#roster as of 2 april 2018

[zaynjmsource]

ZAYN has signed a new record deal with Mercury Records, Billboard can confirm. Along with the news, the singer wiped his social media yesterday and has launched a new pre-save link and teaser in preparation for his Mercury Records debut single, which is said by the label to be arriving “very soon this summer.”

Label president Tyler Arnold says of the deal, “As soon as ZAYN and I met, I knew we had to work together. I was blown away by the new music, but just as impressed by his vision, drive and spirit. We’re honored he and his team have joined us at Mercury Records. We’ve got an incredible opportunity to tell the next chapter of his story together.”

Mercury Records was relaunched in April 2022 as a U.S. imprint of Republic Records, helmed by Arnold and Ben Adelson as president and general manager, respectively. Mercury’s roster includes Post Malone, whom Arnold signed to Republic in 2015, and James Bay, signed by Adelson in 2014. Other signees at Mercury’s launch included Stephen Sanchez, Chelsea Cutler, Jeremy Zucker, Lord Huron, Noah Kahan, BoyWithUke, Ka$hdami, Lyn Lapid and Camylio.

Mercury Records also acts as the hub for Republic’s partnerships with Big Loud Records, home to Morgan Wallen, and Imperial Music, the independent distributor that released Bo Burnham‘s Inside (The Songs).

As a solo artist, ZAYN has released three records: Mind of Mine (2016), Icarus Falls (2018), and Nobody is Listening (2021). They peaked at No. 1, No. 61 and No. 44 on the Billboard 200 chart, respectively. He has also placed six songs in the top 50 on the Pop Airplay chart, including two in the top 10. “PILLOWTALK” peaked at No. 1, and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” reached No. 2 on the chart. The two songs also reached those same chart positions on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart as well.

[keepingupwithzaynmalik]

ZAYN Signs With Mercury Records Ahead of New Music

The singer, who was previously signed to RCA Records, has a new single coming "very soon this summer."

ZAYN has signed a new record deal with Mercury Records, Billboard can confirm. Along with the news, the singer wiped his social media yesterday and has launched a new pre-save link and teaser in preparation for his Mercury Records debut single, which is said by the label to be arriving “very soon this summer.” A former member of One Direction and a chart topper in his own right, ZAYN was previously signed to RCA Records. Sources close to the singer told Billboard that the new music ZAYN is making marks a major departure from the sound that defined his previous hits like “PILLOWTALK” and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.” Label president Tyler Arnold says of the deal, “As soon as ZAYN and I met, I knew we had to work together. I was blown away by the new music, but just as impressed by his vision, drive and spirit. We’re honored he and his team have joined us at Mercury Records. We’ve got an incredible opportunity to tell the next chapter of his story together.” Mercury Records was relaunched in April 2022 as a U.S. imprint of Republic Records, helmed by Arnold and Ben Adelson as president and general manager, respectively. Mercury’s roster includes Post Malone, whom Arnold signed to Republic in 2015, and James Bay, signed by Adelson in 2014. Other signees at Mercury’s launch included Stephen Sanchez, Chelsea Cutler, Jeremy Zucker, Lord Huron, Noah Kahan, BoyWithUke, Ka$hdami, Lyn Lapid and Camylio. Mercury Records also acts as the hub for Republic’s partnerships with Big Loud Records, home to Morgan Wallen, and Imperial Music, the independent distributor that released Bo Burnham‘s Inside (The Songs). As a solo artist, ZAYN has released three records: Mind of Mine (2016), Icarus Falls (2018), and Nobody is Listening (2021). They peaked at No. 1, No. 61 and No. 44 on the Billboard 200 chart, respectively. He has also placed six songs in the top 50 on the Pop Airplay chart, including two in the top 10. “PILLOWTALK” peaked at No. 1, and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” reached No. 2 on the chart. The two songs also reached those same chart positions on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart as well. You can pre-save ZAYN’s upcoming single here. VIA BILLBOARD

[satoshi-mochida]

Class of Heroes 1 & 2: Complete Edition launches April 26

From Gematsu

Dungeon RPGs Class of Heroes: Anniversary Edition and Class of Heroes 2G: Remaster Edition will launch digitally for PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC via Steam on April 26 worldwide, developer ACQUIRE announced.

In North America and Europe, both titles will also be available as the physical Class of Heroes 1 & 2: Complete Edition bundle for PlayStation 5 and Switch. Pre-orders are available now at Amazon, Play-Asia, and other retailers.

In Japan, each title will cost 2,980 yen. The Switch version of Class of Heroes: Anniversary Edition is also already available. (It launched on April 26, 2018 in Japan.)

Class of Heroes: Anniversary Edition(Steam)

About

The hit JRPG dungeon crawler returns, remastered! As a first year student at Particus Academy, you must study hard and train even harder. Build up a cohort of students, educate them in the art of evasion and train them in the fundamentals of combat. Select the right harmony of classes, skills, and courses for your students, to give them the perfect edge over the challenging dungeons. Preparation is key, with hordes of enemies awaiting you around every corner, you can’t take them all! A true hero knows when to fight and when to flee!

Key Features

Student Specialization – Choose the name, gender, class, alignment and course for your students. Allocate points against various capabilities to decide the strengths of your vanguard and rearguard.

Let’s Not Fight – Affinity amongst students is crucial for a team that works well together, especially in sticky situations. Pay attention to different class-alignment affinities, to ensure your party gets the boost it needs.

Monsters, Monsters, Monsters – Strong, weak, and hidden monsters lurk around every turn of the dungeons. Tailor your team’s attacks to deal with theirs and be sure to run away when you’re unprepared!

Dicey Dangerous Dungeons – With more than 75 dungeons that change every time you enter, you’ll never get bored of getting lost! From different terrains to different buildings, fill out your map and track it in your special yearbook.

Resource Management – Broken sword? Shiny coin? From priceless treasures to worthless trash; manage your dungeon haul, sell for some sweet coin or save for another adventure.

Get Crafting – From power stones to war hammers, the vast number of recipes alongside the flexible alchemy system allows you to transform items found in the labyrinths, or customize your current weapons attributes.

Class of Heroes 2G: Remastered Edition(Steam)

About

A call for brave adventurers awaits at the doors of Crostini Academy. Prepare yourself for a remastered classic dungeon crawler, full of exploration, combat, and endless opportunities. Take advantage of the classes and quests available to build the ultimate, hardy cohort of students! Build your perfect roster and handpick out your ideal party of 6 students to storm the labyrinths. Mix and match from 10 races and 18 classes, each with their own unique skill sets. Crawl through over 100 labyrinth maps facing over 250 potential enemies. Don’t forget to collect artefacts, explore inter-dimensional travel and conquer adversity. You determine the standard you thrive at, take note of recipes for weapons, potions, and any upgrades necessary. Within this year, groups of excited students will walk through the doors of Crostini Academy to learn the tools of the trade and leave as the next Class of Heroes! Do you have what It takes?

Key Features

Over 250 Enemies – Enemies hunt your every forward and backward step within the dungeons. From clusters of small enemies, to terrifying beasts, there is only one way to defeat them all.

Over 100 Dungeon Maps – The twisting, maze-like paths that form the labyrinth are never quite the same, with different terrains and environments for your students to learn to conquer, experience builds true heroes.

Over 90 Equippable Items – The best battlers are those prepared. With plenty of choice for weaponry, armor, and ability-granting accessories, you’re never alone with protection at your side.

Three Different Schools – This time there’s different schools to visit and each school has its own host of interesting characters, and even more interesting courses which your students can take!

Countless Combinations – With 10 different classes, 18 different courses, 3 different alignments, the possibilities for creating the perfect cast of students is seemingly endless.

Over 200 Alchemy Recipes – Collect recipes and get crafting! The items you find in the labyrinths can help you weather different storms.

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer

[bugslaststraw]

Overwatch: the art of writing bad stories on purpose

Clocking in at just over 4k words: a semi-coordinated rant on the topic of Blizzard's history of lawsuits, Overwatch'es history of canonical queerness, and the strange marketing techniques that tie the two topics together. Written by someone who got into the game less than a week ago and likes it in a hatewatch "I love garbage" sort of way, intended for those less familiar with the topic at hand. I tried to source claims but it didn't work so let it be known that I did actual research but I'll probably get stuff wrong anyway so I tried to be funny about it here we go:

Section 1: Frat Boy Snowstorm and it's attempts at being progressive.

