#pangaea tv

[cdyssey]

Elsbeth (1.10) Reactions:

as always, spoilers under the cut ☺️

ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS!!! LAURA BENANTI!!

THIS EPISODE OF TV IS FOR MEEEE! <33

OH, YES. I absolutely adore that we’re not going to get the culprit straight off the bat. It’s a good and a welcome subversion

SKFJSJSKSJ, Elsbeth blaming her fashion sense on her knees. But also, that red ensemble is stunning.

Yay, Donnelly!!

Kaya calling Elsbeth because she knows she would want to see the festival up close. 😭

“Huh, have a hunch?” / “Ha, I usually do by now, don’t I? But I don’t.” And that thoroughly shocks Elsbeth herself. I really love that we’re getting to see her off-kilter and how it messes with her sense of self. Elsbeth KNOWS she’s damn good at what she does, and so when she’s off, she’s off.

wow, that pantsuit on Donnelly. 😍

“And because she’s good at it.” Kaya defending her gf. <33

NOT ELSBETH CRYING NO. I CAN’T TAKE IT!

NO!!!!

“Dont leave without saying goodbye.” You just kicked her off of the job she loves, man. You can’t say THAT to her too. 😭

“Can we still talk about the case?” / “um, I can’t really think about that right now.” Baby is too distraught to even think about solving high-profile homicides. :((

“Like combination nail polish and staple remover.” / “Sounds like a winner.” lmao

“And also in the healing power of the sun and certain textiles.” ALAKDJJAS, ELSBETH’S FACE

I love that Nadine is a dumbass.

Laura Benanti kissing Elsbeth’s cheek is the stuff of dreams!

The pawn owner giving a hyper specific definition of Pangaea lmfao. This show does throwaway jokes so well.

I could watch Donnelly, Kaya, and elsbeth forever. Best trio. Kaya and Donnelly’s deadpan humor just works so well as a foil to Elsbeth’s general cheeriness.

“I don’t respect it, but it works.” 🥺

Laura benanti is so hot

Aww, Nadine sharing cookies with Elsbeth!! Love that she unironically likes Elsbeth.

“I get hodgepodge and hot mess.” Don’t listen to them, sweetie. Ur a fashion icon.

Matteo making an Elsbeth inspired show!!!!! He gets it!!!!!!!!! I don’t even care if he’s the murderer!!!!!!! (He so totally is.) He gets it!!!!!!!!

Elsbeth’s reluctance immediately turning into eagerness when Matteo offers up Nadine as her fashion coach. I know what you are!

“And I saw your sports illustrated spread. That bathing suit totally showed your—“ ELSBETH GESTURING TO HER WHOLE MIDSECTION. HELP ME THAT IS SO FUNNY. I NEED A GIF OF THAT NOW

“Well, I can’t figure out everything for you, can I?” Gkdkskskwkwosk

“Now, remember, chin up.” [Nadine gently tilts Elsbeth’s chin.] god bless this show for its commitment to constructing such intimate moments of connection between Elsbeth and other women every single episode

Gonzo! Glad they brought her back.

Matteo: “That was twenty years ago… before Nadine had an accent.”

Dear god, the pangaea project ☠️

Elsbeth’s instincts being off because she’s upset about having to leave the precinct is such a nice touch. Oh, god, the way her voice goes all wobbly.

“I came here with an assignment from the Department of Justice and maybe you think I was wrong to accept that because you think you’re above blame, but I did my best to be fair, and you know, there was plenty of evidence that made you look bad.”

OH, perfect moment, writer’s room. It would have been so easy to let Elsbeth sit there and take the unfairness, but the fact that she stands up for herself is a fundamental truth of her character that we’ve seen time and time again throughout the season. She’s not a pushover. She’s not dumb. And she’s the furthest thing from weak.

And she will damn sure let you know it.

“Okay then. I guess you’re right, as you always are. My work here is done.” GET HIS ASS!!!

Kaya: “I’ll be there.” 😭

Kaya immediately turning back to Wagner. “What was she supposed to do?”

YES, I NEED THIS PERSONAL DRAMA! Up the stakes between the main characters! Give them deeply intimate things to fight for or to fight about!!

That Kaya/Elsbeth hug. 😭😭

Donnelly: “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m gonna miss you.” GKSKSKSK, Donnelly running away from her hug.

Matteo exuberantly pointing at Elsbeth and it immediately cutting to her looking like the saddest little kitten. 😭

Elsbeth, violently sobbing: “I don’t know. I think… I think I’ve lost my mojo.” OKAY, I HATE TO SEE HER CRY, but the angst lover in me is also enjoying this deeply.

Nadine trying to comfort her, stroking her arm. 🌈

MY FUCKING GOD LOOK AT KAYA. LOOK AT HOW HOT SHE IS. WHAT THE FUKC

THAT DRESSSSS AUWHGJA!

Wagner showing up to the fashion show, lmao. They filmed that like the end of The Parent Trap when the dad shows up at the end again.

“Oh, I wish I didn’t have to do this.”Elsbeth’s tenderness and compassion towards Matteo—(towards so many of the culprits)—is just stunning. Absolutely character defining.

“I’m old, darling. Time collapses.” Gorgeous way to put it.

Love the high drama of the whole Nick/Nadine/Ezra/Matteo story.

For Good Wife/Fight fans, was Celetano a character over there, or is he a new invention?

Elsbeth and Laura Benanti still hanging out!!!

“… but actually, they’re far worse than what I imagined.” QLLQOQKWOEKDMSKW

“Thank you for teaching me how to notice things… and for being my friend.” 😭 Oh, that little break in Kaya’s voice.

Elsbeth grabbing her hands. 😭😭

“I know a bunch of people died, but we did have a lot of fun.” / “Yeah.” this is the fun of Kaya and Elsbeth, too, that they have an ungodly amount of fun solving gruesomecrimes.

ELSBETH GETTING AN OFFICE! YAYAYAYAY! KAYA EXCITED ABOUT BEING OUTSIDE OF ELSBETH’S OFFICE! KAYA GOING TO BE A DETECTIVE!! ELSBETH AND KAYA SO EXCITED TOGETHER! WAH!!

final thoughts on the finale: oh, this was such a wonderful episode—I had a goddamn blast.

I really hate to say it because I think the howcatchem gimmick is what makes Elsbeth structurally unique as a procedural, but not knowing the culprit worked for me so well for me in this episode. It was fun to piece it together with her, and even to watch her struggle a bit as she dealt with other stressors. That was all great—I felt both grounded in Elsbeth’s emotional state and invested in the case as it gradually unfolded. André and Laura were excellent guest stars! They understood the Elsbeth assignment of high camp fnekdnsns. Carra Patterson and Wendell Pierce were fantastic as always, too, but I have to admit, I wish the Wagner corruption plot had been more interesting in general.

(He was never ever going to be the antagonist, but having it be Noonan felt a little anticlimactic after all the cool set up. 😭 I sort of wish we’d gotten one last quiet moment between Elsbeth and Wagner to talk about it, too.)

looking ahead, I’m so, so excited for what Elsbeth has in store. Carrie Preston is just a delight, from start to finish. There is a high chance I’m going to start binging TGW/F soon just to get a chance to see her at the start. :’)

I really hope that S2 leans into more of the elements that made the finale such a treat—like not being afraid to shake up the formula and playing to personal drama/stakes/moments between the central cast. They’re all gorgeous characters, and I desperately want to know more about their internal lives, and share some of those tiny, unseen moments with them. and if that means sacrificing some of the screen space that would have originally been used to get to know a culprit better, I think that’s absolutely okay from time-to-time. <3

But overall, Elsbeth has genuinely and quickly become one of my favorite new finds of 2024. It’s fun and clever. It doesn’t take itself seriously, which I think is crucial to the DNA of the show. And yet, it has such a big heart at its core, which is what gives it life.

I’m going to miss it sm while it’s on hiatus!! Thursdays just got a whole lot duller.

