#she’s been to two eras dates and she’s going to Vancouver too

[bqstqnbruin]

Date Night

So like, some really exciting news, but I got accepted into UPenn for my masters this morning! I was holding office hours for my students when I got the email and had to do everything in my power to not freak out over it. 

But this is another request (I LOVE GETTING REQUESTS) so thank you to the angel human who sent it in!

Here is the original request!

_________________________

Vancouver was still completely foreign to you; you moved there about two months ago because of a new job. Luckily, one of your friends from college was looking for a roommate at the same time, so you swooped in and had a place to live. 

“Are you gonna go out with that hockey player?” Your roommate asks you one night.

“Who, Brock?” your roommate had a friend who was friends with some of the guys who played for the Canucks. You were a Blue Jackets girl yourself, but, they insisted on setting you up with Brock Boeser. He wanted to start dating, and you knew exactly five people outside of your roommate and your work friends and needed a bigger friend group.

“Uh, yeah. The literal Prince Charming of the NHL,” she yells.

“Yeah, tomorrow night.” Prince Charming? He was hot in photos, but you don’t see the Prince Charming aspect of him.

“Oh thank god!” 

Brock had texted you to meet at the Granville Island Public Market. 

“What do you want to get? Have you ever been here before? 

“Uh, I don’t even know what’s here, I’ve never been here.” 

“Alright, then do you want me to pick, or do we want to do a lap and then you can pick?”

If this was how the rest of the night was going to go, then you didn’t see a second date happening.

“Uh, how about you pick? You’ve been here longer than I have, you know the good stuff, right?” you say, giving him a smile that was trying to not be too awkward. 

It took a solid five minutes to weave through the crowded market, him taking you to what he kept saying was ‘his favorite place.’ You could feel the eyes of the other people fall on you as you walked around with one of the area’s biggest athletes. Because of the crowd, at one point he grabbed your hand. With his fingers intertwined in yours, all the awkwardness seemed to melt away. It felt right. 

You finally found your way to Gourmet Wok. “Is this alright?”

The smell of lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, wontons and sticky rice hit your nose, “Yeah, I’m down.” 

He insisted on ordering for you since he wanted you to have something great your first time going. After that, you were on your own to figure out the rest of that restaurant. “If you need help with the others, you just have to call me,” he winked, flashing a cheeky grin and walked away to go order while you found a place to sit. 

You finally understood the Prince Charming reference. He literally looked like an actual Disney prince. And he was as charming as any man you’ve ever met.

“Alright, I got you curry chicken and veggies on rice.” He says, finally coming back after what felt like ages. 

“Oh my god, this smells so good. What did you get?” 

“Shanghai noodle with meat.”

“What kind of meat?” 

“Beef? I don’t know. Something amazing.” he says, laughing, pushing his food toward you. “Here, try it.” 

While you take his food, he reaches over to take some of yours. “Hey, hey, hey! What gives?” you tease, throwing some rice from your plate at him.

He dodges it, pretending to throw a much messier vegetable at you. “I paid for it! I can steal a little if I want, it’s only fair.” he grins again, making you melt and smile back at him.

“Fine, that just means next time I’m buying the food.” You didn’t even know you wanted ‘a next time,’ but something about him made you think there would be more than just this.

“Oh, no. I already have our next date planned, and it does not involve buying food, it involves a picnic of prepared foods, by me.”

“You already have it planned?” you feel yourself blushing as you try to take a bite of some of your food to distract him from your cheeks that were obviously turning bright red. 

“Well, I have two ideas, especially since you seem to never go out of your home or your office.” he teases.

“I’m an accountant for RYU, calm down. I do a lot of stuff every day!” 

Brock rolls his eyes, the smile still plastering his face. “Anyway, I was thinking we could either go to Stanley Park given that it’s not too cold, and have a picnic there. But that’s just one option for us to do at some point. Or we could drive along BC-99 and find a place to stop there and just look out at the scenery. Your friend also said you work out, which is great because my favorite place to go work out is the Cleveland Dam, so we could go there. Or we could...”

He keeps going on about all the dates he has planned out. He actually has at least ten more dates for you two all planned out. You’re sure he does this with any girl, but he looks so cute getting all excited about the stuff he wants to do with you.

“So which one sounds good to you? When’s the next time you’re free? I don’t have anything going on Saturday.”

“Do you want to do BC-99? Let me pack the picnic but you’re driving on Saturday.” 

The rest of the night was you two talking about your lives; his life before playing for the Canucks, your life before moving to another country for work. The conversation seemed to never end as you jumped from subject to subject, laughing at each other opening up about dumb stuff you’ve done in past, talking about your favorite memories growing up, crazy hypotheticals like if you had the ability to time travel, where would you go. You said you would go back to the flapper era in New York, right before the depression; he would want to go one hundred years into the future to Los Angeles to see how the movie industry changed. 

Before the market closes, he takes you by the hand to lead you to A La Mode for some dessert. Running his free hand through his hair, he says, “The lemon meringue pie is to die for.” 

“Lemon meringue is my favorite!”

He orders for you, again paying. “I said I’m paying tonight, I don’t know what you want from me.” 

“That just means I’m bringing more food for Saturday.” “Oh, no. What ever will we do with more food?” 

You couldn’t wait to see.

[chilling-seavey]

Lucy Elizabeth Seavey was born on June 24th, 2024 at 1:56pm, brought calmly into the world from the comfort of home. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long with a full head of light blonde hair and bright blue eyes and the moment she breathed her first breath, her parents fell just in love with her than they had with her two older sisters – especially Daniel who cried his eyes out when she was born.

Florence and Daniel had two babies well before they got married yet alone engaged as life had a few unplanned tricks up its sleeve but, on their wedding night, the newlyweds agreed that they wanted one more baby; their one chance to things ‘the right way’. So they came back home from their honeymoon pregnant and unbelievably in love and spent the next few months preparing their apartment for their third child’s arrival. After two stressful pregnancies, Florence wanted nothing but the epitome of calm for this last one so they worked with a midwife and got a homebirth set up for whenever baby girl #3 was set to arrive. Lucy’s birth story can be found here if you’re interested!

For the other two girls, Florence had chosen their names since she was technically a single mother at the time of the birth certificate signings, but with Lucy, Daniel and Florence went through list after list together almost every night before bed to find the perfect name together. By now you know that Daniel had a bit of a music obsession and he was really searching for a name that meant just as much to him that Florence liked as well. Lucy was named after a song by The Beatles (Daniel’s favourite band), Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which Daniel did not know was about LSD until his daughter was already a year old. He had a bit of a mental breakdown over that: “I named my baby daughter after a hallucinogenic drug?! What kind of father does that?!”. Elizabeth was simply another old fashion regal name that Florence adored and it flowed so nicely with her first name. Lucy Elizabeth; their littlest princess.

It was already a short name so there wasn’t much room for nicknames but she was Lucy Lu to her family and Lu-Lu to her sisters, princess to Daniel for reasons stated above – she was their littlest princess and Daniel’s own sweet little mini me. She might have had her mother’s blonde hair but she had Daniel’s eyes, nose, and infectious smile…definitely a Seavey with those beautiful genes.

Lucy had always been an independent girl; she was the earliest of her sisters to walk and talk, and her favourite phrase as a baby and toddler was “me do” as she was determined to do things herself. Despite this fierce independence of hers, Lucy always held her family close and loved to spend time with them – Christmas had always been her favourite time of the year since they got to visit Daniel’s parents and siblings in Vancouver. She was a sociable girl and loved to talk since the moment she could, making up all sorts of stories through every part of her day, especially to Daniel. They called Lucy ‘Daniel’s Shadow’ because she was always rushing after him wherever he went from the day she could walk (and even before that as she always demanded to be picked up by him). The poor man could hardly go to the bathroom without the baby toddling after him. He learned to lock the door the hard way.

When it came to her interests, Lucy was the daughter who had a knack for music, she was Daniel’s little musical prodigy. He tried to get all of his girls interested in at least piano from a young age but Clementine got bored of it too easily and Penelope just could not get it right…with Lucy, Daniel went in to their first home lesson with low hopes but she caught on almost right away; even Florence was shocked at how easily it came to her pre-school daughter. Of course, this was a dangerous game as she often woke up in the middle of the night to Daniel and four-year-old Lucy sat at the grand piano in the living room at 3am punching out a few tunes in their pyjamas. He just couldn’t help himself.

Daniel took it upon himself to teach Lucy everything that he knew about music and he brought her to his studio often to not only give her music lessons but teach her about producing as she got older. By the time she was fourteen, Tuesdays and Thursdays after school were the days when Lucy would take the subway to the studio and spend the remainder of Daniel’s workday working with him and making music. It was the reason why Clementine and Penelope always called Lucy his favourite child. But Daniel didn’t have a favourite; he loved all his girls the exact same. He just had an extra thing to connect with Lucy through. Lucy had started piano lessons by age four, guitar at seven, cello at nine, and singing lessons off and on throughout her elementary school years and into high school; all taught to her by her father which definitely saved the family a lot of money. In high school, she was in the performing arts program for instrumental music (she played cello in the band but could also pick up the flute if they needed) and theatre. She dabbled in a little dance as she grew up too; ballet, tap, and musical theatre. She really gave multi-talented Clementine a run for her money sometimes. High school allowed her to really blossom in theatre, always in awe by musical films and live theatre on their one family trip to New York and she saw her first Broadway show. Daniel was her go to for music but her Uncle Christian was her go to for acting since he majored in it in college himself and Lucy called him often for advice or video chatted him to run lines for her school plays.

School wasn’t really Lucy’s first priority other than the arts. She did reasonably well in school but could have really shone if she applied herself; and she got into arguments with Florence a lot about it, her mother trying hard to get her to put the same amount of dedication into her school work that she put into her music. English and math and science and the sort never interested Lucy though, and she could never bring herself to work hard in those generic subjects since all she wanted to do in life was musical theatre; a perfect mesh of her music and her acting. She begged her parents to let her apply to art schools for university to major in musical theatre but they were concerned because it wasn’t a very promising career for post-graduation. On their trip to Vancouver for Christmas for her senior year, Lucy confided in Christian and he woke up at 4am one day to sneak her out across the bay to the city of Victoria to tour the Canadian College of Performing Arts and be back in time for supper. Lucy absolutely fell in love with the campus and the program and she came back to her grandparents’ house absolute beaming and thrusting the pamphlets at her parents, rushing out everything she learned and planned from the tour. Christian’s cheeky grin at his brother and sister-in-law’s unimpressed glares was magazine worthy. So Lucy moved to BC the following year to major in musical theatre at CCPA.

Lucy was very generous, charming, and really too sweet for her own good. She was fiercely independent and sociable and always had lots of friends as she loved being kind to everyone. She always felt emotions strongly which often allowed for harsh mood swings is someone questioned her character, passions, or her family. She loved being surrounded by people and tended to fall in love the ‘fastest’ out of her sisters. She had a few boyfriends while growing up, her most serious one during her senior year was her prom date and left her with a pregnancy scare at nearly eighteen and Daniel almost died and went to heaven when she came to her parents crying in fear; not only because that was his little girl but because her boyfriend always reminded him of Florence’s jerk off of an ex, Matt. Thankfully, all was well, the pregnancy test was negative, and Lucy moved across the country for school. She had a few quick romances over there, often fueled by sudden passion and momentary infatuation rather than love per se but she fell hard for her university dance coach, Xavier, in third year. He was only a few years older than her and both of them seemed to have an attraction they couldn’t deny, but Lucy let him chase her for a bit before they finally went on a few dates and made it official. Daniel was not impressed that he was the last one to find out about that and through his brother, Tyler, of all people. Since when did Tyler know more about his daughter’s life than he did? Regardless, Xavier was a good guy and when Lucy brought him home one summer, Florence and Daniel knew they were a perfect match.

For those of you interested in astrology, Lucy is a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Moon, and Libra Rising.

She is the most religious out of her family and even as a kid would shout “Thank you, God!” before eating her dinner. Her favourite colour is gold or literally anything that sparkles, she loves all genres of music but has a secret playlist of early 2000s punk rock, she has her parents’ initials tattooed on her ankle, and her favourite meal always has been chicken nuggets and she lives off of them in university.

Lucy’s songs are:

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles

Elizabeth by Julia Jacklin

Face Claims:

Baby Lucy’s face-claim is Pose LaBrant (@/posierayne on Instagram). These photos are not mine, all credit belongs to her

Teenage Lucy’s face-claim (ABM2 Era) is Mackenzie True (@/macktrue on Instagram). These photos are not mine, all credit belongs to her

[aion-rsa]

The Nevers Part 1 Finale Is The Most Surprising Hour of TV in a Long Time

https://ift.tt/3uSp933

This article contains major spoilers for The Nevers episode 6.

So that was something, huh? To those who have not yet seen The Nevers episode 6 “True” yet, the above headline may seem fairly overwrought. Really? The most surprising? Wasn’t the Invincible finale just like two weeks ago? To those who have seen the episode in question, however, that designation probably rings true.

How else are we supposed to describe an hour that begins, not in 19th century Victorian era London like the show’s first five episodes, but rather in a far flung future in which 5 billion people are dead and Earth’s atmosphere is toxic? There may have been more surprising twists in TV’s recent past, but it’s hard to recall a recent episode that upends a show’s central premise so extremely, so relatively late into its run. And thanks to the coronavirus pandemic interrupting the show’s production, The Nevers won’t even be able to continue to pursue this rich dramatic vein until “Part 2” of the show’s first season arrives at a still-undetermined later date.

As conceived by prolific TV creator Joss Whedon (before he left the project perhaps in part for also being a prolific jerk), The Nevers first presented itself as a fairly standard superhero tale. It is set in the Victorian era and features a pretty direct allegory: as culture goes through distinct changes, so too do many Victorian women, gaining supernatural powers and banding together as the “Touched.” 

That was all fine and dandy but this sixth installment, written by Jane Espenson, really levels up the show’s potential in a profound way. The Nevers isn’t just a show about change, it’s a show about failure to change. Humanity’s petty squabbles over millennia eventually lead to a world in which our only hope of survival is through inter-dimensional travelers known as the Galanthi. But ever the difficult species, many humans turn up their noses at the notion of divine intervention. Now humanity’s last chance lies in the distant past, surrounded by smog, damp umbrellas, and corsets.

This is, to say the least, a lot to unpack. Thankfully, we’ve gone ahead and done all the unpacking for you. What follows are some major questions raised by “True” along with our answers, some of which have been supplemented by the show’s star, Laura Donnelly. You can find that entire interview over here. 

For now, however, let’s get started with the obvious…

Wait…what? What was that?

I know, right?

No, seriously. Like…what just happened? Give me a TL;DR

The Nevers’ sixth episode answers a lot of questions and raises even more. We will go in-depth on all of those questions in a moment, but to break it down into only a couple of paragraphs:

It turns out that The Nevers takes place in a (hopefully) distant apocalyptic future in which the Earth is ravaged and the majority of the human population has perished. Suddenly a dinosaur-like alien species known as The Galanthi appear from portals and deposit spores that “improve” some people, giving them a stronger sense of selflessness and all around good vibes. The Galanthi also assist scientists in big projects like water purification and renewable energy. In response to the Galanthi’s arrival, the remnants of humanity split off into two factions: the Planetary Defense Council (PDC), which believes the Galanthi are helping; and Free Life, which are skeptical of them.

As this episode picks up, a woman known by only her military rank “Stripe” is involved with a PDC team to make contact with the last Galanthi. Unbeknownst to Stripe and the team, the Galanthi and his scientist friends have hatched a plot to go back to the late 19th century to give humanity a fresh start and a chance to avoid their catastrophic future. After committing suicide, Stripe finds herself in the body of Victorian England breadmaker Amalia True, who had just made her own suicide attempt (possibly succeeding as well). Cue: episodes one through five of The Nevers.

If that brief description is still a bit too complicated, Donnelly provided Den of Geek with an even more economical run down:

“I think the important information is crystal clear, which is essentially: the Galanthi is an alien race that is here to help humanity from itself, and that Stripe is Amalia.”

Now onto the other lingering questions. 

When does The Nevers take place and what happened to Earth?

The show takes place in an unspecified future…at least until Stripe is sent back in time to inhabit Amalia True’s body in the Victorian era. As for what happened to Earth, the simplest answer is probably “humans.” It would appear that all of our centuries of selfish nonsense has rendered the third rock from the Sun a shell of its former self. The air is unbreathable and unable to accommodate pretty much any life. Stripe shocks her crew by “possuming” a.k.a. taking her oxygen-rich helmet off while in battle. Stripe is also later stunned to see actual organic fruit in the lab.

What are the Galanthi? 

The Galanthi are intergalactic and possibly inter-dimensional helpers. No one knows why they first emerged from their portals to assist humanity on Earth but it is fairly clear that they’re here to help…even if Free Life would beg to differ. Their appearance seems to be that of classic scaly monsters. The only time we get to see one is in a video that the scientists recorded. That Galanthi is quadrupedal and about three times the size of a human being. It has Cthulhu-like tentacles on its face. The scientist cheerfully notes that he wasn’t expecting the beast to be this playful, as it nudges him with its head like a cat.

According to Stripe and Knitter, at one point there were around 20 Galanthi but Free Life has been bombing their facilities. As far as anyone knows there is only one Galanthi left on Earth and it’s the one inhabiting this facility. This poor Galanthi is traumatized, however, as Free Life tortured all of its scientist buddies to take away its hope. Now it spends its days in a windowed room in the ceiling, mourning its loss.

What are Free Life and the Planetary Defense Council (PDC)?

The Planetary Defense Council (PDC) is the organization that believes in the mission of the Galanthi. Stripe’s team is made up of PDC personnel and they’re tracking a spatial anomaly to find and defend a Galanthi. Free Life, on the other hand, does whatever it can to make the Galanthi go away. Free Life also doesn’t believe in some of the customs that the PDC has adopted, like concealing one’s own name as sacred. The Free Life representative in this episode’s Chapter One is delighted to tell people his name. 

It’s unknown how many people are involved in each faction, but it would seem that Free Life has the upper hand. There is potentially only one Galanthi left. As Stripe eventually explains to her new friend Knitter (Ellora Torchia), the side that banks on hope rather than fear is at an inherent disadvantage. A sizable percentage of the PDC aren’t even true believers in the Galanthi. They are scared of them but believe they are a necessary evil for humanity’s survival. We see how tenuous even the “believers’” belief in the Galanthi is when one of the PDC team betrays his crew.

What was with those Victorian artifacts in the lab?

Somewhat surprisingly (to me at least), this one has an answer already! Thanks to Donnelly, we now know that the scientists were plotting with the Galanthi to send humanity back to one specific timeframe to make things better. The Victorian artifacts were a part of that research. Donnelly explains:

“You realize that the reason that they had an exit portal was because they had a plan for that, that they weren’t coming back. Obviously you see that with the Victorian artifacts in the room. In fact, this plan was brought together with the scientists. They were working on that together.”

The Galanthi was going to exit through its portal, but it wasn’t abandoning humanity – just getting primed to enter into the next stage of its plan in Victorian England.

Who is Stripe?

Stripe is our hero. Played in the first chapter by Claudia Black, Stripe is so called because names are sacred and cannot be revealed. Instead she goes by her military rank.

“At one point they say something about declaring colors and they kind of all go through what the different names are for the different ranks. She’s a Stripe, which is not very high up,” Donnelly says.

As evidenced by her morphine addiction and cynical attitude, Stripe is not necessarily the consummate soldier.

“She’s been kept to a certain level,” Donnelly adds. “And I think that’s down to the fact that she has very strong PTSD and there’s just a lot about her personality that has kind of kept her slightly higher than a foot soldier. She’s not in any level of authority.”

All we know for sure about Stripe is that she hails from southwest Canada (which is fitting, given that the show films in Vancouver) and that her real name is Zephyr Alexis Lavine. There is surely more backstory to come eventually and we get to see glimpses of her military past when she interacts with the Galanthi at episode’s end.

The person that we know as Amalia True this entire time has been Stripe inhabiting her body.

Did Stripe Commit Suicide? 

Perhaps this was fairly clear but in case you had the same confusion this writer did upon first watch let’s make it clearer. Yes, Stripe did commit suicide. Stripe, Knitter, and the rest of the team truly believed that the last Galanthi was exiting the world for good via its portal. Stripe was already a cynic, but she couldn’t handle taking Knitter’s last bit of hope away from her before she was killed. 

As such, Stripe drank a lethal liquid that the PDC seemingly designed for just such a situation and she perished. The last Galanthi wouldn’t let her be dead for long though as it seemingly snatched her soul out of its body and sent it back to Victorian England. 

Who Is Amalia True?

Amalia “Molly” True is an actual Victorian lady, but not a Victorian Lady, if that makes sense. Poor Molly (maiden name not given) is a passionate and talented baker. Unfortunately, the only role for her in this society is that of a wife. Even more unfortunately, the man she is pressured to marry, Thomas True, is a world-class asshole. 

Thomas belittles Molly’s baking talents and even cruelly makes fun of her two miscarriages. Molly reaches her breaking point when she is unable to go to the baby shower of her one-time preferred suitor because “barren” women are bad luck. So she simply drops off some pastries and then hurls herself into the Thames.

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At that same moment, Stripe’s soul is guided by the Galanthi into Amalia’s body. Perhaps the creature’s reasoning was “if this woman wasn’t using her corporeal form then someone should.” It’s also not clear just how much of “Molly” remains in Amalia’s body. For now, it appears to be all Stripe/Zephyr. When Amalia confronts the Galanthi at the end of the episode, the creature does bring up some of the real Amalia’s memories. 

What is a Spore?

A spore is essentially the future jargon term for the effect that the Galanthi have on a small percentage of the population. Stripe calls Knitter a “spore” but she points out that the correct term is “empathetically enhanced.” Empathetic enhancement basically seems to mean that the Galanthi make some people just flat out better. 

Shortly after Stripe arrives in the 19th century asylum as Amalia True, she asks Dr. Cousens if anybody has been “better,” “smarter”, or “more compassionate” lately. They have not, of course, but the Galanthi’s spores have opted for a new strategy this time around.

Instead of merely making certain human beings “better” in an amorphous sense, the Galanthi’s spore has instilled in them specific powers. 

“The spores don’t affect everyone they hit. I’ve never known why. But they don’t normally cause random powers,” Amalia says.

To what end have the spores given everyone random powers? Stripe does not know yet and nor do we. 

What Does The Last Galanthi Want?

At this point, we now all understand that the last Galanthi on Earth (we think) sent Stripe back to Victorian England in a desperate gambit to save humanity. Stripe i.e. Amalia has intuited that the Galanthi wants her to gather together all of the “Touched.” To what end though?

Well, that’s what Amalia was hoping to glean from her meeting with the Galanthi, still suspended above her in a cave, at episode’s end. 

“I left my heart to come talk to you. Talk to me!” Amalia yells at the ceiling. 

The Galanthi responds with only a deep growl and then Amalia is knocked back by an unseen energy and begins to experience memories from both Stripe’s and Amalia’s lives. Tucked amid those memories are some glimpses of the future, including Lord Massey firing a rifle Amalia’s way. The vision ends with a young woman we’ve not seen before saying: “Oh Amalia. This is a long time from that little cave. This I will need you to forget.”

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It’s unclear what any of this means but Amalia does tell Penance later on that she did figure something out from the encounter, we just don’t know what yet. Perhaps it’s not for us to know right now anyway. The Galanthi may as well be God and as Molly True once said “God makes his plans so…here we are.”

The Nevers season 1 part 2 is awaiting a release date at HBO.

The post The Nevers Part 1 Finale Is The Most Surprising Hour of TV in a Long Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[sleepykittypaws]

Jingle Bell Bride

Original Air Date: October 24, 2020 (Hallmark) Where to Watch?: Hallmark will replay it multiple times this season, and for every season in perpetuity, and it’s also available for a limited time on the Hallmark Channel Everywhere app with a cable login

So, here's the thing…October 24 is way too early to watch Christmas movies. Even for me.

I knew that, yet did it anyway, because we came across a Hallmark commercial that made my son say, 'Why can't it be Christmas right now?' and I said, 'Well, we could watch a Christmas movie.' And he said yes, which is rare these days, so we did. 

And, yeah, I was right, it's too early. Because part of what makes Christmas movies so special to me is that they're a little rare—siloed into a certain time of year and not something I do every day. Your mileage may vary, and no judgement (sincerely) if you're a year-round viewer, but I enjoy my holiday movies at least a little closer to Christmas, so do wish I’d waited to watch this in November.

All that having been said…Jingle Bell Bride. I was really looking forward to this one after Hallmark's initial preview, and Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Julie Gonzalo did not disappoint. Both are incredibly charming and engaging actors, and I hope we see more of them on Hallmark. (Gonzalo has been in a few other things, like Falling for Vermont, but Rowe, best known for Star Trek: Discovery, is new to the network.)

They had a genuine spark between them and Gonzalo, in particular, really is a perfect Hallmark heroine, as she does earnest with a side of quirky very well. 

Also, can't let it go by without noting that this is Hallmark's first-ever interracial lead holiday romance and, frankly, it's about damn time. It's 2020 and that this is even still a question is, frankly, both infuriating and depressing. But we're here now, and I hope it continues. 

They also wrote Gonzalo, who was born in Argentina, as a Latina character, and the actress has shared publicly how much this meant to her. Hallmark has a heck of a lot of ground to make up in terms of its (lack of) diversity, so thank goodness they're finally making slow but steady progress. Please, keep it up.

Gonzalo and Rowe's charm and chemistry really carried this story of a wedding planner tasked with finding a special flower for a famous bride's bouquet that only grows in Alaska which…Huh? You know, Alaska, known for its abundant fields of flowers and lengthy growing season. 

But, just go with it. Gonzalo's up-for-the-big-promotion, Type-A planner is off to the tiny town of "Tapeesa," for what she says will be a 20-hour round trip, but we all know will definitely be a lot longer than that.

The meet cute at the airport for once, actually is, and I really wish we'd seen more of that type of banter throughout the film because it was genuinely fresh and a little funny and Gonzalo and Rowe can for sure pull it off.

Anyway, then we get another instance of a giant truck getting stuck in 1" of "snow" (common in these movies), where they're careful not to fully show the name of the vehicle, cause pretty sure no brand wants to be associated with being stymied by two shovelfuls of shaved ice. And, would you look at that, she's missed her flight, who could have predicted it? (Entire audience raises their hand.)

After determining there's no inn or even a B&B in the small town, she stays in Aunt Mary's guest room. Mary also happens to have a guest house out back that Rowe lives in. For small town florists this family is doing pretty well for themselves. Why, it's almost like the widowed Mary's personal home is big enough to be a B&B, right down to the numbers she keeps on her bedroom doors…as one does. (Oops.)

Also, I've either seen way too many Hallmark movies, or Hallmark needs to get some fresh Vancouver location scouts—probably a bit of both. Because I think the "Tapeesa, Alaska" airport is Marcus Rosner's helicopter bachelor pad from Yes, I Do and downtown Tapeesa looks suspiciously like "Evergreen," a.k.a. the Burnaby Village Museum. And I know the scene outside the festival dance was shot in the same park as last year's A Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas (among others), thanks to a distinctive rock grouping that Hallmark really likes to cover in fake snow.

It is not Jingle Bell Bride's fault that all these familiar locations kept taking me out of the story, but given how loyal Hallmark's viewer base is—a heck of a lot of folks watch way more of these movies than I do—it might be time to broaden the location horizons a bit, as there's a bit of a high school play set feeling to how frequently these spots are recycled in movie after movie on the same network.

Anyway, after several aborted airport trips, where Rowe genuinely managed to make silently carrying the styrofoam coolers full of flowers in and out of the airport repeatedly a good gag, Gonzalo settles in to enjoy, and help plan, the town's Jingle Bell festival, of which she's named princess.

There's a pretty cute dance, and a scene where Gonzalo watches the Northern Lights with Rowe in the back of his truck. Hallmark has had far, far worse special effects, and, given a limited budget, think they did fine with the Lights’ look, even adding a few CGI breath puffs to simulate cold in this July-shot movie, but do wish we'd gotten a kiss here, rather than a shoulder bump.

It's a new era at Hallmark, so let's make grown adults kissing at least once before they fly across the country to spend their lives together the norm. Please? (And, yes, it could have been a COVID thing, but there is a kiss at the end, and the also-pandemic-filmed, G-rated Sweet Autumn last week had more one kiss, but, as usual, I digress.)

After Gonzalo wows the town, the mayor gets her a special flight and she makes it back in time for Donna Benedicto's big star wedding, which is kind of a dud. Really wish they'd given Benedicto's character more to do. Make her more of a demanding diva to add a little humor and fun. Instead, she just seems like a very minor, very understanding side character, and not at all the big star they tell us she is. And how did Hallmark hire Lillian Lim to play Benedicto's mom at the wedding and not even give her a line!? (We'll see Lim again this season as the mother in Lifetime's A Sugar and Spice Holiday, opposite Tzi Ma.)

Honestly, the whole wedding scene baffled me, as I'm shocked Hallmark hired all those people, and went to all the trouble to film it, for less than five minutes of screen time. Not really typical for the budget-conscious net, and left me wondering what got left in the editing room, and why. Also, that bouquet is not made of the same flowers we see Rowe cutting at the beginning of the movie, so what are we even doing here, Hallmark?

Did really like that, for once, the guy left his small town to join the heroine in the big city. Plus, Gonzalo passed on the promotion, but didn't quit her job. And they didn’t vow eternal love to each other either, just ‘Hey, let’s start dating.’ I mean, in the Hallmark universe, these are actually earth-shattering shake-ups to the status quo. Plus, we didn't even celebrate Christmas in this movie, which ends right after the wedding we were told was on Christmas Eve. Again, all epic paradigm shifts to the formula.

In the end, I liked this movie just fine, but I could have loved it with a little more of the witty dialogue these two actors did so well, a zanier side plot from the bride, more machinations from the conniving coworker, and tiny bit more overt romance in Alaska.

Final Judgement: 3 Paws up with a sincere hope that this isn’t a one off and Hallmark really is changing

[ruminativerabbi]

COVID-Diary, Week Eleven

I had the most remarkable experience this last Tuesday, one I resolved on the spot to write about this week. And I also want to bring you all up to date on my COVID-era project of re-reading Mark Twain and learning what I can about the human condition from one of its greatest and most keenly trenchant observers. So, a two-part letter this week!

First, the Tuesday experience. As some readers know, I served the Canadian Jewish Congress (Pacific Region) as its chairperson for Interfaith Relations for more than a decade when we were still living in British Columbia. (This was long before the organization closed down operations in 2011.) I enjoyed that experience a lot. For one thing, I met all sorts of interesting people into contact with whom I would almost definitely not otherwise have come—particularly Sikhs and Muslims, but also Hindus, Christians of all flavors, and a sprinkling of other types. For another, serving in that capacity meant I was invited to all sorts of events and celebrations that I’d otherwise never have even heard of, let alone be invited to attend. So that was the good part. But there was also something almost irritatingly anodyne about the whole operation, almost as though it went without saying that the only sure way to maintain friendly relations between the various faith groups involved was almost obsessively to avoid controversy at all costs, a goal attained by refusing to discuss any topic that could possibly lead to friction, debate, or disagreement. The last thing any of these people wanted was to disagree, at least in public, about anything at all! And that part I didn’t like much at all.

The notion that the members of different faith groups can get along solely by ignoring the issues that divide them rather than by listening carefully and respectfully to each other and agreeing to disagree—that notion felt (and feels) to reflect a basic insecurity about the ability of people courteously and civilly to speak honestly to each other. Some other time I’ll write about some of my actual experiences serving as Interfaith Chair for the CJC during our Vancouver years, but I only bring it up today to provide a sense of the background I brought with me on Tuesday when, in the middle of the afternoon here, I signed onto a world-wide zoom platform to participate in a truly remarkable interfaith encounter, one spearheaded by my friend and colleague, Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum in Jerusalem. 

I’ve known Rabba Tamar (as she’s known—the Hebrew title rabba is what non-Orthodox Israelis call female rabbis) for years and had the privilege of editing her very interesting commentary on Pirkei Avot as part of the Pirkei Avot Lev Shalem volume published in 2018 by the Rabbinical Assembly. But Joan and I are also her occasional congregants: when we’re in Israel, we often attend the Friday night service at Tziyon, the congregation she serves in the Baka neighborhood of southern Jerusalem. And it was for that reason, I think, that I received an invitation last week to participate in something the flyer referenced as “a one-of-a-kind online global gathering” to be hosted by a group called Maaminim (“believers” in Hebrew) that was also to be “a spiritual joining of religious faiths and art from the sacred city of Jerusalem” and also “a digital prayer for healing by religious leaders and communities from across the globe.” I get lots of invitations to events like this, particularly in these last months. But because I know Rabba Tamar—and also because I met one of the participants, a Hebrew-speaking Franciscan monk from Italy named Alberto Pari whom I once met at Rabba Tamar’s Friday night table—I decided to bookmark the event and to tune in at the appointed hour.

The experience was exceptional. For one thing, there were hundreds and hundreds of people gathered on the Maaminim zoom platform. Some people added their locations to their signatures, so I could see people signed from all over North America and Israel, but also from many European countries (including Vatican City), from Australia, and from many Asian countries as well. It was a varied group, too: not only multinational, but also multi-generational, multi-ethnic, and very multi-spiritual. The event was led by Rabba Tamar and a Christian priest, who began by speaking to each other—openly and deeply—about the specific way that the vulnerability that the COVID-era has naturally engendered in us all has also made us all more aware of the degree to which we need to rely on each other, to turn to each other, to encounter each other in ways we might otherwise not have even realized possible. There was music too—and lots of it, mostly performed in Jerusalem by members of the various faith groups represented and all of it soulful and heartfelt. And then we were all asked to participate by writing a word or two on a piece of paper and holding it up to the camera, a word we wished to share with this remarkable gathering of people of faith from all across the globe.

Some of what  people wrote was what you’d expect: shalom, strength, courage, unity, health, etc. But there was a secondary theme present too, one suggestive of the core idea that the way to negotiate the COVID-crisis is precisely by engaging with each other, by using the sense of brittle fragility we’re all experiencing not solely as a negative thing to be avoided for as long as we can and then abandoned as quickly as possible, but as a positive thing to be embraced, as something to be accepted as native to the human condition (albeit one we generally try to repress or ignore) and then used as a basis for reaching out to others, for building a community of people who are—paradoxically, but really nonetheless—made stronger by acknowledging their weakness…and more sturdy in their faith by facing the instability that crises like the one upon us naturally engender.

I am usually more than slightly cynical about this kind of undertaking. And yet here were hundreds and hundreds of people from all across the globe, people who looked different from each other and who would normally have no way to join together—and yet who had been prompted by the pandemic to see themselves in the eyes of others and thus to find the common humanity we all share in the contemplation not of how similar we all are, but how different…and how the right dose of humility—and particularly one rooted in an acceptance of the precariousness of the human condition—can allow us to look past the cosmetic and see ourselves as each other’s partner in the great goal of coming out of the COVID-age whole, sane, and well.

In other news, I finished my re-read of Tom Sawyer. I first read the book back in high school, at which time I remember finding it irritating that we, sophisticated tenth-graders that we were, were being asked to read a children’s book. And that really is how it struck me back then—as a book about children and meant for children. Twain himself promoted the book that way back in the day, but he knew perfectly well that it was going to be marketed to adults and read by them—he was, after all, one of America’s bestselling authors when the book came out—and he obviously also knew that a lot of what he was saying in the book would only be intelligible to adult readers anyway. 

In the 1870s, the nation was still reeling from the terrible carnage of the Civil War, America’s bloodiest conflict. So by setting his 1876 book in the 1840s, Twain was inviting his readers to look back to an earlier, happier age. Indeed, by making Tom and Huck into eight- or nine-year-olds (their actual ages are not made clear) in the 1840s, he was also making them precisely the right age to have become soldiers during the Civil War and thus inviting his readers to remember a time when the young men of that generation were not soldiers trying to kill each other, but little children wholly unaware of the conflagration to come and its terrors. In his own way, then, Twain was doing something not entirely dissimilar from what Rabba Tamar was trying to do the other day: to invite people reeling from catastrophe to find comfort and resolve not in contemplating the catastrophe itself but in accepting the vulnerability the contemplation of catastrophe can engender. The book is set in Missouri, a border state that never quite joined the Confederacy—by war’s end 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and only 30,000 in the Confederate Army. So would Tom and Huck have fought for the North or the South? It’s hard to say…and that, of course, is the point: by setting the book where and when he did, he makes of his children-heroes into future soldiers who could have ended up on either side of the conflict and who only might have survived. (Twain himself spent exactly two weeks serving as a volunteer in a Confederate militia called the Marion Rangers before quitting, a detail that seems to have been more or less totally forgotten by most. For more, click here.)

The story, unlike how I remembered it, was far-fetched and unlikely…but just possible enough to lend the book a breezy, almost dream-like quality. The children are innocent beings throughout: even when contemplating lives of crime and piracy, Tom and Huck are depicted as naïve and unambiguously pre-pubescent. (When, for example, Tom and Becky Thatcher end up spending several days together secluded in a labyrinthine cave, there is no hint at all of untoward behavior.) And that too was the point of Twain’s goal, I think: to remind readers that all people start out innocent and guileless, that forgiveness can come from reaching over the present into the past, that the sense of extreme vulnerability engendered by the horrors of day-to-day reality in wartime (be the enemy a virus or an actual enemy army) can be exploited to bring people together and make them feel connected and eager to support each other, just as do the people in the Tom’s town—who are depicted as being kind without being insensitive to wrongdoing, moral without being blind to the nature of childhood, and mutually supportive without transcending the mores of their own day.

So that’s what I learned from my COVID-era re-read of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Next I’ll report to you on my re-read of Huckleberry Finn, possibly the greatest American novel of them all and one that was for several different reasons specifically not assigned to us in high school.

[placetobenation]

As we head to the middle of February and Valentine’s Day now in the rear view, let’s take stock of the hottest things in the WWE these days.

On RAW, it’s Edge vs. Randy Orton. That story is white hot my friends, especially now that Matt Hardy has been thrust into it too! But, you could make a case for Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler as a distant second after this past Monday night. That one has legs if they do it right. Add in the Monday Night Messiah, Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens and Friends, the Latin battle for the US Title and oh yeah, Drew McIntyre vs. Brock Lesnar and RAW’s as good as its been in months.

On NXT, it’s Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa. Close behind is Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair and the addition of Charlotte Flair to the mix. And then, lots of supporting storylines from Keith Lee to Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano to The Undisputed Era vs. everyone and on and on we go. Solid each and every Wednesday night.

On Smackdown, it’s… it’s… it’s Mandy and Otis! Now, nothing against the lovebirds, but that’s the problem with what should be the standout show of the WWE trying to deliver to a broadcast base that could and should beat the other two shows handily each week, but doesn’t. It’s an undefined show at the moment and that shouldn’t be when we’re this close to WrestleMania. Friday nights on FOX should be the big ol’ mouthpiece to the World for the WWE.

Maybe The Miz and John Morrison can pick up the slack. Where does Roman Reigns go next, if and when his feud with King Corbin mercifully ends? Will Sheamus do better than Shorty G? What’s in store for Daniel Bryan, who’s out of the mix until after Super Showdown due to his political beliefs. And how about Braun Strowman and King Corbin – shouldn’t that be a feud? Or maybe Strowman and Elias as a team going into the tag team title mix to make Strowman Braun-Two-Belts?!

You know the WWE is a bit concerned when they bring back Goldberg and Hulk Hogan for guest spots, albeit via satellite, in back-to-back weeks. I’ll grant you, having Bray Wyatt be on screen with Hogan is good and was fun for the TV audience, but did it do anything for the Vancouver live crowd? Slapped in the middle of Smackdown, it took a little wind out of their sails. Thankfully, they rebounded well! Cowbell, anyone!

Finally, what happened to FOX wanting Smackdown to be more like sports? Just three matches this week. Gotta give me more!

Star of the Week:

.@SimoneGJohnson, the daughter of 10-time world champion @TheRock and @DanyGarciaCo, has begun training to become a WWE Superstar at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.https://t.co/vlSuRRMa0M

— WWE (@WWE) February 11, 2020

Simone Johnson – The Rock’s daughter is bound for the Performance Center after being signed to a WWE contract. You gotta think there’s something coming soon, maybe as soon as WrestleMania in Tampa perhaps?

RAW

RESULTS

RAW Women’s Championship Match: Becky Lynch defeated Asuka to retain title

The Street Profits defeated Mojo Rawley & Riddick Moss

Riddick Moss defeated Mojo Rawley to win 24/7 Championship  

Angel Garza defeated Cedric Alexander

Non-title match: NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley defeated Sarah Logan

Ricochet defeated Bobby Lashley

Aleister Black defeated Akira Tozawa

Seth Rollins, Buddy Murphy & Authors of Pain defeated Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and The Viking Raiders

Overall:

Even though I would’ve started the show with Becky vs. Asuka, it was still a hot show. They kept the in-ring starting promo to a minimum before clearing way for a very good RAW Women’s Title Match that climaxed after 20 minutes with the shocking, brutal beatdown of Becky by Shayna Baszler (more to come below!).  Good follow by Ricochet’s win over Bobby Lashley to build him up more heading into Super Showdown too.  Who’s next for Aleister Black? Smells to me like a heel turn.

What we loved:

SHAYNA CAME TO PLAY.

@QoSBaszler is on #Raw making a STATEMENT at the expense of @BeckyLynchWWE! pic.twitter.com/YWadnRnNpB

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 11, 2020

Baszler’s beatdown – We all know that the former NXT Women’s Champion is a true bad ass, but who knew she was a vampire too? What was up with biting a hole into the back of Becky’s neck about? Can’t wait for the explanation on that one! Sure, it’s odd, but it surely got your attention right?

After demanding answers for the attack on @EdgeRatedR, @MATTHARDYBRAND fell victim to a vicious assault by @RandyOrton. pic.twitter.com/d2rFRO6za6

— WWE (@WWE) February 11, 2020

Matt vs. Randy – Loved that Matt Hardy came out to confront Randy Orton on his attack on Edge two weeks ago. Hardy brought emotion, truth and reality to the story. And now, we get a no-holds barred match between these two. Sign me up!

No Rowan squash – Thankfully, we got a week off. The squash quotient was filled by Garza vs. Alexander.  We also got MVP squashed by Drew McIntyre in the return of the VIP Lounge. Here’s hoping MVP sticks around to try to get some revenge on Drew.

What we hated:

Hey, Buddy – Hey, WWE. Stop dropping first names! We in the WWE Universe can handle someone having a full name and don’t need you to shorten Buddy Murphy to Murphy just like you did Mustafa Ali to Ali, Erik Rowan and Luke Harper to Rowan & Harper for a while. Give us a little credit folks!

What made us think:

Becky stealing an ambulance – Someone needs to explain to me why, how and what was the reasoning behind Lynch stealing the ambulance after her attack by Baszler, heading to the hospital, getting treated and then getting back to the arena to address the crowd. None of it makes any sense and surely, limits the brunt of that attack by Baszler.

NXT

RESULTS

Roderick Strong defeated Bronson Reed

Dakota Kai defeated Candice LeRae

Johnny Gargano defeated Cameron Grimes

#1 Contender’s Match for NXT Cruiserweight Championship – Lio Rush defeated Angel Garza

Bianca Belair defeated Santana Garrett

Non-title match: NXT Champion Adam Cole defeated Kushida

Overall:

It’s all about the set-up for TakeOver: Portland this Sunday for this week’s edition of NXT. Nothing was over-the-top, OMG. But, then again, nothing was bad. It was your normal, every Wednesday solid performance from Full Sail. Having said that, everyone did a very good job in setting up the PPV for this weekend. Between the matches, vignettes from Tommaso Ciampa, promos from Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley and more, I was sold on why I should be invested in TakeOver. After all, that card looks absolutely stacked from top to bottom.

NXT TakeOver: Portland Card:

NXT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa

NXT Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair

NXT Tag Team Championship: The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. The Broserweights (Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne)

NXT North American Championship: Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic

Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano

Street Fight: Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox

What we loved:

.@DreamWWE just made this VERY personal. #WWENXT@roderickstrong @MarinaShafir pic.twitter.com/O77pkPUVIX

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 13, 2020

The Dream’s ode to Rude – Velveteen Dream’s tights with Roderick Strong’s family brings backs shades of Rick Rude and Jake the Snake’s wife Cheryl. Way to make it personal quick TVD.

.@itsLioRush is pulling out all the stops to earn a shot at the NXT Cruiserweight Title!#WWENXT pic.twitter.com/FdG2nu2SbO

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2020

Rush to an upset – Count me as surprised that Lio Rush got the duke over the recently surging Angel Garza. Rush vs. NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jeremy Devlin should be fun! Makes me thing there are bigger things for Garza and that a longer stint on RAW could be coming for him.

MESSAGE = SENT.@BiancaBelairWWE is COMING for @RheaRipley_WWE's NXT Women's Championship THIS SUNDAY at #NXTTakeOver: Portland! pic.twitter.com/WlxPWKsRmj

— WWE (@WWE) February 13, 2020

No Queen – I’m glad they kept Charlotte Flair off NXT tv this week, keeping the focus on Ripley vs. Belair. There’s plenty of time to rev up the Road to WrestleMania for the Queen and the NXT Championship. Bianca stepped up and proved that she COULD possibly win.

The road to Portland – Loved the comedy bits from The Broserweights, Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle. Trying to get cross-country to Portland to face The Undisputed Era was hilarious until the boys finally hopped a ride on Triple H’s plane! Good stuff.

What we didn’t love:

Same ol’ story – You knew it was coming. Full Sail. Big brands need a big showcase. You’ll see it at TakeOver: Portland where the crowd will be off the hook! NXT deserves that big-game feel each week and they’ll get it in a few weeks when Full Sail has a booked commitment, according to Triple H. So, we’ll see if that leads to more changes ahead.

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

Smackdown Women’s Championship Match – Bayley defeated Carmella to retain the title

Sheamus defeated Shorty G & Apollo Crews

Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz & John Morrison

Overall:

Heavy on the sports entertainment and not much of the wrestling this week. Just two matches of any consequence as the night gave us just three overall.

What we loved:

Oh, Canada! – Lovin’ that Vancouver crowd! They were into everything all night!

Naomi’s hair – Holy glow indeed! That hair is beyond words! That thing should have its own Twitter account!

"I don't need luck, I have 'The Fiend'." – @WWEBrayWyatt to @HulkHogan #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/WTwRekUAEb

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) February 15, 2020

FWO – The Firefly World Order was, well, fly! Bray Wyatt going toe-to-toe on the mic with Hulk Hogan was Too Sweet trying to hype up The Fiend vs. Goldberg at Super Showdown. Here’s hoping it’s not the last we see of these two together.

C’mon Man!

We took a DNA test and @HEELZiggler is 100% THAT guy.#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/UcgE5b8FUk

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) February 15, 2020

No love for Otis – So much build up just to see Otis walk out on his date with Mandy because Dolph Ziggler was there! Sorry, but I needed more! I get they’re building up to a major moment, but on Valentine’s Day, you must give me more than the 60 seconds we got. Still, breaks my heart!

Main event, huh! – I know Roman Reigns is the chosen one and the face of Smackdown. But how do the #1 contenders to the Smackdown Tag Team Titles, with a title match looming, lose to a team that’s been together only once or twice? Makes little sense to me.

Parting shots:

WrestleMania goes Hollywood again! WrestleMania will be in Los Angeles in 2021 in the new SoFi Stadium. Expect the WWE and FOX to go all out for that one!

Killer Kross signs with the WWE. It should only be a matter of time before we get Kross and Scarlet Bordeaux in a ring together, right!

Charlotte Flair and CM Punk talking on WWE Backstage was really good stuff. I wish they would give Punk a meatier role than just one-liners. I could’ve listened to more of Punk and Flair one-on-one for the full hour. That insight into the nerves and also Simone Johnson was really good! Too bad no one sees the show with it being on FS1 each week to the tune of under 200,000 viewers a week. Why not give it a weekend spot on FOX too?

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots and Red Sox fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND!

[isthespiceoflife]

Studio 54: Night Magic + More!

If you’ve never been to The Townhall in NYC, now is your chance to witness a super show, n’ as part of the already happening Winter Jazz Fest -- Thurs, Jan. 16 from 8p w/Seu Jorge, one of Brazil’s finest, will be a BIG buzz!

Listen. We can never relive this era the way it was, unfortunately. Making a good attempt, is the exhibit, “Studio 54: Night Magic” dancing off @Brooklyn Museum, March 13-July 5. The talk of the spring, the installation includes -- 600 objects ranging from photography, fashion, drawings, and film, to never-before-exhibited costume illustrations, set proposals n’ designs.

For the intellectual music lover, in LA -- here’s an onslaught of shows curated by ArtDontSleep, for Black History Month: shows from Feb. 2 through March 1. 

Always amazed at the ease this American DJ/producer Sango, transitions smoothly as part of the hip-hop community in any space he chooses. Catch him on Saturday night, in Brooklyn @Elsewhere, Feb. 22. Why’d I always thought he was Brazilian?

On behalf of Basic Space, you are invited to the “Barry's Bootcamp Charity Class for Girl Powerful” hosted by actress Charlotte McKinney, Sunday (1/26) @Barry’s Bootcamp Venice.

Here’s where being a member of luxury insider exclusives such as “Taste of Blue” come in handy -- Super Bowl (LIV) weekend! No recent trending of the JOMO here, it’s all about your FOMO! Of course, if U got it like that...pay upfront, then enjoy access to (pay more of course) perks galore!

Opening for “Portraits of the King” -- an exhibit in celebration of what would be Bob’s 75th b’day, w/photography by Dennis Morris, happens in LA on Thurs, Feb 6, 7-11p @GJD...

WHAT / WHEN: Motion Plus Design | Sat. Feb. 8 (Oscar’s weekend)!

WHERE: @The Montalbán

$: TICKETS!

CAPs please -- DRAMA hits NYC (Brooklyn) again, this time on March 26 @Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tix anyone?

At first it might seem impossible, or like a fad -- but the combo of rap, really good southern rap w/bluegrass, is Gangstagrass’s forté! Come see for yourself, Friday, Jan. 17 8p @Knitting Factory, in Williamsburg. 

Well, the concept is really one for your personal space, but creatively introducing the “Vision Board Party” as a brunch theme, are a few industry sisters that know a thing a two about career, goals n’ vision elevation, all happening in BK @Cloes Corner on Sat, Jan. 18 from 1-5 (brunch) + 4-7p (party)!!

Money & Tings: A conversation on Caribbean Culture + Money   2/20/20, 6-9P || @Workville: 1412 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.

Catch "Soul In The Horn” for Black History Month, on 2/21 -- NO COVER, featuring residents DJ Natasha Diggs + host/curator DProsper, going down @Gran Torino in Williamsburg.

You may not have heard of him, but if trippin’ in an organic, grassfed n’ psychedelic way is your thing, come hear this indie, multi-instrumentalist, Michael Nau hum, strum n’ play the drum drum. Tour dates supporting his latest LP, Less Ready To Go all thru Feb, in your hood!

As the NFL season comes to a close, what’s one to do on Sunday’s right? Well, after 3yrs on hiatus, curator n’ homie Chris Tucci restarts his Sunday night ‘music series’ @Ace Hotel (in NYC) on Jan. 19, RSVP FREE.

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, artists Leo Chiachio & Daniel Giannone work n’ live together as partners. Both trained as painters, they use textiles as their painterly medium to create embroidery and mosaics, often utilizing social practice. Don’t miss their exhibition opening this Fri, Jan 24 from 6-9p @Lux Art Institute.

No, it’s not Halloween props -- Haitian-American artist, Marc Baptiste’s “Rara!” exhibit @MOCADA in BK shows ‘til March 8, 2020.

OPENING & ARTIST RECEPTION: Waves by Shantell Martin. feat. Brett King as ‘DJ JAZZHead’ Sat, Jan. 25 from 5-8p. ON VIEW 1/25 - 2/22. @BAND OF VICES.

The Annie O Music Series Presents: Niia creates an unspoken sexy, the one everyone knows but doesn’t tell. This should be a good one, esp for a Monday -- Jan. 27, from 7-9p @The Standard, East Village. RSVP, n’ see ya at The Penthouse.

Bet ya don’t know her, but would wanna? Rina Sawayama has a single, “Comme des Garcons (Like the Boys)” that pushes her on tour, soon. Don’t worry, thank me later.

Slow down di pace, likkle woman, ya movin’ too fast fi me...catch this wild one, Tove Lo on her 'Sunshine Kitty’ Tour, home-wrecking your neighborhood soon, see below.

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR: 02/03 – Marathon Music Works – Nashville, TN* 02/05 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA* 02/06 – The Ritz – Raleigh, NC* 02/07 – The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD* 02/09 – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA* 02/10 – House of Blues – Boston, MA* 02/12 – Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY* - SOLD OUT 02/13 – Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY* - SOLD OUT 02/15 – MTELUS – Montreal, QC* - NEW VENUE 02/16 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – Toronto, ON* 02/18 – St. Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI* 02/19 – Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL* 02/20 – Palace Theatre – St. Paul, MN* 02/23 – Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, BC* - SOLD OUT 02/24 – Showbox SODO – Seattle, WA* - SOLD OUT 02/25 – Roseland Theater – Portland, OR* 02/27 – The Masonic – San Francisco, CA^ 02/28 – Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles, CA^ 05/17 – Hangout Music Festival – Gulf Shores, AL * w/ ALMA ^ w/ ALMA & BROODS

After my 1st experience seeing her -- for a DJ-set, in a sweatbox on LA’s westside, almost a decade ago, she’s STILL as fresh as ever. Catch the TokiMonsta @Elsewhere, on May 1 -- in BK.

Yet another festival to add to your list, Boiler Room Festival 2020: Johannesburg, is amongst the newest. So if you’ve experienced the ongoing annual ones, let us know how this lines up!

This year’s Ultra Music Festival will return to its longtime home at Bayfront Park March 20 - 22, 2020, with a power pack of talent from across the electronic music spectrum. Too many to mention, be careful you get electrocuted when U peep the line-up here! So, catch the sun (& not to be missed promo-video below)!

The Defected Ibiza Festival (May 14-18) kicks off during Spring, n’ it’ll honestly and obviously, not disappoint. Prices start at about $400, for tix -- not cheap. Getting there? Even not cheaper.

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CONCERT REVIEW: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN W/ JAPANESE BREAKFAST AT THE VOGUE THEATRE - JUNE 28TH, 2018

Japanese Breakfast, quite simply, really rock. The solo project of Michelle Zauner (whom, despite the name, is actually of Korean and Jewish descent), this flashy set was a great warm-up to kick off the main attraction of the evening. Dreamy, colourful, bright changing hues of yellow, orange and red filled the stage to Michelle’s high-pitched vocals and the band’s alternative riffs. Circular spotlight patterns of spirals flashed around the theatre as well. Zauner was genuinely grateful and excited to be touring with Belle and Sebastian, thanking them several times for bringing the band along—“and for the expensive alcohol.” She also mentioned the group had driven 20 hours to play in Vancouver, “and it’s good to be back in the warm regions of Cascadia.”

The Vogue holds about 1300 people, allowing for a good-sized crowd but also feeling intimate and close. The sound carries really well, so even sitting in the balcony, I could feel the sound pulsing through me as if I was next to the stage. Japanese Breakfast finished with a drawn-out, epic finale with long instrumental solos. It was groovy music that could have and should have been danced to, but there was very little movement among the audience. Vancouver audiences are often stereotyped for being still, and considering how great this set was, there was a lot of truth to that perception at this show.

There are few indie rock groups as respected, prolific, and with a legacy like Belle and Sebastian. Since their debut in 1996, they’ve released nine albums and eight EPs, allowing for a great mix of material to perform live. The setlist varied between tour dates and even amongst their two shows in Vancouver, but featured songs from their entire career. (Frontman Stuart Murdoch quipped “We’re going to have a completely new set tomorrow. We’re going to write 20 new songs.”) I was personally delighted to hear “The Fox in the Snow” from 1996’s If You’re Feeling Sinister, though a bit disappointed to not hear more from that album. I’m sure I wasn’t the only fan in the audience who got chills when the opening notes from “The Boy with the Arab Strap” from the album of the same name started playing—one of their best-known and prettiest tunes. I was also impressed with the way they handle their live music: there are a lot of instruments to be performed, and members were often switching around what they played and where they were standing on stage.

Unlike some groups, particularly in the older indie band category, Belle and Sebastian and especially Murdoch had an exciting and light-hearted stage presence throughout the night. They spoke to, joked with, and danced with audience members directly, even inviting a bunch of people to dance on the stage towards the end of the night. Murdoch spoke of how he enjoyed being in Canada and Vancouver, “seeing our little boats… My five-year-old son told me he saw whales in the harbour and I thought he was joking, and then I see on the news there really were orcas there!” The group don’t take themselves too seriously, either: Stuart addressed the band’s “mid period” (“or perhaps we’re so old now this is our early period… middle period is the old late period!”) – generally considered their least successful era with songs written by guitarist Stevie Jackson – and then played a few songs from said era. Murdoch, with a laugh, said this was done “so we don’t disappear up our own arseholes tonight.”

Perhaps the most intricate piece of the show were the visuals. It was a spectacular slideshow displaying everything from amateur and home movie footage, to 8-bit video games, to photos submitted by fans from all around Vancouver. I’ve never been to a show with such low key music, and this much detail in its visuals. Practically every song was something different: a colourful pattern or the opening video, a black and white “vintage” film describing an “antique music box.” One song featured a full-length “lip dub,” performed at a high school.

Belle and Sebastian have been entertaining and performing in their distinct Scottish folk-rock style for over two decades, and they’re still going strong. They may never have exploded in popularity, but the show on this night was lovely, fun, and rewarding to old and new fans alike.

Written by: Cazzy Lewchuk

[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo's Night

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: This Hawks/Panthers glitch – I won't lie, I've probably watched this three dozen times and I enjoy it more each time through.

The second star: This Coyotes fan – Apparently she likes Scott Wedgewood? I really hope that's what this means.

(Needless to say, he was thrilled.)

The first star: Jozy Altidore – He's a soccer player, for MLS champions Toronto FC. That's what got him invited to handle the ceremonial faceoff before the next Maple Leafs game. And, uh, the handshakes did not go well.

Altidore was too busy on his phone to notice that he left Maple Leafs alternate captain Leo Komarov hanging on a handshake. (He later apologized, and it was accepted.)

Trivial Annoyance of the Week

The NHL is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the league's first ever games this weekend. The main event is in Ottawa, where the Senators will host the Canadiens in the season's first outdoor game. It's a rematch from that very first opening night back in 1917, when the original Senators hosted the Habs and George Vezina outdueled Clint Benedict in a 7-4 Montreal win.

It's a pretty cool. There's just one minor problem: Saturday isn't actually the 100th anniversary. That would be December 19, which is Tuesday.

You can understand what the league is doing here, of course. They want these outdoor games to have as big an impact as possible, and that means holding them on weekends. Sure, you'd make the history purists happy by holding the event a few days later, but you lose out on ratings and revenue. Besides, as everyone who lives here could tell you, Ottawa is closed on Tuesday nights.

So yes, of course you have the big outdoor game a few days early. But check out the schedule for the league's official anniversary on Tuesday. Do you notice anything unusual?

Neither do I. It's basically a typical Tuesday night slate. And that's kind of odd, right?

The league's only other surviving original team, the Maple Leafs, are at home that night, but it's against the Hurricanes. The Senators are hosting the Wild. And even though the league launched with half its teams in Montreal, the Canadiens are on the road, in Vancouver. They couldn’t have given us a Leafs/Habs game as a nod to the other opening night matchup from 1917 that saw Toronto beat the Wanderers in the league's very first game? They didn't even do that NHL thing where they pretend that history started with the Original Six and give us one of those matchups.

It's not like the league hasn't spent the last year bathing itself in history. They've done ceremonies and fan votes and Top 100 lists dating back to last season. And for the most part, it's been great. I'm the last guy who'll ever complain about a league celebrating its history.

But when it comes to the two anniversary dates on the calendar that really matter—the formation of the league on November 26 and the first games on December 19—the NHL just kind of shrugged. It's weird. It's like your annoying friend who tries to turn their birthday party into a week-long event, then forgets to schedule anything for the actual day.

Throw us a bone, NHL. At least make the Leafs play by 1917 rules, with no forward passes or backup goalies and three-minute minors. Have half the Senators sit out the first period in a contract dispute. Burn down the Montreal arena. Something.

Or we could just have a few pre-game ceremonies on an otherwise typical Tuesday. I guess that works too. It just seems a little anti-climactic after all this buildup, no?

Obscure Former Player of the Week

Other than the 100th anniversary, the NHL's other big news this week is that it now seems inevitable that Seattle will be getting a team at some point in the next few years. Let's combine those two stories with this week's obscure player: goaltender Harry "Hap" Holmes.

Holmes isn't necessarily all that obscure in the big picture sense, or at least he shouldn't be—he's in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But it's probably fair to say that most modern fans don't know him. After all, he played a century ago, and his name isn't often remembered in the same tier as stars from the era like Joe Malone or Cy Denneny that at least some of today's fans may recognize.

In fact, most of Holmes's success as a pro came before the NHL existed. He won his first Stanley Cup in 1914 as a member of the Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA, the predecessor of the NHL. But it was his second that made history, as he backstopped the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans to a 1917 win, the first time the Cup had ever been captured by an American team. (Feel free to see how many of your hockey expert friends know that Seattle won a Stanley Cup long before places like New York, Chicago or Detroit.)

That 1917 Cup also marked the last one before the NHL arrived, and Holmes initially joined the new league's Toronto franchise. (That team didn't have a formal name, although they'd later be known as the Arenas.) That team went on to win the league title as well as the Stanley Cup, Holmes's third. He'd play just two more games for the team the following year before heading back to the Metropolitans, and later joined the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League. He made some history there too, winning his fourth Stanley Cup in 1926 by beating the NHL's Montreal Maroons. It was the last time that the Cup was won by a team outside the NHL, who gained exclusive control of the trophy beginning in 1927.

That made it four Cups for Holmes with four different teams; to this day he remains the only NHL player to ever do that. (His former teammate and fellow Hall-of-Famer Jack Marshall did it too, but never appeared in the NHL.)

Holmes eventually returned to the NHL for a two-season stint beginning in 1926 when the Cougars moved to Detroit and joined the league after the WHL disbanded. In all, he played 103 games in parts of four NHL seasons, one of the five major pro leagues of the day he suited up for.

And perhaps my favorite Hap Holmes fact of them all: According to Wikipedia, he sometimes wore a cap when he played to protect him from objects thrown from the stands by the era's fans, who found that "his shining bald dome presented a tempting target."

Outrage of the Week

The issue: With expansion to Seattle looking like a done deal, the Flames seem intent on making Calgary fans think that a move to Houston is looming unless a new arena deal gets done. The outrage: Nobody seems to believe them, and fans aren't happy that the subject is coming up at all. Is it justified: The idea that the Flames could move if they don't get an arena deal isn't new—Gary Bettman suggested as much a few months ago, although he was vague on specifics. That was part of an effort to turn Calgary fans and voters against the city's mayor, who was seen as an obstacle to an arena deal. It didn't work.

The story resurfaced this week thanks to a column from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun that skipped the subtleties and went straight to outright predicting that the Flames would be in Houston within three years. We don't know how much, if any, of that piece was based on information coming directly from the Flames. But even if Francis was simply presenting his own views, the fact that the Flames didn't immediately push back on the report suggests that, at the very least, they don’t mind having this stuff out there. (Full disclosure: Francis and I both contribute to Sportsnet.)

Seeing such a bold prediction of an imminent move had to make Flames fans nervous. But plenty of others took issues with the Francis piece, with Kent Wilson posting an in-depth takedown at The Athletic. Wilson's argument, in a nutshell, is that a move just doesn't add up, financially or otherwise. Calgary is a great market, and it wouldn't seem to make sense for the Flames to abandon that for an unknown market like Houston. And as Wilson points out, plenty of teams have played this game before that we now know were bluffing.

And that's the big problem here. Even if the Flames really are eying a move and trying to send warning signals to their fans before it's too late, this ground has just been trod too many times. NHL fans have heard this before—in Pittsburgh, in New Jersey, in Raleigh, and in just about every market that ever wanted a new area and didn't get it right away. It's a game that's playing out to varying degrees right now in Ottawa, Brooklyn, and (as always) Arizona. Once those situations are resolved, it will be someone else's turn.

This certainly isn't an NHL problem, and if anything the league has been more stable when it comes to franchise movement in the last two decades than the NFL or NBA. But when it comes to dropping threats, the NHL seems to view them as just part of how business is done in this league.

And that gets exhausting. The Flames aren't going anywhere unless this whole situation is misplayed by all sides so badly that it goes completely off the rails, and they'll end up with a new arena that will be partly funded by taxpayers. And within a few years, most of us will have forgotten all about this.

Most, but not all. Because you have to wonder how many diehard Flames fans, who've been with the team through good times and bad, are feeling just a little less enthusiasm for the team right now. The NHL is a business, as we're constantly reminded. But it's a business that charges a lot of money for an inconsistent product, and that means it relies on an awful lot of loyalty. Putting even a fraction of that at risk is a dangerous game.

That would be worth thinking about for NHL teams. It might already be too late for Calgary. If so, we'll have to wait and see whether their current threats come with a cost. And if so, whether the next teams in line learn any lessons

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

Last week marked the 30-year anniversary of one of my favorite moments from the 1980s. It didn't involve a goal or a save or a fight, or anything else that had anything to do with the game being played. But it did take place on the ice, and you won't hear a building get much louder than the old Boston Garden did back on December 3, 1987.

Yes, it's the legendary Phil Esposito jersey retirement. Our clip begins with Ray Bourque being called on to "make a presentation." That's fitting, since not only has he assumed Esposito's mantle as the Bruin's best player, but he wears the same #7 that's being retired. For a few more seconds, at least.

By the way, if you're thrown off Bob Wilson announcing Bourque as the Bruins captain but wearing an "A," he shared the duties with Rick Middleton that season. Middleton wore the "C" at home, while Bourque got it on the road.

It was always kind of weird that the Bruins gave Esposito's number to Bourque as a rookie. But it was even weirder that they also gave it to guys like Bill Bennett and Sean Shanahan in between. Remember, there was some bad blood between Esposito and the team after he was traded to the Rangers in 1975, which might explain why it took six years after his retirement for the Bruins to get around to officially honoring his number.

But to their credit, they eventually do it right. Bourque skates over and shares a few words with Esposito, then hands him a No. 7 jersey. You kind of sense Esposito accepting the gift with a "Yeah, thanks, I already have dozens of these" sort of vibe, but it's just the setup for the bigger moment to come.

With Esposito momentarily distracted, Bourque yanks his own No. 7 jersey off to reveal a second one underneath, this one bearing what would become his iconic No. 77. It takes a second for everyone to realize what just happened—Esposito didn't know this was coming, and seems genuinely stunned—and the crowd goes nuts once they clue in.

The back story here is that apparently Esposito thought Bourque was going to keep wearing No. 7, and was fine with that. But Bourque had never wanted the pressure that came with the number, so he jumped at the chance to swap it out while honoring an all-time great.

I feel like we don’t give Bourque enough credit for (literally) pulling this off so smoothly. You put me on live TV in front of 20,000 people and tell me to take a sweater off, there's a 100 percent chance it's going to end with me showing my bare tummy to the world for an awkwardly long period of time. Not Bourque. He sheds his jersey with near-Baumgartner speed, and still remembers to do a little pirouette so everyone can see what just happened. He wasn't one of the all-time greats for nothing.

Esposito throws on the jersey and starts his speech. Man, Phil was as cool as they'd come. How cool? Oh, roughly "wears tinted shades at his own retirement ceremony even though it's being held indoors" cool.

He thanks Bourque, and then mentions the Rangers, who are the visitors for this game. At the time, Esposito was their general manager, and whoo boy was that ever a fun time. I'm pretty sure that this two-minute speech is the longest period of time he managed to go as Rangers GM without making at least one trade.

Espo gets the cheap pop from a Bobby Orr mention, mentions exactly nobody from management or ownership, and then thanks the fans. We end with a shot of his number going up to the rafters. It's helpfully labelled "Philip A. Esposito," just in case some other Philip Esposito came along and everyone got confused.

At one point, the number is going up so crooked that it's nearly sideways, but they get it straightened out by the end. Near miss there. That would have been right up there with the night the Canucks honored Markus Naslund, shone a spotlight through his No. 19, and turned it into a giant frowny face.

To this day everyone's favorite Bourque memory is the Cup handoff from Joe Sakic, and rightly so. But the Esposito number swap should absolutely be a close second. If Gordie Howe gets to be Mr. Hockey, Bourque might have to start going by Mr. Ceremony. He's like the polar opposite of this guy.

Years later, Esposito would be on hand when the Bruins retired Bourque's #77, although he did not disrobe during the ceremony. At least as far as we know.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo's Night published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo’s Night

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: This Hawks/Panthers glitch – I won’t lie, I’ve probably watched this three dozen times and I enjoy it more each time through.

The second star: This Coyotes fan – Apparently she likes Scott Wedgewood? I really hope that’s what this means.

(Needless to say, he was thrilled.)

The first star: Jozy Altidore – He’s a soccer player, for MLS champions Toronto FC. That’s what got him invited to handle the ceremonial faceoff before the next Maple Leafs game. And, uh, the handshakes did not go well.

Altidore was too busy on his phone to notice that he left Maple Leafs alternate captain Leo Komarov hanging on a handshake. (He later apologized, and it was accepted.)

Trivial Annoyance of the Week

The NHL is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the league’s first ever games this weekend. The main event is in Ottawa, where the Senators will host the Canadiens in the season’s first outdoor game. It’s a rematch from that very first opening night back in 1917, when the original Senators hosted the Habs and George Vezina outdueled Clint Benedict in a 7-4 Montreal win.

It’s a pretty cool. There’s just one minor problem: Saturday isn’t actually the 100th anniversary. That would be December 19, which is Tuesday.

You can understand what the league is doing here, of course. They want these outdoor games to have as big an impact as possible, and that means holding them on weekends. Sure, you’d make the history purists happy by holding the event a few days later, but you lose out on ratings and revenue. Besides, as everyone who lives here could tell you, Ottawa is closed on Tuesday nights.

So yes, of course you have the big outdoor game a few days early. But check out the schedule for the league’s official anniversary on Tuesday. Do you notice anything unusual?

Neither do I. It’s basically a typical Tuesday night slate. And that’s kind of odd, right?

The league’s only other surviving original team, the Maple Leafs, are at home that night, but it’s against the Hurricanes. The Senators are hosting the Wild. And even though the league launched with half its teams in Montreal, the Canadiens are on the road, in Vancouver. They couldn’t have given us a Leafs/Habs game as a nod to the other opening night matchup from 1917 that saw Toronto beat the Wanderers in the league’s very first game? They didn’t even do that NHL thing where they pretend that history started with the Original Six and give us one of those matchups.

It’s not like the league hasn’t spent the last year bathing itself in history. They’ve done ceremonies and fan votes and Top 100 lists dating back to last season. And for the most part, it’s been great. I’m the last guy who’ll ever complain about a league celebrating its history.

But when it comes to the two anniversary dates on the calendar that really matter—the formation of the league on November 26 and the first games on December 19—the NHL just kind of shrugged. It’s weird. It’s like your annoying friend who tries to turn their birthday party into a week-long event, then forgets to schedule anything for the actual day.

Throw us a bone, NHL. At least make the Leafs play by 1917 rules, with no forward passes or backup goalies and three-minute minors. Have half the Senators sit out the first period in a contract dispute. Burn down the Montreal arena. Something.

Or we could just have a few pre-game ceremonies on an otherwise typical Tuesday. I guess that works too. It just seems a little anti-climactic after all this buildup, no?

Obscure Former Player of the Week

Other than the 100th anniversary, the NHL’s other big news this week is that it now seems inevitable that Seattle will be getting a team at some point in the next few years. Let’s combine those two stories with this week’s obscure player: goaltender Harry “Hap” Holmes.

Holmes isn’t necessarily all that obscure in the big picture sense, or at least he shouldn’t be—he’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But it’s probably fair to say that most modern fans don’t know him. After all, he played a century ago, and his name isn’t often remembered in the same tier as stars from the era like Joe Malone or Cy Denneny that at least some of today’s fans may recognize.

In fact, most of Holmes’s success as a pro came before the NHL existed. He won his first Stanley Cup in 1914 as a member of the Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA, the predecessor of the NHL. But it was his second that made history, as he backstopped the Pacific Coast Hockey Association’s Seattle Metropolitans to a 1917 win, the first time the Cup had ever been captured by an American team. (Feel free to see how many of your hockey expert friends know that Seattle won a Stanley Cup long before places like New York, Chicago or Detroit.)

That 1917 Cup also marked the last one before the NHL arrived, and Holmes initially joined the new league’s Toronto franchise. (That team didn’t have a formal name, although they’d later be known as the Arenas.) That team went on to win the league title as well as the Stanley Cup, Holmes’s third. He’d play just two more games for the team the following year before heading back to the Metropolitans, and later joined the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League. He made some history there too, winning his fourth Stanley Cup in 1926 by beating the NHL’s Montreal Maroons. It was the last time that the Cup was won by a team outside the NHL, who gained exclusive control of the trophy beginning in 1927.

That made it four Cups for Holmes with four different teams; to this day he remains the only NHL player to ever do that. (His former teammate and fellow Hall-of-Famer Jack Marshall did it too, but never appeared in the NHL.)

Holmes eventually returned to the NHL for a two-season stint beginning in 1926 when the Cougars moved to Detroit and joined the league after the WHL disbanded. In all, he played 103 games in parts of four NHL seasons, one of the five major pro leagues of the day he suited up for.

And perhaps my favorite Hap Holmes fact of them all: According to Wikipedia, he sometimes wore a cap when he played to protect him from objects thrown from the stands by the era’s fans, who found that “his shining bald dome presented a tempting target.”

Outrage of the Week

The issue: With expansion to Seattle looking like a done deal, the Flames seem intent on making Calgary fans think that a move to Houston is looming unless a new arena deal gets done.

The outrage: Nobody seems to believe them, and fans aren’t happy that the subject is coming up at all.

Is it justified: The idea that the Flames could move if they don’t get an arena deal isn’t new—Gary Bettman suggested as much a few months ago, although he was vague on specifics. That was part of an effort to turn Calgary fans and voters against the city’s mayor, who was seen as an obstacle to an arena deal. It didn’t work.

The story resurfaced this week thanks to a column from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun that skipped the subtleties and went straight to outright predicting that the Flames would be in Houston within three years. We don’t know how much, if any, of that piece was based on information coming directly from the Flames. But even if Francis was simply presenting his own views, the fact that the Flames didn’t immediately push back on the report suggests that, at the very least, they don’t mind having this stuff out there. (Full disclosure: Francis and I both contribute to Sportsnet.)

Seeing such a bold prediction of an imminent move had to make Flames fans nervous. But plenty of others took issues with the Francis piece, with Kent Wilson posting an in-depth takedown at The Athletic. Wilson’s argument, in a nutshell, is that a move just doesn’t add up, financially or otherwise. Calgary is a great market, and it wouldn’t seem to make sense for the Flames to abandon that for an unknown market like Houston. And as Wilson points out, plenty of teams have played this game before that we now know were bluffing.

And that’s the big problem here. Even if the Flames really are eying a move and trying to send warning signals to their fans before it’s too late, this ground has just been trod too many times. NHL fans have heard this before—in Pittsburgh, in New Jersey, in Raleigh, and in just about every market that ever wanted a new area and didn’t get it right away. It’s a game that’s playing out to varying degrees right now in Ottawa, Brooklyn, and (as always) Arizona. Once those situations are resolved, it will be someone else’s turn.

This certainly isn’t an NHL problem, and if anything the league has been more stable when it comes to franchise movement in the last two decades than the NFL or NBA. But when it comes to dropping threats, the NHL seems to view them as just part of how business is done in this league.

And that gets exhausting. The Flames aren’t going anywhere unless this whole situation is misplayed by all sides so badly that it goes completely off the rails, and they’ll end up with a new arena that will be partly funded by taxpayers. And within a few years, most of us will have forgotten all about this.

Most, but not all. Because you have to wonder how many diehard Flames fans, who’ve been with the team through good times and bad, are feeling just a little less enthusiasm for the team right now. The NHL is a business, as we’re constantly reminded. But it’s a business that charges a lot of money for an inconsistent product, and that means it relies on an awful lot of loyalty. Putting even a fraction of that at risk is a dangerous game.

That would be worth thinking about for NHL teams. It might already be too late for Calgary. If so, we’ll have to wait and see whether their current threats come with a cost. And if so, whether the next teams in line learn any lessons

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

Last week marked the 30-year anniversary of one of my favorite moments from the 1980s. It didn’t involve a goal or a save or a fight, or anything else that had anything to do with the game being played. But it did take place on the ice, and you won’t hear a building get much louder than the old Boston Garden did back on December 3, 1987.

Yes, it’s the legendary Phil Esposito jersey retirement. Our clip begins with Ray Bourque being called on to “make a presentation.” That’s fitting, since not only has he assumed Esposito’s mantle as the Bruin’s best player, but he wears the same #7 that’s being retired. For a few more seconds, at least.

By the way, if you’re thrown off Bob Wilson announcing Bourque as the Bruins captain but wearing an “A,” he shared the duties with Rick Middleton that season. Middleton wore the “C” at home, while Bourque got it on the road.

It was always kind of weird that the Bruins gave Esposito’s number to Bourque as a rookie. But it was even weirder that they also gave it to guys like Bill Bennett and Sean Shanahan in between. Remember, there was some bad blood between Esposito and the team after he was traded to the Rangers in 1975, which might explain why it took six years after his retirement for the Bruins to get around to officially honoring his number.

But to their credit, they eventually do it right. Bourque skates over and shares a few words with Esposito, then hands him a No. 7 jersey. You kind of sense Esposito accepting the gift with a “Yeah, thanks, I already have dozens of these” sort of vibe, but it’s just the setup for the bigger moment to come.

With Esposito momentarily distracted, Bourque yanks his own No. 7 jersey off to reveal a second one underneath, this one bearing what would become his iconic No. 77. It takes a second for everyone to realize what just happened—Esposito didn’t know this was coming, and seems genuinely stunned—and the crowd goes nuts once they clue in.

The back story here is that apparently Esposito thought Bourque was going to keep wearing No. 7, and was fine with that. But Bourque had never wanted the pressure that came with the number, so he jumped at the chance to swap it out while honoring an all-time great.

I feel like we don’t give Bourque enough credit for (literally) pulling this off so smoothly. You put me on live TV in front of 20,000 people and tell me to take a sweater off, there’s a 100 percent chance it’s going to end with me showing my bare tummy to the world for an awkwardly long period of time. Not Bourque. He sheds his jersey with near-Baumgartner speed, and still remembers to do a little pirouette so everyone can see what just happened. He wasn’t one of the all-time greats for nothing.

Esposito throws on the jersey and starts his speech. Man, Phil was as cool as they’d come. How cool? Oh, roughly “wears tinted shades at his own retirement ceremony even though it’s being held indoors” cool.

He thanks Bourque, and then mentions the Rangers, who are the visitors for this game. At the time, Esposito was their general manager, and whoo boy was that ever a fun time. I’m pretty sure that this two-minute speech is the longest period of time he managed to go as Rangers GM without making at least one trade.

Espo gets the cheap pop from a Bobby Orr mention, mentions exactly nobody from management or ownership, and then thanks the fans. We end with a shot of his number going up to the rafters. It’s helpfully labelled “Philip A. Esposito,” just in case some other Philip Esposito came along and everyone got confused.

At one point, the number is going up so crooked that it’s nearly sideways, but they get it straightened out by the end. Near miss there. That would have been right up there with the night the Canucks honored Markus Naslund, shone a spotlight through his No. 19, and turned it into a giant frowny face.

To this day everyone’s favorite Bourque memory is the Cup handoff from Joe Sakic, and rightly so. But the Esposito number swap should absolutely be a close second. If Gordie Howe gets to be Mr. Hockey, Bourque might have to start going by Mr. Ceremony. He’s like the polar opposite of this guy.

Years later, Esposito would be on hand when the Bruins retired Bourque’s #77, although he did not disrobe during the ceremony. At least as far as we know.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you’d like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo’s Night syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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Animation News: Sharp Shorts for a New Millennium

The idea that animation can serve as a vehicle for important public messages is embedded in the very foundations of the NFB animation tradition. Back in 1941, when John Grierson hired his first staff animator, a gifted New York-based Scottish artist by the name of Norman McLaren, his most pressing assignment for the wildly inventive young modernist was to create animation that plugged Canada’s part in the war against fascism.

Within months McLaren had conjured up visual wonders like Mail Early (1941), V for Victory (1941), Five for Four (1942) — entertaining, ingeniously crafted shorts that helped mobilize the Canadian war effort, transmitting urgent yet upbeat messages to movie audiences across the continent. This early work quickly established the NFB as a pioneering force in the animation arts. Picasso himself, upon seeing McLaren’s dazzling experimental short Hen Hop (1942), is reputed to have declared: “At last, something new.”

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/v_for_victory/

Over seven decades later this dual commitment to formal innovation and contemporary content informs Naked Island, an experimental online animation project that has racked up over two million views since its February launch. Framed as “public service alerts for a new era,” the 15 mini-shorts are the work of contemporary animation artists who, cleverly subverting advertising conventions, issue brief pointed statements on subjects like climate change, digital culture, consumerism and the nature of 21st century protest.

Participating directors include emerging talent like Amanda Strong, Laurence Vallières and Frances Adair Mckenzie alongside veteran animators like Academy Award-winner Chris Landreth and Oscar nominees like Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. The series is produced by Jelena Popović and Maral Mohammadian, and executive produced by Michael Fukushima. Pictured above: We Drink Too Much, by Lavis and Szczerbowski.

“Both a look to the future and a throwback to our earliest production”

“Naked Island has been an exciting experiment for us,” says Fukushima. “It’s both a look to the future and a throwback to our earliest production. Maral and Jelena have found the right editorial tone, a smart tongue-in-cheek approach that clearly appeals to young millennial viewers active on social media networks. At the same time we’re referencing those wartime message films, employing an updated post-modernist sensibility, a new urgency.

“The initial response from participating filmmakers was quite spectacular,” says Fukushima. “It’s as if they’d been waiting for an opportunity to make this kind of work – short punchy films that address current political and social issues.”

Naked Island has been capturing attention on the international festival circuit and five titles from the series are among the NFB offering at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival. Four appear in the Commissioned Animation Competition: Simulated Life, a short sharp jab at VR technology from Alberta-born animator and comic book artist Malcolm Sutherland, and three darkly comic shorts from Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, the creative duo behind the Oscar-nominated Madame Tutli-Putli — We Drink Too Much, We Eat Shit and Square Saint-Louis. A fifth title, Be Cool, is appearing in the Canadian Panorama program — an unapologetic poke at selfie-induced narcissism, directed by Chris Landreth who won an Academy Award and multiple other international honours for Ryan (2004).

“It’s gratifying to see this work go to Ottawa,” says Fukushima. “Naked Island was made primarily for online dissemination, and festivals tend to be reluctant to program work that’s already been released online. This success on the festival circuit augurs well for similar projects in the future.”

Other titles in Naked Island include Albertosaurus, directed and animated by Munro Ferguson; All We Need Is War, directed by Luka Sanader and animated by Frances McKenzie: Detention, directed by David Seitz and Elle-Maija Tailfeathers and animated by David Seitz; Blood, directed and animated by Theodore Ushev; Hipster Headdress, directed and animated by Amanda Strong; The Law of Expansion, directed by Malcolm Sutherland; Protest, directed by The Sanchez Brothers; Sext Apes, directed by Laurence Vallières; Sober, directed and animated by Elise Simard; and Survival of the Fittest, directed and animated by Eva Cvijanović. The entire series can be viewed online.

Renewing creative ties to former Yugoslavia

Now in its fifth decade, the Ottawa International Animation Festival has grown into a major launching pad for new animation and the NFB is heading to the 2017 edition with no fewer than twelve recent releases. Among them is The Tesla World Light, in which director Mathew Rankin displays something of the same offbeat sensibility of fellow Winnipegger Guy Maddin, riffing on early avant-garde cinema to craft a cinematic fantasy about Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla.

Tesla launched this spring at Cannes, during the 56th International Critics’ Week, and went on to successful dates at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, where Rankin had won an Off-Limits Award in 2014 for Mynarski Death Plummet. “An audacious shock of cinematic genius,” says Patrick Mullen in POV Magazine. Programmed in the OIAF’s Narrative Short Animation Competition, The Tesla World Light was produced and executive produced by Julie Roy for the NFB’s French Animation Studio. Read our interview with Mathew Rankin here.

Also on the program at Ottawa are three international co-productions: Manivald, a Canada/Croatia/Estonia coproduction directed by Estonian-born director Chintis Lundgren, is a sweetly perverse tale of bestiality, featuring a repressed mother-and-son duo of foxes and a hot young wolf; Hedgehog’s Home, another Canada/Croatia co-venture, directed by Sarajevo-born Eva Cvijanović, employs needle-felted puppets to bring a beloved Balkan children’s story to the screen; and the Canada/Norway coproduction Threads is a spacious and elegant reflection on human attachment from Oscar-winning animator Torill Kove, arriving in Ottawa fresh from its North American premiere at TIFF.

 “We’re particularly flush with co-productions this year,” says Fukushima, “and it’s no coincidence that two are with Croatian partners,” says Fukushima. “Our producer Jelena Popović was born in the former Yugoslavia, and she’s been keen to reconnect with producers in the region. Back in the 70s and 80s we collaborated with various Yugoslavian producers, so it’s great to be part of the rebirth of animation in that part of the world.”

“There’s a strong internationalist tradition here at the NFB animation studios,” notes Fukushima. “It’s always interesting to see how Canadian-based filmmakers like Torill and Eva can find inspiration in their countries of birth. As the son of Japanese immigrants, I’m always struck by this kind of cross-cultural creative collaboration. There’s something quintessentially Canadian about it.”

Manivald is produced by Chintis Lundgren Animatsioonistudio (Lundgren, producer), Adriatic Animation (Draško Ivezić, producer) and the NFB (Jelena Popović, producer); Hedgehog’s Home is produced by Bonobostudio (Vanja Andrijevic, producer) and the NFB ((Jelena Popović, producer); and Threads is produced by Mikrofilm AS (Lise Fearnley and Tonje Skar Reiersen, producers) and the NFB (Michael Fukushima, producer).

My Yiddish Papi Gets World Premiere

Making its world premiere in the Canadian Panorama program at OIAF is My Yiddish Papi, a moving personal work from filmmaker and cartoonist Éléonore Goldberg. Co-produced by Picbois Productions (Karine Dubois, producer) and the NFB’s French animation program (Julie Roy, producer).

 Also appearing in Canadian Panorama is Skin for Skin, a foray into Canadian Gothic that recasts Hudson’s Bay Company history in arresting new light. The handiwork of Calgary animation duo of Kevin D.A. Kurytnik and Carol Beecher, Skin for Skin premiered earlier this summer at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival, with upcoming appearances at festivals in Calgary, Edmonton and Quebec City. Produced by Bonnie Thompson and executive produced by David Christensen for the NFB’s Northwest Studio.

Competing alongside Hedgehog’s Home in the OIAF’s Young Audience Section is The Mountain of SGaana, a vivid retelling of a Haida myth from BC director Christopher Auchter (associate producer, Teri Snelgrove, executive producers, Shirley Vercruysse and Michael Fukushima). Mountain goes on to dates at Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE and the Vancouver International Film Festival.

 As part of its 2017 program the OIAF will also be exhibiting the VR incarnation of Théodore Ushev’s Blind Vaysha along with Donald McWilliams’ Eleven Moving Moments with Evelyn Lambart, an overdue tribute to Canada’s first major female animator, a frequent collaborator of McLaren and important artist in her own right. A former McLaren collaborator himself —and the Honorary President of last year’s OIAF — McWilliams playfully contextualizes key examples of Lambart’s oeuvre. The Ottawa International Animation Festival runs Sept 20 to 24. Click here for more info.

Finally here’s a fascinating example of McLaren’s WWII production, two minutes of straight-to-the-point cinema that employs gothic imagery to warn against wartime indiscretion:

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/keep_your_mouth_shut/

The post Animation News: Sharp Shorts for a New Millennium appeared first on NFB/blog.

Animation News: Sharp Shorts for a New Millennium posted first on http://ift.tt/2sCUYNt

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Also the veterinarian who’s white coating me today is a swiftie. I never lose

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How Helstrom Became One of Marvel Television’s Last Shows Standing

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Hell hasn’t quite frozen over on the Vancouver set of Marvel’s Helstrom but it’s close. A chill can be felt even inside the fabricated walls of St. Teresa’s Church as Tom Austen, who plays the titular Daimon Helstrom, sits down to talk with the press. It’s February and the show is months from its release date but Austen is already wearing the classic “Marvel leading man undercover” look, with a logo-less black hat atop his head. He’s prepared to discuss many aspects of Marvel’s first horror series, chief among them: just how much fun it is to set things on fire. 

“I love the stuff with fire. I would say like over 90 percent of the fire-work that we’ve done has been practical. If there’s fire and Daimon’s standing by it then I’m standing by it. Which has been quite nice shooting outdoors because it’s cold here.”

Helstrom represents plenty of firsts for the Marvel TV universe. It will be the first time a Marvel series has shot in Canada and the first time a Marvel show has been chiefly classified as horror. It’s also set to be the last in many regards. For starters, Austen just might be the last actor to ever set stuff on fire for Marvel Television…and that’s because the entity known as Marvel Television no longer exists.  

Last year, Marvel czar Kevin Feige consolidated Marvel’s TV offerings under the Marvel Studios banner, creating a new TV-producing entity known as Marvel TV Studios that could create TV content that fits within the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the newly-arrived Disney+. As part of the transition, Marvel Television (known for Netflix’s The Defenders, Hulu’s Runaways, and ABC’s Agents of SHIELD) was shuttered.

With one stroke of the pen, a half-dozen Marvel Television-produced shows were left in the lurch. Howard the Duck, Tigra & Dazzler, Hit Monkey, and Ghost Rider, which were all in active development for Hulu (which has been controlled by Disney since the Disney-21st Century Fox merger in 2019) were killed. In the end, Marvel decided to move forward with only animated series M.O.D.O.K. and live-action horror drama Helstrom and even then the latter show lost its “Marvel’s Helstrom” original title. Nor has the word “Marvel” appeared anywhere in the show’s advertising campaign. How then did Daimon Helstrom even become one of the last heroes standing for a Marvel era of television that no longer exists? 

For starters, the character is used to being an underdog. Though Marvel has historically been willing to mine some lesser-known titles, like Guardians of the Galaxy or The Eternals, for its adaptation purposes, Daimon Helstrom is particularly obscure. The character was created in the ‘70s when Marvel (perhaps wisely) vetoed Stan Lee’s desire to make none other than Satan himself a Marvel superhero. The character was revised to be the son of Satan, known as Daimon Hellstrom (the Hulu series drops the extra “l” in “Hellstrom”), and made his debut in 1973’s Ghost Rider #1. Daimon would go on to get his own brief “Son of Satan” arc in Marvel Spotlight issues 12 through 24. Since then, Daimon has popped up in a couple more runs but never fully took off as a character. 

To most, Daimon Hellstrom is best known as the moody magic-user with a Pentagram on his chest and a chariot of three-winged demon horses at his disposal. Despite the Son of Satan’s relatively limited comic history, however, one comic book page was all Helstrom producers needed to be convinced the character had a second life waiting on television.

That one page, from issue 13, captures everything one would need to know about the Helstrom family, as Daimon reads his mother’s diary and discovers that he is the product of a union built on lies and treachery. He has his father’s abilities but no guidance. He is charged with creating his own identity all the while marked with the sign of the devil plainly visible on his chest. 

“Look at the building blocks of what (Daimon) is,” co-executive producer Megan Thomas Bradner says. “He’s a demon who has an incredible guilt over his history, over who he is. Maybe the different writers and artists chose not to go down that path, but it all starts with the stuff that they gave us.”

Helstrom is a more grounded and realistic take on the character that delves deeper into his sense of isolation and pain. This Helstrom is the son of a serial killer father (according to the show’s synopsis at least) and a mother (Elizabeth Marvel’s Victoria) who lost her mind and now lives, restrained, in a padded cell inside St. Teresa’s hospital wing. As an adult, Helstrom now lives in Portland and works as an exorcist of sorts, all the while dealing with the trauma of an interrupted family life. There are no tights, no magical tridents, and no demonic horses… probably… maybe…

“They’re going to be ponies actually,” Austen quips. 

He does have a physical scar, in addition to his emotional ones. And that scar just may or may not resemble a Pentagram but it’s hard to say. Daimon keeps getting a tattoo over it but the tattoos quickly fade away. Makeup Artist Cindy L. Barlow says she knows where to place the scar on Austen’s back by tracing his freckles before applying the adhesive in a 10-15 minute process. Austen likes to peel it off at the end of each work day.

“You’re supposed to gently remove it but that’s not as fun,” Barlow says.

Daimon’s life has reached a fragile equilibrium as the series begins. Though he chiefly works as an Ethics Teacher at Gateway University (which makes a brief appearance in the comics), he also uses his supernatural abilities gleaned from “The Shadow Side” to assist St. Teresa’s and other interested parties in demon removal. To aid in that mission, he is supported by Dr. Louise Hastings (June Carryl), head of the psychiatric hospital within St. Teresa’s where Daimon’s mother Victoria is committed.

“(Dr. Hastings) acts as a kind of surrogate mom for Daimon,” Austen says. “She’s one of the first people to become aware of his abilities and tries to channel those for him to do some good.”

“There is a practicality to Louise that I think gets a workout,” Carryl adds of her character. “Walking that line is interesting. When something kind of goes off the rails and into another realm there’s a ‘huh, okay. I’m going to have to put that in the hopper. And it’s going to pop for a minute and we’ll deal with it later.’”

Another one of Daimon’s allies is Gabriella Rossetti (Ariana Guerra), a young agent sent by the Vatican to assist Daimon with his demonic issues. While everyone involved in Helstrom has old source material to sort through, Guerra decided to check out some even older texts to prepare to be an agent of the Church. 

“I was reading the Bible every day,” Guerra says. “I was going to church maybe like two or three times a week, just to kind of feel connected and to appreciate the rigidness of it and not see it as a chore. For a while I was like, ‘Mom, I think I’m going to convert.’ But then all of a sudden I started having a lot of Catholic guilt. So I had to just step away.”

The presence of the Catholic Church in Helstrom indicates just how big, old, and elemental the forces at play are. And if this is all starting to sound a little like The Exorcist, that’s by design. 

“I think there’s fun stuff in there for Marvel fans, whether you are a comic fan or a TV fan. But if you also are just a fan of horror, you can come to this too,” Bradner says.

This is the kind of production where (disturbingly anatomically correct) rubber corpses lie haphazardly on stretchers outside of offices. It’s the kind of production where the props team likes to note that they’re working on “human meat cubes” and that they’ve got a “bin full of thumbs.” It’s horror through and through. 

All that horror is a lot for any one Son of Satan and his Vatican agent buddy to deal with. And that’s where Ana Helstrom comes in. 

For as little Daimon Helstrom source material that the show has to work with, there is even less to go off of for his superpowered sister—the sultry Satana. In the comics, Satana’s key features are a profound love for her father and an even more profound distaste for modest clothing. 

“I said, ‘Oh, okay. So we’re going to be using wigs and prosthetic body parts apparently.’ That was an overwhelming sight,” Ana actress Sydney Lemmon says of seeing the comic version of her character.

“My Ana Helstrom is a little different though,” she adds.

For one, Satana is now simply Ana. Ana Helstrom works as an art and antiquities dealer at her own San Francisco auction house who uses the selling of swords owned by Napoleon Bonaparte and ancient Sumerian daggers as a jumping off point for her own brand of demonic justice. Lemmon (who is Jack Lemmon’s granddaughter and was recently seen in a crucial arc on Fear the Walking Dead) appreciates the role that legacy plays in crafting Ana’s psyche.

“I was really, really drawn in by the intense family dynamics happening between all of the Helstrom family members,” Lemmon says. “It’s fraught and turbulent and then when you add in the element of superpowers, it’s a done deal.”

Just as Daimon has his own helpers in the form of Gabriella and Hastings, Ana too has her allies. One is Chris Yen (Alain Uy), Ana’s business partner and surrogate brother figure in Daimon’s absence. 

“Chris is a very in-control type of person and likes things in this specific way,” Uy says. “In some ways that is the yin to Ana’s yang. It literally feels like a brother-sister relationship. Listen: I don’t know if you’ve got brothers or sisters, but I do and there’s definitely like a rivalry there, but it’s a healthy rivalry.”

Like many a Marvel sidekick, Chris Yen will become embroiled in some of the more intense and interesting aspects of Ana’s life, bringing the pair into contact with another one of Ana’s friends, Caretaker (played by The Wire’s Robert Wisdom). 

As the name implies, Caretaker has close ties to the dead and all manner of dark magic. The character is one of the few Helstrom supporting figures who has a comic book presence and has previously been played by none other than Sam Elliott in the 2007 Ghost Rider film. 

“If you’re familiar with New York, you know about the third rail on the subway. In the sense, Caretaker is working in two dimensions,” Wisdom says. “He’s up on the platform and he’s holding the third rail. He’s one of the few that can conduct that energy without snapping. That’s the tensile strength that I’ve given him.”

Wisdom describes Caretaker as a Nick Fury type, and also as a father-figure and guardian for Ana. 

Daimon and Ana Helstrom clearly aren’t hurting for paternal and maternal figures in their life, which is fortunate given the fate of their real parents. Though the siblings’ father is understandably not an announced part of the cast yet, Victoria Helstrom is set to play a big role haunting the pair’s lives, even from within the dismal confines of her padded prison. 

Elizabeth Marvel (no relation to…well, Marvel) took on the role of Victoria in part due to her teenage son being deeply steeped in the Marvel entertainment universe. Though she quickly found other aspects of her character and the show at large to appreciate. 

“It’s incredibly satisfying and creatively wonderful. It’s just actor candy all the time,” she says. “We work through a lot of issues, a lot of pain on this show. There’s a lot of dealing with the past and childhood trauma, and where, as a parent, your responsibility is, and how can you control and care for your children when circumstances are overwhelming?”

Victoria’s circumstances couldn’t possibly be more overwhelming. As indicated in the series’ first trailer, there’s a pretty compelling, pretty demonic reason that Victoria has been institutionalized for 20 years. As such, the character’s environs are as bleak as they come in the Helstrom world, though it comes with some actorly benefits

“We love going to visit, because the entire room is padded. So we all lie down,” Austen says. 

“Yes. We do a little yoga while they set up lights,” Marvel adds. 

Downtime for family yoga is few and far between on set but the Helstroms have done their best to create a familial environment amid all the blood, fire, and severed thumbs. And they’re hoping that chemistry and those themes of family and trauma appeal to Marvel fans looking for something new.

“I don’t think that anything that Marvel’s put out is quite like what we’re making,” Lemmon says. “I cannot wait for people to get to see this grounded, fantastical story that we’ve crafted. It looks so much like life, but has such magical elements. It feels like new ground for Marvel, and it’s such an honor to be a part of.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Who knows what the future holds for Helstrom as Marvel casts its eye towards Loki, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and more. For now, however, Daimon, Ana, and a whole cadre of demons are prepared to liven up Hulu’s October. Perhaps that’s why Daimon Helstrom was the last hero standing for Marvel Television. Somebody had to bring a spooky edge to the proceedings before the lights went out for good…and it might as well be the Son of Satan. 

The post How Helstrom Became One of Marvel Television’s Last Shows Standing appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo's Night

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: This Hawks/Panthers glitch – I won't lie, I've probably watched this three dozen times and I enjoy it more each time through.

The second star: This Coyotes fan – Apparently she likes Scott Wedgewood? I really hope that's what this means.

(Needless to say, he was thrilled.)

The first star: Jozy Altidore – He's a soccer player, for MLS champions Toronto FC. That's what got him invited to handle the ceremonial faceoff before the next Maple Leafs game. And, uh, the handshakes did not go well.

Altidore was too busy on his phone to notice that he left Maple Leafs alternate captain Leo Komarov hanging on a handshake. (He later apologized, and it was accepted.)

Trivial Annoyance of the Week

The NHL is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the league's first ever games this weekend. The main event is in Ottawa, where the Senators will host the Canadiens in the season's first outdoor game. It's a rematch from that very first opening night back in 1917, when the original Senators hosted the Habs and George Vezina outdueled Clint Benedict in a 7-4 Montreal win.

It's a pretty cool. There's just one minor problem: Saturday isn't actually the 100th anniversary. That would be December 19, which is Tuesday.

You can understand what the league is doing here, of course. They want these outdoor games to have as big an impact as possible, and that means holding them on weekends. Sure, you'd make the history purists happy by holding the event a few days later, but you lose out on ratings and revenue. Besides, as everyone who lives here could tell you, Ottawa is closed on Tuesday nights.

So yes, of course you have the big outdoor game a few days early. But check out the schedule for the league's official anniversary on Tuesday. Do you notice anything unusual?

Neither do I. It's basically a typical Tuesday night slate. And that's kind of odd, right?

The league's only other surviving original team, the Maple Leafs, are at home that night, but it's against the Hurricanes. The Senators are hosting the Wild. And even though the league launched with half its teams in Montreal, the Canadiens are on the road, in Vancouver. They couldn’t have given us a Leafs/Habs game as a nod to the other opening night matchup from 1917 that saw Toronto beat the Wanderers in the league's very first game? They didn't even do that NHL thing where they pretend that history started with the Original Six and give us one of those matchups.

It's not like the league hasn't spent the last year bathing itself in history. They've done ceremonies and fan votes and Top 100 lists dating back to last season. And for the most part, it's been great. I'm the last guy who'll ever complain about a league celebrating its history.

But when it comes to the two anniversary dates on the calendar that really matter—the formation of the league on November 26 and the first games on December 19—the NHL just kind of shrugged. It's weird. It's like your annoying friend who tries to turn their birthday party into a week-long event, then forgets to schedule anything for the actual day.

Throw us a bone, NHL. At least make the Leafs play by 1917 rules, with no forward passes or backup goalies and three-minute minors. Have half the Senators sit out the first period in a contract dispute. Burn down the Montreal arena. Something.

Or we could just have a few pre-game ceremonies on an otherwise typical Tuesday. I guess that works too. It just seems a little anti-climactic after all this buildup, no?

Obscure Former Player of the Week

Other than the 100th anniversary, the NHL's other big news this week is that it now seems inevitable that Seattle will be getting a team at some point in the next few years. Let's combine those two stories with this week's obscure player: goaltender Harry "Hap" Holmes.

Holmes isn't necessarily all that obscure in the big picture sense, or at least he shouldn't be—he's in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But it's probably fair to say that most modern fans don't know him. After all, he played a century ago, and his name isn't often remembered in the same tier as stars from the era like Joe Malone or Cy Denneny that at least some of today's fans may recognize.

In fact, most of Holmes's success as a pro came before the NHL existed. He won his first Stanley Cup in 1914 as a member of the Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA, the predecessor of the NHL. But it was his second that made history, as he backstopped the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans to a 1917 win, the first time the Cup had ever been captured by an American team. (Feel free to see how many of your hockey expert friends know that Seattle won a Stanley Cup long before places like New York, Chicago or Detroit.)

That 1917 Cup also marked the last one before the NHL arrived, and Holmes initially joined the new league's Toronto franchise. (That team didn't have a formal name, although they'd later be known as the Arenas.) That team went on to win the league title as well as the Stanley Cup, Holmes's third. He'd play just two more games for the team the following year before heading back to the Metropolitans, and later joined the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League. He made some history there too, winning his fourth Stanley Cup in 1926 by beating the NHL's Montreal Maroons. It was the last time that the Cup was won by a team outside the NHL, who gained exclusive control of the trophy beginning in 1927.

That made it four Cups for Holmes with four different teams; to this day he remains the only NHL player to ever do that. (His former teammate and fellow Hall-of-Famer Jack Marshall did it too, but never appeared in the NHL.)

Holmes eventually returned to the NHL for a two-season stint beginning in 1926 when the Cougars moved to Detroit and joined the league after the WHL disbanded. In all, he played 103 games in parts of four NHL seasons, one of the five major pro leagues of the day he suited up for.

And perhaps my favorite Hap Holmes fact of them all: According to Wikipedia, he sometimes wore a cap when he played to protect him from objects thrown from the stands by the era's fans, who found that "his shining bald dome presented a tempting target."

Outrage of the Week

The issue: With expansion to Seattle looking like a done deal, the Flames seem intent on making Calgary fans think that a move to Houston is looming unless a new arena deal gets done. The outrage: Nobody seems to believe them, and fans aren't happy that the subject is coming up at all. Is it justified: The idea that the Flames could move if they don't get an arena deal isn't new—Gary Bettman suggested as much a few months ago, although he was vague on specifics. That was part of an effort to turn Calgary fans and voters against the city's mayor, who was seen as an obstacle to an arena deal. It didn't work.

The story resurfaced this week thanks to a column from Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun that skipped the subtleties and went straight to outright predicting that the Flames would be in Houston within three years. We don't know how much, if any, of that piece was based on information coming directly from the Flames. But even if Francis was simply presenting his own views, the fact that the Flames didn't immediately push back on the report suggests that, at the very least, they don’t mind having this stuff out there. (Full disclosure: Francis and I both contribute to Sportsnet.)

Seeing such a bold prediction of an imminent move had to make Flames fans nervous. But plenty of others took issues with the Francis piece, with Kent Wilson posting an in-depth takedown at The Athletic. Wilson's argument, in a nutshell, is that a move just doesn't add up, financially or otherwise. Calgary is a great market, and it wouldn't seem to make sense for the Flames to abandon that for an unknown market like Houston. And as Wilson points out, plenty of teams have played this game before that we now know were bluffing.

And that's the big problem here. Even if the Flames really are eying a move and trying to send warning signals to their fans before it's too late, this ground has just been trod too many times. NHL fans have heard this before—in Pittsburgh, in New Jersey, in Raleigh, and in just about every market that ever wanted a new area and didn't get it right away. It's a game that's playing out to varying degrees right now in Ottawa, Brooklyn, and (as always) Arizona. Once those situations are resolved, it will be someone else's turn.

This certainly isn't an NHL problem, and if anything the league has been more stable when it comes to franchise movement in the last two decades than the NFL or NBA. But when it comes to dropping threats, the NHL seems to view them as just part of how business is done in this league.

And that gets exhausting. The Flames aren't going anywhere unless this whole situation is misplayed by all sides so badly that it goes completely off the rails, and they'll end up with a new arena that will be partly funded by taxpayers. And within a few years, most of us will have forgotten all about this.

Most, but not all. Because you have to wonder how many diehard Flames fans, who've been with the team through good times and bad, are feeling just a little less enthusiasm for the team right now. The NHL is a business, as we're constantly reminded. But it's a business that charges a lot of money for an inconsistent product, and that means it relies on an awful lot of loyalty. Putting even a fraction of that at risk is a dangerous game.

That would be worth thinking about for NHL teams. It might already be too late for Calgary. If so, we'll have to wait and see whether their current threats come with a cost. And if so, whether the next teams in line learn any lessons

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

Last week marked the 30-year anniversary of one of my favorite moments from the 1980s. It didn't involve a goal or a save or a fight, or anything else that had anything to do with the game being played. But it did take place on the ice, and you won't hear a building get much louder than the old Boston Garden did back on December 3, 1987.

Yes, it's the legendary Phil Esposito jersey retirement. Our clip begins with Ray Bourque being called on to "make a presentation." That's fitting, since not only has he assumed Esposito's mantle as the Bruin's best player, but he wears the same #7 that's being retired. For a few more seconds, at least.

By the way, if you're thrown off Bob Wilson announcing Bourque as the Bruins captain but wearing an "A," he shared the duties with Rick Middleton that season. Middleton wore the "C" at home, while Bourque got it on the road.

It was always kind of weird that the Bruins gave Esposito's number to Bourque as a rookie. But it was even weirder that they also gave it to guys like Bill Bennett and Sean Shanahan in between. Remember, there was some bad blood between Esposito and the team after he was traded to the Rangers in 1975, which might explain why it took six years after his retirement for the Bruins to get around to officially honoring his number.

But to their credit, they eventually do it right. Bourque skates over and shares a few words with Esposito, then hands him a No. 7 jersey. You kind of sense Esposito accepting the gift with a "Yeah, thanks, I already have dozens of these" sort of vibe, but it's just the setup for the bigger moment to come.

With Esposito momentarily distracted, Bourque yanks his own No. 7 jersey off to reveal a second one underneath, this one bearing what would become his iconic No. 77. It takes a second for everyone to realize what just happened—Esposito didn't know this was coming, and seems genuinely stunned—and the crowd goes nuts once they clue in.

The back story here is that apparently Esposito thought Bourque was going to keep wearing No. 7, and was fine with that. But Bourque had never wanted the pressure that came with the number, so he jumped at the chance to swap it out while honoring an all-time great.

I feel like we don’t give Bourque enough credit for (literally) pulling this off so smoothly. You put me on live TV in front of 20,000 people and tell me to take a sweater off, there's a 100 percent chance it's going to end with me showing my bare tummy to the world for an awkwardly long period of time. Not Bourque. He sheds his jersey with near-Baumgartner speed, and still remembers to do a little pirouette so everyone can see what just happened. He wasn't one of the all-time greats for nothing.

Esposito throws on the jersey and starts his speech. Man, Phil was as cool as they'd come. How cool? Oh, roughly "wears tinted shades at his own retirement ceremony even though it's being held indoors" cool.

He thanks Bourque, and then mentions the Rangers, who are the visitors for this game. At the time, Esposito was their general manager, and whoo boy was that ever a fun time. I'm pretty sure that this two-minute speech is the longest period of time he managed to go as Rangers GM without making at least one trade.

Espo gets the cheap pop from a Bobby Orr mention, mentions exactly nobody from management or ownership, and then thanks the fans. We end with a shot of his number going up to the rafters. It's helpfully labelled "Philip A. Esposito," just in case some other Philip Esposito came along and everyone got confused.

At one point, the number is going up so crooked that it's nearly sideways, but they get it straightened out by the end. Near miss there. That would have been right up there with the night the Canucks honored Markus Naslund, shone a spotlight through his No. 19, and turned it into a giant frowny face.

To this day everyone's favorite Bourque memory is the Cup handoff from Joe Sakic, and rightly so. But the Esposito number swap should absolutely be a close second. If Gordie Howe gets to be Mr. Hockey, Bourque might have to start going by Mr. Ceremony. He's like the polar opposite of this guy.

Years later, Esposito would be on hand when the Bruins retired Bourque's #77, although he did not disrobe during the ceremony. At least as far as we know.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: A Wedgie for Wedgewood, Inflamed Calgary Fans, & Espo's Night published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv