to see again.

A year earlier, Michael Hussey was watching in the dugout as his team, the Sydney Thunder, comfortably the worst of the 8 teams over the preceding 4 seasons, needed 4 from the last over to win BBL05. 2, dot, 6 then Hussey came out with the rest of his team to celebrate. Everyone knew it was his last game, but he hadn't announced it before then. With the BBL won, against his brother's team, he officially announced that this would be his last game in Australia. When he went unsold at the IPL auction, he retired from everything. 39475 runs went with him, made over 21 years.

Michael was two years senior. He wouldn't have played cricket for the first time for years after he first did if it weren't a happy accident: his dad had to, and he had never played cricket before, so he practiced some bowling to little Michael, the only one of the brothers who could stand and walk properly at the time. Michael immediately looked like he had a future in the game. His dad was no expert, but Michael was hitting pieces of gravel with a wooden stick and looking good while doing it. Seeing his eldest son's enthusiasm and talent for cricket, Ted (his dad) upgraded the cricket equipment from homemade gravel balls to tennis balls, and from pieces of wood to homemade bats. Ted's awful bowling became excess too, but David had grown up enough by then to do the job of bowling to Michael during his marathons. But David had an advantage, Michael wanted to play, so David could threaten to not play at all unless he batted first. These games were grudge matches; both wanted to do nothing but bat, and tantrums were natural since they were young kids. Neither would admit to nicks, they'd chase each other around the backyard when one of them thought the other was clean out, David would lock himself in the car sometimes because he didn't want to bowl to Michael. The pitch they played on was awful, and the reluctance to bowl for hours made survival on a pitch that did everything was integral to both of the brothers' development and their signature styles came from it. David would charge and charge at Michael since he wanted nothing more than to beat him, Michael would wait and wait and wait until David erred, then capitalize on it.

Michael played organized cricket first: for the U12s of a local club. He was smaller than most, so he relied on his defense. His coach and dad both told him to focus on technique and defense; everything else would come later when he's stronger. Michael listened well, and his big runs came later. Ted never played cricket until much later in life, but he influenced both of the siblings' careers in a large way. He saw that cricketers run a lot, so, as a former athlete (in athletics), he taught the brothers the proper stance for running, which would also get their feet moving in the crease and help with quick singles. He saw that the best cricketers were tough, physically and mentally, so he had them wake up early in the morning on Sundays to run through sandy hills, swim at the beach, lifting weights at an old, broken down gym, with rusted barbells in a cold and damp environment. Ted did everything he could to make his sons successful in a sport he had no interest in and when he passed in late 2014, Michael and David lost not only their beloved father, but the man who shaped both of their careers.

Michael's childhood hero was Allan Border. Michael started as a right handed but switched to left in order to bat like Border. And growing up in Perth, Michael and David both had an excellent advantage being in the late 70s: the explosion of indoor cricket. For someone as obsessed as him, it meant that he had nets available all day all year. By now, he had a coach too so he would go practice there with him a few times a week, playing around 1000 balls a week, almost the equivalent of 2 days worth of tests. He went a step further one day when his club had a game cancelled; he set up a 6 hour session, divided into 3 two hour sessions like a test, where he just batted and batted with the coach feeding balls into the bowling machine. His coach fell asleep by the end of it, but when he woke up and asked where Michael went, he was told that, “He went for a run.”

sMichael played his first game for Western Australia in 1995. He made 16. But over the next three years, he scored much more, averaging over 40 in the subsequent three seasons which earned him an A team call up. On one of them, Allan Border jokingly said that the boys on tour should learn how to bat a full day. Michael took his words to heart and repeated what he did a few years earlier by batting 6 hours in the nets spilt up into 2 hour sessions. Two more good seasons followed, then came a county contract for Northamptonshire. In his first season, he broke the county record for the highest score, when he made 329*. He made another triple next season, and then broke his own record the season after that. All 3 of his triples were unbeaten, and they all came in England for Northamptonshire, who he would part ways with after 2003. He had proven himself to be a master of English conditions, but he struggled more in Australia. 2005-06 would be the first time he made a double ton in Australia, and only the second time (and first time since 1999-00) that he averaged over 50 in a Shield season (for comparison, the only time he averaged under 60 in England was in 2004). But things looked up in 2005. He got his nickname of “Mr Cricket” that season when playing for Durham, because of his unmatched love for the game, and after a strong start to the season, he was picked to replace Justin Langer for the first test of the summer. Almost two years after first representing Australia in ODIs where, after a year, his numbers were extraordinary (18 matches, and average of 123.5), he was finally playing his first test. He had made more first class runs than any other Australian making their test debut and in only his second test, he made his maiden hundred. A legendary career was launched, if later than it should've.

David played his first full season in 2003-04. He was playing for Victoria, having moved there a few years ago from Perth. David was not his brother, and that was evident in many ways. David was far more aggressive, his maiden hundred was a double that came at almost run a ball to marshal a chase of 452, he didn't have Michael's undying enthusiasm for the game (but few people did), and his conversion was a problem. Michael hit 3 unbeaten triple centuries in 3 years, David never made one. David's strongest point was his consistency; between 2003-04 and 2007-08, which includes county stints for Nottinghamshire whom he eventually captained, only twice did he average under 40. But like Michael, he was overlooked for far too long, and his strongest moments came in England, not least his 2004 winter, where he made 7 hundreds in 17 games, and his three highest scores, 275 off only 227 (in 2007), 251* (in 2010), and 232* (in 2005). His strike rate was another striking thing about his game; it was just under 70, and combined with his average of 52.5 (higher than his brother and other greats like Graeme Hick, Mark Waugh and Herbert Sutcliffe) made him a devastating force for over a decade. But it would be until 2008 when he would make his international debut, and he never did play a test. He would only make a solitary international hundred, but he was never picked for his best format: first class cricket. He saw people like Michael Clarke, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, George Bailey and Marcus North debut ahead of him, all of which had worse performances than him. He could've given up and, gone after T20 leagues and called it a day with first class cricket and Australia, but he didn't. He played on until the 2014-15 season, playing a crucial part as Victoria won it. No man in the 21st century has made more first class runs than him without playing a test.

Michael's international career was full of highs, like his maiden hundred against the West Indies, 122 in a partnership of 107 with Glenn McGrath to deflate South Africa later that summer, his role in the “Amazing Adelaide” victory, where he made twin fifties, 134* against Pakistan to overturn a large deficit and seal a whitewash, his utter disregard for Saeed Ajmal's magic as he slammed him for 23 in five balls to single handedly take Australia to the World T20 final and his long role as Australia's finisher in ODIs at 5 and 6, much like Michael Bevan before him. Michael had a marvelous cricket brain, and was a genius at judging pitches, batting and captaining.

David and Michael are two giants of both the county game and Shield cricket. Both would have dearly loved to have played more, but can be content with what they've achieved. Michael gained all the accolades, but David definitely had his moments. Few would deny either a place in the history books as two of the greatest players in Australian cricket history.

The post The Hussey Brothers appeared first on Click Cric.