#on top of that it really bums me out when things like this become mainstream and suddenly you’re a loser for liking it

[deathsweetblossoms]

Last time we had a writers strike, Pushing Daises got the axe. While thinking about this, I realized the ACOTAR show might suffer a similar fate.

..

..

If I speak.

[mysewingadventures]

Historical Accuracy of Costumes in Period Films - Enola Holmes

Disclaimer: I will put no spoilers so you can still read if you haven't seen the movie yet! This post is just me assessing the costumes and their historical accuracy.

First of all, since the movie came out I had already heard a lot about it in just those two days that I was very curious to see if it lived up to the hype and it truly did! It's well-made with round characters and a gripping story line. But enough about the movie, let's get on to the costumes.

The movie is set in 1884, and at first I thought she was born in 84 (because of the intro) so I did like a third of the movie thinking the costumes were outdated until I looked at a closeup of a newspaper and realized that it is set in 84, so yay for me. But anyways, here are the facts.

Enola is 16 years old, therefore considered a child/young woman in society and would be wearing children's clothing but we'll get to that later

There aren't many examples of children's clothing from that time so I'll have to refer to the few fashion plates that I can find.

This blue dress from the beginning of the film has basically everything one would expect from the very end of the 19th century, but not necessarily the 1880s. The loose front is a very end-of-the-century, more so even Edwardian thing, and from the fashion plates and magazines I could find it seems that children's clothing was heavily inspired by adult fashion. It has a very low waistline and is overall very straight. Enola's dress looks more 1900 except for the fitted sleeves which are accurate for the period. And the collar looks completely out of place. But, of course there’s always a but, this is just taking mainstream fashion into account. The Aesthetic Dress movement took place in the 1880s and the dresses would have looked somewhat similar to this one, with a loosely fitted front but they also had puffier sleeves, so it’s like they took some details from different movements and also took some inspiration from the Edwardians and put them all together in a dress.

Another thing I would like to add, (hence the advert - I had to make collages to fit 10 pictures in this post) I am not sure as it doesn't fit her character at all but she looks corseted in those pictures (I added the first one specifically because I think you're able to see the outline of a corset? Faintly?). Depending on your age and status and your parents' plans for you (aka if they wanted you to get married at 16), teens of that age would either wear a corset or not. But taking Enola's upbringing into account and it was rather uncommon for a 16 year old to be wearing a corset, not unseen but uncommon, I'd say that if the costume department decided to put Millie in a corset in that particular scene is historically inaccurate. There were corsets for young women/teens, but they didn't give you that extreme hourglass shape, they were straighter and didn't give you a tiny waist, like the bottom right one in this corset advert. Unfortunately, I could not find out when it's from but it should be somewhat close to the 1880s.

Next up, I would like to say that the length of the skirt they chose for Millie to wear is appropriate for a 16 year old! Unlike what we saw on Anne with an E...

At one point we get a look at her undergarments and they're looking fine for the time! The chemise and the drawers, she's obviously not wearing any petticoats as she's being measured but we saw a glimpse of a petticoat when she was riding a bike in an earlier scene so yes, this part is accurate.

Next up, I'd like to talk about this lady and her dress is just amazing, fashion plate worthy and absolutely accurate, I have nothing bad to say about this.

What I noticed overall in the movie was that the bustles weren't as extreme as I would have expected them to be, but it all had to do with personal preference so it's not necessarily historically inaccurate to see more lowkey bustles. But I didn't see one bustle that was just crazy in today's eyes so maybe they could have improved on that but I'm just nitpicking at this point. Or maybe I've just gotten so used to seeing old clothes that nothing shocks me anymore.

Here we can see some crinolines being sold and judging from their width they are somewhat outdated.

They could pass as maybe early 1870s if not even 1860s.

Now Enola wants to become a lady, so she has to wear adult clothes! Here, she goes into a shop and puts on her clothing. We can see here how poorly fitted the corset is; the lacing gap should be parallel but you can see in the mirror how it gets smaller towards the bottom. Maybe it was done unintentionally but maybe it's just supposed to show that ready-to-wear corsets just weren't made for the person buying them. But in that same scene, we finally get a proper bustle! That's historical accuracy right there!

Next up is her iconic red gown.

Now... I had a little bit of trouble with that one. The skirt is a little wide in my eyes, but the overall shape and cut is fine, with that layer draping over her underskirt. However, her neckline is something you wouldn't typically see. You see other characters wear high necklines, so I don't know why they chose to give this dress almost an evening wear look. V-necks did exist in evening wear, but then again they would be paired with frilly short sleeves and not tight fitting day wear sleeves. So all in all, yes, the dress is accurate but the neckline is uncommon.

Next, we have what is probably the most accurate one of her costumes – the mourning gown.

It's slimmer than the red one and there are so many examples of extant garments on google pictures that look so similar to hers that I'm just gonna say, excellent job!

Next is my favorite despite the neckline problem. She just looks so pretty in it!

The neckline isn't as low as on the red one but still quite uncommon. Another detail you can see in the second picture is that she seems to be wearing a bum pad instead of a bustle, which I think is acceptable. It's slim, it has a layer that drapes over the underskirt in the front, and even the sleeves are a little bit gathered at the top which was very common.

And lastly, we have this white dress where she goes back to the style she wore at the beginning of the movie.

And once again, just like I said in the beginning, this is not something you’d really see being worn in that time unless we’re talking about the Aesthetic Dress and now the sleeves aren’t as fitted so it makes sense for the movement, plus it’s kept very simple.

Overall you can say they did a fairly good job at making everything historically accurate but took some artistic liberties here and there, just like you would expect from a movie.

[whotgirl-whomie]

Get to Know Me

I was tagged by @catgifsinthesenate Thanks!

Like, I never get anons so this a chance to flex my personality, or something like that.  

Name: Gregory, but people call me Greg 

Gender: Cis Male

Star sign: Aquarius

Height: 5′11.5 (but we’ll round up and say 6′)

Birthday: Jan 31st (which is really soon...)

Favourite (non-mainstream) bands: Years & Years, Tank and the Bangas, Chloe x Halle, Daft Punk, and the Internet

Favourite (non-mainstream) solo artists: Labrinth, Tinashe, FKA Twigs, Rina Sawayama, and KAMAUU

Song stuck in my head: Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry

Last movie: Your Name Engraved Herein

Last show: Wandavision on Disney+

When did I make this blog: I..don’t recall, I’m horrible with time...

Last thing I googled: Jung’s analytic psychology

Other blogs: There is an NSFW blog from when I first started on here, but I don’t really maintain or update it.  It’s just reblogs of stuff that I thought was hot.

Do I get asks: Not really, I go get mutuals who’ll message me from time to time though so that keeps me from getting too bummed out.

Why I chose this URL: I wanted a name that embodied what I wanted my little Tumblr world to be.

Following: About 150 of my favorite internet people

Average hours of sleep: According to Fitbit, I’m averaging about 7 hours/week, but that includes days where I sleep 3 hours and days where I crash for 12 hours because I pulled an all-nighter.

Lucky number: 55378008, because I am a man-child

Instruments: The closest thing that I have to instrumentality is this golden (bronze) voice.  

What I’m wearing: Grey sweatpants and some Adidas slides

Dream job: I’ve always wanted to own and operate a holistic wellness center but I think that I’d like to be a mental health consultant as well.

Dream trip: I would very much love to see the Aurora Borealis.  I know they’re just lights but...

Favourite food: Sushi

Nationality: I was born in the US

Favourite songs (this week): Mama Saturn by Tanarelle, Pink Purple Blues by Hether, I’ll Keep you Safe by sagan, I Don’t Feel Like Me by Talulah Ruby, and Work by Charlotte Day Wilson

Last book I read: Zen in the Book of Archery by Eugene Herrigel, but before that I was reading Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Top three fictional world worlds to live: The Good Place ( a world in which I get to become by best self by trial and error), Life is Strange Universe (a world of budding miracles, reactions, and responsibilities), and Sense8 (a world in which I might have been born to a cluster, never alone)

I’ll tag @particularj, @nikosvsuniverse, @heartgemsona, @historical-gays and @business-pug because...reasons

[aaubaseballexperience]

Will Diezemann’s AAU Experience

One afternoon during the summer of 2007, as his dad was flipping through channels, the NESN broadcasting channel came on showcasing the Boston Red Sox playing the New York Yankees. Young Peabody Massachusetts native, Will Diezemann’s eyes were glued to the screen as he was captivated by the amazing sport of baseball. Little did anyone know, the next 14 years of Diezemann’s life would involve an ever growing passion for the sport, a countless number of games and practices, and a successful career within the sport of baseball.

Coming from a very athletic family, there was no question as to whether or not Diezemann would be playing a sport throughout his childhood. In fact, with his above average height growing up, he participated in both baseball and basketball. However, baseball was his passion. When he wasn’t throwing a ball around with his dad in the backyard or taking swings off a tee, he was watching the pros play on TV, watching MLB network or reading a book on the beloved game. It is safe to say that even at such a young age, Diezemann lived and breathed baseball.

After developing his fundamental skills in tee-ball and little league, Diezemann tried out for his middle school team, which was a huge jump in level of competition. Unsurprisingly, Diezemann was already a natural and made the middle school junior varsity team with ease. He would finish out the season with success at the plate and playing first-base for the team, with a few games in the pitching position. The summer of that same year in 2012, Diezemann enrolled in the Antonelli AAU baseball program for an opportunity to play ball throughout the summer. While he was indeed given this opportunity, he was also given strict coaching and training, which he took well too and found helpful towards developing his skills. Spending at least two to three days a week practicing for two hours each, Diezemann made the most of his time while within the Antonelli program. It definitely paid off because the next season of school baseball, Diezemann would make the middle school varsity team as a starter, batting fourth in the lineup.

After each school season all the way through high school, Diezemann would spend his winters training and his summers playing for the Antonelli AAU team, developing his talent and working harder and harder each season to achieve his dream of playing college baseball. Diezemann would eventually achieve his goal and was being recruited as a pitcher and first baseman with a great bat by many Division II schools. However, in the spring of 2017, just before Diezemann would enter college, he suffered a very costly injury by tearing both his ACL and MCL during a local competitive summer league game. He then endured lengthy recovery, all of which had a large impact on Diezemann’s ability to play the sport he loved and unfortunately forced him to give up on his dream.

~Interview with Will Diezemann~

Q: How did you become interested in the sport of baseball?

A: Yeah, so I became interested in baseball at a very young age through watching games with my dad and that's actually how I first discovered the sport. I was a big fan of the Red Sox and was always eager to throw the ball around outside with my dad and just learn more and more about the game through him and TV. I think baseball was easy for me to like largely because of my dad who usually had the games on during the spring and summer you know when he got home from work, it was one of our many bonding opportunities, especially when we got to practice throwing and hitting outside in the backyard. I was hooked from a very young age and definitely remember it pretty much being my entire life.

Q: What drew you to want to play AAU baseball?

A: Yeah, so after like little league and that stuff, I tried out for middle school baseball and was placed on the junior varsity which at the time was a total disappointment to me. I wanted to be the best and greatest player to ever have gone to the school and was eager to make a varsity spot [middle school], but it didn't work out that way and I remember being really bummed about it. After getting over that whole thing, I had a good season on JV [middle school team] and found out about AAU baseball through some teammates. At the time I didn’t even know what AAU stood for or what it had to do with baseball, but after mentioning it to my dad he explained what it would entail such as the more vigorous training and coaching and I told him that I would be interested in doing it like my teammates were. Then my dad signed me up for the Antonelli AAU baseball program and I was placed on a team made up of other kids my age from various surrounding towns. So I guess basically my teammates from school ball drew me to wanting to play AAU baseball, technically. Other than that, it was just another opportunity for me to play the sport I loved and I was all about it.  

Q: What were your first impressions of AAU baseball with Antonelli?

A: Honestly, I was extremely nervous. There were alot of older bigger kids because the program offers its services to 11 year olds all the way through to 18 year olds, so I was pretty intimidated. I was also nervous about not really knowing anybody, at school I knew all my teammates because I had been friends with them or had gone to school with them for the past how ever many years, but this was completely different and I only knew a few kids from my school team, but yeah it was definitely a new experience and I did not really know what to expect. On the other hand I remember thinking about how different of an atmosphere it was when it came to competitiveness and the general seriousness that surrounded the facility and the coaches. It was definitely not a place to mess around and you could tell that they were always in like a serious no BS mindset, so that was somewhat new to me as well. Regardless, I was excited to have the opportunity to play even more baseball and didn’t have any problems getting into the swing of things, no pun intended.

Q: How do you feel AAU baseball improved your skills and abilities?

A: Yeah definitely, so AAU was very like hands on coaching, and there was a lot more attention on you as a player during the winter practices preparing for the summer season. These winter practices were geared towards just getting repetitions and defining your skills whether that be changing your pitching approach or adjusting something in your swing when you bat. On top of that, you are always under the eye of your coaches around you who were available to show you something to work on or where they think you could improve. So yeah, while I was in AAU I personally got a lot of coaching on my swing and pitching and was able to physically see a change for the better in my playing abilities and continued working at them. Yeah, I feel like school coaches were more geared towards managing the team and making the crucial decisions needed to have the best chances at winning whereas AAU coaches did all that but also focused on each individual player trying to teach and train them to succeed in the sport. I can most certainly say that AAU baseball had a far larger role in allowing me to get better at the sport and work on my skills.

Q: What did AAU baseball teach you about the game of baseball?

A: I think AAU baseball taught me a lot about the sort of unwritten rules and mannerisms of the game. You know, baseball is a game of respect and that's something that I learned in AAU, like how to treat teammates, opponents, coaches and I think it even taught me just some life lessons in general. I do believe respect is a big one though, sports in general revolve around respect for the game and the others who are playing it, but yeah I think AAU was responsible for teaching me the kind of respect that is expected in the sport of baseball and I also think that the baseball and the lessons that I have taken away from it have actually played a role in molding some of my own personal values that I hold today, so that is another reason why baseball is important to me.  

Q: How do you think your involvement within AAU baseball further your career beyond high school?

A: Yeah so obviously like I have been talking about, AAU really allowed me to learn more about the game and myself as a player, while also giving me the opportunity to hone in on my skills and develop my abilities, which I think alone played a large role for the further success I probably would of had if I didn’t injure myself. Secondly, my AAU team helped me out and all of their players with reaching out to college coaches, creating recruitment videos, and setting up tournaments and invitationals so that interested college coaches could see us play in person. So that was a huge help in allowing me to further my success beyond college, even though I didn’t quite make it to that point. My coaches really showed a lot of effort in doing everything they could to get me to the next level of baseball which I am very appreciative of, but yeah I think just the general experience of AAU baseball and everything it entails really gave me all the right tools to further my game.    

Q: From a general standpoint, do you believe that AAU baseball is necessary for future career success such as making it on a collegiate level?

A: Oh yeah I definitely do, it's pretty much crucial to future success not only in baseball but many other sports as well. It's becoming very mainstream and while technically it's not impossible to get into a collegiate program without having any experience within AAU, you don’t tend to see that happen very often. Like I was talking about earlier AAU baseball just offers a lot more than school ball does in terms of actually coaching their players and improving their abilities. In fact I don’t think I have met anyone who has made it to the collegiate level who didn’t play within an AAU program. Nowadays almost every kid who has a strong enough interest in baseball plays AAU and I honestly think that anyone who is trying to play collegiate ball without any experience in AAU might find themselves having a hard time doing so, just my personal opinion. Just kinda the reality of the sport nowadays.

Q: Do you believe that you learned more from your AAU baseball teams than your school ones?

A: Yeah absolutely, like I mentioned before school baseball was great and all and did indeed teach me a few things, but when compared to what I got out of AAU baseball it's not a very fair fight. Again, school I felt like was more for winning and the success of the team whereas AAU baseball had the same goals, but spent more focus on the individual player development and success.  

Q: Can you talk a little about your career ending injury?

A: Yeah, so the spring before entering college, 2017 I think, I was playing in one of those like local town leagues, but they were still competitive, not like a beer league or anything. We were playing on a turf field and it's really easy to over slide on those fields, and in the process of running and sliding into second, my metal cleat got stuck in the base, but due to the turf being so slippery, I kept sliding and my leg just bent in a bad way, and I ended up tearing both my MLC and ACL. Not a fun time at all.  

Q: How was the recovery process?

A: Brutal. It was terrible and I hated every second of it, mostly because of the fact that I spent that whole summer and then some recovering from my injury. I also think I somewhat rushed the recovery process and tried to get back to normal too fast, which just resulted in me taking longer to recover which really started to make the reality of playing college ball slim. At one point I just realized that I didn't have what I used to before my injury and just kinda expected it, I’m still grateful for the game though and watch it every chance I get.  

Q: What is your fondest memory of AAU baseball and why is it still close to you today?

A: Oh jeez, huh yeah there are quite a few of them. I’ll give you two, the first one was winning a pretty large tournament that went over the span of 3 weeks, where 8 teams competed for the title and we ended up winning the whole thing and just celebrating that with my teammates and coaches was a really great moment. The other one, which is the complete opposite in nature was my last game with my AAU team. We were playing in a similar tournament to the one I just explained and we ended up losing in the semi-finals. So yeah this was pretty heartbreaking cause I knew it would be my last game in AAU ball with my team, so it was kinda sad to realize that it would be the last time I’d be playing with those guys who I have gotten really close to over the years, but it was very bittersweet because I was happy about who I had become through AAU baseball as player and an individual and was excited for the future, up until my injury of course.

