#max's acting deserves all the awards

[j-nightingalesb1tch]

[madrigaljail]

Interlude

Would you like some celebrity AU in these trying times? Have some nonsense; don't worry about Eli, he's an OC, it's fine.

*

“Finally tonight, my producers won’t let me end the show without discussing the most compelling story in the nation, a tale of intergenerational drama which begs the question: which speaks to you most? Do you like a redemption arc, recognition coming after decades of struggle? Or a reward for raw, young talent the likes of which has never before been seen? These questions will possibly be answered Sunday night, when the Emmy Awards give a trophy to…a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama.

“On the one hand you have Bruno Madrigal, whose offscreen exploits have overshadowed his work for decades. In recent years, however, he’s become beloved by children as the voice of Hernando the Crab in the animated Shore Thing film series and attracted critical acclaim in indie films such as The Collaboration and onstage in an off-Broadway revival of Endgame. Now he’s nominated for his role as Oscar Ramos, a pedicab driver with a secret in AMC’s thriller Upper West. 

“Then there’s his nephew, Camilo Madrigal, who has veered away from the music careers of his mother and sister to follow - cautiously, we hope - in his uncle’s acting footsteps. He has more than a knack for it, given his star turn as nine different characters…or maybe it’s the same one in different phases, who knows what’s happening on Max’s scifi-horror hit Idle Hands? My nephew’s tried to explain it several times, but I’ve given up figuring it out.

“So, where do you fall: Team Camilo, or Team Bruno? Personally I think we as a society should have moved past these hashtag labels a long time ago, but if I were a betting man? I’d say the Madrigals are going to split the voters and we’ll get the winner we deserve, the venerable J.K. Simmons.

“That’s it for me this evening, stay tuned for the latest headlines on ‘Nightbeat’, and I’ll see you back here bright and early Sunday morning for ‘Mas with Guzmán’. Buenos noches.”

The news program theme music played, and Bruno would have continued mindlessly playing Candy Crush on his phone but-

“You know there’s a rumor you slept with that guy.”

Bruno glanced to his right. Eli was slumped the corner of the couch, smirking, light brown hair tousled and hazel eyes glancing his way with a mischievous twinkle. Bruno scowled.

“You don’t- that’s ridiculous. I can’t help it if people think we had chemistry or there were ‘sparks flying’ in that interview or whatever, but it’s all…fanflick?”

Eli laughed and gently kicked his shin, he retaliated by pinching his knee. “Fanfic, boomer.”

“Everybody really does forget about Gen X,” Bruno muttered, then shook his head. “Anyway. The point is I can’t believe people still think Pulitzer prize winning reporter José Guzmán would risk his journalistic integrity by hooking up with me.”

“Depends.” Eli straightened up to lean closer, waggling his eyebrows. “Is ‘journalistic integrity’ what he calls his-”

“Guys! I’m still right here!” 

They both cringed and glanced over the back of the sofa towards the kitchen, where Mirabel had taken over the island in a flurry of embroidery floss. She’d swiveled around on the barstool to give them a glare, but a smile still tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry, Mira.”

She nodded, satisfied. “Thank you.” A moment or two slipped by, a perfect pause, before she went on. “But you totally did hook up with him, right?”

Bruno blinked, turned back to the TV, and picked up the remote. “I am changing the channel. It’s a metaphor for changing the subject.”

Shortly after that Mirabel presented him with a baseball cap emblazoned with “#TeamCamilo”, and a black necktie which she’d decorated with symbols representing all of the Madrigal family…and a blue, pink, and white striped heart for Eli. Bruno happily wore both on the Emmys red carpet two nights later.

*

A/N: he did totally hook up with him. Celebverse!José is basically Anderson Cooper. Yes he does get stuck doing New Year's Eve with Andy Cohen still, it's fine. As for who wins the Emmy, it's been almost two years and I am still not sure.

[mrsreinhart]

Lili Reinhart - Grazia Italia Interview

In the cult TV series Riverdale we met her as an always fearless heroine, often forced to confront others and with herself. But even in real life American actress Lili Reinhart, 26, has often found herself having to look within to overcome difficulties.

At 14, when she was already determined to pursue a career in acting, she was diagnosed with a form of depression. Very young, she went through anxiety attacks and various kinds of difficulties, not least that body dysmorphic disorder that leads her to see herself differently from others and to suffer from some physical characteristics that she perceives in a distorted way.

Reinhart has therefore become the champion of the battles for mental health and for the acceptance of different types of beauty. She didn't hesitate to expose herself even to a global celebrity like the queen of social networks Kim Kardashian: the actress found that losing so much weight and in a short time to get into a dress that belonged to Marilyn Monroe was not a good example for her women who have difficulty accepting their body.

At the Women in Film Gala 2022, Lili then received the Max Mara Face of the Future award, dedicated to emerging actresses. «My family», declared Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, «has built a company that honors and celebrates women, above all in the arts. We wanted to award the prize to a young artist who embodies our values, but who is still evolving. What Lili is going in is an excellent direction to follow.

I meet Reinhart in Los Angeles, while she's curled up in the make-up artist's chair for Grazia's fashion shoot that you see in these pages. She remains seated for a long time with her legs pulled up to her chest, a position that evokes the tenderness of a little girl. But she talks to me about serious topics and does it with honesty and depth, even when it comes to revealing the most intimate aspects of her life. She became a global celebrity thanks to the character of Betty Cooper in the TV series Riverdale, which reached its seventh season.

Do vou ever think that the success of this role has somehow slowed down your career as an actress?

I am grateful to Riverdale for everything it has brought me. If I'm sitting here with her now, it's because of the success of the show. But at some point in life, it's time to move on."

Do you feel that you have something to prove to others or to yourself?

I've been acting since I was 12, l've come a long way since then, but I think I haven't yet fulfilled my potential. And this is a challenge for myself. I want the actors who inspire me to talk about me, I want to go far and deserve it. For the past seven years, I've been doing a teen show, Riverdale, with a style that isn't necessarily. what i prefer. But Riverdale it has been incredibly successful and takes up practically all my time, so it has been difficult for me to seize other opportunities

Have you had to make many job cuts?

Last spring I was offered a role that I wanted to play with all my heart, but unfortunately the dates did not reconcile with the filming of the show. It was devastating to say no.

What was she like as a child? Did you imagine that when you grew up?

| was an introvert, I lived in my own little world and I always felt a bit isolated. I think I have an old soul, with my peers I felt like a fish out of water and I didn't quite understand which was the right place for me. Just yesterday I was talking to my mother about when I enjoyed dressing up as a child. We had a box full of costumes we'd collected over the years, I even changed three times a day. I put on plays and plays for my family, I always wanted to perform. So, in the end, I moved on to the theater up to television and cinema.

Was performing a way of expressing yourself?

Some people are naturally outgoing, funny. I felt I could only be by performing. I was very insecure and acting gave me the opportunity to explore sides of my personality that I would not have known otherwise.

And i also brought out a very intimate and vulnerable side by writing a book of poems, Swimming Lessons: Poems ("Swimming lessons: poems").

Yes, it was a time in my life when I felt like I wanted to. to do something that came exclusively from me and over which I had total creative control. I was very nervous at first, because it was a bit like sharing a diary with people who were ready to judge it and judge me. As an actress I feel safe, as a writer I don't: hence the negative comments on mine. book strengthened my fears. I know that no one would have paid attention to my poems if Lili the actress hadn't signed them, but I never had the claim. to establish myself as a writer. I'm a romantic and I just wanted to share a different side of me.

Don't you think maybe you're too hard on yourself?

I internalize a lot, especially the criticisms. After all, poetry is the way I express my emotions. What I wanted to convey was not, "Look at me, I'm a writer." | wanted to tell the people who follow me that I am an absolutely normal human being: I have feelings, insecurities, I struggle and face life's challenges just like anyone else.