[taiwan3000]

2023

ALBUMS

Maps Billy Woods Kenny Segal (FaceTime, Year Zero, Hangman, NYC Tapwater)

Heavy Heavy Young Fathers (I Saw, Tell Somebody, Ululation)

Radical Romantics Fever Ray (Tapping Fingers, Even It Out, Shiver)

The Infinite Spine Lauren Auder (730kingfisher, 118-madonna, hawthorne81, we2assume2many2roles)

Erotic Probiotic 2 Nourished by Time (The Fields, Soap Party, Quantum Suicide)

Wallsocket underscores (Cops and robbers; Locals (Girls like us); Geez louise)

Javelin Sufjan Stevens (Goodbye Evergreen, Will Anybody Ever Love Me?, So You Are Tired)

10,000 Gecs 100 Gecs (Hollywood Baby, I Got My Tooth Removed, Mememe, Frog on the Floor)

Love in a Vicious Way Mother Tongues (Worm Day, Dance in the Dark)

Hellmode Jeff Rosenstock

Cartwheel Hotline TNT

After the Magic Parannoul

The Comeback Kid Marnie Stern

Aperture Hannah Jadagu

Live At Bush Hall Black Country, New Road (Dancers)

trip9love...??? Tirzah

Raven Kelela

Sundial Noname

The Ones Ahead Beverly Glenn-Copeland

12 Ryuichi Sakamoto

All of This Will End Indigo De Souza

SONGS

Strong; Enjoy Your Life; Loveher; She's on my Mind Romy

Pink Lemonade Blockhead RXK Nephew

Mindful Solutionism; Pigeonometry Aesop Rock

I See Myself; Mysterious Love Geese

Pet Rock L'Rain

It Must Change; Scapegoat ANOHNI and the Johnsons

Avalanche of Love WITCH

I've Got Me Joanna Sternberg

Can I Talk My Shit? Vagabon

Workin' on a World Iris DeMent

Vampire Empire Big Thief

Paint the Town Red Doja Cat

Oral Bjork + Rosalia

Mama's Eyes Mette

With the Other Hand Lost Girls

Scaring the Hoes Danny Brown + JPEGMAFIA

Redemption Tour Klein

Squid Pangaea

Halo Flip Vegyn Lauren Auder

Dickhead Blues Kara Jackson

Sandrail Silhouette Avalon Emerson

So Hard to Tell Debby Friday

We Gon Eat Living Legends

Found Fucked Up

Make U 3 Me Alice Longyu Gao

What We Were That What Wept for the Sea Colin Stetson

Andy in Stereo Hand Habits

Blackbox Life Recorder 21f Aphex Twin

Quiet Moves Che Noir

Crumbs Rebecca Black

Lo Siento Princess Nokia

Djennaration Liturgy

FILMS / TV / VIDEO

Adrianne Lenker Ruined (music video)

***All Light, Everywhere

***American Factory

Arrested Development S4

***Barbie

The Bear S2 E6, E7, E10

The Beautiful Colors of Jeremy Sicile-Kira (short)

***Beef (TV)

Big Fish

***Black Mirror S3 E4 San Junipero

Bottoms

Bourne Ultimatum

***The Boy and the Heron

Caballerango

***Chewing Gum S1 & S2

***Colossal Youth

Contact

The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future

***Creamerie S1 & S2

Crestone

A Dangerous Method

***Decision to Leave

***I Didn't See You There

Disintegration 93-96 (short)

Enjoy Your Life MV Romy

***The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase

***An Epistemological Analysis of RXK Nephew's "American Tterroristt" (YouTube)

Fogareu

Free Chol Soo Lee

Groundhog Day

***Hail Satan?

Harm Reduction Center Chapter 5 (YouTube)

***The Hole

***Horse Money

***How to Blow Up a Pipeline

***I May Destroy You

I Think You Should Leave S1-3

I Was a Simple Man

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia S16 E8

John Wick 4

Joy Ride

Killers of the Flower Moon

Last Week with John Oliver: Israel-Hamas War

Liquor Store Dreams

Live at Bush Hall by Black Country, New Road

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx

Malni: Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore

Nettles (short)

No Reservations S8 E5 Lisbon

October Country

Parts Unknown S9 S8 Porto

***Perfumed Nightmare

Puparia (short)

Robocop

Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy

Shortcomings

Somebody Feed Phil

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse

The Square

Star Trek

Starfuckers (short)

***Survivor Australia S10 E7

Talk to Me

A Thousand and One

Three of Us (short)

***Time

TomDNYC (YouTube)

***Triangle of Sadness

Tuesday (short)

***underscores Wallsocket (album video)

Untold Story of Keetley Valley (short)

When You Left Me on that Boulevard (short)

WHOKILLEDXIX 9mm (music video)

A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (short)

***The Wire

***Wisdom Gone Wild

The Worst Person in the World

You've Never Been Completely Honest (short)

Yox_Rick (IG)

***Zodiac

LIVE SHOWS

***Billy Woods Kenny Segal

Hiss Golden Messenger

***Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord

***Peter Pan Goes Wrong

1776

***Sloppy Jane

ART EXHIBITS

Cecily Brown

Luna Luna

VIDEO GAMES

Closing Doors

***Cohabitation

***Coming Out Simulator 2014

I Had Another Dream About You Last Night

Mimic

Opossum Country

Six Cats Under

Sofia?

Super Jacked Up Tomato Face Johnson

That Lonesome Valley

***Time Is Solid Here

BOOKS

Why Do I Get All the Kisses?

[deepdownclowns]

Jester knocked on Smiley's door. A formality really. Ey slipped in the door. "Smiles?"

"I'm upstairs! Did you find them?" She called back.

Jester made eir way up. Much slower than they'd like. Only half because of the DVD's squeezed in eir arm preventing them from going incorporeal. The other half because ey were just so eager to get up there.

After the long ascent ey flopped onto Smiley's bed. "You won't believe how long it took to find this. Stupid thing was buried in the trash."

Smiley clicked her tongue. "Who ever trashed such a piece of art deserves to be dead." She dropped down beside Jester, a smirk playing on her scarred lips.

"They probably are." Jester replied grimly. "Where's the DVD player again?"

"In the TV cabinet. Oh! Speaking of which get the TV turned on while your up."

"Jeez do I have to do everything my self Smiles?" Jester asked with faux exasperation.

She hummed for a moment, watching Jester as ey set up the television. "Yes, you do. It's senior privilege."

"Right, right. I keep forgetting you and Hedonist are so close in age. By the way how was Pangaea?" Ey sat beside her and gave her a shove.

"Much more convenient, I could walk everywhere." She shoved back. "Now shut up because you're about to hear the best song of your entire afterlife."

"Whatever you say Smi-"

She cut em off with a shush and a smirk.

[hadarlaskey]

Jurassic Lark: The satirical genius of Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs

Reptilian newsreader Howard Handupme looks to camera: “A meteor, three times the size of Earth, is heading towards us in a collision course that will result in the extinction of all life on this planet.”

Left of frame, a rubbery green hand slides a sheet of paper across the desk. “This just in,” Handupme reports. “No, it’s not.”

“Oh, good,” says Earl Sinclair – a simple, workaday Megalosaurus – who promptly changes the channel.

So opens the first episode of the irreverent sitcom Dinosaurs, in which the dysfunctional Sinclair family contends with the strictures of modern life (dinos, in this timeline, having only evolved from being wild, swamp-dwelling brutes about a million years earlier).

A Jim Henson Television production, the series starred a cast of expressive – and expensive – animatronic puppets, the most memorable being Baby Sinclair (performed by Kevin Clash, who also popularised Elmo). Back in the show’s original run from 1991-94, Baby’s wily slapstick and weekly catchcry ‘Not the Mama!’ eclipsed the show’s more subversive quirks. But in the 30 years since Dinosaurs’ debut, its biting satire and sly commentary on gender, labour, politics, racism, the economy and climate change – not to mention television itself – has only grown more savage.

With its four idiosyncratic seasons hitting Disney+ on 29 January, now is the perfect time to reconsider this curious analogue artefact. From its prehistoric Pangaea setting (roughly 60 million years BC through to its reflection in the Anthropocene, withering under late capitalism, the prophecy of Dinosaurs is anything but obsolete.

