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baddygab-bi · 1 month

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Your analysis of the script leak is really interesting! I know next to nothing about the industry or how this type of behind-the-scenes stuff works. But I had similar thoughts about the script having been retyped due to lack of watermark and other issues that you noted. That being said, I still hoped it was an early draft because I didn't care for how Buck and Eddie came across in the scene. And no, I'm not just referring to the b-word, LOL...it's a combination of the plot aspects (Eddie/Marisol) dialogue choices ("a little bit gay"???) and general back-and-forth didn't seem 100% true to their characters.

Also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but the leaker claimed that they were exchanging Facebook messages with a crew member who sent them the scripts. They apparently named the crew member in their messages. As you said, it's illegal and a violation of contract, so it doesn't make sense to me why someone would risk so much. They could of course be lying - maybe they worked for the show but got fired, took information as they left and just blamed this random crew member because they were bitter? As of right now, people who know the name of the crew member haven't disclosed it.

We'll know soon enough how accurate the script is...

Oops, missed this from a few days ago!

I PRAY I’m wrong about the leaks being real. Like I would celebrate being wrong. I WANT to be wrong so badly. I think people think I want them to be real. I don’t. I reallyyyyyyy don’t.

The more I think about them, the more I don’t even know how I feel about them. Some of it I believe, because we have context from other places, like all the Eddie/Marisol stuff, the Buck and Tommy stuff. Based on interviews and BTS the leaks line up. But some of the dialogue is just bad. The “little bit gay” doesn’t bump for me, because Buck is still working out his sexuality, he may not have the words for it yet, I’m willing to overlook that until Buck has the words for himself. But the idiot thing feels weird to me, like I can’t hear that coming from Ryan. Also, the script is just not well written. Like I said before, they talked about this like it’s the production draft (that means the one they use to shoot) and it’s just not written in the writer’s style at all. Her writing doesn’t look like that. She doesn’t use (beat) she uses (then). In the leak there are 2 then and 1 beat. In another script she co-wrote (meaning she was the main help with story and maybe writing it hands-on depending on her co-writer) there was not a single beat in the entire episode. There being 1 in this scene feels off. She wouldn’t have a sentence like “he beckons to him before moving closer to him” that’s just bad writing. Also, she wouldn’t start a sentence with and in an action line. Maybe she’s switching up her writing style, idk, but I’m torn. I think all the plot stuff could be true while the dialogue seems stilted. Dialogue is also changed around up until and even during filming, so we’ll have to wait and see. But the leaked plots all make sense. The Marisol thing though, that’s gonna be a trip.

I didn’t know that! I was thinking of the leaker being the crew member who physically leaked the information, not the person who released it on social media. I figured it went through someone else, but I’m thinking about the actual person from 911 as the leaker, the other person is like their accomplice lol. Do you know the name of the crew member? I’m really curious now if I was right about them. I could see this person getting fired or quitting and wanting to burn some stuff on the way. But also now knowing it’s Facebook makes me a lot more weary, because who the fuck actually uses FB anymore? I remember seeing this one person on Reddit who was like “Do you guys know if this is really Kenneth? He likes my posts! He wants to be my friend!” And everyone was like… no, that’s obviously fake. And the person on Reddit was convinced it wasn’t fake. So… hmm… really hoping this is another fake thing. Had it come through Insta or twitter it would be a lot more verifiable, but without knowing a name or seeing a profile, idk… Could very likely be someone trying to mess with a gullible fan.

I want to not believe it, but I also know it could be true so I’m kinda keeping one foot in both doors right now. I hope I’m wrong but I won’t be shocked if I’m right

#911 spoilers #911 abc #the leaker

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mooncademia · 3 years

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Ref:rain — Gojou Satoru x reader

Pairing: gojou x reader

Genre: fluff! + slightly spicy make-out session that gets interrupted (oops! ☺️) (warning: slight language!)

a/n: ive had this in my draft for months but im suddenly reminiscing jjk and finally got around to edit and finish it. i hope you guys enjoy it :)

[12:57 a.m.]

You should have been sleeping right now, but instead, you were on the bed in front of Gojou with your hands cupping his face. You’ve managed to lock Gojou against the bed frame and cradled his lap. Your knees were lifted at just the perfect height to kiss him tenderly on the lips and you could feel his hands massaging rhythmic circles on your hips as you kissed him passionately.

This evening, Gojou texted you that the earliest he could come and see you from work was next week, but of course, being the sly tease he is, he surprised you at night with a spontaneous fumble of your doorknob, your favorite flowers in his hand, and that classic fucking smirk that he always have on whenever he sees your cute shocked look.

And being too swooned and shock to even get a smidgen mad at your boyfriend for almost making you blast out your “emo playlist” (aka: all the sad and emotional songs by Daughter) you ran to your door and threw your arms around him, snuggling your face in his jujutsu uniform.

You closed your eyes are you wrapped your arms tightly around him, inhaling his scent like a warm summer breeze. Wrapping your arms around him was one of the biggest things you’ve missed for the last few months it, it was just like puzzle pieces finally coming together. It fits.

When you broke away, you still had your arms around his neck, and when your eyes met your boyfriend, you shot him your perfected death stare--the kind that always leaves Gojou largely unaffected by your glare and instead chuckle.

“Miss me?” Gojou asked, peering down at you with a charming smile on his face. You could barely see his eyes through his dark sunglasses but you could tell they were glistening with excitement.

“After three months of not seeing you?” You tilted your head and shrugged playfully. “Hmm......Maybe.” You looked up at him and gave him a sneered eye and a pout. “I don’t think I can trust your word anymore, Gojou Satoru.” You teased.

Gojou cocked his head to the right and wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him. “A little surprised doesn’t hurt, babe.”

