#((Not a ''triple threat'' like last year but it's longer than all of them combined so--))

[mc-lukanette]

Elf Preservation (continuation)

(original/first chapter)

[AO3] [FF.NET]

Luka was surprised when he was not only allowed to deliver presents again, but that there was no sort of punishment for the fact that he'd both been found by and interacted with a human. Apparently, Santa just hadn't told anyone, and was even the person to suggest that Luka go with him again next year for Christmas.

He didn't really get it, but didn't complain either. Most people rolled with whatever Santa said without question, and Luka supposed that he somehow managed to be a good enough assistant.

Besides, he had a promise to keep, and it kept ringing in his head since the take-off to go around the world: "If I can make it happen, it’ll happen."

He told Marinette that they'd meet again as long as it was in his power to do so. No matter what her reason was for wanting to see him again - whether genuine interest or mild curiosity - he wanted to see her too. He couldn't explain it, but she was special, and there was an allure to her that had him looking over the side of the sleigh to try and spot her house when they arrived in her city.

He considered what he might do if Santa refused to let him go into the house. Plead? Beg? Explain the promise? Offer not to tell anyone that he secretly feeds cookies to his reindeer if he lets him see Marinette?

As they landed on the familiar house, Luka's mind was still racing with options when he suddenly heard Santa ask, "Why don't you take this one again?"

Luka blinked, needing a moment to register that, then turned with a confused look on his face. "What?"

Santa didn't reply at first, though clearly noticed that Luka had a thousand questions playing in his head that he was resisting asking. Smiling at him, he finally answered, "Let's just say that I owe Marinette a favor and leave it at that, hm?"

Luka wasn't sure how to take that, but knew that Santa wouldn't lie to him. He was also reminded of what Marinette had implied when they first met, referring to how she was "used to magic." He was getting more and more interested in her by the second, hoping that it didn't look too apparent by how quickly he hopped off the sleigh.

"Thank you." It was really all he could say, not wanting to pry when he'd been told not to. Santa merely gave him a nod in return, leaning back to take a breather and relax.

Luka walked to the back of the sleigh, then opened his arms for the sack of presents to jump at him. Once it did and he had it slung securely over his shoulder, he navigated himself off the roof and through the window of the house.

He noticed immediately that Marinette had decorated the room differently the year before. The furniture had been moved and the tree had been put in a different spot. She'd even changed the color of the lights, though it didn't make things feel any less warm because of it.

He paused to take in the view, then headed for the tree to put the presents underneath, not wanting a repeat of last year where he'd delayed getting everything set up and got a non-verbal scolding from a sack of all things.

Taking out the gifts one by one, he began sliding them under the tree and making them look nice resting there. He hummed last year's melody while he worked, more for the happy memories it brought than any sort of need to fill the silence. Given that the Christmas tree's lights were on, he wasn't concerned that Marinette wouldn't be home.

Sure enough, he heard footsteps not too long after, and he may've hurried a little to finish setting all the presents under the tree. He checked them over once more, then stood and turned to greet, "Hey, Marinette."

"Hey!" She smiled, having just walked into the room. She approached with a wave, eyes unfairly bright and happy. "You really came back!" Then, dread washing over her face, she asked, "It wasn't hard, was it? Did you get in trouble?"

He smiled back, his heart warmed by her concern. He also noted idly that she was more dressed up than before, though it made sense given that she knew he might show up, so she sported casual wear instead of pajamas.

Answering her questions accordingly, he replied, "No and no. It was actually easy; Santa let me come back here."

"Wait—" She blinked a few times, processing that. "He let you? Do you mean—"

"He figured it out." Luka shrugged, then grinned sheepishly and turned his head to the side, reminding her of the earrings she'd given him.

Marinette gasped, then pounded her forehead lightly with the heel of her hand, whining, "Oh, Luka, I'm so sorry! I didn't even think about that!"

"I didn't either," he pointed out gently, amused when she sunk down to the floor in misery. It was probably the one time he'd feel taller than her. "But it's okay. He didn't tell anyone and he was the one who suggested that I come back."

She peeked up at him, surprised and wordlessly questioning the decision.

He rubbed the back of his head, simply explaining, "He said he owed you a favor?"

Her eyes lit up with recognition at that. She looked away, tugging at one of her earlobes, and he noticed that she still didn't have any earrings on. He'd originally presumed that she hadn't been wearing any last year due to being in pajamas, but now he could be sure that she either didn't have any or chose not to wear them.

"That—that makes sense," she replied. "I never said he had to pay me back, but—well—I'm glad you're here!"

He nodded in agreement. "I'm glad I am too."

She beamed, then pushed herself up and glanced back at the kitchen. "So, do you want any cookies again? I could do a different kind if you're afraid of it being boring."

"You don't have to make me anything," he gently insisted. "I didn't come back for that."

"I know." Though she said that, her smile widened significantly. "Still, it's a long sleigh ride, isn't it? And it must be hard bringing enough food for one person, much less two, and you need food. I don't want you to starve or even just be hungry, so I want to make you something—ah... well, I guess sweets actually wouldn't be that filling, but—"

He giggled. "Elves actually aren't that crazy about sweets anyway."

Her head snapped up, eyes wide like he'd just said something insane. "What? Really?"

"We don't mind eating sweets every now and then, but almost all the sweets are for Santa." He grinned playfully. "I guess it just became a note we play every time we cook that says we'd have to share with him if it's something sweet."

"Oh." She looked positively fascinated. Had he known that she'd get so enthused over a simple fact about his species, he would've spoken up about it last year. "So, how about something savory then? It doesn't have to be anything big, but..." She looked around, her eyes eventually settling on the TV. She brightened up, asking, "How about a movie?"

"A movie?" He promptly realized how dumb echoing her sounded. "That sounds great. I'd love to."

"Yes!" she exclaimed excitedly. "We could do sandwiches and popcorn! Oo, what would you like best?"

Her positivity was contagious. He couldn't stop himself from smiling as he followed her out into the kitchen, though he nearly bumped into her when she abruptly stopped to turn to him.

"Wait," she muttered, "so—those cookies I made for you last year..."

"Like I said, we do have sweets every now and then," he reminded her, "but I guess I didn't have them that much until a while ago."

She tilted her head, then turned to continue her walk around the kitchen. "What changed your mind?"

He watched as she pulled out a loaf of pre-sliced bread, which he thought was strange - considering that her parents were bakers - until he remembered her 'Safety Hazard' apron. He had to debate whether he really wanted to answer her question, but smiled when he acknowledged mentally that she deserved to hear it.

"...It was when you baked me some, Marinette."

The way her face heated up was both satisfying and left him feeling abnormally happy.

"W-wh—" She cleared her throat, fussing far too much with opening the clear bag covering the bread. "—t-then, was marshmallow even a flavor you thought you'd like?"

"Honestly," he began, reaching a hand up to ruffle his own hair, "it was just the first thing I thought of while I was looking at you... after you asked."

She turned away to stop looking at him, but he didn't have to see her face to know how she felt. Being as quiet as he was, it was rare for him to have such an effect on people.

It was nice, having someone who genuinely enjoyed his company and reacted in such a way when he spoke up.

As Marinette pulled out various ingredients for sandwiches, Luka removed his gloves and joined in to help her. He may've been shorter than her, but he was still tall enough to handle anything on the counter. It was also the least he could do since she was already letting him hang around her house.

If their arms brushed every now and then, they didn't make any mention of it, though he would've caught her blushing again had he looked up.

Given the sliced bread, it only made sense that she opted for bagged popcorn rather than making her own, though he didn't mind and wouldn't have wanted her to go so far out of the way anyway. They conversed on the way back to the couch upon the realization that they hadn't agreed on what to watch, and what started as a joking suggestion from Marinette to watch a movie featuring "his people" became very real very fast when Luka saw her scroll past a few strange-looking characters on the TV screen that clearly were supposed to be elves.

They started with just one, but it soon became a whole marathon, the two going through movie after movie while Luka was critiquing the whole way through about the things they'd gotten wrong. At first, it was just an easy way of telling Marinette more about elves, but as Marinette began to giggle at his more biting critiques, he took to being more dramatic about it. He'd gasp in offense when the movies "insulted" his elf kind, clutch his chest, and pretended to walk out at least once.

Marinette's laughter was easily his favorite part of the whole thing. It was warm and bubbly, and she'd even start giving off critiques of her own if she remembered something he'd said before about elves. By the time the last movie had hit, they were both at the movie's non-existent throat, and it was easily the most fun he'd had all year.

It made it all the more sad when Marinette went to look for another movie and noticed that their time was running low; they didn't have to part yet, but they definitely didn't have time for another movie.

Luka sat back, looking down at the empty box of popcorn and the empty plates that once contained their sandwiches. Glancing up, he said gratefully, "Thanks, Marinette."

She tilted her head at him. "For what?"

He shrugged. "Everything? Being you?" He stared back at the now-blank TV screen. "I'm just glad you're letting me be here and hang out with you."

"Why wouldn't I? We're friends, aren't we?" she asked, though began to blush after a few seconds. "I-I mean, unless that we just me assuming things, in which case—"

"No, we're definitely friends," he insisted, "as long as you want that too."

"Of course!" she replied immediately, the offended tone making him chuckle and reminding him of their Christmas movie roasts. "You're really nice, and funny, and you're so—I don't know—different? From everyone else I've met? Not in a bad way, obviously, just..."

She trailed off, and he imagined that his expression assured her that she didn't need to ramble. His words followed suit, "I feel the same way about you."

Her smile was soft, her eyes almost sparkling at him. They remained there for a moment, just enjoying each other's company and the warm Christmas lighting around them.

Then, Marinette's gaze drifted down over him, then just barely above his face. "...Hey, Luka?"

He went to ask her what was on her mind, but stilled as her hand seemed to - almost unconsciously - reach upwards to hold a strand of his hair. "Marinette?"

Her expression was a mixture of thoughtful and curious. "Do you mind if we do something before you go? It might be a little boring for you."

"I don't mind. What is it?"

"Well..." She smiled hopefully at him. "I'd like to take your measurements."

~ ∘˚˳°✧°˳˚∘ ~

The third year Luka showed up at Marinette's house, she was already waiting for him in the living room, sitting on a chair a few meters away from the tree. His brows rose in surprise, but she just gave him a smile, waving her hand vaguely at the sack over his shoulder as if to say, don't worry, I'll wait.

He returned the smile, a small skip in his step as he made his way to the tree. He noted that she'd clearly been waiting for him for a while, a quarter-full mug of hot chocolate in her hands that definitely wasn't emitting any more steam. The delightful fuzziness in his chest he got every Christmas wasn't due to the holiday itself, and he was very much aware of it.

Kneeling down, he reached into the sack of presents, pulling out the first gift his fingers touched. He was suddenly conscious of his abilities to set down the gifts - considering Marinette was watching - but he knew she wouldn't judge him if it wasn’t perfect.

As he went to place the first gift down, he stilled, seeing that there was already a singular gift under the tree. He briefly wondered if maybe the sack had been messing with him and spit out one of the gifts itself, but then he noticed the sticker.

To Luka, From Marinette

He paused, rereading the words twice before turning to Marinette. She was glancing away, smiling innocently, but he could see the way she tried to hold herself together even with her legs very subtly vibrating in excitement. He turned back to the gift, then debated with himself before setting it off to the side, trying to get Marinette's presents under the tree first.

He'd never be able to focus otherwise. Their conversations from last year were already replaying in his head as he wondered what she could've gotten him, or...

"I'd like to take your measurements."

what she could've made him?

Once he'd finished placing all of her presents in a nice-looking order, he picked up his gift, hesitating at how beautifully Marinette had wrapped it. He tore quickly but carefully - not wanting the clean-up to cause any problems - then opened the box that was inside.

Before he could even ask, her voice confirmed, "I made them for you," and his heart skipped a beat.

Clothes. She'd really designed and made him an entire outfit. The color was different than he was used to wearing - elves usually wore specific colors depending on where they were working - but that didn't make it bad; in fact, he loved her choices. He probably spent a good minute just looking and feeling at the fabric, moving everything around to see every bit of them while trying not to disturb Marinette's expert folding.

"You really like them?"

He looked up at her. It was obvious that she already knew his answer - her smile was far too wide for her to think anything else - but wanted to hear him say it anyway. Knowing that it'd be answer enough for her, he asked eagerly in reply, "Can I try them on?"

She beamed, immediately directing him to the nearest room that he could use to change. He knew from the past times he'd been there that she had a full-body mirror in her bedroom, so he avoided getting too lost in admiring the clothes as he put them on so he could be properly surprised in front of her.

After he was fully dressed, he set his other clothes off to the side and left to join Marinette outside the room. She nearly squealed at the sight of him, then hurried for her bedroom, apparently having the same idea that he did with how she encouraged him to follow. They went into her room together, the full-body mirror blatantly moved so that he could see himself as soon as possible. He approached it, Marinette looking him over while tilting the mirror appropriately.

He had no idea how she'd done it. The clothes were comfortable, both in warmth and in how they fit him, and the combination of blue, white, and black was something that felt strangely right. He knew nothing about fashion, but he knew he looked good and that any person would find it hard to come up with any critique on it.

"This—Marinette, I don't know what to say." He shook his head, realizing that wasn't entirely correct. "I mean, it's amazing, I love it, but I haven't done anything. I wouldn't even know how to accept this."

She giggled, walking over to stand next to him and smile at his reflection. "Wearing it is already a good start."

He nearly pouted at her - he knew that she knew that wasn't what he meant - but settled for smiling back and turned back to the image reflected in the mirror of them standing next to each other. He was already used to the height difference, though now he could actually see himself standing next to her using the mirror. He wasn't dense enough to ignore the slight pang in his chest that he wasn't taller than her like what one might expect from what was "conventional," but...

he also noted that both of them looked really happy despite it, and it made him feel weirdly lucky.

As he cherished the thought, his mind registered a familiar shape off to the side of the mirror. He glanced over, eyes widening at the actual guitar resting against the wall.

Marinette looked at the mirror, noticing his shifted gaze, then followed it to the guitar. "...Oh." She laughed, wandering over and kneeling to point at the signature along the base. "Jagged Stone gave that to me. Apparently it's the something-something anniversary of me working for him - I'm pretty sure he made it up as an excuse - and he insisted that I have it. I told him over and over that I had no idea how to play it, but—" She gestured to the guitar for emphasis, as if it were showcasing Jagged's complete refusal to back down.

Luka could only nod, feeling somewhat embarrassed that he couldn't provide any commentary on the matter. He shifted in place as he stared at the guitar, trying not to be obvious about admiring the intricate design and professional quality of the build.

"Do you play guitar, Luka?" Marinette suddenly questioned.

Okay, maybe he wasn't as subtle as he thought. "Hm?"

"The first Christmas we met," she began, "you said that you didn't have any instruments with you when I asked you to play your tune for me, so I thought that meant that you played a few but just didn't have them on you?"

He was surprised she remembered something so insignificant, but answered anyway, "Yeah, I only make instruments I know how to play." He added with a smile, "Guitar's my specialty though."

"Would you like to play this one then?" she asked with a big grin, clearly trying to suppress any excitement and failing spectacularly.

"Really?" He approached, tilting his head at the fancy guitar. "Would that be okay?"

"Oh, absolutely!" She took care in picking the instrument up - despite her haste - then offered it to him. "Jagged would be so sad if this just sat here and collected dust!" She paused, considering, then corrected, "Plus, even if he didn't, it's mine now since he gave it to me and I'm saying that you can play it."

He chuckled, reaching out to take and settle the guitar into his arms. "Hard to argue with that."

She moved around him to sit on her chaise lounge, staring at him expectantly. It was cute, and he followed suit by sitting down next to her, only turning enough attention to the guitar to make sure it was tuned.

He was confident enough in his abilities that he didn't feel nervous playing in front of her. Music was his element, and she already seemed to like his style when he was simply humming, which was more than enough reason not to worry. Even just having a guitar in his hands brought a certain sense of familiarity and comfort, though it wasn't the same kind of feeling he got with Marinette.

As he tested the strings once more to confirm the sound was correct, he caught sight of the signature again and admitted quietly, "I... actually don't know who Jagged Stone is."

He didn't know why he said it; Marinette had spoken the name so casually as if he should be expected to know it. There was just something about her that made him want to tell her whatever came to mind.

"Wh—really?" she asked. Catching herself, she held her hands up and insisted, "N-not that there's anything wrong with that! I'm just—"

"Surprised," he supplied. "It's alright. Santa makes sure we have stuff to do in our spare time but it's from all over. We all speak English since that's the original Claus language, but we get to learn two or three more depending on where we are in the workshop." He figured it went without saying that one of his was French. Stroking along the guitar, he played a quick melody and added, "Anyway, we only get a few notes from everywhere, and we don't always have time to listen to the whole song. We're kept really busy and—" He hesitated, debating on if it sounded like he was complaining. Deciding he didn’t want to stop short and leave her wondering, he continued, "—there are a lot of elves. It's why I'm glad I don't make things like toys."

"It's a lot to deal with?" she guessed.

"Yeah."

It felt strange to say it out loud; he'd never done so before. It was easy to forget such thoughts when he was with Marinette because he was so far away from the workshop, but that was only for a day (excluding all the timewarping). Even while riding with Santa in the sleigh, he was still reminded that it wasn't forever and he'd eventually have to return.

He didn't hate working there, but getting to make and test out instruments was the only part he liked. There was no such thing as "peace and quiet" when it was Santa's workshop, and almost all the elves were lively and social with each other, chatting while they worked to keep themselves energized. Luka was glad for them, but it meant constantly hearing a bunch of songs that didn't go together. When everyone tried to be close with everyone else, no one was truly close, and Luka preferred a smaller, tighter group of friends; not that he had any as an example though.

His family had always been different, he supposed, but he was just the right amount of different for it to be inconvenient. His mother actually enjoyed all the chaos, always moving and having more energy than probably any other elf in the whole workshop. Juleka, his sister, while not actively engaging with the other elves, enjoyed that she was never the center of attention and could be quiet without anyone caring, as they believed her to be invested in her work and respected that.

He didn't have such luck, and meditating was the only way to gain any sort of temporary silence; the book that taught him how to do it had been in a different language, but it had pictures and he'd figured out the rest eventually. It was just the life of an elf, and he imagined that he'd used to it eventually.

Maybe.

"...Anyway," he said suddenly, flashing Marinette a hopefully-reassuring look. Getting his hands in place to place to play, he added, "Any requests? I don't know that many songs, but if you can play one for me first, I can—"

His voice choked off with a gasp as Marinette threw her arms around him, his body going stiff in surprise. His left hand's grip on the guitar slipped, causing the neck to drop awkwardly against his chelidon. He didn't even notice, too focused on the warmth and gesture that'd caught him entirely off guard.

"M-marinette?"

"Sorry," she whispered. "You... you looked so sad."

Had he? It'd shown on his face? "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Don't apologize." She squeezed him in reassurance. "I—I'd just never thought of it like that."

"Like what?"

He heard her breathe like she was about to speak, but then she hesitated. "...Promise not to laugh?"

"I—"

"No, I know you wouldn't. I'm sorry."

She sighed, but her voice was lighter when she spoke again. "...I actually wished I could be an elf when I was younger. Getting gifts on Christmas always made me so happy, and I wanted to be able to give that same happiness to all the other kids my age." She hugged him tighter, the lightness fading into sorrow. "I never thought about how elves must live, trapped on the North Pole with so much of the world being a mystery to them, being non-existent to people who don't believe in them. Santa and Mrs. Claus could go out if they wanted by traveling, but it's not that easy for someone like you, working with other elves because you have to and not being able to leave even if you want to."

Luka couldn't bring himself to react, barely managing to do so much as breathe. He'd never had someone so easily able to feel out his worries like that, and she'd voiced things that he'd always thought about but never said.

Despite being surrounded by people, he was lonely. He didn't want the company of dozens of others that he could barely put care to remember the names of; he wanted a connection.

He wanted Marinette.

That thought in particular struck him harder than anything else had that day, though he knew he'd prodded at the idea in his head for a long time. Even beyond filling a void, he'd fallen hard for her and couldn't deny it even with all of the obvious problems it presented.

He also wished the atmosphere hadn't been so sad so he would've been able to properly enjoy the concept of her actually being an elf and growing up with him, but that wasn't as important at the moment.

Realizing he'd been quiet too long, he managed to get a grip on himself, shifting and finally letting the headstock of the guitar fall onto the chaise lounge so he could turn more easily towards Marinette. He had too many words in his head for her, but managed to settle on a quiet, "Thank you. I'm sorry I brought the mood down."

She stiffened, then pulled away and put her hands on his shoulders. "You don't have to apologize for that; you can't help how you live or what you think about it. Besides, I want you to feel like you can rely on me whether you need it or not."

He smiled fondly at her, hoping his look wasn't too intense. "I definitely feel like that now."

She smiled back. "I'm glad." Her hands lingered on his shoulders until she seemingly noticed that they were still there. She pulled away, blushing in embarrassment and adding hurriedly, "A-and sorry for hugging you out of the blue like that."

He giggled. That was the third time she apologized in the past five minutes, and the second time she'd apologized specifically for hugging him.

"I don't mind at all," he assured. Still riding the emotional high from her hug, he insisted, "You can hug me whenever you want."

She blinked rapidly, raising a hand to her mouth in thought. "R-really?"

He nodded. "Really."

She looked him up and down, as if to check that he really meant it. Just to make sure she understood, he turned further towards her, though it was slightly awkward with the guitar on his lap.

He wasn't expecting her to hug him right away, but his body reacted even while his mind froze. He finally set the guitar aside, leaving him free to turn towards Marinette completely and hug her back. They took a few seconds to fully adjust, but it was total and complete comfort the whole way through. Part of him almost thought it was for the best that he wasn't with her for the whole year; he'd never get anything done otherwise.

Then, Marinette suddenly gasped, breaking the hug with an, "Ah, I know!"

Luka watched as she got off the chaise lounge and hurried over to her table, a small set of drawers resting on it. She searched it from top to bottom, then checked the middle drawer again and brightened, seeming to find whatever she was looking for. She also picked up a sanitary wipe and scrubbed at something that was attached to it, though she was turned too far away for him to see clearly. When she finally did walk back to him, he could only see a hint of white peeking out from her closed fingers and that the object seemed to be rectangular.

"Here," she said, holding it out and opening her fingers for him to see. "It's an MP3 player. I know it won't block out everything, but it's full of songs, and there are a lot of Jagged Stone ones in here already."

He was familiar enough with the concept of an MP3 player; it wasn't where he worked, but there were more tech-savvy elves who made them. He just couldn't believe that she—

"Oh, and don't worry!" she told him with a wave of her free hand. "I was planning on getting a new one anyway, so you'd be doing me a favor! Besides, I figured you probably couldn't take those clothes, but an MP3 player is more subtle, so you'll still have something of mine to keep with you!"

He simply sat there, staring at her and probably looking silly doing so.

She seemed to realize something, pulling back and hiding the device in her hand again. "U-um, gosh, that makes me sound really selfish, doesn't it? Like I'm only doing it so you'll remember me more, or like I'm only giving it to you because it's used? I swear I'm not, it's just—"

He stood up, walking over and placing his hands over hers. "Only you would worry about sounding 'selfish' when you're giving me a gift." He laughed, positive that it was too warm not to be noticeable. "I'll take it. I'll carry it with me wherever I go."

She beamed, though acknowledged a moment later, "Oops, that's right! You'll need both chargers; one for the MP3 player and one for the wireless earbuds. Um, give me a moment." She hesitantly pulled back from his grip on her hands, then gestured at the guitar as she assured, "I swear I still want to hear you play if you don't mind—um—setting up again?"

He smiled to assure her that he didn't, already walking back to the chaise lounge to sit down and get the guitar back in his lap. He could only hope that his playing didn't come out too much like a love song, or at least that Marinette wouldn't notice if it did.

She was too much; sweet, thoughtful, and extremely adorable. He loathed the very concept of time itself, wishing he could stay in the moment with her forever. He didn't care whether she returned his feelings or not; they were both smiling and happy, and he wanted it to stay that way. She'd done so much for him, giving him gift after gift, and he—

Luka paused, no longer paying as much attention as Marinette pulled out a small drawstring bag and began slipping the objects inside. He realized just how much she'd done for him, or more specifically, how much he hadn't done for her. He didn't doubt that she enjoyed having him around - they wouldn't be here if she didn't - but...

“They’re Santa’s gifts for you, not mine.”

His brows furrowed with concern at the memory. Marinette had given him multiple gifts and he hadn't done anything in return. They were supposed to be friends, yet he'd missed two of her birthdays without making up for it, never even giving her a Christmas present that wasn't from someone else. Playing her music was a start - he'd already hummed her a melody the first time they met too - but it wasn't enough and couldn't make up for what she'd already given him.

Already musing over the matter, he decided that he'd definitely get her something next time. He didn't know what, but it'd be something meaningful and full of thought.

She deserved that and so much more, but he'd settle on the gift for now.

~ ∘˚˳°✧°˳˚∘ ~

For their fourth time meeting up, Marinette greeted Luka with a full-on hug that he eagerly returned. Despite the chill from the window behind him, it was too warm in her arms to care; she was even wearing extra layers than usual.

When he pulled away, he noticed a smile on her face that he immediately recognized. Grinning, he noted, "You look like you have an idea."

She somehow smiled even wider, replying, "I left your clothes where you changed last time. Get changed and meet me in my room?"

Her voice shook slightly at the last sentence, a mixture of anticipation and nerves. Whatever she was planning, he figured it must be different actually telling him about it, regardless of how eager she was in planning it.

He smiled back, hoping it was enough to assure her that it'd be okay no matter what. "I'll see you there."

She hurried to her bedroom after that, Luka having to force himself not to rush putting her gifts under the tree. Her excitement was too contagious and he didn't want his work to come out sloppy because of it. Still, he ran to change the second he was done, cherishing the feeling of the clothes made by Marinette's hand for him and him alone.

Needless to say, he missed it over the entire year, though didn't miss how the outfit was noticeably warmer than he'd remembered, as if it'd been just taken out of a dryer before he got there.

Once he'd tucked away the little gift box he'd brought into the deep pocket of his outfit, he left the room to meet Marinette in hers. He saw her sitting on her chaise lounge, some type of clothing held tightly in her hands as she practically bounced in place.

She stood up as they made eye contact. "Hey," she greeted.

He was very curious now. "Hey."

She walked over to stand across from the mirror, holding up the fabric while looking at him expectantly. He approached, getting in front of her and watching her reflection to see what she was doing. The fabric in her hands matched colors with his outfit, and his only guess as to what that meant was confirmed as she slipped it onto his head; it was yet another gift for him.

Regardless, she had to be excited over something specific about it, so he let her put it on him without a word. He noted that it was a beanie, loose but comfortable, Marinette leaning to his side and hunching over to get a closer look at it, struggling a bit at first due to wearing gloves.

Though he was briefly distracted by the way her tongue stuck out in her focus, he felt and saw the fabric slipping partially over his ears. "Marinette?"

"That's not uncomfortable, is it?" she asked, voice filled with hope.

He shook his head, then turned his head to the side so he could see the effect through the mirror; the pointed part of his ears was completely covered, making him look as if he were just a short human.

"You can go out with me now," she said softly.

Luka whipped his head back to look at her, eyes wide. She blushed in realization, then flailed her arms in reassurance.

"Outside! You can go outside with me!" she corrected. "See, it was just—um—"

She took a moment to breathe and he let her, his heart still pounding too hard from what he'd thought she'd meant.

Now calmed, she explained, "I... I couldn't stop thinking about what happened last time we talked. I know I can't magically fix everything—" There was a brief shift in her expression that made him feel like there was something deeper to what she'd said. "—but I wanted to give you the chance."

"The chance?" he echoed questioningly.

"Yeah." She smiled sheepishly. "To get out; to be somewhere that's not here or the North Pole. It's late, the entirety of Paris is basically asleep, and even if someone saw you, the elf part of your ears are covered. You don't have to if you'd rather just stay inside, but... I thought that—maybe—just knowing you had the option is nice."

She was making it impossible for him not to fall harder for her, and he really liked it. He couldn't imagine what luck he must have, or maybe it was all of his bad luck finally leaving him instead. He didn't really care; he was happy and she looked happy to be there with him.

"That sounds incredible," he admitted. "Could you lead me around? Can we go right now?"

"Yes!" She paused, then added quickly, "Um—to both of those."

He chuckled, but realized belatedly, "Oh, I should probably ask Santa—"

"No!" she protested. She pouted, insisting, "You want this, don't you? Consider it your Christmas present."

"Elves don't get Christmas presents. We get birthday presents, but—"

"Details." She waved dismissively. "Anyway, if Santa wants to go on about owing me a favor, then fine, this is part of the favor."

Brimming with twice as much confidence as before, likely since he'd answered positively to going with her, she strolled up, pulling a set of gloves out of her pocket and handing them to him. He was smiling too much at her energy to argue, slipping on the gloves and wondering if she'd made them for him as well.

Scratch that, he was sure she had.

The moment he had both hands gloved and they were ready to go, she took one of his hands in hers, gently tugging him along to lead him to the front door. He happily let her lead him, feeling almost childish for how excited he was at the prospect of just going outside, but...

It was Marinette. He knew she wouldn't judge, so he let himself smile.

They didn't let go of each other's hands even after they were out the door.

—————

It took Luka a full minute or so to fully take in the sights while they walked. He'd only ever seen Paris and its Christmas scenery from up in the sleigh or from a rooftop, and while both views were nice, it was something completely different to be actually down on the ground, seeing it from the point of a normal person. All the Christmas lights were on, contrasting the dark sky, and decorations were hung just about everywhere they could be placed. Mrs. Claus changed decorations at the North Pole every month, but it was different seeing a whole city decorated.

He didn't realize how long he was staring at everything until he saw Marinette staring fondly at him in his peripheral vision. She seemed embarrassed to be caught, blushing and turning her head away from him.

"I-it's a nice night," she commented weakly.

He chuckled at the attempt of distracting him. "Yeah." He glanced down their hands, still linked together. "It is."

Looking at anything except him, the blush still on her cheeks, she observed thoughtfully, "There really aren't any people around tonight." She dared a glance at him, a slight smirk on her face. "Maybe you don't need that beanie after all?"

She pretended to reach for it with her free hand. Luka ducked out of the way in dramatic fashion, placing his free hand protectively on the beanie to keep it on his head. She laughed, dazzling him once again with the sound.

He continued walking with her, feeling the beanie a moment longer to make sure he hadn't accidentally shifted it, then followed up on what she'd said. "You were right about Paris being asleep. It's like the whole city is, except for you." He raised a brow at her, curious but also teasing, "Are you nocturnal, Marinette?"

She pursed her lips in thought, eyes drifting up to look at the night sky. The former shyness she showed slowly turned into a bout of playfulness. "Not really. At least—I didn't use to be. I wasn't a morning person, but I wasn't a night owl either; the only time I stayed up late before was by accident, like if I got lost working on something or got really inspired."

He tilted his head at her, now even more curious. "What changed?"

A soft hum sounded at the question, Marinette raising her free hand to rub her chin in a gesture that was clearly her pretending to think. He squinted, half-suspicious, then leaned forward so she was in his peripheral view.

She peeked down at him, then turned her head fully towards him, answering, "...It was when you visited me for the first time."

He straightened in surprise, his hand accidentally slipping from hers as he earned another laugh out of her. The words not only struck him, but felt weirdly familiar in a way that took him a few seconds to realize: she was echoing his words from when he'd told her that he didn't have many sweets until he had her cookies.

He wasn't sure what his face looked like - though it felt plenty warm at the thought that they'd done similar things while he was crushing on her - but she must've enjoyed it with the way her smile widened.

"You're blushing," she teased, as if she had a right to do so despite earlier.

"So what?" he challenged shamelessly, not bothering to deny it.

She nudged his arm with hers, her hand slipping back into his slowly enough so that he could pull away if he wanted to. He wasn't so daring as to consider it romantic on her part, but knowing that she was that comfortable around him was heartwarming enough for him.

"You're so refreshing, you know?" she asked, leaning over slightly to meet his gaze better. They were about to cross the street when she looked off to the side and gently pulled him to a stop, pointing down the sidewalk. "Hey, can we go this way instead?"

He glanced down the way, half-suspecting that she had some sort of plan. "Sure, I trust you." He waited until they'd turned and headed down the path she'd suggested to continue their conversation. "So... refreshing, huh? No, I didn't know."

"Because you're different from the other elves so they've never said anything?" She stretched the words out dryly. "Classic case of jealousy."

"You're spoiling me, Marinette," he accused fondly.

"Good. Feel spoiled." She squeezed his hand for emphasis. "It's your Christmas present."

He dug his free hand into his pocket at the mention of Christmas presents, pressing the gloved tips of his fingers and thumb into the corners of the box inside. "And the gloves and beanie weren't?"

"Your second Christmas present then," she corrected. "I count clothes as one full gift." Leaning over, she added with a hint of concern, "By the way, the MP3 player I gave you still works and everything, right?"

"Yeah, it's great," he answered immediately, jumping at the chance to compliment her back. "You have amazing taste."

"I know~"

He had to convince himself that he was just imagining that she gave him a once over when she said that.

They walked a little longer, Marinette's gaze occasionally flicking up to the buildings they were passing. He kept feeling tempted to look, but forced himself not to in case it would ruin whatever she was thinking about.

When she glanced up once last time, she brightened and finally came to a stop, tilting her head at the building behind him. "Have you ever seen a music shop before?"

"Hm?" He caught onto what she was getting at and turned, needing to take a step back to properly look over the building next to him. He knew what a music shop was - even if he didn't, the words said more than enough - but he'd only ever been able to glimpse the symbols in the shop titles if he leaned off the sleigh and squinted.

Marinette released his hand, walking over and leaning against the glass. "What do you think? Selling CD, instruments, and other music-y things? Would you want a place like this, if you could?" He blanked, and she grew sheepish in response, adding, "S-sorry, is it weird? I thought maybe it'd be nice to think about, but if it just makes things more sad—"

"No, I mean—it isn't weird, or sad," he assured, just happy to be thought of. Since the opportunity to think had presented itself, he took a few more steps back, careful of the sidewalk's edge as he did so. He let his mind wander as he took in the shop, trying to piece it all together even with its lights off and figuring that a little fantasizing wouldn't hurt.

After a moment of thought, he explained, "I'd still want to make instruments at least. I don't know if it'd be everything I do, but... I'm good at it. I enjoy it." He shrugged. "I've never really gotten the chance to try anything else."

She nodded in understanding, and it was hard not to include her in his little fantasy when she was posed in front of the shop like she wanted to be. It was almost cruel, asking him to dream and then standing there like the absolute beauty she was.

He took a few more minutes to stare at the building, admiring the way the owner - or whoever had decorated - had hung the lights like staff lines. Candy canes and wreaths were a poor substitute for notes, but he nevertheless appreciated the effort.

Once he was satisfied, he turned his attention back to Marinette and considered how to approach their walk again. He debated on whether it'd be appropriate to take her hand again when he remembered that she'd happily slid her hand back into his earlier. Given that, he had no problem doing the same, offering his hand out and smiling when she graciously took it.

"I don't have a lot of experience with music myself," she admitted as they continued walking. "I just know a lot of people who are into music." She paused, then glanced at him curiously. "Do you play the drums?"

"A little." It wasn't one of his favorites, but he could play it decently enough if he was in the mood.

"Well, a friend of mine plays the drums. He always wanted to be in a band, but couldn't find all the members he needed for it." She raised her free hand above her head. "Big guy, but kind of that looks can be deceiving type; he's a total softie. I bet he'd like you."

Luka was half-tempted to imply that she was trying to set him up with someone, but settled for joking, "If he doesn't accidentally step on me first."

Marinette gasped in offense, then pouted and pushed against him just enough to make him stumble. "You are not that short!"

He laughed, quickly regaining his balance and giving a one-armed shrug. "To him, I'd probably seem like it."

"Still." She huffed. "You're not allowed to joke about that. I like your height."

That caught him off-guard, and he stumbled without Marinette giving him any sort of push. She was already holding his hand, so she helped steady him.

"Luka?" she called with concern.

He looked up at her, blurting out immediately, "You mean it?"

She blushed at his directness. "Y-yes? Why, did you not expect me to?"

"It's not like that. I know you enough by now, but—" He frowned, eyes darting around as he struggled to find a way to explain how he felt.

She smiled sympathetically, gently tugging on his hand to bring him back to reality. He let her, and they continued walking down the path.

"Since I'm a fashion designer, I deal with models all the time," she began, "because they're always the one who have to wear the clothes I make. They're basically the spitting image of perfection: tall, hair that never tangles, camera-ready smile, the works. It's not like they're all bad, but I know they're not all angels either. I'm polite enough to all of them since it's my job, but I still think things that I just never say out loud." She glanced up at the sky, seeming to reminisce. "My parents always raised me not to judge people based on appearance or where they came from, and to judge them based on how they act instead. I've always believed in and followed that." She laughed, adding, "I mean, that's kind of standard, isn't it? It's one of those things that just sounds right."

He looked at nothing else but her as she talked, anticipation building in his chest while he wondered what she was leading up to.

She paused for a minute, rubbing her face with her free hand while she gathered her words. When she spoke again, her voice was quieter but no less genuine.

"I... guess I cheat in a way," she admitted. "Because I do judge people on appearances, but only the appearance I've built up in my head after I really got to really know them. There are some really stuck-up models that I can't stand, and I think they're some of the ugliest people in the world, but then there are friends I have who I've heard people snidely whisper about behind their backs, and then I don't get it because I look at my friends and think they should be the ones modeling my clothes instead."

His gaze briefly flickered down to the clothes he was wearing, then up to the scenery around them. He didn't know exactly where they were, but they'd apparently left all of the buildings behind at some point, now standing near the center of a large area with small Christmas trees all around it. The lights were all gentle shades of white and yellow, strung around everywhere to the point where it was almost too bright for him to handle. Still, it brought a sense of calm to the atmosphere, with the bonus effect of making Marinette almost seem to glow.

She brought them to a stop, her hand releasing his and then raising up to rest on the top of his head. He looked up at her, noting how she wasn't condescending to him, but rather admiring him.

"Maybe it's a visual thing for me, because I see patterns and design wherever I go," she supposed, "but no matter what it is, it doesn't make it any less true." Her gaze turned soft, smile widening. "I meant what I said during movie night, Luka. I think you're really unique, and only in all of the best ways. I guess it's a little weird to say that I like your height, but... it's a part of you, so I like it. Too many people carry the traits or posture or designs of other people because they're not comfortable with themselves, but you are. You're 100% Luka and it's obvious in everything you do. You carry everything about yourself like it's really yours. I love that." Apparently, she couldn't make eye contact anymore and averted his gaze, dropping her hand from his head but remained smiling. "P-plus, your size is perfect for hugging, or maybe that's just me?"

"...It's... it's not," Luka replied, his voice was perhaps too quiet for her to make out; judging from how she blushed though, she must've heard it or at least felt it in his reaction.

She was too much, and his heart was doing flips in his chest. It wasn't like being around the other elves where they were playing a bunch of songs that didn't go together; with Marinette, it was only one song, and it was loud without being piercing, blocking out everything else so all he could hear was her. It occurred to him belatedly how they could've not met so easily had he just not delivered presents to her house, or left before she'd seen him, and the thought was painful. Maybe it was the high-intensity emotions that always came with Christmas speeding things up, or maybe it was just her being as amazing as she was, or maybe it was a combination of both.

It didn't matter to him either way. He was in love with her, and he was certain of it. Factor that in with the lighting and mood, and he knew the moment was perfect.

He dug his hand back into the pocket, the box still comfortably waiting there. Gripping it gently, he looked up and called out, "Marinette?"

She tilted her head at him, then glanced at his hand in his pocket, curiosity joining with the fondness in her expression. He pulled the present from his pocket and held it out to her, opening his hand fully to let it rest in his palm.

She stiffened in surprise, blinking a few times before pointing at the little box. "For me?"

He nodded, smiling because of course it was for her; not because she was the only one there, but because the gift was specifically designed with her in mind.

Her hand raised, hesitated, then slowly came down to rest on the box. Luka brought his hand up and set it down over hers, briefly making eye contact as he insisted gently, "I couldn't ask you why without ruining the surprise, so just know that you don't have to wear them if you can't, or even if you just don't want to, okay?"

Her brows arched up in surprise, but she nodded, now seeming even more curious than before. He let his hand drop back to his side so she could properly take the box, and she turned it around a few times to really take in the gift. She even smiled at him, as if to thank him preemptively for the present.

He found himself holding his breath, trying not to hope or set any expectations and reminding himself that she might not like it.

Then, the lid came off, and she immediately dropped it as she saw the contents of the box. Luka hurried and caught the lid before it hit the ground, his eyes darting up to search her expression, noting the wide eyes and parted lips.

Inside the box was a pair of rose gold earrings, shaped and with the pink flower he'd occasionally seen in the clothes she wore painted right in the center. Only able to stand there and wait for her to say something, he took the time to explain, "That flower always seemed special to you, so I... wanted to get you a different way of wearing it." He gestured to it, grinning sheepishly at her. "I know it might not be perfect; I had to draw it when I got home and then pass it to one of the jewelers to make. We're allowed to ask other elves for specific gifts and it's considered impolite for them to ask questions, so they just got right to work." He turned his hand up to look at his gloved palm, chuckling as he added, "I felt bad making them do all the work when you always put your whole heart into making me gifts, so I tried to help where I could even if I wasn't great at it."

She gasped, finally tearing her gaze away from the gift to look at him. "Y-you did?" she asked breathlessly. "You weren't hurt, were you?"

"A little, but—" He stopped when she grabbed the edge of his glove with her free hand, pulling it off and putting it in her pocket so she could inspect his hand and fingertips; she’d even removed her glove to be as precise as possible. He smiled like a fool, continuing, "I'm alright now. It healed up pretty quickly, and I was just happy that I could do a little bit of the work."

Despite him saying that he was okay, she didn't release his hand. Her eyes were misty, her hand turning his palm back down so she could grab his hand by its fingers. She took a step towards him, closing a distance that was already lovingly close, then leaned forward and brought his hand so close to her face that she could've kissed it if she made the effort to.

She exhaled, and he blushed at her warm breath against his fingers. After a few seconds of relaxed silence, she told him, "I ended up having to give up my old earrings. There... wasn't as much use for them anymore." She shut her eyes, clearly overwhelmed. "But I couldn't just replace them; they had too many memories to replace with any old earrings. My friends offered to buy me new ones a long time ago since it seemed like a shame to not have earrings while my ears were still pierced, but I always rejected them."

She stared at him meaningfully. He swallowed.

"Thank you, Luka," she whispered. "I-I love them. They're perfect. Of course I'll wear them."

His heart leaped in his chest. "Really?"

She nodded eagerly. Though, despite saying that, neither of them moved from their positions, Marinette still holding his hand in hers and him never pulling away from it. They were in a trance of sorts, lost in each other's gaze and the intensity of the moment.

Then, Marinette dropped his hand, though only to take the one that still held the lid of the box. She guided it to her other hand, Luka sliding the lid back on to keep the earrings protected.

Neither of them knew who moved first. Someone must've had to, or maybe it was both of them, but the result was that they were suddenly kissing each other, with Luka raised up on his tip toes and Marinette leaned down to meet him halfway. She had the present clutched delicately against her chest, her other arm snaking around his waist while he had his hands on her shoulders.

He never, even in his wildest dreams, imagined being able to kiss her, yet they were there and the lingering taste of hot chocolate and marshmallows from her lips confirmed that it was real. As close as they were and for as long as it was, he realized that she had a strong scent, like she'd made sure to shower, dry, and dress for the cold weather just before he'd gotten there.

It only made him kiss her more, and she responded just as fervently. It was as if they'd both wanted it for the longest time and didn't think they'd get it, now taking advantage of the opportunity as much as possible.

Luka shuddered as he felt Marinette's hand move slowly up his back. He responded eagerly, slipping his hands past her shoulders so he could wrap his arms around her neck. She hummed contentedly, her hand leaving his back so she could slip her fingers underneath his beanie, her nails briefly tracing along the outside of his ear. He whined into the kiss, though certainly not protesting, then relaxed as her fingers went further to run themselves through his hair.

He was cherishing the feeling, far too happy to care about anything else, when the kiss suddenly broke with a soft click, followed by Marinette gasping.

"A-ah, I... I'm sorry!"

He opened his eyes, blinking dazedly at her. He worried briefly that she was apologizing for kissing him, but then he felt the beanie being pulled back over one of his ears; he could only guess it'd shifted when her hand drew further back into his hair. His head and heart were pounding from the thrill of the kiss, and he noticed that Marinette's cheeks were flushed red even as she looked around to make sure there hadn't been anyone around to see him.

"M...marinette," he managed, still a little out of breath.

She met his gaze, her blush reddening further. She brought her free hand to her face, her lips pressed together in contemplation before turning into a nervous yet silly smile. "I-I guess... we should go home and talk?"

He could only nod. Their conversations had already been personal, but it only made sense to talk about that back at her house, especially because he was still waiting for his brain to start working again.

Marinette turned away, paused, then looked back at him and shyly extended her hand out, her other hand still holding his gift to her chest. He reached out, paused, then switched his gloves around and took the hand offered to him with his ungloved one so they could start the walk back.

Naturally, they held hands the whole way.

—————

Luka sat back on the couch, taking a deep breath as he waited for Marinette to finish making hot chocolate. He'd offered to help, but she'd insisted that he sit and relax for a while.

"B-besides, your smile is really distracting."

He grinned to himself, reaching up and removing the beanie from his head so he could admire it. They'd ditched their gloves and shoes earlier for the sake of comfort, so he could properly feel along the fabric and appreciate Marinette's talent. He knew they had a serious talk coming up, but he couldn't help feeling as calm and content as he did, even sighing in delight at the memory of their kiss.

He looked over as he heard footsteps and saw Marinette emerge from the kitchen, two cups of hot chocolate in her hands. As she headed towards him, he noticed a shine on her ear caused by caught light from the Christmas tree, his breath briefly catching as he realized what it meant.

She was really wearing the earrings.

She sat down on the couch slowly so as to not spill the drinks, then offered him one. He gratefully took it with one hand and set the beanie onto the table with the other, positively beaming at the sight of her earrings. His big smile must've made her grow sheepish, what with the way she averted her gaze, so he cupped both hands around his cup to steady himself with the intense heat.

It didn't take long for Marinette to speak, "So, what do we do now? I really like you, Luka, but... I mean..." She looked over at him, more easily maintaining eye contact this time. "Have you ever heard of a relationship between a human and an elf?"

He racked his brain, trying to think of anything even close to that, but came up empty. "No. Maybe it happened a long time ago, but I guess elves don't interact with humans enough. I just got lucky because I was helping Santa out." He stared into the hot chocolate, watching the marshmallows idly float around. "And I can't - I wouldn't - ask you to give up your life for me."

"I wouldn't ask you to give up yours either!" she countered. "I know you don't have it as nice, but it's still uprooting your entire life. You'd still have to learn how to live here and constantly hide your ears."

"I wouldn't mind doing any of that," he argued. When she stared at him in surprise, he added, "But I wouldn't want you to have to deal with that."

"What?" She tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You having to teach me everything," he explained, "and supporting me until I'd figure out how to live like a human would. We'd have to think up a fake story for how we met if anyone asks, and I know you don't care about my height, but—"

"You've thought about this a lot," she said, though fondly rather than accusingly.

He shrugged, taking a larger sip of his drink and swallowing one of the marshmallows in the process. "It was the only thing I could think about on the way back."

It was a half-truth; he'd been wondering about it for a while, even before they'd kissed. There was a part of him that'd fantasized about staying with her, even if it was strictly friendly on her end, and the requirements were similar regardless.

Marinette giggled. "You're too sweet." Despite her happy tone, she was frowning and staring off at the wall not even a minute later. "What about rules?"

"Rules?" he echoed.

"Of the North Pole. Are there... rules to elves deciding they want to leave?"

"I—" He paused to think. "...probably not, but only because we can't really leave in the first place."

"Because it's the North Pole," she supplied.

"Yeah."

Troubled, Marinette looked down at her cup, slowly moving it in a circle to watch the liquid swirl around. She took a thoughtful sip, then sighed, admitting softly, "I know you were worried, but... I wouldn't have minded dealing with all that."

"Huh? You—" He cut himself off, remembering what he'd said earlier about not wanting her to deal with all the problems that came with staying with her. He still didn't want to trouble her, but it made him happy knowing that she'd accept him even with all the troubles that came with it. "...Thank you." Then, recalling that he too had something he hadn't properly responded to, he told her fondly, "I really like you too, Marinette."

He knew that she already knew that, but he could tell that the words filled her with emotions regardless. She gripped her pants with her free hand, taking a shaky breath, then seemed to consider finishing off her hot chocolate before simply setting it down on the table.

"I guess we're both bad at being selfish," she admitted.

He could only nod. At the very least, he couldn't stay now without having said good-bye to his limited family. He tried to imagine explaining the situation to them, but his sister would probably call him a fool for bothering coming back in the first place and not prioritizing his happiness, whereas his mother would roll her eyes and chide him for not stealing a reindeer to make it back to Marinette (how would it make it back without him anyway?).

It was his fourth year knowing Marinette, but their meetings were annual and he couldn't predict what could happen in her future. It may’ve not be against the rules for him to stay, but more because it hadn't been something anyone had really thought of; not technically against the rules, but not allowed either.

He eventually settled on saying, "I wish I could stay," knowing that said enough without saying much at all. He set his hot chocolate down beside hers, staring at the two cups before looking over at Marinette. "I can't ask you to..." He stopped short. "Marinette, if you find someone else—"

A flash of hurt flickered across her expression. "Luka."

He winced, but she took his arm before he could respond, pulling and guiding him onto her lap. She took his face in her hands, then brought him in for a quick kiss.

The hot chocolate tasted so much better from her lips.

She held the kiss for a few fleeting seconds before breaking away, promptly pouting at him. "I could say the same thing to you."

He felt the same flash of hurt that she had, immediately regretting what he'd blurted out. "I'm sorry."

"No, I know you just..." She stroked his face with a thumb, smiling sadly. "I know you care. That's what I love about you. I get that you don't want me waiting on a yearly meeting for my—" She blushed, dropping her gaze. "—boyfriend."

He broke out of the sad mood enough to blush as well.

Marinette shook her head, quickly getting back on track. "But I want you, okay? I'll wait, and maybe we'll figure something out eventually, but—well—" She took his hands in hers, peeking up at him shyly. "I can't imagine not kissing you when you come back next year."

Getting emotional himself, Luka let out a breathy chuckle. "I can't imagine breaking up with you when we just got together."

She nodded vigorously in agreement, arms raising for a hug that he immediately accepted. They squeezed each other, their remaining time suddenly seeming so short.

"I'll do whatever I can, Marinette," he told her. "I want more of this; more than just Christmas."

"If you can make it happen, it’ll happen?" she asked softly, echoing their first meeting together.

He smiled. "Yeah."

Once they’d properly cherished the moment, she placed her hands on his shoulders. He obeyed the wordless order by pulling away, but she kept him firmly in her lap.

"For now, there's still some time left," she reminded him, bringing a hand back up to his face. Brushing the back of her fingers along his cheek, she added, "I don't know how much I'll need from you to hold me over for a year."

Her voice was still sad, but there was a playfulness there that made him feel like he could smile more genuinely. He leaned in, reflecting her earlier actions by taking her face in his hands. "I planned on giving you everything anyway, Marinette."

Hours later, he'd leave for the sleigh with her love in his heart and a bittersweet smile shaped by kiss-bruised lips.

~ ∘˚˳°✧°˳˚∘ ~

Luka spent a year looking for answers and ultimately found nothing. He'd searched for everything he and Marinette had talked about - an elf having a relationship with a human, and any rules on elves leaving - but there weren't any records about such things. He wondered if maybe a relationship between an elf and a human had happened, but no record had been made or it'd been purposefully kept under wraps. He also figured he might've been overthinking it, as it was like every relationship between elves were carefully cataloged; it wouldn't have been fair to the ones who chose not to get together with anyone at all. As for rules, he couldn't find any; he knew his mom would've known all the rules since you have to know them to break them, but she'd never heard of a rule saying that elves specifically couldn't leave. Still, Luka imagined it was an unspoken rule, and he was also the best instrument-making elf the workshop had, so would they really be willing to part with him anyway?

He wasn't sure. The days leading up to Christmas were chaos while he searched further for anything confirming that he could leave and be with Marinette. Even his sister and mother had been acting strange, though he knew he hadn't told them anything about Marinette.

Still, they'd hugged him before he'd gotten on the sleigh with Santa.

The ride around the world felt both long and short at the same time; short because he was dreading telling Marinette that he hadn't found anything useful, and long because Santa was taking a different route. The latter was something Santa did every year, but it was particularly strange this time around.

Luka used the MP3 player Marinette had given him to pass the time while he gathered his thoughts. He supposed that no one could technically do anything if he just chose not to go back; he was important, but certainly not needed. It was selfish, but it was also very in-character for someone who was "Anarka's son" and he was living a life he never asked for otherwise.

Of course, he also had no way of contacting Marinette from the North Pole, and thus no way to ask her if that would really be okay. What if someone came back to look for him and tangled her up in his troubles? He'd hate that more than only getting to visit her once a year.

He wasn't any closer to coming to a conclusion by the time they got to Marinette's house, and he quickly realized that it was their last stop of the whole trip.

Luka glanced at Santa with a raised brow, then down at the roof.

He could hear the shrug in Santa's response, "Might as well save the best for last, hm?" With a pat on the back so forceful that it nearly knocked Luka off the sled, he added quickly, "Good luck, Luka!"

Luka mentally dismissed the idea of questioning it, his mind already having too many thoughts to deal with. He got the sack of presents as always, then descended down from the roof and through the window, climbing in with care.

Marinette had rearranged the tree and decorations, as always, though Marinette herself was nowhere to be found. He knew he was technically late due to the different route, so perhaps she'd gone off to occupy herself until he arrived? Hoping that was the case, he walked over to the tree and knelt down, setting the sack to his side like always. Once he'd opened it up, he reached inside to grab the first present.

His fingers touched nothing.

He stiffened in shock, then tried again, outstretching his arm as far as it would go. Maybe the sack was just messing with him?

Yet, he still couldn't find a single present, and patting at the sack - in hindsight, he probably should've done in the first place - revealed that there was definitely nothing inside. He didn't understand; why would Marinette not get him any gifts, and why would they stop there in the first place if there wasn't?

His thoughts were cut off as he heard a sharp gasp from behind him. He shot up - half in surprise, half in excitement at the voice's familiarity - and spun around to see Marinette standing there. She was dressed in some mix of casual and nightwear while her hands were clasped over her mouth, eyes wide as she stared at him.

He blinked, thoroughly confused at the reaction, then searched nearby to see if maybe something was wrong. He couldn't see anything off, though the sack had apparently made itself scarce while he wasn't looking.

Regaining some of her composure, Marinette moved one hand away from her mouth and silently pointed to her back. He tried to look at his back over his shoulder, but when that failed, he reached behind himself and blindly moved his hand around.

He jumped a bit when he felt something that definitely wasn't fabric. He struggled to grab hold of it, as it had apparently been stuck to the fabric somehow, but he eventually managed to snag a corner and slowly peel it off.

He held it out in front of himself, needing to rotate and flip it in order to properly read what it said.

His heart skipped a beat.

To Marinette, From Santa

He glanced up at Marinette, his mouth agape, and was now able to see the beaming smile on her face. She couldn't hold back anymore, rushing towards him, and he quickly threw the note aside so he could spread his arms out for her. She hugged him tight, spinning him around before leaning down to bury her face in his shoulder.

"I asked for you this year," she whispered.

Suddenly, everything made sense. Santa knew that he'd wanted to leave. His family knew because they'd been told. Marinette hadn't received any other presents because she'd wanted nothing else but him.

He shook, overwhelmed with emotion. How was she the solution to everything for him, all the time?

Marinette pulled away from the hug after a solid minute, though that still wasn't long enough for him. She blushed, embarrassed as she explained, "S-sorry that I look like this, by the way. We're b-boyfriend and girlfriend, so I thought that maybe I should dress up, but then I thought that it might be romantic if I dressed up like I did when we first met, or like I did when we watched our first movie together, but then I heard the window and—"

"Marinette..."

She paused to look at him attentively, stopping her talking just long enough for him to reach up and pulled her down to his level. He kissed her, slowly at first and then more greedily as he realized that he was finally with her for the whole year and not just Christmas. Marinette was surprised at first, but it didn't take her long to start kissing him back.

Their height difference seemed so small when they were kissing, and once their legs started getting tired, they simply moved to the couch to continue. They both knew there were serious things to think about, like fake backstories, different headwear to hide Luka's ears, and what their living situation was going to be like...

But for now, it was enough for them to just enjoy the moment.

#type: story #story: multi chapter #event: Christmas #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Elf Luka Couffaine #Short Luka Couffaine #((Sit in for the long haul on this one because it's over 10000 words.)) #((Not a ''triple threat'' like last year but it's longer than all of them combined so--)) #((yeah I wasn't gonna do another one lol.)) #((I know I left the original open-ended but it bothered me that I didn't give these two a resolution~)) #((Enjoy your human/elf whirlwind romance.)) #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette

[fromtheringapron]

WWE WrestleMania XXVI

Date: March 28, 2010.

Location: University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. 

Attendance: 72,219.

Commentary: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker. 

Results:

1. WWE Unified Tag Team Championship Match: ShoMiz (The Miz and Big Show) (champions) defeated R-Truth and John Morrison 

2. Triple Threat Match: Randy Orton defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. 

3. Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Jack Swagger defeated Christian, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Montel Vontavious Porter, Matt Hardy, and Shelton Benjamin. 

4. Triple H defeated Sheamus. 

5. Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk (with Serena and Luke Gallows).

6. No Holds Barred Lumberjack Match: Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon. Bruce Hart was the special guest referee.

7. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Chris Jericho (champion) defeated Edge. 

8. Layla, Alicia Fox, Maryse, Michelle McCool, and Vickie Guerrero defeated Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres. 

9. WWE Championship Match: John Cena defeated Batista (champion) to win the title. 

10. No Disqualification Career vs. Streak Match: The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels. Per stipulation, Michaels retired.

My Review

WreslteMania XXVI is a difficult show to sum up. It’s a pretty good WrestleMania, but also one that happens to be all over the place in tone and focus. Perhaps its reflective of how indeterminate the future of the WWE felt at the start of the 2010s. The roster was such a mishmash of eras that you’d be forgiven of not having a clue where the hell the company was going. John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton were at the top of the card after their rise to superstardom in the 2000s, but the spotlight was still shared guys who rose to stardom in the ‘90s like Triple H and The Undertaker. Then there was a new generation of talent—The Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, etc. — bubbling in the undercard who seemed poised to rocket into the top at any moment. But wait! Time was also given to  . . . the 13-year-old feud between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon?!? Suffice to say, with the show splintering off in so many different directions, it’s not surprising it has some misfires.

Let’s start with the good stuff, though. The main event between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels is fantastic and I’m gonna throw it out there that I like it more than their match from the previous year. The stakes feel higher, the suspense level feels higher, and there’s more of a story here than just Shawn needing to beat Taker. He puts his entire career is on the line here, for heaven’s sake! And speaking of his career, like many at the time, I didn’t have a clue this would be Shawn’s last match. Most on-screen wrestling retirements are never legit, so there was plenty of basis to believe this one would be no different. But alas, this one was different, and we get about as good a sendoff as we could’ve gotten for someone who’s been dubbed Mr. WrestleMania.

On another show, the WWE title match between John Cena and Batista would’ve been the main event. Their match here is great fun. It’s actually an end of an era for the two men who were crowned as the leaders of the next generation at WrestleMania five years earlier. Batista would move on to Hollywood shortly after this and, while certainly not his last WWE run, it would mark the end of his career as a full-timer. Interestingly enough, Batista was really coming into his own as a heel at the time of his departure, even winning over fans who previously couldn’t stand him. He would resurrect his heel run in 2014 and 2019, again only for a short spell. A shame we haven’t been able to spend much time with arrogant heel ‘Tista and his impeccable designer fashion, but then I guess that’s what makes it so special.

As for what doesn’t work, I probably don’t need to go into much detail about the Bret/McMahon clash. The basics of the story are solid — Bret gets his long-awaited revenge on McMahon, with his family right by his side. It’s just not super fun to watch in execution, however well-meaning it may be. They match is dragged out much longer than it should and it takes the crowd completely out of it. Another misfire is the Money in the Bank match. This would be the final iteration of the match at WrestleMania before it becomes its own pay-per-view. It’s clear the concept needs some rejuvenation by this point as it’s now a lazy, bloated affair where everyone gets in their allotted number of spots and there are way too many participants. To cap it all off, the ill-advised decision is made to push Jack Swagger into the main event scene, an idea which would run out of gas in a matter of months.

The show seems to have some weird pacing issues as well. In the era of the Network, I’ve grown so accustom to Manias being stretched to the point of exhaustion, so it’s always little odd to go back and watch one that feels like it doesn’t have enough time. It’s almost like it’s struggling to figure out how spread out time across a card so stacked. The tag opener and Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk feel like abridged versions of the matches we would’ve otherwise gotten, while Bret vs. McMahon gets more time than either combined. Even Money in the Bank feels somewhat rushed. I’m definitely not a huge fan of WrestleMania becoming a seven-hour event, and WWE has proven they struggle with time management on longer Manias, but this is one show where it seems an extra hour absolutely would’ve been to its benefit.

At its best, WrestleMania XXVI is a nice sampler plate of eras, even if struggles to give you equal portions for all of them. The multi-generational makeup of the card ensures there’s a little something for everyone and even closes the books on a couple of legendary careers. You’re bound to dislike some it but for better or worse, and this is a cheeseball thing to say, it definitely puts the “showcase” in the Showcase of the Immortals.

My Random Notes

No joke, I really did not think this would be it for HBK and even seriously thought Taker’s streak was in jeopardy. Am I a fool for thinking that? Maybe, but I like that wrestling conned into believing it in a way it hardly ever does anymore.

I feel like the temple entrance set is something that should’ve been more impressive than it is in actuality. They just stacked LED screens on top of each other and just rolled with it. It looks like something from Minecraft.

Ah, this show reinvigorates my fond feelings for Matt Striker. Such a handsome chap! Not surprising at all he would appear on a Bachelor ripoff a whole decade later.

I chuckled at Bruce Hart being the special guest referee for Bret vs. McMahon. You just know he huffed and puffed his way into that one, much to Bret’s annoyance.

I also chuckled at Diana Hart-Smith walking down to the ring with her best “evil, vindictive femme fatale on the cover of a pulp novel” look. God bless her. She needs to write another book.

I know Rey singing Happy Birthday to his daughter is meant to be a heart-warming thing but if I were a kid in the same situation, I would be traumatized. Just think of how uncomfortable it is when a room full of people is signing at you and then think of enduring that in an arena filled with thousands of people. CM Punk did her a huge favor by crashing the moment, as far as I’m concerned.

Not saying anything new here, but the whole Spear thing with Edge is cringe as hell and it’s for the best that it’s been forgotten in the annals of his career.

I know some people like to mock Vickie Guerrero doing Eddie’s frog splash, but I personally thought it was a sweet moment while staying true to comedically heel Vickie.

The official theme song to this Mania is “I Made It” by Kevin Rudolf. A time-period appropriate choice, I must say. I feel like the dawn of the 2010s is the only time a Kevin Rudolf could be a success.

I identify myself as someone who will always be more embarrassed by John Cena haters than Cena himself and I gotta say him posing next to the guys in the front row hating his guts is fucking hilarious. Cena is funny sometimes when he just straight-up trolls.

On the Legacy fallout: The storytelling for this was weird as hell. Am I the only who remembers that one time on Raw where they teased Ted turning face and the crowd was actually kinda into it? Then they completely abandoned it for whatever reason and just had Randy be the breakout face (as if he needed it) and dunk on both Cody and Ted at WrestleMania. I feel like Cody’s AEW origin story more or less began here.

Awwwwe, this show has little baby Drew McIntyre. It’s so interesting watching this with the benefit of hindsight. I remember a lot of people Not Feeling It when he was anointed as the Chose One, and truthfully I wasn’t feeling it at the time either, but watching it back really makes you appreciate how much hard work he put in to get to where he’d be a decade later. A lot of folks were dreading the inevitable Drew world title run in 2010. The title run did happen, but it was much later and much more welcome than anyone back than anyone could’ve imagined.

#wrestlemania #wwe network #the undertaker #john cena

[hazyheel]

Monday Night Raw Review 4/22/18

Night started out with a promo from Seth Rollins and Triple H, who hugged for some reason, despite beating the shit out of each other at Wrestlemania two years ago. Rollins is apparently from Iowa, so he got a huge applause. They talked about how Rollins beat Lesnar at mania. It sounded like they said that Rollins stomped his fucking head in, with the swear and all. They then talked about who Seth’s opponent will be at Money in the Bank. The best of the best would be competing for #1 contendership throughout the night. Samoa Joe, Rey Mysterio, Drew McIntyre, Miz, Baron Corbin and AJ Styles came out to confirm that they will be in the triple threats, with the winners of the two matches going on to a final in the main event.

Grade: B. I was actually into this. The whole “Seth vs. The World” was a cool story to tell. Everyone cut a little promo, and while it was painfully obvious that the Raw writers aren’t as good as Smackdown’s, they were still fun. It made me actually feel excited for the episode.

The first of those triple threats was right away. Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles. Styles and Mysterio had a good back and forth, with both selling their asses off for the other. At one point, Joe hit an awesome samoan drop off the top rope.The finish was really exciting, with Mysterio hitting Joe with a 619, only to get caught out of the splash with a powerbomb from Styles, then another powerbomb onto Joe, followed by a Style’s clash onto Joe. Styles then hit a Styles Clash to Mysterio onto Joe. AJ then pinned Joe for the win.

Grade: B-. A bit of a spotfest, but it was still fun. The selling in this match was actually crazy, they all made each other look awesome. Fun match, with a surprising outcome. I definitely didn’t think Joe would get pinned, but he has been. So we may see another AJ vs. Joe feud in the coming weeks.

Next match was Billie Cay vs. Naomi. The IIconics cut some annoying promo about Starbucks or something, it doesn’t matter. The match was quick, but I liked it. Naomi kicked Peyton Royce off of the apron while hanging Cay up on the top rope, before pinning Cay with a powerbomb cover.

Grade: C+. I liked this for what it was. But it was too quick to give it anything above this. Still, I wonder what this will lead to.

They showed a promo for Bray Wyatt’s new character. They then went right into the next triple threat, Miz vs. McIntyre vs. Corbin. Heels ganged up on the faces quickly, with Miz attempting to use his intelligence to outsmart them. The heel alliance did not last long. Oddly enough, Miz is still using Daniel Bryan’s moves, which is odd to see with Miz as a face. Match came to an end when McIntyre nailed Miz with a claymore, but Corbin then threw McIntyre out of the ring and got the pin.

Grade: D+. Yeah, boring fight. Finish was creative, but Corbin didn’t need this win. Styles vs. McIntyre would’ve been awesome. this was really just a babyface in peril type match.

Sami Zayn was out next, going to war with the crowd about how he didn’t change, they did. He said that his time away was the best time of his life. He was thrilled, but when he started coming back, he felt anxious and sad. Because of all the fans. He says they are responsible for his shortcomings. He told the locker room to take a vacation, to get away from the fans. He then told everyone to go to hell and walked off.

Grade: B. Simple heel work, same stuff as last week.

Cedric Alexander came out for his debut, squaring off against Cesaro. The two had pretty good chemistry, with Alexander selling like crazy. Cesaro was channeling his old singles prowess. Alexander attempted to go for power moves to match Cesaro, but he was just not as strong as the heavyweight. Alexander hit a cool little combination of dropkicks, and then a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. However, as Cedric went for a springboard move, Cesaro intercepted with a European Uppercut for the win.

Grade: B+. Good match, but it was a little short. Still, very good for a TV match. Finish was surprising, but it made sense. I’d love to see these two go at it again, and since Sheamus is injured, no reason not to push Cesaro. A singles feud with these guys would be awesome.

Backstage, the Usos talked about the tag team competition on Raw, showing good charisma with a bad script. The Revival squared up with them, and that is a match that I need in my life. The Viking Raiders then came out, no longer the Viking Experience. They took on the Lucha House Party, but just beat them down before the match. I Guess their finsiher, the pop up powerslam, is the Viking Experience now. Then, backstage, Ryder and Hawkins were interviewed about their feelings on the tag division, and they just said that they will fight Erik and Ivar when they earn it.

Grade: C. A strong C, but not quite a C+. These segments were basically all to show how strong Raw’s tag divison is, and I am excited to see how things shake out in the coming months. But at the same time, this was all tease, so I can’t rate this any higher.

Becky Lynch finally had her first match as a double champion, against Alicia Fox. Before the match, Lynch cut a promo in front of a super hot crowd. Lynchwas pretty heavily scripted, but she snuck in a couple of her own bits. Becky’s promos have kinda sucked since they tried to script her as a tweener, rather than as a cool heel. Lacy Evans then came down to the ring, cutting a very condescending promo about how the Lady will teach the Man a lesson. Lynch told Evans not to mistake her happiness for contentment, and Alicia Fox came down to the ring. She looked like she was randomly spazzing as she walked down, and I love it for no reason. The match was simple: Lynch destroyed Fox, and Fox was just doing her best. Lynch was able to lock in the disarmer to end an odd match. As soon as it was done, Evans got in the ring and nailed Lynch with two woman’s rights.

Grade: C-. All the stuff between Evans and Lynch was fine, but the match was pretty bad. They were just very awkward together, and there were a lot of botches in the match. Luckily the promos were good, and I am actually looking forward to the match between Lynch and Evans. Should be pretty good, and the story is developing in an interesting way.

Baron Corbin talked about himself backstage, saying that he will run straight through Styles, and then through Rollins to become the universal championship. I actually was unsure of who I wanted to win, but if Styles and Rollins had a series of matches, that would be phenomenal (no pun intended).

Next was Ricochet vs. Robert Roode, who changed his name because... I don’t know. He has a moustache now, so that is cool. But I’m fine with it, because he is finally heel on the main roster. Corey Graves loudly exclaimed that there will be a spike in pregnancies in the midwest, and it was hilarious. He also continuously yelled at Michael Cole and Renee Young for messing up Robert’s new name. In the actual match, Roode was being very tricky throughout the match, countering Ricochet’s high risk offense with simple leg sweeps and such. Ricochet did hit an awesome moonsault off the ring post, as well as a GTS type move for near falls. In the finish, Ricochet missed the 630 senton, and Roode threw him face first into the turnbuckle and hit the Glorious DDT for the win.

Grade: B+. I actually really liked this match, but it wouldn’t have been a B+ without the awesome commentary for this match. It was just so absurd and funny. They had some good chemistry, despite working a slower pace.

Then, there was some fucking thing called the firefly fun house, with Bray Wyatt. I think it was supposed to be creepy, maybe. I don’t fucking know. Maybe this is a face turn, I am like 85% sure it was. This was terrible. Why the fuck did they do this? His gimmick wasn’t the fucking problem, it was his booking. This gets an F. I don’t normally grade shit like this, but it deserves all the hate that it will get. If they make it work, great. But right now, Wyatt needs to leave the company. He is misused, and I hate this. But lets see where it goes.

And finally, the main event. AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin for #1 contendership to the Universal Championship. Styles was selling for Corbin right out of the gate. Corbin was hitting several high impact moves, with Styles fighting from behind for most of the match. Styles did lock in the calf crusher for a bit, but Corbin fought out. However, Corbin went for a move off the top rope, but Styles dodged it and Corbin crashed onto the top rope. Styles then hit the phenomenal forearm for the win. After the match, Rollins came out, and they shook hands.

Grade: C+. I am actually super into Corbin’s heel work right now, a sort of meta heel, where he is getting both real heat and bad heat. AJ actually pulled a half decent match out of Corbin. Plus, this is a dream match that I have wanted for years now. Seems like a win win. I want to see what they do with Corbin in the next few weeks, because he is actually pretty fine and he is a good heel.

Overall Grade: C+

Pros: 1st triple threat; zayn promo; alexander vs. cesaro; ricochet vs. roode

Cons: 2nd triple threat; stupid ass Wyatt shit

#hazyheel #wwe #wwe raw #raw #monday night raw #wwe monday night raw #wwe review #raw review #wwe raw review #monday night raw review #wwe monday night raw review #pro wrestling #pro wrestling review #seth rollins #baron corbin #samoa joe #drew mcintyre

[eugene-my-love]

@mostlydaydreaming. we were limited to the number of pages we could write. i could have gone on for so much longer

This is my argument paper from writing 2 I took in the spring. Enjoy!!

Singin’ in the Rain:

Putting Smiles on Faces for More than 60 Years

Kandace Feorene

“I like old movies too! My favorite oldie is Pulp Fiction/Forrest Gump.” These are the words every classic film lover despises. My blood boils every time I hear similar phrases. The bubbling is new, yes, I will admit that, but it is genuine. I got into classic movies in July of last year, and I hope I never see the light at the end of this sometimes black and white, sometimes silent tunnel. Movies have been around for over 100 years, and the golden age of them is just that, golden! It started when the talkies were introduced in 1927, and there was no stopping them from there. That is of course until television came along and put an end to it slowly but surely (but let’s not open up that wound). Yes, films still have a significant role in today’s world, but the 30s, 40s, and early 50s were special to the industry. The studio system was roaring as though it would never end. Great characters who deliver beautiful words were the focus in the movies. Good stories were prominent because they couldn’t blow up buildings. The movie musical was big and beautiful being filmed on huge studio lots. There were many made in the golden era of Hollywood, but the best musical and movie ever made is Singin’ in the Rain.

If you’ve never seen it, get a hold of it as soon as possible and watch it. Make sure there are no distractions around. Tell people around you to be quiet. This masterpiece demands your undivided attention. Also, if you haven’t seen it, the title is referencing the title number. I would agree that not all old movies are accessible to most audiences. Some are slow and boring, as are some today. But Singin’ in the Rain is the best example of how people can enjoy movies that are over 60 years old. It is a classic in the true sense of the word.

Singin’ in the Rain was released in 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is number one on the American Film Institute’s (AFI’s) list of Greatest Movie Musicals of all Time (American Film Institute, 2006) and number five on their list of 100 Greatest American Films of All Time (American Film Institute, 2007). It was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989 (its first year) for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” (Library of Congress). Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, with supporting cast members Jean Hagen, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the screeching star, and Millard Mitchell, the plot is simple: “talkies” are introduced into Hollywood, and a fictional silent film production company (Monumental Pictures) must convert. Their problem is Lina Lamont, a gorgeous star whose voice rivals nails on a chalkboard. Laughs ensue as producer R. F. Simpson tries to hold on to Lina’s star status through filming her first talking picture, The Dueling Cavalier. Monumental Pictures replaces Lina’s voice with Kathy’s. Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds was 19 while filming Kathy Selden’s journey from, in the words of Don Lockwood, “humble player” to star. Life imitated art after the picture was released, because Singin’ was Reynold’s breakout role.

Classics are hard to define, but easy to recognize. Singin’ in the Rain is, obviously, also the best classic movie ever made. The title number is often regarded as the most recognized dance sequence in all of film. Audiences appreciate it even more when they learn that Kelly had a fever of 103 while filming it (Ward Kelly, 2016). The script is unlike most musicals. The lines are witty and smart. One of my favorites is when a member of the publicity department says “Lina, you’re a beautiful woman—audiences think you’ve got the voice to match. The studio’s got to keep their stars from looking ridiculous at any cost.” O’Connor’s character responds with “No one’s got that much money” (Comden and Green). There is a story, and it interests the audience. Most musicals just have some scenes in between numbers that distract from the singing and dancing, but the scenes and numbers combine beautifully to create the perfect film that never skips a beat. The story is also educational. Writers Betty “Comden and her long-time writing partner, Adolf Green, interviewed washed-up silent film actors, read old magazines and viewed archival films during their writing process” (Laffel, 1992). So, the comical situations throughout the movie are true on top of hilarious. Jean Hagen’s comedic timing is gold. Similarly, Donald O’Connor’s, who won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, humor is never distracting from the story. His iconic Make ‘Em laugh number makes audiences of all ages light up. The 17-minute Broadway Melody number is a sight to behold. The colors are bright and exciting. The sets provide for lavish sequences. Each dance number, choreographed and staged by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is special in its own right and doesn’t let you take your eyes off the screen. “Each draws from a different technical and aesthetic base: the traditions of lyrical ballet, modern dance, theatrical dancing, exaggeratedly hackneyed tap, familiar social dances, Euro-western folk steps, and a light feathery tap style form an elaborate grammar, the breadth and mastery of which was unique to dance” (La Pointe-Crump, 2004, 66). Kelly and O’Connor’s tap sequence Moses Supposes is very often regarded as the best tap number on film. Singin’ created a star out of Reynolds. She had no previous dancing experience, so Kelly had to teach her from scratch. She was a gymnast, so she knew a little bit about physically working hard, but dance is a whole other ballgame when it comes to technique. Future EGOT recipient Rita Moreno was also a player in the film’s success playing the “Zip Girl of the screen” Zelda Zanders (Comden & Green). Its influence is startling. Let’s take me, a pessimist. I want to sing in the rain now. A self-proclaimed pessimist is happy when it rains because I can play the song and sing along to the greatest classic film ever made.

I am not the only one in the world who has been impacted significantly by this glorious movie. I have met others online who share my thoughts. We talk occasionally, and they were nice enough to give me quotes on their thoughts on the film. Sherrie (2018) perfectly summarizes why people should watch it:

“I think it is the perfect introduction to movie musicals. It’s the first time I really appreciated all the time and skill that went into them. Most modern type musicals are mostly sung (and many auto-tuned) with maybe a few simple dance steps put in. Singin’ in the Rain is just a showcase of “triple threat” performers tied together by a brilliantly written script managing to combine heart and humor without being dated. The supporting characters are solid and memorable. The musical numbers are so well put together sometimes I’ll just watch them back to back and marvel at how all these came from the same movie. This coming from someone who, with a few exceptions, didn’t even like most old movie musicals.”

Sherrie mentions the most amazing feat of this film: the fact that there are so many iconic numbers. Almost all of them are extremely recognizable to people. The title number is the obvious one. It is the most recognizable dance number in all of film, and for good reason. Kelly exudes joy and love, and even though the steps are some of the easiest for a skilled dancer, he makes each special with a different splash in a puddle or shrug of his shoulders. My other friend Lena (2018) explains a concept that is talked about a lot with Singin’:

 “It’s special to me because it was my first introduction to Old Hollywood movies. My family is full of movie buffs, and Old Hollywood movies are a staple for references we all make. When I was ten, my mom told me she thought I was old enough to appreciate it. I don’t think I’d ever laughed so hard at a movie up until that point! The colors, the music, the humor, the romance, it all got to me! Its quality and story still hold up to this day! And it stuck because Old Hollywood is a huge part of my life now, and it’s all because of Singin’ in the Rain!”

If you were to ask people what their first Old Hollywood movie was, a good amount would say Singin’ in the Rain. I showed the film to my best friend a couple of months ago (it was her first Old Hollywood film too) even though she insisted on not watching it. When it was over, she just stared at the screen and apologized to me for saying she did not want to try it. It really is the perfect combination of most genres. There is humor, romance, drama, singing, dancing, and even a little bit of action! If you want to start watching classic films, there is no better movie to introduce you to them while meeting your needs of different movie genres.

The film earns the title of best picture ever made for not just what you see on film, but for the dedication that went on behind the camera as well. The film was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and the witty screenplay was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who were legends in their field. Singin’ was Kelly’s second directing venture. He and Donen directed On the Town in 1949, which was a huge success. MGM was happy to see the two team up again since On the Town resulted in a healthy profit. Kelly was involved in practically every aspect of filming. Rita Moreno (2013) remembers filming, "I visited the set every single day. I did maybe, oh, a week and a half's worth of work on that show. But I visited all the sets every single day.” She only had a few scenes, so she could spend her time observing a legend creating his masterpiece. Kelly even had input in the wardrobe. For the iconic Broadway Melody sequence, he cheated the despised Hays Code, which was the code movies had to follow so films were family friendly. He told the wardrobe department to put slits in Cyd Charisse’s bright green flapper dress because a dancer’s lines should be seen (Ward Kelly, 2016). The slits disobeyed the Hayes Code’s rules on how short a dress can be, but since the material met the requirements, the censors couldn’t touch it. It is worth noting that Charisse had given birth just a few months before shooting her scenes. Kelly’s directing style was unique. He wanted the camera to dance along with the dancers, so the audience didn’t miss a single move. This is evident in Kelly’s part in Broadway Melody before he dances with Charisse. As an audience member, you feel as though you are dancing with him. Kelly’s service in the photographic unit in the Navy gave him the opportunity to explore the filmmaking process. Before the Navy, he was mostly interested in choreography, but after leaving the service, his interests in the movie making process as a whole grew. The Broadway Melody sequence is 14 minutes long. The studio had no problem with the number, since Kelly’s An American in Paris won best picture the year before. An American in Paris had a 17-minute-long ballet sequence, also directed by Kelly, that is also spectacular and should be watched by everyone. Kelly wanted Donald O’Connor for the part of Cosmo Brown. Rita Moreno (2014) said she once told Kelly, “I hope finally people will recognize what a great talent this man is, and he said that’s precisely why I had him in the film.” For his solo number, the film was lost so he had to do the whole energetic sequence again. Since he smoked many packs a day, he had to rest for a few days because the tricks took so much out of him.

This film has brought so much happiness into my life, and I know it will do so for others. If you are sad, the song, dances, and jokes will bring out of your slump. If you are happy, it will enhance your mood. Adolph Green once said, "You know what's wonderful. To be somewhere strange in a foreign country where no one knows you and to be introduced as the people who wrote Singin' in the Rain and to watch the people smile. It's a favorite film the world over. There and here people are always telling us that the family sits together to watch it” (as cited in Laffel, 1992). This quote was from the 90s, but it is due to this day. The dialogue, performances, music, and moves make Singin’ in the Rain the greatest motion picture of all time.

#mine

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: 3 Anime Cookies for the Holiday Season

  It’s December, which means new anime soon (yay!) and cookies –– lots of them. As a food writer and recipe developer (you can find some of my other recipes on NYT Cooking, The Kitchn and Food52, the holidays usually involve a lot of sugar for me. This year is no exception! 

  In honor of the holiday season, here are three anime-inspired cookie recipes that capture the spirit of the characters or settings from some of my favorite shows: Matcha Crinkle Cookies that riff of Dr. Stone’s cracks, Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies that nod toward Onyx Equinox’s Mesoamerican history, and Naruto’s Naruto cookies because: ramen.

  Dr. Stone Matcha Crinkle Cookies

Being transformed back to a human from stone means getting a few cracks, especially if it’s been several thousand years like Senku Ishigami. These matcha crinkle cookies are cracked along the surface just like the characters in Dr. Stone. The green tea powder plays on Senku's hair, but really it’s the science behind the recipe that gives it a delicious taste and texture!

      Matcha Crinkle Cookies Recipe

  Yields: 24 cookies, Time: 30 mins, plus 1 hour chilling

  Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons matcha green tea powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

  Directions:

Step 1

In a medium bowl, sift together matcha, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

  Step 2

Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand or with an electric hand mixer), and cream together until fluffy in texture, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides with a rubber spatula. Then add the egg and vanilla. Mix on medium until fully combined. 

  Step 3

Using a wooden spoon, gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just incorporated. Be sure to not overmix, otherwise you may get tough cookies!

  Step 4

Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour. While chilling, heat oven to 350°F degrees. 

  Step 5

Place powdered sugar in a small, shallow bowl. Use a tablespoon to generously scoop out cookies, each ball of dough should be around the size of a ping pong ball. Roll between your hands until smooth. Toss the cookie dough balls into the powdered sugar and heavily coat all sides.

  Step 6

On two parchment-lined baking sheets, place cookies 3 inches apart to avoid crowding. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the outside edges are crisp and there are deep cracks along the surfaces. Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

  Onyx Equinox Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Thousands of years ago, Mesoamerican women began fermenting and roasting cacao beans, a critical step in chocolate making that’s still used today. These Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies are a triple-chocolate threat with cocoa powder in the dough, chocolate chips throughout, and finished with even more melted chocolate. They’re inspired by today’s version of Mexican hot chocolate which is commonly spiced with cinnamon and vanilla. And, of course, they’re deeply influenced by the rich Mesoamerican story and character design in the Crunchyroll Original Onyx Equinox!

      Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe

  Yield: 28 cookies | Time: 30 minutes, plus cooling

  Dough Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg, room temperature 

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

  Chocolate Dip Ingredients (optional):

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Red chili powder

  Directions:

Step 1

Heat oven to 350°F degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

  Step 2

Combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand or with an electric hand mixer), and cream together until fluffy in texture, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides with a rubber spatula. Then add the egg and vanilla. Mix on medium until fully combined. 

  Step 3

Using a wooden spoon, gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just incorporated. Add 1 cup chocolate chips and finish mixing.

  Step 4

Use a tablespoon to generously scoop out cookies, each ball of dough should be around the size of a ping pong ball. On two parchment-lined baking sheets, place cookies 3 inches apart to avoid crowding. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are crisp and your kitchen smells very chocolatey.

  Step 5

Remove from oven. Gently tap the baking sheets on a counter to create cracks along the cookie surfaces. Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Set aside baking sheets and reserve parchment paper.

  Step 6

Heat 1 cup chocolate chips in the microwave in 15-second increments until fully melted. Working with one cookie at a time, dip half of it into the chocolate until the front is 50% coated with a distinct line in the center. While still wet, lightly sprinkle red chili powder. Using the same parchment-lined baking sheets, place freshly dipped cookies on them to set. If your home is cool, they should be set within about 10 minutes, but you can chill them in the refrigerator to speed up the process. 

  Naruto Narutomaki Sugar Cookies

There are few things Naruto loves more than ramen. In fact, he’s named after narutomaki, the white and pink fishcakes that are often nestled in noodle-packed bowls. These Narutomaki Sugar Cookies are the dessert version of the ramen staple. Dehydrated strawberries give the pink dough a subtle Pop-Tart-like flavor in the best way possible, but if you can’t find them, the pink dye will work on its own. The sugar coating gives every cookie a subtle iridescence that’s sure to catch even Kakashi’s eye. These cookies are a bit of a project, but well worth the effort!

      Narutomaki Sugar Cookies | Naruto 

  Yields: About 25 cookies | Time: 30 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling

  Ingredients:

1/3 cup dehydrated strawberries 

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 egg yolks, room temperature 

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt

4-6 drops pink food dye

  Directions:

Step 1

Place dehydrated strawberries into a food processor and blend until it’s a fine powder. Set aside. 

  Step 2

Combine butter, 1/2 cup white sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand or with an electric hand mixer), and cream together until fluffy in texture, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides with a rubber spatula. Then add the yolks and almond extract. Mix on medium until fully combined. 

  Step 3

Using a wooden spoon, gradually add the flour and salt into the wet ingredients until incorporated. Divide dough into thirds and set aside 2/3 into a separate medium bowl.

  Step 4

With the 1/3 dough remaining, attach the original bowl back to the stand mixer. Add powdered dehydrated strawberries and 4 to 6 drops pink food dye (or until desired pink color). Mix until fully combined.

  Step 5

Place a 10-inch sheet of parchment paper on the kitchen counter and put the strawberry dough in the center. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a rectangular shape that’s about 8 inches long, 5 inches wide and 1/4-inch thick. Carefully slide it onto a baking sheet or plate, and set aside.

  Step 6

Place a new 10-inch sheet of parchment paper on the kitchen counter and put the almond dough in the center. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a square shape that’s about 8 inches long, 8 inches wide and 1/4-inch thick. Carefully slide it onto a baking sheet or plate, and set aside.

  Step 7

Chill both doughs in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. This will help prevent tearing, but over refrigerating will cause cracks –– so stick to 10 minutes if you can!

  Step 8

Take the almond dough out with the parchment paper still attached and place it on the counter. Carefully slide the strawberry dough on top of the almond dough, aligning the 8-inch sides together. The opposite side of the almond dough should be about 4 inches longer than the end of the strawberry dough.

  Step 9

Cut a thin strip off of edges where the strawberry and almond dough meet. This will help create a more distinct swirl pattern once it’s rolled.

  Step 10

Starting with the freshly cut edge, carefully lift up the parchment paper to help you roll the dough lengthwise. As you roll, gently apply pressure to make sure both layers are enclosed. Continue until you have a log shape.

  Step 11

Wrap cookie dough log in plastic wrap and gently roll again to make any uneven edges as circular as possible. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Dough may also be made up to 2 days in advance.

  Step 12

Once dough has chilled, heat oven to 350°F degrees. Line one baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

  Step 13

Remove cookie dough log from refrigerator and place on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1/4-inch slices. If the first and last slices aren’t perfect, you can press them together and bake anyway for a quick snack.

  Step 14

Working with one cookie at a time, take a 3-inch wavy edged cookie cutter (you can also use a bigger size, but smaller will not work) and cut along the edges of every cookie to create the iconic narutomaki look. Try to cut as little as possible away from the edges to keep the design intact. Like in the previous step, pressed together any cookie dough scraps to make small snacking cookies.

  Step 15

Place 1/3 white sugar in a small, shallow bowl. Gently coat each cookie in the sugar. Place 2 inches on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

  Step 16

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly golden. Remove from oven, and let cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

  Hope you have a cookie- and anime-filled holiday season. Let us know which ones you want to try first in the comments!

  By: Kiera Wright-Ruiz

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[ges-sa]

New Post has been published on https://ges-sa.com/wwe-2k20-review/

WWE 2K20 Review

A special thank you to 2K for providing an early access copy of WWE 2K20.

Step inside the latest release from the annual WWK 2K franchise which has steadily been on the rise the land handful of years. However, with long time series developer Yukes stepping away from the franchise into the development cycle and taking the bulk of their code and assets with them, have 2K Sports and their development team at Visual Concepts been able to carry the load in what is now their first solo game of the series?

The most notable change this year from the start is the reconfigured control scheme. Reversals which have been assigned to R2 (PS4)/Right trigger (Xbox One) for years have been switched to Triangle/Y while Signature/Finisher and OMG moves which were previously Triangle/Y for many years have now switched to Square+X/X+A while OMG moves are now Circle+Triangle/Y+B. While much has been made of this move by long time fans of the series, there’s not much to it all. In the span of about 2 or 3 matches it becomes very easy to mentally adjust to the new control layout and after several more matches it’s hardly even a thought. This is being done to help players avoid hitting the wrong buttons and reduce the input time between button/trigger presses and the change is evident and very welcome. Reversals have been hit and miss regarding timing for the last few games of the series whereas now they are immediate and rarely an issue so reassigning it to a face button was a wise decision, leaving players to no longer worry about performing a minor or major reversal properly and just focus on the match and remaining available reversal slots. The new button combos for Finisher, Special and OMG moves also seemed like it might be cumbersome but in execution is very easy to trigger when required. Some other changes include Trigger and face button combinations for performing submissions from several different positions (which is  feels more natural than waiting to position in a grapple first), engaging in a grapple, performing rollup pins out of nowhere (if that skill is equipped) and initiating chain grappling. The pace of the match seems like it has also been slowed down slightly, which when combined with some new animations and feed-in animations, results in a more natural looking match flow.

This year also see the introduction of a new assist mode which is largely designed for new players to learn and experience the variety in the wrestler’s move-sets. When landing a strong strike or grapple move, the AI-system will choose a specific attack for the player. I haven’t used it much as it canbe turned on and off but it is a nice option to have nevertheless.

With more emphasis on the women this year (more on that shortly) the Mixed Tag Team Match makes its debut in the series which has been popularized on WWE programming over the last year or two with shows like Mixed Match Challenge. This match features a variety of new dual attacks and finishers which look great and are satisfying to execute, involving all 4 Superstars in a singular attack animation as striking or grappling an opponent of the opposite gender (EG:  a man striking a woman) results in an immediate DQ. The weapon wheel previously only available in Extreme Rules matches is now available in all regular and No DQ match types as well as the new option to customise the weapons wheel with several new foreign objects to choose from. Several new non ring environments for Brawls have been added and provide a nice aesthetic change to the action as well as new interactive objects and weapons, especially locations from the new 2K Originals DLC.

Much been made about the graphical problems and visual glitches in this game but from my play throughs with it, this has been greatly exaggerated. While likely due to the departure of Yukes (although many complaints have persisted for years now despite the added attention this year), while there was some stiffness with some hair movement (such as Bianca Belair’s distinctly long ponytail) as well as some object clipping, and one instance of a referee floating in midair during one portion of a Showcase cutscene, I didn’t experience anything that was so egregious or graphically “broken” as many others have attested to, most of these issues which have already been attended to with the release of a new update file. Visually the game still looks fine and many characters pop on a HD Ready screen, so one can imagine how much more so they look on a full HD or 4K screen. Some models look better than others (Visual Concepts clearly hasn’t smelt what the Rock is cooking as the unscanned face model could still use additional work…1999 Rock with the same face looks a little better with his hair and $500 shirt) but everyone is clearly visually distinctive and looks like who they are meant to look like, even some who were not scanned.

Showcase Mode returns this year focussing on the Women’s Evolution and 15 matches from 2014 until this year’s Wrestlemania 35 featuring the rise of the WWE’s Four Horsewomen (Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks & Bayley) and recreating some of their major milestone moments from the last five years, with special mode exclusive commentary aided by WWE’s Renee Young (who is always a treat) joining the other commentators. It is a clear that a good amount of time has gone into the development of this mode as all cutscene are very faithfully recreated with many impressive small details included. The number of match objectives to trigger multiple cutscenes per match and unlock all the available items has been increases from prior years and most matches will take longer, as well require more effort to complete compared to Showcase Modes of prior years, especially the final Triple Threat match from this year’s WrestleMania which will require multiple attempts to fully complete.

2K’s signature MyCareer mode returns, following the template created last year, with an expanded story and scope. This year will see the introduction of a female MyPlayer that we can control alongside our male MyPlayer. We follow the journey of Red and Tre as they encounter multiple WWE Superstars, Legends and Hall of Famers on the day of their own Hall of Fame inductions, recalling and conveying the events of their meteoric careers that unfold over the course of 18 chapters and over 20+ hours of gameplay. The journey spans their careers through high school, the “indies” through to NXT, RAW and SmackDown and even across the multiverse which included cameos and dozens of speaking roles from WWE Superstars and Legends such as Ronda Rousey, The IIconics, Adam Cole, The New Day and X-Pac among others. This year sees us track Red and Tre’s progress via checking their list of career goals, forming the roadmap of their Hall of Fame careers and with guest podcast cameos from last year’s MyCareer protagonists Buzz and Cole Quinn. There’s a new class to choose from when creating our MyPlayers and customising our look and moves sets have been greatly expanded this year, no longer requiring the random luck of getting the parts you want by opening loot packs (which return) but proving players with more options from the start which will please many…it certainly pleased me. The Skill Tree has been redesigned as well and will be up to players to determine if this is for better or worse and this year each MyPlayer (male & female) has their own unique skill tree and customisation options and can each be used in the MyPlayer Towers and online Road to Glory.

With minor upgrades to Universe mode and some creation modes (like Create-A-Championship) set to be added in a later update file, with the remainder of the creation suite remaining the same, the only other addition is the return of the Mortal Kombat style 2K Towers where we take Superstars through numerous step and gauntlet style towers to earn VC; as well the incorporation of new 2K Originals content that included its own set of 2K Towers and Showcase modes to play through and the ability to unlock new weapons, locations, arenas and altered versions of WWE Superstars with their own unique entrances and abilities.

With the exception of MyCareer and the return of Online lobbies and adding of Mixed Tag Team matches, there isn’t that much new about WWE 2K20; but despite a rough first week of launch, still holds its own and provides a good escape for those who want to experience the action of being inside a WWE ring without ever having to actually step inside it for real. Visual Concepts has plenty of room for growth and now the unimpeded room to take the series in whatever direction they choose not just next year, but into the next-gen of consoles so it should be exciting to see if they’ll be able to do to WWE 2K in coming years what they’ve done to NBA 2K in past years (hopefully without the forced inclusion of Micro-transactions for additional VC of course).

Reviewed on: PS4 Genre: Sports Publisher: 2K Sports Release Date: 22 October 2019

Likes: Gameplay, MyCareer, 2K Showcase & 2K Originals Dislikes: Online lag (Prior to Update 1.02), Some modelling, Some instances of clipping & tearing.

#205 Live #2K #2K Games #2K Originals #2K Showcase #2K Sports #2K Towers #Becky Lynch #MyCareer #NXT #NXT UK #PC #PC Gaming #PS4 #PS4 Pro #RAW #Roman Reigns #Smackdown #The Man #VC #Visual Concepts #Wrestlemania #WWE #WWE 2K20 #Xbox One #Gaming #Reviews

[brinazzle]

8

Let’s review what we’ve learned so far. I’ve taken the position that there is no harder task for adults than changing our behavior. We are geniuses at coming up with reasons to avoid change. We make excuses. We rationalize. We harbor beliefs that trigger all manner of denial and resistance. As a result, we continually fail at becoming the person we want to be. One of our greatest instances of denial involves our relationship with our environment. We willfully ignore how profoundly the environment influences our behavior. In fact, the environment is a relentless triggering mechanism that, in an instant, can change us from saint to sinner, optimist to pessimist, model citizen to thug—and make us lose sight of who we’re trying to be. The good news is that the environment is not conducting a cloak-and-dagger operation. It’s out in the open, providing constant feedback to us. We’re often too distracted to hear what the environment is telling us. But in those moments when we’re dialed in and paying attention, the seemingly covert triggers that shape our behavior become apparent. The not-so-good news is that it’s hard to stay alert as we move from one environment to another. Our circumstances change from minute to minute, hour to hour—and we can’t always summon the ability or motivation to manage each situation as we would like. We mess up. We take one step forward, two steps back. Moreover, we have a bifurcated response to the environment in which we display two discrete personas I call “planner”and “doer.” The planner who wakes up in the morning with clear plans for the day is not the same person later in the day who has to execute those plans. Basic tools such as anticipating, avoiding, and adjusting to risky environments are a good place to start correcting this conflict between planner and doer in us. But they are Band-Aid solutions to immediate challenges; they don’t alter our behavior permanently. Now that I’ve outlined our frailties in the face of behavioral change and labeled us abject losers in our ongoing war with the environment, you may rightly ask, When do we get to the good stuff, the action points spelling out something meaningful to do? Not so fast. To understand a problem, you not only have to admit there is a problem; you also have to appreciate all your options. And with behavioral change, we have options. The graphic tool on the next page is one I’ve been using with clients for years. It illustrates the interchange of two dimensions we need to sort out before we can become the person we want to be: the Positive to Negative axis tracks the elements that either help us or hold us back. The Change to Keep axis tracks the elements that we determine to change or keep in the future. Thus, in pursuing any behavioral change we have four options: change or keep the positive elements, change or keep the negative. Thesethree • Creating represents the positive elements that we want to create in our future. • Preserving represents the positive elements that we want to keep in the future. • Eliminating represents the negative elements that we want to eliminate in the future. • Accepting represents the negative elements that we need to accept in the future. are the choices. Some are more dynamic, glamorous, and fun than others, but they’re equal in importance. And of them are more labor-intensive than we imagine. 



















1. Creating Creating is the glamorous poster child of behavioral change. When we imagine ourselves behaving better, we think of it as an exciting process of self-invention. We’re creating a “new me.” It’s appealing and seductive. We can be anyone we choose to be. The challenge is to do it by choice, not as a bystander. Are we creating ourselves, or wasting the opportunity and being created by external forces instead? Creating is not an option that comes automatically to even the smartest among us. When I was working with the CEO of a large European company six months before his mandatory retirement, I asked him, “What are you going to do when you leave?” “I have no idea,” he said. * “If you knew that your company was going to change completely in six months and have new customers, a new identity, would you plan for it?” I asked. “Of course,” he said. “It would be irresponsible not to.” “What’s more important? Your company or your life?” It was a rhetorical question. I was warning him that, stripped of his identity at the top of a sixty-thousand-employee organization, he was vulnerable to boredom, dislocation, depression. I’d seen it before in ex-CEOs who didn’t prepare well for their corporate exit. It would be “irresponsible” if he didn’t create a new identity for himself. I wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. He’d been at the higher levels of corporate life for many years. He’d seen many peers get stranded or lost in so-called retirement. But he hadn’t considered applying this insight to himself. He was making the same mistakes the rest of us make. If we’re satisfied with our life—not necessarily happy or delighted that we’ve exceeded our wildest expectations, just satisfied—we yield to inertia. We continue doing what we’ve always done. If we’re dissatisfied, we may go to the other extreme, falling for any and every idea, never pursuing one idea long enough so that it takes root and actually shapes a recognizably new us. If you know people who flit from one faddish diet to the next—and never lose weight—you know the type. That’s chasing, not creating. As the chart indicates, creating spans a continuum from adding to inventing. Adding one new behavior is usually sufficient for already successful people. In my one-on-one coaching I’ve never had to help an executive completely overhaul his or her personality. Successful leaders don’t behave inappropriately across the board (if they did, they’d be unemployed). But they often behave inappropriately in one or two areas, which colors people’s perceptions of everything else they do. We always have a chance to create better behavior in ourselves—how we treat people, how we respond to our environment, what we permit to trigger our next action. All we need is the impulse to imagine a different us. 























2. Preserving Preserving sounds passive and mundane, but it’s a real choice. It requires soul-searching to figure out what serves us well, and discipline to refrain from abandoning it for something new and shiny and not necessarily better. We don’t practice preserving enough. Successful people, by definition, are doing a lot of things correctly, so they have a lot to preserve. But they also have a baseline urge that equates steady advancement with constant improvement. They’re geared to fight the status quo, not maintain it. When they face the choice of being good or getting even better, they instinctively opt for the latter—and risk losing some desirable qualities. In its sly way, preserving can be transformational. When my friend (and, full disclosure, one of my all-time heroes) Frances Hesselbein, whom Fortune magazine called “the best non-profit manager in America,” became CEO of the Girl Scouts of America in 1976, her mandate was to transform a hidebound organization with declining membership, a reliance on 120 volunteers for every paid staff member, and an anachronistic image that no longer applied to young girls. The urge to scrap everything and rebuild from the ground up would have been understandable. But Frances, who years earlier had volunteered with Troop 17 of the Girl Scouts in her hometown in Pennsylvania, knew that the organization had a lot worth preserving, not only its signature door-to-door cookie sales but its identity of being a moral guide for young women. She showed her staff and volunteers that it was more important than ever to reach out to girls, given the emerging threats of drugs and teen pregnancy. “Tradition with a future,” she called her radical combination of preserving and creating, which inspired the organization with new purpose. In her years as CEO, membership quadrupled and diversity tripled. A politician once told me, “The most thankless decision I make is the one that prevents something bad from happening, because I can never prove that I prevented something even worse.” Preserving is the same. We rarely get credit for not messing up a good thing. It’s a tactic that looks brilliant only in hindsight—and only to the individual doing the preserving. So we rarely ask ourselves, “What in my life is worth keeping?” The answer can save us a lot of time and energy. After all, preserving a valuable behavior means one less behavior we have to change. 


































3. Eliminating Eliminating is our most liberating, therapeutic action—but we make it reluctantly. Like cleaning out an attic or garage, we never know if we’ll regret jettisoning a part of us. Maybe we’ll need it in the future. Maybe it’s the secret of our success. Maybe we like it too much. The most significant transformational moment in my career was an act of elimination. It wasn’t my idea. I was in my late thirties and doing well flying around the country giving the same talk about organizational behavior to companies. I was on a lucrative treadmill of preserving, but I needed my mentor Paul Hersey to point out the downside. “You’re too good at what you’re doing,” Hersey told me. “You’re making too much money selling your day rate to companies.” When someone tells me I’m “too good” my brain shifts into neutral—and I bask in the praise. But Hersey wasn’t done with me. “You’re not investing in your future,” he said. “You’re not researching and writing and coming up with new things to say. You can continue doing what you’re doing for a long time. But you’ll never become the person you want to be.” For some reason, that last sentence triggered a profound emotion in me. I respected Paul tremendously. And I knew he was right. In Peter Drucker’s words, I was “sacrificing the future on the altar of today.” I could see my future and it had some dark empty holes in it. I was too busy maintaining a comfortable life. At some point, I’d grow bored or disaffected, but it might happen too late in the game for me to do something about it. Unless I eliminated some of the busywork, I would never create something new for myself. Despite the immediate cut in pay, that’s the moment I stopped chasing my tail for a day rate and decided to follow a different path. I have always been thankful for Paul’s advice. We’re all experienced at eliminating the things that hurt us, especially when the benefits of doing so are immediate and certain. We will shed an unreliable friend who causes us grief, stop drinking caffeine because it makes us jittery, quit a stultifying job that ruins our day, stop a habit that might be killing us. When the consequence is extreme distress, we binge on elimination. The real test is sacrificing something we enjoy doing—say, micromanaging—that’s not ostensibly harming our career, that we believe may even be working for us (if not others). In these cases, we may ask ourselves, “What should I eliminate?” And come up with nothing. 




