She has often spoken about her insecurities, especially physical ones, and is a spokesperson for the "body positivity" for the acceptance of all physicalities. Do you remember the first time dysmorphia, a disorder you suffer from,presented itself?

I have an average build and, when I began to get to know the world of fashion and clothes better, I met models with very different physiques from mine. There have been times when the clothes they offered just didn't fit me. So I said to myself: "Why don't I have a smaller physique?". When a dress designed for someone two sizes smaller than you doesn't fit, you start to think you're wrong and you have to do something to fit the clothes. But in a young woman these thoughts can hurt a lot.

I recently Today, however, she sees her photos everywhere. What does it feel? She likes herself?

I talked about this with my therapist. In fact, I feel like i live in a sort of perpetual comparison with other, more glamorous versions of myself. I started acting as a child and learned that my body is always changing. Today I accept myself more and judge myself less, however Hollywood doesn't want you to get old and puts pressure on you for it. Don't you think it's crazy that at 26 | worry about not having the same face as when I was 19? Of course I don't have it! Even the one in these photos is certainly a more beautiful version of me: I'm not like this every day. Constantly having to show a better image of ourselves can play tricks on us, because it can make us believe that our everyday version is not enough.

And how does she find a way to get everyone along these versions of itself?

I can't, they don't get along. There is my everyday self that reminds Lili of the glamor that looks like this only if she is surrounded by professionals who they make up and comb her hair. But I'm making peace with the fact that first I have to learn to be okay with each version of me. For example, I now have an acne breakout. Who sees them? Acne has always triggered severe mental and emotional distress in me. It makes me feel bad and makes it difficult for me to appear in public or take pictures without makeup because I know my skin would otherwise look different than everyone expects. Instead I should think that a rash doesn't take anything away from me, it doesn't define me. It's always me. Unfortunately it's a constant struggle: I live in a world that demands perfection and, at times, I think I've begun to demand it too. But then I think that everything happens for a reason and maybe the reason why acne always shows up on my face is because I have to learn to love every season my skin and my body go through because that's right. I'm a human being, not a mannequin.

I couldn't help but notice the tattoo on her right forearm: an arrow.

I did it around 18, 19. It represents my battle against depression: an arrow can only go forward if it is first pulled back. It's like saying that, once you hit rock bottom, you can only go back up.

In which direction is it pointing then?

Forward, always. My mental health has its ups and downs and this arrow reminds me that I always manage to get out of it, because I'm a tireless fighter.

But, during this fight, I hope she takes moments to appreciate what she has achieved.

I appreciate my battles, it is thanks to them that I am such a strong person. I wouldn't change anything about me. Having had the experience of depression leads me to experience moments of joy more intensely and makes me establish healthier and deeper relationships. The moments of discouragement have taught me so much about myself and it is right that I experience them and face them when they arise, rather than trying to escape.

She was cast as the Max Mara Face of the Future. How does this recognition make you feel?

It's a complicated feeling to explain. It's hard for me to accept that people see me this way. I almost feel like I have imposter syndrome, because I don't think I've shown my worth as an actress yet. I have exposed myself as an activist for body positivity and mental health, but in my work I think I haven't given my best yet. I'm waiting for that opportunity, which is on the horizon, but l'm waiting. So to receive the award before I've even been able to demonstrate what I think I can do as an actress is very encouraging. And I'm grateful because this recognition makes me understand that l'm already doing something good.

-Credit to lililovebots on Twitter for posting the interview.

[smoulderingocean]

I don't have much to say about this season of The Handmaid's Tale because it's frankly pretty awful, but I just have to compliment Max Minghella's face acting, especially in the most recent episode. It is utterly masterful. When Nick talks about Holly you can feel the pain radiating from him. Just the way he looks off in the distance and briefly looks down before facing June head on. That line of pain visible between his brows. His eyes show how much it hurts that he can't be there for his baby girl. (Also, sidenote, shoutout to Bradley for being one of the rare people on this show to know how to edit brown eyes so that they're visible and not muddied. It was a real treat to actually be able to see Max's beautiful warm brown eyes.) When Nick is telling June he loves her in his simple and devoted way, his face is just so soft when he's looking at her. The corners of his eyes crinkle upwards and you can just see the happiness that Nick feels by being in June's presence and being able to love her. It's just so gentle and peaceful, and god, I love it and Max deserves all the awards.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [2 out of 2]

Refer to part 1 before reading please

The cast has seen improvements all around Brianna White’s Aerith was already an all time performance for the series and it being joined not only by Suzie Yeung’s Yuffie but also by John Eric Bentley’s Barrett was a great surprise and a huge glow up from Remake. It might be too early to tell but between the interview where they told her to tone down her acting because it was too good (her vomiting noises specifically) and the sheer strength of the cast this time around I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the performance of the year at The Game Awards later this year. As for Barrett the main factor is that Rebirth gave Bentley more to work with and he sure took advantage of it delivering a performance worthy of the nuance Barrett deserves. This is not to say the other performances where bad as Cody Christian, Britt Barton, Max Mittelman and Paul Tinto all did great jobs as Cloud, Tifa, Red XIII and Cait Sith respectively or the side characters like Caleb Pierce, Kayli Mills and Piper Reese all did fantastic jobs as Zack, Cissnei and Elena but we would be here for like 8 more paragraphs if I listed every performance[also wanted to drop here Matt Mercer and J Michael Tatum as Vincent and Cid to finish up the main cast].

Gameplay wise it plays like a faster version of what Remake was doing which is just an ATB version of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII’s combat which is to say it plays really good, the game now includes way more commands and allows you to stack even more wacky materia to make your characters as customizable as you can without dropping what made them unique and letting you work with whatever party you vibe with the most (Aerith and Yuffie is the best party and I will die on this hill), the second most important gamemode is the exploration section of the game which unlike 7 Remake or 16 is very open while still filling condensed unlike 15’s huge vastness this one is closer in approach to the always reliable Witcher 3 open world zones but that doesn’t mean it drops the basics of the huge open world trend, like many of its kind Rebirth has the infamous Ubisoft towers, (which hot take but I enjoy in a checklist sort of way) some random busywork and the third gameplay pillar minigames which there are a lot, probably too many to talk about here without making this longer than it needs to (which it already kinda is) but one I do wanna talk about is Queen’s Blood as its questline was a great little distraction with bizarre analogue horror elements that I didn’t expect from the obligatory FF card game at all while also being a somewhat fun game with some interesting strategic depth.