Q: What specifically did you find to be the most valuable lessons within AAU baseball?

A: Aside from all of those like physical lessons that I just mentioned, one of the most valuable lessons I took away from AAU was how to stay motivated and reach your goals. I wasn’t the perfect player by any means when I entered the Antonelli program so I had some things to work on, but through the coaching staff I was able to learn how to set goals for myself, and how to create structured plans and objectives that would ultimately allow me to achieve my goals. Practicing this method and staying determined allowed me to see change which then resulted in success and since then I have been applying this system to almost every aspect in my life such as school. You know, I think this was probably the most valuable lesson I got out of AAU just because it has really allowed me to find motivation in everything I do and use that motivation to plan out my success and then one day hopefully achieving the goals I set out for myself. Yeah, to say that I learned all that from AAU baseball and hearing myself saying out loud right now is pretty amazing to me, but yeah I can confidently say that AAU baseball was a very special experience and taught me a lot outside of baseball as well.

[breakingmllc]

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CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND THIS IS GOING THIS IS WATER ON ALL THE Sharks I'M Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry Vintage T Shirt PLANETS ARE ALL THE MOONS IT’S VERY VERY PREVALENT SO THE OPPOSITE THAT WE’VE BEEN TAUGHT THE WATER DOESN’T EXIST IS WRONG SO I THINK THIS’LL BECOME MORE MORE MAINSTREAM INFORMATION AS TIME GOES BY NIGHT I SINGLENESS OUT THIS TIME I CAROL BECAUSE. Victory how would his relationship with Dr Melfi play out what he walk away from the life altogether we get answers to some of these questions Dr Melfi cut them off when she realizes Tony is a lost causeand Tony does not walk away from the life the final scene in the show takes place at a diner where Tony scheduled to meet his family for a regular dinner Carmela shows up his daughter has some difficulty parking we noticed that several of the other patrons in the diner are acting kind of suspiciousand giving Tony decide I journeys don’t stop believing increases in volume to the point that it’s almost overwhelming is really dissonant dark comedic tone seen as buildingand building intentionand then cuts to blackand that is the end of the Sopranosand as came from 12 years later the loss will be one angry creator David Chase knew how is going toand for a while saying no one was trying to be audacious honest to God we did what we thought we had to do no one was trying to blow people’s minds are thinking wow this will piss him off people get the impression that you’re trying to fuck with themand it’s not true I actually really like the ending of the Sopranos I think it works both thematicallyand dramatically Tony might’ve died in a moment cut black or he may just have had a boring dinner but as long as he stuck in that life he’ll always be living on a knife’s edge going to do differently with the little things but the Sopranos set the stage for memorable endingand another lesson was learned here the wrong one in my opinion a memorable even controversial ending is the same as a good one service also merits discussion here because fans in recent years have had a much more active role in shaping media typically the longer thing goes the more fan service gets jammed in the keep people engagedand not all fan services bad one of the positive changes from the books of the fight between Breannaand the hound in season 430 to what she in the book the hound goes down from blood raising from a stupid wound he gets in a bar fight but in the show you have two characters both care about fighting over aria to the death Lake was involved in a big no no my children screaming so click gain bull dog nightand best gain bowl is was abandoned the that combine both bookand a lot of Internet mean cultureand the burning desire to see this giant man to be asked of this other giant man revenge fight so epic that it would rock the foundations of Western’s itself you will see the hound looks the way he doesand is afraid of fire because brother the mountain shoved his face into a fire when they were kidsand ever since then he’s wanting some revenge for thatand some other things all about that revenge is really really needs that mountain that ride Satan is a live eights in the hound for memorable list once revenge yesterday itself was a lot of fineand we got everything is a plot point it down through down one not only is the mountain functionally dead by this point like overand Martel killed himand what we have now is basically just a mindless zombie that does whatever Circe says but to the books make it pretty clear that Sandor is finally at peace with himselfand his need for revenge Georgia room being mistaken for justice is a big thing in the booksand we will get to that later his art wasn’t about getting revenge it was about moving past the show. On the masses they are the same as the same yes now the so called Iris didn’t bonding America day ago people this is okay gonna do it is divide and conquer as his finest the oldest trick in the book Anatolia America is all about that that’s what they about that you don’t have to ask when you see the callout of flags what’s wrong to be fair is what works for tourism is not here we go with our service is a look at these people and they gonna bring that all your people you never get it to Seth Scholl daft to bring the so called black people to talk about it because a so called Iris is black and these people is fighting for black people you believe it on TV fake that if you take them as black people are fighting for you dumbass tall steel is like she was born American dream is born in Oakland California and how stainless work bloodstream MRI to the bloodstream and pay attention people remember the election is so called November watch out for the drama that gonna come with it under divide and conquer what

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I love a Sharks I'M Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry Vintage T Shirt couple of them in a different attorney I was presented the hike across the modulesand now you chop a sheet tool to have Sal down almost hundred 30 confronting his faceand boosting his confidence will finding new ways to get highs wanting the minister to in Tony Strickland. WARNS OF THE HUNDRED AND 11 PRICE INCREASE FOR CALIFORNIA AND THIS IS BECAUSE IN CALIFORNIA THEIR DRIVERS ARE BEING RULED AS EMPLOYEES IN THE NEXT AND GOOBER WANTS TO BE THE NEW AMAZON OF TRANSPORTATION AND THIS IS OBVIOUSLY AS SOME OF THE STUFF FOR THE PANDEMIC IS WIPED OUT A LOT OF THEIR CORE BUSINESS. There there there rate like a furiousand fast seminar now that in the top six highest grossing all is called the dominating meaning I am not going to the moon anybody that loves these movies they don’t do it for me but hey there making me a ton of money they’re gonna keep coming great prior to the Caribbean guilty pleasure mine wanted to see this weekend that I have to pirate my own Duffy ship insteadand I have some wine on that little vesseland not an crap line like sharks out there he goes back painfullyand I’m in the bayand so I did see some seals because I think the running away or so tell no tales it’s going to make its moneyand a lot of money I think they watch with you that they watch as I think it’s good you well overseas because of the brand Baywatch was like I was more popular overseas they watch was David Hasselhoff treasure all over the worldand in Germany ready toand then you have the rock so I think it’s going to do well the rock took on moving man’s on Twitter insane is such an obvious the movie man’s going in with his box office a report in the rock said listen brother we still have some international markets is going to open a lot like all over the world see how it does for me know it is a lean covenant dropping 71 I wonder now if Ridley Scott is going to get to finish his he is swinging for the fences with this thing I really admire Prometheus I really enjoyed the movieand I admired that he was still going for with alienand that’s where that movie fell apart for me because shoehorning those aliens in there with that story he’s telling the creation datedand what he’s doing there with Michael Fassbender’s character I’m very interested to see the conclusion that story the box office results tell me that might not happen bummed out about a lean covenant you know I’m I’m sorry that all of you sci fi horror fans are not going to go see this movie because it really is worth seeing in the theater mean what whatever you care about whether you hated Prometheus or like you don’t like alien love alien I think it’s a fun horror film I think is a lot of the things that Scott Mr like he doesn’t deal enough to cover the bases for the people who loved Prometheus he drops a lot of those thingsand brings back a link is if you like however was crying about alien I thought that thing was you know what I like to say was toaster burnt his way like saying I is a very weird way of freezing it on but the look at to see a drop 71 is kind of a bummer because the movement takes risks sound afraid to be differentand has a very cool storyline I thinkand there’s a lot of you know there’s some holes as Pottle’s guess what this bigger plot holes in the fastand the dumb thing you could possibly ever imagine I just made 1 billion does kind of embarrassing that the movie going public is so constantly cracking on a garbage he type of film which really literally is just like a bunch of cool starts in some dumb guysand family 1 million times nothing meaninglessand stupid it was of the tries to make something that has a little bit of some kind of storyline was up low visit everyone who complained pride about that movie I think Matthewand now I need to fasten See Other related products: unicorn shirts and shirt

[dreamspeardreams]

Royal Rumble 2017 Predictions

This post will detail the storylines leading into all the matches for the Royal Rumble 2017 card, as well as my predictions for these matches.

Pre-Show:

Cesaro and Sheamus(c) vs. The Club (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) for the RAW Tag-Team Titles in a ‘two referees are present’ match Why this match is on the Pre-Show I have no idea. This is a fantastic match to have to open the show. Anyway, Cesaro and Sheamus are fantastic as a team. They were a great choice for the team to end The New Days reign, and their dynamic is something fresh that we haven’t seen for a while. These two started off having a best-of-seven series, the last match of which was incredible and have since found their footing as a tag team. The Club is one of my favourite tag teams at the moment in WWE, their music is great, their aesthetic is great, their promo skills (particularly Anderson) when not being fed crap like the Old Day is great, and their in-ring work in incredible due to the massive amount of time they spent in Japan. Before Sheamus and Cesaro emerged, these guys were my pick to end New Day’s tag title reign. This match is mostly a simple title match. There have been some shenanigans the past few weeks in their singles matches, and particularly in their title match where The Club won the titles before Cesaro and Sheamus were disqualified for attacking the ref and retained the titles.

My Pick: The Club (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson).  Cesaro and Sheamus’ animosity hasn’t been played up in recent weeks, so I don’t think this will factor much into them losing the match, however the dominance the club has displayed recently leads me to think that they would just look weak to not win cleanly here. With two refs it is harder to have a dusty finish, and as such I think Cesaro and Sheamus will drop the titles here, although I could see these guys continuing the feud until Mania.

Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks Nia Jax made a statement by legitmately injuring Bayley and denying her her rematch against Asuka, taking the spot at TakeOver: The End. She lost to Asuka and since coming to the main roster has been booked as a monster heel. She’s strong, but she’s still very much a B player to the top of the RAW women’s roster. Sasha Banks just got out of an incredible feud with Charlotte for the Women’s title, which saw the belt swap back and forth between them. She’s an incredible wrestler, often taking cues from Eddie Gurerro, and she’s great on the mic too. She has an injured knee going into this match, a remnant of her last match with Charlotte. Sasha has been off for a few weeks with an injury, and recently Nia Jax attacked Sasha’s knee during a performance review, and beat her in a tag match which saw Sasha compete with the knee broken. Nia wants to make a statement and Sasha wants to prove that she can still put up a fight even when she’s hurt.

My Pick: Nia Jax. Sasha doesn’t lose a whole lot by eating a pin here, she’s got a bum leg, she’s just come off an intense feud with Charlotte and she’s recuperating. Nia has a lot to gain however. She started out taking on jobbers and hasn’t had a meaningful feud with anyone at the top of the card yet, so taking down Sasha would be a good rub for her.

Alexa Bliss, Mickie James and Natalya vs. Becky Lynch, Nikkia Bella and Naomi in a 6-woman tag match This match is one that should definitely be on the pre-show. There’s nothing at stake, no side really loses in a 6-man tag and no story here is probably going to be advanced. The only real story going into this is Mickie James’ return. On the go-home show she cut a pretty good promo aligning herself with Alexa Bliss, who has been feuding with Becky ever since she took Becky’s title. Naomi also wants a shot at the title, and Nikki Bella and Natalya are in an ongoing feud. 

My Pick: Alexa Bliss, Mickie James and Natalya. I think the heel team will take this as a showcase of Mickie James. We saw that she is still very good in the ring in her match against Asuka at TakeOver Toronto, but the mainstream crowd has yet to see her compete after her return. Establishing Mickie James and Alexa Bliss as a dominant duo will do well for the story, and give them both good heat.

Main Card:

Rich Swann(c) vs. Neville for the Cruiserweight Championship Rich Swann was a great choice to take the title in the debut episode of 205Live. He has a fun gimmick and can give a decent promo, though he still needs a little work in that department. Neville is an incredible performer in the ring, and recently with his heel turn has become the single best thing about the Cruiserweight division. I’d never seen Neville’s promo ability while he was playing face, but he has a perfect face to be a heel and his accent compliments it stellarly. His claim to be the King of the Cruiserweights is founded on solid ground. Neville has been absolutely devastating the Cruiserweight division as of late. He has taken down both former champions TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick, and I don’t think he has lost a match since his turn. Rich Swann has been booked strong, but personally I think his time is up as champion for now.

My Pick: Neville. This is the closest thing to a lock on this card. Neville has been so strong recently, and he absolutely needs to win this in order to keep looking strong. If anyone can manage to look realistic as they take his title, it will be an amazing rub for them. Bonus points if he comes out next week wearing the belt around his head like a crown.

Charlotte Flair(c) vs. Bayley for the RAW Women’s Championship Charlotte has been a dominant heel ever since she won the diva’s title. She has a 15 PPV-win streak, was the other half of the amazing feud with Sasha Banks, and is great in all respects. Bayley is the most relatable person on the roster right now. Super over with the fans, and an adorable gimmick and promo style, she’s definitely next in line for this title. The lead-up to this match involved Bayley getting a few wins over Charlotte while she was still feuding with Sasha, and taking a claim to the title now that Sasha has stepped out of the picture. Charlotte has been tormenting Bayley recently about her life-long fandom of the WWE, and Bayley has been getting super over because of it.

My Pick: Charlotte Flair. Charlotte should continue her PPV winning streak here. This is Bayley’s first match for the title, and she still needs to earn her win in the eyes of the fans (even though she’s one of the best on the entire roster). This makes a lot more sense for Bayley to lose to Charlotte until Wrestlemania where she can finally break the Queen’s winning streak and have a huge Wrestlemania moment that is great for every fan as well.

Kevin Owens (c) vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship in a ‘Chris Jericho Suspended above the ring in a Shark Cage, No Disqualification’ match Kevin Owens has been champion since shortly after Finn Balor vacated the title due to injury right after Summerslam. He won it in a Fatal 4-Way with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Big Cass, as Triple H handed him the title. Since Battleground he’s been best friends with Chris Jericho and the two have been a nearly unstoppable duo, with Jericho helping Owens win most of his title matches through interference. Roman Reigns recently lost his US championship to Chris Jericho, putting him in prime position to reclaim the top belt on RAW. After his suspension just before Battleground he seemed to get somewhat de-pushed, but now he’s back at the top of the card and ready to headline shows once again. The story leading into this match has been long and slow, although not without it’s interesting moments. Before Reigns, Rollins was gunning for Owens’ title, and before the stipulation of this match being a No-DQ match, I was certain Roman was going to win. The only reason I can see them having added the No-DQ match is to protect Roman if he loses. Two world title changes in one show is a lot. Even though the Rumble is one of WWE’s big four, it’s not Wrestlemania so I find it hard to believe both title’s will change hands. This is something of a tough call.

My Pick: Kevin Owens. I think there’s enough working against Roman that he could conceivably lose this match. Chris Jericho can definitely interfere now that the match is No-DQ, and they might be wanting to save Roman’s title win for Mania. I can however absolutely see Roman winning this as well.

AJ Styles(c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship AJ Styles has had one of the best first years of anyone in WWE. He wrestled Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania, competed for the WWE Title soon after, then entered into a program with Cena, beat him clean at Summerslam, and has since been the WWE Champion. John Cena is the institution of WWE, and the clear heel in this feud. He has been showing AJ major disrespect and not giving the fans any reason to cheer him, apart from his long heritage in the company, and his entertaining in-ring work. This match came about with Cena coming back and simply saying he wanted a title shot. Getting the title here means he would tie Ric Flair’s record for the most World Championship reigns, which would allow him to easily break it at a later date, and Cena having the title gives him a lot of options for people to feud with if someone from Smackdown wins the Rumble.

My Pick: John Cena. When in doubt, always bet on Cena because Cena wins. I’d love to see AJ carry the belt til Mania, but his reign has been long enough for a first reign for a guy of his caliber. This is a huge toss-up, I could see Cena wanting his big win to come at Wrestlemania, but I can also see him wanting to take the belt now, which would make the Rumble pretty special. Either way this should be a great match.

The Royal Rumble Match: First, here’s the list of confirmed entrants: Goldberg Brock Lesnar Big E Kofi Kingston Xavier Woods Chris Jericho Braun Strowman Baron Corbin The Undertaker (not assigned to one brand) Dean Ambrose (second time entering both the Royal Rumble PPV and the Royal Rumble match as IC Champion) The Miz Dolph Ziggler Cesaro Sheamus Bray Wyatt Randy Orton Luke Harper Big Show Sami Zayn (recently took Seth Rollins’ entry into the Rumble) Big Cass Rusev Mojo Rawley (Won a Battle Royale on Smackdown Live this past week)

There are 8 spots which have yet to be claimed, and all of the NXT roster is reportedly going to be backstage for the show.

I have a few predictions here.

Unnanounced Entrants: Tye Dillinger (at number 10) Samoa Joe Pete Dunne Bo Dallas Cedric Alexander R-Truth/Goldust James Ellsworth Heath Slater

Winner: Samoa Joe. I think this would be a fantastic rub for Samoa Joe, debuting at the top of the company, headlining Wrestlemania, and most importantly I really want it to happen.