4. Accepting CEOs tend to see three of the four elements in the wheel of change with great clarity when it applies to an organization. (If they can’t, they’re not CEO for long.) Creating is innovating, taking risks on new ventures, creating new profit centers within the company. Preserving is not losing sight of your core business. Eliminating is shutting down or selling off the businesses that no longer fit. Accepting is the rare bird in this aviary of change. Businesspeople, reluctant to admit any defeat, can’t help equating “acceptance” with “acquiescence.” I once sat in on a budget meeting with a CEO and his division heads. It was an energy company, highly regulated and subject to the whims of political and social tides. For five years, the tide had been going against various parts of the company. The vulnerable divisions hit their profit targets with shrewd cost cutting as revenue growth stalled, then shrank—a race-to-the-bottom strategy that never ends well. Six years into this decline, the division chiefs showed up again with rosy projections, assuming they could eke out profits with more cutting. Finally, the CEO had heard enough. He dismissively tossed the reports into the center of the conference table and said, “This meeting is over. When we reconvene in a week, I want a new plan from each of you based on one criterion: your business will vanish next year and it’s never coming back. I want to see projections that accept what’s staring us in the face.” Everyone in the room had access to the same data. But only the CEO read them with dispassionate clarity—and acceptance. In business we have an abundance of metrics—market share, quality scores, customer feedback—to help us achieve acceptance of a dire situation or the need for change. But our natural impulse is to think wishfully (that is, favor the optimal, discount the negative) rather than realistically. That impulse is even more egregious in interpersonal relationships. Instead of metrics, we rely on impressions, which are open to wide interpretation. We take in what we want to hear, but tune out the displeasing notes that we need to hear. When our immediate superior reviews our performance with six trenchant comments, one positive, five negative, our ears naturally give more weight to the positive comment. It’s easier to accept good news than bad. Some people even have trouble accepting a compliment. Have you ever said something nice about a friend’s attire, and your friend brushes it off with “Oh this? I haven’t worn it in years.” The correct response is “Thank you,” not attacking your judgment and kindness. Accepting is most valuable when we are powerless to make a difference. Yet our ineffectuality is precisely the condition we are most loath to accept. It triggers our finest moments of counterproductive behavior. • If our exquisite logic fails to persuade a colleague or spouse to take our position, we resort to shouting at them, or threatening them, or belittling them, as if that’s a more winning approach than accepting that reasonable people can disagree. • If our spouse calls us out on a minor domestic infraction (for example, leaving the refrigerator door open, being late to pick up the kids, forgetting to buy milk) and we are 100 percent guilty, we’ll dredge up an incident from the past when our spouse was at fault. We extend a pointless argument ad nauseam rather than say, “You’re right. I’m sorry.” • If our immediate superior rejects our proposal, we grumble to our direct reports about how shortsighted our manager is. If we reflect on it, I’d wager our episodes of nonacceptance trigger more bad behavior than the fallout from our creating, preserving, and eliminating combined. When I work on behavioral change with corporate teams, the wheel of change is one of the first exercises I use. With so many disparate voices on a team of four, six, or sometimes a dozen executives, it’s crucial to focus people on simple concepts that simplify the debate. Asking people, “What do we need to eliminate?” fosters agreement more swiftly than asking, “What’s wrong?” or “What don’t you like about your colleagues?” One form requires people to imagine a positive course of action (even when it involves elimination). The other triggers whining and complaining. When my client Alicia was promoted to head of human resources at a portfolio company of eight different businesses with a total of more than one hundred thousand employees, she was given a clear mandate to increase her office’s corporate stature. At many companies HR is solely an administrative responsibility—HR people are keepers of the employee handboo —with little influence over the company’s direction and strategy. Not so at Alicia’s company. With so many employees, the CEO knew that the decisions his head of human resources made could make or break the organization. The CEO told Alicia he was giving her a “seat at the table.” Her job was as important as head of sales or chief operating officer. He was counting on her not to waste the opportunity. I spent two intensive days with Alicia and her team as they developed their new “seat at the table” strategy. Using the wheel of change as her template, Alicia told the team they only had to make four decisions: choose one thing to create, preserve, eliminate, and accept. Here’s what they came up with:Creating: To ensure a smarter workforce across the company, particularly in their high-tech portfolio, the team focused on upgrading hiring standards. The new strategy would center on more aggressive recruiting at benchmark companies and top-tier universities. Preserving: The team spent nearly all day debating this. Everyone had a different answer to the tough question, “What’s worth keeping?” Eventually the group settled on a cultural issue. The division had always been a tight and cordial operation. Everyone talked freely with one another. There was little to no infighting. People would pitch in without being asked. The team said, “Let’s not lose that feeling, whatever we do.” It was a touching moment. Until the team made the choice, I don’t think they appreciated the uniquely pleasant environment they had created for themselves. Eliminating: This was Alicia’s suggestion. If we’re going to be spending more time promoting the company and traveling to colleges and conferences, that means less office time for the senior team. “We can’t be more strategic if we’re still administrating,” she told the group. They agreed to delegate more of the “old work” to subordinates. They even clocked their goal: 30 percent fewer hours per team member on paperwork. Accepting: Improving the company’s labor force wouldn’t happen overnight—or even in a year or two. They were playing a long game. And it wasn’t guaranteed that even if they did their job brilliantly they would get the proper credit for it. The line executives would think all gains were their doing. This was what they shrewdly came to accept: how long change takes and who gets the glory. That’s the simple beauty of the wheel. When we bluntly challenge ourselves to figure out what we can change and what we can’t, what to lose and what to keep, we often surprise ourselves with the bold simplicity of our answers. The wheel is equally useful one-on-one. Even if we’re alone in a dark and quiet room, intent on contemplating our future, we’re still being distracted by the competing voices mumbling and shouting inside our heads. Posing big-picture questions to ourselves crowds out the distracting voices and shuffles the niggling issues and daily nuisances that upset us to the back of the line, where they belong. There are no wrong or right answers here—as long as they’re honest. I recall my client Steve, a financial executive working in Manhattan but living across the Hudson River in New Jersey, answering this way: • Creating: “A shorter commute to work.” • Preserving: “The sanctity of my family.” • Eliminating: “My current commute to work.” • Accepting: “I’ll never get better at golf.” Commuting, family, and golf? That was a trio I hadn’t heard before. I thought Steve was being flip (although clearly he had issues with commuting). But as we discussed it, the rigor and integrity in his answers emerged—as well as the trigger to action. Yes, Steve hated the three hours a day he spent commuting between his suburban New Jersey home and his downtown Manhattan office. It ate into how much time he could spend with his wife and three children. His passion for golf was one reason he had settled in the suburbs; that’s where the courses were. But his answers revealed a shift in priorities, and they were more closely interconnected than I had assumed. Admitting golf’s diminished importance in his life—and accepting it—meant there was no reason to stay in the suburbs. He was free to return to Manhattan, where he could actually walk to work, thus creating a shorter commute, eliminating his misery, and not only preserving but increasing his time with his family. So he sold his big house, moved his family into a place ten minutes from his office, and started showing up at home most nights in time for dinner. He still had behavioral issues at work that we needed to address, but his life’s biggest headache had vanished. Good things happen when we ask ourselves what we need to create, preserve, eliminate, and accept—a test I suspect few of us ever self-administer. Discovering what really matters is a gift, not a burden. Accept it and see.  In examining why we don’t become the person we want to be, I realize that I’ve run through a laundry list of negative choices that make us sound like closed-minded drones resisting any opportunity to change. That’s okay. Negatives are inevitable when we address why we don’t do something. But there’s hope. Nadeem defused an imagined enemy by altering his behavior in public forums. Rennie became a better manager by carrying an index card. Stan reduced family friction by avoiding family meetings. These behavioral transformations didn’t happen overnight. Nadeem needed eighteen months to get the nod from his colleagues. Rennie still carries an index card to meetings. Stan complained for months about being shut out of “his” foundation before he could serenely accept his new family landscape. It’s true they had the benefit of an outside agency—namely me—pointing out the environment’s malign impact on their behavior. But that kind of insight, which explains why we act the way we do, can take us only so far. It illuminates our past more than the way forward. Executing the change we hold as a concrete image in our mind is a process. It requires vigilance and diligent self monitoring. It demands a devotion to rote repetition that we might initially dismiss as simplistic and undignified, even beneath us. More than anything, the process resuscitates an instinct that’s been drilled into us as tiny children but slowly dissipates as we learn to enjoy success and fear failure—the importance of trying. 

* I hear this so often, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. But I am. It’s the main reason I host several “What are you going to do with the rest of your life” get-togethers at my home for my clients. They’re not thinking about it. They’re not in creation mode.

[instantdeerlover]

So We’re All Hoarding Beans Now added to Google Docs

So We’re All Hoarding Beans Now

The growing collective obsession with beans has now taken on a more apocalyptic feel

“If someone you know is getting deeply into making bread from scratch,” the comedian Ellory Smith tweeted a few months ago, “they are deeply depressed I promise you.” This sentiment was retweeted more than 20,000 times, mostly by people who had actually gotten deeply into making bread from scratch, or those who watched these new sourdough maestros Instagram their obsession (and depression).

Baking as an act of radical self and community care has been an increasingly important part of American life, especially for marginalized people, during this increasingly difficult time to be an American. “I didn’t know what more I could do with my grief, disappointment and rage,” Tangerine Jones explained recently of her coinage of the term “Rage Baking” in 2015. “Being black in America means you’re solid in the knowledge that folks don’t give a true flying f**k about you or anyone who looks like you.” In 2020, the writer and bread baker (and Eater contributor) Dayna Evans coined the phrase Sadness Bread to describe how baking can be a sign of mental distress and also one of the few things that help it.

Sadness Bread seems like it’s from another era, one that existed roughly three weeks ago. Now, as the novel coronavirus pandemic and its societal effects wrap around the world, the distressed cooks of America are concerned with downright survival. A new rustic foodstuff has emerged to fill this emotional void: Panic Beans.

There are relatively few things any individual can do in the face of this new pandemic. While it’s common to compare COVID-19 (the disease) to the flu, there are effective drugs and vaccines for the flu, as well as a wealth of scientific knowledge. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is, well, novel, so there is not yet a vaccine, and treatment options are still emerging. As a result, humanity has to rely on more old-fashioned techniques: The first and most important line of defense is washing our damn hands. Beyond that, there’s actual quarantine for those who are sick or potentially exposed, and a mix of social distancing and social outreach for the rest of us.

Guidance in the United States, especially in cities with community spread like my home, Los Angeles, is ambiguous and shifting day to day. The extreme lag in testing — as of March 12, only 247 people have been tested in LA County, with roughly 30 confirmed cases — only adds to the uncertainty. There is an ever-increasing sense that we should be prepared to shelter at home for an extended period of time, which has already happened in hotspots around the world. Staples at the grocery store are going fast, some of them goofily on trend (oat milk), some of questionable necessity (bottled water) and some with an inherent air of apocalyptic preparedness about them. Like beans.

In mainstream American culture, beans have long been associated with the end of the world and beloved by those who think they might survive it. It’s only recently that a combination of new approaches to home cooking and concern over the environment has prompted food-minded Americans who did not grow up making beans to embrace them. Before then, beans were bunker food, the staple for imagined dire times perpetually around the corner. Alice MacQueen, an evolutionary geneticist who studies beans and also, full disclosure, a friend, once had a difficult time finding a small amount of seed beans for an experiment. The package she received from Amazon was wrapped in triple gold mylar and festooned in Bible quotes. “I got the package and thought wow, it looks like I bought this from preppers.” No one else, at least a few years ago, was dedicated enough to grow beans on a small scale. Now, as bean mania is leading more gardeners to try growing their own, MacQueen is a truly next level bean hoarder, with 1,800 pounds of beans in cold storage as part of her work addressing how beans can help us survive an even larger and slower-burning crisis (climate change).

It makes a twisted cultural sense then that beans, already growing in popularity, would become prize hoarded goods during a time when otherwise sane people are choosing to rewatch Contagion. Rancho Gordo, the country’s most heralded purveyor of heirloom and speciality beans, is experiencing overwhelming demand. Owner Steve Sando says for the past two weeks, the company has been fielding over a thousand orders a day, while normal days run more like 150 to 200. At first, Sando thought the uptick was due to the increased popularity of beans or even his own marketing. Then he realized what was really going on. After the president’s speech on Wednesday night, orders spiked again. “[That] night was really upsetting, and then watching the orders roll in. The only silver lining is people are cooking at home and spending more time with people they know and love.”

Rancho Gordo, which is based in Napa, California, will now take longer to ship orders, moving from one business day to five to seven to handle the demand. Yesterday, Sando held a meeting with his warehouse workers to ask what they wanted to do if and when schools closed, since most have children. The company already offers what Sando calls “generous” PTO, and he says that he wants the staff to be part of deciding how to weather the disorienting mix of crisis and boom in the days ahead.

Rancho Gordo’s beans are a crop, and they planted expecting growth in 2020; right now Sando thinks running out won’t be on the table before at least June or July. But when they’re gone, they’re gone. “You can’t just shake a tree and hope you get more. Everyone could be hoarding, and then sales might plummet. Or it could mean they order them and think, Oh god these are good. Right now, I’m not reflecting, not thinking, I’m acting in the best way I can.”

Washington Post food and dining editor Joe Yonan is also an uneasy recipient of the panic beans bump. His new cookbook, Cool Beans, was released in early February, as the potential global threat of the novel coronavirus was beginning to emerge. Yonan says Amazon’s order of the book, which should have lasted for six weeks, sold out in two days, and sales have been brisk ever since. “It’s hard for me to tell how much is related to stockpiling, but it definitely seems like people are continuing to talk about it longer than they otherwise they would have,” Yonan says.

Yonan is now getting tagged in posts about quarantine cooking but feels uncomfortable boosting them, as glad as he is to offer a resource for those in need of guidance or just a distracting new cooking project. He thinks home cooking and beans’ popularity in particular has been a symptom of our underlying anxiety for a long time. “There’s been a general sense of unease, around the economy and political worries, military tension, but mostly we joked about it, When the zombie apocalypse comes. Now we all are at home thinking, What can I really do?” One answer is make a pot of beans.

In December of last year, around the time (it turns out) the novel coronavirus was first emerging, I published a piece about the rise of bean obsession amongst cooks making these simple, versatile, humble and yet somehow luxurious staples. Beans, I still believe, are a magical thing to cook, little jewels that with water, salt, and long, slow heat yield endless meals. In the face of uncertainty, they are one of our surest bets.

But it’s also heartbreaking to watch beans’ emergency functions come online in real time; they still offer comfort, but not much delight. Even the fanciest hoards of Christmas limas and eye of the goat tell a dark story. I feel grief now, watching people show off rows of bubbling pots on Instastories for #quarantinecooking. I feel rage that thanks to our government’s abysmal response to this pandemic, control comes in the form of creative survival cooking, for those lucky enough to have the option. But I did make a pot of beans last weekend. And soon I’ll make another, using my pantry to stay home and help flatten the curve. If you have the time and resources, I think you should, too.

Meghan McCarron is Eater’s special correspondent

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/3/13/21178965/beans-hoarding-coronavirus-gordo-rancho

Created March 14, 2020 at 02:20AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

[placetobenation]

SmackDown on Fox Episode #57 SmackDown Episode # 1,106 Orlando, FL – The Thunderdome (Amway Center) 10/3020

We don’t have an intro video this week as we immediately go into the Thunderdome for the entrance of the WWE Universal Champion and Tribal Chief of the WWE Roman Reigns, as Reigns makes his way to the ring we get footage of what happened at Hell in a Cell in his match against Jey Uso. Uso is already in the ring and it’s time to find out exactly what the consequences of saying I Quit to Reigns entails. Heyman goes to introduce Reigns but Uso snatches the mic from him as Uso is full of emotion and is already on the brink of crying, Uso says that Reigns didn’t beat him and Reigns knows that wouldn’t say I Quit no matter how much Reigns beat on him. Reigns says that Uso can make all the excuses he wants and he can feel any kind of way, but he did what he said he was going to do which is make Uso say I Quit and now Uso has to fall in line. Uso says that what Reigns did was a snake move and he doesn’t respect Reigns and he thinks the title has changed Reigns. Uso says Reigns used the closest person to him to make him say I Quit and that Reigns knew exactly what he was doing. 

Reigns says that Uso still doesn’t understand that those types of things are what you have to do in order to remain champion. Reigns says that the consequences are real and as he saw on Sunday night the entire family from the oldest to the youngest stand with him and if Uso doesn’t fall in line he is out of the family. Reigns understands that Uso is angry as he would be too, but what can Uso do about it, Reigns knows that Uso wants to hit him and then he continues to ask Uso what he is going to do and this leads to Uso screaming “I Hate You” to Reigns as he completely breaks down in tears. Reigns knows that Uso hates him right now, but he loves Uso and always has, however, by the end of the night Uso will fall in line. Reigns and Heyman walk up the ramp leaving a broken Uso alone in the ring. 

Damn these two make magic every time they are in the ring together whether it is during a match or just cutting a fantastic emotion-filled promo like this one was. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would be getting this kind of emotion out of a Jey Uso promo I would say you were crazy, but here we are at the end of October and we are getting just that and he is knocking it out of the park. Roman Reigns may be the first person in WWE since Jake Roberts who is able to cut such a soft-spoken promo but still come off just as menacing and intimidating as if he were shouting during the promo.   

The announcers hype up that later tonight Jey Uso will take on Daniel Bryan for a spot on the Men’s SmackDown Survivor Series team and we will also see Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler in another qualifying match and that is coming up right after the break. 

We come back and go straight to our first qualifying match.

Match #1: Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler w/ Robert Roode (Men’s SmackDown Survivor Series Team Qualifying Match) Ziggler goes for a single leg right out of the gate but KO blocks it and grabs a side headlock, Ziggler shoots KO into the ropes but he comes back with a shoulder block which sends Ziggler rolling out of the ring for a breather. KO goes out after Ziggler but he slides back right back in and puts the boots to KO when he tries to get back in the ring and then hits him with a neckbreaker. Ziggler continues to work over KO for a few minutes until KO starts to fight back as he takes Ziggler down with a back elbow. 

KO goes to pick up Ziggler after having some words with Roode, but Ziggler kicks him in the knee and then attempts a ZigZag but KO hangs onto the top rope and then charges at Ziggler who sidesteps him and sends KO to the floor. KO distracts the referee inside the ring which allows Roode to hit KO from behind on the outside, Roode throws KO back into the ring but as he is doing so he is caught by the referee and this leads to the referee sending Roode to the back and this sends us to a commercial break. 

We come back and Ziggler has KO grounded on the mat with an armbar but KO fights his way out of it only to be hit with another neckbreaker from Ziggler and then he rakes the eyes of KO. Ziggler goes for a third neckbreaker but KO is able to escape and hit Ziggler with a big chop but Ziggler comes back with some strikes of his own and then he kicks KO off an Irish whip when KO lowers his head too early, Ziggler runs off the ropes and gets caught with an inverted atomic drop and KO follows that up with a big clothesline and a senton. KO clotheslines Ziggler out to the floor and then looks to dive out onto him but Ziggler slides in the ring and goes for a clothesline but KO ducks and hits Ziggler with a swinging slam into an air raid crash for a 2 count. 

KO goes up top and looks to hit a swanton bomb but Ziggler gets his knees up, Ziggler sets up for a superkick but ends up getting hit with one by KO. KO sends Ziggler into the ropes and looks to hit him with the pop-up powerbomb but Ziggler counters it into a fame-asser for another 2 count. Ziggler goes for another superkick, but this time KO ducks and tries for a Stunner only for Ziggler to push him away and try for the big DDT only for KO to block that and go for a sunset flip which fails as Ziggler falls on top of him and then we get both men trading pinning combinations which prove unsuccessful. Ziggler goes for the superkick for the third time but KO catches his leg, spins him around, and hits him with the Stunner and that is enough to finish the match. Winner: Kevin Owens via Pinfall   Match Rating: **¾ 

This was a fine match but nothing too special to mention other than I’m glad that KO is on Team SmackDown instead of Ziggler because in 2020 any show where we don’t have to watch Ziggler is a blessing a he is one of the most overused guys on the roster that could really benefit from a year-long break so that we can have some time to miss him. 

We go to the back where Billie Kay and Natalya are campaigning to be on the Women’s SmackDown Survivor Series team and Billie even came with her own headshot and resume, Bianca walks up and says that since this year’s Survivor Series is being billed as the Best of the Best she should be on the team because she is the EST of SmackDown and she is ready to lead a team to victory. All three women start arguing and this leads to Adam Pearce making a triple threat match where the winner will qualify for the women’s team at Survivor Series.

Natalya promos will always be cringeworthy but at least Bianca and Billie were there to make this watchable. 

We then cut to an interview Corey Graves conducted earlier in the day with Lars Sullivan. 

Graves puts over how Sullivan has demolished everyone in his path since coming back and then Graves asks him if it is ok to call him Lars. Sullivan asks Graves if he would rather call him “The Freak” because that is what Graves always calls him while he is in the ring, Graves tries to explain that he calls him that because of his freakish athletic ability, and that reasoning is fine with Sullivan. Sullivan goes on to tell a story of the first time he was called a freak, it was when he was in school, and once he was called that he started crying and that made everyone laugh including the teachers but after a while, the laughing stopped and the screaming started and that screaming lasted a lot longer than the laughing did and after that day he was not allowed back at school. Graves then asks Sullivan what his plans are in the WWE and he says that it is to make the WWE into his own personal hell. 

Yeah, I don’t know if Sullivan is one of those monsters who should be talking as I think he would be way more effective if he had a manager (Malcolm Bivens) talking for him as the lisp he has makes him a lot less intimidating. 

Bianca Belair makes her way to the ring as we go to commercial.

We come back from break and randomly cut to a video package that highlights what happened last week between Seth Rollins, Murphy, & the Mysterio family. We cut to the back where we see Murphy and Aaliyah Mysterio talking and Aaliyah says that while her mom supports her and just wants her to be happy the same cannot be said for her father and brother as they won’t even speak to her about Murphy. Murphy completely understands why they hate him but he wants them to understand that he isn’t the same guy he used to be months ago and to prove that he is going out to the ring tonight and publicly apologize to Rey and Dominik. 

We then go back to the ring for our second match of the night.

Match #2: Bianca Belair vs Natalya vs Billie Kay (Women’s SmackDown Survivor Series Team Qualifying Match) Billie shoves both Natalya and Bianca and they look to team up on her but when Natalya goes for a slap Billie ducks and she hits Bianca instead. Bianca hits Natalya with a big forearm but Natalya reverses a whip into the corner only for Bianca to jump up and over Natalya and then she takes Natalya down with a shoulder block. Billie tries to get a quick win with a schoolgirl but Bianca kicks out and when Billie tries to escape the ring Bianca grabs her by the foot only to get hit from behind by Natalya. Bianca reverses a whip into the ropes but ducks her head too early which ends up costing her as Natalya takes her down with a discus clothesline. Billie throws Natalya out of the ring and tries to pin Bianca but once again Bianca kicks out. 

Billie kicks Bianca in the corner and then blocks an attempted atomic drop from Natalya but then she is able to hit Bianca with a hurricanrana thanks to an assist from Natalya. Natalya hits Billie with a snap suplex and then sits up only to be hit with a basement dropkick from Bianca. Bianca hits a handspring into a standing moonsault on Billie which gets a very close 2 count when Natalya breaks up the pin. Natalya charges at Bianca in the corner but receives a back elbow and then Natalya slingshots Bianca off the top rope and slams her to the mat in a sitting position so that she can run over the top of her and then connect with a basement dropkick of her own. 

Natalya locks Bianca in the Sharpshooter and to make things worse Billie comes back in the ring and locks in a reverse chin lock and this doesn’t make Natalya happy as she breaks the Sharpshooter and goes to attack Billie, but Billie hits her with multiple knees to the midsection and then she sends Natalya into Bianca who holds her long enough for Billie to run off the ropes and take Bianca down with a big boot which in turn caused Bianca to hit Natalya with a DDT. Billie tries to cover both of her opponents multiple times but both women end up kicking out every time. Billie picks up Natalya only for her to take Billie down with a double leg and then she locks Billie in the Sharpshooter, Bianca eventually recovers and sends Natalya shoulder-first into the ring post. Billie tries to pick up a win with a schoolgirl as she puts her feet on the ropes as leverage but Bianca is still able to kick out and then she ducks another big boot attempt and catches Billie in the K.O.D. which leads to the 1-2-3. Winner: Bianca Belair via Pinfall    Match Rating: **

This wasn’t that great of a match outside of Bianca showing off her greatness and being the best thing about the match. I think one of the smartest moves WWE could make is to have Bianca be the sole survivor in the tag match as she is a star of the future that they need to start building up immediately and being the sole survivor could be a great way to start that build up. 

We cut to the back where Carmella cuts a promo where she says there is a difference between who the world wants you to be and who you really are, Carmella says she is the one that calls the shots and gives the orders and the one who is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead and no matter what she will always win. Next week the world will find out why she is untouchable. 

Murphy and Aaliyah Mysterio come to the ring as we go to a commercial. 

We come back and go to the ring with Murphy and Aaliyah Mysterio.

Murphy says that he understands why Rey and Dominik hate him as he did some terrible things to the both of them while he was aligned with Rollins, but he has changed, and to prove that he wants to talk to Rey and Dominik face to face, Murphy asks Rey and Dominik to come out but we get nothing so Murphy reiterates that he needs to apologize and he begs them to come out but we still get nothing from either Mysterio, however, this does bring out Seth Rollins. 

Rollins says that the Mysterios will never accept Murphy nor will they accept whatever is going on between Murphy and Aaliyah, however, he will always accept Murphy for who he is and he will forgive him for what he has done and on top of all of that he embraces whatever is going on between Murphy and Aaliyah in fact he would be glad to marry them right there. Rollins says there is a place for them in the greater good and he can tell that Aaliyah is finally able to see that he is not the bad guy and Rey has forced all of this to happen. Rollins says that it seems like Rey is controlling Aaliyah by telling her who to talk to and who to see and as for Dominik he is a coward and jealous of Aaliyah.

Before Rollins can say anymore he is attacked from behind by Dominik but Murphy pulls Dominik off Rollins and goes on the attack himself and sends Rollins to the floor. We then get a shoving match between Dominik and Murphy until Dominik decks Murphy and starts beating him down while Aaliyah is in the corner screaming for him to stop, Murphy gets in control and starts fighting back against Dominik and this brings Rey down to the ring. Rey and Murphy shove each other and then Rey goes on the attack and hits Murphy with a back elbow and then Dominik hits Murphy with a drop toe hold onto the middle rope, but when Rey goes for the 619 Aaliyah steps in between them. 

Rey tells Aaliyah to get out of his way but she isn’t moving as she tells him not to hurt Murphy and then he grabs her arm as he wants her to go with him, but she pulls away and tells him she isn’t going with him and then she says the words they Rey least wanted to hear which was that she loves Murphy. Rey and Dominik leave the ring while Aaliyah helps Murphy to his feet and when Rey once again demands that she go with him Aaliyah starts kissing Murphy. Rollins (who is at the top of the ramp) is pleasantly surprised at this latest development in the Mysterio family telenovela. Rey and Dominik walk up the ramp dejected while Murphy holds Aaliyah close to him as the segment comes to an end. 

I know that I shouldn’t be into this story as it is corny AF and has absolutely nothing to do with wrestling but I can’t help it I am hooked on this story and look forward to seeing where it goes next, I guess the hopeless romantic part of me is to blame for me liking all of this Romeo and Juliet esque storytelling. I will say that while all of this is corny at least it is more believable than the last time Rey and Dominik acted out a telenovela when Eddie Guerrero was claiming to be Dominik’s father. I guess you can consider this love story my guilty pleasure storyline of 2020. 

We go to the back where Kayla Braxton interview Daniel Bryan and asks him if what happened between Reigns and Uso earlier in the night changes his thoughts on his match with Uso later tonight, Bryan says that Uso has changed over the past few weeks and despite his best effort Reigns has been unable to beat Uso and it is for that reason that he is sure whoever wins tonight will be a great asset for Team SmackDown. 

The SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits make their way to the ring as we go to commercial. 

Street Profits cut a promo on how they love and respect New Day and they will always be one of the greatest teams in WWE history, but at Survivor Series they are not showing up to get a box of Booty O’s signed they are showing up to take the torch because they are the best of the best and they want the smoke. 

Match #3: Street Profits vs Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura Cesaro catches Dawkins with a kick and an uppercut to start the match and then he tries to hit Dawkins with a hip toss but Dawkins blocks and then we get a drop-down and leapfrog spot that ends with Dawkins taking Cesaro down with a shoulder block. Dawkins tags in Ford who hits Cesaro with a dropkick and then Dawkins slams Ford onto Cesaro for a 2 count as Nakamura comes in to break up the pin. Dawkins tries to take Nakamura out but ends up getting kicked in the head and then Ford takes Nakamura down with a dropkick. Cesaro looks for a suplex on Ford but he escapes and runs off the ropes where he hits Cesaro with a running blockbuster, Cesaro rolls to the outside and Ford goes to dive on both of his opponents but Cesaro is able to get out of the way in time so Ford just takes out Nakamura. Ford runs at Cesaro but gets caught and is thrown up in the air and ends up landing in the “crowd” of Thunderdrome screens and this takes us to a commercial. 

We come back to Cesaro having an armbar locked in on Ford and when Ford tries to fight out of it Cesaro knees him in the gut and tags in Nakamura, Cesaro drapes Ford across the top rope and Nakamura knees him in the gut and then Cesaro hits him with a suplex which gets a 2 count. Nakamura lifts Ford up and looks to hit the inverted exploder but Ford lands on his feet, Ford dodges a couple of kicks from Nakamura before dropping him with an enziguri. We get a tag on both ends as Dawkins comes in on fire as he hits Cesaro with a couple of clotheslines and a spinning back elbow and he follows that up with a dropkick to Nakamura. Dawkins hits Cesaro with a flapjack and then he hits both men with a spinning splash in the corner and a one-handed bulldog onto Cesaro. Dawkins tries for a slam but Cesaro blocks it and hits an uppercut and then he tags in Nakamura. 

Cesaro and Nakamura try for a double clothesline on Dawkins but he ducks and hits Nakamura with a right hand and then he hits Cesaro with an exploder. Nakamura hits Dawkins with a spinning wheel kick and then tries for a German suplex but Dawkins blocks it and hits Nakamura with a back elbow, Dawkins goes to hit Nakamura with the spinning splash in the corner but Nakamura is able to move out of the way and then he hits Dawkins with another kick. Nakamura sets Dawkins up on the top turnbuckle horizontally and hits him with the running knee in the corner which gets another 2 count. Nakamura tags in Cesaro and they hit the diving knee strike and gutwrench powerbomb combo for a 2 count when Ford breaks up the pin. 

Nakamura throws Ford out of the ring and follows him and then he sends him into Cesaro’s boot which he has outstretched from the ring. Cesaro goes over to pick up Dawkins but gets caught in a surprise small package for a 2 count and then he levels Dawkins with a lariat for a 2 count. Cesaro tags in Nakamura and then he lifts Dawkins up in an electric chair while Nakamura climbs up top, but before anything can happen Dawkins slips out of the electric chair and shoves Cesaro into the corner causing Nakamura to crotch himself. Dawkins hits Cesaro with the Anointment which causes him to roll to the outside, Dawkins goes up top and hits Nakamura with a superplex and then Ford finishes things off with a big Frog Splash to pick up the win.  Winners: Street Profits via Pinfall    Match Rating: **¾  

This was a fun match which you would expect from these two teams and that spot where Cesaro threw Ford into the crowd area was great. I’m sure this will be the first of many many many many matches between these two teams seeing as SmackDown only has four teams in their division which is only one more team than what Raw has. 

We cut to the back where Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn cuts a promo to hype his match with US Champion Bobby Lashley at Survivor Series. Zayn says he is the perfect man to be Intercontinental Champion because people on all continents love him and although WWE has never marketed him as the people’s champion he says he is the champion of the people because the people know that he always speaks the truth. Zayn says he represents the people of every country and continent while Bobby Lashley only represents one country and he doesn’t even want to get into further details about that country. Zayn says he is going to show at Survivor Series that the Intercontinental Champion is greater than the United States Champion. 

The NEW SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks comes to the ring carrying the chair that Bayley took her out with months ago and this sends us to a commercial. 

Sasha says that she told Bayley she was going to finish what Bayley started and in the process, she would take the one thing that Bayley values the most which was the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and at Hell in a Cell, she fulfilled all of those promises. Sasha thanks Bayley for stabbing her in the back because it ended an era of them constantly being linked together as the two of them were supposed to dominate the WWE and be unstoppable, but when Bayley hit her with that chair it made Sasha realize that it wasn’t their friendship that was unstoppable it was her because she is the Boss of Friday nights and the new SmackDown Women’s Champion. Sasha says that now Bayley is in her past she will move on to Survivor Series where she will prove that she is the best of the best when she goes up against Asuka. 

Bayley comes out and says that while Sasha did win her title she knows and even Sasha herself knows that she won’t be able to keep it as she did for 380 days. Bayley says that Sasha is lucky that she isn’t coming in that ring to beat her down for parading with her SmackDown Women’s Championship considering that Sasha didn’t legally beat her for it as Sasha forced her to sign the contract under duress. Bayley says she is going to do Sasha a favor since everyone knows that Sasha can’t beat Asuka without Bayley in her corner so she is going to take that title off Sasha before then as she is challenging her to a title match next week. Bayley tells Sasha to enjoy her short yet predictable title reign because it ends next week. Sasha hopes that Bayley brings everything she has got because backstabbing bitches never win and with that Sasha drops the mic.  

Remember a few years ago when we wanted to see Bayley and Sasha face each other, well we are finally getting it and in true WWE fashion, it looks like we are going to get to see them against each other so much that by the time the feud is over we will have Bayley vs Sasha fatigue, which is something that doesn’t seem possible but giving WWE’s overkill of every feud it is a definite possibility. I like the fact they play into Sasha not being able to keep a title after her first defense as that has been one of the biggest parts of her story on the main roster and hopefully that story will get a happy ending next week when she retains the title against Bayley. 

Daniel Bryan makes his way to the ring for the main event and we go to commercial. 

We come back and go straight to our main event.

Match #4: Daniel Bryan vs Jey Uso (Men’s SmackDown Survivor Series Team Qualifying Match) They circle the ring and lockup and Uso pushes Bryan into the ropes but we don’t get a clean break as Uso gets in a kick and a headbutt and then Uso starts to turn up the aggression as he takes Bryan down with a back elbow. Uso lands some punches on Bryan but Bryan comes back with a couple of uppercuts and then he connects with a kitchen sink. Bryan goes to work on the arm momentarily until Uso reverses a whip into the ropes and hits Bryan with a Samoan drop. Uso crawls over to the corner and it is clear that everything that has been going on with Reigns is taking a toll on him mentally. Uso puts the boots to Bryan in the corner and then he sends him into the corner, but Bryan backflips off the top rope and takes Uso down with a clothesline. Bryan hits Uso with the Yes Kicks which sends Uso to the outside in order to get away from Bryan. Uso tries to recover as he leans against the barricade as Roman Reigns comes out to watch the match and this sends us to a commercial break. 

We come back to Uso hitting Bryan with punches as he sits up on the top rope and then Uso tries for a superplex, but Bryan slips out and crotches Uso on the turnbuckle. Bryan pulls Uso down into a tree of woe and starts kicking him repeatedly and then connects with a running dropkick. Bryan raises Uso back up and climbs up to join him and then he tries to hit Uso with a back suplex but Uso counters the move by shifting his weight and this gets a 2 count and then Bryan immediately turns it over into a pin of his own but that only gets a 1 count. Uso hits Bryan with a kick to the gut and then hits him with a big right hand. Bryan tries to make a comeback with a series of kicks only to get hit with an enziguri moments later. Uso charges at Bryan but gets backdropped to the floor and then Bryan looks for a tope suicida only to get caught with a kick by Uso from the floor. 

Uso goes up top looking for the Uso Splash, but Bryan gets his knees up and then transitions into the Yes Lock but Uso is able to get to the ropes. Bryan hits Uso with the kicks in the corner and then hits a running dropkick in the corner, but when Bryan goes for a second running dropkick he is hit with a superkick from Uso and then another kick for good measure. Uso goes up top and connects with the Uso Splash and that is enough to pick up the win. Winner: Jey Uso via Pinfall    Match Rating: ***

After the match, Reigns enters the ring and stares at Uso and then Uso says he is with Reigns and that Reigns is the head of the table. Uso hits Bryan with a kick and another splash and then he tells Reigns that he understands now and that he loves Reigns. Reigns tells Uso to make Bryan understand and that leads to Uso dragging Bryan out of the ring and sending him into the steps and then he dives off the top and puts Bryan through the announce table with a splash. Uso slams Bryan’s head into the announce table repeatedly as Reigns looks on with a smile on his face. Reigns walks up the ramp with a smirk on his face as SmackDown comes to a close. 

I was not expecting Uso to win this one as I expected that with everything he had going on with Reigns that he wouldn’t need to be apart of the elimination tag match and was sure that Bryan would be a shoo-in and would even be deemed, team captain. While I liked the ending segment and the brutality shown by Uso I think it would’ve worked much better had it happened next week as it felt very abrupt to have him say that he hates Reigns at the beginning of the show and then have him say he understands and that he loves Reigns by the end of the show, he should’ve at least had a week to think about it before joining Reigns, I look forward to seeing where this story goes next. This was a decent episode of SmackDown as I enjoyed everything involving Reigns and Uso as usual and I also liked the segment involving Murphy and the Mysterios. That’s it for me this week but I’ll be back next week for more action from the blue brand.

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

[dinafbrownil]

Among U.S. States, New York’s Suicide Rate Is The Lowest. How’s That?

“I just snapped” is how Jessica Lioy describes her attempt in April to kill herself.

After a tough year in which she’d moved back to her parents’ Syracuse, N.Y., home and changed colleges, the crumbling of her relationship with her boyfriend pushed the 22-year-old over the edge. She impulsively swallowed a handful of sleeping pills. Her mom happened to walk into her bedroom, saw the pills scattered on the floor and called 911.

In 2017, 1.4 million adults attempted suicide, while more than 47,000 others did kill themselves, making suicide the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the rate has been rising for 20 years.

New York’s efforts to prevent suicides include testing a brief intervention program for people who have attempted suicide — because they are at risk for trying again. “They steal you for an hour from the universe and make you focus on the worst thing in your life and then coach you through it,” Jessica Lioy says.(Courtesy of Jessica Lioy)

Like other states, Jessica Lioy’s home state of New York has seen its rate increase. But New York has consistently reported rates well below those of the U.S. overall. Compared with the national rate of 14 suicides per 100,000 people in 2017, New York’s was just 8.1, the lowest suicide rate in the nation.

What gives? At first glance, the state doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate for the lowest rank. There’s New York City, all hustle and stress, tiny apartments and crowds of strangers. And upstate New York, often portrayed as bleak and cold, is famously disparaged in the Broadway musical “A Chorus Line” with the comment that “to commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant.”

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

Experts say there’s no easy explanation for the state’s lowest-in-the-nation rate. “I can’t tell you why,” said Dr. Jay Carruthers, a psychiatrist who is the director of suicide prevention at the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Guns And Urbanization Are Likely Factors 

There’s no single answer, but a number of factors probably play a role, according to Carruthers and other experts on suicide.

Low rates of gun ownership are likely key. Guns are used in about half of suicide deaths, and having access to a gun triples the risk that someone will die by suicide, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Because guns are so deadly, someone who attempts suicide with a gun will succeed about 85% of the time, compared with a 2% fatality rate if someone opts for pills, according to a study by researchers at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

“The scientific evidence is pretty darn good that having easy access to guns makes the difference whether a suicidal crisis ends up being a fatal or a nonfatal event,” said Catherine Barber, who co-authored the study and is a senior researcher at the Harvard center.

New York has some of the strongest gun laws in the country. In 2013 — after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — the state broadened its ban on assault weapons, required recertification of pistols and assault weapons every five years, closed a private sale loophole on background checks and increased criminal penalties for the use of illegal guns.

This year, the state enacted laws that, among other things, established a 30-day waiting period for gun purchases for people who don’t immediately pass a background check, and prevented people who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from buying guns, sometimes referred to as a “red flag” or “extreme risk” law.

The population is also heavily concentrated in urban areas, including more than 8 million people living in New York City. According to the Census Bureau, nearly 88% of the state’s population lived in urban areas in the 2010 census, while the national figure is about 81%.

Suicide rates are typically lower in cities. In 2017, the suicide rate nationwide for the most rural counties — 20 per 100,000 people — was almost twice as high as the 11.1 rate for the most urban counties, according to the CDC. The trend is accelerating. While the suicide rate in the most urban counties increased by 16% from 1999 to 2017, it grew by a whopping 53% in the most rural counties.

Loneliness, isolation and access to lethal weapons can be a potent combination that leads to suicide, said Jerry Reed, who directs the suicide, violence and injury prevention efforts at the Education Development Center. The center runs the federally funded Suicide Prevention Resource Center, among other suicide prevention projects.

People in rural areas may live many miles from the nearest mental health facility, therapist or even their own neighbors.

“If your spouse passes away or you come down with a chronic condition and no one is checking on you and you have access to firearms,” Reed said, “life may not seem like worth living.”

Intervention Helps ‘Force You’ To Move Forward 

New York’s efforts to prevent suicides include conducting a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a brief intervention program developed in Switzerland for people who have attempted suicide — because they are at risk for trying again.

The trial has yet to get underway, but clinicians at the Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse were trained in the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program, as it’s called. They began testing it with some patients last year.

Jessica Lioy was one of them. After her suicide attempt, she spent a week at the inpatient psychiatric unit at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. A social worker approached her about signing up for that outpatient therapy program.

The program is simple. It has just four elements:

In the first session, patients sit down with a therapist for an hourlong videotaped discussion about why they tried to kill themselves.

At their second meeting, they watch the video to reconstruct how the patient moved from experiencing something painful to attempting suicide.

During the third session, the therapist helps the patient list long-term goals, warning signs and safety strategies, along with the phone numbers of people to call during a crisis. The patient carries the information with them at all times.

Finally, during the next two years, the therapist writes periodic “caring letters” to the patient to check in and remind them about their risks and safety strategies.

In the Swiss trial, about 27% of the patients in the control group attempted suicide again during the next two years. Only 8% of those who went through the intervention program re-attempted suicide during that time.

“The difference with ASSIP is the patient involvement. It’s very patient-centered,” said Dr. Seetha Ramanathan, the Hutchings psychiatrist overseeing the program. It’s also very focused on the suicide attempt, not on other issues like depression or PTSD, she said.

Lioy said that, at the beginning, she didn’t have high hopes for the program. She had already told her story to many doctors and mental health therapists. But this felt different, she recalled.

“They steal you for an hour from the universe and make you focus on the worst thing in your life and then coach you through it,” Lioy said. “They force you to feel something, and they force you to just reflect on that one situation and how to move forward to not end up back in that place. It’s very immediate.”

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Shortly after returning home, Lioy felt depressed and couldn’t get out of bed. But she had learned the importance of asking for help, and she reached out to her parents.

“I was able to talk with them, and it felt amazing,” she said. “I’d never done that before.”

There have been other changes. Since returning home, Lioy finished her bachelor’s degree in molecular genetics and is working as a pharmacy technician. She’s applying to doctoral programs and she has a new boyfriend, although she said she no longer needs a boyfriend to feel OK about herself.

“It’s been a really big journey,” Lioy said.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (en español: 1-888-628-9454; deaf and hard of hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/among-u-s-states-new-yorks-suicide-rate-is-the-lowest-hows-that/

[thumbkenya76-blog]

AbbVie, Inc. (ABBV) Management Presents at Morgan Stanley 16th Annual Global Healthcare Conference (Transcript)

AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Morgan Stanley 16th Annual Global Healthcare Conference September 12, 2018 11:40 AM ET

Executives

Bill Chase - Chief Financial Officer

Scott Brun - Head of AbbVie Ventures and VP of Scientific Affairs

Analysts

David Risinger - Morgan Stanley

David Risinger

Okay. So thanks everybody for joining us for the session with AbbVie. I just need to refer you to disclaimers at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. It’s very much my pleasure to welcome Bill Chase and Scott Brun. So Bill is the Company’s CFO. I’m sure many of you are familiar with him and he’s been in the position for several years and has overseen the Company’s execution of delivering results above expectations for the last several years. Scott is currently Head of AbbVie Ventures and Vice President of Scientific Affairs. He was previously the Head of Pharmaceutical Development and has been instrumental in advancing the Company’s pipeline. So it’s my pleasure to welcome them today. I guess I wanted to start off with a question regarding the execution against your plan.

So, clearly the Company has delivered better than expected performance over a number of years. Investors are skeptical about the longer term given the fear of the biosimilar threats to HUMIRA. So maybe you could sort of tackle it two ways. Talk about the financial targets for 2020 and your confidence in achieving those? And then maybe Scott, you could talk in a bit more detail about the pipeline and its ability to ultimately offset HUMIRA longer term?

Scott Brun

Sure. Well, so David thanks for having us. We always appreciate the opportunity to come out to the Morgan Stanley conference. I think as we start with the big picture and how we’re tracking relative to the long range guidance and particularly in light of that concern around what happens post 2022 when you have an LoE for HUMIRA in the U.S. Like the reality is, since even prior to the spin, this company has been preparing itself for what was going to be in an eventual LoE event around HUMIRA and that was known on day one and our strategy that we said internally and with the board was always trying to build the capabilities and the assets within the Company to be able to negotiate that events and remain a growth vehicle. And at that point in time, we said look our aspirations is to be top tier growth.

Now obviously there's two parts of that equation, one is, what is the HUMIRA curve look like and when, and you've seen us execute very nicely with our legal strategy and the settlements around the U.S. events to delay the onset of LoE in 2022, 2023 time period. The second piece though is what are you going to grow with? And that becomes essentially a pipeline question. And we always knew that we needed to have very, very good differentiated assets. We wanted to be a focus company. We wanted to focus primarily in the areas that we knew that play to our strengths.

So we focus primarily on immunology and oncology. And we set about building what we think is one of the most attractive late stage pipelines in the industry. And we can go through obviously in some detail and Scott's got a lot to say on that thing as well. But at the end of the day, what we called out last time, we updated the strategic plan, isn't if you take HUMIRA out of the mix and you benchmark us back to 2017, which is one of the plan was last updated. We had a business when we looked at our pipeline that we felt was -- we felt comfortable saying was going to grow from about $10 billion in sales size up to $35 billion in 2025.

And the way we're going to do that was through some best in category assets and then which Scott will share with you. Our strong franchise we built in HemOnc with IMBRUVICA and VENCLEXTA products like or at least that we are just underway launching and more recently launched like MAVYRET. And when we look at those assets and we look at the de-risk nature as well as the efficacy and safety that they've shown in a very broad clinical trial, we feel very comfortable that they can get into the market in their respective places and deliver upon those gross projections.

And so we remain very, very confident, pipeline is a huge part of the story. And if you look at our pipeline, not only do we have attractive assets, but this is a very diversified pipeline. We're not delivering all that grows just with one or two assets. There is 5, 6, 7 different aspects at play which we also think is fairly unique when we look at our peers.

David Risinger

Excellent. And maybe Scott, you could add a little bit on and since speak to investors pretty frequently which of the pipeline assets are potentially most underappreciated by investors as you discuss these biggest of pipeline contributors, longer term?

Scott Brun

No, absolutely, I didn't focus on that. Again, David thanks for having us. Bill hit on the number of important themes. When we launched AbbVie, now almost six years ago, focus was incredibly important to make sure that we had the right capabilities from discovery through commercialization market access in a few set areas where we really thought that we could differentiate ourselves with both internally discovered and developed assets as well as externally sourced opportunities. I think that’s been playing out extremely well. I mean I could take the rest of the time going through the qualities of the late-stage pipeline, but maybe I can hit on a few high points.

Certainly, in hematologic malignancies, when you look at it IMBRUVICA and VENCLEXTA, these are two first-in-class agents that are transforming hematologic malignancies of several types. I mean we look at IMBRUVICA the fact is in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, first and second line. It’s really becoming a mainstay of therapy. We've also seen significant results in Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia. Most recently, we actually had a label update with a study looking in IMBRUVICA combination with Rituxan that again provides us a chemotherapy free option for this particular disease, opportunities in other malignancies like mantle cell lymphoma also tend to build the overall opportunity for IMBRUVICA.

We’re going to continue to progress IMBRUVICA particularly in first line CLL where we think there’s a lot of opportunities in particular in combination with VENCLEXTA first-in-class Bcl-2 inhibitor which have a Phase 2 study captivate to demonstrate the combination of IMBRUVICA and VENCLEXTA can drive to minimal residual disease, essentially no detectable disease by advanced diagnostic methods in 70% to 80% of patients. And so this could really transform the care of CLL away from toxic chemotherapies to a drug combination that could put patients into long-term remission with much less tolerability baggage.

Now talking a little bit more about VENCLEXTA beyond these opportunities in CLL, we’re currently under regulatory review in acute myelogenous leukemia. This is a very devastating rapidly progressive disease that we’ve demonstrated that VENCLEXTA added on to standard-of-care in first line patients who can’t tolerate the harshest chemotherapy can double or triple complete response rates, which led to a breakthrough therapy designation from FDA.

And as I said, current regulatory review that could lead to an approval next year, VENCLEXTA a lot of opportunity in multiple myeloma where we are currently in Phase 3 looking at in combination with Velcade and dexamethasone in second line plus multiple myeloma. We also think there are opportunities in first line myeloma and certain genetically defined population, so a tremendous opportunity is there.

Moving on to our immunology franchise, risankizumab, the partnered assay with BI and anti-IL-23 that has demonstrated some of the highest responses that we’ve seen in patients with psoriasis PASI 100 scores, complete skin clearance on the order of 50% to 60% Superiority versus STELARA, HUMIRA the ability to treat patients who have failed prior TNF inhibitors in a quarterly dosing pattern. And so, risa is currently under regulatory review as well.

Our selective JAK1 inhibitor, upadacitinib, for which we disclosed 5 trials in rheumatoid arthritis. We studied this drug in first line therapy patients who are naive to any treatment, all the way through patients who have failed prior TNF inhibitors. We've lifted Upa with and without methotrexate. We've demonstrated Superiority to HUMIRA. We have over 4,000 patients worth of data. And then every one of these contexts, Upa is performing at the top of the class, certainly directionally, although we have no head-to-head studies directionally better than what we see with baricitinib vs tofacitinib.

I think we've shown from the safety perspective that our rates for venous thromboembolism which has become a point of discussion with this class, really do not differ from placebo and our randomized controlled trials, nor do they worsen overtime, nor do they demonstrate any type of dose response. Certainly, if we want to get into a little bit more of the recent competitive context with recent risa and upa, David during the question we can do that.

ORILISSA, otherwise known as elagolix, the first new therapy for endometriosis related pain in a long time. This disease affects millions of women. They are unsuccessfully treated with combination of oral contraceptives or opioid pain management. We've demonstrated that with this oral therapy that affects the GnRH axis. We can lead to high levels of pain control and do it with a much improved side effect profile relative to show within the nuclear option Lupron.

So, we're in the launch phase of this drug right now. We're in Phase 3 in analysis of bleeding related to uterine fibroid. Another very common gynecological condition where again our two Phase 3 studies that have read out have demonstrated very high levels of efficacy, 75% or so significance of patients had significant reduction in their bleeding.

Again, I could keep going on and on. But I think the point here is as Bill said, diversified assets across a variety of different therapeutic areas that actually have potential beyond these initial indications that I've laid out. And I think as you seen with HUMIRA one of our themes is, to really understand biology and take it to places that it may not have been studied before.

David Risinger

Great. We could just follow up on the competitive landscape…

Scott Brun

We do a couple of announcements over the past year, so…

David Risinger

Yes, could you touch on those?

Scott Brun

Certainly, why don't we go ahead and start with the theme to data and what, I've always got to be careful about talking about someone else who is single study. To sum up what I'll say is based on what we saw from the Phase 2 data in the public domain, I took a Phase 3 data from this first trial or are consistent with that data set?

On the efficacy side both filgotinib and upadacitinib, as I said before directionally appear to provide the potential for improved efficacy relative to baricitinib or tofacitinib. We got to be a careful about our cross-study comparisons here of course especially since we don't know the baseline characteristics of the filgotinib population in total. I would say if you look at the ACR scores, there is puts and takes looking between upa and filgotinib. If you look at some of the DAS scores, which are a high stringent measure of disease control, low disease activity and clinical remission, I can certainly say that, again, all the caveats across study comparisons taking into account that for low dose of upadacitinib is performing every bit as well, if not maybe directionally better than what we see with filgotinib.

So, not seeing clear points of differentiation on the efficacy side, safety is harder to compare because we've got different bits and pieces of what's been shared. I'm glad no patients have venous thromboembolism on the filgotinib trial. But as we know, even patients on background therapy can see VTE. So I think before we can say exactly what that means, we need to see their whole program it's in context. And certainly, we've shared some information on infections, last year so on. I think at this point, it's too early to say that there is any kind of clear signal what differentiation on these low incidence events.

The one thing I do want to point out is that we will be filing an RA with upadacitinib before the end of this year, actually one of the things I must point out, before the end of this year, again, I don't know if Gilead had spoken to their timing when they were just in here. As I understand, the critical path for them is to complete the man-to-male reproductive study to de-risk the 200 milligram dose to see exactly what the benefit risk on that dose is. As I understand that that may put them more than a year behind our current filing timeline.

David Risinger

Got it. That's very helpful. Maybe we could pivot and Bill, you could talk about potential changes in U.S. drug pricing. Obviously, we have to wait and see. And if you could also touch on the notion of rebates going away, it sounds like a pretty big statement. And we'll still need to learn more on what the next steps are from HSS. But it'd be helpful for you to just frame it as you see it currently. And then touch on the rebate issue. Rick had spent a fair amount of time on the 2Q call. So one can refer to that transcript for lots of detail, but still be helpful because it's topic on investors' mind?

Bill Chase

Sure. So look, pricing has been a focus for the industry for the last several years. And it's clear that the administration has made it a focus in these years as well. So we historically whatever we do on our long range plan in the U.S. while we continue to believe the U.S. will remain a price positive environment. We always prudently scale back the rates of increases. So from a long range plan perspective, we've always kind of forecasted because it’s wise to forecast that way that the pricing environment will be getting a little tougher. But beyond the forecast, you've seen actions throughout the industry that have shown the dialogue around price is beginning to have an effect.