From here on out I’m gonna talk about the ending so skip from here to the conclusion if you want to keep reading spoiler free but otherwise. [First off the second visit to the Golden Saucer is great fun, this time the “date” goes fantastic as you visit Loveless, a beautiful rhythm game and the story of a knight fighting darkness to save his beloved accompanied by some of the best music the game has to offer and topped with a musical performance by Aerith with her singing voice being provided by Loren Allred who performs a gorgeous ballad to close out a contender for moment of the year, and afterwards if you upped your relationship to your date enough you get one of the “intimate endings” which are little character moments between Cloud and whoever he is with that I hope will be revisited in the third game as they are just wonderful. Afterwards we get a slightly better version of the Cait Sith liar reveal during the Dio vs Don Corneo tournament and soon we are, sailing through the Meridian Ocean chasing the turks with the help of Vincent to arrive at the fortress of the ancients, where another moment of the year takes place in the trial, a small section where we essentially make everyone face their worst moments again so that they may be prepared for what comes ahead (special shoutout to Yuffie’s Intermission revisit, it felt crushing in all the right ways),in general things were shaping up great and we were wrapping the most ravishing bow to finish up the gift that was the middle of the VII series, but then suddenly a dog arrived and bit everything, that dog is called the temple of the ancients. That final push started strong with the isolation of Cloud trying to save Aerith from the grim fate she is predestined in the original game and surprisingly succeeding in saving Aerith from fake Sephiroth only for what I can only understand as a convergence of timelines to start happening and switching our Aerith into a different timeline while leaving us with a dead one from another but I will get into that in a second, then everyone is able to arrive and they see the dead Aerith which prompts the start of the bossfight, an interesting detail is that everyone but Cloud starts with their Limit as they are fighting to avenge their dead friend while Cloud still needs to build it up since he is fighting to restore her and prevent Sephiroth from fusing the timeline, in a bizarre way Zack is also there for a bit of the fight until he gets separated into another world again while still being attacked by Sephiroth, what is curious is that for brief moments (synergy attacks in this case) Cloud can join Zack as a sort of projection without entering this dimension fully as well as fighting Sephiroth now in a white void instead of the usual dark one that represents his subconscious even being joined by either the summation of Aerith across all timelines or just our Aerith now aware of her role in all of this to finish the story of Rebirth. At the end we see that everyone Aerith was killed by Sephiroth except for Cloud who is still communicating with her from the other dimension (if he was losing his mind we would have the static and not the rainbow) while everyone else mourns her loss. This leads to the ending cutscene where Cloud and Aerith go their separate ways to finish the story and frankly I kind of hate it, Remake already had a decently open ending that needed some input from the Ultimania (a book about the game that Square Enix releases like a month after the game) to fully get and now it feels like they just doubled down and made the Ultimania a required part of understanding what is going on since everything is just very speculative and borderline impossible to confirm as a thing that actually happened. Maybe it will fix it and an explanation will be available online for people that finished the game to look up but it's still an incredibly scummy way to sell us the Ultimania and a blight in what was otherwise an outstanding game.]

Bringing everything to an end, I really loved this game, despite my issues with some parts of it, it's good to see that like with Remake, VII can carry the franchise while the main series struggles to turn out greatness again. The sheer love that was put into it can be felt all around and the team deserves all the praise they are getting, iIt was a great experience and I can't wait for the final one in a few more years.

[torpublishinggroup]

Tor Books EPIC Holiday Gift Guide For Your Oddball Family

Hello hello, and welcome back to our annual TOR BOOKS HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE, where we give you what we think are the best gifts for the hyper specific, super chaotic individuals in your life. From your childhood BFF to your mildly traumatized game master, we have a whole slew of bookish picks for you this holiday season. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays, y’all!

by Rachel Taylor and a cat

For your long suffering GM (Game Master) who just wants a break from your party — via tenor

Anyone who acts as game master for Dungeons & Dragons (or any other TTRPG, to be frank) deserves an award for powering through all the shenanigans their party puts them through. From attempting to fight a dragon with a fork to accidentally leading your party off a cliff, your deeply stressed out GM deserves a cozy novel to help them decompress. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is out now and, for an extra little something, you can submit your receipt to get an adorable acrylic charm, a perfect addition to your gift!

For your cousin who remained loyal and never left Tumblr — via GIPHY

You remember the Tumblr exodus of 2019, and for shame—you were part of it, you fragile soul. But not your cousin. Resolute, they stood by their blog and posted through the long, long night. Three years later, Tumblr is resurging and you need a gift for the one who never lost faith. What’s more Tumblr than magic danger-nerds alternatively hooking up with and hating each other as they conduct research and mainline caffeine and/or alcohol? Redeem your past mistakes with the perfect bookly gifts for your cousin: Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six and thrilling sequel, The Atlas Paradox.

For the enthusiastic players who got their GM Legends & Lattes — @lookhuman via GIPHY

You love the players at your table, but even after years of collaborative TTRPG storytelling, you’ve never once anticipated the many ways they have conspired to unravel every plot thread you’ve ever written. How then could you ever predict what they might like as a gift? Easy. Just listen to us: Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is a fantastic epic fantasy about a girl who can A) see ghosts, and B) turn people into them with an expertly placed arrow, if she takes the mind. Of course, if anyone finds out about her power, she’s dead, and circumstances have led her to become a ward in the monastery of the very warrior-magi that would execute her. Oops! What gamesplayer can resist a quick-paced and twisting tale of magic, adventure, and deceit?

For your ex-boyfriend who’s still blowing up your phone with House of the Dragon TikTok’s — via GIPHY

So your ex-boyfriend (who you’re still friends with, DESPITE THE ADVICE OF OTHERS) just finished House of the Dragon and he won’t stop texting you about how much it sucks to have to wait 2 years for season 2. He’s right, but you can still give him a new epic fantasy to obsess over with The First Binding by R.R. Virdi. At over 800 pages, it’ll keep him busy for quite a while AND it also doubles as a premium bludgeoning weapon for you if he doesn’t appreciate your gift. Win win!

For your chronically-online uncle who needs to stop doomscrolling for his own health — @dualvoidmania via GIPHY

He’s mister doom-and-gloom. If there’s an upsetting tweet, you’ve seen it because he’s retweeted it. You don’t quite know him well enough to be comfortable with direct intervention. You need to gift him Last Exit by Max Gladstone. It’s a book about the death of idealism and the rot that creeps through the cracks of reality like so many corrosively fecund vines. It’s about a generation who thought they would transform the world and failure’s fallout. He’ll still be very DOOM-ful, but in an artistically fun, yet still scary way.

For your brother who is OBSESSED with The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime — via GIPHY

So your brother watched The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime and has fallen down the 14+ book-deep rabbithole that is Robert Jordan’s timeless epic fantasy series. Help him delve even further into the lore with Origins of the Wheel of Time by Michael Livingston! He’ll be able to learn even more about all the mythology and legends that inspired Robert Jordan’s universe and you’ll get some peace and quiet while he’s absorbed in his new book.

For your sister who always has at least 5 open browser tabs of Ao3 fics — via Gfycat

Who among us hasn’t spent some time reading fix-it fics on Ao3? Well, no one compares to your sister, who currently has 30 tabs open on her iPhone filled with her favorite OTP falling in love 30 different ways (IF THE SHOW WON’T GIVE THEM A HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE INTERNET WILL). You can’t buy her the perfect 100 chapter slow burn coffee shop fix-it fic of her OTP, but you CAN buy her Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell! It features all the choicest tropes like mutual pining, slowburn, and fake dating and will be sure to put a smile on her face for the holidays.

For your estranged mother, to subtly let her know that your relationship still requires some Conversations — via GIPHY & tenor

Do you want to give your mother a gift that’s also a hint about how you feel about your tumultuous parental relationship? Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey is the gift for her! It’s got great thriller vibes, with a daughter coming back to her family home for the first time after her father was arrested for being a serial killer…which she kind of caused. And mom’s still holding a grudge over a DECADE later. It’s got drama, monsters, and enough parallels to make your mom go ‘Wait, is this f*cking play about US?!’

For the loved one in your life who waited 2.5 years to finally see My Chemical Romance live in Fall 2022 — @KyleeConriquez via GIPHY

A million years ago (Or two and a half. Whatever. Time is meaningless mush) your loved one planned to attend the My Chemical Romance reunion. A show that would eventually be put off and off and off due to ongoing events until earlier this year. It was epic, but you know what else is? Book of Night by Holly Black. Your loved one won’t have to wait 900~ days for this literary event, and just like an MCR show, they’ll want to acquire (more) goth clothes and tattoos after.

