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thesportssoundoff · 5 years

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“No point in a deceitful lead in, you’re gonna watch anyways” UFC in Greenville Preview

Joey

June 20th

How to describe this card. Hmm. Pointless feels almost too harsh. Inconsequential? Whatever word you choose to describe 12 fights of nothin' I'd suggest you use it to your hearts content. This card is a mix of pointless yet fun action fights and just plain pointless fights. This card by and large is just a collection of fighters either coming off a win or having snapped a losing streak all doing stuff. There's little to no name value and it's just a collection of fights. At the same time being fair TO the fights, some of these have big action quality on paper. The main and co-main event are great fights and beyond that you have a few interesting fights at women's flyweight, Luis Pena's return to 155 lbs against a returning Matt Wiman, a welterweight action fight throwdown and some interesting stuff at middleweight. It's a meaningless filler fight card but it's got potential to be worth your time should you sit in for it. Ready?

Fights: 12

Debuts: Deron Winn, Eric Spicely

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Markus Perez OUT/Bruno Silva IN vs Deron Winn/Bruno Silva OUT, Eric Spicely IN vs Derron Winn/Cody Stamman OUT, John Lineker IN vs Rob Font)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 4 (Renato Moicano, John Lineker, Korean Zombie, Kevin Holland)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 1 (Syuri Kondo)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Dan Ige, Kevin Aguilar, Montana De La Rosa, Andrea Lee)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 23-17

Korean Zombie- 1-1 Renato Moicano- 3-2 Rob Font- 2-2 John Lineker- 3-2 Randy Brown- 1-2 Bryan Barberena- 2-2 Kevin Holland- 2-1 Alessio Di Chirico- 2-1 Montana De La Rosa- 3-0 Andrea Lee- 2-0 Ashley Yoder- 1-2 Syuri Kondo- 1-2

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Bantamweight- 2 (30) Featherweight- 2 (28)) Middleweight- 2 (20) Women’s Flyweight- 2 (18) Women’s Strawweight- 1 (16) Lightweight- 1 (39) Heavyweight- 1 (16) Welterweight- 1 (34)

Light Heavyweight- (22) Women’s Bantamweight- (8) Women’s Featherweight- (6)

Flyweight- (7)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (15-37)- Deron Winn, Eric Spicely

Short Notice Fighters (15-20)- Eric Spicely, John Lineker

Second Fight (36-9)- Anderson dos Santos, Ariane Lipski, Jair Rozenstruik

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (12-22)- Matt Wiman

Undefeated Fighters (21-25)- Deron Winn, Jairzinho Rozenstruik

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (8-8)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (16-13)- Luis Pena

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- So who needs the win more in this main event? Both guys are coming off losses and both guys are giving ground in the 145 lbs division that's actually kinda sorta in need of some new faces. After Volkanovski and Zhabit, Max Holloway doesn't have much remaining and Frankie Edgar, should he win the title, probably isn't long for the MMA scene either. Both fighters were finished in their last fight but both have interesting in roads to the title. Renato Moicano has a low key solid resume with wins over the likes of Calvin Kattar, Jeremy Stephens, Zubair Tukhogov and Cub Swanson and as one of the rare young-ish upside-ish Brazilians with some steam, he may not be too far away from a title shot. Conversely the Korean Zombie remains a sneaky popular fighter (when FS1 numbers started tanking toward the end of the deal, the Korean Zombie vs Yair and Bermudez did reputable numbers) who is always in exciting fights. Injuries and a military assignment might've taken away his prime but he's probably still good enough to be in the mix as they say. It's worth remembering he probably beats Yair Rodriguez if he doesn't get hit with the hail mary elbow. That said, ya can't rewrite history so what we're left with is a really fun action fighter who has had two fights since 2013 and one of his wins was over a guy who wound up eventually retiring in 2018. Not exactly a resume for success in 2019. So who needs this more? The Brazilian fighter who has twice failed in his "step up" fight (subbed vs Ortega, TKO'd vs Aldo) or the Korean Zombie who may have seen his title window violently closed vs Yair Rodriguez?

2- Trying to think of how the featherweight fights down the stretch shake out, I wonder if the winner of this fight gets Zhabit in September and the runner up gets Ortega.

3-I've referred to this as a "Let's See Who's More Broken?" fight and while that may be harsh, I can't act like one of the bigger question marks about this fight isn't trying to figure out who is more cracked.

4- If Renato Moicano has a weakness; it's that he lulls defensively and tends to struggle when he's forced to handle pressure. Brian Ortega beat him by wrecking him to the body and never giving him space to breathe despite Brian Ortega eating a ton of shots. The Korean Zombie's career has been earmarked by wars upon wars and you'd have to assume that in terms of PRESSURE (not movement or footwork but just pressure), he can replicate Ortega's gameplan while hitting a lot harder. The question is whether he becomes too predictable offensively because Moicano's fight processor runs at high speed and he has great vision.

5- I feel like Rob Font is such a throwback to when bantamweight was kinda getting thicker and dudes like him were considered vital pieces to the developing puzzle. Now he's just a guy passed over by like ten other bantamweights. That year and change between debut and his second fight really put a stop to that.

6- Is the winner of Andrea Lee vs Montana De La Rosa the #1 contender? At the rate Valentina is fighting at, she could realistically fight the winner of this one in the fall.

7- I'm not entirely sure what John Lineker's complaints were about regarding not fighting often enough. They tried to book him to fight in 2017 in December and he got yanked. They tried to book him in December of 2018 and Cruz got yanked and then HE was hurt so they rescheduled it for January and he got hurt (or never recovered) and so Lineker wound up fighting in April. It's not like they're not trying to get him fights, he's just having a tough time making it to them.

8- If it's true that Allen Crowder apparently asked for $100,000 for the Greg Hardy rematch, I wonder if he could be theoretically one loss away from getting sent out of the org. Makes his fight with Jair Rozenstruik a bit more intriguing.

9- Why is Ashley Yoder vs Syuri Kondo on the main card over Kevin Aguilar/Dan Ige, Luis Pena/Matt Wiman or Winn/Spicely? I know card placement is sort of irrelevant but this seems particularly egregious.

10- Alessio Di Chirico is 2-2 in the UFC and showcased some promise in his last two fights vs Oluwale Bangbose and Julian Marquez. I wonder if Di Cihrico is going to be what we all expected Marvin Vettori to be? Kevin Holland should be a good test for both guys since Alessio rarely makes mistakes and has the power to pop Holland if he decides to get momentarily stupid in there. Holland has pretty much every physical advantage and when guys at 185+ fight, cardio kinda doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

11- Cannot emphasize how great of a fight Kevin Aguilar vs Dan Ige figures to be.

12- The image of 5'5 Deron Winn fighting at MW in the UFC cage is going to make me pine for seeing Gustavo Balart in the UFC.

#MMA #Greenville #UFC #Korean Zombie #Renato Moicano #Fights #Lineker #Font

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freshlyjuicedbeetles · 5 years

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Drakgo Ficlet 2

Thanks for the lovely feedback for the first installment! Allow me to introduce myself. Hi! I’m Chelsea. I grew up watching KP way back when. I grew out of it a little before the finale, so there are things I’m hazy on. I need to set aside time to sit down and watch the series before the movie comes out. I forgot about the series until a few years ago (I think it was because a guy in my college/university psych class had the Kimmunicator beep and it went off in class and a huge wave of nostalgia hit us all) and fell in love with Dear ol’ Drakken and Shego. Also, I totally followed Shego’s career path without knowing it. I have a degree in Childhood Development AND I’m a substitute teacher. Feel free to chat with me or make requests!

Juliet Lowe lived across the street from the Lipsky’s and the Sanderson’s. As a veterinarian, she was utterly devoted to animals, especially her Golden Retriever, Charlie. Hank Sanderson tended to call her a ‘tree huggin’, animal-lovin' commie,’ despite exchanging a minimum of words with her, usually when his own dog, Moe got out. Juliet tried to explain to him that he needed a better fence to contain Moe and that playing with him would tire him out so he wouldn’t want to chew on the fence or run around the neighborhood. Juliet was always met with rude comments and an eye roll.

She noticed the commotion from the new neighbors only mutely. It was reduced price spay and neuter week at her office and she was uncomfortably deep in animal genitalia. Charlie had been a good, patient boy during the week and had earned an extra-long walk that day.

Commodore Puddles was a king in his own mind. He merely tolerated the human man who doted on him and begrudgingly only listened to the loud, yelling woman that never seemed to leave anymore. Normally, if he was displeased, he’d attack, but he knew better than to mess with her. That didn’t mean he didn’t act out. They didn’t call him Puddles for nothing…

Puddles did like his new home with the weird and annoying humans. He liked sitting in the window seat and watching the world go by. It had only been a week and the mail carrier was already terrified of the pink poodle. It was his house and his house only!