Dinosaurs charged onto the US network ABC (plus ITV and Disney Channel in the UK, among other territories) care of co-creators Bob Young and Michael Jacobs. Their previous writing and producing credits included such all-American candy floss as The Facts of Life and Charles in Charge, but this new beast sacrificed the sweet accessibility of cookie-cutter sitcoms, favouring the playful parody and contained chaos vital to much of Jim Henson’s work, particularly with the Muppets.

That said, Dinosaurs was the first major Jim Henson Company work produced without supervision from the Creature Shop’s founding leader, who passed away in May 1990. Henson is said to have conceived the series, which shares thematic DNA with his unproduced screenplay for The Natural History Project – a fantasy feature à la The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Sadly it was scrapped due to its apparent similarities to The Land Before Time, at a time when Jurassic antics were just starting to peak on the pop cultural landscape.

Another way in which Dinosaurs tapped the early ’90s zeitgeist was by gutting the ‘wholesome ’50s father’ archetype. Upstanding dads had dominated sitcoms (subgenus: comedie domesticus, or ‘dom coms’) from Father Knows Best to The Cosby Show. Full of beer nuts and hot air, Earl (voiced by Stuart Pankin) inherited the ‘bad dad’ mantle from Alf Garnett (Till Death Us Do Part) and Archie Bunker (All in the Family), whose parenting deficits were honoured such ‘dumb dad’ renaissance texts as Married… with Children, The Simpsons and Home Improvement. Dinosaurs even skewered the trend with this facetious weeknight line-up:

“This is why TV stinks,” groans Earl. “One show’s a hit, they make 50 more like it,” to which Baby replies, “Don’t have a cow, man!”

But Earl is more cynical than his bumbling brethren like Homer Simpson and Fred Flintstone. What’s more, his wilfully shit behaviour isn’t typically framed as endearing, so we don’t laugh with him – the chuckles come when he gets his comeuppance. (Notably, Dinosaurs’ producers chose to can the initial laugh track, which means no one implicitly condones Earl’s buffoonery.)

Unlike many TV patriarchs, Earl is rarely handed a free pass to fail upwards, which makes it all the more meaningful when, in the third season episode ‘Honey, I Miss the Kids’, the flaccid antihero sincerely bonds with his progeny. Meanwhile, his wife Fran (Arrested Development’s Jessica Walter) returns to work full time, itching to escape the cyclical tedium of domestic drudge work.

A prototypical nuclear family, the Sinclairs live in a version of suburbia that marries prehistoric aesthetics and postwar social values. Every relevant stereotype gets eviscerated, along with the idealised virtues of heteronormative parenthood (both adults express resentment toward each other and their kids), organised religion (teenage son Robbie rejects many cultural customs, like eating other animals and hurling old folk into tarpits), and soulless consumerism (when Baby demands the ‘leg smoother’ he saw on TV, he’s told he can’t have it because he’s a boy. “Oh, then I want a machine gun!”).

Traditional gender roles receive constant ribbing, with clichéd traits inverted. Man of the house Earl is beholden to the whims of his – to borrow a Sesame Street term – big feelings, whereas Fran is mostly moderate. Though she begins an obliging housewife, one part Stepford to two parts Bedrock, she becomes disillusioned with her lot and develops the voice to say so.

This is largely due the influence of her friend Monica Devertebrae (Suzie Plakson), a feminist Brontosaurus who takes her employer – the ubiquitous corporate giant WESAYSO – to court in ‘What “Sexual Harris” Meant’. The episode aired in late 1991, just two months after Anita Hill’s widely televised sexual harassment case, and it features one of Dinosaurs’ most searing jokes.

The ignobility of work regularly comes under fire, particularly in regard to Earl’s blue-collar job as a ‘tree pusher’ at WESAYSO Development Corporation. Managed by a tyrannical Styracosaurus called BP Richfield (sitcom stalwart Sherman Hemsley, All in the Family and The Jeffersons) who’s slick by name, if not by nature.

The company motto is “We’ll do what’s right if you leave us alone”, which, in practice, means razing a redwood forest to make way for 10,000 tract houses, and building a wax fruit factory that precipitates an ice age. (Howard Handupme’s news report was right: it’s not a meteor that ends all life on Earth in the series’ breathtakingly bleak finale.)

Dinosaurs leaves few sociopolitical stones unturned, illustrating how gender performance, class, work and the environment are all inextricably linked. In some ways, it’s a spiritual successor to another Henson series about ecology, Fraggle Rock, which also depicts nature’s precariousness and the dangers of xenophobia. (Earl’s opinions of the early hominid folk who cohabit this revisionist history echo the Fraggles’ view of ‘Silly Creatures’ aka the human race.) This begs the question, was Dinosaurs intended for adults or children? Like most Jim Henson Company work, it’s both, and the writers clarify this with a knowing wink.

The Sinclairs’ television set is their home’s focal point, and some of the show’s best roasts concern TV’s hypnotic allure. (‘Network Genius’ is a work of genius.) But Dinosaurs’ drollest running gag involves a puppet show that delights Earl and Baby equally. When Fran dismisses the show as kid’s stuff, Earl retorts, “You’d think that, because they’re puppets – so the show seems to have a children’s aesthetic.” He turns to eyeball the camera. “Yet the dialogue is unquestionably sharp-edged, witty, and thematically skewed to adults.” The mighty Megalosaurus flexes his dexterous brow.

Puppets mimic the human condition with an uncanny likeness. They’re not people, clearly, but an eerie approximation. When camouflaged in the soft power of a sitcom, they have a unique capacity to point fingers at society’s trickiest home truths. Slapstick and catchphrases are just a handy distraction. All these years later, Dinosaurs still goes for the throat.

The post Jurassic Lark: The satirical genius of Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs appeared first on Little White Lies.

source https://lwlies.com/articles/jurassic-lark-the-satirical-genius-of-jim-hensons-dinosaurs/

[sorryveronica]

I think, for a moment. I finally understand why people wait to have sex before marriage.

i finally understand why someone rather wait to feel the warm embrace of their lover holding them close because speeding up to taste the lips of honey only seems bitter. so I'm learning too.

you see- I've been having sex with the same person for almost a year. Constantly learning her body from what makes her wet to what touches make her bite her bottom lip. it's a beautiful sight to see her arch her back while my tongue runs relays below her.

I enjoy feeling the way she presses up against my mouth when I hit her spot. the way she lets out her moans, reaches up to heavens ears. Allowing Angels to take her tune and turn it into golden strings to create a guitar that would put you to shame.

That melody picks up this soul and pushes the gas pedal to the floor. Giving that little "umph" to the driver behind this heart & inbetween her hairs. I find comfort that fall over my shoulder and cheek while she lays over my chest at night with snores louder than the TV.

I promise the ones before me never cherished what I cherished. they did not care about the lips that have saved me from my minds turmoil and was there when I got outta jail. she could calm stormes if youd stopped asking the Devil to form them, V. But like I said, I'm learning

I dont believe the ones before me honored the scriptures that formed everytime she stretches her back, giving me an "Hallelujah" I knew my faith was strong, but today she is walking proof that God still listens to prayers.

someone once told me you can measure someone's happiness by the person who's next to them. so I hope you see the mountain crescents forming on this side of pangaea as I sing praises and allow my smile to speak Joy's about the one who walks next to me.

she makes me happy & I pray that I do her body right because the ones before me messed up by allowing her to meet me. Now a real female stepping in.

[mookybear12404]

I was tagged by @ramblingpilgrim !

Favorite colors: I love muted earthy colors like green and brown!

Last song I listened to: The Woods Acoustic by Hollow Coves

Favorite music: Lofi and electro swing!

Last film I watched: The Breadwinner. ITS REALLY GOOD

Last TV series I watched: Does Critical Role count?

Favorite original character: Oh gosh I have so many... but probably my characters from my Pangaea story!

Sweet, spicy or savory: Spicy AND savory!

Sparkling water, tea, or coffee: Coffee!! Tea is good too, but sparkling water is BAD

[takaraphoenix]

I had a dream so oddly detailed and realistic that I went on wikipedia this morning to fact check whether it was real or not.