5 People I’d be okay with winning otherwise: Sami Zayn: This would simply be incredible. Sami can have a great match with anyone at the top of the card, and hearing his music play at the end of the show as he points to the Wrestlemania sign would be an incredible feel-good moment. Bray Wyatt: This only works if he continues in his feud against Randy Orton. Orton winning the Rumble would also be good, but would likely mean that Orton would take the title off him at Mania, and I’d prefer to see the huge blow-off of Wyatt and Orton (which will definitely happen at Mania) to be for the title, and for Bray to take it on the grandest stage on them all. Chris Jericho: This answer also has a caveat, and it will never happen, but I’d love if he continued in his planned feud with Kevin Owens, and they feuded for the US Title in the Main Event, perhaps if they even had a Title vs. Title match where the winner becomes a dual Champion if Owens keeps the Universal title until then. The Undertaker: The Undertaker has some many fantastic oppurtunities for great matches at Wrestlemania. He could feud with Cena for the belt, or with AJ or even Samoa Joe if he wins the WWE Championship. The other huge possibility is him facing off against Finn Balor, which would be an incredible supernatural-off, and with Finn being such a great worker this match could be gold, especially if Finn takes the Universal Championship back right after the Rumble. I hope he doesn’t win if he’s going to feud with Reigns however. Baron Corbin: Lastly, Baron Corbin. I think this could be the start an interesting push for Corbin. I don’t know if he could realistically challenge for the title and have anyone believe he would win, against guys like Cena and AJ, he’s still slightly below their level, however it would be a very interesting turn to say the least.

Let me know what you guys think of the Rumble and I’ll see you on Monday with a recap and results.

[aion-rsa]

The Teleprompter Interview: Michael Smiley ‘I Still Get Recognised Most for Tyres in Spaced’

https://ift.tt/2ZrgAxt

‘When somebody decides to call a character Brock Blennerhassett,’ says Michael Smiley, ‘you think, well, that hasn’t just come off the top of your head, there must be something going on there!’ What’s going on with Blennerhassett, his lead role in new darkly comic Victorian drama Dead Still, is strange, timely and layered, says Smiley.

Dead Still, available in the UK now to stream on Acorn TV, is ‘a dark, funny, proper period drama set in Dublin in Victorian times’ Smiley explains. His character Blennerhassett is part of the Anglo-Irish landed gentry who’s broken away to work in the experimental field of memorial photography, taking pictures of posed corpses for bereaved families. ‘That was a big thing in Victorian times because of the British Empire being in mourning after Prince Albert died.’

The series blends a murder mystery with gallows humour and colonial Irish politics. ‘All of those slightly dark times have been cast in with the Empire,’ says Smiley, who’s hoping for a second series. ‘The whole concept has legs.’

A frequent collaborator with writer-director Ben Wheatley, a comedian and star of indie cinema, with mainstream roles in Luther, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Black Mirror, Doctor Who and Spaced, Michael Smiley talks Den of Geek through his TV memories.

Which TV show inspired you to start acting?

I wasn’t inspired to start acting. I wasn’t one of those people. Anybody on television or in the cinema were from another planet, it wasn’t for the likes of me. I was a working class kid from a housing estate on the outskirts of Belfast, it wasn’t like my parents said [English accent] ‘You should go on the stage young man!’ That wasn’t my life. It was a beautiful mistake that I ended up with the career that I’ve got.

But I grew up on Play for Today. I was allowed to stay up and watch it with my dad when I was a kid. It was the first time that I came across Alan Bleasdale’s work. He was a major influence, that was the first time I’d really seen the working class being represented in the best way, warts and all. Then I went backwards and watched A Taste of Honey and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, I became obsessed with kitchen sink drama. The closest we had to it in Northern Ireland was the Billy plays, the Billy trilogy [by Graham Reed] which was Kenneth Branagh’s debut with James Ellis, about a working class family in Belfast.

And how about as a comedian? Did you watch stand-ups on television growing up?

Again, there wasn’t much stand-up on TV apart from The Comedians, just fat blokes talking about Pakistanis and Irish, ‘stupid Irishmen’ and stuff like that, I didn’t enjoy that.

I enjoyed collecting jokes and being able to tell a joke, having a repertoire. I would collect jokes and tell them in the playground and we’d swap jokes then we’d go home and tell them to our parents.

As far as stand-up on the TV, the first time I really saw any would have been Billy Connolly Bites Yer Bum and the first Richard Pryor one, Live in Concert, where he’s wearing the red silk shirt and Robin Williams Live at the Met, they were the three big ones.

When you were telling those jokes in the playground, did you ever pretend to be TV characters?

Yeah, I used to do Rigsby, I used to do [Rising Damp’s] Leonard Rossiter. [Does a very passable Rigsby impression] I had a very limited repertoire, so I would pretty much do Rigsby over and over.

And I was called Monty Python, that was another big thing. I got The Life of Brian on audiotape, so then I knew all the jokes in that, then when I saw it I was really disappointed in the film [laughs] because I loved the cassette.

Read more

Movies

Ben Mendelsohn and Michael Smiley interview: Black Sea

By Brendon Connelly

Movies

Kill List review

By Michael Leader

Have any TV shows given you nightmares?

I was allowed to stay up and watch the old Hammer Horror when I was a kid, the ones with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and I got a few nightmares off that. Nothing else to be honest. The news in Northern Ireland when I was a kid was enough of a nightmare.

And when did you last cry watching television?

I’m always crying to be honest. In all seriousness, the last time I cried was the documentary on Grenfell, and everything about George Floyd. Without taking it too deep and too dark for this interview, that made me cry with exasperation and frustration.

But also I love The Repair Shop. I watched it when it was on BBC Two late afternoon, it was sort of like an out-of-work actor’s little secret thing. I really love that. I normally shed a tear at a woman bringing in a present that her father made her who’s just died, those things always make me cry.

When did you last laugh out loud watching television?

When I was a kid, we were a big one for cartoons. Droopy was a big family favourite and Foghorn Leghorn. I would laugh out loud watching my da laugh out loud, things like Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Spike Milligan and stuff like that was the laugh out loud stuff in our house.

Also, recently, we’ve become a big family of Friday Night Dinner fans, that’s a family favourite. We’ll sit down and watch episode after episode after episode. My nine-year-old daughter has become obsessed with Jim, played by Mark Heap, he’s a hero of hers. She does her version. She gets up and does her little impressions of Jim, which just reminds me of me being a kid doing my impressions of Rigsby [laughs].

What was the last TV show you recommended to a friend?

Things like The Wire would always be something that I’d recommend. Friday Night Dinner is something I’ve recommended.

I like these stupid programmes, real life programmes as opposed to getting involved in box-sets or watching lots on Netflix. I’ll watch The Dog Rescuers with Alan Davies over and over again.

A thing I really love is A House Through Time, with David Olusoga. He’s a great presenter, I love how he presents himself on screen. He’s got a real keenness about him and you can tell he’s quietly obsessed with the subject. He’s great on camera and I love the concept of tracing the history of the families and the stories that went through a building. I’m always banging on about that.

Also, anything with [chef and writer] Anthony Bourdain, God rest his soul. I really love his stuff. On Netflix recently there’s his last series before he died so I’d recommend that too.

Which TV show would you bring back from the dead?

Boys from the Blackstuff. It’s Bleasdale at his best. I saw it when it was ‘The Black Stuff’, which was a Play for Today, and then they made a series out of it. It’s about Liverpool in the 70s and 80s when it was really poor and it was being strangled by the government and getting no funding and everybody was on the dole and it was about how these people kept living and how they tried to find work. It was the first time you’d see people like Julie Walters, for example, Bernard Hill and Michael Angelis, who died recently, just really great actors. I’d like to see a reprisal of that. I would like to see how they’ve done over the years.

Does that answer the next question of which TV show do you wish more people would watch?

I’d say so, yeah.

How about something from your own back catalogue that you feel deserves more attention than it got at the time?

Free Fire. I don’t think enough people saw Free Fire. There’s a little short that I’ve done ages ago, called Believe (watch it here), which is by Paul Wright and Kate Dickie and Paul Hickey are in it. I play a guy whose wife dies and she makes him all these tapes to help him with her passing and he believes he’s going to see her again. I wish more people had seen that because it was the start of Paul Wright’s career as a director.

I also loved Bleak House [2005] and I would have loved a second series of Murder Prevention, which is a cop drama I did on Channel 5 that only got one series but it got loads of good reviews.

And I’d like Sean Lock to do another series of 15 Storeys High.

That’s a good call. Speaking of old shows, we had the 20th anniversary of Spaced last year. What did the part of Tyres mean to you?

Tyres was, of all my characters, probably my most iconic. Tyres is the one, 20 years later, that I still get recognised for the most. It’s a generational thing.

That’s what kicked it off for me. I was really blessed that my TV debut was written for me and it was pretty much written about me – I was an acid house DJ who was also a cycle courier. Me and Simon [Pegg] and Nick [Frost] lived together, so our characters were organic, in the sense of using aspects of our real lives and putting them on the characters on screen. It was a blessing, not many people get that sort of a break.

We knew it was good, but it came out at the same time as a lot of other quality comedy. It’s had such a loyal following, the Spaced fans are all over, they come from everywhere, they’re like Doctor Who fans. It’s really great.

It was fun because it was new. It was new for everybody that was on it. Edgar [Wright, director] was just a wee lad and Nick had never acted before, Simon had done stand-up but didn’t exactly have a massive career at that time, he was only starting out. There was a real exuberance and excitement and it felt like ‘God, we’re having a great time. This is brilliant.’ It had a lovely energy of being young and everything being new, that’s what I remember about it.

Have you ever done fancy dress as a TV character?

The short answer is no. I hate fancy dress. People who turn up to parties in fancy dress… just fucking get a conversation going, let’s just talk, stop fucking standing like some dickhead projecting ‘Tonight I’m the Pirates of the Caribbean!’ No you’re not, you’re Nigel from IT. Let’s talk about IT, Nigel. It drives me insane.

You’ve just reminded me of those dickheads who run alongside the riders in the Tour de France, I want to kill them. It’s all become wrapped up in stag dos and blokes being blokey and having blokey times, you know, rugby blokey blokes all dressed up like women, wearing makeup and wearing those green all-in-one unitards, oh just go away man, honestly!

Is there a TV theme song that you know all the words to?

There’s a couple! They’re all of my generation – The Hair Bear Bunch, Top Cat and The Pink Panther. [Sings] ‘In the wonderland zoo we’re the certain bears who stay at home every night, never quarrel or fight, and we don’t even bite! Help help here come the bears! Help help here come the bears! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch!’

You don’t remember them?

A little bit before my time.

[Sings louder] ‘Top Cat! The indisputable leader of the gang. He’s a boss, he’s a VIP he’s a championship, he’s the most tip top beedleyboop Top Cat!’

Have you watched those with your own kids?

Yeah we love it. They don’t love The Hair Bear Bunch because I think you had to be there. They love The Pink Panther and they love Top Cat. We watch all my old ones with them whether they like it or not.

Given the power, which TV show would you commission? Maybe another series of Dead Still?

Dead Still series two, there you go!

What was the most fun you’ve had making television?

Dead Still was fantastic. As dark as the subject matter was, the humour was there all the time. Weirdly, Kill List was one of the funniest films I’ve ever worked on.

Dead Still was hard work but we laughed and danced every day. I always love to go back to work in Northern Ireland. The banter’s blistering. We take no prisoners over there. Everyone works hard, they’re just dedicated and love to laugh as well. That’s a really important ingredient if you’re going to tell stories, it should be with a joy. We’re privileged to do this job so let’s be kind to each other and crack on.

Dead Still is streaming now on Acorn TV (UK)

The post The Teleprompter Interview: Michael Smiley ‘I Still Get Recognised Most for Tyres in Spaced’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Zpm7Vt

[salfordelim]

Here are the songs I’ve picked to reflect some of the themes of this week’s scripture from Acts chapter 6 and some of the ways this scripture speaks in to our current context. I hope you find them helpful.

‘Hymn of the Holy Spirit’ by Pat Barrett

It’s interesting that Luke writes the apostles chose seven men who were ‘full of the Spirit and wisdom’ to fulfil the task of administering the distribution of food to widows. Why did they need to be full of the Holy Spirit in order to carry out what, at first glance, seems like a simple administrative task? 

Perhaps, the question reveals more about the tendency to see preaching, prayer and evangelism as the ‘really spiritual’ tasks and serving food and drinks as somehow less important? 

The apostles didn’t delegate because they saw it as being less important but because they knew that they couldn’t do everything; that the community has different gifts in order to serve God’s mission and the common good. Some are called to be preachers, some prayer ‘warriors’, some mercy givers, some administrators etc.

The distribution of food to the needy was one of the main foundations of the Christian community but it wasn’t a new thing; it had always been there in God’s law and the Old Testament prophets often criticised Israel for fulfilling their religious duties but neglecting the poor. This is hypocrisy and it is offensive to God. 

I chose this simple song because it is a prayer that our attitudes and actions will be guided by the Holy Spirit. I want to be ‘full of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit’! It’s a prayer we should never get tired of praying. 

Holy Spirit, guide my vision Help me see the way You see Always Jesus, ever Jesus Christ in all is Christ in me

You’re the light, You’re my path You’re the shepherd of my soul All I am, All I have Holy Spirit, lead me on

‘No Outsiders’ by Rend

There are so many in our society who may feel like outsiders; those on benefits, the BAME community, the LGBT community, the elderly, the disabled – the list goes on. 

In this week’s small passage of scripture, it was the ‘Hellenist’ widows (the Greek-Speaking Jews). Not only did they have to rely on the handouts of the Christian community but they also felt they were being given less than the ‘insiders’; the Aramaic speaking widows. It was a precarious situation which could have really damaged the reputation of the church and the integrity of the gospel message. Thankfully, the apostles addressed it by delegating responsibility to a small group of believers who would ensure long-standing prejudice didn’t win the day. 

This song reminds us that, whatever our life circumstances, we too were once ‘outsiders’, alienated from a God who longed for us to come in to a relationship with him. And, it took the invitation of a Christian, an ‘insider’, to help us cross the threshold in to the community of faith. Thank God for those who played that role for us and may we do the same for others. There are no outsiders in God’s family. 

There are no outsiders to Your love We are all welcome, there’s grace enough When I have wandered Lord, your cross is the open door There are no outsiders I’m not an outsider to Your love

‘Vagabonds’ by Stuart Townsend

This is one of those rare Christian songs which I can imagine being sung in bars as much as in churches; it’s infectious rhythm and swaying groove which makes you want to stomp a beer glass (or a communion receptacle – depending on your preference!) and its sing-a-long melody draws you in. It’s the lyrics though that really hit home. Stuart reminds us that God’s welcome should include ‘accusers’ and ‘abusers’ as well as those just searching for meaning in life. It’s a picture of the richness of God’s kingdom but it’s also a challenge for us to ensure we extend the warmest of welcomes to those society might rather ignore. 

Come those who worry ‘bout houses and money, And all those who don’t have a care in the world; From every station and orientation, The helpless, the hopeless, the young and the old.

Come to the feast, there is room at the table. Come let us meet in this place. With the King of all kindness who welcomes us in, With the wonder of love, and the power of grace. The wonder of the love, and the power of grace.

‘Like a Rolling Stone’ by Bob Dylan

Following the week where Marcus Rashford has helped bring the issue of hunger poverty back in to the spotlight, as usual, the critics have taken the opportunity to respond with insensitive and spiteful comments such as people should ‘budget before they breed’. Apart from the hurt some of these comments can cause, they reveal an ignorance and a blindness to the fact that any one of us could be plunged in to the mercy of others by one change in their circumstances such as the loss of a job or, like the widows in this week’s scripture, the death of the main ‘breadwinner’ in the house. 

Bob Dylan’s classic tells that story; the story of someone who sneered at the poor and judged them until, they found themselves in their shoes, having to look in to the eyes of another homeless person and ‘make a deal’. 

It’s so easy to judge and stigmatise others who are living a life we haven’t lived. Marcus Rashford knew what it was like to go hungry as a child, despite his Mum working full time on a minimum wage to try and put food on the table. He has ‘walked a mile in those shoes’. 

May God help us to understand the plight of others and to show the grace and compassion he did. 

Once upon a time you dressed so fine Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you? People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’ You thought they were all kidding you You used to laugh about Everybody that was hanging out Now you don’t talk so loud Now you don’t seem so proud About having to be scrounging your next meal

How does it feel, how does it feel? To be without a home Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

‘Still Human, Still Here’ by Ian Peacock

Still Human by Ian Peacock

Saturday the 20th of June was ‘International Refugee Day’ and reminded me that, whilst the mainstream media is currently focussing on other issues, the plight of asylum seekers and refugees hasn’t gone away; in fact, it’s worse than ever with many still couped up in camps where conditions are perfect for the spread of Covid-19, on top of all the other diseases caused by malnutrition and poor sanitisation. 

I wrote this song when I was volunteering for The Boaz Trust which opened up my eyes to the way foreigners who have sought refuge in the UK are treated. Not only do many of them bring with them the scars (physical and mental) of the places they have fled but they arrive to find they have no support, no benefits and no opportunity to work (in spite of what some newspapers claim). They become like ‘living ghosts’; here but not really here, living but not really living. How do we offer hope to people like that?