He was jarred awake when Shego bounded down the stairs loudly, waking him up. He had half a mind to rip into her ankle and leave a present in her purse. Shego had just popped outside to get the mail, leaving the door open. Puddles got up and stretched, deciding if he marked his territory better, the mail carrier wouldn’t bother him.

Both Shego and Juliet walked out of their homes at the same time. Charlie instantly saw the poodle and thought ‘new dog! New friend!’ Puddles saw the Golden Retriever and instantly thought that another being was intruding on his territory. Both dogs ran towards each other each with drastically different goals in mind.

“Puddles!” Shego yelled in annoyance and chased after him.

“Charlie!” Juliet exclaimed, running after her dog.

Shego grabbed Puddles under his front legs as soon as he was in reach. Juliet pulled Charlie back by his harness.

“Sorry about him,” Juliet said, “Charlie is too friendly for his own good,”

“Don’t worry about it. Puddles’ has a superiority complex and has to defeat anything in his way.” Shego was annoyed that Puddles made her socialize but decided to play nice anyway. If she wanted her new home to be relaxing and drama free, she’d have to.

“I’m Juliet, by the way,” She said, offering her hand. “This is Charlie.”

“Stephanie Lipsky,” Shego replied, taking her hand. “That’s Commodore Puddles. I know, stupid name. My husband named him.”

Juliet noticed Shego’s strong handshake.

The dogs at their feet were smelling each other. Charlie caught on that Puddles was not a friendly dog. He gave a small whine and laid down behind Juliet. Puddles raised his chin and sat at Shego’s feet.

“I’ve never seen a pink poodle before,” Juliet remarked.

“Yeah, my mother-in-law likes to dye him with beet juice? I dunno, I stopped questioning her a looong time ago.” Shego answered.

“So, what do you do, Stephanie?”

“Oh, I work with my husband.” She replied casually, hoping that Juliet wouldn’t pry further.

Unbeknownst to Juliet and Shego, Janice was watching them from behind her flouncy lace curtains. “There’s something not quite right about those new neighbors.” She said to Hank.

“The husband is a bit of dweeb, wouldn’t worry ‘bout him too much,” He replied. “The wife is the one to worry about.”

“Well, let me catch you up on the social strata of the neighborhood. There are the Sanderson’s” Juliet said nodding to their house. “Janice is as nosy and judgmental as can be. Hank is a loudmouth conservative who thinks anyone who disagrees with him ‘needs to go back where they came from’. There was a lovely Cherokee couple who lived next door to me a few years ago and Hank loved to blow smoke from his truck. Well, they had a little boy who had asthma and they practically begged Hank to stop but he wouldn’t,” Juliet grimaced and shook her head, “he started doing it out of spite because ‘it’s mah right as an merican,’ she said gruffly, imitating Hank’s voice.

“What a dick,” Shego replied. Shego herself never claimed to be a saint (or want to be one) but that was just asinine.

“Janice is an antivaxxer, so if you have kids, keep them away from her brood. She also believes pseudoscience and that essential oils cure everything or whatever direct sales company she’s repping for this month.”

Charlie looked forlornly at Puddle’s scowling face. Why didn’t this new dog want to be friends?

“Let’s see,” Juliet said, turning to the next house, “Your right-side neighbor is Teresa. She’s not a bad neighbor, but she loves drama. She’s always complaining about something on the neighborhood Facebook group. “Wahhh, my exes are terrible, men: please treat your ladies better! Oh, woe is me, everyone I know is toxic, blah blah blah.’ I mean, if you’re having that much trouble in all your relationships, romantic or otherwise, maybe you’re the problem?”

“Luckily, you have an awesome left side neighbor, Hazel. Everyone calls her Miss Hazel. She’s in her seventies and is as sweet as can be but doesn’t take crap from anyone. She dressed down Janice and Hank last week for letting their hooligans run rampant. She was a paratrooper in the ’60s and is a tough old gal. Her husband, Liam, passed away last year, so our other neighbor’s, Michael and Steven and I check up on her frequently. If she loves you, she’ll bake for you and it is divine. If you get to know anyone in this neighborhood, it’s her.”

Puddles was getting bored and it was almost dinner time! He pawed at Shego’s leg.

“Puddles!” She warned, quickly turning her attention back to Juliet. She learned long ago if someone gave you valuable information, you listened. Never one to give trust easily, she needed to know who keep an eye on.

Puddles groaned and decided to chew on his own leg.

Juliet turned, pointing to another house, “That’s Michael and Steven. They’re great, you shouldn’t have any problems with them. That’s me next to them. I have a nine-year-old daughter named Nikki. Get ready, she’s a Girl Scout and cookie season is coming up.”

“Don’t tell my husband that. He’ll clean her stock out and fall into a food coma.” Shego replied.

Juliet winced playfully, “Yeah, I’m kinda teaching my daughter to be a bad bitch and to drive a hard bargain and not be a pushover in general. If she smells weakness, she’ll take advantage. So, if she gets him to, I’m not going to stop her.”

The two laughed.

“And my other neighbor is a guy named George. I have never seen him in my entire life living here. He never comes out. The most you’ll ever see of him is lights on in house. Nothing else, he has his groceries delivered and company do lawn and exterior home maintenance. He’s in the Facebook group but never posts or comments,” Juliet shrugged, “I only know someone named George lives there because of Hazel. So, I dunno what’s his deal.”

Shego could tell that she was being watched. It was a given that Janice was watching her. Maybe it was her own instincts or the powers the comet gave her, Shego tell someone who was keenly aware of her presence in the neighborhood was watching her. She played it cool, not wanting to tip off her onlooker.

George Vaughn thought that the new neighbors looked familiar…

#Kim Possible #drakgo #drakken #shego

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danieldrylie · 6 years

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David Foster Wallace, Falling On Black Days, And The Beauty Of Anachronism

Every New Year, like clockwork—pun intended—our Facebook feeds, newspages, Twitters, and Instagrams are flooded with “People We Lost” articles. Usually, I would click through, thinking, “Oh, I liked that movie/song/photo.” Everybody dies, though, and I wouldn’t think too much else of it.

This year is different.

In the beginning of The End of the Tour, David Lipsky (played by Jesse Eisenberg) receives a phone call from his editor, informing him that David Foster Wallace had died. Lipsky finds the old tapes of his interviews with him during the publicity tour for Infinite Jest, and listens to them, reminiscing on his time with the writer.

In May, a familiar face popped up on my newsfeed. It was unlike the time Bob Dylan did, when I had a moment of panic, fearing he was dead (thankfully, he only won a Nobel Prize). The face I saw was too young. He wasn’t supposed to die yet, and I assumed he must have won an award or released an album. Like Lipsky, my stomach dropped through the floor.

Chris Cornell died. He was 52.

Although they weren’t the most famous band out of Seattle in the late 80s and early 90s, Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign with a major label. They seemed poised to break out of the local scene, and they did, although Nirvana beat them to the punch. They had it all: a guitarist with a distinct style, who would incorporate elements of Indian music into their sound, much like The Beatles, the Stones, or Zeppelin before them, except with the added authenticity of actually being of Indian heritage. They had a skilled drummer and bassist.

And, they had a singer with a unique voice. He could almost be compared to Axl Rose, except without the whiny, piercing, almost Disney witch vocal quality. Chris Cornell had a haunting baritone you could feel in your bones, and transitioned seamlessly between octaves, often making me give up trying to sing along while I drove to work.

Soundgarden wasn’t typified by social activism like a band that came to the scene later, Pearl Jam. They weren’t the blind rage and angst of Nirvana. Though they could be very heavy when they wanted, they weren’t the groovy, thrashy grunge of Alice in Chains. They were honest, skilled musicians, and their style was comparable to early Black Sabbath. They wrote endlessly creative music, with existential, often brutal lyrics about depression, God, addiction, and finding a place in the world.

Those were the qualities that drew me in when I first started listening to Soundgarden, about twenty years too late. The lyrics resonated, and the instrumentation kept me interested. Chris sang about things that I had felt myself. Their music became a model for processing suffering with art. In fact, my first short story was named after the Soundgarden song, The Day I Tried To Live.

It surprised me how upset I was by the news of his death. Although I was a big fan, they weren’t the only band I listened to regularly, and I was too old to have any sort of Beatle-manic level of obsession with any musician. Sure, I was sad when Prince and David Bowie passed. But, many of my favorite artists were dead already.

Chris was different. He killed himself. I couldn’t get past that. Anyone who listened to his music knew he struggled with depression and addiction. Is there is something about art that attracts hurting people? That seemed to be true of grunge music. It was unexpected, still. He appeared to have beat his demons. It looked like he was on the other side. Just a few hours before he died, he was performing on stage, smiling. He looked happy.

Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Scott Weiland, and now Chris Cornell. They were the leaders of a movement that rejected the excesses of bands that came before. They were more Velvet Underground than Def Leppard, and their authenticity endeared them to young people in the early 90s who were equally as annoyed with big hair, spandex, and tacky songs about sex.

They died in unglamorous ways: above the garage with a shotgun, malnourished and anemic in a locked apartment, overdosed in a bus, and suffocated in a bathroom. Despite the fact that some may want to turn them into something almost mythological, their deaths were not poetic.

There are children who miss them, families who eat with an empty chair at the table, and empty notebooks that will never be filled with their words. Still, people romanticize it, like addiction and suicide were terms of the devil’s deal, as if Cobain would have never been great without taking a shotgun to that room in 1994. Their deaths are tragic, and terrifying, and some have the impression that turning suffering into art cemented their fates, like they needed it to create anything remarkable.

It is much the same with David Foster Wallace. Even with all the brilliance in his writing, it is impossible to ignore the haunting descriptions of depression and isolation. The End of the Tour communicates this well, portraying him living in a house with only his dogs and piles of his own books filling the guest bedroom.

You don’t meet any of his friends in his town. His friends from college are scattered around the country, and even there, you can see a divide between Wallace and them. At one point, he and Lipsky get into an argument, and Lipsky accuses him of trying desperately to come off as normal, and not a genius, as if he fears being himself completely would drive people away.

Those conversations are part of what makes the movie so good. Maybe, if I was a better person, I would have only taken that away. But, there was one thing that kept bothering me, and it had nothing to do with the story, or so I thought.

It may have been a result of the project’s budget. It bothered me, despite how much I adore the film. Multiple times throughout the movie, there are discrepancies in the background. They would be walking through a parking lot, and I could see cars in the background that were produced fifteen years after the events portrayed, making it difficult to believe I was watching two men in the mid-90s.

It broke the illusion. I would remember that I wasn’t watching David Foster Wallace and David Lipsky argue outside of an airport, but Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel pretending to argue outside of an airport.

However, as I reflect on this year, I see it now as an artistic element, intentional or not. The new cars in the background whisper into my ear, “This isn’t real. He is gone.” That is the beauty of it, in a dark way. Those anachronisms are a reminder that something has changed irreversibly. It can’t actually be Wallace on screen there. He is dead.

That is how it will always be, whether is is the moment when you see through a hologram of Tupac at Coachella, or you are reminded that it is only an actor with a bandana, or you listen to a cover of Black Hole Sun and realize it will always feel a little out of place without Chris singing it. The inconsistencies destroy the mythology, leaving the reality of loss in the forefront. There is nothing poetic there, only something missing.

The end of the movie has a dreamlike presence. Lipsky is reading at a bookstore, like he was before he left to interview David Foster Wallace, and it cuts in and out of him with Wallace, but the only sounds are his own words about the man, and a rising score in the background. Everything is foggy, ethereal in a way, like the light reflecting through the windows and diffused in the haze is memory itself, becoming brighter, but less clear at the same time.

We see Wallace dancing, smiling, happy. Lipsky cries while he reads and thinks of his friend. That is the tragedy. We are never really alone, even in our darkest moments. But, those moments can push us away from the people who care about us, and eclipse all the wonderful things in life.

Wallace will never write again, and Cornell will never sing again. The anachronism in The End of the Tour is a reminder to everyone who ever hurt and created that—while beauty may be extracted from pain—losing the fight against that pain is not art, but the loss of art.

Chris Cornell was not a great songwriter simply because of his struggles. He was a great songwriter who turned his struggles into art. David Foster Wallace was not a great writer because he was depressed. He was a great writer who turned his depression, fear, joy, and desires into some of the most incredible writing of the last 100 years, and—in a period of extreme darkness—lost the light and joy that can be found in spite of and out of pain.

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parisstreet · 4 years

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How To Write A Song Called ‘A Song About Denver’

The newest Paris Street album, 15th Street - Part Two, features 10 songs that pre-date the band. They were recorded in Tampa between 2002 and 2003, shortly before I (wisely) left town and moved to Nashville. As of yesterday, I’m doing the same shit I did with the last album, sharing the story behind each song, and attempting to pass on some songwriting wisdom (that’s most likely worthless) along the way. Enjoy!

The song: A Song About Denver

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When was it written? June or July of 2002.

When and where was it recorded? All the songs on this album were recorded in Tampa between 2002 and 2003. I said that at the top of this post, so this section isn’t really necessary and I’m just wasting your time. Let’s move on to the next section.

Do any other versions of this song exist? A version that pre-dates this one by a couple months was recorded in September of 2002 as part of a 10-song album that I recorded in one day; I made one copy and sent it to the friend in Denver who inspired this song (ugh, I know). The CD was called ‘A Sunny Day On Lambright Street’, which is the street I lived on at the time. The band A Sunny Day In Glasgow wasn’t formed until 2006. Did they somehow visit my friend in Denver, see my CD in the garbage, and draw inspiration from my album’s title? No one will ever know. Could an album I made in one day during a time when I could barely play a guitar or carry a tune be any good? That answer is much easier to obtain: of course not.

At some point in 2003, I recorded a very slow, dirge-like version of the song, which actually came out alright, but it’s a slog to get through, so don’t expect to ever hear it.

Finally, there’s a version of this song on the Curtains album, which I believe was recorded in 2007, with my friend and bandmate Darrin on drums and bass. That version is faster and punkier and closer to the way we would play the song at shows, where it was a setlist staple for most of the band’s first year.

What’s it about? A fantastic weekend spent visiting a friend in Denver. We met through Napster. I swear that’s true.

Some lyrical fun facts (note: level of fun may vary):

“a tiny horse upon a giant chair”

That would be The Yearling by Donald Lipski, a sculpture that stands outside the Denver Public Library. See the blurry pic at the top of this post.

“out west there are restaurants named after me”

Not a true statement (yet). It was however, my first exposure to the Carl’s Jr chain that my east-coast ass knew as Hardee’s. It amused me enough to include in the song, as I am both a Carl and a Jr.

Non-lyrical fun fact: If I am on a road trip and need to pee, I will often look for a Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr, as they are almost always completely empty, affording me a quick and easy pee experience.

“and all the jazz club’s drinks are watered down”

The jazz club is called Dazzle. They have since relocated. If their mixed drinks are no longer watered down, please let me know.

Second non-lyrical fun fact: This trip inspired two other songs, which are called ‘Make-Out Hair’ and ‘Lake Dillon’. I’ve never gotten around to recording either of them. The latter is slow and not great, but the former is actually pretty good, so I’m not sure why I’ve never given it a shot.

Why’d it take so long to release? For a while, the Curtains version seemed like enough, especially since it was the version that other folks were familiar with. I’ve always liked this version, though (it’s one of the first and likely only times I played competent drums on a song), so I was fairly positive it would come out at some point.

Can any songwriting wisdom be gleaned from all this? Writing from experience is much more rewarding than writing nonsense purely for the sake of needing some words to sing. Going back to yesterday’s post, ‘Bastard’s Song’ is enjoyable, but the words are empty. ‘A Song About Denver’ is one of the first songs I wrote based on something that actually happened to me. Prior to this, I was mainly trying to write what I thought a pop song was supposed to be about. From this song onward (for the most part), I stopped caring about those preconceptions and made the pop songs about things that interested me (so, songs about me and occasionally about Canada). It’s a much more rewarding songwriting experience than writing a generic pop song, even if ‘generic’ is kind of a big part of what makes pop music pop music.

One last thing (sorry):

I have a fair amount of rules for songwriting and recording that I try to abide by. A lot of these involve avoiding obvious rhymes that I absolute refuse to use (I mentioned some of these in a post last month – they are in the vein of ‘strife/life’, ‘fire/desire’, and others that piss me off even when I’m just typing them out). One of those rules is, ‘Don’t ever try to sound like Dylan’. I don’t know why or how, but I broke that rule throughout the verses of this song (especially the end of the second line). Shame on me. I should’ve tried auto-tuning the ends of those lines prior to mastering.

Further shame: rhyming ‘day’ with ‘holiday’ in the chorus. Don’t do that.

15th Street - Part Two is out now via Bandcamp, Spotify, and all the other streamers. All proceeds from Bandcamp sales will go to the Ida B Wells Society For Investigative Journalism. Part One is available now. Part Three will be released 19 August. A sampler of songs from the 15th Street series can be found here.

#paris street #15th street #indie #pop #indie pop #indie rock #folk pop #denver #carl's jr #dazzle #songwriting

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duncanwrites · 6 years

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Books I read in 2017, reviewed in 2 sentences or less.

Among other things, in 2017 I tried to read more books by authors from different eras other than our own. I also ended up putting down more books half-read than usual. I’m sure those two things say something about our year in anxiety.