Try to focus. This is the most boring part.

So as I hope you all know by now, Blizzard is a pretty shit company. I say shit, because controversial sounds too unbiased. Most of us are familiar with the lawsuits against the company relating to sexual assault charges, unsafe working conditions for female employees and a quote "frat boy environment," of which they've been under fire for since 2018, but recently (early April '23 to be precise) they've also faced a lawsuit for sneakily coming up with a way to underpay their eSports champions. (Both of these are easy to look up if you want more info.) However, the company is a giant, that along with Overwatch released Call of Duty and a bunch of other games I don't recognise (fuck me I'm not an FPS person,) and, aside from the money they easily paid out, they really haven't faced any major consequences for their scummy behaviour.

This is exactly what they want, of course: for the whole thing to blow over as quickly as possible. Keep this in mind as we move on. That's the whole reason Section 1 exists: to remind you that Blizzard, like Disney, is a Big Corporate Company that will go to ridiculous lengths to make sure that the actually relevant controversies are forgotten in favour of smaller stupider shit.

If there's one thing Blizzard loves to do more than make their female employees uncomfortable, it's to tote around their progressiveness. Of course, this usually doesn't extend to Call of Duty or any of their more "grounded" "gritty" and generally masculine domains, but Overwatch specifically is a testing ground for all kinds of bullshit and we can't go a season without one billion articles about "Overwatch first game to have character of xxx nationality on playable roster" etc etc etc. People absolutely shit their pants every time the game announces a new queer hero or whatever, because since it's a Big Corporate Company and it's just barely achieving the bare minimum of inclusivity, of course, that's got to be a big deal right? Except of course that like Disney, Blizzard will do literally fucking anything to make sure their games stay relevant and that more people buy and play them, and these attempts at inclusivity can be assumed to be preformed mainly out of a desire to make money and cover up their scandals, and not because the people who call shots actually care. It becomes incredibly clear how Blizzard sees inclusivity as an idea when you consider their viral invention from last year, the Diversity Space Method.

To some of you this may look like a good thing at first, and originally I think it was, as the idea was to keep track of how many of their characters weren't any of these things displayed above so that they could keep that number down, but as soon as someone came up with the idea to assign a certain number of points to each character, the whole concept crashes and burns. You see, according to this chart here, (and as another Tumblr user famously put it), Torbjörn (3) is older than Lucio (2) is black. And I'm pretty damn sure that's not how that works.

No doubt a percentage of the artists and writes for the game had some sort of passion. After all, there is genuine treasure to be found in the character designs, animations and even some of the voice acting. But you know how it is when it comes to inclusivity; the artists so often never get to do more than drop hints and leave people guessing. Which leads us neatly into the next section.

Section 2: This game's kinda shit!

And I don't mean the game itself. Idk about that, I never played it (and my friends who do all have wildly varying opinions.) I am talking about the stories. When I first started "researching" (hatewatching) the shorts and comics for this game, I was angrily wondering why they all felt so hollow. It was like looking at AI generated art, it was like looking into the eyes of what you thought was a person and seeing two camera lenses staring back, it felt empty, it felt bland despite all the good character designs and the lore and the concepts and the colors and the nice clean lines. Something was missing, and it was uncanny as hell! Eventually though, I managed to narrow it down to a few key issues:

A lot of comics and shorts feel like ads above eveyrthing else, they're made to sell the game rather than be good, and they therefore lack passion.

Possibly as a result of this, they operate almost entirely on "tell don't show" rules, thereby feeling even more empty.

These stories still manage to lack substance and they don't really canonise a lot about the world or characters, especially regarding relations between characters, and,

the really interesting storylines are usually left uncontinued or unexplored, possibly due to aformentioned lack of passion and an egotistical but sadly fulfilled hope that people will download the game or at least read the rest of the comics to find out more.

All this put together make for a very strange experience in which you can, if you squint, see the fuzzy outline of a good story, good worldbuilding and interesting characters, and imagine that the details make sense. Which, granted, is usually what people do. If you use your brain or have experience in writing, however, it all falls apart.

Section 3A: Overwatch is a knock-off

Well, not exactly. But it does have a strange habit of borrowing from other games. For example, did you know I'm a TF2 fan? Probably. Did you know each individual TF2 class has an Overwatch equivalent? Me neither, until now. Scout and Tracer, Medic and Mercy, Sniper and Widowmaker, Spy and Sombra, hmm I'm sensing a pattern here, Demo and Junkrat (we'll get back to him later,) and so on.

"That's a coincidence," you say. "They're similar games, of course there are equivalents," you say. To that I says: you may be right. We may all collectively be overthinking this. We may all also collectively be overthinking the Omnic crisis as a whole and why it's so damn similar to Fallout's synths, they've both got robot racism and violent groups who want to kill the robots one of which is in Australia, which is a plot point in TF2 as well oh look at that, but again I'm sure it's all a big fucking coincidence right and sorry sorry I'll stop now.

It is actually genuinely possible that those are coincidences, no sass intended, but considering how Blizzard operates on the whole, I doubt it. They've already proven to be rather lazy with their stories. There's nothing wrong with having similar ideas or being inspired, but when it's as noticeable as this, along with everything else, I just can't help but feel disappointed.

Section 3B: Overwatch is also a porn category

Oh yeah, speaking of never properly canonizing relationships between the characters (and aging their underage characters up to eighteen for hitherto mysterious reasons, and releasing all those horny fanservice skins,) here's an utterly ridiculous fact: when Overwatch dropped in 2016, quite a lot of people didn't know it was a game because there was so much (animated, drawn etc) porn of it that it flooded and quickly rose to the top of the "games" category on most popular sites (hard to source for obvious reasons, but I've had a friend check for me.) It still sits up there, by the way, surpassed only by funny space bean game (I'm not kidding.) Why? Two reasons. One: all the game's female characters are impossibly beautiful and (in every case but like two post-launch releases) skinny and generally conventional as well. No surprise there. Two: the game models are well rigged, high quality and incredibly easy to get at, making it so that people can tank them down and use them for whatever they like without issue. Rumour has it that this is on purpose.

My question is, what has this influx of smut done to the game? You see, if there's one thing Blizzard loves more than making their female employees uncomfortable, bragging about inclusivity, and copying other games, it's pandering. And they pander to everybody, or at least to as many people as possible, usually all at the same time if they can get away with it. This, I have to theorise, is why all the characters seem to be flirting with one another, but only one or two actual relationships are canon. They simply don't want to piss off any part of their demographic, which they force as wide open as possible because money money money money money. This means embracing the porn and making sly references to that part of the fanbase with skins, voice lines, and odd comments in interviews.

Anyway, back to the lawsuits, or rather the consequences of them. You see, canon queerness in Overwatch comes in threefold. This is the story of two thirds of it.

Section 4: Toy Soldier and Knock-off Scout Adventures

This is Soldier 76. And he's gay.

Everybody clap for Blizzard now. It's coyly canonised in a short story titled Bastet. 76 here was never a very popular Overwatch character, lore wise, so I guess this move makes sense. I can see why, too. He's very plain and simple design wise, almost grounded, but not enough that you notice it at a glance. He looks like a plastic toy. Anyway, his queerness wont piss off too many dudebros long-term, since fewer people play him, but it gives everybody else something to chew on, so everybody wins right?. When was Bastet released again? Oh, January of 2019? What else happened around that time? The settling and aftermath of the first lawsuit? Great. That totally wasn't a cover-up for anything. Definitely not.

It's not like 76 is the first character to be confirmed as queer though. Blizzard's favourite Overwatch character Tracer is too, being confirmed as having a girlfriend named Emily all the way back in 2016.

That's good right? I mean, that was before the controversy even started! Surely they did this for normal, innocent reasons and oh who the fuck am I kidding she's a conventionally attractive female character kissing another conventionally attractive female character in a game dominated by male players with male devs and a porn category more expansive than the Bible and we know damn well why that happened.

We can but pray that someone who was in on this gave a shit. Maybe the artist. The writer. Somebody. But this is a barren and cold world and I dare not hope even for that.

