#but like in a sexy way cos it's malcolm

[crow-in-snow]

The Thick of It | The Rise of the Nutters

That's not a proper cigar. Proper cigars are those big Cuban whoppers. That's just a jumped-up fag.

 - Jamie McDonald

#the thick of it #jamie mcdonald #peter capaldi #peter capaldi's hands #malcolm tucker #choking on a cigar #but like in a sexy way cos it's malcolm

[bookish-bogwitch]

Trope Grading Game aka Grope Trading Game

Thanks for the tags @artsyunderstudy, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, and @aristocratic-otter! This seems like a lot of fun.

@ileadacharmedlife @moodandmist @facewithoutheart @skee3000 @ivelovedhimthroughworse @cutestkilla @thewholelemon @raenestee, and everyone whose fic is mentioned below and everyone reading this, consider yourself tagged if you haven't gone!

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 - don’t care either way

+10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: -2

Not into it at all for younger characters, but I don't mind for older ones. I haven't read a lot of couples with bigger age gaps but I wouldn't rule out enjoying it in the right context--though I can't see being into it for the sake of the trope itself. (I love you for you, Malcolm Grimm.) Codependency: Interdependency: +7

The template asks about codependency but I finally looked up what codependency means and it's about an uneven relationship where a partner, friend, or family member subsumes their own needs in the course of accommodating / enabling another person's destructive behavior. Is that anyone's jam? There's a reason Rainbow skipped the 12 months between the CO epilogue and the start of WS...

But if we're talking interdependency, then I'm super into it. Octavia Butler was right: "dependency is sexy if it's chosen and not coercive. Symbiosis is a kind of dependency. A dependency of equals is best." Snowbaz symbolizes this with the whole hot/cold body temp thing, which is #sharingabedgoals, and there's lots of great fic in this fandom exploring it, my all-time fave being @fatalfangirl's stunning Bound and Determined.

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: +2

Obsession, sure, sign me up. What is Simon at all those football practices if not obsession?

And I can get behind jealousy as a device for revealing the depth of otherwise hidden or even denied feelings. But active, power-and-control-wheel possessiveness? Gross.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): +5

Yeah! I love watching the grump's walls come down. But with the caveat that the sunshine can't be a one-dimensional, manic pixie dream character, because the that's just boring and I don't care about them.

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +5

What snowbaz fan isn't into this? But a key element for me is that there has to be some reason behind the initial enemies dynamic besides one or both of them just being an asshole. Maybe they think that's what's up at first and then learn otherwise, but if their enemy status is based on something real, like they genuinely hate each other based on accurate knowledge about each other, I find it implausible and probably also difficult to like one or both of them.

That's part of why Snowbaz works for me: Baz and Simon's enemy status was imposed on them by a fucked up political system and abusive caretakers. Left to their own devices they'd probably never have been enemies. The reason for their animosity is not the core of who they are.

Friends with benefits: +2

Ehhh is it benefits to full on love? I don't really connect with allo perspectives on sexual relationships, like I get them intellectually but I don't jive with them on an emotional level, so there has to be that emotional draw for me, that underlying romance. I mean tho, @fatalfangirl stacy is writing an excellent fic on this premise right now that I absolutely love because there are clearly feelings involved. But it also might fall more into the realm of the next trope on this list ... which is ...

What Ashton said 😂 also props to fandom for teaching me that I am demisexual, and that this is not a default mode of existence.

Sex to feelings: [phone]

It's the fucking BEST. You get to read all the smut and then the climax ISN'T "and then we did it," it's "and then we were emotionally intimate." You get to be horny and a sap.

I also think this trope inherently pushes writers' creativity because the relationship's progression can't follow standard mainstream romance beats. And the sex scenes usually have narrative significance by showing how the relationship is changing, which produces great writing.

Fake dating/relationship: +5

Yes, especially if there's lots of pining along the way! @captain-aralias's Unintended is a great example.

Friends to lovers: +3

I wouldn't say I seek this out specifically but there are so many great fics with this tag. Here are a few (but not all) of my favorites: I'd Gladly Eat You for Breakfast by @whogaveyoupermission What Remains After the Storm by @hushed-chorus Sixty Seconds by @artsyunderstudy Petrichor by @martsonmars And again Unintended by @captain-aralias

Found Family: +1

It's fine? I love moving proofs of love and affection outside of romance, but whether it's in something that fits the label "found family" or not is important to me.

Hurt/Comfort: +10

PUT IT DIRECTLY. INTO MY MOUTH. I am a fucking sap for hurt/comfort. It gives me the swoops. There is fucking nothing I like better than lovers (or almost lovers) comforting each other and taking care of each other, emotionally, physically, spiritually, whatever. It's sexy to me. It affects me deeply.

#WhatAshtonSaid. I literally have a WIP going where someone says "who did this to you??" just because I love it so much. I'm pretty sure Nightmares and Excuses was the first fic that made me cry. (It's not hard to do.)

Love Triangle: -8

Not my thing if there's genuine heartbreak / unrequited love floating around. That just bums me out. I get a kick out of the Agatha-Simon-Baz's confusion in CO, but only Penny thinks that's actually a love triangle. I think the only book I've ever loved with a "real" love triangle is Emma and even [SPOILER FOR 208-YEAR-OLD-BOOK] Harriet's not actually in love with Mr. Knightley, she just thinks she is.

Poly, open relationships: -4

Only if it's porn without plot and even then it's pretty rare that I'm into it. I'm not usually interested in sex scenes without a romantic/love element (even if that element is deeply repressed) and am personally very monogamous and have a hard time connecting with poly relationship themes. Which obviously does not mean that poly =/= emotional or romantic connection, not at all, it's just a tough one to wrap my head around.

@skee3000 nailed this for me in Minos, by having Simon and Baz connect with each other even as they have three-way with Mr. Minos, but now I'm conflating a threesome with poly/open relationships. Go read it anyway.

Mistaken/hidden identity: +2

Not sure I can think of a Snowbaz fic that focuses on this, although I'm sure there are some. I do like it when characters meet for the first time and are drawn to each other, only to learn that each other's larger identities make that complicated. And the trust issues that brings up. There are a couple of KJ Charles novels that deal with this really beautifully.

Monsterfucking: +5

I really love when monsterfucking is used as a way to celebrate difference and work through a character's feelings about their own body or its changes. This fandom does a great job with that. Otherwise I'm not drawn to any particular monsters for their monstery sake (but see: Minos's horns).

Pregnancy: -2

+8 for mpreg, -10 for other pregnancy.

I stalled out for two weeks on this post, wondering how to explain this without getting darker and more personal than I'd like. And then realized I don't have to explain 😃.

Second Chance: +7

Love it! I don't always have the heart to read the actual breakup, or falling out, or lost opportunity etc., but I love fics where that has already happened and we're seeing them put themselves back together. Some examples, that may or may not have this tag but definitely have this theme:

What's Left by @cutestkilla This Will All Go Down in Flames by @facewithoutheart There's Be Peace When You Are Done by somekindofpath Once More, with Feeling by fox_pitch

And probably countless others I'm forgetting.

Slowburn: +10

Yeah! I know I said I love sex before feelings but I love this too. (And I think they can be successfully combined into slow-feelings-burn.) There's nothing like a satisfying, well-earned payoff. I also admire well-executed slowburns because whenever I write a get-together fic I have to actively resist mashing their faces together in the first 100 words.

Soulmates: -1

In theory I don't love these. The red string, etc. It can just feel played out, and also the emotional logic of it is kind of alienating. I have a hard time putting my head into a world where people have these predestined connections and are trying to find each other because it's just so not how I see relationships. BUT when an author critically and playfully messes with the trope, it can be lots of fun. All This Soulmate Shit by half_witch mashes up a dozen different soulmate tropes to make something that's brilliant, funny, sexy, and feels like they are actively choosing each other rather than obeying destiny. I also adore Bound and Determined by @fatalfangirl for how it plays with the idea of free will and consent, which feel like soulmate-related theme. But it's probably not a coincidence that this fic doesn't have the "soulmates" tag.

That's a lot of me me me and what I think. What do YOU think, friends?

#tag game #trope grading game #navel gazing #simon snow fandom meta-talk

[longitudinalwaveme]

Polanski's Macbeth: A Rambling Review, Part 2

For some reason, Act IV Scene i involves dozens of witches in this version (including but obviously not limited to the main trio). For some reason, all of them are naked. Luckily, the angle of the shots keeps things from getting too uncomfortable, and the film thankfully shies away from having any of this be portrayed as sexy. It really just feels gratuitous—like they wanted to ensure they got an R rating or something. 

Also, the apparitions in this version occur after Macbeth drinks a potion that the witches give him. As a result, the prophecies in this version are basically the result of Macbeth going on a really bad drug trip. 

After the aforementioned really bad drug trip, we quickly transition to the Macduffs’ castle. The Macduffs seem to have three children in this version (a boy and two girls), and they’re all really really adorable. 

Lady Macduff actually appears older than Lady Macbeth in this version. Which makes sense, since this version of Macduff is also older than this Macbeth. 

Ross totally allows Macbeth’s assassins (seemingly a small army in this version) to invade the castle. Because he’s an unrepentant dirtbag in this film. 

For some reason, we get more gratuitous nakedness (this time of a literal child) right before everything gets horrible. It’s not super creepy in the context of the film, since the kid is taking a bath, and is generally angled to not be too obvious (thank goodness), but it is definitely creepy on the part of the filmmakers and I’m not sure what the point of including it was. Unless, as mentioned, they were really really desperate to get that R rating. 

Macduff’s son’s murder is about par for the course (so bad, but not too bad). However, this version of the attack on the Macduff’s castle also includes the horrific dismemberment of the two little girls (we see their bodies onscreen–yikes) and the heavily implied rape of one of the servants. Oh, and the castle gets set on fire. It’s easily the most horrific scene in the movie. I think it works as an effective way of solidifying the horror of Macbeth’s rule, but it’s definitely a gutpunch of the highest order. And it’s not a scene I think I could watch again (at least not for awhile). 

We also don’t explicitly see Lady Macduff’s death. Which, given what’s shown happening to her servingwoman, is probably a mercy.

Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene also occurs when she’s naked for no clear reason. Again, it’s mostly not too revealing, but it seems gratuitous and unnecessary. It doesn’t add anything and it distracts from the main point of the scene. Maybe the director really was just determined to get that R….because the horrific violence and implied rape in the previous scene wouldn’t have done that? Or something? 

A lot of the scenes in the fourth and fifth acts get shuffled around a lot. It doesn’t impact the overall flow of the plot too much, but it’s definitely noticeable and I’m not sure why they chose this route. 

Lady Macbeth re-reads the letter from her first scene right before she commits suicide. It’s an effective “come-full-circle” moment and the actress does a great job with her obvious distress. 

This is one of the few versions I’ve seen where Macbeth actually starts acting like the decadent ruler Malcolm describes him as (even though that description isn’t in this version because like 90% of Malcolm’s lines got cut here). When he’s screeching at his scared servant, he also aggressively shoves his face with chicken, and he’s gathered a whole entourage of sycophants who laugh loudly at everything he does. 

Act IV Scene ii is not only shifted around to take place later in the film than it does in the play, but the first half is cut entirely. As a result, the majority of Malcolm’s lines and all the interesting character stuff that this scene gives Malcolm are lost. 

Ross defects to Malcolm’s side for no clear reason (beyond maybe wanting to be on the side of the winners) and receives no comeuppance for being directly responsible for the murders of Banquo and Macduff’s entire family. He even has the nerve to tell Macduff about his family’s death as if he wasn’t involved! If the idea was that he didn’t expect the sheer level of slaughter and felt bad about it, thus prompting his change in allegiances, his actor doesn’t portray it very well. 

Macduff’s actor, on the other hand, handled his grief very well indeed.

We don’t actually get to see Lady Macbeth’s suicide, but we do get to see her body afterward. It’s heavily implied that she jumped off of a high part of the castle. It’s also one of the few performances I’ve seen to show her body. 

Every single person in Dunsinane except Macbeth flees the castle as soon as the Birnam Wood army gets close to it. It’s kind of hilarious watching them all collectively decide to ditch Macbeth and get to safety rather than fighting to the death for their murderous boss. One of the sentinels even shoots Seyton in the head to prevent him from delaying or stopping their escape! 

The Macbeth/Young Siward fight scene is short, effective, and brutal.

The fight between Macbeth and Macduff, although obviously much longer, is also brutal and effective. It’s not at all glamorous and really drives home just how ugly hand-to-hand combat can get. 

That being said, since Macbeth is fighting entirely alone in this version, it does kind of make you wonder why all the other knights and soldiers just stand around and watch Macdutff fight Macbeth rather than just collectively dogpiling him or something.

#macbeth #shakespeare #tw violence #tw child death #seriously this is one of the darkest version of Macbeth I've seen. #review #sort of

[breannacasey]

my five favourite fics i've written (for writer appreciation day)

Tagged by @ravens-words

Unleashed, M, 53 452 words (Prodigal Son)

Malcolm. If there was anyone Martin would go after, it was him. Jessica just knew it. And she wasn't the only one. Gil agreed. And that was why she could spend so much time worrying about Ainsley. Because Malcolm was in good hands. Gil wouldn't let him out of his sight, he would protect him no matter what. She knew he loved him like a son, he wouldn't let anything happen to him. Martin couldn't possibly enter a police precinct and walk out of there still free and with Malcolm, no matter how charming and manipulative he was.