Because I dreamed about a TV series, circa end nineties product. The quality of the dream was circa end nineties product, including the damn black bars you have left and right now thanks to the format.

Michael Shanks played one of the main characters on it.

The show’s name was Pangaea and I could literally draw you the damn title card because of course did the dream also include a damn title card.

Now, Pangaea was a post-apocalyptic time-travel show.

Humanity had finally run the Earth into the ground, so they try to save a selective group of scientists and deemed-as-important people with time-travel so they might a) survive and b) change the course of history to help the planet survive.

Michael Shanks played one of the scientists that were sent back. Only that they had been sent too far back in time - and arrived on Pangaea.

The dinosaurs looked very much like out of Dinotopia.

So now the scientists, very ill-prepared for this, had to make due not just with being totally out of time but also with dinosaurs. And figuring out how they could possibly leave a lasting impact on the course of history from where they are right now.

They started building homes in connected caves, which were really awesomely designed. Seriously, their cave-homes looked so cool.

Of course did Michael Shanks have a love-interest, because what respected lead doesn’t? She was gorgeous and I am so mad that I can’t remember the actress’ name. She had shoulder-long brunette hair and that unnecessarily fluffed-up 90s do and was mainly wearing a white suit with a skirt.

He played a scaredy cat like scientist who wanted to double-check everything and was rather intimidated by the world they lived in now, but he was undoubtedly the most brilliant of the bunch.

She played a brave and daring adventurer. More of an Indiana Jones like woman, though she too was a scientist. And their clashing understanding of things and ideas led to a lot of arguments, which as everyone who ever watched a TV show knows means ‘sexual tension’.

But yeah, the show was super fun? In my dream, I was watching an episode where one of the hot-shot army guys who had been sent along as protection started killing dinosaurs for fun and our dynamic duo unwillingly teamed up to find out who did it.

It was all so very detailed and outlined and even though I was only watching one episode, I still had the overarching plot in my head too, and there was even a fucking theme-song. I was a 100% convinced that the show actually existed when I woke up. Like, something I must have watched as a kid but never thought of again and now watching Stargate for the first time triggered me to remember it or something? But... it doesn’t exist. there is no show called Pangaea, nothing like it on Michael Shanks’ track-record of TV shows...

THIS FRUSTRATES ME I WANT TO KNOW WHO KILLED THE DINOSAURS AND WHEN THE WILL-THEY-WON’T-THEY ENDS.

[weedle-testaburger]

Me again, looking back on the Hitchhiker’s TV series, I get the impression that Slartibartfast is a bit overworked, no doubt on part of the Mice of course. Damn shame he ends up doing it all for nothing when they scrap the plans for Earth 2: Pangaea Boogaloo. Also, I like to think that Slartibartfast is the shortened version of a much longer name. One with 47 syllables.

Yep lol. And tbh I think that's a bit more of a Time Lord thing, I prefer his name as is.

[hmgn3]

22-February 散財記録

05(sat) ・The Jimmy Giuffre 4 / Liquid Dancers (1991, used LP) ・Keshavan Maslak / Get the Money (Whatever It Takes) (1988, used LP) ・Kate & Anna McGarrigle / Dancer With Bruised Knees (1977, used LP) ・Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Blacknuss (1972, used LP) 06(sun) ・犬吋ワンP (2019, used 7inch) ・Picnic / We’ve Only Just Begun (2012, used 7inch) ・Nipped in the Bud (1983, used LP) ・The Box / Secrets Out (1983, used LP) ・The Beatles / Strawberry Fields Forever (1982, used LP) ・John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette / Gateway (1975, used LP) ・Dimitri Tiomkin / Friendly Persuasion: Original Music From the Soundtrack of the Motion Picture (1956, used LP) 09(wed) ・The Green Child / Shimmering Basset (2020, used LP) ・Asyncronous / Pangaea Nova (2020, used 12inch) ・Moonflowers / Brainwashing and Heartists Blue Life Stripes (1997, used LP) ・TV Personalities / Time Goes Slowly When You're Drowning (1995, used 7inch) ・Tuxedomoon / Holy Wars (1985, used LP) ・Jasper van't Hof / Eye Ball (1974, used LP) 13(sun) ・シラオカ / 庭 (2021, CD) 17(thu) ・Michel Colombier / Old Fool Back on Earth (1983, used 2LP) ・ビートたけし / TAKESHIの、たかをくくろうか (1983, used 7inch) 18(fri) ・Wendy Eisenberg / Auto (2020, used LP) ・Rose Dorn / Days You Were Leaving (2019, used LP) ・The Lodge / Smell of a Friend (1988, used LP) ・Evan Lurie / Happy? Here? Now? (1985, used LP) ・The Mighty Wah! / A Word to the Wise Guy (1984, used LP) ・Pere Ubu / Song of the Bailing Man (1981, used LP) 22(tue) ・Supreme Dicks / Workingman's Dick (Archival Recordings 1987-89) (1994, used LP) ・Polyrock / Changing Hearts (1981, used LP) 25(fri) ・Paul Motian / Tribute (1974, used LP) 28(mon) ・Almost Xiu Xiu, Almost Deerhoof (2011, used 7inch) ・WORLD STANDARD / 太陽は教えてくれない (1985, used 7inch)

[purplesurveys]

1028

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - What was the last thing you watched on TV? The last TV show I watched was Friends, but the last thing I saw on TV was the evening news, as is always our companion when having dinner.

2 - Do you have the heating or air conditioning on at the moment? I have the fan on, like always. I just turn on the aircon in the evening because I want to be comfortable after a long day and when trying to fall asleep.

3 - When was the last time you did something to help someone else? Andi was having a dilemma about an already-secure job offer for a position they don’t 100% like vs. a job they know they would enjoy a lot more but isn’t guaranteed at all. I helped weigh out the pros and cons with them, but I didn’t necessarily stick to a position as I didn’t want to dictate a choice for them.

4 - If you have a job, have you been busier or quieter since the whole COVID thing hit? I was a student, then was unemployed, then got hired throughout this COVID fiasco so far. For the first two, life had been quiet for me and I really hated feeling like having no contribution at home. My plate is definitely a lot fuller now and I’m glad I have things to do and earn for myself while doing so.

5 - Do you spend more time on your own or with others? Are you happy with that? On my own. I think it’s best for me at the moment.

6 - Do you know anyone who has been diagnosed with autism? Yes.

7 - Have you had your wisdom teeth removed? What about your tonsils or your appendix? None of these. I’ve had a tooth removed, but it wasn’t a wisdom tooth.

8 - Are you scared of needles? Very. I hate most sharp things, and I am an embarrassment whenever I’m at the hospital and need to be pricked with something.

9 - Do you dress more for comfort, fashion or practicality? I try to strike a balance between comfort and fashion, but sometimes I’ll prioritize comfort and sometimes I’ll prioritize fashion. But practicality is definitely barely in my criteria when picking outfits.

10 - When was the last time you smoked a cigarette? I think it may have been February. I only smoke with other people and I’ve never bought my own pack.

11 - Would you rather drink tea, coffee, hot chocolate or water? In the grand scheme of things, water. But right now, a hot chocolate sounds heavenly.

12 - Do you have a lot of ornaments around your house? Yes. We also have our Christmas tree already up, so that has also boosted the amount of ornaments we have.

13 - Do you own more books or DVD’s? Books. While I have a number of DVDs, I never really an avid collector of them. My dad introduced me to torrent websites at a young age so that’s how I’ve been getting movies for the longest time.

14 - How often would you say you took surveys? Throughout the quarantine I had taken surveys daily. But with me now having work and usually being too exhausted by the end of the day, I think I’ll be back to taking surveys only on weekends now like how it was when I was in school. 

15 - Have you ever worn a uniform to school or work? Yes, I had to wear a uniform in my old school.

16 - Who was the first person you had a sleepover with? Are you still in touch with that person today? It would have to be either Angela or Gabie. Yes, I still talk to both.