You cupped his right cheek and let out a puff of air through your nose, shaking your head slightly with a grin. You were still in disbelief that after so many weeks being away, your boyfriend was finally here.

Your eyes slowly soften as your eyes trailed down to his lips, your thumb ran through his lips and you knew that Gojou was already aware of what you were thinking at the moment because before you could even say anything, he leaned down to capture your lips against his. The kiss was so deep and so long, that it had your knees weak and before you knew it, he’s managed to magically carry you to the bedroom in a blink of an eye.

------

You were often the one following Gojou’s leads in the bed, but after so many days without seeing him, your kisses increasingly grew more needy and hungry. Heat flushed to your cheeks when Gojou responded with a slip of his tongue into your mouth as he hugged your body tighter from below. You let out a soft mewl when you felt his tongue flicker in your mouth, making Gojou reply with a soft groan, adoring your whimpers in your deep kiss. He opened his eyes a bit to see your eyes squeezed shut in bliss through his shades. Your eyebrows were softly tightened in delight as if you were on cloud nine and immeasurable pleasure seeped into you as you continued to kiss him with your arms wrapped around his neck, gripping his snow white hair softly.

But as lust filled the night and kisses grew more heated, a loud gurgling sound in your stomach broke the tension like a knife. Your eyes immediately snapped open and you pulled away, sputtering out a cough from the surprise and embarrassment coming from your belly.

You heard Gojou laugh aloud. He tucked his chin down so you could see his piercing blue eyes behind his shades lock directly with yours. He arched an eyebrow up and a coy smirk was plastered on his face.

“You hungry?” He asked, voice lush and teasing.

“Gojou!” Your face flushed with embarrassment as you clutched one hand over your stomach and another hand over your mouth, wiping away the string of saliva from your swollen lips that connected the two of you. Gojou let out a chuckle, caressing your thighs up and down. You looked so cute with your face flushed where a minute ago your eyes were glazed with lust and now you looked like an adorable innocent puppy.

“Do you want to go grab something to eat?” He asked, leaning in to plant his lips on your neck. You could feel the light chuckle dancing on his lips on your neck, making you feel even more embarrassed.

You didn’t want to abruptly stop everything. There was still fiery passion in your heart and a pool of heat waiting to be released so you bit your lip and shook your head in response.

“Let’s continue,” you said timidly.

Gojou chuckled and he moved his hand up to cup your cheek, admiring your features as you looked at him somewhat shyly now. His laughter began to fade as he caressed your right cheek tenderly, eyeing your still-swollen lips once more before tilting your chin downwards to taste it once again. But before he could press his lips against yours, another gurgling noise from your stomach echoed the room and you pulled away, head turning to the side giving everything up while Gojou lets out abrupt fits of laughter.

“ARGH! I can’t kiss like this!” You cried frustratedly, shifting your hips around his lap in disappointed. The intense makeout session was now replaced with Gojou laughs that were so infectious that even your lips couldn’t help but twitch a smile.

“Hey!” You pouted at him, still clutching your stomach.

“Awe its okay, it’s cute! We can always continue later. You just tasted something too sweet,” Gojou stated with a smirk, making you playfully push his shoulder away. He wraps your waist and lifts his knees up once more so you were propped higher.

“Come on, let’s go out then. Mind as well stop by somewhere to aid that stomach of yours ,” He said giving you a quick peck on the lips to wipe away that cute embarrassed look that you still had.

Your eyes slowly brightened and a smile began to form. “Now?”

“Now,” Gojou mirrored back your smile as you clapped happily and got off his lap, grabbing your coat.

You pondered for a bit at the thought and a big grin flashed across your face. “Convenient store junk it is!” You happily squealed making a quick twirl in the room. It was past midnight but eating the goodies from the convenient store during this time of day was just as special as a fancy dinner out. It has been one of your common shared memories with Gojou and you couldn’t have anything better planned.

Gojou propped himself up and watched you jump up and down already listing all the things you wanted to buy out loud, even counting all the items with your fingers. His heart swells up with a soft feeling and his cocky smirk was replaced with a soft one. Only you could make him feel such a feeling…the same exact feeling when he sees you smile, laugh, or even when you were talking about something so passionately. He realized he was probably lost in his thoughts for a while because when you turned around to see him still sitting on the edge of the bed, your eyes laced in confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

Gojou blinked behind his shades shook his head.

“Nothing…” he said in a surprisingly low voice. You saw a soft gentle smile form on his lips which made you bit your lip in awe.

You slowly made your way over to him and your laced your fingers through his hair once more, caressing it in a way that he likes. You hummed in satisfactory when Gojou wrapped his arms around you again.

“Y/N?”

You looked down, and in that moment, you lifted a hand to take off his shades, revealing his ice blue eyes and white eyelashes at its full beauty and glory. His eyes were soft…not in lust or sadness…but rather….pure euphoria.

“Hm?” You responded with a smile, gently gliding a thumb right below his eye.

“I love you.”

You froze, staring down at him in suprise with your eyes widened. This wasn’t the first time Gojou had said this to you, but every time he does it shows his soft side. A side he doesn’t normally show to others. His words always sends something so special to your heart, something that couldn’t be replaced. You weren’t used to hearing it but oh, how you loved it so much.

You smiled back and leaned down for a sweet kiss on the lips. You pulled away to admire your boyfriend’s face once more.