The mandate of the church is not only to spread truth and love but also to stand up for justice and to challenge prejudice. The problem is, we need to challenge our own before we start pointing the finger at others. 

Still human, I’m still here, still living with my fear You might wish I’d disappear, I’m still breathing, I’m still here Still human, I’m still here, still drowning in these tears And though freedom is so near, I’m still shackled, I’m still here

[weekendwarriorblog]

Why Am I So Unhappy About Some of My Favorite Filmmakers Getting Accolades?

Granted, I’m going through a bit of a personal crisis right now myself, but it’s compounded by the fact that we’re going through an Oscar season where people are doing whatever they can to stump for two or three movies, movies that didn’t make my top 25 and were my least favorite movies by two filmmakers I previously loved.

It’s just so weird that two filmmakers whose careers I’ve been following for well over a decade, filmmakers who I was interviewing when half the movie writers in the business were probably in high school or at least college and were clueless to their work, are finally getting the accolades they’ve been deserving for their entire careers. And for some reason, I can’t seem to be happy for them.

I reviewed Parasite over at my recent gig, and I won’t link to that review – you can find it if you look, and while I generally liked the movie, I didn’t like it was much as some of Bong Joon-ho’s earlier films like The Host, Mother and Memories of Murder. I gave it 8/10 which is better than good but not enough to make my Top 25.

I first met Director Bong almost 13 years ago when his movie The Host hit these shores, interviewing him for ComingSoon.net, and I was immediately a fan, talking to him again for his short movie in the Tokyo! anthology and for his next movie Mother. I also spoke to him for Okja for a few different outlets.

The funny thing is that I wasn’t that crazy about Okja and liked Snowpiercer only slightly better, but those were certainly gateway drugs for the current #BongHIve to discover his work. Once they saw those movies and Bong went back to Korea for Parasite, a much better movie than both of those. It certainly didn’t hurt to have Okja on Netflix where so many people could discover it, and we can see from his past movies that few people would actually pay to see those movies in theaters, at least compared to Parasite.

Then of course, there are the American moviegoers who have never seen a single Korean film before Parasite, and all of a sudden they realize how many great films have been made in the country over the past 20+ years, so they need to make up for ignoring the country for so long. I also wonder how much of the love for Parasiteis the type of Asian fetish that I’m sure many of my Asian-American have had to endure their entire life, the “Oh, aren’t they adorable?” type mindset that’s much worse than the “We need to celebrate diversity!” mindset…. You know the same mindset that completely ignored Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, which is a much better film in every single respect.

I’ve been a Taika Waititi fan almost as long, since I saw Eagle vs. Shark at Sundance, I guess it would be in 2007.  I didn’t interview Waititi for the film, instead talking to his collaborator Jemaine Clement, but I did get a chance to talk to Taikafor his next movie Boy, which would be 2012, and again when he brought Hunt for the Wilderpeople to Sundance, and that’s still my favorite movie of his. (I just rewatched it this past weekend at the Metrograph.) I was pretty excited when he was brought on to direct Thor: Ragnarok, because unlike most people I liked or loved the previous two Thor movies, and I was curious to see what he might bring. That movie was great, and it even included Taika in a key role, and the world suddenly took notice.  When I found out that his movie Jojo Rabbit was playing TIFF and I wouldn’t be there to see it, I was really bummed out, but presumed I’d have a chance to see it eventually.

I did get to see Jojo Rabbit a month later, and you can read my initial reaction here when I reviewed it for my blog almost immediately after seeing it. I was disappointed, not because it was a badly made movie except that I found the number of people laughing at the derision of Jews in the screening to be problematic to the son of German Jews who managed to get out of the country as things were starting to get bad. I didn’t find Taika Waititi’s portrayal of Hitler to be particularly funny even though I totally understood what he was trying to do and why people seemed to like it.  I did rewatch the movie on screener a few months later and did enjoy it a little more, but man, that first viewing kind of pissed me off because it seemed to make it okay to laugh at Jews…something people have been doing either secretly or overtly for hundreds of years. It was meant to fight against hatred and racism but instead, it instilled the feeling that being a little racist is okay… if it’s only against Jews.

Having rewatched Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it’s obvious to me that it’s a far better movie, one that doesn’t need to cowtow to the current political climate to be enjoyed.  It’s a movie for the ages rather than a movie that will be forgotten in a couple years.

Heck, I can even say I was onboard the Greta Gerwig train LONG before everyone else. I first interviewed her with the Duplass Brothers for their movie Baghead, and then talked to her numerous times since then, mainly for the movies she did with Noah Baumbach (Greenberg in particular) and even for Lola Vs., one of her earlier solo projects which she wrote and starred in but didn’t direct. Most of those interviews were for ComingSoon, but as soon as I left there and when Gerwig started doing her own thing, I knew that I probably couldn’t get to talk to her again. And I haven’t.

I’m sure part of it is that as these filmmakers I’ve been an early fan of start getting bigger and more known, it’s harder to get interviews for them. I certainly didn’t get to talk to either Bong or Taika last year despite having been a very VERY early stan for both. The problem is that as they get bigger, they also start working with more elitist publicity companies like Cinetic, who mainly grant interviews to their friends and the bigger outlets. Smaller outlets like the one I was writing for last year, you’re lucky to even get invited to their movies.

Believe me, long before I saw either of their movies, I asked to interview Director Bong or Taika for their movies last year either, and I did have a bonafide outlet to run those interviews. I figured, surely they’ll remember how much I’ve boosted and supported them over their entire careers. Rian Johnson certainly kept that in mind when I asked to interview him for Knives Out, a movie I genuinely loved that made it into my top 5 for the year. The two things were completely unrelated as I’ve been a Rian Johnson fan going back to The Brothers Bloom, but it’s just my thing… if I like a movie (and even sometimes when I don’t), I want to know more about what the filmmaker was thinking while making it… or why they made it at all. I think you can tell that if you read any of my interviews.

I feel pretty confident that my early coverage of Director Bong and Waititi’s movies helped raise awareness for their work, but it gets tiring to be an early supporter of so many filmmakers only to be given the cold shoulder when they start getting bigger movies.

Heck, I can say the same for Guillermo del Toro, who I probably interviewed 12 to 13 times before the movie that won him the Oscar. I was completely snubbed by Fox Searchlight for interviews for The Shape of Water, just as I was for Jojo Rabbit, although in the first case, there was other stuff going on that led to that.

Then again, I’ve also been a huge Sam Mendes fan for almost 20 years and watched so many of his great films being overlooked, so he’s just as due for his second Oscar this year as anyone else in my opinion. (I had a great interview with him back in October a month or more before I had a chance to see the movie.)

I probably should be happy because it shows that the rest of the world is slowly catching up with me and the filmmakers I love are making movies that are finally connecting with a larger mass audience... some of them are also very cool people.

The thing is that I should be feeling good about all these filmmakers getting attention… and for some reason, I’m not. Maybe it’s that thing when a band you like becomes famous and starts bringing in boneheaded mainstream fans to ruin the concert experience, because I’ve experienced plenty of that, too.  It would just be nice that someone somewhere would finally give me some sort of acknowledgement for me having such good taste in filmmakers before all of these younger writers who really don’t know much of anything.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling on this matter. Believe me, I’ll be plenty happy whenever Parasite wins anything… maybe not so much for Jojo Rabbit, although at least I know that Directors Bong and Waititi will continue getting work and money to make movies as long as they want to make them… and I’ll be there to watch them with just as open a mind as I had when I saw their more recent films.

[crosbyru-blog]

Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review

The wide array of specced Alternatives to try makes the latest-generation A-Class a long-term Narrative with room to develop Why we are running it: To see if this VW Golf rival has come of age, and to pick the'perfect' versionMonth 4 - Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 4 Getting selective with the choices list - 20th February 2019Some option packs are better value than others. The A-Class's #1395 Executive Package certainly functions. It has heated seats (essential in winter), the excellent 10.25in larger central infotainment screen, front and rear parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors (those last two are vital in our HQ's tight multi-storey), and the ability to park itself, which I've yet to try.Back to the topFinally settled on purchasing an A-Class? The tricky bit's deciding which one - 13th February 2019Now we are on our second Mercedes-Benz A-Class -- this A200 AMG Line after the original A180d Sport -- the various ways in which an A-Class can be specced to create cars with such different characters are really beginning to manifest themselves. Each difference between the two A-Classes is big enough on its own, but combined they create a car that feels like something new .The most obvious distinction between this A200 and its A180d predecessor is, of course, the motor -- and the fuel station pump at which you fill it. The A200 uses a turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol unit into the A180d's 1.5-litre diesel. The 161bhp/184lb feet engine, co-developed with Renault-Nissan, feels of much greater displacement than its official 1332cc figure indicates, offering plenty of torque at low revs and surprising muscularity at higher revs. You can't say that about a lot of downsized turbo petrol units, although it does share its zingy soundtrack when under loads with its small-engined cousins.Impressive everyday economy proved to be a strong suit of this A180d and surprisingly -- given that downsized turbo petrols are typically among the worst performers in the real world -- it is easy to get up of 40mpg from the A200, and even push 50mpg in the event you drive parsimoniously. That's within spitting distance of the official asserted figure of 53.3mpg. 1 piece of the driveline the two cars do share is their seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Its performance at step-off and reduced revs was the worst portion of the A180d. The transmission is better from the A200, but not ideal. More work is needed to better integrate it with the motor, and ensure faster and more responsive getaways to get you through gaps in the traffic and roundabouts.The chassis is another big mechanical shift. As discussed previously, the A180d uses a torsion beam set up for the rear suspension, while the A200 AMG Line increases a multi-link back axle (non-AMG Line A200s get the torsion beam). Jumping to the A200 for the first time, it felt a whole lot more alive in the way it moved down the street and engaged the driver. I was surprised at exactly how much more nimble it felt, but put this down to the lighter gas engine on the front axle helping the handling feel more nimble over the rear suspension offering greater body control.Comparing the ride between the two cars is a more subjective thing, as it's not as simple as torsion beam versus multi-link. The A200 includes the larger 18in AMG alloy wheels, as opposed to the 17in rims of this A180d, and related lower-profile tyres (225/45 from the A200 plays 205/55 in the A180d). The A200 does feel a bit sexier than the A180d, but the ride is much more sophisticated, less ploddy and with better body control. We are going to keep experimenting with different suspension and wheel set-ups to find out if a sweet spot are available, but it has advantage A200 AMG Line in the chassis stakes so far.The interior is also a step up in sophistication and class from the already impressive A180d Sport. You would expect that in a pricier, range-topping trim, but the AMG Line does deliver. The sport seats grip you nicely and are pleasing to the look and touch, while the optional #1395 Executive Package provides a further increase in perceived quality. Among its additions is a larger 10.25in screen for the central screen, the highlight of which is the crispness and clarity of the graphics. A map hasn't looked so good.I had grown quite fond of this A180d. As an entry-level'real world' model (ie the best value you can get for the two spec and running costs), it felt like the kind of car to perform 20,000 fuss-free motorway miles in each year. The A200 shows how differently the A-Class can be flavoured, with no less pleasing results.Love it:Sleek styling This A-Class isn't pretty from every angle, but it has never looked better than in black with AMG Line trim.Loathe it:Transmission response Step-off is better at the A200 than the A180d, but still not as smooth as it ought to be.Back to the topThe A180d we began this evaluation with has been substituted by the A200 you see here. The A200's 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo petrol, on first impressions, revs well and helps enhance the overall drivability compared with the A180d's 1.5-litre diesel. AMG Line brings a leap in toys and perceived quality over the A180d's Sport and the more sophisticated suspension subtly enhances agility.Back to the topLife with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 3 Pass me another A-Class, we're done with this one - 9th January 2019By the time you read this, A-Class number one of three in this collection of back-to-back evaluations will have returned to its manufacturer. This A180d is to be replaced by a petrol-powered A200, meaning the diesel leg of this trilogy is over and the first set of conclusions can be drawn.What is worth noting directly from the off is just how relevant a diesel engine of any kind remains if you do big miles. When you are doing just shy of 2000 miles a month, as we were averaging in our brief stint in the car, diesel makes the best sense of all.Our average market figure has slipped from the 60mpg around that it had hovered in the first days. The weather has cooled and the amount of shorter journeys has increased, but we're still mightily impressed with a 55mpg average. That will make for interesting comparison number one as we switch from our 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel to a downsized 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol in the A200.Just what will our wallets make of the change? From previous experience, downsized petrols are some of the least impressive for real world market. We will have the calculator out over the next few months and let you know.1 thing that I won't miss about this A-Class is that the transmission. There's simply no go when you ask for it with your foot, no matter how gentle or hard you are on the pedal. It takes a fantastic second for drive to appear, and it is as unimpressive as it is baffling: how did Mercedes sign off the car like this?It is a shame, because for the most part the transmission makes for an easy-going counterpart to the A180d once you're on the go. It kicks down with minimal fuss when required and offers impressive drivability from the 30-50mph acceleration bursts that are a part of normal driving.The seven-speed dual clutch auto also appears in the A200, so it will be intriguing to see whether the issue is one related to the transmission itself or one caused by its integration with the diesel engine. Both the A180d and A200 use the torsion beam rear suspension choice -- unless you spec your A200 in AMG Line trim, which our automobile will include to include an additional element to this story.On the standard suspension set-up and with 17in alloys in this mid century Sport trim, the A180d rides nicely but not with class-leading status. There's greater sophistication in how a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus rides. The A180d's body control comes unstuck over higher frequency surfaces and can set the cabin shaking. Intriguingly, there were a couple of large dissenters among the Autocar staff on the way in which the A180d rides on this standard set-up.The final big change we'll be noticing is with the MBUX infotainment system. Our A180d has the dual 7in screens, one centrally for the infotainment and another for the motorist's instruments.Others that have experienced the bigger 10.25in options in other A-Classes have smirked at how small it is, yet I have never had a problem with the images, legibility, size or operation. I'm looking forward to seeing if bigger does mean better when we update one of the two screens on the A200.Love it:SEAT COMFORT Not 1 fidget, tweak of the trunk or numbing of a bum cheek on a 400-mile journey.ACTIVE LANE KEEP ASSIST If you don't need it on, you have to turn it off each and every time you restart the ignition.Mercedes feels ahead in technology terms - 27th December 2018Having spent much of the past year at a Golf, I thought it'd take more than a month or two to familiarise myself with the A-Class. Wrong. Last week I jumped back to a Golf and was amazed by how outdated the VW felt. The A-Class has greater material richness and its technologies and slickness surpass the VW's -- a car that is likely on the podium because of its course along with the Audi A3.Mileage: 4222Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 2 One of those cars was the third bestseller in October, another fifth. - 28 November 2018When did mainstream cars become so expensive? Was it about the same time that the premium players came down to more mainstream sections like the family hatchback class to attempt to steal the established players' lunch?After a month or so fast piling on the miles in our recently acquired Mercedes-Benz A-Class and getting to know it fairly well for the months of this evaluation that lie ahead, I thought it best not to allow the chance slip by and do similar with the Ford Focus.After all, it is the likes of Focus buyers who have fallen under the spell of that Mercedes badge and saved a few additional pennies.The Focus and our A-Class share quite similar mechanical specifications. Both use small-capacity four-cylinder diesel engines (1.5 for the Focus, 1.3 for the A-Class) closely matched on power, torque and 0-62mph time (118bhp, 192lb ft and 10.2sec in the Ford performs 114bhp, 221lb ft and 10.5sec in the Merc).Both use automatic gearboxes (an eight-speed torque convertor for the Ford, seven-speed dual-clutch automobile for the Merc). And the Price? There is less than #1000 in it, in the sporty ST-Line X trim in the Focus, and the sporty, erm, Sport trim of this A-Class. By the time you fiddle with the various standard kits and choices, you find yourself with quite literally only a few additional pennies to the Mercedes. Translate this to a PCP deal and a monthly payment, and diddly-squat becomes the numerical value.The point? For however brilliant the Focus is to drive, and it's the quality of Mercedes and its overall package are of enormous appeal, and the best illustration of how the premium players are squeezing the middle-market mainstream brands with cars such as the A-Class. Ask the average car buyer if they'd have a Ford or a Mercedes for the same money, and we can all guess the answer.It is working for Mercedes, too. The A-Class is perhaps the most commonly spotted new car I've seen on the streets this fall, following the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta. Hardly surprising, as it was the third bestselling new car in the UK in September. Third bestselling? Crikey.Like me, those owners will be finding more about what an interesting car it is to live with. The Mercedes' interior and technology are in a different league from anything else that the segment has seen.The MBUX infotainment system may be'only' the entry-level one with the two 7.0in screens rather than the complete S-Class-style widescreen treatment across the whole dashboard, but it is wanting for nothing in operation.I'm experimenting with the'Hey Mercedes' voice activation system, which is definitely one of the better ones I've encountered. The trick is to talk to it normally, and not like a robot. Will have you on the phone to the road test ace faster than'Hey Mercedes. Call. 'I'm sorry, could you repeat that?'I am continuing to be bowled over by the effortless efficiency of this A180d. The market has settled around 60mpg today the weather has got colder, a quite extraordinary figure and in another league again to the 45mpg or so average I got from a similar drivetrain from the Focus. That's another part of the financial argument in the Merc's favour.Yet there is a negative point on the transmission, specifically at step-off. It's just so darn slow to respond. There is a T-junction in my commute on the edge of town. You have to pull upon the visitors to join a lane that has only come around a blind corner. Gaps in the traffic can be only a second or two, so as soon as you add in your reaction time and the time for the transmission to engage and then to pull away, the gap could well have gone.Manual gearboxes are coming soon to the A-Class and I guess its general quality will only increase more when that day comes.Enjoy it:Quality feel Classiness and quality run through the A-Class. Solid door thuds are as pleasing as the crispness of the interior screen graphics.Ride quality 'Loathe' is strong, but the ride is proving divisive. It's too firm for some, lacking sophistication for others. I'd call it okay.
Mileage: 3462In less than a month since it joined us, the A-Class has racked up a vast number of miles -- a indication of how well it fits into daily life. Yet much debate has begun in the office among those who've driven itride quality (blended ), fuel market (highly regarded), suitability of the transmission (not popular), interior quality (a high point), and size (Golf-like'just right'). Much to explore further...Mileage: 3222Back to the topWelcoming the A-Class into the fleet - 31st October 2018It's testament to the impact Mercedes-Benz has made with the A-Class in the UK that the arrival of this all-new fourth-generation version was considered one of the most keenly anticipated releases of the year.We say fourth generation, but you could argue it's only really the second given the A-Class's radical transformation from its previous generation from futuristic, spacious, ahead-of-its-time MPV-supermini mash-up to, dimensions-wise, a meat and two veg family hatchback pitched right at the heart of the European family hatchback market.The last A-Class was a staple of the UK's top 10 bestselling cars list monthly, buyers attracted to it in their droves from the attractive #199 per month PCP deals which were regularly being advertised as the most inexpensive way into Mercedes ownership. It worked: the A-Class was a key motive behind Mercedes' march to the peak of the premium brand sales charts in the UK and the fourth-top-selling brand overall.While we're here, that's quite a remarkable statistic. Mercedes sold more cars in the UK last year than Renault, Peugeot and Toyota to name only three, and the A-Class is among the biggest players in the family segment in the manner the Mégane, 308 and Corolla were a decade or two ago. Premium is the new mainstream.There are three unique engines originally available from dealers who are tasked with continuing that success. Yet there are so many subplots within the range that this is going to be a long-lasting test with a twist.For starters, KT18 RZA you see here is a car we are going to be saying goodbye to much earlier than we normally would, for by the time the year is out another shiny new A will be along replace it.Why so? To attempt and get as broad an experience as possible in the new A-Class. Early drives have suggested it is a car which can be specced in various ways to change its character so dramatically; we really need to try more than one car in a single solitary spec to make our recommendations.Up first, then, is an A180d Sport. This car's 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit with 114bhp and 192lb feet is the only diesel option until the more potent 2.0-litre A200d and A220d arrive very shortly. Drive is delivered to the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the only transmission available. Do not worry: manuals can be found in some petrol variants.The petrols for now are a 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo in the A200 and a 221bhp 2.0-litre turbo in the A250, while a 187bhp 2.0-litre from the A220 with optional four-wheel drive is due to split them. There is also a 134bhp 1.3-litre in the entry-level A180. A headline-grabbing, Volkswagen Golf R-rivalling A35 AMG has also recently been announced, before a launch next year -- our current plan being to crown this evaluation with a longer stint in that car with what might be the A-Class's greatest hits album.But there is much to discover before we draw any conclusions like that. Such as finding out more about one of the important stories in this A-Class: the suspension of its back wheels. The A250 is the only A-Class available today with the multi-link rear suspension, the A180d and A200 getting an eyebrow-raising torsion beam. If you don't spec your A200 with the 18in alloys in AMG Line trim, which is due to follow our initial torsion-beam-equipped A180d to get that comparison.Trim wise, our car is a Sport, which sits in the middle of the A-Class range. For the #27,340 asked by Mercedes, you receive a degree of kit that hasn't left us wanting for much in these early days. The wheels are the standard Sport 17in rims, and the only option is metallic paint. That leaves the standard kit list to add dual-zone air-con, some excellent LED headlights and the new MBUX infotainment system controlled through either the conventional 7.0in touchscreen, the trackpad on the centre tunnel or the steering wheel controllers.All those controls seemed a bit bewildering when I sat in the car, perhaps due to these recent personal familiarity with BMW/Mini and Volkswagen Group systems, yet already I am finding it intuitive to use.The vibrancy of these images is a highlight, as is my experience of the Hey Mercedes voice control. Utter these two words and you get Siri-style search function of the vehicle's controls, as well as some online search also. I have heard from colleagues that the system was quite buggy on its initial global press launch, yet it got up the amount of a taxi firm in Norwich I needed (is that you, Mr Partridge?) The very first time I used it.1 other first impression: the A180d has an engine of effortless efficiency. Economy is nearer to 70mpg than 60mpg (maintained: 68.9mpg). That is quite remarkable with only 1000 or so miles on the odometer. The car covered another 1000 miles or so in its first few weeks , and that kind of economy over those kinds of motorway distances is the latest case for the defence of diesel. In automobiles like this used in this fashion, the black pump makes absolute sense.And did I mention that interior? Well, it's not just lovely to look at, it's also lovely to sit and browse your way around its controls. That's only the entry-level system: we will be testing the optional 10.25in screens to the full widescreen cinema experience over the course of those updates for one more component to this developing story. We've got a busy and exciting few months ahead getting to know this most important of new cars, and so we'd better start.Second OpinionTwo things stick out. First, its all-round excellence: the steering and low-speed ride create rivals seem rough, and promise a fantastic next-gen Golf if VW would be to keep up. Second, how much more traditional it is from the first, nutty, shorter-than-Fiesta edition. Seems VW was correct all along.Steve CropleyBack to the topMercedes-Benz A-Class A180D Sport specification Specs: Price New #27,340 Price as tested #27,935 Alternatives Mountain grey metallic paint #595Back to the top https://autonotebuyerinc.com/mercedes-benz-a-class-2018-long-term-review/

