#the entire BoB made it to the top of their respective category and that is both iconic and feels right | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vannahfanfics · 4 years ago

Text

If Love Was A Color

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Katsuki Bakugo, Ochako Uraraka

Additional Tags: Quirkless AU, Soulmate AU

Katsuki’s red eyes zeroed in on the word outlined in the fine print stretching across the six-inch-thick book in front of him. While many of the students congregating in the library would find the massive treatise daunting— especially considering its contents were as dull as the lightbulbs flickering in their dumb heads— Katsuki absorbed every syllable. Committing laws to memory was no easy task, but he embraced the challenge. After all, one day, he would be Japan’s most renowned prosecutor.

Katsuki’s eyebrows twitched as the loud giggling of girls disrupted his concentration. He glanced over his shoulder with lidded eyes to watch two first-year students clutching coffee cups stroll by.

“So you met your soulmate in Introduction to Biology?” one asked, a pretentious-looking girl whose ponytail looked tight enough to rip off her scalp.

“Yes! He’s so handsome and so dreamy! He wants to be a doctor; I can’t believe I lucked out with someone so smart and driven!” the other squealed as she pressed a hand to her flushing face. Her cheeks darkened as her friend joked that she should just drop out and marry him since he’ll be so rich; the girl laughed and insisted no, she couldn’t, how improper… But Katsuki could see the wheels turning in her head. He scowled as they disappeared behind some shelves, but their giggles floated behind them, clouding Katsuki’s study sanctuary with obnoxiousness.

Katsuki hated the concept of soulmates— or really, love in general. First of all, it was so fucked that there was some predetermined person you were miraculously just supposed to commit to spending your life with. What if they were a bitch, like that girl who would rather slide right into a rich man’s pockets and had no work ethic? What if they were some bum who lived in their mother’s basement? It burned Katsuki up inside, the fact that he was supposed to just accept someone without them earning his approval first. There was no way in hell he would let someone ride his coattails off the pretense of love. He had way too much to worry about anyway, as a college senior.

Still… Sometimes he had to admit that having monochromatic vision was a problem. Although the world adapted to the fact that people were colorblind until they met their soulmates, most people actively sought them— so by Katsuki’s age, most assumed that you had colored vision. He had to continually nag his professors for including color-coded charts and the like in their lectures because how the fuck was he going to differentiate? Still, that problem could be solved just by making waves— and Katsuki was damn good at that.

Ugh. I have a headache now, listening to those two bimbos prattle, he scowled, rubbing his temples as a dull pounding made a home in his skull. He pushed away from the table, leaving the open books and notes behind to walk the short distance to the coffee shop that adjoined the university’s four-story library. As he stood in line to order himself a plain black coffee, silently reciting the laws he’d just memorized in his head, he didn’t notice the door slam open and someone flurry into the small shop— that is, until they plowed into a chair, tripped over it, and slammed right into Katsuki’s back.

“Uwahhhhh!” they screeched. With a surprised yelp, Katsuki reflexively arched his back as their face crashed right between his shoulder blades. Crimson eyes wide in confused, he whirled around to face the clumsy stranger—

and then recoiled because color exploded into his world. He groaned as he staggered back into the display, eyes twitching as his previously inactive rods and cones sprang into life to fill his vision with a million different hues. He held his hand over his eyes, trying to adjust to the thin slivers of color peeking out through his fingers, and watched as a short, round-faced girl with a bob cut slowly straightened up while rubbing her nose.

“Ow, ow, ow,” she whined pitifully before cracking an eye open. Katsuki gawked at the dark, warm hue that filled her irises, the same color as the tables’ rich wood— brown? Was that brown? Her hair was the same color, so if she was a brunette, it would make sense. Slowly, he lowered his hand from his eyes, squinting as the pain ebbed. She raised her head, mouth opening to apologize— and then she inhaled sharply.

“Wow. Your eyes are such a beautiful color.”

Katsuki could feel the heat rush from his toes to the crown of his head. His mother had always told him he’d had crimson eyes like rubies. The girl continued to pore over them, a serene smile blooming on her face before it dawned on her.

“Wait, wait, wait, I— color? But that means we—! You’re my—! Oh gosh!” she spluttered. Katsuki winced as she slapped her hands hard to her cheeks, causing the skin to bloom pink there— pink, yes, that was the color of blushing. She continued to squirm wildly, entirely overwhelmed by the situation, before she managed to squeak out a sentence. “I’m Ochako Uraraka! It’s very nice to meet you, um, soulmate— Oh, that sounds so creepy!” she wailed and tugged at her chestnut tresses of hair. She looked apologetically at him. Her face turned a deep burning red. “Let me try this again… Your name, what’s your name?”

“Katsuki Bakugo.”

The barista called him to take his order, so he turned on his heel and did. As he was handing a few bills over the counter, Ochako scampered up behind him to peek over his shoulder.

“A plain black coffee, huh? You see the type!” she chirped. “I like sweet things— iced coffees with lots of cream, sugar, and flavored syrups are delicious! My favorite flavor is Irish cream— hey, where are you going?” she whined as Katsuki ignored her prattling to take his coffee and begin walking to the exit of the store. He grimaced as she followed after him, swinging her arms and hips a little so that the little planet glitter charm— it was dark, could that be purple?— on her bookbag swung back and forth. “We’re soulmates, right? We should get to know each other, don’tcha think?”

“Sorry,” Katsuki huffed as he pushed the door open. “I don’t do the whole soulmate thing.”

He tried not to think of the pitifully sad look on Ochako’s face as he closed the door right in it— but he found that it stuck in his memory for the next three days until he came to the library again.

She had some determination; he would give her that. She found him in his little nook, leaning his chair back on two legs as he pored over another law book— one that had a blue binding, Eijirou had told him. He didn’t even notice her approaching until he heard the soft tap of a cup, and he looked up to see her standing there, smiling pleasantly as she slid a black coffee towards him.

“You’re a diligent student, I see. Studying pre-law?” she observed with a point at the book cover. Katsuki snorted, half-debating ignoring her again and rejecting the coffee, but he was running on empty. Why refuse free caffeine? Though he loathed small talk, he supposed he could entertain her for a few minutes, as thanks.

“Yeah,” he answered as he picked up the cup and sipped at the steaming hot beverage. The tension melted from his shoulders as the robust flavor of the roasted beans hit his tongue; it wasn’t long after that the caffeine kicked in, giving his dulled senses and attention a nice buzz. He noticed Ochako slip into the seat opposite him, continuing to smile with those big brown eyes of hers sparkling. He saw the purple planet charm— Saturn, he realized— sitting atop her backpack, so he pointed to it.

“Astronomy?”

“Aerospace engineering.”

Katsuki released an appreciative whistle. He hadn’t expected that of the bubbly girl, and despite his reservations, he had to respect her challenging curriculum. She puffed out her chest with a prideful grin and continued, “I want to design rockets!”

“A space case for a rocket scientist. That’s perfect,” he snorted with laughter, making Ochako puff out her cheeks in defiance. Now that he noticed, they looked so soft and round… He almost had the urge to pinch them and feel how squishy they were. Almost.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a little spacey, but it doesn’t matter as long as I can solve the equations, does it?” she retorted haughtily. Katsuki shook his head, muttering a “Guess not,” and she reclined in her seat with a satisfied smirk. Katsuki’s crimson eyes fell back to the law book he was osmosing, and he could see her watching him intently above the tops of the thick pages. “What do you want to do?” she asked slowly. She seemed to be getting the hint that he didn’t want to be bothered for long, but there was a stubborn glint in her eyes.

“Prosecute,” he quipped, not looking up at her.

“Wow! That’s an ambitious goal. It takes a lot to be a government prosecutor.”

“Yeah, it does— a lot of studying, which, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to,” he huffed with more venom than he meant. A strange sinking feeling washed over him as he watched the girl sink a little into her chair and her smile fold down at the edges. Silently, she got up and slipped her backpack on, mumbling a half-hearted “see you later.” As she began to leave, he cleared his throat.

“Thanks for the coffee,” he added with a frustrating heat rising to his cheeks. Ochako glanced at the half-empty cup, then back to him— and her smile returned a little sliver.

The next time they ran into each other, he was in line to get coffee again. She came in afluster, face scrunched as she pored over a notebook scrawled with mathematical equations; she was so absorbed in her calculations that she didn’t notice Katsuki standing in front of her, nor that he ordered an Irish cream and hazelnut coffee with extra cream in sugar. As he turned around, she shuffled forward thinking he had exited the line and bumped right into his chest. Her round cheeks pinkened and she looked up to squeak out an apology, but it died in her throat when she noticed it was him.

Wordlessly, he held out the coffee to her.

“To pay you back for the other day,” he explained as she took it, looking at him like he’d given her a ring instead of an iced coffee. She hid her bashful smile behind the white lid, slowly turning her body from side-to-side. As they moved out of line, he gestured to the messy array of numbers and letters on the pages. “What’s that? Looks intense.”

“It’s an extra credit assignment. If we solve this equation, we get ten bonus points on midterms… But it’s presenting quite a challenge,” she groaned as she scratched at her scalp with the end of her pencil. Smiling, Katsuki pulled out a chair for her and she automatically sank down, her brown eyes never leaving the paper. It was kind of cute, the way her eyebrows scrunched together and her lips poked out in a thoughtful pout. Katsuki found himself softening as he gazed at her; though it definitely looked like a challenging problem, the sparkle in her eyes indicated that she was rather enjoying it.

He liked that.

Wait a minute, he realized, his train of thought derailing and veering off a canyonside. The gears turning in his brain threatened to overheat and spin out of control as he considered what he had just actually thought. Him, liking Ochako? No. No, no, no. That wasn’t possible. Katsuki didn’t do love, he didn’t do dating, he didn’t do soulmates.

“Good luck with your problem. I gotta go,” he blurted, using his hand to hide the blush creeping onto his face. Ochako looked up with a confused gasp, but he was already marching out the door. Dimly, he could hear her meekly call, “Thanks for the coffee…”

As he stalked down the sidewalk, oblivious to the cloudy gray sky and the pattering rain beginning to sprinkle down from the heavens to dye the white sidewalk a deep slate, Katsuki’s mind was whirling. He tugged at his ash-blond strands of hair with a deep, guttural growl. He couldn’t like Ochako. He wouldn’t like Ochako. He’d always sworn that he’d never fall into that trap; he’d never take stock into that soulmate bullshit. It was just his subconscious; it had to be! He didn’t have a crush on her. It was just the internalization of all that soulmate propaganda trying to trick him into thinking he had to like her.

Right? He didn’t like Ochako. He didn’t like her sweet soft voice, or her warm brown eyes, or her big broad toothy smile her rosy round cheeks complimented so well. He didn’t find that little purple Saturn charm endearing, nor the way she pushed her fingers together when she was nervous, nor her little thoughtful pout and scrunched brows. He didn’t. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

Katsuki stopped walking. He tipped his head up to stare defeatedly up at the cloudy gray sky. Gray. He hated that color now. It reminded him of a time when the world was just that— gray and lifeless and dull. Just Katsuki and his law books, all in monochrome.

Now the sky was blue, and so were the bluebirds nesting in the eaves of his dorm. Now the grass was green, as were the leaves that rustled in the trees lining the walking track by the gym. Now the sun was yellow, like the buttercups growing in front of the library. Katsuki’s eyes were red, like Eijirou’s spiky red hair and the apples he insisted on crunching on every morning though Katsuki hated the sound. Now grapes were purple, like Ochako’s glittery Saturn planet charm.

Now hearts were pink, just like Ochako’s warm, squishable, cute little cheeks. If Katsuki had to pick what color love was, it would be pink.

He dropped his head down with a sardonic chuckle. The water dripped down from his drenched hair to run down his face in rivulets. Pink, like Katsuki’s face every time he clapped on eyes on that clumsy, space case, chubby-cheeked cutie who happened to be his soulmate.

Damn it. He was in love with Ochako.

The slick sidewalk squeaked under his tennis shoe as he whirled on his heel to sprint back to the library. He surprised Ochako as she was walking through the double doors, making her compulsively chuck the notebook forward. She gasped and reached out as it spiraled out into the rain; if it landed in a puddle, the black ink on the pages would bleed into incomprehensible smudges, and she’d never get that extra credit she was working so hard to earn. Katsuki caught it as it sailed over his head, slowly bringing it to his chest to shield it with his body.

“K-Katsuki?” Ochako asked uncertainly, looking him up and down. He probably looked a sight, clothes and hair soaked from the rain and his chest heaving from the feverish sprint.

“You wanna know something? The first time I saw you, I couldn’t help but think that your eyes were the most beautiful color,” he whispered. It’s true, he loved the pink shade her cheeks turned— but nothing compared to that warm chocolatey brown that sucked him in and embraced him in warmth.

“I… I thought you didn’t do soulmates,” she swallowed, pushing her fingers together. Katsuki walked forward with a soft smile, holding out the notebook to her.

“I changed my mind,” he said while reaching up to brush a strand of her soft brown hair out of her face. He then grinned devilishly and pinched her cheek, making her squeak in protest. “Can’t resist ya, Cheeks.”

“What happened to Space Case?”

“You’ve been upgraded. Congratulations.”

Ochako blinked at him, then began laughing. She took the notebook back and hugged it to her chest, airy giggles making her shoulders shake a little. Now that he heard them from Ochako, he supposed those girly giggles weren’t that bad.

This soulmate thing… He could get used to it.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

#kacchako #bakuraka #bakugo katsuki #katsuki bakugo #ochako uraraka #uraraka ochako #my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha

31 notes · View notes

avauntus · 4 years ago

Text

Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’)

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

#4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue*

#3 - 6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level.

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying.

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people.

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair”

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again.

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

#spn #supernatural #meta #review

4 notes · View notes

jeanvaljean24601 · 4 years ago

Text

The Winners And Losers From The 2020 Emmy Nominations

The 2020 Emmy nominations rolled out today, and boy, were they something. Right away, Rhea Seehorn fans grew furious that she was somehow left on the side of the road again, and it’s very strange to not see Larry David receive more nods for being a lovable curmudgeon on HBO, but perhaps he’s topped out with a lifetime total of 27 Emmy nominations and 2 wins. We could also talk about numbers mattering, which is good news on the HBO front, with Watchmen and Succession scoring 26 and 18 nominations, respectively, and Disney+ scooping up 15 nods for The Mandalorian, although sorry, Baby Yoda, you are somehow not eligible for acting awards.

That’s not as satisfying, though, as talking about the real winners and losers, which is a fine tradition here. Please do not consider this to be a complete list of wronged-and-righted parties (for example, I cannot even begin to understand why Desus and Mero got the shaft, which shouldn’t have happened), but let’s get this ball rolling, shall we?

When it comes to Ozark, I kind-of get why people don’t want to give this show a shot at first. The bizarre insistence upon a blue filter goes a long way, for example, or the fact that it arguably fine-tunes the Walt-Jesse dynamic from Breaking Bad — yes, that might grind some gears. Yet all of those concerns don’t matter once you surrender to the setting and watch Jason Bateman lose his sh*t in consistently captivating ways. The acting nominations here were all well deserved, as was the Outstanding Drama series nod, especially with that cliffhanger. I do look forward to one day seeing Julia Garner win her 15th Emmy in, like, 2045, but let’s also shout out Dead To Me. That little Netflix series also been recognized once again despite (probably) being intended as a trash-comfort watch. Yet it works surprisingly well to stir up a wide range of emotions and affirm humanity in the process. Also, recognition for Linda Cardellini will never get old. Now she can forget that Capone came out this year. h96 tv box

Let’s make one thing clear: Reese is doing just fine. In fact, she’s likely doing wonderful. However, her prestige TV turns have gone unrewarded for this year’s ceremony. Whereas Jennifer Aniston received a nod for Apple TV’s The Morning Show, Reese didn’t walk away with the same honor for her performance as an unruly spitfire of a co-host. Her Hulu and HBO roles, in Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies, also went unrecognized. I can only guess that there simply wasn’t enough room for all the BLL ladies, and although her ruffling of Adam Scott was convincing enough, neither she nor Nicole Kidman could beat out Laura Dern and Meryl Streep’s extremely unhinged turns on the show. Still, Reese will not walk away from 2020 empty-handed. Quibi paid her $6 million to narrate a wildlife series, and you gotta respect that hustle.

Yes, I did suggest that numbers don’t matter, but c’mon. Not only did The Mandalorian receive 15 nods, but Watchmen scored 26. The best part about Damon Lindelof’s show gathering so many decorations, though, is that no one even asked for a Watchmen TV series to be made. Alan Moore’s graphic novel was always considered to be unfilmable (and Zack Snyder made the case there), but Lindelof did it anyway. He recontextualized the whole story against the backdrop of a long-buried U.S. atrocity and hid Doctor Manhattan in the body of a Black man. He put the damn squid in there, included Jeremy Irons’ fart face, made Regina King walk on water (or not), and inserted a Lube Man. Watchmen could win no Emmys at all, and it’d still be the winner for all those things.

This one is a puzzler. The Emmys nominated Bob Odenkirk in 2019, 2017, 2016, and 2015, but he somehow came up short this year for his lead role in AMC’s Breaking Bad spinoff that landed on the top of our best shows of the year (so far) list. Even if one considers that his category was stacked — and let’s be honest here, it wasn’t airtight because Steve Carell‘s The Morning Show role felt more like a supporting role than a lead — it’s hard to ignore how the Emmy’s almost entirely shut out the Saul actors. And really, how does one justify continuing to leave Rhea Seehorn on the side of the road with an arc like the one she had this season? With those finger guns… and everything? It just doesn’t make sense, but I guess at least Gus Fring is getting his due. h96 max tv box

Zendaya could become the youngest winner of the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award for her turn in the provocative Euphoria. The drug-fueled series about teens isn’t an easy watch by any stretch, but it’s a relevant one, and Zendaya’s finally receiving the dramatic material that her talents deserve. On the Ramy side of things, it’s nice to see more affirmation that this is the best show that you’re not currently watching. It’s a little disheartening to not see the show’s actresses gain recognition while their characters are finally coming to the forefront, but it’s hard to argue with the possibility of creator Ramy Youssef adding an Emmy to his Globe win for this dramedy about Muslim-Americans. Also, Mahershala Ali getting a nod for his Hot Sheikh means that at least something’s right in our current universe (after that Green Book mess).

Young women challenging institutions are where it’s at this year. Even though Watchmen will (and should) walk away with the Outstanding Limited Series category, I’m thrilled to see two insurgent-feeling shows, Unbelievable and Unorthodox, make the shortlist. Kaitlyn Dever should have also been nominated in the acting department for her turn as a rape survivor who was treated like a criminal, due to being an “imperfect victim,” but the show as a whole deserved the nod that it received for being taking such a feminist approach to crime-drama storytelling. And I’m pumped to see Unorthodox‘s Shira Hass pop up with an Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Series nod (she’s up against Regina King and Cate Blanchett), as well as seeing recognition for the stunning miniseries’ exploration of a young woman’s flight from Hasidic Judaism. android tv box

Pacino’s first regular TV role in Amazon Prime’s Hunters was a highly anticipated one, but sadly, the show (despite plenty of enticing ingredients like Jordan Peele producing and, you know, the killing of Nazis), didn’t hit the mark. Honestly, yeah, it was messy, and Pacino’s accent work managed to be one of the weirdest parts of a very weird show. It’s not worth too many words to rehash what happened there, for it’s enough to say that Pacino’s already won two TV-movie Emmys for You Don’t Know Jack and Angels In America. He’s also notched an Oscar win (in 1993 for Scent of a Woman) and eight Oscar nominations (including in 2020 for The Irishman). He doesn’t necessarily need to win at TV shows, too!

You can see the full list the Emmy nominations here.

1 note · View note

overlooked-tracks · 2 years ago

Text

The Top Music Publishers Of 2021 Ranked By Global Revenue

An Overlooked Tracks News Finding: Here’s an article you might have overlooked. Having a partnership with NewsAPI, we try to catch music entertainment news for you to view, read and possibly enjoy. We will continue to find what’s available in the world of music entertainment, concert information and music releases. But obviously you – the listener and reader are the biggest source for news in your area, so if you can share with us. For right now, look at what we found for you:

“From The Billboard Magazine Website – The Top Music Publishers Of 2021 Ranked By Global Revenue”

The music publishing industry was defined by a series of mega deals in 2021, including the sales of song catalogs by such superstars as Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Def Leppard. The majors made the lion’s share of these acquisitions, but indies such as Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis and Larry Mestel’s Primary Wave were also very much in the game. Here’s how a dozen top publishers stacked up in terms of revenue last year, as well as a look at their progress in 2022.

The Top Music Publishers Of 2021 Ranked By Global Revenue

Music 1. Jon Platt Chairman/CEO, Sony Music Publishing

Global revenue: $1.726B

Music publishing’s goliath rebranded from Sony/ATV to Sony Music Publishing and brokered deals with hot new talent — Olivia Rodrigo, The Kid LAROI and Kane Brown — while also scoring wins with some of Sony’s top legacy talent. SMP signed AC/DC, bought Bruce Springsteen’s masters and publishing in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment for an estimated $500 million and acquired Paul Simon’s entire song catalog. ASCAP and BMI crowned SMP’s Nashville division country publisher of the year for the first time since 2021.

2022 momentum: Sony led Billboard’s first-quarter Publishers Quarterly on both the Hot 100 and Radio Airplay charts, with 22.65% and 24.67% market shares, respectively. In the latter category, the music publisher has been No. 1 in 37 out of the last 39 quarters. And SMP’s $465.03 million fiscal fourth-quarter revenue for the period ended March 31 represented a 14% increase from the corresponding period a year earlier when revenue was $408.2 million. Its total revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31 was $1.784 billion.

Music 2. Jody Gerson Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group

Global revenue: $1.59B

UMPG’s aggressive dealmaking has narrowed the gap between it and Sony Music Publishing over the last seven years, and after closing 2020 with a deal to acquire Bob Dylan’s 60-year, 600-song catalog maintained its momentum in 2021 through deals with Lionel Richie, Clairo, Louis Bell and Julia Michaels. The publisher also extended its deal with Harry Styles and sealed licensing deals with TikTok and Triller.

2022 momentum: UMPG reached a deal with The Weeknd to take over administration of his highly lucrative song catalog once his deal with Kobalt expires. In the first quarter, the music publisher finished No. 2 on both the Hot 100 and Radio Airplay rankings with 20.40% and 21.74% of the market, respectively.

Music 3. Guy Moot Co-chair/CEO, Warner Chappell Music Carianne Marshall Co-chair/COO, Warner Chappell Music

Global revenue: $817.0M

Warner Chappell upped its game in 2021 with acquisitions of David Bowie’s publishing catalog, renewal deals with Madonna and the estate of George Michael, and new deals with Cardi B, Anderson .Paak and Daniel Caesar. It also promoted Ryan Press to president of North America.

2022 momentum: The company finished at No. 3 on the Hot 100 publishers ranking, with a 14.99% market share in the first quarter, but dropped to No. 4 behind Kobalt on the Radio Airplay ranking with 15.51% of the market. Warner Chappell also signed up-and-coming Mexican singer-songwriter Natanael Cano (“Soy El Diablo”) to a worldwide publishing deal.

Music 4. Merck Mercuriadis Founder/CEO, Hipgnosis Song Management/Hipgnosis Songs Fund/Hipgnosis Songs Capital

Estimated global revenue: $161M

After a $1 billion spending spree in the first six months of 2021 that included the publishing catalogs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, music publishing’s provocateur spent the second half orchestrating a $1-billion investment partnership with Blackstone.

2022 momentum: Signed a worldwide publishing deal with R&B star Normani and, in the first quarter, finished at No. 6 on the Radio Airplay publishers ranking with 3.28% and at No. 7 on the Hot 100 ranking with 3.23%.

Music 5. Larry Mestel Founder/CEO/president of music publishing, Primary Wave Music

Estimated global revenue: $161M

According to Mestel, Primary Wave raised the value of its assets to $2 billion through deals with the estates of James Brown and Bing Crosby, Chris Isaak and Sun Records. The company also owns a major chunk of the Prince estate.

2022 momentum: Primary Wave expanded its stakes in Def Leppard’s publishing and recording royalty income from some of its biggest hits, including “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Rock of Ages,” and acquired key rights from Bob Dylan’s share of the Traveling Wilburys catalog, including master royalties and neighboring rights royalties from the group’s output. But a Minnesota judge rejected the company’s proposal that Prince’s assets be placed in a single holding company in which all heirs would be shareholders.

Read More Music Headllines

from WordPress https://ift.tt/rmxHNqg via IFTTT

#Music #Musicislife #musica #MusicLover

0 notes

2rebeccakeyte · 4 years ago

Text

Podcast Research Links

Washington Post: Cultural appropriation

“taking vs making”

“Here’s one last question that might be helpful to ask of white rappers, or any musician who appropriates: Are they travelers, or are they tourists? Travelers move through the world in order to participate. Tourists simply look around, have some fun, take what they want and bring it back home.”

Cultural appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation

“Cultural appropriation is when a person takes elements from another culture without paying tribute to their authenticity and value, said Timothy Welbeck, an Africology and African American Studies instructor.

Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars and Iggy Azalea, all non-Black artists, are known for performing music like R&B and hip-hop influenced by Black people and culture.“

“Azalea’s performances, particularly the voice she uses while rapping, is an example of appropriation, Welbeck said. Azalea uses a “blaccent,” an imitation of a Black accent by a non-Black person, while rapping, he added.”

“When she raps, she sounded like a poor imitation of a Black woman who lived in an urban area in America,” Welbeck said. “But then when she spoke, she spoke in a dignified Australian accent.”

“When an artist tries to profit from the music style without showing respect to the culture, they also demonstrate cultural appropriation, said Gabriella Duran, a freshman global studies and political science major.”

“It hurts to listen to a group and become invested when you know they don’t respect your culture,” she said. “If they’re problematic, I won’t listen to them.”

How to Navigate Cultural Appropriations in a Globalized Music World?

“The distinction is important. Let us use Miley Cyrus as an example. During the album rollout of her 2013 smash album Bangerz she proudly twerked at the House of Blues, performed with Juicy J, wore grills, and took photos with new friend/producer Mike Will Made It. As expected, people were immediately uncomfortable about the Disney’s stars new image. When asked about her new image and music Miley commented that she wanted the music to “feel black”. Now, take the time to think. Is she taking or making? If you thought taking, then you would be right. Instead of creatively weaving hip-hop culture into her established pop sound Miley merely took advantage of hip-hop culture for personal gain.”

“What does “making” look like then? We are going to go back in time to early 1980 Nassau, The Bahamas. A couple of members from the successful punk band Talking Heads are disgruntled. There is intense infighting. The band may break up soon. During this holding pattern of emotions, the members are experiencing life on the island. They are taking part in Haitian voodoo religious ceremonies and hanging out with reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. The band comes together around a singular idea, Afro beats, and the African method of music-making. That includes improvising lyrics and polyrhythms. This could have turned into “taking” very quickly. The band could have gone back to New York city and simply remade Afrodisiac (A classic 1973 afrobeat record by Fela Kuti, which inspired the making Remain in Light). However, they did something different. They made something new using elements of African music. Their intentions were clear as well.”

“Brian Eno once compared the creative process to “looking out to the world and saying, ‘what a fantastic place we live in. let’s celebrate it”. They also worked with local talent on the new sounds they were working with. Steven Stanley, a Jamaican engineer who previously worked with Bob Marley, helped produce the record. They recruited soul singer Nona Hendryx to sing backing vocals as well. The result of this melting pot of ideas and influences was something more than African music. Remain in Light was Avant-Pop, Art-Rock, Afrofunk, and much more.”

“Sean Fennessey of Vibe remarked that ‘Talking Heads took African polyrhythms to NYC and made a return trip with elegant, alien post-punk in tow.” This is what making looks like. The Talking Heads used polyrhythms and African music to enhance the punk music they were already making. The music on Remain in Light wasn’t something you could hear in Nassau or Kingston; it was something entirely new.”

.2014

“Taken together, these songs and stories created an uncomfortable dissonance that was hard to escape in 2013 pop. It was unmistakable that all of these chart-topping, massively successful artists were heavily indebted to black music, and in many cases, also to black collaborators. So why wasn't there a single black lead artist to be found at the top of the Hot 100 for the entire year?”

“If conversations about this disparity were simmering for much of 2013 -- particularly following Cyrus and Thicke's infamously salacious performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, in which the duo were accused of, among other things, using their black backing dancers as sexual props -- they burst through the surface in 2014. At the Grammys in January, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were among the evening's biggest winners, taking home best new artist, best rap album (for 2012's The Heist), best rap song and best rap performance (both for "Thrift Shop"). The duo's four wins received instant criticism from fans and tastemakers who felt that there were worthier artists of color nominated in the categories they won -- particularly breakthrough rapper Kendrick Lamar”

Could use Macklemore as an example of cultural appreciation

#soundstudies

0 notes

sweetlifetownsville · 6 years ago

Text

The Massive Difference Between 'Buy Local' And 'Local Buy' ... How Mayor Mullet Has Played The Townsville Business Community For Mugs.

Jenny Hill has traded on a trick of language to fool Townsville into thinking she is a champion for local workers and business, when the exact opposite is the case. It all revolves around the Local Government Association of Queenslands business arm called Local Buy and it is a deliberate play on words to line the coffers of the LGAQ. As The Pie reports, this one looks murky indeed. Also, the Townsville Bulletin goes beyond beyond parody, with one of their biggest side-splitting bungles yet and overall, it was a week you couldnt make up unless of course, youre the Bulletin. And is rebel councillor Paul The Angry Ant Jacob shaping up to take on The Mullet well, he may well have delusions of popularity and adequacy for a tilt in 2020 but there will be one powerful group that will try to block him. Also, the funniest comment on a news story this week comes from the most unlikely place and by popular demand, our regular pictorial gallery from Trumpistan. But first The shared thought-fart of the week belongs to One Notions P Hanson and the Katteronics R Katter. No sooner had Hanson quavered tremulously over the radio that people on the dole should be put to work catching cane toads at ten cents a pop, than Katter jumped on this creaky bandwagon and and upped the ante.

Bob Katter (right). Columnist James Jeffrey once wrote the Bob uses words like a cliff in Norway uses lemmings, and during the week, the member for Kennedy obliged with proof when he gurgled, giggled, sneered and croaked out his proposal that kids should catch the toads for 40 cents a time and be armed with air rifles to get the job done. It all makes one think that both Hanson and Katter are still smarting from their latest rejection letters from The Mensa Society, but the ever-practical Bentley thinks no matter how the creatures are caught, there might be a bit of a flaw in the idea.

Gosh, kids could be recruited under the banner of The Toady Army oh, hang on, maybe not, Townsville City councillors might sue for copyright. Is The LGAQs Nice Little Earner LOCAL BUY Costing Townsville A Motza? Some well credentialed business folks around town at increasingly frustrated with the little-understood Queensland Local Government Associations business arm Buy Local. And on the face of what two well-placed identities have told The Pie, the whole set-up looks ripe for rorts of all sorts, even progressing to very serious corruption unless proper transparency is in place. First this landed in the Nests inbox from a respected and successful Townsville businessman. Just wanted to highlighta program that shows that Mayor Mullet cannot only stuff Townsville as Mayor, she is also doing it as a Director of LGAQ against local businesses who payrent/rates and employ people.Townsville City Council is among those Queensland Local Councils using LGAQ Local Buy to avoid going to tender locally, allowing them toappoint out of town contractors with the LGAQ taking a cut (understood to be 10% of any contract, which of course is just added on to what the cost would otherwise be). Townsville businesses who were previously and successfully supplying services to Council have lost out under this scheme with many being forced to the business and had to put off staff. Any complaints about the dire situation made to Richard The Screaming Midget Beckett (no longer with the council met with threats that they would be locked out of any Council tenders in the future all under the culture from the Impailer and Mayor Mullet . To be an approved Local buy supplier you have to apply and I think pay an amount to be approved and there is a period of 5 years in which other similar other local businesses cant even apply. Momentum for change must be building as this excerpt from a letter from Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe indicates, after he received a petition complaining about the situation.

Also, has anyone questioned the $400k yearly service agreement between T.C.C . and the LGAQ and does the Mullet disclose her Directors fees from LGAQ ? As a LGAQ director, Jenny Hill, pops into her purse $31,000 p.a ta very muchly. Under the circumstances, that could be seen as blood money, since she must know the hardship this state-wide legalised rort is costing Townsvilles well-being. The Nest has received a number of complaints about Local Buy, but until this week, The Pie didnt have a coherent idea of what was happening so to get an independent assessment, The Magpie asked a business professional well versed in both business and LG matters to give this over-view. Given the current climate of spite and uncertainty, the person asked to remain anonymous. Local Buy is flawed in many aspects, even if one were to concede that its creation was well intentioned.Lets give them the benefit of the doubt to start with procurement can be complex and costly. Good procurement practice (eg. due diligence, evaluation requiring technical expertise etc) could be provided as a shared service, so that smaller organisations can in effect benefit from the capabilities of a larger organisation able to hire the appropriately skilled personnel. Theres also the prospect of negotiating better aggregate rates on the basis of aggregated volume. Thats the theory. The reality is that it is nowhere near this. Im not sure about the 5-year protection racket claim, but I do know that getting on the list involves not much more than paying some fees and ticking some boxes. This means a local council is more or less free to then pick and choose from the list, subject to the requirements of the LG Act. Magpie note: This means that the TCC can choose from a list based solely on price, which often means true locals cannot compete. This raises a moral question of whether it is more desirable to pay perhaps a bit more locally and materially contribute to a more vibrant local economy than to simply save some money because outside organisations that make no real contributions to our city. And it is this part of the system that is clearly open to corrupt influences. The Pie knows of none, but its an open invitation to it. Local Buy of course takes a Commission, from memory 10%, from registered suppliers when they win work, so in the end the potential benefits of savings arent materialised. Suppliers actually add the commission in. Theres also real doubt as to whether the Local Buy organisation actually has any real procurement capability. As a result, the tendency is for increasingly standardised or vanilla offerings, because thats the nature of generalised procedures run by people with limited specialisation and knowledge of local requirements or specialist areas eg, technology. Local Buy is a misnomer, of course. It neither compels nor guarantees procurement by a local authority from suppliers located within this authoritys area. Having said that, what goes to constituting local is never actually an easy question to answer, which makes a mockery of the entire buy local trope. One other thing on the Local Buy (and council procurement in general): theres a category called standing offer arrangement. This is basically a set of approved rates for services / products that a council can basically go back to time after time, without going out to tender. In theory, not a bad thing for pencils, paper clips and such like but as is always the case in procurement easily abused or at the very least, mis-used. The Magpie thanks the author for that succinct summary. It would certainly appear that we are being dudded one way or the other, but two things raise the Magpies curiosity: what do we get for our $400k annual contribution to the LGAQ? And noted in hindsight, just as this Local Buy system was being introduced, Mayor Mullet started dropping in the odd buy local slogan the timing appears to havde been there to fool people when they started hearing about local buy. Low level chicanery at its worst, spread about at the very time it now appears the council Jenny Hill heads was doing exactly the opposite. For Jenny Hill to trumpet the buy local cry is the height of hypocrisy, anyway. One of the very first acts she did when first elected mayor was to buy her new mayoral car (a top of the line Holden at around $70-$80,000) IN BRISBANE AND STIFFED THE RATEPAYERS TO HAVE IT SHIPPED HERE. And why was this? Because she had had a previous fight with Tony Ireland of TI Holden about repairs her previous vehicle, which she had mildly pranged into a gutter _ Ireland point blank refused her request to illegally mark it down as an accident insurance claim, which it clearly wasnt. Even although the Ireland company agreed to match the Brisbane price, Jenny Hill went ahead with the Brisbane deal anyway. Shes a sweet piece of work sometimes.

So if youre ever thinking if its true that local business people are fearful of spiteful retribution if they disagree with this civic leader, just keep that in mind. And Heres An Interesting Thought Wonder if Local Buy had anything to do with the controversial choice of pipe for the new Burdekin line, and did Local Buytb have anything to do with the pipeline jobs that went to Adelaide in stead of the promised boon to Townsville? Just askin. ya know. Yes The Astonisher Has Gone Beyond Parody The satirists lot is not a happy one lately. I mean, how do you make fun of something like the Bulletin that is so unintentionally crazy-funny to start with? Is this a secret plot to spike The Magpies guns? Last Tuesday, this appeared on page 16 as the editorial page of the Townsville Bulletin.

This is a stupendous blunder in a Townsville publication, that through their typical technical ineptness, the hard copy paper had published THE CAIRNS POST EDITORIAL PAGE the community voice (supposedly) of any newspaper. The editorial was of bugger all interest here, as well as being pretty stupid, anyway. It even had the Cairns deputy iditor signing it under the Townsville Bulletin masthead.

There was a time when this bit of prize fuckwittery wouldve caused an uproar, given the sensitive feelings between the two cities, but it appears weve been bludgeoned into not caring about the Bulletin anyway. Honestly, if it were not for the circle-jerk leadership of this city, the mayor and the head of Townsville Enterprise would be so incensed by this particular A community without a responsible newspaper is like a beautiful woman with only one eye (apologies to Brillat-Savarin). But still the harmless laughs kept coming. There was this story

which included this quote from one of the ladies of the night about southern blow-in blow-job competition on the streets: Theres false advertising, they send out a photo of a really hot looking chick and when they get there its some frumpy number. The girls have had a gutful of it This has been brewing for ages. Yknow, Thd Magpie thinks the lady might have a point. What sort of deceptive, conniving, immoral low-life would stoop to such trickery. Bet it would never happen in the Townsville Bulletin, would it? Huh, what? oh, oops.

But even when credibility-destroying cock-ups are right before their eyes, they still get into the paper. One should feel sorry for a decent old-time journo like Tony Raggatt, having his pic plastered between these clearly conflicting claims (the list clearly being nothing to with him).

But The Astonisher makes it easy to err take the piss.

This reeks of wreaking havoc on the language. Is The Angry Ant About To Up The Ante?

Paul Jacob Paul Jacob knows a cushy number when he sees one he is after all a Townsville City councillor. But it would seem our man is a tad more ambitious. The Ant broke ranks against Mayor Mullets Adani airstrip rort, conveniently just before he made an abortive run for state as a Labor-aligned but not endorsed candidate. Ever since, he has been regarded as a rebel ever since among the council sheeple and certainly by head shepherd Jennifer. So when he was front-paged in todays Astonisher

calling for an easing of water restrictions, many a pundit including The Pie, immediately assumed this was the signal for a Jacob joust for the top office in Walker Street. And that will be tricky. Unless Mayor Mullet abdicates and retires to malta, or runs on a Labor senate ticket her dearest wish but said not be shared by those who could make it so Clr Jacob will come under some intense pressure and even be flattered with promises of future glory by the Labor Party. Because despite her simpering shy denials of being a Labor mayor, Jenny Hill is, and is seen as, just that, and mainly by Labor itself. The party back room boys reckon mayor is as far as shes going, so they wouldnt rock what they see as a returnable vote boat in local government in March 2020. They know poor old Dolan Hayes will need Ashley and Martin soon with all the hair-tearing last thing the already beleaguered mayor needs is a Labor split ticket. But trust the Bulletin to come galumphing on to this particular scene with a few editorial bromides, but the best being this hilarious piece of total unselfawareness in an iditorial, which clearly is not Astonisher editorial policy.

Take your own advice, dearie. But Does The Pie Detect A Sly Dissension In The Senior Ranks At The Paper? Although The Pie doubts the feeling is mutual, he has great respect for the old-style work and values of John Ando Anderson he offers a very readable weekly service to the valuable rural readership of the paper, which clearly involves actual field work, and not just a few phone calls or, heaven forbid, lazy Facebook trolling. Now, Ando is nothing if not a steadfastly loyal News Ltd man; he has reason to be, the company spared no expense successfully defending him against spurious charge brought by the DPP over a jail interview almost 20 years ago. But The Pie couldnt help wonder if he wasnt trying to get a subtle message into the editors ear when writing today about Townsvilles landscape of words, waffle and impossible dreams.

Gotta love that line Pep talks are good for morale, but in the end, they start to sound like the boy crying wolf. And that, Ando, described PRECISELY the Bulletin editorial policy. very funny. Clever too, if The Pie is right. Pop in and have a chat to , will you? For all of us. Ghosts Of Iditors Past:Theres A Reason Hes Called Typo Gleeson

Typo Gleeson leaving an unsuccessful job interview as editor of Tailor & Cutter magazine. If you believe Sky Newss squeak fest hosted by Peter Typo Gleeson (sorry, only kidding) you might think David Crisafulli is returning to town for a special job and the head of TEL has changed her name.During the week, ww were treated too a hindenberg of hot air when Lil Patty OCallaghan and state opposition pollie Kid Crisafulli fielded a number of Dorothy Dixers from Typo. But one would think it was Typo in charge of the on-screen titling.

And when they got around to realising their mistake, in typical Typo fashion, they got that wrong too.

And Another Thing .. Best comment of the week goes to the bloke who replied to a totally embarrassing piece of nonesense in the paper about whether we are a friendly city. He suggested that of course we are we even wave to you from the roof of the Cleveland Detention Centre as you drive in from the airport. Luv it! Just what such a space-waste story deserved. Finally Its Been Another week of Wall-To-Wall umm .. Wall And we start with Mexico announcing the obvious

A Final Dad Joke (Well, Worked As A Granddad Joke)

Oh dear sorry. .. Thats it for another week, were off and running for 2019, its promising to be a cracker. There are a wider variety of folks taking to comments of late, keep it up, some are thoughtful, some hilarious, so entertain and be entertained. And if you have anything left over from the festive season, a donation to support The Magpies Nest will be of great assistance, the how to donate button is below. http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/the-massive-difference-between-buy-local-and-local-buy-how-mayor-mullet-has-played-the-townsville-business-community-for-mugs/

0 notes

dylanstewartboxing · 6 years ago

Text

Preview: Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner, A Freak Show worthy of the Las Vegas Strip

As fight week draws closer to a close, you can begin to feel the tension rise between Pacquiao and Broner. What was all laughs in November has become much more serious come fight week. (Scott Hirano/SHOWTIME)

It is somewhat fitting that the long-awaited matchup between Senator Manny Pacquiao and frequent arrestee Adrien Broner is taking place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The same venue that has housed Circus Du Soleil, David Copperfield, and, Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. The connection all the previous mentioned shows have is they have the Las Vegas taste to them. They captivate, they bring something that you could only expect from Sin City. Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner fits in with all in the genre perfectly. This fight between the “Pac-Man” and the “Can-Man” certainly couldn't be confused with the plight of other high-level matchups that Showtime has on the first half of their schedule in 2019. It doesn't fit alongside matchups such as Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia, or, Gervonta Davis vs. Abner Mares, or the rematch between heavyweight kings Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury. It fits into its own category, and that isn't a bad thing. This matchup is fascinatingly odd, there are levels to the oddity of this matchup and the storylines going in and out of the blockbuster fight on January 19th. And it is in the oddity, and the storylines, that you have a massive Pay-Per-View worthy showdown that features two of the biggest draws in the sport, past their prime. Sounds familiar? doesn't it?

The Redemption Story:

Adrien “The Problem” Broner, 29, has been no more a “problem” for his opponents inside the squared circle as he has for himself outside of it. Broner, at one point was one of the most heralded fighters in the world. Considered by some to be a future Pound-For-Pound best in the sport. Veteran ringside commentator Jim Lampley once said after Broner TKO’d Gavin Rees on an HBO telecast in 2013 “How long is it before we put Broner somewhere near their league [Andre Ward & Floyd Mayweather]. It’s too early for that yet, but clearly that will be the target...” Lampley continues his sentiments, “By all lights, what we see here, appears that somewhere down the road, that discussion will take place.” We never got to that point down the road. Hindsight is 20/20. Anyone who had an opinion on boxing saw a bright future from the then budding protégé to one Floyd “money” Mayweather. At the time, Broner was only 23 years old, and he had already traversed two weight categories winning and defending championships at both super featherweight and lightweight. He achieved a record of 25-0 with no fights remotely close. He had also achieved massive economic successes at by his clear talent, and relationship with Mayweather. Broner had over one-million dollars in the bank at the time of the Gavin Rees fight. He was on top of the world. And, for a man who grew up with nothing, Broner himself will tell you he didn't- and many would argue he still doesn't know how to act with all the success that came at an early age. “I come from water and cornflakes” is a quote that Adrien “About Billions” Broner often barks out to point out his struggle of an upbringing. He often says boxing saved his life, in fact it’s a phrase Broner has used since he was 12 it certainly doesn't show. Broner now has the ego of a glutton, rather someone who came up from nothing. Broner’s egotistical nature is at the root of his unfocused approach to boxing which has been quite visible over the last five years. It is in that eleven fights-five-year period, from the Rees fight to his most recent draw against Jessie Vargas, that the narrative would eventually formulate that Adrien Broner has become a “letdown” and that his career is a far-cry from what could have been. It is evident the skills that Adrien Broner still has, he is a top-flight pugilist when he’s at his best. The twelfth round against Shawn Porter, the second half of the Jessie Vargas fight, the fact that he is the youngest ever four division world champions, and his initial 27 fight unbeaten streak could all be used as circumstantial evidence to prove that a hungry, focused Adrien Broner is a dangerous one and the reason you cannot quite rule him out against an aging Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately, a focused Broner is something seldom seen as of recent years. It seems like a “do-or-die” angle is created by the Showtime producers, and a promise of a “re-focused” Broner. We all know, truth be told, he hasn’t been focused in recent years. He simply cannot avoid run-ins with the law, attempted robbery charges, sexual battery charges, and most recently, two separate sexual misconduct charges in two diffrent states. He was supposed to be in court in the states of Florida and Ohio on the same day just two weeks before the biggest and most important fight of his career against Manny Pacquiao on the 19th. Also, frequent videos of drug and alcohol abuse, embarrassing public behavior, and an affection for clubs and the party lifestyle have left Broner at rock bottom more than once. To say Adrien Broner is 100% focused seems illogical from an outsiders perspective, but, the rhetoric from Team Broner headed by coaches Kevin Cunningham, an ex-police officer, well known for his strict style of fight preparation, and, Mike Stafford who has been with Broner since he was seven years old, is that this is the most focus and the most well prepared Broner has been for a fight in years. Also, according to Steve Farhood (Showtime’s Hall-of-Fame commentator), The Showtime Sports All-Access crew who documented the entire training camp of Adrien Broner said Broner has worked tremendously hard in this training camp and he seems to be truly focused on the task of beating one of the greatest of his era, Manny Pacquiao. For all wrong Broner has done in his career, a dominate, statement making win could rectify what would otherwise be considered an overall disappointment, and Adrien Broner and his close-knit team are fully aware of that rare opportunity.

The Economics:

Manny Pacquiao, a Senator, a philanthropist, the most humble millionaire you will ever meet, endearing to everyone he meets, if there was ever a better representative for the sport of boxing, I do not know who that person is. Manny Pacquiao is the ultimate protagonist. He, like his counterpart, Broner also comes from nothing. A wooden and metal shack on an impoverished island country with little to eat. Pacquiao has the outcome of someone you would expect came from nothing, and his countryfolk as well as boxing fans and media universally adore him for it. Adrien Broner is the clear perfect candidate to be Manny Pacquiao’s antagonist. He’s brash, arrogant, flashy, selfish, and a headline grabbing trash talker. These two men come from very similar backgrounds, but they have become polar opposites with time. Sometimes a fight just makes sense, this is one of those times. You have a clear good guy vs. a clear bad guy. This is a fight that could sell itself just based on the personalities involved.

When the announcement came from left field that Manny Pacquiao would be signing with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions stable after spending an entire career with direct rival Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions, it was clear what he was after. He wants the big names, and most importantly he wants the biggest name of them all, a rematch with Floyd Mayweather.

This fight in particular, Pacquiao vs. Broner has been spoken about for around two years now. This dates back to a post Mayweather Pacquiao looking for big name opponents to get him big money and allot of attention. This fight made economic sense for all involved, except Broner who was offered only one-million dollars at the time from Pacquiao’s former promoter Bob Arum. That, of course brought negotiations to a screeching halt, the fight was dead in the water for years despite obvious fan intrigue in the bout. A couple of years later, Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner were under the same roof and now the stars have aligned. You can’t help but to get somewhat of a feeling that Showtime is “using” Broner given his recent track record of losing high-profile fights against the upper echelon. After all, boxing is a money business first and foremost. Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao 2 makes MONEY. There’s a clear route set up, and it is brilliant planning by Showtime if it plays out in the most likely of scenarios.

One thing that remains a constant, Broner is a ticket seller and he is must-see television. He’s only hit under the 500,000-viewership mark one time since he began headlining events with his 2013 main event attraction against well respected Brooklynite Paulie Malanaggi. Those are unheard-of numbers for a premium cable network in the 2010′s. He is one of the few legitimate stars in boxing, when he is in the ring, people watch. Whether it is out of spite, or out of love, people tune in. Broner can move a needle despite never headlining a pay-per-view event himself. Allot of his star comes from his more than frequent visit to the headlines, he is what I would consider the most polarizing figure in prizefighting. From arrests, to relentless trash-talking, to truly funny one-liners. Adrien Broner is a salesmen, and more often than not, you get what you pay for. There isn't a single fight out of his 37 that could be considered “boring”. Unlike his style predecessor, Floyd Mayweather, Adrien Broner is known to be comfortable in the pocket. He will not back down from a firefight, be it to his own demise and the fans approval, or vice versa. You can call Adrien Broner allot of things, but you certainly cannot call him boring. Manny Pacquiao has been a PPV star for the bulk of his career making his PPV debut all the way back in 2005 with his first fight with Erik “El Terrible” Morales. Since then, Manny Pacquiao has broken one million PPV buys on seven separate occasions, and he’s brought home over $1 Billion dollars in PPV revenue alone. Like his opponent, Manny Pacquiao is one of the rare five in boxing that can draw massive numbers and transcend into the more casual sphere of sports. That is why this fight is the perfect appetizer for a Floyd “Money” Mayweather rematch. This is big business.

Manny Pacquiao’s Late Career Revival:

Senator Manny Pacquiao, 40, boxing’s only eight division world champion, first ballot Hall of Famer, multiple time fighter of the year, the arguable best of an entire generation, everyone who has remotely hovered around the sport of boxing for some time over the past two decades knows the movie-like story of Manny Pacquiao. They are also aware of his pugilistic excellence that he has exuded over the past twenty years inside the boxing ring. Capturing world titles in eight separate weight divisions- from light flyweight all the way up to light middleweight. He has shared the ring with a who’s who of boxing royalty, four fights with Juan Manuel Marquez, three fights with Erik Morales, two fights with Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and most notably Floyd Mayweather. It is remarkable that someone of Pacquiao’s age and his prestige is fighting at the highest levels of the sport, especially considering the amount of wars he has been in throughout a what will be on Saturday night, seventy fight career. Manny Pacquiao doesn't have a risk adverse style by any means. He’s one of the all time great offensive fighters in the long and rich history of boxing, he’s been in allot of tough fights, and to be preforming in such a way that he did against then WBA ‘Regular’ Welterweight Champion Lucas Matthysse this past July, it is almost like we’ve gone through a time warp back to 2009. And, the boxing public can’t get enough of it. Of course, this late career revival will come with consequences. There have been allegations in the past by more of the conspiratorial minded that Manny Pacquiao is a dirty fighter, that he uses steroids. This allegation steams from a contract dispute that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had when the original contest was supposed to take place after Manny Pacquiao beat Miguel Cotto in 2009. The fight was intally agreed on, after it was settled both men would split $50 million upfront, but there was a conflict between both Team Mayweather and Team Pacquiao on the drug testing. Mayweather was hard-set in favor of blood testing by The United States-Anti Doping Agency, Team Pacquiao was hard-set on not being blood tested within 30-days of the fight taking place as “it would weaken my fighter.” said Freddie Roach. Thus, the fight was called off, and the anti-Pacquiao propaganda from Mayweather and his backers began, likewise the claims of Manny being a drug cheat. These allegations have resurfaced from commenters both credible and not, after Pacquiao’s fantastical turning back of the proverbial clock against Lucas Matthysse. This was not the same Manny Pacquiao we have seen in fights from the Juan Manuel Marquez knockout loss on (2012-2018) we saw a much diffrent Manny Pacquiao in those fights, an older version of the man that once was over his next seven bouts. This was a physically faster, stronger, more spirited version of an old Manny Pacquiao. And there are plenty of reasons that could attribute to what seems like a late-career resurgence. One, he could be easing more into the groove of being both a senator and elite level prizefighter, you have to imagine he couldn't have been completely focused on fighting when he was dealing with all of his political asperations outside of boxing. Now, he has a secured job as Senator, and more experience with balancing both boxing and politicking. There is no true incriminating evidence that Manny Pacquiao has ever used or is using steroids. He hasn't ever tested positive on a drug test in all his time taking them. And for this fight with Adrein Broner, he looks to be in even better shape than he was last July, and they have been testing under the WBA’s mandatory VADA testing since training camp began. Both fighters are clean until otherwise proven dirty, Manny Pacquiao is an extreme outlier for someone his age to be as fast, as strong, as powerful and as athletic he is. That just shows you how special Manny Pacquiao is.

A flattened, shocked, Lucas Matthysse coming to his senses after a vintage Manny Pacquiao knocks him down and eventually finishes him in the fifth. (Action Images/Reuters/Lai Seng Sin)

After Manny Pacquiao’s sixth round knockout loss (now dubbed “the shot heard ‘round the world”) to Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth fight together, many called for Pacquiao’s retirement then and there, it would have been unimaginable to think he would be fighting on six years after and in nine fights. He went on a three fight win streak looking decent, but no better against Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley, and Chris Algieri thus setting the stage for “The Fight of The Century” even if it was six years past when it should have taken place. The fight, and the potential rematch, will both be covered in full in my book slated to come out at the end of the year, Pacquiao would of course lose that fight in less than spectacular fashion citing a shoulder injury that hindered his ability to use his lead right hand. He took one more fight before “retiring”, that was a little wanted trilogy bout with Timothy Bradley. Pacquiao would cruise to a decision. This was and seemed like it was going to be Pacquiao’s last fight, especially considering the issues Pacquiao was having with his then newly acquired career in Philippino politics. The fight was nearly cancelled due to some obligations that Pacquiao had to attend to on a governmental front. He would then unretire (as many boxers do) a remarkable seven months later and dominate a much larger Jessie Vargas in a near shutout decision in Las Vegas. Then, the entire Manny Pacquiao comeback contingency plan was exploded by a rough and rugged Jeff Horn and a controversial decision by three judges at ringside in Horn’s backyard. A Floyd Mayweather rematch was expected to be next, but after the loss, more rumors of retirement would come, and Pacquiao wouldn't fight for the rest of the calendar year as he was attending to senatorial duties and recovering from the Jeff Horn fight. The aforementioned fight with Lucas Matthysse come one-year and one-week to Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Jeff Horn. He would go on to dispatch Matthysse in a familiar aggressive Pacquiao fashion, knocking down the Argentine slugger three times in five rounds. We saw a flash of a past Manny Pacquiao in the ring this past July, it didn't look like a “prime” Manny Pacquiao, but it didn't look much diffrent than the Manny Pacquiao that brutalized Miguel Cotto or Oscar De La Hoya if you squint hard enough. Granted, Lucas Matthysse picked up a reputation of being a “quitter” in his later years, but he had also picked up some decent wins before facing Manny Pacquiao last July. This fight with Adrien Broner is the toughest fight on paper that Manny Pacquiao has been in since his losing effort against Floyd Mayweather all those years ago at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. We are here again, we are at the crossroads, the astronomical economical rematch with Floyd Mayweather lies on the other side of the street, the only thing in Manny’s path to revenge is Adrein Broner. Likewise with Broner’s question of focus and dedication, we have a question of Manny Pacquiao, has he gotten old overnight? will we see the Pacquiao we saw lose to Jeff Horn in heartbreaking fashion? we can only speculate until we see the “legend face the letdown” as Steve Farhood astutely observed. One thing that is undeniable, this fight is going to be fireworks from the beginning to the conclusion, especially if both polarizing figures enter the ring at their respective peaks for being past their primes.

Prediction:

Anyone who tells you they have a real read on this fight is lying. This is one of the more unpredictable fights I have witnessed in my years of being a boxing spectator. In one corner, you have Adrien Broner, the youngest ever four-division world champion. An underachiever with a chip the size of his ego on his shoulder. He has all the motivation in the world to actually SHOW up for this fight. This is his chance to write a new chapter for himself and his career. And, judging by the rhetoric from his corner and the ones in the know, this is the hungriest and most focused Adrien Broner has been in a long time. It is always a question if Adrein Broner will preform to occasion and to expectation, but I for one am buying into the notion that he is truly focused for this fight. He has had a much more monotoned fight week, usually there is no shortage of drama from the colorful Broner on fight week, all we got this week was Adrien calling out Showtime’s Al Bernstein for “setting him up”, “going against him”, and for being a “b*tch ass ni**a “ that’s mellow compared to what we have experienced in times past. Manny Pacquiao has had an important reverse of roles as well in Las Vegas during this fight week. The usually hyper focused but warm Pacquiao was all smiles, all week long. He has been laughing, joking, and opening up more so than he ever has in his high profile matchups. You can get the sense this is a more relaxed version of Manny Pacquiao, it feels as if he is at home. His camp headed by longtime cutman turned head coach Buboy Fernandez and seconded by longtime head coach turned cutman Freddie Roach has been the best he’s had in years. Roach has been on record saying this version of Manny Pacquiao hits just as hard, and is just as strong as the Pacquiao of past years. Whether that be true or not is to be foreseen, Pacquiao’s conditioning can not be called into question however as he looks to be in awe-inspiring shape for a man who just turned 40-years old. He looks to be finally fitting into the welterweight mold better than he has in fights prior. We may very well see the best versions of Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner relative to their post-prime positions in the ring on Saturday night, and that is all that we can hope for.

From a historical based-technical viewpoint, I expect a high class firefight in the ring on Saturday night. Assuming Manny Pacquiao is the same Pacquiao we saw thrash Lucas Matthysse into submission, and Adrien Broner is the same Broner (if not better) that fought ferociously for a draw against Jessie Vargas in April, we could have a real treat on our hands. Adrien Broner, while coming from the Floyd Mayweather mold, has some major stylistic differences to Floyd. He mainly boxes out of a high guard, and while it does remain true that Broner is indeed a natural counterpuncher, he is a fine offensive fight as well. He has been criticized in fights previous, namely the Mikey Garcia fight for shelling up in his high guard when pressed with smart, fundamentally sound aggression, something Manny Pacquiao has in spades. Broner will need to shy away from his typical catch and counter style that he has applied in previous fights as that will most likely spell his doom against one of the finest offensive fighters of all time. For Adrien Broner to win this fight, I believe he needs to stay busy offensively, but not get complacent against Pacquiao, he needs to work with his jab at distance and he needs to work the body of Manny Pacquiao on the inside. And he absolutely can not get off to a slow start as he has in nearly every fight he has been in since the Marcos Maidana fight. He will get stopped if he takes rounds 1-6 off. Personally, I do buy into the fact that Adrien Broner is the best version of himself that he could be, but I simply do not believe he’s good enough to beat someone of Manny Pacquiao’s caliber unless Pacquiao has gotten old overnight. In that case, Broner could potentially stop Pacquiao. But, in the most likely occasion, I see Manny Pacquiao winning a clear but competitive decision over Adrien Broner who’s chin is notoriously hard to crack. I think Broner probably give Manny some fits early and in the middle rounds, but I believe Manny Pacquiao’s excellence will shine through paving the way for a Floyd Mayweather rematch in late summer-early fall. Face it, we will all be watching that.

0 notes

thecollegefootballguy · 8 years ago

Text

The Real Champions: Some Final Thoughts and Analysis

Hey everybody, I want to thank those of you who took the time to read my series “The Real Champions” which set out to decide which teams actually deserved to claim national championships every year from 1900 to 2015. This was definitely one of my longest projects, certainly in the top two with the Realignment Rivalry Graveyard Countdown. Now that it’s over there’s a lot of information to parse through so I’m going to try to make a (relatively) condensed analysis of everything and find a few takeaways here and there.

This is the final part of a long series I’ve been writing, I would strongly suggest getting familiar with at least the rules that I’ve used to govern this project before beginning, and if you wanna start reading my decade by decade analysis you can start in the 2010′s or the 1900′s.

Before we start I want to announce two changes have been made to the list of champions. The first is because I started this project before the 2016 season began so it didn’t initially take into account Clemson’s championship. Second: I want to amend the 1978 season. At first I had only awarded Oklahoma a championship over Alabama and USC, but now I want to move the Trojans into a co-championship situation with the Sooners. I still won’t award the Tide a title since they got smoked by SC early in the season.

Now, on to the analysis!

The Raw Data

Here is the full list of every team I awarded a championship and for which seasons:

Alabama: 14 (1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1975, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015)

Arkansas: 1 (1964)

Army: 5 (1914, 1916, 1944, 1945, 1946)

Auburn: 3 (1957, 1983, 2010)

California: 4 (1920, 1921, 1922, 1937)

Chicago: 2 (1905, 1913)

Clemson: 2 (1981, 2016)

Colgate: 1 (1932)

Cornell: 4 (1915, 1921, 1922, 1939)

Florida: 3 (1995, 2006, 2008)

Florida State: 3 (1993, 1999, 2013)

Georgia: 2 (1942, 1980)

Georgia Tech: 4 (1917, 1928, 1952, 1990)

Harvard: 4 (1901, 1908, 1912, 1913)

Illinois: 3 (1914, 1923, 1927)

LSU: 3 (1958, 2003, 2007)

Maryland: 1 (1951)

Miami: 5 (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001)

Michigan: 10 (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997)

Michigan State: 3 (1951, 1952, 1966)

Minnesota: 7 (1903, 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941)

Nebraska: 5 (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997)

Notre Dame: 13 (1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988, 1993)

Ohio State: 5 (1942, 1954, 1968, 2002, 2014)

Oklahoma: 10 (1949, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1967, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1985, 2000)

Ole Miss: 3 (1959, 1960, 1962)

Penn State: 5 (1911, 1969, 1982, 1986, 1994)

Pennsylvania: 2 (1904, 1908)

Pittsburgh: 6 (1910, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1937, 1976)

Princeton: 3 (1906, 1922, 1933)

SMU: 1 (1982)

Stanford: 2 (1926, 1940)

Syracuse: 1 (1959)

Tennessee: 3 (1938, 1950, 1998)

TCU: 1 (1938)

Texas: 3 (1963, 1969, 2005)

Texas A&M: 3 (1919, 1927, 1939)

UCLA: 1 (1954)

USC: 8 (1931, 1932, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1978, 2003, 2004)

Washington: 2 (1984, 1991)

Washington & Jefferson: 1 (1921)

Yale: 5 (1900, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909)

There we have it. Every national championship from 1900 to 2016 based on the criteria I used to judge who was most worthy. Now clearly these titles don’t feel equally relevant anymore. Scrolling down to see Chicago’s two national championships and then Clemson’s doesn’t mean both teams have equal standing in the modern game. I’ll break down each of the champions by categories that roughly put them among peers.

The Breakdown of the Champions

The All-Time Best Programs in College Football

There are modern day powers, the blue bloods of the sport, and then there are absolute best. These few programs have set themselves apart more than any other in the sport and are probably what immediately comes to mind when you think of college football’s very best teams.

Alabama Crimson Tide: 14 national championships (1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1975, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015)

Alabama has been the most successful winner in the entire sport since the South became relevant in the game starting in the 1920′s. The Crimson Tide rode an initial wave of success under Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas in the 1920′s and 1930′s to mark themselves as the best team in the South. Bear Bryant’s record setting pace in the 1960′s and 70′s put them among the best of the best. Just for added measure, Nick Saban’s current dynasty has pushed Bama past Notre Dame as the top program based on championship numbers.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 13 (1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988, 1993)

Perhaps the most classic name associated with college football. Notre Dame was the most successful program in the 20th Century. The Fighting Irish burst on to the scene with Knute Rockne in the 1920′s. Frank Leahy guided the Irish to their greatest success in the 1940′s. Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz join the ranks as the head men who made sure that ND won national championships in every decade from the 1920′s to the 1990′s, easily the longest run any team has had.

Oklahoma Sooners: 10 (1949, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1967, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1985, 2000)

Oklahoma dominated the last half of the 20th Century more than any other school. The Sooners spotted their fellow all-timers about 20 years then raced out to a similar pace. Bud Wilkinson’s big run through the 50′s and Barry Switzer’s tenure in the 70′s and 80′s provided OU with most of their championships.

USC Trojans: 8 (1931, 1932, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1978, 2003, 2004)

I have trouble placing USC. They are a cut above the other blue blood programs in terms of championships, but they have nearly half as many titles as Alabama, the highest of the all-timers, so they feel somewhat out of place there as well. You could put them in either category, but I’m choosing to put them with the all-timers based on their three periods of huge success that matches up with the other schools on here. Howard Jones in the 30′s, John McKay and John Robinson in the 60′s and 70′s, as well as Pete Carroll in the 2000′s ran out of the tunnel with some of the best teams football has ever witnessed.

Michigan

I have to create a special category for Michigan. They do and do not fall into several of the categories I already made and stand apart somewhat.

Michigan Wolverines: 10 (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997)

By number of championships, Michigan belongs in the All-Time Best conversation, however they’ve only won a single title since 1950 which absolutely DOES NOT put them in similar company as Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, and USC, who’ve won 31 in the same time frame. Their championship profile resembles a Pittsburgh, Minnesota, or other diminished former powers that have waned in importance. But unlike the Panthers or Gophers, the Wolverines are the definition of a blue blood program. UM is #1 in all-time wins and in win percentage and they’ve had success throughout the entire modern history of the sport. Michigan has the wins and the dominance of an Alabama or Notre Dame, they just could never win the right games to get them a championship ever since they truly fell off the pace in the 1940′s. The Wolverines exist separately from these of the other programs so I’ll give them this special area.

True Blue Bloods

The Blue Bloods are the teams with success both past and present. They’re what we consider traditional powers in the sport of college football. Make no mistake, even though I set a few above them, these are the tier 1 schools just the same.

Ohio State Buckeyes: 5 (1942, 1954, 1968, 2002, 2014)

The definition of a blue blood program, Ohio State has been a consistent winner for decades. The Buckeyes are the most successful modern Big Ten team since Michigan and Minnesota stopped regularly winning championships in the 1940′s.

Nebraska Cornhuskers: 5 (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997)

Depending on which dates you actually use, Nebraska is the winningest program of the last 60 or so years. The Cornhuskers had stretches of success before the 1960′s, but the arrival of Bob Devaney put them on top. The program prospered further under Devaney’s successor Tom Osborne. From the 60′s until about 2000, Nebraska was easily one of the best teams in the country. They did well for themselves in winning five championships, but they had close calls seemingly every year, and it feels like they could have won 15 if the breaks had gone their way.

Penn State: 5 (1911, 1969, 1982, 1986, 1994)

The Nittany Lions were also one of the most successful programs in the last 50 years under Joe Paterno. Penn State was a big winner in my own system, but in reality they only claim two championships in their long history though they deserved at least four. I’m sure some of you will think that there’s some kind of retroactive karmic justice to that. I won’t dispute it.

Texas Longhorns: 3 (1963, 1969, 2005)

They don’t have as many championships as a USC or an Ohio State, but boy don’t they act like it? I don’t want to take away anything from Texas’ great stints in the 40′s, the 60′s and 70′s, and the 2000′s under Dana Bible, Darrell Royal, and Mack Brown respectively. Those Longhorns teams were world beaters. Overall, UT was a dominant force that has more or less Michigan-ed things because they’ve been about as good as the rest of these teams in the Blue Bloods category, they just won a few fewer championships.

Tennessee Volunteers: 3 (1938, 1950, 1998)

Alright, Tennessee sorta doesn’t fit here. They have a low number of championships and don’t have the super high win percentage and dominance that Texas can fall back on. Yet, the Volunteers stand out from those in the next tier by virtue of long periods of success, particularly under Robert Neyland, Johnny Majors, and Phillip Fulmer. Also, I think I took at least two championships from them that they would otherwise claim to bolster their case. They can be a blue blood, but they’re on the fringe compared to the others.

Modern Powerhouses

These teams may have a checkered past, but their recent success has been undeniable. Modern powerhouses act like blue blood programs, though usually they only starting winning national championships in the past 20 or 30 years, separating them from the much longer history of the traditional powers. You’ll notice a certain pattern with these schools if you look close enough.

Miami Hurricanes: 5 (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001)

Before 1983, Miami was a small time program that had never distinguished itself in college football. Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, and Dennis Erickson built the Hurricanes into the most successful modern college football program this side of Tuscaloosa. The U as it came to be known dominated the game in the 80′s and the early 90′s. A shorter period of success in the late 90′s and early 2000′s added the most recent championship to Miami’s display cases. Unfortunately, the Canes haven’t seen their dominance sustain itself in the past decade, but their incredible run has made them a virtual overnight success in the longer gaze of football history.

Florida State: 3 (1993, 1999, 2013)

Bobby Bowden built Florida State into one of the most consistently dominating teams in the last quarter of the 20th Century. FSU was in the championship hunt every year for nearly 15 years. That they only won two championships in his tenure is somewhat remarkable in and of itself, they certainly left many on the table. The Seminoles have seen their success return under Jimbo Fisher, and are a great example of the modern football powerhouse.

Florida Gators: 3 (1995, 2006, 2008)

The Sunshine State has led the charge in college football since the 1980′s. Steve Spurrier built up the Florida Gators to a similar success that their rivals FSU and Miami saw in the 90′s. In his short tenure, Urban Meyer won two titles in three seasons to elevate Florida to the level of their in-state peers.

Regional Powers

Regional Powers are interesting programs. They are always relevant in their conference and when they’re playing at their peak they act like blue blood programs. They just haven’t seen as much success as their well-heeled brethren, though they can find their place in the sun if they work for it.

Auburn Tigers: 3 (1957, 1983, 2010)

They certainly have played second fiddle to arch-rival Alabama for most of their history, but Auburn is usually a good program and occasionally a great one. When the right man uses the right system, the Tigers can strike out and out-compete anybody, including the hated Crimson Tide.

LSU Tigers: 3 (1958, 2003, 2007)

LSU’s history has featured more ups and downs than many power programs. The Tigers had a period of success in the 1950′s and 60′s, but were unremarkable for a long time until Nick Saban revived the program and Les Miles carried the water for a good decade. Currently LSU is regarded as one of the best teams in the best conference and it’s hoped that they can keep things that way.

Michigan State Spartans: 3 (1951, 1952, 1966)

For a good two decades, Michigan State was a powerhouse in the Big Ten. The Spartans thrived under Biggie Munn and his successor Duffy Daugherty. They occasionally rise out of mediocrity to become a national contender for some years. Very recently under Mark Dantonio, MSU threatened to break through and start claiming national championships once again.

Texas A&M Aggies: 3 (1919, 1927, 1939)

Texas A&M has had an interesting history. The Aggies are consistently good, and as a result have very high standards for a team that hasn’t won a national championship since the 1930′s. They are a solid performer that has success very frequently, but they have trouble getting over the hump and actually winning titles.

Clemson Tigers: 2 (1981, 2016)

The most recent champs have just doubled their overall title count. Clemson had long streaks of success under Frank Howard and Danny Ford, and Dabo Swinney has started the ball rolling once more. They were the traditional power in the ACC until Florida State joined the conference, but currently both programs are competing at a very high level and are leading the league.

Washington Huskies: 2 (1984, 1991)

Under Don James, the Washington Huskies finally broke through and won a poll national title in 1991. But to say that Washington only had a peak in the last 80′s and early 90′s ignores their status as the far and away most successful program in the Pacific Northwest.

Georgia Bulldogs: 2 (1942, 1980)

Georgia is usually one of the solid programs in the SEC, but they rarely have achieved the heights of a national championship contender. Still, they are a quality program and a huge presence in that region of the country.

Arkansas Razorbacks: 1 (1964)

There was the high water mark under Frank Broyles that won the Razorbacks their only national championship. While Arkansas is usually a strong team, they just usually aren’t the very best.

UCLA Bruins: 1 (1954)

The Auburn to USC’s Alabama, so to speak. UCLA is almost always a competitive program, but they’ve been unable to leverage success in a talent-laden region for any long period of time because their next-door neighbor does it so much better.

Fallen Powers

In a certain age, these programs were college football royalty, with as much clout and name recognition as a Michigan or a Notre Dame. Sustaining success is difficult, especially for schools that are somewhat more demographically challenged or restricted by other means. These are the teams that used to be among the very best, but they’ve been unable to keep it up.

Minnesota Golden Gophers: (1903, 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941)

One of the most successful college football programs in the first half of the 20th Century. Minnesota had multiple football dynasties and a tradition of victory, but recruiting out to Minneapolis has always proved a challenge. The Golden Gophers haven’t seen any kind of real relevance since the 1960′s and it seems very unlikely that they’ll be able to reclaim their former glory.

Pittsburgh Panthers: 6 (1910, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1937, 1976)

Pitt was a dominant force in college football in the era of Pop Warner and Jock Sutherland from the 1910′s to the 1930′s. They slid into irrelevance until Johnny Majors revived the tradition of winning in the 1970′s. There was a time when Western Pennsylvania was considered the #1 recruiting hotbed in the country, but that hasn’t been the case in a while. The Panthers haven’t seen any kind of national prominence since the 80′s.

Army Black Knights: 5 (1914, 1916, 1944, 1945, 1946)

I guess if we have another kind of full-scale war that would allow Army to take the best players across the nation and put them on the team the Black Knights could conceivably win championships again. Outside of that horrible possibility it doesn’t seem likely that Army can regularly be a good team, let alone a great one, in this day and age. The demands of being a full time college athlete and a full time officer in the US military makes it nigh impossible for someone to do both. But let’s acknowledge Army’s stellar period of dominance in the 1910′s and especially in the 1940′s.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: 4 (1917, 1928, 1952, 1990)

Georgia Tech was one of the very solid programs in college football for much of the early 1900′s. From John Heisman to William Alexander to Bobby Dodd the Yellow Jackets occasionally challenged for and won national championships. However, GA Tech hasn’t been nearly as successful since the 1960′s. Bobby Ross’ 1990 squad seemed to catch lightning in a bottle for one season, but for the most part it seems as though Georgia Tech has trouble maintaining a team that’s competitive at the highest level. Especially when they’re surrounded by so many other successful Southeastern schools with administrations that are more willing to take on players with more modest academic achievements.

California Golden Bears: 4 (1920, 1921, 1922, 1937)

Andy Smith’s 1920-23 dynasty was the first nationally competitive team to emerge from the West Coast. Building off that, the Cal Bears were one of the best teams in the PCC until the 1950′s. Ever since, and for not too obvious of reasons, Cal hasn’t been able to field nationally competitive teams outside of having Aaron Rodgers under center.

Illinois Fighting Illini: 3 (1914, 1923, 1927)

Illinois was a Big Ten power in its own right for a couple of decades around the 1920′s. The teams of Red Grange and Bob Zuppke regularly competed for and claimed championships. However, the Illini were just unable to keep pace with schools like Michigan and Ohio State. Like Minnesota, they were slowly edged out of national relevance as the Wolverines and Buckeyes came to increasingly dominate the league.

Been to the Mountaintop

These are programs that have won national championships but haven’t had too much time in the spotlight otherwise. Some of them have a long list of great moments, but something keeps them from breaking into the higher levels of the college football universe.

Ole Miss Rebels: 3 (1959, 1960, 1962)

Outside of an incredible run under Johnny Vaught, Ole Miss has been a rather unremarkable program for most of its existence.

Stanford Cardinal: 2 (1926, 1940)

Every once in a while, Stanford is good, and sometimes even great. But the Cardinal have had trouble being successful for long periods of time.

SMU Mustangs: 1 (1982)

SMU had some high points in the 1930′s and the 1980′s, but as a small private school in the middle of much larger company, it’s difficult for the Mustangs to build real success. The last time they were good was because they paid players to attend.

Syracuse Orange: 1 (1959)

Another demographically challenged school, Syracuse has had some good runs in the past, but they haven’t been great in a long while.

Maryland Terrapins: 1 (1951)

They’ve had more success than almost all of the old-school ACC programs, but that doesn’t say much. Maryland had a flash of brilliance under Jim Tatum in the 50′s, but otherwise they’ve had trouble not being mediocre.

TCU Horned Frogs: 1 (1938)

A more successful iteration of SMU, TCU had runs of success in the 30′s and they’re currently in the middle of one today.

Myths and Legends

The ancient ones, those who won in college football’s hazy early days but don’t play at the highest level any longer. All of them are smaller private schools that either don’t have the resources, can’t stand the sausage-making to be good at modern college football, or both.

Yale Bulldogs: (1900, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909)

They started out the 1900′s very strong. In terms of total national championships, Yale is still one of the most decorated programs ever.

Cornell Big Red: 4 (1915, 1921, 1922, 1939)

The last of the nationally successful Ivy League schools. Cornell won championships into the 1930′s but they still had to bow out as the game changed around them.

Harvard Crimson: 4 (1901, 1908, 1912, 1913)

Another name that screams old-time college football. Harvard was a national power for decades until they slowly faded from relevance starting in the 1910′s.

Princeton Tigers: 3 (1906, 1922, 1933)

By some measures you could still claim that Princeton is the most successful college football program of all time, they’ve been awarded championships for 28 different seasons by various selectors. Though obviously nearly all of this success came in the very early days of the sport.

Chicago Maroons: 2 (1905, 1913)

One of the early powers outside of the Northeast, Amos Alonzo Stagg’s Chicago Maroons regularly competed with Michigan for supremacy of the Big Ten. Due to their small size, they struggled to compete with the much larger state institutions and eventually bowed out of the league. They are now a D-III program.

Penn Quakers: 2 (1904, 1908)

Slightly less successful than some of the other Ivy League programs, Penn still had their moments of glory.

Colgate Red Raiders: 1 (1932)

Colgate had an amazing season in 1932 but otherwise haven’t made much of a mark on major college football.

Washington & Jefferson Presidents: 1 (1921)

Probably the smallest and most unassuming schools to win a national championship. A great trivia answer.

Geographic Shifts

One of the things that comes pretty obvious if you’ve tracked this project is that the center of the college football universe has shifted throughout the sport’s history. Obviously the South is currently dominates college football, but it wasn’t always this way. The geographic center of the game has moved a couple of times since the 1869.

The Northeast was the original seat of college football power. Before 1901, no team outside of that region EVER claimed a national championship. The Northeast was still a very important arena in the sport for the first half of the 20th Century. From 1900 to 1919, schools in the Northeast claimed 22 national titles compared to 11 for the entire rest of the country, two thirds of the total championships won in that time span. It was mostly thanks to the Ivy League, Pittsburgh, and Army. From 1900 to 1946, the end of Army’s dynasty, the Northeast claimed 31 of the 76 total football titles I’ve assigned, a bit over 40% of the total. However, they haven’t been nearly as successful since. Only six or seven championships have been awarded to schools in the Northeast region since 1946 depending on if you count Maryland as a Northeast team, with four going to Penn State and one each to Pittsburgh and Syracuse. The relegation of the Ivy League along with the irrelevance of the service academies has made the Northeast a backwater in college football. Pittsburgh and Syracuse themselves haven’t done much on the national stage in nearly 30 years, so it feels even more unlikely that the region can win titles regularly ever again.

The Midwest, South, and West all claimed a piece of the pie from the Northeast, but the Midwest was arguably the most dominant region in the 20th Century. We’re gonna consider the Midwest to constitute the Big Ten, Big 8, and Notre Dame. Oklahoma is a bit of a strange case, they’re considered a Southern state but in college football they were always culturally Midwestern until they joined themselves to Texas when the Big 12 was formed. Once Michigan and Minnesota burst on the scene in the 1900′s it was on. From 1900 to 1909 those two schools claimed 8 out of 18 national titles awarded. In the 1940′s the success of Notre Dame, Minnesota, and Michigan meant that the Midwest claimed 10 of 15 total national championships, a full two-thirds of the total. Oklahoma led the charge in the 50′s, where the region won 7 national titles compared to 8 for the entire rest of the country. The last truly dominant period in the Midwest was in the 1970′s, when Oklahoma and Nebraska helped the region claim 7 titles when everyone else only took home 5. In the 1990′s, the Midwest still claimed 5 championships mostly due to Nebraska’s last dynasty, the rest of the nation took home 9 titles. Due to demographic shifts, the Midwest is struggling to keep pace with the South for supremacy in college football. Oklahoma won a title in 2000 and Ohio State won in 2002 and 2014, but otherwise there’s been an uncomfortable drought. Outside of the blue blood schools who can recruit based on reputation, it’s been difficult for the Midwest to claim some of the best talent the nation has to offer in this new millennium.

The South is completely in control of college football right now. It seems like basically every year a Southern team wins a national championship. From Texas to Florida the region contains nearly all of the top talent coming in from high school. The South had always been reasonably competitive starting in the 1920′s, but the region really started taking off with the emergence of the Florida schools in the 1980′s. In that decade, the South claimed 7 championship compared to 4 from the rest of the country, mostly thanks to Miami’s incredible run. In the 90′s, six different Southern schools won seven championships compared to seven from everywhere else. Since the turn of the century, the gap has become quite large. Depending on if you count Oklahoma as a Southern school or not, the South has claimed 13 or 14 of the 18 championships awarded since 2000. Alabama, Florida, and LSU have all claimed multiple championships in the past 17 years. It doesn’t look like this dominance will end anytime soon either. Unless something drastic changes in the culture of this sport, the South is going to dominate college football for the foreseeable future.

The West has never dominated college football like the other regions of the country, but they’ve always had some kind of success. There have always been strong teams to come from the region ever since Cal won their first title in 1920. Indeed, California as a state has won more titles than any other state in the nation, with 18 total championships compared to 17 for Alabama. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Indiana (all by Notre Dame) tie for third with 13. The problem is that the region is simply still rather underpopulated outside of large urban centers. The rural populations that make up large swaths of college football fandoms elsewhere are just much smaller in most Western states. Since I stripped titles from BYU and Colorado, the only states in the whole Western US to be awarded ANY championships have been California and Washington. Considering the inherent demographic challenges of the region, they’ve done well for themselves, though it also means they’ll probably be unable to compete with the South in the near future.

So there you have it. Those are some of the patterns I’ve noticed after writing what has amounted to a novella on this subject. I want to once again thank anybody who actually has been generous enough with their time to read all of this. I of course want to give a shoutout to my footblr pals @collegefootball128, @thechlostertalkssports, and @saturdaystars. I think they’ll be happy with my assessment of their favorite teams. If anybody has any questions about the process or any feedback, please don’t hesitate to write in, I always try to respond to any fan mail about my projects.

I might take a short little break, this project has taken me a very long time to complete so I need to recharge a bit. But don’t worry, I’ll be back, I’ve already got a number of ideas for my next long-form project!

Thanks once again!

-thecfbg

4 notes · View notes

mastcomm · 5 years ago

Text

Grammys 2020: Kobe Bryant’s Death Stuns Before the Ceremony

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are early winners.

All but nine of the Grammys’ 84 awards were given out before the television broadcast, in a separate “premiere” ceremony that was plagued by celebrity absences — but also featured non-stars celebrating how a Grammy win can be a career-defining moment.

Early prizes were sprinkled among Lizzo, Eilish, Lil Nas X, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, with none taking a clear lead. Lizzo won two prizes: urban contemporary album for the deluxe version of “Cuz I Love You” and traditional R&B performance in the song “Jerome.” Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” — the “country-trap” hybrid that became a chart phenomenon last year and ignited debate about the blurring of genre — won best pop/duo group performance in its remix with the country star Billy Ray Cyrus.

“Old Town Road” also took best music video, while Beyoncé’s concert special “Homecoming” won best music film. Michelle Obama won best spoken word album for the audio version of her book “Becoming.” The former first lady was not present to accept the honor; the jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding, a presenter, said, “I will proudly accept this on her behalf.”

Gary Clark Jr., a guitarist adored by critics and rock and blues purists, won three awards. His album “This Land” took best contemporary blues album, while the title track from that release won best rock song and best rock performance.

The early ceremony featured some landmarks. Gloria Gaynor, the disco diva who won in 1980 for her anthem “I Will Survive,” took home her first award since then — best roots gospel album, for “Testimony.” Tracy Young became the first woman to win the best remixed recording category for a version of Madonna’s “I Rise.” “We’ve shattered the glass ceiling together,” Young said when accepting the award. “I proudly accept this on behalf of all female producers who have been overlooked.”

Tanya Tucker, the 61-year-old country singer, won the first Grammys of her career, taking best country album for “While I’m Livin’,” her first release in a decade, and best country song for “Bring My Flowers Now.”

Nipsey Hussle, the rapper who died last March at 33, won his first Grammy for “Racks in the Middle,” which took best rap performance. Family members spoke, including his grandmother, who said: “I wanted to thank all of you for showing all the love that I have felt for him all of his life and will always live in my heart. So thank you, thank you, thank you.” Hussle is to be celebrated during the telecast in a performance segment scheduled to include Kirk Franklin, DJ Khaled, John Legend, Meek Mill, Roddy Ricch and YG.

News of Kobe Bryant’s death stuns the Grammys.

In the lead-up to the televised show Sunday afternoon, the news that Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash at 41 led to gasps in the press room. The Grammys take place at the Staples Center, where Bryant played nearly his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers; championship banners he helped the team win hang from the building’s rafters.

“In Staples Arena, where Kobe created so many memories for all of us, preparing to pay tribute to another brilliant man we lost too soon, Nipsey Hussle,” John Legend wrote on Twitter. “Life can be so brutal and senseless sometimes.”

Flags outside the arena were lowered to half-staff as preparations for the event continued, and lights shined on Bryant’s jerseys inside. Harvey Mason Jr., the chairman and interim chief of the Recording Academy, called for a moment of silence.

“Since we are in his house, I would ask you to join me in a moment of silence,” Mason said, The Associated Press reported.

Beyond the Grammy glitz, a battle is raging behind the scenes.

Intense drama hangs over the 62nd annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday night, but not in ways that the Recording Academy, the nonprofit behind the show, would like.

This year’s event, which will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern, features a fresh crop of stars like Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X and Ariana Grande competing for the top awards. It was supposed to represent “a new era for the Recording Academy,” one that would be more attuned to pop’s current pulse after years of bruising criticism over the Grammys’ poor record in recognizing women and artists of color in the major categories.

That “new era” statement was made just two months ago, when nominations were announced, by Deborah Dugan, the academy’s new chief executive. She had been telegraphed as the bold new leader the Grammys needed, and came armed with an unsparing critique of the academy’s record on diversity by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, the Time’s Up leader Tina Tchen.

But just 10 days ago, Dugan was removed from her position, stunning the industry and plunging the normally cheery pre-Grammy week into mudslinging and chaos that has threatened to overshadow the event itself.

Dugan claimed in a 44-page complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that she had been retaliated against for uncovering misconduct including sexual harassment, vote rigging and rampant conflicts of interest. The academy, in turn, said that an assistant had complained about a toxic and bullying work environment, and that Dugan had demanded a $22 million payoff to leave quietly, a charge Dugan has denied.

Their battle may stretch on for months. For the academy itself — and the artists now rehearsing their performances and acceptance speech shout-outs — the show must go on. But the entire music industry will be watching closely for any sign of artist dissent or any crack in the academy’s facade of celebratory glitz.

While artists have largely remained silent, one of the few public comments from a major industry figure came Saturday night from the hip-hop mogul Diddy.

Accepting an award at Clive Davis’s glamorous annual pre-Grammys party, Diddy avoided mentioning Dugan by name but criticized the academy for its failure to recognize hip-hop artists of color in the top categories. Over the last decade, for example, just one nonwhite artist — Bruno Mars — has won album of the year.

“Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys; black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should be,” Diddy said. “For years, we have allowed institutions that have never had our best interests at heart to judge us. And that stops right now.”

He added: “You’ve got 365 days’ notice to get this [expletive] together.”

Lizzo leads a crop of young nominees.

For music fans, the Grammys are a television show about splashy performances and, oh yes, a handful of awards scattered across three and a half hours. There may be no mention at all of the academy’s behind-the-scenes crisis.

The biggest contests this year feature some of pop’s most dynamic young faces, many of whom went from obscurity to mega-stardom over the past year.

Lizzo, a charismatic and outspoken pop and R&B singer who has fascinated fans and critics alike, is this year’s most nominated artist, with eight nods. She and the 18-year-old alternative dynamo Billie Eilish, who has a total of six nominations, are each up in all four top categories — album, record and song of the year and best new artist.

Lil Nas X, the internet meme virtuoso whose “country-trap” hybrid “Old Town Road” became a cultural phenomenon last year, is also up for six awards, including record and album of the year, and best new artist. If he wins big, it could be a statement by the academy’s voters that they want to shed their conservative reputation and fully embrace the most up-to-the-minute trends. That does not seem super likely.

Other big contenders include Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend. Taylor Swift is up for just one major award: song of the year for “Lover.”

Big names will perform, but Taylor Swift is no longer one of them.

At the music industry’s schmoozy pre-Grammy parties last week in Los Angeles, the insider chatter has all been about Dugan versus the academy. But, for the most part, the events have been business as usual. Few people expect the show to be affected.

Still, a top musician signaling a position on Dugan’s claims could change the conversation entirely. Label executives and publicists have been wringing their hands over what their artists might be asked — and what they might say — on the red carpet or onstage.

And while the lineup of performers appears to be steady, the industry was riveted on Friday with reports that Swift would not appear. But why? Was Swift — always an outspoken backer of women — dropping out in protest, or was she simply unprepared or uninterested? Everyone, including fans and the most powerful people in music, was left to guess.

The performances planned for the show include tributes to Prince and the rapper Nipsey Hussle; an “Old Town Road All-Stars” segment with Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, BTS, Diplo and Mason Ramsey, the so-called Walmart yodeling kid; and appearances by Grande, Eilish, Lizzo, Rosalía, Aerosmith, the Jonas Brothers and Tyler, the Creator.

The producer who shaped 40 years of Grammy shows says farewell.

This year’s show will be the last for Ken Ehrlich, who has produced the Grammys telecast since 1980 and is largely responsible for the show’s signature presentation style — the “Grammy moments” strategy of pairing artists together for special appearances, going back to Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand doing “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” 40 years ago.

Ehrlich has lived — and scrambled — through some of the Grammys’ most bizarre moments, like the “soy bomb” dancer crashing Bob Dylan’s performance in 1998. He has also frequently been the target of criticism that the show is out of touch and too often favors late-career stars at the expense of younger faces and more current nominees. Exhibit A: the 2018 show’s preponderance of Sting and absence of Lorde, who had been up for album of the year.

Ehrlich has always said that his mandate is to put on a varied and imaginative show, not simply to parade the current nominees. Viewers may consider that this year when he presents his swan song, a recreation of the ensemble performance of “I Sing the Body Electric” from the 1980 film “Fame,” featuring performances by Joshua Bell, Camila Cabello, Gary Clark Jr., Common, Misty Copeland, Lang Lang, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend and others.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/grammys-2020-kobe-bryants-death-stuns-before-the-ceremony/

#Entertainment

0 notes

biofunmy · 5 years ago

Text

Grammys 2020: Kobe Bryant’s Death Stuns Before the Ceremony

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are early winners.

All but about eight of the Grammys’ 84 awards are given out before the television broadcast, in a separate “premiere” ceremony that is plagued by celebrity absences — but also features non-stars celebrating how a Grammy win can be a career-defining moment.

In the early awards, Lady Gaga surprisingly pulled ahead with two wins connected to her 2018 film “A Star Is Born.” It won best compilation soundtrack, and “I’ll Never Love Again” — written by Lady Gaga and three others — took best song written for visual media.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” took best music video, Beyoncé concert special “Homecoming” won best music film, and Michelle Obama won best spoken word album for the audio version of her book “Becoming.” Obama was not present to accept the honor; the jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding, a presenter, said, “I will proudly accept this on her behalf.”

News of Kobe Bryant’s death stuns the Grammys.

In the lead-up to the televised show Sunday afternoon, the news that Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash at 41 led to gasps in the press room. The Grammys take place at the Staples Center, where Bryant played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers; championship banners he helped the team win hang from the building’s rafters.

“Since we are in his house, I would ask you to join me in a moment of silence,” Mason said, The Associated Press reported.

Beyond the Grammy glitz, a battle is raging behind the scenes.

Intense drama hangs over the 62nd annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday night, but not in ways that the Recording Academy, the nonprofit behind the show, would like.

While artists have largely remained silent, one of the few public comments from a major industry figure came Saturday night from the hip-hop mogul Diddy.

Accepting an award at Clive Davis’s glamorous annual pre-Grammys party, Diddy avoided mentioning Dugan by name but held the academy’s feet to the fire over its failure to recognize hip-hop artists of color in the top categories. Over the last decade, for example, just one nonwhite artist — Bruno Mars — has won album of the year.

He added: “You’ve got 365 days’ notice to get this [expletive] together.”

Lizzo leads a crop of young nominees.

The biggest contests this year feature some of pop’s most dynamic young faces, many of whom went from obscurity to mega-stardom over the past year.

Other big contenders include Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend. Taylor Swift is up for just one major award: song of the year for “Lover.”

Big names will perform, but Taylor Swift is no longer one of them.

The producer who shaped 40 years of Grammy shows says farewell.

Sahred From Source link Arts

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2GC2L6B via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

jackwindsor96 · 5 years ago

Text

MD4314 Is Rock music dead

Academic article by Jack Windsor

s1809136

Contents

Gene Simmons “Rock music is finally dead” .p1

The roots of rock .p2

Black sabbath .p3

Statistics of most listened to genre globally .p4

The next generation .p5

Evolving bands .p6

Old town road and battle with the country charts .p7

Marty Schwartz “where did the bands go?” .p8

Conclusion .p9

References .p10

Back in 2014 Gene Simmons the Bassist of late 70’s to late 80’s glam rock band KISS declared “Rock is finally dead” meaning that it’s pointless to learn an instrument like a guitar because it is impossible to get famous playing one.

Gene Simmons had also stated “Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered” this statement was taken out of context as he then later explained that a 15 year old kid wanted to make a success as a rockstar but then realising that opportunity has passed meaning he believes it was “piracy” that had led records to decrease in sales giving new artists and talent that given opportunity to make as big as it used to be.

With angry responses by equally large names in the genre to Gene he was shunned off by the rock community out of context due to the media. With big names such as AC/DC frontman Brian johnson on a SiriusXM QnA he stated “never listen to man who never wears makeup” to then later stating “rock music always comes back it’s like a phoenix” the words Brian johnson used makes it sound like its always been a topic all record labels have said but in fact the genre itself comes back when it’s least expected.

Since the early 50’s rock music has been on of the most dominant genres in the world. And throughout the decades it has evolved and split into a very large catalogue of subgenres the question that is being asked in music industry is, is rock music dead?

Like most music genres that have been dominating the charts have all originated from african american music for example “Chuck berry” with rock and roll an evolved art from originating from Blues and Hip hop with “NWA” along with “TUPAC” and at this time popular music was heavily biased towards having white artists being the musical face to society. The result of this white artists were stealing music such as Elvis with “hound dog” when the original vocalist was in fact “Big Mama Thornton”(1952) A song Elvis fans claimed he wrote which had (“Sold around 3 million copies” (Telegraph article, Michael Chilton, 23rd AUG 2011)) showing at the time the oppression black musicians faced in the 50’s until a revolutionary decade 1960 where Black and White musicians were both playing music on mainstream media. Jimmy hendrix renowned to be the greatest guitarist to have ever lived became a revolution to the music industry and given rock music its loud and raw cry out to society that for many generations had given rock music the opportunity to let the people speak out. And Jimmy Hendrix had also leveled out the playing field between colour of skin and ownership to songs with one of his best hit “all along the watchtower” and original song written and performed by (Bob dylan recorded 1967) then later (released in 1968)(bobdylan.com/song/all along the watchtower)

In 1969 Black sabbath a band originating from birmingham became one of the very first heavy metal bands in the world with revolutionary lyrics discussing the corruption of the government and how oppressed society really was for example the title hit “war-pigs” on the studio album “paranoid” sold over 5 million copies worldwide and with the 2009 remastered version on spotify has collected 76,747,987 streams alone with black sabbath at 6.060 million monthly listeners they are one of rock histories most prized artists.

Rock music is still very dominant on social media with such sites as Youtube, Spotify, Tidal and Apple music.

According to Spotify with their insights page Statistics show Sub genre from traditional rock “Metal” is the most dominant with rock music being fifth largest fan base globally from 2015 to 2019 showing that the fan base are more loyal consumers than pop music and various genres.

about the LGBT expressing themselves it was also the era of Punk,Metal and big hair Glam rock bands.Punk as a genre and style was and still is about anarchy, antidisestablishmentarianism and rattling the sabre with the higher power. For example “The Sex Pistols”With such a large variety of rock music genres it’s very difficult to declare the artform is “dead” especially with statistics showing the opposite.

The new generation of rock artists for example Royal Blood and Don Bronco are under the category of mainstream alternative rock with royal blood being one of the worlds most recognised bands in the UK as they have had two appearances in the charts in the past five years the rock duo have made a success.For ever since technology has been heavily used in music the Rock genre have been struggling to use it to their advantage to stay on top of the charts and have been praying for new younger artists to appear and steal the spotlight back but with a great amount of new artists that are following and exploiting new trends on all platforms of media it has evolved into a more competitive game. Royal Blood as a duo act the front man Mike Kerr plays a bass guitar but uses a unique sound that is classified according to Mike himself that gives the band its claim to fame.

Like all musicians to become famous you have to play the game and have your own sound that grabs the attention of the consumer and to have a particular style.

Style over substance in rock music was really popular back in the 70’s and 80’s as it was the era of expression where LGBT communities were quieter but started to gain the courage to express themselves through colourful clothing and cross-dressing with parades and going to the underground clubs with Disco as it was a safe passage. But in the 70’s and 80’s it wasn’t just mocking the monastery and politics with the hit single “God save the Queen” that had been banned from release in the UK the band had embraced the rebellious attitude with the public display of spitting and wearing tight skinny jeans with enormous Mohawks dyed bright fluorescent pink for example took the US and UK by storm and became a fashion and attitude display and a culture within itself. Punk has now quietened down on the mainstream side with only a handful artists for example the Duo Slaves embracing punk as a sound with crunch guitar tones and punk style vocals but with only a fraction of what it used to be at its prime. It’s different as to how it used to be with more labels wanting to promote more tracks without the need to print an explicit warning sticker on the front cover.

Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes still produce a mixture of subgenres from their older albums being heavier and more heavy punk to now with their last album “modern ruin” is lighter with more melodic and catchy pop/rock artform.

Many bands like Frank carter have evolved their music to appeal more than just to the younger consumer but outside of the age bracket. For example the “Linkin Park” made their debut in the early noughties with the all new NU metal subgenre displaying the mixture of Dj’s screaming vocals and drop D guitaring with Rap lyrics for verses the band made a huge success and through every album they had constant shifts between genre with experimental instrumentals to acoustic albums and collaborations with Jay Z.Bands are now doing this because they either struggle to continue with their own sound with the new technology they test out and produce music with or else it is the desire to build up a fanbase in the early parts of their career and to get themselves in the charts as soon as possible by following the trending sound.

Country Rock has always been a large part in the US music industry it originated from Folk and Blues and Traditional rock and roll and has become a genre that has had its own separate fan base but it’s only recent that one track has now reached the Billboard global 100.

Lil Nas x is currently at the global charts with the song “old town road” at number 1 on the “Billboard hot 100” a song that was primarily aimed towards the VideoGame Red dead redemption the song is a crossover genre of country and hip-hop.

When this song first hit the charts the American country charts had refused to accept this song as the genre Country due to claims by “Sony’s columbia records on the hot country songs charts” thus striking dispute whether it belonged there in the first place. With the song originally being at number 19 in the charts the song was taken down due to several reasons “including trap beats, a lack of country airplay, no involvement by Sony Music Nashville” (billboard.com article Country or not?’Old Town Road’ 9/4/2019 By Melinda Newman)

Billy Ray Cyrus took LIL Nas x under his wing and produced a remix version of his hit song this resulting in the song hitting number one globally and reentered in the hot country song charts. Is this because of Billy ray Cyrus’s reputation and respect in country that this song was allowed or was it for other reasons e.g “ethnicity” or “popularity”?

Rock music has changed in many ways but has changed with the trending music there is no point in sticking with the same sound as the consumers will move on to a different genre and sound will lead to the genres extinction.

A statement from Marty schwartz a popular youtuber among rock guitarists with over 1.3 million subscribers proved that Rock music is dead but not the genre entirely, the reasons are behind “the evolution of technology being its down fall” and then further describes in his video that “rock music has fallen under the same path as jazz” this refers to the popularity of jazz in the 40’s to late 50’s where jazz music was the popular music of that time but had then become less entertaining to the youth with new exciting genres being introduced.

Marty then finally concludes to “where did all the bands go?” to then answer “ nowhere they are still playing and creating music” this being said a genre itself can never die out if there are musicians still playing the art form.

“Rock music has just moved on from the mainstream” which to its benefit will not have to deal with the marketing it did back in the early days as new bands can self promote and distribute music

There are many bands that still perform at the top of the food chain and many up and coming talent soon to join them.

From statistics and big names in the industry Rock will continue to flourish not with the charts and popular music but will develop, create new subgenres, push boundaries and inspire new talent.

References

. (Rock and Roll: a social history

Author:Paul Friedlander

Chapter 2 the roots of rock and roll page.16 published in 1996 in the United States)

. (Gene Simmons:’Rock is Finally Dead. It was murdered’

September 7,2014

Rollingstone.com online article by Daniel Kreps

https:/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/gene-simmons-rock-is-finally-dead-it-was-murdered-97121/amp/

. https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/all-along-the-watchtower/

.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/dog-10-facts-about-Elvis-presleys-hit-song.html

Author : Michael Chilton

Published : 23rd AUG 2011

. https://insights.spotify.com/us/2015/04/02/loyalest-music-fans-by-genre/

Author: Glenn Mcdonald

.https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-interview-new-album-836393/amp/

Online article Lil nas x :inside the rise of a Hip-hop cowboy May 20,2019.

. Author: MartyzMusic

https://youtu.be/Mz0nCngjjh0

Video title: where did all the bands go?

Published 12th May 2019

. Brian johnson Sirius XM interview

https://youtu.be/SPFW0WVuh2o

Published: 2 Dec 2014

Author: SiriusXM

. Mimi Schippers

Title: Rockin’ Out of the Box

Published Rutgers University Press, New brunswick, New jersey

2002

0 notes

topicprinter · 6 years ago

Link

I made a comment the other day on a post on here that was quite poignant to me and was related to possibly the biggest theme in my own life the last 2 years.I don't come on here much and rarely comment. I'm not sure why I come to r/rentreprenuer these days but I think it's because I find it interesting to browse through what goes through other peoples minds in relation to this subject. I tend to see the same things repeat themselves quite often and I guess I just kind of have an urge to get a few things off of my chest that I hope may help a couple of you out.If anything I say on these posts comes across as negative or harsh towards 'wantrapreneurs' or early starters, please forgive me- I too have been where they are several times throughout my career and I have made many many mistakes.(Pre post edit- I've added the * symbol to sentences where I may trigger offence but in fact this is something I have been guilty of myself)There are several crossovers within the points which I maybe should tie up and summarise at some point and please bear in mind that other than emails I am not an experienced or particularly good writer.Well here goes... I'm going to start with a few 'Don't Do's'.Aiming for the StarsOnce or twice a year I meet up with an old army buddy of mine. Every so often we do it in his home town and he brings a couple of his mates from school he still drinks with- every damn time there's this one guy who calls me Mr Money (I don't think Im anywhere as wealthy as he thinks I am) . He's obsessed with money and entrepreneurship despite never having set anything up himself, he quickly turns the conversation to my current and previous endeavours and then proceeds to start pitching me with some of his own.I think what annoys me the most about him is that he reminds me of how naive and pie in the sky I was myself in my early twenties. Most of his ideas are either far too lofty and ambitious to be the basis of a credible starting point or are too complicated/ niche/ in an unknown market to be in any way feasible to make a start on.The worst part though is that these ideas always have the aim of making millions.I have personally lost more by either giving up or not putting enough effort into ventures that would be nice little earners because of they were exactly just that. When I was 24 I completely messed a business that turned over half a million and paid me personally about 80k because I didn't think it was scalable enough to make me a millionaire by the time I am the age I am now.I'm still not a millionaire and other than by creeping over the line at some point by the way of investments I have no real desire to be.My advice to anyone starting out is to think small... like really small. And really simple.The smaller and simpler it is, the easier it will be to start. It will also make it easier to replace yourself by paying someone else to do most or all of the work for you. You can then work on expanding the business and/or diversifying your business interests.My position now is that I have several 'nice little earners' and am in the process of starting another. The bulk of my weeks work is in what I call my 'job business' where I am basically a part time consultant to a large multinational. The remainder is on my side hustles. These side hustles employ people who do most of the work and my role is in providing the direction and authority that most people need (more on this later).The main thing on these side hustles is that they are fairly run of the mill, they're not that 'economies of scalable' and they're in no way revolutionary.They're just simple, startable, runnable and profitable businesses.Looking for too much adviceThis should really head up the list. The fact that many of you are here will be that you are looking for advice*. Like I said in my opening comment, Im not looking to put anyone down.My own searching for the missing secret, that one little tip (or list of a hundred) or that 'thing' that I was clearly missing has cost me more than anything else, if not more than every other mistake combined.If I had just trusted my gut more and worked through a few more (as Bob Ross puts it) Happy Little Accidents I would have gotten to where I am now far sooner and far more enjoyably the first time round.We don't know what we don't know- this much is true. But the important thing to get clear on is- How much do I need to know right now?Overcoming the anxiety of not knowing everything one would ever need to know to make a success of things and just getting going and keeping moving is probably one of the biggest contributors to success I have seen in others and is certainly the biggest in my own rise from the ashes.One of the main reasons I feel qualified to write on this subject is not just my own 'average success' but that fact that I am very fortunate to know and count among the friends of quite a large number of self made people. I'm not sure how unique I am in this respect but I think I must be somewhat unusual that many friends, family and friends of friends are business starter/ owners. As a keen observer and one time habitant of a special kind of 'Self Help Hell' I have spotted common themes in so many of them that I almost feel that I can't be wrong about them.My own going from a bit of a f&*k up to what I now consider to be a very ideal situation by aligning my own behaviour with the more useful ones that I have observed in those others, really validates to me what I've learned.The reason I make and stress this point is that the things I have seen work for other people is almost entirely at odds as most of the things that the 'gurus' and self aggrandising entrepreneurs you see on youtube and on the top ten non fiction books list all the time.One of the things that most of the gurus keep telling you is that you need to keep reading and learning and consuming everything that the 'success' industry has to offer. I completely disagree with this and other than a healthy interest in ones (slow and steady) personal development I really think that most of it should be avoided.I think we all learn better by simply doing and that there isn't really that much to learn.A) You don't need to know what the routines and habits of billionaires and ultra successful people are, besides, most of the writers of these types of books are more than likely way off about just how normal these 'superhuman' people really are.B) By reading a lot of this cr@p you are more than likely decreasing your chances of achieving your own version of average success. You may, as I did, get into the really bad habit of comparing yourself to people that are so far out of your league in terms of luck/ circumstance, confidence and natural ability that you can beat yourself into a depression.C) By reading the stories and autobiographies of famous entrepreneurs you are reading the story they like to tell, which will have to be in line with what they have told other people in private or at paid after dinner parties; and hence will unlikely be exactly the truth. There will also be a lot of a survivorship bias in their recollections of the epochs in their journey.Not one of the really successful people I know did any of this searching for the holy grail of advice. In fact they almost all did the opposite- they got busy, trusted their gut and in multiple cases actively avoided external advice expect for single issue specific problems where they would speak to or hire a consultant.By telling yourself that you will be able to do it if you can just read this list of a few more books or go to this seminar- you are telling yourself that you lack the actual natural ability that many successful people rely upon for the bulk of their progress.I'm not saying that some of the stuff in the plethora of books on the subject won't help at all in any way, but I am saying that you really don't need it and much of it is misleading, unnecessary and bad for your self esteem.I could probably bang on about this some more but I'm going to leave it at that for now.-You can do it and you don't need a motivational book to help you do so.Desperation to have a business/ Lack of patience.One of the things I see on here a lot is really a desperation to be an entrepreneur and wanting to do so right now rather than later* (when conditions are more suitable) and while I suppose everybody's desire to do so will be as unique as them, I think a lot of people fall into the categories below.Sadly, again, I think that the self help industry and its regurgetators helps fuel the 'screw it just do it' mantra- but for myself and those that I know that have gone on to (eventually) do well, setting things up right and making each next step was on a firm footing have been key.Yes you have to take risks and sometimes fail* but throwing all caution to the wind and going all in on the first turn of the cards doesn't pay off in my experience.Here are some examples of desperation and impatience:Not fully understanding how money works and think the only to feel safe/ comfortable/ happy is to have lots more of it* and due to being also lower educated* that the only way out is to be a successful entrepreneur*. Jumping into starting a business before one is mentally and financially ready in order to cure a lack of wealth.For the vast majority of people who were born into the lower classes of wealth*, it's common to think that the best way to rid of the default empty insecure feeling is to have more money and that the only real option do so is to be a business owner- this is some ways true but can easily lead to desperation.- Learn to understand how money works and live below your means before you start trying to make more of it.Feeling that one is different and hence somehow better than the majority of everyone else; and therefore should exist at the top of the food chain*. Starting a business rather than exist alongside the hoy polloi.Also somewhat true but can also easily lead to desparation.It wasn't until life turned me upside down and smacked my a$$ did I realise that humility felt better deep down and was more useful.- Get used to the fact that you are very very average in the big picture. You will be a better leader, salesman and producer/ purveyor of goods if you put your fellow man on an equal standing.Hating something at work- either the job itself or someone in it.No * as only partially guilty here.Hating ones boss/ colleagues or feeling superior to the work can often be the source of desire for entrepreneurship and in my opinion is a bit of a recipe for disaster. If you are in this boat I really strongly recommend you learn how to tolerate and get on with people and the drudgery of boring work. Entrepreneurship has plenty of that in store for you.You will have a hard time with your staff, suppliers and customers if you can't put up with dealing with a few d!(kheads. While owning the business will give you a bit more choice and control over who you deal with and how, I think that people who find it hard to get on with people wherever they go tend to be the source of many of their own problems and will fair no better as the one in charge.- Learn how to get along with people before you start.- I dont believe in being manipulative in anyway but there are indeed some truly horrible people out there, you have to be able and willing to outsmart and feign commonality with them or they will take advantage of you.It's definitely not wrong to desire to be an entrepreneur and I dont suppose there really is a bad reason to start. I guess the point I'm making is that owning a business isn't a 'get out of a sh!tty situation' card but should be more of a chance to be a little bit more of yourself and to give the market a slightly better product or service than exists presently. Don't get involved with things you aren't capable of understanding and don't start for the wrong reasons and you should be okay.OverthinkingI said there was going to be some crossover here and I think this is one of them points.Too many people don't get started on things or start on the wrong things because they overthink key parts of the journey- usually far before the situation has arisen.Again this can lead to the addiction to business and self help books- it keeps feeding the unknown unknowns conundrum and even worse lets people think they are doing something about their desire for entrepreneurship.There will be problems, there will be boredom, there will be hard times. The road ahead meanders through the hills and mountains; a continuous hike of ups and downs- the plateaus are few and bring with them their own fears and worries.Get going and learn as you go. You'll figure it out. If you're realistic about what you're setting out to do, the problems you'll face will be more manageable and more in line with your current capabilities.I'll call it there for now and if you're interested I guess I'll keep writing.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

0 notes

robgrayofficial · 6 years ago

Link

GOOOD AFTERNOON DEPLORABLES!This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here to help kick off this beautiful Saturday, recap style! Before we get started on that, I'd like to remind everyone to hop into our r/The_Donald's Best Of 2018 Awards Thread and vote of your favorite nominations in each category! You only have until midnightFriday December 14th to vote!!As always, if you happened to miss any past recaps you can check those out here!Now, onto the recap!Sunday, December 2nd:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:This week, Jews around the world will celebrate the miracles of Hanukkah. @FLOTUS Melania and I send our very best wishes for a blessed and Happy Hanukkah! http://bit.ly/2EoCFom …China has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S. Currently the tariff is 40%.SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:🤣🤣Ticket Scalpers are losing their shirts on Bill & Hillary Houston speech tomorrow! Tickets as low as $6 🤣🤣OUT. OF. CONTROL!The 'ballot-harvesting' that enabled Democrats to STEAL California ElectionsComey backs off, agrees to testify in private.DON JR BRINGS THE HEAT ON INSTAGRAM. WE LOVE OUR RUDOLPH DON’T WE FOLKS?🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:MRW I visit r/allAnCapistan wins again LOLHey England! We can’t hear you over all this Freedom! U-S-A! U-S-A!Complains about IslamophobiaMonday, December 3rd:TODAY'S ACTION:Vice President Pence Delivers Remarks at the Lying in State of the Honorable George H.W. BushPresident Trump Participates in the G20 Summit in ArgentinaFirst Lady Melania Trump at the G20 Summit in Argentina🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:My meeting in Argentina with President Xi of China was an extraordinary one. Relations with China have taken a BIG leap forward! Very good things will happen. We are dealing from great strength, but China likewise has much to gain if and when a deal is completed. Level the field!Farmers will be a a very BIG and FAST beneficiary of our deal with China. They intend to start purchasing agricultural product immediately. We make the finest and cleanest product in the World, and that is what China wants. Farmers, I LOVE YOU!President Xi and I have a very strong and personal relationship. He and I are the only two people that can bring about massive and very positive change, on trade and far beyond, between our two great Nations. A solution for North Korea is a great thing for China and ALL!I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!We would save Billions of Dollars if the Democrats would give us the votes to build the Wall. Either way, people will NOT be allowed into our Country illegally! We will close the entire Southern Border if necessary. Also, STOP THE DRUGS!“Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time.” You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get..... ... ....his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don’t want the truth, they only want lies. The truth is very bad for their mission!Looking forward to being with the Bush Family to pay my respects to President George H.W. Bush.Congratulations to newly inaugurated Mexican President @lopezobrador_. He had a tremendous political victory with the great support of the Mexican People. We will work well together for many years to come!#Remembering41SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Census confirms: 63 percent of ‘non-citizens’ on welfare, 4.6 million householdsWINNING: SCOTUS rejects environmental challenge to POTUS border wallMAJOR REDPILL: Reporter Blows the Lid on Modern JournalismCorsi files criminal complaint against Mueller, alleges bid to seek false testimonyNO!! You don't say!! That's UNPOSSIBLE!!!! Mueller Withheld "Details That Would Exonerate The President" Of Having Kremlin Backchannel🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:MERRY CHRISTMASSaw this on FB.. it’s because he was REPUBLICAN 🇺🇸IT'S HAPPENING!, again...When you try to save France, but people call you a right wing dictator and the “moderate” guy ends up causing protests and riots resembling that of the early 1800’sMacron : "Please shake" after French Police and Firefighters turned backs and removed helmets to show solidarity with Yellow Vests. Trump Curse is real.By bitches!!Tuesday, December 4th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration PostsPresident Trump and the First Lady Pay Their Respects to President George H.W. Bush🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Looking forward to being with the wonderful Bush family at Blair House today. The former First Lady will be coming over to the White House this morning to be given a tour of the Christmas decorations by Melania. The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!The negotiations with China have already started. Unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina. Bob Lighthizer will be working closely with Steve Mnuchin, Larry Kudlow, Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro..... ... ......on seeing whether or not a REAL deal with China is actually possible. If it is, we will get it done. China is supposed to start buying Agricultural product and more immediately. President Xi and I want this deal to happen, and it probably will. But if not remember,...... ... ....I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN ... .....But if a fair deal is able to be made with China, one that does all of the many things we know must be finally done, I will happily sign. Let the negotiations begin. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!Could somebody please explain to the Democrats (we need their votes) that our Country losses 250 Billion Dollars a year on illegal immigration, not including the terrible drug flow. Top Border Security, including a Wall, is $25 Billion. Pays for itself in two months. Get it done!(Retweeting Charlie Kirk) There are riots in socialist France because of radical leftist fuel taxes. Media barely mentioning this. America is booming, Europe is burning . They want to cover up the middle class rebellion against cultural Marxism. “We want Trump” being chanted through the streets of ParisI am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters.... ... ....in the world. I want clean air and clean water and have been making great strides in improving America’s environment. But American taxpayers – and American workers – shouldn’t pay to clean up others countries’ pollution.We are either going to have a REAL DEAL with China, or no deal at all - at which point we will be charging major Tariffs against Chinese product being shipped into the United States. Ultimately, I believe, we will be making a deal - either now or into the future.... ... .....China does not want Tariffs!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:WIN for Young Republicans! UC Berkeley must pay $70k, and change policies to guarantee free speech for conservative speakers. The campaign of the American Left to silence conservatives on campus sustained a massive defeat yesterdayReport: Wall Street execs too afraid to hire women in wake of #MeToo — “It’s creating a sense of walking on eggshells,” one adviser told the publication. Interviews with more than 30 senior executives suggest that the #MeToo movement has led to “gender segregation” in the workplace.Keep at the meme war boys. Globalism is implodingI am proud of my 40 year friendship with the President and prouder still of the amazing job he is doing making America great again !RUINED HIS LIFE FOR WHAT? ASSHOLE🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Desperate prick!We have the best shitposting Senators don't we folksHad to give a rebuttal. Was then downvoted into oblivion then the mods removed my comment. Guess humor is a one way street? This was posted on every political sub.New favorite gifWednesday, December 5th:TODAY'S ACTION:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:“China officially echoed President Donald Trump’s optimism over bilateral trade talks. Chinese officials have begun preparing to restart imports of U.S. Soybeans & Liquified Natural Gas, the first sign confirming the claims of President Donald Trump and the White House that...... ... .....China had agreed to start “immediately” buying U.S. products.” @businessVery strong signals being sent by China once they returned home from their long trip, including stops, from Argentina. Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. ALL subjects discussed!One of the very exciting things to come out of my meeting with President Xi of China is his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly Fentanyl coming into the United States. It will now be considered a “controlled substance.” This could be a game changer on what is....... ... .....considered to be the worst and most dangerous, addictive and deadly substance of them all. Last year over 77,000 people died from Fentanyl. If China cracks down on this “horror drug,” using the Death Penalty for distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!Looking forward to being with the Bush family. This is not a funeral, this is a day of celebration for a great man who has led a long and distinguished life. He will be missed!Hopefully OPEC will be keeping oil flows as is, not restricted. The World does not want to see, or need, higher oil prices!Doug Wead, a truly great presidential historian, had a wonderful take on a very beautiful moment in history, the funeral service today of President Bush. Doug was able to brilliantly cover some very important and interesting periods of time! @LouDobbsWorking hard, thank you!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Here's what's actually happening in France (from an American in Paris)[GHWB's FUNERAL] Obama and Hillary are PISSED at GEOTUS. They Know Justice is coming!This is General Michael Flynn, an American hero. He has officially been vindicated. The Democrats, MSM, and Robert Mueller destroyed his life for nothing. They are all criminals for what they're doing to innocent patriotic Americans like Michael Flynn.This picture is iconicDonald Trump Jr. Responding To Sen. Gillibrand’s Sexist Tweet: “When is it appropriate to let my boys know that there’s no future for them?”🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Pills...are...kicking...in...HAHHHAAAHAAAAAAA!!!!! We have the best GIFs, don't we folks?!Me, a gay man: You know Muslim countries kill gay people right? Them, a leftist retard: Good. You deserve it.OK, this is just too much fun . . . .Thursday, December 6th:TODAY'S ACTION:Presidential Proclamation on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2018President Trump Delivers Remarks at an Afternoon Hanukkah ReceptionPresident Trump Delivers Remarks at an Evening Hanukkah Reception🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:My thoughts and prayers are with the @USMC crew members who were involved in a mid-air collision off the coast of Japan. Thank you to @USForcesJapan for their immediate response and rescue efforts. Whatever you need, we are here for you. @IIIMEFDoes the Fake News Media ever mention the fact that Republicans, with the very important help of my campaign Rallies, WON THE UNITED STATES SENATE, 53 to 47? All I hear is that the Open Border Dems won the House. Senate alone approves judges & others. Big Republican Win!Statement from China: “The teams of both sides are now having smooth communications and good cooperation with each other. We are full of confidence that an agreement can be reached within the next 90 days.” I agree!Jerome Corsi: ”This is not justice, this is not America. This is a political prosecution. The Special Prosecutor (Counsel), to get this plea deal, demanded I lie and violate the law. They’re the criminals.” He is not alone. 17 Angry Dems. People forced to lie. Sad! @Trish_ReganTrish_Regan: “Did the FBI follow protocol to obtain the FISA warrant? I don’t think so. The Dossier was opposition research funded by opponents. Don’t use Government resources to take down political foes. Weaponizing Government for gain.” Is this really America? Witch Hunt!FAKE NEWS - THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!Arizona, together with our Military and Border Patrol, is bracing for a massive surge at a NON-WALLED area. WE WILL NOT LET THEM THROUGH. Big danger. Nancy and Chuck must approve Boarder Security and the Wall!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:NBC headline vs content of articleAnnouncing The First EVER r/The_Donald's Best Of 2018 Awards!France Deploys 89,000 Cops Amid Fears Of Yellow Vest Rebellion On SaturdayNYTIMES BENDS THE KNEE | “What if President Trump’s gut turns out to have been right and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases are holding back the United States economy?”FITTON:MASSIVE Breaking: Fed court excoriates State and DOJ on Clinton email, orders discovery plan in 10 days as to whether Hillary Clinton email system an intentional attempt to evade FOIA. "One of the gravest modern offenses to gov't transparency..."🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:In Trump We TrustPic Of POTUS Kissing Bob Dole On The Forehead- You Won’t See This On MSMWhen your sexuality goes full circleVery True.One more sane countryFriday, December 7th:TODAY'S ACTION:The First Family hosts a 2018 Hanukkah ReceptionPresident Trump Delivers Remarks at the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National ConferencePresidential Determination on the Suspension of Limitations under the Jerusalem Embassy ActPresidential Proclamation on Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week, 2018🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Robert Mueller and Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey are Best Friends, just one of many Mueller Conflicts of Interest. And bye the way, wasn’t the woman in charge of prosecuting Jerome Corsi (who I do not know) in charge of “legal” at the corrupt Clinton Foundation? A total Witch Hunt... ... ....Will Robert Mueller’s big time conflicts of interest be listed at the top of his Republicans only Report. Will Andrew Weissman’s horrible and vicious prosecutorial past be listed in the Report. He wrongly destroyed people’s lives, took down great companies, only to be........ ... .....overturned, 9-0, in the United States Supreme Court. Doing same thing to people now. Will all of the substantial & many contributions made by the 17 Angry Democrats to the Campaign of Crooked Hillary be listed in top of Report. Will the people that worked for the Clinton.... ... ....Foundation be listed at the top of the Report? Will the scathing document written about Lyin’ James Comey, by the man in charge of the case, Rod Rosenstein (who also signed the FISA Warrant), be a big part of the Report? Isn’t Rod therefore totally conflicted? Will all of.... ... ...the lying and leaking by the people doing the Report, & also Bruce Ohr (and his lovely wife Molly), Comey, Brennan, Clapper, & all of the many fired people of the FBI, be listed in the Report? Will the corruption within the DNC & Clinton Campaign be exposed?..And so much more!China talks are going very well!It has been incorrectly reported that Rudy Giuliani and others will not be doing a counter to the Mueller Report. That is Fake News. Already 87 pages done, but obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report.Today, we honor those who perished 77 years ago at Pearl Harbor, and we salute every veteran who served in World War II over the 4 years that followed that horrific attack. God Bless America! http://bit.ly/2E9sYco will be doing a major Counter Report to the Mueller Report. This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!I am pleased to announce that Heather Nauert, Spokeswoman for the United States Department of State, will be nominated to serve as United Nations Ambassador. I want to congratulate Heather, and thank Ambassador Nikki Haley for her great service to our Country!I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating The Honorable William P. Barr for the position of Attorney General of the United States. As the former AG for George H.W. Bush.... ... ....and one of the most highly respected lawyers and legal minds in the Country, he will be a great addition to our team. I look forward to having him join our very successful Administration!(Retweeting The White House) President Trump Delivers Remarks at the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National ConferenceMike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell. Now it is a whole new ballgame, great spirit at State!Hopefully Mitch McConnell will ask for a VOTE on Criminal Justice Reform. It is extremely popular and has strong bipartisan support. It will also help a lot of people, save taxpayer dollars, and keep our communities safe. Go for it Mitch!It is being reported that Leakin' James Comey was told by Department of Justice attorneys not to answer the most important questions. Total bias and corruption at the highest levels of previous Administration. Force him to answer the questions under oath!Totally clears the President. Thank you!(Retweeting The White House) This afternoon, President Trump delivered remarks at the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference where he reinforced his commitment to making our communities safer for all Americans.SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Clinton Foundation whistleblowers have been working with FBI and IRS since last year | It turns out that whistleblowers inside and outside the Clinton Foundation have amassed "6,000 pages of evidence attached to a whistleblower submission filed secretly more than a year ago with the IRS77 years ago today at 7:55am nearly 2,400 American Souls were lost. Today we remember them. December 7th National Remembrance Day.France Deploys 89,000 Cops Amid Fears Of Yellow Vest Rebellion On SaturdayCreepy Porn Lawyer to Pay Child Support WITH: 2017 Ferrari 488 GT Spider that he was leasing; five luxury wristwatches, a few of them worth at least $50,000; a sculpture by Frank Gehry; a number of expensive pieces of art, and his law firm’s stake in a 2016 Honda private jet.White House reactions to today’s court filingsAn elected member of Congress just threatened a citizen with Congressional subpoena over a meme!Calls For Ethics Investigation Into Ocasio-Cortez After She Threatens Donald Trump Jr.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Liberalism is a mental disease"there is absolutely nothing that's more racist than that..."💀💀💀French Macron 18% approval rating. Globalism is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.Baby it's cold outside..Saturday, December 8th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting “We Want Trump!” Love France.The idea of a European Military didn’t work out too well in W.W. I or 2. But the U.S. was there for you, and always will be. All we ask is that you pay your fair share of NATO. Germany is paying 1% while the U.S. pays 4.3% of a much larger GDP - to protect Europe. Fairness!AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!I am pleased to announce my nomination of four-star General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the United States Army – as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing General Joe Dunford, who will be retiring.... ... ....I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country! Date of transition to be determined.“This is collusion illusion, there is no smoking gun here. At this late date, after all that we have gone through, after millions have been spent, we have no Russian Collusion. There is nothing impeachable here.” @GeraldoRivera Time for the Witch Hunt to END!Very sad day & night in Paris. Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Trump Admin Officially Rolls Back Michelle Obama's National Lunch GuidelinesThis is one of the biggest squares in Rome right now! While in France people are protesting against Macron, Italy is celebrating the return of a popular government officially proving that European Union has failed!Meanwhile in France''We want our country back, we are tired of globalism!''🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Communist Leaders throughout the years.Christianity: Bad Islam: GoodA little something for the shills in here to downvoteSOOOOO MUCH WINNING, STILL NOT TIRED OF IT!Without further ado, some tunes to get you jamming through all this winning:CenterfoldMy SongKodachromeEverything I AmLove StinksHey MamaMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

#robgray

0 notes

iyarpage · 6 years ago

Text

UndoManager Tutorial: How to Implement With Swift Value Types

Note: This tutorial was built for Xcode 10 and iOS 12.

Undo made easy

Nobody’s perfect. And once you implement UndoManager, your users don’t have to be either.

UndoManager provides a simple way to add undo/redo functionality to your apps. You may also be able to prevent the occasional flaw in your reasoning by keeping things more “local”.

In this tutorial, you’ll build an app called People Keeper to improve your local reasoning with Swift value types and learn how to use that improved local reasoning to achieve flawless undo/redo implementations.

Note: This tutorial assumes that you have an intermediate knowledge of iOS and Swift development. If you’re new to iOS development and/or Swift, check out our “Learn to Code iOS Apps with Swift Tutorial” series first.

Getting Started

Download the materials for this tutorial using the Download Materials link found at the top and bottom of this page. Build and run the starter app:

The app is pre-populated with some folks you’ve supposedly encountered and wanted to remember. Click on Bob, Joan and/or Sam, and you’ll see that their physical features, likes and dislikes are specified in the cells below the preview.

Tapping Bob in PeopleListViewController (left) opens PersonDetailViewController (right). The screenshot series on the right shows PersonDetailViewController‘s scrolled page contents.

To understand the starter code, click through the project files and read the comments throughout. It’ll be your job in this tutorial to program the ability to add and edit your contacts.

Making Changes

What if Sam shaves his mustache or Joan starts wearing glasses? Or, during a particularly harsh winter, Bob decides that he dislikes everything including the weather? It’s useful to be able to update the people in People Keeper in real time.

Implementing selection behaviors

To start, if you choose a new feature or topic in PersonDetailViewController, the preview should update. To do this, at the bottom of the extension marked by UICollectionViewDelegate and UICollectionViewDataSource in PersonDetailViewController.swift, add:

override func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, didSelectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) { // 1 switch Section(at: indexPath) { // 2 case .hairColor: person.face.hairColor = Person.HairColor.allCases[indexPath.row] case .hairLength: person.face.hairLength = Person.HairLength.allCases[indexPath.row] case .eyeColor: person.face.eyeColor = Person.EyeColor.allCases[indexPath.row] // 3 case .glasses: person.face.glasses = true // 4 case .facialHair: person.face.facialHair.insert(Person.FacialHair.allCases[indexPath.row]) // 5 case .likes: person.likes.insert(Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]) person.dislikes.remove(Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]) case .dislikes: person.dislikes.insert(Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]) person.likes.remove(Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]) default: break } // 6 collectionView.reloadData() }

Upon cell selection, the following happens:

Using a switch statement, you execute the case that matches the enumeration value corresponding to the current section.

If the user selects a hair color, set person‘s hair color to the Person.HairColor value at the selected row of the index path. If the user selects a hair length or eye color, set the hair length or eye color as well.

When the user taps the glasses option, person‘s glasses Boolean becomes true.

facialHair is a set since it can contain multiple items. When the user selects a facial hair style, insert it into the facial hair set.

If the user selects a topic in the likes or dislikes section, add it to the likes or dislikes set respectively. Furthermore, a topic can’t be both liked and disliked, so if the user likes an item, deselect its cell in the dislike section and remove it from the dislike set and vice versa.

Update the preview and selection UI by reloading the collection view.

Implementing deselection behaviors

Next, implement the deselection behaviors. Below the collectionView(_:didSelectItemAt:), add:

// 1 override func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, shouldDeselectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> Bool { switch Section(at: indexPath) { case .facialHair, .glasses, .likes, .dislikes: return true default: return false } } override func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, didDeselectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) { switch Section(at: indexPath) { // 2 case .facialHair: person.face.facialHair.subtract([Person.FacialHair.allCases[indexPath.row]]) case .likes: person.likes.subtract([Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]]) case .dislikes: person.dislikes.subtract([Person.Topic.allCases[indexPath.row]]) case .glasses: // 3 person.face.glasses = false default: break } collectionView.reloadData() }

Here’s what you’re doing in each delegate method:

Here, you specify that only the selected facial hair, glasses, likes and dislikes should be deselectable upon repeated tap. Deselection in any other section should only happen when the user selects another item in that same category.

When the user deselects a facial hair style, likes or dislikes, you remove that deselected item from its respective set.

When the user deselects the glasses feature, you set the glasses Boolean to false.

Build and run the app. You should now see the desired selection behaviors:

You’ve now proven yourself a worthy commander of this powerful People Keeper technology. You’ve earned the right to wield your new weapon. On that day when a rival developer catches a glimpse of your People Keeper app, one powerful class will rise from the foundation to guard your states and protect against your evil competition…

Introducing UndoManager

UndoManager is a general-purpose undo stack that is capable of simplifying your app’s state management. It can store whatever object or UI states that you’d like to track along with a closure, method or invocation capable of traversing back and forth through those states. Although it simplifies undo/redo when implemented properly, a lesser rival developer will likely implement UndoManager in a way that leads to fatal bugs. The two undo stacks that follow demonstrate a flawed example and a more successful example.

Undo stack example #1

Undo Stack #1

Undo Stack #1 is a sequence of small steps that are each responsible for modifying the model and then the view to match. Though this strategy could work in theory, as the list of operations grows, errors become more likely because precisely matching each change in the model to each change in the view becomes increasingly difficult.

To understand why, here’s an exercise:

What does the model look like after you pop the first undo operation off the stack?

Solution Inside: Answer #1 SelectShow>

Bob, Sam

And the second?

Solution Inside: Answer #2 SelectShow>

Bob, Kathy

And the third?

Solution Inside: Answer #3 SelectShow>

Bob, Kathy, Mike

Whether or not you got those answers right, perhaps you can imagine how multiple insertions and deletions can complicate the index calculation of following insertions, deletions or updates. This undo stack is order-dependent and mistakes can cause inconsistencies between your data model and view. Does this error sound familiar?

Model-view inconsistencies cause NSInternalInconsistencyExceptions.

Undo stack example #2

To avoid the error in Undo stack example #1, instead of recording data model and UI changes separately, record entire models:

Undo Stack #2

To undo an operation, you can replace the current model with a model on the undo stack. Undo Stacks #1 and #2 do the same thing, but #2 is order-independent and thus less error prone.

Undoing Detail View Changes

At the bottom of PersonDetailViewController.swift, insert:

// MARK: - Model & State Types extension PersonDetailViewController { // 1 private func personDidChange(from fromPerson: Person) { // 2 collectionView?.reloadData() // 3 undoManager.registerUndo(withTarget: self) { target in let currentFromPerson: Person = self.person self.person = fromPerson self.personDidChange(from: currentFromPerson) } // 4 // Update button UI DispatchQueue.main.async { self.undoButton.isEnabled = self.undoManager.canUndo self.redoButton.isEnabled = self.undoManager.canRedo } } }

Here’s what going on above:

personDidChange(from:) takes the previous version of person as a parameter.

Reloading the collection updates the preview and cell selections.

undoManager registers an undo operation which, when invoked, sets self.person to the previous Person then calls personDidChange(from:) recursively. personDidChange(from:) updates the UI and registers the undo’s undo, i.e., it registers a redo path for the undone operation.

If undoManager is capable of an undo — i.e., canUndo, enable the undo button — otherwise, disable it. It is the same for redo. While the code is running on the main thread, the undo manager doesn’t update its state until after this method returns. Using the DispatchQueue block allows the UI update to wait until this undo/redo operation completes.

Now, at the top of both collectionView(_:didSelectItemAt:) and collectionView(_:didDeselectItemAt:), add:

let fromPerson: Person = person

to retain an instance of the original person.

At the end of those same delegate methods, replace collectionView.reloadData() with:

personDidChange(from: fromPerson)

in order to register an undo that reverts to fromPerson. You removed collectionView?.reloadData() because that is already called in personDidChange(from:), so you don’t need to do it twice.

In undoTapped(), add:

undoManager.undo()

and in redoTapped(), add:

undoManager.redo()

to trigger undo and redo respectively.

Implementing shaking to undo/redo

Next, you’ll add the ability to shake the device running the app to initiate undo/redo. At the bottom of viewDidAppear(_:), add:

becomeFirstResponder()

at the bottom of viewWillDisappear(_:), add:

resignFirstResponder()

then below viewWillDisappear(_:), add:

override var canBecomeFirstResponder: Bool { return true }

When the user shakes his or her device running the app to undo/redo, NSResponder goes up the responder chain looking for a next responder that returns an NSUndoManager object. When you set PersonDetailViewController as the first responder, its undoManager will respond to a shake gesture with the option to undo/redo.

Build and run your app. To test your changes, navigate to PersonDetailViewController, switch between a few different hair colors, and then tap or shake to undo/redo:

Notice that tapping undo/redo doesn’t change the preview.

To debug, add the following within the top of the registerUndo(withTarget:handler:) closure:

print(fromPerson.face.hairColor) print(self.person.face.hairColor)

Again, build and run your app. Try changing a person’s hair color a few times, undoing and redoing. Now, look at the debug console and you should see that, whenever you undo/redo, both print statements output only the final selected color. Is UndoManager dropping the ball already?

Not at all! The issue is elsewhere in the code.

Improving Local Reasoning

Local reasoning is the concept of being able to understand sections of code independent from context.

In this tutorial, for example, you’ve used closures, lazy initialization, protocol extensions and condensed code paths to make portions of your code understandable without venturing far outside their scopes – when viewing only “local” code, for example.

What does this have to do with the bug you’ve just encountered? You can fix the bug by improving your local reasoning. By understanding the difference between reference and value types, you’ll learn how to maintain better local control of your code.

Reference Types vs. Value Types

Reference and value are the two “type” categories in Swift. For types with reference semantics, such as a class, different references to the same instance share the same storage. Value types, however — such as structs, enums and tuples — each hold their own separate data.

To understand how this contributes to your current conundrum, answer the following questions using what you’ve just learned about reference vs. value type data storage:

If Person is a class:

var person = Person() person.face.hairColor = .blonde var anotherPerson = person anotherPerson.face.hairColor = .black person.face.hairColor == ??

Solution Inside: person.face.hairColor == ?? SelectShow>

person.face.hairColor == .black

If Person is a struct:

var person = Person() person.face.hairColor = .blonde var anotherPerson = person anotherPerson.face.hairColor = .black person.face.hairColor == ??

Solution Inside: person.face.hairColor == ?? SelectShow>

person.face.hairColor == .blonde

The reference semantics in question one hurts local reasoning because the value of the object can change underneath your control and no longer make sense without context.

So in Person.swift, change class Person { to:

struct Person {

so that Person now has value semantics with independent storage.

Build and run your app. Then, change a few features of a person, undoing and redoing to see what happens:

Undoing and redoing selections now works as expected.

Next, add the ability to undo/redo name updates. Return to PersonDetailViewController.swift and, within the UITextFieldDelegate extension, add:

func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) { if let text = textField.text { let fromPerson: Person = person person.name = text personDidChange(from: fromPerson) } }

When the text field finishes editing, set person‘s new name to the field’s text and register an undo operation for that change.

Build and run. Now, change the name, change characteristics, undo, redo, etc. Mostly everything should work as planned but you may notice one small issue. If you select the name field then press return without making any edits, the undo button becomes active, indicating that an undo action was registered to undoManager even though nothing actually changed:

In order to fix this, you could compare the original and updated names, and register the undo only if those two values don’t match, but this is poor local reasoning — especially as person‘s property list grows, it’s easier to compare entire person objects instead of individual properties.

At top of personDidChange(from:), add:

if fromPerson == self.person { return }

Logically, it seems as if this line should compare the old and new person but there’s an error:

Binary operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'Person' and 'Person!'

As it turns out, there’s no built-in way to compare Person objects since several of their properties are composed of custom types. You’ll have to define the comparison criteria on your own. Luckily, struct offers an easy way to do that.

Making Your Struct Equatable

Make your way over to Person.swift and make Person conform to Equatable by adding the following extension:

// MARK: - Equatable extension Person: Equatable { static func ==(_ firstPerson: Person, _ secondPerson: Person) -> Bool { return firstPerson.name == secondPerson.name && firstPerson.face == secondPerson.face && firstPerson.likes == secondPerson.likes && firstPerson.dislikes == secondPerson.dislikes } }

Now, if two Person objects share the same name, face, likes and dislikes, they are “equal”; otherwise, they’re not.

Note: You can compare the Face and Topic custom objects within ==(_:_:) without making Face and Topic Equatable since each object is composed solely of Strings, which are inherently equatable objects in Swift.

Navigate back to PersonDetailViewController.swift. Build and run. The if fromPerson == self.person error should have disappeared. Now that you’ve finally gotten that line to work, you’ll soon delete it entirely. Using a diff instead will improve your local reasoning.

Creating Diffs

In programming, a “diff” compares two objects to determine how or whether they differ. By creating a diff value type, (1) the original object, (2) the updated object and (3) their comparison can all live within a single, “local” place.

Within the end of the Person struct in Person.swift, add:

// 1 struct Diff { let from: Person let to: Person fileprivate init(from: Person, to: Person) { self.from = from self.to = to } // 2 var hasChanges: Bool { return from != to } } // 3 func diffed(with other: Person) -> Diff { return Diff(from: self, to: other) }

This code does the following:

struct Diff holds both the original (from) and new (to) person values.

If from and to are different, hasChanges is true; otherwise it’s false.

diffed(with:) returns a Diff containing self’s Person (from) and the new person (to).

In PersonDetailViewController, replace the line private func personDidChange(from fromPerson: Person) { with:

private func personDidChange(diff: Person.Diff) {

It now takes the entire Diff and not just the “from” object as a parameter.

Then, replace if fromPerson == self.person { return } with:

guard diff.hasChanges else { return }

to use diff‘s hasChanges property.

Also remove the two print statements you added earlier.

Improving Code Proximity

Before replacing the now invalid calls to personDidChange(from:) with calls to personDidChange(diff:), take a look at collectionView(_:didSelectItemAt:) and collectionView(_:didDeselectItemAt:).

In each method, notice that the variable to hold the original person object is initialized at the top of the class, but not used until the bottom. You can improve local reasoning by moving the object creation and use closer together.

Above personDidChange(diff:), add a new method within its same extension:

// 1 private func modifyPerson(_ mutatePerson: (inout Person) -> Void) { // 2 var person: Person = self.person // 3 let oldPerson = person // 4 mutatePerson(&person) // 5 let personDiff = oldPerson.diffed(with: person) personDidChange(diff: personDiff) }

Here’s what’s happening step by step:

modifyPerson(_:) takes in a closure that receives a pointer to a Person object.

var person holds a mutable copy of the class’s current Person.

oldPerson holds a constant reference to the original person object.

Execute the (inout Person) -> Void closure you created at modifyPerson(_:)‘s call site. The code in the closure will mutate the person variable.

Then personDidChange(diff:) updates the UI and registers an undo operation capable of reverting to the fromPerson data model.

To invoke modifyPerson(_:), in collectionView(_:didSelectItemAt:), collectionView(_:didDeselectItemAt:), and textFieldDidEndEditing(_:) replace let fromPerson: Person = person with:

modifyPerson { person in

Replace personDidChange(from: fromPerson) with:

}

in order to condense the code using the modifyPerson(_:) closure.

Similarly, within undoManager‘s registerUndo closure, replace let currentFromPerson: Person = self.person with:

target.modifyPerson { person in

Replace self.personDidChange(from: fromPerson) with:

}

to simplify the code with a closure. This design approach centralizes our update code and thus preserves “locality of reasoning” for our UI.

Select all the code in the class, then navigate to Editor > Structure > Re-Indent to properly realign the new closures.

Then, in personDidChange(diff:), after guard diff.hasChanges else { return } and before collectionView?.reloadData() add:

person = diff.to

This sets the class’ person to the updated person.

Likewise, inside the target.modifyPerson { person in ... } closure replace self.person = fromPerson with:

person = diff.from

This restores the previous person when undoing.

Build and run. Check a person’s detail view and everything should work as expected. Your PersonDetailViewController code is complete!

Now, tap the back button. Uh-oh… Where did those changes go? You’ll have to pass those updates back to PeopleListViewController somehow.

Updating the People List

Within the top of the PersonDetailViewController class, add:

var personDidChange: ((Person) -> Void)?

Unlike the personDidChange(diff:) method, the personDidChange variable will hold a closure that receives the updated person.

At the end of viewWillDisappear(_:), add:

personDidChange?(person)

When the view disappears upon returning to the main screen, the updated person will return to the closure.

Now you’ll need to initialize that closure.

Back in PeopleListViewController, scroll to prepare(for:sender:). When transitioning to a selected person’s detail view, prepare(for:sender:) currently sends a person object to the destination controller. Similarly, you can add a closure to that same function to retrieve a person object from the destination controller.

At the end of prepare(for:sender:), add:

detailViewController?.personDidChange = { updatedPerson in // Placeholder: Update the Data Model and UI }

This initializes detailViewController‘s personDidChange closure. You will eventually replace the placeholder comment with code to update the data model and UI; before that, there’s some setup to do.

Open PeopleModel.swift. At the end of class PeopleModel, but inside the class, add:

struct Diff { // 1 enum PeopleChange { case inserted(Person) case removed(Person) case updated(Person) case none } // 2 let peopleChange: PeopleChange let from: PeopleModel let to: PeopleModel fileprivate init(peopleChange: PeopleChange, from: PeopleModel, to: PeopleModel) { self.peopleChange = peopleChange self.from = from self.to = to } }

Here’s what this code does:

Diff defines a PeopleChange enum, which indicates 1. Whether the change between from and to is an insertion, removal, update or nothing and 2. Which Person was inserted, deleted, or updated.

Diff holds both the original and updated PeopleModels and the diff’s PeopleChange.

To help figure out which person was inserted, deleted or updated, add this function after the Diff struct:

// 1 func changedPerson(in other: PeopleModel) -> Person? { // 2 if people.count != other.people.count { let largerArray = other.people.count > people.count ? other.people : people let smallerArray = other.people == largerArray ? people : other.people return largerArray.first(where: { firstPerson -> Bool in !smallerArray.contains(where: { secondPerson -> Bool in firstPerson.tag == secondPerson.tag }) }) // 3 } else { return other.people.enumerated().compactMap({ index, person in if person != people[index] { return person } return nil }).first } }

Here’s a breakdown of this code:

changedPerson(in:) compares self’s current PeopleModel with the people model passed in as a parameter, then returns the inserted/deleted/updated Person if one exists.

If one array is smaller/larger than the other, find the larger of the two arrays, then find the first element in the array not contained within the smaller array.

If the arrays are the same size, then the change was an update as opposed to an insertion or deletion; in this case, you iterate through the enumerated new people array and find the person in the new array who doesn’t match the old one at the same index.

Below changedPerson(in:), add:

// 1 func diffed(with other: PeopleModel) -> Diff { var peopleChange: Diff.PeopleChange = .none // 2 if let changedPerson = changedPerson(in: other) { if other.people.count > people.count { peopleChange = .inserted(changedPerson) } else if other.people.count < people.count { peopleChange = .removed(changedPerson) } else { peopleChange = .updated(changedPerson) } } //3 return Diff(peopleChange: peopleChange, from: self, to: other) }

Reviewing the above code:

You initialize peopleChange to none to indicate no change. You will eventually return peopleChange from this method.

If the new array is larger than the old array, changedPerson was inserted; if the new array is smaller, changedPerson was removed; if the new array is the same size as the old array, changedPerson was updated. In each case, use the person returned from changedPerson(in:) as changedPerson's parameter.

You return the Diff with peopleChange, the original PeopleModel and the updated PeopleModel.

Now, at the bottom of PeopleListViewController.swift, add:

// MARK: - Model & State Types extension PeopleListViewController { // 1 private func peopleModelDidChange(diff: PeopleModel.Diff) { // 2 switch diff.peopleChange { case .inserted(let person): if let index = diff.to.people.index(of: person) { tableView.insertRows(at: [IndexPath(item: index, section: 0)], with: .automatic) } case .removed(let person): if let index = diff.from.people.index(of: person) { tableView.deleteRows(at: [IndexPath(item: index, section: 0)], with: .automatic) } case .updated(let person): if let index = diff.to.people.index(of: person) { tableView.reloadRows(at: [IndexPath(item: index, section: 0)], with: .automatic) } default: return } // 3 peopleModel = diff.to } }

Like personDidChange(diff:) in PersonDetailViewController, peopleModelDidChange(diff:) does the following:

peopleModelDidChange(diff:) takes PeopleModel.Diff as a parameter, then it updates the UI based on the changes in the data model.

If diff's peopleChange is an insertion, insert a table view row at the index of that insertion. If peopleChange is a deletion, delete the table view row at the index of that deletion. If peopleChange is an update, reload the updated row. Otherwise, if there was no change, exit the method without updating the model or UI.

Set the class's peopleModel to the updated model.

Next, just as you added modifyPerson(_:) in PersonDetailViewController, add: modifyModel(_:) above peopleModelDidChange(diff:):

// 1 private func modifyModel(_ mutations: (inout PeopleModel) -> Void) { // 2 var peopleModel = self.peopleModel // 3 let oldModel = peopleModel // 4 mutations(&peopleModel) // 5 tableView.beginUpdates() // 6 let modelDiff = oldModel.diffed(with: peopleModel) peopleModelDidChange(diff: modelDiff) // 7 tableView.endUpdates() }

Here's what this code does step by step:

modifyModel(_:) takes in a closure that accepts a pointer to a variable PeopleModel.

var peopleModel holds a mutable copy of the class' peopleModel.

oldModel holds a constant reference to the original model.

Perform the mutations on the old model to produce the new model.

Begin the series of tableView changes.

peopleModelDidChange(diff:) executes the tableView insertion, deletion, or reload as determined by modelDiff peopleChange.

End the table view updates.

Back in prepare(for:sender:), replace the placeholder comment with:

self.modifyModel { model in model.people[selectedIndex] = updatedPerson }

to swap the person at the selected index with his or her updated version.

One final step. Replace class PeopleModel { with:

struct PeopleModel {

Build and run. Select a person's detail view, make some changes and then return to the people list. The changes now propagate:

Next, you'll add the ability to delete and add people to your people table.

To process deletions, replace the placeholder comment in tableView(_:editActionsForRowAt:) with:

self.modifyModel { model in model.people.remove(at: indexPath.row) }

to remove the person at the deleted index from both the data model and UI.

To handle insertions, add the following to addPersonTapped():

// 1 tagNumber += 1 // 2 let person = Person(name: "", face: (hairColor: .black, hairLength: .bald, eyeColor: .black, facialHair: [], glasses: false), likes: [], dislikes: [], tag: tagNumber) // 3 modifyModel { model in model.people += [person] } // 4 tableView.selectRow(at: IndexPath(item: peopleModel.people.count - 1, section: 0), animated: true, scrollPosition: .bottom) showPersonDetails(at: IndexPath(item: peopleModel.people.count - 1, section: 0))

Here, you do the following:

The class variable tagNumber keeps track of the highest tag in the people model. As you add each new person, increment tagNumber by 1.

A new person originally has no name, no likes nor dislikes, and a default face configuration. His or her tag value equals the current tagNumber.

Add the new person to the end of the data model and update the UI.

Select the row of the new item — i.e. the final row — and transition to that person's detail view so the user can set the details.

Build and run. Add people, update, etc. You should now be able to add and delete users from the people list and updates should propagate back and forth between controllers:

You're not done yet — PeopleListViewController's undo and redo aren't functional. Time to code one last bit of counter-sabotage to protect your contact list!

Undoing People List Changes

At the end of peopleModelDidChange(diff:), add:

// 1 undoManager.registerUndo(withTarget: self) { target in // 2 target.modifyModel { model in model = diff.from } } // 3 DispatchQueue.main.async { self.undoButton.isEnabled = self.undoManager.canUndo self.redoButton.isEnabled = self.undoManager.canRedo }

Here, you:

Modify the people model by replacing the current model with the previous one.

Enable/disable undoButton and redoButton appropriately.

In undoTapped(), add:

undoManager.undo()

and in redoTapped(), add:

undoManager.redo()

to trigger undo and redo respectively.

Last but not least, add shake to undo/redo to this controller. At the end of viewDidAppear(_:), add:

becomeFirstResponder()

At the end of viewWillDisappear(_:), add:

resignFirstResponder()

And beneath viewWillDisappear(_:), add:

override var canBecomeFirstResponder: Bool { return true }

so that the controller can undo/redo in response to the shake gesture.

That's it! Build and run. You can edit, add, undo, redo, shake, etc.

Where to Go From Here?

Download the final project using the Download Materials link at the bottom or top of this tutorial to see how it compares to your version.

To further explore the UndoManager API, try grouping undo features, naming undo actions, making undo operations discardable and using the various built-in notifications.

To further explore value types, try adding properties to Person and PeopleModel to make your app more robust.

And if you want to make your PeopleKeeper really work for you, add data persistence between app launches. See our "Updated Course: Saving Data in iOS" for more information.

Have any questions, comments or suggestions? Join in the forum discussion below!

The post UndoManager Tutorial: How to Implement With Swift Value Types appeared first on Ray Wenderlich.

UndoManager Tutorial: How to Implement With Swift Value Types published first on https://medium.com/@koresol

0 notes

sweetlifetownsville · 6 years ago

Text

The Massive Difference Between 'Buy Local' And 'Local Buy' ... How Mayor Mullet Has Played The Townsville Business Community For Mugs.