17 - When you were growing up, did you have any friends who were almost like family to you? Katreen’s and Angela’s families were second families to me. For a time back in grade school, Katreen’s mom actually used to pick me up alongside Katreen every Friday and then I would stay at their place until around 9 PM, when my mom would get back from work and pick me up. They did such a wonderful job making me feel like family, and I hope they’re all doing well today.

18 - Could you cook an entire Christmas or Thanksgiving Dinner entirely on your own with no help from other people or recipe books? Yes but it would not be edible.

19 - Do you cook from scratch or do you rely more on ready meals or frozen food? I rely on people in my family who can actualy cook, ha.

20 - What’s your favourite type of fast food? Is it something you eat often? KFC would have to be my favorite. Those 11 herbs and spices don’t fuck around, man. It’s not the cheapest of fast food options, so I don’t get to have it a lot and it’s usually tradition for me to get KFC only when I feel like I deserve a reward for an accomplishment or after a grueling week.

21 - If you’ve been under a lockdown or stay-at-home order, what did you find the most difficult about it? Not having been able to see my friends, go out as a group, and stay out late. Also, not getting a normal college graduation and being unable to spend my last semester as a college student just being a dumb college student doing dumb college student things.

22 - Do you still buy or read any magazines? I’ll sometimes read the online versions of magazines especially if one of them comes out with a compelling article, but I don’t follow any of them religiously.

23 - As a teenager, what did you spend most of your pocket money or allowance on? I went out with friends on the weekends, so my savings mostly went to food and Uber (back when we still had Uber, and back when none of us could drive yet).

24 - Do you have much of a sweet tooth? I have my moods for sure, but I love savory a lot more.

25 - Are there any common “popular” foods that you don’t particularly like yourself? Have people ever told you you’re odd/strange for disliking that particular food? Fruits. I get judged for it all the time, but I honestly live for the reactions hahaha. To this day it’s still my go-to fact to say whenever I have to share something about myself. There’s also sinigang, but that is such a universally-loved food and is such a huge source of pride for Filipinos that I just keep it to myself because people get genuinely annoyed/offended when they hear that I don’t like sinigang LOL

26 - Likewise, are there are any commonly hated foods that you love? BALUT

27 - Would you rather eat pizza or pasta? Pizza. Easy.

28 - Do you own a lot of store loyalty cards? I just have the one for my gas station, so no.

29 - When was the last time you read a newspaper? I had to view a newspaper article for work yesterday, but I have not read a full newspaper in years.

30 - What kind of noises can you hear around you right now? There’s the fan in my room and construction outside our house.

--

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - Do you have a car? How long have you had it and how much did it cost? Yeah but it’s technically not mine; my parents made the purchase and they gave it to me as a high school graduation present. They’re also the ones who take care of and pay for its maintenance, like taking it to oil changes; so literally my only contribution has been to drive it HAHAHA. I’ve been driving it since 2016 and I’m pretty sure it cost them less than a million bucks. It was probably around P800,000–900,000.

2 - Who was the last person to send you a message on Facebook? Andi was checking up on how I’ve been. I appreciated that.

3 - What did you have for breakfast this morning? I haven’t had it yet but I will probably skip it. I might make myself coffee, though.

4 - Do you have any scented candles lit at the moment? I never have any scented candles.

5 - When was the last time you left your house? When will be the next time you go out? Yesterday afternoon. There was nothing left to do for work and my superiors hadn’t been asking me to do any tasks anymore, so I went out to get myself Starbucks before my shift was actually over, haha oops. I might be going out next Tuesday to pick up my new card from the bank.

6 - Does anyone in real life follow your survey blog? If so, does it make you think twice about some of your answers? If not, are you ever paranoid that someone will find your blog and read your answers? No. My sister has been wanting to make a survey blog but she just never got around to making it because she thinks she’ll end up being inactive; but that’s about it on the irl people front. If she ever makes one, I’d prefer we didn’t follow one another as doing so would make things awkward.

7 - When was the last time someone stopped talking to you? Have you made up with that person since? Gabie doesn’t speak with me regularly anymore. We’re not on bad terms so there’s nothing to make up, but she has told me it’s out of shame that she doesn’t initiate conversations with me these days. 

8 - Who was the last person you argued or bickered with? I haven’t had an argument with anyone in a while.

9 - Do you have anything planned for the rest of the day? If you’re about to go to bed, what are your plans for tomorrow? Catch up on surveys as I haven’t done them all week, anddddd figure out what to do with my embroidery kit as I’ve run out of the provided thread :(

10 - Did you have any e-mails in your inbox the last time you checked? It’s the weekend so no, I haven’t received anything new.

11 - What time did you wake up this morning? Did you have to set an alarm or did you wake up naturally? It was 7:08 AM when I had checked. I just woke up naturally.

12 - When was the last time it snowed where you live? Probably when it was still a part of Pangaea or something. We don’t get snow on this side of the world and the nearest place that does is probably like South Korea, which is not near us at all.

13 - Does it bother you if you’re wearing odd socks? Like, mismatched ones? No, I find it cute actually.

14 - Is there anything small that bothers you way more than it should? Right now. I had sent out an event invite to certain media last Thursday for work, and one of them replied only by 6 PM last night. I only saw it by 9:30 and replied, then she got back with a question by around 9:50 PM, and at that point I decided against replying because it was already nearing 10 PM and I didn’t want to be rude. I want to reply today but it’s the weekend and I don’t wanna be the jerk that brings up work on the weekend, but I also don’t want to leave her hanging because I had technically cut our conversation short. 

OK I spent the next 30 minutes thinking about it and I ended up replying hahaha. It just didn’t sit well with me to blow her off for the weekend when her last message was a question for me. So I answered her for her clarification, but I just made sure to let her know there’s no pressure for her to get back to me this weekend.

15 - Would you rather read a book, watch a film or play a video game? Watch someone play a video game, tbh.

16 - Why did you last attend a doctors’ appointment? Because my fever wasn’t going away and I wanted to get rid of it so bad.

17 - Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? The person from Pizza Hut who took my order, I think? lol

18 - How many different colours have you dyed your hair over the years? is your hair your natural colour at the moment? I’ve never had it dyed, so it has always been black.

19 - Do you prefer sweet or savoury snacks? I have moods for both, but as a whole I think I’d go for savory.

20 - When was the last time you got up to use the bathroom? A couple of hours ago.

21 - Do you spend more money on shoes or clothes? I spend more often on clothes but they aren’t always necessarily expensive. I don’t buy shoes often, but when I do they’re usually quite expensive, so. I’m not sure how to answer this question, but it goes two ways for me.

22 - Are you glad that Biden won the 2020 elections? I’m glad he won but at the end of the day he’s still just the lesser evil. I won’t really know anything until I see him and his moves in office, so I’ll have to wait until then.

23 - What kind of things do you do to try and save the planet? I segregate, turn off the faucet when it isn’t being used, never turn on my bedroom light, and before Covid I’d pick up trash I’d see at the mall.

24 - Are you, or have you ever been, vegetarian or vegan? I haven’t been either but I do opt for vegan options when I see one on the menu.

25 - What was the last thing you threw in the bin/garbage? A cotton bud.

26 - How many times a week do you exercise? Do you think that’s enough or should you really be doing more? I never do. I know I should probably do so, but eh.

27 - When was the last time you had to cancel or re-arrange plans you'd made? What was the reason behind it? LOL well...I’m currently having to rearrange and revise and adjust my entire life plans because of this stupid breakup.

28 - Have you ever had to wear braces? Yes. But I’ll have to avail them again because I did a terrible job keeping my retainers on.

29 - What cut of jeans do you prefer? Mom jeans that are a little more loose than skinny jeans, but aren’t too baggy.

30 - If you’re planning to spend the day at home, do you get properly dressed or just wear pyjamas? I wear my usual getup of a t-shirt/tank top and shorts.

--

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - What’s the biggest argument you’ve ever had with a family member? Did things ever go back to how they were beforehand? It was an argument with the entire family, sans my sister who stayed silently watching during the whole thing as she hates conflict. We had just flown back to Manila from a vacation and we were all just tired and impatient and hungry, my mom found a way to shift the blame on me as per usual, some words were exchanged, and my brother ended up slapping me and it was on hell on earth from there. Things weren’t ok for a whole week, but slowly life went back to normal without us ever acknowledging it because we’re dysfunctional as fuck. The one thing that never ended up changing is my dynamic with my brother, with whom I stopped speaking permanently after what he did.

