#i miss his housewife era it was so funny

[reonlyn]

#my art #renyrr arc #kahaku fumetsu no anata e #kahaku #to your eternity #i miss his housewife era it was so funny #不滅のあなたへ #カハク

[nerdyenby]

DRS2 reactions (spoilers)

Ep 1

Ras at the shadow dojo???????? Who woulda thunk

New intro?!?!!!?!! Idk why I wasn’t expecting that, actually

The public including Pix with the missing ninja my beloved

Gosh, big Riyu will take some getting used to

Wait… is that a curious george reference??

I don’t know if I’ve heard someone outright say something isn’t good for their friend’s mental health in a cartoon before, it’s really refreshing

Casual Frohicky and Sora/Arin interactions my beloved <3

Omg Kai explaining Shang to Zane is such season one vibes

Lloyd having open and honest conversations with his students about both his and their wellbeing is so important to me

Ok, hear me out: au where baby Wu didn’t age back at an enhanced rate and gets lost at somepoint and Arin is teenage Wu

Dang it, Cinder’s kinda funny

Ep 2

I legit started happy stimming so hard at that opening shot, I’m really invested in Euphrasia’s story already and nothing’s even happened yet lol

Percival out here making the gen z solarpunk dream a reality!!!!

Lloyd calling it what it is — a panic attack — soothes something in me

Sora did really bad graffiti of cats when she was young, that’s adorable and kinda tells you everything you need to know about her

MY GIRL!!!!!!!

Euphrasia using a cane!!!! Hell yeah mobility aids!!!! (Even though it’ll probably be gone in two episodes lol)

I kid you not, I was 100% expecting Suetonius to say “resurrect… the Great Devourer” lmao

I love that the gang is (mostly) all together, but it’s a bit too many characters for a conversation, I get why they like to split them into groups

Nya grounding Lloyd :(( /pos

Kai boasting about a fight that he won a decade ago when Cinder probably doesn’t even know Ash is endlessly amusing to me

Ras is so dramatic I can’t really take him seriously

Damn, they’re letting characters get hurt, it’s kinda refreshing but it’s scary

Ep 3

Wait I didn’t see Euphrasia get captured :((

WHAT THE HELL?!???? /vpos

Strength, motion, energy, and life?!??!!??

AYOOOOOO?!?!????

Kai comforting Wyldfyre <333

We know this takes place after the mech shorts, so why hasn’t anyone mentioned Cole? He was also seen in public, so why did that conspiracy guy say he’s still missing?

Why do they keep leaving Zane behind?? He’s in his housewife era fr

Kai making sure Wyldfyre’s taken care of :((

This show is so unserious, I love it

I wasn’t feeling people calling Kai Wyldfyre’s dad after season one but…

No… Sora took Arin’s thing from him… she didn’t mean to, but he feels like he’s not special anymore :(

I’m going to pretend that was a believable amount of parts to make a mech that big

Kai getting moments with Arin and Sora my beloved

Kai’s “hey kid, nice of you to drop by” is giving the same energy as when Lloyd and Arin first met during the merge

THE WALLS ARE MOVING, REPEAT: THE WALLS ARE MOVING

These nightmare sequences are going so hard

Nya being the first one to realize it isn’t real when her nightmare is reality, I’m screaming

Riyu comforting Wyldfyre <333

Nya best sister award when

Ep 4

My boys!!!!!

THE found family of all time

IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MY CHILDREN I WILL RIOT

Seeing Kai and Nya fight so smoothly together is so special after how much they and Lloyd were tripping over each other when they first reunited

Basketball?!??!!??!!!

Autistic Arin real and true

I love Bonzle so much

Geo is such a lil bastard actually /pos, makes more sense why he and Cole are a thing, knowing Cole’s taste in men

COLE!!!!!!

Cole will never stop being overpowered, it seems, he deserves it tbh

Censorship pog /hj

“Not funny, Wyldfyre” “Not joking, Sora” the sheer cousin vibes in this interaction are too much to handle

Lloyd PLEASE just mention being 1/4 dragon, it will almost certainly get Egalt on board, I am begging

Glacier reunion!!!!!!!

Ep 5

I wanted a more emotional reunion, but they’ve probably seen each other off screen (or I’m just forgetting a scene from the shorts)

Zane, why are you still carrying that doll like it’s your child??

Bonzle my beloved, she’s says that so deadpan I don’t actually have any questions

Wyldfyre my beloved

I would die for Bonzle

Cole and Geo holding hands 😭😭😭😭😭

Is Egalt the motion source dragon?? Probably not tbh but I’d believe it

Man’s spitting facts, flatearthers are going to lose their shit

“Little fire man” IM DYING OH MY GOD

Wait when does this take place? My first instinct is while the ninja were in the Never Realm but idk if we’ll actually find out

“Friends can become like family?” “Definitely” IM SOBBING ON THE FLOOR

Letting Arin be angry is so important

Cole shutting down Bonzle’s suicidal thoughts without hesitation “no, you are loved and needed. We will find a way to protect you” <333

The physical affection in DR is so dear to me

Human sacrifices???? In MY lego show?????

Ep 6

Wyldfyre struggling with her body’s limits is really relatable as a young disabled person

FOREHEAD TOUCH :((

Plot twist: where the other ninja are right now is Mysterium and they have that tua meme of two cars passing each other moment

Damn, that exchange hit hard as a former gifted kid. Sometimes having someone believe in you hurts. You’re not just letting yourself down, but them, too

Nya just fucking bodyslamming Kai, Egalt didn’t know what he was getting into pitting the world’s most competitive siblings against each other

“The Finders are like my family” *looks at Zane* “My other family” screaming, crying, sobbing on the floor

Oh no

Wait yeah, why are they thirsty if Zane can just make ice for them to chew on? At least Cole and Jiro, idk if Bonzle needs water

The nonbinary pirate!!!

Cole CANNOT escape the performing arts fr fr

Ep 7

Bonzle is giving transgender

That is the most Jay and Cole thing I’ve ever heard it, it’s so in character it almost feels out of character

Arin and Sora going through the exact same thing and trying and failing to not take it out on each other :( it’s ok tho, the real ones are the ones you can be snippy with and love regardless

Wyldfyre referring to the ninja as “Kai’s friends” honey, they’re your friends too, I promise

Anyone who calls Wyldfyre dumb can fuck off, she’s so perceptive and intelligent and is really good at connecting others when she truly wants to

Bonzle’s mom <33333

Bonzle’s smile when her mom compliments her name <3333

Who you calling stolen equipment bitch?????

Lil Kai and Nya!!!!!!

Nya’s so proud of him!!!!! I could cry

Kai being the first to achieve it because fire is an element under motion’s domain methinks

Oh you bigoted son of a bitch

Zane why are you considering it????? Honey

What the fuck did you do to Jiro??!?!!!

JAY?!?!!???

Ep 8

NOOOO 😭😭😭

There’s literally a nindroid agent right there????

The og musical cue playing when Jay comes back <3

Jay on his Euphrasia arc, this is highkey breaking my heart though

I’m counting this as a fakeout death and you can’t stop me

Are you kidding me???!!!? How many times is Jay going to be one room away from the ninja

Lloyd SHUT UP /aff

“And cursed!!” She says cheerfully, this lady is an icon

The subtitles keep calling Cole Kai, what is this, season one??

Ep 9

Aww, baby Ras (trying desperately to not care about him)

Oh ok, he’s making my job easier

Poor Wyldfyre :(

I love this trio so much, their banter is so good

Lloyd honey, fighting it is making it worse

Nya holding him through his panic attack :((

I was expecting Cole to deny that it was him, the earth is going through it

The disco toaster!!!!!

Heck yeah Riyu!!!

I love them so much it’s not even funny

“What’s your elemental power, imperviousness to sarcasm?” She just called him autistic in 13 languages (I’m autistic, dw guys)

“First time driving?” “Believe it or not, no” Bonzle and Arin my beloved

I’m a touch disappointed Wyldfyre’s perfectly fine now as someone with chronic pain, but I’m glad it was handled as well as it was and it’s a really important lesson for younger audiences that pushing your body while it’s in pain only makes it worse

The silent exchange of Cole suggesting Zane takes the parrot potion is endlessly funny but also sad considering it’s probably the closest well get to talking about the Falcon

Cole turning into a puppy who cheered?!???

“At least you’re adorable” “I’m always adorable” get a room /aff

Tournament of elements flashbacks

The workplace gossip omg, Cinder really out here beefing with a 16 year old

Don’t you even fucking dare

MY BABIESSSSSS

Ep 10

Arin mistaking Lloyd and Nya for his parents hurts :(

Oh no… I mean, it was obviously coming but it’s still very bad

WYLDFYRE POPPING OFF!!!!! THIS GIRL NEEDED HER ENRICHMENT

Let Euphrasia do stuff 2024

Wyldfyre jumping in front of Kai and protecting him

The basketball practice coming in handy lol

The fight cinematography in DR is fucking superb

KAI D: (he’ll be fine, I believe)

Nya!!!!!

BONZLE MVP!!!!

I was prepared for Rontu and Egalt to stay dead, the breath I let out when the stone cracked was unparalleled

Are we legit not getting Kai back????

Cole and Lloyd hug!!!!!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Oh no… that lie is going to hurt when it comes out

Kai and Bonzle!!!!

Not like Master Wu says, like Lloyd says ;-; /pos

#ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #dragons rising spoilers #caps #cw caps

[heynikkiyousofine]

InuKagFluff Week Day 6

Day 6: First Date -on ao3-

@inukagfluffweek

Author’s note: This is a little excerpt from my ongoing fic “Love and Flowers” about Inuyasha and Kagome’s first date.

Kagome laughed at Inuaysha’s joke. He loved to tease his brother and his family, telling her about the time he gave his 10 year old niece a drum set for Christmas and he thought Sesshomaru was going to murder him in his sleep. She gripped his hand a little tighter as they continued to walk along the pavement towards a ramen shop.

“Oh my, how funny!” her laugh coming out in puffs of smoke into the cold air. “Ya know, he will probably get you back one day, whenever you have kids of your own.” Sh laughed once more, before settling herself.

“Ya, probably, but it’s fun for now. Besides, my niece adores me. He could never get away with murdering me.” His eyebrows wagged up and down, sending Kagome into another fit of giggles, just as they were arriving. “Have you ever been here?” He asked quickly, holding the door open for her, his other hand never letting go of hers.

Shaking her head, she looked around and noticed a large horse hanyou at the counter, waiting patiently for them. The place was small, busy cozy. There was another couple here, plus a man in the far corner, dining alone. Looking up into golden eyes, he smirked at her, before turning the counter.

“Hey Jineji, lookin’ good, how are you?” The blue eyed man blushed at his praise. Kagome felt Inuyasha rub her hand gently, his thumb going in circles in her palm. Feeling like she would float away with all the butterflies in her stomach, she missed the question Jineji asked.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” Her face matching his.

“I was just saying it is a pleasure to meet you. Inuyasha here is a regular and I’ve never seen him bring anyone other than family here.”

“Oh! Well, there’s a first for everything.” Kagome beamed, turning her gaze back to her hanyou soulmate. His lopsided grin, quickly becoming one of her favorite features, spread, squeezing her hadn’t gently. “What do you normally order here?”

“Oh, Jineji usually picks for me and just keeps them coming. I, uh, can put away a few bowls.” Now it was Inuyasha’s turn to blush, his free hand coming to scratch the side of his ear, glancing at the ceiling.

“A few?” Jineji snorted, “ this man has almost put me out of business a few times. I’ll bring you two bowls for you.”

“Thank man.” Inuyasha muttered, clearly embarrassed.

Laughing softly, Kagome led him to a small booth near, the front window their view. It had begun to snow once more, the heaviest of it sticking to the sidewalks. It would be a cold night she mused. Feeling him stare, she turned to see golden eyes staring at her in appreciation.

“So,” she began, “you’ve told me about your brother and his family, what about your parents? What are they like?”

“Actually, I told them yesterday I met you and excited was an understatement. My mom practically jumped out of her seat to hug me. My dad, he’s a little stern, definitely a leader when it comes to running things, like our pack and his company. He’s strong and been around for a long time. My mom, she’s been around, but not as long. She loves begin housewife, spending her time in the kitchen a lot. Don’t be surprised if she bakes you something delicious when you meet her for the first time.” Seeing Kagome laugh softly, he continued. “She’s human, but when she mated my dad, she now ages with him.”

“Your brother has a different mom, right?”

“Yeah, Kimi. It was an arranged marriage from back in the feudal era, but they are amicable now. Kimi understand that my mom was meant for my dad.”

“Oh how sweet. Uh, can you,” her voice trailing off, he couldn’t hear her.

“Can I what?” He asked, leaning forward curiously.

“Can you make someone age with you?” Her cheeks a deep pink and eyes downcast.

Chuckling, he told her yes, that he could do that as well, but that might be something they can talk about later down the road. Nodding, she looked up just as Jineji brought over two steaming bowls of ramen. Kagome’s stomach grumbled, causing her to blush even more. Grinning at her, Inuyasha raised his bowl.

“To first dates.”

“To firsts of a lot of things.” She agreed, the both of them digging in. They continued to talk, Inuyasha proving he could demolish more than a few ramen bowls, while Kagome gave her the rest of her own, deciding on tea for a while. As the night wore on, other customers coming in from the cold, they enjoyed each other company, talking about anything and everything. At one point, they were both doubled over in a fit of laughter, making the other patrons stare in amusement.

What they didn’t noticed however, was the lone gentleman, who could hear almost every word that was said, had been discreetly taking pictures, his tape recorder out of sight. His black hair, tied back into a half pony tail covered the small camera hidden beneath his jacket, muffling the sound. When the happy couple left for the evening, he dropped a twenty on the table and headed back his tiny apartment a few blocks over.

#inuyasha #kagome #inuyasha x kagome #love and flowers #inukagfluffweek2021

[feralcherry]

Naruto takes that might enrage you (girl addition)

Warning, some of these takes might enrage you- that’s fine.

Fillers don’t count as canon, don’t even bring them up if you talk about this post lol. Also it’s been a while since I’ve seen the whole series, so some of these might be disproven as I continue with my rewatch. The excuse that Shounen is for boys is also very weak and holds no weight, as tons of girls (and nonbinary folk) relate to the characters in this show, so that doesn’t excuse Kishimoto for his weak writing of women.

To preface, I love this show. Love it to pieces. It was part of my childhood and holds a very special place in my heart. But there are some things I personally don’t like or wish could have been done better. I love every character and will go blue in the face talking about how much I still love this show. That doesn’t free it from my criticism. I’m also only listing what I don’t like and what I would change, though I’d be more than happy making a post about what I loved.

Let’s start off with my girl Sakura Haruno. She is easily the most hated girl in the series, and all because of how ‘weak’ or ‘annoying’ she is. As if that’s not the fault of Kishimoto himself lol. She was shoved off to the side continuously and never given cool storylines, unlike the other members of her team.

What I took issue with about Sakura:

-What were this girls dreams?? The whole reason she became a ninja was never really talked about nor were they really developed as time went on. She was all about Sasuke, which would be fine if she grew out of it. But no. 

-Her crush on Sasuke was super stale. He was handsome and powerful, but what else was there to him? He was a jerk to her most of the time (there are some instances he’s somewhat kind to her, but if we go off canon, it’s not enough to make her deep love make sense). I think it would have been so much more interesting to see her grow out of her infatuation for him. If they had to have ended up together, watching them relearn each other and fall in love would have made them more compelling. She stayed loving a boy who thought very little of her. 

-She’s pitted against her best friend and doesn’t develop much of a relationship with other girls her age. It’s kind of sad, and I think they should have fought over something other than a boy. 