But here’s what I finished and what I thought:

Birds of America - Lorrie Moore: This book contains some of the very finest short stories I've ever read. Every word, sentence and paragraph seems perfectly put together to draw out the real humanity of flawed people in a flawed world.

Wolf in White Van - John Darinelle: Among other qualities, I think Wolf in White Van has the best title of any book on this list: in the context of the novel itself it provides a perfect framing device that allows you to see the poetry of a dark twisted staircase of a story.

The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen: If I talked to you about The Sympathizer this year, it probably came out as an excited rant about any number of things - its dark humor, brilliant structure, mind-bending narration - but I promise you that beneath the exuberance there's a genuinely stunning novel sort of unlike anything I've otherwise read.

The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein: I re-read this book to get ready for Trump, and it did help, but it also reminded me about how angry I still am about the war in Iraq and so many other things. Still my favorite book by one of the best political writers out there doing the work.

Hegemony How-To - Jonathan Matthew Smucker: Another pre-Trump read, I think Smuker's book is one of the most useful -- as in practically, real-life make your work better -- books on politics in a long time. My only complaints is that I didn’t have a chance to read it years earlier so I could have avoided a lot of the things Smucker describes so well.

Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End - Liu Cixin: The first two novels of this trilogy I thought were some of the finest science fiction I've ever read: both grounded in real human suffering, sweepingly large in their approach to theory, and bringing out some exciting ideas. The third book dragged itself down with the darkness that already ran through the start of the series, but that shouldn't at all stop you from taking these on.

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson: Another re-read, this is a classic science fiction novel that contains the kinds of themes and concepts that you begin to see everywhere around you once you finish it. Noticed a few more plot holes this time around.

The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson: Set in the same world as Snow Crash, The Diamond Age never reaches the same wild intensity of the previous book, and is plotted more in the model of a shaggy dog story than a sci-fi thriller.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn: A classic text, the Structure of Scientific Revolutions is the source of a lot of conventional wisdom that was revolutionary in the 70s when it was published. Maybe a bit more tedious that it needs to be.

Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver: I think Barbara Kingsolver is a terrific novelist, and although this book moves quite slow through its paces (and is a bit stressful if you spend your days already thinking about climate change), the payoff towards the end is real. She does a lot, with a lot of heart.

The Mother of All Questions - Rebecca Solnit: Humane, withering, lyrical: Rebecca Solnit is one of the writers I most admire, and this is a really wonderful compilation of some of her best work on feminism, hope and politics.

In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck: I love John Steinbeck as much as the next left-leaning American, but only up to a point. This is a rough book about Men doing Men Things, full of people named Mac and Doc who do a lot of fighting and dying and it's just not his finest work.

Native Speaker - Chang-rae Lee: I re-read this book for the first time in about 10 years, and found myself coming across passages that had still somehow stuck with me through all that time. I could recommend Native Speaker as one of the best novels about New York City, relationships and language all at once, and its the kind of thing that will bear re-reading again in the future.

Trauma Stewardship - Laura van Dernoot Lipsky: I dunno, this one just didn't work for me. It felt over-broad, attributing so many behaviors and outcomes to trauma to render the concept almost meaningless.

Moby-Dick - Herman Melville: An epic that earns its place in the canon, I gushed wide-eyed about Moby-Dick at strangers for several weeks/months. Chapters on chapters about whaling history, seeming diversions, pile in between portraits of personal and collective madness: so much of this book is not about the White Whale and yet all of it is at the same time.

Direct Action - L. A. Kauffman: Direct Action is deftly written, insightful in its analyses and one of the best practical histories of contemporary organizing I've read. Hugely recommend for anyone trying to get a handle on What to Do Now.

What is Populism? - Jan Werner-Muller: I put this book next to The Shock Doctrine, Hegemony How To and Direct Action as one of the crucial books to read about Trump and the moment we're in. A book that covers the things that really need saying about Populism, but with the good sense to be brief, approachable and clear.

Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay: I am late coming to this book of essays, but I was thoroughly won over from the very start, because Gay has this way with short, direct but vulnerable language that makes her polemical points land with so much more intensity. I can't quite put my finger on it, but her manner of writing is so special, and she uses it to say such necessary things.

Istanbul - Orhan Pamuk: Let's just say this book is an acquired taste: you need some ready familiarity with Istanbul and a lot of patience for detailed personal stories and obscure asides in service of a memoir with a small focus. I quite like Istanbul and admire the literary goals of the book but didn't quite have the patience needed to really enjoy this throughout.

Dune - Frank Herbert: Apparently some people still haven’t read this book? They really should.

The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A book of short stories that are all elegant windows into the lives of people who are coping with distance, displacement and dread. They cover a lot of the thematic territory she addresses in other books, but with little experiments in style and structure that usually work.

Fear City - Kim Phillips-Fine: I've been waiting for years for someone to write the history of the New York City Financial Crisis that we all need, and I just don't think this book is it. It ended up being a sort of surface level history of a handfull elites involved in the crisis that never dove into the depths I hoped for.

Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson: I didn't always care for Larson's potboiler narrative style but I think the 1900 Galveston Hurricane is interesting and important and I'm glad someone wrote a book that lots of people could read about it.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Hakuri Murakami: Since I read this (all at once, on a beach), I've been drifting back to certain points of it that just seem to stick with me. It's only in part a book about running, but also about writing, and I quite like both of those things.

Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson: Apparently there are 8 more books in this series. I'm not going to read them.

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara: I can't remember the last time I was quite this obsessed with a book, to the point of being driven to read into inappropriate hours of the morning and setting aside other obligations to make time for it. I also can't remember a book so devastating and frustrating to read, that puts its characters and readers through so much trauma and then describe in claustrophobic detail how it curtails their experiences of joy and success. There's nothing like it, and you need to experience it to understand.

The Fifth Season - NK Jemisin: I didn't love this book as much as everyone else I know who has read it. The story is clearly brilliant conceptually, but something about the melodrama in the writing style just kept getting in the way for me.

Radio Free Vermont - Bill McKibben: A Monkeywrench Gang for the modern age, but with less weird macho nonsense, and a better sense of humor.

Waiting - Ha Jin: What I most admired about this book was the ascetic, unadorned language that the author uses to follow a simple but elementally powerful plot line. You do end up waiting a lot as a reader, but there's much to observe as you do.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou: You don't need me to tell you that Maya Angelou knows how to write exceptional sentences. Instead, you should read some of them and learn the real power of a well-placed metaphor, or how you honor the half-formed, overpowering complexity of a child's feelings.

The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri: I've lost track of how many times I've read these short stories, but they destroy me pretty much every time.

Rules for Revolutionaries - Becky Bond and Zack Exley: There's some useful stuff in here.

The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri: This was the first novel of Jhumpa Lahiri's that I had ever read, and I just don't feel like she was able to stretch her voice -- which is so concise, spare and evocative -- to meet the scale of this novel.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald: One of the greatest books of all time, a perfect picture of the spiritual depravity of money and consumption.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley: It turns out this book is very little like the pop culture Frankenstein myth -- there is only a glancing mention of dead bodies, the monster is articulate and an almost wholly private terror. Instead it's a nested doll of stories about nature, knowledge and spiritual purpose. Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks: A perfectly fine pulpy space opera. I’ll probably read more of the Culture books at some point.

#2017 #booklist #books

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ashleybenlove · 7 years

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Rewriting History

This episode came out on a Thursday afternoon. Like, just a random Thursday. I don’t think they even promo’d the episode. I literally found out because of tv listings.

John Witherspoon guest stars as Wayne, an uncle (possible a great-uncle) in this episode. After this episode came out, he would be on The Boondocks. He was also on The Wayans Bros. tv show in the 90s.

Kim and Ron and her class are at a museum on a field trip.

“100 Years Ago, the world came to Middleton.” “Where did they all stay?”

Spark Rocks. I know you’re a rebranded Pop Rocks. Don’t lie to me.

Barkin’s Great-Grandfather was the Police Chief 100 years ago.

THOSE FOLKS LOOK LIKE YOU AND RON. You both had ancestors at the Fair too.

Jonathan Stoppable, detective and Miriam Possible, ace reporter.

Barkin calls Kim disrespectful. She gets in his face to dispute this.

Mim pulled off the crime of the century supposedly.

Ron’s like “I’m sure other people did worse... eventually.” Yeah. They did. One of them is named Hitler.

Love the way Patrick Warburton has Barkin say “It. Was. Scandalous.”

Barkin’s ancestor calls Mim a “highfalutin lady journalist” and that she doesn’t make security decisions, he does. Sexism.

Also all the stuff in the early 1900s has a sepia tone to it.

Also Ron’s ancestor has muttonchops.

James describes Mim as “great-aunt” so, she must have been his grandfather’s sister? So Kim’s 2x great aunt.

Also we get Patton Oswalt back again to play his character’s ancestor!

Drakken has mutant termites. GEE I WONDER WHY.

The exterminator uses the phrase “perverting nature”. Nice.

TIME SHARE LAIR.

Dementor’s real name is DeMenz. Apparently that’s the German word for dementia so... spot on translation of his villain name.

“Now quickly! To my mother’s attic!” “All right. I’m gonna go, but I am not sure why.”

Wayne is Wade’s great-great granduncle.

Ron’s spikey hair because of the NOT-Pop Rocks is great.

Bartholomew Lipsky, Drakken’s great-great grandfather. Um... that doesn’t feel likely? Though I mean, one of my 2x great grandparents died in the early 1950s, about 30 years before I was born so??? I’ll allow it?

Hi, Estelle Harris!

How do the cookies have no calories.

“You should talk to Uncle Wayne.” “Yeah, somehow a seance is not what I had in mind for this afternoon. Thanks, though.” I LOVE THE WAY RON SAYS “THANKS THOUGH.”

Wayne is still alive. He’s 110. He was ten when he was photographing the expo. Um... child labor laws? Though p sure they were nonexistent in the early 1900s. And shit, given Wayne’s age (born 1890s) his parents or grandparents were likely slaves.

Coal miners in a blackout. Nice line.

Wayne comments that he was a 10 yo kid with a theory and Barkin was the Chief of Police with his own theory. Plus, you know, Wayne is a black kid and Barkin’s a white man in the early 1900s. Racism probably figured into it.

Kim and Shego’s ancestors fight on a ferris wheel. In 1900s dresses.

100 years worth of minutes. Yikes. Electrostatic illuminator is gonna cause shit.

“Adjusting for orbital variations and leap years” It’s gonna discharge today. Ooop.

RON DO NOT EAT 100 YEAR OLD HOT SAUCE. I THINK YOU MIGHT DIE.

Drakken and Shego are here to ruin everything.

Explosion but no one get hurt.

And then it turns out to be a shared Dream that Kim and Ron had and they’re sleeping on a bench, with their heads touching. Aww.

New exhibit of Roman looking folks. Young gladiator Ronicus, a Drakkus Maximus, and a mysterious masked warrior that looks like Kim who may have been the true key to the many victories of Ronicus.

#ashleybenlove posts #ashleybenlove rewatches Kim Possible 2K17 #Kim Possible #season 2 #Rewriting History

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anovel70 · 6 years

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My idea for a Season 5 Kim Possible

Episode 1: Goodbye Ron It’s summer. Ron hasn’t gotten accepted into any college, Kim can’t decide which college to go to. Yori appears and tells Ron that Master Sensei wants Ron to train as a ninja, and is the only path for him. He says goodbye to Kim. Wade gives Kim an improved battlesuit in person. He appears to want to say more, but they receive a call from Lucre, who wants to challenge her. Electronique reaches out to Frugal Lucre because she knows that Lucre has good technology skills. They try to get Drakken and Shego to join them. Drakken now wants to be called Drew Lipsky. Drew quit evil and is going to retire, but Frugal Lucre insists. Drew gives Lucre his laboratory, but this is not enough for them. Electronique tortures Drew to join and demands to know where Shego is. Electronique uses the Attitudinator to give Drew’s evil to Lucre. Kim comes in to save Drew. Frugal Lucre captures Kim and Drew and puts them in electrical chairs. Shego comes in to save Drew and Kim from Lucre because she left a box in his lair when she moved out. Kim’s battlesuit is also malfunctioning again from the electrical chairs.

Frugal Lucre turns blue and Drew turns white. Shego reveals she wants to do more evil, and if Drakken can’t give it to her, then she’ll find evil elsewhere.

At the end of the episode, the Great Blue is seen spying on Kim, happy that Kim and Ron are no longer a team.

Episode 2: Goodbye Wade Kim’s mother is talking to Kim about which college she wants to go to, and suggests Upperton University, where she went. Wade gets a job as Oren Door’s assistant, the software czar. He is leaving Jim and Tim in charge of Team Possible’s operations. Kim has to learn to accept to work with the Tweebs. Wade needs to realize his full potential, and Kim must accept this. Trouble finds Kim right away, as Lucre tries to sell Dr. Drakken’s mind control shampoo at Upperton University. This time, he has changed the label to Lucre’s Lotion, and he’s marketing to college students.

Kim saves the day, and Professor Professor welcomes Kim into the University and gives her an offer she can’t resist.

At the end of the episode, the Great Blue reveals that he was the one to send Wade away to break up the team.

Episode 3: Digging Up the Temple She wants to study neuroscience. Monique gives Kim new mission clothes and casual outfit. Monique reveals she is headed for New York City to study fashion. Kim realizes that all of her friends have moved on: Ron, Wade, and Monique. Yori tells Ron that DNAmy, Fukushima, and Bates plans on reviving Monkey Fist. While their intentions are good, they cannot risk awakening Yono again. Bates and DNAmy’s cuddle buddies are digging. Ron is having trouble tapping into his Mystical Monkey Powers to fight off the cuddle buddies. They trap Ron and Yori. They hit the top of the temple and Yono appears. However, Yono doesn’t want to revive Monkey Fist and needs more time to gather his strength before fighting again. He reveals that he has plans to destroy the world one day.

Ron decides to go back to Middleton and attend Upperton University with Kim to study math to become an actuary, like his father.

The Great Blue looks is upset that Kim and Ron reunion, but takes note of the Yono character.

Episode 4: The Mathematical Dimension Ron’s professor is Mather, who recognizes Ron and vows for revenge. To make matters worse, Gil is in Ron’s class. Kim finds out that neuroscience is all full, which means she has to study Child Development. In Kim’s college writing class, she finds out Bonnie is in her class. Ron opens his textbook and realizes he needs to study a lot. He tries to convince Kim to get zapped by the smart machine, but Kim disapproves and tutors him again.

Kim discovers that the Mather has the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer and comes to Ron’s class to warn him about it. The Mather locks the door and sucks the class into mathematical abstraction using his calculator. Ron must use his math knowledge to destroy Mather into abstraction. The class escapes the calculator.

Kim gives Hego the calculator and tells her that the Mather is inside. Shego is there and reveals she has moved into the Team Go Tower because she has no where else to go. She is seen wearing her new outfit, and remarks how she can beat Kim in style and in fighting, and they have a fight.

This is Kim and Shego's first fight this season. A new battle music is created, representing Shego's old battle theme and incorporating new elements that make it more ominous sounding.

Episode 5: Merging Bodies Shego is working for DNAmy. DNAmy accidently combines Kim and Shego into one person. Ron and Rufus are also merged. They fight Gil, who can now morph into a mutant at will.

Kim and Shego can read each other’s thoughts. They looked into cheerleading, child development, and dealing with annoying brothers. Kim tries to enter Shego’s fears while Shego is sleeping, but Shego wakes and tells Kim that she is aware that Kim is trying to read her thoughts. One strong scene was they share was at the end of So the Drama. Kim felt the pain Shego went through and she starts to cry seeing Shego like that. It never occurred to Kim that she would actually kill Shego. Shego realizes that Kim is reading her thoughts and stops her. Kim also realizes that Shego was trying to destroy Hank’s cupcake factory in Odds Man In because she thought it was a stupid idea. Shego looks through all the times Kim has exploded a villain’s lair and left them there to die.

Once everyone is unmerged, Shego says, “Kim, being merged with you made me realize that there is more bad in you than you know. Kim replies, “Shego, thanks for your lessons and life experiences. I like the last thing you said: there’s more good in you than you know.” Shego appears surprised and says, “Until next time, Kimmie”

At the end, the Great Blue agrees with Shego that Kim is more bad than she thinks.

Instead of being expelled, Miss Guide is hired to watch Gil to make sure he does not cause any trouble. Shego quits working for DNAmy, who now has a no merging clause in addition to the no cloning clause.

Episode 6: Ron is trying to find his athletic replacement for football. A major robbery at the X games takes place. Vinnie Wheeler calls Kim for help. The top three suspects are Senor Senior Senior, Adrena Lynn, and Motor Ed. Kim interrogates the three suspects. She realizes that she'll have to compete against the three in order to get useful information. Motor Ed hits on Adrena. At the end of the competition, Vinnie accuses Senor and has him captured to watch the final round of the X games, featuring Kim and Adrena.

It turns out Adrena robbed everyone, and tries to get away. Senior stops her because he is mad at her, but ends up near dead in the chase. Motor Ed chases after her. It turns out Vinnie and Adrena faked the whole sitch to endanger Kim. Vinnie Wheeler ends up arrested and his companies all go bankrupt. Nana Possible is getting sick too.

Episode 7: Dying Wish Junior is upset that his father is dead and has a funeral. Bonnie is sad as well. His father left a will with (the bad guy that stole all their money) Junior follows his father’s will and is now striving to be a pop star.

Nana Possible says her last words to the Possibles and she dies. Her last words are, “Remember Kimmie, anything is possible for a Possible.”

The rest of the episode focuses on the characters’ reactions to these deaths.

Shego helps Junior kidnap Paula Pandouty, who is forced to interview Junior and get him some recognition. Kim fights Shego, and learns that Senior is dead, and tells them that Nana is dead as well. Shego remembers mind controlling Nana and now feels bad. Shego comes over to Kim’s newly built house (it was destroyed in Graduation) and tells Kim she made lemon squares for her.

Episode 8: Island Auction Every evil villain has their eyes on Senior’s island, which is now abandoned. Jack Hench and Hank Perkins offers it to the highest bidder, meeting on the island. Every villain is stealing something valuable that has been mentioned in the show before, wearing Kim out. Shego is the one getting these items with the promise of getting paid. When Gemini orders the capture of Ron Stoppable, Kim is dragged into the auction. Jack captures Kim and it looks like Kim is about to die. Team Go ends up saving her, but Shego denies she had anything to do with it.

Duff Killigan – Centurion Project Professor Dementor – Counter Electrodynamic Concentrator from Bonding Lucre and Electronique – the improved Attitudinator “why would I want something I created?” DNAmy – Geome thing, Monkey Amulet Adrena Lynn – her dialog uses the word “freaky” and “what will she do next?” too much Motor Ed – Turbonic Charger Valve (it’s actually a fake) “What do you mean you want me to open it? seriously!” Jack: “You didn’t get Shego to steal this for you, did you.” Motor Ed: “The babe didn’t want to help me. I was against the odds, seriously!” Summer Gail – weather machine Gemini – Kinetic Modulator from Bonding Embarrassment Ninjas – a variety of prank items

The Great Blue can be seen at the end of the episode. “Kim Possible defeats all the villains in one small place. She is a remarkable foe. I will be the first to defeat her once and for all.”

Episode 9: Camille Leon wants to buy the most expensive diamond in the world (from Ron Millionaire) to prove that she is still a respectable celebrity. Camille Leon and the Fashionistas tries to rob the five richest people in the world: Papa Porter, Oren Door, Paula Pandouty, Martin Smarty, Falsetto Jones (since Senior’s death).

Episode 10a: Fashion is being stolen from many places. All roads lead to the Middleton Sewers, where Big Daddy Brotherson is seen. Kim asks Big Daddy Brotherson who is doing it. She bribes him with tickets to UU’s concert (starring Junior). Shego and Camille face off in a fashion show, which they stole.

Episode 10b: The Rich Ron Ned (who’s now working at Bueno Nacho in Upperton) gives Ron another paycheck for his Naco royalty. This time, it’s considerably less. Ron uses it wisely this time and spends it on the next four years of college for himself and Kim, and puts some money away in the bank.

Duff Killigan golfs on the Prince of Rodeghan’s property. Ron pays Duff and the Knights of Rodeghan to leave the prince alone after Kim, Killigan, and the knights fight. Duff Killigan, with his new money, hires the Knights of Rodeghan as his new henchmen and invites them to live on his island.

Episode 11: Retiring Drakken Drakken is at an evil retirement center, where retired villains go. Aviarius is also there and talks to Drakken. Drakken is bored of being roommates with Aviarius so he calls Shego. Shego won’t pick up Drakken’s phone. Drakken has nowhere to go. Frugal Lucre comes in and convinces him to be evil again. He proposes a plan to Drakken. Drakken sees that his plan is a good plan, but cannot allow Lucre to be victorious at something he failed at doing. Drakken stops Frugal Lucre. Kim and Ron arrives and finds Drakken already defeated Lucre. They take Drakken home. Drakken ends up working with Bob Chen, his old college friend.

The great blue sees the ending of this episode.

Episode 12: The Proposal Drakken reveals he wants to propose to Shego to Kim and Ron. He misses her greatly. However, Shego is still bad and Drakken is good. Kim recalls being trapped in Shego’s body and knows that Shego wants to be with Drakken too. However, she promised Shego not to tell anyone about anything Kim may have seen.

Shego is seen with Camille Leon and the Fashionistas stealing clothes. It turns out they became good friends. Kim and Shego fight. Drakken and Shego are engaged at the end of the episode. Commodore Puddles is holding the ring, and this time, he is blue, since Commodore Puddles changes color every episode.

Episode 13: Morphing Lucre Lucre kidnaps Camille and forces her to reveal where she got her morphing powers from. Lucre steals this but keeps Camille captive. The Fashionistas call Kim for help. They visit Dr. Beaufox, who comes up with an antiserum. Lucre loses his morphing powers, but Camille gets away before she is treated with the antiserum. The Fashionistas helped her get away.

The Great Blue is revealed to have morphing powers as well, and claims that he could morph into Lucre to his advantage.

Episode 14a: Super Suit Battle Professor Dementor has the Centurion Project and battles Kim with her supersuit.

Episode 14b: Ron’s parents hires Nanny Maim for Hana. Nanny Maim wants to get revenge on Kim and Ron by turning them into babies. The twins get turned into babies instead

Episode 15: Global Justice vs WWEE Kim is learning about the Cold War in class. She gets summoned to Global Justice to learn that Gemini is launching his next world domination plan.

Gemini is going through applicants to be Agent Alpha, such as Falsetto Jones, Aviarius, and Brick Flagg. He eventually settles on Jackie, who can turn into a jackal. Gemini has Dr. Fen, Chester Yapsby, and Hank Perkins working for him to create Giant Robotic Cockroaches at a good cost.

Pepe and Rufus fight. Professor Acari, Vivian, and James Possible creates a giant magnet in outer space to get rid of the cockroaches, but that doesn’t work. Dr. Fen’s robotic design flaws eventually backfired as Jim and Tim are able to spot something obvious that can easily defeat the robots.

The Great Blue comments on how Kim was able to save the world from WWEE, so he needs to be stronger. He appears to go back to Lorwardia.

Episode 16: Thanksgiving Kim and Ron are stressing over fall semester finals through Thanksgiving. Justine Flanner and Vivian contact Kim and tell her that the Kinematic Continuum disrupter has been stolen, and that the dragon from Partners may be released. It turns out Gemini stole it. Kim with her battle suit must fight the dragon.

Episode 17 and 18: The Blue Wedding Kim gets a call from Agent Smith from Area 51. Electronique is turned into pure electricity to help Lucre, destroying her in the process, the Bebe robots are now super charged. Lucre reveals himself to be the Great Blue who shapeshifted into Lucre. It turns out that Lucre was captured by the Great Blue. The Bebe robots attack the world.

Professor Acari and Chester Yapsby suggest using the cockroaches to help battle the Bebe robots. Drakken uses his Destructobots, but they end up destroyed. Felix’s wheelchair joins the battle.

In the next phase, the Diablo toys are brought back. Drakken comes up with the antisignal to combat the Great Blue.

When all the Bebes are destroyed, the Great Blue reveals he has the Electron Magneto Accelerator from Emotion Sickness. He may have lost today, but he’ll be back. Shego endorses Kim, saying, “She’s Kim Possible. Anything is possible for Kim Possible.”

Drakken and Shego get married at the end, where it starts to snow (Summer Gail's weather machine may be involved). Lucre turns white again and works for Oren Door and Wade to improve cyber security. Professor Dementor tells Drakken that he has stolen the Pan Dimensional Vortex Inducer again because it needs to be kept away from the Electron Magneto Accelerator, which Cyrus Bortel claims he has lost. Dementor also asks why Drakken's skin is white, and before Drakken can answer, the credits roll.

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theworstbob · 7 years

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the thing journal, 7.9.2017 - 7.15.2017

capsule reviews of the pop culture i took in last week. in this post: i’m going to die alone, and i feel fine; 1000 forms of fear; count on my love; seen it all: the autobiography; satellite flight: the journey to mother moon; mind over matter; molly’s theory of relativity; certified copy

1) I'm Going to Die Alone, and I Feel Fine, by Jen Kirkman: It's always been fascinating to me how some people will get married and divorced without first starting a family. You basically break up with someone, but it's not just any break-up, it's a failed marriage, and you're suddenly single after planning on never being single again, figuring out your relationship with your married friends when your marriage was what led you to be friends with them. This performance dives into that, Jen Kirkman analyzing why her marriage failed and how she's adjusting to this weird life where she's still a person but occasionally being treated like a half-person. I really dug it! Jen Kirkman's one of the best, and I'm glad I finally got around to this!

