#william miller did a brilliant job

[juodojimirtis]

Adriel from Warrior Nun is such a great example of the traditional Antichrist image in media.

Adriel has similarities to both the Antichrist and Satan, really. For example, he was imprisoned for a thousand years. If I remember correctly, in the traditional Christian timeline, Satan is imprisoned for a thousand years, then released, the Earth experiences a period of Tribulation, after which comes the whole Eschaton. Adriel was imprisoned for a thousand years. Tribulation is supposed to last for seven years I think, but the Antichrist apparently rules for three and a half (according to Revelation). In Warrior Nun, Adriel "reigns" for two months, but who knows, William Miller was so active in the efforts to save the show, maybe he'll return for season 3 (#warriornunsaved). We can only hope. Besides, Adriel's girlfriend's name is Lilith...

Now, let's start from the obvious. The Mark of the Beast. The ironic part - the Mark is a cross (eh, still, "Six six six, Number of the Beast" sounds better than "Spiked Cross, Symbol of the Beast", or something like that). Adriel's followers have it tattooed (be it not necessarily on the forehead, or the right hand). The show didn't portray it as needed for things like buying and selling (Rev. 13:18), it's more symbolic. But, Adriel is merciless to opposition, he tortures them, intimidates them, kills them, and, his weird burning light scorches them. Very on-point for the Antichrist.

"The Beast" in Rev. has seven heads and ten horns. I haven't noticed a nod to it (let me know if anyone else did), nor to leopards, but one of the heads is supposed to have a healed mortal wound, which makes people hail the Beast. Adriel literally receives a head wound that heals in Season 1 finale. And, he gets stabbed in the neck in S2. On live TV. And heals. Then laughs like a crazy person. The whole "who could compare to the Beast" is true in the show - people literally have posters saying "Only Adriel can save you". Like Kristian said, he's here. He's not an idea, he's not distant. He's living and breathing, and among people.

The Second Beast, or the False Prophet, I think is Kristian. The False Prophet is essentially The Antichrist's PR angent, which is a good way to describe Kristian. He helps Adriel perform his false miracles, he does his best to convert people (most notably Jillian and Duretti). Also, Kristian is a former clergyman who lost his faith in pursuit of "truth". Very fitting.

Rev. makes it clear that the Beast comes before the Great Battle. Lilith mentions there's a "Holy War" coming. Adriel was doing his best to stop it. That's all I need to say.

The Antichrist is supposed to blaspheme against God. If Reya is "God", Adriel certainly does that. But... Is she? I have my suspicions about her. I wouldn't be surprised if she were the Dragon instead, Adriel being her "Beast with Wrath", who maybe rebelled against her. She is a being of Light (Lucifer...), her servants are suspiciously demonic. Still... Would Adriel identify with Satan, then? The "Devourer of Worlds" he spoke of coud be someone else entirely.

V. Soloviov describes the Antichrist as someone with plans to bring great things to mankind, someone who would inspire peace, not war. That's literally Adriel. Adriel also doesn't "deny God" - he either seeks to be superior, or portrays himself as the Messiah for his own gains. Adriel is extremely intelligent, charming, powerful, and extremely prideful (not to mention attractive). He doesn't exactly become the President of Europe, neither the Emperor of Rome, but people for sure do give him the highest of honours (it's a shame the show didn't pay too much attention to his political influence; he's a born politician, he's so Machiavellian). Adriel seeks to take over the Church. He offers great gifts to Religions (I assume not only Catholicism, but others too; he focuses so much of Catholicism because of it's power, as well as a personal vendetta) if they cooperate with him. He demands to be recognized as the true Lord and Savior, and he wants to erase Christ. Duretti refuses, so he's killed with the whole World as the witness. I'm sure if the season were longer, Kristian would have become the Pope (he reminds me so much of Apollonius, even though Apollonius is obviously meant to be Rasputin; when you compare Soloviov's work to historical context (Russian Empire), the allegories are clear - people often write what they know after all, and philosophers criticise their own society). Adriel scorns the notion of "higher life", wants to create "Heaven on Earth". He literally asks " What about this World?" The Opposition isn't banished to the desert in a literal sense, but is small, and has to go into hiding, however briefly.

That being said, shame on Duretti. How hard was it to shout "Children, Antichrist!" while pointing at Adriel?.. Would have been more impactful than a dusty Bible verse.

According to Soloviov, the Antichrist builds a cathedral to unite all cults. That, I need not comment on. Like the Antichrist, Adriel writes his own Bible. Shame we never learn more about it.

Soloviov describes the Antichrist's followers as a "nameless crowd". The FBC, and Adriel's followers, match such a description. That being said, they have a great taste for uniforms. He also mentions how the Antichrist's miracles only appear supernatural to people. Use of ArqTech, anyone?.. Besides, it can also be true because Adriel isn't a biblical entity, he only pretends to be one.

Lithuanian author A. D. Jakštas described the Antichrist as becoming incredibly cruel to opposition once masses follow him. It isn't portrayed too widely in the show, but implied pretty heavily, and in more ways than a burning light from the sky. I had to mention one of my own at least once, and without a comparison of the Antichrist to Soviet Russia or bolsheviks. I know why people did so (especially when Christianity functioned as an important part of cultural resistance), but still, it's incredibly hurtful to me personally, to see a concept I admire (the Antichrist) compared to something I despise.

I guess one could wonder if the show's creators knew about such views, given Adriel said something about power being shared by everyone, not hoarded by gods, but at the same time, his actions reflected the hypocrisy of... certain regimes and so-called philosophies. I wouldn't be surprised. They clearly knew what they were doing. Was I upset about it, being a fan of Adriel? Of course. But artists do what they want. I always say that, I must stand by that. Oh, and I'd rather not have arguments about politics with anyone. We're here for Warrior Nun, not that.

R. H. Benson describes a leader who rises above all nations of the world, and who has an incredible ability to manipulate people's minds and lives. That's Adriel. The world flourishss in regards to science and culture. That can be said about the Warrior Nun Universe. The author identifies the Antichrist with the Freemasons. That isn't reflected in the show. But, the show does portray a conflict of Christianity and other movements - both with Adriel, and with ArqTech.

Like R. H. Benson describes, Adriel is talked about by everyone (social media...), many have a good opinion of him even before meeting him. He's charismatic, knows a lot of languages, can be described as an erudite (why does he have a bunch of books in piles on his porch, I'm not sure, but he deserves a Supernanny finger wag for it... At least.) There isn't an episode of like... All countries signing a peace treaty, but it's something I think Adriel would have them do. Again, I think he deserved more screen time. The effect he, and his cult, had on society, deserved more screentime. We only see his followers chanting his name. What other forms of worship does FBC practice? What are their main philosophical and theological dogmas? How to they reflect in daily life? What is written in Adriel's Bible? And so much more.

Adriel obviously idolizes peace, as I've mentioned already. A direct quote from him: "Hasn't humanity suffered enough?" I think that could be from Benson. He creates a new religion. I'm sure Adrielism has it's own ceremonies, feast days... So much potential. Of course, it's new, and it needs better liturgy. A proper hymn or two. Adriel, honey, come on... You had a thousand years. "Ave Adriel, Salvatore Mundi..."? Or something?

Adriel calls himself the Savior. I think the only reason why the show's creatos may not have had him call himself the Alpha and the Omega (the Beginning and the End), is because they are in touch with fandom culture... We all know how these beautiful Greek words have been desecrated in our demented world. We all know... If you don't, I beg you, stat innocent. Stay sane.

Adriel does not desecrate religious sites. But maybe his followers do. I wouldn't put it past FBC, running around the streets with bats. Cultists will be cultists.

I think WN takes place in current times (2000 20's). So, first half of the 21st century. According to many, that's when the Antichrist is supposed to show up. I'm not Ava. I will not make any jokes about the current state of the world.

Adriel certainly imitates Christ enough. His Messiah Classic fashion (which he looks rather attractive in), walking on water... Don't you, Mr. Walks Barefoot In Dead Insect Fountain Water Soup?.. And, not only imitates. He inverts. He builds an inverted temple.

Like the Antichrist according to Spirago, Adriel lets people live how they wish, do what they want (the scene in S2E1 illustrates it well - the one where Vincent "brings a lady home"). Spirago says that the Antichrist will have an easy time fighting Christianity because of godlessness in the world. I think, Adriel has an easy time for other reasons - Christianity has been used in many horrible crimes, and he has many good arguments, even though his "I ask for nothing" isn't exactly true.

The Pope defends the faithful (according to many authors). Which Duretti does, despite all his machinations. I saw some say he cared only for his own power, but I doubt it. Did he care for his own power? Yes. But did he also sincerely saw a threat to everyone in Adriel, and wanted to help others by exposing him? Also yes.

Can the OCS be seen as the religious order opposing the Antichrist spoken of by some?.. I's say so. They are his main adversaries. His main capable adversaries. Despite the irony of him helping create the Order. Now as I mention it, was Areala supposed to be the original Second Beast? Maybe. The only theory I really entertain about the early OCS, is that Adriel was really in love with Areala, and she with him, but she saw him for the... Beast he was, so she sacrificed herself, and her heart, for everyone else. Parallels with The Omen III, huh?..

Adriel has a whole army (FBC), even though his Capital is Madrid, not Babylon. Adriel talks about the tendency of people to worship money, in spite of avoiding the strategy in favor of terror. He doesn't raise the dead (Ava does...), or heal the sick, but he talks about it. His followers being possessed also reminds me of something. I don't remember who said it, yet apparently, the people the Antichrist resurrects are supposed to be devils in disguise.

The moments ifn the show of various screens showing Adriel's broadcast... That screamed Antichrist. And him killing the Pope. Everyone talks about the shot of Vincent putting the Crown on Ava. For me, it's Adriel striking Duretti. That scene makes my heart skip a beat, it's so beautiful. So meaningful.

I didn't go as in-depth as I thought I would, directly mentioned only a few authors... I'm afraid I could talk about this for days. I love to talk about this. Warrior Nun, and the Antichrist. Write me if you noticed something I missed! I apologize for any mistakes I left, and the... Personal bit. But hey... Everything is personal interpretation. Oh, and I apologize if the style I wrote this in is rather horrid. It's supposed to be the "crazy person ranting" style.

If I didn't make it clear enought, I love Adriel.

[thequeerwitch]

Chapter 1: Nuissance

Albert Wesker x Reader 

AN: Thank you all for the wait. This chapter wasn’t initially going to kick off the fanfic, I was intending to make most of the events in here oneshots. But I thought, why not just make them all chapter one. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing! 

          I entered the gym holding an ice pack over my eye. Wesker was lifting weights with his shirt off, alone at the bench press. Cocky as ever, wanting to show off those muscles of his. I’ll admit, the first time I saw him in this state it caught my eye. Those rock hard abs of his still managed to make my nethers tingle, but you learn to keep your composure after seeing them for the hundredth time. I hung over the bench press with a sly smile plastered to my face. “Hey hot shot.”

          He stopped for a moment, turning his head to me. I could tell behind those sunglasses, his eyes went to the ice pack over my eye in an instant. This assumption was confirmed when he asked, “What happened?”

          “Huh? Oh, nothing.”

          He stood and carefully took the ice pack away from my eye. “Who gave you that black eye?”

          “It was nothing, Wesker. Just a sparring match gone wrong.”

          “Tell me who did this.”

          “Why do you care?”

          He scoffed. “I don’t, I was just wondering what face I should see in my mind when I imagined you getting your ass kicked.”

          I shoved his hand out of the way, replacing the ice pack over the bruised area. “For you information, just because Miller managed to land a good hit doesn’t mean I completely lost the match. He walked away with a nice fat lip of his own.”

          Wesker shook his head, no doubt rolling his eyes under those dark shades. He sat back down on the bench.

          “Y’know you look like a douche, right?”

          His head snapped to me. “Excuse me?”

          “You know I’m right. You’re wearing sunglasses in the gym when you’re all by yourself in here.”

          “Not entirely alone, you’re here nagging me too.”

          “Don’t be an ass.”

          “Am I wrong?”

          “Shut up, you’re getting off topic! Why don’t you just take ‘em off? It’s not like me knowing your eye color will make much of a difference.”

          “You’re a pest, you know that?”

          “It’s my job to pester you. Now are they coming off by choice or by force?”

          Wesker stood and towered over me. “You know damn well you would lose this fight.”

          “Oh please. You think I’d let you outsmart me? Besides, you wouldn’t lay a hand on a lady, would you?”

          “Are we talking about a lady or a bitch?”

          I reached up and took the frames of the sunglasses, no protest so far. I lifted them from his nose and brought them in front of me. Staring back at me were a pair of warm, brown eyes. When I looked closer, I realized they were actually dull orange. I couldn’t contain the short gasp that passed my lips. He took his glasses from my hands and replaced them, then wordlessly returned to his workout. Before I could respond, my watch started to beep. My que that my break had ended. I quickly changed into my work uniform—white button up blouse, black slacks, and my lab coat—and I departed for the labs. As I walked through the hall, I pinned my name badge to my lapel and tied my blonde hair into a bun at the crown of my head.

          After a long day in the labs, I retired to my quarters. We had a field mission later that evening, so with my later afternoon cleared, I decided to go on a quick hike around the complex. I traversed through the upper halls, passing Miller as I left. He scoffed as he laid eyes on my face. “Your eye looks fabulous,” he said.

          I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “I know right, it’s a new fashion statement. I like to call it ‘Abuser’s Violet.’”

          “Whatever, I still call a rematch.”

          “You’re on, see you on the helipad.”

          I went down to the foyer and before I opened the door, I heard hushed voices echoing from upstairs.

          “Wesker.”

          “Miller, a word?”

          “Yes sir?”

          “So where’d Martinez get that black eye of hers?”

          “Huh? We sparred earlier today. What’s it to you?”

          “I want you to stay away from her.”

          “Wesker, we work together. You can’t be serious!”

          “I’m warning you, if I ever see you anywhere near her, you’ll have to deal with me.”

          “Y-Yes sir…my apologies sir.”

          Both sets of footsteps left the hall, so I exited the front steps of the mansion and jogged through the forest. The smell of fresh air brushing past my nose freed me from my chaotic life, at least for a moment. All that occupied the atmosphere were thumps from my feet against coarse dirt and the hum of songbirds. I had become accustomed to the rustling of leaves in the forest years ago when I first came here, so it was more comforting to me than anything. It let me know I wasn’t alone. Normally, the natural sounds allowed me to clear my head. But this time, my mind raced faster than the jackrabbits in the forestry. All I could think of was the voices I heard in the hall.

          “I want you to stay away from her. If I see you near her, you’ll have to deal with me.”

          Why would Wesker care about Miller and I sparring? He didn’t care about anyone but himself, right? Besides, he’s too invested in his work to notice anyone. Women and men alike showed subtle romantic interest, but he always turned them down. At most, he came across as an older brother to Birkin and I, albeit a distanced older brother in college with Birkin and I being kid siblings in middle school. He’s always been distant, why would he care now?

          Before I knew it, I was at the top of a massive hill overlooking a brilliant sunset over the forest. The sky above ran orange, and the tops of the trees were peppered gold. I shielded my eyes from the sun and looked down at the trees. I heard footsteps behind me and I whirled around, taking a fighting stance.

          Wesker shook his head. “At ease, soldier.”

          “You ass! Don’t sneak up on me like that! What are you doing here?”

          “I believe I am permitted to hike the outskirts of the complex, or was I unaware that you owned the forest.”

          “You following me or something?”

          “I was in the area, heard your giant footsteps and decided to see who was spying on me.”

          “Don’t get cheeky,” Before I could finish my statement, the alarm went off on my watch and I shut it off. “Whatever, we should get going if we want to make it to dinner.”

          “Lead the way then. Since you own the forest, you must know it be heart.”

          I rolled my eyes and walked ahead of him, but he quickly mathed my pace. “By the way, what was all that with Miller?”

          “I beg your pardon?”

          “You didn’t have to intimidate him over a little sparring match.”

          “Maybe he should learn not to hit a woman.”

          “Y’know what I think? I think you care about me more than you let on.”

          “What on earth gave you that impression?”

          “Why else would you care so much? You’d think the idea of me getting an ass kicking would be the happiest news in your eyes.”

          “Why are you pestering me all of the sudden?”

          “It’s a hobby of mine to prove you wrong.”

          “Listen Tweety Bird, when are you going to realize that I don’t care?”

          “I told you to stop calling me that!”

          “Then either grow a couple of inches or quit being a nuisance.”

          “That would be my other hobby, annoying you is just so much fun.”

          We made it back to the mansion and entered the dining hall. Birkin was already at our normal spot. As usual, he was poring over a file rather than paying much attention to his food.

          “Put your file away, William,” I said, “Your soup is getting cold.”

          “You’re not my mother, Victoria.”

          I didn’t respond, I was too invested in the slab of steak and vegetables in front of me. I finished my dinner early and went to suit up, then I met the team in the briefing room and together we boarded the helicopter.

[chiseler]

The Crowd Doesn’t Just Roar, It Thinks: Warner Bros.’ All-Talking Revolution

“Iconic” is a gassy word for a masterwork of unquestioned approval. But it also describes compositions that actually resemble icons in their form and function, “stiff” by inviolate standards embodied in, say, Howard Hawks characters moving fluidly in and out of the frame. Whenever I watch William A. Wellman’s 1933 talkie Wild Boys of the Road, these standards—themselves rigid and unhelpful to understanding—fall away. An entire canonical order based on naturalism withers. 

To summon reality vivid enough for the 1930s—during which 250,000 minors left home in hopeless pursuit of the job that wasn’t—Wellman inserts whispering quietude between explosions, cesuras that seem to last aeons. The film’s gestating silences dominate the rather intrusive New Deal evangelism imposed by executive order from the studio. Amid Warner Bros.’ ballyhooing of a freshly-minted American president, they were unconsciously embracing the wrecking-ball approach to a failed capitalist system. That is, when talkies dream, FDR don’t rate. However, Marxist revolution finds its American icon in Wild Boys’ sixteen-year-old actor Frankie Darro, whose cap becomes a rude little halo, a diminutive lad goaded into class war by a chance encounter with a homeless man. 

“You got an army, ain’t ya?” In the split second before Darro’s “Tommy” realizes the import of these words, the Great Depression flashes before his eyes, and ours. No conspicuous montage—just a fixed image of pain. Until suddenly a collective lurch transmutes job-seeking kids into a polity that knows the enemy’s various guises: railroad detectives, police, galled citizens nosing out scapegoats. Wellman’s crowd scenes are, in effect, tableaux congealing into lucent versions of the real thing. The miracle he performs is a painterly one: he abstracts and pares down in order to create realism.  

Wellman has a way of organizing people into palpable units, expressing one big emotional truth, then detonating all that potential energy. In his assured directorial hands, Wild Boys of the Road sustains powerful rhythmic flux. And yet, other abstractions, the kind life throws at us willy-nilly, only make sense if we trust our instinctive hunches (David Lynch says typically brilliant, and typically cryptic, things on this subject). 

I’m thinking of iconography that invites associations beyond familiar theories, which, in one way or another, try to give movies syntax and rely too heavily on literary ideas like “authorship.” Nobody can corner the market on semantic icons and run up the price. My favorite hot second in Wild Boys of the Road is when young Sidney Miller spits “Chazzer!” (“Pig!”) at a cop. Even the industrial majesty of Warner Bros. will never monopolize chutzpah. The studio does, however, vaunt its own version of socialism, whether consciously or not, in concrete cinematic terms: here, the crowd becomes dramaturgy, a conscious and ethical mass pushing itself into the foreground of working-class poetics. The crowd doesn’t just roar, it thinks. Miller’s volcanic cri de coeur erupts from the collective understanding that capitalism’s gendarmes are out to get us.

Wellman’s Heroes for Sale, hitting screens the same year as Wild Boys, 1933, further advances an endless catalogue of meaning for which no words yet exist. We’re left (fumblingly and woefully after the fact) to describe a rupture. Has the studio system gone stark raving bananas?! Once again, the film’s ostensible agenda is to promote Roosevelt’s economic plan; and, once again, a radical alternative rears its head.