-We are told repeatedly that she’s super powerful by other characters, but she’s never given time to truly shine. She got like a single battle with Sasori and she deserved more cool moments like that!

-She was a healer, which makes perfect sense. But why is it mostly girls who are the healers? It’s a bit weird, when there’s also Neji with his perfect chakra control. She only has her healing abilities and her super strength; but even then someone like Kabuto has more offensive healing based techniques than her. Like his chakra scalpel. 

What I would fix:

-New dreams. Show her find a dream outside of her team and grow into it. Also give her more of a backstory. Sai has more of a backstory than she does and he’s way newer than she is.

-I would let her fuck up one of the Peins instead of Konohomaru- she’s a main character and passed over for that little brat?? She should have gotten to do more than scream out for Naruto and heal people :/ 

-She her intellect a bit more. She’s so smart, and yet we don’t really see it.

-She’s perfect for genjutsu, Kakashi himself said so. So why not give that to her? Or play more with ninjutsu. She has earth and water on her chart, so why not give her those abilities? Maybe even wood jutsu to even her out with her super OP teammates. Idk how, it could have happened, this is a show full of demons and god like abilities, it could have happened someway.

-She should have grown out of Sasuke and not married a man who doesn’t really appreciate her and isn’t there for her at all.

-I would totally have expanded on Inner Sakura more. Imagine if it made her mind impenetrable? Could have woven that in with her skills for genjutsu and made her unaffected by other’s illusions.

Next, let’s go with a more beloved character of the fandom. Hinata. Now personally I don’t care much for her- she could have been so cool but just like Sakura, they kind of messed her up.

What I didn’t like about Hinata:

-Her entire existence is revolves around Naruto. Naruto this, Naruto that- and yet she simply sat back and watched as his life was shit and did nothing despite her ‘love’ for him. And then fillers/movies are added to show that oh wait! she’s been there this entire time!! no lol. Build her up from the start as his love interest at the very least.

-She stayed super meek the entire time. Shy girls are okay, but I wanted to see her grow into herself more and not need as much reassurance. She’s a ninja and should stand on her own two feet more.

-She’s less skilled then Neji and I would have loved to see her outmatch him at some point, even once. Or gain abilities outside of her clan, or do something that made a name for herself outside of being the heiress of the Hyuga.

-She never fixed her clan which was one of her few spoken goals. That was a huge bummer.

-I think it would have been cool to see her mess up Pein a little more. She only stepped in because it was Naruto, which reinforces that she’s only about him. But at least let her land a hit if she’s as powerful as people say she is. 

-She makes the most sense to be a housewife or a healer with the way her attitude is but in Boruto, she’s kind of rewritten to be a ‘scary’ mother which just doesn’t fit her. Plus, she tells Boruto to go and take care of his dad?? Bro, that’s your child and your husband is the hokage. 

What I’d fix:

-Prove her dad wrong and show him that her compassion isn’t a weakness but a strength. 

-Fix the Hyuga clan bs.

-More character growth and showing more of her life away from Naruto. Her romance with him could also have been better. I hated her always watching him but never standing up for him, it kills me.

-Neij dying for her proved their clans hierarchy bs to be right and it just doesn’t make sense for him to die for her. It showed that he was right to feel caged and that he simply existed for the benefit of the Main family.

Now with the others, there’s much less I have to say about them because they aren’t main characters or the love interests.

Ino-

-Jealous of Sakura, no dreams of her own, stupidly loves Sasuke and for what? WHAT’S SO COOL ABOUT HIM?

-I like her growth for the most part, it was cool watching her fight in the War Arc with her team. 

-Why is she the medical ninja? I never got that.

-She got with Sai but they didn’t really show their development and how they fell in love with each other. It’s like she only likes him because he looks like Sasuke and called her pretty once.

Tenten-

-Should have gotten to train with Tsunade at some point, since she was the one who originally idolized her. 

-We know nothing about this girl at all. She doesn’t even have a last name.

-Her weapon usage was meant to be so cool and yet she missed so often- there’s a disconnect there. Her abilities could have been built up more. Imagine if no matter what she never ever missed. That would have been cool.

-Her weapon shop isn’t doing well. Just because it’s an era of peace doesn’t mean the need for weapons is totally over, not if there are still active ninja??

Karin-

-I actually like her, she’s kind of funny and I like that she’s mean even if she can get annoying.

-Again, another healer, though she’s also sensory which is more interesting. I’d like to see her with some jutsus though. That would have been neat.

-Her love for Sasuke makes sense since he saved her and smiled at her, making her think of him as her hero. And she’s the only one he apologizes to without Naruto strong arming him into it.

Temari-

-She’s pretty solid in my opinion. Though I would have loved to see her more without her brothers.

Konan-

-Her goals in life were to support Yahiko and Nagito’s dreams. It would irritate me so much if other girls in the series were more well rounded and din’t also have some sort of dream involving a boy.

-She was underused. I would have loved to see her fight more.

Tsunade-

-Only becomes hokage to support others dreams...All of them men. And then later passes the title onto Kakashi who doesn’t even want to be Hokage either. 

-No other justus used, she’s on par with Jiraya and Orochimaru and yet she’s only super strong and the best medic. She should theoretically be more well rounded than that, right? She also should be shown fighting more even if she’s a medic, she’s also s legendary sannin 

-Had to be saved by 12 year old Naruto. I know it’s a show about him, but she’s meant to be a literal badass but needs a kid to save her.

Kushina-

-Wanted to become the first woman hokage and then didn’t. Her husband did. and then she became a housewife?? What?? She should have become the first woman hokage with a badass husband or had another prominent role in the village like as a council member or something.

Kurenai-

-Always lost a fight? She’s some genjutsu using badass but always lost fights.

-No real personality, she’s just chilling there. Sexy as hell though. Has a kid and that’s about it.

-What I will give her is that I’m so glad she was allowed to age. So many anime mothers always look the same as their teenage self and she looks like she can be anybody's mama.

Over all, the girls could have been handled much better. I wouldn’t find issues with any of them being housewives or all about boys if that weren’t what seems to be the standard in the anime. I just wanted more of a variety and better character development, especially for Sakura and Hinata who are the mains 😩

Now to what might REALLY piss people off- ships! I’m not trying to start some war here, this is just my opinion and you can take it or leave it.

Sakura- Naruto, since they had the most development and showed more than two seconds of caring for each other. Even Sai in Shippuden has more of a connection to Sakura than Sasuke did.

Ino-Shikamaru, if she had to end up with a guy it makes sense it’d be him since they spend more time together than her and Sai did. (inosaku for the win tho)

Hinata-Shino or Kiba, again, because they spent more time with her. Naruto and her felt very rushed and I don’t quite understand the appeal.

The one that made the most sense and became canon was Shikatem, though their son’s design was lazy :D 

If I do a second part, it’ll be about the boys and the ships with them that made sense to me. For now, this is all I have. If you’ve made it this far, thank you lol

byeee

#naruto #naruto meta #naruto girls #sakura haruno #hinata hyuga #tenten #temari #tsunade #ino yamanaka #konan

[livinglikearoyal]

K-drama Recommendations: Nov. 2019

One of you asked for some K-Drama recommendations and here you are! Keep in mind that I watched some of these quite a while ago so the plot isn’t as fresh in my mind as I’d like. I tried to keep the list to K-dramas that are fairly easy to find either on Netflix or Hulu. I’d love to hear your opinions on these and any recommendations you have for me! Also, these aren’t necessarily in any sort of order...but I will say the top 10 that were described are ones that I will probably rewatch at some point because I enjoyed them so much.

Chicago Typewriter (Netflix)

Summary: This one is hard to summarize without giving away the storyline. It follows a group of three characters through two eras: the 1930s Japanese occupation of Korea and then the present timeline. The characters’ reincarnated selves are brought together seemingly by fate and struggle to find out the truth of the past lives.

Why I liked it: Netflix almost did me dirty on this one. The summary and preview that popped up were not intriguing to me at all. However, it said I’d be interested in this (98%) so I figured I’d give it a shot. Boy...was this a journey. I absolutely fell in love with the characters and I loved how there wasn’t a “weak link” in the trio. They all brought something unique and important to the dynamic of the show. The acting is spectacular and they really allowed these characters to grow. The storyline can be predictable at times...but how they get there is unexpected. The ending had me in happy tears. 10/10 will watch again!

Romance is a Bonus Book (Netflix)

Summary: This kdrama follows Kang Dani, a 30-something mother, and her journey to find herself after a divorce. She reenters the workforce after being a housewife and finds herself at a popular publishing company as a temporary worker (I believe it was an internship). This company just happens to have one of her childhood friends as one of the co-owners and editors-in-chief. That doesn’t make it any easier on her and the series follows her through the hardships and triumphs of finding her independence. 

Why I liked it: The title says it all. The romance is just the cherry on top for this storyline. It really follows Kang Dani and looks at all of the challenges that people of various demographics face: single parents, “older” individuals trying to find a job after a time away (and while competing with the younger folks), women in general, etc. I was going through a bit of a quarter-life crisis when I stumbled upon this...questioning my job, my love life (or lack thereof), the expectations that I was facing...and it really helped ease a lot of the anxiety. Plus, Kang Dani and  Cha Eunho are absolutely adorable working alongside each other. The ending credits of the final episode got me too. This is the one that I couldn’t help to rave about to my coworkers that have never watched a kdrama in their lives. 

Strong Girl Do Bong-Soon (Netflix)

Summary: Bong-Soon was born with superhuman strength like the other women in her family and she aspires to become a video game creator--making a game with a strong female character like herself. In real life, she tries to be more “girly” and “delicate” but it doesn’t always work. One thing leads to another and she finds herself hired as a bodyguard to the CEO(?) of a video game company and also tries to find a kidnapper that is threatening her neighborhood. 

Why I liked it: Strong female lead...duh! :) But in all honesty, I don’t remember all of the details from this one as I watched it a long while ago. I remember it being funny, sweet, inspiring and suspenseful. I loved the main three characters too! 

Hello, My Twenties  (Netflix)

Summary: A group of female college students learns and grows while living together. Each character has their own backstory, secrets, and hardships. The five bond through the various hardships, traumas, and successes that come their way. 

Why I liked it: 5 strong women finding their way in the world. They struggle with so many realistic things: temptations, poverty, insecurities in their love life, an apartment ghost, an attractive neighbor. It was a fun and heartfelt journey. Realistic. You can definitely learn something from this one! Once again, my single self enjoyed that it wasn’t relying on a love story to draw the plot forward also.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (Hulu)

Summary: Kim Moo Young has lived a traumatic life and is rolling with the punches. He has also forgotten many of his childhood memories. When he happens upon Jung So Min, he doesn’t think anything of it. They grow on each other and eventually enter a relationship, much to the disapproval of her brother, a homicide detective. He believes Kim Moo Young is more sinister than he lets on. 

Why I liked it: Just looking at clips/photos/quotes from this drama still tugs on my heartstrings. This one made me an emotional MESS. Seo In Guk is PHENOMENAL as Moo Young. Absolutely phenomenal. His character is so cold and detached--flawed--but he still makes the viewer connect with him. The storyline could be cliche (amnesia, secrets, etc), but they execute it so well. Each episode is a cliff-hanger and you get so emotionally invested in the characters, Moo Young especially, that you just stay up all night binging it...knowing that you are on a train that is heading straight for heartbreak. I will definitely rewatch when I’m in my feelings. 

One Spring Night (Netflix)

Summary: Lee Jung-In is a librarian who happens to meet Yoo Jiho at the pharmacy where she buys a remedy to her hangover but forgets her wallet. He tells her to pay him back later and pays for a taxi. She is in a long-term relationship with a very well-off gentleman and is battling with pressure to get married from both her family and her significant other, but she has her doubts. This meeting with Yoo Jiho makes her question marriage even more as she begins to fall for him. Another issue, he is a single father and is looked down upon by their society and her family because of it. 

Why I liked it: I always love a show where they go against the norms. I fell in love with Yoo Jiho immediately and his son even more so. It is real. The conversations are thought-provoking. The love is sweet. 

Just Between Lovers (a.k.a. Rain or Shine) (Netflix)

Summary: Two individuals who lost their loved ones in a tragic mall collapse meet each other after there is news that a new mall is being built in the same location. Lee Gang-Doo was an aspiring soccer player when he lost his father (a construction worker) in the mall collapse and his legs were injured, ruining his dream. He has become a bit of a “bad boy”. Ha Moon-Soo was at the mall with her younger sister when it collapsed. Ha Moon-Soo survived; her sister did not. The two characters find out that their lives are more interwoven than they thought and work to figure out how they can stop another traumatic event from happening in the same location.

Why I liked it: It had mystery. It had trauma. It had love. These two main characters are complete opposites on the outside but their traumas bring them together and they make an awesome team. Another one that really tugs on your heartstrings! 

Black (Netflix)

Summary:  Black is a detective possessed by the Grim Reaper. Ha-Ram can see shadows of death. These two struggle to save the lives of people, breaking the rules of heaven. (from AsianWiki)

Why I liked it: It has been quite a while since I watched this one. It was my first Korean mystery show. This is one that you can’t watch when you are distracted...you need to have your eyes on the screen at all times or you are going to miss something important. It was suspenseful and interesting. I’m not sure if it is one I will rewatch, but it is definitely worth the first time!

Vagabond (Netflix)

Summary: This is a newer addition to Netflix. Cha Dalgun is a stuntman that has taken in his nephew after he was abandoned by his mother. Their relationship becomes strained as his nephew begins to see how much Cha Dalgun hadn’t wanted a child before him and doesn’t have the finances to live a prosperous life. When his nephew dies in a tragic plane crash alongside the rest of his soccer team, we begin to see how much the boy meant to Cha Dalgun. When some video clips shared on the cloud make Dalgun suspect malicious intent in the plane crash, our story begins. He meets Go Haeri, a member of the NIS, when the bereaved families fly in to collect their deceased loved ones. A story of political corruption, big business, terrorism, doubt, and crime-fighting ensues. 

Why I liked it: This one isn’t completed on Netflix yet so I don’t know the ending, but it is definitely suspenseful and you find yourself trying to figure it all out and cheering on or booing at the characters. The characters of Cha Dalgun and Go Haeri both won my heart early on and now I’m hoping their ship sails! Each episode leaves you on the edge of you seat. 

Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (Netflix)

Summary: Goo Hae Ryung is still single in her late twenties and is seen as a sort of misfit as she seeks knowledge rather than a husband. She becomes a female historian in the Joseon Dynasty. Prince Yirim has been living a life away from society, writing love stories that are popular but forbidden by the government. The two happen upon each other in a book store where she speaks poorly of his writing/genre. As they come to be familiar with each other through their positions, they work to uncover the secrets that the rulers would prefer to keep hidden. 

Why I liked it: The cast of characters is spectacular. While Hae Ryung and Yirim are the leads, there are so many supporting characters that catch your attention and win over your heart or make you absolutely hate them. They also aren’t all the boring, simple, support characters. They are so complex that this seems more like a slice of life piece rather than a drama. The storyline is interesting, especially to someone with little to no knowledge about the Joseon dynasty, Hae Ryung stays strong and independent while also showing her vulnerability. Yirim puts off a clueless aura but is really a strong character. Did I mention the characterization is amazing? 

A Few Honorable Mentions...

Something in the Rain (Netflix)

Memories of the Alhambra (Netflix)

When the Camellia Blooms (Netflix)

Descendants of the Sun (Hulu)

Thirty but Seventeen (Hulu)

What's Wrong with Secretary Kim (Hulu)

#chicago typewriter #romance is a bonus book #strong woman do bong soon #hello my twenties #the smile has left your eyes #one spring night #just between lovers #rain or shine #black #vagabond #rookie historian goo hae ryung #kdrama #recommendations #livinglikearoyal recommends #netflix #hulu

[nitrateglow]

Favorite film discoveries of 2019

Every year, my new-to-me favorites list always shocks me in some way. This year, the sheer amount of movies made in the 2010s on display is INSANE by my standards. Of course, most of the modern movies here are throwbacks or tributes to older styles of cinema, so maybe it’s not that shocking in the long run.

Another running trend this year: movies that are old but not as dated as we would wish. Many of the older films here deal with xenophobia and political strife in ways that still feel shockingly prescient today-- the more things change...

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD (DIR. QUENTIN TARANTINO, 2019)

I never thought the day would come where my favorite movie of the year would actually be made after the 1970s, let alone by Quentin Tarantino. Then again, this movie is all about the end of Old Hollywood as well as a big love letter to the 1960s, so maybe it’s not that shocking a state of affairs. I adored this movie, the level of detail, the laidback yet elegaic vibe, the comedy and the relationships between all the characters. It was one of those movies where I loved even the scenes where nothing seems to be happening at all-- I mean, who knew Brad Pitt feeding his dog and watching TV could be entertaining?? But it is and I can't wait to see this one again!

INTENTIONS OF MURDER (DIR. SHOHEI IMAMURA, 1964)

Intentions of Murder has an insane premise, one that runs the risk of being tasteless: a housewife in a miserable, exploitative marriage is raped by a sickly burglar during a home invasion. Even worse, she can’t shake him, as he’s suddenly infatuated and wants her to run away with him to the city. And weirder still: her current existence is so miserable that she’s TEMPTED. While abuse and rape are grim subjects for any story, Intentions is actually about a woman coming into her own and finally standing strong against all these men trying to use her. It’s a weird blend of drama and dark comedy, a truly savage satire on patriarchy and class-snobbery.

JOKER (DIR. TODD PHILLIPS, 2019)

I went into this movie expecting to think it was overhyped and when I first left the theater, I was all ready to say “it’s good but not THAT good.” But it ended up haunting me for weeks afterward, and I found myself thinking about how everything just tied up so well together, from the grotty urban hellscape which serves as the setting to Phoenix’s brilliant performance. It reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange in how intimate it lets you get to this violent man while never pretending he is someone to be glamorized or imitated.

SIMON (DIR. MARSHALL BRICKMAN, 1980)

How do I even describe Simon? Alan Arkin is brainwashed by a group of overpaid intellectuals into believing he is descended from an alien toaster. Then he gets a messiah complex and starts gathering disciples as he rails against television, condiment packets, and muzak. It’s a little uneven at times, sure, but the satire is really inspired. The whole thing is like a combination of Mel Brooks, Stanley Kubrick, and Woody Allen’s styles, and it is quite hilarious for those who thrive on cult oddities.

PEEPING TOM (DIR. MICHAEL POWELL, 1960)

Though it came out the same year as Hitchcock’s Psycho and has been nearly as influential for horror cinema, Peeping Tom remains underseen by everyone save for film theorists. And what a shame that is, because this movie is more frightening than Psycho. Sure, that may be because Psycho is so predominant in popular culture and just so influential that it no longer has the same shock value, but there’s something about Peeping Tom that gets under my skin, something sad, even disgusting. I felt dirty after watching it-- and this is 2019!

MIDNIGHT MARY (DIR. WILLIAM WELLMAN, 1933)

Loretta Young got one of her juiciest roles in this pre-code crime drama. Her Mary Martin is more than just a good girl forced into criminal circles-- she’s a complicated creature, compassionate and desperate and lonely and bitter and sensual all at once. This movie is a fast-paced, beautifully filmed ride, cloaked in that Depression-era cynicism that makes pre-code Hollywood of such interest to movie geeks the world over.

WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD (DIR. WILLIAM WELLMAN, 1933)

Wild Boys of the Road is a quintessential Depression-era movie, relentless in its bleakness and rage. That the main characters are all starving kids only looking for work makes their struggles all the harder to watch. William Wellman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors: his gritty style and compact storytelling are just perfect for a ripped-from-the-headlines drama such as this. And the “happy” ending has one little moment that just knocks any smile you have right off your mug. Absolutely see this.

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (DIR. NORMAN JEWISON, 1966)

Sometimes, when you watch a movie only because a favorite actor is in it, you get subjected to pure trash like Free and Easy (oh, the things I do for Buster Keaton). Other times, you get cute gems like The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, which, as you probably guessed, I mainly sought out for Alan Arkin. But the whole movie is hilarious, the best kind of farce comedy, populated by enjoyable characters and a sweet-tempered humanism that grounds the wackiness. While a little overlong, this movie is quite underrated-- and sadly, its satire of American xenophobia and Cold War panic is not as dated as we would like to believe.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (DIR. ALAN J. PAKULA, 1976)

Who knew a political thriller where most people know the twist could be so intense and riveting? It’s about as nonsensical as feeling suspense when you watch a movie about the Titanic and hope the boat won’t sink-- but damn, it’s magical. All the President’s Men is real white-knuckle stuff, with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman projecting both youthful excitement and deep panic as they proceed with their investigation. It scarcely seems to have aged at all.

WHISPER OF THE HEART (DIR. YOSHIFUMI KONDOU, 1995)

There’s a scene near the end of Whisper of the Heart where the protagonist Shizuku shows the finished first draft of her fantasy novel to her first reader, the grandpa of one of her schoolmates. She weeps because it isn’t the perfect image she had in her head, despite how hard she worked on it, but the old man tells her that it takes polishing and discipline to make the work come to its full potential. Few movies about artists are so honest about how hard it can be, how unsupportive others can be in their demand that everyone be “practical.” As a writer who struggles to create and constantly doubts herself, this movie spoke strongly to me. I recommend it to any creative person.

THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (DIR. BRIAN DE PALMA, 1976)

I’d been wanting to see this movie since my high school phan days. Holy crap, is it WEIRDER than I could have ever imagined, a true camp masterpiece. I’m shocked it was never tuned into a stage show actually, but then again, we would miss those trippy camera angles and we wouldn’t have Paul Williams as one of the greatest villains of all time.

DUEL (DIR. STEVEN SPIELBERG, 1971)

When people talk about the best movies made in the “Hitchcock without Hitchcock directing” tradition, why is Duel so seldom mentioned? The scene in the cafe, packed with paranoid tension and tense camerawork, alone should qualify it. Duel is most known as the movie which put the young Steven Spielberg on the map. It’s quite different from his later work, grittier and less whimsical for sure. Even the ending seems almost nihilistic, depending on how you view it. But damn, if it isn’t fine filmmaking.

CAROL (DIR. TODD HAYNES, 2015)

This gorgeous throwback to Douglas Sirk melodramas is also one of the best romantic movies I’ve seen in a while. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara have the sweetest, tenderest chemistry-- it was like seeing Lauren Bacall and Audrey Hepburn as love interests in a film. Unlike Sirk, there is little in the way of ripe melodrama here-- everything is underplayed, aching, mature. And I can say this is an adaptation that is better than the source book: it just feels so much warmer.

12 ANGRY MEN (DIR. SIDNEY LUMET, 1957

All I can say is that this was every bit equal to the hype. Common movie wisdom says people sitting and talking in a room is going to be boring on film, but movies like 12 Angry Men prove this is not so when you’ve got an excellently tense atmosphere, an inspired script, and a stable of fine actors to work with. Like The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, this movie has not significantly aged-- much to society’s discredit.

A STAR IS BORN (DIR. GEORGE CUKOR, 1954)

Another movie I went into not expecting to love as much as I did. When movies from the 20s or 30s tended to get remakes in the 1950s, I always find them too garish and big, victims of glossy Cinemascope and overlong runtimes. Compared to the lean 1937 classic original, I expected sheer indulgence from this three-hour remake. Instead, I got my heart torn out all over again-- the longer runtime is used well, fleshing out the characters to a greater degree. Judy Garland and James Mason both give what might be the best efforts of their respective careers, and the satire of the celebrity machine remains as relevant and scathing as ever.

BLANCANIEVES (DIR. PABLO BERGER, 2012)

Oh, it feels like this movie was made for me specifically. It’s shot in gorgeous, expressionistic black-and-white. It’s set in the 1920s. It’s a clever adaptation of a classic fairy tale. It’s as funny and charming as it is bittersweet and macabre. Instead of more superhero movies, can we get more neo-silent movies like this? PLEASE?

THE FAVOURITE (DIR. YORGOS LANTHIMOS, 2018)

I’ve heard The Favourite described as a “bitchy lesbian Shakespeare play,” but this description, while a little true in terms of general tone, does not get to the heart of what makes this film brilliant. More than love or sex, this movie is about power-- particularly the corrupting influence of power. And it corrupts not only morals but love itself. Innocents become Machiavellian schemers. Lovers become sadomasochistic enemies. Good intentions turn to poison. This certainly isn’t a happy movie, but it is moving and, strangely enough, also hilarious. I was reminded of the chilly, satirical world of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon more than once-- and for me, that is not a bad movie to be reminded of.

ON THE WATERFRONT (DIR. ELIA KAZAN, 1954)

Another classic that’s been on my list forever that I was delighted to find worthy of its reputation. It’s a classic tale of redemption and social justice, perfectly acted and shot. While I still prefer A Streetcar Named Desire as far as Kazan is concerned, this might be a better movie in the objective sense. Actually, more than even Brando, Karl Malden is the acting highlight for me-- he plays a priest torn between staying silent or truly speaking for the Gospel by demanding justice for the poor parish he serves. Just brilliant work.

KLUTE (DIR. ALAN J. PAKULA, 1971)

A perfect thriller, just about, and a great example of the “NYC is hell on earth” subgenre of the 1960s and 1970s. Jane Fonda is a revelation: she feels so real, not at all like a starlet trying to seem normal if you know what I mean.

KISS KISS BANG BANG (DIR. SHANE BLACK, 2005)

As far as subversive noir goes, this is the most entertaining. I would put it up there with The Big Lebowski as far as goofy takes on Raymond Chandler are concerned-- I don’t even really know what to make of it, but I laughed my ass off anytime I wasn’t going “WHAT???”

What were your favorite film discoveries in 2019?

#thoughts #peeping tom #simon 1980 #kiss kiss bang bang #intentions of murder #once upon a time in hollywood #joker #a star is born #blancanieves #the russians are coming the russians are coming #all the president's men #whisper of the heart #carol #the favourite #12 angry men #klute #the phantom of the paradise #on the waterfront #wild boys of the road #midnight mary #duel

[haeres-viaticum]

Choke

Names are ambitious, don’t you think? They can hold power, they can strike fear, they can bestow honor and shame, they hold eras of history at a glance or erase them with a penstroke. The Sapphire Exchange, the Jeweled Croizier. I’ll hand it to Ishgard, she’s got Ul’dah beat when it comes to aspirational nomenclature, but that’s about as far as their competitive edge extends. Once you see the sad, snow-dotted kiosks shuddering in the howling arctic blasts, its wares barely hanging on for dear life as textiles are beaten threadbare where they hang, you understand that this name is a relic, much as its namesake.

As for me, I am a Briar, a patch of thorns that creeps and pricks and blossoms into wild roses. Ilm by ilm I’ve wrapped myself up the stalk of the Fousaux family tree and sank my spindles into its brittle bark, and now I drink deep from its ancestral sap to explode into bloom bigger and brighter than I ever could on my own. I’ve traded desert reds for brumal blues, but the trouble is that I no longer recognize the flowers on the vine.

What am I now? Who is this that stares with a peaked face and deep circles while she styles her hair the morning after she’s barely slept? What do I call this woman who rolls the lipstick over her mouth like a proper housewife and whispers mors tua, vita mea like an inspirational cross-stitch? I was a student of psychodynamics not so long ago, an awkward woman scared to venture out away from the realm of the dead that made up the hallowed ground of her quiet inheritance. I was setting out into new unknowns as an uncertain, timid thing who didn’t know how to touch the living until the books told me how, and oh, how the living has been touched ever since.

My greatest concerns used to be how I was going to keep a troubled, brilliant woman from killing herself, how I was going to undo decades of extremes etched into her basic survival instincts so she could exist at some base level free of turbulence. I spent more hours than I ever billed simply paging through case studies on sexual deviancy, shame, and childhood trauma to treat a man who compulsively fucked just about anyone who would ask in order to fill the craters left by childhood inadequacies with cum and saliva. I still wonder how he is, if his partners know, if he feels any remorse, if he’s suffered any black eyes for his careless indiscretions, if he’s accidentally spawned a new generation of broken children.

I find my thoughts meandering to the Ala Mhigans who held me captive at least a thousand years ago, the memories glossy with the splendid paintbrush of time that makes it feel like a funny, nostalgic little adventure that wasn’t in fact absolutely terrifying. I think of the Kharlu I killed with more pride than guilt these days, and I find myself with funny new feelings of emptiness in spite the absolute, bursting fullness of my days as of late. I miss Toragana’s laugh echoing in the empty, dusty halls of my family estate while the peculiar smell of Steppe fare wafts from what must have been such a strange little desert kitchen. I lament how much I took her for granted and how much time I spent instead crying alone in my office wishing for solitude, wishing the infuriating bonds of the Jhungid would stop doing to me what I’ve done to the Fousaux.

I sit now on the precipice of change paralyzed by fear that I can’t share. At risk of being trite, who counsels a counselor? I’m thirty years old, hardly a crone, and what the hell do I know about anything? What business do I have telling anyone what’s right for them when lives have been crushed underfoot in my march toward bold new futures. I’ve long since abandoned trying to grapple with the morality of what’s been done in my name, by my name, for my name. I’ve crossed lines that I had no idea I’d been towing under the dubious guise of legal rights in the sinister city of Ul’dah, and now my scruples look to be in complete, weightless freefall. Scatter them to ashes. I mourn in private.

Not so deep down, a reclusive mortician who tells macabre stories at fine dinner parties, embarrasses herself with wildly out-of-place gallows humor on dates with suitors, and smiles at rumors of cursed blood yearns to turn the clock back and return to a time when her most pressing concern was natron crust under her manicure rather than navigating a transnational hostage situation involving one of her closest confidants that could very well end in tragedy. But here I am, like it or not, with the power to start wars, to slit throats, to break legs, and to choke an entire lineage with my suffocating bramble.

#lita #lilith #writing #ffxiv #ff14 #balmung #roleplay #crystal rp

[dwellordream]

This is kind of two unrelated questions but: if you're still doing the director's cuts, could you do chapter 3 of grass crown? (Or whichever chapter of whichever fic you want) and what your favorite fanfics are (regardless of fandom)?

I’ll rec some fics first because that’s going to be shorter than a director cut haha: in terms of what is currently updating that I’m following: An Unexpected Journey is a great The Mandalorian fic involving one of the most well-written and well-rounded, human OCs I have ever read in any fic, ever. His Highness Steven Universe is a very funny Steven Universe AU which does a great job of portraying fledgling teen romance as being so excruciating and mortifying yet giddily fun. Little Swan Lost is a very interesting modern Hobbit AU involving female Bilbo and an arranged marriage? sounds a little far-fetched but it’s both quite angsty and quite sweet. Our Blades Are Sharp is a great ASOIAF AU series revolving around a still-kicking Domeric Bolton and Sansa Stark; it offers a really interesting take on House Bolton. War in a time of “peace” is an awesome HP AU about a daughter of Sirius Black and a French Veela and her struggles through Hogwarts in Slytherin. Chapter 3 aka Lydia’s Dramatic Entrance aka “In the garden of Eden”: I actually had a great time writing this chapter and considered it a nice breath of fresh air into the fic in general (despite it literally being Chapter 3). Lydia was one of the first ‘wholly original characters’ I thought of when developing Grass Crown, and she sort of just sashayed onto the page with a martini in hand, dressed to the nines. We literally open with Lydia staring at her reflection- or trying to- much like the fish in the Rosiers’ gaudy ornamental tank, Lydia lives in a glass house and is always under inspection and observation.  Then we pretty quickly break down the Rosier family tree- mother Cordelia, father Gilbert, big brother Lyle, and pregnant sister-in-law Cecily. Cecily’s pregnancy is a big deal for the Rosiers, and a point of pride- with pureblood birth rates dwindling, a viable pregnancy is truly seen as something to celebrate and brag about. This chapter goes into detail about Lydia’s observant nature right off the bat, as well as how perceptive she thinks she is, pretty much dissecting everyone with one look alone. Projection, much? The big ‘problem’ of the hour is, of course, the floral arrangements- this is the sort of stuff that makes up Lydia’s extremely constrained life. Floral arrangements and caterers and decorations- party planning and social hours and gossip and fashion is pretty much what she’s expected to limit herself to. While it’s not immediately clear if the Rosiers have actively dissuaded Lydia from having a career or not, it’s obvious that she’s not really encouraged to be interested in that sort of thing- she’s got a big future on the horizon, but that future is someone else’s, with her sort of tacked on as part of the decor.  We also see that Lydia is far from hesitant or shy; she teases and jokes and rolls her eyes, but is careful to never actually show (or even feel) any real anger or upset at the world around her. basically it’s like she’s on thin ice all the time, as toothless as the Rosiers might seem at first glance, aside from just being snobs. The scene of her under the rose trellis and by the fountain talking to her brother was the first real image I ever had of Lydia and what she’d be like in this fic. The roses are beautiful- but also completely artificial- they aren’t natural growth, they were forcibly created to bloom so wonderfully with magic and potions. We also get the first hint of Lydia’s metamorphmagus abilities here.

Lyle stands in contrast- the prodigal son to Lydia’s seemingly perfect daughter. Whereas she is always gracious and polite, he’s sullen and rude, acting more like he’s still a teenager than a 30 year old man.  Lydia says “They wouldn’t even know me” in reference to guests showing up early- suggesting that the face she was just speaking to Lyle with is not necessarily the same one she’s about to put on for the party. The one real concern Lyle seems to show is that Lydia might forget to wear her engagement ring- she doesn’t seem to go around wearing it at home, which already tells us a lot about her relationship with Tom, and it is odd that in this one regard Lyle seems actually concerned- does he worry about Lydia’s interactions with Tom for her sake or his own? The ring is very much a product of the time period- it’s not an antique or heirloom like many pureblooded engagement rings might be, it’s brand spanking new, something Lydia is not at all bothered by- she clearly doesn’t mind that Tom isn’t like the other supposedly pureblood men she knows, and she is spiteful about the fact that others are jealous of her luck in becoming engaged to someone slated to become the Minister for Magic. We then find out she is just 23- very young compared to many of the other adult characters. On the other hand, we also get the sense that Lydia is looking forward to this marriage to Tom- she may not have had a say in the matter, but she certainly doesn’t view it with much trepidation or disgust, whether she actually likes spending time with him or not. She is also very aware that their engagement is part of the political machine- it looks better for Tom to marry into one of the Sacred 28 families, so that’s exactly what he’s doing, and she happens to be the lucky young lady. She acknowledges that her parents have put their faith in him to help bring back an era of grandeur and power, but expresses little interest in that herself, having more focus on the future and what it holds for her personally. Lydia then literally does up her face, which is pretty much suited to the ideal beauty standards for the time period- peaches and cream complexion, thick, light hair, small nose, thin eyebrows, dark lashes and pink lips. It’s not about what she likes, it’s about what other people expect and want to see, and, as she notes, what Tom in particular seems to like- she’s already picked up on some of that. We then get a brief flashback to their first meeting when Lydia was just nineteen and Tom twenty-six; how easily he charmed her parents and how interesting she found him, mostly because he wasn’t all over her or condescending to her.  Tom is very particular about who he accepts drinks from, we see. And barely a few hours after being introduced to this man, Lydia is pretty certain she’s going to end up married to him- not because she’s falling in love, but because she knows her parents will be in favor of the match due to Tom’s political connections and rising star in the Ministry- plus the wealth it promises to bring to the family. Lydia’s reaction to this, we see, wasn’t anger or fear but general apathy. ‘Oh well,’ she seems to think. ‘Better him than someone worse.’ This doesn’t seem to be a very normal reaction for a young woman, even from a pureblood family- Lydia comes across as deeply pragmatic to her very core right from the start. We then see that Lydia has, in fact, heard of Amy, surprise surprise, but any mention of Tom and Amy’s very peculiar relationship in school has been reduced to the assumption that it was a hormonal fling.  Then we finally get the party started; “No one picks a wallflower” Lydia’s mother warns her, but Cordelia has nothing to worry about- Lydia knows how to command a room and has zero issues flattering and chatting with whoever comes her way. We see more of what she finds appealing about Tom- he’s not lusting after her or forcing awkward conversations about their future, he mostly leaves her alone unless he needs her for something, which Lydia seems to prefer. For all her social graces, she seems to be a deeply solitary person who’s used to confiding in no one but herself.  Tom shows up with the Princes here, and Lydia greets him like the perfect 50s housewife with a drink in hand and a kiss on the cheek. Together they put on a very cute show of young love for the Princes, and then later reunite to talk business. They discuss how things are looking good for Tom in the polls, and then Lydia does seem to express a genuine interest in something for the first time all night, and asks if they can dance. As it turns out, she really does like to dance. She also likes to needle Tom a little- she takes a risk in bringing up Amy at all, mostly so she can judge his reaction. Tom could have headed the whole thing off had he been able to shrug and go ‘who?’. Instead he reacts as if electrocuted, which really tells Lydia all she needs to know. Whoever this Amy Benson is, she and Tom have some unfinished business.  Lydia quickly changes the topic, sensing Tom’s not happy to have been asked about Amy, and tells him she’s missed him. Is this true? Tom seems doubtful, but they agree that love often revolves around people entering and leaving each other’s lives, only to pop back up again. Wow, what could that be foreshadowing?

#ask #anon #ask game #grass crown #recommendations

[schmergo]

Informal (and sorry, very long) review of ASSASSINS at Signature Theatre

ASSASSINS is famous for its provocative concept—telling the story of nine people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate US Presidents in a series of songs and vignettes—and it feels even more daring when staged only 15 minutes from the White House. But this musical isn’t a tasteless exercise in shock value for the sake of shock, nor is it a misguided attempt to portray assassins as ‘just misunderstood.’ These nine central figures are alternately pathetic, disturbing, funny, repulsive, charming, and eerie. Some are clearly delusional, others simply disillusioned. But together, they represent the dark side of the American Dream.

Americans are raised with a sense of exceptionalism, a belief that we deserve everything we want simply because we’re Americans. At some point, we realize that only a few people have the luck, money, skills, and connections to achieve their dreams. Most of us accept that it’s not really true that “anyone can become the President.” But some troubled people throughout the country’s history cling to a distorted corruption of this dream: anyone can kill a President.

That doesn’t mean we should agree with their horrifying choices. But it does let us examine what aspects of life in America make some people so desperate to be seen and remembered, by any means necessary. “Where’s my prize?” is the childish refrain these assassins sing over and over again as they wander through the grey purgatory they’ve been consigned to.

Historically, productions of ASSASSINS are set in a ghastly carnival where contestants are encouraged to ‘step right up’ and shoot a president! A wonderful community production at Dominion Stage created a masterpiece of vivid Americana in which an electric chair or hangman’s noose were reimagined as theme park rides. This production took the opposite route by setting the action in a grimy, industrialized, empty stage in which pieces of furniture like a bench, the steps to a gallows, or a sofa float on and off like ghosts. Through this strange empty world, assassins interact unbounded by time or space, cursed to constantly repeat their most famous actions and relive their frustrations. Garfield assassin Charles J. Guiteau instructs would-be Ford assassin Sara Jane Moore in the finer points of shooting. McKinley assassin Leon Czolgosz reprimands attempted Reagan assassin John Hinckley for carelessly breaking a bottle.

The only set piece that remains throughout the show is a weathered and ghostly replica of the Presidential box at Ford’s Theatre, plunked onto the stage as though fallen from the sky. Here, the brooding spectre of John Wilkes Booth sits and watches the show unfold—and yes, he recreates his famous jump from the box. He serves as a kind of ringleader to the assassins, weaving through crowds, advising that everyone try their hand at assassination as a cure for all of their ills—even chronic stomach pain. After all, he was the first to pull off the historic act. We even see him convincing Lee Harvey Oswald to change the course of history by bringing assassination into the age of television.

As Booth, there’s a whiff of the rock star about Vincent Kempski—fitting, because Booth was a celebrity and even heartthrob in his day even before shooting Abraham Lincoln. Most of the time, he seems at ease, in control, erudite—we might even be seduced by his words until he explodes in fits of rage and reminds us how twisted and monstrous his views really are. Kempski only occasionally unleashes the full power of his singing voice, and when he does, it feels like a punch in the gut.

One minor gripe with his performance, though not limited to Kempski’s portrayal alone: his Booth, like most I’ve seen, delivers his lines with a thick Southern drawl. Not only did that occasionally make it difficult to understand his words, I doubt the real John Wilkes Booth would have spoken with such a heavy accent. For one, although he supported the Confederacy, he was from Maryland. For another, his father was British. And most importantly, he was a professional stage actor before the era of microphones and would have been well-trained in diction. Still, his charisma was palpable throughout the show. The moment he set foot on stage, a chill ran down my spine: it really was like seeing a ghost.

Lawrence Redmond plays the disgruntled worker Leon Czolgozs with gravitas and stoic desperation. He is perhaps the most sympathetic—or pathetic—of the assassins, and he gives us a sense of the loss of human potential. As the crass Sam Byck, attempted assassin of Richard Nixon, Christopher Bloch is horribly funny, spouting commercial catchphrases and leaving professional advice to Leonard Bernstein on an audiotape recording.

Some of the most enjoyable scenes of the evening were those between the two attempted assassins of Gerald Ford, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Rachel Zampelli) and Sara Jane Moore (Tracy Lynn Olivera). These are two deeply kooky women—a ditzy Manson groupie and a frumpy mom who’s been married five times and is endlessly losing items in her oversized bag. Together, they shoot at a bucket of fried chicken and bond over an unexpected shared acquaintance in Manson himself.

Zampelli may not be the childlike pixie we’d expect as Squeaky Fromme, but she totally inhabits the character of a lost soul, a flower child whose brains, if she ever had them, are long-since fried and warped. Her voice isn’t a high-pitched girlish squeak but has a distinctive creaky vocal fry to it that makes her sound utterly deranged. She’s so intense in her devotion to Manson that she ranks among the most unsettling characters on the stage. She also shares a strangely beautiful duet, “Unworthy of Your Love,” with sad sack John Hinckley (Evan Casey), a failed songwriter who’s obsessed with Jodie Foster.

As Sara Jane Moore, Olivera is absolutely hysterical in both senses of the word. A chatty, scatterbrained housewife, she seems to represent the mundane and trivial compared to Squeaky’s revolutionary furor— but she can also burst into tears or pull a gun on you at any second. Her utter lack of self-awareness and deadpan one-liners like “I couldn’t hit William Howard Taft if he was sitting on my lap” made her an audience favorite. Ms. Olivera has a special talent for making dialogue sound totally natural, as if everything she says is an ad-lib. I’ll jump at the chance to see any show she’s in because she makes every character completely her own.

But the performer who truly stole the show, and my other favorite local actor, is Bobby Smith, as the lifelong loser, Charles Guiteau. Guiteau is a comically tragic figure, a man who failed at everything he did and still retained the grandiose belief that his actions were divinely inspired. He was so consumed with his delusional belief that President Garfield would make him the Ambassador to France that he shot him. As Guiteau, Smith does a jaunty dance up and down the steps of the gallows before he is to be hanged, singing a refrain of “Look on the bright side!”

Guiteau is a man of extremes, euphoric and despondent at the drop of a hat. Smith, whose appeal as a performer often lies in his unassuming, everyman demeanor, gives amazing nuance to those abrupt transitions. We see real tears shining in his eyes beyond his too-wide smile, a tremble of the lip or shaking of the hands that betray his instability. He’s incredibly entertaining to watch every moment he’s onstage, yet you’re always simultaneously concerned for and creeped out by him. There’s something so obviously ‘not right’ with Guiteau. The last character to make me feel that way was Gollum.

Tying the whole story together is Sam Ludwig as the Balladeer, who serves as a cheery narrator for the show, delivering songs that span the gamut of American music styles. These are some of the most toe-tapping tunes in Sondheim’s catalog, contrasted sharply with the discordant numbers that run between them. Ludwig also inhabits a second role, which may come as a surprise (and isn’t listed in the program). He embodies the saccharine spirit of an American narrative that sees assassination attempts as isolated incidents rather than a symptom of a deeper illness. I occasionally found his piercing tenor voice a little grating to my ears, but it suited his character well—and I was sitting very close to the stage. An increasingly mangled rendition of ‘Hail To The Chief’ ties the musical numbers together.

This show runs almost two hours with no intermission. It’s so immersive that it gives you the curious sense of waking up from a vivid dream as you leave the theatre. You almost feel that the assassins linger behind you, reliving their crimes and failures in the abandoned theatre once you’ve gone home to bed.

Assassins plays through September 29. Don’t miss this show. You’ll find yourself laughing at the most unexpected lines and thinking about the most minor moments long after the curtain call.

#assassins #musicals #musical theatre #sondheim #dc theatre #dc metro #signature theatre #sigassassins #informal review

[bambamramfan]

Get on the damn stage

Been watching Marvelous Ms Maisel after @funereal-disease and @big-block-of-cheese-day said it wasn’t as cliché as I had thought it was (and they were right.) But even without banal political tropes, certain themes inevitably stand out, and can be very annoying if you don’t read them correctly.

So the gimmick and central conceit of the otherwise typical period/prestige web-service piece is the stand-up: this housewife is a wicked funny stand up comedienne experimenting with the big stage, as a secret double life, as relief to the (well acted but predictable) domestic drama. It’s reminiscent of the deal behind the original conception of Seinfeld: you watch our experimental sitcom about nothing, and we’ll give you a couple of minutes of charismatic standup at the end of each episode. (And for all the bombing, each episode gives you ONE well delivered set in the parlance of the show.)

Except our heroine… is not always good. The first time she goes up, fueled by the emotional high of a recent disaster, she’s great! But the show quickly establishes a language that when she is not spontaneous and genuine, she’s… not great. She’s not so bad she never tries again, but she’s merely mediocre. Fortunately we’re talking about a field where people are often mediocre, and the Powers That Be are happy to give her another shot, as she alternates between “sorta okay and under-practiced” style and “boiling with rage and humor” prodigy. This inability to control her skill means she often fails at key points, but don’t worry, when the chips are down and it’s her last shot, she can tap into that inner spirit and just kill it. (And in the meantime she’s practicing and becoming moderately better at her non-beast-mode sets.)

So, is she a good comic or not? For a show that’s about how “marvelous” this sympathetic protagonist is, why is she so hit-or-miss at her calling? And while this may fly in the stand-up basements of the beatnik era, in most other fields “usually mediocre but can be amazing when the rest of your life is giving you emotional fuel” is not going to get respect.

You know what this does resemble? Mecha animes. Shinji goes into berserk mode the first time he gets in his EVA and saves the day, but usually he’s a middling pilot. So episodes alternate between “what Shinji will pilot today”, and that is determined by how close to psychotic break his father and emotional support network has driven him today. And “might save the day, or might do the bare minimum” is acceptable in that arena too.

Of course as we know, mecha animes are about the harmonious union of the organic whole, where the pilot’s ability to overperform like this is often called synchronization, with the pilot in charge of the monster, and the masculine commander in charge of the broken pilot, mediated by the feminine therapist figure. (As they say at the end of Metropolis: the heart connects the head and the hands.)

Harmonious reunion of the family unit is… not a theme missing from this show either.

#the marvelous mrs. maisel #evangelion #mecha #amy sherman-palladino

[classicmollywood]

Thank You FilmStruck

As a film lover, I am absolutely distraught that FilmStruck’s swan song is in seven days. The creativity and passion used when putting films on the streaming site was absolutely apparent and for a film lover, it was refreshing.

This streaming service has been great in introducing me to films I would have never even thought of watching. So, as my ode to FilmStruck, I am going to list the top 15 films that I watched on the service that touched me in some way or another (and it was so hard just to pick 15). 

So here are my top 15 films that I watched on FilmStruck that I think everyone should check out and they are in no particular order:

1. Norma Rae (1979) - Starring Sally Field, Beau Bridges, and Don Leibman

Sally Field plays a single mother who helps unionize the textile factory she works at, even though there is great risk and danger involved. 

Why you should watch it: Sally Field is so inspiring as Norma Rae! She absolutely deserved the Oscar she won for that role. Also, girl power and unionizing is awesome!!

2. Bicycle Thieves (1948) - Starring Lamberto Maggiorani and Enzo Staiola

A working-class family man has his bicycle stolen, which  he needs for the job he finally got in depressed post-War World II Italy. Thus, he takes his son on his journey to find his bicycle. 

Why you should watch it: This story is such a heartbreakingly beautiful tale. The emotion that both Maggiorani and Staiola convey really help the audience feel their pain. The film also takes you all over the streets of Italy, which is fantastic. 

3. The Crowd (1928) - Starring James Murray and Eleanor Boardman

The story of a man and woman who fall in love and get married. However, the husband’s unhappiness with their small apartment, being a small fish in a big pond, and his in-laws disapproval could be the downfall of their marriage.

Why you should watch it: Even though this film is from the 1920s, some of the concepts can be placed in any time period. The situations that the husband and wife go through could happen to any working-class family. Also, King Vidor did some amazing directing and some of the shots he set up are just spectacular. 

4. La Notte (1961) - Starring Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, and Monica Vitti

A married couple’s deteriorating marriage is magnified through one day and one night. The two flirt with other people and have to truly realize their personal problems.

Why you should watch it: Michaelangelo Antonioni does a brilliant job in capturing this couple and their unraveling relationship. Also Mastroianni and Moreau are fantastic as the couple. Not all movies have the happiest of endings, but that is what makes them, and this film, so realistic. Life isn’t always happiness.

5. The Nights of Cabiria (1957) - Starring Guiletta Masina, Francois Perrier, and Franca Marzi

A prostitute desperately wants love, but all she gets from men is extreme heartbreak. 

Why you should watch it: Guiletta Masina is FANTASTIC as Cabiria! Oh my gosh, she is so good at making Cabiria a sympathetic character. Also, who doesn’t love a good story about a hooker with a heart of gold?

6. What’s Up, Doc? (1972) - Starring Ryan O’Neal, Barbara Streisand, and Madeline Kahn

A zany Screwball Comedy that involves 4 plaid bags that all contain different contents. Each bag is important in its own way and causes so much confusion, it’s hysterical.

Why you should watch it: This movie is so zany. That is the only way to describe it. Barbara Streisand and Ryan O’Neal are great at comedy! And this is Madeline Kahn’s first feature film! I also never realized there were Screwball Comedies made in the ‘70s.

7. Le Samourai (1967) - Starring Alain Delon, Francois Perier, and Nathalie Delon

A professional hit man makes a hit but has witnesses. He tries his best to make an alibi for himself, but ends up getting entangled in the web of his witnesses. 

Why you should watch it: This film is badass! Even though it is French, this film has major Japanese Samurai film influences! Also, it was my first introduction to the amazing Alain Delon and he is such a fantastic actor.  

8. Shadows (1958) - Starring Ben Carruthers, Leila Goldoni, and Hugh Hurd

It’s the Beat-era in New York! Jazz is used throughout the film to help explore interracial relationships and friendships. 

Why you should watch it: This is John Cassavetes’s directorial debut and he uses jazz and jump shots to give us a feeling of the fast paced life the characters are living. Also this film was made in the late ‘50s and was absolutely revolutionary for its time. No one wanted to honestly address racism, and Cassavetes (who is a white man) is very honest about the subject. 

9. Sunflower (1970) - Starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni

An Italian couple gets married right before WWII. The husband gets drafted and never comes home. The wife goes on a journey to find him and realizes he is still alive, in Russia, living a new life.

Why you should watch it: This film WILL break your heart. But if a film doesn’t make you feel any emotion, then what’s the point of watching it? Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are magnificent in this film! Also the cinematography is breathtaking. Audiences witness Italy and Russia as if they are there. 

10. History Is Made at Night (1937) - Starring Jean Arthur, Charles Boyer, and Leo Carillo

A divorcee falls in love with a French man but her insanely jealous ex-husband will spare no measure to keep her from moving on.

Why you should watch it: This film has Charles Boyer at his best. He portrays charm, silliness, and determination so well. Also Colin Clive is so sinister as the ex-husband, he is the best antagonist. Jean Arthur is vulnerable as the woman who wants to be free. There is also a great bit with a hand with a face drawn on it.

11. He Who Gets Slapped (1924) - Starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert

A professor is betrayed by a count and leaves his old life to become a clown. He then tries to save a young woman he loves from falling into the count’s web.

Why you should watch it: Lon Chaney will break your heart. He does such a good job at playing a clown who seems to always be smiling, but in reality is in so much emotional pain. Also Norma Shearer and John Gilbert together are absolutely electric. They are both so young and so good looking.

12. Belle de Jour (1967) - Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, and Michel Piccoli

A frigid housewife takes a daytime job as a prostitute. 

Why you should watch it: This movie is wild!! The housewife who won’t even touch her husband becoming a prostitute? That’s such a randomly satisfying story line. Also, Deneuve’s Severine has very interesting dreams that blur reality and fantasy. 

13. Cluny Brown (1946) - Starring Jennifer Jones, Charles Boyer, and Peter Lawford

Cluny Brown is a parlor maid who just wants to be a plumber. When she meets Czech refugee Adam Belinski, their zany shenanigans shake up an English village. 

Why you should watch it: Jennifer Jones is perfect as Cluny! She plays her with a naivety that is just refreshing and funny. Charles Boyer as Professor Belinski is great too because he is a man of great knowledge who isn’t afraid to be unconventional. It also hilarious seeing Cluny fix plumbing problems.

14. Keep Your Powder Dry (1945) - Starring Lana Turner, Laraine Day, and Susan Peters

Three very different women try to adjust to their lives in the Women’s Army Corps. 

Why you should watch it: A lot of WWII films talk about men in the army. This film is one of two that I know of that talk about the women in the army. It is also interesting to see the three different women who have to tolerate each other in such close quarters. Also, I like seeing Lana Turner in a role that is not super dramatic and her being someone’s love interest the whole film. 

15. Too Bad She’s Bad (1955) - Starring Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio De Sica 

A young thief and her accomplices try to steal a cab driver’s cab. However, the cab driver, the thief, and her thieving family just can’t seem to stay away from each other.

Why you should watch it: Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in a COMEDY? Yes, I will have seconds. I love their comedic timing together. Also, there are so many shenanigans in this film that are just fantastic to watch unravel. 

Thank you FilmStruck for introducing me to so many films I wouldn’t have had the access to if it weren’t for you. Thank you to all of the talented people who worked so hard to create a truly unique experience for film lovers. I will miss FilmStruck so much. 

#filmstruck #classic film #norma rae #bicycle thieves #the crowd #la notte #the nights of cabiria #whats up doc #le samourai #shadows #sunflower #history is made at night #he who gets slapped #belle de jour #cluny brown #keep your powder dry #too bad she's bad

[vodkastinger]

I started working for W when it was still a fold-out newspaper format, so I’d been working a lot with Dennis Freedman and James Reginato, the creative director and the features director at the time, respectively. The three of us took a shuttle from New York down to Washington, D.C. one day in July of 1993 when we got the sitting appointment with Hillary. I’d never been to the White House before, and of course I was nervous — I was very, very, very nervous. And I was very rushed: I probably had about 10 minutes with her, which was a bit stressful because I don’t think we were even told in advance we’d get such a short window. They’d set up the situation so that she’d be on the South Portico, which was set for a kind of tea party scenario with café tables and little flower arrangements and gold bamboo party chairs. I think that this shoot was an effort to soften her image a bit, because until that time the First Lady was not politically active, and President Clinton had appointed her to become Chair of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. That did not sit well with a lot of the political establishment in Washington, even though she already had a deep history of public service.

Still, I think she was a little uncomfortable about being photographed. It’s not one of her favorite things to do, but she understands it. I’ve taken some very elegant portraits of her over the years, even though you can always tell she just wants to push up her sleeves and get to work. And with that first portrait, taken on the afternoon of the Clintons’ very first formal dinner, they were trying to give the impression that she was going to be an entertaining, cookie-baking, housewife-y First Lady, though of course that wasn’t the case. I think it was maybe one of the last times she wore a skirt instead of a pantsuit. Her style, of course, became one of the most famously covered parts of the Clinton administration; her hairstyles also always made the news. In the private rooms of the White House, there was a hair salon with a framed poster of 50 or 100 of her hairstyles — Hillary definitely has a sense of humor about herself.

In early ‘99, I got a phone call out of the blue from Philippa Polskin, an art PR consultant who’d done some work on Hillary’s cultural projects. She said, “Darling, I’d like to know if you’re interested in some pro bono work.” And I said, “Well, I took Latin in high school, and I don’t think so.” She said, “No no no, it’s going to be a very interesting project, but I need your portfolio, and I can’t tell you what the project is.” So we played this funny guessing game, and I asked a number of questions — including if it would be photographing a house, to which she said, “I won’t say it wouldn’t be.” And I asked, “Is the address possibly 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?” And she said, “I won’t say it isn’t.” So she got my portfolio and FedExed it down there, which of course included the portrait I’d taken in ‘93. Hillary, apparently, really liked it, and remembered our 10 minutes together. I guess I made her feel comfortable.

After that, I flew down to Washington with Philippa, and I ended up living on and off with the Clintons for a few days at a time for a number of months during 1999 and 2000, the last of their administration. They wanted me to photograph the rooms in the White House for posterity, which apparently no President in history had ever commissioned before. The White House photographers, of course, had photographed some of the rooms, but they didn’t have the proper equipment or even use tripods. Hillary, though, was very involved working with J. Carter Brown, the director of the U.S. National Gallery of Art, to do authentic, historical restorations of the wallpapers, carpets, drapes, and furniture. I think since Jackie Kennedy’s efforts, not much had been done to the White House, even though the state rooms had become kind of sad and shabby. She and J. Carter Brown also realized that not a single woman or black artist was represented in the official White House art collection, so they fixed that, somehow acquiring a Georgia O’Keeffe and a 19th-century artist named Henry O. Tanner. And she also brought a lot of sculptural work to the Rose Garden over time, mostly on loan from the Cantor collection — but none of this was really promoted. Even though Hillary had a very involved role in bringing culture and art to the White House, it wasn’t greatly talked about.

I didn’t see her very much when I was there, though I lived on the floor above her, in a room called the “Prince’s Suite.” It had a bed frame that was abnormally high — about four feet up the ground — that turned out to be from Lincoln’s era. I did the pictures more on my own, and with Kaki Hockersmith, the decorator. We’d go out to dinner every night because working in the White House all day starts to feel a bit like living in a fishbowl, and when we’d come back to the White House, almost every night the President and First Lady Clinton would be playing a game of Boggle with some friends on the third floor, so we’d come and hang out. I saw her mostly at night.

The night before President Clinton boarded his last official Air Force One flight, to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a homecoming, I got a call asking me to accompany him. I went on Air Force One with the President, and it was very weird, the sensation of taking off sideways. But the most extraordinary memory was the night before, when I wanted to have a cigarette. Because the Clintons were the first Presidents to ban smoking in the White House, Kaki suggested we go to the Truman Balcony. We crept down the stairs from the third to the second floor, which is the President’s private floor, and I swear to god, Bill was standing there, probably right before midnight, in his khakis and golf shirt with a cigar. I’d just met him hours ago, but he said, “Hey Todd, have you seen the Treaty Room yet?” He gave me an hourlong tour of his private sanctuary, in which he’d curated every single object from the inventory of objects and books and paintings and furniture that belonged there over time. Apparently Presidents used to take chandeliers and anything they could get their hands on when they would leave, but Jackie Kennedy had a law established that the Presidents couldn’t take things when they moved out, to preserve it for the people. So they now have these enormous warehouses containing things a President might want — even Washington’s mess pail as his wastebasket.

Clinton was probably the most informed person about presidential history, or perhaps obsessed is more accurate. I think he’d read something like 800 presidential biographies. So he had a very specific reason for bringing in all the specific things that he had there, and it was so extraordinary how he’d personally selected each and every painting and object for their historical details that were meaningful to him. He pointed to a picture of Ben Franklin hanging on the wall behind the desk and told me this crazy story about how it’d gone missing for 150 years until it was found in Canada and returned to the White House. And under that was a photo of a Native American, and he turned to me and said, “Todd, you’re a photographer, you know [Edward S.] Curtis!” It was as if he’d known me — the level of his charm and focus on a person was like all the lights went out and the spotlight came on you. And there were other things in there, too, like a collaged box of golf stuff above the mantle he told me was a gift from Barbra Streisand. There was also a stereo behind the desk he pointed to and said, in his honey-dripped Southern cadence, “See that? That’s called a Bang & Olufsen. The Queen of Denmark gave that to me. You turn that up, it fills the whole house up with sound.” It was as if I’d never seen a Bang & Olufsen. It was very sweet.

Looking back, it was really an extraordinary assignment, especially because there were so many unexpected moments. I was actually sitting in the President’s kitchen the night that Al Gore gave his concession speech to George W. Bush in the Old Executive building, so I was literally looking down and watching the same thing out the window as I was seeing on the TV. And the Clintons very nicely invited my boyfriend Richard Pandiscio to the Millennium Gala dinner at the White House as a thank you.

For me, it was the best project ever. I’m hoping to have the opportunity again.

source

[fireteam-ballsack]

When It Starts

I could hear Mai snoring lightly when I woke up. Looking over, her skin was glowing a bit in the sunlight. It reminded me of the first time we went to a bar together, in casual clothes.

“Ghost?” I called out softly, trying to avoid waking Mai. “Get me today's forecast.”

I heard him rise from his resting place, a spot on the shelf next to Mai's ghost. He came over and looked out the window. “Currently overcast..will storm later. May be harsh, I suggest keeping indoors or under cover. So no downtown strolling.” He came over next to me. “You could always stay here and clean your place finally.” I sat up and shrugged.

Mai rolled over to face me and opened her eyes. “He's got a point,” she said, “your place is a bit cluttered. I'll help.”

I leaned over to her and kissed her softly. “Yes, but then I might actually look like I care about myself.”

She laughed and sat up. I pulled the blankets off of me and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “Let me get breakfast before we decide. Do we wanna go out or make food here?”

“Hm...it's nice out, let's go ahead and go out for breakfast. There's that one cafe I've been wanting to try.”

I got up and went over to my dresser. I could have worn armor, but it usually brings attention to us, and it was my day off. I pulled out some casual clothes and tossed them onto the bed. Pulling my current clothes off, I watched Mai smile at me.