Not to mention, both of these things were distinctly one-off notes. It's mentioned once, and then never again, and after 2019 there was a four year radio silence on the whole subject of queer characters that didn't change until the release of OW2. And yet, Blizzard loved to brag about how inclusive they are at every turn even back then. "Look at us," they say, as the characters stare at you from the computer screen with their dead, hollow eyes, "look at how good we are! Please buy our game."

The status quo would change significantly in 2023, however, with the introduction of their latest addition to the roster; Lightweaver. Lifeweaver. Lightweaver? Wait hold on

Section 5: The most annoying twunk to ever grace the earth flings you into the stratosphere

This is Niran "Bua" Pruksamanee, also known as Lifweaver.

He debuted on the 11th of April, 2023, and he's The First at a lot of things, which, of course, made headlines. "First Thai character in a major FPS game" was probably the most common one. I'd feel better about that if I didn't know it's most likely the result of Blizzard trying to cash in inclusivity points. The second First he has is the more controversial one, however: First Overwatch character to be confirmed queer on launch. That's right, after four years of Jack Shit, they're back on it! And, well.

You see, to fully understand my emotions about this you need to know who Lifeweaver is. Despite Overwatch being a game with Mr black-hole-head toes-out "yet another poor-taste representation of DID" Sigma and a football-sized foul-mouthed hamster in a mechsuit in it, neither of them manage to be very funny. Lifeweaver, however, is objectively fucking hilarious, for these main reasons:

His amicable, light hearted healer-character personality clashes with his backstory, in a way that actually works. Lifweaver is a scientist who dropped out of a prestigious academy to stop people from trying to A: steal and B: jail him for his invention: biolight (which is exactly what it sounds: light that grows like plants, or vice versa.) Because of this biolight stuff, he is canonically wanted in seventeen countries and counting. And yet he's so glad to be here, you can hear the smile in his voice, he's kind, he's carefree. And he flirts.

With, like, everybody. Notably Mercy, and apparently he was roomates with Symmetra and speaks very fondly of her. On top of that he's (very) low-key implied to at least want to flirt with Roadhog of all people (can't say I blame him, anyway I'll get back to him,) and, uuh. Baptiste? Who's Baptiste? Nope, never heard of him. Ex-mercenary who regrets his actions and now plays support to make up for all the murder he did? Is what you may be asking yourself. Seriously, nobody talks about Bap. Maybe that's why he's being brought back into semi-relevance now, as Lifeweaver canonically (and smoothly) asks him on a date at a nice restaurant, to which he, unsurprisingly, says yes. He's always been very flirty himself. That should technically make it four canon queer characters in the game, but Baptiste still has some plausible deniability because of his personality, so arguments can still be argued, as they say.

Back to Lifeweaver. More specifically his playstyle. This bright pink healer wants nothing but to help people and further science! His players, however, will gladly ruin your day for shits and giggles. You see, it's become a bit of a gimmick of Overwatch as a whole to let you move your enemies around the battlefield. Junker Queen has her magnetic gauntlet thing, Roadhog has a hook, everybody and their mom have knockback, etc. Lifeweaver, however, can move his friends around. He has an ability to pull his teammates towards himself which he can also use to sling some of them across the map if they cooperate and/or move wrong. He can also raise a platform under any player that tosses them (or their lifeless corpse) into the air. This is incredibly useful in a coordinated team where everybody's using voice chat, eg. the way Overwatch is actually meant to be played. Overwatch is, however, never played how it's meant to be played. Hilarity ensues.

The circumstances of Lifeweaver's release. Here's the thing. On the 4th of April 2023, exactly one week before his release, Blizzard was sued again, this time for underpayment and mistreatment of their eSports champions. Although it's impossible to create a whole character in a week, it's fully possible that at least some parts of Lifeweaver's personality and some of the stuff he calls to canon (we'll get to The Thing later I promise, be patient,) were influenced by this. It's comically well timed that such a controversial character dropped so soon after that scandal, and while the model and animations were definitely finalized before that, any given set of voice lines could've been phoned in on the night of April 4th for all we know.

Put together, all of this is either infuriating or ridiculous. Some days it's one, some days the other, and some days, I'm just not sure. Originally I hated Lifeweaver. He felt predictable to me, a cheap coverup, a stereotype, and an annoying one at that. But eventually I sort of came around, because he got so annoying that I kind of had to respect him for it. From there, I eventually ended up here. And I think a lot of other people, notably the players themselves, felt the same. Go figure.

Section 6A: No scummy marketing tactic is complete without queerbait!

Valuable life lesson: it is very, very hard to tell wether or not something is queerbait by looking at the media itself. The possibilities that the perceived homoerotic tension is an accident, or a hint that's left vague for stylistic reasons, or simply a slow burn, are all present and impossible to rule out. The real way you find out if something is queerbait is by looking at the actual marketing. Listen to what devs say in interviews. Look at promotional material. Et cetera. Because I don't have the patience to watch those interviews, I can't actually say wether what I'm about to discuss is queerbait or a series of unfortunate accidents made as a result of Blizzard's bad habit of pandering, so I'll let you form your own conclusions and possibly go look it up on your own. (And then come back here and tell me about it because I'm so so curious.) I am probably going to go into excruciating detail on this next part. I am so sorry. I can't help but have favourites. So without further ado;

This is Jamison "Junkrat" Fawkes.

Or at least, it was back in OW1. (I promise the full body transparent background image is crucial.)

Anyway, this absolute bastard is a favorite of mine. (Having favourite OW characters? I am cringe but I am free.) He was in the game from launch, and remains one of the more interesting and, shall we say, least soulless characters in the game to this day. Not that there's that much to him. He never shuts up, he's clinically insane as a result of several concussions and a lot of radiation, and he really really likes blowing things up. Together with Roadhog, he's a freelance mercenary with little to no morals whatsoever, taking on whatever job gets them both cash, action, and buildings to explode.

Oh yeah, right. Mako "Roadhog" Rutledge, the quiet, stoic and occasionally terrifying two meter tall shit brickhouse with a stitched gas mask shaped like a pig snout and a massive hook on a chain. Sadly, although he's crucial to the segment, I can't really discuss him as much as I would like to because he has like five voice lines in total (an exaggeration) and half of them are just him telling Junkrat to shut the fuck up (not an exaggeration.) "Stoic, silent characters can be interesting without speaking," I hear you say. Yes, I reply, if they're well written. But this is Overwatch. Never ever get your hopes up about Overwatch.

Anyway, the trash rat and Mr Whole Hog here have an interesting history. Originally, they were simply friends, running around and doing Hilarious Antics™ (that were never very funny, other than in concept.) They feature in several comics together (none of which are very good,) they chat a lot in game and they have their own animated short called The Plan (which is the first Overwatch thing I ever consumed, also not very good, but hey, it landed me here.) And before I get into the queerbait part of this segment, let me just say that studying just this small part of Overwatch tells volumes about the writing all on its own. The tell-don't-show, the inconsistencies, the rampant ludonarrative dissonance... Stars, the comics want you to take Roadhog so seriously. They're leaning super hard into the edge with a brutal backstory and focus on making him as menacing as possible. Meanwhile, in game he, and I cannot stress this enough, walks around ass out the entire time. Google at your own risk. Don't say I didn't warn you!

There is this one voice line, triggered when interacting with one another, where Junkrat says somthn' like "You'll hook 'em, I'll cook 'em!" and Roadhog just sighs in frustration, but then there's another line, triggered the same way, where HE begins the saying, "I'll hook 'em..." "And I'll cook 'em!" In short, fuck you consistency, and this contrast could be really interesting if it was well written. But of course Overwatch will Never Ever elaborate on this, as per usual.

As the years went by, however, things got... A bit weird. Junkrat has always been friendly. According to him, he and Hoggie (he calls him that, not me) are the bestest of friends. And although Roadhog acts as though he hates Junkrat a lot of the time, this is very obviously just tsundere behaviour used to mask the fact that he does really like him quite a lot. But in what way? "Gayass," said half the fandom. "No, fuck you," said the other half, "this is clearly a father-son dynamic." "You're all homophobic," said the first half. "Maybe we are," said the second, "what are you gonna do about it?"