So for example, most companies now have moved to one price increase per year. We made a statement couple of years ago that we were doing that. And likewise, price increase is tend to be single digit. We have a statement similar to that as well. And so I think that you are beginning to see an impact through the industry a change in pricing behaviors. And of course, the fall through of those price increases are never in line with list. So I think if you really look at the data right now, you could say on a net-net basis while pricing is still positive in the U.S., it’s probably single-digit fall through, low-single-digit fall through maybe close to medium. But I would say try more like low-single-digits. So it’s clearly having an impact on the industry.

Now, we’re fortunate, we -- our growth is being driven by volume, not by price. If you look at our growth rates this year, they’ve been quite stunning on the top line. Probably last quarter, we had 17% operational growth, I think price overall was about 1% of that. So, when you have new products that are differentiated and you’ve got areas of high unmet need, you can drive impressive top and bottom line performance via volume and that’s what we’ve been doing.

Now, where pricing is going to go from here, little tough to call and obviously we got an initial look at the ideas in the blueprint. But while it was very comprehensive and had some truly creative ideas and we still need to see the details. And so we’re waiting along with the rest of the industry. We haven’t seen major changes to the contracting process to date, because of that. I think it’s kind of, we’re waiting and seeing. Although my guess is, our basic assumption and our long range plan is accurate and pricing will continue to moderate in this market.

In terms of the structural discussion around rebates and the questions that we would need to sort out, I think there’s two really that come to mind. First and foremost is how big, if we move into a paradigm where rebate contracting moves away, right. We move to some other type of contracting. The question is how big of a population of contracts are impacted. The Safe Harbor Provisions directly refers to government business, and the type of contract and that relies on PBM with the government is Medicare. If you look at AbbVie’s U.S. mix about 15% of our business was Medicare.

So, if it just stays within that area, you got 85% of the business in the U.S., which is not impacted. So we need to sort that out and I know some people feel that, it will rapidly move to commercial. We’re not sure, we have to see, how that plays out. That’s an important assumption. But maybe even more important is what rebate contracts are replaced with. We absolutely believe that the government and the market as not going to move away from a scenario, where you can give volume based contracts. It’s kind of a cornerstone of this industry, right. You give contracts based on based on patients under plan, the patient lives under plan and also the ability of that plan to drive compliance via formulary.

And those two things basically add up to a volume based contract. As long as volume based contracting is permitted, we don’t see any reason to believe that it wouldn’t be. It doesn’t really impact our business model. Now, we may need to figure out how you move from a rebate contract to a discount contract. But that’s just, that’s a contract form, it wouldn’t change the overall strategy. So yes, I understand why there’s a lot of concern around this change. But at the end of the day, I think it has less impact on manufacturers then perhaps the PBMs.

David Risinger

That’s extremely helpful. Let me pause there and see if there are any questions before I continue.

Question-and-Answer Session

Q - David Risinger

Okay. So one of the other topics that came up earlier in the year was the co-pay accumulator programs on the part of payers, and obviously, that has some marginal negative impact on reported sales. But could you just recap that and talk about how much of an inflection might be if more payers adopt such accumulators in 2019?

Bill Chase

Yes, sure. So, what we saw play out in the first quarter of 2018 was that there was a significant portion of patients that found themselves on high deductible plans with a co-pay accumulator. That number was roughly 4% to 5% of our commercial business which is about 80%. I'm talking to HUMIRA for example, okay. So if not necessarily not the lion's share, but it's a meaningful portion of patients.

And with this co-pay accumulator, especially did this concept was it ultimately ensured that the patient was on the hook for the full deductible even in the event that the manufacturer was willing to extend a co-pay card. Now, we fundamentally believe one of the issues in healthcare industry is co-pays that patients are burdened with. And so in most cases where we're able to, we offer co-pay assistance in order to alleviate that burden and that out of pocket burden on the consumer, the patient. We think that's absolutely the right thing to do.

What was somewhat perverse about the co-pay accumulators is it essentially could block our ability to do that. And so our view is, it is absolutely a poor contract form. And furthermore, we believe that a lot of people that were in co-pay accumulators may not clearly in plans that had co-pay accumulator, may not clearly understand what the ramifications for those plans were. And we're going to get surprise in the second quarter when they found out that their co-pay assistance have the limited a fixed amount and they now had to pay the deductible. And these deductible could be anywhere at $3,000 or $4,000. So a meaningful hit to your average patient, which in normal course would be covered by co-pay assistance and would not be taxing the patient out of pocket.

So, they get absolutely a horrific insurance form for the patient, it's actually rations their ability to get medications they need. And frankly the medications that we're selling, whether it be HUMIRA or anything else that we've got in our portfolio, these are for life threatening illnesses. And so to basically to private patients of access to that, that therapeutic, based on their ability to pay out of pocket, that was just absolutely the wrong thing to do.

So we recognize that this issue existed, we recognize that a lot of patients might be surprised. It was going to play out in Q2 and Q3 because really frankly, they had to burn through their co-pay cards before they discovered that they're still on the hook for the deductible. And in our Q1 call, we did adjust our HUMIRA guidance number down slightly to account for additional co-pay assistance that we would be able to provide these patients until we were able to sort themselves through this situation.

So, it came up as an issue on our first quarter comp. What I can tell you is it's largely tracking in line with what our expectations were. I think that the measures we've taken have largely been effective. There's been a lot of patient education by patient groups over the nature of these programs. So I like to think that we have wiser patients that will, if to the extent that they can avoid these sorts of insurance constructs in 2019, we certainly think there'll be inclined to do so.

And right now as we forecast '19, we don't see this patient population or the patient population that subject to this form of insurance coverage as expanding dramatically. We think it will largely be contained in a number roughly the size that we're seeing in '18.

David Risinger

Okay that's very helpful. And Scott, maybe we could pivot to IMBRUVICA. So there is an interesting Phase 3 trial in pancreatic cancer that's supporting out soon. Could you just frame that for us?

Scott Brun

Yes, absolutely. David, I mean, again it's better to go back and remind you all the overall strategy when we proceeded with the Pharmacyclics deal. So we felt that, look the foundation of this asset was going to be in the type of hematologic malignancies that I have spoken to particularly CLL. As you progress beyond there, we have increasing levels of risk adjustment that's spoken about some of the other malignancies where we seen great promise. PHOENIX in first line diffuse large B-cell lymphoma didn't measure up the expectations. That's a discrete duration of therapy against difficult effective standard of care, R-CHOP.

But again because of those considerations even the fact that we don't successful there, didn't mitigate our overall expectations for the assay. I would put pancreatic cancer in even another lower bucket with regard to the probability of success that we would apply to that. Obviously, this is a devastating condition for which there exist few good options. And so, we have a Phase 3 trial that is looking at IMBRUVICA added on to paclitaxel gemcitabine. That should be reading out before the end of the year, but again, this is high hurdle, haven't seen the data yet. But certainly, we don't have appropriate expectations for that.

Some of the other trials on IMBRUVICA that will be reading out, well certainly, we talked about CLL and again the iLLUMINATE trial which what's at IMBRUVICA plus GAZYVA versus chlorambucil GAZYVA to continue to enhance our body of data in first line CLL. We top line that and I think maybe able to say more on that at ASH. And then we've got ongoing study that we'll be reading out more in the 2019-2020 timeframe and things like follicular lymphoma first line mantle cell in particular.

David Risinger

Excellent. Well, I think we are out of time. I think we can go on the lot longer, but unfortunately we're out of time. So thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate that.

Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4205875-abbvie-inc-abbv-management-presents-morgan-stanley-16th-annual-global-healthcare-conference?source=feed_all_articles

[canvasclothiers]

Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano)

[ Editor’s note: Following is a piece that a wrote for a magazine, but after waiting over a year for them to publish it and pay me, I’m giving up and putting it here so that it can see the light of day and you can get some insight into a region that doesn’t see a lot of media play. Enjoy! ]

Northern Spain’s “Small California”

Why your next favorite Cab, Merlot, or Gewürztraminer might just be coming from Somontano

Take a second or two, and think about your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, your go-to Chardonnay, even your last Gewürztraminer.

What region was emblazoned on the labels of those tasty wine? Paso Robles? Washington? Chile?

Chances are very good that the word “Somontano” was not the area printed on the label. And yet, chances are also very good that this relatively small northern Spanish Denominación de Origen has been growing those same fine wine grapes longer than the more famous regions that produce your favorite versions of those same wines.

Somontano’s ancient Alquézar

Like most of the wine regions in Western Europe, viticulture in Somontano was probably established by the Romans, and also probable predates reliable written history, extending back to the second century BC. That it took the region until 1984 to become an officially recognized  Denominación de Origen (DO) is, in a way, indicative of the minor identity crisis that defines the modern Somontano. At a time when “uniqueness” is the marketing battle cry of most luxury fine wine regions, Somontano is the odd man out.

Of the grapes officially permitted in the DO, only three (the white Alcañón, and reds Moristel and Parraleta) are indigenous. A few others (such as Garnacha and Tempranillo) are Spanish in origin but not native to Somontano. The rest are a hodgepodge of some of the wine world’s most famous – and decidedly not Spanish – grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer.

What makes Somontano such an awkwardly difficult topic in marketing meetings is the same thing that makes many of its wines so good: the place has a great climate growing famous international grape varieties. As winemaker Jesús Artajona Serrano, from Enate (one of the founders of the Somontano DO) puts it, “we are in a small California…”

Cellars of Pirieneos

Roughly translated, Somontano means “foot of the mountains.” Protected by the Pyrenees, the area sits at the edge of the European plate, on soils that were part of an ancient ocean, topped with runoff from the nearby mountains. While the climate is mostly continental, the proximity to the mountains allows for large diurnal temperature shifts, which fine wine grapes happen to love. The Pyrenees also help to keep the area relatively dry and sunny. Bodega Pirineos winemaker Jesús Astrain Losilla summarizes Somontano’s favorable climatic situation quite eloquently: “it’s like a theatre at the foot of the mountains.”

With beautiful ancient cities such as Alquézar (which, along with nearby Barbastro, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site), and stunning natural caverns that attract canyoning aficionados and adventure seekers, Somontano wine exposure isn’t struggling in terms of the tourist perspective. Sitting on a terrace and taking in the view of Alquézar after a hike while sipping a chilled wine made from grapes that you already know has got to be one of the more pleasant things that one can do in all of Europe, after all. There’s also a popular wine, art, and music festival, held annually in August. The Somontano DO headquarters (located in a building that dates back to the sixteenth century) is renovating to keep up with the tourist demand, updating their restaurant, wine shop, tasting room, and small museum.

Modern artwork at Enate’s gallery

But beyond the medieval walls and the narrow stone roads of its ancient cities, Somontano’s international wine variety focus is a much tougher sell. That the region can do so many things well is certainly its strong-suit, but that also means that its products face an inordinate amount of competition on the world’s wine shelves, even when you consider that the global wine market is arguably at the most competitive point it has ever seen in its centuries-long history. So, how did all of this happen in the first place?

During the Middle Ages, the area that would become Somontano saw a continuation in the winemaking traditions established by the Romans, in the form of Catholic monasteries that saw wine as both an essential beverage and a requirement for religious services (their influence, both ancient and modern, is on ample picturesque display in Somontano, drawing large numbers of tourists each year to sites such as the Torreciudad Shrine). But it was the nineteenth century that would set the course of Somontano’s winemaking future. In the 1800s, the early stages of the phylloxera louse epidemic (which would decimate much of the established vineyards in Europe) first swept through France. During that time, desperate wine and grape-growing businesses looked to other regions for economic salvation, leading some of them to Northern Spain. The result was an exponential increase in winemaking, sales, and exports for the Somontano area, and plantings of some of France’s most famous wine grape varieties.

That explains what grapes like Gewürztraminer are doing in Somontano. In that particular case, the variety was transplanted from Alsace, which makes sense when you think about it; the regions are relatively close to one another, and share some important climatic influences, like nearby mountain ranges. Where they differ are in things like sun exposure – there is more of that in Somontano, so its Gewürztraminer wines tend to be riper and more powerful than their Alsatian cousins. The grape has done so well here, in fact, that Somontano now has about 400 hectares of Gewürztraminer plantings.

Pirineos’ Losilla has a compelling take on both the marketing strength and challenge that Somontano faces on the international wine market: “The philosophy is diversity.” Here’s an introduction to a handful of Somontano’s most compelling examples of that diversity.

Bodega Pirieneos 2010 Señorio de Lazán Reserva

Pirieneos evolved from a pioneering co-operative in the region, going private in the early 1990s, and now represents about twenty-five percent of the entire Somontano DO. Most of their vineyards are dry-farmed, with naturally low grape yields that are harvested at night to protect the grapes from the heat. The name of their Reserva is a tribute to the Lazán mountain in the Sierra de la Candelera, and the former marquis who was a lord of the area. This blend also pays tribute to the triple-threat identity of Somontano, using the international Cabernet Sauvignon, Spanish Tempranillo, and local Moristel. Their Reserva might also be the forerunner of oak-aged red wines in the region. It’s floral, peppery, and generous with blackcurrant fruit flavors and notes of tobacco and coffee.

  Enate 2016 Chardonnay-234

Enate, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2017, is one of the founders of the Somontano DO, producing about 2.5 million bottles per year. The brand is probably most famous regionally for the artwork that it commissions for its labels, much of which then goes on display in its impressive museum. Its Chardonnay is lively and pretty, with aromas of white flowers, citrus, and peach, and flavors of apricots and pears. It’s pithy, persistent, and a versatile match with food.

Enate 2012 Cabernet-Cabernet

So good that they had to name it twice? Well, once could certainly make an argument for that. The idea of this wine is to blend two different styles of Cabernet Sauvignon – a leaner, serious European take and a riper, generous Mediterranean side. It works; the result is a modern, juicy, plummy red with power and structure, but also with good balance and intriguing notes of toast, dried herbs, spice, and cigar.

  Batán de Salas DeBeroz 2016 Essencia de Gewürztraminer

Batán de Salas de Beroz is headed up by current Somontano DO president Mariano Beroz Bandrés. In contrast to the region’s other fine wine producers, who in many cases have either large, ultra-modern facilities or long, storied histories, Batán de Salas is  small operator, housed unassumingly in an industrial area. They have steel tanks to one side, bottle storage to the other, and barrels and concrete in between. As Beroz puts it, “we make garage wine, in a bigger garage.” Their Gewürztraminer is a textural, focused, and serious effort that belies their small size. The white has intense rose petal notes, with ample stone fruits, apples, and citrus flavors.

A sense of humor at Batán de Salas’ tasting room

Viñas del Vero 2014 La Miranda Secastilla Garnacha

Viñas del Vero, and its sister winery Blecua Estate, are high-end, boutique operations owned by the González Byass group, who operate over twenty wine brands worldwide. That corporate ownership seems to have little trickle-down impact on the Somontano wines overseen by the talented José Ferrer, who has a winemaking touch equally as impressive as the renovated Blecua Estate in which he works. The Secastilla red is produced primarily from old vine Garnacha planted in organic vineyards that are over 700 meters above sea level. The combination of unique site and attention to detail in the cellar results in a lovely, fleshy, refined, and complex wine. Notes of violets, black pepper, spices, and dried herbs combine with fresh blue, black, and red plum flavors, and enough structure to suggest that some cellaring patience will pay dividends later. [ Editor’s note: for more on this stellar producer, check out the feature that ran here earlier. ]

Bullet holes from the Spanish Civil War are still visible on some of Lalanne’s barrels.

Lalanne 2011 Lataste Gran Vino

The history of Lalanne parallels the history of modern Somontano wine, and their roots in the area run as deep as any of the region’s oldest vines. This family-run outfit was established by an offshoot of a Bordelais family that decided to move to the area during the phylloxera epidemic in the late 1890s. The family has run a local hotel, regional trains and boats (guess what those were used to transport…), and owned a hydroelectric plant that once provided the majority of Somontano’s electricity. Not surprisingly, Lalanne is one of the oldest commercial wineries in the region, and one of the founding DO members. Some of their large oak casks still bear bullet holes from the Spanish civil war. Their Lataste (named after their founder’s wife) is an interesting example of Somontano’s potential, blending all of the DO’s red international varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Pinot Noir (with a bit of Tempranillo, as well). Each vineyard plot is selected, fermented, and aged separately before blending. It’s an “old school” dark and earthy red, with notes of chalk, leather, prunes, and licorice.

  Sommos 2016 Glárima Variatales Blanco

Sommos is an architectural wonder. Designed by Jesus Marino Pascual, the winery has twenty-seven meters above ground, and extends the same distance underground, as well. Its ultra-modern facade houses an antiseptically clean, mechanized, cavernous interior where just about every stage of the winemaking process is carried out by large, impressive machinery. Almost as impressive are the experimental vineyards surrounding Sommos, in which twenty different vine training systems are being used. The calling card of the winery is their Glárima white, a blend of Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Aromas of hay, roses, and apples give way to pear and citrus flavors, with a texture that is both intellectual and delicious.

Sommos 2014 Merlot

If you like your Merlot on the dark and toasty side, then you’ll love this red. Dark and plummy, with ample tannic structure and full body, Sommos’ Merlot is a complex beast of a wine, with aromas of oak, vanilla, tobacco, and even smoked meat.

  Laus 2016 Rosado

Across the street from Somos sits Laus, a winery in transition (with redesigned labels, and a restaurant and spa in development) whose clean, stylized exterior would look ultra-modern if not for its slightly ultra-modern neighbor. The name means “grace,” and certainly its combination of 100 hectares of well-tended vineyards and calming water pools (used to help cool the winery areas underneath) will have a calming effect on just about any visitor. Winemaker Jesús Mur has crafted an instantly accessible rosé from Laus’ Syrah and Garnacha. It has a beautiful watermelon color, with strawberry flavors and a tasty, vibrant mouthfeel.

Modern styling marks the construction at Laus

Laus 2013 Tinto Crianza

A 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with eight months of French oak aging, this red is a testament to the Bordeaux heritage of Somontano’s modern wine scene. Pure flavors of cassis and plum mingle with clove, violet, toast, and cigar aromas in this focused and fresh wine. If its structure is any indication, Laus have an overachiever on their hands here that will mellow out and get even more delicious with a bit of bottle aging.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

Shop Wine Products at Amazon.com

Copyright © 2016. Originally at Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano) from 1WineDude.com – for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Source: http://www.1winedude.com/northern-spains-small-california-spotlight-on-somontano/

[static-pouring]

Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano)

[ Editor’s note: Following is a piece that a wrote for a magazine, but after waiting over a year for them to publish it and pay me, I’m giving up and putting it here so that it can see the light of day and you can get some insight into a region that doesn’t see a lot of media play. Enjoy! ]

Northern Spain’s “Small California”

Why your next favorite Cab, Merlot, or Gewürztraminer might just be coming from Somontano

Take a second or two, and think about your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, your go-to Chardonnay, even your last Gewürztraminer.

What region was emblazoned on the labels of those tasty wine? Paso Robles? Washington? Chile?

Chances are very good that the word “Somontano” was not the area printed on the label. And yet, chances are also very good that this relatively small northern Spanish Denominación de Origen has been growing those same fine wine grapes longer than the more famous regions that produce your favorite versions of those same wines.

Somontano’s ancient Alquézar

Like most of the wine regions in Western Europe, viticulture in Somontano was probably established by the Romans, and also probable predates reliable written history, extending back to the second century BC. That it took the region until 1984 to become an officially recognized  Denominación de Origen (DO) is, in a way, indicative of the minor identity crisis that defines the modern Somontano. At a time when “uniqueness” is the marketing battle cry of most luxury fine wine regions, Somontano is the odd man out.

Of the grapes officially permitted in the DO, only three (the white Alcañón, and reds Moristel and Parraleta) are indigenous. A few others (such as Garnacha and Tempranillo) are Spanish in origin but not native to Somontano. The rest are a hodgepodge of some of the wine world’s most famous – and decidedly not Spanish – grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer.

What makes Somontano such an awkwardly difficult topic in marketing meetings is the same thing that makes many of its wines so good: the place has a great climate growing famous international grape varieties. As winemaker Jesús Artajona Serrano, from Enate (one of the founders of the Somontano DO) puts it, “we are in a small California…”

Cellars of Pirieneos

Roughly translated, Somontano means “foot of the mountains.” Protected by the Pyrenees, the area sits at the edge of the European plate, on soils that were part of an ancient ocean, topped with runoff from the nearby mountains. While the climate is mostly continental, the proximity to the mountains allows for large diurnal temperature shifts, which fine wine grapes happen to love. The Pyrenees also help to keep the area relatively dry and sunny. Bodega Pirineos winemaker Jesús Astrain Losilla summarizes Somontano’s favorable climatic situation quite eloquently: “it’s like a theatre at the foot of the mountains.”

With beautiful ancient cities such as Alquézar (which, along with nearby Barbastro, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site), and stunning natural caverns that attract canyoning aficionados and adventure seekers, Somontano wine exposure isn’t struggling in terms of the tourist perspective. Sitting on a terrace and taking in the view of Alquézar after a hike while sipping a chilled wine made from grapes that you already know has got to be one of the more pleasant things that one can do in all of Europe, after all. There’s also a popular wine, art, and music festival, held annually in August. The Somontano DO headquarters (located in a building that dates back to the sixteenth century) is renovating to keep up with the tourist demand, updating their restaurant, wine shop, tasting room, and small museum.

Modern artwork at Enate’s gallery

But beyond the medieval walls and the narrow stone roads of its ancient cities, Somontano’s international wine variety focus is a much tougher sell. That the region can do so many things well is certainly its strong-suit, but that also means that its products face an inordinate amount of competition on the world’s wine shelves, even when you consider that the global wine market is arguably at the most competitive point it has ever seen in its centuries-long history. So, how did all of this happen in the first place?

During the Middle Ages, the area that would become Somontano saw a continuation in the winemaking traditions established by the Romans, in the form of Catholic monasteries that saw wine as both an essential beverage and a requirement for religious services (their influence, both ancient and modern, is on ample picturesque display in Somontano, drawing large numbers of tourists each year to sites such as the Torreciudad Shrine). But it was the nineteenth century that would set the course of Somontano’s winemaking future. In the 1800s, the early stages of the phylloxera louse epidemic (which would decimate much of the established vineyards in Europe) first swept through France. During that time, desperate wine and grape-growing businesses looked to other regions for economic salvation, leading some of them to Northern Spain. The result was an exponential increase in winemaking, sales, and exports for the Somontano area, and plantings of some of France’s most famous wine grape varieties.

That explains what grapes like Gewürztraminer are doing in Somontano. In that particular case, the variety was transplanted from Alsace, which makes sense when you think about it; the regions are relatively close to one another, and share some important climatic influences, like nearby mountain ranges. Where they differ are in things like sun exposure – there is more of that in Somontano, so its Gewürztraminer wines tend to be riper and more powerful than their Alsatian cousins. The grape has done so well here, in fact, that Somontano now has about 400 hectares of Gewürztraminer plantings.

Pirineos’ Losilla has a compelling take on both the marketing strength and challenge that Somontano faces on the international wine market: “The philosophy is diversity.” Here’s an introduction to a handful of Somontano’s most compelling examples of that diversity.

Bodega Pirieneos 2010 Señorio de Lazán Reserva

Pirieneos evolved from a pioneering co-operative in the region, going private in the early 1990s, and now represents about twenty-five percent of the entire Somontano DO. Most of their vineyards are dry-farmed, with naturally low grape yields that are harvested at night to protect the grapes from the heat. The name of their Reserva is a tribute to the Lazán mountain in the Sierra de la Candelera, and the former marquis who was a lord of the area. This blend also pays tribute to the triple-threat identity of Somontano, using the international Cabernet Sauvignon, Spanish Tempranillo, and local Moristel. Their Reserva might also be the forerunner of oak-aged red wines in the region. It’s floral, peppery, and generous with blackcurrant fruit flavors and notes of tobacco and coffee.

Enate 2016 Chardonnay-234

Enate, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2017, is one of the founders of the Somontano DO, producing about 2.5 million bottles per year. The brand is probably most famous regionally for the artwork that it commissions for its labels, much of which then goes on display in its impressive museum. Its Chardonnay is lively and pretty, with aromas of white flowers, citrus, and peach, and flavors of apricots and pears. It’s pithy, persistent, and a versatile match with food.

Enate 2012 Cabernet-Cabernet

So good that they had to name it twice? Well, once could certainly make an argument for that. The idea of this wine is to blend two different styles of Cabernet Sauvignon – a leaner, serious European take and a riper, generous Mediterranean side. It works; the result is a modern, juicy, plummy red with power and structure, but also with good balance and intriguing notes of toast, dried herbs, spice, and cigar.

Batán de Salas DeBeroz 2016 Essencia de Gewürztraminer

Batán de Salas de Beroz is headed up by current Somontano DO president Mariano Beroz Bandrés. In contrast to the region’s other fine wine producers, who in many cases have either large, ultra-modern facilities or long, storied histories, Batán de Salas is  small operator, housed unassumingly in an industrial area. They have steel tanks to one side, bottle storage to the other, and barrels and concrete in between. As Beroz puts it, “we make garage wine, in a bigger garage.” Their Gewürztraminer is a textural, focused, and serious effort that belies their small size. The white has intense rose petal notes, with ample stone fruits, apples, and citrus flavors.

A sense of humor at Batán de Salas’ tasting room

Viñas del Vero 2014 La Miranda Secastilla Garnacha

Viñas del Vero, and its sister winery Blecua Estate, are high-end, boutique operations owned by the González Byass group, who operate over twenty wine brands worldwide. That corporate ownership seems to have little trickle-down impact on the Somontano wines overseen by the talented José Ferrer, who has a winemaking touch equally as impressive as the renovated Blecua Estate in which he works. The Secastilla red is produced primarily from old vine Garnacha planted in organic vineyards that are over 700 meters above sea level. The combination of unique site and attention to detail in the cellar results in a lovely, fleshy, refined, and complex wine. Notes of violets, black pepper, spices, and dried herbs combine with fresh blue, black, and red plum flavors, and enough structure to suggest that some cellaring patience will pay dividends later. [ Editor’s note: for more on this stellar producer, check out the feature that ran here earlier. ]

Bullet holes from the Spanish Civil War are still visible on some of Lalanne’s barrels.

Lalanne 2011 Lataste Gran Vino

The history of Lalanne parallels the history of modern Somontano wine, and their roots in the area run as deep as any of the region’s oldest vines. This family-run outfit was established by an offshoot of a Bordelais family that decided to move to the area during the phylloxera epidemic in the late 1890s. The family has run a local hotel, regional trains and boats (guess what those were used to transport…), and owned a hydroelectric plant that once provided the majority of Somontano’s electricity. Not surprisingly, Lalanne is one of the oldest commercial wineries in the region, and one of the founding DO members. Some of their large oak casks still bear bullet holes from the Spanish civil war. Their Lataste (named after their founder’s wife) is an interesting example of Somontano’s potential, blending all of the DO’s red international varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Pinot Noir (with a bit of Tempranillo, as well). Each vineyard plot is selected, fermented, and aged separately before blending. It’s an “old school” dark and earthy red, with notes of chalk, leather, prunes, and licorice.

Sommos 2016 Glárima Variatales Blanco

Sommos is an architectural wonder. Designed by Jesus Marino Pascual, the winery has twenty-seven meters above ground, and extends the same distance underground, as well. Its ultra-modern facade houses an antiseptically clean, mechanized, cavernous interior where just about every stage of the winemaking process is carried out by large, impressive machinery. Almost as impressive are the experimental vineyards surrounding Sommos, in which twenty different vine training systems are being used. The calling card of the winery is their Glárima white, a blend of Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Aromas of hay, roses, and apples give way to pear and citrus flavors, with a texture that is both intellectual and delicious.

Sommos 2014 Merlot

If you like your Merlot on the dark and toasty side, then you’ll love this red. Dark and plummy, with ample tannic structure and full body, Sommos’ Merlot is a complex beast of a wine, with aromas of oak, vanilla, tobacco, and even smoked meat.

Laus 2016 Rosado

Across the street from Somos sits Laus, a winery in transition (with redesigned labels, and a restaurant and spa in development) whose clean, stylized exterior would look ultra-modern if not for its slightly ultra-modern neighbor. The name means “grace,” and certainly its combination of 100 hectares of well-tended vineyards and calming water pools (used to help cool the winery areas underneath) will have a calming effect on just about any visitor. Winemaker Jesús Mur has crafted an instantly accessible rosé from Laus’ Syrah and Garnacha. It has a beautiful watermelon color, with strawberry flavors and a tasty, vibrant mouthfeel.

Modern styling marks the construction at Laus

Laus 2013 Tinto Crianza

A 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with eight months of French oak aging, this red is a testament to the Bordeaux heritage of Somontano’s modern wine scene. Pure flavors of cassis and plum mingle with clove, violet, toast, and cigar aromas in this focused and fresh wine. If its structure is any indication, Laus have an overachiever on their hands here that will mellow out and get even more delicious with a bit of bottle aging.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

Shop Wine Products at Amazon.com

Copyright © 2016. Originally at Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers! Source: http://www.1winedude.com/northern-spains-small-california-spotlight-on-somontano/

[neurotic-nimrod]

Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano)

[ Editor’s note: Following is a piece that a wrote for a magazine, but after waiting over a year for them to publish it and pay me, I’m giving up and putting it here so that it can see the light of day and you can get some insight into a region that doesn’t see a lot of media play. Enjoy! ]

Northern Spain’s “Small California”

Why your next favorite Cab, Merlot, or Gewürztraminer might just be coming from Somontano

Take a second or two, and think about your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, your go-to Chardonnay, even your last Gewürztraminer.

What region was emblazoned on the labels of those tasty wine? Paso Robles? Washington? Chile?

Chances are very good that the word “Somontano” was not the area printed on the label. And yet, chances are also very good that this relatively small northern Spanish Denominación de Origen has been growing those same fine wine grapes longer than the more famous regions that produce your favorite versions of those same wines.

Somontano’s ancient Alquézar

Like most of the wine regions in Western Europe, viticulture in Somontano was probably established by the Romans, and also probable predates reliable written history, extending back to the second century BC. That it took the region until 1984 to become an officially recognized  Denominación de Origen (DO) is, in a way, indicative of the minor identity crisis that defines the modern Somontano. At a time when “uniqueness” is the marketing battle cry of most luxury fine wine regions, Somontano is the odd man out.

Of the grapes officially permitted in the DO, only three (the white Alcañón, and reds Moristel and Parraleta) are indigenous. A few others (such as Garnacha and Tempranillo) are Spanish in origin but not native to Somontano. The rest are a hodgepodge of some of the wine world’s most famous – and decidedly not Spanish – grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer.

What makes Somontano such an awkwardly difficult topic in marketing meetings is the same thing that makes many of its wines so good: the place has a great climate growing famous international grape varieties. As winemaker Jesús Artajona Serrano, from Enate (one of the founders of the Somontano DO) puts it, “we are in a small California…”

Cellars of Pirieneos

Roughly translated, Somontano means “foot of the mountains.” Protected by the Pyrenees, the area sits at the edge of the European plate, on soils that were part of an ancient ocean, topped with runoff from the nearby mountains. While the climate is mostly continental, the proximity to the mountains allows for large diurnal temperature shifts, which fine wine grapes happen to love. The Pyrenees also help to keep the area relatively dry and sunny. Bodega Pirineos winemaker Jesús Astrain Losilla summarizes Somontano’s favorable climatic situation quite eloquently: “it’s like a theatre at the foot of the mountains.”

With beautiful ancient cities such as Alquézar (which, along with nearby Barbastro, is an UNESCO World Heritage Site), and stunning natural caverns that attract canyoning aficionados and adventure seekers, Somontano wine exposure isn’t struggling in terms of the tourist perspective. Sitting on a terrace and taking in the view of Alquézar after a hike while sipping a chilled wine made from grapes that you already know has got to be one of the more pleasant things that one can do in all of Europe, after all. There’s also a popular wine, art, and music festival, held annually in August. The Somontano DO headquarters (located in a building that dates back to the sixteenth century) is renovating to keep up with the tourist demand, updating their restaurant, wine shop, tasting room, and small museum.

Modern artwork at Enate’s gallery

But beyond the medieval walls and the narrow stone roads of its ancient cities, Somontano’s international wine variety focus is a much tougher sell. That the region can do so many things well is certainly its strong-suit, but that also means that its products face an inordinate amount of competition on the world’s wine shelves, even when you consider that the global wine market is arguably at the most competitive point it has ever seen in its centuries-long history. So, how did all of this happen in the first place?

During the Middle Ages, the area that would become Somontano saw a continuation in the winemaking traditions established by the Romans, in the form of Catholic monasteries that saw wine as both an essential beverage and a requirement for religious services (their influence, both ancient and modern, is on ample picturesque display in Somontano, drawing large numbers of tourists each year to sites such as the Torreciudad Shrine). But it was the nineteenth century that would set the course of Somontano’s winemaking future. In the 1800s, the early stages of the phylloxera louse epidemic (which would decimate much of the established vineyards in Europe) first swept through France. During that time, desperate wine and grape-growing businesses looked to other regions for economic salvation, leading some of them to Northern Spain. The result was an exponential increase in winemaking, sales, and exports for the Somontano area, and plantings of some of France’s most famous wine grape varieties.

That explains what grapes like Gewürztraminer are doing in Somontano. In that particular case, the variety was transplanted from Alsace, which makes sense when you think about it; the regions are relatively close to one another, and share some important climatic influences, like nearby mountain ranges. Where they differ are in things like sun exposure – there is more of that in Somontano, so its Gewürztraminer wines tend to be riper and more powerful than their Alsatian cousins. The grape has done so well here, in fact, that Somontano now has about 400 hectares of Gewürztraminer plantings.

Pirineos’ Losilla has a compelling take on both the marketing strength and challenge that Somontano faces on the international wine market: “The philosophy is diversity.” Here’s an introduction to a handful of Somontano’s most compelling examples of that diversity.

Bodega Pirieneos 2010 Señorio de Lazán Reserva

Pirieneos evolved from a pioneering co-operative in the region, going private in the early 1990s, and now represents about twenty-five percent of the entire Somontano DO. Most of their vineyards are dry-farmed, with naturally low grape yields that are harvested at night to protect the grapes from the heat. The name of their Reserva is a tribute to the Lazán mountain in the Sierra de la Candelera, and the former marquis who was a lord of the area. This blend also pays tribute to the triple-threat identity of Somontano, using the international Cabernet Sauvignon, Spanish Tempranillo, and local Moristel. Their Reserva might also be the forerunner of oak-aged red wines in the region. It’s floral, peppery, and generous with blackcurrant fruit flavors and notes of tobacco and coffee.

  Enate 2016 Chardonnay-234

Enate, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2017, is one of the founders of the Somontano DO, producing about 2.5 million bottles per year. The brand is probably most famous regionally for the artwork that it commissions for its labels, much of which then goes on display in its impressive museum. Its Chardonnay is lively and pretty, with aromas of white flowers, citrus, and peach, and flavors of apricots and pears. It’s pithy, persistent, and a versatile match with food.

Enate 2012 Cabernet-Cabernet

So good that they had to name it twice? Well, once could certainly make an argument for that. The idea of this wine is to blend two different styles of Cabernet Sauvignon – a leaner, serious European take and a riper, generous Mediterranean side. It works; the result is a modern, juicy, plummy red with power and structure, but also with good balance and intriguing notes of toast, dried herbs, spice, and cigar.

  Batán de Salas DeBeroz 2016 Essencia de Gewürztraminer

Batán de Salas de Beroz is headed up by current Somontano DO president Mariano Beroz Bandrés. In contrast to the region’s other fine wine producers, who in many cases have either large, ultra-modern facilities or long, storied histories, Batán de Salas is  small operator, housed unassumingly in an industrial area. They have steel tanks to one side, bottle storage to the other, and barrels and concrete in between. As Beroz puts it, “we make garage wine, in a bigger garage.” Their Gewürztraminer is a textural, focused, and serious effort that belies their small size. The white has intense rose petal notes, with ample stone fruits, apples, and citrus flavors.

A sense of humor at Batán de Salas’ tasting room

Viñas del Vero 2014 La Miranda Secastilla Garnacha

Viñas del Vero, and its sister winery Blecua Estate, are high-end, boutique operations owned by the González Byass group, who operate over twenty wine brands worldwide. That corporate ownership seems to have little trickle-down impact on the Somontano wines overseen by the talented José Ferrer, who has a winemaking touch equally as impressive as the renovated Blecua Estate in which he works. The Secastilla red is produced primarily from old vine Garnacha planted in organic vineyards that are over 700 meters above sea level. The combination of unique site and attention to detail in the cellar results in a lovely, fleshy, refined, and complex wine. Notes of violets, black pepper, spices, and dried herbs combine with fresh blue, black, and red plum flavors, and enough structure to suggest that some cellaring patience will pay dividends later. [ Editor’s note: for more on this stellar producer, check out the feature that ran here earlier. ]

Bullet holes from the Spanish Civil War are still visible on some of Lalanne’s barrels.

Lalanne 2011 Lataste Gran Vino

The history of Lalanne parallels the history of modern Somontano wine, and their roots in the area run as deep as any of the region’s oldest vines. This family-run outfit was established by an offshoot of a Bordelais family that decided to move to the area during the phylloxera epidemic in the late 1890s. The family has run a local hotel, regional trains and boats (guess what those were used to transport…), and owned a hydroelectric plant that once provided the majority of Somontano’s electricity. Not surprisingly, Lalanne is one of the oldest commercial wineries in the region, and one of the founding DO members. Some of their large oak casks still bear bullet holes from the Spanish civil war. Their Lataste (named after their founder’s wife) is an interesting example of Somontano’s potential, blending all of the DO’s red international varieties – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Pinot Noir (with a bit of Tempranillo, as well). Each vineyard plot is selected, fermented, and aged separately before blending. It’s an “old school” dark and earthy red, with notes of chalk, leather, prunes, and licorice.

  Sommos 2016 Glárima Variatales Blanco

Sommos is an architectural wonder. Designed by Jesus Marino Pascual, the winery has twenty-seven meters above ground, and extends the same distance underground, as well. Its ultra-modern facade houses an antiseptically clean, mechanized, cavernous interior where just about every stage of the winemaking process is carried out by large, impressive machinery. Almost as impressive are the experimental vineyards surrounding Sommos, in which twenty different vine training systems are being used. The calling card of the winery is their Glárima white, a blend of Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Aromas of hay, roses, and apples give way to pear and citrus flavors, with a texture that is both intellectual and delicious.

Sommos 2014 Merlot

If you like your Merlot on the dark and toasty side, then you’ll love this red. Dark and plummy, with ample tannic structure and full body, Sommos’ Merlot is a complex beast of a wine, with aromas of oak, vanilla, tobacco, and even smoked meat.

  Laus 2016 Rosado

Across the street from Somos sits Laus, a winery in transition (with redesigned labels, and a restaurant and spa in development) whose clean, stylized exterior would look ultra-modern if not for its slightly ultra-modern neighbor. The name means “grace,” and certainly its combination of 100 hectares of well-tended vineyards and calming water pools (used to help cool the winery areas underneath) will have a calming effect on just about any visitor. Winemaker Jesús Mur has crafted an instantly accessible rosé from Laus’ Syrah and Garnacha. It has a beautiful watermelon color, with strawberry flavors and a tasty, vibrant mouthfeel.

Modern styling marks the construction at Laus

Laus 2013 Tinto Crianza

A 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with eight months of French oak aging, this red is a testament to the Bordeaux heritage of Somontano’s modern wine scene. Pure flavors of cassis and plum mingle with clove, violet, toast, and cigar aromas in this focused and fresh wine. If its structure is any indication, Laus have an overachiever on their hands here that will mellow out and get even more delicious with a bit of bottle aging.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

Shop Wine Products at Amazon.com

Copyright © 2016. Originally at Northern Spain’s “Small California” (Spotlight On Somontano) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers! Source: http://www.1winedude.com/northern-spains-small-california-spotlight-on-somontano/

[flauntpage]

Jayson Tatum is Learning on the Job

A few hours before he impersonated prime Paul Pierce by sucking all the oxygen out of Madison Square Garden with soul-shredding offensive combustion, the best 20-year-old basketball player in the world huddles inside his locker with a plate full of mouthwatering Italian fuel. Beneath a giant slice of garlic bread, generous spoonfuls of rigatoni border a few pink chunks of salmon oreganata. Jayson Tatum picks at his food, wearing short shorts that expose a pair of relatively new upper-thigh tattoos.

He’s taciturn, with hushed caution underlying every response. But, whether he enjoys the attention or still needs time to let it grow on him, Tatum's game demands it. By the end of the night, after he guides Boston to victory by scoring all six of their final points with less than a minute to go, it's hard not to think that even the most optimistic projections may have short-changed his developmental curve.

We’re one week into his second season, and Tatum is one of the most relevant and essential characters the NBA has. Last year's near-unprecedented playoff run, in which he dissected opponents with a reservoir of step backs, side-step threes, and furiously technical footwork that made defending him in space feel like one of the more fruitless duties in basketball, helped bring us here. And now, after four games, he leads the Celtics in points—he has four more than Kyrie Irving (on nine fewer shots)—rebounds, free throws, and minutes. But right now, in late October, the impressive-albeit-relatively-unreliable statistics he’s amassed carry less weight than how he looks tallying them.

I ask Tatum about a particular sequence from Boston's second game against the Toronto Raptors, when he appeared to course-correct in real time. His initial mistake came just a few minutes in, when Kawhi Leonard dropped a pocket pass to Serge Ibaka for an easy layup that should never have happened.

With Pascal Siakam—a non-threat from the outside—as his man, Tatum needed to impede Ibaka’s roll sooner than he did. “I knew I messed up when it happened,” he told VICE Sports. “So, nothing needed to be said. I should’ve been over there. I didn’t help. When it happened again, I was in the right place, right time.”

With just under five minutes to go in the second quarter, Tatum quickly realizes he's in a similar situation and drifts into the paint before Kyle Lowry can even think about threading the needle to a rolling Ibaka. Tatum ignores Siakam, who Irving picks up on a switch, and it's exactly what the Celtics want. Given where Siakam (who doesn’t play big) is on the floor—20 feet away from the rim, at the top of the key—there’s really no mismatch for Boston’s defense to worry about. Irving steals the ball.

“Once you make the mistake, you try not to let it happen again,” Tatum says. “Especially in the same game.”

Tatum is still prone to those defensive mistakes—be it with a late rotation along the back line, bungling a switch, getting beat backdoor, failing to box out, or over-helping off/fouling a quality jump shooter—but none of them can be attributed to poor effort. As someone who's responsible for a diverse collection of skill-sets and positions, from a possession-to-possession basis, the need to process information is constant. His wingspan and general awareness help make the learning process a bit more smooth than it'd otherwise be, though; physically, his on-ball progress is already evident in spurts.

“I think one of his key areas of emphasis has been core strength, so that he can play lower longer. Especially with the way the game is being called now, so you can’t wrap people and hold onto people, you’ve gotta be able to play low, you’ve gotta be able to play in a stance, so I think that’s the number one [area of growth],” Brad Stevens said before Tatum’s 24-point, 14-rebound performance against the Knicks. “You know, he’s always been a guy that can put the ball in the hoop and do a lot of positive things for your team, but he can get a lot better in a lot of areas and I think it all centers around that core strength.”

When you watch Tatum do things people his age don’t ever really do (that is, assume first-option responsibilities on a championship contender), it’s easy to overlook his development, how each day is a step towards some untold ceiling decorated with scoring titles, MVP consideration, and prestige as the most dangerous, fluid, and unruffled bucket-getter in the world. (Instead of Kyrie, Gordon Hayward, or even Al Horford, the Raptors stuck Kawhi on Tatum in crunch time on Friday night. That speaks volumes.) His isolations are way up in volume from last year—according to Synergy Sports, only eight players in the entire league have isolated more, so far—and his overall role is maturing from supplement to linchpin, with the second-highest usage rate on the team.

Even though he's missed 14 of his 19 three-point attempts this season—he shot 43.4 percent as a rookie—Tatum's individual potency refuses to lie dormant. He exists in two states: slow boil and merciless eruption, and is so comfortable in the mid-range, with a confidence that reinforces itself every time he drills a baseline fadeaway from behind the backboard, or uses the guile of a warhorse to casually draw fouls 18 feet from the basket. Tatum's shot selection is imperfect but necessary: There's no time like the present to let him explore all the dimensions of an offensive repertoire that foreshadows some kind of basketball doomsday. He's unhurried in the post, curling off a screen, in-and-out dribbling his way into a pull-up dart, or Euro-step-finishing at the rim. Everything he does looks so damn easy.

There are dozens of examples from the past four games alone, but just look how calm he is creating and then sustaining separation against arguably the most athletic wing defender in the entire league, as the clock nears zero. He doesn't rush.

There's more to offense than scoring, though, and for Tatum to reach his own summit he'll need to read defensive coverages and combine authoritative vision with unselfish decisions. He hasn't been asked to make plays for others in Stevens's offense, but that day, along with inevitable double and triple teams, will eventually come. Throughout his rookie regular season, Tatum did not complete a single lob pass as the ball-handler to a rolling big. But here he is on Monday night, setting Daniel Theis up with a perfect pass as the lone starter in a bench unit. Plays like this—where he takes his time, gets Terrence Ross on his backside, and baits Mo Bamba into no man's land—show how the game is slowing down for him.

Back inside Madison Square Garden's visitor's locker room, Tatum looks down at his plate. “I’m a lot more comfortable and relaxed than I was last year,” he says. “I know what to expect.” Now, when they square off against a Celtics team that already has so many different weapons ready to go off at any time, so too must every other team in the NBA. Tatum's growing pains won't last forever.

Jayson Tatum is Learning on the Job published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[junker-town]

The people’s guide to Will Grier

The WVU quarterback has tremendous confidence in what he can do, which is good, because he can do a lot.

Thumbnail bio: Will Grier, redshirt junior quarterback for the West Virginia University Mountaineers. Stands 6’2 and weighs 214 pounds if he’s soaking wet, because he tends to skinny, despite growing up in North Carolina and attending school in Florida and West Virginia. If someone manages to stay thin after all that, that’s being an elite ectomorph.

Threw for 77 TDs at Davidson Day School, won a mess of national awards, and committed to Florida. Like every Florida quarterback since Tim Tebow, transferred to another school where he would thrive.

In his case, the move was not entirely voluntary. After leading the Gators to a 6-0 start in 2015, Grier tested positive for Ligandrol, a steroid that is banned by the NCAA, but not listed on the NCAA’s list of banned substances. Did you know the NCAA prohibits substances it doesn’t tell people are prohibited? College sports is not run by smart or kind people.

Grier served a year’s suspension, and under pressure from then-Florida coach Jim McElwain, transferred to West Virginia. McElwain recruited other quarterbacks, never really found one, and was fired, largely due to anemic offense. Grier threw for 3,490 yards and 34 touchdowns in 2017 at West Virginia and is off to a torrid start in 2018.

TL;DR: This worked out well for everyone except McElwain.

Hair: Was better last year when he had the Jesus locks, but still pretty nice. Has a beard because it’s 2018, he lives in West Virginia, and he’s a dad.

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

2017 Will Grier

Other personal notes: Comes from a family of social media stars? His brother Nash has 9 million followers on Instagram, so Will is actually the disappointment in the family. Stop focusing on follow routes and start focusing on followers, Will.

Environment: Playing in a QB-friendly conference like the Big 12 is great, but Grier plays for Dana Holgorsen, which is doubly nice. Holgorsen is a former student of Mike Leach and coordinated scoreboard-rattling offenses at Texas Tech, Houston, and Oklahoma State. Holgorsen’s Hair Raid — nicknamed after Holgorsen’s flowing, Bill Murray-in-Kingpin coiffure — is an evolving mutation. It generally runs the ball more, but also tinkers with passing concepts, too. (Including a few NFL-type concepts, as noted by Chris Brown here.)

General type: A pocket-friendly but mobile QB who is, unlike a thousand other college quarterbacks, accurate, especially on short stuff like this from early in 2018’s Tennessee game.

short stuff

It is a different offense in a lot of ways, but on early downs, West Virginia likes to run quick-hit air raid staples like stick for easy yardage. Grier can happily dink and dunk all day long.

Comparisons: Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said Grier reminded him of Johnny Manziel. He’s not quite the same kind of runner, but Grier has a good (but not cannon-quality) arm, can extend plays beyond the 5-second mark, and does it mostly for the benefit of his team.

No one gets ready to jump off the lip of the stadium when he takes off, is what we’re saying, even if it looks terrifying sometimes.

IT WORKED OUT IN THE END, WE PROMISE

Grier scrambled out of that possible disaster on second and 12, gained four yards, and stepped out of bounds to save a field goal attempt. It’s not panic-free game management, but it’s a functional concept.

Things that may upset you about Grier: Um ... if he’s off, he’ll do things like this.

MAGIC LEGS

Grier, like any QB, can be streaky, and when he’s cold, he tries to force the issue. A lot of college quarterbacks suffer from Magic Legs — they do not fully realize they are no longer the quickest person on the field, like they were in high school — and sometimes, this continues deep into a professional career.

See: all pro QBs who drift forever toward the sideline, waiting for someone, anyone to come open, unaware they can no longer just sidestep the linebackers barreling in to rodeo tackle them into the bench.

When Grier isn’t settled, he’ll miss throws like this shot at an open wheel route.

rushing

You can almost feel how bad he wanted that, and how quickly he saw that pre-snap, right? We all wanted it, man. That thing sailed like a lot of throws early in games, when a QB is just a little too excited.

Confident as hell in his arm and his receivers, he’ll force the issue when he probably shouldn’t.

forcing the issue

His accuracy at least turns a lot of potential disasters into mere incompletions. But because he can scramble and has confidence in his arm, Grier has a bigger menu of things to force. Sometimes that means trying to throw into double coverage in the endzone after escaping pressure, as he did in the Magic Legs clip earlier.

Sometimes he does this even without scrambling, though.

Triple coverage

That’s three orange jerseys around his receiver. There is a fine line between confidence and insanity. This is well over that line, which Grier occasionally straddles.

You got a pretty play as an intermission here? Yeah, because I’m about to talk about how awesome Grier is, and also just happened to make a GIF of this insanely beautiful draw West Virginia gets to run because Grier is such a threat in the passing game.

just a pretty draw play

But wasn’t there a hold on that play? There is a hold on every play. No one cares, including offensive linemen, who admit to holding on every play, too. Accept some beauty in your life without questioning too much, y’all.

Now let’s talk about how awesome Grier is when he does everything right.

Grier is awesome to watch, 1: He can make more than one read and hit open receivers underneath with ease.

taking the under

Such a clean and responsible young man, taking what the defense gives him and moving the chains for a first down. Combine that with the consistent accuracy, and Grier’s practically a savings bond between the 20s. Steady, unsexy, but reliable returns, opening up running lanes with the pass game, and keeping the poor defense on the field.

Grier is awesome to watch, 2: Quick-ass reads. This third-down conversion gets to the receiver on a greased rail, and the receiver can run through the catch.

That’s some Kurt Warner-y stuff, the quarterback I think of first as leading receivers so they got the ball in the flow of a play, not at a station-to-station exchange.

Grier is awesome to watch, 3: Infinite chill (when needed). A weather delay at the half of the Tennessee game must have relaxed WVU. When play resumed, the Mountaineers came out on fire, with Grier throwing for 275 yards and four scores on 16-of-19 passing in the second half.

Not all of those throws were uncontested. At the start of the fourth, West Virginia stood in its own end zone. With his feet in dangerous territory and a free rusher closing in, Grier does this on third and 11.

endzone pressure

Grier helped flip the field with a smart, composed, and accurate bullet 30 yards downfield. It almost looks easy, and it is anything but, but that’s what composure and a near-perfect mesh of system, plays, and players will do.

Grier is awesome to watch, 4: AAHHHHHHHHHHH OMG THAT THROW—

Just—

over the top where no one else can get it

—I mean—

ball placement

— FILTH, THIS IS JUST FILTH, GET THE MODS TO BAN ALL THIS SICK FILTH —

just what the fuck do you do

Take all this in before summing Grier up: Gary Jennings Jr. and David Sills V are excellent receivers, and the line looks like it’s going to be solid, and backs like Martell Pettaway make the offense work. There is a coaching staff dedicated to an aggressive style. The conference West Virginia plays in is notorious for its generosity.

I get that, and you get that, and anyone who watches football gets that.

I also get that there are only a few quarterbacks in college capable of dropping a backbreaking TD pass directly into the hands of a receiver not just over the back shoulder, but at the exact angle to make it indefensible. People talk about creating plays with the feet, but Grier can create throwing lanes simply through touch, trajectory, and velocity. An otherwise covered receiver is suddenly open.

He does not play perfect games, but no one will. But this system gives him plenty of chances to show out, because the Hair Raid, air raid, or whatever it gets called requires quarterbacks to throw 30, 40, and sometimes 50 times a game. This has been a place for so-called system QBs, even if it’s also been a place for serviceable NFL starters, and also Brandon Weeden.

But even with all the qualifiers, there is something really spectacular here. Unlike almost anyone else in college, he will make arguments to a defense that have no counter. For Grier, there will be three or four throws a game that are nothing less than pure evil, laced right through a defense doing everything it should be doing.

Anything else? Yeah, he’s a hopper. Just one of those QBs who really likes to jump a little in the pocket, looking for his man. Bouncy, like a kangaroo that can throw a wicked post pattern. Once you notice it, you will never unsee it.