For the childhood BFF everyone called a ‘voracious reader’ growing up / anyone who was ‘a delight to have in class’ — via Goodreads

Did your childhood BFF simply devour every book in front of her? Is she still That Person whose TBR pile is precariously stacked in the corner of her living room, a threat to anyone who brushes too close? Give her a book to really whet her appetite for reading in The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, where a very special family literally sustains themselves entirely by eating books. Did we bite a book while reading this to see if we were book eaters? Who’s to say.

For your college best friend with at least one historical quote tattoo — via GIPHY

Does your college best friend have an encyclopedic knowledge of historical retellings? Do they have, at minimum, one historically linked tattoo that prompts a 20 minute lecture whenever someone asks what it means? Do they have five different editions of The Song of Achilles on their shelf? And most importantly, do they crave a new, queer retelling to sink their teeth into? Look no further! Neon Yang has a Joan of Arc inspired, post-apocalyptic sci-fi story for you. Check out The Genesis of Misery, ​​starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.

For the ambiguously LGBTQ+ niece whose fashion sense you try to understand, but ultimately makes you feel insecure about how fast you’re aging — @yifan via GIPHY

You love them, but no one makes you feel old like your nebulously but definitely queer niece. They’re so cool, and are very helpful in keeping you up to date on the hippest trends, but every time you talk to them, you feel the pent-up years in your joints. Get your niece A. K. Larkwood’s The Serpent Gates series, including The Unspoken Name and The Thousand Eyes. It’s about a gay orc death priestess who rebrands herself as a garbage wizard’s personal assassin and picks up a gods-cursed, magi-baddie mid-adventure. There are cosmic gods, ancient ruins, devious machinations, and a lot of awesome gay stuff.

For the sibling on their third+ rewatch of The Expanse — via GIPHY

We get it. Your sibling buddy is bummed that The Expanse has finished its TV run and is still hopelessly in love with its marriage of adrenaline-flooding action and introspective parsing of human expansion / empire. Again, we do get it, and what you need to get is Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus.

For the nephew who you gifted The Way of Kings to last year — via GIPHY

Your nephew reads through books at speeds generally known only to muscle cars and lightning, and he needs long fantasy books now! The time required to produce the next installment in an epic series is often as long as the books themselves, which is unfortunate since it’s time for you to gift your nephew another book. Here’s the good news: Brandon Sanderson writes as fast as your nephew reads, and his long-awaited continuation of the Mistborn series, The Lost Metal, is the perfect gift. And then next year you can get him the next Brando Sando, and the book cycle of giving goes on and on and on.

We hope you and your loves ones have a happy and safe holiday season! Did we miss a super niche friend/family member that you want to see a gift for? Let us know in the comments! 

[tiffanylamps]

honestly really impressed with the beyond evil casting people because if i saw yjg's cutesy fluff demeanor and overall leaning pretty cute filmography i would not have the wisdom to cast him as juwon opposite shk like how did they even see it? the borderline psychic powers they must have

In response to this post Hey anon!! Thanks for taking the time to message me. You are quite right, they are geniuses. Before Beyond Evil, I hadn't seen any of Yeo Jin Goo's or Shin Ha Kyun's work (I knew Ha Kyun vaguely). So, I had no preconceived notions of who they are as actors or the roles they played prior. Since I finished watching Beyond Evil, I have since seen multiple projects by them but still, I find Beyond Evil to be my favourite (for them both).

With Jin Goo specifically, his long (and still young) career seems to have two main categories: Sageuk or romantic lead in a fantasy drama.

He seems to have a little bit of an issue with being type-cast (not always the rule but there's definitely a pattern). The majority of his filmography isn't to my taste, I find it to be quite cringy (nothing against him or the projects. i just suck at dealing with positive depictions of love. I'm defo the problem here). I still haven't finished Hotel De Luna or Link: Eat, Love, Kill and I really found the romance storyline in The Crowned Clown to be painful (So Woon deserved better). So, I think it's exciting when he plays roles that go against his typecast. Personally, I think Joo Won excels at being unlikeable. He's so good-looking and has a trustworthy demeanour on screen. He's a cute guy (with his face and personality) and it shines through the screen! So when those elements are tested by his character's being a prick/outright evil, it makes him SHINE. I loved him as Han Joo Won and I wanted SO MUCH MORE of him as Yi Heon. He needs to play (another) villain ASAP!!

Also, the fact that he didn't win an award for his work in Beyond Evil or The Crowned Clown is actually a piss-take. Yeo Jin Goo is the best at crying (seriously, how does he do it?? who hurt him???). He's also one of the best at micro-expressions and showing depth to a character's emotional range. I think he's a very intelligent actor, who's not afraid to push his character to the max.

I really hope he pursues more serious drama roles to explore his acting chops in a variety of genres/stories/characters. He's very very good at the romantic male lead and the emotional King. He's sooo good at that. But... I think there's a much wider range there. (he's still super young so there's definitely time for him and his career to grow)

Shin Ha Kyun's career is just a gorgeous display of diversity and range. He's... gosh... that man. I just absolutely adore him.

(^ my reaction to everything I've watched him in. Every time he's on screen, I get sooo giddy like I've got a schoolgirl crush or something)

As for how the production team knew to put them together... Well... From my understanding prior to Beyond Evil, they were both very well-known, very popular actors who have both received acting nominations/awards. So, they both would be desirable to help boost the show's wide-range appeal/popularity. The production company (probably) sent out scripts to many agencies, and then the agencies dished out the scripts to the actors available/ best suited/interested in doing that role. Jin Goo and Ha Kyun were both clearly interested, so they probably auditioned separately and then eventually did a chemistry test... AND BOY DID WE GET LUCKY THAT THEY HAVE ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY.

I think the casting team knew they had something special. (and they were right. not only can they both act their socks off, they understand their characters 100%, and they were both willing to push the boundaries of the role and story.... and they get on and work really well opposite one another)

We got soooo lucky that all the right dots aligned for this show to be made as well as it was. I'm forever grateful!! I hope Yeo Jin Goo and Shin Ha Kyun worked together again- they're special and the world would be such a more lovely place with more of them in it Thanks again for the ask, I'm going to go because my laptop sounds like it's actually taking flight haha Bye!

[wisdomssdaughterr]

so I know people are mad about byler, but how well do you personally think they handled lumax in vol 2? lucas holding max as she tells him she isn’t ready to die really got me. i can’t believe the duffers really *went* there with max, and then threw her in a coma to boot. Honestly I’m just happy she’s alive, but also im worried for the next season. Hoping she’ll be out only for a little bit until el finds her soul or whatever so that she can come back for the rest of it 😭

a little rant ahead so be warned lol

The thing about byler is that I'm mad it didn't happen. I've never really cared if Mike and Will got together. Do I think that would have been an incredible character arc to see two smalltown boys grow into a relationship in a setting where their queerness was never the plot or point of the series, but them fighting monsters together was? Yes 100 percent, yes, but that's not what happened. I think why people are so upset about the way that it all played out, wasn't because byler didn't happen, but because they used a boy who has suffered so much, who has been called a freak his entire life, who feels like a mistake, as a block to prop up a heterosexual relationship. and they didn't even give him the decency of a coming-out scene or to even utter the word gay, or directly state his crush on his best friend. he got nothing and had to sit there while his best friend told his girlfriend that the best day of his life was the night he went missing and Mike found El. I know this was not your question but I just have a lot of thoughts about this.