And Blizzard... Did nothing. Well, they did canonise their ages at some point, and there is about two decades inbetween the two (Junkrat is allegedly 25 although I find that hard to believe, I mean look at him, and RH is in his late forties) which one would assume suggests their support of the father-son thing, right? Man, if only it were that easy. First of all, the writing is so nondescript and vague that their actual dynamic doesn't resemble a parental one even in the slightest, especially not on Junkrat's tounge, and seeing as he's both more affectionate and more talkative I'll lend that it's appropriate weight. Predictably, there is also one line that is inexplicable, unexplainable and clearly an innuendo, where if you run Junkrat and eliminate an enemy RH, he'll say something like "I guess we know who's on top now, don't we?" This doesn't appear to be a reference to anything, trust me, I've tried to check. Excuse me while I take a sledgehammer to Blizzard's servers. Again, we can't assume anything's ever on purpose, but c'mon. Who greenlit that?

So, unsurprisingly, Blizzard is being annoyingly non-commital again, so as not to piss off either half of their fanbase. Things went kinda quiet after that. Anything released was, again, purposely vague.

And then OW2 happened.

Section 6B: Subtlety, lack thereof, and the art of applying a metallic texture to a default Blender orb

This is Junkrat, as his current in game model. Sad, right? How they forced him to take a bath before letting him into OW2? How they regrew his hair and ripped off his cooler patches? It's a fucking travesty. People are calling him "Cluttermouse" as a joke now. Why would they do this? They massacred my boy.

Anyway, if you're observant you'll notice he's got an earring now. Yeah, on his right ear. Yeah. What's that? You were on Tumblr in 2016? You remember all the circling posts about "earring on the right ear means person wearing it is gay" posts? You grew up a bit and assumed that was made up or blown out of proportion? You asked your mom one day and she confirms it was a very widely known symbol until around the century change? Some fans must've noticed. Most of them didn't, though, because most of them are twelve. Anyway, I tell myself (and you) that it doesn't actually have to mean anything. If you look at the design again you'll see Rattie here is very asymmetrical, and leaned to his-right-your-left, both of his prosthetics being on that side. (He even walks unevenly, which I love.) It's likely that the modellers simply had no clue about the earring symbolism thing, and just wanted to play into that asymmetry. Right?

...and then Lifeweaver dropped.

And then everyone lost their fucking minds.

Ya see, dearest readers (thank you for making it this far,) Lifweaver, Pink Petal Supporthero McGoodguy, has not one, but two conversations with Junkrat in game. One of them feels fairly normal, with them discussing the price on Lifeweaver's "noggin" and laughing about it a bit. The other one, oh boy, the other one goes like this:

🌸"Are you and Roadhog together?"

🐀"Do~ you ever see us apart?

🌸"No. I meant: are you couple?"

🐀"Yes!! A couple of dashing rouges! Not sure... What you're missing here."

Yeah. I'd lose my shit too. I guess I kind of did, but not for the reason you think. You see, this right here, in terms of pure writing talent, is fucking genius, because it manages to be controversial without actually confirming anything. By that I mean, that because Fawkes said "yes" quite enthusiastically, the half of the fandom that said "gayass" think he meant yes, but because he noped out of that yes with the "couple of dashing rouges" bit, the other half of the fandom think he meant no! This is where I really start to wonder if they called Junkrat's voice actor at 2 in the morning and went "hey bud take a few extra grand and help us record another few lines will you? We just got sued again."

This shit is simultaneously funny as hell, sad, and absolutely infuriating. In reality, Junkrat has approximately two braincells rattling around in his skull, of which he is constantly frying, due to all the concussions. He probably doesn't even know what his relationship to Mako is. That might've been the case, and it would've been a good joke, had Overwatch been a well-written game. Sadly, it's all shitfuck at worst and boring at best, and this latest little oddity just makes me even more convinced that Junkrat and his partner have been banished to Queerbait Limbo for the foreseeable future.

Section 7: In conclusion,

Blizzard is shitfuck company, Overwatch is shitfuck game, I spent at least three hours writing this up and probably more editing it together and in less than a month, it's June and Overwatch'es first in-game pride event drops. Needless to say, I'm scared.

How much time did you waste reading? Did I state fake news? Do you have additional trivia? Do tell. I'm so curious. This has been four thousand words of nothing. Goodbye.

[rosewendybros]

Disney Signature Collection And Movie Club Rant

Since the 1980's, the Walt Disney company has released their animated classics on whatever home media was popular at time, starting with the Classics line in 1984, then the Masterpiece line in 1994, followed by the Gold Classics editions, Platinum, Diamond, and now the Signature editions which kicked off in 2016. Each of these different lines represents only the best animated films of Disney's catalogue. Some titles started out being released in these lines such as "Robin Hood" and "The Sword In The Stone" but nowadays are considered regular release films. Others have joined the roster of films that go through the Disney Vault process to be released on home media every seven or so years such as the early Renaissance films like "Beauty And The Beast" and "The Lion King". But, overall, the focus of these lines is to preserve the best of Disney animation for multiple generations, which I can say that all of these lines have done a fantastic job at. However, this most recent line, the Walt Disney Signature Collection, is starting to become the most flawed. Let's explain why.

Just recently, "Lady And The Tramp" was announced as the sixth title in this line and is scheduled for release on February 27th of 2018 (an ironic release date considering that's the date the sequel, "Lady And The Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure", was released back in 2001). From what is being stated about this particular release, there are apparently a load of cool features attached to it such as an early song that was cut from the film, some behind the scenes material including one that goes inside story meetings from Walt's office regarding the film, and some of the original trailers for the film like the 1986 theatrical rerelease which came a year before the film's original Classic release which was in October of 1987. This is all pretty cool stuff, especially the fact that they decided to add three vintage theatrical trailers of the film into the special bonus features. And there will probably be a collectible piece that comes with this package, sort of like what they did with the "Bambi" and "Lion King" releases that included the lithograph and the limited edition film frame, respectively. So, that adds to the whole "collector" appeal to this package. But, one funny thing is... they are announcing all of this only less than a couple of months away from the release date. That's very strange.

Of course, if you're familiar with the former lines of the Disney animated films, you'd figure that "Lady And The Tramp" would be the next film to premiere in this new line considering back in the Diamond Edition days, "Lady And The Tramp" was released after "The Lion King", which followed "Bambi". in that line. I'm very certain that "The Lion King" and other releases at the time such as the second release of "Bambi 2" featured a trailer for the Diamond reissue of "Lady And The Tramp" in the trailers section on the menu. Back in the 1990's, several Disney films had trailers on the videocassettes MONTHS before they were officially released, so people back then knew that these films were coming out again. Particularly "The Aristocats" in the Masterpiece line, which was teased on the original "Lion King" VHS from 1995, and didn't get released until April 1996. That's slightly over a year away! From what I recall, that release was pushed back, but at least we knew it was being prepped up to premiere on home video. "Bambi" was previewed on the original 1996 VHS for "Toy Story", which was released in October of that year, and "Bambi" premiered in the Masterpiece line in February of 1997. Nowadays, if you look in the trailer sections on current Disney DVDs and Blu-Rays, you'll get only two trailers and that's it. An outdated Disney Rewards ad that ironically shows the "Bambi" Diamond Edition release and a trailer for an upcoming movie, sometimes two. The new release of "Bambi" shows a trailer for "Cars 3", and "The Lion King" only has a preview for "Coco". Nothing informing us that "Lady And The Tramp" or any other titles are coming to the Signature collection. Then, in early January, we finally get information and cover artwork and a release date confirming its placement in the line.

I guess this isn't really a flaw that SOLELY applies to the Signature Collection, as it could be going on with other films like current releases, but, this is very troubling. Things are much different than they were in "the good ole days". In the VHS days, there was a lot more excitement and appeal to the contents of the package. The trailers before the movie felt more like an actual short film in itself, which was especially true in the late 90's when Disney started using the company intro that had Beau Weaver's voiceover literally stating that there was always something "new and exciting". And then, you'd go to the previews, which Beau Weaver would introduce (for example, when the trailers for upcoming theatrical releases were coming up, you'd see a shot of a theater while Beau Weaver excitedly prepares to roll out the previews with animation of Tinker Bell helping out). Even when they weren't utilizing this intro and instead the flash-bang or early 2000's scheme bumpers were being utilized, there still seemed to be a real pull to want to watch the trailers instead of just reusing the same overused ad for seven years straight, followed by one measly movie trailer that you can probably watch on YouTube easily. They advertised all sorts of things, from movies, to TV shows, to parks and resorts, to computer/video games, and even music releases. They even kept this method of doing trailers throughout the 2000's and early 2010's when VHS was phasing out and optical media like DVDs and Blu-Rays were taking over. I don't know what happened, but, I really wish that Disney was teasing more releases than they do now. Not everything needs to be unveiled at the last minute. And DVDs don't need to have only one trailer. If the Blu-Rays feature more trailers, please inform me since I do not own a Blu-Ray player; I just collect the Blu-Rays of the films just to have them in my collection, and they often times come with DVDs. However, I really want to see more of an effort to advertise new titles such as the Signature Collection releases in the future. And please, STOP with that Disney Movie Rewards ad that has been playing on DVD releases for seven years straight! Or at least scrap that trailer and make a new one featuring RECENT titles. Not 2010/2011 titles that are probably not being sold anymore.

Now, onto the whole Disney Movie Club Exclusives thing. Again, if you have kept up with Disney, you'll know that whenever a movie like "Lady And The Tramp" or "Bambi" would be rereleased on home media again, the direct-to-video sequel, or sequels, would follow very close behind. Sometimes, they'd be released on the same day or be released in a two-movie package. I realize that the Disney sequels get flak for supposedly being "cash-ins", and there are cases where that's true, but that's not what I'm talking about. I bring this up because when "Bambi" was released in the Signature Collection in June of 2017, its sequel did not get released in stores to accommodate its predecessor. In order to get this edition of "Bambi 2", you have to sign up with this Disney Movie Club thing, or you have to wait for copies to show up on eBay and painstakingly wait for days in order to get it in the mail. Well, according to some sources, "Lady And The Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure" is going down this sad trajectory as well. Yes, this and the first movie will be released on the same day, but instead of finding the sequel at a store, you need to be a Disney Movie Club member or be willing to shell out dough and potentially lose multiple auctions on eBay before finally getting a copy.

I wouldn't be so mad about this if they were doing this with every sequel that came out. I mean, yeah, the whole Movie Club thing sucks to begin with, but at least Disney would actually be treating EVERY movie in a specific line the exact same, good or bad. But no. To make matters worse, and to propel my fuel for thinking that "The Lion King" was overrated to new heights of intensity, they did not do this with "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" and "The Lion King 1 1/2". All three of the movies in that franchise made it on store shelves. So, what Disney is basically saying is this: "Both of "The Lion King" sequels are good enough to be on store shelves, because we have "The Lion Guard" airing on TV now and we're making a remake of the original film. And every fucking Disney fan seems to think either of the two sequels are the best out of the Disney sequel canon. So, you will be seeing those on a Best Buy shelf! But movies like "Lady And The Tramp 2" and "Bambi 2", both of which seem to not get as good of recognition? Screw those films! Let's make it harder to get those films on a physical copy. If you're not a Disney Movie Club member or a sheep person who only watches movies digitally, than fuck off!" And yes, both "Bambi 2" and "LATT2" were and will be released digitally a week earlier. Oh no, not on physical media like the original films (which I don't have a problem with in the slightest since "Bambi" and "Lady And The Tramp" are NOT overrated films; they're just as phenomenal in my opinion). Just digitally. Or if you're a member of the club. No outsiders!

Here is how I feel both of these things need to change. First off, for the trailers section on future releases, add about 5-10 trailers to the mix. One or two upcoming theatrical releases, then a few films coming to any physical/digital media in the future, then one or two shows that are on any of the channels that Disney owns like the Disney Channel or ABC, then an advertisement for a game that's coming out from Disney, then an ad for one of Disney's parks and resorts, and finally, you can have the option to advertise a soundtrack/new album from an artist on Hollywood Records or Walt Disney Records. You don't necessarily need to follow this routine every single time you put together a lineup of trailers, and you can mix the order up a little bit to add some variety, but this is still the recommended way to go. This could even be done in a similar fashion to the 1990's, where you announce before a set of previews which ones are coming to theaters or releasing on store shelves or digital retailers. But please stop the routine where it's just one theatrical trailer and the same advertisement you've been beating the horse's bloody pulp of for a long period of time. People of this generation need some more variety and interest in what's going on. They don't need to go online for every piece of information on an upcoming title in the Signature line. You don't need to drop that information suddenly on consumers not even a full two months before release date. So, that's that. I'd also like to see more booklets and promotional papers and coupons in DVD and Blu-Ray cases, but, that's just me.

Secondly, all of the films in the Disney canon, INCLUDING the sequels, should be released ON STORE SHELVES. Every single movie, from "Snow White" to any current Disney film. That's probably going to irritate and infuriate all of the Disney purists who think that the Disney sequels should be forgotten in a pile of rotten dust in the desert, but all of them have an audience, like it or not. Even critically panned sequels like "Belle's Magical World", "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame 2", and "The Fox And The Hound 2" have fans. While I may agree with most people and say that I don't have much interest in watching much of the Disney sequel library, kids and other people have every right to be exposed to these movies, even if most of them are inferior to their predecessors. And I'm not just focusing on the Disney sequels in this as well, but also the other films that aren't one of the titles that get rereleased in a specific line like "Robin Hood", "The Black Cauldron", "Oliver And Company", and the package features from the 1940's. All of these movies need to be available. I understand if a store can't fit too much content in their inventory, but, for crying out loud, they should AT LEAST be noticed by someone! Movie collectors don't need to be given the finger as eloquently as they are right now, especially in the scheme of Disney movie collecting. The Movie Club Exclusive should ONLY be for bonus exclusive items and merchandise that comes along with the actual movie. Not the actual movies themselves that are seemingly being looked at as "inferior" by Disney.

That's all for now. Sorry if I seemed a bit agitated and irate during this rant, but the reason is because I'm sick and tired of Disney making fatal flaws like this, and I want Disney to keep on being the great company that it is. It introduced us to a lot of good memories, and we should keep these memories alive, even if the memory doesn't age too well within someone's mind. Let's end on a positive note and not bask in agony for too long. Here is a question for all of you reading. What is your favorite line of Disney classics? It can be the Classics line, the Masterpiece line, or any of the subsequent lines that they have done. Leave your responses in the comments below. Other than that, I think I'm going to chill out for now. Take care, everyone.

[xprojectrpg]

This Day in X-Project - December 21

Billy Kaplan's Birthday

PHASE 2

2015: Laurie posts to medical staff only about potentially adjusting their rosters and schedules. Operation: Mutant of the Seas: Kevin and Domino dig up a little information regarding security from a 'motivated' crew man; X-Force is able to gather enough information to launch an operation. Adrienne texts Emma about her Christmas plans this year. Amanda makes a journal entry letting people know she’ll be working this festive season.

2016: Garrison posts about a Christmas celebration at Harry’s. Miles posts about being accepted at Columbia University, but being unable to afford it. Miles texts with Ganke about the same issue.

2017: Maya doesn’t like Christmas and makes sure people know.

2018: X-Men Mission: Skull Island: Christian Kane meets with the X-Men to ask for help with a group of Chinese mutants seeking a crash site and valuable information on Skull Island.

2019: Kitty posts about her excitement for the upcoming Little Women film and her plans to see it.

2020: Betsy announces her holiday plans, which involve spending time in England with her siblings and no contact about anything serious.

2021: Sue suggests inviting Hope’s friends CJ and Ian to her apartment for a “Welcome to New York” dinner.

2022: Felicia made an Instragram crosspost with her and Jubilee on the beach. Sooraya and April talk about life and X-teams together. Amanda and Darcy stargaze and have a nice, quiet chat on the beach together.

[tatsports]

Get to Know the MLB Superstar: Uncovering the Untold Story of Trea Turner ( Part 2)

Are you an avid fan of Major League Baseball? If so, then you should definitely check out the new blog post, “Get to Know the MLB Superstar: Uncovering the Untold Story of Trea Turner.” This blog post will take you on an incredible journey to uncover the untold story of Trea Turner, the amazing shortstop for the Washington Nationals. You will get to learn all about his journey from being an undrafted free agent to becoming one of the top players in the MLB. You will get to know the behind-the-scenes details of his training and the struggles he faced along the way. The blog post also features interviews with his former coaches and current teammates, giving you an inside look at the life of an MLB superstar. This is an amazing opportunity to get to know Trea Turner and his incredible story. Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to get to know the MLB superstar and uncover his untold story.