“I love you too, Satoru~”

#Gojou Satoru #satoru gojou #gojou x reader #gojou satoru x reader #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #gojou x you #gojo x you #gojo jujutsu kaisen #gojou satoru jujutsu kaisen #gojou x oc #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen scenarios #jujutsu kaisen #jjk x reader #jjk drabbles #gojou fluff #jujutsu kaisen x reader

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sunshineseung · 3 years

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Content Creator Year in Review

tagged by: @bearseungmin :o thank you for thinking im interesting enough to do this lol tagging: uhhh idk who’s been tagged yet so if you’re a smaller creator and want to participate in this tag, feel free to do it and tag me so i can see it :)

2020 was a fucking mess but I finally started writing here on Tumblr so I guess it wasn’t that bad in that aspect, right? For real, thank you for the endless amounts of support on this blog! Ya’ll are insanely sweet and supportive and I’m glad I joined this community when I did, because I’m having such a good time interacting with ya’ll and writing my shitty stories. Here’s to another year of being horny for kpop idols and writing smut to satisfy the insatiable!

(year in review under the cut)

1. first creation of 2020 and most recent creation of 2020 first: Anniversary - This is the first smut I ever wrote... it kinda sucks now but ya’ll still seem to like it lol most recent: Gag Gift - I’ve been super depressed so this took like a month to release, but I also hated the first several drafts, but I’m happy with it now :) Startting 2020 with being horny for Seungmo and ending it with being horny for Seungmo. Perfectly balanced as all things should be.

2. one of your favorite creations from 2020 I’m gonna do three of my faves lol Sinner (Part One) - Ah, a classic. I went in on this one, and I really like the end result, and clearly everyone else did because dozens of people requested a part two! Royalty - Probably my favorite thing I’ve ever written in terms of stray kids smut, honestly. I’m just really proud of it lol Little Secret - Duh!!! This was my first planned series smut (sorry Sinner) and the reaction it got was just amazing. Thank you for the support on this little bitch of a story!

3. a creation you’re really proud of R O Y A L T Y ^^^

4. a creation that took you forever gag gift :’) but also it took me like 30 years to finish writing my NCT drabbles for SMM 100 so... that !

5. a creation from 2020 that received the most notes i’m pretty sure my post with the most notes is my mark lee drabble, but if it isn’t... oops! Little Secret also got a bunch of notes, plus the OT8 stray kids things I made a few months ago... phew! ya’ll really liked those lol

6. a creation you think deserved more notes ya’ll slept on my hendery in a maid cat outfit drabble and I will not forgive you for that TT

7. a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it I just became an nctzen in january of this year after being interested in them since their debut lol but i’m glad i’m an nctzen now because NCT 2020 is the highlight of my year (other than SHINee coming back ofc). I’ve linked to the nct smuts like 100 times already so just... scroll up lol

8. a creation you made that breaks your heart psycho because it’s breakup angst from when i was missing my ex which just so happened to occur while ‘00 line did their psycho performance lol thanks hyunjin for the fuel

9. a ‘simple’ creation you really love first kiss is my only not smut work on my blog and I still love it with all my dainty little heart :) ya’ll slept on this one too but i understand why. it isn’t smut so ya’ll dont care about it lol it’s alright

10. a creation that was inspired by another one movie night was inspired by a jisung cockwarming fic i read on wattpad, but i can’t remember what book it was in :( sorry! but it was just a short drabble that made my brain go brrr so i had to write a whole fic about it (and then someone else requested it so i HAD HAD to do it)

11. a favorite creation by someone else inhales any of these but also ... I think about this one like... DAILY ! Actual art right here ugh i just love king/royalty stories ig one of my favorite threesome smuts!!! johnny suh just does something to a girl, okay? subby lix owns my heart THIS FIC DRIVES ME CRAZY ARE YOU KIDDING ??? that’s all for right now but you can go through the whole fic rec tag and see what kind of kinky shit i’m into lol

12. some of your favorite content creators from this year @lovebini - I literally visit ems blog basically every day just to see what FINE ART has been posted. everything is just A+++ if you aren’t following her already, what are you doing? @hanji - you dont understand... I’m OBSESSED jokes aside, another blog I visit a lot ! it’s all just so good wtf @mochinnie - everything is GOLD 10/10 highly recommend :) @nightshade-minho - definition of perfect. this mf dont miss! everything is incredible and just... so good! please! if you aren’t following already youre missing tf out! @hanflix - duh. duh! wha- duh!!! so good, so so so good! amazingly talented person writing on a gorgeous blog. literal perfection! @binniesthighs - great username, great content! another blog where every story is high art that should be put in... a really good museum that i totally know the name of! that’s all that i can think of right now, but i’m sure i’m an active follower on some other blogs that i’m blanking on right now since i usually just scroll through the stray kids smut tag lmao.

again, thank you for an incredible year! more content coming soon!

#nia talks #finished this at 5am #nice! love that for me!#this would be a funny time to find out someone i tagged hates me lol #but there's no way...#right?#we'll find out #wont we?#tag

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the-last-airbadger · 3 years

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My 2020

Hey y’all. So 2020 happened. That was a thing. Apparently. I know for a lot of people this year was uhm… pretty shit… but it was still a year that happened so it’s time for my annual reflection post (probably the only time I still post about myself on tumblr lol) and maybe we might even find some good things that happened this year!

The Beginning of 2020 vs Now

So, a lot has changed since the start of the year. A pandemic happened, for one. I can’t believe that a year ago I could still go to class every day and see my friends and now I’m pretty much stuck at home every day. The year started out pretty normal and then march happened and well, you all know what happened next. The worst part about the pandemic for me personally was probably the fact that I barely see my friends anymore and I can’t go to class every day. Some people may not think that not going to class is that bad, but I really enjoyed university more than I ever enjoyed school and I was really happy going there every day, and I was already sad I’d only have 4 to 5 years to spend there, so when that period got even shorter it made me kinda sad.

On the other hand, I do think that mentally I’m in a much better place than I was last year around this time. Being home this much really gave me time to reflect and work on my issues, and because my sister was stuck in our house for a couple of weeks I got to talk to her a lot which really helped me feel better. I think in general my entire family (my brother, sister and mom) have become a lot more open with each other which I think is great! I guess quarantine can have some benefits.