On to lumax, to which I have even more conflicting feelings. Sadie and Caleb were the MVP of this season, hands down, they deserve all the awards for actually ripping my heart out of my chest. That entire scene of them in the creel house was so good and heartbreaking and gut-wrenching just by their acting alone. The little messages and drawings were too sweet! The thing is about the ending, it felt so needlessly cruel. Max had suffered enough. The scene of her in vol.1, in the mind-world running towards the light of her friends after realizing that she did not want to die, she had something to live for, was so powerful for countless people who have felt that kind of darkness and grief surround them before. It was so hopeful and beautiful to see that. they should have left it at that. I am all for endings that aren't happy, and in all honestly, I expected more deaths and tragedy to come from vol.2, and I was ready for it. But using Max's struggle that she had started to overcome, throwing it back in her face, gouging her eyes out, breaking her bones, and then throwing her into a coma was just so awful. someone else should have died, maybe another one of the kids, out of left field but for a good reason that pushed the plot forward. I'm sure they left her alive for a reason, and she'll come back, but like Jesus Christ, can she really come back from all of that?

[shoceted]

i reeeeeeally don't want to be frustrated by other people not enjoying a thing i like lmao but good god seeing people hate on yanase for... so many things? after this past episode, on viki and on r/boyslove and mdl... and i just truly wonder, like, have these people never experienced impostor syndrome or creative burnout? does that not happen to other people? can anyone else see this or am i just weird????? (under the cut i have a lot of words and feelings about yanase jun you can read them, or don't)

i'm almost reminded of some reactions to cherimaho post episode like... 6-ish? there were all these comments about how adachi doesn't deserve kurosawa and the like — and it was just like... like he has anxiety. have you ever had anxiety. sometimes it makes it hard to accept compliments, let alone love! and similarly — you can be yanase jun, gifted, award-winning, world famous, probably has a wikipedia page, incredibly handsome and successful... and still think you're not good enough. anyone can feel those things. you can have all that and still think lowly of yourself. you can have none of that and still be burnt out and in the throes of self loathing.

him going back to vancouver is literally the opposite of cowardly. he's taking a huge risk here — he could stay in japan, comfortable, doing mediocre work on smaller jobs, safe, not creatively fulfilled at all but safe. or he goes to vancouver and does the dangerous thing — doing bigger jobs and having more opportunities, maybe to fail, but maybe to succeed, too. the yanase of this episode isn't taking risks or doing anything brave and he sure as hell isn't standing up for himself as an artist.

but kaneda is. he's the one who's explaining to benji all the reasons that the temple cgi has to be wood & asking yanase if he can help w/ the market cgi because he knows yanase doesn't actually want to compromise quality for time. and yanase used to be willing to fight like kaneda is, but he's so disillusioned by the industry (how different does this hit btw w/ the news of how marvel's vfx artists are treated?) at this point in the episode that, while it would be brave to fight, yanase doesn't think it's worth it.

but by going to vancouver — yanase has a chance to at least stop being cowardly, and maybe he'll even find his passion again too. kaneda is brave (heh heh get it. because kamen rider. anyway), so yanase is going to try to be brave too — even if it means being away from the person he loves and cares about so much for a year. like that's gonna hurt him like hell. i do not doubt that it is going to hurt him like hell. but overcoming that hurt so that he can be someone he thinks is worthy to be by kaneda's side is just such an act of love that i truly don't get why other people don't see it.

full disclosure as to maybe why i feel so angry about people not understanding this: i have an ex who, when i broke up with them, told me that you don't have to run away to grow. (i was pretty much in yanase's position — burnt out, self-hating, not feeling worthy of their affection, extremely creatively stifled.) and i mean, sometimes, that's true; sometimes running away is the worst thing you can do. but it's pretty damn clear that in the environment of max pictures in japan, yanase jun is being stepped on. if he wants to change and be someone he deems worthy of kaneda yuki, he needs a place where he can grow. so that's where he's headed.

so yeah in conclusion i would literally die for yanase jun, everything he's done in this god damn show makes perfect sense and i am truly tired of pretending otherwise! if you don't like sepakoi it's fine it's whatever just. please. please think a little bit about why characters act the way they do use your brain cells i know you got em, r/boyslove/viki/mdl users. please.

[okay-j-hannah]

hiii did you watch the new season of stranger things? whats your thoughts about it?:)

*SPOILERS* 

Yes, I did watch the new season! I’m a huge horror movie fan and all the spooky themes had me thriving! Overall, I would say it’s a fantastic season, although season 3 might still be my favorite. 

I am going absolutely feral over all the new Steve content. I forgot how much I loved his character - and him still being mama Steve to all the kiddos has me dying. He deserves all the love and support in the world 😭 Not to mention he’s on the lookout for a loving, committed relationship 😍

I was pleasantly surprised by Eddie - I wasn’t sure I’d like him. But after the Chrissy woods scene 🥴 he is the perfect addition. The Nancy, Steve, Robin, and Eddie dynamic is 🔥🔥🔥 I don’t think we will ever recover from his departure. 

I’m also a big fan of the relationship struggles. I was a Nancy and Jonathan supporter in past seasons, but I love how their character development has led them to taking different paths. Of course, it also means that Steve gets the attention 🥰

I kind of struggled with the whole Hopper, Joyce, and Murray storyline. I thought it was incredibly well-acted by David Harbour, but it was hard to see a character I love so much be so different from past seasons. Especially when I was peeing my pants when him and Joyce were going on that date in season 3, but then he had to ✨die✨

But we also got Enzo through that storyline so 🥵

Jonathan being a stoner 👏 Eleven throwing those skates 👏 Lucas caring for Max even after their break up 👏 Suzie being the certified genius 👏 A lake causing Steve to be shirtless 👏 The Hopper and Joyce reunion hug 👏 The twist with Vecna 👏 The Nancy and Robin detective team 👏 Will having more of a storyline outside of the upside-down 👏 The sweet boy from Sweeny Todd being the villain 👏 Caleb, Sadie, and Gaten deserving awards for their performances 👏 

Bottom line - Eddie deserved better. Steve deserves better. Is Max okay?

I am FOR SURE going to be writing some Stranger Things fics now. I am too obsessed with these guys not to. Look out tomorrow for my Stranger Things debut on this blog!

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

caleb mclaughlin and gaten matarazzo deserve All The Awards for eddie and max’s death scenes,, those boys were ACTING.

[dojae-huh]

Even on this blog ive seen fans being very rude abt the way jungwoo acts with be it doyoung or jaehyun but they don’t realise that doyoung still lets jungwoo cling to him and lets him play his jokes on him and with him coz he is aware that jungwoo is still unsure abt the way fans would react to jungwoos jokes or his clinginess or his work

Even haechan who is few years younger told jungwoo he will try to be always be there for him. we have to realise that woo got alot of hate in the existing fandom. To this day ppl keep reminding him he wasn’t really the main member, doyoung was the og member and debuted with nct from day one but jungwoo was not introduced for a long time even though he trained with the nct first 14 boys.

Jungwoo is still a mess in nct content, he tries to be too funny or tries to cling to a member and try to play off their energy. It works if the other member is willing to be controlled and lets jungwoo to push them according to his plan, most times members arent willing and the fans of that said member start to hate jungwoo without any reason. Jungwoo isnt that way irl, taeil, mark and yuta really do enjoy jungwoo’s company and his stupid word play jokes but koreans like more slapstick so jungwoo tries to do what hes not good at and that annoys everyone in the band as they know he's witty.

Jaehyun doesnt hate jungwoo, hes safe but jungwoo is agressive both in his love and his need for recognition in fandom, the boy might be the popular one in korean public but he still gets alot of hate in the kfandom and even ifandom. Jungwoo being the way he is gets hurt by the hate he gets.

P.S. doyoung never babies members for more then a year at max so jungwoo still getting away with being babied should indicate how much woo gets hurt and how much doyoung wants him get the respect he deserves.

I might not really think he sounds good in 127 songs but the boys is an excellent idol, he can sing well and gives his all to the dances too.

Doyoung was the OG member of NCT, he was in Rookies Show, he performed (with U songs) alongside others in 2016, but when it's 127 unit's anniversary he asks fans to forgive him for celebrating 6 years (instead of 5,5). Doyoung received an award few days after joining 127, an award that the unit won because of Firetruck and the first EP. Doyoung was in the position Jungwoo, SungTaro and the newest 3 neos are. He even said to them to not be burdened by "coming when NCT is already popular" and that he wanted to teach them the ropes for them to not go through the same troubles he and older neos went.

Jungwoo had a hiatus for half a year, most probably due to a mental breakdown. Doyoung returned to taking care of him after Woo's return.

I find Jungwoo's attempts at being funny cringy, but I also find him capable of witty word play. I agree he is struggling with the balance, but it is very hard for him. He isn't a main singer or a main dancer, fans like him for being a cute puppy and for being funny, or so he thinks, so he is afraid to lose it. He said it himself, he is afraid of not being funny before the camera.

Neos like Jungwoo, they easily forgive him his mistakes, broken promises, it means that despite his flaws he is very nice.

[natashxromanovf]

luckily for you i'm still in my stranger things era so i have all the tea

the byler script so like there was a script that came out, and it was basically the van scene and everyone was freaking out because while will was confessing he was thinking about how he was stupid and how he hated himself...the duffer brothers confirmed that the script was fake so we were all screaming crying and throwing up for nothing

eddie and his fans there's two different sides to this but imma be talking about the ones who don't deserved to be attacked so you know how in fandom people will sing songs and cosplay and shit at cons and on social media??? well naturally of course, people, mostly eddie stans, are doing that because that's what you do in fandoms. well, now people are calling this "cringey" and basically hating on cosplayers n shit, even tho it is not deserved in the slightest. and it's extra funny because they claim to love eddie but make fun of his fans for doing shit that he would probably do??? make it make sense

whatever the fuck the name of the award show is it's award season i guess and recently there was this show (can't remeber what they name is) that released their nominations, and everyone BUT caleb got nominations, including joeseph. like you cannot sit here and tell me he did not do some of the best acting this season??? i swear this has to be racist somehow

meg + natalia "beef" this is one of the stupider things on the list but natalia was on jimmy fallon and megan thee stallion was helping with the interview or something?? idk i haven't watched it yet, but people were upset because she kept asking questions about steve and jonathan but like...be mad at the people who wrote the questions not meg??? and then there was footage of natalia and meg at meg's album release and people were saying that meg was making her uncomfortable even tho it was pretty fucking clear that it was the cameras not meg...and meg literally told them to go away??? this fandom is weird istg

that's about all i can think about now but i'm sure there's more bullshit going on somewhere in the fandom

wow. that is a lot of drama.

OH lmaoo poor people. at least i never saw it, so i didn't cry for nothing, thank god. but really, poor anyone who cried over a fake script

i actually heard of that one and is probably the only one from here i actually know and i just want to say that eddie is the kind of person that would do that/that would support that. idk why people can't just let people live.

caleb did some AMAZING scenes this season. the scene where max "dies"? that shit was the most heartbreaking scene i have ever seen and it's mostly because of caleb's acting. the "erica help" improvised line shook me to my core and made the whole scene more heartbreaking than it already was and i'm still not over it till this day. so if anyone deserves an award, it's caleb. this is the one i knew absolutely nothing about but if everyone else was nominated except caleb that i agree with you, it must be racism or it has to do something with racism. that or everyone who picks these nominations is blind af which i don't believe.

i also saw one video about that and i agree with the whole "why tf does she only get questions about her love interests" but also why would people be mad at meg?? she literally just read what someone else wrote.

[parttimereporter]

The Emmy awards prove that they are out of touch and meaningless

Let’s start by being brutally honest: the Emmys in the Oscars and the Grammys don’t matter anymore. They are all 20th century relics. Their usefulness has run their course, and there from a time and place when pop-culture was given to us instead of us choosing what we wanted..

But there still is a bit of beauty in the dying arts of awards. And when we know that someone in a movie or a TV show or on an album really deserves an award and recognition for their performance, then getting that said award seems very justified.

Fast forward to today… the Emmy’s have gone upside down!

“Stranger Things” Season 4 garnered 13 Primetime Emmy nominations on Tuesday.

Emmy Nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, but acting nods for Sadie Sink and Millie Bobby Brown were not among them. The two “Stranger Things” stars were submitted in the supporting actress in a drama series category, but those eight noms instead went to Patricia Arquette (“Severance”), Julia Garner (“Ozark”), Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”), Christina Ricci (“Yellowjackets”), Rhea Seehorn (“Better Call Saul”), J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession”), Sarah Snook (“Succession”) and Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria”).

For those who have seen season four of Stranger Things, it can be arguably said that Sadie Sink carried the program. Yes, Millie Bobby Brown was amazing. Other than the cast for as well. But each and every time that Sadie appeared as Max on screen, the emotions would run high and her acting was impeccable.

And with these award nominations snubbing them both, it showcases how dramatically out of touch the Emmys are. And, it makes a mockery of their process.

[squatsteader]

SQUATSTEADER NEWS: My novel THE REVELATOR is DONE!

And, on to lesser reportage...

WE WON!

And almost as importantly, there's still a chance we seize control of the senate. 2 Georgia seats  are going into runoff phase, so YET ANOTHER election gears up almost immediately. Make calls for these 2 dems!

We deserve a day f celebration. But the election didnt go the way most expected. All pollsters are hereby FIRED. They get a pass for last election, which was razpr thin, but missing half a dozen senate and congressional seats, no excuse. From now on there should be a big red warning whenever news outlets show us polls, WARNING TOTAL BULLSHIT.

BUT HAY, WE GOT AMERICA'S FAVORITE PSYCHOPATH out of office, (secret service will have to drag him out of the oval office, where for decades tour guides will point to scratches on the burnished oakwood floors and say, "that's Disaster Don Trumps fingernail trail"

GOOD. FUCKING. RIDDANCE. Lets all hope he ends up in a super max.

What to do with the 405 OF THE VOTING REPUBLIC that put him in office and almost did a repeat? Hope they fall into a sinkhole, or something. There's really no excuse voting for someone who vilifies Muslims, tares refugee kids away from moms, then lies about it. And lies and lies and lies.

I NEVER WANT TO HEAR HIS NASALLY WHINEY VOICE. AGAIN.

On to other world changing and amazing news:

My latest novel, THE REVELATOR, at 250000 words, (thats a lot of friggn words believe me, my personal record) IS DONE.

HERES THE QUERY. Anyone who needs help writing a query, dont ask me, I fucking hate queries. they suck. How do you jam 580 pages into one and a half? How how how...

I tagged on the 1st ten pages as well.

Greetings Ms X.

I truly appreciate the time and investment you are making in considering representing me and most especially the Novel in question, The Revelator, a literary work at 250 k. That you represent Mr Cantu', and was successful in publishing The Line Becomes a River, makes me feel that I'd be at home with you as my agent. I value Cantu's work, as well as the excellent Midnight on the Line, as the two most important modern works on the border. Ive worked and lived in the region for years, and based a novella trilogy and novel on the region, and into Chihuahua and the Sierra Madre.

My novel The Revelator, a literary work at 250 k pages, is also founded upon a rich cultural legacy, that of the Caribbean and southern Colonies of 18th century America.

The heart of this tale begins with the boy Garret, press ganged onto an English slaving ship, the Dolphin. During a vicious storm off the coast of Guinea, he crouches above the padlocked hatch to the hold below, where several hundred Africans await their fate; death by drowning, or a chance to survive, if the boy smashes that lock, with the ball peen hammer clutched in his fist.

Directing and acting in the performance art theatre group Los Angeles Poverty Dept enabled me to develop a unique voice,The LAPD is a rough and ready troupe of homeless folks (including myself for a time), actors, artists and students. We were NEA supported, and received the Tony Award.