2. Trea Turner After Joining MLB

Turner is renowned for his incredible speed. In 2016, during his rookie season, he recorded the fastest home-to-first time in the Statcast era, reaching the base in just 3.29 seconds.

Turner holds the record for the most stolen bases in a single season by a Washington Nationals player. In 2017, he swiped 46 bases, surpassing the previous record of 43 set by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

Turner is one of the most prolific base stealers in Major League Baseball. In 2018, he led the National League in stolen bases with 43, showcasing his remarkable speed on the basepaths.

On April 25, 2017, Turner accomplished a rare feat known as hitting for the cycle. He became the third player in Nationals history to achieve this milestone, hitting a single, double, triple, and home run in a single game.

Turner played a vital role in the Washington Nationals’ championship run in 2019. He was instrumental in the team’s success, contributing both offensively and defensively, and played a pivotal role in the World Series victory over the Houston Astros.

In July 2021, Turner was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a blockbuster deal. This trade sent shockwaves through the baseball world, as Turner joined a star-studded Dodgers roster.

While primarily a shortstop, Turner has also demonstrated his versatility by playing other positions, including center field and second base. His adaptability and defensive skills have made him a valuable asset for his teams.

Turner has been selected to the MLB All-Star Game multiple times, showcasing his exceptional skills and recognition within the league.

Learn more about Trea Turner =>  https://tatsports.us/trea-turner/

[thaoworra]

I’ll be presenting at LITERARY BRIDGES, on May 7, 2023 starting at 2:00 PM at Next Chapter Booksellers, located at 38 S. Snelling Avenue, St. Paul.

“Well April snowstorms bring May?…” says Stan Kusunoki, co-host/curator of the Literary Bridges reading series. “…May poets, of course! This month’s roster promises a wide-ranging, yet interconnected group of writers. It will be fun to chase all the threads of connection—in other words, a classic Literary Bridges!”

The roster includes: Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Wilder (Milkweed Editions 2018), Redmouth (Tinderbox Editions 2019), and most recently, Meltwater (Milkweed Editions 2023). Her work has most recently appeared in, or is forthcoming from, Cream City Review, TriQuarterly, Sierra, Ninth Letter, Blackbird, Washington Square Review, Copper Nickel, and Beloit Poetry Journal. She was a 2020-2021 McKnight Writing Fellow, and her poem, “Glacier,” won the 2022 Montreal International Poetry Prize.

Lynette Reini-Grandell is the author of Wild Things: A Trans Glam Punk Rock Love Story, (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2023) and the poetry collections Wild Verge (Holy Cow! Press, 2018); Approaching the Gate (Holy Cow! Press, 2014), winner of the 2015 Northeastern Minnesota book award for poetry. She teaches English and creative writing at Normandale Community College and the Loft and has received support for her work from the Finlandia Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. A multidisciplinary collaborator, she performs at spoken word venues with the Bosso Poetry Company and the jazz collective, Sonoglyph, and her poetry is part of a permanent installation at the Carlton Arms Art Hotel in Manhattan. She lives in Minneapolis on the ancestral homeland of the Dakota people. Bryan Thao Worra presents internationally on science fiction poetry and the Southeast Asian diaspora. He has presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival, the Library of Congress, the League of Minnesota Poets, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the 2012 London Summer Games, and more. His newest collection is American Laodyssey (2023) from Sahtu Press as his community marks 50 years since the end of CIA Secret War in Laos.

Marion Gómez is a poet and teaching artist based in Minneapolis. She has been awarded grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Loft Literary Center. Her work has appeared in La Bloga, Mizna, Waterstone Review, Saint Paul Almanac among others. She is a member of the Latinx spoken word collective Palabristas.

Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest who’s presented work at literary, art, and public spaces in the US, Canada, and abroad with support from the Joyce Foundation, Banff Centre, Minnesota State Arts Board, and diverse other institutions. He has degrees from The New School for Social Research and University of Toronto and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was Program Director for the Arab American lit and film organization Mizna before receiving a multi-year Tulsa Artist Fellowship and this year a Milkweed Editions fellowship. His debut poetry collection HOMES (Coffee House Press, 2021), explores nature, modernity, identity, belonging, and sublimity through the site of the Great Lakes bioregion / borderland. Moheb has been a finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards, Heartland Booksellers Award, and others, and was showcased in Ecotone’s annual indie press shortlist and the Poets & Writers annual 10 debut poets feature. See more of his work at www.mohebsoliman.info.

[mitchbeck]

TRAVIS HOWE BACK FROM AHL TO JACKSONVILLE ICEMEN

By: Alex Reed, Jacksonville Icemen JACKSONVILLE, FL – The Jacksonville Icemen, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers and the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, announced today that forward Travis Howe had been returned to the Icemen by the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League (AHL). Howe, 29, returns to Jacksonville, where he recorded six points (2g, 4a) with 38 penalty minutes in 23 games this season. Howe appeared in 24 games in his call-up with San Diego, totaling 77 penalty minutes and earning an AHL contract with the Gulls. Last season, Howe registered 11 points (3g, 8a) with 119 penalty minutes in 41 games played last season. In addition, Howe scored a goal with 14 penalty minutes in eight postseason appearances this past spring. During the 2020-21 season, Howe recorded four points (1g, 3a) and 55 penalty minutes in 21 games split between the Icemen and the Fort Wayne Komets. The 6-4 230-pound winger has accrued 42 points (15g, 27a) with 824 penalty minutes in 213 ECHL contests split between the Icemen, Komets, Utah Grizzlies, and Greenville Swamp Rabbits from 2016-2022. Howe made one appearance with the American Hockey League’s Tucson Roadrunners during the 2018-19 season. In the 2015-16 season, Howe totaled six points (2g, 4a) with 199 penalty minutes in 41 games with the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Macon Mayhem and Mississippi RiverKings. During his final year of juniors, the Hull, Massachusetts resident recorded ten points with 246 penalty minutes in 50 games played with the Corpus Christi IceRays (NAHL). Howe has been added to the Icemen’s playoff roster. Jacksonville opens the 2023 Kelly Cup playoffs at home this weekend against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.   The following is the complete schedule for the Icemen’s best-of-seven series with Greenville: GAME 1:  Friday, April 21, 7:00 p.m. Greenville at Jacksonville (Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena) GAME 2:  Sunday, April 23, 5:00 p.m. Greenville at Jacksonville (Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena) GAME 3:  Tuesday, April 25, 7:05 p.m. Jacksonville at Greenville (Bon Secours Wellness Arena) GAME 4:  Friday, April 28, 7:05 p.m. Jacksonville at Greenville (Bon Secours Wellness Arena) GAME 5:  Saturday, April 29, 7:05 p.m. *** Jacksonville at Greenville (Bon Secours Wellness Arena) GAME 6:  Tuesday, May 2, 7:00 p.m. *** Greenville at Jacksonville (Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena)   GAME 7:  Wednesday, May 3, 7:00 p.m. *** Greenville at Jacksonville (Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena)   *** If Necessary   Playoff tickets may be purchased on Ticketmaster or by calling the Icemen office at 904-602-7825.    Fans may also catch all Icemen game broadcasts online at mixlr.com/jaxicemen and FloHockey.TV #LitesOut JACKSONVILLE ICEMEN HOME Read the full article

[micro961]

Il Barone Lamberto - “Ho fatto pace”

Il nuovo brano del musicista modenese in bilico fra i generi a creare un melting pop di influenze

 I conflitti interiori sono al centro di questo singolo in cui, musicalmente, emergono le radici jazzy del cantautore italo/somalo. Il Barone Lamberto è un artista che ama definire il suo genere: “Melting Pop”. Non Pop, non Rap ma nemmeno un Cantautore. Piuttosto tutto questo insieme ed anche di più. “Ho fatto pace” è il primo singolo estratto dal nuovo album in lavorazione e parla di guerra. Una guerra fredda, interiore e viscerale, con sé stessi e con i propri demoni. Un pezzo che nasce dal bisogno di lottare contro la propria natura, masochista e nociva. Fare pace non è semplice e in special modo con sé stessi.