[how2to18]

WHEN THE NEW SUFI MASTER came to Baghdad from his native Nishapur, in Khorasan, his fame had long preceded him. He had, the story goes, quite a reputation for his high spirituality and unique approach to ihsan (“perfection”), but also a reputation for his unorthodox ways. Some had heard fantastic rumors about him, outrageous things, but when pressed for details they professed ignorance. Be it as it may, on that February morning, not only a small group of aspiring disciples — all well dressed and well behaved, their manner appropriately pious, if perhaps a trifle too theatrically so — had gathered at the inn to welcome him, but city folk of all stripes: shopkeepers and passing peddlers, jewelers and perfume-makers from across the street, even teachers and students from the nearby university. As time passed, the crowd was growing impatient. The sheik certainly took his time.

As always on such occasions, among the expectant crowd there were also beggars and bums and other good-for-nothings. One of them turned out to be particularly annoying. All in rags, unkempt beyond description, and smelling badly of wine (he must have strayed from the Jewish or Christian quarters, some whispered), the bum was drawing closer and closer to the pious-looking, anxiety-ridden disciples. Taking his time, between hiccups, he examined them intently, one by one, which made the boys even more nervous: the last thing they wanted was to be found out by the great master in such unholy proximity.

Thank goodness, it now appeared that the bum was drifting away. As he was doing so, however, he addressed himself to the embarrassed youth, in such sober, educated Persian that their prayer beads suddenly froze in the palms of their hands: I’ve come for nothing, methinks. What am I to teach you? By the looks of you, you’ve all reached a state of purity compared to which I am nothing. My ways are messy, my teachings tentative, and my quest, far from pure, always gets entangled with my flesh, with my earthiness and my complicated commerce with the world. I am a failure, whereas you — just look at you! — you seem to dwell with the angels already! Now, if you will excuse me … And, with that, he slipped out of the inn. It was then, the story adds, that people at the inn realized that the sheik they had been waiting for had just left them.

The story of the Sufi master mirrors the state of much of contemporary philosophy. For there is at work in it a strong purist assumption: the notion that philosophy is reducible to a purely logical exercise, conducted strictly by the rules of rational argumentation and debate: whatever is not translatable into argument is irrelevant. Philosophers are somehow exempted from the laws that govern the rest of humankind, managing to operate on some superior, angelic plane, where their earthiness and their mundanity never follow them.

But philosophy has never only been about rational argumentation. It would be the saddest thing if it were, and it would not have lasted that long. What makes philosophy such an endurable affair, in the West as well as in the East, is that it engages not only our cognition, but also our imagination, emotions, artistic sensibility, religious impulses — in short, our being complicated, messy, impure creatures. To be human is to be always caught in existential entanglements, to have to deal with hybridity and messiness of all sorts. We are an unlikely union of high and low, spirit and flesh, reason and unreason. And philosophers, if they are not to lose their integrity, need to account for such wholeness.

That’s why philosophy — not the bland academic sort, but the lasting, transformative variety that we come across in Lao Tzu, Pythagoras, Plato, Saint Augustine, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Spinoza, Marx, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Simone Weil — doesn’t come in a pure state. It always gets mixed with myth, poetry, drama, mysticism, scientific thinking, political militancy, or social activism. To complicate matters, often fiction writers (think Dostoyevsky, Huxley, or Borges) turn out to be particularly insightful philosophers, and so do filmmakers — such as Bergman, Kurosawa, and Tarkovsky — who philosophize just as insightfully on screen. All these entanglements and contaminations mark philosophy profoundly — indeed, they make it what it is.

Take a Sufi poem by Rumi. How can we tell, as we let ourselves be absorbed by it, where poetry ends and philosophy begins, or when and how mysticism starts stealing in? When Lao Tzu speaks of water — “the best (man) is like water. Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in (lowly) places that all disdain. That is why it is so near to Tao” — does he really “make an argument”? Why should we care? There is a cosmic vision encapsulated here, a sense of being in the world and an understanding of the human condition that defy our petty notions of how philosophy should conduct itself. To cut open such a work only to extract from it its “argument” — discarding everything else, ignoring the design and vision of its author — is to kill the beating heart of that work, and to start dealing in corpses. Why should we do that?

Walter Benjamin used storytelling liberally in his philosophical work. He created fictions, long and short, or borrowed them from others, and this was no whim: Benjamin really thought philosophy and literature were profoundly interlinked; he speaks of “the epic side of truth,” and relates it to “the art of storytelling.” Humans are narrative-driven creatures for whom form is as important as any content. We can make sense of ourselves and the world in which we live insofar as we can weave narratives about ourselves and the world. Sartre, who knew a thing or two about philosophy and literature, wanted, in his work, to be both Spinoza and Stendhal.

If we experience everything as a story in the making, then there is indeed an “epic side” to truth, and philosophy, by definition, is bound to use literary craft. With every new story we make the world anew. Storytelling pushes the boundaries of what it means to be human: envisions and rehearses new forms of experience, gives firm shape to something that hasn’t existed before, makes the unthought-of suddenly intelligible. Storytelling and philosophy are twins. Plato’s “allegory of the cave” makes an important philosophical point in such a poignant manner precisely because it’s such a good story. Yet how are we to tell, in such a case, the storyteller from the philosopher? “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” wondered the poet. But why should we?

Since philosophy and literature are so intimately intertwined, pathos is not something philosophers just pepper their work with, but it’s already there, embedded in their work. No sooner do you start philosophizing than you begin emplotting ideas, experimenting with form, employing rhetorical tropes, toying with emotions, and making room for empathy — that is, crafting a piece of literature. One philosopher writes, with studied relief, of arriving to “the land of truth,” which is “surrounded by a wide and stormy ocean, the region of illusion, where many a fog-bank, many an iceberg, seems to the mariner, on his voyage of discovery, a new country.” The quote is not from Nietzsche or Benjamin’s work, nor from other “literary philosophers” — it’s from Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Even the driest of thinkers cannot help making use of literary images and metaphors, of fables and stories. (Ironically, the sheer act of “making an argument,” on which the philosophical purists swear today, is, in important sense, a form of storytelling, but that’s another story.)

A lively conversation has been taking place lately on mainstream philosophy in the West today and the way it treats non-Western traditions of thought as insufficiently philosophical. Such bias, though serious, is only a symptom — one among many — of parochial, purist philosophy’s misunderstanding of itself. Not only are other philosophical traditions easily dismissed, but within the Western tradition itself important genres, thinkers, bodies of work are rejected just as arrogantly.

Such arrogance comes with its own blinding punishment: we can no longer tell the essential from the trifling, a genuine problem from a passing fad. We are no longer able to detect the philosophical unless it comes to us in the form of the peer-reviewed academic article, published (preferably in English) in a journal with a stellar ranking and a top-notch editorial board. No wonder philosophy has become so irrelevant today. Why should anyone need philosophers, if philosophy limits itself so radically?

What we badly need now is a liberal dose of humility. We should at last understand that philosophy comes under different guises, and by many names, that it never comes in a pure state but loves messiness and hybridity, that it gets entangled with the philosophers’ lives and earthiness. Such an act of humility wouldn’t impoverish philosophy at all. On the contrary, it would empower the philosophers and make philosophy a richer, more sophisticated, and more relevant affair.

If only we could find a Sufi master to humble us a bit.

¤

Costica Bradatan is a professor of Humanities and the author, most recently, of Dying for Ideas. The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers (Bloomsbury, 2015). He serves as the religion/comparative studies editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

The post Philosophy Needs a New Definition appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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WHEN THE NEW SUFI MASTER came to Baghdad from his native Nishapur, in Khorasan, his fame had long preceded him. He had, the story goes, quite a reputation for his high spirituality and unique approach to ihsan (“perfection”), but also a reputation for his unorthodox ways. Some had heard fantastic rumors about him, outrageous things, but when pressed for details they professed ignorance. Be it as it may, on that February morning, not only a small group of aspiring disciples — all well dressed and well behaved, their manner appropriately pious, if perhaps a trifle too theatrically so — had gathered at the inn to welcome him, but city folk of all stripes: shopkeepers and passing peddlers, jewelers and perfume-makers from across the street, even teachers and students from the nearby university. As time passed, the crowd was growing impatient. The sheik certainly took his time.

As always on such occasions, among the expectant crowd there were also beggars and bums and other good-for-nothings. One of them turned out to be particularly annoying. All in rags, unkempt beyond description, and smelling badly of wine (he must have strayed from the Jewish or Christian quarters, some whispered), the bum was drawing closer and closer to the pious-looking, anxiety-ridden disciples. Taking his time, between hiccups, he examined them intently, one by one, which made the boys even more nervous: the last thing they wanted was to be found out by the great master in such unholy proximity.

Thank goodness, it now appeared that the bum was drifting away. As he was doing so, however, he addressed himself to the embarrassed youth, in such sober, educated Persian that their prayer beads suddenly froze in the palms of their hands: I’ve come for nothing, methinks. What am I to teach you? By the looks of you, you’ve all reached a state of purity compared to which I am nothing. My ways are messy, my teachings tentative, and my quest, far from pure, always gets entangled with my flesh, with my earthiness and my complicated commerce with the world. I am a failure, whereas you — just look at you! — you seem to dwell with the angels already! Now, if you will excuse me … And, with that, he slipped out of the inn. It was then, the story adds, that people at the inn realized that the sheik they had been waiting for had just left them.

The story of the Sufi master mirrors the state of much of contemporary philosophy. For there is at work in it a strong purist assumption: the notion that philosophy is reducible to a purely logical exercise, conducted strictly by the rules of rational argumentation and debate: whatever is not translatable into argument is irrelevant. Philosophers are somehow exempted from the laws that govern the rest of humankind, managing to operate on some superior, angelic plane, where their earthiness and their mundanity never follow them.

But philosophy has never only been about rational argumentation. It would be the saddest thing if it were, and it would not have lasted that long. What makes philosophy such an endurable affair, in the West as well as in the East, is that it engages not only our cognition, but also our imagination, emotions, artistic sensibility, religious impulses — in short, our being complicated, messy, impure creatures. To be human is to be always caught in existential entanglements, to have to deal with hybridity and messiness of all sorts. We are an unlikely union of high and low, spirit and flesh, reason and unreason. And philosophers, if they are not to lose their integrity, need to account for such wholeness.

That’s why philosophy — not the bland academic sort, but the lasting, transformative variety that we come across in Lao Tzu, Pythagoras, Plato, Saint Augustine, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Spinoza, Marx, Nietzsche, Gandhi, Simone Weil — doesn’t come in a pure state. It always gets mixed with myth, poetry, drama, mysticism, scientific thinking, political militancy, or social activism. To complicate matters, often fiction writers (think Dostoyevsky, Huxley, or Borges) turn out to be particularly insightful philosophers, and so do filmmakers — such as Bergman, Kurosawa, and Tarkovsky — who philosophize just as insightfully on screen. All these entanglements and contaminations mark philosophy profoundly — indeed, they make it what it is.

Take a Sufi poem by Rumi. How can we tell, as we let ourselves be absorbed by it, where poetry ends and philosophy begins, or when and how mysticism starts stealing in? When Lao Tzu speaks of water — “the best (man) is like water. Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in (lowly) places that all disdain. That is why it is so near to Tao” — does he really “make an argument”? Why should we care? There is a cosmic vision encapsulated here, a sense of being in the world and an understanding of the human condition that defy our petty notions of how philosophy should conduct itself. To cut open such a work only to extract from it its “argument” — discarding everything else, ignoring the design and vision of its author — is to kill the beating heart of that work, and to start dealing in corpses. Why should we do that?

Walter Benjamin used storytelling liberally in his philosophical work. He created fictions, long and short, or borrowed them from others, and this was no whim: Benjamin really thought philosophy and literature were profoundly interlinked; he speaks of “the epic side of truth,” and relates it to “the art of storytelling.” Humans are narrative-driven creatures for whom form is as important as any content. We can make sense of ourselves and the world in which we live insofar as we can weave narratives about ourselves and the world. Sartre, who knew a thing or two about philosophy and literature, wanted, in his work, to be both Spinoza and Stendhal.

If we experience everything as a story in the making, then there is indeed an “epic side” to truth, and philosophy, by definition, is bound to use literary craft. With every new story we make the world anew. Storytelling pushes the boundaries of what it means to be human: envisions and rehearses new forms of experience, gives firm shape to something that hasn’t existed before, makes the unthought-of suddenly intelligible. Storytelling and philosophy are twins. Plato’s “allegory of the cave” makes an important philosophical point in such a poignant manner precisely because it’s such a good story. Yet how are we to tell, in such a case, the storyteller from the philosopher? “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” wondered the poet. But why should we?

Since philosophy and literature are so intimately intertwined, pathos is not something philosophers just pepper their work with, but it’s already there, embedded in their work. No sooner do you start philosophizing than you begin emplotting ideas, experimenting with form, employing rhetorical tropes, toying with emotions, and making room for empathy — that is, crafting a piece of literature. One philosopher writes, with studied relief, of arriving to “the land of truth,” which is “surrounded by a wide and stormy ocean, the region of illusion, where many a fog-bank, many an iceberg, seems to the mariner, on his voyage of discovery, a new country.” The quote is not from Nietzsche or Benjamin’s work, nor from other “literary philosophers” — it’s from Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Even the driest of thinkers cannot help making use of literary images and metaphors, of fables and stories. (Ironically, the sheer act of “making an argument,” on which the philosophical purists swear today, is, in important sense, a form of storytelling, but that’s another story.)

A lively conversation has been taking place lately on mainstream philosophy in the West today and the way it treats non-Western traditions of thought as insufficiently philosophical. Such bias, though serious, is only a symptom — one among many — of parochial, purist philosophy’s misunderstanding of itself. Not only are other philosophical traditions easily dismissed, but within the Western tradition itself important genres, thinkers, bodies of work are rejected just as arrogantly.

Such arrogance comes with its own blinding punishment: we can no longer tell the essential from the trifling, a genuine problem from a passing fad. We are no longer able to detect the philosophical unless it comes to us in the form of the peer-reviewed academic article, published (preferably in English) in a journal with a stellar ranking and a top-notch editorial board. No wonder philosophy has become so irrelevant today. Why should anyone need philosophers, if philosophy limits itself so radically?

What we badly need now is a liberal dose of humility. We should at last understand that philosophy comes under different guises, and by many names, that it never comes in a pure state but loves messiness and hybridity, that it gets entangled with the philosophers’ lives and earthiness. Such an act of humility wouldn’t impoverish philosophy at all. On the contrary, it would empower the philosophers and make philosophy a richer, more sophisticated, and more relevant affair.

If only we could find a Sufi master to humble us a bit.

¤

Costica Bradatan is a professor of Humanities and the author, most recently, of Dying for Ideas. The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers (Bloomsbury, 2015). He serves as the religion/comparative studies editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

The post Philosophy Needs a New Definition appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review

The wide array of specced Alternatives to try makes the latest-generation A-Class a long-term Narrative with room to develop Why we are running it: To see if this VW Golf rival has come of age, and to pick the'perfect' versionMonth 4 - Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 4 Getting selective with the choices list - 20th February 2019Some option packs are better value than others. The A-Class's #1395 Executive Package certainly functions. It has heated seats (essential in winter), the excellent 10.25in larger central infotainment screen, front and rear parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors (those last two are vital in our HQ's tight multi-storey), and the ability to park itself, which I've yet to try.Back to the topFinally settled on purchasing an A-Class? The tricky bit's deciding which one - 13th February 2019Now we are on our second Mercedes-Benz A-Class -- this A200 AMG Line after the original A180d Sport -- the various ways in which an A-Class can be specced to create cars with such different characters are really beginning to manifest themselves. Each difference between the two A-Classes is big enough on its own, but combined they create a car that feels like something new .The most obvious distinction between this A200 and its A180d predecessor is, of course, the motor -- and the fuel station pump at which you fill it. The A200 uses a turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol unit into the A180d's 1.5-litre diesel. The 161bhp/184lb feet engine, co-developed with Renault-Nissan, feels of much greater displacement than its official 1332cc figure indicates, offering plenty of torque at low revs and surprising muscularity at higher revs. You can't say that about a lot of downsized turbo petrol units, although it does share its zingy soundtrack when under loads with its small-engined cousins.Impressive everyday economy proved to be a strong suit of this A180d and surprisingly -- given that downsized turbo petrols are typically among the worst performers in the real world -- it is easy to get up of 40mpg from the A200, and even push 50mpg in the event you drive parsimoniously. That's within spitting distance of the official asserted figure of 53.3mpg. 1 piece of the driveline the two cars do share is their seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Its performance at step-off and reduced revs was the worst portion of the A180d. The transmission is better from the A200, but not ideal. More work is needed to better integrate it with the motor, and ensure faster and more responsive getaways to get you through gaps in the traffic and roundabouts.The chassis is another big mechanical shift. As discussed previously, the A180d uses a torsion beam set up for the rear suspension, while the A200 AMG Line increases a multi-link back axle (non-AMG Line A200s get the torsion beam). Jumping to the A200 for the first time, it felt a whole lot more alive in the way it moved down the street and engaged the driver. I was surprised at exactly how much more nimble it felt, but put this down to the lighter gas engine on the front axle helping the handling feel more nimble over the rear suspension offering greater body control.Comparing the ride between the two cars is a more subjective thing, as it's not as simple as torsion beam versus multi-link. The A200 includes the larger 18in AMG alloy wheels, as opposed to the 17in rims of this A180d, and related lower-profile tyres (225/45 from the A200 plays 205/55 in the A180d). The A200 does feel a bit sexier than the A180d, but the ride is much more sophisticated, less ploddy and with better body control. We are going to keep experimenting with different suspension and wheel set-ups to find out if a sweet spot are available, but it has advantage A200 AMG Line in the chassis stakes so far.The interior is also a step up in sophistication and class from the already impressive A180d Sport. You would expect that in a pricier, range-topping trim, but the AMG Line does deliver. The sport seats grip you nicely and are pleasing to the look and touch, while the optional #1395 Executive Package provides a further increase in perceived quality. Among its additions is a larger 10.25in screen for the central screen, the highlight of which is the crispness and clarity of the graphics. A map hasn't looked so good.I had grown quite fond of this A180d. As an entry-level'real world' model (ie the best value you can get for the two spec and running costs), it felt like the kind of car to perform 20,000 fuss-free motorway miles in each year. The A200 shows how differently the A-Class can be flavoured, with no less pleasing results.Love it:Sleek styling This A-Class isn't pretty from every angle, but it has never looked better than in black with AMG Line trim.Loathe it:Transmission response Step-off is better at the A200 than the A180d, but still not as smooth as it ought to be.Back to the topThe A180d we began this evaluation with has been substituted by the A200 you see here. The A200's 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo petrol, on first impressions, revs well and helps enhance the overall drivability compared with the A180d's 1.5-litre diesel. AMG Line brings a leap in toys and perceived quality over the A180d's Sport and the more sophisticated suspension subtly enhances agility.Back to the topLife with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 3 Pass me another A-Class, we're done with this one - 9th January 2019By the time you read this, A-Class number one of three in this collection of back-to-back evaluations will have returned to its manufacturer. This A180d is to be replaced by a petrol-powered A200, meaning the diesel leg of this trilogy is over and the first set of conclusions can be drawn.What is worth noting directly from the off is just how relevant a diesel engine of any kind remains if you do big miles. When you are doing just shy of 2000 miles a month, as we were averaging in our brief stint in the car, diesel makes the best sense of all.Our average market figure has slipped from the 60mpg around that it had hovered in the first days. The weather has cooled and the amount of shorter journeys has increased, but we're still mightily impressed with a 55mpg average. That will make for interesting comparison number one as we switch from our 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel to a downsized 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol in the A200.Just what will our wallets make of the change? From previous experience, downsized petrols are some of the least impressive for real world market. We will have the calculator out over the next few months and let you know.1 thing that I won't miss about this A-Class is that the transmission. There's simply no go when you ask for it with your foot, no matter how gentle or hard you are on the pedal. It takes a fantastic second for drive to appear, and it is as unimpressive as it is baffling: how did Mercedes sign off the car like this?It is a shame, because for the most part the transmission makes for an easy-going counterpart to the A180d once you're on the go. It kicks down with minimal fuss when required and offers impressive drivability from the 30-50mph acceleration bursts that are a part of normal driving.The seven-speed dual clutch auto also appears in the A200, so it will be intriguing to see whether the issue is one related to the transmission itself or one caused by its integration with the diesel engine. Both the A180d and A200 use the torsion beam rear suspension choice -- unless you spec your A200 in AMG Line trim, which our automobile will include to include an additional element to this story.On the standard suspension set-up and with 17in alloys in this mid century Sport trim, the A180d rides nicely but not with class-leading status. There's greater sophistication in how a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus rides. The A180d's body control comes unstuck over higher frequency surfaces and can set the cabin shaking. Intriguingly, there were a couple of large dissenters among the Autocar staff on the way in which the A180d rides on this standard set-up.The final big change we'll be noticing is with the MBUX infotainment system. Our A180d has the dual 7in screens, one centrally for the infotainment and another for the motorist's instruments.Others that have experienced the bigger 10.25in options in other A-Classes have smirked at how small it is, yet I have never had a problem with the images, legibility, size or operation. I'm looking forward to seeing if bigger does mean better when we update one of the two screens on the A200.Love it:SEAT COMFORT Not 1 fidget, tweak of the trunk or numbing of a bum cheek on a 400-mile journey.ACTIVE LANE KEEP ASSIST If you don't need it on, you have to turn it off each and every time you restart the ignition.Mercedes feels ahead in technology terms - 27th December 2018Having spent much of the past year at a Golf, I thought it'd take more than a month or two to familiarise myself with the A-Class. Wrong. Last week I jumped back to a Golf and was amazed by how outdated the VW felt. The A-Class has greater material richness and its technologies and slickness surpass the VW's -- a car that is likely on the podium because of its course along with the Audi A3.Mileage: 4222Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 2 One of those cars was the third bestseller in October, another fifth. - 28 November 2018When did mainstream cars become so expensive? Was it about the same time that the premium players came down to more mainstream sections like the family hatchback class to attempt to steal the established players' lunch?After a month or so fast piling on the miles in our recently acquired Mercedes-Benz A-Class and getting to know it fairly well for the months of this evaluation that lie ahead, I thought it best not to allow the chance slip by and do similar with the Ford Focus.After all, it is the likes of Focus buyers who have fallen under the spell of that Mercedes badge and saved a few additional pennies.The Focus and our A-Class share quite similar mechanical specifications. Both use small-capacity four-cylinder diesel engines (1.5 for the Focus, 1.3 for the A-Class) closely matched on power, torque and 0-62mph time (118bhp, 192lb ft and 10.2sec in the Ford performs 114bhp, 221lb ft and 10.5sec in the Merc).Both use automatic gearboxes (an eight-speed torque convertor for the Ford, seven-speed dual-clutch automobile for the Merc). And the Price? There is less than #1000 in it, in the sporty ST-Line X trim in the Focus, and the sporty, erm, Sport trim of this A-Class. By the time you fiddle with the various standard kits and choices, you find yourself with quite literally only a few additional pennies to the Mercedes. Translate this to a PCP deal and a monthly payment, and diddly-squat becomes the numerical value.The point? For however brilliant the Focus is to drive, and it's the quality of Mercedes and its overall package are of enormous appeal, and the best illustration of how the premium players are squeezing the middle-market mainstream brands with cars such as the A-Class. Ask the average car buyer if they'd have a Ford or a Mercedes for the same money, and we can all guess the answer.It is working for Mercedes, too. The A-Class is perhaps the most commonly spotted new car I've seen on the streets this fall, following the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta. Hardly surprising, as it was the third bestselling new car in the UK in September. Third bestselling? Crikey.Like me, those owners will be finding more about what an interesting car it is to live with. The Mercedes' interior and technology are in a different league from anything else that the segment has seen.The MBUX infotainment system may be'only' the entry-level one with the two 7.0in screens rather than the complete S-Class-style widescreen treatment across the whole dashboard, but it is wanting for nothing in operation.I'm experimenting with the'Hey Mercedes' voice activation system, which is definitely one of the better ones I've encountered. The trick is to talk to it normally, and not like a robot. Will have you on the phone to the road test ace faster than'Hey Mercedes. Call. 'I'm sorry, could you repeat that?'I am continuing to be bowled over by the effortless efficiency of this A180d. The market has settled around 60mpg today the weather has got colder, a quite extraordinary figure and in another league again to the 45mpg or so average I got from a similar drivetrain from the Focus. That's another part of the financial argument in the Merc's favour.Yet there is a negative point on the transmission, specifically at step-off. It's just so darn slow to respond. There is a T-junction in my commute on the edge of town. You have to pull upon the visitors to join a lane that has only come around a blind corner. Gaps in the traffic can be only a second or two, so as soon as you add in your reaction time and the time for the transmission to engage and then to pull away, the gap could well have gone.Manual gearboxes are coming soon to the A-Class and I guess its general quality will only increase more when that day comes.Enjoy it:Quality feel Classiness and quality run through the A-Class. Solid door thuds are as pleasing as the crispness of the interior screen graphics.Ride quality 'Loathe' is strong, but the ride is proving divisive. It's too firm for some, lacking sophistication for others. I'd call it okay.
Mileage: 3462In less than a month since it joined us, the A-Class has racked up a vast number of miles -- a indication of how well it fits into daily life. Yet much debate has begun in the office among those who've driven itride quality (blended ), fuel market (highly regarded), suitability of the transmission (not popular), interior quality (a high point), and size (Golf-like'just right'). Much to explore further...Mileage: 3222Back to the topWelcoming the A-Class into the fleet - 31st October 2018It's testament to the impact Mercedes-Benz has made with the A-Class in the UK that the arrival of this all-new fourth-generation version was considered one of the most keenly anticipated releases of the year.We say fourth generation, but you could argue it's only really the second given the A-Class's radical transformation from its previous generation from futuristic, spacious, ahead-of-its-time MPV-supermini mash-up to, dimensions-wise, a meat and two veg family hatchback pitched right at the heart of the European family hatchback market.The last A-Class was a staple of the UK's top 10 bestselling cars list monthly, buyers attracted to it in their droves from the attractive #199 per month PCP deals which were regularly being advertised as the most inexpensive way into Mercedes ownership. It worked: the A-Class was a key motive behind Mercedes' march to the peak of the premium brand sales charts in the UK and the fourth-top-selling brand overall.While we're here, that's quite a remarkable statistic. Mercedes sold more cars in the UK last year than Renault, Peugeot and Toyota to name only three, and the A-Class is among the biggest players in the family segment in the manner the Mégane, 308 and Corolla were a decade or two ago. Premium is the new mainstream.There are three unique engines originally available from dealers who are tasked with continuing that success. Yet there are so many subplots within the range that this is going to be a long-lasting test with a twist.For starters, KT18 RZA you see here is a car we are going to be saying goodbye to much earlier than we normally would, for by the time the year is out another shiny new A will be along replace it.Why so? To attempt and get as broad an experience as possible in the new A-Class. Early drives have suggested it is a car which can be specced in various ways to change its character so dramatically; we really need to try more than one car in a single solitary spec to make our recommendations.Up first, then, is an A180d Sport. This car's 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit with 114bhp and 192lb feet is the only diesel option until the more potent 2.0-litre A200d and A220d arrive very shortly. Drive is delivered to the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the only transmission available. Do not worry: manuals can be found in some petrol variants.The petrols for now are a 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo in the A200 and a 221bhp 2.0-litre turbo in the A250, while a 187bhp 2.0-litre from the A220 with optional four-wheel drive is due to split them. There is also a 134bhp 1.3-litre in the entry-level A180. A headline-grabbing, Volkswagen Golf R-rivalling A35 AMG has also recently been announced, before a launch next year -- our current plan being to crown this evaluation with a longer stint in that car with what might be the A-Class's greatest hits album.But there is much to discover before we draw any conclusions like that. Such as finding out more about one of the important stories in this A-Class: the suspension of its back wheels. The A250 is the only A-Class available today with the multi-link rear suspension, the A180d and A200 getting an eyebrow-raising torsion beam. If you don't spec your A200 with the 18in alloys in AMG Line trim, which is due to follow our initial torsion-beam-equipped A180d to get that comparison.Trim wise, our car is a Sport, which sits in the middle of the A-Class range. For the #27,340 asked by Mercedes, you receive a degree of kit that hasn't left us wanting for much in these early days. The wheels are the standard Sport 17in rims, and the only option is metallic paint. That leaves the standard kit list to add dual-zone air-con, some excellent LED headlights and the new MBUX infotainment system controlled through either the conventional 7.0in touchscreen, the trackpad on the centre tunnel or the steering wheel controllers.All those controls seemed a bit bewildering when I sat in the car, perhaps due to these recent personal familiarity with BMW/Mini and Volkswagen Group systems, yet already I am finding it intuitive to use.The vibrancy of these images is a highlight, as is my experience of the Hey Mercedes voice control. Utter these two words and you get Siri-style search function of the vehicle's controls, as well as some online search also. I have heard from colleagues that the system was quite buggy on its initial global press launch, yet it got up the amount of a taxi firm in Norwich I needed (is that you, Mr Partridge?) The very first time I used it.1 other first impression: the A180d has an engine of effortless efficiency. Economy is nearer to 70mpg than 60mpg (maintained: 68.9mpg). That is quite remarkable with only 1000 or so miles on the odometer. The car covered another 1000 miles or so in its first few weeks , and that kind of economy over those kinds of motorway distances is the latest case for the defence of diesel. In automobiles like this used in this fashion, the black pump makes absolute sense.And did I mention that interior? Well, it's not just lovely to look at, it's also lovely to sit and browse your way around its controls. That's only the entry-level system: we will be testing the optional 10.25in screens to the full widescreen cinema experience over the course of those updates for one more component to this developing story. We've got a busy and exciting few months ahead getting to know this most important of new cars, and so we'd better start.Second OpinionTwo things stick out. First, its all-round excellence: the steering and low-speed ride create rivals seem rough, and promise a fantastic next-gen Golf if VW would be to keep up. Second, how much more traditional it is from the first, nutty, shorter-than-Fiesta edition. Seems VW was correct all along.Steve CropleyBack to the topMercedes-Benz A-Class A180D Sport specification Specs: Price New #27,340 Price as tested #27,935 Alternatives Mountain grey metallic paint #595Back to the top https://autonotebuyerinc.com/mercedes-benz-a-class-2018-long-term-review/