In Cicatrices Amor, T, 26 497 words (911)

“Woah, what does your soulmate do?” Buck’s co-worker asked that night when he showed her the round scars on his shoulder and wrist.

“I don’t know, Bea, but I’m not crazy, right? That does look like a gunshot wound, right?”

He shook the drink he was making, poured it in a glass and handed it to the customer. He grabbed the tip and slipped it in their tip jar for them to split later. Then he started on the next drink.

“What kind of person gets shot three times like that? And no kill shot? Did they avoid them? Are they trained for it, or used to it?” She stopped, setting both her hands down on the side of the bar and staring straight into his eyes. “What if your soulmate is a spy?”

“With my luck they’re probably a criminal or something.”

“Oh, come on, Buck, you’re ruining all the fun. Maybe they’re in the army. See, that’s more realistic.”

“Sweet, an army person, who could die any minute, lucky me.” He said, louder to cover the sound of the mixer Beatriz was using.

“An army person who’s loyal, in shape and sexy as hell.” She corrected him as she passed him in their small booth to hand over that piña colada.

The Potion Master's Daughter, T, 67 001 words (Harry Potter)

When Snape told Dumbledore about his daughter, the headmaster said he’d watch over her during potion classes. He never even hesitated to accept a baby into the castle. He was happy to accommodate his new teacher and, to be honest, he’d always wanted a child and this was the closest he’d ever be to actually have one. Until Harry Potter came to Hogwarts a decade later. Severus would always remember the time he arrived in Dumbledore’s office after his last class of the day and the headmaster was losing his mind trying to make three-year-old Adriana stop crying after she’d witnessed Fawkes catching into flames for the first time. She calmed down as soon as her father picked her up.

Curve Ball Field, T, 7 196 words (Limitless)

Brian felt dizzy. His head was throbbing from the hit they’d given him to knock him out. He’d been passed out since they drove away from the loft, which was more than inconvenient. If he’d been conscious, he would’ve paid attention to the movements of the van, he could’ve mapped their trajectory, he could’ve figured out where he was now. But he had nothing to go on. Not even the tiniest hint at where he’d been brought, or what kind of place it was even. Was it an apartment, a house, a warehouse? There was no way to know.

What Grows Within the Stacks, G, 2442 words (Roswell New Mexico)

Alex stood and Michael shifted his position. He’d been sitting on the other side of a stack of books, watching unseen, and he had no intention of being spotted. He’d stumbled upon one of Alex’s story times a few months ago, by accident, and had been mesmerised by his voice, by his ability to keep the attention of an entire group of children, by his talent to impersonate every character of the story. He’d kept coming back to listen in secret ever since.

Tagging @marjansmarwani @oneawkwardcookie @lire-casander @djdangerlove @bibright @detective-giggles @morganaspendragonss @noxsoulmate @sneetchestoo @terramous

#tag game #my writing #my post #two romantic aus and two kidnapping fics yup i love what i love i guess #and yes those are my three longest fics there #it's a coincidence #my second longest really is twice the length as the third longest #and yes i've done this before and picked differently my faves change with my mood

[heronducks]

THE LAST HOURS AS VINES

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

Matthew: hey guys I'm really sad

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

James: is there anything better than p*ssy

James: yes, a really good book

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

Christopher: look at this graph

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Matthew (to alastair): imma fuckin ripp your face off, bitch

Christopher: what did he do?

Matthew: cause he fuckin pushed me!

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

Christopher: haha thAt is not cOrreCt

Christopher: because according to the encyclopedia of pdldkskoajd

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Matthew: people are constantly asking what it's like to be a sexy–

Matthew: *trips and falls*

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Charles: no off topic questions

Charles: because I don't want to

Charles: no that– no

Charles: permission denied

Charles: that's an off topic question, next

Charles: you have been stOPPed

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Cordelia: hey everyone today my brother pushed me so I started a kickstarter to put him down

Cordelia: the benefits of killing him would be I would get pushed way less

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Anna: hey I'm lesbian

Christopher: I thought you were american british

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Christopher: would you rather kill alastair or–

Matthew: yes. kill him.

Christopher: I didn't say the other–

Matthew: I don't need to hear it.

Alastair: feeling a little unsafe...

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Anna: oh so you're not coming to my tea party?

Anna: Cordelia, I MADE BISCUITS

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Matthew: I don't sing in the shower

Matthew: i PERFORM

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Alastair: stop saying I look like chicken little

Alastair: he's dumb and he's a coward

Alastair: and I'm NOT a coward

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Christopher: an avocado thanksss

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James and Cordelia: *kissing in the whispering room*

Matthew: wtf is this allowed

Matthew: wtf... is that allowed

Cordelia: stOp

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

*the first time in the hell ruelle*

Malcolm: has anybody ever told you you look like beyoncé

Cordelia: nah they usually tell me I look like cordelia

Malcolm: who the fuck is that

Cordelia: me

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Alastair: oh hi thanks for checking in I'm still a piece of garbage

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Matthew: so I'm sitting there, bbq sauce on my tiddies

James: *rolling on floor laughing*

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James: *shoots a chandelier with a pistol*

Lucie: THIS IS WHY MOM DOESN'T FUCKING LOVE YOU

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Matthew: Well, when life gives you lemons

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Thomas: road work ahead?

Thomas: uh yeah I sure hope it does

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Matthew: and just remember

Matthew: nobody is gonna hate you more than you already hate yourself

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Christopher: HEY HEY HEY

Thomas: shhh james is sleeping

Christopher, whispering: sorry

Thomas, also whispering: what's up?

Christopher, still whispering: there's a fire

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Lucie (about matthew and james): two bros chilling in a hot tub five feet apart cos they're not gay

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Matthew: oscar do you want the ball

Matthew: *throws ball into a tower of bottles*

Oscar: *jumps to catch the ball*

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James: uaAAAAHHH

Matthew: staaahhhp I coulda dropped my croissant

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jesse: *sneaking on tiptoes through the house*

jesse: *trips and falls* ah fuck

lucie: who's there???

jesse: nobody fuck off

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James (to Will): you are my daaad

James: you're my dad!

James: boogie woogie woogie

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Matthew: *is asleep*

James: *pours water bottle on matthews head*

Matthew: hello?

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James (to alastair): I'm about to say it

James: I don't care that you broke your elbow

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Matthew: hey guys good alternative to recycling

Matthew: when you're done with a glass bottle, eat it

Matthew: fuckin eat the bottle

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Christopher, with his newly invented weapon: don't fuck with me I have the power of God and anime on my side

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Cordelia: hi im renata bliss and I'm your freestyle dance teacher

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Matthew: two shots of vodka

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James: don't tell your mother

Grace: kiss one another

James: DIE FOR EACH OTHER

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Thomas: man do you have any shaving cream?

Christopher: nah I don't like the way that it tastes

Thomas: wait you eat shaving cream

Christopher: no why would I eat it if I don't like the taste

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Grace: I spilled lipstick in your valentino bag

Tatiana: you spilled– whdoahdhskhaha liPSTICK in my vALENTINO WHITE BAG

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lucie to cordelia: dude I've heard rumors that these stairs are like haunted

lucie: apparently some guy died here when he was like 9 or something

jesse: im 17 so shut the fuck up

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

#omg this has been sitting in my drafts forever #like there arent even any choi related vines bc i forgot i had this here and now im too uncreative to add anything lol #the shadowhunter chronicles #tsc #cassandra clare #shadowhunters #the last hours #tlh #incorrect shadowhunters #incorrect tsc #incorrect tlh #matthew fairchild #james herondale #christopher lightwood #thomas lightwood #anna lightwood #cordelia carstairs #alastair carstairs #lucie herondale #jesse blackthorn #grace blackthorn

[tcm]

Island in the Sun: ‘One Drop’ in the Ocean By Theresa Brown

Let’s face it – America was not ready for Dorothy Dandridge.

Her beauty is undeniable. And, as Janet Jackson notes in her TCM tribute to Dandridge, Dorothy was a ‘triple threat’ with singing, dancing and acting in her repertoire. She just needed a chance to shine. Daughter of character actress Ruby Dandridge, Dorothy appeared in soundies and small uncredited parts throughout the 1940s. In BRIGHT ROAD (‘53) she plays a schoolteacher offering G-rated maternal love and understanding to her students in a rural school district. She really comes into prominence with Otto Preminger’s 1954 film CARMEN JONES. Sexy, sassy, fiery...dangerous, Dandridge swaggers like a gunslinger and sets the screen ablaze as the tempestuous Carmen. Her BRIGHT ROAD co-star, Harry Belafonte, is the hapless handsome soldier who tragically tangles with her. Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.

I rather enjoyed her next movie coming three years after CARMEN JONES, ISLAND IN THE SUN (’57). It’s sort of a PEYTON PLACE in the Caribbean with different storylines of politics, family secrets, murder and miscegenation weaving and wending their way around coconut trees and sugar cane plantations. May I offer one sticky wicket of a caveat? You’ll probably have to leave your 21st century racial perspective at home when you visit. The movie is 63 years old and does give a nod to all those antiquated racial tropes. My jaw dropped a coupla times.

Let me map out the scorecard for you. A Caribbean country is about to undergo the changeover from colony to independence. Pivotal in that change is union leader Harry Belafonte. Pre-dating Malcolm and Martin and today’s ‘social justice’ warriors, Belafonte’s character is interested in uplifting his people on the island. He has a casual relationship with Dandridge that doesn’t have enough fire to toast a marshmallow. What’s wrong with THAT picture? In the movie, he has history on the island with Joan Fontaine. There’s a tentative attempt to explore where they can go, but class and color are a bumpy road for them to hurdle (perhaps the script’s “convenient” way to keep them apart?). He’s more interested in power than romance. Gee, all that handsomeness gone to waste. I don’t know that Belafonte quite has any chemistry with Fontaine once you see Dandridge on his arm – or am I the only one blinded here? But Belafonte steps up his acting game opposite Academy Award-winner Fontaine.

Also in the cast, we have Stephen Boyd, ripe for the picking as the current governor’s son whose return to the island after months stationed in Egypt—without a woman in sight—is pointedly noted. He’s back on the island until he jets off to London. It’s said of him:

“A male, young, white, unmarried, titled and comparatively rich. Good heavens, what else do you think the girls would talk about.”

Boyd spots virginal-in-white Joan Collins at the Governor’s ball. Yes, you read that right – I said virginal and Joan Collins in the same sentence, and he’s interested. So is she. They start a slow-building romance. They don’t make themselves part of the island’s life. They’re into each other. Don’t worry, a freak-out lays ahead for them. Her brother is played by James Mason. They are heirs to the largest sugar cane plantation on the island and Mason’s a weakling. You know the type: the second son...ever second best...insecure...lots to prove. He has contempt for the islanders; suspects his wife of having an affair with the dashing, accomplished Michael Rennie; and decides to run as a political opponent to the popular Belafonte. Belafonte’s response:

“Wouldn’t it be fair to say the only reason you seek election is to revenge yourself upon the whites whom you now think despise you?”

Mason’s got a lot on his plate. (And it ain’t conch chowder).

When Dandridge first appears in the movie, she and Belafonte make a stunning couple entering the governor’s party. She immediately lets Belafonte know she has a mind of her own. She’s confident, truthful, tries to do herself some good pitching for a job in the governor’s office. She fits right into the tony setting with no apology...and wearing no maid’s uniform. She carries herself with quiet sophistication. She just is. She’s noticed by the governor’s military attaché (John Justin), and he immediately falls head over heels. I like Justin and Dandridge together. He’s not trying to keep their relationship secret. He might have one twinge of jealousy or discomfort, but all in all they’re fine together. You might think this interracial romance would be problematic as well but it’s not, compared to Belafonte and Fontaine. What’s the difference? Food for thought. But I think we all know why.

Justin: “Somewhere someone once said there’s always a point in the beginning of a love affair where a man can draw back. Where he’s still safe.”

Dandridge: “Is that what you want, to be safe?” 

Justin: “I’ve been in love. Funny, I don’t know anything about you.” Dandridge: “What would you like to know?” 

Justin: “All about you. Everything.” 

There is a moment with this couple I really like; it’s provocative in a non-provocative way. (No Spoiler!) Dandridge is lying fully clothed on Justin’s bed, reading his manuscript...with no shoes on. Big deal, right? I think it speaks tremendously to their level of intimacy. She’s at home in his space. When have you ever seen THAT in movies of the 50s...or 40s or 30s for that matter?

I like this Daryl Zanuck-production. It’s a colorful, lush, melodramatic production with racial and sexual tension, sexual restraint and good-looking people. Dorothy Dandridge is very easy to watch on film. Yes, she’s easy on the eyes, but she’s also not chewing the scenery and has a very natural presence on screen. You never see her act. I wish she’d done more. She’s not exotic. She’s just a woman...a human. She had many facets she could tap into to express different characters. I’m so glad TCM, with the guidance of acclaimed author Donald Bogle, spotlighted her career. This gets a wider audience to get to know her. No, America was not ready for Dorothy Dandridge.

But she wasn’t going to spend her time waiting for us.

#Dorothy Dandridge #Harry Belafonte #James Mason #Joan Collins #race #Hollywood Black #Black representation #racial #Fox #romance #Hollywood #old hollywood #film #melodrama #TCM #Turner Classic Movies #Theresa Brown

[fight-surrender]

5 Favorite Lines from 2020

Y’all! Thanks so so much for the tags @thehoneyedhufflepuff @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @captain-aralias @carryonmylovelies @amywaterwings @bazzybelle @parijpg @letraspal @ninemagicks @xivz (and frankly thanks to you and everyone else who wrote/made art this year. I love seeing/reading your work, it’s simply such a source of joy.)

Sorry I’m late to this party, I was out of town all week with no desktop access. Anyway, better late than never I suppose. I’m too far removed from writing these fics to truly remember favorite lines, so here are some that I particularly enjoyed writing. I’ve also realized that my faves are all dialogue...bc that’s sort of my thing :/

I’m putting this all under the cut, not for any reason other than to not clog your feed with my random musings...

1. I have to pick from Howlin’ Forever. My one completed multichapter fic where Simon gets Turned into a werewolf & Baz helps him through it & fluff ensues. Technically I started it in 2019 (which for me, frankly, was actually a far worse year than 2020 so that’s sayin’ something.) Chapter 11 may be my favorite chapter in the story, it was a joy to write (the whole fic was, really) Here’s one of my fave lines: 

“This was a slightly better than abysmal idea, for a first date, Snow.”  I say, snuggling closer to him.

He gently pulls my hair aside, placing featherlight kisses to my neck. “Mmm, you can plan the next one.” A kiss under my jaw. “Something sexy and academic, like the reading room at the British Museum.”

“Museums are sexy,” I say as I turn to face him, “And don’t forget libraries. So hot.”

Fun fact: one of my favorite comfort fics is “The Sky Isn’t Black Anymore” by the incredibly talented @captain-aralias, there’s a moment where Simon pulls Baz’s hair back to kiss his neck over his shoulder and I loved that mental image so much I added it here. 

2. I’m just scrolling through my work now. This was from Close Encounters, a fic I wrote for @bazzybelle‘s bday, this whole exchange just cracked me up: 

“I know my pecs are a work of art, Simon, but my eyes are up here.”

“No, I mean yeah, but—” His mouth curls into a sneer as he leans in, poking at a spot just to the side of my right nipple. “Is that a—” Snow flicks his finger, like he’s trying to rub off a piece of lint. “White chest hair?”

Fucking hell. “Where?”

“Right there,” Simon is still pointing, “I didn’t even know that was a thing. I mean I know people get white head hair, but—” His brows nearly touch as he looks up at me, “People get white hair everywhere?”

“Hair is hair, Snow. It’s all subject to the fickleness of melanin, you nightma—” Simon’s eyes widen, and his hands go to his mouth.

“Oh my God,” he laughs, pointing again, this time at my crotch. “That’s why you started shaving your pubes, isn’t it?”

My mouth drops and I feel my face heat.

“All that naff about ‘enhanced sensation’ was total bollocks wasn’t it?”

3. Ok these lines are a bit long. Sorry. This is from a fic I wrote early in the pandemic called Love In the Time of Quarantine. The inspo for this line came from Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (from Charlie’s dad) The visual of Malcolm saying this makes me happy. 

“There will be no hanky panky in this house.” Malcolm Grimm is tutting at us and shaking his finger for emphasis. “No. Hanky. Panky.”

4 This one’s from another early quarantine fic- Everything and More. I think the idea of Simon & Baz curling up and watching Tiger King together is really funny. 

“Sounds like we’ve got our evening cut out for us then.” Snow heads into the kitchen. “Bagsy the remote. We’re totally watching another Tiger King.”

“Merlin,” I sigh, “I may need more than beer and wine to get through another episode of that train wreck.”

“That bitch Carole Baskin,” Simon shouts, (in a dreadful approximation of an American accent) his head buried in the fridge, “Totally fed her husband to the tigers.”

5. This one is from my Whumptober collection, West Texas Skies (It was named after the prompts but I just renamed it). I’m not sure I have a favorite line, I really like the vibe of this whole fic and think I want to get back to it someday. 

Baz makes his way up my porch steps. He stubs his cigarette out on on his boot and tosses it in the yard.

“Dude, littering.”

“Oh, sorry.” Baz lopes back down the stairs. He picks up the butt and looks around for a receptacle. Finding nothing, he pockets it and slouches over to the chair next to mine. He picks up my mug and drains it. His hand trembles when he returns the mug to the table. Nerves? Hunger? Thirst?

“The fuck, Baz?” Shep takes this opportunity to exit the premises, slinking off the deck to check on the goats. My heart is beating like a jackrabbit and I simply cannot think. Baz Pitch is here. Alive (ish). Drinking my whiskey. He smells the same, Marlboro red and black tea. He’s that close.

I want to take him in my arms, smooth the hair from his face, taste his skin. I close my eyes. Breathe. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Anyway. Happy New Year to all of you in the CO/WS fandom. You guys are such an amazing, talented group of people. I love and appreciate you all. 

#top five lines meme #tag game #carry on #simon snow #baz pitch #my fics

[juvinadelgreko]

Arrow 7x17: They’ve Really Fucked Up This Time, Haven’t They?

I mean...is anyone surprised? If you think about it, there wasn’t much else for them to do with Emiko. She had shock value and intrigue at the beginning of the season, and after that...then what? Oh yeah, let’s make her the Big Bad. Which, I gotta give it to them, actually makes sense. By the way, if something gets repeated or omitted strangely, it’s because Tumblr kept crashing and wouldn’t save my shit so I had to retype about half of this a second time around.

The Assorted Queen Family Members:

- I really loved Oliver and Emiko’s opening scene. Though...Oliver, honey, aren’t you hot in what looks like a Henley and a sweater? Take it off...maybe?

- Trainer!Oliver talking about fighting styles will never not be sexy.

- I knew the second I saw this promo that Emiko was a bad egg.

- As predictable as this was, it was set up nicely and logically. Diaz’s assassination was well-timed and plausible, the exposition of Emiko’s childhood all fit into things nicely.

- But damn, the only real shocker to me was the map of the Queen’s Gambit.

- So you’re telling me that Emiko and Dante helped out with the sinking? I know Robert mentioned the trip to her, but I have some questions:

1. Was Emiko in on the plan? Or did she just sell Malcolm Merlyn the explosives and all of this was massively coincidental?

2. I think that’s highly unlikely, given the timing. I think the Ninth Circle planted the explosives for Merlyn, something Emiko was all too eager to do.

- “Queen Consolidated is for Oliver.”

- “Women really can have everything!” I love you, Felicity Smoak. I love that you get your tech company and that you get to do it with your bestie.

- There was a dissappointing lack of Olicity in this episode, but it wasn’t like the disconnect we felt in 7x10-12–this time, while they weren’t in direct interaction, they were at least in each other’s orbits.

- I LOVED the parallels drawn between this situation and the Andy Diggle debacle.

Dinah and Laurel:

- I’m pretty sure the only purpose of this story line was to set up 7x18. Which I’m made excited about for 2 reasons:

- We’ll finally untangle all of BS’s BS.

- MY QUEEN SARA LANCE.

What this all means for Star City 2040:

- I think we have our answer for What The Hell Happened To Star City?

- Emiko stole Archer for Dante. That’s it.

- Felicity tells everyone at the beginning of the episode that the Ninth Circle has been responsible for centuries of social upheaval and reformation. Dante uses Archer to bomb Star City and rebuild the Glades via extermination of vigilantism.

- When OTA + Co. hear this, they scoot.

- As predicatable as all this Emiko stuff was, I’m actually really impressed with how it all fits together. Because, if you squint, this is all Robert Queen’s fault. He abandoned Emiko and made an enemy. And while it could be argued that none of this would’ve happened if Rebecca Merlyn hadn’t been shot, Emiko still would’ve. Robert Queen’s simple mistake of abandoning his child may bring about the destruction of everything he held dear. I mean, damn.

—

See everyone on the 15th in our new time slot!

@msbeccieboo @it-was-a-red-heeler @allimariexf @lucyyh @swordandarrow @hope-for-olicity @babblingblondegenius @tangled23works @smoakmonster @emeraldoliverqueen @felicityqueen @kak430 @icannotbelieveiamhere @stephswims @faegal04

#arrow #oliver queen #olicity #felicity smoak #arrow season 7 #john diggle #emiko queen #star city 2040 #olicity fic #arrow 7x17

[murfeelee]

Shadowhunters - RANT ALERT

lifeasasim replied to your photoset “Yasumi no Edo - Pt2c ( Tōkyō Dizunīrando no Hanabi) The special…”

WHY TF ARE THEY CANCELING THE SHOWWWW

Because Freeform’s too dang stupid to know not to bite the hand that feeds it, that’s why!

These articles (X X) are giving me ulcers. I can’t believe this is happening. I just can’t. They’re cancelling my show. We won’t get Season 4.

They’re stopping Season 3B at City of Heavenly Fire, and not adapting the other books. So does this mean no Malec adopting their sons? No Malec proposal? No Malec wedding? Are y’all serious right now?

They had the nerve to push back the airing of Season 3B --  Todd & co. had originally said that it would air this August, but that tweet was deleted hella fast, and now they’re saying 3B won’t air till Spring 2019! JESUS! O_O First that long hiatus waiting for 3A, and now this!? Waiting a whole year for a show that’s gonna be cancelled right after 3B finally airs!? WTF!?

So, what am I supposed to do -- sit here and stew in my depression!?

This is hell.

This is LITERAL HELL, people.

I’m so mad at Freeform & Netflix, I don’t even have the words. It’s corporate shenanigans and power plays, plain and simple. Netflix didn’t get what they wanted, Freeform couldn’t see a good deal staring them right in the frikkin face, so the whole thing blew up with the show being cancelled over sheer pettiness and greed.

We had SO MUCH MORE to look forward to! And now they’re gonna squeeze everything into 3B and call it done!? Cassandra Clare is still writing! We got 2 new big bads in the Shadow World to look forward to, with Malcolm Fade and the Unseelie King! That was gonna be AWESOME! And Cassie’s releasing an entire book about Malec!  THE MATERIAL~~~! U_U

Why can’t Freeform just fork over the licensing rights and give the show over to a company that actually wants to work with it?!

Freeform didn’t promote Shadowhunters at all. I can't tell y'all how many ads I’ve passed by every day while riding the train to for their new show Cloak & Dagger -- I kept mistaking the white-haired girl in the photos for Danaerys Targaryen (which I know they’re doing on purpose, effing click bait). I saw a few for Siren, too. But in all these years though I have NOT ONCE seen a single ad for Shadowhunters while walking around in NYC. NOT ONE.

Apparently Netflix & some other networks I think were advertising the show internationally (where the bulk of the fanbase is located), and kudos to them or whatever, but at this point, I don’t even want Netflix to pick up Shadowhunters; they’re the petty arsewipes who pulled the funding in the first place! I’d prefer some other network like Hulu, The CW, or MTV get it, tbh.

People were speculating that maybe HBO or SyFy could take it, but I don’t really think either of those are viable options. I mean...lbr SyFy’s not exactly known for making that many very good original shows.... >_>

Shadowhunters started off real crunchy in Season 1 (everything from the CG to the directing/writing to the acting was very amateur), and idek if SyFy could keep up the upward momentum and higher quality that Season 2 and especially S03A delivered. And on that same note, I doubt HBO would want it, not when they’ve got powerhouses like Game of Thrones over there doing The Most and making that bookoo money.

But at this point, I don’t even care. Networks save the shows they want to save. Even if a zillion fans scream and shout bloody murder, if the showrunners & co don’t get those coins rolling in, the show will be dropped like a hot potato. Gold. Just thrown down the drain. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.

Burke said the network is at peace with the decision ... “They delivered what the fans wanted...I remember being at Comic-Con and seeing the excitement for the show and thinking, ‘This could be our Supernatural,'” referring to the genre staple that the CW just renewed for its 14th season.

Yeah, YOU THOUGHT. Supernatural’s on it’s 666th frikkin season, meanwhile Freeform couldn't find its own arse with both hands in broad daylight to do anything to keep promoting the show and get the funds and support to renew it for Season 4!

This all just blows my mind though. Shadowhunters is THE most popular (and frankly, only RELEVANT) show on Freeform. It’s been carrying the network this whole time! How do they not have the money!? Malec literally singlehandedly won them a dang GLAAD award!

And you know what KILLS ME is that not only are they taking away the show, but they’re depriving me of one of my all-time favorite fictional characters EVER.

My beautiful, freewheeling bisexual Asian High Warlock of Brooklyn. That flawless bish, that sexy beast, that campy queen, that quite magical wonderful beautiful waking dream of a man.

Harry’s portrayal of Magnus is  just dripping in charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent; I can’t. And to be BRUTALLY honest, Magnus is the only reason I kept watching the show. Harry Shum Jr was holding it down in Season 1 -- if it wasn't for him acting the roof off in every single scene, I wouldn’t have kept watching at all. Season 1 wasn’t that good, and that’s the T.

I didn’t like most of the other characters. I hated every single Shadowhunter -- including Alec (Izzy was hot though), and if Valentine wasn’t a racist bigot I’d be on his side and be like: just kill all these Shadowhunters, girl, bye~~!

So it just shocks me to my core that Freeform would make a move like this. Malec carried that whole show. No one cares about Clace. Climon was anathema. Sia’s cute and all, but lbr everyone’s sitting on pins & needles just waiting for Sizzy to rise. Only reason I even heard of this show was because a bunch of the fanfic authors & fan-artists I’m subscribed to at AO3 started writing Malec fics, which I was skipping over at first, but then the fandom blogs I follow here on Tumblr kept reblogging The Wedding scene, and I was like WTF IS THIS.