The Best Things about 2020

Okay, here’s is where we’re going to get even more positive and go over all the good things that happened (to me) this year! To be honest, most of the year was a bit of a blur so I probably will forget quite a bit, but I’m going to give this a try anyway. At the start of the year (when things were still normal) I was super excited to get into the next semester, as the one before had,,, kinda sucked, and those 6 weeks of class I had at the start of the year were really great. I remember me and my friends having a competition of who could get mentioned the most in our teacher’s powerpoint presentation so those classes were always interesting. I also finally got to dye my hair for the first time with the help of my friends. I’ve been wanting to do that for so long, and I’m so happy I finally got to do it! I even know how to do it myself now, and my hair hasn’t been brown since the start of march! Then, at the start of march, my dad and stepmother moved away and I permanently moved in with my mom. Before, I used to live with both my mom and my dad and I got really really sick of switching houses every week, so to finally live in one house and have all my stuff in one place was a bit of a relief to me, and I’m still really happy with it. After that, things become a bit blurry. I remember that at the start of quarantine in … April? I watched Sex Education or the first time, which is now not only one of my favourite shows ever, but also taught me a lot and helped me with some of the issues I was dealing with. We’ll skip over the subsequent sexuality crisis I had (I think I might actually be straight??), and skip straight to the summer, when I started watching I-Land. I watched every episode as it aired live, and because of this show my Fridays really became the highlight of the week. I don’t think I’ve ever been so invested in a survival show XD. The rest of the year was mostly just me spending time with myself. It got a bit lonely sometimes, but I also don’t think I’ve ever written as much as I have this year, and my drawing has significantly improved (if I may say so myself)! Especially towards the end of the year, when I started making a planning every day to prevent myself from wasting away all my time on youtube, I got super productive, and I wrote a lot, and made a lot of art, and I really felt good. I even started (gasp) working out. Yeah I know. Shocking right.

There was also a lot of good music that was released this year, and, to close this section on a great note, through one of my classes I finally found a group of friends to play D&D with! We haven’t actually played yet, but we will, and I’m so excited to play the game and get to know these people more! They all seem really kind!

My Resolutions for 2020?

Now, here’s the part where we check whether I actually reached all the goals I set myself for 2020. As usual, I have no idea what my resolutions were, so I honestly have no idea how I did. Let’s see, shall we?

Express my feelings more (as in I get really awkward in any sappy or mushy situation but I would like to be able to tell people I appreciate them without cringing) – UHM way to attack me on the very first resolution jeez. I did get more open with my family but I still can’t tell people I care about them without cringing so this is a fail lol

Again, learn to depend less on other people’s opinion and trust my own – I’ve been working on it, I think I’ve gotten a bit better? So win?

Get my sleeping schedule back on track – did that! It’s a bit whacky again now because of the holidays, but October and November were a big success regarding this resolution

WRITE MORE. This time I’ll make some concrete goals: Either I’ll get my story’s first draft done, or I’ll write 100 pages on a single project – okay, so here’s the thing. I don’t think I did any of these particular things, however this time I am 100% sure I wrote a lot more than the past years. I cannot count all the files and pages and notes I have now, but I wrote a lot, so I’m counting this as a win

I want to try NaNoWriMo (not necessarily in November, but at some point) – yeah, didn’t do that oops

I want to read a lot again but maybe not as much as this year because I want to focus on writing too. 40 books? – 49 books babey

Read all my current unread books (Aru Shah 2, Skullduggery Pleasant 9, Gemina, The Mistborn Trilogy and Call Down The Hawk) and finish my reread of Heroes of Olympus and the Raven Cycle) – Did all of these except Skullduggery Pleasant 9 (the start was so boring I decided not to read it all) and The Mistborn Trilogy (I am about halfway through the first book I think?) so I’m counting this as half a win

Finally read a book by V.E. Schwab (I’ve been wanting to try one of her books for ages) – Did that! Read a whole trilogy. It was good but not as great as I expected them to be. I think my expectations were too high though

Finish Playing Twilight Princess (I promised my brother) – Did that! I’m really proud of myself and so is my brother

Go. Swimming. Seriously. It’s scandalous that I still haven’t done that after waiting so long to be able to – IT’S BEEN 5 YEARS SINCE I LAST WENT SWIMMING WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. I did buy new swimshorts but I still haven’t actually used them… shame on me

Try to worry less about school and not overwork myself – kinda?

Maybe try another drawing challenge somewhere this summer? I haven’t done any of those in a while and I feel like my art needs more attention – okay, so I didn’t do that, but I did at the start of the year make the resolution to make portrait/photoshoot-like drawings for my 8 main oc’s, and I did actually manage to finish that, and they are some of the best drawings I’ve ever made, so though I haven’t actually done a challenge specifically, I did do something

I want to try a 24 hour readathon – Yeah, didn’t do that oops

I kinda want to learn a piano piece as well, but I already have so many hobbies I want to focus on so I don’t know if I’ll have the time ☹ – yeah my dad sold our piano so… fail XD

Expectations for 2021

Now, after last year I think it’s safe to say we can never really know what to expect. But! I’m going to guess anyway because it’ll be really fun to see next year whether I got anything right.

The first thing that I think will probably happen this year (if I don’t majorly mess anything up) is I’ll be writing my thesis next semester, and then in the summer I’ll get my bachelor’s degree. Honestly I can’t believe how fricking fast those 3 years went, but I guess I’ll just have to roll with it lol. Corona vaccinations will also probably start happening next year, and hopefully this will mean that going outside and seeing my friends will be possible again next year – at least a lot more than it was this year. I hope 2021 will be the year of hanging out with friends and getting to live a little again. Maybe even get to go to class. That would be great.

On to more minor – but no less exciting – things, 2021 will probably bring us a new season of Sex Education! I’m sooo excited for that holy shit. And, in a similar vein, I have high hopes for kpop releases now that SHINee is finally back, and it looks like Haseul is also returning to LOONA! 2021 will also be the year in which ENHYPEN makes their first comeback, and some of the other I-LAND contestants will also make their debut, and there might even be a new season of I-LAND as well in the summer? So there’s a lot of things to look forward to. Oh, and I almost forgot, Dan Howell’s book will be released in May, and there will be a new Grishaverse book, and the Shadow and Bone show will start airing, which I am really curious about. Again, lots of things to look forward to!

2021 Resolutions

I’m not feeling as ambitious as I was last year, but there are a couple of things I want to try and do, so let’s jump into the resolutions!

I just came up with this today, but I think I want to try and build a bit of a skincare routine? The skin on my nose is kinda flakey, and I think it couldn’t hurt to try and take better care of my skin

Keep up with my daily workouts. I want to work out every day, except when I’m at my dad’s or when it’s a special day, like Christmas or something.

Be able to do either 50 push-ups on my knees, 25 normal push-ups, or both

GO SWIMMING

Keep up with planning daily! It’s a really good way to balance all of my 3195 hobbies and it helps me to not get stressed about school

Write (almost) every day. I need to make it a habit

Draw at least once a week, every other day if possible

Go outside at least once a week. That doesn’t seem very hard but with corona I did not realise how little I go outside if I am not forced to. Sometimes I spend 3 weeks without going out and I don’t even notice it. That can’t be good for me lol

Try to make healthier food choices. Maybe follow the lunch meal plan of the guy whose workout videos I follow.

Get my bachelor’s degree

Grow a beard. I’m getting closer… I know I’m getting closer…

Meet with my frIENDS and give them the alBUMS I have for them

Be more careful with my money, maybe even save a bit of money

Spend less time on social media

Read more educational books

I think that’s it! I can’t think of anything else right now so these will have to do. I wish that 2021 will treat all of you much better than whatever mess 2020 was! Happy 2021!

Last year’s post: (x)

@the-official-pentacorn @asiandutchgirl

#personal #my 2020 #this year was a wild ride #here's to a better 2021

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xoruffitup · 5 years

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A Milestone

Panic! at the Disco’s Pray For The Wicked just had its one-year release anniversary on June 22nd. I’ve got a lot of associations and memories that made the date slam my heart hard. I bought the album last year the day it came out, but waited to listen with my full attention on a plane ride to Nantucket, MA on June 23rd. That weekend in Nantucket was an incredible, gleeful whirlwind of new music from one of my favorite bands, and the true beginning of my burgeoning devotion for Adam Driver. June 24th, a year to the day, is the one-year milestone of the first time I saw him in person and frankly knew nothing would ever be the same. ;) Peak memories from that weekend are still with me clear as day:

Sitting up late in the living room/lobby of our cute little hotel typing up this post about the film festival panel while it stormed outside.

The panic/excitement/conflict that surged through me when I was standing out in the parking lot after the panel event and I realized Adam was about to walk directly next to me to get in his car with Joanne. And when I stood there and just watched and didn’t say anything to keep him from a swift departure. Do I think now and then “damn, I should have asked for that quick selfie; it would have taken all of 10 seconds”? Of course I do. But then I think about the other people who’d been hanging out waiting for him further away, and how I might have been the difference between a peaceful and a chaotic afternoon for him. And I’m 95% sure the instinct that told me not to bother him was right.

After the panel, sitting at a picnic table alone the marina and journaling out all the adoring feels that would go into my post later. Even the rain clouds rolling in couldn’t dampen my soaring spirits. :’)

Walking through the adorable town to meet my parents for dinner later, listening to my favorite tracks from the new Panic album. The charming main street in Nantucket will forever be called up in my mind when I listen. <3

Getting to the restaurant with one more crosswalk to navigate, and being so into the music I was standing there actually dancing to “Dancing’s Not A Crime” while I stood on the sidewalk waiting for the light. My dad saw me across the street and started mirror-dancing with me even though he had no clue what I was listening to. I was so into my groove that I didn’t notice the pedestrian light was green and cars were waiting on me. I finally crossed waving an apology, but no one had honked because the guy in the car there looked thoroughly amused by my silent disco on the street corner.

Okay, even for risk of sounding like a crazy smitten fangirl... Honestly - the way my heart seized when Adam first came out of that side door into the auditorium. I remember it to the detail. I saw him in shadow, just his profile first, and he was the last in the group but unmistakeable with that height. He walked onto the stage and did his trademark awkward one-handed acknowledgement wave while everyone clapped. Cue the next hour when I sat there in the third-ish row, two seats down from Joanne, and oops accidentally kinda fell in love. (Sorry Jo, nothing but mad respect.)

I remember going so out of the way with me and my parents’ vacation plans to get to Nantucket because I had no idea when I’d get another chance to see him in person. Suffice it to say, in many ways I couldn’t have had any idea of the INCREDIBLE year that awaited me.

The next Adam event I went to was SNL, which really kickstarted my fandom involvement in terms of meeting my fandom best friends in the standby ticket line camp-out, along with a bunch of twitter famous Reylos. Friday night we were eating food deliveries from amazing reylos around the world, and Saturday night we all made it into the studio to watch him together. <3

AITAF is still mind-boggling. Once it was announced that Adam would be in the cast for the annual Broadway show, my SNL group of friends started talking about it in “what-if” terms... Then I actually managed to enlist my dad to go with us (who usually avoids veteran-type events like the plague), along with a friend-of-a-friend who was a retired Army nurse so our whole group could go. Not only did we get to witness the incredible talents of Adam and Michael Shannon giving an utterly unhinged performance of pure instinct (my dad called it “acting in the purest sense of an art form”) but among our group we also had some of the most interesting and eye-opening conversation during and afterwards. I saw the effect of AITAF’s work with my own eyes, as I watched my dad gradually opening up more and more throughout the night, when he realized it was a safe space to speak about his honest (awful) experiences when he was drafted in the 70s.

And now.... Burn This!!! It was truly a blessed time to come into this fandom (thank you TLJ ;_;) Since the first preview performance on March 15, every night I’ve spent at the Hudson Theatre (inside seeing the play, or just the nights when I was outside taking hilarious photos) have ranked among year highlights. Half of the reason is this extraordinary opportunity to see Adam in such a demanding, complex, and compelling role that lets him shine to the absolute fullest (And most times having the opportunity to gush a few short words of appreciation right to his face at stage door afterwards); The other half is the unparalleled joy and excitement I’ve shared with the range of friends I’ve spent the late hours of the night with after those shows. From thoughtful discussion of the play, our careers, and other art forms; to just pure half-drunk fangirling - I’ve treasured every moment of every night, with each and every person. <3

.... I didn’t plan for this post to turn into a year in review, but I guess the outpouring of feels that made me start writing this got away from me. That weekend a year ago, when I walked around Nantucket to the soundtrack of this album and had the focus of my fandom activity for the next year firmly lodged in my heart when I saw him the first time - This weekend a year ago was one for the books. I guess what I’m really trying to say, and what I’m really thankful for, is that - unbelievably - that weekend was only the beginning.

Thank you Adam, and thank you to this fandom for being so wonderful. I know we have drama galore and we get a bad rep, but all of the positivity and loving community honestly weighs it out. Looking at all of you: @umkylo @reylonly @asongforjonsa @kylotrashforever @ohwise1ne @monsterleadmehome @lovesbitca8 @reysexualkylo @theporgsnest @lifeboldlyblows

#Adam Driver #Panic! at the Disco #Burn This #Burn This Broadway #AITAF #Looks like I'm journaling on tumblr again....#Don't mind me...

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hallelujuh · 6 years

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shay’s favorite tv shows from 2017

this has been in my drafts for.... nine months.... fuck.

Written in December 2017, updates are from September 2018.

Considering how many new, innovative shows are around these days, I didn’t get too adventurous this year, but I’m satisfied with the ones I did watch. I discovered new shows, I was impressed by the shows I’ve been following for years, and I learned to appreciate the work that goes into television more. Here’s my top ten TV shows..

10. Thirteen Reasons Why - In all honestly, this is only here because I haven’t been able to watch Peaky Blinders yet, and it’s probably too late. (UPDATE: Watched it in Jan and it was amazing.) This show received a lot of backlash, and for good reason, although it had its moments. The characters were well-written, the relationships were given depth that is often lacking in other high school-set narratives, and the tone was great. I’ve always loved watching things that make me profoundly sad, and this show did just that. (UPDATE: Season 2 was fucking garbage lmao.)

Standout episode: Tape 1, Side B. It’s a cripplingly depressing show, but this episode stood out as a moment of light in Hannah’s dark reality. Her friendship with Jessica and Alex was nice in the beginning - their banter, them having a spot in the coffee shop. I remember assuming Alex was gay (I believe his actor is, so I wasn’t too off) and thinking that’d be good for Hannah, to have a guy friend who wasn’t interested in her and wouldn’t add relationship drama to her life. Boy, was I wrong. Still, having seen the show at the beginning of the year, this episode is the only one I remember as enjoying, so it gets this spot.

9. A Series of Unfortunate Events - I read the books in elementary school, and they’re one of my favorite series of all time. I’m also a huge fan of the film, though I know most aren’t. So I was very excited for this series, and it didn’t completely disappoint. While I found myself longing for the actors from the 2004 motion picture, and some of the directing decisions weren’t choice, it was cool to see The Miserable Mill finally come to life, and I loved the Baudelaires just as much here as anyone else. I’ll be tuning in to next season, since I’ve very, very excited to see how they handle the next three books. I can’t wait to meet the Quagmire triplets, and Esme, and Jacques! It’ll be awesome. I hope they portray it well, but there’s no film to compare it to from here on out, so maybe it’ll be different.

Standout episode: The Reptile Room: Part One/Two. Like I said, I wasn’t a huge fan of how most of the characters were portrayed in this adaption, but I did love Uncle Monty. He was just as wonderful as he was in the film and books. Watching his interactions with the kids was really nice, and as always, made me wish they could’ve remained with him. Stephano wasn’t as menacing here as he is in the film (that knife scene is the point in the film where you go, “woah, this dude’s for real. he’s scary”), which was a bummer because I still thought Olaf was a laughably bad and incompetent villain by the finale, but I did like Poe’s hysteria, and I really loved the movie theatre scene.

8. Riverdale - Oops I never wrote this dfdsbfjdbfjds.

7. South Park - While we all can agree the last season was a mess, and this one was only a slight improvement, it did have it’s moments. I’ve been a fan for five years now, so at this point, they’ll never disappoint me, tbfh.

Standout episode: Doubling Down. While Put it Down was wonderful, both satirically and because of Craig and Tweek’s adorable relationship, the eighth episode of the season was my personal favorite (UPDATE: Not sure why ‘cause I didn’t specify then and I’m not sure now.)

6. Dear White People - I didn’t do this one either damn.

Standout Episode: Chapter V. While the show is a comedic take on racial relations, this episode is an emotional, serious change. The Barry Jenkins-directed episode shows us that the subject is no laughing matter, and it very clearly deserves this spot.

5. Rick and Morty - Yet another show I discovered this year, during the summer. I’d been meaning to watch it for ages, and I finally got around to it. While the fanbase is pretty much poison, the show is pretty damn good. Maybe not what it’s hyped up to be, but great none-the-less. I’m a big fan of adult cartoons, and RaM isn’t entirely satirical like South Park, and it’s not self-aware like BoJack, but it holds up. It’s probably so popular because of how unique it is.

Standout episode: The Ricklantis Mixup. While my personal favorite of Season 3 was The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy, because I adore Jerry, I think we can all agree that the was the best episode of the season, if not the series. Like, really. Holy shit.

4. Gotham - I began watching this show last year, and caught up to season three around halfway through it. It began to drag a bit, admittedly, like it couldn’t carry it’s own weight - but now the show’s on season four, and it gets a little wild sometimes, but it’s holding quite a bit better, I’d say. I was pretty fucking impressed, especially with the Nygmobblepot stuff.

Standout episode: A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight. Although Mad City: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies from Season 3 is a close runner-up, for all the loose ends it ties up, and so cleanly, too - the winter finale gets this spot. It had me on the edge of my metaphorical seat (since I was actually curled up in bed) the entire time. While Sophia’s character and her motivations had remained muddy since her introduction, her badassery finally came to the forefront, and it was awesome. The way she tore down Penguin from his throne? Incredible. We know he’ll return, as he has so many times, but really, that was so incredible. Considering he’s my favorite character, I should feel worse. However, Sophia executed her plan so well, I was too awed to hate her. Also, Jerome’s back! I’m extremely excited to see Jerome’s role in the upcoming episodes. (Update: Oh, honey, you got a big storm coming...)

3. BoJack Horseman - I binged the hell out of this show just before season four came out, because it was so creative and thought-provoking and hilariously depressing. The fourth season was notably wonderful in a lot of ways, particularly because of Todd’s sexuality arc (the first out asexual character in a TV show!) and how well it was handled, but also because of the mature themes they took on. Princess Carolyn’s miscarriages, Diane and Mr. PB’s failing marriage, BoJack’s struggle to forgive his mother, Beatrice’s own troubled upbringing, Hollyhock’s eating disorder. I watched the whole season in three days when it was first released, four months ago, and I’m currently considering re-watching it after rereading the summaries of each episode to refresh my memory. I’d forgotten how phenomenal it was. It’s on another level - it really is.

Standout episode: Time’s Arrow. Though there wasn’t a single weak episode this season, this one definitely stood out. Following the tradition of uniquely depressing eleventh episodes, Time’s Arrow focuses on BoJack’s mother and how her turbulent childhood affected her. Gorgeously executed, it makes us pity the woman who made our favorite alcoholic horse the way he is, and it concludes with BoJack making peace with his mother, who he had spent so long resenting. It’s just a gorgeous episode. I think I’m going to rewatch it right now, haha.

2. Mr. Robot - I’ve wanted to watch this show since it came out, but I finally began and finished the first two seasons just weeks before Season 3 came out. Since I’m discussing my favorites of 2017, I won’t be talking about those first two seasons here. I’ll be focusing on Season 3, which has been, in my opinion, incredible. What began as a modern, nerdy take on Fight Club has become so much more; a masterfully dark and suspenseful fictionalized look at the looming political state of our world. We’ve gotten new characters (Irving, who’s a gem), we’ve learned more about older but mysterious characters (poor repressed Dom), we’ve had to say goodbye to old characters (I’m still mad about ******), and best of all, this season has been Tyrell heavy, and we even got to see Elliot make peace with Mr. Robot.

Standout episode: S3/EP8, eps3.7_dont-delete-me.ko - The previous episode had already established a gorgeously melancholy setting through the use of Mac Quayle's gorgeous production 2.0_6-madame3xecutioner.oga, which, as a huge fan of film scores, I instantly fell in love with. The song is featured during a scene I watched several times - the scene when Angela repeatedly rewinds the explosion, unable to cope with the reality of it. It left me feeling similar to the way I had after watching American Beauty for the first time - like the world was a different shade. I thought this would be the only moment the show could invoke that response from me, but then the next episode came out. Unlike Ep. 7, Ep. 8 didn’t have a single moment. The whole episode brimmed with pain and sadness. The show’s already sad, but the lonely, isolated feeling is often overwhelmed by the suspense, drama, and excitement. This episode let the characters hurt without interruption, and it was wonderfully emotional.

1. The Get Down - I was so thrilled when I discovered this show in April, literally a few days after Part 2 had aired. I downloaded all the episodes for a road trip, and literally could not put it down the entire tme. It blended all my favorite things - the art of rap, the origin and evolution of hip hop, how battle rapping/deejaying came to be. The music was stellar, the cinematography was breathtaking, the acting was (for the most part) wonderful, and the cast was fantastic. I’ve seen some criticizing it, because of its occasionally choppy narrative and the fact that Baz Luhrmann added his usual whimsical take on something that was historically fairly dark, but I thought it was flawless. It was definitely groundbreaking in its amount of representation, and it was fun and colorful and emotional and, overall, just absolutely wonderful. Like many others, I was pretty devastated when they cancelled it. I understand why, but I wish it could get the Sense 8 treatment and receive a movie. There’s too many loose ends - it’s a real bummer. Still, I’m grateful we were blessed with this gem of a show at all.

Standout episode: S1/EP11, Only from Exile Can We Come Home - The final episode gets this spot for a single scene; the one where it alternates between Mylene singing “I’m my #1″ in the hotel room with Jackie and all the drag queens, and the scene where an unreleased Miguel song is playing while Dizzy & Thor paint on each other, and then Shao calls Dizzy his “alien brother.” That scene was easily one of my favorites I’ve ever seen in any show, in my entire life. If that episode was a film, that scene alone would guarantee it a spot on my favorite films list. It was that good.

#mine #txt #2017

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years

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Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda)

“Come on, Cole!” It’s a sticky Saturday night in a rec center on the Upper West Side, and Cole Anthony, the most talented high-school basketball player in New York City—and arguably the preeminent point guard in the entire county—has just missed his third straight jump shot.