«Sono sempre stato un musicista molto inquieto. Sempre alla ricerca di un suono nuovo, di un nuovo genere, di un’atmosfera per esprimere i miei stati d’animo, i miei bisogni e le mie aspirazioni. Ho sempre giocato con la musica e con i generi ma, per questo pezzo, ho scelto di tornare dove ho cominciato. Sono tornato al pianoforte e a quegli accordi di 7° un po’ jazzy che raccontano tanto di me e del mio percorso.» Il Barone Lamberto

Il Barone Lamberto è Kheyre Yusuf Abukar Issak, cantautore italo/somalo di Modena che è stato pianista di Cisco (ex Modena City Ramblers). La sua proposta fonde Folk, Rap, Trap, Rock e Indie. Cambia diverse formazioni nel corso degli anni ed entra in contatto con professionisti sempre più di frequente: da Luca Rossi degli Ustmamò con cui registra ed arrangia alcuni brani a Little Paul Venturi, con cui condivide la passione per il blues delle origini, mantenendo costante la ricerca di un sound personale che non lo vincoli ai confini di un genere così come il più importante fra i suoi maestri virtuali, Beck Hansen in arte BECK. Nel 2009 il nome di Kheyre arriva alle orecchie di Stefano “Cisco” Bellotti che lo vuole come pianista per il suo tour. Questa é la prima vera esperienza professionale e gli dà modo di toccare con mano quelle realtà che fino a quel momento aveva solo immaginato. Il tour di Cisco copre in effetti tutta l’Italia, la Sardegna toccando anche la Germania e l’Ungheria. Ne esce addirittura un doppio album Cisco dal Vivo volume 1 & 2. Ma anche durante il tour, Kheyre, non smette di dedicarsi ai suoi brani originali e nel 2010 abbandona la band di Cisco per cercare la sua strada. Nel 2017 ha vinto il Festival Internazionale Bascherdeis di Vernasca. Ad aprile 2018 esce il video del brano “Giostrai” che ottiene molti consensi sia in termini di critica che di pubblico. Il Barone è stato selezionato ed ha partecipato al contest Deejay On Stage 2018 sul prestigioso palco di Radio Deejay a Riccione. Ha aperto i concerti di artisti come Vallanzaska, Punkreas, Speaker Cenzou, Willie Peyote, Ghemon e Tedua. Ad agosto 2019 partecipa al Festival Balla coi Cinghiali insieme ad artisti come Shandon, Dutch Nazari e Fast Animals And Slow Kids. Lo stesso anno esce anche il primo album dal titolo “Prima”, un disco totalmente autoprodotto, arrangiato e registrato dallo stesso Kheyre. Ad aprile 2020, durante il lockdown, esce “volumeuno”, Ep in cui la cassa dritta la fa da padrone fondendosi con sonorità elettropop, rock e trap. In “volumedue”, uscito a luglio 2020, le ispirazioni sono prevalentemente Rap/Trap ma sempre ibridate con una vena cantautorale ironica ed autoironica. Un Ep che tratteggia il carattere graffiante del suo autore ed esplora le nuove sonorità con un occhio attento e critico. Segue un altro Ep dal titolo “Sì” che consta di soli due brani ed è la celebrazione di un momento molto importante nella vita del cantautore, ovvero il suo matrimonio. Tra il 2021 e il 2022 il Barone entra a far parte del roster di “Make a Dream”, agenzia di booking Umbra con cui sta costruendo un tour per il 2022/23.

 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC058H0IU0yTC5Zbmn5XalbA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilbaronelamberto/?hl=it

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilbaronelamberto/

 l’altoparlante - comunicazione musicale

www.laltoparlante.it

info@laltoparlante.it

[eriellesudario]

Interviews Perapin with great aroma

NOTE: The responses in this interview are paraphrased and not direct quotes

“Delivers Pizzas with Great Aroma”

If you’ve been in the Pizza Parlour over in Club Penguin Rewritten, then you should know about a penguin known as ‘Perapin’. He’s been working there as a manager for quite some time and is loved by both staff and players due to his commitment towards his job.

So much so that he was Penguin Of The Week on January 2018.

I will admit, I was unaware of how big of a deal he was until I was told about it on Discord. Everyone apparently knows him and his dedication that there are those that roll with it, and some that challenges him to see how professional he is.

He seems to be very well known to the community and as a newbie myself, I needed to know what the fuss is about. 

One of the things that caught my eye is how far he would go in regards to his job. Just a few weeks ago, someone trashed the Pizza Parlour after an innocent game of truth or dare in a sleepover and well…

HE ACTUALLY WENT TO THE SLEEPOVER JUST TO FIND OUT WHO “thew eggs” IN THE SHOP!!!

I was lucky enough to meet Perapin in both the Ski Attic and Pizza Parlour during the past few days and ask for an interview.

How did you get the name Perapin?

I wanted to make a catchy name. I wanted to have ‘pin’ in the name, yet something that was unique and wasn’t taken.

How long did you play Club Penguin for?

I joined the original game in “two thousand and ten minus one”. I wasn’t always the Pizza Parlour manager during the early days

Are your stories in the Wikia page true? Especially the one during ‘Operation Hybernation‘?

Yes, they are very true. I am not making any of that up

So what was the best thing about your job?

Just seeing everyone together and having fun.

How were you able to balance both social and work life? Do you always work?

I only work when I feel like working. I like hanging out with my friends outside of the Pizza Parlour. But since my friends like to lend a hand when I’m on the job, it feels like I’m not alone.

What is the biggest challenge you have to face as Pizza Parlour manager?

Security and safety of my customers. We have at least 10 security guards with a dress code. We try to ensure that they are all safe and that if raider/armies come to the shop, they’d do their thing without disrupting the customers who came to eat.

How did you react when Stu (an admin to CPR) made huge temporary alterations in the Pizza Parlour last Thursday and it being a possible room design for April Fools Day 2019

Sometimes Stu can have a bad sense of humour. That’s all I have to say about that. April Fools Day will be very interesting.

A day in a life of a Pizza Parlour Manager

Through observing the Pizza Parlour during one of it’s busiest hours, with the restaurant being overbooked, penguins eating in circle groups on the ground near the oven, and a blue fish army at the bottom left of the establishment, Perapin was able to remain professional throughout his whole work day. 

There were around 6 security members, with a few applying for jobs, 2-3 waiters and servers, and a maintenance man when Garnet’s piano broke. It was a working system with penguins lending each other a hand just to make the place less chaotic.

I like making both my staff and customers happy. If both of them are happy, it makes the job much more easier and fun.

I’ve interviewed a staff member, KFCMaccas, who is the rostered greater for the day and asked about their thoughts on Perapin.

“Perapin is a fantastic boss. He gives good pay and is able to make everyone, both staff and his customers, happy” said KFCMaccas as they continue to do their job.

It’s clear that Perapin’s professional work ethic and reputation in the island is notable to the community that the community is willing to give him a hand when the day gets tough. He’s hard-working yet his role in the Pizza Parlour doesn’t seem like a chore to him, especially when he’s being challenged by ‘dine and dash’ penguins and armies.