Wellman’s aesthetic constitutes a Dramaturgy of the Crowd. His compositions couldn’t be simpler. I’m reminded of the “grape cluster” method used by anonymous Medieval artists, in which the heads of individual figures seem to emerge from a single shared body, a highly simplified and spiritual mode of constructing space that Arnold Hauser attributes to less bourgeoise societies. 

If the mythos of FDR, the man who transformed capitalism, is just that, a story we Americans tell ourselves, then Heroes for Sale represents another kind of storytelling: one firmly rooted to the soiled experience of the period. Amid portrayals of a nation on the skids—thuggish cops, corrupt bankers, and bone-weary war vets (slogging through more rain and mud than they’d ever encountered on the battlefield)—one rather pointed reference to America’s New Deal drags itself from out of the grime. “It’s just common horse sense,” claims a small voice. Will national leadership ever find another spokesman as convincing as the great Richard Barthelmess, that half-whispered deadpan amplified by a fledgling technology, the Vitaphone? After enduring shrapnel to the spine, dependency on morphine, plus a prison stretch, his character Tom Holmes channels the country’s pain; and his catalog of personal miseries—including the sudden death of his young wife—qualifies him as the voice of wisdom when he explains, “It takes more than one sock in the jaw to lick 120 million people.” How did Barthelmess—owner of the flattest murmur in Talking Pictures, a far distance from the gilded oratory of Franklin Roosevelt, manage to sell this shiny chunk of New Deal propaganda? 

How did he take the film’s almost-crass reduction of America’s economic cataclysm, that metaphorical sock on the jaw, and make it sound reasonable? Barthelmess was 37 when he made Heroes for Sale; an aging juvenile who less than a decade earlier had been one of Hollywood’s biggest box-office titans. But no matter how smoothly he seemed to have survived the transition, his would always be a screen presence more redolent of the just-passed Silent-era than the strange new world of synchronized sound. And yet, through a delivery rich with nuance for generous listeners and a glum piquancy for everyone else, deeply informed by an awareness of his own fading stardom, his slightly unsettling air of a man jousting with ghosts lends tremendous force to the New Deal line. It echoes and resolves itself in the viewer’s consciousness precisely because it is so eerily plainspoken, as if by some half-grinning somnambulist ordering a ham on rye. Through it we are in the presence of a living compound myth, a crisp monotone that brims with vacillating waves of hope and despair.

Tom is “The Dirty Thirties.” A symbolic figure looming bigger than government promises, towering over Capitalism itself, he’s reduced to just another soldier-cum-hobo by the film’s final reel, having relinquished a small fortune to feed thousands before inevitably going “on the bum.” If he emits wretchedness and self-abnegation, it’s because Tom was originally intended to be an overt stand-in for Jesus Christ—a not-so-gentle savior who attends I.W.W. meetings and participates in the Bonus March, even hurling a riotous brick at the police. These strident scenes, along with “heretical” references to the Nazarene, were ultimately dropped; and yet the explosive political messages remain.

More than anything, these key works in the filmography of William A. Wellman present their viewers with competing visions of freedom; a choice, if you will. One can best be described as a fanciful, yet highly addictive dream of personal comfort — the American Century's corrupted fantasy of escape from toil, tranquility, and a material luxury handed down from the then-dying principalities of Western Europe — on gaudy, if still wondrous, display within the vast corpus of Hollywood's Great Depression wish-list movies. The other is rarely acknowledged, let alone essayed, in American Cinema. There are, as always, reasons for this. It is elusive and ever-inspiring; too primal to be called revolutionary. It is a vision of existential freedom made flesh; being unmoored without being alienated; the idea of personal liberation, not as license to indulge, but as a passport to enter the unending, collective struggle to remake human society into a society fit for human beings. 

In one of the boldest examples of this period in American film, the latter vision would manifest itself as a morality play populated by kings and queens of the Commonweal— a creature of the Tammany wilderness, an anarchist nurse, and a gaggle of feral street punks (Dead End Kids before there was a 'Dead End'). Released on June 24, 1933, Archie L. Mayo's The Mayor of Hell stood, not as a standard entry in Warner Bros.’ Social Consciousness ledger, but as an untamed rejoinder to cratering national grief.

by Daniel Riccuito

Special thanks to R.J. Lambert

[twistedtwinsproductions]

Survivors of the first Cronenberg remake (left to right) @hollingsworthb who played Brad Hart, when you see the film you’ll see what a brilliant job he did with his nuanced performance, @supervandie, who brings Rose Miller into modern rabid times with such heart, strength, and authentic pain, & lastly, #TedAtherton, who brought Dr William Burroughs to life masterfully in a role that will definitely leave its mark on the audience. Also starring @hanneke.talbot @mackenziegray57 #StephenMcHattie @stephenhuszar @gregbryk @edie_inksetter @thekevinhanchard @cmpunk @littlemissrisk DP: @kimderkocsc Steadi/A Cam: @mywildweb B Cam: @paularoguestorm Production Design: @mihaichuk Costumes: @morganne_m_muse Canadian fashion curated by: @rogerhgingerich Makeup & Prosthetics: @mastersfx1 Score by: Claude Foisy Musical tracks including end credit song ‘Hunger’: @drkevvy Edited by: @tokyorosed Assistant editor: @jeff_collins101 Sound: @audiocowgirl Sound design: @eargasminc All post production done at Urban Post Production Toronto. Shot entirely in Ontario, Canada with the generous support of @telefilm_canada. The film is available on VOD now, BluRay release in North America coming at you February 4th 💋 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CODJ5Fd45_sX6ibrwM8iCOI-5uBgav0J3OVo0/?igshid=tlkse9weao3o

[tartantardis]

The Four Doctors in Fiona Cumming’s Who career

(This interview was conducted in October 2013, for the Daily Record's Tartan TARDIS supplement. At the time she was retired and living with her husband Ian Fraser - another Doctor Who alumni - in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south of Scotland. Sadly, Fiona passed away in 2015. This interview is presented in full, with quite a lot that was cut from the print original)

FIONA Cumming has a Doctor Who CV to be proud of, boasting credits with the First, Second, Third and Fifth Doctors.

Indeed, when Peter Davison made his debut as the Fifth Doctor in 1981, it was Fiona, who grew up in Glasgow and Edinburgh, who was directing the story. She went on to direct three more stories with him.

But Fiona's involvement goes further back than the 1980s, having first worked on the show in 1965 as an assistant floor manager on William Hartnell tale The Massacre.

Fiona, said:"I had applied to the BBC in 1964 when they were getting ready for BBC2, and I had been accepted - but they lost my file and because I had a teaching degree, I came back up to Glasgow and started teaching at Bellahouston Academy. I can remember in 1963 when the kids came in, talking about this brilliant TV show they had seen the Saturday night before, and I said, 'What do you mean, it's set in a police box?'

"Then in 1964 I went to the BBC as a relief assistant floor manager, where you were slotted into various programmes. I was doing the twice-weekly soaps Compact and Swizzlewick, and the first time I was moved on to something different it was Doctor Who.

"I was put onto The Massacre in 1965 - so it's now 48 years since I first worked on Doctor Who. Peter Purves was William  Hartnell's assistant at that time and the director was Paddy Russell, who had such a great reputation.

"In those days, working in television was like working in a teaching hospital - you learned from the person above you, and in turn you passed it on to the person below you when you moved up the ladder

"There was a feeling of passing on knowledge, but I think now that's not that way, because people are too busy looking after their own backs, and keeping their cards very close to their chest. In those days, there was a generosity of spirit, which was quite remarkable."

A couple of years later, Fiona worked on Patrick Troughton's second adventure after succeeding William Hartnell.

She said: "By 1967 I became a Production Assistant on The Highlanders with Pat Troughton which was one of the lost stories but there is a relic which I think I've still got. It was a piece of film in a tin and in the BBC, you get moved arond from office to office, and then one day someone forwarded this to me, along with a note, saying it was ridiculous I was leaving archive material behind! What they didn't realise was that it was just me with the clapperboard!

"I loved working with Pat Troughton and teamed up again in 1969 with The Seeds of Death. I had worked on Dr Findlays Casebook with him and admired him as an actor greatly.

"In 1972 I worked on my next Who, when Jon Pertwee was the Doctor in a story called The Mutants. That was around the time they had started using CSO, and I remember Katy Manning, who played the assistant, sitting in the middle of what seemed like a lot of custard, with the yellow colour they were using. She was pretending she could see all sorts of things, but really, it was just in the middle of this yellow part of the studio."

"The next years were varied but I'd started Directing and after cutting my teeth on Z Cars, Angels and other programmes in the Drama Serials department."

Fiona was delighted when she returned to the worlds of Doctor Who, launching Peter Davison as the Doctor in 1982 story Castrovalva.

But she didn't think that the show's new star was bothered with the level of expectation being thrust upon him after succeeding Tom Baker.

She said: "With Castrovalva, I think the pressure was on me because until then, I had been doing an awful lot of classical stuff - I was used to directing people in crinolines and long skirts.

"David Maloney had offered me an episode of Blake's 7 and I felt the writer Tanith Lee had done a great script, Sarcophagus, and I thought she was a writer who  could work beautifully on Doctor Who. I sent a copy of the completed tape to John, and he did try her but it didn't work out, but out of that came his offer to direct Castrovalva.

"Because it was the first story of a new Doctor, and because it was an area that I hadn't really worked in for so long, not having done a Doctor Who since 1972, that was quite a long period of time.

"The other thing was that by that point, in 1980, the cult that had developed around Doctor Who was underway, so you were quite aware of the mantle of Doctor Who by that time.

"It wasn't so much being the first story of a new Doctor, but the pressure, I felt, was on me coming back to it.

"Peter was absolutely terrific, a real joy to work with, and we kept the feeling of family on the show, which was extremely important as well.

"I thought at that stage, and at all the times I worked with him afterwards, that Peter would have made an excellent director. He had an eye for the right kind of things and knew what was right for the programme. I thought he might go behind the scenes, but instead he perfered to stay as a performer.

"He had been doing particularly well on All Creatures Great and Small, and he already had a big following, and I thought it was a brilliant piece of casting to take a younger man and make him the Doctor.

"Nowadays, it's far more common with the likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith as the Doctor, but back then it was very unusual to have a younger Doctor. Until then he had always been an older man, with Bill Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

"He showed it worked.

"I was very lucky with my scripts - it was nice to be able to delve into them.

"I actually got a letter from a man who had not allowed his children to watch Doctor Who, but for some reason he let them see Castrovalva and he jumped on to the fact we had featured the art of MC Escher. He found it so interesting that a children's programme like Doctor Who was looking at Escher.

"JNT (producer John Nathan-Turner) was always very good about casting his crew, as it were. He always good a good combination - he rated me as a director, but he wouldn't have put me onto something that had metal monsters - he worked to the strengths of the crew."

Fiona was back directing two stories in the show's 20th season, the first being Snakedance, which featured the TV debut of Martin Clunes. She laughed: "Doing Snakedance was lovely - I had been to Morocco and was very aware of the scenes we had in the souks, as I wanted to get the Moroccan feel for them.

"I was very lucky as John would give me carte blanche for casting, although he always kept an eye on things, but I was able to bring in people like Collette O'Neil and John Carson and leave them to do their thing as I've worked with them before and knew I can trust them, and that would leave me more time to spend with people like Jonathon Morris and Martin Clunes who were both working in television for the first time.

"I had found Martin just by flicking through the pages of The Spotlight. They used to have a dedicated to students who were just leaving their various courses, and I saw his face looking back at me. I knew the character of Lon would only work if you could equate him with being a spoiled brat who was totally self-centred, because of his extreme youth. You didn't want to dislike him, but he was totally objectionable! And Martin hit the spot, beautifully!

"The other performance I really liked was Brian Miller - I don't think I could have got anyone better."

Later that year, Fiona directed another story, Enlightenment

She said: "When I did Enlightenment, I think, at the time it was the only Doctor Who which had been written solely by a woman.

"I had originally cast Peter Sallis, but we lost him when we had to remount the story after a strike, and I brought in Keith Barron, who played it very differently.

"Peter arrived and asked, 'Where do I sit?' I told him he was the master of the ship so he would have to stand, but he said, 'No, I only do sitting parts!' I eventually convinced him the master of the ship was a standing part - but I think he was sending me up rotten!

"As a director, you have a company of actors you use regularly, and you develop a shorthand in terms of working, but if they've never done a telly before, they need to be led into it.

"When I did the remake of Enlightenment for DVD, I was able to take out what was the best in the original with the story, the acting and plot, and then go forward. I felt the model shots we had done back then really creaked and groaned to such an extent that I wanted to update them with computer graphics. I had the full box of tricks at my disposal, some 25 years on, and I was really pleased as I felt I was able to get the best out of it."

Fiona's next outing took the Doctor overseas for 1984's Planet of Fire, which was shot in Lanzarote. The location came about by chance after Fiona sent producer John Nathan-Turner a postcard from a family holiday.

"We were on holiday in Lanzarote and had the children with us. I sent JNT a postcard saying, 'Location fabulous, troglodytes willing - how about it?' I took some pictures without the children in them, just vistas, and out of that came Planet of Fire.

"In the heat, it was quite punishing, and we were trying to make sure everybody was drinking enough weather. It was not the most comfortable shoot!

"Poor Nicola (Bryant) was rolling down the jaggy rocks, and it was her first job straight out of drama school - I think she learned pretty quickly that it wasn't all glamour when you were making TV!

"But we all had a fantastic time - because we were there on a package deal, everyone was there together.

"On the days he wasn't filming, Peter Wyngarde would spread himself out on the beach, and I noticed he was always listening to music. I said to him one night, 'What's your choice of music?' He looked at me and asked what I meant. When I explained I'd seen him with his earphones on, he said: 'I'm not listening to anything - I just put the plugs in my ears so no-one disturbs me!' It's now something that I do myself if I'm on planes or whatever, if I don't want someone disturbing me.

"I went back and did a remake of Planet of Fire for the DVD release - it was interesting because I realised that they wouldn't let me into any of the areas which I'd previously worked on.

"We couldn't make it in the same way now, as the footpaths we had used back then were now just for the scientists working there.

"I liked being able to add volcanoes and fire to the long shots and to get rid of the music and just get the sound of the fire in - I appreciate it, but I think some of the fans didn't."

[krokodile]

Tumblr has decided that one of my posts “may contain adult content” and thus is blocked from public view.  However, after digging all the way back through to February, there’s no indicator that it’s been flagged.  So I can’t contest it.

It’s a fucking movie review post. 

I can only assume the bot spazzed out because it contains a review of the documentary “Fagbug.”

Needless to say I’m reposting everything now because I AM SO FUCKING PISSED.  Gay activist movies with inflammatory titles are “adult content.”  

(I mean, it sucked, but still.)

Aside from that, I can’t find any content that would anger a bot.  I mean, if the bot sat down and watched Take Me to the River, it’d probably get mad, but I don’t explicitly discuss any of its content, so...it included a picture of a child in a bathing suit from the waist up?  Is that it?  Did one of the movie posters look like nudity somehow?  Because I looked at all of them and aside from the potentially triggering flesh tones in Happy Death Day’s poster (that creepy baby face sure is sexy amirite) I, again, see nothing.  

And since you can no longer access the posts directly the only way to get the content back is to either harass tumblr via email until they allow the post back up or crawl through your posts on your own account, which can’t be done by day, just by page number.  I can’t begin to imagine how shitty this is for people who have original content worth preserving.

movies watched in 2018

take me to the river:  guys, here’s the thing.  horror is my favorite genre and i’m pretty deadened to everything with “shock value” in film.  this little indie drama here, though?  this genuinely managed to shock me.  i was sitting there at one point unable to believe i was actually watching what i was watching.

please keep in mind that i don’t think that scene was included for the sake of shock value; it was relevant and likely necessary.  i’m just saying that NOTHING gets to me in that way, and this did.

it’s a fantastic film, albeit one of those annoying enigmas with no real answers.  i would love to have an hour alone with the screenwriter just to find out what they were thinking of in terms of backstories.  every major performance is perfect - logan miller is incredible.  everyone’s performance is understated, natural and authentic.  the little girl who played molly - not sure of her name but i recognized her from “louie” - holds her own with some amazing adult performances and is just as authentic as everyone else.  robin reigert is quietly devastating, josh hamilton is equally quietly terrifying, richard schiff and azura skye disappear completely into their characters.  

the pacing is on the slow side, but it works well for the story.  i watched the entire thing with my stomach in knots, having no idea in hell where it was going.  on several occasions i genuinely expected a murder.  i’m not used to movies this quiet and slow being so unpredictable.  i had to keep pausing it to shake off the tension.  it’s also incredibly beautiful to look at.

this is one of those indie gems that is absolutely not for everyone - it touches on some subject matter than many would find deeply upsetting.  and i think the film means to be deeply upsetting, but again, it’s in a way that’s not for everyone.

i do wish there were more answers, because i have so many questions, but it does guarantee i’ll be thinking about this movie for years to come, so maybe they did that on purpose.

as an aside, i kept thinking that the little girl looked incredibly familiar, and then it hit me.  she looks like a miniature allison case.

change the hair color and she’s an absolute ringer.  

(i also got a smile out of her name reveal, just because it’s her cousin asking her how to spell it and she starts with m, and for whatever reason i’m like “oh wouldn’t it be funny if we had the same name,” and at the -o i’m like trying to guess, “maybe she’s morgan, or -”; -l  “...ha.  awesome.”  -l-y “well i’m glad they spelled it properly.”  dunno why that amused me, but it did.)

it - better than i thought it would be in some ways.  it’s not scary at all and the horror aspects are largely bungled, which is a shame because the dude playing pennywise is pretty creepy and could’ve done better stuff with a better script.  i hate the changes they made to beverly’s character, and she and the kid from book of henry were so obnoxiously precocious and precious.  that said, all the other kids were fantastic, including that kid i generally dislike from stranger things.  he was hilarious, and he and the rest of the pack of boys were so natural in their roles you just started to believe that’s who they were.  i’m vaguely looking forward to the sequel.

mammoth - a rewatch; it’s still the same infuriating mansplainy trash it was the first time around, but i wanted mom to see michelle williams’s performance, so.  the cast really is perfect; that’s the one thing it has going for it.

marwencol - this guy’s photography is amazing, and his story is super interesting, but what kept jumping out at me was how fucking great this dude’s coping mechanisms were, even if they looked a little odd.  for example, he has a crush on his married neighbor, so he added a doll based on her to his little village with the intent of having that doll marry the doll that’s his avatar.  the woman got weirded out, told him it wasn’t cool - so he dealt with the rejection by creating a sorceress character who blinked the neighbor character out of that universe and hooked it up with that guy’s character.  like...that’s the weirdest way i’ve ever seen someone handle rejection, but also kinda the healthiest.  he said repeatedly that he had no interesting in actually pursuing his neighbor romantically because he respected that she was married.  he never said a cruel word to her, or complained to the camera about her being a bitch or ungrateful or whatever dumb shit people come up with.  absolutely no threats or hints of violence.  just “i’m hurt by this rejection, so fuck it, i’m erasing her from this narrative.”  like...that’s honestly brilliant.  don’t know why this stuck with me more than anything else, but it did.  i know there’s a drama adaptation coming out soon with steve carell, and i expect that’ll be great.

maudie - i adore sally hawkins so much.  i haven’t seen the shape of water yet; i really only know her from paddington, but there’s just something about her that makes me like her.  and her performance in this is stellar.  i know nothing about maud lewis (besides the fact that i like her paintings) but sally hawkins was easy to fall in love with.  sweet, smart, shrewd, just a hell of a mind but also a huge heart.  

happy death day - i was NOT expecting to enjoy this as much as i did.  it’s really perfectly executed for the type of movie it is.  great comedy - one of the funniest onscreen kills i’ve ever seen - genuine danger and stakes (a rarity in groundhog day type movies), and a main character with actual depth; enough so that you actually care about her and want her to survive this movie (i don’t recognize the actress, but she does a great job with the role).  and a fucking fantastic red herring that totally caught me off-guard.  i was expecting something dumb, a carelessly written splatterfest aimed at the lowest common denominator.  (yeah i’m a horror snob fuck you.)  actually there’s very little blood/gore, which apparently bothered some viewers, but i don’t think any effect was minimized without it.  i had a ton of fun watching it.  didn’t expect that.

dunkirk - i’m just gonna say it.  it was bad.  i’m generally pretty neutral on war movies - for the most part they’re not my thing but there are plenty i’ve enjoyed and plenty i’ve been able to appreciate as good filmmaking even if the film itself wasn’t for me.  this movie is just not good.  generic war movie created around a truly amazing true story that could have been an amazing film.  wasted opportunity.

fagbug - i completely understand why the gay community had worse things to say about this person than heteros did.  ugh.  stop making actual tragedies about you, stop talking over people and stop acting like an epic victim.  

before i wake - surprisingly not bad, could’ve been better.  liked it better before the last few minutes.  it had some clever ideas and it was fun putting everything together, but having it put together for us takes the fun out of it, and making the kids’ “powers” unambiguous is a little...hard to swallow i guess?  but it’s still surprisingly pretty good.

under the arctic sky - random netflix generator told me to watch this and while cold water surfing isn’t something i’m super interested in, the photography is gorgeous.  i can’t pretend i didn’t cry like a little bitch watching the one guy surfing under the northern lights.  just...the world is just awesome.

original post url 

http://krokodile.tumblr.com/post/170571715555

[blueboxesandtrafficcones]

Spilling the Beans

This was prompted by the lovely @misstylersmith last month from the Super Sappy Prompt List that was going around.  The request was #17 (Because I love you!) and HardyxMiller.