The most iconic episode of Shadowhunters was literally titled MALEC! XD Freeform, you had GOLD! DIAMONDS. Recognition. Representation. Stupid.

This whole cancellation controversy smells like network stunts and shows. They’re doing this on purpose. And during PRIDE MONTH, no less. WOW. How skeevy can y'all get?

I’m thoroughly disgusted.

So, yeah. That’s the state of things right now. I'M VENTING.

I’m just very upset, because Malec is one of my top favorite ships. But regardless of whether the show is killed off for good or not, I’m gonna keep posting my TS3 Malec Gameplays, the same way I do for my Nagron Gameplays (Spartacus ended in like 2013, and I’m still here, so.... :P ).

I’m just apologizing in advance to all my followers both here and at my Personal blog and Wishes blog -- I’m gonna be reblogging a lot of posts, to do my part in keeping #SaveShadowhunters trending as much as I can during this year effing long hiatus. So if those who follow me don’t care about all this...oh well.

#saveshadowhunters #pickupshadowhunters #shadowhunters #malec #LGBTQIA #replies #RANT ALERT #saltier than a cup of cup noodles

[askdawnandvern]

Gazelle: Mi Peqeuno Amor is a very passionate mammal. He may be small in size, but he has a ferocious spirit.

Judy: I suppose that's one way of putting it. At least, based on what I've seen.

Dawn: Yes....Finnick is fairly...er...loud.

Gazelle: *giggle* It's true. But I like that about him. And when it comes to other males making a pass at me, which I can tell you happens quite a bit in my line of work, Mi Amor explodes on them. *Laughs* I've even see my own dancers cower under that voice of his.

Judy: How...er...endearing.

Gazelle: It is wholly unnecessary, I've dealt with that sort of thing for years. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it sexy in a way.

Judy: Nick is sort of the opposite. He's very...quiet when it comes to being protective. It's all about his body language and gestures.

Dawn: You mean like he puts an arm around you if he see's a ram looking for too long? Maybe brings you in a little closer?

Judy: Yes! Exactly! It's like subconscious! He doesn't even notice, but I do! Aside from the 'ram' part.

Dawn: Vernon's the same way. In the rare instance a ram is looking at me with a bit too much of a leer, Vernon will pull me just a bit closer. Sometimes I can swear I even hear him growl a little bit. All the while he's not even really aware of it. It's...kind of cute honestly.

Judy: nick actually curled his tail around me once while we were ordering a coffee because the rabbit barista was 'a bit too friendly'. *giggle*

Dawn: Have you brought it to Nick's attention?

Judy: Yes I have, but he flatly denies doing it. Even when I've caught him in the middle of it, he tries to play it off as something else.

Dawn: *giggles* When I told Puppy Love about it he felt bad. He knows I'm kind of sensitive about feeling 'powerless' and having others protect me, so he promised to try to stop doing it...but to be honest...I do kinda like it.

Judy: *Laughs* So did you tell him that?

Dawn: Well...no...I just sort of stopped pointing out when he did it by accident, so without that he slips up more often than he probably would. *Giggle*

Clover: You probably don't want to hear that Cameron is sort of the same way. Silently protective. And I happen to find it just as endearing as the rest of you.

Dawn: Wait, why wouldn't I want to hear that?

Clover: Well, I know you don't care to have my relationship with Cameron compared to yours Dawnie.

Dawn: Just the more....er...personal details.

Clover: Like the fact that I also find it to be kind of a turn on?

Dawn: Yes Mom, exactly like that.

Ada: As ya can imagine Yuri is da hot tempered type. So if any guy even lingas lookin' at me for too long Yuri gets into it wit 'em.

Dawn: That's not surprising.

Ada: I can't tell youse how many scenes he's caused 'defendin' me' from udda males.

Vanna: Don't tell me he gets into actual fights.

Ada: Aw, he ain't dat dumb. He's just good at shoutin' guys unda! And den I make a big stink about him embarassin' me in public.

Dawn: So it's not a turn on for you then?

Ada: Oh it is, when we get home we's rut like a hare in heat! It's just part a duh performance!

Vanna: It always has to be games for you two...

Ada: I ain't da one who roared at a she-wolf fer offerin' Zach a coffee at da office.

Dawn: Wait...what?

Vanna: I...Sh-she's always being overly nice to Zach! Like, not in a 'co-worker' way! It's like she actively ignores our tithe!

Ada: Uh-huh...*rolls eyes*

Vanna: I had to put her in her place!

Qali: Yeesh.

Dawn: Vanna...

Vanna: He...Zach found it sexy though...*smirk*

Girls: *laughter*

Vanna: But Zach isn't really worried about me, at least it seems that way. If he's protective in that way, he's good at hiding it.

Qali: Trenny is more for the silent angry threats.

Ada: Silent and angry?

Qali: Yeah, like, he'll get a fox that was ogling me in his arm, like he's leaning on a close friend, and he'll whisper a bunch of stuff into his ear.

Dawn: What does he say?

Qali: I don't know, he won't tell me. But I'll say I've never seen a tod’s hackles go up faster then when Trenny starts chatting them up.

Girls: *Giggling*

Audrey: I think he picked that up from his Pa. Dori kinda does a mixture of whisperin' threats and quiet little movements like Verny. Never fails to get me all tingly...

Girls: *Giggling*

Qali: I'd have to agree when it comes to Trenny.

Giselle: Wade is more of a prankster I think when it comes wif puttin' down other fellas who try their hoof at wooin' me. Granted, sticking a leg out to trip someone without them knowin' is rather easy to do with a giraffe.

Dawn: Wait? Wade trips them?

Giselle: Or finds some excuse to give the boys a ticket.

Ada: Ah, Dat's awesome!

Giselle: I think it's a little much. I mean, me little Wadey has nothing to worry about with me. I love that little bloke, and knowing he's nervous about other males sniffing around me makes me feel bad rather than excites me.

Malcolm: Same, Xavey gettin' possessive ain't to much of a turn on fer me. But that's because he gets quiet and defensive after the fact. Like he won't say anythin' if someone is flirtin' with me, but then later he'll ask why I was bein' so friendly back when someone was flirtin' with me.

Dawn: Oh my, he's 'that' sort of possessive.

Malcolm: Aw don't fret Darlin', It don't happen very often, and even when it does we never get into a big bruhaha. It's more about me havin' to console the poor boy because he feels like he ain't good enough for me sometimes.

Qali: Aww...

Malcolm: I always tell him 'Fluffybuns, were tithed. I chose y'all because I wanted to be with y'all fer life and I damn well meant it. If anythin' I don't deserve y'all, now give me a hug.'

Dawn: Does that work?

Malcolm: If it don't on it's own, makin' his favorite food always seals the deal. There ain't nothin' some good ol' fashioned home cookin' can't fix.

#Zootopia #zoosona #Assistant Mayor Bellwether #Judy Hopps #gazelle zootopia #ask blog #askdawnandvern #dawn bellwether #wastedtimeee

[elescritora]

A. Malcolm - 3x06 musings

I've just watched 3x06 again, and here are some fresh thoughts - fresh in they I don't think they've been rehashed to kingdom come by every single fan who ever fanned. It's a curse, not getting to see the show til Tuesday nights.

Geordie is hilarious and Claire is totally going to cure that goiter. The end.

Ok, not really the end.

I'm calling any OOC moments for Jamie in the print shop 'shock'. Sometimes he was emoting like mad and sometimes he felt a bit icy. Shock could do that. They're cute though. Claire's so nervous and hopeful and gorgeous and doubting herself and insecure and proud, and Jamie's so 'what the fuck?! Give my mind a moment to catch-up! Ok, it’s caught up and I want you. But I'm conflicted! Halp!’

Cait acting with her chin all through this episode - that chin deserves awards all by itself, let alone put together with the rest of her. I do love me a good chin wobble.

Fergus - everyone has been rabbiting on about how gorgeous Cesar is for months now, but honestly, I was just a bit meh. But now I've seen him in action - awww, he's wee Fergus all grown up! Didn't he catch Romann's mannerisms well? He's lovely, and I loved his and Claire's reunion, although I wish we'd seen a bit more of her missing him or telling Bree about him in the previous episodes.

Fergus isn't stupid though, he grew up as a pickpocket and is used to intrigue, plus he knows Claire's glass face - and boy, was it glass when she was making up her story about where she'd been for 20 years. Every man and his dog could tell that was a bullshit story, so surely he knows she's lying. So does this mean Fergus will he find out about her time-travelling abilities sooner than in the book? It never rung true to me that he was the last to know - actually, did he even find out ever? It would be another thing for him to bond over with Murtagh when they finally catch up. OMG, Murtagh and Fergus reunion! I hadn't really thought much about it but how awesome and cute and gruff is that going to be?

I also loved Fergus going back in for the second hug with his cute little grin. Maman's boy!

From his convo with Fergus and a few other hints dropped along the way, it sounds like Jamie is already trying to extricate himself from the marriage to Laoghaire. He's inherently honourable, so I don't see him leaving for no reason or just because he's unhappy - living apart perhaps, but not divorce, and if he's speaking to Ned Gowan then it sounds like he's taking legal proceedings. So I reckon divorce is on the cards. What happened to push him that far? Perhaps the show writers are trying to get around having him know what Laoghiare did to Claire, by having had him marry Laoghaire under duress or false pretenses? Considering his stall and quick acquiescence to 'not rush things' when Claire asks him what he did 'when he had the need', it makes me wonder if perhaps he once had sex with Laoghaire 'as a brute, blind with need' and she in her desperation/need for someone to support her family/long-lost love/delusions used this to make him marry her. The only thing compelling enough to make Jamie overcome his dislike and distrust of her (or rather, try to learn to live with them) would be pregnancy. Did Laoghaire fake a pregnancy to get Jamie to marry her? And then pretended she lost the baby and Jamie found out the truth - and how long after the fact? I mean, it might have been real, but I don't know if Jamie would go to divorce in that instance, cos he'd feel bad for Laoghaire. To take it to the next level, did Jamie even have sex with her or did she make that up too?

Is it wrong that I'm hoping this happened? It's one of the only ways I can think of for the show to justify Jamie marrying Laoghaire while knowing all along that she tried to have Claire burned at the stake. Like, that's the only reason it was acceptable in the book - because he was unaware of this. But since he definitely knows in the show... I hope I'm right!

Yi Tien Cho was better than in the books, but it would be hard to get worse. I think he still came off as a second-class citizen and Jamie still spoke patronisingly to him. So that sucked a bit. Hoping it improves.

All the sexy times were seriously some of the least gratuitous sex scenes I've ever seen, and they lasted for ages so you'd think they'd eventually cross the line to tits and arses just for the sake of them at some point, but I really didn't feel like they did. It was hot as, of course, but there was just so much development of the characters and their connection that it all felt beautifully necessary. I even got a bit watery-eyed at a few points on the first watch, and I am pretty sure I can say that's the first time I've ever nearly cried while watching fictitious characters bonk. I mean bond. Via sexy times.

I wasn't in love with all the cinematographic choices though. There were a few really long lingering shots of body parts that I thought were overdone - like a big pan down Jamie’s back, where they were initially following Claire's hand, but that went mostly out of frame, so there was just scar city and nothing else for a while. (Which reminds me, earlier there was a shot of Jamie's back where he moved in such a way that the prosthetic scars folded a bit, and it was at the end of a shot so would have been so easy to cut so why didn't they, argh! Pay attention!) Aaaanyway, they then followed up by another big long shot of arms and necks - this time with Jamie's hand, but after a while that too became less of a focal point. Then it was just so much of Claire's shoulder. I know they were trying to break the shots up - like those shots of Claire's face were already super lingering - but I wish they'd been able to do something that focused more on the relationship rather than rando body parts.

Love how Claire is teary after their midnight chat about Bree. She misses her baby! I hope we get more Bree bonding and more of Claire missing her, and maybe telling Fergus about his baby sister!

Jamie's 'maybe I'm a ghost' statement got me wondering - what if there was a super angsty AU fic where all this was Claire inside her head? A dream, a hallucination..? Maybe she was seeing his ghost and hallucinated the rest around it to make it make sense?

Not a fan of what they've done to Madame Jeanne's character, she's a bit of a harpy and I don't remember that from the books. I loooooved the 'hoors though, that scene vies for my fave scene of the episode (admittedly it had numerous scenes as competition). So hilarious, love the facial expressions and the nether mouth line was brilliant and so well delivered.

Was Claire being choked or grabbed by the face in the last scene? Hard to tell with the lighting. My eyes say grabbed, but my ears (that noise Claire makes) say choked. Just, you know, for interests' sake. To distract me for gratuitous rape threats (the one bloody gratuitous scene in the whole episode!).

Overall, I liked it, job well done!

#outlander #outlander spoilers #outlander 3x06 #midnight musings #at 3:30am #cos finally I get a moment alone #everyone else is sleeping!

[mtwy]

People Magazine

USA September 2nd 1985

Welcome to the remaking of Apocalypse Now. —Sean Penn, addressing his wedding guests

From above the bluffs of Point Dume, Malibu, a half-dozen choppers filled with photographers sent down a windy backwash and a constant din. Below, at the huge wooden gates fronting real-estate developer Dan Unger’s $6.5 million home, blue-blazered guards oversaw an I.D. check of all who entered, while inside others prepared for the evening ahead by arming themselves with infrared binoculars to scan the perimeter for intruders. One interloper—an Italian photographer in camouflage gear and blackened face who had been hiding in the shrubbery since 1:30 in the morning—was ejected and his pictures of the blessed event were destroyed.