My travels along the Caribbean rim through Honduras and a bit of Guatemala also added a cultural honesty to The Revelator. Allow me like to thank Fito, a Garifuna elder, for providing me hammock space in his sea side bar, just outside La Ceiba, Honduras. I like to think the Garifuna and other Native American groups live and breathe in the pages of The Revelator.

A rich cast of escaped African slaves also find voice in this novel. A native American confederacy under the leadership of the enigmatic prophet Ghost Eye, committed to retake their lands, form an alliance with, among others, absconded indentured servants, pirates and revolutionaries. All combine to fight under the banner of Tierra Libre, or, the Freelanders who set aflame a revolution throughout North America.

The Revelator is, in part, an exploration of American violence brought about by slavery. Our protagonist, Garret, is split into two timelines, one of today, one of yesteryear. After an assault, resulting in a concussion, today’s Garret embarks on a rampage of killing centering on young black men and boys. Hunted and eventually arrested by African American detective Det. Grimes, Garret is found guilty and sentenced to death in Texas. Housed on death row beside the one time urban guerrilla Cochise Teages, who was convicted (possibly erroneously) for killing an FBI agent during a no knock raid, the two begin an unlikely friendship. Garret mumbles and speaks in odd accents late at night. Teages hears, and soon is recording multiple voices emanating from Garrets cell.

I have published in the online Poetry Journal The Nervous Breakdown, and have won numerous Awards for fiction and poetry in the online workshop Zootrope. I also blog at Tumblr under the handle Squatsteader. This blog is a primarily for urban homesteading and gardening, though post fiction and poetry as well.

Again, much thanks for your time and energy. Included below is 10 pages from The Revelator

Yours, D Halenda

cell 415. 200 8551

dskiko@yahoo.com

The Revelator

chap 1

The victims. 2018, United States of America

The concrete owns a stain outside Lupe’s Liquors. A blackened, oily shadow in repose. The death chalk not yet traced about that place where his soul was last earthbound, before vacating, diffusing, upwards into the sky. Desmond ‘Luciano’ Stiggs. Born 1989. Kill # 3. South side Tucson Arizona. Mother, Bertha. Father unknown.

Mario Williams. Age 17. The outline of yellow chalk reveals a babe curled about its own form, not in his mothers belly, but the concrete, the tomb of his most sudden death.  Austin Texas kill # 1. 2616 S Congress st.,  on the property of The Comanche Hills apartments.

Darl Mose. Age 16. slumped against the brick wall of Mobis Cafe, Phoenix Az. Mouth gapes as if his jaw has been unhinged. Beneath, his throat laid open, gouts of blood soaking his hoodie, his jeans, the pavement beneath. Kill # 14.

His girlfriend, Mariposa Marquez, weeps beside him, his son in her belly, listening, not yet fathoming the world in   which he will soon emerge. Yet surely sensing by his carriers frantic heartbeat, not is all well.

Lavon ‘lil Detroit’ Boyd. Age 14. Emergency room, st Theresa the Martyr Hospital, room number 16 E.  Houston, Texas. A metal object having been shoved into the back of his skull, into the cerebellum. he survives solely by life support. Within three days, his step mother and sister will agree by signature to allow   ‘nature to take its course’. As the victim's brain damage is massive, and would otherwise remain in a vegetative state for the remainder of his time, here, on this planet. 

The Stepmother weeps  squatting beside the coffee machine, alone.  The janitor mopping the floor ignores her, swivels his bucket to another quadrant of his workplace. Her son if not by flesh then by love. Something caves inside her chest. She freezes, silently, enduring. It is a physical thing , grief. It catches you, in the neck, in the throat. It squeezes you in the dark of night, refusing to release its grip. Othertimes grief itself is a ghost, hidden, yet drowning one in a listless, thoughtless blank.

The shit eating grin of Demetrius Green, trumpet in hand, behind polished glass and framed by plastic blooms of every genus, all white. The white of death in India, his mother says to the heated air before her, the crowds of distant relatives shoving food into their mouths, mumbling lowly, to her they were wooden machines, maniquins, jerked here and there by dangled strings, dictates of funeral formality. Her voice was every bit as dead as her son lying in the coffin five feet away from her.

That aint him, that aint Dem, that aint my son. That a thing. 

Just a ...thing.

She closes her eyes as if under her lids some respite might be found of this horror. But stamped upon those lids another border shone as if lit from within, the yellow border of chalk, in a zig zag down the steps of their apartment house, where he’d been stabbed. The ritual of funerals and murder scene investigations became a blur to her. 

Her only son. D didn’t hang out with the neighborhood click, he’d kept himself clean, was set to graduate with honors, from the LA County School of The Arts. His crime had been to hang out with a cousin, who’d just been upped in the hood as its major shot caller, at the age of nineteen. 

Towns, you motha fucka. I told you to keep clear. Keep clear of my boy. 

Towns had something to do with it, she was certain. Maybe whoever killed her baby mistook him for Towns. Because her boy D had shot up like a weed after a summer rain, from the goofy 11 year old in the school picture, to a long, lean and unbearably clumsy six feet something. Where as Towns had gone into sports, then crime, D had gone to music, taking to it ironically, like Towns’ daddy, who played with the biggest jazz men in the city. Before dropping to the H and finally a slab in the morgue. 

Just like where you should be Towns! She screams loudly. Not my boy, not my D….not Demetrie

The parlor freezes.  An unknown mannequin sits beside her, its wooden hand clasping her own. My boy. His music, the tone as pure as a dream of heaven itself, clean as a Mississippi sky after a thunderstorm. From where her kin came, after Africa...My boy.

She’d taken extra work, cleaning houses, doing accounting for neighborhood shops, to buy him the horn, a used pawn shop relic, its bell dented, rusted. A valve that stuck. But even with that old thing of tin and rusted brass his sound was golden.  

Golden. Until the school president himself gifted him a Bach Stradevarious, with its  bell of solid silver. And his tone ranged so high, into heaven, like honey. My honey. I know I embarrass you no end. My baby. How you used to flee from my hugs, cause you didnt want to be the moma’s boy. But you were. You were my boy. And now you are nothing. No...thing. Or just a thing. No more music, no more runnen off from me. A stiff piece of bad work from the cheap assed  mortician what charged her an arm and a leg...for this. This aint my child. No. No sir. 

  chap 1  

1752 off the coast of Benin, Africa

In a screaming wind rent with sheets of  rain slamming into the the ships and sailors bodies, our  gang-pressed boy of Scottish blood stands sprawl legged, right hand gripping the hemp rope rigging, left clutching a pall-peen hammer, trying to fathom what the 2nd mate, at his side, is screaming at him. Through the howl of wind and a rain driving down upon them verily like a waterspout tilted upside down, he cannot even hear the man’s voice, much less discern any meaning at all. But between bouts of the rain he sees the man clutching a massive padlock hung from the hasps screwed into the porthole’s frame, the one which imprisons nearly two hundred sweating sickness and dying Africans, in the hold below. He studies the mans face, mouth agape, teeth a yellowed and blackened nightmare. He raises the hammer, sweeps the rain from his eyes, and freezes. A swell takes the ship, tosses it aside like an enraged toddler might fling his toy boat out from  his tub, and the water drives across young Garret, up to his waist. He steadies himself against the ripping force of the water, hammer gripped, hammer raised, frozen in the moment of falling upon that very padlock. Having considered through an entire night this very act , the two sides of the coin, whether to free a hold of chained Africans that would surely kill he and the rest of the crew, or doom them to their own deaths.