[crosbyru-blog]

Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review

The wide array of specced Alternatives to try makes the latest-generation A-Class a long-term Narrative with room to develop Why we are running it: To see if this VW Golf rival has come of age, and to pick the’perfect’ version Month 4 – Month 3 – Month 2 – Month 1 – Specs Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 4 Getting selective with the choices list – 20th February 2019 Some option packs are better value than others. The A-Class’s #1395 Executive Package certainly functions. It has heated seats (essential in winter), the excellent 10.25in larger central infotainment screen, front and rear parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors (those last two are vital in our HQ’s tight multi-storey), and the ability to park itself, which I’ve yet to try. Back to the top Finally settled on purchasing an A-Class? The tricky bit’s deciding which one – 13th February 2019 Now we are on our second Mercedes-Benz A-Class — this A200 AMG Line after the original A180d Sport — the various ways in which an A-Class can be specced to create cars with such different characters are really beginning to manifest themselves. Each difference between the two A-Classes is big enough on its own, but combined they create a car that feels like something new . The most obvious distinction between this A200 and its A180d predecessor is, of course, the motor — and the fuel station pump at which you fill it. The A200 uses a turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol unit into the A180d’s 1.5-litre diesel. The 161bhp/184lb feet engine, co-developed with Renault-Nissan, feels of much greater displacement than its official 1332cc figure indicates, offering plenty of torque at low revs and surprising muscularity at higher revs. You can’t say that about a lot of downsized turbo petrol units, although it does share its zingy soundtrack when under loads with its small-engined cousins. Impressive everyday economy proved to be a strong suit of this A180d and surprisingly — given that downsized turbo petrols are typically among the worst performers in the real world — it is easy to get up of 40mpg from the A200, and even push 50mpg in the event you drive parsimoniously. That’s within spitting distance of the official asserted figure of 53.3mpg. 1 piece of the driveline the two cars do share is their seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Its performance at step-off and reduced revs was the worst portion of the A180d. The transmission is better from the A200, but not ideal. More work is needed to better integrate it with the motor, and ensure faster and more responsive getaways to get you through gaps in the traffic and roundabouts. The chassis is another big mechanical shift. As discussed previously, the A180d uses a torsion beam set up for the rear suspension, while the A200 AMG Line increases a multi-link back axle (non-AMG Line A200s get the torsion beam). Jumping to the A200 for the first time, it felt a whole lot more alive in the way it moved down the street and engaged the driver. I was surprised at exactly how much more nimble it felt, but put this down to the lighter gas engine on the front axle helping the handling feel more nimble over the rear suspension offering greater body control. Comparing the ride between the two cars is a more subjective thing, as it’s not as simple as torsion beam versus multi-link. The A200 includes the larger 18in AMG alloy wheels, as opposed to the 17in rims of this A180d, and related lower-profile tyres (225/45 from the A200 plays 205/55 in the A180d). The A200 does feel a bit sexier than the A180d, but the ride is much more sophisticated, less ploddy and with better body control. We are going to keep experimenting with different suspension and wheel set-ups to find out if a sweet spot are available, but it has advantage A200 AMG Line in the chassis stakes so far. The interior is also a step up in sophistication and class from the already impressive A180d Sport. You would expect that in a pricier, range-topping trim, but the AMG Line does deliver. The sport seats grip you nicely and are pleasing to the look and touch, while the optional #1395 Executive Package provides a further increase in perceived quality. Among its additions is a larger 10.25in screen for the central screen, the highlight of which is the crispness and clarity of the graphics. A map hasn’t looked so good. I had grown quite fond of this A180d. As an entry-level’real world’ model (ie the best value you can get for the two spec and running costs), it felt like the kind of car to perform 20,000 fuss-free motorway miles in each year. The A200 shows how differently the A-Class can be flavoured, with no less pleasing results. Love it: Sleek styling This A-Class isn’t pretty from every angle, but it has never looked better than in black with AMG Line trim. Loathe it: Transmission response Step-off is better at the A200 than the A180d, but still not as smooth as it ought to be. Back to the top The A180d we began this evaluation with has been substituted by the A200 you see here. The A200’s 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo petrol, on first impressions, revs well and helps enhance the overall drivability compared with the A180d’s 1.5-litre diesel. AMG Line brings a leap in toys and perceived quality over the A180d’s Sport and the more sophisticated suspension subtly enhances agility. Back to the top Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 3 Pass me another A-Class, we’re done with this one – 9th January 2019 By the time you read this, A-Class number one of three in this collection of back-to-back evaluations will have returned to its manufacturer. This A180d is to be replaced by a petrol-powered A200, meaning the diesel leg of this trilogy is over and the first set of conclusions can be drawn. What is worth noting directly from the off is just how relevant a diesel engine of any kind remains if you do big miles. When you are doing just shy of 2000 miles a month, as we were averaging in our brief stint in the car, diesel makes the best sense of all. Our average market figure has slipped from the 60mpg around that it had hovered in the first days. The weather has cooled and the amount of shorter journeys has increased, but we’re still mightily impressed with a 55mpg average. That will make for interesting comparison number one as we switch from our 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel to a downsized 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol in the A200. Just what will our wallets make of the change? From previous experience, downsized petrols are some of the least impressive for real world market. We will have the calculator out over the next few months and let you know. 1 thing that I won’t miss about this A-Class is that the transmission. There’s simply no go when you ask for it with your foot, no matter how gentle or hard you are on the pedal. It takes a fantastic second for drive to appear, and it is as unimpressive as it is baffling: how did Mercedes sign off the car like this? It is a shame, because for the most part the transmission makes for an easy-going counterpart to the A180d once you’re on the go. It kicks down with minimal fuss when required and offers impressive drivability from the 30-50mph acceleration bursts that are a part of normal driving. The seven-speed dual clutch auto also appears in the A200, so it will be intriguing to see whether the issue is one related to the transmission itself or one caused by its integration with the diesel engine. Both the A180d and A200 use the torsion beam rear suspension choice — unless you spec your A200 in AMG Line trim, which our automobile will include to include an additional element to this story. On the standard suspension set-up and with 17in alloys in this mid century Sport trim, the A180d rides nicely but not with class-leading status. There’s greater sophistication in how a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus rides. The A180d’s body control comes unstuck over higher frequency surfaces and can set the cabin shaking. Intriguingly, there were a couple of large dissenters among the Autocar staff on the way in which the A180d rides on this standard set-up. The final big change we’ll be noticing is with the MBUX infotainment system. Our A180d has the dual 7in screens, one centrally for the infotainment and another for the motorist’s instruments. Others that have experienced the bigger 10.25in options in other A-Classes have smirked at how small it is, yet I have never had a problem with the images, legibility, size or operation. I’m looking forward to seeing if bigger does mean better when we update one of the two screens on the A200. Love it: SEAT COMFORT Not 1 fidget, tweak of the trunk or numbing of a bum cheek on a 400-mile journey. ACTIVE LANE KEEP ASSIST If you don’t need it on, you have to turn it off each and every time you restart the ignition. Mercedes feels ahead in technology terms – 27th December 2018 Having spent much of the past year at a Golf, I thought it’d take more than a month or two to familiarise myself with the A-Class. Wrong. Last week I jumped back to a Golf and was amazed by how outdated the VW felt. The A-Class has greater material richness and its technologies and slickness surpass the VW’s — a car that is likely on the podium because of its course along with the Audi A3. Mileage: 4222 Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 2 One of those cars was the third bestseller in October, another fifth. – 28 November 2018 When did mainstream cars become so expensive? Was it about the same time that the premium players came down to more mainstream sections like the family hatchback class to attempt to steal the established players’ lunch? After a month or so fast piling on the miles in our recently acquired Mercedes-Benz A-Class and getting to know it fairly well for the months of this evaluation that lie ahead, I thought it best not to allow the chance slip by and do similar with the Ford Focus. After all, it is the likes of Focus buyers who have fallen under the spell of that Mercedes badge and saved a few additional pennies. The Focus and our A-Class share quite similar mechanical specifications. Both use small-capacity four-cylinder diesel engines (1.5 for the Focus, 1.3 for the A-Class) closely matched on power, torque and 0-62mph time (118bhp, 192lb ft and 10.2sec in the Ford performs 114bhp, 221lb ft and 10.5sec in the Merc). Both use automatic gearboxes (an eight-speed torque convertor for the Ford, seven-speed dual-clutch automobile for the Merc). And the Price? There is less than #1000 in it, in the sporty ST-Line X trim in the Focus, and the sporty, erm, Sport trim of this A-Class. By the time you fiddle with the various standard kits and choices, you find yourself with quite literally only a few additional pennies to the Mercedes. Translate this to a PCP deal and a monthly payment, and diddly-squat becomes the numerical value. The point? For however brilliant the Focus is to drive, and it’s the quality of Mercedes and its overall package are of enormous appeal, and the best illustration of how the premium players are squeezing the middle-market mainstream brands with cars such as the A-Class. Ask the average car buyer if they’d have a Ford or a Mercedes for the same money, and we can all guess the answer. It is working for Mercedes, too. The A-Class is perhaps the most commonly spotted new car I’ve seen on the streets this fall, following the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta. Hardly surprising, as it was the third bestselling new car in the UK in September. Third bestselling? Crikey. Like me, those owners will be finding more about what an interesting car it is to live with. The Mercedes’ interior and technology are in a different league from anything else that the segment has seen. The MBUX infotainment system may be’only’ the entry-level one with the two 7.0in screens rather than the complete S-Class-style widescreen treatment across the whole dashboard, but it is wanting for nothing in operation. I’m experimenting with the’Hey Mercedes’ voice activation system, which is definitely one of the better ones I’ve encountered. The trick is to talk to it normally, and not like a robot. Will have you on the phone to the road test ace faster than’Hey Mercedes. Call. ‘I’m sorry, could you repeat that?’ I am continuing to be bowled over by the effortless efficiency of this A180d. The market has settled around 60mpg today the weather has got colder, a quite extraordinary figure and in another league again to the 45mpg or so average I got from a similar drivetrain from the Focus. That’s another part of the financial argument in the Merc’s favour. Yet there is a negative point on the transmission, specifically at step-off. It’s just so darn slow to respond. There is a T-junction in my commute on the edge of town. You have to pull upon the visitors to join a lane that has only come around a blind corner. Gaps in the traffic can be only a second or two, so as soon as you add in your reaction time and the time for the transmission to engage and then to pull away, the gap could well have gone. Manual gearboxes are coming soon to the A-Class and I guess its general quality will only increase more when that day comes. Enjoy it: Quality feel Classiness and quality run through the A-Class. Solid door thuds are as pleasing as the crispness of the interior screen graphics. Ride quality ‘Loathe’ is strong, but the ride is proving divisive. It’s too firm for some, lacking sophistication for others. I’d call it okay. 
 Mileage: 3462 In less than a month since it joined us, the A-Class has racked up a vast number of miles — a indication of how well it fits into daily life. Yet much debate has begun in the office among those who’ve driven itride quality (blended ), fuel market (highly regarded), suitability of the transmission (not popular), interior quality (a high point), and size (Golf-like’just right’). Much to explore further… Mileage: 3222 Back to the top Welcoming the A-Class into the fleet – 31st October 2018 It’s testament to the impact Mercedes-Benz has made with the A-Class in the UK that the arrival of this all-new fourth-generation version was considered one of the most keenly anticipated releases of the year. We say fourth generation, but you could argue it’s only really the second given the A-Class’s radical transformation from its previous generation from futuristic, spacious, ahead-of-its-time MPV-supermini mash-up to, dimensions-wise, a meat and two veg family hatchback pitched right at the heart of the European family hatchback market. The last A-Class was a staple of the UK’s top 10 bestselling cars list monthly, buyers attracted to it in their droves from the attractive #199 per month PCP deals which were regularly being advertised as the most inexpensive way into Mercedes ownership. It worked: the A-Class was a key motive behind Mercedes’ march to the peak of the premium brand sales charts in the UK and the fourth-top-selling brand overall. While we’re here, that’s quite a remarkable statistic. Mercedes sold more cars in the UK last year than Renault, Peugeot and Toyota to name only three, and the A-Class is among the biggest players in the family segment in the manner the Mégane, 308 and Corolla were a decade or two ago. Premium is the new mainstream. There are three unique engines originally available from dealers who are tasked with continuing that success. Yet there are so many subplots within the range that this is going to be a long-lasting test with a twist. For starters, KT18 RZA you see here is a car we are going to be saying goodbye to much earlier than we normally would, for by the time the year is out another shiny new A will be along replace it. Why so? To attempt and get as broad an experience as possible in the new A-Class. Early drives have suggested it is a car which can be specced in various ways to change its character so dramatically; we really need to try more than one car in a single solitary spec to make our recommendations. Up first, then, is an A180d Sport. This car’s 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit with 114bhp and 192lb feet is the only diesel option until the more potent 2.0-litre A200d and A220d arrive very shortly. Drive is delivered to the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the only transmission available. Do not worry: manuals can be found in some petrol variants. The petrols for now are a 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo in the A200 and a 221bhp 2.0-litre turbo in the A250, while a 187bhp 2.0-litre from the A220 with optional four-wheel drive is due to split them. There is also a 134bhp 1.3-litre in the entry-level A180. A headline-grabbing, Volkswagen Golf R-rivalling A35 AMG has also recently been announced, before a launch next year — our current plan being to crown this evaluation with a longer stint in that car with what might be the A-Class’s greatest hits album. But there is much to discover before we draw any conclusions like that. Such as finding out more about one of the important stories in this A-Class: the suspension of its back wheels. The A250 is the only A-Class available today with the multi-link rear suspension, the A180d and A200 getting an eyebrow-raising torsion beam. If you don’t spec your A200 with the 18in alloys in AMG Line trim, which is due to follow our initial torsion-beam-equipped A180d to get that comparison. Trim wise, our car is a Sport, which sits in the middle of the A-Class range. For the #27,340 asked by Mercedes, you receive a degree of kit that hasn’t left us wanting for much in these early days. The wheels are the standard Sport 17in rims, and the only option is metallic paint. That leaves the standard kit list to add dual-zone air-con, some excellent LED headlights and the new MBUX infotainment system controlled through either the conventional 7.0in touchscreen, the trackpad on the centre tunnel or the steering wheel controllers. All those controls seemed a bit bewildering when I sat in the car, perhaps due to these recent personal familiarity with BMW/Mini and Volkswagen Group systems, yet already I am finding it intuitive to use. The vibrancy of these images is a highlight, as is my experience of the Hey Mercedes voice control. Utter these two words and you get Siri-style search function of the vehicle’s controls, as well as some online search also. I have heard from colleagues that the system was quite buggy on its initial global press launch, yet it got up the amount of a taxi firm in Norwich I needed (is that you, Mr Partridge?) The very first time I used it. 1 other first impression: the A180d has an engine of effortless efficiency. Economy is nearer to 70mpg than 60mpg (maintained: 68.9mpg). That is quite remarkable with only 1000 or so miles on the odometer. The car covered another 1000 miles or so in its first few weeks , and that kind of economy over those kinds of motorway distances is the latest case for the defence of diesel. In automobiles like this used in this fashion, the black pump makes absolute sense. And did I mention that interior? Well, it’s not just lovely to look at, it’s also lovely to sit and browse your way around its controls. That’s only the entry-level system: we will be testing the optional 10.25in screens to the full widescreen cinema experience over the course of those updates for one more component to this developing story. We’ve got a busy and exciting few months ahead getting to know this most important of new cars, and so we’d better start. Second Opinion Two things stick out. First, its all-round excellence: the steering and low-speed ride create rivals seem rough, and promise a fantastic next-gen Golf if VW would be to keep up. Second, how much more traditional it is from the first, nutty, shorter-than-Fiesta edition. Seems VW was correct all along. Steve Cropley Back to the top Mercedes-Benz A-Class A180D Sport specification Specs: Price New #27,340 Price as tested #27,935 Alternatives Mountain grey metallic paint #595 Back to the top The post Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review appeared first on Auto Note Buyer - Sell Your Auto Notes For Cash. https://autonotebuyerinc.com/mercedes-benz-a-class-2018-long-term-review/