“God, you're beautiful,” she whispered.

“I'm a beautiful mess,” I laughed as I started getting dressed again. “Fucking messing up missions for the hell of it. You know I do that.”

“Yeah, Zavala complains about it all the time.” She got up and went to her stash of clothes. “Also, we do laundry tomorrow. If you work, I'll do it. I'm not letting you re-wear the same thing ten times before washing.”

I threw my dirty shirt at her. “Fine, you can be the cute housewife. I'll be the one who does all the work.” I dodged as she threw the shirt back at me. “I mean, what's the worst that can happen? I die? Oh no, what a tragedy! Three seconds of nothing!”

My ghost came up to me. “Sara, Cayde wants you in the hall after you get back. Nothing urgent, just some updating he wants to do in-person.”

I looked at Mai. “Let's go on out, then. You can start on the apartment while I go see what's up.” I held my hand out to her. “Shall we, m'lady?”

She laughed and took my hand. “Of course, madame. Let us stroll through the city in search of some breakfast.” We headed out, locking the apartment behind us. It would be a few more days until Mai went back to her post on Mars, I wanted to get as much time as I could with her. I could still talk to her while she was out, but just talking wasn't enough.

We walked down the hall to the elevator. There was the option of going up and taking the shuttle down, but the shuttle was usually crowded in the morning because of people going to and from work. The elevator wasn't as bad, and was quieter overall.

“Hey, Sara?” Mai had a hint of concern in her voice. “I've got a bad feeling about today. I'm just hoping it's nothing or maybe something small, like the cafe is closed.”

I looked at her. “Trust me, anything happens, I'll kick ass to make up for it. Alright?”

She laughed. “You'll do that anyways. And I'm the one getting you out of trouble. Just...be careful, okay?”

“I will. I promise.” Her tone did worry me. Was something going to happen? It had been awhile since a major conflict, but there were no warnings or unusual activity anywhere we checked. Maybe it was nothing. The elevator doors opened, and I saw a titan standing, looking at his scroll.

“Hey, Rein.”

He looked up and gave a small wave. “Hey, you two. Headed down?”

We both nodded and got in. Mai went to press the ground floor button but it was already lit. “Headed into the city?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “gonna grab food. Zav's stuck me watching the satellites today, don't wanna be bored to tears on an empty stomach. Same thing for you two?”

“There's a cafe somewhere Mai's been wanting to try. Wanna join?”

Rein closed his scroll and watched the floors tick down. “Sure, why not? Beats eating alone. Though, I'm worried about Sara's behavior.” He gave me a knowing look. “Miss banned from training anybody.”

I shrugged and stuck my hands in my pockets. “Only because of the one incident. Completely not my fault.”

Mai leaned against the wall of the elevator. “I mean...you did throw at least two off the tower. And convince one you had made Oryx your personal bitch. And spread a rumor that Cayde took orders from you.”

“Hey,” I said, “Cayde found that one funny. And nobody stayed dead, I'm not that reckless.”

“Whatever you say, Sara. You're still banned from training.”

The elevator finally hit the ground floor. The three of us stepped out once the doors opened, with Mai taking me by the hand and leading the way. Our ghosts trailed a few feet behind, and Rein stayed close behind them.

“Where exactly is this cafe?”

Mai looked back at him. “Not too far. It's a little hole in the wall place.” She slowed down a bit to walk next to me. “You should carry me.”

I looked at her. “If you want. You gotta pay for breakfast, though.”

“Deal.”

I stopped and stooped down, and Mai climbed onto my back. I stood back up as she held on, and Rein waited for me to adjust a bit.

“You two make me jealous. You're just so...casual.”

My girlfriend snorted. “More like I know how to be lazy.”

All three of us laughed and went back to walking. It was still early enough there wasn't much traffic, but a few people were wandering about. It was calm, so serene and peaceful. Made me wish I had been born during this era, instead of dying in another and being resurrected to fight for this.

“Turn left at the end of the block.”

Mai rested her head on mine, still holding on tight. We turned the corner and headed down that street. Rein's scroll started ringing, and he opened it.

“It's Rein.”

I heard Zavala's voice come through. “Are you near Miss Saradin?”

“I'm here, Zavvy. What's up?”

He sounded surprised. “Cayde wants you here in full armor when you arrive. He was also aware you don't answer calls when you're in the city and requests that you fix that.”

“Cool,” I said. “Request denied. I'll see you later.”

Rein closed his scroll and pocketed it again. “You probably should, things are a bit too calm right now. Biggest conflict we've had recently is a pack of fallen trying to nest up in the wall. It's like everything is waiting for something to happen.”

I nodded. “Yeah. There's almost always something, and right now there's not.” Mai held on a bit tighter. “Don't worry, maybe we're just in a quiet time. It can happen, you know.”

“Yeah but...can't shake this bad feeling. Maybe food will help. It's a few doors down, by the way.”

Sure enough, we saw a sign painted with 'Morning Sun Cafe'. I let Mai jump off of my back, and all three of us went in. A few people were scattered around tables, sipping coffee or talking quietly. A couple nodded at us coming in, then returned to their business. The barista smiled as we went to the counter.

“What can I get you wonderful guardians?”

Mai stared up at the menu. “Uh, large black and a cheese omelet. I'm also paying for her,” she said, pointing at me.

“Small iced latte, and another omelet.”

As Mai was getting rung up, I went and found a table. It was a four-top near the front windows, a bit away from everyone. I stared out the windows at the skyline. Something told me today wasn't gonna end how I'd like it to. That sort of feeling that nothing was wrong yet, but it was gonna go so very wrong.

“Sara?”

Mai was standing next to me with two cups in her hand. She handed one to me and took the seat next to me. “You're staring off again.”

I took a sip. “I'm alright. Just...think I'm feeling what you're feeling.” I sighed. “Let's hope it's something small and stupid. Food coming to the table?”

She nodded. “Said it should only be a few minutes.”

Rein came over with a blended drink in his hand. “I'm just sticking with a drink. At least for now. Maybe I'll steal some of Sara's food.”

I took another sip. “Maybe I'll steal your girlfriend, motherfucker.”

“Language.” Mai glared at me for a second. “We're not in the Tower.”

“Mai, you're not okay with me dropping an f-bomb, but you're cool with me having another girlfriend.”

Rein laughed. “Yeah, my non-existent girlfriend. Hey, there's your food now.”

The barista came over with two plates. She set one in front of Mai and me and stepped back. “Anything else I can get you guys? Sugar? Creamer?”

Mai smiled. “No, ma'am, thank you.”

“Well,” I piped up, “you can get me out of cleaning my apartment.”

The barista laughed. “Don't think I can quite do that. You can ask your friend,” she nodded towards Mai, “to help.”

I wanted until the barista was back behind the counter. “Hey, you've been demoted. You're no longer my girlfriend. Just friend.”

Mai buried her face in her hands. “Sara...just eat. I'm gonna strangle you.”

After breakfast, the three of us headed back to the tower. By now, there was a bit more activity. Some kids were playing tag in the street, with a couple parents watching carefully. Some other people were walking presumably to work. It was starting to become overcast, so I made a mental note to hurry to Cayde once I was suited up.

“Hey Sara,” Rein started, “I'm gonna come to your apartment with you. It's on the way up and we're headed to the same place anyways.”

“Cool,” I said. “You can tell Mai that it's not that messy.”

Mai shot me a dirty look. “You know damn well it needs cleaned.”

We stopped at the elevator and leaned against the wall. “You know damn well it doesn't. It can get so much worse.”

“It shouldn't get worse. I'll get Ikora on you about it.”

I let out an exaggerated whine. “Fiiiiine. But I still say it's not as bad as you're making it sound.” I looked at Mai and laughed. “How about you just move in permanently? That way you can keep it clean.”

She sighed. “You know I want to, but Zavala needs me out there. It took fighting to get him to give me time here.”

I heard the elevator doors open, so the three of us went in. Rein pressed the button for my floor and stood back. “Maybe something exciting will happen today. Keep me on my toes.” He stared at the floor indicator. “God knows I'll need it. It's gonna be hours of just boring nothing.”

I leaned on the back railing. “I'll swap with you. You clean my apartment, I'll pretend to be paying attention to a radar.”

“Sara, you're not getting out of this.” Mai crossed her arms at me. “You're gonna clean your place after you hear what Cayde wants to say.”

“Fine, fine. I'm not gonna enjoy it.”

We rode the rest of the way up in silence. I considered telling Cayde no, the feeling was getting worse. But I figured at the least, I'd hear him out and split as soon as I could. As soon as we got to my floor, we all got out and headed towards my apartment.

“I'll be quick,” I said. “Don't like the idea of being out of my place for long.”

We got to my door, and I unlocked it. I could see to the bedroom window, and 'overcast had become 'dark clouds covering the whole sky'. I let Mai and Rein in and shut the door, then went into the bedroom. The other two started talking as I closed that door. I just wanted to get up and get out. I got out of my casual clothes and started getting on my armor, right as I heard rain start falling against the window. I picked up my cloak and looked at it in my hands. My ghost came over next to me and stared at it too.

“Still the one I got for you, Sara. Some things don't change.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Some things.” I put it on and reached for my helmet. I heard my scroll ringing, so I picked it off of the bed and opened it.

“Saradin?” Cayde sounded worried. “I'm gonna need you up here soon. There's...some stuff going on.”

“I'm headed up there now. Just got armor on.”

“You might need it. I'm waiting.”

I closed my scroll. If Cayde was worried, nothing good could come of it. He wasn't this worried when Oryx came knocking. I opened the bedroom door and nodded to Rein.

“We gotta go. Cayde needs me up as soon as possible.”

He nodded in agreement and went to the front door. I gave Mai a quick hug and kiss. “I'll be back as soon as I can. Check your armor, please. I don't wanna risk anything.”

She looked at me with wide eyes. “Sara, don't be reckless.”

“I won't.” I went back into the hallway and closed the door behind Rein. “He didn't sound excited. I don't think it's gonna end well.”

“I don't think so either. We'll stick together.”

We went back to the elevator. Luckily, it was still on our floor. I hurriedly pressed the top floor and started pacing.

“Sara, you'll be fine. So will Mai.”

I glared at him. “Cayde has faced shit that's utterly terrifying and never sounded like he did. I'm not optimistic.”

When we hit the top floor, I practically ran across the main plaza to the vanguard hall. It was pouring now, and between not wanting to be wet and not wanting to be in the dark, I didn't wanna hang around. Rein kept up with me, only slowing when I did. As soon as I was in the vanguard hall, I could tell things weren't good. Zavala was looking out the window, looking for something. I didn't know what and didn't care to know.

“Cayde, I-”

My greeting was interrupted by Zavala yelling.

“BATTLESTATIONS!”

I could feel my face pale. I pushed my helmet on and grabbed a gun laying on a table. Before I could even realize what was going on, I heard a ward pop up. I grabbed Rein and pushed him into it, right as the explosions started. I threw myself in and held the gun tight. This was the bad feeling. This was what I was fearing.

It felt like forever we were waiting. Just holding onto our fear. My mind raced. Was Mai okay? Would we be okay? I could make out the outline of a ship between explosions. Cabal. They were here..but why?

“Rein! We need to get out!”

He looked at me. “Are you insane?! We're gonna die!”

I grabbed his arm. “We need to start evacuating!” I pulled him out of the ward and back out of the hall. All I could see was fire. I heard yelling, but my ears were still ringing. Things were very, very bad.

“Be ready!”

We both raced towards the stairs. My priority was Mai. She had to be okay. She was resilient. She could survive this. I practically flew down the stairs. I needed her to be okay.

“Sara!”

I stopped. There weren't any stairs. The whole hall was gone. It was a gaping hole in the tower.

“Rein, what floor are we on?”

He looked at me. “Sara, we need to leave.”

“Rein. What floor?”

“Sara...this is your floor. It's gone.”

Everything stopped. My apartment was gone. Everything was gone. My legs felt weak.

“No....”

He sighed. “Sara, we need to go. We can't sit here or we'll be next.”

My blood boiled. “I'm gonna fucking murder them.” I ran back up. I didn't feel my feet hit the floor, or hear the explosions. I needed to find whoever did this.

“There's a ship bigger than the rest. I'm gonna take a guess and assume that's who's started all of this.”

I kept going. “Get me there.”

“You're not going by yourself.”

I stopped and stood an inch from Rein. “You fucking tell me I'm not. You tell me I can't go in there and make sure Mai doesn't just die and be forgotten. You tell me I'm supposed to stay here and cry and just do nothing when everything I've stood for is fucking gone because of these...these assholes. You tell me I'm gonna just watch this happen.”

“Sara, I'm not stopping you. I'm going with you. She was my friend. And I'm gonna make sure you get back safely.”

I paused, then started back up the stairs. My ship was probably gone. Maybe I could hijack another. Assuming the hangar was still there. I got back up to the top floor and started looking across the sky. The main ship had to be up there.

“There.”

There it was. Sitting there like a motherfucker. I wanted to just go punch whoever was flying that thing.

“Get me a ship.”

Rein nodded and went towards the hangar. I kept glaring at that stupid fucking shit in the sky. I hated it. I hated the cabal. I hated everything leading up to this.

After some angry mental thoughts, I saw a familiar ship fly around and wait next to the edge of the tower. I ran towards it and my ghost transmatted me in.

“Sara, we only have this one shot. This ship goes, we have to run.”

“Then let's take the shot. I'm not doing nothing.”

He started up towards the shit ship. My anger was only growing as we got closer. As soon as we got close enough, Rein started the transmat.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

He pressed a button, and I was suddenly on a completely different ship. I checked my gun, then ran forwards. My mind was focused on finding the head honcho. Anything that moved, I shot. Rein stayed far enough behind that he wasn't a target.

Room after room, I killed whatever I could. It seemed like it was full of cabal, but nobody in charge. I didn't care. I'd kill every last cabal if I had to.

“Sara.”

I finally threw down my gun. “What?!”

Rein looked at me. “Nobody's here. We need to get out.”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to burn the ship and watch it fall. But I knew it wouldn't do anything. “Fine. Let's go.”

We walked towards the back of the ship. There was the loading ramp, which should be open. I still wanted to find whoever had been on the ship. I couldn't stand by and watch everything burn.

“My ship's gone. We'll have to try and jump.”

I stared out as we got to the exit. Everything was burning, or already in pieces. The traveler was...being taken. I forced myself not to scream.

“Come on, we don't have much time.”

I took a step forward, and my blood ran cold. Something was behind me. I turned, only to get smacked away. I slid towards the edge and felt my legs go over. Right before I fell, I grabbed onto the ship.

“REIN!”

He turned. I could see my assailant now: the biggest, ugliest cabal I've ever seen. I gave him the nastiest look I could muster.

“You are nothing. You are weak and useless without your light.”

“You're a piece of shit.”

Rein ran over and grabbed my arm. Big Ugly stepped forward as I was pulled up. He missed a second swing, only managing to grab Rein's ghost.

“Hey, fatass!”

He looked at me. “You will die, as will your companions.” I watched in horror as he crushed Rein's ghost. Rein collapsed to the ground and cried out in pain.

“I'm going to fucking murder you.”

Big Ugly looked at me and raised his fist. I charged at him, but with a stomp of his foot, blasted me back away. I braced myself so I wouldn't fall off.

“The Traveler was meant to be ours. It has made a mistake in choosing you.”

He picked up Rein. I froze as he went to the edge, then looked at me.

“You will fall. All guardians will fall.”

Time slowed down. Rein looked at me in pure horror as he slid out of Big Ugly's hand. I could only watch as he started downwards, falling past any place I could safely get him.

“No...”

He kept falling. I watched him go lower and lower until I couldn't see him for the smoke. I didn't wanna believe it. This wasn't happening. Any of it.

“Now, you will fall.”

Still frozen, I was throws off as well. I held onto my ghost to protect him as I plummeted. I couldn't lose him. I had lost everything else.

The last thing I saw before I hit the ground was the ship starting away from the city.

I woke up after. I didn't know how long I had been out. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? I smelled smoke and things burning. I heard screaming and yelling. As soon as I moved, my ghost started flying around me.

“Sara! Sara, you gotta get up!”

I could barely get to my knees, I was so weak. I tried figuring out where I was, but nothing was familiar. I managed to get standing, only barely.

“Ghost...where do we go?”

He scanned something on the ground. “I'll try and find some other guardians. That's about all we can do for now.”

I looked over and nearly collapsed again. On a pile of rubble was Rein. His body was impaled on what used to be a wall, support rods sticking through him. I slowly managed over. He was still, no breathing or crying for help. I could see some blood dripping out from him, but very little. I pulled his helmet off to see his face. It was twisted into a look of pure horror. I wanted to cry. We had just had breakfast together. Everything was going fine. It started as a great day. And here he was.

“Sara, we can't stay here.”

I looked at my ghost. “I can't leave him.”

“We can't take him with us. There's no point. We need to go.”

I looked back at Rein. I wanted him to move, to give a sign of life. But I knew it wouldn't happen.

“I'm taking his helmet.”

“If you don't wanna end up like him we need to go.”

We started walking. I held his helmet tightly, scared to lose it. It was all I had left at this point. It and my ghost. The apartment was gone. Mai was gone. Rein was gone. My ship was gone. The city was in flames and rubble. All I could do was follow my ghost and pray that there were others.

“Sara?”

I ignored my ghost. I just wanted him to lead me.

“Sara.”

“What?” I looked over at my ghost. He had a empathetic look on his face. Or what would be considered his face.

“I'm picking up some small chatter. It's our only real hope so far.”

I stared off across the burning skyline. “Lead me.”

We kept walking. My feet shuffled through the ash and dirt that had built up. I wanted to give up and throw myself into the blaze. What was there left to fight for? Everything that motivated me before was just...gone.

I heard distant talking. I looked up to see less smoke and burning. It was a park, the trees had been destroyed but there was still life. I could see people walking around, some sitting, and some laying on the ground. I moved faster, maybe they knew more than I did. My ghost stayed close.

When I was close enough, two figured noticed me and waved me over. I felt a tiny bit of hope that maybe all wasn't lost.

“Guardian!”

I slowed down when I could see them better. There was another hunter and a warlock, both with helmets off. I stopped a few feet from them.

“Do you have any supplies?”

I shook my head. “What's going on?”

The hunter looked back at the park. “The cabal invaded. Took the Traveler. They're led by this guy named Gaul, we're not sure what he wants with it or us-”

“I do.” I looked down at Rein's helmet. “He thinks the Traveler made a mistake with coming to us.”

The warlock nodded. “Well...he's got a decent motive. We've rounded up survivors, not sure if there's anyone else gathered in other places. We're hoping there are.” He looked at the helmet in my hands. “I'm...gonna assume something happened with that.”

I looked at the two other guardians. “Rei. We ended up fighting Gaul. He...lost his ghost. Found him on the ground after.”

The hunter sighed. “We've seen enough already. Rei helped around the tower a lot. We'll take up his place to honor him.” She looked back at the people behind her. “Go ahead and sit. Or something. We're gonna try and get as many as we can before moving.”

I walked past them. A lot of civilians watched me as I walked by. I didn't feel high and mighty like I used to. I felt useless. A failure. I couldn't protect the city. I could hear kids crying. Adults crying, too. I couldn't bear to look at anyone.

“You're okay.”

I could hear Mai reassuring me. I tried shutting it out, my mind was playing tricks again.

“You're gonna be okay. We made it through.”

It was so faint. Was I already forgetting about her? I could still see her face, her smile from this morning. This morning seemed like it happened eons ago.

“We'll find your mommy, I promise.”

Wait, what? She had never said that to me. I couldn't be imagining. She had to be here.

“Mai?” I called. I scanned the crowd of people. “Mai!”

“Sara!”

I turned from where the voice came from. I saw her, sitting by a bench. A small boy was clinging to her arm. My heart raced. She was alive. She was okay.

“Oh my god, Sara!” She got up and ran to me, holding me tightly. I dropped Rein's helmet and held her close. “Oh god...you're safe...”

“Mai...I saw the apartment...”

She looked up at me. “I had my armor on, as soon as I heard the blast I got out. Barely made it. I was helping evacuate the city, they said the vanguard hall was just about destroyed...I thought the worst...oh my god...Sara...”

I was crying now. I pulled my helmet off and held her tighter. “Zavala cast a ward of dawn before it hit. I got out and tried finding you...but the apartment was just...gone.”

She looked back at the little boy. “I'm okay. You're okay.” She let go and stepped back. “Where's Rein?”

I picked his helmet off the ground. “Mai....we tired fighting Gaul. He...his ghost was destroyed.”

Mai stared at me. “Sara....”

“We were both thrown off. He...was killed. I'm sorry.”

She looked at the helmet. “I....we gotta keep going. For him.”

“We will. Let's sit.”

We went over to the bench. The boy went back to holding onto Mai tightly. She smiled at him and pulled an arm around him.

“Thomas, this is Sara. She's a hunter. A really good one.”

He looked at me. His eyes were filled with fear and pain. “Hi Sara...”

Mai looked at me. “He got lost after the attack. We can't find his parents, but they're probably with another group. We'll find them.”

I looked across the crowd of people. If this was the city's last hope, I had my doubts.

#destiny #desting fanfic #oc fanfic

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La Times: Mary Tyler Moore, beloved TV icon who symbolized the independent career woman, dies at 80

Comfortably single and unafraid to stand up to her gruff newsroom boss, Mary Richards splashed onto television screens at a time when feminism was still putting down roots in America, a woman who charged through the working day with equal parts humor and raw independence.

Mary Tyler Moore’s character charmed TV watchers, earned the actress Emmy nominations and became a potent symbol of womanhood in the 1970s. The actress and her television character became so entwined that Moore became a role model for women who sought to challenge the conventions of marriage and family.

“She wasn’t married. She wasn’t looking to get married. At no point did the series end in a happy ending with her finding a husband — which seemed to be the course you had to take as a woman,” former First Lady Michelle Obama said in an interview in August. As a young girl, Obama said, she drew inspiration from the character.

Moore died Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. from cardiopulmonary arrest after being hospitalized with pneumonia. She was 80.

In a career that began as Happy Hotpoint, the dancing and singing 3-inch pixie in Hotpoint appliance commercials on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” in 1955 when she was 18, Moore went on to star in television and films and on Broadway.

In 1981, she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress for her portrayal of the emotionally cold mother in “Ordinary People,” the Robert Redford-directed drama about an upper-middle-class family dealing with the death of a teen-age son in a boating accident and the attempted suicide of their surviving son.

In a statement Wednesday, Redford said he admired Moore for taking such a role.

“The courage she displayed in taking on a role darker than anything she had ever done was brave and enormously powerful,” he said.

The unsympathetic, nearly-bloodless role was a departure for Moore, who remains best-known for her light and sunny touch in two classic situation comedies that together earned her six Emmy Awards.

Moore was still largely unknown when she was cast as Laura Petrie, the suburban housewife and mother of a young son opposite Dick Van Dyke’s TV comedy writer husband Rob on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

The acclaimed sitcom, which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966, earned Moore her first two Emmys and made her a star.

Her Capri-pants-wearing Laura brought something new to the traditional sitcom role of wife and mother: youthful sex appeal.

As Carl Reiner, the series’ creator, said of Rob and Laura in a 2004 TV Guide interview: “These were two people who really liked each other.”

Moore agreed, saying: “We brought romance to comedy, and, yes, Rob and Laura had sex!”

Van Dyke often praised Moore’s abilities as a comedic actress — one who has been credited with turning crying into a comedic art form and memorably got her toe stuck in a hotel room bathtub faucet in one episode.

“She was one of the few who could maintain her femininity and be funny at the same time,” Van Dyke said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television. “You have to go as far back as Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy to find someone who could play it that well and still be tremendously appealing as a woman.”

After the Van Dyke show ended in 1966, Moore starred as Holly Golightly in a problem-plagued Broadway musical version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” that producer David Merrick closed after four previews in New York.

Moore also played Julie Andrews’ roommate in the hit flapper-era comedy-musical movie “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 1967. But her budding film career, which included playing a nun opposite Elvis Presley’s ghetto doctor in “Change of Habit,” was less than stellar.

She was reunited with Van Dyke in a 1969 musical-variety TV special, a critical and ratings success that spurred CBS to offer her a commitment to do her own half-hour comedy series.

Moore and her second husband, TV executive Grant Tinker, created MTM Enterprises, their own independent TV production company, whose logo — in a takeoff on MGM’s roaring lion — was a meowing orange kitten.

Tinker hired writers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to create and produce “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which debuted on CBS in 1970 and made TV history.

The series, featuring Moore as Mary Richards, a single woman in her 30s who lands a job as an associate producer in a Minneapolis TV newsroom, won 29 Emmys during its seven-year run.

Four of those Emmys went to Moore, whose character became a symbol of the independent 1970s career woman.

As Ed Asner’s lovably gruff and rumpled Lou Grant tells her when she applies for a job in the newsroom at WJM-TV: “You know what? You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk.”

 Ellen DeGeneres, who later invited Moore to play herself in several episodes of the sitcom “Ellen,” said she was an admirer of both Moore and her alter ego. “Mary Tyler Moore changed the world for all women,” she tweeted after Moore’s death became public.

In the wake of the success of  “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the MTM empire grew to include series such as “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Rhoda,” “Lou Grant,” “Remington Steele,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere.”

After “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” left the air in 1977, Moore failed with two TV comedy variety shows within the next two years.

But she scored on Broadway, winning a special Tony Award in 1980 for her performance as the quadriplegic lead character in the Broadway revival of “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” — a part originally written for a man.

In 1993, Moore won her seventh Emmy, for her supporting role as the ruthless owner of a 1940s Tennessee adoption agency in the Lifetime cable drama “Stolen Babies.”

Her two returns to the sitcom format in the mid- and late ’80s — “Mary” and “Annie McGuire” — were short-lived, as was the 1995 newspaper drama “New York News,” on which she played the autocratic editor of a tabloid newspaper.

In the years after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” she dealt with a series of personal problems and tragedies.

In 1978, her younger sister, Elizabeth, died of a drug overdose. In 1980, Richie, her 24-year-old son from her first marriage, fatally shot himself in what was ruled an accident. And in 1992, Moore’s brother John, a recovering alcoholic, died after a long battle with kidney cancer.

In the mid-’80s, Moore checked into the Betty Ford Center to seek treatment for alcoholism.

In a 1986 interview with Maclean’s magazine, Moore said: “I am glad I was able to be a kind of role model for other women who identified with my ladylike qualities, who were then able to say, ‘Well, if Mary can admit she had a problem with alcohol, then maybe I can too.’ ”

Asner said he treasured the years he worked alongside Moore.

“I will never be able to repay her for the blessings that she gave me,” he said in a tweet.

Moore was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on Dec. 29, 1936. Her father was a clerk for Consolidated Edison who worked at the Southern California Gas Co. after the family moved to Los Angeles in 1945.

Moore began taking dance classes while in grade school and appeared in recitals. She continued to take dance lessons and perform through her years at Immaculate Heart High School, where she dreamed of dancing her way to stardom.

In her autobiography, Moore described her strict Catholic father as “undemonstrative” and her more fun-loving mother as an alcoholic. As a result, Moore spent half the time living with her parents and the other half living with her aunt and grandmother.

“It was not an ideal home life,” she said in a 1999 interview with the Ottawa Citizen, noting that, even if her mom and dad “weren’t the best of parents,” they had the best sense of humor.

“Thank God, I was not abused in any way, but I was seeking approval of some sort, in many different ways,” she said. “For me, it turned out to be a pat on the back for entertaining people.”

She was 18 and five months from graduating from high school in 1955 when she met 27-year-old Dick Meeker, an Ocean Spray cranberry products salesman, who had moved into a small apartment in the house next door to her parents’ home.

They were married two months after she graduated, and their son Richie was born the following year.

As a working mother, Moore found jobs dancing in the chorus of “The Eddie Fisher Show” and other TV variety shows, and appeared in commercials.

Her first regular acting role came in 1959 when she played Sam, the sultry-voiced telephone operator on the David Janssen TV series “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” — an uncredited role in which no more than her legs or an extreme close-up of her mouth were seen on screen.

Publicity for the show played up the mysterious Sam. But, Moore wrote in her book, when she asked for more money, she was replaced by another anonymous actress after 13 episodes.

After her stint as Sam, Moore played small parts in TV series such as “77 Sunset Strip,” “Hawaiian Eye,” “Bourbon Street Beat” and “Riverboat.”

She auditioned to replace Sherry Jackson as Danny Thomas’ grown-up daughter on his popular sitcom, but missed landing the part by a nose: her own.

“Here’s the reason you didn’t get the part,” she later recalled the famously large-nosed Thomas telling her: “With a nose like yours, no one would believe you’re my daughter.”

Two years later, when Thomas, executive producer Sheldon Leonard and Reiner were looking for someone to play the wife in Van Dyke’s new TV series, Thomas said: “Who was the kid we liked so much last year, the one with the three names and the funny nose?”

Moore, whose first marriage ended in divorce in 1961, married Tinker in 1962. They were divorced in 1981. In 1983,  she married Dr. Robert Levine, a Manhattan cardiologist.

 She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1969 and later served as the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In 2012, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

McLellan is a former Times staff writer.

[email protected]

ALSO:

‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ is back on CBS in living color

Butch Trucks, Allman Brothers Band co-founder, dies at 69

Howard Kaufman, manager for the Eagles, Aerosmith and Stevie Nicks, dies at 79

Miguel Ferrer, star of ‘RoboCop,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘Twin Peaks,’ dies at 61

  UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction to Moore’s death. 

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and background.

This article was originally published at 11:40 a.m.

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La Times: Mary Tyler Moore, beloved TV icon who symbolized the independent career woman, dies at 80

Comfortably single and unafraid to stand up to her gruff newsroom boss, Mary Richards splashed onto television screens at a time when feminism was still putting down roots in America, a woman who charged through the working day with equal parts humor and raw independence.

Mary Tyler Moore’s character charmed TV watchers, earned the actress Emmy nominations and became a potent symbol of womanhood in the 1970s. The actress and her television character became so entwined that Moore became a role model for women who sought to challenge the conventions of marriage and family.

“She wasn’t married. She wasn’t looking to get married. At no point did the series end in a happy ending with her finding a husband — which seemed to be the course you had to take as a woman,” former First Lady Michelle Obama said in an interview in August. As a young girl, Obama said, she drew inspiration from the character.

Moore died Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. from cardiopulmonary arrest after being hospitalized with pneumonia. She was 80.

In a career that began as Happy Hotpoint, the dancing and singing 3-inch pixie in Hotpoint appliance commercials on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” in 1955 when she was 18, Moore went on to star in television and films and on Broadway.

In 1981, she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress for her portrayal of the emotionally cold mother in “Ordinary People,” the Robert Redford-directed drama about an upper-middle-class family dealing with the death of a teen-age son in a boating accident and the attempted suicide of their surviving son.

In a statement Wednesday, Redford said he admired Moore for taking such a role.

“The courage she displayed in taking on a role darker than anything she had ever done was brave and enormously powerful,” he said.

The unsympathetic, nearly-bloodless role was a departure for Moore, who remains best-known for her light and sunny touch in two classic situation comedies that together earned her six Emmy Awards.

Moore was still largely unknown when she was cast as Laura Petrie, the suburban housewife and mother of a young son opposite Dick Van Dyke’s TV comedy writer husband Rob on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

The acclaimed sitcom, which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966, earned Moore her first two Emmys and made her a star.

Her Capri-pants-wearing Laura brought something new to the traditional sitcom role of wife and mother: youthful sex appeal.

As Carl Reiner, the series’ creator, said of Rob and Laura in a 2004 TV Guide interview: “These were two people who really liked each other.”

Moore agreed, saying: “We brought romance to comedy, and, yes, Rob and Laura had sex!”

Van Dyke often praised Moore’s abilities as a comedic actress — one who has been credited with turning crying into a comedic art form and memorably got her toe stuck in a hotel room bathtub faucet in one episode.

“She was one of the few who could maintain her femininity and be funny at the same time,” Van Dyke said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television. “You have to go as far back as Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy to find someone who could play it that well and still be tremendously appealing as a woman.”

After the Van Dyke show ended in 1966, Moore starred as Holly Golightly in a problem-plagued Broadway musical version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” that producer David Merrick closed after four previews in New York.

Moore also played Julie Andrews’ roommate in the hit flapper-era comedy-musical movie “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 1967. But her budding film career, which included playing a nun opposite Elvis Presley’s ghetto doctor in “Change of Habit,” was less than stellar.

She was reunited with Van Dyke in a 1969 musical-variety TV special, a critical and ratings success that spurred CBS to offer her a commitment to do her own half-hour comedy series.

Moore and her second husband, TV executive Grant Tinker, created MTM Enterprises, their own independent TV production company, whose logo — in a takeoff on MGM’s roaring lion — was a meowing orange kitten.

Tinker hired writers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to create and produce “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which debuted on CBS in 1970 and made TV history.

The series, featuring Moore as Mary Richards, a single woman in her 30s who lands a job as an associate producer in a Minneapolis TV newsroom, won 29 Emmys during its seven-year run.

Four of those Emmys went to Moore, whose character became a symbol of the independent 1970s career woman.

As Ed Asner’s lovably gruff and rumpled Lou Grant tells her when she applies for a job in the newsroom at WJM-TV: “You know what? You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk.”

 Ellen DeGeneres, who later invited Moore to play herself in several episodes of the sitcom “Ellen,” said she was an admirer of both Moore and her alter ego. “Mary Tyler Moore changed the world for all women,” she tweeted after Moore’s death became public.

In the wake of the success of  “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the MTM empire grew to include series such as “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Rhoda,” “Lou Grant,” “Remington Steele,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere.”

After “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” left the air in 1977, Moore failed with two TV comedy variety shows within the next two years.

But she scored on Broadway, winning a special Tony Award in 1980 for her performance as the quadriplegic lead character in the Broadway revival of “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” — a part originally written for a man.

In 1993, Moore won her seventh Emmy, for her supporting role as the ruthless owner of a 1940s Tennessee adoption agency in the Lifetime cable drama “Stolen Babies.”

Her two returns to the sitcom format in the mid- and late ’80s — “Mary” and “Annie McGuire” — were short-lived, as was the 1995 newspaper drama “New York News,” on which she played the autocratic editor of a tabloid newspaper.

In the years after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” she dealt with a series of personal problems and tragedies.

In 1978, her younger sister, Elizabeth, died of a drug overdose. In 1980, Richie, her 24-year-old son from her first marriage, fatally shot himself in what was ruled an accident. And in 1992, Moore’s brother John, a recovering alcoholic, died after a long battle with kidney cancer.

In the mid-’80s, Moore checked into the Betty Ford Center to seek treatment for alcoholism.

In a 1986 interview with Maclean’s magazine, Moore said: “I am glad I was able to be a kind of role model for other women who identified with my ladylike qualities, who were then able to say, ‘Well, if Mary can admit she had a problem with alcohol, then maybe I can too.’ ”

Asner said he treasured the years he worked alongside Moore.

“I will never be able to repay her for the blessings that she gave me,” he said in a tweet.

Moore was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on Dec. 29, 1936. Her father was a clerk for Consolidated Edison who worked at the Southern California Gas Co. after the family moved to Los Angeles in 1945.

Moore began taking dance classes while in grade school and appeared in recitals. She continued to take dance lessons and perform through her years at Immaculate Heart High School, where she dreamed of dancing her way to stardom.

In her autobiography, Moore described her strict Catholic father as “undemonstrative” and her more fun-loving mother as an alcoholic. As a result, Moore spent half the time living with her parents and the other half living with her aunt and grandmother.

“It was not an ideal home life,” she said in a 1999 interview with the Ottawa Citizen, noting that, even if her mom and dad “weren’t the best of parents,” they had the best sense of humor.

“Thank God, I was not abused in any way, but I was seeking approval of some sort, in many different ways,” she said. “For me, it turned out to be a pat on the back for entertaining people.”

She was 18 and five months from graduating from high school in 1955 when she met 27-year-old Dick Meeker, an Ocean Spray cranberry products salesman, who had moved into a small apartment in the house next door to her parents’ home.

They were married two months after she graduated, and their son Richie was born the following year.

As a working mother, Moore found jobs dancing in the chorus of “The Eddie Fisher Show” and other TV variety shows, and appeared in commercials.

Her first regular acting role came in 1959 when she played Sam, the sultry-voiced telephone operator on the David Janssen TV series “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” — an uncredited role in which no more than her legs or an extreme close-up of her mouth were seen on screen.

Publicity for the show played up the mysterious Sam. But, Moore wrote in her book, when she asked for more money, she was replaced by another anonymous actress after 13 episodes.

After her stint as Sam, Moore played small parts in TV series such as “77 Sunset Strip,” “Hawaiian Eye,” “Bourbon Street Beat” and “Riverboat.”

She auditioned to replace Sherry Jackson as Danny Thomas’ grown-up daughter on his popular sitcom, but missed landing the part by a nose: her own.

“Here’s the reason you didn’t get the part,” she later recalled the famously large-nosed Thomas telling her: “With a nose like yours, no one would believe you’re my daughter.”

Two years later, when Thomas, executive producer Sheldon Leonard and Reiner were looking for someone to play the wife in Van Dyke’s new TV series, Thomas said: “Who was the kid we liked so much last year, the one with the three names and the funny nose?”

Moore, whose first marriage ended in divorce in 1961, married Tinker in 1962. They were divorced in 1981. In 1983,  she married Dr. Robert Levine, a Manhattan cardiologist.

 She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1969 and later served as the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In 2012, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

McLellan is a former Times staff writer.

[email protected]

ALSO:

‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ is back on CBS in living color

Butch Trucks, Allman Brothers Band co-founder, dies at 69

Howard Kaufman, manager for the Eagles, Aerosmith and Stevie Nicks, dies at 79

Miguel Ferrer, star of ‘RoboCop,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘Twin Peaks,’ dies at 61

  UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction to Moore’s death. 

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and background.

This article was originally published at 11:40 a.m.

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/01/26/la-times-mary-tyler-moore-beloved-tv-icon-who-symbolized-the-independent-career-woman-dies-at-80-18/

La Times: Mary Tyler Moore, beloved TV icon who symbolized the independent career woman, dies at 80

Comfortably single and unafraid to stand up to her gruff newsroom boss, Mary Richards splashed onto television screens at a time when feminism was still putting down roots in America, a woman who charged through the working day with equal parts humor and raw independence.

Mary Tyler Moore’s character charmed TV watchers, earned the actress Emmy nominations and became a potent symbol of womanhood in the 1970s. The actress and her television character became so entwined that Moore became a role model for women who sought to challenge the conventions of marriage and family.

“She wasn’t married. She wasn’t looking to get married. At no point did the series end in a happy ending with her finding a husband — which seemed to be the course you had to take as a woman,” former First Lady Michelle Obama said in an interview in August. As a young girl, Obama said, she drew inspiration from the character.

Moore died Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. from cardiopulmonary arrest after being hospitalized with pneumonia. She was 80.

In a career that began as Happy Hotpoint, the dancing and singing 3-inch pixie in Hotpoint appliance commercials on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” in 1955 when she was 18, Moore went on to star in television and films and on Broadway.

In 1981, she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress for her portrayal of the emotionally cold mother in “Ordinary People,” the Robert Redford-directed drama about an upper-middle-class family dealing with the death of a teen-age son in a boating accident and the attempted suicide of their surviving son.

In a statement Wednesday, Redford said he admired Moore for taking such a role.

“The courage she displayed in taking on a role darker than anything she had ever done was brave and enormously powerful,” he said.

The unsympathetic, nearly-bloodless role was a departure for Moore, who remains best-known for her light and sunny touch in two classic situation comedies that together earned her six Emmy Awards.

Moore was still largely unknown when she was cast as Laura Petrie, the suburban housewife and mother of a young son opposite Dick Van Dyke’s TV comedy writer husband Rob on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

The acclaimed sitcom, which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966, earned Moore her first two Emmys and made her a star.

Her Capri-pants-wearing Laura brought something new to the traditional sitcom role of wife and mother: youthful sex appeal.

As Carl Reiner, the series’ creator, said of Rob and Laura in a 2004 TV Guide interview: “These were two people who really liked each other.”

Moore agreed, saying: “We brought romance to comedy, and, yes, Rob and Laura had sex!”

Van Dyke often praised Moore’s abilities as a comedic actress — one who has been credited with turning crying into a comedic art form and memorably got her toe stuck in a hotel room bathtub faucet in one episode.

“She was one of the few who could maintain her femininity and be funny at the same time,” Van Dyke said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television. “You have to go as far back as Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy to find someone who could play it that well and still be tremendously appealing as a woman.”

After the Van Dyke show ended in 1966, Moore starred as Holly Golightly in a problem-plagued Broadway musical version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” that producer David Merrick closed after four previews in New York.

Moore also played Julie Andrews’ roommate in the hit flapper-era comedy-musical movie “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 1967. But her budding film career, which included playing a nun opposite Elvis Presley’s ghetto doctor in “Change of Habit,” was less than stellar.

She was reunited with Van Dyke in a 1969 musical-variety TV special, a critical and ratings success that spurred CBS to offer her a commitment to do her own half-hour comedy series.

Moore and her second husband, TV executive Grant Tinker, created MTM Enterprises, their own independent TV production company, whose logo — in a takeoff on MGM’s roaring lion — was a meowing orange kitten.

Tinker hired writers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to create and produce “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which debuted on CBS in 1970 and made TV history.

The series, featuring Moore as Mary Richards, a single woman in her 30s who lands a job as an associate producer in a Minneapolis TV newsroom, won 29 Emmys during its seven-year run.

Four of those Emmys went to Moore, whose character became a symbol of the independent 1970s career woman.

As Ed Asner’s lovably gruff and rumpled Lou Grant tells her when she applies for a job in the newsroom at WJM-TV: “You know what? You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk.”

 Ellen DeGeneres, who later invited Moore to play herself in several episodes of the sitcom “Ellen,” said she was an admirer of both Moore and her alter ego. “Mary Tyler Moore changed the world for all women,” she tweeted after Moore’s death became public.

In the wake of the success of  “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the MTM empire grew to include series such as “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Rhoda,” “Lou Grant,” “Remington Steele,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere.”

After “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” left the air in 1977, Moore failed with two TV comedy variety shows within the next two years.

But she scored on Broadway, winning a special Tony Award in 1980 for her performance as the quadriplegic lead character in the Broadway revival of “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” — a part originally written for a man.

In 1993, Moore won her seventh Emmy, for her supporting role as the ruthless owner of a 1940s Tennessee adoption agency in the Lifetime cable drama “Stolen Babies.”

Her two returns to the sitcom format in the mid- and late ’80s — “Mary” and “Annie McGuire” — were short-lived, as was the 1995 newspaper drama “New York News,” on which she played the autocratic editor of a tabloid newspaper.

In the years after “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” she dealt with a series of personal problems and tragedies.

In 1978, her younger sister, Elizabeth, died of a drug overdose. In 1980, Richie, her 24-year-old son from her first marriage, fatally shot himself in what was ruled an accident. And in 1992, Moore’s brother John, a recovering alcoholic, died after a long battle with kidney cancer.

In the mid-’80s, Moore checked into the Betty Ford Center to seek treatment for alcoholism.

In a 1986 interview with Maclean’s magazine, Moore said: “I am glad I was able to be a kind of role model for other women who identified with my ladylike qualities, who were then able to say, ‘Well, if Mary can admit she had a problem with alcohol, then maybe I can too.’ ”

Asner said he treasured the years he worked alongside Moore.

“I will never be able to repay her for the blessings that she gave me,” he said in a tweet.

Moore was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on Dec. 29, 1936. Her father was a clerk for Consolidated Edison who worked at the Southern California Gas Co. after the family moved to Los Angeles in 1945.

Moore began taking dance classes while in grade school and appeared in recitals. She continued to take dance lessons and perform through her years at Immaculate Heart High School, where she dreamed of dancing her way to stardom.

In her autobiography, Moore described her strict Catholic father as “undemonstrative” and her more fun-loving mother as an alcoholic. As a result, Moore spent half the time living with her parents and the other half living with her aunt and grandmother.

“It was not an ideal home life,” she said in a 1999 interview with the Ottawa Citizen, noting that, even if her mom and dad “weren’t the best of parents,” they had the best sense of humor.

“Thank God, I was not abused in any way, but I was seeking approval of some sort, in many different ways,” she said. “For me, it turned out to be a pat on the back for entertaining people.”

She was 18 and five months from graduating from high school in 1955 when she met 27-year-old Dick Meeker, an Ocean Spray cranberry products salesman, who had moved into a small apartment in the house next door to her parents’ home.

They were married two months after she graduated, and their son Richie was born the following year.

As a working mother, Moore found jobs dancing in the chorus of “The Eddie Fisher Show” and other TV variety shows, and appeared in commercials.

Her first regular acting role came in 1959 when she played Sam, the sultry-voiced telephone operator on the David Janssen TV series “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” — an uncredited role in which no more than her legs or an extreme close-up of her mouth were seen on screen.

Publicity for the show played up the mysterious Sam. But, Moore wrote in her book, when she asked for more money, she was replaced by another anonymous actress after 13 episodes.

After her stint as Sam, Moore played small parts in TV series such as “77 Sunset Strip,” “Hawaiian Eye,” “Bourbon Street Beat” and “Riverboat.”

She auditioned to replace Sherry Jackson as Danny Thomas’ grown-up daughter on his popular sitcom, but missed landing the part by a nose: her own.

“Here’s the reason you didn’t get the part,” she later recalled the famously large-nosed Thomas telling her: “With a nose like yours, no one would believe you’re my daughter.”

Two years later, when Thomas, executive producer Sheldon Leonard and Reiner were looking for someone to play the wife in Van Dyke’s new TV series, Thomas said: “Who was the kid we liked so much last year, the one with the three names and the funny nose?”

Moore, whose first marriage ended in divorce in 1961, married Tinker in 1962. They were divorced in 1981. In 1983,  she married Dr. Robert Levine, a Manhattan cardiologist.

 She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1969 and later served as the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In 2012, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

McLellan is a former Times staff writer.

[email protected]

ALSO:

‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ is back on CBS in living color

Butch Trucks, Allman Brothers Band co-founder, dies at 69

Howard Kaufman, manager for the Eagles, Aerosmith and Stevie Nicks, dies at 79

Miguel Ferrer, star of ‘RoboCop,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘Twin Peaks,’ dies at 61

  UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction to Moore’s death. 

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and background.

This article was originally published at 11:40 a.m.

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link