2 - Have you ever experienced some kind of natural disaster? A lot; my country is a big hot spot for typhoons, so we don’t really have a choice but to go through several of them every year. Sometimes it’ll get bad enough for us to make it to international news because our government doesn’t really do anything to help out victims.

3 - If you have pets, do you feed them human food or do they just get regular pet food? If they do get human food, what’s their favourite thing to have? They both get human food. I’m not sure what Cooper’s favorite is as Nina primarily feeds him; but Kimi is most obsessed with chicken.

4 - Have you ever been in a physical fight? Who won? Just play wrestling matches with my cousin when we were kids. He always won as he was older and a lot bigger than me.

5 - What were you lighting the last time you used a lighter or matches? I don’t light stuff up on my own because I’m scared of fire, but the last time we used matches was for lighting up our emergency candles because of the power outage from last week.

6 - What’s the weather currently doing where you are? It is annoyingly humid. I had to open my windows and roll up my window blinds today, which I hate having to do because it makes neighbors able to see my room and what I’m doing here -_____- I feel like I’m giving away my privacy every time I have to have the blinds up just to have colder air in.

7 - The last time you got up from your seat, what did you go and do? Before doing this I came from bed. When I felt like doing a survey I just got up and headed to my work desk.

8 - Name five things you’ve done so far today: Received a package for something I bought online, made myself a sandwich, ate cheese-flavored corn chips, watch a half-season of Friends, and bought another embroidery kit online (I’ve been calling it ‘cross-stitch’ this whole time but apparently that is wrong, whoops). Not a very productive Saturday, but it’s honestly ok considering I’m left exhausted from the past week.

9 - What’s the mode of transport that you take or use the most? I drive myself.

10 - When was the last time you got caught in a rain or snow storm? Were you dressed for it or did you end up getting soaked? Start of the month. I was driving to take Cooper to the vet when it suddenly started raining super hard, but it was only upon arriving at the clinic that I realized there wasn’t any umbrella in the car. Had to make a quick dash from the car to the nearest shade, all the while keeping Cooper under my jacket so that he stayed dry. I was soaked as shit but he was kept dry, which was all that mattered.

11 - Did your favourite Disney film come out before or after you were born? I have two favorites: Toy Story came out three years before I was born, but Tangled came 12 years after my birth.

12 - Are you a fan of musicals? No, I never saw the appeal.

13 - What the last thing you spent money on apart from necessities? My favorite coffee from Starbucks. It’s a win-win situation for me at the moment: my mom is asking for a Starbucks planner for Christmas, which means all I need to do for her gift is to keep ordering coffees from there until I’ve collected enough stickers to be entitled to a planner, heheh.

14 - Are there any sequels to things that you prefer to the original? Ooh, I’m not the biggest fan of movies that come in multiple parts so I don’t know if I have any picks. I can name covers that I like than the original songs, though.

15 - How often do you lose the remote control? I haven’t really sat down in front of a TV to watch shows since high school, so I haven’t temporarily lost a remote control since then.

16 - When was the last time you had problems with your internet connection? Last Thursday and Friday but only because the power went out.

17 - What games do you play on your phone, if any at all? I play 1010 the most, but I’ve got tons of other games that are just sitting in my menu just in case I’m suddenly in the mood to play them.

18 - Aside from family, who was the last person you spent time with? How do you know that person? I dunno, I guess the people in my work meeting video call yesterday afternoon? It was my first meeting with that particular team as the newbie at work, so I don’t actually know all of them that well yet.

19 - Are you currently warm, cold or just right? I am hot and irritated by it.

20 - Do you prefer showers or baths? When was the last time you had either? Showers; my last one was yesterday. My last bath was...no clue. Two years ago, maybe?

21 - Do you spend a lot of money on your appearance? I used to spend a lot on clothes, yeah, at least before Covid. But right now there really has been no point in upgrading my wardrobe, so I haven’t been buying any new pieces.

22 - When was the last time you spent more than £100 on something? Was it a necessity like a bill, or a treat for yourself? I have never spent ₱6,408 in one sitting, whether it be for myself, for a necessity, or for someone else. That’s crazy and will probably take a couple more years before I see myself making transactions that huge.

23 - Would you rather swim in the sea, a lake or a pool? Seeeeeeeea. I always feel at peace in the sea, and ugh I miss it so much.

24 - Have you ever had a zoo keeper experience or anything where you’ve been able to go behind the scenes and look after/feed the animals? I wouldn’t call it a zookeeper experience, but we went to some sort of animal park in Bali that let me carry and interact with all sorts of animals.

25 - Would you ever want the responsibility of being a politician or a similar position of power? Probably not. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.

26 - How many times a week do you go to the grocery store? My parents go at least once a week to buy groceries.

27 - When was the last time you got a takeaway coffee or drink? Last night. Being able to earn money and spend it on myself and never have to ask from my parents anymore has been one of the highlights of my year so far, aaaahhhhh

28 - Do you quote films or TV shows as you’re watching them? If I love the film and memorize a chunk of the dialogue, yes. The movie I quote the most as I watch it is most definitely Titanic.

29 - What’s something your parents do that really annoys you? My dad doesn’t really do anything that annoys me. My mom doesn’t knock.

30 - If you had to quarantine for two weeks tomorrow due to testing positive to COVID, would you be able to survive on the things you had in your house? Yes. I’ll be locked in my room but my dad will probably be bringing me food, just the way he did when I got sick last May and had to isolate myself.

[certaincircuitsmagazine]

ナスが好きな男

Nasu ga suki na otoko

The man who liked eggplants

By Monica Pace Nakayama

It was the season of too many cucumbers. Encumbered with melon. With

nightshade and all the vegetables with harder skin and juicy interior. The

globed, the enclosed. In the searing morning, when all you wanted was their

cool exhalation, where were the clouds? You might find them in the woods,

descended from shades themselves, the whir of all those insects who've left

their skins on a different branch. How about at noon, when the cobalt head

of the sky, not a scratch on her, a sky like the model of a globe except

nothing moves, when her features, the clouds, push themselves to one

horizon? Could he ever recall a face like that, a funhouse of mirrors, a

squished Pangaea of forehead, chin, eyes, voice, nostril? And the same

clouds always end up assembling, as they do every evening, in continents on

their familiar roosts.

One day not far from his own roost he heard the thunder on the ground.

He forgot when it was, or what animal. But he heard it, and saw it in his

mind, the low growl of a brick dragged across concrete. Another morning,

there was that same familiar thunder: the murmuring of a woman in the

next house, flashes of TV on the window like lightning. But the third and last

time he heard it, it was the honey-gloaming of hornets around his jumpsuit.

He'd just pulled up a stake in one of his vegetable fields to bring it to

another. He believed he was alone on the road. He samurai-wielded it, like a

sword, as he rounded the corner.

On this day, as on Obon* of every year, the soothing of the dead, he wanted

to know who had put the cucumber horse, with four skewers for legs, and

the plump eggplant cow, on the gravesite of his father. It could have been

one of the kids, except no one seemed to really bother with the graves;

especially when it came to cleaning them. Everyone would just scatter like

the very leaves they were asked to trim or pick up, leaving him solitary with

the string grass trimmer. But the talisman steeds would always be there

before him, waiting, as if knowing his father would need conveyance on or

around the 15th of August, back to the Buddha's side. He stared. Could

almost see his hat-shielded eyes in the burnished flank of the eggplant cow.

Spindly quadruped. What could it carry? His wife had asked him a question

as the dry grass seed scattered and clung to their jeans. “Where is your

father now?”

He'd made a list of the foods that taste better frozen. Anything with the sun

in them, the melon, the tomato, should always be enjoyed fresh. But frozen

grapes? You'd never think. Lay out a bag of them on the counter, and as

each ovoid thaws it's so rich and sweet, like sherbet, like wine -drizzled

shaved ice.