[crosbyru-blog]

Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review

The wide array of specced Alternatives to try makes the latest-generation A-Class a long-term Narrative with room to develop Why we are running it: To see if this VW Golf rival has come of age, and to pick the’perfect’ version Month 4 – Month 3 – Month 2 – Month 1 – Specs Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 4 Getting selective with the choices list – 20th February 2019 Some option packs are better value than others. The A-Class’s #1395 Executive Package certainly functions. It has heated seats (essential in winter), the excellent 10.25in larger central infotainment screen, front and rear parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors (those last two are vital in our HQ’s tight multi-storey), and the ability to park itself, which I’ve yet to try. Back to the top Finally settled on purchasing an A-Class? The tricky bit’s deciding which one – 13th February 2019 Now we are on our second Mercedes-Benz A-Class — this A200 AMG Line after the original A180d Sport — the various ways in which an A-Class can be specced to create cars with such different characters are really beginning to manifest themselves. Each difference between the two A-Classes is big enough on its own, but combined they create a car that feels like something new . The most obvious distinction between this A200 and its A180d predecessor is, of course, the motor — and the fuel station pump at which you fill it. The A200 uses a turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol unit into the A180d’s 1.5-litre diesel. The 161bhp/184lb feet engine, co-developed with Renault-Nissan, feels of much greater displacement than its official 1332cc figure indicates, offering plenty of torque at low revs and surprising muscularity at higher revs. You can’t say that about a lot of downsized turbo petrol units, although it does share its zingy soundtrack when under loads with its small-engined cousins. Impressive everyday economy proved to be a strong suit of this A180d and surprisingly — given that downsized turbo petrols are typically among the worst performers in the real world — it is easy to get up of 40mpg from the A200, and even push 50mpg in the event you drive parsimoniously. That’s within spitting distance of the official asserted figure of 53.3mpg. 1 piece of the driveline the two cars do share is their seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Its performance at step-off and reduced revs was the worst portion of the A180d. The transmission is better from the A200, but not ideal. More work is needed to better integrate it with the motor, and ensure faster and more responsive getaways to get you through gaps in the traffic and roundabouts. The chassis is another big mechanical shift. As discussed previously, the A180d uses a torsion beam set up for the rear suspension, while the A200 AMG Line increases a multi-link back axle (non-AMG Line A200s get the torsion beam). Jumping to the A200 for the first time, it felt a whole lot more alive in the way it moved down the street and engaged the driver. I was surprised at exactly how much more nimble it felt, but put this down to the lighter gas engine on the front axle helping the handling feel more nimble over the rear suspension offering greater body control. Comparing the ride between the two cars is a more subjective thing, as it’s not as simple as torsion beam versus multi-link. The A200 includes the larger 18in AMG alloy wheels, as opposed to the 17in rims of this A180d, and related lower-profile tyres (225/45 from the A200 plays 205/55 in the A180d). The A200 does feel a bit sexier than the A180d, but the ride is much more sophisticated, less ploddy and with better body control. We are going to keep experimenting with different suspension and wheel set-ups to find out if a sweet spot are available, but it has advantage A200 AMG Line in the chassis stakes so far. The interior is also a step up in sophistication and class from the already impressive A180d Sport. You would expect that in a pricier, range-topping trim, but the AMG Line does deliver. The sport seats grip you nicely and are pleasing to the look and touch, while the optional #1395 Executive Package provides a further increase in perceived quality. Among its additions is a larger 10.25in screen for the central screen, the highlight of which is the crispness and clarity of the graphics. A map hasn’t looked so good. I had grown quite fond of this A180d. As an entry-level’real world’ model (ie the best value you can get for the two spec and running costs), it felt like the kind of car to perform 20,000 fuss-free motorway miles in each year. The A200 shows how differently the A-Class can be flavoured, with no less pleasing results. Love it: Sleek styling This A-Class isn’t pretty from every angle, but it has never looked better than in black with AMG Line trim. Loathe it: Transmission response Step-off is better at the A200 than the A180d, but still not as smooth as it ought to be. Back to the top The A180d we began this evaluation with has been substituted by the A200 you see here. The A200’s 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo petrol, on first impressions, revs well and helps enhance the overall drivability compared with the A180d’s 1.5-litre diesel. AMG Line brings a leap in toys and perceived quality over the A180d’s Sport and the more sophisticated suspension subtly enhances agility. Back to the top Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 3 Pass me another A-Class, we’re done with this one – 9th January 2019 By the time you read this, A-Class number one of three in this collection of back-to-back evaluations will have returned to its manufacturer. This A180d is to be replaced by a petrol-powered A200, meaning the diesel leg of this trilogy is over and the first set of conclusions can be drawn. What is worth noting directly from the off is just how relevant a diesel engine of any kind remains if you do big miles. When you are doing just shy of 2000 miles a month, as we were averaging in our brief stint in the car, diesel makes the best sense of all. Our average market figure has slipped from the 60mpg around that it had hovered in the first days. The weather has cooled and the amount of shorter journeys has increased, but we’re still mightily impressed with a 55mpg average. That will make for interesting comparison number one as we switch from our 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel to a downsized 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol in the A200. Just what will our wallets make of the change? From previous experience, downsized petrols are some of the least impressive for real world market. We will have the calculator out over the next few months and let you know. 1 thing that I won’t miss about this A-Class is that the transmission. There’s simply no go when you ask for it with your foot, no matter how gentle or hard you are on the pedal. It takes a fantastic second for drive to appear, and it is as unimpressive as it is baffling: how did Mercedes sign off the car like this? It is a shame, because for the most part the transmission makes for an easy-going counterpart to the A180d once you’re on the go. It kicks down with minimal fuss when required and offers impressive drivability from the 30-50mph acceleration bursts that are a part of normal driving. The seven-speed dual clutch auto also appears in the A200, so it will be intriguing to see whether the issue is one related to the transmission itself or one caused by its integration with the diesel engine. Both the A180d and A200 use the torsion beam rear suspension choice — unless you spec your A200 in AMG Line trim, which our automobile will include to include an additional element to this story. On the standard suspension set-up and with 17in alloys in this mid century Sport trim, the A180d rides nicely but not with class-leading status. There’s greater sophistication in how a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus rides. The A180d’s body control comes unstuck over higher frequency surfaces and can set the cabin shaking. Intriguingly, there were a couple of large dissenters among the Autocar staff on the way in which the A180d rides on this standard set-up. The final big change we’ll be noticing is with the MBUX infotainment system. Our A180d has the dual 7in screens, one centrally for the infotainment and another for the motorist’s instruments. Others that have experienced the bigger 10.25in options in other A-Classes have smirked at how small it is, yet I have never had a problem with the images, legibility, size or operation. I’m looking forward to seeing if bigger does mean better when we update one of the two screens on the A200. Love it: SEAT COMFORT Not 1 fidget, tweak of the trunk or numbing of a bum cheek on a 400-mile journey. ACTIVE LANE KEEP ASSIST If you don’t need it on, you have to turn it off each and every time you restart the ignition. Mercedes feels ahead in technology terms – 27th December 2018 Having spent much of the past year at a Golf, I thought it’d take more than a month or two to familiarise myself with the A-Class. Wrong. Last week I jumped back to a Golf and was amazed by how outdated the VW felt. The A-Class has greater material richness and its technologies and slickness surpass the VW’s — a car that is likely on the podium because of its course along with the Audi A3. Mileage: 4222 Life with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class: Month 2 One of those cars was the third bestseller in October, another fifth. – 28 November 2018 When did mainstream cars become so expensive? Was it about the same time that the premium players came down to more mainstream sections like the family hatchback class to attempt to steal the established players’ lunch? After a month or so fast piling on the miles in our recently acquired Mercedes-Benz A-Class and getting to know it fairly well for the months of this evaluation that lie ahead, I thought it best not to allow the chance slip by and do similar with the Ford Focus. After all, it is the likes of Focus buyers who have fallen under the spell of that Mercedes badge and saved a few additional pennies. The Focus and our A-Class share quite similar mechanical specifications. Both use small-capacity four-cylinder diesel engines (1.5 for the Focus, 1.3 for the A-Class) closely matched on power, torque and 0-62mph time (118bhp, 192lb ft and 10.2sec in the Ford performs 114bhp, 221lb ft and 10.5sec in the Merc). Both use automatic gearboxes (an eight-speed torque convertor for the Ford, seven-speed dual-clutch automobile for the Merc). And the Price? There is less than #1000 in it, in the sporty ST-Line X trim in the Focus, and the sporty, erm, Sport trim of this A-Class. By the time you fiddle with the various standard kits and choices, you find yourself with quite literally only a few additional pennies to the Mercedes. Translate this to a PCP deal and a monthly payment, and diddly-squat becomes the numerical value. The point? For however brilliant the Focus is to drive, and it’s the quality of Mercedes and its overall package are of enormous appeal, and the best illustration of how the premium players are squeezing the middle-market mainstream brands with cars such as the A-Class. Ask the average car buyer if they’d have a Ford or a Mercedes for the same money, and we can all guess the answer. It is working for Mercedes, too. The A-Class is perhaps the most commonly spotted new car I’ve seen on the streets this fall, following the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta. Hardly surprising, as it was the third bestselling new car in the UK in September. Third bestselling? Crikey. Like me, those owners will be finding more about what an interesting car it is to live with. The Mercedes’ interior and technology are in a different league from anything else that the segment has seen. The MBUX infotainment system may be’only’ the entry-level one with the two 7.0in screens rather than the complete S-Class-style widescreen treatment across the whole dashboard, but it is wanting for nothing in operation. I’m experimenting with the’Hey Mercedes’ voice activation system, which is definitely one of the better ones I’ve encountered. The trick is to talk to it normally, and not like a robot. Will have you on the phone to the road test ace faster than’Hey Mercedes. Call. ‘I’m sorry, could you repeat that?’ I am continuing to be bowled over by the effortless efficiency of this A180d. The market has settled around 60mpg today the weather has got colder, a quite extraordinary figure and in another league again to the 45mpg or so average I got from a similar drivetrain from the Focus. That’s another part of the financial argument in the Merc’s favour. Yet there is a negative point on the transmission, specifically at step-off. It’s just so darn slow to respond. There is a T-junction in my commute on the edge of town. You have to pull upon the visitors to join a lane that has only come around a blind corner. Gaps in the traffic can be only a second or two, so as soon as you add in your reaction time and the time for the transmission to engage and then to pull away, the gap could well have gone. Manual gearboxes are coming soon to the A-Class and I guess its general quality will only increase more when that day comes. Enjoy it: Quality feel Classiness and quality run through the A-Class. Solid door thuds are as pleasing as the crispness of the interior screen graphics. Ride quality ‘Loathe’ is strong, but the ride is proving divisive. It’s too firm for some, lacking sophistication for others. I’d call it okay. 
 Mileage: 3462 In less than a month since it joined us, the A-Class has racked up a vast number of miles — a indication of how well it fits into daily life. Yet much debate has begun in the office among those who’ve driven itride quality (blended ), fuel market (highly regarded), suitability of the transmission (not popular), interior quality (a high point), and size (Golf-like’just right’). Much to explore further… Mileage: 3222 Back to the top Welcoming the A-Class into the fleet – 31st October 2018 It’s testament to the impact Mercedes-Benz has made with the A-Class in the UK that the arrival of this all-new fourth-generation version was considered one of the most keenly anticipated releases of the year. We say fourth generation, but you could argue it’s only really the second given the A-Class’s radical transformation from its previous generation from futuristic, spacious, ahead-of-its-time MPV-supermini mash-up to, dimensions-wise, a meat and two veg family hatchback pitched right at the heart of the European family hatchback market. The last A-Class was a staple of the UK’s top 10 bestselling cars list monthly, buyers attracted to it in their droves from the attractive #199 per month PCP deals which were regularly being advertised as the most inexpensive way into Mercedes ownership. It worked: the A-Class was a key motive behind Mercedes’ march to the peak of the premium brand sales charts in the UK and the fourth-top-selling brand overall. While we’re here, that’s quite a remarkable statistic. Mercedes sold more cars in the UK last year than Renault, Peugeot and Toyota to name only three, and the A-Class is among the biggest players in the family segment in the manner the Mégane, 308 and Corolla were a decade or two ago. Premium is the new mainstream. There are three unique engines originally available from dealers who are tasked with continuing that success. Yet there are so many subplots within the range that this is going to be a long-lasting test with a twist. For starters, KT18 RZA you see here is a car we are going to be saying goodbye to much earlier than we normally would, for by the time the year is out another shiny new A will be along replace it. Why so? To attempt and get as broad an experience as possible in the new A-Class. Early drives have suggested it is a car which can be specced in various ways to change its character so dramatically; we really need to try more than one car in a single solitary spec to make our recommendations. Up first, then, is an A180d Sport. This car’s 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit with 114bhp and 192lb feet is the only diesel option until the more potent 2.0-litre A200d and A220d arrive very shortly. Drive is delivered to the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the only transmission available. Do not worry: manuals can be found in some petrol variants. The petrols for now are a 161bhp 1.3-litre turbo in the A200 and a 221bhp 2.0-litre turbo in the A250, while a 187bhp 2.0-litre from the A220 with optional four-wheel drive is due to split them. There is also a 134bhp 1.3-litre in the entry-level A180. A headline-grabbing, Volkswagen Golf R-rivalling A35 AMG has also recently been announced, before a launch next year — our current plan being to crown this evaluation with a longer stint in that car with what might be the A-Class’s greatest hits album. But there is much to discover before we draw any conclusions like that. Such as finding out more about one of the important stories in this A-Class: the suspension of its back wheels. The A250 is the only A-Class available today with the multi-link rear suspension, the A180d and A200 getting an eyebrow-raising torsion beam. If you don’t spec your A200 with the 18in alloys in AMG Line trim, which is due to follow our initial torsion-beam-equipped A180d to get that comparison. Trim wise, our car is a Sport, which sits in the middle of the A-Class range. For the #27,340 asked by Mercedes, you receive a degree of kit that hasn’t left us wanting for much in these early days. The wheels are the standard Sport 17in rims, and the only option is metallic paint. That leaves the standard kit list to add dual-zone air-con, some excellent LED headlights and the new MBUX infotainment system controlled through either the conventional 7.0in touchscreen, the trackpad on the centre tunnel or the steering wheel controllers. All those controls seemed a bit bewildering when I sat in the car, perhaps due to these recent personal familiarity with BMW/Mini and Volkswagen Group systems, yet already I am finding it intuitive to use. The vibrancy of these images is a highlight, as is my experience of the Hey Mercedes voice control. Utter these two words and you get Siri-style search function of the vehicle’s controls, as well as some online search also. I have heard from colleagues that the system was quite buggy on its initial global press launch, yet it got up the amount of a taxi firm in Norwich I needed (is that you, Mr Partridge?) The very first time I used it. 1 other first impression: the A180d has an engine of effortless efficiency. Economy is nearer to 70mpg than 60mpg (maintained: 68.9mpg). That is quite remarkable with only 1000 or so miles on the odometer. The car covered another 1000 miles or so in its first few weeks , and that kind of economy over those kinds of motorway distances is the latest case for the defence of diesel. In automobiles like this used in this fashion, the black pump makes absolute sense. And did I mention that interior? Well, it’s not just lovely to look at, it’s also lovely to sit and browse your way around its controls. That’s only the entry-level system: we will be testing the optional 10.25in screens to the full widescreen cinema experience over the course of those updates for one more component to this developing story. We’ve got a busy and exciting few months ahead getting to know this most important of new cars, and so we’d better start. Second Opinion Two things stick out. First, its all-round excellence: the steering and low-speed ride create rivals seem rough, and promise a fantastic next-gen Golf if VW would be to keep up. Second, how much more traditional it is from the first, nutty, shorter-than-Fiesta edition. Seems VW was correct all along. Steve Cropley Back to the top Mercedes-Benz A-Class A180D Sport specification Specs: Price New #27,340 Price as tested #27,935 Alternatives Mountain grey metallic paint #595 Back to the top The post Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2018 long-term review appeared first on Auto Note Buyer - Sell Your Auto Notes For Cash. https://autonotebuyerinc.com/mercedes-benz-a-class-2018-long-term-review/