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route22ny · 4 years

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(In the previous post I referred to Mr Gallagher’s book Reimagining Detroit. In looking for a bio to link his name to, I discovered he was retiring and had written an open farewell letter to the city in December. I’ll put the entire text & photos where possible into this post.)

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Dear Detroiters,

After 32 years covering this city and state for the Detroit Free Press, today marks my final column. For a lot of reasons I’ve decided this is a good time to move on to my next chapter.

But I’m not leaving Detroit and I’m not hanging up my keyboard. I’ll continue to write in a variety of ways — more books, perhaps blogging and podcasts, and otherwise I'll be engaging with this fascinating city and its people in a bunch of new ways.

I thank my editors and my colleagues for their support during my career here at the Free Press. And I thank you, my readers, who over the years have shared this amazing city with me. You’ve responded to my work by turns complimentary and critical, encouraging and scathing, but never dull.

This job has given me a front-row seat into one of the world’s great urban dramas — the resurrection of a once-powerhouse city brought low by the scourges of racism, suburban sprawl and factory closings. Whether you agree or disagree that Detroit has made progress in recent years, you have to admit that the range of effort here has been nothing short of remarkable. Not for nothing is Detroit known as an urban laboratory for the world’s struggling cities.

The work of reimagining a Detroit after the fall has been the focus of my work for many years. So today, let me try to sum up what I think we’ve learned.

The free-fall years

When I joined the Free Press in 1987, the city of Detroit was still in free fall. Decades of factory closings, years of of flight to the suburbs, a dismal legacy of racism and its effects, had drained the city of residents, jobs and political clout. A population of about 1 million would drop at least another 300,000 in years to come. Anchor employers like Comerica decamped their headquarters to the Sunbelt.

Perhaps the low point was the case of Malice Green in 1992, when two white cops during an arrest beat Green, a black suspect, to death with flashlights. The case exposed all of Detroit’s woes and seemed to give the lie to any notion of progress on race or any other matters.

Two neighborhood boys walk past the Malice Green memorial at Warren and 23rd Street in Detroit in 1997. (Craig Porter, Detroit Free Press)

And more disappointments were to come. Michigan would sink into its “Lost Decade” in 2001 when the state began to shed jobs every year for 10 years in a row. Those who predicted a quick turnaround were proved wrong again and again. It was no normal business cycle but, as University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes told me for a 2018 article, the long-overdue reaction to the vanished market share of the Detroit Three automakers.

"That was a permanent adjustment of the auto industry to the loss of its monopoly power," Grimes said. "We'll never get back to where we were in the year 2000."

And then came the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Short of an atom bomb going off here, it’s hard to image a worse calamity for the city. The collapse of the subprime mortgage market, the devastation wreaked by the Wayne County tax foreclosure auction, the implosion of home values, all but finished off Detroit.

The Great Recession turned Detroit from a city of homeowners to a city of renters. It wiped out a generation of black family wealth that we are yet to recover. And it led inexorably to the city’s municipal bankruptcy of 2013-14.

The first hints of recovery

But even amid the losses and abandonment, some early shoots of recovery were showing.

For years, Detroiters were turning vacant lots into urban farms. There were hundreds of small community gardens and several larger farms like Earthworks and RecoveryPark on the east side, the D-Town Farm led by Malik Yakini of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network on the west side, and the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative in New Center.

This repurposing of vacant and abandoned land for productive use first drew the attention of the world and began to inch Detroit’s reputation from Rust Belt failure to that of a city reinventing itself.

Then, too, a city government too broken and dysfunctional to do all it should began to spin off some of its operations into innovative conservancies, nonprofit corporations and public authorities. These spin-offs were hotly contested each time but ultimately proved remarkably successful.

Under these new management models, Eastern Market transformed from a faded and failing operation to the lively marketplace we see today. Cobo Center, now renamed the TCF Center, was once so poorly run by the city that it almost lost the annual auto show. Once spun off into a regional authority in 2009, the convention center transformed into the gem we see today with its soaring riverfront atrium and a ballroom that is one of the city’s best venues.

The nonprofit Detroit Riverfront Conservancy built and manages the RiverWalk. Ditto the lively Campus Martius Park, built by another conservancy and managed today by the Downtown Detroit Partnership on behalf of the city. The Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the city’s workforce development agency, the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and, most controversially, Belle Isle itself, all improved, often dramatically, once spun off from direct city control into some new form of management.

Mina Powell of Southfield skips rope at Eastern Market before the 2018 Ford Fireworks in Detroit on Monday, June 25, 2018. (Cameron Pollack, Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

And in this process, philanthropic foundations played a key role. The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has been a leader in building greenways like the Dequindre Cut. The Kresge Foundation contributed tens of millions of dollars to the RiverWalk and other efforts. The Ford Foundation was a lead contributor to the Grand Bargain that made the city’s trip through bankruptcy a success.

It would hard to imagine Detroit’s recent progress without the work of these and many other foundations. And the foundations weren’t the only nonprofits to take a leading role.

Neighborhood community development organizations like the Southwest Detroit Business Association, Eastside Community Network, U-Snap-Bac, and, perhaps most successfully, Midtown Detroit Inc. under its longtime leader Sue Mosey, led the recovery in their districts. These community groups and their staffers worked when no one else seemed to care, often for years, often alone.

And beginning in the early 2000s the city’s economy began to slowly evolve from the heavy-industry model of the past to a more entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurship gave Detroiters a new path to remake their lives.

There was a former Chrysler line worker named April Anderson whose dream of becoming a baker led to Good Cakes and Bakes, one of the city’s leading suppliers of sweets. Roslyn Karamoko’s Detroit is the New Black apparel shop, the StockX sneaker exchange, and hundreds of other startups showed that there was indeed economic life in the city, after all.

Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy, and the 2010 move by Dan Gilbert of his Quicken Loans downtown, with Gilbert's rapid remaking of the downtown core, were major steps that have gotten a lot of the credit for the city's comeback to date. But I think we cannot underestimate the importance of the urban farmers, the spin-offs, the foundations, the neighborhood activists, and the entrepreneurs in reinventing Detroit.

And along the way there were milestones of recovery once thought unattainable. Both the long-dormant Book-Cadillac Hotel and the defunct Michigan Central Station stood for years as international symbols of the city's failure. Both at times were recommended for demolition. But the Book-Cadillac reopened to fanfare in 2008 and Ford today is turning the train station into its future center of mobility research.

Setbacks aplenty

To be sure, the work has been long and tedious, beset by setbacks at every turn.

Rebuilding a city already built upon for 300 years means dealing with a legacy of debris just beneath the surface. When the Orleans Landing project by McCormack Baron Salazar on the riverfront east of the Renaissance Center started to dig foundations a few years ago, crews uncovered sewer lines that according to city maps shouldn’t have been there.

As another developer joked about his project building a medical warehouse in New Center, “We dug up everything but Jimmy Hoffa.”

Facing these and other challenges, almost every project takes longer than we think it should. When the Police Athletic League was planning what became the Willie Horton Field of Dreams at the site of the old Tiger Stadium, it discovered a regulation that a public playfield couldn’t be landlocked by other development on all sides as was planned for the perimeter of the site. So lawyers had to work out a solution to solve that problem. It worked, but the process that burned up several more weeks of time.

Problems so complex

Or take mortgage lending. Detroit is a city so financially broken that a normal mortgage market here almost didn’t exist until just recently. Thousands of houses do change hands each year, but mostly through cash sales or land contracts, a financially risky way for a buyer to get a home.

The dearth of market rate mortgages reflects the legacy of racism and redlining that scarred Detroit and many other older urban centers at mid-20th century. But even bankers who admitted their past mistakes and tried to infuse more capital into the mortgage system here found that it was no simple matter.

With the Detroit skyline in the background, several empty lots sit on the corner of Park Ave and Sibley in the Cass Corridor. There are still many undeveloped sites despite the empowerment zone being in Detroit since 1994. (Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)

In Detroit, a potential buyer might have saved enough for a down payment but not enough for the repairs that would make a house move-in ready and eligible for a market-rate mortgage. Or an annual income that might support a mortgage in most cases might not be enough once student debt or child-care expenses were added to a borrower’s burden.

Low appraisals, lack of public transit for residents to get to jobs, food or housing insecurity — all these could hold back efforts to create a thriving mortgage market in the city.

As Janis Bowdler, president of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, told me earlier this year, "As we've been sleeves rolled up, working in the community, we're learning over and over how multifaceted the challenge is. It's not just a supply of mortgage capital or a matter of producing enough credit-worthy borrowers. It's much more complex."

Working the problem

Detroit's mortgage lenders, and civic and nonprofit leaders, have worked hard to overcome these challenges. As they've counseled home-buyers and come up with innovative approaches to housing, the number of mortgage loans made in Detroit has been rising from almost none 10 years ago to more than 1,000 a year today. But clearly we still have a long way to go.

Earlier this year I wrote about Detroiter Jomica Miller, 43, a cashier working at 36th District Court. She had hoped to buy her parents' home after her father died but found it had been sold out from under them at the annual Wayne County tax foreclosure auction. She also found her past credit history presented a problem for lenders. She had student loans she was slowly paying off and a past bankruptcy on her record.

Jomica Miller stands in front of her house she recently purchased on Detroit's northwest side on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. (Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

"I actually started my process in 2017," she said. "Nobody wanted to work with me because my credit was so bad. I didn't know where to start."

Through credit counseling and perseverance for more than a year, she eventually was able to buy a house in the Marygrove district on the city's northwest side with an FHA-backed mortgage. The house is one of four that were part of the Fitz Forward project that has gotten mortgages closed in the Fitzgerald neighborhood. Fitz Forward is the initiative led by Century Partners and The Platform to rehab houses in the district.

"I almost gave up, but I had some great people in my corner," she said. "Don't give up."

Grind it out

So if the problems are complex, so, too, are the solutions. A week ago Mayor Mike Duggan and other leaders announced a $10 million gift from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation to the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund. The fund works in 10 specific neighborhoods on streetscape improvements, new and rehabbed housing, retail readiness and other improvements.

But if it sounded like a simple transfer of funds from the foundation to ready-to-go projects, it wasn’t. The money flows through Invest Detroit, a mission-based nonprofit lender that has worked overtime in recent years to generate new investment in the city’s neighborhoods. Speaking at the announcement, Dave Blaszkiewicz, president of Invest Detroit, noted that it took the coordinated efforts of multiple departments and agencies to make the work possible.

Without question, the complexity of the problems and the difficulty of coordinating solutions has held back Detroit’s efforts at recovery. But the good news — the really good news — is that Detroit in recent years has gotten so much better at working that magic.

Whether it’s city planners, the foundation staffs, bankers or neighborhood activists, more and more of these players have learned to reduce the barriers and make a complex system of investment work.

Try everything and keep trying

Does that system sometimes favor corporate interests to the detriment of ordinary Detroiters? Perhaps. Do we still sometimes see well-meaning efforts result in nothing much? Sure. Are there still problems that we have barely begun to touch? Certainly.

But the overall impact of Detroit’s recovery efforts — efforts by thousands of committed people working across a broad range of activities, from workforce training to urban farming to education and transit, these efforts have slowly inched Detroit forward. And the city is better for it.

There’s a saying that “nothing works but everything might.” It means that there is no silver-bullet solution to our problems. But if we work across a hundred different fields, making progress in each one, those efforts will add up to something greater than the sum of the parts. That’s the approach Detroit has taken and must continue to take.

There’s a story from the American Civil War that I like. A new regiment came up to the battlefront and its colonel asked the general commanding where they should go in. “Why, go in anywhere,” the general replied. “There is lovely fighting all along the line.”

And so in Detroit. If you want a to-do list to take away from this column, work on whatever holds your interest. We need progress on public safety and education, but we also need to work on transit and child care and vacant buildings and entrepreneurship and any of a hundred other fields. Take your pick, and get busy.

It’s a long and difficult task. But that shouldn’t faze a city with a gritty work ethic like Detroit's.

And so, onward

Detroit’s story is so varied, with so much conflicting evidence of progress or lack of it, that even today one can lean toward either optimism or despair. I choose hope. I believe with Dr. King that the arc of the moral universe is long but that it bends toward justice. And I hold with the message of Irish poet Seamus Heaney whose words about his homeland echo for me in Detroit:

History says, don't hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

So much work lies ahead of us. And in that task, I'll be there. Though I won’t be writing as a Free Press columnist, I will be writing about Detroit in other ways, and engaging in the life of this community in new ways yet to come. I’m looking forward to that.

See you around.

(John Gallagher is a native of New York City who joined the Free Press in 1987 to cover urban and economic development. He is a resident of the city for many years. He is the author of several books including "Reimagining Detroit: Opportunities for Redefining an American City" and "Yamasaki in Detroit: A Search for Serenity." He was a 2017 inductee into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.)

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/money/business/john-gallagher/2019/12/19/reporter-john-gallagher-retires-detroit/2685362001/

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The bio of Gallagher I mentioned in the intro is here; there are also links to a number of his more recent articles about the city and related issues.

#detroit michigan #john gallagher #urban reinvention #journalism

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ilguna · 4 years

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i also have a list of shit my history teacher (this year) has said and done so I will share it with you:

warning: its really fucking long bc he would say/do shit MULTIPLE times a day

goes onto the next slide, “it’s a meme, get it?” proceeds to explain the meme (its the hey arnold meme with the first)

also goes onto another slide, with the twitter opinion meme. at the end of the paragraph it says “this class smacks, I’m lit”

“I’m going to beat up your brother. i am going to pummel him.”

On the 6th day of class he finally realized that there was a total of 6 guys and the rest were girls

student: “You should not put it in (as an assingment)”. teacher; “laugh out loud, im dead”

he was teaching us how to write a DBQ, the computer had a pop up saying that the battery was low, and then a spider shows up out of fucking nowhere, hanging from the ceiling. he CLAPS it, jokes about eating it, and then sets it on his desk (not in the trash can 2 feet away) so he can “deal with it later”

his endless military stories, specifically ORANGE DESERT

he wrote “if you would have had your thinking skull on” on my first DBQ

him saying “I hate this” after typing a word wrong multiple times while teaching us DBQ’s lmfao

“For the lols”

Threw a box of tissues across the room into the trash can

threw a box of tissues at a student

he had this obsession with throwing expo markers at his whiteboard, trying to make it land on the metal part so expect that a lot.

“Do you want me to drown him in a bathtub?” (which was about a student’s dog that had separation anxiety lmaoo)

Sang the rain drop, drop top song

The collars on his shirt turned up

“He’ll be beaten for that distraction” (after his son called him during his lesson and he willingly answered)

“Stay woke”

“It was a hot boy summer for him”

expo marker landed on the metal thing for once thanks to a towel that was there

kyle (it must have been a story or something i dont remember)

He woah’d at some point

HAHA so there was a kid in my class that had got caught with a bong on the second week of school and he was suspended. when he came back to class, we were going over what the south grew in the U.S. very early on into colonization. and he used the bong kid as an example of a tobacco farmer

tried to eat a balled up paper

“important revolutionary war stuff”

“My bae, George Washington”

“They could’ve killed g-dubz, but they didn’t”

called george washington “g-dubz” frequiently

“Facts”

“Swagtastic”

he got excited over a military general (baron friedrich von steuben) for being a gay military general--”That was very well respected!”

“He had a ton of swagger”--referring to ben franklin

“His nickname was the swamp fox. You guys can call me that”

The snowball fight story--his brother was friends with a kid he hated next door. my teacher challenged the kid--Eric--to a snowball fight. In preparation, my teacher had froze snowballs, and so when he did have the fight, he LITERALLY knocked Eric out and left him on the front lawn unconscious (he was an elementary school kid)

one time he gave us the punishment quiz by accident, tried to make up for it by giving everyone the answer to #6. however, it turned out to be wrong so he just gave us all 100′s instead

another military story of the goat he bought from an old man with his buddies. unfortunately they had to kill the goat to eat, but the FACT that my teacher said this “a cute little goat--you know, baaa?” as if we didn’t know what a goat was

He was the golf/hockey coach!! so not only would he talk about beating up the kids in the golf club

he would also do random golf swings all the goddamn time! with no gold club or ball, it was just air.

“You are about to get clowned, young lady”

pronounced pamphlet as pamplet fora good part of his teaching career (another story he told us)

“It’s definitely not the declaration of independence you mouth breather!”

George washington = bae on a powerpoint

“you tied me up real good”

“France also popped off”

Compares the Connecticut compromise to ppap (with the song and everything!)

Told someone to shut up after they suggested that Iowa was the least populated state (he’s from Iowa)

hick iowa, to be exact

Wrote 23 as 32, realized his mistake and said “oop im dyslexic”

“If it’s a purge, I’m killing everybody”

“Federalism, not onion!’

“Who’s the dumbass guy? Ducey!” (our state governor)

he got arrested once. his mugshot is on google images and everything

he got arrested bc some guy was destroying his house w a baseball bat at a party his friendw as throwing (but it was at my teachers house). my teacher respectfully punched him and brought him to the front lawn. called the cops when the guy wouldnt leave and ended up being arrested too. teacher thought his career was over and threatened the guy the entire way to the police station

“laugh out loud!”

“We beat the begeezus out of a bunch of british people”

pronounced wolf as woof

“Who was his daddy? Who’s his daddy?”

Called a swim cap a bonnet

“Kick!”--then proceeds to kick a tennis ball. before that he had just thrown it to get out of his way

“Jesus, you’re a big boy”

for like 2 weeks straight he used that same tennis ball to try and erase a whiteboard. and im not talking rubbing it on the board, he fucking threw it at the wall, getting it off little by little. he eventually gave up, though

“I’ll snot rocket into the trash can”

“Cause I realize most of you are morons”

was obsessed with the cowboy boogie

“Every time I cough, my tail bone hurts”

“Do i look normal?”

“I look like an old man”

“Shut up your faces”

“I see you back there, queen”

“Some of you girls need to learn from this article”--the article was old & about girls being submissive

“that would hurt some people’s feelings, but I’m not gonna show it hurt mine”

“He’s just--’meow’”--about his cat

he had a sweater that had his face on it, photoshopped over a boxer that a student gave him. he wore it during winter

flicked a tennis ball across the room with a hockey stick. hit the coffee thermo on his desk, stared for a couple of seconds, and THEN realized that it was open

First off, all you kids making memes about dodging the draft--we don’t want your dumbasses anyway” --continued to rant for a few minutes after that

he HATED the national anthem with a burning passion

“I’m old as shit”

also, his cat’s name IS meow cat

more expo marker throwing

“Hey there handsome”-- to the teacher next door

“Henry clay is going to haunt you until april” (unfortunately we didnt make it that far into the school year bc of covid. disappointed that i didnt get to be haunted)

Singing electric avenue

“but here’s the tea”

“Flagstaff is like--” *reaches as high as he can to put expo marker on the wall

“I’m adopting all of you, and we’re moving to saudi arabia”

teacher: “I’m gonna break bowers kneecaps in front of you. you still want to be on strike?” not bowers but a different kid: “no...?”

Cleaned the shades in the middle of him explaining something

“You know your pinky toe? this little roast beef?”

THE TURTLE SOUP STORY. when my teacher was still a kid, he found a turtle in the wild, and brought it to his grandparents house (they owned a farm). he took care of the turtle for a while, even after his grandfather found out. until one day he came home and saw blood everywhere, went to find the turtle to see it was gone. then found his grandfather chopping up the fucking turtle so they could have it for soup for dinner. his grandfather literally made him fatten up the turtle so they could eat it

“Did mr.*****--?” (referring to himself in 3rd person, also blocked out to protect privacy)

“i’m going to staple your nostrils closed. staple, staple. ‘I can’t breathe mr.*****!’ should’ve done your DBQ!!”

his pedo stache

stood with a paper and smiled, thinking that a student was taking a picture of him when it was really the paper

doesn’t know who gaston is???

him: “I’m going to staple your noses together. One staple” Student: “*****’s piercing parlor!”

*singing* “beauty and the beast”

“I’m going to tackle you”

more random golf swinging

“What’s up (my name)?” me: hi *he then hits the bun on the top of my head on his way in the door*

And he did it again the next day

he literally made kids compete with pastries

which reminds me, he brought donuts in 2 days in a row like a week after that and make us (his first hour) take bites bc he realized he didn’t want to eat it. one of the girls was glad to take it from him, everyone else told him no

“Good morning (my name) how are you?” me: “I’m sick again... do you need help? (with the door)” him; “Actually, yes” (normally he can open the door even when his hands are full but there was a stack of pop tart boxes that were as tall as him so) i opened the door, he goes in and says, “thank you (my name), for not being rude”

the following quotes are for the Hot Seat

Student: “what do you do--?” him: “you’re in the hot seat!”

“Some people cry”

“La *****, luxurious”

“You sit here, and you stare (into the projector light)”

basically everyone in the class had to answer a question as a review. there was a stool in front of the smartboard, perfectly placed so that the projector light would LITERALLy be in your eyes. i actually got the question right on some miracle.

“2 points of weed?”

“Can I get some of that hot leaf?”

“They will make more drugs! You can’t do that much drug!”

“You guys bullied me and stole it”

“Whole rest of the nation sucked an egg”

“Whelp, let’s just kill myself”

“Do you guys know david chapel?” *sigh when everyone says no*

*some girls singing the national anthem* Him: “no! none of this, none of this!”

“Calibri’s for idiots” (the font)

“The only thing that was in--shit”

“and uncle sam--gettin lit”

“Their daddy--UH--”

“They’re going to blame the jews--my people” (he got a dna test done, he’s not actually jewish)

“Whatever you say, boomer”

“Use my words to plagiarize in college”

“I’m jewish, that’s offensive”

“Tell him he gave me instant cancer”

Me: “can i go to the bathroom?” him: “I’ll allow it”

him: “He’s antisemetic and it hurts my feelings” student: “what does that mean again?” him: “Hates jews :(”

“You guys can call me kingfish if you’d like”

~ after we said no to the nicknames, we tried to make one for him ~

student: “cornhusker!” him: “no, that’s offensive... and it’s also nebraska”

student: “corn picker!” him: “no--that sounds like a racist term or something”

“Unless corona really does take over--” (thank u, mr. for ruining the school year”

Student: “how old was she (his mom) when she had you?” him: “thirteen”

“My mom just turned 40 the other day...” (a joke)

him: “My brother got t-boned by a semi truck last night” Student: “Why are you laughing?” him: “Because he lived.”

“Yeah bc I would hide out in a public school with 300 new kids a year” (about him not living in iowa so he’s hiding out in az to get away from his “criminal record” (refer to the 1 time hes been arrested))

“Baby death?”

“Their family has more money than jesus”

*Standing outside the door yelling “CORONA” to students walking in”

“Hey I’m *****, f-word, blah, blah”

“We should fight our cats.”

“OH that’s a big chonk cat.”

“Mortal Kombat is pretty cool. I haven’t played in 25 years”

he told us in class once that we shouldnt open the front door if cops show up at a party. just to shut the blinds and be a little quieter bc the cops cant legally open the door

also one time he had a gun pointed to his face but he never finished that story bc he never liked it

during quarantine he set a DBQ as 1000 points (and i still didnt do it)

and “Here’s the tea, kiddos!”

honorable mentions: all the time he’s sent out emails bc theyre fucking hilarious

#ilguna #high school #gen z

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ericbrandonrp · 5 years

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|| Headcanon: Il Barone Rosso

“The guy’s a feckin’ judge!” He was frantic, nervous, and yes, even scared. Three aspects that were the most horrible combination when working in a profession as Eric did; hell, one alone was enough already to have the job blow up right into his face. What made everything worse, and life-threatening, was the fact that the villa he had broken into, was the property of a judge. The estate was seated at the coast of a beautiful town in Italy, with the study’s windows delivering the wonderful view at the waves crashing against the shore. It had seven rooms - two of them bedrooms - one big kitchen, three garages, and a breathtaking garden in the back filled with all sorts of Mediterranian trees and bushes, flowers and a grass that couldn’t be greener. Right now, in that very night, the sea underneath the estate was calm - unlike the thief’s nerves.

Not even Ian, on the phone, managed to calm him down. “Take the goods and leave, like you always do.” “Ye’re sayin’ tha’ so easily. Ian, he’s famous here! They call him il barone rosso.” “The Red Baron,” Ian muttered at the other end of the line, sinking back into his pillows. Shit. Not even he, the hitman, the one cleaning up, would be able to correct this one. Even Ian, and he was glad that Eric didn’t notice, was scared of that name. “You’re in Francesco Rossi’s villa? Why the fuck are you in fucking Francesco Rossi’s villa? What the fuck were you thinking? Have you any fucking idea who the fuck that even is?” “Yes, Ian!” Eric growled. “Then why the fuck are you there?” “I didn’t know it’s him! Look, I had a job in Italy,” he explained with the phone pressed to his ear and his other hand holding onto the small flashlight, eyes scanning the expensive wooden furniture and carpets, and the painting he was supposed to steal - still hanging on the wall, “I was ‘bout to leave, bu’ me client called and offered me ‘nother job. No big preparations, nothin’ to worry ‘bout.” Or so he had thought. But now he was sitting right in the middle of the wasps’ nest and was planless on how to leave it again.

“Get the fuck out of there.” The thief sighed. “Thanks for the advoice, there’s just one problem.” “Which is?” “Me client’s gonna murder me if I don’t get him wha’ he wants.” “You’re off worse if you take it, though. The fucking Red Baron won’t stop until he got the fucking arse that was stupid enough to break into his fucking home and fucking steal from him. You know that. Remember Antonio Spinelli? Ten years. James Rogers? Seven fucking years.” God, he wanted to cry, and Eric did actually feel tears well up in his eyes. This was a bloody catch-22 he got himself caught in. On the one hand: death. On the other: years in prison. The latter seemed like the worse option, however. “Also, you already broke rule number one.” Eric sighed. “Don’t bring yer phone to the job, I know, I know...” What a stupid beginner’s mistake; maybe he was really getting too old for this job. Maybe it was time to retire. The thought was on hold as his gaze fell on what the flashlight illuminated. Pictures in nice golden frames sitting on sideboards and in cabinets. One of them particularly caught the thief’s attention. Eyes narrowed, he stepped closer, then tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear and picked the frame up. The little boy’s face looked an awful lot familiar. The eyes...the lips, thin, pressed together. He couldn’t have been older than three, maybe even two years old, was sitting on a man’s lap. The man he knew: it was the Red Baron himself, Francesco Rossi. But the boy...

“Ian...” “Are you out?” “No, but---” His eyes stung from the sudden brightness flashing across the room, and Eric nearly let go of the frame when he turned around abruptly to face whoever had turned on the goddamn lights of the study. He did so in time to see a gun being lifted and pointed at him. The familiar clicking noise, as quiet and soft as it was, told him that he was better off remaining just the way he was: standing. Not making a single move. “...Eric?” Ian’s heart was beating faster. He sat up in his bed, ignoring Mr Freckles’ groan of disgruntlement when the cat was shoved a few inches away. His son was out there, in a completely different country, and he couldn’t help him. “Eric? What’s going on?”

“Cosa stai facendo qui?” The old man’s voice was soft, but firm. A bit raspy, Eric noticed, but still full of life. And those blue eyes...the same as the boy’s in the picture. The same as--- “Parla, o sparo.” “I--I don’t--” The thief sucked in a breath, but his throat closed down. Godfuckingdamnit. Slowly, very slowly, he lifted his hands up. The man was old, yes, probably around seventy - but he had heart a lot about him. Rossi did shoot. And he did hit his target.

“I said, what are you doing here?” His English was clear, words spoken slowly, carried with the natural Italian accent. Rossi came closer, small steps, careful. “Put the photo down.” “I don’t wanna harm ye, a’righ’?” But the fact that he was wearing black trousers, a black hoodie, and black gloves, probably didn’t help much on that matter. He was fucked. Majorly. Especially when Rossi stood right in front of him and pressed the gun - an old one, Eric guessed it was still from the last World War, but really, why the fuck did he care with what kind of gun he was going to be shot? - against the thief’s forehead. Piercing blue eyes stared right back into Eric’s, but for a moment the old man was hesitating. For a moment Eric noticed him narrow his eyes and look at him as if he recognized him.

#;hc:eric #;;drabble #;fc:francesco rossi #;fc:ian

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jbabebtumblin · 5 years

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It was Halloween night at the WWE Performance Center. Fandango and Tyler Breeze has just finished up going through a tag team match with Baron Corbin and a young trainee. “I messed up” the trainee sighed. Baron rubbed his back, “it’ll come in time. Give yourself credit” Baron grinned. “For God sake just kiss, you two need to be more affectionate” Fandango said as he pinched Tyler’s butt. Baron blushed as he kissed his trainee. “Look I wanna go home. I’m tired, there isn’t anyone here besides us” Tyler said. His pale face blushed with a pout. “We’ll head out soon” Fandango promised. “I don’t like it here at night. It’s kinda creepy” Tyler shuddered. The cold building was dark with only a few lights on. “There nothing to be afraid of. It’s not like there are footsteps in the dark” Fandango said. Suddenly, the light sound of shoes on the cement floor echoed in the dark. Tyler clung to his fiancé tightly. Baron got excited and pulled out his phone. “There’s a ghost in here” he beamed with excitement. “You’re happy to see ghosts?” Tyler stammered. Fandango bravely stepped out of the ring. “Hello?” He asked aloud. The footsteps drew closer. He couldn’t help but feel a tingle up his spine. He took a breath and swung into the darkness. A figure emerged dodging the fist. Tyler screamed. “Is it a ghost or a witch or a monster?!?!” He asked hiding his eyes. “It’s Aaron” the trainee replied. “Oh god worse!” Tyler said glumly. “What was all that jazz for?” Aaron asked. “We thought you were a...we just heard your footsteps. Plus you didn’t say anything” Fandango stuttered. “I had my headphones in. I didn’t hear you guys” Aaron replied, “I have a guest with me. I was just checking to see who was left in the building.” He motioned for someone to come in. A teen girl rushed to his side. “This is CC, she’s a huge fan of...” “BREEZANGO!” She said excitedly. She wrapped her arms around Fandango’s toned waist. “Well hey there” he smiled. Tyler stepped out of the ring and into the hug. “Isn’t his beard just adorable when he smiles” Tyler beamed. He gently scratched his lover’s facial hair. Tyler took CC’s hand, “see! It’s so scratchy!” Fandango blushed hard as the two played with his beard. “Hey I was really hoping that was a ghost!” Baron said. “Ha” Aaron said, “a ghost of who? André The Giant? Freddy Blassie? Hulk Hogan?” “Aaron, Hulk Hogan isn’t dead” Tyler snapped. “Are we sure? He could be a zombie, we just don’t know” Aaron replied. “HE CAN’T BE A ZOMBIE, AARON! Zombies can’t talk, AARON!” Tyler argued. “Honey, zombies don’t exist” Fandango added. He kissed his pouting boyfriend’s head. “God you two are perfect” CC admired aloud. Tyler’s smile spread across his face. “Who else could it be haunted by?” Aaron antagonized Baron, “Fabulous Moolah? Macho Man and Liz? Bobby Heenan?” Suddenly a loud boom came from the second floor of the Performance Center. The six stopped talking. Their hearts racing in their chests. “.....Bobby Heenan?” Aaron said again. The boom echoed into the training floor. “It’s probably just a coincidence” the NXT hopeful said, “I mean...haha...wouldn’t it be funny if Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon were haunting the Center?” Two loud booms echoed again. “I’m scared” Tyler shook. “Ghosts give me anxiety. I need my Steven Universe hoodie” he said. “No way! I have one too” CC replied. Tyler and CC pulled the hoods over their faces. “Now no ghost can see us” Tyler’s muffled voice said. “Let’s see them fuck with us now” CC chimed in. “Now I’m fairly sure there is a logical explination for this” Aaron reasoned. “Yes” Baron added, “Bobby and Gorilla are at unrest over the current announce team. They’re trying to get attention so they can host Raw from beyond the grave!” Aaron stared at Baron intently, “is this why we stopped giving you promos? Is this the reason. I think this is the reason.” Scuffling could be heard from all over the building. “It’s probably Pat Patterson watching y’all get oiled up and wrassle around the ring. He’s gotta get his rocks off somehow” Aaron laughed. “No. It’s a ghost and I wanna go home” Tyler said. “Fandango, let Tyler go home. He’s scared” CC frowned. Fandango wrapped his strong arms around the two. “Don’t either of you worry. I’ll protect you both” he promised. The two swooned under the muscular comfort of the wrestler. “This is scary like the time we had a sleepover and I fell asleep and I thought I was laying my head on your butt but I woke up in the morning and it was Naomi’s butt” Tyler said breathlessly. “First, breath. Second, Naomi’s booty?” CC inquired, “what’s scary about that? I’d be into that!” “Ooooh I like it” Tyler giggled. Another couple of booms jolted the group. “Okay I’m ready to get out of here. I’m no Ghostbuster” Aaron said. “Yeah It’s getting late and I gotta get Tyler to bed” Fandango said. “Uhm I am fine. I don’t need a bedtime, babe” Tyler replied. Fandango laughed to himself. “You’re already getting cranky” he grinned. A dark shadow moved slowly across the floor to the locker room area. “GHOST! GHOST!” Baron shouted. “Did anyone get Mr. Crocker vibes from that?” CC asked. “OHMIGOSH YAS” Tyler said slapping CC a high five. “Dammit there are no such things as ghosts” Aaron shouted after the taller wrestler. “IT’S IN MCMAHON’S OFFICE!” Baron insisted. “Whatever is here is behind these doors” His dark eyes scanned the door excitedly. “Babe, I think we should leave” the trainee said. “No no. There is a ghost behind this door” Baron said with confidence. “Why does Mr. McMahon have a random office in the Performance Center?” CC asked. “So he can fire people from any area of the WWE Universe. No one has been in there besides him...and people he fired” Tyler said. “Oh my gosh! What if Vince takes people in there to steal their souls. That’s why no one goes in but him. And there’s like a pentagram in there with other sacrifices and dark magic books. The ghosts here are the souls he took” Aaron laughed loudly. “YES YES AND YES” Baron hyperventilated. “I need to go in! I NEEEEED IT!” “Now that was Spongebob vibes right there” CC said. “Thank you!” Tyler gave her another high five. “You don’t need to do you? You want to but you don’t need to...and he’s in” the trainee said. “Nothing? Nothing? Where is the pentagram? Where are the books? The bones and potions? Where are the ghosts, Aaron?” Baron snapped. “Baron, I was joking. There isn’t anything amiss here” Aaron replied. Baron’s shoulders slumped, his bald head hung low. “I wanted to see a ghost. Thanks for the fantasy, Aaron” Baron mumbled. “Awe come on Bear Bear. We’ll go home and I’ll make you a big steak” the trainee promised. “I want a glass of wine too. And cuddles cause I’m so disappointed” Baron kicked at the carpet. The two started on their way out of the arena “Do you think it’s haunted here?” Tyler asked. “No. It was probably just noises playing tricks on us” Fandango assured. A shadow moved across the front door. “GHOST...” Baron shouted, “....of Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson.” “Dammit I’m not dead!” Gerald Brisco snapped. ”I told you Pat was here” Aaron said proudly. “What are you kids doing here this late? It’s a holiday, go home and spend it with family” Pat insisted. “It’s only Halloween you old coot” Gerald grumbled. Baron and the trainee left soon after. The rest stayed behind in the parking lot. “Wanna come to my place and hang out?” Aaron asked. CC hugged Tyler, ”please?” she asked. “Sure we can. I think we should all cuddle on the couch but CC will be in the middle of me and Curtis” Tyler smiled. “Aaron drive to your house as soon as possible. This needs to happen!” CC insisted. Brisco and Patterson watched the cars leave the building. They waited til the tail lights were out of sight. “Now dammit you can’t go around scaring people. Mister MACman will be mad when he finds out about your antics” he warned. The ghosts of Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon groaned. “Why isn’t Hogan cursed to roam the Performance Center?!” Heenan shouted. Patterson swatted at him, “you know Eric Bischoff owns Hogan’s soul. Now get back to the office. We have to get the office ready for when Vince does his weekly sacrifice of an NXT Superstar’s future in exchange for immortality.” “At least we didn’t sell our souls to Paul Heyman. He makes his guys watch old Brock Lesnar matches and One Night Stand 2005 on repeat” Gorilla Monsoon laughed.

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cathygeha · 3 years

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REVIEW

The Crimson Trail by Eric Red

A Joe Noose Western #4

Joe Noose is a man among men, a bounty hunter, kills when necessary but brings them in alive when he can. This time he plays a bit of a sleuth as he looks for a serial killer working his way through the men herding cattle on a trail drive. Why are the drovers falling like bowling pins? Who is killing them? Will Joe find the killer before everyone is dead? Throw in an evil cattle baron, his henchman and posse, a few fights with fists and guns…and don’t forget the serial killer and you have the makings of a rip-snorting, root-tooting, rollicking Western yarn.

What I liked:

* Joe Noose: almost bigger than life but very real, fast and deadly with gun and fists, a survivor, reliable, steadfast, loves Marshall Bess Sugarland, intriguing, sees things through, a man I admire and would want on my side.

* That the story picks up from where book three ends.

* The writing and plot

* Laura Holdridge: cattlewoman, widow, ranch owner, on the trail herding cattle with her team, good woman, someone we may hear more of in the future.

* That there was more than one bad guy to hate and learning how each one was thwarted.

* Copper: Joe’s faithful steed.

* That all my senses were engaged.

* Feeling I was part of the story.

* That Joe was true-blue to Bess.

* Thinking about what makes people evil…

* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:

* The bad guys…it was easy to hate them and hope they would meet their comeuppance(s)

* Knowing that I will have to wait to find out what will happen next.

Did I like this book? Yes!

Would I read more in this series/by this author? Without a doubt!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Pinnacle Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

In his fourth series installment, acclaimed author and horror filmmaker Eric Red brings his trademark volatile action and bloody violence to a classic genre, injecting modern speed and grit into Old West legend as Joe Noose and Marshal Bess Sugarland follows a trail of blood through the valley of death... Joe Noose follows a trail of blood through the valley of death--in this bold Western series from Eric Red, acclaimed author of The Guns of Santa Sangre and The Wolves of El Diablo. HUNT FOR THE CATTLE DRIVE KILLER Joe Noose knows what fear looks like. He sees it in the eyes of his new friends--a dozen trail-hardened cattle men who don't scare easily. It's not the 500-mile trek across treacherous Montana territory that's got them spooked. It's not the 3,000 heads of cattle they've got to wrangle either. They're afraid that someone on this drive--one of their own team--is a serial killer. Five wranglers are already dead. Every man is a suspect. And the woman rancher in charge is paying Joe Noose to root out the evil on this cursed cattle drive--by riding alongside the killer...

AUTHOR BIO

Eric Red is a master storyteller, beginning with his first script in which he single handedly made picking up a hitchhiker as scary as Jaws did with going back in the water. After 30 years, The Hitcher remains one of the most popular horror movies ever and has continued running on cable and now streaming all over the world. His next film, Near Dark, completely changed the world of vampires by delivering some truly distinctive twists and themes to a very familiar genre and still inspires current movies and TV shows like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. The same can be said for many of his other films that showcase his unique perspective on werewolves, body transplants and even mobsters.

His film, 100 Feet, starring Famke Jansen and Bobby Canavale “will be remembered as one of his best” hails top horror review site, Bloody Disgusting. The Hitchcockian thriller took the J-film genre to the next level with its uniquely personal psychological torture. Scream Magazine says, “Like Red’s best work – from his intense power script trio of the original HITCHER, the moody vampire pic NEAR DARK, and the glossy thriller BLUE STEEL; to his directorial wham-bang double of COHEN & TATE and the awesomely bonkers BODY PARTS – 100 FEET is another concentrated blast of slick entertainment.”

Mr. Red continues to challenge the status quo in any genre he tackles. Most recently his new best-selling western novel series Noose has been hailed as breathing new life into the Western genre by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Roundup Magazine, Scream Magazine and Historical Novels Review. True West Magazine recently had this to say, “When Red brings his modern pacing and gift for gore to the classic Western genre, the result is something like the bloody lovechild of Jack Reacher and Louis L’Amour. Pulp Fiction meets High Noon, and it’s glorious.”

Whether the genre is horror, thriller or western, Mr. Red’s talent is digging into the psychology of people’s fears and bringing those front and center to the imagination. Comic Book Review said this about Mr. Red’s graphic novel, Containment. “How can you beat zombies in space? How can you top having Eric Red, screenwriter on the horrifying vampire movie Near Dark, creating a comic book where astronauts are millions of miles away in outer space, trying to fight off flesh-eating zombies? You can’t, so you just sit back and enjoy every creepy moment of it.”

In 1998, Stephen King proclaimed The Hitcher and Near Dark were on his top five desert island films in The New York Post. In 2019, The Hitcher remains on his list in a recent interview with JoBlo.com.

Mr. Red’s works have garnered a huge audience and deep fan loyalty over the years as his projects continue to inspire and push the envelope. Throughout his career, he has always featured strong women characters and female-driven stories from Blue Steel, Bad Moon, 100 Feet to the Noose series.

website: http://www.ericred.com/

twitter: https://twitter.com/EricRed

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialericred

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericred/

#Eric Red #Joe Noose Western 4 #Western #Fiction #Cattle Drive #Serial Killer

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miss-m-calling · 4 years

Text

Fandom 5k letter

Requests:

Adult Wednesday Addams (webseries) -- Wednesday Addams

American Gods (TV) -- Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

Kingdom (Netflix) -- Prince Lee Chang/Seo-bi, Prince Lee Chang & Seo-bi

Starred Up (2013 movie) -- Oliver Baumer/Eric Love

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with.

Without further ado…

Adult Wednesday Addams

Wednesday Addams

I belatedly discovered this webseries, and it resurrected (see what I did there?) my love for Wednesday and how the Addams Family canon runs on the endless possibilities of this loving, happily eccentric family being 100% true to themselves and the world just having to deal with it. The show was everything I never knew I wanted till I watched it, the perfect blend of Addams-macabre and cozy slice of life with bonus Wednesday navigating the world alone, without always knowing her family will back her up, and it made me crave more of adult Wednesday’s mini adventures in LA. For this canon, I’m good with gen or, if you want to write that, more of Wednesday’s adventures in dating guys who really aren’t up to the challenge, and you can absolutely have Wednesday interact with OCs I haven’t listed as part of a pairing. I’m keeping the prompts pretty short, just to (hopefully) pique your creativity, as I expect I will love any way you make these or any similar scenarios play out:

-Wednesday goes to IKEA

-More of Wednesday’s interactions with the nice interns at her receptionist job. Maybe they invite her out to happy hour, or to the beach or a club. Or maybe we get to eavesdrop while they shoot the breeze on their lunch break, possibly over barbecue-chicken pizza from CPK.

-More of Wednesday’s gigs. She already babysits and walks other people’s dogs, what else might she do for extra cash that would be both really common and seemingly ill-suited to Wednesday, except she totally makes it work for her? Cat sitting (especially if the cat belongs to someone incredibly rich whose house is full of secrets – and expensive things for the cat to knock over), driving an Uber/Lyft, becoming an AirBnB host, catering/server, working the late shift in a New Age/occult supply store where none of the woo is real…?

-Or, alternately, Wednesday finds a career that is perfect for her, in which she can have success and respect. What ever could that be and still fit into the non-Addams world?

-Wednesday tries speed dating

-Or, she runs into Brian a.k.a. chains guy (I cackle with glee every time I rewatch the bit when he tries to kiss her at the pet store) a third time – how does it not go quite as he wanted or expected this time?

-Wednesday’s family comes out to sunny, plastic, image-conscious LA to visit her and make sure she’s doing alright. She gives them a tour of the city, and LA will never be the same again.

-Wednesday takes an evening class, or goes back to school part time, or enrolls in an online degree program

-Wednesday takes a road trip, alone or with her apartment mates/colleagues/Brian/strangers she met for carpooling purposes. Bonus points if you work in real roadside attractions, or tourist traps, or famous sites/landscapes.

-It’s Dia de Muertos, and Wednesday goes out to celebrate and soak up the atmosphere. It may or may not live up to her expectations.

Canon-specific DNW: smut (keep it no higher than an M rating, please!)

American Gods (TV)

Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

I ship it. Yes I do. They had me at “gimme-my-coin-dead-wife”-flicks-him-into-wall. The snarky road trip was the best thing I never knew I wanted until it happened, and I adored every second of it, not to mention the upped shippiness in S2. They’re both such assholes and so fascinating, even if they start to mellow toward each other a bit, and all the gods/magic/resurrection stuff swirling around them begs to be explored further. Also I love love love how their dynamic is about equal parts spikiness, pathos, and humor (they’re funny! and the canon doesn’t shy away from putting them in ludicrous situations), and it weaves seamlessly between those three. Plus she’s half his size yet can and does beat him up with literally one finger, and then there’s the angst of he having killed her, feeling really guilty about it, and then bringing her back. And the way that their New Orleans adventure makes clear they have feelings for each other (S1 was more one-sided SweeneyàLaura) but neither wants to admit it. And and and… yeah, I just love them.

My prompts are a combo of prompts I had after I binged S1 and others I added throughout S2. Even if some of this is addressed or hinted at in canon, feel free to diverge – canon divergences and canon-adjacent stories are my jam!

Please give me either missing scenes from the road trip (if you can work in a divergence, that’s great - for example, I like Salim, but if you want to have him boot Sweeney and Laura to the curb and go off on his own, or Sweeney to boost his taxi before Salim catches them, or whatever else to have those two alone, go for it!), or a divergence from either season (instead of going to Ostara, they go where? to see whom? about getting Laura resurrected. Or things go down differently in New Orleans, or Cairo, or anywhere else) or something about these two post-canon.

-Laura discovers (how? you decide!) that Sweeney gave her back the coin after their accident – whatever happens next, some punching may be involved. (If nothing else, Mama-Ji mentions that the coin is now in Laura’s heart, and we saw Sweeney place it on her ribcage after the accident, whereas it was originally in her gut like she’d swallowed it. Laura might ask herself how the hell it moved.)

-Wednesday’s big war finally comes, and “don’t you dare die on me [again], you asshole” is a line either Sweeney or Laura (or both) might say to each other.

-Laura asked “What does Wednesday have to lose?” and the answer is…? (Yes, give me that sweet poetic justice. One possibility, though not remotely the only one, but as of S2E3 Laura is technically a god-killer...) Or later when she straight-up says she’s going to kill Wednesday, but is warned to bring power with her when she does, how does that work? How else might she damage Wednesday or ruin his plans, just in case she can’t actually kill him?

-At the end of S2, Laura hoists Sweeney’s dead body over her shoulders and strides off, seemingly leaving Cairo, Shadow, and all of it behind. Tell me what happens then – does she use Baron Samedi’s potion to bring him back, and whose is the blood filled with love she uses (does she still bleed? You could get creative here, worldbuilding is also my jam)? Does her/his coin play a part – and how come the coin still “powers” Laura despite Sweeney’s death? Does she bring him back another way, maybe figuring out how to keep herself around and be able to give Sweeney back his coin? Does he come back like she did, more undead than alive, or does his godhead, however depleted, help with that? That still leaves Laura to be fully resurrected too… Or does something completely out of left field happen – surprise me!

-Possible divergences from “Treasure of the Sun”: Sweeney manages to kill Wednesday, and then Laura rolls up, and then…? Or Laura rolls up and makes like Mama-Ji told her – destroys some motherfuckers? Or Sweeney gets killed temporarily but Laura brings him back, or brings herself back, or does something else with the Baron’s potion, and is Sweeney’s blood the one filled with love, or can we interpret voodoo spells in a non-literal way? Or what happens with Gungnir hidden in Sweeney’s hoard? And definitely how do they deal with each other once they meet up in Cairo, given how they parted in New Orleans (I don’t know what hurt more to watch: Laura deflecting at the diner, or Sweeney rambling drunkenly about her when Shadow finds him, or later on telling Shadow with such desperate sincerity to keep her away from Wednesday)?

-Or how about a wild divergence from the last several episodes? Sweeney and Laura manage to settle their differences (ahem, more fucking, on this plane of reality, might help) and don’t part ways before leaving NOLA. Or they roll up in Cairo separately but at the same time, and confront Wednesday together, and neither of them die (or die more, in her case). Or they’re there together when the police nearly raid the house. Or they have Wednesday (the ultimate cause of Laura’s death) and Ibis (a death deity) and Bilquis (a love/death/life deity) on hand, surely they can concoct some kind of resurrection thingamajig for Laura, and if they have to twist some divine arms then so be it. Or or or…?

-Wednesday told that luckless cop that Sweeney had been against the big gods’ war from the start, and while Wednesday lies, what if Sweeney decided much sooner to say to hell with Grimnir and his war and his having Sweeney kill random people? I’m guessing Sweeney too drank three glasses of mead so he can’t back out without dire consequence – but he does have a fierce, dead woman in his corner.

-They go to some as-yet-unnamed old god (feel free to bring in whatever mythology you want) in order to bring Laura back to life. Between Sweeney’s mouth and temper, and Laura’s mouth and temper, it doesn’t go well. Now one or both of them are in big magical trouble with a pissed-off deity and have to get themselves/each other out of it.

-Speaking of other deities, I really enjoyed their brief canon interactions with Ostara, Anansi, and Mama-Ji, and I’d like to see more of that, especially Ostara’s polite yet over-it attitude, Anansi very obvious over-it attitude and his dramatic flair, or Mama-Ji being one of the few capable of giving Laura pause.

-All the petty, ridiculous ways in which Sweeney’s bad luck manifests itself make me laugh (can’t help it, won’t even try), and I’m down for more variations on that theme.

-Sweeney and Laura fighting together, like they did on Mr. Town’s train of torture. Whether it’s a bar fight of their own making, or the big gods’ war they find themselves embroiled in, or something else entirely.

-Things happen and Laura finds herself in the position to throw Sweeney under the bus but also help/save him, and while he knows it’s only karma (he did kill her way back when), he can still be pissed off about it – how do they navigate this?

-Related to that, the Baron said: “In death is her true love, but she betrays him also.” If that meant Sweeney, or can mean Sweeney in the future (I don’t like destiny-wills-it stories, and they’re definitely not there yet, but they could maybe get there at some future point, and even then It Would Be Complicated), was the betrayal Laura rejecting him after the loa ‘fuck them,’ or is it something that hasn’t happened yet, and if so, what?

-Laura gets fully alive again, but traces of her (un)dead state remain – what are they, how does she cope, what price did she/he/they have to pay for her resurrection, and how does their relationship change? I’d especially be curious how it would work if they’re already a sorta-maybe-item and then she’s alive again and it’s weird in a new way.

-For reasons I’ll leave up to you, Sweeney and Laura have to stay put in a single place for a while and end up essentially cohabiting, regardless of what their relationship is at that point. Take “cohabiting” as literally or as creatively as you want – in any case, I’m sure it will be marvelously disastrous and amazing. If the place they have to stay happens to be NOLA, all the better, I find everything about that city fascinating. Or, if you wanted to use book canon, Laura and Sweeney (rather than Shadow) are the ones who have to spend time living in Lakeside and deal with its creepy Norman Rockwell-ness and with Hinzelmann.

-Slight or major AU from the opening of “The Ways of the Dead”: Laura has hitchhiked with Sweeney instead of going off in a huff with Wednesday, or she otherwise gets to New Orleans sooner, and she and Sweeney tear up the town together. Gimme bar fights, carnival shenanigans, all the food and drink porn, backstage craziness with the Christian rock band (Sweeney seems to have a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck when Laura finds him)… Maybe they even cross the paths of some loa and it doesn’t get all angsty (for what it’s worth, I think the reason the sex magic didn’t bring Laura back to life was because she couldn’t accept the truth(s) revealed during the astral-plane sex and just ask Sweeney to prick his finger for the potion – instead she defaults straight to “this is all Wednesday’s evil plan” the morning after – not because the loa fucked them over). They were actually getting along nicely in those first couple of scenes in NOLA, only ribbing each other a little while still being their grouchy selves, before they got to Le Coq Noir. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some more of that.

-AU from the end of “The Ways of the Dead”: they still have their big fight (which was amazing as well as painful) or some variation thereof, but they don’t split up. (Maybe the reason is as mundane as Sweeney refusing to get left behind or they have a shared ride out of town, or maybe the more time passes the less Sweeney can afford to be far from his coin – or maybe the coin needs him close by to work at full capacity.) And then what?

-All the old gods hide their true appearance to an extent. A situation arises in which Laura sees Sweeney’s true, or at least old, self (I’m thinking of his surprise!poignant monologue about when he used to be a king, and him in full Celtic warrior mode in the S2 flashbacks). Or Wednesday’s war ends in victory, meaning the old gods again get belief, worship, and sacrifices. How does Laura, the ultimate skeptic even when she’s on the other side of the mirror, react? How does this new knowledge and new reality change her opinion of/attitude to Sweeney? Or to flip that around, if Sweeney were again relevant and believed-in, would that actually change his bad attitude and fix his issues (my guess is it would be complicated)? On that note, Sweeney’s decline from Lugh to king to leprechaun was more sketched in than really explored in canon, ditto I didn’t really get why he couldn’t seem to remember his own history except in snatches (the curse that made him a bird/madman of the woods?) – I’d love to see more about it and his (not) dealing with it, or with a reversal of that decline. Eorann told him long ago to adapt and change with the times – but what does that mean after humpteen centuries in a rut and becoming used to always feeling angry and unappreciated?

-The power of names, since they never use each other’s in canon: for all his “dead wifeing,” there comes a time when Sweeney (has to) call her by her actual name, and that’s a tricky moment for them to navigate. Or, Mad Sweeney is not his actual name, and true names have great magical power and so must be kept secret; Laura discovers or learns his name, from someone else or from himself; what does she do with that knowledge? Or, Sweeney gets to say “cunt” in a situation (sexual or otherwise) where, not only does Laura not peel his lips from his gums, but she finds that she can’t object, even though she knows that he knows that he’s getting away with it.

-So far in canon, it’s pretty clear that Sweeney has a lot of complicated but sincere feelings for Laura. Laura is still pretty focused on Shadow (or rather her idealized vision of Shadow and what their relationship might yet be), whom she seems to equate with her own lost-maybe-to-be-regained life, although that’s starting to change at the end of S2. For one thing, she’s starting to soften toward Sweeney as she realizes he’s doing things for her that are not all about getting his coin back (and her sparring match with Wednesday in “Muninn” as well as Shadow refusing to be called puppy anymore in “Moon Shadow” may finally force her to accept that her relationship with Shadow died alongside her and Robbie on that road in Indiana). Not to mention the shared truth revealed in “The Ways of the Dead” (bullshit was that just Laura’s truth!) and how Laura flips out rather than deal with it and Sweeney can’t spit out that it mattered to him either, or how obviously cut up she is about Sweeney’s death despite refusing to admit it. Tell me the story of how Laura stumbles her way to feeling – and acknowledging that she feels – more complex, maybe kinder or softer, really annoying for her blunt-force-trauma-personality things about Sweeney and about the notion that her dynamic with him is different from the way she tended to use men for her convenience without really letting them in in the past. Also I’m pretty sure that even if they can admit they feel the same – or sorta in the same ballpark – about each other, their relationship would still run on a lot of conflict, and I would so be here for it.

-On that note: in “Munnin” it also becomes clear that Laura has, without realizing it herself, started to rely on Sweeney. The “I trusted you” line made me think, whoa she’s too furious to catch herself doing it but this is huge for Laura, and the fact that she goes off with Wednesday (!) basically because she’s mad at Sweeney because she thinks he’s prioritizing his debt to Wednesday over her… Yeah, I would like to see that explored some more and/or to see Laura and Sweeney get to a point where they trust each other and rely on each other, and know it and accept it, however difficult the getting there and being there may be for them.

-Sweeney has this intense need to see himself as a brave person and someone worthy of the world’s respect – but his past and his long experience as just a leprechaun have chipped away at that. Add the guilt of having been the instrument of Laura’s death and then all the pesky feelings he develops for her, and it’s a lot. Obviously his final actions in S2 are his trying to reclaim that courage and nobility of old (also to spite Wednesday, who’s messed both him and Laura up), but I would love to read about his character development under different circumstances, where Laura is there all the way, as opposed to them parting ways and meeting up again multiple times like in canon.

-And since I’m on the subject of Laura, you know how she’s not actually an abrasive bitch all the time to everyone? And when she is, the people on the receiving end of it sometimes richly deserve it, or very occasionally they push back (ILU, Mama-Ji!), and anyway it’s refreshing to see a female character who defaults to confrontational and doesn’t bother flirting and accommodating others for the sake of social harmony? As much as I enjoy watching her rip into people (ahem, Sweeney), I also love it when she acts differently, like her genuine interest in getting to know Salim and her joy in seeing him again in S2, or her running passive-aggressive battle of wills with Wednesday. Her beginning to feel sympathy for Sweeney and her anger and disappointment when she feels let down by him are a part of that, and I’d love to see all that explored more. Nuance! Give me all the nuance and seeming contradictions in both Laura and Sweeney’s characters!

-Sweeney and Laura get drunk and wake up married. Or some sex and/or blood resurrection spell results in basically an unbreakable marriage bond, whether it also secures resurrection or not. Or marrying the dead keeps them (sorta) alive. Or being married makes it possible for them to share magical/supernatural abilities. They’re both pissed about it, but secretly having to make it work may not be the worst thing that’s ever happened...

-My perfect AG spinoff would basically be Sweeney and Laura tooling around America, looking to get her resurrected (whether they succeed or not is up to you), stealing ever more ridiculous vehicles, arguing/fighting and having those pesky moments where vulnerability and genuineness creep in – and fucking. So yessiree I’d be down for porn, including “it’s technically necrophilia/zombiesex” porn, including a canon-divergent first time, or their second time, or all the later times after they had their first time in NOLA in canon.

-If you wanted to throw in some worldbuilding, maybe something exploring living death. Magical bargains. What kind of favor did Sweeney do for Ostara that would be worth her bringing someone back to life as repayment? What other powers might Sweeney have – or have left from when he was Lugh? How long can a dead wife keep going before she’s “soup”? What other superhuman abilities might dead!Laura have? Can the dead do magic? What even are the rules governing and the limits of different beings’ magical abilities? For example, why can’t Sweeney just take his coin back, or why does Laura gain super-strength as part of her undead package deal? Is the hoard in the same space as the behind-the-scenes accessed through the merry-go-round, or it’s a different place? Why does the coin seem to start to “run down” the longer Laura has it? Why did Wednesday need Laura to kill Argus when he killed Vulcan himself just fine? What happens with Gungnir now it’s in the hoard – can only Sweeney get to it, has it been transformed somehow (it’s now the treasure of the sun), etc.?

If it helps your inspiration, you can find some of my meta and lots of tag-burbling about these two here. I have read the book though I remember it only in bits and pieces, and while I prefer the show characters and the fact that they get thrown together, you can use or riff on book material if you want, though I’d prefer a story that isn’t just a retread of the book. With reference to one of my DNWs, for this canon, describing Laura’s physical decay is totally fine. Also, Shadow/Laura don’t interest me except as a part of Laura’s backstory (so if your story wants to include Laura figuring out or having already figured out that pinning all her hopes on Shadow to make everything right is unrealistic, unfair, and not how it works – by all means, go for it!), and Shadow/Sweeney interest me not at all.

Canon-specific DNWs: Sweeney dying/staying dead (at least not permanently), Laura being treated as just a part of Sweeney’s story, and Laura being Essie’s reincarnation/descendant/reincarnation of Sweeney’s wife from back when he was a king in old Ireland. Reincarnation/“new love looks like old love”/“lost love found again” plots bore me, and I don’t enjoy ships that hinge on characters being somehow destined to be together. Characters having agency is my jam as much as canon divergences are. Anyway I’m certain that Laura would have neither time nor patience for the notion that Destiny Fate and All That Jazz threw her together with ginger minge, and even if it were technically true, she’d still want this relationship to work on her terms – and Sweeney obviously has a problem with Laura’s cheating, her relationship with Shadow, her personality (though he also recognizes they’re alike in many ways), and all that maps onto his anger and sadness over becoming irrelevant over time, so it’s not just about Laura. So yeah, let them be their own (grumpy, spiky, dysfunctional) people, and let Laura’s dynamic with Sweeney not be shaped solely by his past and his issues.

Kingdom (Netflix)

Prince Lee Chang/Seo-bi

Prince Lee Chang & Seo-bi

I fell so hard for this show. So hard! The beautiful production values, the wonderful cast, how the characters develop, how the show slowly but surely unfolds one reveal after another and packs so much into two short seasons, all the period detail, the genuinely tense action scenes, the moments of humor and intense emotion, the intertwining of political intrigue and zomg! really scary zombies, how the zombie outbreak works on multiple levels both literal and metaphorical…

I love the brave, kindhearted, but sheltered prince, whose whole life has been so privileged yet shadowed by the possibility of death if he loses his position as heir, learning what it means to actually rule and lead people, to protect them and be protected by them in turn. And I love Seo-bi the fearless, dedicated, selfless physician, who notices things and figures things out regardless of whether this annoys the people in power. I ship them, but I also love their platonic interactions, how instantly and fiercely loyal she is to him (not just because he’s the crown prince, but because she’s seen how brave and altruistic he can be) and how he immediately takes her advice and experience seriously despite her being a woman and a commoner in this super-hierarchical setting. So I’m good with either / or & for this pairing, and you can work with any of my prompts accordingly. In a / fic, I’d even be good with a totally sublimated, “they both must kinda know what’s going on between them but for reasons of both their personalities and their respective genders and social positions, nothing overt ever gets said or done” scenario! So don’t stress too much over which flavor of dynamic you write for them.

Also, I love most of the cast (not a huge fan of Chancellor Cho, but he is an effective antagonist), and would be delighted to see any of them in fic too. Especially the loyal and funny and badass Mu-yeong (he was loyal, despite the Haewon Cho clan’s blackmail, and if you want to diverge from canon so he lives, I would not mind that at all), the even more badass and wounded and snarky Yeong-sin (or is that “Yeong-sin”???), Chang’s sparky, exiled uncle several times removed, and the terrifying and frankly unhinged young queen are my favorites. I even have a soft spot for that mostly-useless coward Cho Beom-pal, but really, they’re all great and I would love reading about them too, or just about the prince and the lady physician – whatever works!

Finally, before I get to prompts, I know a bit about the Joseon period, but we’re talking the bits and pieces I remember from a college class, and what I’ve read on Wikipedia and picked up from this and other Korean movies and shows. I know a bit more about some of the cultural background, like the Confucian values, the social stratification and feudal system, the gender segregation among the aristocracy, the wars with Japan, but again – my knowledge is limited. So if you want to teach me stuff about Joseon, go for it! If you want to invent or handwave stuff, as long as it fits the canon’s mood and broad cultural parameters, go for it! And if you want to treat me to some worldbuilding, period detail of any kind, and/or costume porn, definitely go for it.

Prompts:

Zombie fighting anything! Learning to survive in a society that’s rapidly breaking down, having to transcend their habitual social roles and challenging each other, anything! Maybe one of them teaches the other to hunt, or to make herbal medicines, or to fight with a sword, or heck, to cook or clean dirty clothes. (FYI I wrote most of these prompts before I was quite done with S2, and the time-skip took me totally by surprise. So while my prompts ignore Chang renouncing the throne, I’d also be down for the untold adventures of the former prince and his traveling companions, as Chang learns how to be just regular folks and they pursue clues about the resurrection flower, or for your take on what happens in S3. Use whatever works for you in my prompts in any way you want!)

Figuring out how the zombie infection continues to evolve and/or working together to find a cure beyond dunking the infected in water – whether that means to destroy large numbers of the undead, or to develop an antidote, or to cure and bring back those afflicted. One plot detail that really struck me: more experimenting with zombies, like Chancellor Cho started to do, might also hold the key to a cure?

Political intrigue anything! Having to fight zombies and/or factions at court with both friends and unexpected allies (not gonna lie, I would have loved to have seen the young queen unleashed on some zombies, even if that did not make her the prince and Seo-bi’s ally).

More road trip/survival/battle goodness – maybe Seo-bi offers Lee Chang some advice while they’re navigating their new situation, or she witnesses him developing his leadership muscles, and it brings them closer together than before. Or maybe a moment of humor, relaxation, or quiet affection on the road or in between zombie-slaying, especially if it catches them both a bit by surprise. Or one of them gets a non-zombifying injury (nothing too gruesome or life-threatening, please!) and the other one has to care for them – extra points if Seo-bi is injured and the prince kind of bumbles through the most basic things so she has to talk him through her own treatment. Or nightmares/being triggered by something, like we saw both Chang and Seo-bi react at the sounds of zombies growling and people screaming in S2E5.

We have seen Seo-bi insist on staying loyal to the prince, and Lee Chang rely on her repeatedly to the exclusion of all his other people – give me a situation in which he has to make clear his own loyalty to her, as a part of both his becoming a better leader and as a step in advancing their relationship. Or, there comes a time when Seo-bi really pushes against the rules of what someone like she can and cannot say or do to/around a crown prince – we’ve seen Chang refuse to stand on his dignity to the point where so many of his interactions with commoners would end in the commoners’ death, but I imagine even he has his limits, and that kind of clash can only drive this dynamic forward!

Canon divergence in which Seo-bi gets sent to the capital and assigned to be the personal physician to the petulant, frustrated prince we meet at the start of the show (handwave the gender segregation and impropriety). She knows her place, but she also does not suffer fools or male nonsense. Sparks fly, social conventions get tested, zombies may or may not happen, and a new mutual understanding is born.

Canon divergence from the scene in S2E2 when Seo-bi finagles her way to being allowed to see the prince and he instructs her to resurrect Ahn Hyeon – what if instead of that, they came up with another plan of escape? Or maybe Chang sending Seo-bi to spy on the queen goes a different way than in canon? And really, anything that requires those two to pass secret messages while grabbing each other’s hands and staring intently into each other’s eyes is A++ with me!

One theme which emerges gradually, and I really loved, is people having to compromise their principles to survive and ensure the safety of those they feel loyal and/or obliged to: Ahn Hyeon agreeing to turn the sick villagers into zombies, dear Mu-yeong having been a spy but also protecting the prince all along, Seo-bi resurrecting Ahn Hyeon, Lee Chang instructing her to do it as well as his thousand-yard-stare after having to finish off what’s left of his father… I’d love to see more such compromises, how their consequences ripple out, and the emotional fallout.

In addition to zombies, other magical and/or supernatural events and creatures start to appear in Joseon. If you want to bring in something from Buddhist mythology or Korean folklore, please do, and any and all worldbuilding would be awesome.

Post-canon something in which Lee Chang is king, possibly of only a part of the country (maybe a zombie-free enclave, or a part he won in a civil war against the Cho clan or a cadet branch of his family), and Seo-bi is there as his advisor, physician, and unofficial chancellor. Gimme policymaking to deal with the lingering zombie issue, and assassination plots, and servants/guards/ladies in waiting gossiping like it’s their real job, and all the palace intrigue!

Kind of related to the previous: even as a “spare” prince, Lee Chang can’t marry a commoner. Would he ever think to offer Seo-bi to become his concubine? I don’t think she’d go for it, and he might realize it, but maybe I’m wrong! Or maybe being intensely platonic at each other is as good as it gets for them, and they’re kind of okay with that. Or they get married in secret and have to very careful not to let slip anything by word on gesture in public, or not to let Seo-bi get pregnant. Or, y’know, one day or night on the road or in a fortified town, in between scavenging for supplies and fighting zombies, they decide to bone just because their lives are weird enough now to forget about propriety and all that jazz for an hour. (For this canon, I’m DNWing smut, please keep it M rated at most.)

Role reversal: Seo-bi is the sheltered, willful princess fearful for her position (especially since she’s a woman as well as the daughter of a concubine only) and Lee Chang is the proper yet willful provincial physician. Do they meet as in canon, or under different circumstances (maybe she must flee the court to escape assassins, accusations of treason, or an arranged marriage, with or without bonus zombies)? How would their dynamic be complicated (and made awesome of course!) by the gender reversal? Also, burning question: does Princess Seo-bi already know how to fight (because she forced Mu-yeong to teach her back at court, of course), or does she have to learn once zombies/brigands/insurrection/whatever happen? And does Physician Lee Chang know one end of a musket or sword from another, or does he need rescuing at some point?

I realize that some of these prompts could work as well (better?) as a no-zombies AU, and that’s fine if you want to take it in that direction. Just so we’re clear. :-)

Starred Up (2013 movie)

Oliver Baumer, Eric Love

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell - yowza!

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Role reversal: Oliver as the con (jittery, shut off, sticking out like a sore thumb in prison with all his fancy learning, yet no pushover) and Eric as the newbie counselor (kid from the wrong side of the tracks made good? Youthful hoodlum turned around his life, now trying to help others via tough love and lots of swearing and maybe a bit of manipulation when called for?)

BTW, for this canon my blanket DNW for dubcon does not apply! If it calls to you, I’d prefer if it ends with everyone getting just what they want -- say, one person needs to be dubconned into what they secretly want but can’t admit, rather than one person getting off just as they wanted and the other one feeling used or cheated.

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, kinks, incest, underage, genderswap/genderbent characters, xeno, non-/dub-con, torture and abuse (this and non-/dub-con can be mentioned if the story needs it, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it), dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore/blood and come are fine), toilet humor, character bashing, issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons, unrequested ships, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (the exception is Laura Moon in American Gods dying so she can become undead), serious illness or injury, pregnancy and children, holiday or wedding setting/theme, secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job, reference to RL current events, 1st/2nd person POV, unrequested crossovers or fusions, AUs which have nothing to do with canon

#dear author letter #fandom 5k

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wildstormoralhistory · 7 years

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Director’s Cut Material #7- In Living Color

The following Director's Cut material is a very special one that I hope you all enjoy. Colorist Joseph M. Damon was kind enough to share his unique WildStorm journey that really shows what it was like to try and become a part of the WS group and see a dream realized. If you've been to some comic conventions, you might have seen him around as he usually assists Humberto Ramos out on the road.  Joseph and I connected after the manuscript was finalized so I was able to sneak in a couple of his quotes in the proper book but the more I tried to edit, the less I wanted to break up his story throughout the different chapters. So here it all is as one piece and my sincere thanks to Mr. Damon for sharing it.

Joseph M. Damon (Colorist): Outside of being the fanboy buying comic books at my local comic store in the Bay Area, I'd attend local comic shows, in particular Wonder Con (in Oakland at that time), SDCC and there was an Image convention in LA. This was circa 1993-1994. At the shows, WildStorm Fine Arts was a booth selling ashcans, color guides from Joe Chiodo, Iris prints, and original artwork. At that time [it] was run by Joe Mendoza (Whilce Portacio's brother in-law and [the] character Dozer was based on him in Wetworks), who was working as editor at Homage studios as well. I asked a ton of questions about color guides and the process behind them, what an iris print was (I purchased one of Travis' Burnout), drooled buckets over the original artwork from the books that were for sale as well (which of course led later to me buying original art). Joe gave me a smile and his card, which I still have, and I asked him about some of the artists. He gave me a second extension which was for the "The Pit" where at that time a lot of the new artists like J. Scott Campbell and Travis Charest sat. I stared at the card and within a week called in just to see what would happen. I got reception, asked for Joe and he's out of the office, asked to be transferred to the extension for the Pit. Not thinking I'd get anywhere, it rang and rang and then I heard a voice say "Pit", I asked to talk to Jeff Campbell, and they said hold on, and then I heard, "This is Jeff" and I just start telling him that I'm a big fan of Gen 13 and his work on The Art of Homage Studios book and hoped to meet him at a show and get his autograph and show him some of my work. Jeff said good luck and then before hanging up, I figure I'd gone this far, why not see where else I can take this... and asked for Travis Charest. Jeff said sure hold on and then passed the phone to Travis, we talked real briefly and hung up and I just sat in awe for a few minutes... and that was the moment where, sacking up and being assertive just made me feel ten feet tall talking to people whose names I saw in my favorite comics. Now I just needed to put in the work and find a way to work there. Around the same time I met colorist Brian Haberlin, talked with him on process and tools/applications used by the studio. I found out the best way to practice working on color guides to be like Joe Chiodo was to make larger copies of ashcan pages and color them. So I mimicked a lot of what I saw in Joe Chiodo's work with multiple light sources and shading, light direction. I had a good portion of guides from Gen 13 mini-series #1, WildC.A.T.S. #5 and thought I was ready, so I found out at that time Bill Kaplan was in charge of submissions. I met him at a show, told him my name and showed my samples and my work was critiqued and it was ripped apart. Bad approach, terrible color theory, bad lighting. I listened and then commented on referencing Joe Chiodo's work, and he just looked at me and said thanks for letting me see your work and keep trying. Shortly after I met Steve Oliff and some of his guys from IHOC (International House of Color which would soon form Olyoptics), showed my stuff and also looked at his stuff from Akira and early Image color guides. He was really supportive, told me what media to use if coloring by hand and looking to Photoshop as digital was where it was at. I had an Amiga 500 and used color applications like digipaint, so Jumping to a Mac with Photoshop 3.0 was the next step.

I actually tried out for WildStorm back in early '90s when the studio had a talent search. Really didn’t have too much experience, but enough to get a call to show up and take the test. Met early WildStorm FX members, took the test given by Alex Sinclair and noodled the hell out of it and didn’t even finish in the allotted time, so [I] didn’t get the job. Come years later, I became good friends with several WildStorm FX members, Ian Hannin, James Rochelle, Jeremy Cox, Laura Martin (Depuy then) and Ben Dimagmaliw and heard about Andy Hartnell’s coloring spot opening up since he was writing Danger Girl. Send in samples, get a call to come take the test, fly down from San Francisco to San Diego, take the test, don’t finish due to catching a flight back home but get the file saved to a zip disk. Come home finish the test, send the file back in the morning, and then get the call that if I want the position its mine. I was currently testing video games at SEGA of America. [I] gave notice and started at WildStorm after relocating to San Diego a month later. Day 1 at WildStorm, [I] get seated in the open area in “The Pit” facing Jim Lee’s office and to my left was Travis Charest & Tom McWeeney’s office… no pressure…breath right. Absolutely not, since my friend Ben Dimagmaliw had the Wizard magazine black and white picture of Jim Lee from the Top Ten and pinned it to the board in front of my desk…so now I had Jim staring at me. I kept it there to motivate [me] even when Jim would walk by and I was totally in awe…which I finally lost the fanboy-ness after four months. I still talked to Jeff Campbell, Scott Williams, Travis Charest and Rich Friend when they weren’t working to at least break the ice. Alex Sinclair and Nick Bell took me under their wings and showed me the essentials but soon after I got a lot of real tools to use as a colorist from my fellow colorists. I'd go in early to talk/watch day shift (Joel Benjamin, Tony Washington,etc) and at night talk with Justin Ponsor, Matt Millia, Eric Guerrero, etc., learning which artists like cut & grad or who liked airbrush, which books needed lots of color holds and knock outs and which books had none. Slow at first but was ramped up and rendering within a month and by the time I left, rendering two [pages] per day. But still, [I] was slow by comparison to others who could do three pages per day.

I was a huge fan of WildStorm's books as I picked [up] all the titles as they came out- from Wetworks, StormWatch, Gen 13 to WildC.A.T.S. WildStorm had the formula to take my money every month they came out with new books. From the first day I started, learning to flat books was the greatest thing ever. But that was the immediate glamour of working for Jim Lee. The first time I got to render a Gen 13 or Divine Right page was pretty cool, but while cool, you had a lot to do in a little time, so you turned into a machine to meet deadlines. Certain key items that I got to work on that stood out were Gary Larson’s “There’s a Hair in My Dirt”, coloring and art directing a ton of trading cards with David Baron, art directing Gen 12 issues with Eric Garcia and coloring Joe Madureira’s Wildcats #1 Grifter Variant was a highlight as I was not only a huge Grifter fan, but a fan of Joe’s work. WildStorm FX had a lot of artwork to get done each day. Comic Books, trading Cards, specialty items like posters, DVD inserts, Gamepro or PSM magazine covers, Flash animated teasers for upcoming new release launches like Travis Charest’s Wildcats volume 2, strategy guide walkthroughs, etc. We did a lot and it did change day to day. Sometimes you knew you were flatting four pages and rendering two pages. Sometimes you colored four trading cards. I was hired on for the nightshift and worked four to midnight or later to meet deadlines. So my hours were interesting to say the least. At the end of my first year at the studio, my son, Niko was born, so challenges of a newborn, and being alone in San Diego got to be very tough for my then wife, so she went back to the bay area to be with family. Even with weekend trips back to see my family, shortly after my year mark, I made arrangements to return back to the bay area and return to my family and work in the video game industry. So I of course placed my two weeks notice and left the studio but continued to freelance for off and on for a bit and continued to freelance for Image comics.

What made WildStorm amazing was the people. The whole family worked together to get work done each day. Every person in WildStorm had a key role and made that place great. So while you think you have Jim Lee in drawing WildC.A.T.S, Scott Williams inking a page, Alex Sinclair coloring another, you have the rest of the studio doing their daily tasks… and a studio filled with laughter, music, discussions of who the Chargers or Padres played the night before, what movie flopped, or what new appetizer was on the menu at Moon Doggies Grill…this was day in/day out WildStorm. What Jim had set up was incredible to work for and some of that disappeared when DC took over. The initial announcement to us was a full company outing, where we were all told of the sale of the company to DC and what was changing and what would stay the same. Initially for me, there was some heartbreak, simply for what the mission statement of Image Comics was and why the founding fathers did what they did. WildStorm was a huge part of why Image was so big in the '90s and now it was gone to an extent since Time Warner was now the boss, a conglomerate, where before it was one man, figuratively speaking. DC seemed very cool to work for. All hourly employees got a raise based on cost of living at that time, which was good, as it got me closer to what I was making prior in the bay area. Another benefit was employees now received comp copies every week of every DC item that shipped, be it a TPB, Hardcover, comics and sometimes toys/statues. Which when you’re 25 and a comic collector, is great. But for me it was close to the end.

The experience was, best said, as a once in a lifetime, when it came to being listed amongst the best of the best in Artists/Inkers/Writers/Colorists. Few are able to say that. Even with very tight deadlines, (Fedex daily by 5PM), and long hours to make sure that the next shift had all the work ready for them, working along side the best was just that, the best. Aside from taking the knowledge of tips and tricks that WildStorm taught you as part of WildStorm FX, the friendships that I still have with my co-workers. Some are that of a hey, or head nod, while others are huge hugs annually at various comic cons, or random chats and discussions on Facebook or on the phone. The biggest take-away I can comment on is hard work/work ethics, and keeping your name fresh and in the public eye every month- in Previews, in at least one book, a variant cover, an interview, whatever. Those that stay relevant are those that continue to work every month delivering content. If you step out or take a break from the industry, it takes you five times the amount of work to get back to where you were, as there are pencillers, inkers, and digital colorists ready to take your spot, for cheaper rates. I still moonlight in the comic industry as a Manager/Handler but that’s simply because I'm still a huge fan of comics and those that create them.

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e2blogengine · 4 years

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Live @ Open To Close 2020

Wow, Open To Close last Saturday was on fire! I feel very grateful for being able to play the music I love and get such an amazing response from the crowd for every track and twist I played during this 6-hour set. Thank you everyone for your support, dances, and smiles ❤️ Also, a massive thanks to Rave People team for making it happen.

For those who weren’t able to join us that night, here’s my full 6-hour set available on SoundCloud to stream and download. Enjoy

Tracklisting

0:00:00 Matter, Universal Harmonics — Re Entry (Original Mix) Particles 0:06:20 Golan Zocher, Mila — Shush (Alex O’Rion Deep Dub Mix) Clubsonica Records 0:10:01 Anton Maiko — Luna (Original Mix) Deepersense Music 0:14:44 Sealine, Stereo Underground — Flashes (Gai Barone Remix) FSOE UV 0:18:56 Matter — Indica (Original Mix) Replug 0:24:09 Dosem — All Locations (Original Mix) Anjunadeep 0:27:48 Collective States — Azumi (Original Mix) Selador 0:30:57 Chris Sterio — Zen (Matter Remix) Balkan Connection 0:35:37 D-Nox, Kalil — Stingray (Paul Thomas & White-Akre Remix) FSOE UV 0:40:18 Daniel Lesden — Breaking From The Shadows (Original Mix) JOOF Recordings 0:44:58 ID — ID JOOF Recordings 0:50:55 Andre VII, Jaaw — 303XX (Original Mix) Sincopat 0:55:34 Andromedha — Perpetuum (Original Mix) JOOF Aura 0:59:10 Rick Pier O’Neil — Tys (Original Mix) Forescape Digital 1:02:00 Cyan Aura — Distortion (Original Mix) IbogaTech 1:06:38 Dosem — Evidence (Original Mix) Truesoul 1:08:41 Pete K, Walden — Gotten (Extended Mix) Release Deep 1:12:48 Monococ — Dark Warrior (Original Mix) Cerebro 1:15:25 Nosh & SJ — 17.17 (Ziger Remix) Eat My Hat Music 1:20:02 Emok, MVMB — Pathfinders (Original Mix) IbogaTech 1:24:39 Ettica — The Serenity (Original Mix) JOOF Recordings 1:28:25 Mr Bizz — Big Clean (Spektre Remix) Natura Viva 1:32:39 Marco Bailey, Tom Hades — Bonistia (Original Club Mix) Toolroom Records 1:37:00 Andre Sobota — Lost Cause (Original Mix) Zerothree 1:42:22 Damian Mazzeo — Recollections (Subandrio Remix) Massive Harmony Records 1:46:59 Draso — Strum (Cid Inc Remix) Wide Angle Recordings 1:52:21 Fuenka — Sirius (Original Mix) FSOE UV 1:56:58 Dylhen — Genesis (Extended Mix) FSOE UV 2:01:33 Estiva — The Maze (Extended Mix) Statement Records 2:07:32 Grum — U (Original Mix) Anjunabeats 2:10:35 Dulcet — Truffle Hustle (Original Mix) Techburst Records 2:14:39 Relaunch — Night Train (Techno Edit) Bonzai 2:18:58 Sohn — The Wheel (F-Act Bootleg) 2:24:07 Union Jack — Cactus (Jonno Brien Remix) Platipus Records 2:27:54 Ronnie Spiteri — Rough Rider (Original Mix) Tronic 2:32:10 Monococ — Tornado Road (Original Mix) VapourTrail Records 2:36:56 Andrea Frisina, Slackers Project & Pirania — Wave Of Madness (Alex Di Stefano Remix) Gate Null Recordings 2:41:27 NHB, Sisko Electrofanatik — My Black Line (Original Mix) Binary404 2:45:26 Umek — Ravaged (Original Mix) 1605 2:49:42 Bakke, Gaudium — Misophonia (Original Mix) Iboga Records 2:54:26 Hollen, Mr Bizz — Parthenope (Original Mix) Prospekt Records 2:58:04 Heerhorst — I Feel It (Original Mix) Redrum Music 3:03:04 Durante, Enamour — Taos Hum (Original Mix) This Never Happened 3:07:06 ID — ID JOOF Recordings 3:10:06 Airwave, Phi Phi — A Breeze On the Nile (Philthy Chit & Superlifter Remix) Bonzai 3:15:06 Enamour — Catalyst (Extended Mix) Zerothree 3:18:21 Andy Ling — Fixation (Relaunch Remix) Lost Language 3:22:21 Rolo Green — Music Saved Me (Extended Mix) mau5trap 3:26:21 Rodg — Tell On Me (Extended Mix) Zerothree 3:30:26 Kalden Bess — Cold (Original Mix) Phobiq 3:33:42 Anza Off, Sopik — Air Force (I’Gor Remix) JOOF Recordings 3:39:12 Tkno — Nameless Point (Original Mix) Selected Records 3:42:26 Roel Salemink — My Body Is My Temple (Nakadia Remix) Intec 3:45:27 Spartaque — Making Sense (Original Mix) Codex Recordings 3:48:56 Loco & Jam — Cell Structure (Original Mix) Octopus Records 3:52:11 Kaiser Souzai — Zug Der Liebe (Fifteen Bullets Rehab) Ballroom Records 3:55:42 Desna, Metodi Hristov — Call If Found (Original Mix) Set About 4:00:09 Dino Maggiorana, Sisko Electrofanatik — Desolate (Original Mix) AnalyticTrail 4:05:48 In Verruf — Too Much DMT (Original Mix) R Label Group 4:10:03 Christian Cambas — Drop Out (Original Mix) Autektone Records 4:14:29 Jay Lumen — Razor (Original Mix) Drumcode 4:18:55 Spektre — Opus (Original Club Mix) Toolroom Records 4:23:21 Gabriel D’Or & Bordoy — Tasio 25 (Original Mix) Selected Records 4:26:03 Tom Laws — Crazy (Spartaque Remix) Loose Records 4:30:15 Drunken Kong — A New Light (Original Mix) Tronic 4:34:55 Dok & Martin — Synthetic (Original Mix) VapourTrail Records 4:39:21 Leo Lippolis — Drone (Original Mix) Throne Room Records 4:44:31 K-Hate, Roby M Rage — Floating (Original Mix) Dreizehn Schallplatten 4:46:00 Shaun Mauren — My Dream (Eric Sneo Remix) Naked Lunch 4:49:08 Rudosa — Behind The Lens (Original Mix) Underground Audio 4:54:03 Bruno Aguirre — Alarming Situation (Original Mix) AnalyticTrail 4:58:00 Carara, Kreisel — Model CK89 (Original Mix) VapourTrail Records 5:02:55 Klangkuenstler — Supernova (Original Mix) Outworld 5:07:36 Mycer — Das Tier (Heerhorst Remix) Not Equal Records 5:11:02 Gary Burrows — Programme Of Control (Tom Laws Remix) Eclipse Records 5:14:48 Jens Lissat — Brothers on Acid & Sisters in Love (Original Mix) Studio3000 Records 5:18:29 Darmec — Oxygenic (Original Mix) Eclipse Records 5:22:55 Don Ruijgrok — Awake (Original Mix) JOOF Recordings 5:24:34 Beico & Mt93 — Kosmos (Original Mix) Suara Records 5:30:07 Transcode — Eternal Gateway (Original Mix) Prospekt Records 5:35:00 DJ Ralph — Bobun The Drum (Cosmonaut Remix) 852 Recordings 5:37:56 Cj Bolland, The Advent — Camargue 2019 (Enrico Sangiuliano Remix) Drumcode 5:42:49 Nineteen Sines — Keys (Original Mix) JOOF Mantra 5:46:46 Brennen Grey — Les Dieux (Original Mix) Respekt Recordings 5:49:22 Awex — It’s Our Future (Asys Alternative Acid Remix) Plastic City 5:53:55 John 00 Fleming — Healing (Original Mix) JOOF Recordings

Источник: Daniel Lesden Blog - Live @ Open To Close 2020. Опубликовано с помощью IFTTT.

#IFTTT #Daniel Lesden Blog

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kidsviral-blog · 6 years

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Price-gouging allegations ahead of Hurricane Sandy

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/price-gouging-allegations-ahead-of-hurricane-sandy/

Price-gouging allegations ahead of Hurricane Sandy

http://twitter.com/#!/12seven_/status/262592767841144834

Many Twitter users are reporting increases in prices for batteries, gas, and other basic supplies ahead of Hurricane Sandy:

Gas station near my house went up.15cents over night. #Price gouging

— Len Besthoff FanClub (@LenBesthofffans) October 28, 2012

Let the hurricane price gouging begin. $20 for a 2 gallon gas can. And that’s without the gas! #insane

— Matt (@marcella823) October 27, 2012

@marcy_kaptur Gas prices went up $0.30 in Ohio overnight. Gas companies are gouging over the doom of Sandy? Who is going to prosecute?

— lynn e thomas (@lynnethomas7) October 27, 2012

One of our listeners says gas prices at wawa on rt 309 in Montgomeryville at $9.99. Anybody else see this? Mistake maybe, or gouging?

— Dan Wing (@dwingKYW) October 28, 2012

Ah. Hurricane price gouging. twitter.com/maureenjohnson…

— maureenjohnson (@maureenjohnson) October 28, 2012

Guys I’ve heard of price gouging during hurricanes but this is ridiculous #Sandy twitter.com/JamesWCoker/st…

— james coker (@JamesWCoker) October 28, 2012

@carney I wish somebody would start enforcing NYC’s anti-milk price gouging laws because $12 a gallon is ridiculous

— Rebecca Schlachter (@rebeccaforever) October 28, 2012

The hardware store at 52nd & 9th is jacking up all of their prices. $20 for a pack of AA batteries? I’ll sit in the dark (think I have some)

— Hollis (@hollisst) October 28, 2012

Yay price gouging. Just paid $17 for 8 D batteries. My fault for waiting I guess.

— Tym – Extra Life (@vttym) October 29, 2012

$7 for a 2 pack of batteries is un-American. Must be outta your damn mind. #FuckSandy

— Sean John Tobin (@exhibit_S) October 29, 2012

$30 for pocket flashlights? $16 dollars for four AAA batteries? The shameless #Sandy price gouging is in full force. #HurricaneNeddy

— HermanRojas (@Herman_Rojas) October 29, 2012

The price increases have revived the perennial debate about the ethics of price-gouging as well as the practicality of anti-price-gouging laws. Some Twitter users believe that laws designed to prevent price-gouging do more harm than good:

@secondrow_sean @drewmagary if “price gouging” were allowed there would be plenty of batteries

— Daniel (@Orlandodanny) October 28, 2012

Amazing how gov. doesn’t get basic economics. RT @ldoren: There are no D batteries anywhere thanks to price gouging laws.

— Erik Soderstrom (@soderstrom) October 28, 2012

After going to 5 stores looking for D batteries with no success, I just found some in the nugget crawl space of my apartment #solucky #sandy

— Pamela Rae Schuller (@ItsPammerTime) October 29, 2012

Anyone that went out and stockpiled batteries to resell at a higher price: shame on you.

— mrs mediocrity (@mrsmediocrity) October 29, 2012

Respect that guy on the side of the road selling D batteries for a ridiculous price. #Entrepreneur

— minka (@minka_home) October 29, 2012

I would pay 2x FMV for a D right now. RT @frankstrategies: Yep. RT @ldoren: There are no D batteries anywhere thanks to price gouging laws.

— Brian Knight (@BrianRKnight) October 28, 2012

Remember, kids, as long as there’s a hurricane within 500 miles, any price that just seems kinda too high is price gouging! #economics

— Daniel M. Rothschild (@danrothschild) October 28, 2012

“Price gouging” is nothing more than supply & demand economics. If supply is short & demand is high, free market means prices go up.

— Matt Soleyn (@MattSoleyn) October 29, 2012

@govchristie Price “gouging” laws prevent the fulfillment of market needs in a crisis. Let buyers decide what price they will pay.

— Eric Kahn (@Kahnservative) October 27, 2012

@bobingle99 price gouging laws are harmful. They create a hoarding mentality and often deprive people of necessary goods.

— Bob L (@Bobby_NJ) October 27, 2012

The law of unintended consequences? As Texas Tech University economist Michael Giberson notes, natural disasters often disrupt supply chains, resulting in higher costs for items such as gas to retailers. Some merchants might prefer to close their doors rather than sell products at a loss:

[A] predictable consequence of price gouging laws is that some merchants, finding their ability to recover costs compromised, will decide not to sell at all rather than to sell at a loss. Merchants will lose the opportunity to profit and consumers will lose the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the good or service would have been worth the higher price. The possibility of merchants shutting down rather than operating is more than academic speculation. The South Carolina attorney general’s office found that during price spikes following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, some “station owners reported that to avoid bad publicity they simply shut their doors instead of purchasing gasoline at elevated prices.”

Giberson continues:

Economic analysis of the effects of price gouging laws reveals concerns on both the demand and supply sides of the market. As already noted, price constraints will discourage conservation of goods at exactly the time they are in especially high demand. Simultaneously, price caps discourage extraordinary efforts to bring goods in high demand into the affected area. As [economist Thomas] Sowell explained, price gouging laws keep goods from being used where they are most needed. It is a result not intended by state legislators, but completely predictable.

In a 2007 Journal of Competition Law and Economics paper, David Montgomery, Robert Baron, and Mary Weisskopf present a thorough examination of the effects of price gouging laws. Their assessment of a proposed national price gouging law concluded a national law would have increased total economic losses during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by nearly $2 billion, mostly from interference with incentives to bring goods and services to areas where they are most needed. In addition, they found that a national price gouging law would have left more of the economic burden of the storms on the states most directly hit, Louisiana and Mississippi, while moderating the economic consequences for the rest of the nation.

This damage-concentrating effect of price gouging laws is especially troubling, but it is a predictable result of suppressing price increases. Higher prices motivate a supply response: wholesalers divert supplies headed for neighboring markets into areas of suddenly higher prices, and the effect is that supplies in neighboring areas are reduced and prices rise a bit in response. As supplies are diverted toward the disaster-struck region, the harms suffered in the area are diminished a degree. Yes, consumers in disaster-struck areas would rather not pay four times the usual price for ice or 30 percent more for gasoline, but they generally would be better off having the opportunity to do so rather than having no opportunity to buy ice or gas at all.

Nevertheless, the City of Newark and Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy intend to prosecute.

Which exxon station are you referencing txs RT @sstirling: Price gouging? Exxon in Newark charging 4.19 a gallon for gas.

— City of Newark (@CityofNewarkNJ) October 28, 2012

Those who try to take advantage of consumers by price gouging will be prosecuted to fullest extent as result of a law Gov signed last year

— Governor Dan Malloy (@GovMalloyOffice) October 28, 2012

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/10/29/price-gouging-allegations-ahead-of-hurricane-sandy-but-do-price-gouging-restrictions-do-more-harm-than-good/

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lorettalivingston6911 · 7 years

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It's Not Just LeBron James — SO MANY Sports Stars Are Making Donald Trump Look Like A Fool!

how I looked younger without plastic surgery

Not only are NBA and NFL stars using Saturday morning to make Donald Trump look like a complete idiot (and a white supremacist bigot), they're using his very favorite method of communication to do it!!

So great!!

As we reported earlier this morning, The Donald drew a TON of controversy from dis-inviting the NBA's Golden State Warriors from the White House after star Stephen Curry's anti-Trump comments.

Couple that with Trump's bizarre and highly unacceptable comments about football last night in Alabama, too.

Related: Trump Blocked Stage 4 Cancer Patient For Criticizing Him

But now, things are going a step further: the sports world is busting back!!! We are SO here for this!!!

Ch-ch-check out ALL these athletes who are absolutely DRAGGING Donald Trump over his outright bigotry and incredible pettiness (below)!!!

The behavior of the President is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. If you do not Condemn this divisive Rhetoric you are Condoning it!! — Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) September 23, 2017

Does anyone tell trump to stick to politics, like they tell us to stick to sports? Smh. — Eric Ebron (@Ebron85) September 23, 2017

Where was Trumps "son of a bitch" comments when the racists gathered in Charlottesville?! He spoke about them in a respectable way smh — Jermon Bushrod (@j_bushrod7475) September 23, 2017

#Kaepernick we riding with you bro ✊🏾 — Reggie Bush (@ReggieBush) September 23, 2017

We will never back down. We no longer can afford to stick to sports. http://pic.twitter.com/Ec3Bc4qt9h — DeMaurice Smith (@DeSmithNFLPA) September 23, 2017

Continue to use your voices and your platforms for racial equality and to stop injustices in our communities. This is bigger than us!!! ✊🏿 — Michael Thomas (@Michael31Thomas) September 23, 2017

Trump!! 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔 — Thomas Davis (@ThomasDavisSDTM) September 23, 2017

It is a sad day when the #POTUS seeks to disregard and punish American citizens for peacefully exercising their constitutional rights. https://t.co/QPvrKDS29D — Benjamin Watson (@BenjaminSWatson) September 23, 2017

What an emphatic response, where was this passion in response to Charlottesville...🤔 https://t.co/OkVZTdloXx — Max Garcia (@MGarcia_76) September 23, 2017

With everything that's going on in our country, why are YOU focused on who's kneeling and visiting the White House??? #StayInYoLane — Chris Paul (@CP3) September 23, 2017

And I doubt he's man enough to call any of those players a son of a bitch to their face... — Chris Paul (@CP3) September 23, 2017

Everything @jemelehill said seem just about 100% accurate now it was 99.9 trump,NFL owners ... read between the lines it's clear #woke — LaMike james (@LaMichaelJames) September 23, 2017

One more time in case he or they didn’t get it the first time. Fuck you @realDonaldTrump & stay away from our sport. — DEC Management (@davidcanter) September 23, 2017

It's amazing that the most divisive person in this entire country is the President of the United States...he says whatever he wants — Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) September 23, 2017

Ppl said it was disrespectful not going to the White House..I’m sure they are quiet about us being called "sons of bitches" 🤦🏿‍♂️(D-Mac) — Devin&Jason McCourty (@McCourtyTwins) September 23, 2017

It's really sad man ... our president is a asshole — Lesean McCoy (@CutonDime25) September 23, 2017

I'm a full supporter of the Flag & This country! Trust Me! But this can't be real! https://t.co/GAPkZPB8hz — Rishard Matthews (@_RMatthews) September 23, 2017

It's a shame and disgrace when you have the President of the US calling citizens of the country sons of a bitches. — Bishop Sankey (@BishopSankey) September 23, 2017

So the BLACK NFL PLAYERS are SON OF A BITCH now WOW — Chris Baker (@cbakerswaggy) September 23, 2017

Why is it that there is an issue with the idea of white supremacy but not the white supremacists themselves? 45 can’t condone them, when he is one of them. It will be interesting to see how the NFL owners who did donate to 45’s cause in the White House, will respond. Now is a time for players to take a stronger stand, no longer thinking it doesn’t involve them directly. When everyone goes out on that field to play, beliefs, ethnicities, religions, and way of life mean nothing. Being the best means everything. Football has provided purpose and direction to countless, and yet, the same field on which they have freedom to play, they don’t have the freedom to kneel to stand up for their own rights? When you are the majority group in a league, you have the power to change history. That requires our own boycotting of attending and watching games as well. Even if your organizations don’t stand behind you, we do. #StandWithKaep #BiggerThanTheGame #NFLBoycott #ItStartsWithUsA post shared by Josh Powell (@josh21powell) on Sep 23, 2017 at 8:06am PDT

WHITE SUPREMACIST IN THE OVAL OFFICE!!! Donald J Trump — Adewale Ogunleye (@aotheprince93) September 23, 2017

Trump stay in ur place... football have nothing to do wit u smh — Zach Brown (@ZachBrown_55) September 23, 2017

When will people learn that fear won’t make someone sit down. It quite possibly will make more stand up for what they believe in. — Chris Conley (@_flight17_) September 23, 2017

😳😳😳 yo this man is wildin’!!!!! https://t.co/KZOnGrKUd4 — Emmanuel Acho (@thEMANacho) September 23, 2017

So Trumpster is more mad at "son of a bi!@&" athletes than he was the neo-nazi's in Charlottesville. How am I not surprised? — Lance Moore (@LanceMoore16) September 23, 2017

Why people think pro atheletes are put on this earth just to play sports??? Baffles me! — Jalen Reeves-Maybin (@ReevesMaybin) September 23, 2017

Something is really wrong with him. It's 2017 and this guy is really the president of the United States! He's not my president! ✊🏾✊️✊🏻#Unity https://t.co/K94eSLyEid — Earl Wolff (@Ewolff28) September 23, 2017

Only validates @Kaepernick7 bringing social injustice to light, he kneeled hoping it'd bring attention to what he believed in... Has it not? — cameron jordan (@camjordan94) September 23, 2017

Your a Clown 🤡. @realDonaldTrump - and yo dumbass fired !! @StephenCurry30

For President !!! — Baron Davis (@BaronDavis) September 23, 2017

Steph "very well thought, and eloquently presented ". Thank you for speaking for the majority. A "Mr October tip of the cap" — Reggie Jackson (@mroctober) September 23, 2017

Back in the day when it used to mean something 🤷🏾‍♂️ http://pic.twitter.com/ZiM27G4rvd — Kelechi Osemele (@KOseven0) September 23, 2017

So inspiring!!

More athletes need to speak out!! Don't just stick to sports!!

Yes!!!

[Image via Ulrich Stamm/Future Image/WENN.]

you might even get Kim Kardashian's or Paris Hilton's...

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latoyarubalcava3546 · 7 years