2) 1000 Forms of Fear, by Sia: hey. hey guys. would you have ever guessed that sia was good at writing pop songs? she sure is. this is like late-breaking news, but if you only know sia from her work with zero 7, wowie zowie, you gotta check out her more mainstream stuff! Except for the back half of this album, the last couple songs on this album are sort of, to borrow a phrase from Quentin Tarantino, Great Lady Tour-like. "ennnnnnnnnh You've got a great voice, and you got it to show off, but I wanna see you ROCK." I wanted to swing from a chandalier, not look at my fucking eeelings, Ms. Furler! But yeah, no, Sia makes pop music! Who knew? Wonder if she writes for anyone else, I know sometimes these popsters will write songs for other people, maybe SIa's getting that paper?

3) Count on My Love, by Tessanne Chin: This album has two really cool reggae-influenced tracks, and if it had followed that arrow, we might have had something. But because this is an album by The Voice champion and no one but the Voice champion cares how this album does, it's filled with these corporate ballads about strength and power and how nice it would be if even one adult contemporary station found a home for the song. The Voice has never found an artist that found any meaningful mainstream success, but that's not really the artists' fault. If this schlock is what The Voice is pumping out, no wonder they can't find any traction. They're getting these songs from known songwriters that were rejected by more well-known artists, and you can hear they're getting lesser efforts. It doesn't work.

4) Seen it All: The Autobiography, by Jeezy: Jeezy was always one of the most reliable rappers; I don't know that I ever looked forward to a new Jeezy track or got amped when I saw a Jeezy feature on a track listing, but I always, always enjoyed him when he showed up. This album is just fun to listen to. It's weighty, but never feels like it's dragging that weight, always ready to bounce back from occasional dips into darkness. Jeezy sort of reminds me of Biggie, just in the way where I'm not hailing his lyrical precision or anything, but the way he can fit into the groove of any track and make the song feel complete, it's a special skill (if obviously not quite as pronounced as Biggie's), and Jeezy's ability to simply rap well is on full display, or would be if this weren't an album and was a thing that could be seen, hey bob maybe instead of calling yourself for being a bad writer,,, edit?

5) Kid Cudi Presents: Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon, by Kid Cudi: ...I was expecting this album to be certain things. I was not expecting it to be this? I don't know how I could have expected it to be this? This seems like a poor introduction to Kid Cudi. Like, instead of saying TWENTY FOURTEEN! and jamming this into the library, I should have thought about having like a Kid Cudi day and experiencing him like that. I know, if I get an album with actual music which is meant to be enjoyed, I'll dig it, but I got this one by chance, and that's disappointing. Like, when an album has two colons in the title, that's your signal to riun.

6) Mind Over Matter, by Young the Giant: This is an indie rock album that probably might have worked better for me if my mind weren't trying to figure out an LttP randomizer while listening to it. Or maybe it's just thoroughly whelming indie rock and if it were capable of grabbing me it would have grabbed me. Soi apologies to Young the Giant if I didn't give them the fairest chance, but I'm pretty sure I got everything I'm gonna get out of this album.

7) Molly's Theory of Relativity, dir. Jeff Lipsky: So this is a movie that exists. This felt like a really interesting play that someone decided could be a film if they aired some scenes out of chronological order and threw in a couple of well-composed shots. There's a lot of cool ideas in this film, and the woman playing Molly gives a wonderful performance (my favorite line reading in any film I've seen this year is her saying matter-of-factly, "My husband wants to fuck me in the ass."), but also it's about a bunch of well-off white people with problems together in an apartment? The movie begins with a man yelling at his father about his inheritance. I can get involved with that problem to a certain extent? But that's not a real problem.

8) Certified Copy, dir. Abbias Kiarostami: I was tooling around Hulu looking for something to fill the Saturday morning, and I saw this pop up. I sad, "Hey, I remember this being a topic of sume discussion back when it was released, I guess it found its way to me!" I can see why film internet was abuzz over this film. I actually didn't even realize that there was a pivot until I was reading about this film after I'd seen it, I just thought I missed something because I'm shitty at paying attention. "Oh, I guess they're married. They probably said so earlier, whoops." Nope! So this effectively splits the film into two different shorts that are united because they're about the same set of characters being copied (theme) into different situations. (Also, as someone who thinks a lot about whether or not originality can truly exist in 2017, I am so into a movie dealing with that very idea.) And that's this really cool thing, how both characters can be the same people in those two different situations, how the actors can still play them like the same people even after their relationship suddenly changes, and I want to blather on about what I think about this but I'm still trying to get a solid hold on my thoughts and might not be smart enough to meet this film on its level, like I listened to awful '90s house music after I finished this film, I need to give this film the think it deserves before I try to engage with it using words.

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gerrygoodmanblog · 7 years

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Homes For Sale In Huntington Beach CA|Gerrygoodman Real Estate Agent

Homes For Sale In Huntington Beach CA – California Living

Huntington Beach is an area of streets numbered from First to 22nd including Main Street, where you may find a lot of shops and restaurants. This place can take pride in one of the best-fit climates in the USA. The area obtains one of the longest beaches in California, which is entirely approachable to the public. There are many factors that make homes for sale in Huntington Beach CA comfortable, but you should first find a qualified real estate agent in order to make a better decision.

Huntington Beach Real Estate – Homes for Sale in Huntington Beach CA

Are you looking for homes for sale in Huntington Beach CA? A beachfront condo costs 400 thousand dollars these days. Single family homes are available from75000 to 3 million dollars. The median home value in Huntington Beach is $759,600, home values in the region increased by 4.0% in the last year. According to Zillow, these numbers will climb 0.1 percent during the following year. A homeowner earns a monthly rent of 2000-4500 dollars for his or her property here. As we mentioned, hiring a qualified real estate agent can help you a lot in the investment process.

Huntington Beach city overview

The most important elements of Huntington Beach were the oil wells before they dried up and were sold off; the economy of the area was based on this resource. Nonetheless, the inhabitants had mixed feelings about the oil rigs sticking out. Since then the appearance changed, many different types of houses popped up.

Bungalows, colossuses with an ocean view from the rooftop, local grocery stores, bars, restaurants, and parks decorate this fantastic place. Little stores may still be found here, which is quite rare nowadays in Southern California because residential communities took over their places. Property taxes are reasonable here.

If you are looking for a safe neighborhood, Downtown is an ideal place: the main police station is not too far. Car theft is the most common crime, but criminality is not significant.

The giant 4th of July celebration is the most significant event in Downtown, with fantastic fireworks on the oceanfront and an awesome parade down Main St. every year. Surfing championships -the city’s nickname is “Surf City USA”- and air shows also play an important role in the social life here. So, are you already in the mood to check up the homes for sale in Huntington Beach CA?

Art-A-Faire is one of the main attractions of the area. You may find local artists selling their products on every Friday at the Pier. Do you want to have your own private party at night? Call your friends to organize a get-together at one of the fire pits on the beach. But it is important to know that the city and the state beach close at 11 PM, so you cannot shuffle until dawn.

Seafood Zone and McFadden offers you great eating opportunities. The favorite of the surfers is seafood tacos. If you strive for a little luxury, Duke’s Huntington Beach, this ritzy steakhouse will satisfy your needs offering you such special dishes as filet mignon with Maui onion jam, watercress sauce, and creamed corn. Ebi-Star Restaurant is also suitable to fulfill your higher demands with such delicacies as gourmet crab legs. They organize boozy weekend champagne brunches too. Celebrities know well the benefits of this place, just as pro tennis player Scott Lipsky and David Martin, Alien Ant Farm singer Dryden Mitchell or adult entertainment star Jenna Jameson. Many popular bands are coming from here too, such as the reggae band The Dirty Heads and the teen band Hello Goodbye.

If you are interested in car shows, Huntington Beach is the ideal place for you. You can visit Concours d’Elegance or the Beachcruiser Meet. Here you can see such car miracles as the ‘50s Mercedes Benz or Lamborghini 400GT. Do you like running? You will love the Surf City USA Marathon, where more than 20000 runners participate every February. The event is located along the oceanside. As you run on, you will meet live bands trying to entertain you. And what is awaiting you at the finish? A free beer garden, where you can celebrate with your running mates.

The lovers of movies will not be disappointed either: they can enjoy the SoCal Film Fest every September with interesting workshops, celebrity guests, and panels. Their program also contains award giving ceremonies for writers, directors, cinematographers and actors. This fantastic place also offers a stop for the annual Association of Volleyball Players Beach Volleyball Tour, which hosted such famous international champions as April Ross and Casey Jennings. Another reason to visit the beautiful beach.

Another gorgeous activity that you can enjoy on the beach is biking. You can rent bikes from Bargain Bike Rentals on the 5th Street. The cost is 10 dollars per day; you can ride to Newport Beach or Laguna Beach. Or you would rather go on foot or run? Paved trails are there to do so.

Do you want to organize a fancy program with your family? Fuzion is a new family entertainment complex for the residents in Huntington Beach. You can choose from an array of modern arcade games to entertain yourselves. But if you are keen on retro games, there is a section that gives place for such classics as “Ms. Pac Man”. If you want something steeper, you can chase after your family members with a laser pistol in Laser Tag. After the fun, you can have a sushi at the in-house Japanese restaurant.

Best Qualified Realtor in Huntington Beach CA

If you are interested in homes for sale in Huntington Beach CA, you can calmly turn to Gerry Goodman, a qualified real estate agent. He knows the area well and he will get you the best market value for homes, both for buyers and sellers. The grant funding of the Homeowners Association Grant Program will help to save initial money for the qualified first-time homebuyers with HOA dues up to six months, not exceeding $2,500. Good luck to realize your new plans and to find the appropriate qualified real estate agent!

#huntington beach homes for sale #homes for sale in huntington beach #huntington beach real estate agents #real estate agent in huntington beach

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Bollywood Musicals, Music for Dogs, Zines at the Pool

vimeo

This might feel like a slow week, but you’ll need to plan wisely. This weekend is packed with big events that span all day or more.

Friday, celebrate NYCxDesign (and Tom Dixon’s first New York showroom) with Dezeen at a block party in SoHo. Then rush to Williamsburg for the opening night of the Brooklyn Art Book Fair. They have programming scheduled all day Saturday too. But you’ll probably want to spend Saturday visiting all the idiosyncratic locales Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin’s …Circle Through New York intersects. Alternately, head to the other side of the city for open studios in Sunset Park, which run until 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

There’s plenty more to do all over town this week, and even an excuse to catch the PATH to Journal Square if you’re local wanderlust can’t be sated by four boroughs of art events.

Tue

Marlborough New York

40 West 57th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava’s smaller sculptures often lack the sheer drama his buildings convey based on scale. Nevertheless, fans of the Spanish architect should check this show out. It’s always interesting to see how architects and designers work out ideas in other media (remember Zaha Hadid’s sci-fi-looking paintings at the Guggenheim?). Here we can likely look forward to Calatrava’s signature balance of organic and geometric forms, deployed and experimented with at a smaller scale than a bridge or metro station.

Wed

EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop

323 W 39th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

Kenny Rivero: Hear My Dear

Kenny Rivero’s work has a sort-of dark comic/pop sensibility while remaining painterly. I’m curious to see how that translates to printmaking. Here, he’ll be showing recent monotypes and lithographs. If the image above (Black Panther logo?) is any indication, they’ll be as lovely as his paintings.

Thu

Asya Geisberg Gallery

537B West 23rd Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Jasper de Beijer: The Brazilian Suitcase

Dutch artist Jasper de Beijer’s latest body of work is a fictionalized series of travelogues spanning nearly a century. The images are a mix of staged photography and computer simulations, imagining a series of anthropological expeditions to the Amazon and contact with isolated tribes. The series looks to be a biting commentary on colonialism, but it should be interesting to see how this is received. I wouldn’t be surprised if this became one of the most controversially-debated shows of the week.

yours mine & ours

54 Eldridge St. New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Esther Ruiz: Static Limit

The first time I saw Esther Ruiz’s work, I was blown away by her dreamy neon and mixed-media sculptures that feel world-building no matter their scale. In Static Limit, editions of her oddly-shaped neon-and-plexiglass black mirrors will orbit a freestanding sculpture in the center of the gallery, recalling the “static limit” at the edge of a black hole’s gravitational field. That sounds heady, but trust us, the result will be something beautiful and sleek that still feels playful and idiosyncratic.

Fri

Howard Street

New York, NY 5:00 p.m.Website

Dezeen & Tom Dixon's NYCxDesign Block Party

To celebrate the month-long NYCxDesign festival, Dezeen (one of our fav blogs) has partnered with British designer Tom Dixon and other retailers on SoHo’s Howard Street for a good ol’ fashioned block party.

This one will, naturally, have an emphasis on design, including an installation of Dixon’s light fixtures spilling out into the street. In a month jam-packed with design events, this might be the best to go rub shoulders.

Mccarren Pool

776 Lorimer St. Brooklyn, NY 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

Brooklyn Art Book Fair

The world has too many art fairs, but could never have enough art book fairs. That’s because the publications fair is the opposite of its stuffy distant cousin: accessibly priced, inherently democratic in nature, and generally just more fun.

This past month we’ve check out Open Space’s Publications and Multiples Fair and the Brown Paper Zine Fest (both in Baltimore) and are happy to report that many of the same names will be showing their wares in Brooklyn this week. The Brooklyn Art Book Fair, Hosted by BHQFU and Endless Editions, looks like it will be a blast (although, for logical reasons I have never heard of a book fair at a pool before) with performances and readings Friday night and Saturday afternoon. No running.

Vendors: 3 Dot Zine, Audrey Ryan, Belladonna*, Birds LLC, Black by Maria Silver, Mactaggart Jewelry, Brooklyn Arts Press, Brooklyn Poets, Carrier Pigeon Magazine, Christina Martinelli, Cory Siegler, Desert Island Comics, EOAGH, Elijah Wheat Showroom, EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr, Endless Editions, Eyelevel BQE, Inpatient Press, Leslie Lasiter, Lorelei Ramirez, Lost & Found: the CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, Memefrito, MFU: New York, Molly Soda, Monk Books, Nandi Loaf, Pegacorn Press, Potatoe Press, Press Press, Printed Matter, Quimby’s, Ruth Stone Foundation, Slow Youth, Small Editions, Soft City Printing, Sorry Archive, Third Man Books, Txt Books, Unity Press, UpSet Press, Wonder, Zebadiah Keneally

Sat

Various (Guggenheim Museum, et. al...)

1071 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Website

...Circle Through New York

What do music for dogs, a Felix Gonzalez Torres installation, a Punjabi television show, and an institution dedicated to ancient studies have in common? These are but some of the attractions in the sprawling circus known as …Circle Through New York from ringmaster artists Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin.

The project, as its title suggests, involved the artists drawing an arbitrary circle that connected Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx (sounds like a Robert Moses freeway!). They identified points of interest along its route, from the Guggenheim Museum, to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a pet store in the Bronx, and various other locations such as churches.

The project all these venues will be collaborating on? Reinterpretations of the so-called “oldest song in the world”, according to scholars at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. This old-ass song will be reborn as music for dogs in the Bronx, a Bollywood-style musical in Queens, and performances by church choirs in Harlem and Upper East Side museum staff. This should be extremely weird, and a great chance to take lesser-travelled corners of the city.

Here’s a list of all locations

Loew's Jersey Theatre

54 Journal Square Jersey City, NJ 8:40 p.m. - 10:15Website

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

The Jersey City Great Movie Sequels Weekend is such a good idea. The standout feature: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. This is definitely the type of movie my friends and I would dress up to go see. If my recent visit to art school was any indication, the post-apocalypse is trending hard with young artists right now, and it’s easy to see why.

At any rate, this film offers the most glamorous take on what Australia will be like whenever the insane leaders of the USA and DPRK, respectively, turn the Pacific Rim into a nuclear wasteland. So see it while it still feels like a fantasy!

Sun

Industry City Studios and Trestle Art Space

254 36th Street and 850 3rd Ave, Suite 411 Brooklyn, NY 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Website

Sunset Park Open Studios

This event begins on Saturday from noon to six, but we recommend heading out Sunset Park on Sunday so as not to compete with all the other stuff happening this weekend.

For now, Sunset Park is a hotspot of artist studios. That might change, given the Mayor’s ill-conceived economic development plans for the area. But before the “Made in NY” scheme displaces everyone, come see what’s been being Made in NY without the help of a megaproject, thank you very much.

Over 100 artists will open their doors at Industry City Studios, and a few blocks down 3rd ave at Trestle Art Space’s open studios, the following artists will be showing their goods:

Sara Brooks, Cynthia Brown, Melissa Capasso, Ronit Levin Delgado, Joan Di Lieto, Abigail Groff Hernandez, Kristen Haskell, Meredith Hoffheins, Lehna Huie, Rhia Hurt, Jessica Rose Jardinel, Richard Kessler, Myra Kooy, Taeko Kuraya, Younghoo Lee, Jessica Lipsky, Mary Malcolm, Sarah Malcolm, Dexter Miranda, Michela Muserra, Tony Mosca, Steve Nedboy, Jen Nista, Mari Renwick, Scott Robinson, Aima Saint Hunon, Rachel Scharly, Myla Seabrook, Carlos Torres-Machado, Annie Trincot, Koren Volk, Chris Weller, Gerry Wolk, Harold Wortsman, Heidi Yockey, Cindy Zaglin

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