At the foreign grocery, there are some scratched and dented cans, but they

all contain what matters to people, all over the world. Pork and beans. Tom

Yum. Ghee. Arepas. Animal crackers. That's the shop with the frozen grapes,

and the mangoes that are predictably good, and the cryogenic sliced fried

eggplants...but really those, he stopped, should be purchased fresh. And

fresh, at that place, on the shelves lined with astroturf, could page a

calendar with its accuracy. Broccoli, each nodule with its own self-coloured

fat looper, crunching away. One melon, sans stripes, very dark green, also in

the corner where it was melon- dark. Hot peppers acknowledged as hot, but

also marked "sweet." Bags and bags of eggplants, like they'd swallowed the

sun, in odd numbers for luck; and he remembered how he'd given his wife's

question the stock Buddhist answer.

In his left hand he tipped the green shopping basket slightly sideways to

ensure a good pour. In his right he lifted an oddly numbered bag enclosing

the purple fruits of an exceptionally rainy, now hot, summer. He lifted, lower

now then another, til it became a bumper crop softly bumping for space in the

basket. In the end, that's all it was, making an enclosure with his arm, a

half-sphere of you-first, you-next, shepherding down all those midnight

bovids from the shelf.

*Obon: in Japan, a late-summer holiday to comfort and welcome back the spirits of the dead. Families traditionally clean and visit grave sites of loved ones, and sometimes make effigies of cows or horses out of eggplants and cucumbers, thought to be the vehicles that the spirits can ride from the next world back to this one.

Monica Pace Nakayama hails from rural Nagano, Japan, a farming community ringed with the snow-lit peaks that provide the backdrop for her stories, painting, music, and love of the out-of-doors. She teaches English conversation and literature; and moonlights as a cat-food dispenser for a band of furry ne’er-do-wells at the family farm.

[tmbacorbett]

Blog Tour & Author Interview: Crossline by Russ Colchamiro

This is my stop during the blog tour for Crossline by Russ Colchamiro. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 18 March till 7 April. See the tour schedule here. Crossline By Russ Colchamiro Genre: Science Fiction/ Space Opera Age category: Adult

Blurb: Perfect for fans of Firefly, Flash Gordon, Stargate, and Escape from New York... Hotdog pilot Marcus Powell has been selected to test Taurus Enterprises' Crossline prototype craft and its newly developed warp thrusters, which, if successful, will revolutionize space travel as we know it. But during his jaunt across the stars, Powell is forced into a parallel universe -- including a parallel Earth -- where he finds himself at the center of an epic battle he may have been destined for all along. Meanwhile, back home, reclusive oil tycoon and Taurus CEO Buddy Rheams Jr. -- who sent Powell on that very mission -- has a mysterious past and a secret agenda, one that could prevent Powell from ever making it back to his wife and little girl. From author Russ Colchamiro, Crossline is a psychedelic, action-packed romp across time, space, and dimension that asks the question: once you cross the line, can you ever really go back?

You can find Crossline on Goodreads

You can buy Crossline here on Amazon

Excerpt:

An open-air man, Powell had been to cities. To Houston, and Denver, and San Francisco that one time for his cousin’s bachelor party. But there was something about the city ahead that made him shudder. It reminded him of his few trips to New York, that city that never sleeps. If you could make it there, the saying went, you could make it anywhere, and maybe even if that was true, Powell never understood why anyone would want to make it there, even if they could. Powell had that rush he would get on the road to the launch pad. The pre-flight butterflies that caused his chest to tighten, his face to go flush, and the taste of adrenaline to coat his mouth, down to his teeth and gums. The difference between now and then was just so very small, but even if for just a few seconds, that intense queasiness would make him question in a shameful, shaky handed way if he knew what the hell he was doing, and consider that maybe he’d be better off hauling ass in the opposite direction and skipping out on the whole damn thing. But then the intensity of the panic subsided—the urgency of the present snapping him back from his fears of a worst pos- sible future, one that would require him to confront the demon at the gates. He steadied himself, because like his father told him: Nerves only mean you ain’t completely stupid. Get over it, boy. There’s work to be done. The clarity and confidence of his father’s voice resonated more than ever.

About the Author: Russ Colchamiro is the author of the rollicking space adventure, Crossline, the zany SF/F backpacking comedy series Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, and is editor of the new SF anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem, all with Crazy 8 Press. Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, and crazy dog Simon, who may in fact be an alien himself. Russ has also contributed to several other anthologies, including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, Altered States of the Union, Camelot 13, TV Gods 2, They Keep Killing Glenn, Camelot 13, and Brave New Girls. He is now working on the first novel in a new series featuring his hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke, and the first of three collaborative novella projects. Russ is repped by The Zack Compnay. For more on and Russ’s books, you can visit www.russcolchamiro.com, follow him on Twitter @AuthorDudeRuss, and ‘like’ his Facebook author page https://ift.tt/1aJANmE. You can find and contact Russ Colchamiro here: - Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Amazon

Interview:

Q: What inspires you to write?

Russ: Being a writer isn’t just what I do; it’s who I am. I have an unquenchable need to write. To tell stories, to explore ideas. For me, I’m not so much the writer but the conduit. The characters, the stories seem to come from the ether, and then channel themselves through my fingertips! It’s a strange experience, but I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember.

Q: How often do you write?

Russ: Pretty much every day. But ‘writing’ has different components. If you mean ‘clacking the keys’—seeing words appear on the page—then, on average, probably five days a week. But there’s also the plotting stage, where I’m thinking about story ideas and characters, working out the plot in my head, working out issues where I’m stuck. So even on the days where I’m not clacking the keys, I’m still ‘writing’.

Q: Do you have a set schedule for writing, or are you one of those who write only when they feel inspired?

Russ: I do my best writing on a schedule, which these days is around 9 pm, after I’ve walked the dog and put my kids to bed—I have 8-year-old twins. But after I’ve written my first draft, I print out hard copies and do hand-written edits on page. Those I often do the train to and from work, or whenever I have spare time. But no, I don’t wait until I feel ‘inspired.’ That approach, which works well for some writers, is too inconsistent for me. Writing is a daily part of my life.

Q: Do you set a plot or prefer going wherever an idea takes you?

Russ: Both. Before I clack the keys, I tend to have the basic ideas for a story or novel already worked out, which might include specific scenes, plot points, character developments, dialogue, etc. But I leave enough room to let the story go where it wants. For me, most of my most engaging work comes during those times when I just shut my off brain and go.

Q: What, according to you, is the hardest thing about writing?

Russ: Depends on the day! Exhaustion is an ever-present issue. I work a full-time job in the real estate industry, have a long commute, a crazy dog, and two kids. So fatigue is always a problem. But that’s just how it goes. I work through it.

Q: What would you say is the easiest aspect of writing?

Russ: When I’m in the zone and the ideas are flowing, I can’t tell if ten minutes go by or four hours. That’s when I know I’m really on fire.

Giveaway

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Crossline. These are the prizes you can win:

- one physical copy of Crossline by Russ Colchamiro (US Only)

- three e-copies of Crossline by Russ Colchamiro (INT)

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

source https://www.tmbacorbett.com/2019/04/blog-tour-author-interview-crossline-by.html

[davidchanus]

Jet flop! Law grad fired from The Apprentice after disastrous airline advertising task

Kurran Poon becomes the sixth candidate to leave the boardroom empty handed

Kurran Pooni alongside the Jet Pop logo

University of Law graduate Kurran Pooni has become the latest contestant to be fired from The Apprentice following yet another lacklustre performance.

Last night’s episode saw rival teams tasked with the “ultimate advertising” challenge, creating a new (fictional) budget airline. After narrowly escaping being fired last week, Pooni was granted one final throw of the dice on the condition that he would prove himself as project manager.

Confident as ever, Pooni revelled at the opportunity. “I feel like everything I’ve done in my life has led to this moment,” he told to his team. “I’m just happy that we’re all here together to experience it.” Unfortunately, Pooni’s team went onto lose the task after their party airline idea metaphorically crashed and burned.