***************************************

Roll the dice, toss the bones. The old spanish peseta. Ones and zeroes. Does he strike the lock, unleashing a series of events whipping through the future like a lightning clad snake, or will the next swell take him,  washing him from the ship, tearing away the grip of the hammer, never then, to find purchase for his own survival? While those men women and children below will sink to the blacklands at sea’s bottom. Food for crabs, groupers, eels.

The particle flashes forward at lightspeed, separates, into two particles, identical twins, yet still twinned by what mystery of gravitational force, invisible, undetectable...

Toss the bones 'pon the hide over the clay ground, old skin  stiff as an oak shingle left in the sun. Birthing sack which once carried a like-twined soul in its momma's belly.  Let the bones fall ‘pon that old placenta, gaming board of what may come to pass, and let the speaking spirits have their say, by knuckle or toe, coccyx, molar or fang. By common gambling dice. By cards whose faces were born from the dreams of soothsayers, then painted on their blank pigs hide rectangles by an old deaf mute,  so now let them rain down like old time orations torn from  the good book, and the sayings from the grannies n aunties goin all the way back to   Africa, the gold coast, from the highlands of Scotland and the old Celtic clans of Ireland, of the high plains and deserts and eastern woodlands of America,  and we'll see as to your future. As to your seed as well, and what blood may survive into the abyss ahead, to the next epoch and the next, sewn into the realms of time as recorded by those long passed to clay, to the underworld.

Chap 2

Ash to Huntsville  Deathrow 2017

Her  drive was fraught with rain and sleet, sheets of Atlantic weather unending, surging, retreating to drizzle at times, then heaving back with still greater ferocity.

She cherished such road adventures generally, even when they involved her work, though the Knoxville city traffic’s quagmire leading into interstate 75 aggravated her,  so that she took to the back roads. And now she was lost. Somewhere in the swamps and pine barrens of east Texas, or was it still Arkansas? The rain had followed her all the way down, along the eastern range of the Appalachians, her family’s home for generations, and into the deep south, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas. 

And though she was born and raised in the  south she was still struck by the differences between her ‘neck of the woods’ and that of the Dixie states in general. Her folks, tho maybe a bit more restrained, had never held to the glory days of the gentry, the planters and their culture, and the ugly twin that shadowed them always, slavery. Certainly there was racism round her neighborhood. She grew up with the spooky tales of blacks in ghettos  rampaging through those big cities  outside the mountains. But truth be told, her family’s history, and of those hill-folk in general, was a good deal different from the south through which those mountains ran. For the most part, geography dictated that large plantation  operations weren’t feasible in the roil of sandstone and slate and granite that broke up from the flats how many millions of years ago. True enough, tobacco was a cash crop which grew in profusion in the mountain valleys, but not on the scale of tidewater Virginia or the rice, indigo and cotton of the lowlands of the Carolinas. So that, slavery was never really operational in the environs round about Knoxville and other mountain towns. Most folk,  Scotch Irish generally,  that settled the mountains were in fact  indentured servants ‘on the lam’ from brutal labor of their own on the plantations of the south or the early factories , weaving and furniture making, gun smithing and such,  of the north. Many, including herself up to the age of 13, had never so much a laid eyes on a black man. 

Garret Francis McComas, clearly an avowed racist with a deep and destructive hatred of black folk, was born  not an hours drive from her, in the Town of Wise, Va.  Claims were made,  that had begun as rumors among the prison guard, that strange voices were emanating from Garrets cell.  And that such reports of the voices, heard by the guards on shift, evidently issued from this single pale, frail and pale skinned killer,   had percolated out to state psychologists and therapists. Those tasked both with determining the felons mental state thus culpability in Capital offense crimes, especially inmates condemned to death by the state….. it was in short, all in all quite troubling.   And did not fit into the escape proof steel alloy parameters of their governmental mission specifications.

Rumor had it mongst the inmates that visions came to him  as he lay on the metal bedframe in cell #544 in the Texas state penitentiary, Polunsky Unit, death row, thirteen miles north of  Huntsville. Waiting patiently and most would say utterly resignedly, for  his end by means of lethal injection. And tho Dr Ash didn’t hold to state sanctioned murder, if anyone short of say, Mengele or Pol Pot deserved it, then Garrett Clark McComas was your man. Sixteen dead, all young men, some still yet juveniles,every single victim black, the last three, and still counting some claimed, had been burned after succumbing to multiple stab wounds.  Evidently he’d soaked them with a flammable agent, then tossed a lit napkin upon their supine forms. And more perplexing even,  many claims were made by several inmates regarding his magic powers, and healing hands, without even touching as no contact was allowed, and the ability to predict a number of the inmates futures. But Mr McComas denied emphatically any such gifts. Indeed, it is said that he himself questions his own sanity regarding these ‘hallucinations’, as he deems them. 

It would be her task, under the exegesis of the state sponsored defense team of said inmate, to  determine his mental capacity, among other, more troubling, more haunting questions, in which she and a very select few specialized. Not including those experts hired at top dollar to track down ghosts and vampires in what reality show of the moment which plagued the television airwaves. 

[bllsbailey]

The DOJ Is Moving to Drop Its Fraud Case Against Dish. The Timing Is Interesting.

They cannot be this transparent with this move, right? Despite its actions to the contrary, the Department of Justice has long defended its reputation as an independent institution. Attorney General Merrick Garland described the DOJ staffers as an army of patriots when everyone saw them as Democratic Party operatives. 

DOJ officials have gone after journalists, like Steve Baker, for his reports on January 6 that shred the Justice Department’s narrative. FBI agents have targeted pro-life activists. The Justice Department was working to cook up a sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden until that got nuked by the whistleblower testimonies of Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley, two IRS agents who alleged pervasive interference from the DOJ in their investigations. The pair were looking into Hunter Biden’s tax crimes. The image of the DOJ is kaput for half the country, so it shouldn’t be shocking that the years-long fraud case facing Dish Network appears to be getting tossed after its founder dropped a six-figure donation to help get Biden re-elected (via NY Post) [emphasis mine]: 

The Justice Department took the rare step earlier this month of moving to dismiss a $3.3 billion civil fraud lawsuit against Dish Network — months after founder Charlie Ergen and his wife donated more than $113,000 to President Biden’s re-election campaign late last year.  Ergen, a former professional poker player who helped launch what was then called EchoStar Communications in 1980, has battled the federal fraud claim for nearly a decade.  But the Tennessee native saw his luck change shortly after he and spouse Candy contributed $100,000 to Biden’s super PAC and maxed out with matching $6,600 donations to the president’s principal campaign committee in December, according to campaign finance filings.  This past January, Dish nabbed a $50 million grant from the administration to help expand 5G coverage nationwide — the “largest award” of its kind, the company crowed — through a $1.5 billion fund created by the CHIPS and Science Act.  The move to dismiss the case scrapped plans to depose the Ergens about their knowledge of the allegedly fraudulent scheme, prompting Vermont Telephone’s attorneys to accuse the Justice Department of political interference. […]  This month, Ergen was also appointed to a presidential trade and investment mission to the Philippines after the White House announced a partnership with the nation for expanding access to 5G coverage more than a year ago.  Despite having angered the FCC in the past with its slow wireless buildout, Ergen has become potentially vital for the Biden-Harris administration’s modernization efforts due to Dish’s Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) technologies. 

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Joe Biden is more shameless than the Clintons—and that’s saying something. He’s used the DOJ as his own personal gestapo, all but admitting that he’s angry at Merrick Garland for moving too slow on the trials against former President Donald Trump, which he hoped to exploit for political gain. Biden is a dirty old man. Nothing more, though with failing memory issues, as we saw when it was reported that he can’t remember when Beau died.

We deserve answers on why the DOJ let this lengthy fraud case go after the Ergens left a fat check for Biden. We know the reason, but I'd like to see it under the DOJ letterhead. 

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