That event was the marriage of Madonna Louise Ciccone and Sean Penn, perhaps the oddest couple since Marilyn Monroe was blown away by Arthur Miller’s cerebellum. What did they see in each other, this gifted but reclusive film star who shuns publicity the way bats shun sunlight, and this sexy rocker who crafted her dare-to-tease image in the photographers’ flash? But here was the former at the media event of the summer and the latter dressed in antique tulle and bustle like any other blushing bride.

Except for the airborne intruders, this wedding would be done in private before about 220 friends, family and professional associates. Among the guests were the bride’s seven brothers and sisters, her 73-year-old grandmother, the groom’s family and a coterie of chums, including Rosanna Arquette (Madonna‘s Desperately Seeking Susan co-star), Christopher Walken, Carrie Fisher, Andy Warhol, Diane Keaton and Tom Cruise.

They had been arriving for more than an hour, filing past a legion of reporters at the gates, past the elaborate security checkpoint, and moving out to the poolside setting overlooking the Pacific. Finally, shortly before 6:30 p.m. the principals themselves appeared, Sean in a double-breasted $695 Gianni Versace suit he had bought off the rack one week earlier on Rodeo Drive, Madonna in a strapless Cinderella gown created by her Like a Virgin tour designer and video image-maker, Marlene Stewart. Madonna‘s French-twist hairdo was covered with a black bowler draped in cream-colored tulle, her trademark crucifixes discreetly discarded for a single long earring and an antique pearl bracelet. Draped across her dress like a beauty contestant’s sash was a silver-and-pink silk metallic net, dripping with encrusted jewels, pearls and dried roses. “We wanted a ’50s feeling,” designer Stewart would say later, “something Grace Kelly might have worn.”

With strains of Moments of Love drowned out by the choppers above, the bride walked down the grassy aisle on the arm of her father, then let go of his elbow and cheerily spoke her final words as a single woman: “Bye, Dad.” Flanked only by the best man, director James (At Close Range) Foley, who sported two weeks of whiskers and a dark-green linen suit, and the maid of honor, Madonna‘s sister Paula, the couple exchanged vows in a five-minute ceremony conducted by Judge John Merrick. Penn then lifted his wife’s veil and, to the accompaniment of the theme from Chariots of Fire, planted a kiss on her upturned lips, sparking a standing ovation.

Hey, you’ve done this before. Do you just cut one piece or do you have to slice up the whole thing? —Madonna asking Cher’s advice while cutting the cake

After the vows, waiters rushed out with trays of Cristal champagne and sushi, as Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly blared from loudspeakers. Moments later the newlyweds appeared on a balcony, just like Romeo and Juliet. Penn toasted “the most beautiful woman in the world,” and struggled playfully to remove her garter for the obligatory toss. The partygoers then adjourned to a white open-air tent and a feast prepared by Spago restaurant: a five-tier hazelnut wedding cake with sugar flowers, lobster ravioli, rack of lamb, swordfish and baked potatoes stuffed with sour cream and caviar. Table wines included an Acacia Pinot Noir from California’s Madonna Vineyard.

In the house an entire room had been set aside for wedding gifts. There was a 1912 antique silver tea service from John Daly, producer of Penn’s last film, The Falcon and the Snowman, and an antique jukebox with 24 of Madonna‘s favorite oldies from Mo Os-tin, chairman of Warner Bros. Records. A 12-place china setting in Madonna‘s registered Tiffany pattern courtesy of Playboy never materialized, despite rumors to the contrary. Just as well. Still peeved over the six-year-old nude pictures of her used by Playboy and Penthouse just last month, she had threatened to return any such peace offering (retail cost: $12,000) in shards.

Mad dog to mad dog one…do you copy? —Ground-to-air walkie-talkie transmission to a helicopter

Many of the guests had carried their presents with them, because the security-conscious invitations hadn’t provided an address. Instead, friends were summoned to a joint birthday party (her 27th, his 25th) and told to leave a number where they could be reached with directions.

As evening fell, guests moved to a parquet dance floor set up over the tennis courts and lit with pink floodlights. Disc jockey Terence Toy opened with a Swing-era tape, then switched to livelier fare—Motown’s greatest dance tunes and Madonna‘s own Into the Groove. The bride boogied with her usual enthusiasm, even lifting her layered skirt during one fast-moving number to reveal a flowered-brocade slip underneath. At about 10 o’clock, the get-together began its slow dissolve. “It was all very intimate, except for those obnoxious helicopters,” proclaimed departing Susan Seidelman, director of Desperately Seeking Susan. “A very classy affair,” said another guest. “Like Tiffany’s with just a dash of flash.”

That probably surprised some observers, especially those more familiar with the groom’s public truculence than his private charms. While establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s rising stars in films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Bad Boys and The Falcon and the Snowman, Penn has earned far fewer kudos for his antics offscreen. Notoriously camera-wary (with all but movie cameras), he has menaced most approaching photographers, refused interviews even to promote his films and last year irked Falcon studio execs by spending most of the movie’s premiere party behind a potted palm. Back home he tools about Hollywood with the Brat Pack, the stick-to-themselves—and equally publicity shy—group of actors that includes best-pal Timothy Hutton, Emilio Estevez and Cruise.

When Penn introduced himself to Madonna during the taping of her Material Girl video this year, it might have seemed to some like a meeting of the beauteous and the beastly. “I just remember her saying, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’ ” Penn told his wedding guests. He was smitten all the same. “Afterward I was over at a friend’s house, and he had a book of quotations. He picked it up and turned to a random page and read the following: ‘She had the innocence of a child and the wit of a man.’ I looked at my friend, and he just said, ‘Go get her.’ ”

The other relationships weren’t right because they weren’t fifty-fifty. This one is. Neither one of them is in control; she can learn from him, and he can learn from her. —Longtime Madonna friend Martin Burgoyne

The courtship had its rocky moments. She spent much of the time on tour pumping sales of her Like a Virgin LP (8.5 million so far). He was in Tennessee making At Close Range with brother Chris and Christopher Walken. On one of her visits there, the couple was approached by two British photographers and Penn reacted with typical fury, allegedly beating off his pursuers with a rock. He was arrested and faces assault charges in October as well as a $1 million civil suit from the Fleet Street journalists.

Luckily, Southern California seemed to have a soothing effect. Just before the wedding, the young lovers spent a lot of time together in Madonna‘s $1,350-a-month, two-bedroom apartment in the shadow of the famed Hollywood hillside sign. Close friends and those who have seen the couple together scoff at the suggestion that the pairing may be a publicity ploy. For one thing, Penn clearly wants no such attention. And, says a friend of the bride, “I’ve never seen two more passionate people. Forget about the superstar stuff; Madonna is a girl wildly in love.”

As their nuptials approached, the couple prepared like many lovers headed to the altar. In July Madonna attended a wedding shower held in the Upper East Side Manhattan apartment of Nancy Huang, girlfriend of Madonna‘s record producer, Nile Rodgers. On hand were a dozen pals, including singer Alannah Currie of the Thompson Twins and actress Mariel Hemingway, plus a half-dozen menfriends dressed in drag for the occasion. That was the only offbeat touch: The gift boxes contained lingerie, a quilt, a push-button phone (sequined), jewelry and other predictables.

Two days before her wedding the bride-to-be and about 10 pals held an old-fashioned bachelorette party at the Tropicana, a sleazy mudwrestling club in the sleaziest area of Hollywood. Wearing dark glasses, no makeup and her hair in a bun, the star who made her name in music sat and cheered two others who were making their mark in mud.

He’s a very nice guy. He reminds me of a little boy, like he’s 8 years old and he’s got so many cookies he doesn’t know what to do with them. —Stripper Kitten Natividad, describing Sean Penn

The groom, meanwhile, had other, though not entirely dissimilar, plans: an old-fashioned stag party, with entertainment by Kitten (42-24-36). Held in a private room above Hollywood’s Roxy nightclub, the boys’ night out attracted Chris Penn, actors Harry Dean Stanton, David Keith, Cruise and Robert Duvall, and Cameron Crowe, screenwriter of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Thanks to an open bar, “they were all pretty buzzed,” Kitten says of her audience. Sean “was feeling no pain. But he didn’t fall on his face or anything. When he talked, he made sense.”

Though Sean was slapping his thighs in glee when Kitten peeled all to the soon-to-be Mrs. Penn’s Material Girl, the evening produced few ungentle-manly moments. Harry Dean Stanton did arrive late, and when he entered, recalls Kitten, “Sean picked up my blouse and said, ‘See what you missed?’ ” Then he shoved Stanton’s face straight into Ms. Natividad’s ta-tas. She didn’t mind a bit. “Sometimes I do, but it was Sean’s night, and he could have done whatever he wanted to. That was about as wild as he got.”

Whether the months and years ahead with his hyper-visible mate will be any wilder—whether there will even be months, let alone years—only time will tell. In the afterglow their goal is a picture of togetherness. Madonna, ready to sign a Disney Pictures contract for a kidnap film, has been shopping for a joint movie project with her new husband. In the meantime there is a new midnight-blue $44,000 Mercedes to drive (a gift to herself), a new line of Madonna-wear due this fall and plans for a spacious estate on a secluded spot in Malibu. But visitors had best beware. When asked whether he was going to put up a fence for security, Penn replied: “A fence, nothing. We’re going to have gun towers.”

#1985 #peoplemagazine #wedding

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/07/21/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-72117/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 7/21/17

I haven’t been doing such a great job with my movie tally for 2017. We’re more than halfway through the year, and I’ve barely watched anything. Well, I kinda made up for that last weekend, as I caught Keeping Up With The Joneses on HBO. This is one of those movies that came and went, and might find a fan base on TV, but will probably just be forgotten. If it should be remembered for anything, it’s that it features both Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher in lingerie. That’s about all it’s got going for it. What’s it about? Well, Isla Fisher and Zack Galifianakis star as a milquetoast suburbanite couple who become suspicious of their new neighbors, Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot. So, they’re pushed out of their comfort zone when they find out Hamm and Gadot are spies, and they get wrapped up in their latest mission. This is the kind of movie I would’ve killed a chunk of a Saturday afternoon on had it aired on Fox 5, but I can understand why nobody went to see it in theaters. Folks loved Don Draper, but for whatever reason, they have no desire to help along Jon Hamm’s movie career. And this was pre-Wonder Woman Gadot, so there was no heat on her yet. It doesn’t suck, but it’s got no Wow Factor either. Once it hits FX, it might be a good way to waste away a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I finally got around to watching The Nice Guys, too. I’d tried a few months ago, but I only got as far as the Ryan Gosling fully clothed in the bathtub scene, where I went, “What the eff am I watching?” I wasn’t ready for the absurd that night, but I was ready now. Like everyone had told me, it was really good. I still have trouble with heist/mystery films because my brain doesn’t work as fast as the film, so sometimes I have to reflect back on the thing when it’s over just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Ryan Gosling is a private investigator who teams up with local tough guy Russell Crowe to track down a missing girl. Sure, there’s some stuff about porn, and the Detroit auto lobby, but that’s the gist of the movie. It’s got a precocious kid, a cool 70s aesthetic, and titties. Can’t really hate on any of that. Anyway, I could see this as one of those movies I drop everything to watch whenever I see that it’s on. If you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out.

My new favorite reality show debuted this week on Bravo, called A Night With My Ex. It’s just what the title says: a former couple spends the night together to see if the spark is still there and/or to reopen old wounds. In the premiere, 28 year old virgin Rachel is reunited to smarmy douchebag ex-boyfriend Fabian. They dated for four years, but he cheated on her with a sexy Tinkerbell at a Halloween party because he had a major case of blue balls. When the show starts, you don’t think Fabian is really that bad of a guy. He knows he made a mistake, and he even plans to propose to Rachel because he wants her in his life forever. But things go south quickly. He chastises her for scraping her plate with her fork as she eats, and he tries to make her give him a handjob once they’re in bed. All the while, she’s trying to actually apologize for basically pushing him to cheat by withholding sex, but he never lets her get a word out before saying/doing something stupid. Finally she declares that she deserves better than him, and basically laughs in his face when he proposes. That was some damn good television! If anything, I’d say the show is too short at 30 minutes, but they only spend one night together, and not the whole weekend, so I guess that’s all they could edit together. It’s a lot like MTV’s old show, The X Effect, only the couple’s current partners aren’t spying on the date like they were in that show. Anyway, it’s only been one episode, but I count me in for the next nine!

In TV news, it was announced that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have lined up their post-GoT project, Confederate, which is an alternate history series set prior to the United States’ 3rd Civil War. Well, this rang some alarm bells for some folks, as you can’t really get into the Confederacy and Civil War without dealing with slavery. And folks weren’t really happy about these White showrunners making what some considered to be “slavery fanfic”. What hasn’t been covered extensively, though, is that the project is really just coasting on the fact that the GoT showrunners are attached, but they’re not the only ones involved. Husband-wife team of Malcolm Spellman and Nichelle Tramble Spellman , who are Black, will be partners on the show along with Benioff and Weiss. Plus, the show it’s so deep in its infancy that there aren’t even character names or an outline yet. It was originally developed as a two-hour movie, but they decided it could be fleshed out and taken to television. There’s basically nothing on paper for it yet, though, so there’s not much for folks to be upset about at this stage other than mere speculation. The Spellmans acknowledge the criticism, but say that they’d rather it had followed the premiere of the show instead of starting now, as it’s being announced. At this point, I think it’s safe to say that this criticism will go into shaping the show going forward, so we may never get what they originally intended to put out.

We got a new trailer for Marvel’s Inhumans. Still looks like garbage. I’ve loved Iwan Rheon since Misfits, but I can’t follow him here. This just looks so bad. Look, I’m gonna watch it, but I really don’t see how there’s any damn way I’m paying for an IMAX ticket to see it in theaters.

We also got a new teaser for The Defenders, which teases the Punisher series at the end. People are going nuts online about this thing because it’s narrated by Stan Lee, but I actually think he’s tonally wrong for this clip. When I think of Stan, I think of his marquee, larger than life characters – NOT the street-level vigilantes. I almost feel like it would’ve been better narrated by Bendis or Brubaker, but they don’t have the recognition factor that Stan has. I get that. Still, it just feels like a hollow waste of a cameo.

 Things You Might Have Missed This Week

The good Lord answered my prayers, as Chris Hardwick and Comedy Central have “mutually decided” to end @midnight. I won’t miss his smarmy face or those stupid hashtag games.

I guess the third time’s the charm, as Paige Davis will start her 3rd hosting stint on Trading Spaces when it returns to TLC later this year

Ed Sheeran was on Game of Thrones this week, and I guess some folks didn’t like that. I dunno. I kinda couldn’t care less about Sheeran or GoT, but folks were hatin’!

Meanwhile, it was reported that Lena Dunham will join American Horror Story for season 7, and folks lost their shit about that, too. Apparently she’ll only be in one episode, but that was enough for some folks to claim they weren’t gonna watch anymore.

Transformers: Titans Return will debut in November as an animated micro series on the Go90 app, featuring the voices of Green Ranger Jason David Frank and the original Rodimus Prime himself, Judd Nelson.

MTV is in talks to reboot Teen Wolf before this iteration’s final season has even concluded. Slow it down!

Sega broke up with Archie Comics over Twitter, thereby ending the Sonic The Hedgehog comic after 24 years of publication

Seacrest IN! Ryan Seacrest has officially signed on to host ABC’s revival of American Idol. I feel like I’ve written this sentence 3 times in the past already, but now it’s for real for real.

Coming as no real surprise since The Vampire Diaries ended, The CW announced that its spinoff, The Originals, will end after its upcoming season.

In an odd choice, the directors of the original Catfish documentary (the movie, not the show) are in talks talks to helm a Mega Man film that will be produced by Masi Oka of Heroes fame.

Words with Friends is being developed into a television game show. Ya know, so it’s basically the Scrabble game show being rebooted.

Meanwhile on Black Twitter, R. Kelly is allegedly running a sex cult, Usher paid a woman $1.1 million for her to keep quiet about the fact that he gave her herpes, and Kevin Hart allegedly got caught cheating on his pregnant wife. I’m just waiting for some crazy Steve Harvey news to round out the week.

At San Diego Comic Con, MGM announced Stargate Origins, which appears to be a prequel webseries that will run on the Stargate Command website this fall.

Shazam! will be the next DC film to go into production, following Justice League and Aquaman, but it’s unclear if Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will co-star as Black Adam.

There might soon be a new Cutco salesman on the block, as OJ Simpson has been granted parole from the armed robbery that landed him in prison nine years ago. The Juice is almost loose!

I love those weeks when the West Week Ever recipient presents itself early in the week, ’cause it’s pretty much smooth sailing after that. This was one of those weeks, as history was made across the pond. The Doctor Who franchise is over 50 years old, but every time the Doctor regenerates (a clever in-story mechanism for recasting the actor), he just turns into another White dude. That’s pretty much been the unending pattern since 1966, when the first regeneration occurred. Folks have been saying it’s time for a change, and they were hoping we’d either end up with a Doctor of color (with The IT Crowd‘s Richard Ayoade coming up in a lot of the discussions) or a woman Doctor. Well, half of them got their wish, as Attack the Block‘s Jodie Whittaker was announced as the 13th Doctor. And, as you’re probably not surprised, folks lost their shit.

We’re always taught the the Brits are so proper and upstanding, but the comments sections of several sites proved that they can troll with the best of them. At the end of the day, it’s a bunch of folks who are afraid of change. A friend of mine, however, did point out that the victors in these circumstances also tend to trigger the backlash against themselves. For example, it would be one thing if this was seen as a bold move forward for a progressive franchise. The problem, however, is that some people take it too far, and get on the “I’m savoring these fanboy tears” soapbox, making it about something that it really didn’t need to devolve into. Sometimes the winners can suck just as much as the losers in these scenarios. This can be seen as a “win” for some without it being a “loss” for someone else. How about framing it as a win for everyone? Nah, the internet doesn’t really work like that.

I have never gotten into the Doctor Who franchise because it just seems so daunting. Sure, folks claim you really only have to start with the Eccleston season, but when I get into something, I go ALL IN. To me, that’s like telling someone they can start Star Trek with The Next Generation (which I’d probably do, since I hate The Original Series, even though I’d still feel like I was cheating them out of an experience). I feel like I’d have to watch all 54 years of the show, which is impossible because those seasons ain’t streaming anywhere, and a good chunk of them have been lost to time. It’s a franchise that cannot be wholly consumed! I hate mysteries that can’t be solved. Still, I can respect a longstanding institution, and I understand when change is a big deal. It’ll be interesting to see how fans take to the new Doctor, but the one thing to remember is that she’ll probably do it for 2 years, and then regenerate into another old White guy (the Doctor role has the retention rate of a community college). So, everyone gets their wish! I am kinda curious about the next season, though, as rumor has it Kris Marshall (Colin: God of Sex from Love Actually) is going to be the Doctor’s next companion. I loved that dude!

Anyway, I know which side of history I want to be on, and it’ll be interesting to see this all play out. The way the franchise works, we won’t see her until the Christmas special, and then won’t see her again until late 2018 at the earliest. So, folks have got some time to get used to the idea. Still, I think it goes without saying that Jodie Whittaker had the West Week Ever.

#Christmas #DC #Marvel #Movies #Music #Politics #Power Rangers #Race #Religion #Social Media #Star Trek #Syndication #Television #Video Games #West Week Ever

[30-days-of-exciting-stuff-blog]

Day 8 – Papers, please [Game]

When you have a friend over for the week-end and he happens to like games even more than you do, you may end up having a zillion games to talk about (and a near-zero work productivity). That’s basically what happened last week-end.

In Papers, please you play as a border inspector in Arstotzka, a fictional soviet country run by lunatics who change the immigration policy every single day. As such, you have to check as many people as you can because your income is directly proportional to the number of people you successfully allow in or kick out, depending on whether their papers are in order. You ask them a few questions and analyse their documentation and answers as fast as possible, looking for possible discrepancies such as wrong sex, wrong ID number, expired dates, inconsistent declared purposes of travel, non-existent issuing cities, non-matching pictures or dates of birth… If something looks weird to you, you can interrogate them for further information (which can bring you to perform cooler things such as research scans and fingerprint comparisons, in order to determine whether the person does not look like their picture because they’re a fraud or because they just didn’t age well).

Can you find the discrepancy here? Yup. Her entry permit expires on 1982.11.21, and today is 1982.12.04. DENIED.

When you make a mistake, you’ll get an immediate notification (which could make one wonder why they hired you in the first place, as they seem to have some kind of amazing machine that instantaneously detects that you definitely should not have let that dude in because his passport expired 5 days ago). Get three of these or more in the same day, and you’ll get penalties on your salary. If penalties accumulate or if trying to avoid them makes you too slow, you may not make enough of a living to afford food, heat and medicine for your family. Winter is rather tough in Arstotzka, therefore not heating your house will result in your entire family dying over a few days (which, believe it or not, constitute grounds for dismissal – that’s right, that tragedy will get you fired because “workers are expected to support large healthy families”). If you don’t want this to happen to you, you had better find a balance between speed and accuracy.

This is not allowed in Arstotzka.

That’s not the only way you can fail, as Papers please is not just about making money as a border inspector. This is bloody Arstotzka. Apart from being a hell of a bureaucracy, firing people whose house is full of dead relatives and featuring really weird stuff such as weight on identity documents – who wants to live in a country in which too many caramel pecan brownies may lead you to suffer a humiliating scan because of your weight not matching the one on your ID – Arstotzka happens to be an authoritarian country that uses death or forced labour as a punishment for basically everything. And as a dictatorship, it has its internal enemies. As you progress through the game, you’ll have the possibility to cooperate with a mysterious organization named EZIC. EZIC aims at overthrowing the government and freeing Arstotzka from its corrupt leaders. Unfortunately, for an inspector like you it involves illegally letting spies in, accepting bribes, poisoning people, using confiscated passports to help agents falsify their identity, and loads of other stuff that may get you into serious trouble. During the game, you’ll have to choose who to be loyal to: The Government, or EZIC; and be consistent enough in your choices not to be considered a traitor by both sides. And, as expected in a game in which the player makes decisions affecting the scenario, Papers Please includes another of my favourite features: Multiple endings. There are 20 endings to this game, only 3 of them being good endings – which is not necessarily a bad thing according to me, because the bad ending theme is actually pretty catchy.

The EZIC guys being their mysterious selves

Papers, please can be extremely addictive. I usually collapse on my bed and fall asleep immediately when I’m back from the traditional weekly evening out with my co-workers, but last Wednesday was different because I had just started this game the evening before. I started playing even though it was almost bloody midnight and my eyes were closing, and I ended up not getting much sleep. I’ll be able to claim that the reason why I have such dark circles around my eyes is a crazy night helping some sexy Slavic hero battle a corrupt administration and save his family from an authoritarian regime, and that won’t even be a lie.

Glory to Arstotzka.

And also: It’s definitely not the first time I hear that song called Birdhouse in your soul, but I had forgotten its existence until recently. I really like it. The music video and lyrics both have a fair amount of craziness in them (I mean, the song is told from the perspective of a damn night light). Oh, and these are the guys who did the Malcolm theme (UR NOT THE BOSS OF ME NOOOOOW). And quite a lot of weird science songs for kids.

#papers please #game #border #soviet #dystopia #dystopic #ezic #they might be giants

[milady-milord-lj]

Community Re-Watch Season 1: Advanced Criminal Law and Social Psychology

Community Re-Watch:  Season 1 Hello everyone! Once again, watching in intended order. Which means this week we've got "Advanced Criminal Law" and "Social Psychology" (yes in that order). Advanced Criminal Law

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, and Andrew Guest (co-writer with Dan)

Dan says the script for this episode was pretty much written on-set. Andrew confirms that the script went through a lot of changes. There was originally a secondary story involving Professor Duncan. According to Dan, Duncan just had a paper published called “Born to Leave,” which was about why women always leave men. Andrew clarifies that the comedy about the paper was that it was clearly Duncan publicly grinding an axe.

Dan says that a lot of people didn’t get the exchange between Jeff and Duncan where they talk “in code” using sitcom titles. Joel is kind of shocked by that statement.

Dan admits that Abed is loosely based on a friend of his (side note:  original Abed did make an appearance as one of the custodians during S5 in “Analysis of Cork-based Networking). He said Original Abed (the guy’s name is actually Abed) is incredulous. That was the basis of the Abed-Troy storyline in this episode. Joel points out that Original Abed actually read for the part of Fictional Abed.

Starburns’s first line in the entire series is said in Spanish class. It’s, “My name is Alex, dude.” According to Dan, this exchange was originally longer and descended into a huge argument between Chan and Starburns. Unfortunately, NBC hated the argument and it got cut as a result.

Gillian said during the day they were shooting in the Spanish class, Ken Jeong was doing a lot of Andrew Dice Clay impressions.

Joel actually doesn’t remember which episode he’s commenting on. He sheepishly admits that during the break when no one is talking he was quickly looking up on his phone to see which episode it was.

Dan once again repeats that this is one of the episodes where Jeff gets his one-on-one with each character in the study group. This episode is meant to be Jeff’s one-on-one with Britta. This is the episode where we discover that Britta is a character who cuts and runs “because she’s a skank.” Gillian cheerfully agrees that Britta is a skank-y, cheating, ‘ho, “which is what the people want.” Dan assures Gillian that she is selling herself short, and that he is in negotiations about that stuff with “the people.”

Dan says there were multiple re-shot scenes between Pierce and Annie at the piano while Pierce is trying to write a school song for Greendale. He mentions that some of the scenes will be included in the DVD extras. The point was to say something about Pierce (not Annie, apparently). Dan repeats that Pierce is Dan’s avatar representing him as an artist. Namely, that he’ll shut himself up in a room and procrastinate, then go around and lie about what a genius he is.

Joel notes that Alison’s neck is bright red in the scene where Chang threatens to flunk the class unless the cheater comes forward. Gillian points out that it’s because Alison just screamed. Joel asks Gillian if the same thing happens to her, and Gillian confirms that it does. She adds that she bruises very easily.

Gillian says that during the scene where the class throws balled up paper at her, some of the extras in the scene whipped the balls at her pretty hard. Dan admits that he ended up debating the scene with Joe Russo during editing. Joe wanted a beat before people starting flinging paper at her, and Dan wanted it to happen right away. Dan won.

Joel calls the scene where Jeff approaches Britta in the Cafetorium as “the battle of the awesome coats.”

Dan asks if Joel was the one who ad-libbed the line that a dirty bum is higher on the totem pole than Britta. Joel and Gillian say that the line was actually in the script.

Dan says that Jeff is based on a combination of his friends. In addition, Jeff Winger is both the voice of “the dorky writer who created him” and Joel McHale. He credits McHale with really highlighting Jeff’s “pomposity, narcissism, and shallowness.” (Umm, compliment? I guess?)

Dan says the dirty bum line to Britta was the point at which he realized that they had managed to successfully create a very flawed character as their Jeff protagonist and they had to commit to it.

Andrew says that there are a couple of different versions of the Jeff-Britta conversation that were put into the script, but that writer Neil Goldman was the one who locked it down to its current form.

Andrew also says that writer Hillary Winston came up with Britta storyline, and that she came into the writers’ room with the plot almost fully formed before they even wrote the script. Dan confirmed the storyline was Hillary’s. Although he adds that he always had the idea in his head that he wanted to do a trial storyline where the trial takes place next to a swimming pool. He notes that if the idea had come from Joe Russo, it might get shot down as being too expensive. But because Dan wanted to do it, people were willing to make it happen.

The pool-side trial was apparently a long day of filming. Gillian points out that on that day, Alison was on-set for 16 hours, and only worked for a half-hour. Turns out, Alison had a scene as a witness at the trial, and she ended up being cut from the final version of the script/episode.

Dan says that part of it was that when he went down to the set, he thought the pool-side trial scenes weren’t working. So he and Andrew basically sat on the bleachers and re-wrote the trial scenes. Then they were printing out the re-written pages to give to the actors, while they were still shooting the original script. Andrew jokes, “It’s really not the way you want to work.”

Gillian points out the guy diving into the pool in the background at the end of the first pool-trial scene made that dive 30 times.

Dan says the scenes between Annie and Pierce were originally much darker in tone. All of the scenes had to be reshot because NBC because they felt the scenes were too dark. Dan admits that NBC may have had a valid point. However, he says that the whole point of the Annie-Pierce storyline was to “find the Pierce character” that both Dan and Chevy would be happy with.

Dan goes off on a tangent and says that Chevy basically wanted to be Fletch. Dan’s argument was that Pierce wasn’t Fletch, he was meant to be a buffoon and that Chevy had been warned that Pierce was the target of jokes. But Chevy insisted that he wanted to be “Fletch-y and sexy.” So the Pierce-Annie storyline was Dan’s attempt at finding a happy medium. Pierce was written to be an angry character because he’s not getting what he wants in life.

Dan says in the original scenes between Pierce and Annie, Pierce is very abusive towards Annie throughout their storyline. In the final piano room scene between the two of them, Annie snaps and dresses down Pierce. Actual Dan quote describing the original scene where Annie finally confronts Pierce:  “You know why you have seven wives? Because everyone who gets close to you, you shit on them. Now I’m one of one of those people, and I accidentally thought you were a decent guy. Now I’m out of here too, and that’s just the way it is.” As Dan put it, Annie was supposed to be Pierce’s first real friend. Dan admits that the storyline was inspired by Malcolm in the Middle.

Back at poolside again, Gillian says she got great joy out of the seeing posters of the Human Being in his swimming form. Andrew adds that the art department did an amazing job on the set. Both Joel and Gillian pipe up and say that the set was infested by very large cockroaches.

Gillian says that it was her idea to crawl up onto the platform to give Britta’s testimony. Joel says he thought it was kind of adorable.

Dan says that he had a real problem with Gillian’s boots. Gillian adds that he seemed upset that she was wearing heels. Dan counters that he has a problem with dishonesty, and it seems to him that if someone is short they should own it. He had a hard time wrapping his head around why someone like Britta would wear high-heeled boots, because Britta was supposed to be a character that represented practicality and honesty. So, why is Britta stumbling around on stilts? Gillian interrupts and says it’s because she’s not very good at walking in heels.

Andrew points out that this is the first episode where the writers actually address Britta’s character. Gillian agrees that this is the first episode where you see Britta is flawed (Ummm, did we forget Britta admitting to being a hypocrite in “Spanish 101?”).

Dan says that this episode is one of his favorite episodes, however, it’s also an episode that had a huge number of problems during production and post-production. There was “political” pressure on him, plus a lot of second-guessing and over-correction. For example, a lot of the act breaks got shuffled around in the edit bay to improve the flow of the episode, so as a result none of the act breaks we see are the original act breaks in the script, which seems to drive him crazy. In short, filming and putting this episode was, in Dan’s word, “a mess.” Plus he was in the middle of the learning curve of learning to work with his team and the network. There was not enough confidence on his part.

Gillian says that both she and Joel got to really enjoy watching Jim Rash, John Oliver, and Ken do improve during the poolside-trial scenes. She says that it was like being at a comedy show that never ended.

Joel says the shower scene between Chang and Duncan and Jeff and Britta was shot about 20 minutes before they were about to be thrown out of the pool. Gillian says that both scenes were shot very quickly, with only two takes for each scene.

Dan calls Gillian’s acting in the scene between her and Jeff “brilliant.”Dan thinks that looking back at the Jeff-Britta scene after 25 episodes of pounding on Britta by pointing out that she’s humorless and joyless, you realize in this scene that Britta is “a crazy person.” He says that Gillian’s performance informs that realization, because it’s “so real.” Britta is the character on Gilligan’s Island who sticks out because she’s different from “all these sitcom characters.”

Andrew says that the Jeff-Britta scene was shot at the end of a 16-hour day and Joe basically had to tell Gillian, “Okay, this is your big scene!” Gillian repeats that they had to do the scene in two takes.

Dan’s still complaining about act breaks.

First appearance of Leonard (By the fabulous Richard Erdman! I recommend you see him in one of his most famous roles in Stalag 17. Great movie! Somehow it served as the inspiration of Hogan’s Heroes. If you squint, you can kind of see it.).

Everyone talks about how Dan almost drowned Richard. Gillian says it was fascinating to see two people swim out with Richard to guide him to his mark and then he’d sink about five inches down the second they let him go. Dan says “the legend” is that Richard had to do 20 takes of his “Busted!” line, but the thing is, he nailed it on his first take while Dan was in the bathroom. And then when Dan came back, he kept asking for more takes. Eventually, the first assistant director took Dan aside and said, “He’s going to drown!” Dan admits that the ended up using his first take. Gillian starts laughing that Richard is basically “eating water” during his scene.

Dan starts singing Richard’s praises and urges people to look him up on IMDb to see what he’s acted in and what he’s directed. He’s basically a museum of early television and a living legend. Gillian says that Richard was Marlon Brando’s roommate at one point when they were both starting out in Hollywood. Dan says everyone on the set should salute Richard when he comes on set. Gillian says he’s always in a good mood, and is always happy to be there.

Gillian says that she loved watching Danny shoot his scene where he’s pretending to be an alien communicating with his home world. She says that for the “alien twin,” Danny insisted that make-up draw in his eyebrows really heavy so he’d have a more alien look.

Dan says the scene between where Troy confronts Abed about trying to fool him into thinking he is an alien was re-shot as well. Originally Troy bought it, but Dan thought it was too implausible that Troy would think Abed was an alien. Andrew jokes that now the writers know Troy well enough that they’d probably go for the original storyline.

Dan says that in the first season of any freshman show, everyone involved has the correct feeling that it’s their job to save the show. This sometimes leads to the equivalent of a car crash at a four-waystop. But the thing is, everyone is right because it is everyone’s job to save the show. So everyone has to learn to work together. Eventually people learn over time. But early on “you think you’re writing the Constitution and everyone if Thomas Jefferson.”

Gillian says that Chevy loves playing the piano. Joel adds that he’s actually very good at it.

Dan clearly isn’t feeling the scenes between Annie and Pierce and calls them “watered-down.” However, he adds that writer Liz Cackowski did a good job re-writing the scenes between the two characters. Turns out that Annie’s final speech to Pierce about being a cheerleader is actually taken from a combination of Hillary’s and Liz’s real lives.

Dan says he actually loves Annie’s cheerleader story because it’s so specific of a backstory and it allowed them to learn stuff.

Andrew says adapting the Bruce Hornsby song “The Way It Is,” came about because someone in the writers’ room thought the name of the song was “That’s the Way It Goes.” And they got to talking about what if Pierce thought that was the name of the song.

Dan says they tried to get Bruce Hornsby and The Range to play the closing song of the episode, but was turned down. Dan adds that he hopes to get Bruce on the show at some point.

Gillian says that Luis Guzman posed for the Luis Guzman statue.

Dan thanks Luis. He adds that he originally asked Mark Hamill to pose for it. Although Mark said no, Dan still got an awesome letter in response to his request. Dan said it actually made him love Mark, because he he’s one of the few people who can say “no” without coming off like a dick. He said Mark came across as fairly reasonable in his rejection.

Social Psychology

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Anthony Russo. Danny Pudi watched them do commentary from outside the recording booth.

Anthony states that the episode was aired out of order. It was moved up, which resulted in a rushed post-production.

Dan says that Liz Cackowski wrote the draft. It was apparently a big milestone for Dan. He felt that this was the first script that was just “ready to go” and he felt from the start that they could actually do this story.

First appearance of Vaughn (Erik Christian Olsen). Yvette notes that he’s (as of when they were recording the commentaries) a full-time cast member of one of the NCIS shows. Yvette says he was a great guy.

Anthony says that commentaries were recorded out of order from when the episodes aired. Apparently they had just finished commenting on later episodes and this was a return to the earlier episodes for them. Antony says that part of the fun of the early episodes is that you’re getting to know the characters, and in this case, exploring the relationship between Jeff and Shirley. He adds that another part of the fun is finding characters outside your core cast. Some of those characters wound up having “lives” in the first season, despite the fact they were originally cast as a one-shot guest.

Everyone loved the character of Vaughn, and they’re kind of sorry they didn’t get to explore him more. Dan mentions about making Vaughn a musical rival to Pierce (which only sort of happened).

Yvette says the nice thing about this episode is that she got to spend time with Joel. She says that just as Shirley and Jeff were getting to know each other, she and Joel were getting to know each other at the same time.

Dan credits Liz for coming up with the idea that the basis of the friendship between Jeff and Shirley is their mutual love of gossip, specifically talking smack behind people's backs.

Dan repeats that this is part of the series where “in the first six episodes” (umm, it took longer than six episodes for Annie,just sayin’), where Jeff would interact with each member of the study group and become inextricably tangled in each character’s life. This was the Jeff-Shirley episode. The problem they were trying to overcome was how to make that happen with Jeff and Shirley. That’s why they leaned into the whole thing where Jeff says at the open of the episode that he hates walking with Shirley and making small talk with her. However, he likes the fact that Shirley is the first to really bond with Jeff.

Yvette points out that Jeff and Shirley are really toxic together, so does that mean that they shouldn’t be together in future episodes? Dan disagrees, since the whole point is for “the family” to grow together so much that, if they want, Shirley moves up from being Jeff’s “least favorite family member” to someone he likes more.

Joel points out that the name of the coffee shop is Hot and Brown. Dan says it was tough coming up with a new coffee shop name after going through 15 names of coffee shops used on other sitcoms. Yvette jokes that she thought it was in homage to her. Dan points out that it’s racist. Yvette asks how it’s racist. Dan says, “It’s not racist if you say it.”

Yvette says that John Oliver has the cutest dimples ever. Joel adds that comedy just flows out of John and Jim Rash like a broken Roman fountain. Dan says that both John and Jim are amazing in different ways. He calls Jim “a machine” who hits every mark in exactly the same way if you want him to, which makes it easy to edit his scenes. John does a different thing every time and it’s amazing every single time.

According to Dan, there were a lot of shots (that were cut) where Duncan was leering at Annie, and it just made him feel very uncomfortable. He is very protective of the idea that Annie was an innocent little girl.

Yvette says that during this episode, a writer from Entertainment Weekly was on the set.

During S1, the exterior shots were shot at LA Community College. They also did outdoor shots on the Paramount lot. The Paramount lot was dressed to mimic the exterior of LA Community College. In this episode, they were shooting on the Paramount lot.

Joel points out that during his and Yvette’s first walk-and-talk scene, they were walking across the street from the office of the President of Paramount.

First official onscreen appearance of Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen) is in Duncan’s group of lab rats for the Duncan Principle! (Although, he does also appear in “Advanced Criminal Law,” but from an airing order perspective, this episode is his first appearance.) Dan admits that in this episode, Garrett didn’t have a name. He was just a background character in the scene. Dan says Erik is “a darling of the underground stand-up comedy scene in LA.”

Troy’s meltdown was completely improvised by Donald Glover, to the point that the script only said "Troy melts down." Everyone on the commentary track just bursts into laughter. Yvette says that Troy's meltdown just makes her happy.

Dan notes that this episode runs longer than all the other episodes in S1, because NBC let them “super-size” the episode. Anthony says that even with the super-sizing, this episode was eight minutes too long. NBC waived the length requirements on the episode because this episode got moved up in the airing order, which meant they had a very short post-production window. So NBC took pity on them. Anthony says the version on the DVD is the as-aired longer NBC version. However, on streaming sites, they use the chopped-down syndicated version that’s only 22 minutes.

Yvette is convinced that Jeff is in love with Britta.

Dan feels this episode has a weird effect. He notes that the critics had a weird reaction as well, because they commented that suddenly Jeff Winger is Jim Halpert from The Office, and it’s now a rom-com and Jeff is so devastated because some girl he likes is making out with another guy.

Dan feels that Jeff is very, very inexperienced when it comes to feeling anything genuine about women. He’s had a crass, collector mentality when it comes to women. That as soon as he gets what he wants from them (he calls it “validation”), they become disgusting to him and he moves on. However, Britta, for whatever reason is different. He’s got a big crush on Britta, he likes her, he’s attracted to her “dirtiness,” and the eclecticness of her. In short, (and this is Dan’s actual words) Jeff “believes Britta is the girl he’s supposed to be with.”