Law graduate Kurran Pooni has been fired from #TheApprentice

pic.twitter.com/ydrxwfFfCu

— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) November 7, 2018

The first point of criticism the team received was on the airline’s name: Jet Pop. Targeting the hen and stag-do market, the airline’s strapline, “keepin’ the vacay popping longer”, failed to impress.

When pitching their campaign in front of industry experts, there were concerns that the airline’s logo (pictured top), featuring a mini-explosion, would deter potential flyers. The chief executive of London City Airport, Robert Sinclair, asked the team: “Are they going to be concerned that their jet might pop?”

The 2019 GDL Most List

However, Jet Pop wasn’t the only name put forward. Arguing that a “five-year-old could come up with a better name”, Pooni was disappointed that his team ignored his original suggestion, Pangaea. With everyone, including Lord Sugar, puzzled by its meaning, Pooni explained that “before the continents were split via the tectonic plates into different parts of the world, there were just two parts of the earth and one of them was called Pangaea”.

The teams also had to create a short TV advertisement to promote their fictional airline. Pooni produced a beach-based clip which focused more on the holiday destination rather than the flight taken to get there. When asked by the law grad if he hated the advert, Lord Sugar responded: “It is rubbish to be honest with you. I’m sorry. People who see that advert might think, ‘You know what? I’d rather walk’.”

Facing the firing line for the second week in a row, Pooni pleaded to Lord Sugar: “I still — I know you may not think so — I still have more to offer”. Unfortunately for him, the billionaire business mogul called time on the candidate with his famous finger point.

The post Jet flop! Law grad fired from The Apprentice after disastrous airline advertising task appeared first on Legal Cheek.

from Legal News https://www.legalcheek.com/2018/11/jet-flop-law-grad-fired-after-disastrous-airline-advertising-task/

[fayeburnsus]

Jet flop! Law grad fired from The Apprentice after disastrous airline advertising task

Kurran Poon becomes the sixth candidate to leave the boardroom empty handed

Kurran Pooni alongside the Jet Pop logo

University of Law graduate Kurran Pooni has become the latest contestant to be fired from The Apprentice following yet another lacklustre performance.

Last night’s episode saw rival teams tasked with the “ultimate advertising” challenge, creating a new (fictional) budget airline. After narrowly escaping being fired last week, Pooni was granted one final throw of the dice on the condition that he would prove himself as project manager.

Confident as ever, Pooni revelled at the opportunity. “I feel like everything I’ve done in my life has led to this moment,” he told to his team. “I’m just happy that we’re all here together to experience it.” Unfortunately, Pooni’s team went onto lose the task after their party airline idea metaphorically crashed and burned.

Law graduate Kurran Pooni has been fired from #TheApprentice

pic.twitter.com/ydrxwfFfCu

— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) November 7, 2018

The first point of criticism the team received was on the airline’s name: Jet Pop. Targeting the hen and stag-do market, the airline’s strapline, “keepin’ the vacay popping longer”, failed to impress.

When pitching their campaign in front of industry experts, there were concerns that the airline’s logo (pictured top), featuring a mini-explosion, would deter potential flyers. The chief executive of London City Airport, Robert Sinclair, asked the team: “Are they going to be concerned that their jet might pop?”

The 2019 GDL Most List

However, Jet Pop wasn’t the only name put forward. Arguing that a “five-year-old could come up with a better name”, Pooni was disappointed that his team ignored his original suggestion, Pangaea. With everyone, including Lord Sugar, puzzled by its meaning, Pooni explained that “before the continents were split via the tectonic plates into different parts of the world, there were just two parts of the earth and one of them was called Pangaea”.

The teams also had to create a short TV advertisement to promote their fictional airline. Pooni produced a beach-based clip which focused more on the holiday destination rather than the flight taken to get there. When asked by the law grad if he hated the advert, Lord Sugar responded: “It is rubbish to be honest with you. I’m sorry. People who see that advert might think, ‘You know what? I’d rather walk’.”

Facing the firing line for the second week in a row, Pooni pleaded to Lord Sugar: “I still — I know you may not think so — I still have more to offer”. Unfortunately for him, the billionaire business mogul called time on the candidate with his famous finger point.

The post Jet flop! Law grad fired from The Apprentice after disastrous airline advertising task appeared first on Legal Cheek.

from Legal News And Updates https://www.legalcheek.com/2018/11/jet-flop-law-grad-fired-after-disastrous-airline-advertising-task/

[nicolebehariewce]

The award-winning public television show AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is now in its ninth season on PBS’ WORLD Channel. The new season premiered on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 16, and will air new episodes weekly through February 15.

Since 2008, AfroPoP has presented documentaries and shorts that, according to press materials, reveal “fascinating stories on contemporary life, art and culture in the African Diaspora” that are produced and directed by Blacks and other people of color.

The show is domestically produced by National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and co-presented by American Public Television (APT). APT will release the series to other public television stations, beginning in February.

Previous series hosts include Idris Elba, Anika Noni Rose, Wyatt Cenac, Gabourey Sidibe, Anthony Mackie, Yaya DaCosta and Jussie Smollett. NBPC Director of Programs and Acquisitions and AfroPoP Executive Producer Kay Shaw said, “NBPC has been so fortunate to have had great hosts bring their fame to the show and either watch the series or really support the mission of the program.”

Adding her name to that distinguished list this year is actress Nicole Beharie, who recently starred in the hit television show Sleepy Hollow (Fox). She told the MSR in a recent phone interview that she’s a fan of AfroPoP. “Of course — I watch all the films,” said Beharie. “I’ve seen some good documentaries.”

The five-week series “travels from North America to Africa to the Caribbean and back again, taking viewers on a journey of hope throughout the Diaspora,” said a NPBC press release. The episodes include:

-“My Father’s Land” (January 30), about a Haitian gardener who returns to his native land after living in the Bahamas for 40 years to reunite with his 103-year-old father -“Black Out” tells the story of children in Guinea struggling for education. -“Pangaea” is about a young girl trapped on the roof of her house during the days following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina (February 6). -“Omo Child: The River and The Bush” (February 13) is a true story of one man trying to bring a cultural shift in

The first two episodes that aired already were “An American Ascent” (January 16) about the first Black expedition to climb Denali (a.k.a. Mt. McKinley, North America’s highest peak), and “Intore” about how a new generation in Rwanda has survived a tragic past (January 23).

The films “are so balanced, so life affirming,” noted Beharie. “I’d say there are at least three hardcore tear-jerkers. One of them is completely shocking. Some of them are informational and shake you to your [core]. It’s a real powerful season.”

Beharie, who was the first student from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities to be accepted into Juilliard Drama School in New York City (2003-07), trained in England after being awarded a Shakespeare scholarship.

Her breakout film debut was playing lead opposite Alfre Woodard in American Violet (2008). She made her Broadway debut in 2010 opposite Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def in Free Man of Color. She later played in two sports movies: The Express (2008) and Jackie Robinson’s wife Rachel Robinson in 42 (2013), which earned her a NAACP Award Outstanding Actress nomination. Her three seasons as a detective in Sleepy Hollow earned her a second NAACP Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Drama.

Beharie stated that hosting AfroPoP was an honor for her. “There are so many people in film-making that don’t necessarily get the attention that they deserve,” she said. “They do really wonderful work. I wanted to do anything to support that work.”

She and the previous fellow hosts share this belief as well: “Everyone can identify on the importance of trying to get these stories out there, and to find audiences to see it and appreciate it,” said Beharie. “It is a big part of why we are actors and storytellers.”

Bringing such films and documentaries that AfroPoP regularly airs to American viewers is very important, continued the actress. “These stories [on the African Diaspora] are happening,” she reiterated.

Her Julliard training has made Beharie a well-rounded performer. She performed five original songs in My Last Day Without You and on its soundtrack (2013). Her Sleepy Hollow character Abbie Mills was killed off after three seasons, which drew the ire from many fans.

But Beharie remains upbeat about the future. “Stay tuned. The best is coming,” she predicted. She will next be seen in a remake of Jacob’s Ladder.

“I plan on doing a little bit of everything — God willing. I’m not somebody who only wants to do film or theater, or just want to do TV.  I would like to be working in as many mediums as possible, and collaborate with great people.”