@timepetalscollective for the Adoption drive - Alec Hardy

HardyxMiller, T-rated for language.

“I cannot believe you!”  Ellie stormed through the doors into the bullpen, Hardy hot on her heels.  “What gives you the right?”

“What gives me the- Miller, a suspect had a gun trained on my detective, what did you expect me to do?  Say ‘go ahead, shoot her, see if I care?’ Bloody hell!”  He followed her through the precinct to her desk, neither noticing nor caring that the rest of the station had stopped and turned to stare as the drama unfolded.

“Oh, your detective am I?!” she snarled, slamming her bag on top of her desk before spinning to face him.

“Yes, my detective.  As your partner and superior officer, it’s my job to protect you!”  He planted his hands on his hips, glaring at Ellie as she glared right back, arms crossed.

“Your job, sir, is to catch criminals and solve crimes!  Not treat me like a victim in need of saving!”

“I wasn’t trying to!  He had a gun on you, and has already proved willing to use it!”

“That doesn’t mean you tackle him!” Ellie roared.  “I was more afraid of you having another heart attack than of the gun!”

“So, what, I was just supposed to take the chance?  Give him the benefit of the doubt?”

“Call for backup!  Distract him!  Something else, anything else!”

“I couldn’t risk it!” Hardy shouted back, stepping closer until they were almost toe to toe, and she had to crane her neck back to see his face.

“Why not?!”

“Because I love you!”

If the office had been quiet before, it was now deathly silent.  Chests heaving, Hardy and Miller suddenly realized their location and looked around, only to see the rest of the team watching with wide-eyes.

Without a word Hardy spun on his heel and stalked to his office, slamming the door behind him and closing the blinds as Ellie sank into her chair and calmly logged on.

As she waited for the computer to sign in, she glanced up to see everyone still watching her.  “What?!”

It was as though someone had hit play on a paused screen; everyone leapt into action, talking loudly to compensate for being witness to such a private moment between their superior officers.

Across from her Katie was still staring, mouth opening and closing silently.

“Something to say?”

“No, ma’am,” Katie mumbled, eyes lowering.

“Good.”

-

Ten minutes later there was a tap on Hardy’s door.  “Yeah.”  He didn’t look up from his paperwork as his partner walked in, shutting the door behind her.

Ellie perched herself on the arm of his couch and steadily watched him.  “All right?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, taking off his glasses and rubbing at his eyes.  “Where are we on Williams?”

“His alibi’s flimsy, but checks out for now.  MacDonald’s digging deeper though.”

“Good.”  Hardy leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.  “Think it’s been long enough?”

“Another minute.”

They waited in silence until she finally peeked through the blinds.  “Go.”

“HARFORD!”

Ellie swung the door open, catching Katie in the middle of a group of coworkers.  “Now, please.”

The younger woman hurried forward, tucking an envelope into her jacket.  “Yes, sir?”

“Shut the door.”  Hardy watched as she did so before standing awkwardly in front of them.

“Did you need something?” Katie finally asked, and Ellie hid a smirk as Hardy simply held his hand out, palm up.

“Sir?”

“Don’t play coy, Harford.  Hand it over.”

“Sir?” The DC repeated, hand twitching towards her jacket.  Hardy narrowed his eyes, and after another moment she reluctantly handed the envelope over.  “I can explain-”

“What was the buy in?” Hardy interrupted as he opened the envelope and counted the bills, eyebrows shooting up at the total.

“Fifty pounds, sir.”  To her credit she kept her head up, staring forward with her hands behind her back.

“And the payback?”

“Sir?”

“He means what’re you obligated to do to share the winnings,” Ellie said patiently.

“Er, a round at the pub on the next night out.”  The girl was blushing hard, now.

“So that’s… what, thirty quid?” Hardy directed at his partner.

“Forty, more like.”

“Very well.”  Hardy counted out a handful of bills, handing them back to Katie.

“What’s this?”

“Your fifty buy in, another fifty on top, and the forty for the pub round.”

“But, sir-” Katie started to protest and Hardy rose to his feet, tucking the rest of the money back in the envelope and putting it in his desk drawer.

“Harford, do you know why you still have your job after the shit you pulled during the Winterman case?”

Her eyes dropped at that.

“Because Detective Miller and I convinced Jenkinson to give you another chance.  I’ve returned your money to you and then some, so you’re still ahead. Let this be a lesson, next time there’s betting on your coworkers’ personal lives.”

“How did you know?”  Katie looked up then, quickly adding, “Sir,” at his expression.

“We’re detectives,” Ellie rolled her eyes.  “And you all are far from subtle.”

When Katie continued to stand there, glancing between them, Hardy raised his eyebrows.  “Thank you, Harford.”

She nodded slowly, turning to the door.

“Oh, Katie?” Ellie added, just as she turned the door handle.  “Not a word.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Katie mumbled, fleeing the office and shutting the door behind her.

“Well, that went as well as could be expected,” Ellie considered, rising from her perch and moving towards Hardy.  “Smart thinking, picking her to win.”

“They had no right,” Hardy grumbled, hands on his hips as he glared at the door.

“How much was the take?”

“Just shy of three grand.”

“Shit,” Ellie said in surprise, eyes widening.  “At fifty a buy-in…”

“Seems you were worried for nothing,” he smirked, settling one hand on her hip.  “Jenkinson alone put in a hundred.”

“Really?”  She made a face.  “Not sure how I feel about that.”

“Ah, Miller,” Hardy sighed, pulling her closer.  “Take the win.”

“What’re we going to do with – twenty eight hundred dollars?”

“Weekend in London?” he suggested, kissing the tip of her nose.

Ellie laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck.  “Or paying our mortgages.”  She kissed his lips.

“Or Gretna Green,” Hardy mumbled, and she froze.

“What?”  She pulled back, eyes wide, and though he went pale, he merely shrugged.

“Just a thought.”

“Just a- Hardy!”

“Shh,” he hissed, glancing towards his door and hoping there wasn’t anyone with their ear pressed to the glass.

“Hardy!” she whisper-yelled, shoving against his stomach.  “What the fuck?”

“It was just an idea.”

“You don’t- you don’t- propose to a woman then say ‘just a thought’!”

“Don’t make a big deal of it,” Hardy sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist.  “If you’re not interested-”

“I didn’t say that!”

He paused then, frowning down at her.  “Miller…  What are you saying, then?”

“How should I know!”

When the only change to his expression was his left eyebrow almost disappearing under his fringe, she sighed.  “This isn’t a conversation to be held in your office.  This is something to be discussed over a bottle of wine – and a bloody brilliant one, with that kind of payday.  They probably think we’re shagging in here as it is.”

“Fine,” he nodded.  “We can discuss this later.”

“Good.”  Ellie headed for the door, but paused before opening it.  “Hardy?”

“Yes, Miller?” he sighed as he sank into his desk chair, and she looked over her shoulder at him.

“I’ve done the whole traditional shindig, and don’t need a repeat.  But I do expect more than a runaway chapel in the middle of nowhere.”

[gettingagriponthings]

Reading Through the First Half of 2018

The reading of books (beyond news and long-form journalism), has become a critical part of my adult life and is integral to the way I order my mind. Reading helps me formulate my opinions, create a sense of solitude, learn specific technical knowledge, and entertain myself. I enjoyed reading as a child and spent more than my fair share of time ripping through Hardy Boys mysteries, getting creeped out by the slimy details of the latest Goosebumps novel, reading YA biographies of so many great Black soldiers, engineers, and thinkers, and soaking in every detail of any book on soccer or drawing I could get my hands on. But my appreciation for reading as a dedicated and intentional practice grew significantly after I graduated from college. I learned that it’s actually not something many adults spend a great deal of time on (Pew Research), and is something that can serve to significantly distinguish and shape an individual. Reading books gives one a chance to form their own mind by directing their thinking, rather than having their brain completely subject to the whims of the loudest noises of the outside world.

In 2014 I worked on the first Congressional campaign for Don Beyer, who is now my representative in the US House (VA-08). In the general election campaign I ended up in the position of Deputy Finance Director, and found myself shut in a room with the candidate for several hours a day making phone calls to ask people for money. I learned many things from this experience, perhaps chief among them was the fact that Don was an incredible reader. He seemed to know at least something about everything, and had read an incredible number of books over the years. He could easily isolate the most important ideas from each book and use them effectively in conversation, while accurately citing the references. And in addition to this great historic recall, he was always reading something new, just about a book a week, and this was while he was running for congress (which, if you didn’t know, is an extraordinarily time-consuming pursuit). This showed me just how much importance he placed on the practice of reading and on the pursuit of new information.

For the last few years I’ve set reading goals for myself at the start of the year, and have recorded my progress on Goodreads with their annual “Reading Challenge” feature. I highly recommend using Goodreads if you enjoy books! For 2018 I set a goal of completing a total of 40 books (35 last year, 25 the year before that, 52 next year!). I’ve kept good pace and have reached the halfway point just before the middle of the year. I wrote a post about my 2017 reading at the end of last year, and was considering doing the same for 2018, but breaking it in half seemed like a much more manageable task. There are many books that I start but never finish, and some really big books that I may break into two or three spurts throughout the year - but here are the 20 books I’ve completed so far in 2018:

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius - A Christmas gift from my girlfriend, I sought this book out because of the amazing amount of recommendations I’d seen, particularly from people in the technology and finance worlds. An emperor of Rome, Aurelius was an extremely powerful and thoughtful person. This book is essentially a compilation of his journals as emperor and includes his thoughts as a Stoic philosopher, as a leader, and as a man. Highly recommend to anyone looking for some words of wisdom or who has found herself in the midst of a seemingly uncontrollable situation.

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind.”

Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective, by Andrew Lo

The Underwriting, by Michelle Miller - Not my normal reading fare, but one of my most memorable selections of the year. A totally trashy, salacious novel about the IPO process of a fictional Silicon Valley dating app unicorn written by a Wall Street and Bay area veteran. If you don’t want to take the time to pick up the book then you should check out her infamous blog Why San Francisco Really Is That Bad, which caused a huge stir when she released in anonymously in 2012.

Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher & William Ury

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson - A reread. I first read this book when the paperback edition was initially published in 2013.

Principles: Life and Work, by Ray Dalio

Tribe of Mentors, by Tim Ferriss

Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor, by Tren Griffin - Charlie Munger is an irreverent and original thinker, a brilliant investor and businessman, and a voracious reader. While little knows beyond the world of of finance, he is a giant within it. He’s the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. This book distills his investing ethos and describes his famous “mental models” mainly through Mungers own quotations, which are well worth the price of admission.

“You've got to have models in your head. And you've got to array your experience—both vicarious and direct—on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You've got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.”

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz

Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli - After I reread the Isaacson, book I was hungry for a bit more information on Jobs, particularly his time in the wilderness with NEXT. I sent a Tweet out communicating as much and immediately received a response from my Jobs crazy colleague who recommended this book and other, and subsequently brought the book into the office for me to borrow. This did not disappoint. It may eclipse, but definitely rivals the Isaacson book as the definitive Jobs biography in my opinion.

Surely You’re Joking Mister Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character, by Richard Feynman - A pretty amusing book by and about the life of an extremely interesting character. Ranges from his experience designing the bomb at Los Alamos to his experience as an amateur bongo player. Highly recommended by a lot of smart people.

Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work, by Randall E. Stross - Not the biggest crowd pleaser on the list, but if you are particularly interested in venture capital, this is a must read. A 2000 business biography of the founding and early days of Benchmark, this book goes in depth on the personalities around the table, the details around their decisions, and even their responses to investments gone bad. An absolute must for any VC junkie.

aol.com, by Kara Swisher - Love Swisher, so when I came across this at a used bookstore, I snapped it up.

Measure What Matters, by John Doerr 

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas From the Computer Age, by Paul Graham - Paul Graham’s essays, more than the work of any other individual, are responsible for my love of startup culture and tech investing.

Inside Steve’s Brain, by Leander Kahney

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, by Chris Kyle - If you’ve seen the Clint Eastwood movie then you should maybe take the time to read the book. It’s relatively short, simply and clearly written, and has next to nothing to do with story of the movie. A lot of really interesting technical information about military practices and weaponry.

Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit, by Chris Matthews - Bobby Kennedy is a personal hero of mine, and I also loved Matthews’ book Hardball, which I was assigned to read in high school, so I knew I had to read this when it was published late last year. An excellent option if you have never read a book on RFK and want to try and get a good overall picture of the man. 50 years on from his death, I imagine there are many people for whom this new book was perfect. I’ve read a number of books on RFK and the Kennedy family and didn’t get much new information from this, but I did still enjoy reading the more personal perspectives and reflections offered by Matthews.

A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton, by John McPhee - I listened to an episode of the great podcast The Axe Files that featured Senator Bill Bradley. In the discussion they mention this book. It profiles Bradley when he was still just a college student and basketball player. I knew a little bit about Bradley as he has been a great mentor to my boss, and I was extremely intrigued by the idea of a book written about someone so early in his life. The book is all about basketball and through the sport gives a good bit of insight into the standout student athlete and who he would come to be.

“He went on to say that it is a much simpler shot than it appears to be, and, to illustrate, he tossed a ball over his shoulder and into the basket while he was talking and looking me in the eye. I retrieved the ball and handed it back to him. ‘When you have played basketball for a while, you don’t need to look at the basket when you are in close like this,’ he said, throwing it over his shoulder again and right through the hoop. ‘You develop a sense of where you are.’”

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I am genuinely concerned that comic book youtubers are going to create a GamerGate situation where there are extremists who poison the mass perception of people who criticise comic books or certain decisions in general.

 Like I have genuine problems with Amadeus Cho and Jane Foster being Hulk and Thor and I think Riri Williams and Miles Morales are bad characters (the latter being especially saddening because, unlike Riri, he had a strong initial concept powering him). I think Sam as Captain America was creatively problematic and that Marvel have been pulling the replacement hero thing for social/political reasons (and probably not sincere ones at that) as opposed to genuine creative ones. Similarly I think the America book is a lame super hero comic book and Gabby Rivera isn’t a strong super hero comic book writer. Similarly I think Marvel’s modern editors and assistant editors really do tend to suck at their jobs right now.

 But my rationales for all of those things honestly don’t have much crossover with certain Youtube comic book commentators (I’m sure you’ve all seen the kind) and I actually disagree and believe in a lot of other types of characters and directions cut from the same kinds of cloths as those above examples.

 I think Ice Man being gay made a certain amount of sense with his history and if you did have to pick a classical character to reveal as in the closet he was one of the best choices for it. We are in a position where Bobby could legitimately be given a strong romantic storyline and an iconic (for him, not necessarily within Marvel as a whole) love interest. I mean before Bendis had Jean out Bobby who honestly knew or cared who Bobby’s (comic book, not movie) love interests were? Hardly anybody aside from hardcore X-Men fans and most of them would argue Polaris was really the big one for Bobby. But at the same time most of them shipped Polaris with Havok anyway so what did that matter?

  I’ve said numerous times before Kamala Khan is the best new superhero character to come out of Marvel in the last 20 years. My problems with her series stem from the decompression alongside the fact that I don’t think her villain pool has been managed as well as it needs to be to enable her to last long term.

 Carol becoming Captain Marvel is something I find profoundly organic and logical, a brilliant stroke of character development that makes use of an iconic title by giving it to an iconic character who truly has claim to it. Look to me Carol’s outfit is always going to be the Ms Marvel outfit she wore for decades but at the same time to me Carol’s codename will always be Warbird, not Ms Marvel or Captain Marvel. I’m just from that generation.

 I think the general idea of temporarily having a black person become Captain America is interesting and understand the logic of making it Sam but at the same time I think the book never fulfilled it’s potential and ultimately Issiah Bradely or even Patriot would’ve been a much more interesting choice. But at the end of the day I cannot accept the creative bankruptcy of replacing Steve for the THIRD time and doing it the SECOND time in less than 10 years.

 I like Jane Foster’s Thor outfit, there are moments and aspects to her stories I find interesting but the way the series went about it overly denigrated the real Thor (and yes I will call him the real Thor, it is literally his name and he is supposed to be the actual figure from Norse mythology). I mean he was literally called out as ‘unworthy’ and the reason for his unworthiness made no sense at all. He realizes the Gods are assholes so he loses his worthiness. That isn’t how the hammer works, it’s just a binary ‘you are worthy or you are not’. Conviction in your personal beliefs doesn’t matter or else countless bad guys would be able to lift the hammer too. Additionally there were times where he narrative divulged into cheap, shallow in-universe attempts to ‘comment’ on the backlash against the concept. The Absorbing Man was at least somewhat exaggerating the complaints over a female Thor and at least dabbling in strawman arguments whilst Titania’s solidarity with Foster because she was stepping into the role of a man was utter out of character nonsense considering Titania’s arch nemesis is SHE Hulk. Jane consequently knocking out someone who’d surrendered was also ill considered. And I also cannot get over how we’ve been here before. Beta Ray Bill and Thunderstrike are testament to that. Once again creative bankruptcy.

 I’ve spoken countless times before how I think Miles had a good concept and still has potential but he’s been mismanaged and currently sucks shit as a character and how Marvel and certain fans and certain media outlets building him up as the best thing since sliced bread (or at least as great as Peter Parker) is profoundly unearned.

 I think the quality of editing at Marvel has clearly gone down hill but unless there really is some weird ass super Secret Empire conspiracy wherein Marvel went hardcore into hiring people because of their gender regardless of their qualifications, I don’t think the reason for that decline in quality is due to some (but far from all) of the editors and assistant editors being women. Frankly Steve Wacker is/was a major editorial player for awhile and his only legitimate qualification for being a Spider-Man editor was he could get the product on the shelves on time. The editing present in that product and their overall quality was shit 99% of the time. The guy lacked sufficient knowledge, passion or understanding of the character to really edit Spider-Man properly. This is a guy who was an amateur stand up comedian before entering comic books and has to my knowledge zero writing experience so why the fuck he was qualified to edit anything is beyond me. Maybe the new slew of editors and assistant editors are the same bunch of unqualified morons but I don’t think that’s got much to do with their sex or gender. After all Ann Nocenti was a solid X-Men editor and Molly Lazer edited Spider-Girl which was obviously a brilliant book. And shit Jeanette Kahn was President and EIC of DC comics for over 20 years and MOST of the stuff under her tenure was baller as shit. John Byrne Superman. Frank Miller Batman. Perez Wonder Woman. Wolfman Titans. DeMatteis/Giffin JLI. Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. Vertigo. Milestone. Watchmen. Frankly she oversaw what was maybe the single best EIC tenure for DC EVER in terms of quality.

  I gave up reading Coates’ BP run because I found it dull but I think T’Challa SHOULD have a book along with Blade, Luke Cage, Shang Chi and Jessica Jones.

I think the America Chaves series was problematic as a superhero story but the times where it does focus on the normal life stuff are generally good.

I was very impressed by Spider-Gwen when she debuted and looked forward to her ongoing, even defended her debut issue until I realized the critics were ont he money and it sucked and continues to suck to this day. It’s a profoundly shallow book but it could have been great and I supported it initially hoping it would be great.

I felt the Chelsea Cain Mockingbird series had moments of poor research, mischaracterisation and disingenuousness. I am specifically talking about how in issue #3 (I think) Cain uses Bobbi as a mouthpiece to criticise the lack of female representation within superhero comics. Okay cool. But she did it by essentially pretending that there never were any in the Marvel universe, that they got no respect in-universe and that Bobbi herself was at most a teenager growing up inspired by those male heroes whom she could never be like because she was male. Except there were female heroes, they did get in-universe respect (maybe not as much as was deserved but it wasn’t like people forgot they existed) and Bobbi is clearly too old to have grown up with any of the heroes other than the WWII guys like the Invaders. 

Similarly her retconning of the Phantom Rider thing in her final issue fixed one problem but did so utterly illogically whilst opening up multiple other problems. Look I’d also retcon the Hell out of Phantom Rider gaslighting and raping Mockingbird if given the chance I hate that plotline. But Cain retconned it by just having Mockingbird say that the stuff we have clear on the page evidence of didn’t actually happen. She was saying the colour blue is the colour red and always had been but it wasn’t. And Cain’s new spin on that Phantom Rider thing essentially threw Hawkeye under the bus by making him profoundly insecure and an asshole, because he’d rather believe his wife was raped rather than she cheated on him. Not to mention if Cain’s story is to be believed Mockingbird let the man she was sleeping with die for exactly no reason. There were other times during Cain’s run where I felt she was mischaracterizing some people or else was being too on the nose about stuff. 

But there were other times I thought the series was really funny, really action packed, i generally loved the pacing and I felt when it did cut more realistic (like the first issue when Bobbi is having a health check up) or in issue #3 when it was discussing the psychology of a sixth grade girl (even though said girl’s story had insufficient resolution, like did she go to jail or what?) it was incredibly refreshing. Truth be told a lot of the stuff in that series writing wise becomes easier to understand when you realize it’s partially a zany comedy and not really taking itself too seriously nor is it asking you to do the same, which is starkly different to say Spider-Gwen’s approach wherein it is playing stuff seriously but there is arbitrarily zany shit thrown in for the sake of it.

 I think Laura becoming Logan’s successor makes sense but it doesn’t mean it’s okay to just axe off Logan because he’s broken. FIX him and then down the line replace him. Laura’s book as is frankly just...an okay X-23 book with a new costume. I never cared for Laura outside of X-Men Evolution or the Logan movie (where she was more endearing) anyway.

 I didn’t agree with the female exclusive screenings of the Wonder Woman film but I also felt Zeus’s involvement in her origin was an unacceptable compromising of the specific feminist ideas and messages Wonder Woman was supposed to represent. I felt the same way about Azzarello’s run on the character which is where the Zeus origin came from and was happy Greg Rucka tried to fix that in his 2016 run.

 I’ve said before a poc actor playing Peter Parker is fine and dandy in my book and I was very open to Zendaya possibly playing Mary Jane (until I saw the movie...ugh...). My only concerns were in a significant way having the characters change to reflect the realities of them now being poc.

 I’ve suggested some basic ideas on how to maybe get more representation in Marvel and DC, including for queer, Trans and mentally ill characters and as I’ve seen it I’ve called shit out I found to be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, e.g. I was disgusted by Civil War II killing off Rhodey and called out the way Cindy Moon was initially handled by Slott. And my frequent lambasting of MJ’s depiction under Slott (especially in Superior #2) should I hope by this point go without saying.

 So yeah my views don’t line up with those of Diversity and Comics but nor do they line up with those of ComicsAlliance and their hordes either. But because of people like the former people like the latter are going to broadbrush label and demonize people like me. People who might SEEM like we agree with guys like D&C but actually we’re coming at it from a very different angle and we don’t actually agree with their rationales 99% of the time.

 But in the times we live in right now nuance is apparently as dead as Batman’s parents.

 Frankly as I get older I guess I see myself socially/politically speaking being more of a moderate when it comes to comic books...and right now that feels like a profoundly lonely place to be.

[ultralifehackerguru-blog]

New Post has been published on http://lifehacker.guru/if-you-only-read-a-few-books-in-2019-read-these/

If You Only Read a Few Books in 2019, Read These

A reading list for becoming a better citizen and person

If you’d like to be jerked around less, provoked less, and more productiveand inwardly focused, where should you start in 2019?

To me, the answer is obvious: by turning to wisdom. That means turning away from the news, turning away from whatever trend or controversy is boiling nearby, and looking instead to books—really great books that have stood, or will stand, the test of time.

Books are medicine for the soul, and investments in yourself: novels, nonfiction, how-to, poetry, classics, biographies. Below is a list of 15 books that will help lead you to a better, stronger, happier 2019.

‘Digital Minimalism’ by Cal Newport

The unassuming Georgetown computer science professor has become one of this generation’s leading voices on how we can all work more wisely and more deeply. With media consumption continuing to go way up (which, for most of us, means happiness and productivity continue to go way down) and the world becoming noisier every day, this book is an urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life. The minimalism movement successfully led millions to opt out of the many possessions we’re told we’re supposed to crave and focus instead on the small number of things that bring the most meaning and value to our lives. The same ideology applies to our online lives. Digital clutter is stressful. We don’t need the constant connectivity, the pages and pages of apps, the incessant scrolling and clicking. New technologies can improve our lives if we know how to best leverage them. This book already helped me break my Facebook addiction—and the first month of the year has been a big improvement for me because of that.

‘Montaigne’ by Stefan Zweig and ‘How to Live’ by Sarah Bakewell

If you’ve been struggling with the onslaught of negative news and political turmoil, start with Montaigne. It’s the biography of a man who retreated from the chaos of 16th century France to study himself, written by a man fleeing the chaos of 20th century Europe. It’s hard to be a thinking person and not see alarming warning signs about today’s world while reading this book. Yet it also gives us a solution: Turn inward. Master yourself. Montaigne is one of humanity’s greatest treasures—a wise and insightful thinker who never takes himself too seriously. If you’ve not read any of his essays, start with Sarah Bakewell’s magnificent book, How To Live. It’s a readable introduction to all things Montaigne.

‘The Moviegoer’ by Walker Percy

The Moviegoer is almost truer now for the millennial (or generational) experience than it was in the 1960s when it was published. Any reader will relate to the rather ageless angst of the next generation trying to find its meaning and purpose in the world. It is exactly the novel that every young kid stuck in their own head needs to read. The main character, on what he calls “the search,” is so in love with the artificiality of movies that he has trouble living his actual life in the real world.

‘The Laws of Human Nature’ by Robert Greene

For decades, Robert Greene has been observing, studying, and writing about people and power. He has produced a canon of bestselling books that explain why people do what they do, how these patterns affect and shape the world, and of course, how we can develop strategies to protect ourselves and thrive in this often irrational world. All of that work has culminated in The Laws of Human Nature, the masterwork from the master of human behavior. “If I had to say what the primary law of human nature is,” Greene has said, “the primary law of human nature is to deny that we have human nature, to deny that we are subject to these forces.” The reality is, humans do have aggressive, violent, contradictory, emotional, irrational impulses. And we have to understand them if we want to rise about them. Greene’s recent pieces on internet trolls, on passive aggressive arguers, and on identity politics are good previews of lessons that we’d all be better for understanding this year.

‘Leisure: The Basis of Culture’ by Josef Pieper

Pieper wrote this book in Germany right after WWII—arguably the most important and deadly event of the 20th century, if not all of history—and it is even more crucial today than when it first appeared more than 70 years ago. In our purpose-oriented, productivity-obsessed culture full of noise and distraction, we’ve become terrified of leisure: emptiness, stillness, nothing. We constantly feel like we are supposed to be doing and doing and doing, but sometimes, you’re supposed to just be. We think that action is the end-all be-all, so we often end up doing action just for the sake of doing action. But leisure and stillness is where great insights come from. This is where happiness comes from. It’s hard to be happy and appreciative and feel gratitude when you’re moving all the time. Pieper shows that “Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture.” Try to be instead of do. Try doing nothing at all. See what happens. You might be surprised.

‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ by Jon Ronson

This book has only become more important and more true in the few years since it came out. Ronson’s interviews with and focus on people who have screwed up and found themselves in the midst of massive online controversies—“shame storms,” a recent article calls them—are equally provocative and insightful. He writes with such sensitivity, empathy, humor, and insight about all that’s wrong with the rage and glee of tearing down other people—often people who were never public figures to begin with. It reveals what human nature and digital tools can do to a crowd. It creates a mob. And it makes a select handful of media and technology entrepreneurs wealthy while their goons feel important and at liberty to pretend they don’t have their own flaws. This is not how we solve things. It’s not how the world is improved. The world requires more forgiveness and empathy from all of us—and this book is a good place to start.

‘The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca’ by Emily Wilson

Perhaps there is no historical figure more appropriate for today’s times than Seneca. In the ancient world, as is true today, navigating political chaos was a pressing dilemma. Philosophers were forced to decide whether to participate in, resist, or simply endure the political rulers of their time. Seneca’s political life mirrors much of the chaos of the Trump administration. He was a philosopher drawn into politics; he wanted to make a difference in the real world and then found himself in the court of Nero, trying to contain a wildly insecure, inexperienced leader who some thought was deranged and others thought was brilliant (sound familiar?). Seneca loved nothing more than quiet, reflective time alone… yet he also needed and wanted fame, fortune, and impact. And it was these competing desires—the wrenching conflict between power and principle—that created an incredible life and an incredible set of lessons captured in Emily Wilson’s biography. Her translations of Seneca are excellent and her insights are provocative. It’s a must-read for any student of history or philosophy.

‘Lincoln’s Virtues’ by William Lee Miller

Our generation needs to remember that over 100 years before us, people stood right where we were and felt similar things, struggling with the same issues. Abraham Lincoln’s life was defined by enduring and transcending great difficulty. This book is a heart-wrenching and amazing story of Lincoln’s uniquely moral rise to power. We bend over backward to deny or pretend that Lincoln wasn’t a politician (as though that profession somehow corrupts him), which is really counterproductive. Lincoln was a career politician—and when he wasn’t a politician, he was a lawyer. Those were his jobs. He just also happened to be an ethical human being who believed in what he believed in. If you want some reassurance amid today’s tumultuous political climate, this book is it. Politics doesn’t have to be dirty and disgusting and awful. In fact, pragmatism and purpose can coalesce with each other and it’s exceptions like Lincoln that should urge all of us to a higher standard.

‘Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics’ by Stephen Greenblatt

It’s hard to do much better than John Lithgow’s blurb from this book’s back cover: “Tyrant is a striking literary feat. At the outset, the book notes how Shakespeare craftily commented on his own times by telling tales of tyrants from centuries before. In an act of scholarly daring, Greenblatt then proceeds to do exactly the same thing.” Tyrant, like all of Greenblatt’s books, is an excellent introduction to the classics and indisputable proof that the best way to understand what’s happening in the world is not reading or watching the news, but studying great writing from the past. (You might also enjoy this interview I did with Greenblatt, which dives into how he works and what inspires him).

‘Tiger Woods’ by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian

According to this book, Tiger Woods’ parents trained him to be an assassin. To feel nothing. To regret nothing. To stop at nothing. That winning was all that mattered. Combine that upbringing with his personal habits and you have one of the most complicated, misunderstood figures, certainly of our time, maybe even in all of sports. This is not to excuse the cheating (on his wife or allegedly in the game of golf), but it does explain it and humanize it. It explains what happens to people who are skilled but are or become spiritually and ethically bankrupt. Lot of good cautionary lessons here.

‘Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill’ by Sonia Purnell

For all the productivity and success advice out there, I’ve never really seen someone come out and say: “Find yourself a spouse who complements and supports you and makes you better.” The myth today is of the lone creative entrepreneur battling the world without an ally in sight. A defiant combination of Atlas and Sisyphus and David, wrestling a Goliath-sized mass of doubters and demons. Churchill is often portrayed in that way. But Churchill said the best decision he ever made in his life was marrying Clementine, and Sonia Purnell’s examination of Winston’s better half was truly revelatory of just how many times she saved his ass.

‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ and ‘Blue Ocean Shift’ by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

Too many people gravitate toward competition, pointlessly entering contests where the outcome is dependent on forces beyond their control. They want to be better than other people, richer than somebody else, sell more copies than some record-breaking predecessor. Even if they are incredibly talented or brilliant, this is a loseable contest. The question we must ask ourselves when we are setting out on some new endeavor—building a business, producing a creative project—is whether we’re pursuing something that delivers value in a way no one else can. Instead of battling numerous competitors in a contested “red ocean,” it’s far better to to seek fresh, uncontested “blue” water. If Blue Ocean Strategy is the what behind the theory of creating new markets rather than competing in crowded ones, then Blue Ocean Shift is the how and the mindset required to do so. Lots of good examples in this book, including a bunch that are not from business (“blue ocean” thinking also applies to government, NGOs, leadership, etc.).

‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank and ‘Anne Frank: The Biography’ by Melissa Müller

In Anne Frank’s diary, we hear of the timeless plight of the refugee, we are reminded of the humanity of every individual (and how societies lose sight of this), and we are inspired—even shamed—to see the cheerful perseverance of a child amidst circumstances far worse than any of us could ever know. Paired with Melissa Müller’s biography and our chaotic international world, the wisdom, the tragedy, and the profound inspiration of Anne Frank will penetrate fully and deeply. The concluding note from Miep Gies in Müller’s biography reminds us that Anne Frank is not the representative of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust; she is one of the millions of people—all of whom had their own hopes, dreams, and lives snuffed out by the cruelty of man, surviving to us only on paper, and in some cases, not even there. “Paper is more patient than people,” Anne Frank wrote. It is also far less cruel than our world, which unlike the diary, snuffed out the life of this young prodigy. (You might also like this short essay about Anne Frank and the obligation we have to stand up to evil.)

‘Memoirs of Hadrian’ by Marguerite Yourcenar

There’s the great line from Bismarck: “Any fool can learn from experience. It’s better to learn from the experience of others.” This book may be the closest thing to a literal representation of that. Written from the (fictional) perspective of Hadrian—one of the great rulers of the ancient world—the book takes the form of a long letter of advice to a young Marcus Aurelius, who would eventually succeed him as emperor. It’s somber, but practical, filled with beautiful and moving passages from a man nearing death and looking back to share everything he’s learned to prepare someone for one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

‘How to Be Free’ by Epictetus

Epictetus was born a slave. Quite literally, his name means, in Greek, “acquired.” Ultimately, he came to be the property of a man named Epaphroditus, who kept Epictetus chained up long enough that he became disabled from it and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. But Epictetus retained freedom in one important sense: People could do whatever they wanted to his body, but his mind always remained his to control. It was this, A.A. Long writes in his short new edition of How to Be Free, that is really the core of what Epictetus’s teachings would later revolve around: “You can be externally free and internally a slave… conversely you could be externally obstructed or even in literal bondage but internally free from frustration and disharmony.” It’s really a remarkable insight and one we must think of always. Yes, every person is entitled to physical freedom. And yet plenty of us are not truly free, not nearly as free as Epictetus was when he was still in chains.

‘Essentialism’ by Greg McKeown

To me, practical philosophy has always been about knowing what to—and what not to—expend your time and energy on. Happiness and success come from cultivating indifference to things that don’t matter. Be careful, as Marcus Aurelius warned, not to give the little things more time and thought than they deserve. This book focuses you and makes you question many of the projects and commitments and assumptions you’ve said yes to over the years, to finally cut out the crap, focus on the truly important thing (or couple things). Though the book is about applying design-style thinking to your life, it is really just a solid book of philosophy, stories, and anecdotes that make you reconsider your priorities. If looking back reveals how much effort you’ve frittered away worrying about the trivial, let yourself begin to only devote energy to things that truly matter—get the important things right by ignoring the insignificant.

‘Up From Slavery’ by Booker T. Washington

Not every conversation about race has to be terrible. Booker T. Washington, like all great people, sought common ground, solutions, and love over distrust and anger. “Great men cultivate love,” he wrote, “only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.” And this from a man who had been born in the final days of slavery, who faced incredible racism and adversity. A man who walked nearly 500 miles to apply for college, and when he wasn’t accepted, quietly cleaned the waiting room of the admissions office until they let him in. A man who instead of talking about the needs for better schools and opportunities went out and created the Tuskegee Institute, helping change the lives of generations of African Americans (and, by extension, millions of others). In other words, a man who proved two principles: character is fate and deeds not words. He also happens to be a font of wisdom — on personal responsibility, on hard work, on race, on fairness, on advancing an agenda, on building an institution, and on working with other people.

‘Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal’ by Ben Sasse

It wouldn’t surprise Robert Greene that tribalism still tempts us. In Them, Sen. Ben Sasse talks about how the massive technological and sociological changes we are going through on this planet encourage toxic impulses. We feel threatened, we feel insecure, so we retreat into (or descend into) tribalism. We want to blame other people for our problems, we want to create enemies, we want to focus on what they are doing wrong and not the urgent (and resolvable) issues in our own lives. And, of course, what this blame-shifting tribalism keeps us ignorant of is how much we all have in common, how 99 percent of us are just doing the best we can, and how, in the end, most everyone wants the same things. To the Stoics, the idea of “sympatheia” was a bulwark against this temptation to make someone an other. Forget tribes, Marcus Aurelius said, “We are citizens of the world. We were made for each other and to serve a common good.” The idea of “they” or “them” is driven by fear. Not reason. It’s not rational. It’s emotional, and it’s destructive. Each of us needs to work on rising above it. For the sake of ourselves, our countries, and our world.

All these books will serve you well. But if I had one final recommendation for reading this year, it would be this: Pick three or four books you’ve already read, that had a big impact on you, and read them again. We all spend too much time chasing what’s new and not enough time really digesting those heady, important, mind-blowing books we’ve already read. Reread To Kill A Mockingbird. Give The Odyssey another chance. Sit with a few chapters from Good to Great. See how these books have stood the test of time and see how you’ve changed since you’ve read them last.

It can be some of the best time you spend with a book this year. Happy reading!

(C)

[junker-town]

LSU suspends Will Wade amid FBI wiretap allegations

LSU is currently in the middle of a breakout season.

LSU basketball head coach Will Wade was caught on an FBI wiretap talking about an offer to a recruit, according to a new report by Yahoo! Sports. The player in question appears to be Javonte Smart, a freshman guard who has helped the Tigers crack the top-10 of the AP Poll for the first time in 12 years.

Here’s the part of the conversation Yahoo! uncovered on Thursday morning:

“I was thinking last night on this Smart thing,” Wade is heard saying on the wiretap. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m [expletive] tired of dealing with the thing. Like I’m just [expletive] sick of dealing with the [expletive]. Like, this should not be that [expletive] complicated.”

“Dude,” Wade continued to Dawkins, referring to the third party involved in the recruitment, “I went to him with a [expletive] strong-ass offer about a month ago. [Expletive] strong.

“The problem was, I know why he didn’t take it now, it was [expletive] tilted toward the family a little bit,” Wade continued. “It was tilted toward taking care of the mom, taking care of the kid. Like it was tilted towards that. Now I know for a fact he didn’t explain everything to the mom. I know now, he didn’t get enough of the piece of the pie in the deal.”

Dawkins responded by saying, “Hmmmm.”

“It was a [expletive] hell of a [expletive] offer,” Wade continued. “Hell of an offer.”

“OK,” Dawkins said.

“Especially for a kid who is going to be a two- or three-year kid,” Wade said.

On March 8, LSU announced that it would be suspending Wade indefinitely:

LSU issues statement on Will Wade allegations pic.twitter.com/eUGky4BhC5

— Matt Moscona (@MattMoscona) March 8, 2019

Wade and Arizona’s Sean Miller were both subpoenaed to court for an April trial where former agency middle man Christian Dawkins and one-time Adidas executive Merl Code will be the defendants.

A conversation between Wade and Dawkins discussing a potential payment to class of 2019 recruit Balsa Koprivica has already been made public. Koprivica ultimately committed to Florida State.

Note Wade’s language doesn’t directly spell out what he meant with this “offer”. It could just be a full ride to the university! It also doesn’t implicitly state that “this Smart thing” means he’s talking about Javonte Smart.

While the semantics of the conversation can be argued in court, it sure seems like LSU could be looking for a new head basketball coach soon.

This is likely going to undermine Wade’s success at LSU

LSU has been one of the best stories of the college basketball season to this point. The Tigers are currently 25-5 overall and tied for first place in the SEC with Tennessee. This will be the second time in the last 10 years the Tigers have made the NCAA tournament. Imagine the embarrassment for the NCAA if they go all the way to the Final Four!

Wade has done an amazing job on the recruiting trial, landing star point guard Tremont Waters, now a sophomore, ahead of his first season in charge. His freshman class this season has been star-studded, featuring blue chip recruits Naz Reid and Emmitt Williams in addition to Smart.

Smart was a consensus top-40 recruit out of high school who put together a brilliant prep career in Baton Rouge. The 6’4 guard is averaging 11.5 points and 2.5 assists per game this season. He’s come on strongly lately, putting up at least 15 points in his four games. How the Tigers do with Wade’s absence just a couple weeks before NCAA tournament time remains to be seen.

This is business as usual in college basketball

If Javonte Smart did get something greater than a college scholarship to play basketball for LSU: good for him. Being compensated for your work is only a crime in the twisted world of the NCAA and nowhere else.

The FBI scandal has put a spotlight on blackmarket deals like the one Wade allegedly put together for Smart. Just know this is happening throughout the country, probably with your team and definitely with your biggest rival.

As long as the NCAA continues to cling to its outdated model of amateurism, a black market will exist. There’s simply too much money involved for it not to happen. The NCAA can stiffen the rules and get the real cops to enforce their fake laws, but college basketball will continue to operate this way until players can be compensated fairly for their work.

[chiseler]

Nick Tosches’ Final Interview

On Sunday, October 20th, 2019, three days before his seventieth birthday, Nick Tosches died in his TriBeCa apartment. As of this writing, no cause of death has been specified. It represents an Immeasurable loss to the world of literature. The below, conducted this past July, was the last full interview Tosches ever gave. 

***

In Where Dead Voices Gather, his peripatetic 2001 anti-biography of minstrel singer Emmett Miller, Nick Tosches wrote: “The deeper we seek, the more we descend from knowledge to mystery, which is the only place where true wisdom abides.” It’s an apt summation of Tosches’ own life and work.

Journalist, poet, novelist, biographer and historian Nick Tosches has been called the last of our literary outlaws, thanks in part to his reputation as a hardboiled character with a history of personal excesses. But he’s far more than that—he’s one of those writers other writers wish they could be. He’s seen it all first-hand, moved in some of the most dangerous circles on earth, and is blessed with the genius to put it down with a sharp elegance that’s earned him a seat in the Pantheon.

Born in 1949, Tosches was raised in the working class neighborhoods of Newark and Jersey City, where his father ran a bar. Despite barely finishing high school, he fell into the writing game at nineteen, shortly after relocating to New York. He quickly earned a reputation as a brilliant music journalist, writing for Rolling Stone and authoring Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ’N Roll (1977), the Jerry Lee Lewis biography Hellfire (1982) and Unsung Heroes of Rock ’N Roll (1984). After that he staked out his own territory, exploring and illuminating the deeply-shadowed corners of the culture and the human spirit. He’s written biographies of sinister Italian financier Michele Sindona, Sonny Liston, Dean Martin and near-mythical crime boss Arnold Rothstein. He’s published poetry and books about opium. His debut novel, Cut Numbers (1988) focused on the numbers racket, and his most recent, Under Tiberius (2015) presented Jesus as a con artist with a good p.r. man.

While often citing Faulkner, Charles Olsen, Dante and the Greeks as his primary literary influences, over the past fifty years Tosches’ own style has evolved from the flash and swagger of his early music writing into a singular and inimitable prose which blends the two-fisted nihilism of the crime pulps with an elegant and lyrical formalism. Like Joyce, Tosches takes clear joy in the measured, poetic flow of language, and like Dostoevsky, his writing, regardless of the topic at hand, wrestles with the Big Issues: Good and Evil, Truth and Falsehood, the Sacred and the Profane, and our pathetic place in a universe gone mad.

For years now, Tosches’ official bio has stated he “lives in what used to be New York.” It only makes sense then that we would meet amid the tangled web of tiny sidestreets that make up SoHo at what remains one of the last bars in New York where we could smoke. Tosches, now sixty-nine, smoked a cigar and drank a bottle of forty-year-old tawny port as we discussed his work, publishing, religion, the Internet, this godforsaken city, fear, and how a confirmed heretic goes about obtaining Vatican credentials.

Jim Knipfel: When I initially contacted you about an interview last year, my first question was going to be about retirement. You’d been hinting for awhile, at least since Me and the Devil in 2012, that you planned to retire from writing at sixty-five. And since Under Tiberius came out, there’d been silence. But shortly after I got in touch, we had to put things on hold because you’d started working on a new project. As you put it then, “I find myself becoming lost again in the cursed woods of words and writing.”

Nick Tosches: It is unlike any other project. I am indulging myself, knowing nobody has paid me money up front. Is it a project? Yeah, I guess anything that’s not come to a recognizable fruition is a project. So yeah. I do consider the actual writing of books to be behind me.

JK: Did thinking about retirement have anything to do with what we’ll generously call the dispiriting nature of contemporary publishing?

NT: Oh, very much so. Very much.

JK: There’s a remarkable section in the middle of In The Hand of Dante, it just comes out of nowhere, in which you launch into this frontal attack on what’s become of the industry. I went back and read it again last week, and it’s so beautiful and so perfect, and as I was reading I couldn’t help but think, “Who the hell else could get away with this?” Dropping a very personal screed like that in the middle of a novel? And a novel released by a major publisher, in this case Little, Brown. Was there any kind of reaction from your editor?

NT: Okay, is this the same passage where I talk about all these people with fat asses?

JK: Yeah, that’s part of it.

NT: Okay, my agent at the time, Russ Galen, said he heard from {Michael} Pietsch, the editor who’s now the Chief Executive Officer of North America. And the moment he became so, he went from being my lifelong friend to “yeah, I heard of him.” He complained about the fat ass comment, and my agent told him, “If you go for a walk with Nick Tosches, you might get rained on.” Apart from that, no. And I have to say, he considers that one of his favorite novels, ever. When I tried to get the rights back because of a movie deal, he said “no I won’t do that.” I said “Why?” And he said because it was one of his favorite books. So no, there was no real backlash. A lot of comments like your own. A lot of people saying “Boy, that was great.”

JK: As we both know, marketing departments make all the editorial decisions at publishing houses nowadays, and over the years you must have driven them nuts. There’s no easy label to slap on you. You hear there’s a new Nick Tosches book coming out, it could be a novel, it could be poetry, it could be a biography or history or anything at all. I’m trying to imagine all these marketing people sitting around asking, “So what’s our targeted demographic for The Last Opium Den?”

NT: I just set out to do what I wanted to do. If they wanted to cling to the delusion that they could somehow control sales or predict the future of taste, fine, let them go ahead and do it. I’ve always found it’s the books that gather the attention, they just try to coordinate things. All they’re doing is covering their own jobs. If they can wrangle you an interview with Modern Farming, well, there’s something to put on a list they hand out at one of their meetings… They’re all illiterate. Thirty years ago there was still a sense of independence among publishers. Now they’re just vestigial remnants that mean nothing because they’re all owned by these huge media conglomerates.

JK: To whom publishing is irrelevant.

NT: Right. It’s all just a joke.  

JK: I guess what matters is that the people who read you will read whatever you put out. If you put out a book of cake decorating tips, I’d be the first in line to buy it. Actually I’d love to see what you could do with Nick’s Best Cakes Ever, right? It’s something to consider.

NT: Maybe not that particular instance, but what you have so kindly referred to as my current project, which is very…eccentric. It’s the herd of my obsessions that will not remain corralled as I intended.

JK: What brought you back to writing? You’ve said in the past that writing is a very tough habit to kick.

NT: Well, what brought me back? I have no idea. Maybe just actual, utter, desperate boredom. There was none of this Romantic need to express myself. Just a lot of little obsessions, that’s all. As I said…well, I didn’t say this at all. There’s nothing at stake. There’s no money, there’s not going to be any money. There’s no one I need to give a second thought of offending or pleasing. But that having been said, I’m taking as much care with it as I have with everything else. I’ve always thought of myself as the only editor. And having had the good fortune to work with good titular editors, which means their job consists of perhaps making a suggestion or stating a preference or notifying me that they do not understand certain things, and beyond that leaving it be. As I told one editor,I forget when or where or why, “Why don’t you go write you’re own fuckin’ book and leave mine be?” He had all these great ideas. The best editors are the ones that aren’t frustrated authors.

JK: I was lucky enough to work with two editors like that. One had a nervous breakdown and is out of the business, the other just vanished one day.

NT: Well, you’re fortunate. Not only do most editors, a majority of editors, which are bad editors, like the majority of anything, really. If they don’t interfere with something, and nine times out of ten make it worse, they’re not justifying their jobs. The other thing is, we’re recently at the point where the new type of writers, which are the writers who are willing to do it for free, think the editor’s the chief mark of the whole racket. But it’s not—he’s not, she’s not. Their job is to get you paid and leave you alone. That’s the thing. Now you got pseudo editors, pseudo writers. If you think of a writer such as William Faulkner. Now there’s a guy who just screamed out to be edited. Fortunately the editors were willing to publish him and leave him alone, which is why we have William Faulkner. That was the editor’s great contribution, protecting William Faulkner from that nonsense. People speak about, what’s that phrase applied to Maxwell Perkins? “Editor of Genius.” Well, the genius was you find someone who can write really well, and don’t fuck with ‘em. There’s something to be said about that. It’s to Perkins’ credit.

JK: If I can step back a ways to your early years. You were a streetwise kid who grew up in Jersey City and Newark. Your father discouraged you from reading, but you read anyway. So what was the attraction to books? Or was it simple contrariness on your part because you’d been told to avoid them?

NT: I got lost in them. It was dope before I copped dope. I used to love to drift away, in my mind, my imagination. I loved books. My father was not an anti-book person, but he was the first generation of our family to be born in this country. A working class neighborhood where okay, this guy worked in this factory, and that guy owned a bar, and that guy delivered the mail. Nobody was going any further than this. And I remember my father saying, “These books are gonna put ideas in your head.” I guess I enjoyed that they did. Terrible books, some of them. Terrible books, but it didn’t matter.

JK: You’ve also said that very early on you wanted to be a writer.

NT: Yes.

JK: Or a farmer.

NT: Or a garbage man or an archaeologist. Those were my childhood aspirations.

JK: Considering the environment you were coming out of, three of those seem counterintuitive.

NT: Garbage men got to ride on the side of the truck, and that looked great. Archaeologists, wow. I didn’t know they were spending years just coming up with little splintered shards of urns. Yeah, writer. Writing had a great attraction for me, because writing seemed a great coward’s way out. You can communicate anything while facing a corner, with no one seeing you, no one hearing you, you didn’t have to look anyone in the eye. It’s a great coward’s form of expressing yourself. That coupled with the fact that what I felt a need to express was inchoate. I didn’t even understand what it was I wanted to express. Sometimes I still don’t.

JK: You’ve also said that in your teens you started to listen to country music, which given the time and place also seems counterintuitive.

NT: Did I say my teens? Maybe I was nineteen or twenty. Yeah, I never listened to country music until the jukebox at the place on Park Avenue and West Side Avenue in Jersey City.

JK: It was right around that time, when you were nineteen, twenty, that you published your first story in the music magazine Fusion. Which means we’re right around the fiftieth anniversary of your start in this racket.

NT: Let’s see…that was 1969, so yeah, I guess so. Fifty years ago.

JK: Then for the next fifteen-plus years you wrote mainly about music. You were at Rolling Stone  and other magazines, and you put out Country, Hellfire and Unsung Heroes of Rock ’n Roll. So How early on were you thinking about branching out? About writing about the mob, or the Vatican, or anything else that interested you?

NT: Before I ever wrote anything. You have to understand, these so-called rock’n’roll magazines provided two great things. First as an outlet for young writers whose phone calls to The New Yorker would not be accepted. And they all, back then before they caught the capitalist disease, offered complete freedom of speech. So yes, in the course of writing about music you could…or actually, forget about writing about music, because nobody even knew anything about music. We were just fucking around.

JK: I remember an early piece you did for Rolling Stone back in 1971. It was a review of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid album, but all it was was a description of a blasphemous Satanic orgy straight out of De Sade.

NT: Yeah, I remember that one.

JK: It was pretty amazing, and even that early, your writing was several steps beyond everything else that was happening at the time. But from an outsider’s perspective, your first big step away from music journalism was actually a huge fucking leap, and a potentially deadly one. So how do you go from Unsung Heroes of Rock ’N Roll to Power on Earth, about Italian financier Michele Sindona?

NT: After Hellfire, someone wanted to pay me a lot of money to write another biography. But I realized there was absolutely no one on the face of the earth whom I found interesting enough to write about other than Jerry Lee Lewis. I’d caught sort of a glimpse of Sindona on television. My friend Judith suggested “Why don’t you write about him?” But how am I gonna get in touch with a guy like that? And she said I should write him a letter.

JK: He was in prison at that point?

NT: Yes, he was in prison the entire time I knew him, until his death. He died before the book was published. I met him in prison here in New York, then they shipped him back to Italy to be imprisoned, and I went over there.

JK: You were dealing with The Vatican, the mob, and the shadowy world of international high finance. Were there moments while you were working on the book when you found yourself thinking, “What the fuck have I gotten myself into?”

NT: Well, yes, because the story was too immense and too complicated to be told.    

JK: Something I’ve always been curious about. Publishing house libel lawyers have been the bane of my existence. Whenever I write non-fiction, they set upon the manuscript like jackals, tearing it apart line-by-line in search of anything that anyone anywhere might conceivably consider suing over. And I wasn’t writing about the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin, or Michele Sindona.

NT: “Conceivably” is the key word in this country, where anyone can sue anyone without punitive repercussions. That’s the key phrase. What these libel lawyers are also doing above all else is protecting their own jobs.    

JK: Were you forced to cut a lot of material for legal reasons?

NT: Yes, including proven, irrefutable facts. So yes I did. And it’s not because it was libelous, but because it was subject to being accused of being libelous. It’s a shame. Some of the things were just outrageous. I once threw a fictive element into a description that involved a black dog. “Well, how do you know there was a black dog there?” I said there probably wasn’t, that it was just creating a mood. “Well, we gotta cut that out.” So what’s offensive about a black dog? It sets a precedent. Misrepresentative facts? Morality? I don’t know. These guys.  

JK: I don’t know if this was the case with you as well, but I found out I could write exactly the same thing, and just as honestly, but if I called it a novel instead of nom-fiction. They didn’t touch a word. Didn’t even want to look at it. As it happens, your first novel, Cut Numbers, came out next. Had that been written before Power on Earth?

NT: Let me think for a moment…Well, the order in which my books were published is the order in which they were written. The only putative exception may be Where Dead Voices Gather, because that was written over a span of years with no intention of it being a book. So yeah, Cut Numbers. What year was that?

JK: I think that was 1988. I love that novel. There’s a 1948 John Garfield picture about the numbers racket, Force of Evil.

NT: Yeah, I’ve seen that.

JK: But of course they had to glamorize it, because it was Hollywood and it was John Garfield.

NT: I like John Garfield. Terrible movies, but a great actor.

JK: What I love about Cut Numbers is that it’s so un-glamorous. It’s not The Godfather. It’s very street-level. And I’ve always had the sense it was very autobiographical.

NT: I’ve never written anything that wasn’t autobiographical in some way, shape or form. The world in which Cut Numbers is set was my auto-biographical world. “Auto,” self and “bio,” life. My auto-biographical world. The world I lived in and the world I knew. It’s a world that no longer exists. Like every other aspect of the world I once knew. Except taxes. Which I found is a really great upside to having no income. I’m serious.

JK: Oh. I know all too well.

NT: I mean, but It comes with “Jeeze, I wish I could afford another case of this tawny port.”

JK: A few years later, after Dino, you released your second novel, Trinities. While Cut Numbers took place on a very small scale. Trinities was epic—the story spans the globe and pulls in the mob, the Vatican, high finance. You crammed an awful lot of material in there. It almost feels like a culmination.

NT: I wanted to capture the whole sweep of that vanishing, dying world. It was written during a dark period of my life, and I was drawn to a beautifully profound but unanswerable question, which had first been voiced by a Chinese philosopher—sounds like a joke but it’s true: “What if what man believes is good, God believes is evil?” Or vice versa. And we can go from there, the whole mythology, the concept of the need for God. To what extend is our idea of evil just a device? We don’t want anybody to fuck our wives. So God says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. We don’t want to be killed, so thou shalt not kill. It’s a bunch of “don’t do this, because I don’t want to suffer that.” I don’t want to get robbed. I dunno, what the hell. Yeah, this has something to do with Trinities, and I somehow knew as I wrote Trinities I was saying goodbye to a whole world, not because I was leaving it. It was basically half memory, as opposed to present day reality.

JK: I remember when I first read it, recognizing so many locales and situations and characters. At least from the New York scenes. That was right at the cusp, when all these things began disappearing.

NT: Yes, and now it has to such an extent that I walk past all these locales, and it’s a walk among the ghosts. That was a club, now it’s a Korean laundry. This was another place I used to go, now it’s Tibetan handicrafts.    

JK: I don’t even recognize the Village anymore. I used to work in the Puck Building at Lafayette and Houston. Landmark building, right? It’s since been gutted completely and turned into some kind of high-end fashion store.

NT: Yeah, it’s all dead.

JK: Now, when Trinities was released, I was astonished to see the publisher was marketing it like a mainstream pop thriller. You even got the mass market paperback with the embossed cover treatment. I love the idea of some middle management type on his way to a convention in Scranton picking it up at the airport thinking he was getting something like Robert Ludlum,, and diving headlong into, well, you.

NT: I can explain why all that was. It was volume. It was the same publisher as Dino. They were happy with Dino. Dino was a great success. I think that was 1992, because that was when my father died. This is now, what, 2019? There has not been a single day where that book has not sold. Not that I could buy a bottle of tawny port with it. So whereas with Cut Numbers I was paid a small amount and eagerly accepted it. Eagerly. In fact it’s one of the few times I told the editor, ran into him at a bar, and said all I want is this, and he said “Nah, that’s not enough, we’ll pay you twice that.” Then Dino was double that. And look, I really want to do this book Trinities   and be paid a small fortune for it. They had to say yes. They had to believe this was going to be the next, I dunno. Yeah, mainstream. Most of these things are ancillary and coincidental to the actual writing.

JK: There were a lot of strings dangling at the end of the novel, and I remember reading rumors you were working on a sequel. You don’t seem much the sequel type. So was there any truth to that?

NT: Not that I was aware of. I’m sure that if they’d come back and said, “Well, we pulled it off,” and offered twice that, there would’ve been a sequel. Because I loved that book, so if they were going to offer me more to write more, I would have. I hated saying good bye to that world and the past.

JK: Maybe you’ve noticed this, but the people who read you often tend to make a very sharp distinction between your fiction and your non-fiction, which never made a lot of sense to me. To me they’re a continuum, and any line dividing them is a very porous, fuzzy one. Do you approach them in different ways?

NT: Oh, god. Do I approach them differently? Yes. In a way, I approach the fiction with a sense of unbounded freedom. But parallel to that, that blank page is scarier knowing that there is not a single datum you can place on it that will gain or achieve balance. With non-fiction, I am constrained by truth to a certain extent. That’s also true in fiction. They just use different forms of writing. There are poems that have more cuttingly diligent actuality than most history works. It comes down to wielding words. Tools being appointed with different weights and cutting edges and colors. Words, beautiful words. Without the words, no writing in prose is gonna be worth a damn. Used to be, I get in a cab, and back then cab drivers were from New York, and they’d ask me what I did. Now I don’t think they really know what city they’re in. They know it’s not Bangladesh. But if I told them what I did, it was always, “Oh, I could write a book.”  Yeah, you’re gonna write a book. Your life is interesting. So what’re you gonna write about? Great tippers, great fares? Become a reader first. Read the Greeks sometime. I decided next time a cab driver asks me what I do for a living. I’m gonna tell him I’m a plumber. “Oh, my brother-in-law’s a plumber!”

JK: As varied as your published works are, there are two I’ve always been curious about. Two complete anomalies. The first was the Hall and Oates book, Dangerous Dances, which always struck me—and correct me if I’m wromg—as the result of a whopping check for services rendered. And the other. From thirty years later, is Johnny’s First Cigarette. Which is, what would you call it? A children’s book? A young adult book?  

NT: Right. Of course they’re many years apart. Okay, Hall and Oates, Dangerous Dances. I knew a woman who was what you’d call a book packager. I owed money to the government. Tommy Mottola, who was at the time the manager of Hall and Oates, wanted a Hall and Oates book. She asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said yeah, but it’s gonna cost this much. And Tommy Mottola, in one of the great moments of literary judgment, was like, “How come he costs more than the other people?” She said something very nice about me. He has got on his desk a paperweight that’s a check for a million dollars in lucite. We weren’t talking nearly that much. So I came up with the title Dangerous Dances. I had never heard a Hall and Oates record. So I met them. It was over the course of a summer. So I did that and made the government happy. That’s one book I try not to espouse. But everyone knows I wrote that, it has my name on it. As I wanted, as my ex-agent says.

Now. Johnny’s Last Cigarette, which as I said was many years later. I don’t even think that was ten years ago.

JK: I think that came out in 2014, between Me and the Devil and Under Tiberius.

NT: I get so sick of all this political correctness. I mean, every man. Every woman was once a child. And there are all these good. Beautiful childhood moments and feelings. Which is the greatest step on earth that we lose. It’s not a nefarious book like Kill Your mother—which may not be a bad idea—but sweet. Why do we rob these kids of the dreaminess of the truth? So Johnny’s first Cigarette, Johnny’s First whatever. I was living in Paris at the time when I wrote that.. I knew a woman who was one of my best translators into French. We put the idea together with a publisher I knew in Marseilles and a wonderful artist-illustrator we found and were so excited about.

To tell you the truth I think the idea of legislating feeling is like…How the fuck do you legislate feeling? And forbidden words. It may have been Aristotle who said, when men fear words, times are dark. You and I have spoken about this. Sometimes we don’t even understand what it is about this or that word. It’s like that joke—a guy goes in for a Rorschach test, and the psychologist tells him. “Has anyone ever told you you have a sexually obsessed mind?” And the guy says, “Well, what about you, showing me all these dirty pictures?” What do these words mean? I don’t know. Why is it a crime to call a black man a crocodile? I have always consciously stood against performing any kind of political correctness. And I have written some long letters to people I felt deserved an explanation of my feelings.

JK: Whenever people get outraged because some comedian cracked an “inappropriate” joke, and they say, “How could he say such a thing?” I always respond, “Well, someone has to, right?”

NT: Yeah. So one book came from the government’s desire to have their share of what I’m making. We’re all government employees. The other was, why can’t I write something that’s soft and sweet with a child’s vocabulary that’s not politically correct?  

JK: If Dangerous Dances and Johnny’s First Cigarette were anomalies, I’ve always considered another two of your books companion pieces. Or at least cousins. King of the Jews an Where Dead Voices Gather are both biographies, or maybe anti-biographies, of men about whom very little—or at least very little that’s credible—is known: Arnold Rothstein and Emmett Miller. And that gives you the freedom to run in a thousand directions at once. They’re books made up of detours and parentheticals and digressions, and what we end up with are essentially compact histories of the world with these figures at the center. They strike me as your purest works, and certainly very personal works. More than any of your other books, it’s these two that allow readers to take a peek inside your head. Does that make any sense to you?

NT: Yes, it makes perfect sense. In fact I couldn’t have put it any better myself. This whole myth of what they called the Mafia in the United States—there’s no mafia outside of Sicily. Or called organized crime, was always Italians. The Italians dressed the part, but the Jews made the shirts. It was always an Italian-Jewish consortium. And this Irish mayor wants to play ball? So now it’s Irish. Total equal opportunity. It was basically…Well, Arnold Rothstein was the son of shirt makers. Not only did he control, but he invented what was organized crime in New York. He had the whole political system of New York in his pocket. Emmet Miller was this guy who made these old records that went on to be so influential without his being known. Nobody even knew where or when he was born. The appeal to me was as both an investigator and then to proceed forward with other perspicuities, musings and theories. I never thought of them before as companion works until you mentioned it, but they are.

JK: People have tended to focus on the amount of obsessive research you do. Which is on full display in these books, but what they too often overlook, which is also on full display here, is that you contain a vast storehouse of arcane knowledge. It’s like you’ve fully absorbed everything you’ve ever read, and it just spills out of you. These forgotten histories and unexpected connections.

NT: I’ve always kept very strange notebooks. I still do, except now it’s on the computer. There’s no rhyme or reason to these notebooks, it’s just,”don’t want to forget this one.”

JK: Speaking of research, has your methodology changed in the Internet Age? I’m trying to imagine you working on Under Tiberius and looking up”First Century Judea” on Wikipedia.

NT: The Internet demands master navigation. There are sites which have reproduced great scholarly, as opposed to academic, works. There’s also every lie and untruth brought to you by the Such-and Such Authority of North America. This is what they call themselves. I experienced this within the past week. It was not only complete misinformation, but presented in the shoddiest fashion, such as “Historians agree…” I mean, what historians? I couldn’t find a one of them.

So my methodology. I love Ezra Pound’s phrase, “the luminous detail.” Something you find somewhere or learn somewhere…They don’t even have a card catalog at New York Public Library anymore, let alone books. You want an actual book, they have to bring it in from New Jersey. Who cares anymore? What they care about is who’s in a TV series, and they whip out their Mickey Mouse toys and, “look, there he is!”

JK: I was thinking about this on the way over. You and I both remember a time when if you were looking for a specific record or book or bit of information, you could spend months or years searching, scouring used bookstores an libraries. There was a challenge to it.

NT: It was not just a challenge. It was a whole illuminating process unto itself, because of what you come to by accident. So in looking for one fact or one insight, you would gather an untold amount. That is what it’s about.

JK: Nowadays if I’m looking for, say, a specific edition of a specific book, I take two minutes, go online, and there it is. I hit a button, and it’s mailed to me at my home. Somehow it diminishes the value, as opposed to finally finding something I’d been searching for for years. Nothing has any value anymore.

NT: No, definitely not. When I was living down in Tennessee, all those Sunday drives, guys selling stuff out of their garages. Every once in awhile you hit on something, or find something you didn’t even know existed. Now education on every level, especially on the institutional, but even on a personal level, is diminished. People are getting stupider, and that probably includes myself.

JK: And me too. Now, if I could change course here, you’re a man of many contradictions. Maybe dichotomies is a better term. A streetwise Italian kid who’s a bookworm. A misanthrope who seeks out the company of others. A libertine who is also a highly disciplined, self-educated man of letters. It’s even reflected in your prose—someone who is always swinging between the stars and the gutter. It’s led some people to say there are two Nick Tosches. Is this something you recognize in yourself?

NT: Yes. It’s never been a goal, it’s just…

JK: How you are?

NT: Yeah. I’ve noticed it, and much to my consternation and displeasure and inconvenience, yeah. But there’s no reward in seeking to explain or justify it.

JK: One of the most intriguing and complex of these is the savage heretic who keeps returning to religious themes, the secrets of the Church and the sacred texts. And of course the devil in one guise or another is lurking through much of your work. Again it’s led some people to argue that since you were raised Catholic, this may represent some kind of striving for redemption. You give any credence to that?

NT: No. Absolutely not.

JK: Yeah, it would seem Under Tiberius would’ve put the kibosh on that idea.

NT: I don’t even consider myself having been raised Catholic, in the modern made-for-TV sense of that phrase. I was told to go to church on Sundays and confession on Saturdays, and I usually went to the candy store instead. I was confirmed, I had communion. To me, it was a much deeper, much more experiential passage when I came to the conclusion that there was no Santa Clause than when I came to the conclusion there was no God. I remember emotionally expressing my suspicions about Santa Claus to my mother. Toward the end of his life, I was talking to my father one day, and I said, “By the way, do you believe in God?” And he said no. I said me neither. And that was about the only real religious conversation we ever had. I think religion, without a doubt since its invention—and God was an invention of man—is a huge indefensible evil force in this world. When people believe in a religion which calls for vengeance upon those whose beliefs are different, it’s not a good sign. Not a good sign.          

JK: This is something I’ve been curious about. Two of your novels—In the Hand of Dante and Under Tiberius—are predicated on the idea that you come into possession of manuscripts pilfered from the Vatican library. The library comes up a few other times as well. You write about it in such detail and with an insider’s knowledge. Either I was fooled by your skills as a convincing fiction writer, or you’ve spent your share of time there. And if the latter, how does a heretic like you end up with Vatican credentials?

NT: Okay. You go buy yourself a very beautiful, very important let’s say, leather portfolio with silk ribbon corner stays that keeps the documents there. Then you set about…Well, my friend Jim Merlis’ father-in-law, for instance, won the Nobel Prize in physics right around then. So I went to Jim and said, “Hey Jim, do you suppose you could get your father-in-law to write me a letter of recommendation? I know I never met the man.” Had a tough life, but won the Nobel Prize. Did a beautiful letter for me. I don’t even know that I kept it. You put together five letters that only Jesus Christ could’ve gathered. And he probably couldn’t have because he was unwashed. It was twice as difficult for me, because I had no academic affiliation, not even a college degree. But the Vatican was so nice. There are two libraries. One involves a photo I.D. and the other one doesn’t. They gave me two cards, and they made me a doctor. That’s how you get in. So what do you do once you’re in? They have the greatest retrieval library I’ve ever seen. The people that you meet. One guy was a composer. Wanted to see this exact original musical manuscript because he wanted to make sure of one note that may have changed. So this was all real—I just hallucinated the rest. If you can use a real setting, you’re one step closer to gaining credibility with the person who reads you. I still have my membership cards, though I think they must’ve expired. They were great. You go to a hotel and they ask you to show them photo ID? “Ohhh…”

JK: One of the themes that runs throughout your work is fear. Fear as maybe the most fundamental motivating human emotion.

NT: Any man who thinks he’s a tough guy is either a fool or a liar. Fear is I think one of the fundamental formative elements. And I’m just speaking of myself becoming a writer. Choosing to express yourself with great subtlety in some cases, when what you want to express is so inchoate. But that was a long time ago. I still believed in the great charade. These days I’m just living the lie. But it’s so much better than fear. To convey fear. The more universal the feeling, the easier it is to convey powerful emotions. There was a line in Cut Numbers; “He thought the worst thing a man can think.” Michael Pietsch my editor said, “What is that thing?” And I said “Michael, every person who reads that will have a different idea.” It’s an invocation of the Worst Thing. One woman might read it and think of raping her two-year-old son. Some guy might think of robbing his father. To you or I it might not be that bad a thing, but to that person it’s the Worst Thing.

JK: That’s the magic of reading.

NT: That is the magic of reading. That’s the bottom line. Writing is a two-man job. It takes someone to write it and Someone to read it who’s not yourself.

JK: Exactly. Readers bring what they have to a book, and take away from it what they need, what interpretation  has meaning for them.

NT: It’s also possible to write certain very exact phrases and have them be evocative of nothing but a thirst for an answer that the person who wrote them doesn’t know. Readers never give themselves enough credit. Now all the experiential and soulful depths of all our finite wanderings, roaming imaginations and questions thereof are relegated to a Mickey Mouse toy. That’s what I see, people who interact with these toys instead of another person. I don’t care. I was here for the good times.

JK: There’s another idea that’s come up a few times in various forms and various contexts in your work, where you say, in essence, “once you give up hope, life becomes more pleasant,” which is a wonderful twist on Dante.

NT: It’s true!

JK: I know, and I’m in full agreement with you. Hope, faith, belief, are all great destroyers. But I’m wonderinh, when did you come to that conclusion?

NT: A lot of the things I write or think I do put in that notebook I mentioned, and I usually put the date. That was one where I did not put down the date. I do believe it’s true. People say, “never give up hope.” Why the hell not? If you don’t give up hope, it leads you, at a craps table, betting you’re aunt’s car. Where did hope ever get anybody? It’s terrible.  

JK: Now, there are two quotes which have appeared and reappeared throughout your work, and I think you know which two I’m talking about. The first is from Pound’s Canto CXX: “I have tried to write Paradise// Do not move/ Let the wind speak/ that is paradise.” And the other’s from the Gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” As you look at your life and work now, and look back over the last half century, do you think you’re closing in on that point where Pound and Thomas finally come together?

NT: Yes. I never thought of that phrase you choose, “come together,” but yes. They’ve become more and more deeply a part of my consciousness. Yes, every day I pause. And I still hold the 120th Canto to be the final one. It was just one person who insisted no, this is not how he would have ended. Which is why the current modern edition of the Cantos goes two cantos more. There’s this line that is so bad. It’s hilariously bad. The joke of history. The line that Pound was supposed to have written to go beyond that beautiful line was, “Courage, thy name is Olga.” The other of course, the meaning of that line, that line being the one you were referring to, if you bring forth what is within you it will save you, if you do not bring forth it will destroy you. Of a hundred translations from the Coptic, that, to me, is the perfect translation. What is that thing? That’s what everybody wants to know. That’s me. That thing is just the truth of yourself. If you do live in fear, that will destroy you. If I speak the truth, the worst it’s going to do is frighten another. That will save you. That will set you free. Those two things, yes. And there’s another element, if I can add it unsolicited. I’ve noticed this pattern with people such as Pound and people such as Samuel Beckett. The greatest depth, the most majestic wielders of language as a communication form, slowly trail off to silence. Which is what Pound refers to in what I know is the last Canto. Be still. Paradise. Ezra Pound’s own daughter, Mary de Rachewiltz, translated The Cantos into Italian. Her translation had moments when it was an improvement on his phraseology. In Italian, “Non ti muovere” is much better than “be still.” Books, reading, writing, lend themselves to interpretive subtleties which are by no means pointless. What can people get out of an app?

by Jim Knipfel

[lauraramargosian]

Ariana Grande’s actions prove her heart is full of genuine love for the world.

Ariana Grande’s actions prove her heart is full of genuine love for the world.

When you hear the word Hollywood, what comes to mind? Could it be fame, money, luxurious lifestyles and their influence?

Honestly, there is no right or wrong answer. Hollywood is filled with positive and negative influences, it’s not a secret.

That’s why celebrities who are positive examples are so important to the industry. In fact, if you think about it, you can compare this to your own workplace. There are always positive people and those who are difficult.

True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense. – Emanuel Swedenborg

Hollywood is filled with positive influences including Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Mac Miller, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Selena Gomez.

In fact, each of these artists took the time to share their own battles in an effort to help others in the world.

For example, when the Manchester attack happened, which killed 22 concertgoers and injured more than 500 other individuals.

Grande couldn’t sleep without giving back and helping those in need. And what she did next was absolutely beautiful.

The Manchester Attack

After the Manchester attack, Ariana Grande felt sad. I mean, can you imagine how it would feel to have one of your events crashed by evil terrorists? As a human being, I can only imagine the pain and heartache she felt for those who were in attendance.

To further illustrate, she took to social media to share her emotions.

“My heart, prayers and deepest condolences are with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones.

There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better.

However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.

The only thing we can do now is choose how we let this affect us and how we live our lives from here on out.

I have been thinking of my fans and of you all, non-stop over the past week. The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you’ll ever know.

The compassion, kindness, love, strength, and oneness that you’ve shown one another this past week is the exact opposite of the heinous intentions it must take to pull off something as evil as what happened Monday.

YOU are the opposite.

I am sorry for the pain and fear that you must be feeling and for the trauma that you, too, must be experiencing.

We will never be able to understand why events like this take place because it is not in our nature, which is why we shouldn’t recoil.”

– Ariana Grande

As a result of the attack, Ariana Grande and her manager Scooter Braun put their heads together to make a positive difference. The time had come to show these terrorists they cannot stop love, they cannot stop us from gathering, celebrating music and showing compassion for one another, they will never win.

The gorgeous 25-year-old singer worked hard to pull together The One Love Manchester benefit concert and it was perfect beyond, leaving many feeling empathies, love, acceptance and kindness for one another.

Beauty comes in many shapes and sizes. And Ariana Grande? Well, she’s just one of the many beautiful things we got to witness during the Manchester benefit concert.

The classy lady was joined by many other high-profile talent including Justin Bieber, Mac Miller, Ariana Grande, the Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, Miley Cyrus, Marcus Mumford, Niall Horan, Little Mix, Katy Perry, Take That, Imogen Heap, Pharrell Williams, Robbie Williams, and Liam Gallagher.

Ariana Grande is a positive influence for so many people, including those who were fans during her “Victorious,” television series days.

One fan told PCG how he stumbled upon Ariana Grande and how she has influenced his life.

“In 2010, during the height of my prolonged unemployment, I stumbled onto Victorious. Yes, the show is geared toward children, however, the simplicity of a television program was a necessary distraction from falling into emotional despair. The adorable actress with the red hair caught my attention. She role-played her character so well that it brightened my mood. You just had to keep on rooting for her.”

Another fan Jess Morgan opened up about the tragedy. She said:

“These past few weeks have been tough for every single person! When I first heard about what happened at Ariana Grande’s concert, I was shocked. I didn’t want to believe it! Hearing the passing of the incredible people and the injured was terrifying. Ariana and her team did absolutely amazing and their response was outstanding. I heard what she planned to do which she offered to pay for the funeral and doing a benefit concert. Honestly, she is brave and fearless. She gathered numerous artists together on one stage and fans come from all over the world to come together to celebrate the lives of the people who sadly passed away! The way she and her team did this was brilliant as at the concert you could not sent fear anywhere it was all filled with love and braveness! When everyone sang especially Ariana you could tell the passion she was giving. She has coped so so well during this tough time! She deserves everything she is an inspiration to young teens. I love her so so much

From jess xxx”

A fan who can be found on Twitter, shared how he first learned about Ariana Grande.

“A few years passed and I later learned that she came out with an album (This sounds awkward), but her music is cheerful. Being an actress and singer are two entities, yet it was pleasant that she was not typecast.

It was natural for me to still be in her fan base since she helped me during a difficult period. As a guy in his now mid-30s, it is a bit frightening to acknowledge how I initially found out about Ariana Grande.

The prejudice and stereotypes usual pop out. Her duet with the Weeknd, definitely highlighted that she was able to break free from that teenybopper image.

Side-to-Side and Focus music videos depict her as the confident, kick-ass woman.”

He also gained more admiration for the singer after the Manchester benefit concert.

“I admired her for returning across the Atlantic. Adding “I cannot think of other entertainers that would have done what she did. imagined other people might have easily stopped touring, just briefly. Yet, she did it. She is not this diva character that the media tends to categorize her as.” He continued. “Entertainment is always a distraction from reality. She wanted that locality a moment to relax. Also, it might show that she too needed comfort or closure by returning.”

Scooter Braun (Ariana Grande’s manager) opened up about the event when he walked onto the One Love Manchester benefit concert stage.

“To my friend Ariana Grande and the entire Dangerous Woman crew, myself and all of us around the world are so grateful for you for stepping up and taking action. We also want to thank the Manchester first responders and all the bystanders who are probably here tonight, who risk their lives to save others, please give a round of applause to them.”

“I also want to say, prepared words, before we introduce my friend Ariana.

And Uh, putting those words aside for a second, last night this nation was challenged were challenged and all of you were challenged and you had a decision to make if you were going to come out here tonight.

And this is so beautiful.

You guys made that decision, you guys looked fear right in the face and said “no we are Manchester,” and the world is watching.”

As you can see, Ari’s influence has gone above and beyond the normal “expectations,” of her job in entertainment.

Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez & Seth Rogen at WE Day! Yay for charity!

It’s true, celebrities have a tight and busy schedule, they have their own contracts and deadlines just as we do in life. And even though our lives are busy, some of us still get out and volunteer to make a difference.

Ari is no different than us, she seeks to make a positive impact not only with her musical talents but with her actions.

Did you know Ariana Grande also supports other causes?

null

Cancer Research Institute

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Entertainment Industry Foundation

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Melanoma Research Alliance

PETA

Ryan Seacrest Foundation

Stand Up To Cancer

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

TJ Martell Foundation

Going above and beyond is a choice.

That’s why actions speak louder than words.

I love the positive vibes that Ariana Grande puts into her passions, life and most importantly, her family, friends, and fans.

What’s something you love about the classy singer, aside from her new single

Sound off in the comments below!

Additionaly, since you love positive news, feel free to subscribe to our positive celebrity newsletter. That way you can stay up-to-date on the latest positive celebrity gossip and entertainment news.

We can also make your Facebook feed brighter by hitting the thumbs up on our Facebook page.

Much love stranger friends.

Blessed be.

Ariana Grande – 7 rings

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Positive Celebrity Gossip - Laurara Monique

Laurara Monique is known by various celebrities as the youngest and kindest celebrity blogger. PCG has been described as a "celebrity safe zone."

Positive Celebrity Gossip - Laurara Monique shared Laura Margosian's post.

Healthy "discussions," are important to most relationships, after all, how else do you understand how someone is feeling? Always listen and don't scream at one another, you're in this together, that's how I see it.

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I'm now streaming on Twitch! Playing FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION

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Final Fantasy XV | Sidequests or Comrades |

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California Strong has gone above and beyond. The charity event, California Strong had high-profile celebrities including Adam Sandler, Jamie, Foxx, Rainn Wilson, Mira Sorvino, Dennis Rodman, Brad Paisley, Charlie Sheen, Robin Thicke, Rob Riggle, Matt Leinart, Reggie Miller, Justin Turner, Baker Mayfield, professional baseball players Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, and Mike Moustakas, Rams Quarterback, Jared Goff, joined with the Southeast Ventura County YMCA to create California Strong. #PositiveCelebrityNews #AdamSandler #CaliforniaStrong #PCGMagazine

California Strong celebrity charity softball game raises money for fire and shooting victims!

California Strong celebrity softball game raises money for fire and shooting victims

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Mom..... mom!!!!.... MOM!!!!!!!!

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Best Job Quotes

Official Website: Best Job Quotes

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• Acting in particular is a fun job when you have a good script. I don’t know about acting when you don’t have a great script. I’m gonna say that’s not a great job, it’s kind of a dumb job. But when you have a good part in a good script, it’s the best job, in a way. – Bob Odenkirk • Acting is the best job in the world. Look at the way they treat you when you turn up for work. They give you breakfast and a cup of tea and ask, ‘Are you all right’ They tart up your face, you say somebody else’s words, then pick up your check and go home. And you get days off. I tell you, it really is the way to live. – Bob Hoskins • Actually, acting turned out to be the perfect job for me, because I had a lot of different interests. I thought about being a priest at one point. I thought about being a teacher. I thought about being a lawyer. But I think acting is probably the best job for me. – John C. Reilly • Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals. – Donald Rumsfeld • Anyone who says they don’t enjoy the Army is mad – you can spend a week hating it and the next week it could be the best thing in the world and the best job you could ever, ever wish for. It has got so much to offer. – Prince Harry • As an actor, you want to do the best job possible, and you want the best scripts possible because it makes life more interesting. – Mark Strickson • At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift. – Anthony Bourdain

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Job', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_job').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_job img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Being a chef is the best job in the world. – Gordon Ramsay • Being a showrunner is tough, but it is incredibly rewarding and it is, without a doubt, the best job I’ve ever had. – Graham Yost • Big money, big Liberal Party politics and big media are trying to get rid of us, of course, by letting Packer take over Fairfax – a media-only company. But we’re hanging in there and doing the best job we can for our readers while we can. – Margo Kingston • Boxing is the best job in the world to let off steam, and people are in trouble when Tyson wants to let off steam – Michael Spinks • But [Sunday] as you saw, it was obviously [the media] took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I’ve been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I’ve done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I’m just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus. – Terrell Owens • Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.- Confucius • David Ortiz is an icon. He is one of a kind. But we’ll do our best job to replace the offensive aspect, however we can. – Dave Dombrowski • Directing is a nice job. It’s the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it… Directing is playing. Acting. – William Friedkin • Directing is a nice job. It’s the best job for me. If i had to pay money to do it, I would do itIt’s problematical. It’s disapointing often. It’s very challenging. It’s frustrating as hell. It’s extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if I wasn’t doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a living. There are guys out there really working for a living, cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing. Acting. – William Friedkin • Directing is probably the best job, but acting is really, really great. It’s like a fun vacation that you get paid for. – Bob Odenkirk • Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can’t do every dream that I have. – Brian McKnight • Every mother I’ve ever met, pretty much without exception, is doing the best job she can ever do. – Jennifer Weiner • Everything I do is unfabulous. Im the most normal person. I love walking everywhere, and going to hole-in-the-wall places, like nail shops, because they do the best job. And I go to vintage stores rather than high-end boutiques, because I like to dress different from other people. – Ashley Benson • For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world – but it doesn’t happen twice. – Madeleine Albright • I am already experiencing something better than being a pop star and that’s being a father. It’s the best job in the world. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. – A. J. McLean • I am happy with what I do. I’d love to be the manager of the Atlanta Braves, but they hired somebody this week. So I’ll just have to be inordinately happy with one of the best jobs on the planet. – Robert Gibbs • I am positive – determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. – Jennifer Lopez • I call ‘Community’ the best day job in the world, because between takes, I get to write music. I get to write sketches. I get to write movies. It’s the best job ever. – Donald Glover • I enjoyed the crew. The best part about ‘The X-Files’ has been the crew. This crew is an exceptional family and to go to work with a bunch of people that you really like is great. They’re all the best of the best and they really try to do the best job they can. I’ll miss that – Robert Patrick • I feel like I have to do the best job I can to basically say, “OK, I understand – you have every right to be angry, but anger is not a plan. Here’s what I want to do, and that’s why I hope you will support me, because I think it will actually improve the lives of Americans.” – Hillary Clinton • I felt like I had kind of played it out, and I wanted to see what was next, and then came Mythbusters. You know, it’s the best job I’ve ever had, on its worst day it’s better than anything else, but it’s a huge amount of responsibility, and there are days when just going into work and building something from someone else’s drawing sounds like going back to heaven. – Adam Savage • I grew up thinking the best job in the world would be a Jedi and being a psychologist is the closest thing I could get, so I wanted to be a Jedi and I don’t want to be a Sith, so that is what keeps me on the straight and narrow. – John Amaechi • I had fun pretending to be a sportscaster. People always think that was a down thing for me. I had the best job in sports broadcasting for two years. – Dennis Miller • I have everything that I could possibly want in life, from a gorgeous granddaughter and a wonderful wife, brilliant students, the best job anyone could hope for, and about half of my hair. Not the half I would have kept, but no one consulted me. – Daniel Gilbert • I have talent at playing myself. I don’t have a very broad range, but at playing myself I am a wizard. It’s more than fun; it’s the best job on Earth. – Ben Stein • I have the best job in the entire history of broadcasting. – Willard Scott • I have the best job in the world with the best fans in the world – Jeremy Davis • I have the best job in the world. – Anthony Bourdain • I have the best job in the world. I’m able to express myself, and people attach themselves to it if they identify with it. Music certainly is a driving force in my life. There’s not a moment where I’m not in it. – James Hetfield • I have the best job in the world. There’s not really a lot to moan or whine about. I’ve got the privilege of going out and doing something I absolutely love. – Boy George • I have the world’s best job. I get paid to hang out in my imagination all day. – Stephen King • I hope to focus on what I’m passionate about because I think I’d do them best job on them – education, urban education, women and children’s issues and literacy. – Jenna Bush • I just feel that God gave me a certain gift, and that was to go out, do storytelling and be an actor. And my responsibility with that gift is to do the best job possible and to re-create real life. – Eric Close • I just try to do the best job I possibly can – put the blinders on, go to work and be the best you can possibly be. Once you have done everything that you possibly can – you’ve put forth your greatest effort – then I can live with whatever’s next. – Bill Parcells • I just try to do the best job that I can, as an actor. Hopefully, that carries through. That’s all I can do. – Luke Mitchell • I know that I am my worst critic. I know that if I can walk away from the set at the end of the day and feel that I did the best job I could and feel proud, that’s what will satisfy me. – Emmy Rossum • I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won’t care, and some will vilify you. – Mike Love • I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won’t care, and some will vilify you. I believe it is important to remain humble and thankful for the blessings in our lives, for the tremendous opportunities that are a result of our musical success. – Mike Love • I love acting. I think that’s the best job in the world, but I don’t really enjoy the career of it so much. You don’t have as much control over your life or the material as you do, well, certainly when you’re a director or a producer, so while I love acting, I prefer to make my living as a filmmaker, but my rule on acting is if somebody asks me to do a part, I’ll do it. – David Hayter • I love being a mom. That’s the best job I’ve ever had. All the other stuff I love the same, but being a mom trumps all of it. – Tamera Mowry • I mean, I hate when actors talk about how hard their job is. It’s ridiculous, because we have the best job in the world. – Jon Bernthal • I really like writing in English, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. – Nell Zink • I tell you, ‘Firefly’? Best job I ever had. Heartbroken when it was canceled, but had it not been canceled, I never would have gotten ‘Serenity’. I think ‘Serenity’ is the most incredible thing I’ve ever been able to actually get my hands on and do. I can’t even tell you how much love I have for that project. – Nathan Fillion • I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault. – Paul Ryan • I think I have the best job in the world. Seventy-one percent of the planet is covered by water, we’ve explored less than five percent of the ocean, and there are so many fabulous discoveries that have yet to be made. – Edith Widder • I think it’s a tough road if you’re a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, if you have a partner, if you don’t. It’s the best job in the world, and the toughest job in the world all at the same time. – Angela Kinsey • I think I’ve got the best job around. – Ron Wyden • I wanna do the very best job I can to fulfill the trust and faith that people have in me. – Hillary Clinton • I want to do the best job I can. – Lucas Till • I was shocked by the reaction I got for Bleak House. It was very intensive but one of the best jobs of my life. It was a chance to play a character that grows and develops and I was very enmeshed in it. But I didn’t realise how stylish it was and how much people would love it. – Anna Maxwell Martin • I would never really analyse what I do. I leave that to other people – I’m not a critic. I just want to get on with whatever I have in hand, you know? Just try to make the best job of the available material. – Dylan Moran • I’d love to do situation comedy – it’s the best job in show business. – Patti LuPone • I’m not concentrated or concerned with any other factors rather than just being able to do the best job that I can. – Benigno Aquino III • I’m not saying you need to become a spokesperson for every cause your character goes through, but it’s important to absolutely do the best job we can in portraying a disease, and all the crap that goes with it. – Monica Potter • I’m not trying to put on airs for anybody. I’m only trying to impress myself by doing the best job I can do. – Matthew McConaughey • In 1971, after seven years in college, with that magic piece of paper clutched triumphantly in my fist, the best job I was able to get was night watchman on a sewer project in Babylon, N.Y. guarding a hole in the ground to prevent anyone from stealing it. God bless the American educational system! – Spider Robinson • In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries you have these great nation states hurling their young men at one another. The victory was really going to rest on who could do the best job of bringing up their kids to become efficient and effective soldiers. That’s pretty grandiose, I guess, but I do think that, and thank God it’s been the armies of democracy that have emerged from this as the triumphant armies. – Stephen Ambrose • In the theater we’re like blue-collar workers: It’s a physical job, you don’t make a lot of money, and you’re on the road all the time. It’s worth it in that it’s the best job in the world, but you have to negotiate living in cities that don’t always accommodate you. – Randy Harrison • Inner peace is not found in things like baseball and world championships. As long as I feel I’ve done the best job I possibly could, I’m satisfied. – Sparky Anderson • It’s a form of bullying, in my opinion, to make sure that your kid gets the best grades, the best jobs and all that sort of stuff. I just want my child to be happy. I want him to do his best and trust God in the rest, but I’m not going to bully him. – Nick Vujicic • It’s basically the best job in the world. If you’re fortunate enough – and I consider myself fortunate – you get to work with your friends and you get to work on projects that interest you. – James Franco • It’s just really making sure I am doing the best job I can do as a dad. I do think that is my No. 1 job. – Tony Dungy • I’ve already felt that I want to direct. Being an executive producer is like the best job in the world because you make all these executive decisions and then you leave the money to other people. You don’t have to be on set and counting beans. – Robbie Coltraine • I’ve always thought that, as a romance writer, I had the best job in the world. I sit around all day making up emotion-drenched, conflict-laden stories that push my heroes and heroines to the edge of sanity. Then I give them a happy ending. – Ruth Glick • I’ve got the best job in the world being a senator from the United States, a senator from South Carolina in the United States Senate, representing South Carolina in the United States Senate is a dream job for me, but the world is literally falling apart. And we can’t get anything done here at home. So that drives my thinking more than anything else. – Lindsey Graham • I’ve got the best job in the world, and i meet some of the most amazing human beings on the planet. I’m one lucky guy. – Ty Pennington • Keep your head down. Mind your business and do the best job you can. – Bill Raftery • Keeping your head down and doing the best job you can in the beginning gives you the opportunity to be evaluated on the basis of the contributions you are making. [Then], when you feel strongly about your work or about a position, you’ll be given more attention [than] if you hadn’t done that constantly. – Hillary Clinton • Loving you is a full-time job. It’s a great job, don’t get me wrong. It’s the best job in the universe. But it’s not easy. – Carrie Jones • My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level. – Scott McCallum • My kids complained about Secret Service as they became teenagers, and Secret Service has done the very best job they could accommodating them, so it hasn’t restricted any of their activities. – Barack Obama • My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know. – Jill Bolte Taylor • My slogan is I’m the least qualified guy for the job, but I’d probably do the best job. – Gary Coleman • People ask me, “How’s Teen Wolf?,” and I tell them it’s literally the best job I’ve ever had. – Shelley Hennig • People tell me I have the best job in the world, which is true, but I also work with some of the best people in the world. – Michael Silverblatt • Perform your job better than anyone else can. That’s the best job security I know. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • Random acts of kindness and the desire to do the best job possible lead to trust. – Jeffrey Gitomer • So to the best we can, what we do is focus on creating value for others, and how do we do that? We do it by trying to produce products and services that our customers will value more than their alternatives, and not just their alternatives today, but what the alternatives will be in the future. We try to more efficiently use resources than our competitors, and constantly improve in that, and we try to do the best job we can in creating a safe environment, and environmental excellence, and constantly improve at that. – Charles Koch • Society as a whole is better off when information is available to the public. Whether you are talking about how to prevent disease, or about who does the best job of treating disease, it is useful to provide as much information to the public as possible. – Dave Obey • Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world. – Louis Susman • The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses. – G. M. Trevelyan • The best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in. – William Faulkner • The best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet, The best house hasn’t been planned, The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet, The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned; Don’t worry and fret, faint-hearted, The chances have just begun For the best jobs haven’t been started, The best work hasn’t been done. – Berton Braley • The companies that do the best job on managing a user’s privacy will be the companies that ultimately are the most successful. – Fred Wilson • The crew, the actors and the writers all work the same way. We always want to do the best job. – Robert Knepper • The last thing I think I am is perfect. I’m just trying to do the best job I can. I’m trying to be the best father I can to my kids. I’m trying to do the best job I can running my business. – James Packer • The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, ‘How is the president?’ – Will Rogers • The only reason to be in politics is public service. There’s no other reason. Frankly, if that’s the best job you can get in terms of money, that’s too bad, you know. Because frankly, it’s not well paid, everyone knows that. So for most people it’s a big sacrifice. – Malcolm Turnbull • The Patriot Post not only does the best job of putting important news, policy and opinion in proper context, but also of cutting down to size the pompous praters and propagandists on the left. – Lyn Nofziger • The thing that I have done throughout my life is to do the best job that I can and to be me. – Mae Jemison • The things you don’t have control over, you don’t worry about. I have control over my attitude, my perception, how I do things, and you do the very best job you can. Other people have control over other things and you let them do their jobs. – Mike Sherman • The voters reward good performance. So, I’m going to go out and focus, if I become the governor, to do the very best job I can as governor. The rest of it will take care of itself. – Dave Heineman • The worst men have the best jobs the best men have the worst jobs or are unemployed or locked in madhouses. – Charles Bukowski • There’s nothing more fun than being out on stage and getting the vibe from the crowd. There’s nothing like being on a set where you are there to make other people happy and to make them laugh. That’s the best job in the world. – Miley Cyrus • There’s such a wide variation in tax systems around the world, it’s difficult to imagine a harmonized CO2 tax that every country agrees to. That’s not in the cards in the near term. But the countries that are doing the best job, like Sweden, are already doing both of these. I think that eventually we’ll use both of them but we need to get started right away and the cap-and-trade is a proven and effective tool. – Al Gore • These days she simply did the best job she could, accepting the good with the bad. – Nicholas Sparks • To get a job where the only thing you have to do in your career is to make people laugh-well, its the best job in the world. – Ronnie Barker • Trump claims he’d be the “best jobs president that God ever created.” But isn’t his claim to fame firing people? – Michael R. Burch • Twin Peaks’ was the best job I ever had as an actor. – Richard Beymer • We started off with a set of objectives for what we needed to communicate with the company’s identity, created several proposals intended to meet those objectives, and picked the one that did the best job. – Gabe Newell • What you realize is that a lot of actors want to be directed. They’re there to do the best job they can for the director. They have a lot of questions, and your job is to have answers. – Jon Turteltaub • Whatever it is, I just loved it and felt at my absolute happiest when I was performing for people. And if that’s what you want from a job, then this is the best job you could ever do. – James Corden • When it is going well, it is the best job [writing] in the world. For those few hours, you are god, in control of everything. However, for me, the great joy of writing is that it has allowed me to travel the world in search of stories. – Michael Scott • When you do something well, this is the best job in the world. – David Thewlis • Women are always being tested … but ultimately, each of us has to define who we are individually and then do the very best job we can to grow into it. – Hillary Clinton • Writing is hard work; its also the best job Ive ever had. – Raymond E. Feist • Writing studio movies is the best job in the world… it’s awesome. – Thomas Lennon • You can’t please everybody. All you can do is really just try to work from the heart and do the best job that you can and hope for the best. – Jackie Earle Haley • You concentrate on what you are doing, to do the best job you can, to stay out of a serious situation. That’s the way the X-1 was. – Chuck Yeager • You do the best job you can. You take it step by step. It’s hard enough to make a movie. If it works, that’s great. If it means something beyond the moment to somebody, they can take it and it lasts through the years, we’ll see. – Oliver Stone • You just go in and try to do the best job you can everyday. – Nick Cassavetes • You just try to get the best jobs that you can get. Sometimes I produce my own movies, so that’s your own sort of vision. That helps things. I don’t know what it is. Probably just circumstance. I’ve definitely been aware of the fact that I want to do different things. – John Cusack • You try to get yourself into a situation where you only have to answer to yourself, where you can ask advice of people and work with your peers and mentors and things to try to do the best job that you can possibly do. – George Lucas

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[equitiesstocks]

Best Job Quotes

Official Website: Best Job Quotes

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• Acting in particular is a fun job when you have a good script. I don’t know about acting when you don’t have a great script. I’m gonna say that’s not a great job, it’s kind of a dumb job. But when you have a good part in a good script, it’s the best job, in a way. – Bob Odenkirk • Acting is the best job in the world. Look at the way they treat you when you turn up for work. They give you breakfast and a cup of tea and ask, ‘Are you all right’ They tart up your face, you say somebody else’s words, then pick up your check and go home. And you get days off. I tell you, it really is the way to live. – Bob Hoskins • Actually, acting turned out to be the perfect job for me, because I had a lot of different interests. I thought about being a priest at one point. I thought about being a teacher. I thought about being a lawyer. But I think acting is probably the best job for me. – John C. Reilly • Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals. – Donald Rumsfeld • Anyone who says they don’t enjoy the Army is mad – you can spend a week hating it and the next week it could be the best thing in the world and the best job you could ever, ever wish for. It has got so much to offer. – Prince Harry • As an actor, you want to do the best job possible, and you want the best scripts possible because it makes life more interesting. – Mark Strickson • At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift. – Anthony Bourdain

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Job', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_job').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_job img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Being a chef is the best job in the world. – Gordon Ramsay • Being a showrunner is tough, but it is incredibly rewarding and it is, without a doubt, the best job I’ve ever had. – Graham Yost • Big money, big Liberal Party politics and big media are trying to get rid of us, of course, by letting Packer take over Fairfax – a media-only company. But we’re hanging in there and doing the best job we can for our readers while we can. – Margo Kingston • Boxing is the best job in the world to let off steam, and people are in trouble when Tyson wants to let off steam – Michael Spinks • But [Sunday] as you saw, it was obviously [the media] took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I’ve been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I’ve done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I’m just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus. – Terrell Owens • Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.- Confucius • David Ortiz is an icon. He is one of a kind. But we’ll do our best job to replace the offensive aspect, however we can. – Dave Dombrowski • Directing is a nice job. It’s the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it… Directing is playing. Acting. – William Friedkin • Directing is a nice job. It’s the best job for me. If i had to pay money to do it, I would do itIt’s problematical. It’s disapointing often. It’s very challenging. It’s frustrating as hell. It’s extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if I wasn’t doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a living. There are guys out there really working for a living, cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing. Acting. – William Friedkin • Directing is probably the best job, but acting is really, really great. It’s like a fun vacation that you get paid for. – Bob Odenkirk • Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can’t do every dream that I have. – Brian McKnight • Every mother I’ve ever met, pretty much without exception, is doing the best job she can ever do. – Jennifer Weiner • Everything I do is unfabulous. Im the most normal person. I love walking everywhere, and going to hole-in-the-wall places, like nail shops, because they do the best job. And I go to vintage stores rather than high-end boutiques, because I like to dress different from other people. – Ashley Benson • For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world – but it doesn’t happen twice. – Madeleine Albright • I am already experiencing something better than being a pop star and that’s being a father. It’s the best job in the world. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. – A. J. McLean • I am happy with what I do. I’d love to be the manager of the Atlanta Braves, but they hired somebody this week. So I’ll just have to be inordinately happy with one of the best jobs on the planet. – Robert Gibbs • I am positive – determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. – Jennifer Lopez • I call ‘Community’ the best day job in the world, because between takes, I get to write music. I get to write sketches. I get to write movies. It’s the best job ever. – Donald Glover • I enjoyed the crew. The best part about ‘The X-Files’ has been the crew. This crew is an exceptional family and to go to work with a bunch of people that you really like is great. They’re all the best of the best and they really try to do the best job they can. I’ll miss that – Robert Patrick • I feel like I have to do the best job I can to basically say, “OK, I understand – you have every right to be angry, but anger is not a plan. Here’s what I want to do, and that’s why I hope you will support me, because I think it will actually improve the lives of Americans.” – Hillary Clinton • I felt like I had kind of played it out, and I wanted to see what was next, and then came Mythbusters. You know, it’s the best job I’ve ever had, on its worst day it’s better than anything else, but it’s a huge amount of responsibility, and there are days when just going into work and building something from someone else’s drawing sounds like going back to heaven. – Adam Savage • I grew up thinking the best job in the world would be a Jedi and being a psychologist is the closest thing I could get, so I wanted to be a Jedi and I don’t want to be a Sith, so that is what keeps me on the straight and narrow. – John Amaechi • I had fun pretending to be a sportscaster. People always think that was a down thing for me. I had the best job in sports broadcasting for two years. – Dennis Miller • I have everything that I could possibly want in life, from a gorgeous granddaughter and a wonderful wife, brilliant students, the best job anyone could hope for, and about half of my hair. Not the half I would have kept, but no one consulted me. – Daniel Gilbert • I have talent at playing myself. I don’t have a very broad range, but at playing myself I am a wizard. It’s more than fun; it’s the best job on Earth. – Ben Stein • I have the best job in the entire history of broadcasting. – Willard Scott • I have the best job in the world with the best fans in the world – Jeremy Davis • I have the best job in the world. – Anthony Bourdain • I have the best job in the world. I’m able to express myself, and people attach themselves to it if they identify with it. Music certainly is a driving force in my life. There’s not a moment where I’m not in it. – James Hetfield • I have the best job in the world. There’s not really a lot to moan or whine about. I’ve got the privilege of going out and doing something I absolutely love. – Boy George • I have the world’s best job. I get paid to hang out in my imagination all day. – Stephen King • I hope to focus on what I’m passionate about because I think I’d do them best job on them – education, urban education, women and children’s issues and literacy. – Jenna Bush • I just feel that God gave me a certain gift, and that was to go out, do storytelling and be an actor. And my responsibility with that gift is to do the best job possible and to re-create real life. – Eric Close • I just try to do the best job I possibly can – put the blinders on, go to work and be the best you can possibly be. Once you have done everything that you possibly can – you’ve put forth your greatest effort – then I can live with whatever’s next. – Bill Parcells • I just try to do the best job that I can, as an actor. Hopefully, that carries through. That’s all I can do. – Luke Mitchell • I know that I am my worst critic. I know that if I can walk away from the set at the end of the day and feel that I did the best job I could and feel proud, that’s what will satisfy me. – Emmy Rossum • I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won’t care, and some will vilify you. – Mike Love • I learned that when you do the best job that you can do, some people will idolize you, others won’t care, and some will vilify you. I believe it is important to remain humble and thankful for the blessings in our lives, for the tremendous opportunities that are a result of our musical success. – Mike Love • I love acting. I think that’s the best job in the world, but I don’t really enjoy the career of it so much. You don’t have as much control over your life or the material as you do, well, certainly when you’re a director or a producer, so while I love acting, I prefer to make my living as a filmmaker, but my rule on acting is if somebody asks me to do a part, I’ll do it. – David Hayter • I love being a mom. That’s the best job I’ve ever had. All the other stuff I love the same, but being a mom trumps all of it. – Tamera Mowry • I mean, I hate when actors talk about how hard their job is. It’s ridiculous, because we have the best job in the world. – Jon Bernthal • I really like writing in English, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. – Nell Zink • I tell you, ‘Firefly’? Best job I ever had. Heartbroken when it was canceled, but had it not been canceled, I never would have gotten ‘Serenity’. I think ‘Serenity’ is the most incredible thing I’ve ever been able to actually get my hands on and do. I can’t even tell you how much love I have for that project. – Nathan Fillion • I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault. – Paul Ryan • I think I have the best job in the world. Seventy-one percent of the planet is covered by water, we’ve explored less than five percent of the ocean, and there are so many fabulous discoveries that have yet to be made. – Edith Widder • I think it’s a tough road if you’re a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, if you have a partner, if you don’t. It’s the best job in the world, and the toughest job in the world all at the same time. – Angela Kinsey • I think I’ve got the best job around. – Ron Wyden • I wanna do the very best job I can to fulfill the trust and faith that people have in me. – Hillary Clinton • I want to do the best job I can. – Lucas Till • I was shocked by the reaction I got for Bleak House. It was very intensive but one of the best jobs of my life. It was a chance to play a character that grows and develops and I was very enmeshed in it. But I didn’t realise how stylish it was and how much people would love it. – Anna Maxwell Martin • I would never really analyse what I do. I leave that to other people – I’m not a critic. I just want to get on with whatever I have in hand, you know? Just try to make the best job of the available material. – Dylan Moran • I’d love to do situation comedy – it’s the best job in show business. – Patti LuPone • I’m not concentrated or concerned with any other factors rather than just being able to do the best job that I can. – Benigno Aquino III • I’m not saying you need to become a spokesperson for every cause your character goes through, but it’s important to absolutely do the best job we can in portraying a disease, and all the crap that goes with it. – Monica Potter • I’m not trying to put on airs for anybody. I’m only trying to impress myself by doing the best job I can do. – Matthew McConaughey • In 1971, after seven years in college, with that magic piece of paper clutched triumphantly in my fist, the best job I was able to get was night watchman on a sewer project in Babylon, N.Y. guarding a hole in the ground to prevent anyone from stealing it. God bless the American educational system! – Spider Robinson • In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries you have these great nation states hurling their young men at one another. The victory was really going to rest on who could do the best job of bringing up their kids to become efficient and effective soldiers. That’s pretty grandiose, I guess, but I do think that, and thank God it’s been the armies of democracy that have emerged from this as the triumphant armies. – Stephen Ambrose • In the theater we’re like blue-collar workers: It’s a physical job, you don’t make a lot of money, and you’re on the road all the time. It’s worth it in that it’s the best job in the world, but you have to negotiate living in cities that don’t always accommodate you. – Randy Harrison • Inner peace is not found in things like baseball and world championships. As long as I feel I’ve done the best job I possibly could, I’m satisfied. – Sparky Anderson • It’s a form of bullying, in my opinion, to make sure that your kid gets the best grades, the best jobs and all that sort of stuff. I just want my child to be happy. I want him to do his best and trust God in the rest, but I’m not going to bully him. – Nick Vujicic • It’s basically the best job in the world. If you’re fortunate enough – and I consider myself fortunate – you get to work with your friends and you get to work on projects that interest you. – James Franco • It’s just really making sure I am doing the best job I can do as a dad. I do think that is my No. 1 job. – Tony Dungy • I’ve already felt that I want to direct. Being an executive producer is like the best job in the world because you make all these executive decisions and then you leave the money to other people. You don’t have to be on set and counting beans. – Robbie Coltraine • I’ve always thought that, as a romance writer, I had the best job in the world. I sit around all day making up emotion-drenched, conflict-laden stories that push my heroes and heroines to the edge of sanity. Then I give them a happy ending. – Ruth Glick • I’ve got the best job in the world being a senator from the United States, a senator from South Carolina in the United States Senate, representing South Carolina in the United States Senate is a dream job for me, but the world is literally falling apart. And we can’t get anything done here at home. So that drives my thinking more than anything else. – Lindsey Graham • I’ve got the best job in the world, and i meet some of the most amazing human beings on the planet. I’m one lucky guy. – Ty Pennington • Keep your head down. Mind your business and do the best job you can. – Bill Raftery • Keeping your head down and doing the best job you can in the beginning gives you the opportunity to be evaluated on the basis of the contributions you are making. [Then], when you feel strongly about your work or about a position, you’ll be given more attention [than] if you hadn’t done that constantly. – Hillary Clinton • Loving you is a full-time job. It’s a great job, don’t get me wrong. It’s the best job in the universe. But it’s not easy. – Carrie Jones • My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level. – Scott McCallum • My kids complained about Secret Service as they became teenagers, and Secret Service has done the very best job they could accommodating them, so it hasn’t restricted any of their activities. – Barack Obama • My left brain is doing the best job it can with the information it has to work with. I need to remember, however, that there are enormous gaps between what I know and what I think I know. – Jill Bolte Taylor • My slogan is I’m the least qualified guy for the job, but I’d probably do the best job. – Gary Coleman • People ask me, “How’s Teen Wolf?,” and I tell them it’s literally the best job I’ve ever had. – Shelley Hennig • People tell me I have the best job in the world, which is true, but I also work with some of the best people in the world. – Michael Silverblatt • Perform your job better than anyone else can. That’s the best job security I know. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • Random acts of kindness and the desire to do the best job possible lead to trust. – Jeffrey Gitomer • So to the best we can, what we do is focus on creating value for others, and how do we do that? We do it by trying to produce products and services that our customers will value more than their alternatives, and not just their alternatives today, but what the alternatives will be in the future. We try to more efficiently use resources than our competitors, and constantly improve in that, and we try to do the best job we can in creating a safe environment, and environmental excellence, and constantly improve at that. – Charles Koch • Society as a whole is better off when information is available to the public. Whether you are talking about how to prevent disease, or about who does the best job of treating disease, it is useful to provide as much information to the public as possible. – Dave Obey • Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world. – Louis Susman • The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses. – G. M. Trevelyan • The best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in. – William Faulkner • The best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet, The best house hasn’t been planned, The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet, The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned; Don’t worry and fret, faint-hearted, The chances have just begun For the best jobs haven’t been started, The best work hasn’t been done. – Berton Braley • The companies that do the best job on managing a user’s privacy will be the companies that ultimately are the most successful. – Fred Wilson • The crew, the actors and the writers all work the same way. We always want to do the best job. – Robert Knepper • The last thing I think I am is perfect. I’m just trying to do the best job I can. I’m trying to be the best father I can to my kids. I’m trying to do the best job I can running my business. – James Packer • The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, ‘How is the president?’ – Will Rogers • The only reason to be in politics is public service. There’s no other reason. Frankly, if that’s the best job you can get in terms of money, that’s too bad, you know. Because frankly, it’s not well paid, everyone knows that. So for most people it’s a big sacrifice. – Malcolm Turnbull • The Patriot Post not only does the best job of putting important news, policy and opinion in proper context, but also of cutting down to size the pompous praters and propagandists on the left. – Lyn Nofziger • The thing that I have done throughout my life is to do the best job that I can and to be me. – Mae Jemison • The things you don’t have control over, you don’t worry about. I have control over my attitude, my perception, how I do things, and you do the very best job you can. Other people have control over other things and you let them do their jobs. – Mike Sherman • The voters reward good performance. So, I’m going to go out and focus, if I become the governor, to do the very best job I can as governor. The rest of it will take care of itself. – Dave Heineman • The worst men have the best jobs the best men have the worst jobs or are unemployed or locked in madhouses. – Charles Bukowski • There’s nothing more fun than being out on stage and getting the vibe from the crowd. There’s nothing like being on a set where you are there to make other people happy and to make them laugh. That’s the best job in the world. – Miley Cyrus • There’s such a wide variation in tax systems around the world, it’s difficult to imagine a harmonized CO2 tax that every country agrees to. That’s not in the cards in the near term. But the countries that are doing the best job, like Sweden, are already doing both of these. I think that eventually we’ll use both of them but we need to get started right away and the cap-and-trade is a proven and effective tool. – Al Gore • These days she simply did the best job she could, accepting the good with the bad. – Nicholas Sparks • To get a job where the only thing you have to do in your career is to make people laugh-well, its the best job in the world. – Ronnie Barker • Trump claims he’d be the “best jobs president that God ever created.” But isn’t his claim to fame firing people? – Michael R. Burch • Twin Peaks’ was the best job I ever had as an actor. – Richard Beymer • We started off with a set of objectives for what we needed to communicate with the company’s identity, created several proposals intended to meet those objectives, and picked the one that did the best job. – Gabe Newell • What you realize is that a lot of actors want to be directed. They’re there to do the best job they can for the director. They have a lot of questions, and your job is to have answers. – Jon Turteltaub • Whatever it is, I just loved it and felt at my absolute happiest when I was performing for people. And if that’s what you want from a job, then this is the best job you could ever do. – James Corden • When it is going well, it is the best job [writing] in the world. For those few hours, you are god, in control of everything. However, for me, the great joy of writing is that it has allowed me to travel the world in search of stories. – Michael Scott • When you do something well, this is the best job in the world. – David Thewlis • Women are always being tested … but ultimately, each of us has to define who we are individually and then do the very best job we can to grow into it. – Hillary Clinton • Writing is hard work; its also the best job Ive ever had. – Raymond E. Feist • Writing studio movies is the best job in the world… it’s awesome. – Thomas Lennon • You can’t please everybody. All you can do is really just try to work from the heart and do the best job that you can and hope for the best. – Jackie Earle Haley • You concentrate on what you are doing, to do the best job you can, to stay out of a serious situation. That’s the way the X-1 was. – Chuck Yeager • You do the best job you can. You take it step by step. It’s hard enough to make a movie. If it works, that’s great. If it means something beyond the moment to somebody, they can take it and it lasts through the years, we’ll see. – Oliver Stone • You just go in and try to do the best job you can everyday. – Nick Cassavetes • You just try to get the best jobs that you can get. Sometimes I produce my own movies, so that’s your own sort of vision. That helps things. I don’t know what it is. Probably just circumstance. I’ve definitely been aware of the fact that I want to do different things. – John Cusack • You try to get yourself into a situation where you only have to answer to yourself, where you can ask advice of people and work with your peers and mentors and things to try to do the best job that you can possibly do. – George Lucas

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[theres-a-wilde-man-in-my-h-blog1]

Brothers defend

June 6, 1944. Captain Miller lands with his squad at Omaha Beach. In movies battle confusion his unit is decimated. At the same time, American command receives information about the death of three brothers Ryan. The fourth of them can still live, dropped with a parachute somewhere in Normandy. Commanders administer that James Ryan is to be found and sent home. This mission is carried out by Miller and seven soldiers of his choice. The first thing that strikes the eye of Spielberg's film is its unbelievable realism. Even if he is not familiar with military or having only a superficial knowledge of history, the viewer will appreciate the extraordinary efforts of the creators to ensure that soldiers, their equipment or (usually attacking) vehicles look alive transferred from the fronts of the Second World War. What characterizes "Saving ..." is also naturalism. The camera is not afraid to show dirt and blood. War is not a fairytale for a little older boys, but a heavy and ungrateful occupation, where only death is certain. The accepted convention of the document is impressive - the camera is not static, it always accompanies the heroes. Nowadays, abused hand-spinning works well with Janusz Kamiński, adding dramaturgy to the film, while not causing the viewer to become tired and impressed by what is happening on the screen. The effect is complemented by the brilliant soundtrack of John Williams, perfectly coordinated with the action on the screen. "Saving Private Ryan" is a movie composed of nine characters. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is a composed and responsible commander, respecting his subordinates. Reiben (Edward Burns) is full of hatred towards the Germans, but you can not deny that he is also brave and brave. Horvath (Tom Sizemore) is loyal as both a soldier and a captain's friend. Mellish (Adam Goldberg) does not scandalize the commander, but at the same time he battles Germany with courage. Caparzo (Vin Diesel) is a bit unsympathetic tough guy. Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) seems to be made a paramedic with his devotion. Jackson (Barry Pepper) is a strong believer and scary sniper. Finally, Upham (Jeremy Davies), new to Miller's company, a greenhorn barely familiar with war craft and terrified of what is happening around him. There is also Ryan (Matt Damon) who is the opposite of the latter. Although also young, full of ideals and terrified by the war, he shows a heroic attitude, not wanting to leave his comrades a weapon of fate.The excellent selection of actors makes the relationship between the characters do not bear signs of exaggeration. Conversations of the heroes are coarse and full of hard, soldierly jokes, although in moments when they descend to the family left overseas, a mood of longing and sadness appears in them. All this makes the viewer feel really taken over by the fate of the ninth, which can not not be liked. The strongest point of this line-up is undoubtedly Tom Hanks. His character is both mediocre and mysterious, full of devotion, and at the same time not drowning in himself doubts. This combination of features on opposite poles is very appealing to the viewer, and at the same time - extremely demanding for the actor. I will not write anything revealing, saying that Hanks did a great job, thanks to which everything in Miller's form was "played". The only, though serious and unquestionably downgrading rating of "Saving ..." is the shortcoming of his full pathos and patriotism inflated to the message. All American soldiers, even when they do not see the point in issued orders, will give their lives to life, fulfilling them (soldiers who are obedient!) Each soldier seems to be simply created to fulfill the tasks assigned to him (what gifted cadres!). The first and last shot of the film is a starry flag fluttering in the wind (what a beautiful flag!). The command of the American army will send a branch of its best soldiers to an almost suicidal mission, so that the mother of another soldier would not be sad (!!!). A vision of beauty, but quite naive and far from visible in the technical and psychological layer of realism. One might think that the whole masterpiece of making and acting is just a spectacular envelope for the propaganda of patriotism and advertising of the American army. The craftsmanship of the creators and actors working on the creation of "Private Ryan" resulted in the creation of the cult film, recognized by many as the best war drama of all time. It's hard to disagree with this opinion. It should be added to it that "Slave ..." is not only a great war drama, but also a tale of soldiers, full of tension and atmosphere of friendship, ...