Joel asks Dan if he thinks Jeff leaning his forehead against the vending machine was over the top. Dan admits they cut it down, but that he likes the fact that privately, Jeff is bummed out that Britta is “the one that got away.”

Joel says that when he read the script he was heartbroken in a “how could she” kind of way.

Dan says that Britta reminds him of so many of his ex-girlfriends. That one of things he finds attractive is that Britta is that tough girl you can throw into a suitcase and bring with you around the world. Then she turns out to be a mattress full of bed bugs and gives you ringworm. (This is greeted by groans and admonishment from Yvette.)

Dan admits that Duncan’s breakdown is him doing a "take that" against doctors and therapists because he hates people in white coats.

Yvette said she was very nervous about making Shirley making fun of Vaughn because she’s not really a physical comedian and she had to physically make fun of him.

Erik (Vaughn) was wearing tiny fake nipples. Anthony said that they weren’t actually prosthetic nipples. It was actually a trick of the make-up because they couldn't really afford the prosthetics.

Dan really likes the scene of Jeff and Britta sitting on the couch together. Dan mentions that the focus groups had a really simplistic view of Britta and the Jeff-Britta relationship. Focus groups felt that Britta was “the normal one” in the ensemble. Also, they really weren’t on board with the will-the-won’t-they between Jeff and Britta, but they liked the sibling vibe when they hatched schemes together and hung out as friends.

(Dan is obviously unhappy with that feedback as he stumbles a little bit over his explanation over whether or not to pay attention to the feedback. On whether or not Dan really wanted to know what the focus groups said, and he admits that early on he did. He kind of closes the discussion with “to me, you could get good feedback form a fire hydrant.” Anthony adds that NBC never “misused” the focus group information. They only shared the feedback.)

In the scene where the study group reassembles in the study room and the shit hits the fan, Joel jokes about Alison’s costuming by saying that she walked onto the set directly from her audition for Dukes of Hazard II. Dan adds that it’s subtitled, The Prep-ening.

Dan says that the study room scene is the first time they had a “shit hit the fan” scenario, and he now considers it a Community staple. Dan and Yvette said they both felt bad during this scene. Dan points out that in this scene, Vaughn becomes the most likeable character. Dan says it was also part of his “beating up on Britta to make her more likeable” campaign so she'd become the group Charlie Brown. It’s also the point where you realize the Study Group is made up of bad people.

Yvette says the scene following the Britta-Vaughn break-up scene was hard to do with Joel. However, it was due to behind-the-scenes reasons. Joel was being a sarcastic ass, and Yvette thought he was being mean to her. (She stresses that at this point they didn’t know each other very well.) Joel admits that he makes jokes and is sarcastic with people he doesn’t know people all that well. Dan points out that Joel just admitted that his defense mechanism is to be an ass.

Dan comments that Joel and Yvette have good chemistry. Yvette jokes with Joel and asks when she’s going to be getting a kiss.

Dan says that the scene between Annie and Abed where she gives him the apology DVD set was longer. In the cut scene, Duncan comes back and tells Annie that she’s brilliant and wants her to come with him to help him continue his work. Annie turns him down because she decides that she’d rather watch the DVDs with Abed. Anthony says that the point of the scene was to show that Duncan realized his meltdown actually confirmed the Duncan Principle. By cutting it, the storyline didn’t get paid off. Plus, Anthony adds, it was one of the funniest scenes that John Oliver had ever done. Dan says that this was part of the learning curve of learning how long a script needed to be to essentially make a 20-minute movie. The tragedy was they had to “kill their children” early on, the children in this case being scenes and jokes.

Dan says that a lot of the cool songs in the show comes from Joe Russo’s Ipod.

The tag between Troy and Abed was shot at 4 a.m. Joel says he had to leave directly from the shoot to catch a flight to New York.

Anthony said the episode needed to be locked two days later on a Saturday at 9 p.m., so he was up for 36 hours straight in editing to make the deadline.

#jeff x annie

[hellofastestnewsfan]

Amid a nationwide reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, ESPN sought out, for its ESPYs award show, a voice in sports to capture this singular moment in our culture. New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins, who’s spent the last few years lobbying national and state lawmakers for criminal justice reform, and whose tearful reaction to teammate Drew Brees’ comments equating kneeling during the national anthem to “disrespecting the flag” and “our country” captured the raw feelings of millions of Americans, immediately came to mind.

“We asked ourselves, whose voice might resonate most in a show set to air at such a crucial moment in our national discourse on racial equality and police brutality,” says Rob King, Senior Vice President and editor at large, ESPN Content.

Jenkins, who runs his own production company, Listen Up Media, jumped at the opportunity to serve as the creative force behind a powerful piece. After the 2016 deaths of two unarmed Black men at the hands of police, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Jenkins started wondering what more he could do to stop such incidents. Then a 2016 ESPYs segment, which featured LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade speaking out against police violence, inspired him to act.

“Just to kind of see that unexpectedly, it let me know that the things I was thinking about, they weren’t far-fetched,” Jenkins tells TIME in an exclusive interview about his ESPYs piece. “There were other guys who shared those sentiments. The social media, the hashtags and the T-shirts and all that stuff, is cool, but not enough. Their speeches in particular just sparked me enough to say, ‘I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but I’m going to go figure it out. It was that galvanizing moment for me.'” About a week later, Jenkins—then with the Philadelphia Eagles—and several teammates met with then-Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross to push for reform.

Jenkins hopes his piece, that aired Sunday night during the ESPYs, similarly galvanized athletes to act. A viewer discretion advisory opens up the segment. “The following presentation contains images that may not be appropriate for all audience,” it reads. The powerful clip starts with 12-year-old gospel singer Keedron Bryant singing his heart-wrenching hit, “I Just Wanna Live.” Pictures of Black men and woman killed, in many cases by police — including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Floyd — flash across the screen. Jenkins appears, calling on athletes to take stands in the mold of Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Arthur Ashe, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Colin Kaepernick. We see the painful image of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd as he calls out for his mother, as the viewer hears the voice of singer Mumu Fresh.

Athletes like Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim American woman to win a medal at the Olympics, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, whose public pressure compelled NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its races, and NBA star Donovan Mitchell speak. Muhammad talks in the piece about the pain of seeing Floyd’s death unfold on video. “It’s always really hard for me to see the faces of people who have died as a result of police violence,” Muhammad, a co-founder of Athletes For Impact—an organization that works closely with athletes on activism—tells TIME. “They conjure up memories of just those moments in time where we’ve all seen the videos, or had to hear about these unfortunate ways they’ve passed. And to know that nothing has changed is difficult.”

A montage of police violence against Black women follows. Mitchell makes a direct appeal for white athletes and sports figures to step up. Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Zach Ertz, Julie Ertz, Lindsey Vonn, Steve Kerr, Kyle Shanahan, Chris Long and Mark Cuban make calls for action. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka lays out calls for justice, in spoken word: “And we need it now, we need it now, we need it now,” he says.

“This is the tipping point,” Jenkins says in closing. “There is no going back, there is no inching forward.” The video ends noting that “as of June 21, none of the three police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor have been arrested.”

To Jenkins, the piece is a call to action for athletes. “I want this to be one of those moments where, if there are any more people left on the fence, that they get off of it,” Jenkins tells TIME. “Right now is probably the safest moment to get involved. It’s also a very vulnerable time in my mind. Because, it is now sexy to protest and to stand up using your voice. And so I want to make sure everyone who gets involved is doing it from a place of real understanding and power, not just out of guilt or public pressure.”

Jenkins hopes more white athletes engage. “It shouldn’t be the responsibility of Black people to tell white people what to do,” says Jenkins. “They should take it upon themselves to learn, research what’s going on, understand our system, just like we had to do.” Why are white allies so important? “If we take the context of sports out of it, and just talk about us as a country, these issues that we’re dealing with were put in by a white majority,” says Jenkins. “And the reason we can’t just eradicate these things is because the victims of these system, the minorities, don’t have enough votes or voices to just flip this on our own. Otherwise we would have. So this whole movement, really, is going to be taken across the finish line on the backs of white people.”

“When you allow people to stay silent, they are no longer responsible for that happens,” says Jenkins. “My challenge is for them to get involved not just by statement or by tweet, but by real action. We have this moment right now, that is driven by guilt. But guilt runs off eventually. So I think the time right now, while we have everyone sitting still, is a great time to really deal with the truth and reconciliation. We’ve never dealt with the truth of where we are. We’re in that moment now. And so I’m challenging my white peers to not only, hey, denounce racism. That’s the easy part. How do you learn about the actual oppression that we’re talking about? How do you learn about how you may be even participating in it, or perpetuating it? Are you going to figure out how you’re going to participate in tearing this stuff down?”

In May, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr added his name to a letter put forward by the Players’ Coalition, the social justice organization co-founded by Jenkins and former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin, calling for a federal investigation into the death of Arbery. Given his respect for Jenkins, he was happy to participate in the production—in the clip, Kerr warns against conflating kneeling with disrespect for flag and country. “Athletes and entertainers, people with a platform can help spread awareness,” Kerr tells TIME. “But ultimately, to me, it’s white people in places of economic and political and corporate power who are gong to be the ones to really create change. People can demand that of them. And that’s what’s going to happen.”

  Jenkins’ own work offers a blueprint for how all athletes can fight for change. In Philadelphia, he kneeled with protestors in the street after Floyd’s killing, wrote on op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer calling for a deescalation of police violence, and on June 6, addressed a crowd at the African-American Museum in Philadelphia, calling for a divestment from police and investment into Black business, education, housing and wellness. Fourteen members of the Philadelphia City Council, days later, sent a letter to the mayor objecting to a $14 million increase in the police budget. On June 17, the City Council gave preliminary approval to a budget that could reduce police funding by $33 million. “As athletes, we have the ability to not only raise awareness for an issue, but when it comes to policy, being able to talk to legislators, talk to elected officials, being able to put pressure on them because we are who we are, we bring cameras,” Jenkins says. “We oftentimes come from these same neighborhoods and communities that need help, so we can articulate the pain sometimes better than these politicians do.”

He wholeheartedly supports calls, heard around the country, to defund police. “Most people support defunding the police,” Jenkins says. “A lot of people struggle with the phrasing more than they struggle with the concept. Most of us, including leadership in law enforcement, believe that we ask police officers to do too much. They’re not trained to deal with mental health issues, they’re not trained to deal with homelessness, they’re not trained to deal with domestic disputes, they’re not trained to deal with kids in school, they’re not trained to deal with a number of things we ask them to respond to. We talk about deescalation, deescalation, deescalation. It’s impossible to deescalate a situation when you have someone who brings a firearm into it. So that becomes intimidation. And that’s what we see. If you don’t submit to that intimidation, ultimately somebody will get killed.”

“Defunding is just taking away the excess money that goes to our police departments, that push them to do a job that they don’t want to do, and we don’t want them doing,” says Jenkins. “And making sure we push them to be highly trained, to have all of the accountability they need. We need to redefine the role of policing in our community.” A world where the current policing blueprint isn’t necessary, Jenkins says, is worth striving for. “The end goal is, yeah, to live in a society where we don’t need the police,” Jenkins says. “I don’t think anybody wants to just literally with a swipe of a pen in 2020 eliminate all policing without creating some kind of other model, or transitioning into some other model of safety. But I think we all want to get to point where we don’t need armed people responding to our citizens. That we create a society that is equitable, that does not have extreme poverty, that does not have people living in these traumatic places. Crime drops because there is more opportunity.”

Jenkins, whom CNN just hired as a contributor to comment on social justice issues, is still training for the upcoming NFL season while producing videos, making TV appearances, talking to athletes about pushing their platforms for change—he recently did a Zoom call, for example, with members of the Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics—and continuing his activism work. While Jenkins appreciated NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent video supporting Black Lives Matter and a players’ right to protest, he needs to see more. “I think the first step is acknowledging what Colin Kaepernick stood for,” says Jenkins. “Him in particular. Not players in general. What he stood for and what he put on the line. And now, where we are as a country, give him his ‘I told you so’ moment. That’s the first thing. And then secondly, we all want to see him have an opportunity to play. What that looks like I don’t think anybody knows. I think a workout or a tryout is a very simple thing to do. There are two sides to that relationship, so we’ll see.“

Jenkins acknowledges the NFL’s work in giving money to social justice causes, and creating awareness campaigns. “But we can’t take you serious because of the Colin Kaepernick situation,” Jenkins says. “We don’t know where your heart is. If they want to really help, and not be a voice in this fight that is confusing or muddies the water, the first thing they need to do is take on this Coin Kaepernick issue head on, and start there.”

Mostly, Jenkins believes America has an opportunity to break the cycle of injustice, outrage, and a return to injustice. “Right now, more than any other time in my lifetime, it feels like we have the ability to literally to turn away from the systems that we’ve had for centuries, and actually start over,” says Jenkins. “Everybody is starting to pay attention. This is a moment where we can reimagine how our society functions. All of our systems were birthed out of white supremacy. And so reform doesn’t change the origins of the system. They just kind of tailor it. But it’s still heading in the same direction. Until we turn our backs on those systems and restart America, until we understand the truth of where, how we got there, and what our roles are, then we can get to that place of reconciliation.”

from TIME https://ift.tt/2NeMS9g

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