[charitydemo]

Ghost recon wildlands splinter cell mission

Ghost War players will be able to get early-access to the new class by using their Prestige points or with the Year 2 Pass.įor more information about Special Operation I or free weekend, please visit: /freeweekendĭeveloped by Ubisoft Paris,* Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a military shooter entirely playable in up to four-player co-op or single-player from beginning to end. The Echelon is a part of Sam Fisher’s Fourth Echelon team, and therefore has access to high-tech equipment as well as the Sonar Pulse ability that allows him to see enemies behind walls at short range and gain tactical advantage over the opposing team. Special Operation 1 will also bring the Echelon, a new assault class available in all PvP modes, which will expand the Ghost War roster to 18 unique classes. In addition to the rewards for completing the challenge, players can further customise and arm their Ghosts with the Splinter Cell Gear Pack, which includes new customisation items and weapons, such as the Karambit Knife an exclusive close-combat blade inspired by Splinter Cell ® Blacklist ®, or the fully customisable SC 4000 prototype Splinter Cell assault rifle. Even though the mission will remain available in-game, these rewards will only be available until the Special Challenge ends on May 16 th, 2018. Upon completing the mission, players will be rewarded with exclusive items, such as Sam’s iconic sonar goggles, with a new night-vision filter, and more. “Teaming up with Sam Fisher will require the Ghosts’ stealth, cleverness and tactics…we can’t wait to see the reactions of our players as they face this new challenge!” “We are all super excited to bring such an iconic character as Sam Fisher into Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands,” said Nouredine Abboud, Senior Producer at Ubisoft. The night-time stealth mission will require players to use all the tools at their disposal to succeed. This new special challenge is playable solo or with up to four players in co-op and is one of the most difficult missions the Ghosts have ever faced. Players* will be able to play alongside Sam Fisher, the iconic character from the critically acclaimed Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell espionage series, and help him complete his new high-risk infiltration mission in fictionalised future Bolivia. The free weekend will be available on all platforms and will give newcomers the opportunity to try out everything, including Ghost War PvP mode, Predator mission and Special Operation I.įrom April 10 th, a wealth of exclusive Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell content will be introduced to the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands main game and Ghost War PvP mode, including a new PvE mission, exclusive customisation items and a new Ghost War PvP class. Additionally, players will have full access to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon ® Wildlands during the upcoming free weekend, taking place from April 12 th to April 15 th, 2018. Players will be able to team up with Sam in this special crossover event for free starting tomorrow, April 10 th, 2018, on next-gen consoles and Windows PC.

Today, Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon ® Wildlands will introduce a free Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell ®–themed mission, featuring the legendary Sam Fisher, voiced by Michael Ironside, as part of Special Operation I – the first major update of the second year of post-launch content for the game. SAM FISHER FROM TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL JOINS THE GHOSTS FOR A SPECIAL MISSION IN TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON WILDLANDS

[nhlists]

2017-18 Washington Capitals Astrological Signs

Aries: Tom Wilson 🐏

Taurus: Chandler Stephenson, Madison Bowey, Brett Connolly, Lars Eller, Brian Pinho, Jakub Jeřábek, Evgeny Kuznetsov 🐃

Gemini: Devante Smith-Pelly 👯‍♂️

Cancer: Shane Gersich 🦀

Leo: Dmitry Orlov, Christian Djoos 🦁

Virgo: Michal Kempneý, Travis Boyd, Braden Holtby, Alex Ovechkin 🧘‍♀️

Libra: Brooks Orpik, Alex Chiasson, Jay Beagle ⚖️

Scorpio: none

Sagittarius: Nicklas Bäckström, Philipp Grubauer, Matt Niskanen 🏹

Capricorn: T.J. Oshie, John Carlson 🐐

Aquarius: André Burakovsky 🏺

Pisces: Jakub Vrána 🐟

[bluebudgie]

10 YEARS OF GW2 – A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Hello peeps! As a little countdown to GW2's launch anniversary on August 28 I decided to dig up some old memories and take a small look at my personal journey through the game. Each day I'll make a post about another year.

DAY 2: 2013

In 2013 I essentially just kept doing what I did the months before: Explore Tyria, make plenty new characters (none of which survived to this day), and attempt to take some nicer looking screenshots:

(I probably had 3 fps looking at the shader settings here)

You know what else happened in 2013? The first Super Adventure Festival!

Probably the most elaborate April Fool's joke ever made. My absolute favourite festival to this day, SAB was pure joy from the start. I always remember the one from this year in particular because I had a spontaneous uncomfortable doctor's appointment that day, and asked my mum to tap a key on my PC's keyboard once in a while so the game wouldn't kick me out while I was gone. I really didn't want to lose progress haha (also, bless my mum for doing that). Also, if I recall correctly the main menu used to play a chiptune version of GW2's main theme at the time. That was pretty neat.

2013 was also the year I took this screenshot...

...because I was in awe at the amount of people present. Biggest zerg ever seen.

Also... this:

It's probably really not that funny if you weren't involved but getting lost trying to find your dead party member while getting chased by a champion has given this moment iconic inside joke status to us. It appears poor Nathanaël was actually stuck inside a wall and ended up having to port to a waypoint. Also I wish I could say I spell better than that nowadays but I really don't.

That year I also reached level 80 and set foot into Frostgorge Sound for the first time.

I instantly fell in love with this map and it used to be my favourite for many years. It's just so stunning visually.

(starting to wonder if I didn't know about first person camera)

That pretty much concludes 2013 already. Yes, I did miss out on doing LS1 content since I hadn't finished the personal story yet and didn't really understand there was new story happening. Onto 2014!

Permanent additions to the character roster that year: None.

Links to all posts: 2012 // 2013 // 2014 // 2015 // 2016 // 2017 // 2018 // 2019 & 2020 // 2021 // 2022    

[tapejob]

uhh why was china getting kicked out of the olympics

long story short: no but actually yes

currently, china's men's hockey team is the ranked 32rd worldwide, aka the lowest ranked team to qualify for the men's olympics in... a while

+ there's only uhh 12 teams in the men's tournament

now how they qualified at all was because after winning the olympic bid, china was granted automatic berths in both men's and women's hockey tournaments by the iihf

(in theory this is fine: iihf did this for south korea in 2018 + promising move to grow the game in china while also forcing china to buff its hockey programs in general + give china a chance to actually make headway in a major winter sport, which we've been historically abysmal at)

in practice this is very not fine

in preliminary qualifiers for the 2018 olympics, team china came dead last in group L, winning 0 games with a grand -21 goal differential against serbia, spain, and iceland (currently ranked #29, #31, and #35 respectively). it was so brutal i gaslighted myself into totally forgetting about it until i came across it again today

and btw china hasn't played an international game since 2019 bc of COVID

anyway remember back in april when they announced the olympic groupings:

what's that? what's that in the front? we have canada (#1), US (#6), germany (#7) and china (#32). okay.

also, in case you've forgotten (you haven't). daddy bettman is letting the nhl loose on the olympics this year, with crosby and mcdavid definitely out to tear up in team canada and who knows who else in the rest of the group. china gets net zero benefit from this whole ordeal: we have one (1) nhl player currently living his best life in cornell. he spent last year becoming a business analyst.

this isn't even like a regular year. the nhl talent pool alone right now? absolutely off the shits. scmp aptly puts it as "the planet’s most talent-rich ice hockey tournament in eight years"

bringing back this quote from a former coach because i think it sums up quintessential team china hockey:

you have got to help me

so basically no development internationally, abysmal roster at best with little changes at the senior level compared to the last olympics where we got completely rimmed blind

anyway

because the iihf is desperately trying not to rapidly descend into clown representation, we leave china with two options:

get china to recruit some boys from north america/europe with chinese heritage + naturalize them in time for the olympics so we have a decent roster

get kicked out

option 1 sounds pretty good, tbh, except for the fact that the iihf has a rule that players have to play in their new country for at least 2 years before switching nationalities. bit too late for that but this is okay because apparently we are so catastrophically bad that the iihf is willing to bend the eligibility rules to avoid a murder on international ice

option 1 would also sound pretty good because we've actually been recruiting a lot of our heritage boys via Kunlun Red Stars. not a bad choice, since it gives them runtime in the KHL

we are ignoring the fact that they haven't qualified for playoffs since their founding, and had the worst season in their history in 20-21

IT WOULD BE PRETTY GOOD except for the fact that apparently the KRS had a "falling out" with the chinese ice hockey association. now all our potential recruits (read: literally all ethnically chinese players) are unusable until the general administration of sports gets its shit together

you fucked up a perfectly good team is what they did. look at it. it's god anxiety.

"there are reports that players from the Soviet bloc are being considered, perhaps those from Central Asia, who look at least a little “Chinese”" stop stop stop stop stop oh my fucking god

there's also an emergency option which is to beg a ton of white guys to join. this is how we got our coach. we hired a canadian coach for team china hockey. who are we

we're on the trajectory to get pretty historically bodied which is something that the iihf would love to prevent and the US would love to enable. also read this hot take i found that made me start crying

"avoid rubbing it in" you have GOT TO HELP ME

anyway, there was a source from iihf that said there's nothing expected to change with china's participation, but luc tardif said there would be an official decision by end of october as to whether china gets the chopping block out of their very own tournament or face global demolition on the world stage

pray for me besties i am unwell

also bonus for some incredible headlines we got out of this: