#think that’s at the root of their relationship like you can’t have the keating and Charlie dynamic without Charlie being smart

[deadpoetsandlivinglegends]

Something something every time Charlie isn’t fighting to be the center of attention, he is always looking around to others to gauge their reactions and silently observing them all something something he is searching for connection, to fit in and be loved but he doesn’t know how to ask for love so instead he gains their attention by acting out in ways he knows they���ll notice and tries to pretend their attention and love are the same thing

[zalrb]

I don't know if you've answered this before but have you ever disliked/hated a ship you eventually grew to love/appreciate or the reverse, loved a ship you eventually cooled off of or ended up disliking?

Oh sure!

Dislike-to-Like:

Dair

I actually hated the idea of Dair at first. I didn’t think they’d work, I thought GG was running out of ideas and it was legit inconceivable to me but then I saw them interact more and more and I was like, oh wait, no, they make sense, they’re actually incredibly compatible. I have a comment on one of the Dair-centric promos on YT where I’m like, I can’t believe I’m saying this but I want Dair and I want Dair now. And I made this vid (omg it’s so badly edited):

Micasher

I didn’t want anyone in the Keating 5 to hook up. It was the first show I saw in a while where romantic boundaries between the main cast weren’t crossed and I liked that, I thought it was refreshing, I wanted to keep it that way and I really liked Asher and Bonnie and I thought Michaela deserved someone better, like I thought their sex scene in the bathroom was hot but I was like no, stop it, don’t do it and then they continued on with it and gave them a nice vulnerability that endeared them to me and then they had their next scene and I was like OKAY.

Bill and Sookie

For the longest time, I was a Sooric shipper and then one day I asked myself, do I like Eric and Sookie over Bill and Sookie because I legitimately like the ship better or do I just like Eric over Bill? When I realized that it was about Eric vs Bill and not Sooric vs Bookie (what a terrible ship name) then I appreciated the chemistry of Bill and Sookie a lot more because it was intense af.

Like-to-Dislike

Jess and Rory

I have said many times that Jess and Rory were my Delena and I admit if I ever, for some reason, rewatch Gilmore Girls and we get to seasons 2 and 3, the part of me that’s still 12 fangirls over their scenes because they do have the chemistry, they do have the banter, there’s a lot there I do like except for the fact that Jess was legitimately a shitty boyfriend, like he was terrible and he treated Rory like crap and I don’t think he ever redeemed himself for that, I talk about that more here: https://zalrb.tumblr.com/post/170656625800/on-gg-i-forgot-to-mention?is_liked_post=1 and when I was older I just let myself see that.

Steroline

I went pretty hard for Steroline from seasons 5 to about the end of season 6. Next to the narrative issues with the ship, which I talk about here: https://zalrb.tumblr.com/post/160487885690/is-messy-and-develops-over-time-and-rooted-in

There’s also the chemistry: I think they were good at playing two people who couldn’t get on the same page but wanted to and Candice was good at playing that yearning but it worked because it was a dynamic that required Candice to be more assertive and raw and Paul to be reserved, that’s where the angst comes from, the minute they tried to do anything else I was like oooooh no this is awkward but I held on because I was deep into Steroline and then 6x21 happened and Paul and Nina, man, Paul lit the fuck up in that scene, it was easy, it was natural, it was chemistry just actual, honest-to-God chemistry and I was like … … … … this is why SC doesn’t work for me when they’re trying to do something that isn’t them being friends or isn’t them being on the wrong page, it’s just, they just don’t have it and frankly, if Paul and Nina had been around each other more in season 6 I don’t think I would’ve been as into SC, I remember being so conflicted about 6x04 because it was just Dobsley being Dobsley and I was like ………………………

Bamon

I was a Bamon shipper for quite a while actually, it wasn’t until season 6 that I just admitted that it was a terrible dynamic for Bonnie and all I was really shipping was the chemistry between Kat and Ian. I talk about that more here: https://zalrb.tumblr.com/post/180150746700/i-know-you-dont-ship-bamon-anymore-but-when-you

Chair

I was drawn to their story for the first three seasons, Ed and Leighton have fantastic chemistry, their scenes are compelling and rich and emotionally nuanced and I wanted them together really badly, even if I watch their scenes now, I get swept up in them, but then he prostituted her for a hotel, slut-shamed her and gaslit her and I was just done.

Bella and Jacob (books)

“Well, I'm so sorry that I can't be the right kind of monster for you, Bella.”

When I did read Twilight, I was Team Jacob over Team Edward and then I got older and was like lol the books are trash, BOTH romantic relationships are trash, it’s all terrible.

[cas-backwards-tie]

La Belle Dame Sans Merci Ch. 3

Castiel x Reader

Summary: Based off the John Keats’ ballad La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Warnings: Forest Sex, Violence, Threats, Bad Injuries, Unprotected Sex, Angst

Catch Up Here: Chapter One , Chapter Two

Authors Note: Pretty much this chapter is all smut, so yeah... I wanted to finish this and get it out since no one really took an interest to this series I figured I’d just post the chapter and the rest of the series.

I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She looked at me as she did love, And made sweet moan

Soon it was springtime, and Castiel was yet still with me. He’s like my Guardian Angel I sometimes thought to myself, knowing that I love this man, yet remembering sometimes that he’s not actually human. During the spring we went out more often and took small adventures in the wood, we even had a picnic once and sat where the flowers bloomed.

I pulled out two sandwiches, lying them on the blanket as Castiel fumbled with some random twigs, as well as a pile of other various materials he’d acquired: ferns, flowers, leaves, blossoms. “Y/N... I don’t eat” Castiel stated not even looking up as I sat the sandwiches down. “I’m sorry- I don’t mean you any offense. If I take a bite of the-” Castiel picks up the sandwich and inspects it, “mayonnaise chicken sandwich? Will it make you happier?” Castiel asks blankly as I laugh a little. I put his hand holding the sandwich down.

“Well, first of all- it’s a chicken salad sandwich. Yeah, it’s made out of chick and mayonnaise but we don’t call it that cause it’d sound gross. And no, it wouldn’t make me happier. If you don’t want to eat it, don’t eat it. I remember what you said it was like when I force fed you chicken noodle soup when you were injured- you said human food only tastes like molecules to you, so... I’m good.” I laughed as Castiel went back to fumbling with his various natural materials. I ate my sandwich as I looked down at the lake, admiring the fact that we sat having a picnic- on a date- in the spot we’d first met.

“What’re you doing, anyways?” I asked Castiel, still watching the scene around us as he stopped fumbling and looked up. He blushed a little before finishing something and looking back up at me.

“Here- it’s for you” he said as he held out a garland. I smiled and blushed as I took it in my hands, admiring the crown as I turned it in my hands.

“It;s beautiful Cas, thank you, I love it” I gave it back to him and told him he should put it on my head, to which he obliged and placed it atop my head. He smiled as he admired his creation upon me.

As we spent more time there he made bracelets and a garland for himself as well. I thought about things and eventually started to ask Castiel about our relationship and Heaven and how all of it was intertwined. “Could I ask you something?” I say hesitantly as I scoot over to him and sit really close. I’ve been thinking of asking this for a while, but I didn’t know how to approach it.

“Of course Y/N, you know you can ask or talk to me about anything- at least I hope you know that” Castiel says as he drops his bracelet and looks up at me, sensing the seriousness in my voice. I look him in his beautiful blue eyes as I try to piece together a thoughtful form of the question.

“I- I don’t really know how to ask it, so I’m just gonna try but if it doesn’t come out right then I’m sorry... I was just wondering, what would you say... uh, okay- what if I asked... Do you want to make love to me?” I ask, looking down at the blanket before looking back up at him. He’s blushing I notice as I inspect his reaction intently.

“Y/N- I, I- yes. Of course I want to make love to you in the human sense. I just, well, as humans put it, it’s ‘frowned upon’ in Heaven. Is that how you would use that?” Castiel asks for reassurance still trying to get idioms down.

“Y-yeah, that’s how you would use that Cas clothes.” I stutter as I try to come back from the answer he’s given. “So... what if I said I want you to make love to me Castiel?” I whisper as I feel once I’ve spoken the words I’ve gone too far. Crap- what if he doesn’t want to?

“Are you sure you want this?” Castiel asks me as he scoots a little closer to me so that he’s practically on top of me. I affirm his question and he kisses me gently, bringing his hands to turn my body so that I’m fully facing him.

The process is slow and graceful... he takes his time to build up the excitement, eventually only starting to take off my clothes. I push his trench coat off his shoulders as he pushes me to lie down on the blanket. Before I know it he’s kissing me passionately as he’s pushing into me carefully, not wanting to hurt me. I think about the times I’ve done this before, but none of those times have felt as good as this. I take my mouth away from his to moan out as he seats himself fully in me.

I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long,  For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery’s song.

As Castiel set a faster pace in his thrusts I thought about the fact that he was making love to me in a forest- the fricking forest! I couldn’t think about how cool it was for long because he kept making me cry out in ecstasy at the euphoric feeling of him filling my being.

Castiel let me command him as I guided him, every once in a while telling him to go ‘faster’, ‘slower’, ‘harder’. He was a careful lover, as well as passionate... granted the angel didn’t sweat under most situations, though this situation seemed to make him sweat, and I swear it’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. I feel myself even more on the edge by just watching him as he thrusts into me, filling me with his heavy, hot, long length over and over and over again and again. I hear him whisper my name in my ear as he comes closer and closer to the edge, amplifying my need for him to fuck me harder as he makes me feel the best I’ve ever felt. 

She found me roots of relish sweet,  And honey wild, and manna-dew, And sure in language strange she said- ‘I love thee true’.

Castiel followed suit in my begging for him to fuck me harder and faster as I cried out his name, feeling myself grow close to tipping over the edge. I rake my nails down his back, surely leaving marks before moving my hands to his shoulder, and eventually to tugging on his hair, making him groan. Fuck I think to myself as his groans send me over the edge. He slams into me with passion and love as I wrap my legs around him, toes curling as I cry out his name repeatedly. I curse but he doesn’t seem to mind as I clench around him, bringing him over the edge, feeling his length swell in me, bursting and surging forth a flow of his hot seed into my womb. “I love you” I whisper in his ear as I brush a few strands of loose hair out of his eyes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She took me to her Elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four.

Walking back to the house that afternoon we were stopped in the middle of the road. Time seemed to stop and no one seemed to roam, which scared the living depths out of me. A man stood in the middle of the street: black shaggy hair, fierce brown eyes and a small goatee “This is enough Castiel- I shouldn’t have to tell you that!” the man yells from a few yards away. “I told them you were trouble and you’d cause more, but to hell with that, I knew I’d have to kill you myself!” My eyes grew wide at this statement, what?! Kill him?! I feel fear surge within my gut as I go to step in front of him, but not getting the chance before Castiel walks forth to the man, meeting him the middle.

They argue for a minute before the fightings starts... fists and strange jointly blades are swung about in many directions, almost scraping their targets but missing by a few centimeters. I gasp and try to think of what I can do. Can I fight an angel? Should I? I mean I can’t just let Cas get hurt I think to myself as I try  to jog towards the fight but am pulled back by my shirt. Someone drags me backwards, scraping the backs of my knees against the concrete streets as Iyell in pain as they pull me by my hair. My head is dropped to the street after a minute and then bashed onto the concrete, then again. I cry out at the pain and feel tears start to well in my eyes.

“Is this what it’s come to Castiel?” the man shouts, as I try to process and think about how he got behind me so quickly. I begin to cry silently as the man drops me, focusing his attention back on Castiel.

“Stop it Ishmael” Castiel’s tone tells me without even looking at him that he’s threatening something. I try to sit up but fail, collapsing onto my elbows; I trip the man behind me as he tries to charge Castiel... once that man falls I kick him from the ground as my head feels like it’s pounding. I start to feel woozy as I continue to try and beat up the man. Castiel eventually beats me to it and stabs him with the pointy blade- “Look away!” Castiel shouts to me as I cover my face with my arm due to a bright light emanating from the stabbed man. A burst of energy makes my hair fly back as the bright light begins to fade.

“You can look now, it’s okay” I take my arm away from my face, my arm scraped and bloody as tears soak my shirt and drip down my face. I feel the world around me star to shift as blackness starts to cloud my vision. I feel Castiel pick me up with both arms and carry me bridal style.. I try to see where he’s going but blackness soon takes over and I’m no longer conscious.

I’m barely conscious... I don’t try to bother opening my eyes as I know it’ll take at least three times the effort that I simply don’t have. I hear Castiel near me, speaking to himself I’d suppose. “It’s all my fault, I should’ve never let it go this far... I, she wouldn’t be hurt because of me Father. I just” Castiel sighed and shuffled- his brown leather shoes squeaking against the floor.

“Y/N, I know you’re awake my love.” I use my effort to open my eyes, even if it’s just to see him for a second. His eyes are red- I didn’t know angels could cry I thought to myself as he seemed to be internally conflicted; battling himself was the duty he was tasked as of now.

I try to speak, to tell him I love him and nothing could ever change that, but my voice comes out as nothing but a groan of pain, which makes me feel weak and somewhat hopeless as I can’t communicate to him. “I can read your thoughts, you don’t need to speak. It does take effort on my part, though I love you so it is irrelevant.” Cas speaks softly, explaining everything as he starts to bring up a new topic.

“I need to heal you Y/N, I know it might not be the most gentle experience, but I need you to stay still and close your eyes. Once I heal you I want you to go to sleep, you need the rest to finish healing yourself. I can heal most of the damage but not all of it.” Castiel explains this to me as I oblige to his commands, partially too weak to even try keeping my eyes open any longer.

“I love you Y/N,” I feel a warm sensation, as if I’m taking a shower that’s a nice warm, almost at the verge of burning. As the warm sensation fades I feel not one, but four kisses lied upon my forehead in sets, along with a few teardrops= this is what I feel before I fall asleep.

And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dreamed- Ah! woe betide!- The latest dream I ever dreamt On the cold hill side.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I wake up I’m cold and alone- the window is open, letting a chilly breeze waft in. I rub my head, as it feels a little achy. Something feels wrong an I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it, I can’t place it or even try to explain but something feels different, wrong. I feel out of place...

*10 years later*

“Y/N, I have to go, my girlfriend’s having the baby!” My coworker Todd throws his apron messily on the hook and runs out the door.

“What tables did you have?!” I yell as he rushes out the door, trying to cover for him.

“Thirteen and nineteen!” he shouts as he jogs out the door, leaving m to cover his tables for him, sometimes I hate food service I think to myself as I figure I might as well go check on those tables for him. 

As I walk to the tables I feel a different energy around the diner... it starts to feel like the world is buzzing a little, which concerns me but I continue on with my work. As I approach the table I take out my little notepad to write down and take orders, along with a pen I keep in my bun. “Can I get you guys some drinks?” I spit out the usual lines as I fix my apron and look up.

I freeze, looking into the eyes of the man sat before me I feel my head start to hurt; I gasp, dropping my pen and notepad.

“Wanna go down to the lake tonight?

“What’s your name?” “Castiel”

“You don’t need to-” “But I want to”

“I can help you- and I will”

“I’ll race you to that tree!”

“It’s for you-” “It’s beautiful Cas, thank you- I love it”

“Are you sure you want this?”

“Is this what it’s come to Castiel?” “Stop it Ishmael”

“You can look now, it’s okay”

“I love you Y/N”

“Castiel” I stand shell-shocked as the man-angel- disappears in front of me. I look to the two other men sitting at the table, not seemingly shocked at all by their faces. “Do you know him?” I ask quickly, worried I’m getting left behind and won’t be able to find him ever again.

“yeah, do you?” a man with dirty blonde hair and green eyes speaks up to me with a look of skepticism.

“I did,” I sigh as I feel tears start to well up in my eyes. “A long time ago... I just thought I’d never see him again.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you find him” the second man says from the booth, long brown hair and chocolate eyes. “We’ll find him” he promised.

I’ll find you Castiel- I swear it.

[jamesginortonblog]

Interview with Robson Green

 Robson Green talks about Geordie Keating and Grantchester 3

Q. How does it feel returning to film a new series of Grantchester?

“When the first script of a new series arrives you know it’s going to be quality because it’s written by Daisy Coulam. Then you want to find out how the journey is going to further develop with the various relationships on screen. Has it still got those likeable ingredients? Does it still have those dramatic arcs within each relationship that the audience care about? And like any script you get, because you see yourself in it, you think, ‘Where is it going to take my character? Is there a development?’ Not surprisingly there was.

“Grantchester is so refreshing. It develops in a way the audience will care about, want to follow and leave them wanting more. Which is essentially what you want with a long running series. When I get a script now I go, ‘Will I enjoy making this?’ And you’re 10 pages in and you go, ‘Yes I will.’”

Q: How is Geordie’s marriage to Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth)?

“Geordie is paralysed with the burden of guilt and obligation and has an overwhelming sense of routine. He feels the relationship is stale and redundant. But he’s looking at the wrong aspects of the relationship.

“Geordie begins a campaign that sets out to destroy everything that is precious in his private life. Looking at the public face of Geordie, everything he has seems to be bright, rosy and healthy. But there’s an undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable. He begins to destroy the one thing he holds dear, which is his family. And seeks approval of his behaviour from Sidney.

“The overriding arc of the whole series is that both Sidney and Geordie have crisis of self. They try to advise one another on how to deal with this. But they both very quickly realise they’re not qualified to give that advice. It’s love versus duty, loyalty versus love, which are very powerful emotions and issues to play. One minute we’re dealing with betrayal, another with abandonment. But at the heart of it all is love.”

Q: What’s are Sidney’s thoughts on Geordie’s predicament?

“Sidney tries to give Geordie advice. And Geordie says to Sidney, ‘How can you give me advice? You are going out with a married woman who has a child with another man? And you’re standing there giving me advice?’ While Sidney points out Geordie has a wife and four beautiful children. Geordie, in a way, seeks forgiveness throughout the whole series. But not from God.”

Q: Geordie and Sidney form a batting partnership during a village cricket match. Was that easy for you to film?

“The script only allowed me to score four runs. But it had a century written all over it! It was a quintessentially English scene. It’s 1955, we’re in the Grantchester Meadows, all in our whites playing cricket.

“However I play cricket with a confidence that is wholly unwarranted. I was rubbish at school. The ball is too hard. I played in the cast and crew versus Grantchester villagers match at the end of filming for series one and was out for four.

“It just takes me back. I had terrible reminders of how bad I was at sport in school. I was a really good runner but I was never good at cricket and hopeless at football. I was described as a delinquent kicking about a pig’s bladder when I was playing football.

“And I was so paranoid when playing rugby. When they went into a scrum I used to think they were talking about me. So nothing has changed on the sporting frontier. But it was a lovely scenario to film. Beautifully directed by Tim Fywell.

“The Grantchester cricket captain Geoff Towler is played by Peter Davison. I also managed to have a lot of scenes with Emma Davies, who plays Rosie Towler, and she made me realise why I continue to do this job. Reminded me of why I’m involved in this industry. She is a tour de force when it comes to acting. Storytelling can be a very powerful thing. It was just beautiful to be alongside her performance in episode two.”

Q: Is storytelling even more important in today’s world?

“I think it’s important to see things from other people’s points of view. Storytelling can change the way we think about the world we live in. But more importantly it makes us think about ourselves and the way we behave. We have a duty to remind the world that we are all one.”

Q: What was it like working with Peter Davison?

“Growing up with All Creatures Great and Small, he was a very important fixture in our family home in Dudley, Northumberland. So I was a huge fan. The experience and joy of working with someone like Peter really helps when you’re in front of the lens. He was a dream to work with.”

Q: Geordie is not a fan of jazz or the ‘new’ sound of rock 'n roll. Is there an artist or band in real life you would travel a long way to see?

“I used to be a huge fan of The Flying Pickets. I would travel from Newcastle to watch them play in Islington and follow them on tour. I loved what they had to say and the way they did it. That ‘a capella’ format.

“The last big concert I went to was the Rolling Stones. I used to be a huge heavy metal fan and I’d travel the country to see Motorhead, Rainbow and bands like that. The last concert I went to in Newcastle, which is probably the best concert I’ve been to just for spectacle, quality and coming away with a life-­‐affirming sense of well-­‐ being, was Dolly Parton. She was sensational. But now I sit and listen at home on the radio. I live in Northumberland and go walking on the hills.

“When I sung many years ago, Jerome and I were on Top of the Pops and someone came into our dressing room to say hello and sat and chatted with us for two hours. I only realised 20 minutes into the conversation that it was Cat Stevens / Yusuf. Eventually I asked, ‘What’s your link with the music industry?’ He said, ‘I wrote the song Boyzone are singing.’ And I suddenly put two and two together and went, ‘Oh my God it’s Cat Stevens!’”

Q: Do you get much attention from fans during Grantchester filming?

“The public has welcomed Grantchester with open arms. We have a really loyal fan base. Especially for James Norton, of course. Who wouldn’t want a vicar like Sidney Chambers? We get crowds, especially when we film in Grantchester itself. There’s crowds every day there. They don’t pose a problem. They’re very obliging and welcoming. While the locals within the village we use as supporting artistes. It’s been well received and rightly so. The writing is great, the storytelling is wonderful, with a great production team and cast.”

Q: You were still filming on your birthday last December. How did you celebrate?

“We had a fireworks display. James did the food and I did the fireworks. Fireworks is one of my guilty pleasures. So I threw a fireworks display to music of the movies. It started with Superman, then Flash Gordon, The Magnificent Seven, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. It was wonderful. It was after we had filmed for the day and about 200 locals turned out in the village. We got permission to set a Category 5 display up. Everybody left with smiles on their faces.”

Q: Some think an actor’s life is all bright lights and glamour. Were there any moments during this series that summed up how far from the truth that can be?

“There was one night where we were doing an exhumation scene. It was raining and it was freezing. And it was taking an eternity. Not only were we fed up and the production team fed up but also members of the public were fed up. So much so that about half a mile away, this guy shouted out of his window, ‘Turn off your lighting and go home!’ With added bad language. We just fell about laughing and couldn’t continue.

“But other than that, our executive producer Diederick Santer calls Grantchester his happy place. And it’s true. I’m working with James Norton, Morven Christie, Kacey Ainsworth, Tessa Peake-­‐Jones, Al Weaver and Lorne MacFadyen. It’s a joy.”

Q: How do you reflect on the relationship between Geordie and Sidney in series three?

“I think this new series is the best one yet. At the heart is that loving relationship between Sidney and Geordie. For Geordie, Sidney is the son he never had and for Sidney, Geordie is the friend he never had. It’s the shorthand that you can’t quantify that really works. It’s the way they interact and relate to each other that sometimes isn’t necessarily in the script. It’s just implicit in the performance. James is so relaxed and charismatic in front of the lens, he makes it so easy.

“We knew we worked well together immediately from the start of series one. And if you combine that with good writing and a good production team, you’re on to a winner. A vicar and a detective works because it’s rooted in a dark truth. On the surface it’s quintessentially English, beautiful, tranquil, idyllic, pristine. But there’s this undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable. Whether it be racism, bigotry or whatever. The darkness that existed and the denial people lived in in the 50s.”

Q: Aside from paying the bills, what has being an actor given you in life?

“It’s given me stability. I’m doing something I love. That’s what acting has given me. Storytelling is everything to me. It always has been from when I went to see Bedknobs and Broomsticks when I was that little kid with my mother. I’ve never shied away from the fact it’s all about the wonder of storytelling.”

Source: ITV Press Center

[zodiacspot]

Horoscope - Feb 24 2017

Aries Horoscope

(Mar 21 – Apr 19)

Although you're comfortable with your current group of friends, you still might wonder if this is really where you want to be. Nothing specific is wrong, but at the same time not everything seems right. Perhaps you notice the internal pressure rising and you can't help fretting about what kind of fallout you could expect if you make a dramatic change. Fortunately, the Moon's visit to free-thinking Aquarius gives you an opportunity to ponder these matters without getting caught up in the implications of hypothetical outcomes. Worry is a payment on a debt that isn't owed.

Taurus Horoscope

(Apr 20 – May 20)

A lull in the action allows you a moment to steady yourself and enjoy a relatively quiet day. Although you're grateful for the change of speed, you can't help but think about what the next big event will entail. You can objectively reevaluate your ambitions today, and the range of possibilities is more apparent than before. However, you might be more comfortable playing spectator now instead of rushing to make a move. Using the calm before the storm to ground your energy keeps you rooted in your integrity.

Gemini Horoscope

(May 21 – Jun 20)

It seems like the sky is clear today, even though you sense something big looming on the horizon. Nevertheless, you're happy to let your mind wander as you philosophize about the meaning of life. The futuristic Aquarius Moon sends a gentle breeze through your 9th House of Big Ideas, sweeping your vision higher so you can see your distant plans from a bird's eye view. They may just be dreams at the moment, but it's always revitalizing to reconnect with what inspires your creativity. John Keats wrote, "The poetry of the earth is never dead."

Cancer Horoscope

(Jun 21 – Jul 22)

You know that you must step up your game soon, but for now you want to keep your cards close to your chest. You don't feel quite like yourself, but your mismatched mood has an unexpected upside. It's as if you can see the real you from an outsider's perspective today, allowing you to identify what's wrong in the dynamics of a close relationship. This moment of clarity might be slightly unnerving, but you could be pleasantly surprised by the difference in your feelings if you're willing to explore them. The Dalai Lama teaches, "Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace."

Leo Horoscope

(Jul 23 – Aug 22)

Spending quality time with a partner or close companion is just what you need during a reprieve from the hustle and bustle. Testy remarks are replaced by playful banter as life doesn't seem quite as serious today. However, you can tell that big shifts are on the way and it's likely to be a spectacle when they take place. For now, you're willing to put your worries on the shelf and just say no to negativity. A joy that's shared is a joy made double.

Virgo Horoscope

(Aug 23 – Sep 22)

Although you feel certain that life will look completely different in the near future, you're also aware that there's not much you can do about it right now. You prefer to focus on actions that actually produce tangible results as the independent Aquarius Moon sets up shop in your 6th House of Work. Even if you're just doing basic chores and tying up loose ends, there's a restorative sense of satisfaction about bringing a set of tasks to completion. Ironically, getting back to basics injects a dose of gratitude into your life. Donna Karan said, "It's all about finding the calm in the chaos."

Libra Horoscope

(Sep 23 – Oct 22)

You're excited to work on a pet project since you have some improvements in mind that you can't wait to share. It may seem frivolous to spend your time on recreation when you could be catching up on chores. However, the truth is that stepping away from the heavy responsibilities is important for creating a well-rounded life. Doing what makes your heart happy in the moment restores a sense of balance in your world. Erich Fromm wrote, "Creativity requires the courage to let go of uncertainty."

Scorpio Horoscope

(Oct 23 – Nov 21)

While others are already packing their weekend with fun plans, you are eagerly anticipating some peace and quiet at home. Recognition for your recent contribution may not be forthcoming, even if you've been working hard to get noticed. Nevertheless, a tranquil evening by yourself or with your soul-family is just what you need now. The brilliant Aquarius Moon puts space between you and a complicated issue, empowering you to view the situation in a new light. There's nothing like counting your blessings to cure whatever ails the heart.

Sagittarius Horoscope

(Nov 22 – Dec 21)

You have a lot to say and even more you want to do, but coming up with good ideas is only half the battle. Nevertheless, the astute Aquarius Moon meanders through your 3rd House of Communication, seeking an outlet for your forward-thinking opinions. Lively discourse inspires you to see a concept from a new angle, widening your frame of reference and allowing you to rehash your old ideas into something new. Emile Zola wrote, "I would rather die of passion than of boredom."

Capricorn Horoscope

(Dec 22 – Jan 19)

Rumblings from the deep create concerns about your closest relationships. However, you're unable to draw any conclusions about their source yet. While internal stirrings occur, life is smooth on the surface today. As the detached Aquarius Moon peruses your 2nd House of Resources, you're preoccupied with assessing the usefulness of your belongings. Perhaps it's time to let go of some items with outdated sentimental value and look for more efficient replacements. Whatever you decide, it's easier to make choices when you don't feel tied up in emotional attachments.

Aquarius Horoscope

(Jan 20 – Feb 18)

Arguments from the recent past don't seem as important today as you reflect on the part you played. Self-analysis confirms that you often do a great job of staying emotionally removed from the current topic of discussion. However, you may not be as unbiased as you think while the subjective Moon hangs out in your eccentric sign. There is no reason for alarm as long as you do your best to be fair-minded now; a tiny bit of awareness changes everything.

Pisces Horoscope

(Feb 19 – Mar 20)

You're ready to block off a portion of your day to recharge your batteries and rest your bones. It feels wonderful to finally get a break from the recent chaotic circumstances, whether internal or external. Spending time in meditation or a favorite solo activity rejuvenates your mind and prepares you for the rocky road ahead. Ram Dass teaches, "The quieter you become, the more you can hear."

Source : Rick Levine

Read more about your horoscope here

[lightraker]

Albada: Pigeons on pink

Albada: Pigeons on pink

To understand this poem I think you need to know two things.

Firstly Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco was the father of Pablo Picasso. He was himself an artist and taught art. He painted lots of pictures of pigeons. So much that he was known as “El palomero” (the pigeon fancier). Legend has it that he saw young Picasso drawing some pigeons and they were so much better than anything he ever did that he gave Pablo all his painting materials and never painted again.

Eric’s dad, the poet R F Langley, (I was going to say famous, but maybe admired is the better word), wrote a poem called Jack’s Pigeon. In that poem, a coffee bowl breaks and a pigeon “thuds to the gutter in convulsions”. Jack, who is, I’m bit nervous of defining what Jack is, I think he might be a kind of alter ego for R F, and maybe like a Jack the Lad or man of mischief. Jack sees the probably dead pigeon and checks his “scratchcard”. There are lots of Hamlet references in the poem. I’m thinking there’s a link to the line about “there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”. Is God keeping an eye on even the smallest things?

Eric must have been pretty pleased with himself when he made this connection. He’s starting out as a poet, under his father’s shadow. His father wrote a poem about a pigeon. Picasso’s father painted pigeons until Picasso made a better version. Will Eric be Pablo to his father’s Don Jose? I think also, Don Jose’s pigeons look rather lovely. Eric seems to have specifically in mind the one that google throws up which is five pigeons on a pink background. You won’t be surprised that in the end, Eric/Pablo sees that his father’s stuff was better than his.

The Hamlet allusions also work brilliantly with this theme because of course Hamlet is all about a son and the ghost of his father.

Albada means a morning love song in Spanish. I didn’t know the word. But I do recognise Aubade, the French version. Eric says he’s riffing on a number of aubades / albadas in this poem but I can’t help you there. The only Aubade I know in any detail is the Philip Larkin poem. I wonder if there may be an allusion in the description of the blurry outlines in section 2, that become sharply defined in the last section, which remind me a bit of Larkin seeing the blurry outlines in his bedroom becoming sharper at the end. If so, there’s a hint about mortality and fears of death which would fit. Wikipedia tells me that Albada Finder is something in optics, which seems a nice link to themes of the collection.

Orpiment, masticot, Oker de Luce, lac of carmine are all painting materials. Don Jose in the morning is planning some painting.

“Rayleigh… Mei” this is something to do with scientific theories of how light scatters. Like me, you’ll presumably be cringing at the obvious error that the scientist Eric meant is Mie.

“Scumbles" - give a soft effect

“Envious” foreshadows how he’s going to feel about his son.

“civil” - this word sticks out to me. Does it mean polite, ordinary, from the city?

“Dimly” - keeping to the light.

“tender… extension” - Eric is obsessed with words with this root. It’s all to do with reaching out, connecting with another, making yourself vulnerable.

I think we can see that the dawn of the new day is mirroring the coming talent of his son.

“Maria” - is the name of Jose’s wife and Picasso’s mum.

“Jill” - this is the first inkling, I think, that the poem is alluding to Jack’s pigeon. Jill is Jack’s lady (of course).

“Croodling” isn’t this a great word! It means cooing.

“El Palomero” - the pigeon fancier. Apparently Spanish doesn’t have a different word for pigeon or dove. But Jose paints pigeons. However, Picasso as well as drawing pigeons has a famous painting much later in life of a dove of peace. And he called his daughter La Paloma which people seem to translate as “The Dove”. You can imagine she might have preferred it that way. I feel like there’s a lot going on with the idea that the workaday pigeon of the father becomes transformed into the symbolic, beautiful dove of the son.

“Spink” - brilliantly this word means “the cry of a finch”. I wonder how many other birds have a word just for their cry. Did Eric have a moment of serendipitous excitement when he found out it rhymed (hell, contained!) pink? Or did he know this all along?

Senna bush - my botany and the internet lets me down on the connotations of a senna bush, but there is one in “Jack’s Pigeon” by Langley senior, so we’re starting to get more references to that.

“Booby” - idiot, breasts, type of bird. (Also, tit!)

“Jug jug” is the noise a nightingale makes. Also, means breasts! Even I recognise this as a line in the Wasteland. But I’m not sure if it helps specifically to think of that poem, or just that both Eric and Eliot are referring to an earlier tradition of writing about nightingales going jug jug. Apparently it was big in the renaissance.

“full-throated.. god! o god!… shoot.. plum” Something something sex. Perhaps also a little Keats nod. In “Ode to a Nightingale” the bird sings with “full-throated ease”.

“Pomegranate tree” - this introduces, I think, a reference to the Song of Solomon. There’s something about Solomon and pomegranates. “My love, my dove, my fair…” is a quote from that.

“Ignition spark… apples’ pips”. Sex… babies.

“Piz piz” Apparently Picasso’s first words - short for “lapiz” - calling for a pencil. I hope you’re ready for some Freudian penis stuff. Father and son are going to be engaging in some willy waving.

“Pipion” - pigeon. 
“Master at the Bellas Artes” - Jose’s job teaching art.

“Kids” childish / jokes.

“Plucks his nib” - masturbation / makes art. Who can tell the difference?

“Squab” - a young pigeon. The word is used in “Jack’s Pigeon”.

“real these really real pigeons” - it seems like we’re back to Zeuxis here. Picasso rivals Zeuxis’ achievement.

I’m not sure at what point we shift from Dad to Son. As of Section 5 we get first person not third. But this seems to be from the dad’s point of view. While I think by Section 7 we’re from the son’s. But I could be wrong.

“the shock that shook” - so this is the dad seeing his son is a better artist.

“Mummed me” - acted as me (mummer) / became my mum / shut me up.

“Barbels” - little beard hairs (on fish? - I got a bit confused by wikipedia here, do fish have beards? and I thought we were talking about pigeons). Anyway, appropriate for the developing youth.

“Crappers” - not sure about this. Is this just because pigeons do a lot of pooing?

“Jacobines” - Jacobins of course are the ruthless revolutionaries - is that the role the son takes? I’m not sure if there’s a reason it’s feminine plural. Obviously links us to Jack.

“gall-free” - I wondered if this removal of gall from the pigeons, suggested the transformation of pigeon to dove (symbolising peace)?

“cheaply” - what sound do birds make?

“blackjacked” - knocked out / gambled away / Jack is now Black.

“here come have them then” - this is when the dad gives away all his painting materials to his son.

“throbbing vanes” - “vane” is the flat part of a feather. It’s nice how the paint brush becomes like a wing - so that the young boy can take flight like the pigeons. This feels like an Icarus allusion. I’m not sure if it’s a direct quote from Ovid, but it sounds like the kind of thing you’d get in translations of Ovid. That’s another model for Father / Son relationships we’re presented with. Let’s hope Eric doesn’t get too carried away with his wings of poetry unlike his wise and crafty dad Daedalus. Also, masturbating.

“Big head” - the arrogance of Eric comparing himself to Picasso. And also, penis.

“Rachis” - stem of grass.

“Filoplume” - hair like feathers.

“Barbs” - suggesting insults / stings. Poor old dad.

“Erleben” - experience (German for having lived).

“Avitrol” a bird deterrent.

Section 6 describes favourably the early pigeon sketch by Picasso.

“Gutter” - this word crops up a couple of times. And strikingly near the end of the poem. A candle gutters meaning it goes out or is about to go out. Is Pablo a “gutter” because his dad is now “gutted”? And remember the pigeon in “Jack’s Pigeon” “thuds to the gutter”.

“This one’s for remembrance”. We’re now entering Hamlet rich territory. This line is from Ophelia. I feel like this marks the moment when the son/Eric/Pablo speaks. He’s remembering his dad. Who, like him, knew his Hamlet! (Ophelia’s the name of the pigeon who dies in “Jack’s Pigeon”).

“Old mole” is what Hamlet calls his father’s ghost.

“Sweet Lady” - “Sweet Lady Street” is where the pigeon dies in Jack’s Pigeon.

“Pau Gargallo” - sculpture friend of Picasso, art school in Barcelona.

“Wash Lane” - not sure of the relevance of this - it is a street in Birmingham sort of in the same part of Britain as where Eric grew up. But I’m probably missing something.

“Penfold” - I really really hope this is an allusion to Dangermouse’s helper. A keeper of pens, the tool the poet needs.

“where the two thousand sad souls go” - this is from Hamlet as he sees the army heading off for war - and Jack’s Pigeon has the bowl breaking like “twenty thousand souls”.

“Over-rounds” - this is something to do with gambling - and so I think is linking to Jack going to the betting shop.

“Polish day trip” - Hamlet reference - “Polack”. And in Jack’s Pigeon the coffee bowl called “Part of Poland”.

“eggshells” - Hamlet: “all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an eggshell”.

“Rosemary” - Ophelia gives this “for remembrance”.

“pyggion” - If you google this word, you get Eric’s poem and an academic book called “Bare Ruined Choirs” talking about the moat at Crowle. This seems like a cool coincidence. Shakespeare Sonnet talking about growing old. I think there’s something to do with language changing and in the next couplet we get squib instead of squab.

“An old man of Daulis”. Daulis is where Oedipus didn’t go to when he ended up killing Laius. So I think this is a reference to a key father / son rivalry. (Daulis is also where Tereus lived as in the Philomela, cutting out tongue, eating his own child, turning into a bird, Tereus, so maybe there’s a bird link too). But I think Eric is saying: I’m not killing my dad “this time”. It feels like we’ve got a long way into a poem about father/son rivalry without an Oedipus reference.

Pichon - Spanish for little pigeon

Pijon - French for pigeon.

Paloma - spanish dove / pigeon. I think again there’s something here about language changes, transitions between language like the transitions between generations.

“Haunts” - ghosts.

“How pale they glare” - Hamlet says of his dad’s ghost: “How pale he glares”.

“between the lines” - Looking for his father in his writings.

“street lamps, gas lamps” - again thinking of time passing.

“Clayton’s spirits” - I’ve come up a bit of a blank on what this means. Wikipedia has something about Clayton’s being Australian for fake.

Madeleine - think of Proust having his memory brought back.

“Reverbere” - French for streetlight. But also the idea of the memory reverberating.

“How strong is stillness?” - this quotes from RF Langley’s journal entry of April 1977. He talks about going to a church and the children playing, naming Ruth, Eric’s older sister. The line before is “Gestures of children must stay.”

“Conning” deceive or study carefully.

“Hundred good hellos” - this is a phrase from RF Langley’s poem “Il Redentore” which is a church Venice. I got excited by the thought that it sounds like the returner / reviens. But actually it’s Italian for Redeemer. But something about giving back, right? Giving back the paint brushes?

“Frame that”. Guilt. Painting. Setting.

“Attention… tentif” more of the ten…

“Complex feet” - is this a reference to Oedipus whose name means swollen foot? And has his own complex.

Towlines - a nautical rope.

“Pigeon-toed, dove-tailed”. This is clever, isn’t it!

“Da!” - dad, ta da! and maybe also Russian for Yes!

“Fetch” - bring back, grasp, trick, jerk off, resurrect.

“Mirrors… rage” - I can’t help but think of the rage of Caliban seeing himself in the mirror but that doesn’t seem very relevant here. Hamlet holds up a mirror. Eric reflects his dad. As a “compound compliment”.

“Bearded” - old men have beard, but also means “confronted”.

“Bound about” - jumping / tied up.

“Charged” - attacked, energised, accused.

“screwed in your bedclothes” - are we thinking of sex and Gertrude (Hamlet’s mum)?

“swipe” - rushing stroke / steal.

Here is where Eric / Pablo acknowledges the greater ability of his dad. “It’s all still yours, still yours to say”.

“Passing” - going by or pretending.

“Cyclist” - Eric rides a bike / he recycles poetry.

“Pillar” - a symbol of tradition? (Also penis).

“Well outlined” compare the blurred figure of the dad in the early dawn.

“plastic guttering” - see above. Dad becomes different parts of a building: chantlate- piece of wood holding rafters, in other words a protector. But also chant = sing and late = dead. “Flash line” - part of building or a fancy poem. “eavestrough” gutter.

“Bowl” now the broken bowl of Jack’s pigeon seems to be mended.

“Rings” - sounds out and comes round again.  

[ecoorganic]

'Ted Lasso' and the Journey From Viral Promo to TV Series

Jason Sudeikis reprises his role as a befuddled coach in England, with his viral NBC promos evolving into a full-on TV show. He explains the story of how it happened.

There’s a scene in Ted Lasso, where the title character–Jason Sudeikis’s American football coach who abruptly turns into a Premier League manager–sprints to the assistant referee in the middle of a crucial match after raising his flag for an offside call.

“Come on, now! What do you mean? How’s that offside?” complains Lasso, with his characteristic Kansan drawl as the linesman looks at him with confusion.

“What?” asks the official.

Lasso gets closer. “No, I’m serious. How’s that offside...I don’t understand it yet.”

This lack of complete understanding and across-the-pond confusion is one way to describe the essence of Apple TV+’s latest sitcom, which originated from a 2013 NBC Sports promo. That's where Sudeikis introduced his character as part of the network’s acquisition of the Premier League broadcast rights. 

The idea was simple. Lasso, an intense, wide-eyed college football coach from Kansas City arrives in London and enters the alien world of the Premier League. In the promos, he takes over Tottenham (the following season,

he returns as head coach of youth girls' team St. Catherine Fighting Owls), questioning why players don’t wear more pads and teaching the art of flopping. He has no knowledge of the game or its cultural and historical significance. It was a satiric outlook at two different worlds seen through the eyes of a naïve American, and for NBC, it was a way to both attract a loyal, knowledgeable soccer fan as well as appeal to a new audience. 

In the end, it worked, as both promos (2013 and 2014) went viral and gained a tremendous amount of attention. Combined, the videos have generated more than 20 million views on YouTube and helped the network build a strong foundation for its Premier League audience.

It’s been six years since those promos aired, and soccer in the U.S.–without Ted Lasso–has grown tremendously in popularity. So how was the character revived? 

“I guess it’s a dozen little things that go right that you’re willing and ready to receive,” Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated. “After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia (the actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

In spring of the same year, Sudeikis got together with his creative partners and writers, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt–the three of them started together with Chicago’s well-known improv group The Second City and Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago; Hunt also plays Lasso’s assistant coach and confidante Coach Beard–and powered through for a week to see if they could create a show out of it. 

“When you have a germ of an idea, you don’t know if it’s something you say out loud or if it’s a tweet or a letter or a screenplay, who knows," Sudeikis said. "So, we sat down, and we were able to bang out a pilot pretty quick in that week. As well as outlining six to 10 episodes of the first season. And that let us know, ‘O.K., there’s something here.’”

Despite the excitement for the idea, that’s all it was at that moment–an idea without a home. So, life continued, and the three friends left Ted Lasso alone for a few years and diverted their focus to their respective careers. 

“But that allowed us to get a little space from it, and low and behold, the showbiz gods looked and smiled down on us and brought Bill to our doorstep,” Sudeikis said.

"Bill" is Bill Lawrence, the experienced television writer, producer and creative force behind award-winning shows such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City. Lawrence entered the frame in 2017 when he and Sudeikis played pickup basketball a couple of nights a week and one night, the idea of Ted Lasso came up. After a few more chats, he read the script and the concept and was immediately interested. 

“I wanted to work with Jason Sudeikis, he just cracks me up. I thought he was awesome on SNL, whenever he shows up in a movie, I’m immediately into it and he seems like that dude you want to hang with,” Lawrence said. “I’d also seen those sketches, the promotional videos for the Premier League back when he did them and I thought they were so funny, and he said, 'What if we made that character three-dimensional and really rounded him out?' Ted Lasso can still be goofy and funny, but we could also have our version.”

And this was critical for Sudeikis. In the commercials, Lasso’s unawareness is funny and often endearing, but for a show, there had be more to him for the audience to not just laugh, but also root for him. 

“I think Scrubs is a fantastic show. You can put the 10 best episodes of it up against any show,” Sudeikis said. “Bill writes male characters and relationships so beautifully, his use of music and dealing with heavy duty issues of life and death. And now, two years later, here we are talking about it. It’s actually really gonna happen and I can’t kind of believe it.”

Not only is the show happening (it premieres this Friday), but it also succeeds in its mission. Ted Lasso is warm, it’s funny and–like the main character–it has heart. Unlike the commercials, where Ted’s biggest trait is his buffoonery, the show celebrates his relentless thirst for hope. He is a man with passion, dignity and someone you for whom you cheer. Lasso is the eternal optimist, whose naivety is both a strength and a weakness, and just like J.D from Scrubs, Lasso is vulnerable (in the show, he actually leaves the U.S. to escape from a troubled marriage) and aches for comfort. That’s what he offers his new team in return–an arrogant, underachieving Premier League side controlled by a scorned owner. It’s not Tottenham this time around, but the fictional AFC Richmond.

Lawrence sees Lasso as the perfect example of the inspiring teacher. A sports version of Robin Williams's John Keating from Dead Poets Society, where his personality is a weapon against cynical reporters and resentful fans who naturally express their disgust at the thought of an American with no knowledge of the game taking over their beloved club.

“We all grew up with a favorite teacher or a favorite coach. They put us on a path. These people never force you into doing anything. It’s just good folks,” Lawrence said. “Me and Jason overlap cause we also like doing shows with heart and because it’s such a dumpster-fire time in the world, Jason really wanted to do a show that was hopeful and optimistic, and most sports movies have that. That’s what's at their core. It’s the underdog. We were trying to capture that optimism and hopefulness that comes with those iconic figures from your life, whether it’s a coach, a teacher or a parent.”

If there's a coach in the real Premier League that emits optimism and hopefulness, it's Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, and Sudeikis admits that Lasso's character in the show is partly inspired by him. 

“Man. When I heard about him taking his squad to go do karaoke, I was like, ‘hellooooo, story idea…’” said Sudeikis, who also admires Pep Guardiola. “I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight.”

Sudeikis loves the game but fully admits he still needs to do more before calling himself a hardcore, scholarly fan. 

"I love the sport. My joke has been that I have a deep appreciation for it but a shallow understanding. But that’s why I keep company with Brendan and Joe, who know their stuff,” Sudeikis said. “But it’s still all new to me. Every time I go to see a match, I buy a kit for me at the gift shop and a kit for my little boy. I’m ready to be a fair-weather fan for whoever needs it [laughs]. I know people hate for me that, but that’s the truth.”

The showrunners put together a cast with colorful characters who add depth to the multiple plots. There’s the tough-as-nails veteran midfielder Roy Kent (surely inspired by Roy Keane and played by Brett Goldstein), the narcissistic Man City loanee Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the charismatic duo of Dani Rojas (Mexican star played by Cristo Fernandez) and Nigerian forward Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh). Nick Mohammed (who can be seen in Sky TV/Peacock’s Intelligence) also shines as the quiet kitman. It’s also refreshing to hear NBC’s Arlo White serving as the show’s commentator throughout AFC Richmond’s season.

But if there’s someone aside from Sudeikis's Lasso who steals the show, it’s Keeley Jones, the confident and no-nonsense TV celebrity/model/PR guru played by Juno Temple. She was the only actor who didn’t audition, as Sudeikis, who knew her work, wanted her in the show from the get-go. 

“I met Juno with Olivia when they were on Vinyl (Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese’s 2016 HBO show), so I’ve done karaoke with her. I’ve been in a room with her. I knew her,” Sudeikis said. “She’s so fun and dynamic and just pro-female. She’s just a kick-ass that lives with an excitement that’s fun to be around, and that’s a little bit of what the character had.”

In the end, Ted Lasso is exactly what an audience needs right now. It’s a story that makes you laugh and reminds you to smile at adversity. It’s a lesson that’s less about football management and more about unity, and the script works because it takes a hold of our differences and embraces them as one. And it echoes Lasso’s favorite Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Lasso is heroic, not because he commands respect but because he earns it. He is kind, because he doesn’t know any other way. But like us, he is also vulnerable, and that’s why we can relate to his journey.

“He’s more white rabbit than white knight, but he’s actually becoming the change he wants to see in the world, without any agenda,” Sudeikis said. “And these days, that’s unusual, both in real life and on television.”

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[talabib]

The Value Of Pause

In our fast-paced modern world, busyness has become a badge of honor. For proof, just look at all the articles and books that promise to make us more productive. With the phrase “time is money” ringing in our ears, we try to squeeze more and more out of our days. And what do we do when we finally have a free moment? We rush to fill it, of course. It doesn’t matter if we’re making calls, sending emails, or setting new goals for ourselves, anything seems better than wasting time. 

What’s the outcome of all this busyness? Sadly, for many of us, it’s stress and anxiety. 

That’s why it’s time to learn the benefits of doing less, rather than more. This post will reframe your attitude towards time and show you how to improve your creativity, your relationships, and your future. How? Simply by taking a pause – a period of time when your mind and attention are free to roam. So forget everything you think you know about productivity and success and learn how you can come to life by pressing pause. 

We no longer stop to appreciate the view and machines are to blame

When did you last stop to look around you? On a recent hike through the Spanish mountains, James realized that his friends kept falling behind him as they stopped to appreciate the view. He had been striding ahead, alone. Why? Because he had been thinking of the walk as something he needed to achieve rather than a pleasant afternoon to be savored. 

When we adopt an achievement-oriented mindset, we cut ourselves off from the pleasures of daily life. While James may have been making great time toward the summit, his friends were enjoying the experience a lot more than he was.

We often treat our children as if they were simply an endless round of tasks to be completed. We might feed them, take them to school, and make sure they do their homework, but how often do we press pause on our families’ hectic schedules, and take the time to enjoy our children? 

Unfortunately, we pay attention to our packed to-do lists while ignoring all the “negative space” that lies between the tasks. This is a shame, because it’s this space that flavors our lives – it’s the walk between the bottom of the mountain and the top, and all the opportunity for pleasure it brings. 

How did we become so obsessed with completing tasks and achieving things? Much of the blame lies with new technologies and our endless quest to emulate machines. 

Machines are designed to work as fast and efficiently as possible. Whether they’re making cars or analyzing data, machines are built for repetitive tasks and a constant working pace. But although machines are designed to function like this, people definitely aren’t. Even so, we are expected to imitate their ruthless efficiency. We talk admiringly, for example, of our coworker who is “always on.” In a world of email and instant messaging, we demand ever-faster responses from each other. And often it’s the speed of the response we value, rather than its quality.

In this relentless environment, taking a pause is associated with reduced productivity and procrastination. Machines don’t stop to appreciate the view, the thinking goes, so why should we? 

A pause isn’t an empty space – it’s an opportunity.

How do you define a pause? Well, it could be a great number of things. It’s the five seconds you spend dwelling on a question, or the hour spent reconnecting with an old friend, or the one-year sabbatical you take from work. In essence, a pause is a break in your rhythm – whatever that rhythm might look like. 

Although a pause can come in many forms, it’s definitely not an empty space. When you press the pause button, your thoughts don’t shut down, and your mind is not empty. Instead, you simply give yourself the space to think other thoughts, and to pay attention to all the things you usually overlook. 

Bruce for example, invited a friend to take a weekend-long pause at his peaceful Spanish villa. They spent that time reading books and casually chatting about what they’d read. At the beginning of the weekend, the friend worried about being unproductive. But by the end, he realized that pausing had given him solutions to problems he hadn’t even known he had. In just forty-eight hours, his state of mind had shifted enough to allow previously unexplored ideas to rise to the surface – ideas that were usually crowded out by his everyday concerns.

It wasn’t that his weekend pause had been a particularly dramatic one. But, as with pauses of all shapes and sizes, there was definitely something happening. And that something is often important or even profound. 

A musician playing the flute, for example, takes short pauses as she plays in order to breathe. She then blows air into her flute. Without pauses, the music itself wouldn’t be possible. 

Taking a pause allows us to appreciate a different kind of music, too. Composer John Cage’s notorious piece 4’33” consists of a musician sitting without playing anything for precisely four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The result? Instead of an empty silence, the audience can suddenly hear the background sounds they usually ignore. They spend those four minutes alive to the subtle music of everyday life. 

Situations like these also highlight an important difference between humans and machines. A paused machine simply stops. A human being, on the other hand, starts doing something else – taking a breath, for instance, or investing her attention somewhere new. She doesn’t stop – she starts anew.

Pausing improves our creativity and our relationships.

Ironically, although pausing involves taking a time-out from the relentless pursuit of our goals, it can also set us on the road to achieving them. In fact, whether it’s our creative ambitions or our relationships with other people, pausing can help us make substantial progress. 

For example, evidence suggests that pausing is a vital ingredient in the creative process. In his book How to Get Ideas, creative director James Foster examines advice on creativity from everyone from philosophers to advertising executives and academic researchers. His conclusion? That all the people he studied had an element of pause in their creative process. Some artists called this a period of “mental digestion,” whereas others referred to it as “incubating” their ideas. Although these pauses went by different names, they all involved taking time to disconnect from the creative task at hand. The time out, productive as it was, ultimately worked like time in. 

Why is the creative pause so important? Well, new ideas are fragile and easily crushed under the weight of our everyday concerns.

In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, author Steve Johnson argues that creative ideas often arrive as “slow hunches.” These hunches won’t come to fruition if they are worked on relentlessly or mechanically. Instead, they need to be gradually cultivated, like living things. Just like crops that you hope to harvest one day, the ground that hunches grow in must be left fallow some of the time. 

It’s not just our creativity that needs a pause in order to grow, though – our relationships do too. Whether we’re interacting with a loved one or a colleague, it can often be difficult to fully understand the other person’s perspective. What does she really think? And what does she want in any given situation?

This is where a tricky aspect of pauses can come in handy. By definition, pauses are productive time, and that’s true even when they aren't perceived as such! For example, when working as a facilitator, experts have found that silence makes people uncomfortable – so much so that they can’t help filling it. When you wants someone to open up to you, you can simply say, “So…?” By leaving this half-question hanging in the air he creates a pause, one that the other person will eventually break by voicing what’s really on her mind. So if you’d like to deepen your relationships, try talking less and pausing more.

Pausing for a few seconds is valuable and intuitive, but it still takes practice. 

One of the best things about pauses is how easy they are to take. Other techniques that enable reflection, like meditation or yoga, require instruction to get right. But a pause is something we instinctively know how to do. We can immediately weave them into our daily routines, too.

Daily pauses don’t have to be long to be worthwhile; just two minutes, or even two seconds, can make all the difference.

The filmmaker David Keating likes to take a pause just before he says “Action!” on his film sets. He knows that this word has an almost magical quality in the film world. When he delays it for a few seconds the anticipation builds, creating an electrifying effect on actors and crew members.

A short pause can also be invaluable when you’re trying to make a judgment call. A facilitator once said that when someone asks her a question in one of her sessions, she knows she’ll give a much better answer if she gives herself a couple of minutes before replying. That can be easier said than done, though. In practice, she feels an instant mental pressure to respond immediately. As a result, she rarely allows herself a pause.

This pressure has its roots in an addiction that has gripped modern society – we are hooked on being busy. Asking ourselves to slow down for even a few minutes is like trying to wean ourselves off a powerful drug.

So how can you combat that addiction? Psychologist Jon Stokes believes the answer lies in treating your brain like an overactive toddler – you can’t make it slow down, you can only distract it. To replace your habit of being constantly busy, you need to distract yourself with another habit instead.

An easy habit to adopt for this purpose is drawing in breath before responding to anything. When someone says something to you, shift your focus to your stomach and relax the muscles there. Now breathe in. But instead of just using your chest to breathe, let the air go all the way down, so that your stomach expands. Once you’ve completed this breath, you’ve also taken a pause and are ready to respond.

Longer pauses need to be carefully designed.

Sometimes we need a pause that lasts longer than a few minutes. Once every two years, Microsoft founder Bill Gates clears his schedule and spends a whole week in quiet contemplation. He calls this his “Think Week,” and regards it as an essential ingredient of his innovative mindset. 

Designing a longer pause that gives you the tools to think differently takes a little forethought and, most importantly, the motivation to actually make your pause happen. 

Unfortunately, we often tell ourselves that making time for a weekend break or relaxing retreat is akin to laziness. We convince ourselves that keeping our heads down and continuing to grind away is a better course of action. 

Jason has turned this assumption on its head: he believes that being constantly busy is lazy. Why? Because when you’re in a constant flurry of activity, you miss the bigger picture. You avoid making any changes in your life. And avoidance is lazy.

Once you’re motivated to take your pause, it’s time to prepare for it. First, choose the right location. Spending time in areas of natural beauty helps you reconnect with your innermost self, and grants you the perspective and inspiration you rarely get from your everyday surroundings. It’s an added bonus that remote areas tend to have poor cell phone reception, because in order to truly pause, you need to step back from technology and all its demands on your time. That’s why Bill Gates makes himself unavailable during this Think Week – something you should emulate by leaving your phone at home.

Finally, as you anticipate your pause, don’t set goals for yourself even though you might be tempted to do so. After all, when you approach a task, you usually ask yourself what outcomes you want from it. But remember: a pause and a task are not the same thing. If you enter a pause knowing exactly what you want, and you then get it, all you’ve done is fulfill your own expectations.

Instead, try to leave room for the unexpected to occur. You can do this by setting yourself an intention rather than a goal. For example, you could think of a question you’d like to explore. When people leave themselves open like this, they learn more during their pause.

So plan your pause carefully, but don’t forget to leave space for the magic to happen. When you leave your mind open, you never know what bright idea will fly in.

Some cultures make it easier to pause than others. 

James lived in Arenas de San Pedro, a small town in central Spain. At the end of every year, he gathers in the harvest from his olive grove and heads to the olive press in the middle of the town. He joins a throng of townspeople, all waiting to have their olives pressed. Although the wait might take hours, no one complains, because the people there make time to pause. 

If you want to make pausing an integral part of your life, you might need to change the environment you live in.

Head to a buzzing metropolis, whether Silicon Valley or Tokyo, and you’ll see people hard at work designing the future. Big cities are where most of the world’s innovation and commerce take place. But there’s a cost to living your life on the cutting edge, one paid in pressure and stress. 

In major cities and the companies that call them home, you can’t stand still for too long. Productivity is maximized, your life is something you “hack” to make it more efficient, and your mind and body are tools that can be optimized. 

Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Luckily, there’s an alternative. You can find it in other places, ones where the pace of life hasn’t changed for centuries. If Silicon Valley has its eyes fixed on the future, then Arenas de San Pedro is proudly living in the past.

Here, the latest technologies haven’t arrived yet, and the inhabitants couldn’t care less about being on the cutting edge. When people talk in the line for the olive press, the purpose of their conversations is not to share news of the latest developments in the world. They chat to connect with each other, and talk about things they have discussed many times before. This community doesn’t rush from one thing to the next. It’s the present moment that is valued. 

If you think this slow pace of life sounds boring, you might be surprised. After living in Arenas de San Pedro for a while, the local culture began to change the jame’s perceptions. Instead of seeking new experiences, he felt a deeper appreciation for what he already had. Instead of always rushing to reach the top of the mountain, he finally started to appreciate the view on the way up. 

The modern world is addicted to being busy, but taking a break will improve your creativity, your relationships, and your gratitude. So escape from the daily grind for however long you can, and see what a difference a pause makes.

Action plan: Borrow a pause. If you’re searching for a pause, try borrowing one from another culture. The Jewish faith, for example, stipulates that Saturday should be a day of rest, known as the Sabbath.

[prinzenhasserin]

Yuletide!

Dear Yule Goat/Creator/Person I Will Love Forever,

I am very excited for anything you write for these fandoms. Please feel free to take my prompts and likes any way you wish, as long as you stick to my dislikes. Don’t feel like you have to stick to the prompts! I’m always open for other characters. Generally, I will be delighted with any rating from gen to explicit. I hope you have fun creating!

My AO3 name is Prinzenhasserin, here. If you want to browse more of my letters, here are some at my exchange letter tag. 

Likes:

fake/pretend relationships, arranged marriages

loyalty

odd couples

found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other

historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren’t unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life)

cultural differences, age differences, height differences

heists, rescue missions, case fic

dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy

competent characters

people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby

people failing their way to success

happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings

cynical humour

mutual pining

suits, corsetry, fancy dresses

Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities)

Blatant Lies

Enemies finding common ground and becoming friends/lovers; rivalry

outsider POV, 1st person narrator

epistolary, fictional non-fiction, worldbuilding, interactive fiction, poetry

orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality

people not usually found in law enforcement solving crimes

non-verbal expressions of affection

contradictions: that is, I like my fantasy with the mundane (doing taxes in a mythical land of dragons, or space pirates!) and I like my mundane fiction with outrageous happenings.

Kinks:

wall sex! overcome with sudden desire! sex with clothes on! 

shifting power dynamics (outside the bedroom, and inside the bedroom), actions on both sides, basically

stiff characters letting go of their iron control inside the bedroom; characters feeling guilty of their desire but not guilty enough to stop; coming to terms with the guilt

lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging

desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming; sex pollen

sex toys

Dislikes (Do-Not-Want):

rape played for laughs, or as backstory

sexuality, or gender as the focus of plot or used for drama

suicide

tragic endings (ambiguous endings are fine, though!)

RED (Movies)

(Characters: Victoria, Sarah Ross)

This movie, goddamn it. It’s so silly, and so! much! shit! explodes, but I can’t help but find it charming and adorable.

If you want to write me Victoria teaching Sarah how to handle her weapons and shoot shit up, I am absolutely here for that. I would also love secret spy shenanigans, or a situation where only the secret skills of the customer service person Sarah or the filling skills of a bored bureaucrat (also: Sarah) save the day in a spectacular manner.

Or Victoria taking Sarah under her wing and teaching her everything she knows about life, men, and how to end both. Or trying to protect her from the fucked-up shit in her life, and then maybe realising that maybe Sarah doesn’t need to be protected.

I am a fan of the age difference, too, and I do ship them together, if you rather want to write that. Give me all the fucked up femslash! Going on murderous rampages together, and having sex amid the slain corpses of their enemies, yes, that. Bedsharing because circumstances have them hiding out in the Siberian Tundra. Victoria dressing up Sarah and taking her as a trophy wife to diplomatic functions? Seducing Sarah so Victoria can rub their togetherness into Frank’s face. Taking people of guard, because the expected a toy boy, and not -- whatever Sarah is.

DNW: mommy kink

Gokusen (Manga)

(Characters: any -- Fujiyama Shizuka, Kuroda Ryuuichirou, Sawada Shin, Yamaguchi Kumiko)

How do I love this manga so much? I have no idea. I’m not even near high school age anymore, and yet the plot (and tbh, sometimes its ridiculous nature) always gets to me. I’d read more about any aspect of this canon, and if you want to bring in any other characters, and leave others out, feel entirely free to.

Post-canon would be great, but anything goes really. Focusing on just one character would be terrific. Having all of them would be great!

Kumiko has adventures with another class, or her minions! Does she continue with being a school teacher? Maybe she starts leading the Yakuza group, and still goes to school to teach her kids manners, and morals, and how to fight the system?

Shin goes to law school/Africa/some place, but gets lost on the way there! Will he come back to Yankumi? Will he eventually lead the Yakuza group?

Fujiyama Shizuka doesn’t get why she’s the one without the beautiful student toy-boy, and tries to find one herself, and instead falls in love with, idk, the new female teacher? one of Yankumi’s brothers? the new janitor? Or she watches and cackles a lot as Yankumi and Shin date, and then maybe found a Yakuza orphanage, and/or marry.

Kuroda Ryuuchiro and his quest for the rightful heir to his Yakuza group! How does he feel about his granddaughter running around with the police chief’s son — does that bother him more than the whole student thing? Does Shin really inherit the Kuroda family group? Does he become a Yakuza lawyer? Or does Yankumi make him stay away, or maybe Kuroda makes them stay away?

I ship Shin/Yankumi but gen is delightful also.

How does Shin convince Yankumi to have sex with him? Is he getting kidnapped left and right before they actually get together because all and sundry already think they’ve been doing each other for years?

If they are already in an established relationship, how does Shin deal with Yankumi’s students (especially when one of them develops a crush)?

I have no problems about depicting violence, or graphic criminal activities, but please keep the violence perpetrated by the nominated characters within the spirit of the manga? I like to root for morally ambiguous characters, but not if they are truly evil.

Roundtable Rival - Lindsey Stirling (Music Video)

(Characters: Durango Black, The Violinist (Roundtable Rival))

I love this music video! It’s so silly and fun! It is here, if you want to watch it yourself, but basically, people are fighting each other with music instruments to a jaunty tune, set in the Wild Wild West.

Basically, fighting with music! Foiling dastardly plans! I want to read more about this! And anything goes, really. If you want to focus more on one character, or want to show this from an outside perspective, either would be great.

Lowkey, I’m really a fan of rival-dynamics, and love to ship enemies, so bringing a lovestory between Durango Black and the Violinist would make my day. Or if there’s a dynamic like "You are the only one allowed to catch me"? —Perfection

Maybe they know each other from before? Maybe there’s epic discussion about different ways to fight each other with music (I’d be into reading about that!).

Would also be into PWP where the Violinist dominates Durango Black. Some Bootlicking, maybe? Or creative uses of the music instruments. Or clothing porn!

Or case fic where The Violinist tours around the country, catching criminals; or just a glimpse into how music developed its own fighting style — or performing tricks like shooting an apple out of the air, just with music instruments!

(Additional question for worldbuilding: What is that clear liquid they serve in beer humps?)

DNW: rape (dubcon is fine, though!)

British Romantic Writers RPF 

Characters: John Keats (British Romantic Writers RPF), Lord Byron (British Romantic Writers RPF), Percy Shelley (British Romantic Writers RPF)

Okay, I’m not even vaguely sorry. Here’s my confession: I ship all of these with each other, as pairs, or as threesome. I’d read them writing spite!fic, or rather spite!poetry, about each other, though! Or a zombie!AU, in which they are all stumbling incompetently around the dead suddenly among the living. Or maybe they turn out to be surprisingly competent at killing/evading zombies! (I’d expect nothing less from Percy Shelley who seduced people on graveyards, tbh)

Hey — at least they knew of each other! I am into the really very dysfunctional relationships with each other, here. Who is to say they wouldn’t have been very happy with each other in various constellations? Lord Byron seemed to have detested Keats — or at least thought his poetry as "mental masturbation" — I’d dig them in a rival relationship, that suddenly develops into a sexual relationship. Maybe even romantic? (Definitely romantic in the original sense)

And I can definitely see Lord Byron condescending down on Keats for his poor upbringing, without being aware that this is what he is doing, and Keats so not having that. And Percy Shelley with his continued efforts into giving all his money to charity while having the luxury to seduce women and traipse around the continent!

How about an AU in which Keats doesn’t die and joins Percy Shelley in Pisa (and for some reason Lord Byron is there, too — I will not read this for the historical accuracy, believe me)

Basically! Literature! Orgies! Seducing people in graveyards, and skinny-dipping in French rivers, that’s all I really want. I’m not saying no if you do decide to go down the historical accurate road, but I’ll also read all sorts of wild AUs.

Or adventures in Greece during the revolution in an Everybody-Lives!AU?

Percy Shelley wrote an elegy about Keats, and said this when he invited him to Pisa: "I am aware indeed that I am nourishing a rival who will far surpass me and this is an additional motive & will be an added pleasure." Added pleasure? (He means fucking! says me) I am just very into rival relationships that turn sexual or more.

Look, I’m just here for Lord Byron and Percy Shelley seducing a reluctant Keats — and Keats maybe anchoring them a bit down to earth. Or various combinations.

I am not into the long-term effects of drug use and the suffering thereof, but if you want to mention it, that is totally fine. I wouldn’t want it glorified.

DNW: contemplation of suicide, vore

Miss Marple - Agatha Christie

Characters: Jane Marple

I am a fan of Miss Marple. I, too, have lived in a quiet town where you can see into the abysses of the human condition :D

I’d love to read something that lead her to the person we know her as, maybe when she went to the girl school in Switzerland? Maybe during her time in the cypher division, during the war — maybe the cypher division was really a cover for Miss Marple’s spy activities for the war office?

I’d also love fic about her as we know her: spending time in St. Mary Mead’s and solving crimes, quietly knitting her nephew another sweater. Holiday themed fic! Somebody keeps stealing the geese for the holiday celebrations!

Honestly, I’d also really like to read about her in a relationship, especially one that people wouldn’t expect of an elderly woman. Did she have a youthful indiscretion with the prime minister, and now that he is widowed, he visits her again, and Jane’s nephew is entirely shocked by the whole thing?

Was she maybe in love with a woman the whole time? Did she quietly retire into a cottage with her best friend, and they have a romantic relationship with each other?

(Or crossovers! It would be super interesting if Miss Marple knew a wizard from the Harry Potter universe, or maybe she’s a squib or a with herself? Or maybe she knows Phryne Fisher, or Lord Peter Wimsey!)

Island of the Aunts | Monster Mission - Eva Ibbotson

Characters: Dorothy (Island of the Aunts)

Look. This is one of my favourite books. I would read absolutely anything about every single character— I choose Dorothy, simply because she’s my most favourite, but if you want to write a story where she’s not the focus, I’d still be ecstatic.

That said, omg, Dorothy. I love her (and her wok!) and I would read countless stories on adventures she had while going off of the island in a rage to be angry at polluters, or hunters of endangered species, or both. I like that she seems to be the most competent in dealing with outsiders, even though usually she rather likes to resort to violence.

So! Pre-Canon, or Post-Canon, whatever; either would be great!

How is the work on the island? How is Dorothy dealing with her piranha farm? Maybe she decided to pursue some other, even stranger, protection against various and sundry? Does the Kraken return to the island?

How does Dorothy deal with the mermaids? Is she tolerant of their foibles, or is it a similar relationship to the one she has with her sister Betty, that is: polite bewilderment?

How does Dorothy feel to be suddenly the responsible one, who didn’t kidnap children and make them work with her? How’s her relationship with Etta, and does Dorothy milk it for all that it is worth?

Did Dorothy ever fall in love? Was it someone off the island, campaigning for more environmental protection? A mythical creature of her very own?

Who did she meet in prison? (Was Archie someone Dorothy pulled in?) How did she deal with prison in Hong-kong? Is Dorothy the reason there are now forest cities in China (— this is maybe a bit of a reach, since Hong Kong isn’t really mainland China and all, but I’d love if the Aunts have a bit of an influence on the world, even though Fabio is probably never going to be Brasilians prime minister. Though I would read a story about that.)

(Burning questions I have that aren’t relevant to Dorothy as a character: Is Herbert ever going to return? Is the younger Kraken?)

DNW: unhappy endings

If there’s something confusing, please don’t hesitate to ask! (Anon happens to be open, too.) And I hope you have a fun Yuletide!

[ecoorganic]

'Ted Lasso' and the Journey From Viral Promo to TV Series

Jason Sudeikis reprises his role as a befuddled coach in England, with his viral NBC promos evolving into a full-on TV show. He explains the story of how it happened.

There’s a scene in Ted Lasso, where the title character–Jason Sudeikis’s American football coach who abruptly turns into a Premier League manager–sprints to the assistant referee in the middle of a crucial match after raising his flag for an offside call.

“Come on, now! What do you mean? How’s that offside?” complains Lasso, with his characteristic Kansan drawl as the linesman looks at him with confusion.

“What?” asks the official.

Lasso gets closer. “No, I’m serious. How’s that offside...I don’t understand it yet.”

This lack of complete understanding and across-the-pond confusion is one way to describe the essence of Apple TV+’s latest sitcom, which originated from a 2013 NBC Sports promo. That's where Sudeikis introduced his character as part of the network’s acquisition of the Premier League broadcast rights. 

The idea was simple. Lasso, an intense, wide-eyed college football coach from Kansas City arrives in London and enters the alien world of the Premier League. In the promos, he takes over Tottenham (the following season,

he returns as head coach of youth girls' team St. Catherine Fighting Owls), questioning why players don’t wear more pads and teaching the art of flopping. He has no knowledge of the game or its cultural and historical significance. It was a satiric outlook at two different worlds seen through the eyes of a naïve American, and for NBC, it was a way to both attract a loyal, knowledgeable soccer fan as well as appeal to a new audience. 

In the end, it worked, as both promos (2013 and 2014) went viral and gained a tremendous amount of attention. Combined, the videos have generated more than 20 million views on YouTube and helped the network build a strong foundation for its Premier League audience.

It’s been six years since those promos aired, and soccer in the U.S.–without Ted Lasso–has grown tremendously in popularity. So how was the character revived? 

“I guess it’s a dozen little things that go right that you’re willing and ready to receive,” Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated. “After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia (the actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

In spring of the same year, Sudeikis got together with his creative partners and writers, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt–the three of them started together with Chicago’s well-known improv group The Second City and Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago; Hunt also plays Lasso’s assistant coach and confidante Coach Beard–and powered through for a week to see if they could create a show out of it. 

“When you have a germ of an idea, you don’t know if it’s something you say out loud or if it’s a tweet or a letter or a screenplay, who knows," Sudeikis said. "So, we sat down, and we were able to bang out a pilot pretty quick in that week. As well as outlining six to 10 episodes of the first season. And that let us know, ‘O.K., there’s something here.’”

Despite the excitement for the idea, that’s all it was at that moment–an idea without a home. So, life continued, and the three friends left Ted Lasso alone for a few years and diverted their focus to their respective careers. 

“But that allowed us to get a little space from it, and low and behold, the showbiz gods looked and smiled down on us and brought Bill to our doorstep,” Sudeikis said.

"Bill" is Bill Lawrence, the experienced television writer, producer and creative force behind award-winning shows such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City. Lawrence entered the frame in 2017 when he and Sudeikis played pickup basketball a couple of nights a week and one night, the idea of Ted Lasso came up. After a few more chats, he read the script and the concept and was immediately interested. 

“I wanted to work with Jason Sudeikis, he just cracks me up. I thought he was awesome on SNL, whenever he shows up in a movie, I’m immediately into it and he seems like that dude you want to hang with,” Lawrence said. “I’d also seen those sketches, the promotional videos for the Premier League back when he did them and I thought they were so funny, and he said, 'What if we made that character three-dimensional and really rounded him out?' Ted Lasso can still be goofy and funny, but we could also have our version.”

And this was critical for Sudeikis. In the commercials, Lasso’s unawareness is funny and often endearing, but for a show, there had be more to him for the audience to not just laugh, but also root for him. 

“I think Scrubs is a fantastic show. You can put the 10 best episodes of it up against any show,” Sudeikis said. “Bill writes male characters and relationships so beautifully, his use of music and dealing with heavy duty issues of life and death. And now, two years later, here we are talking about it. It’s actually really gonna happen and I can’t kind of believe it.”

Not only is the show happening (it premieres this Friday), but it also succeeds in its mission. Ted Lasso is warm, it’s funny and–like the main character–it has heart. Unlike the commercials, where Ted’s biggest trait is his buffoonery, the show celebrates his relentless thirst for hope. He is a man with passion, dignity and someone you for whom you cheer. Lasso is the eternal optimist, whose naivety is both a strength and a weakness, and just like J.D from Scrubs, Lasso is vulnerable (in the show, he actually leaves the U.S. to escape from a troubled marriage) and aches for comfort. That’s what he offers his new team in return–an arrogant, underachieving Premier League side controlled by a scorned owner. It’s not Tottenham this time around, but the fictional AFC Richmond.

Lawrence sees Lasso as the perfect example of the inspiring teacher. A sports version of Robin Williams's John Keating from Dead Poets Society, where his personality is a weapon against cynical reporters and resentful fans who naturally express their disgust at the thought of an American with no knowledge of the game taking over their beloved club.

“We all grew up with a favorite teacher or a favorite coach. They put us on a path. These people never force you into doing anything. It’s just good folks,” Lawrence said. “Me and Jason overlap cause we also like doing shows with heart and because it’s such a dumpster-fire time in the world, Jason really wanted to do a show that was hopeful and optimistic, and most sports movies have that. That’s what's at their core. It’s the underdog. We were trying to capture that optimism and hopefulness that comes with those iconic figures from your life, whether it’s a coach, a teacher or a parent.”

If there's a coach in the real Premier League that emits optimism and hopefulness, it's Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, and Sudeikis admits that Lasso's character in the show is partly inspired by him. 

“Man. When I heard about him taking his squad to go do karaoke, I was like, ‘hellooooo, story idea…’” said Sudeikis, who also admires Pep Guardiola. “I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight.”

Sudeikis loves the game but fully admits he still needs to do more before calling himself a hardcore, scholarly fan. 

"I love the sport. My joke has been that I have a deep appreciation for it but a shallow understanding. But that’s why I keep company with Brendan and Joe, who know their stuff,” Sudeikis said. “But it’s still all new to me. Every time I go to see a match, I buy a kit for me at the gift shop and a kit for my little boy. I’m ready to be a fair-weather fan for whoever needs it [laughs]. I know people hate for me that, but that’s the truth.”

The showrunners put together a cast with colorful characters who add depth to the multiple plots. There’s the tough-as-nails veteran midfielder Roy Kent (surely inspired by Roy Keane and played by Brett Goldstein), the narcissistic Man City loanee Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the charismatic duo of Dani Rojas (Mexican star played by Cristo Fernandez) and Nigerian forward Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh). Nick Mohammed (who can be seen in Sky TV/Peacock’s Intelligence) also shines as the quiet kitman. It’s also refreshing to hear NBC’s Arlo White serving as the show’s commentator throughout AFC Richmond’s season.

But if there’s someone aside from Sudeikis's Lasso who steals the show, it’s Keeley Jones, the confident and no-nonsense TV celebrity/model/PR guru played by Juno Temple. She was the only actor who didn’t audition, as Sudeikis, who knew her work, wanted her in the show from the get-go. 

“I met Juno with Olivia when they were on Vinyl (Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese’s 2016 HBO show), so I’ve done karaoke with her. I’ve been in a room with her. I knew her,” Sudeikis said. “She’s so fun and dynamic and just pro-female. She’s just a kick-ass that lives with an excitement that’s fun to be around, and that’s a little bit of what the character had.”

In the end, Ted Lasso is exactly what an audience needs right now. It’s a story that makes you laugh and reminds you to smile at adversity. It’s a lesson that’s less about football management and more about unity, and the script works because it takes a hold of our differences and embraces them as one. And it echoes Lasso’s favorite Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Lasso is heroic, not because he commands respect but because he earns it. He is kind, because he doesn’t know any other way. But like us, he is also vulnerable, and that’s why we can relate to his journey.

“He’s more white rabbit than white knight, but he’s actually becoming the change he wants to see in the world, without any agenda,” Sudeikis said. “And these days, that’s unusual, both in real life and on television.”

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