His obvious disappointment is quickly masked by unwavering energy and focus. Anthony nails a series of step-back threes with instinctive precision. His T-shirt, which was light gray 45 minutes ago, now resembles a gushing raincloud. Another exasperated cry echoes off the gym’s wall like a clap of thunder. “Short!”

A handful of middle-school-aged boys are dribbling around below two hoops that flank Cole’s basket. Each one pretends to ignore the sound, but not staring at its source —a blur of green shorts and white Nikes—would be impossible for anyone.

Anthony is as likely to toss a self-alley-oop off the backboard as he is to orchestrate a surgical half-court set. His game is capricious in the best possible way, with physical and mental characteristics that can’t be learned studying film or living in a gym (both of which he does fastidiously). He’s an immediate learner with a voracious appetite for information, and the older he gets—Anthony has played up a level in the AAU’s 17-and-under division for the past couple years—the more complete his game looks.

As the session strings through shooting drills aimed to quicken his release and attack in various ways out of a pick-and-roll, DJ Sackmann, a skills trainer who regularly works with some of the top high-school players in the country, asks Anthony if he wants to go a little longer than they originally planned.

He spins his head as if the question was “Would you like a piece of cake?” then trots to the corner and fires up another 10 minutes’ worth of jumpers. Once that’s over, Sackmann directs Anthony to stand about four feet behind the top of the arc. The postscript to this workout’s postscript is for him to make 20 NBA-range threes.

“20 in a row?” A devilish grin slides across the high-school junior’s face. He swishes eight before a misfire—short!—but eventually reclaims his rhythm. The ball doesn’t hit the floor. Instead, it flies from Cole’s fingertips through the nylon net to Sackmann’s reach below the rim…then back to Cole. I think about how long we’d be in the gym if anyone else in it had to sink 20 shots standing about 24 feet from the rim. Anthony wraps it up in under a minute.

“He has a different mindset as far as his work ethic is concerned,” Sackmann says a couple weeks later. “He’s very receptive to criticism and he’s willing to take everything in and try to work on his weaknesses to improve his craft. You don’t see that from any high-school kid, let alone a top-10 kid. He’s already a Division-I point guard.”

Two or three of the kids who were dribbling on the side have stuck around to watch Anthony wrap things up. Each has turned his basketball into a makeshift chair along the baseline, a few feet behind the net Cole’s jumpers are eviscerating. Free front row seats to watch a teenager who’s all-around flair and technical skill suggest he’ll someday compete in the NBA’s Slam Dunk and Three-Point contest.

Ray Lego

Coming off a summer in which Anthony dominated several circuits, invite-only camps, and AAU tournaments—all overflowing with the best prospects in the nation—the young point guard has begun to treat the present as daily preparation for what very well could be a lucrative future doing what he enjoys most.

“I think he has a chance to be the prototype for how the point guard position is played at the highest level,” says Greg Anthony, Cole’s father and a former NBA player turned basketball analyst for Turner Sports. “He’s what I call a natural basketball player. He’s not methodical. He sees it before it happens and that’s a special trait that all the great players have, is the ability to see things two, three steps ahead.”

Anthony’s days start at about 5:15 AM, when he arrives at a recreation center a couple blocks from his home. Andre Charles, an assistant coach from his PSA Cardinals AAU team will guide him through drills via FaceTime from Staten Island if he can’t make it in person.

Anthony is 6’2″ and is still growing. His primary goal heading into next season is to bulk up his trim frame, so before he ventures down to his building’s basement for an hour-long calisthenics workout, he chases a peanut butter sandwich down with an Ensure. Before he leaves for school, Anthony will inhale a plate crammed with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

After school, he’s back in the gym to hoist some more shots up, then home to focus on his academics—according to a mandate from his parents, if he doesn’t maintain a B average, he can’t set foot on the court—before he climbs into bed by 8:00 PM every night. The routine hardly sounds sustainable for anyone, let alone someone who celebrated their 17th birthday a few months ago, but in addition to his unparalleled talent and surreal athleticism, it’s Anthony’s innate drive and discipline that will soon allow him to play basketball at whichever college he wants.

Ray Lego

“He truly loves the game every bit as much, if not more, than I do. I think the better he’s gotten, the more he’s wanted to improve,” Greg Anthony says. “It’s been a fun journey to watch thus far.”

Indeed, Cole’s future feels filled with endless possibility. As he sees it, “[The NBA] is really not that far ahead. If I play my cards right, do what I need to do, I’ll be in the NBA in probably three or four years? I’ve just got to keep my head on and stay focused.”

On the court, Anthony is simultaneously cerebral, steady, and relentless. He anatomizes defenders with ease and can already attack in myriad ways from all three levels. Duck under a screen and he’ll stick a pull-up jumper. If a defender steps up to take away the shot, Anthony, who first dunked when he was 14, will slip by and deliver a teeth-rattling finish. In June, he was named Co-Most Outstanding Player at the Pangos All-American Camp, an honor once awarded to James Harden, John Wall, and Harrison Barnes. The subsequent weeks were filled with impressive performances at an array of invite-only camps and tournaments.

“He’s a top-five-in-the-country athlete,” says Terrance Williams, Anthony’s head coach on the PSA Cardinals. “But he doesn’t rely on his athleticism.”

Towards the end of the summer, Anthony had the opportunity to meet Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving while his family vacationed in the Hamptons. According to Anthony’s mother Crystal McCrary, the four-time All-Star flipped the script and told Cole how much he loved his ability.

“He actually said he was a fan of my game,” Anthony says. “It was awesome.”

Ray Lego

Anthony is nestled near the top of just about every prospect list there is (For the Class of 2019, ESPN currently has him ranked sixth and Rivals.com has him fifth), but instead of worrying about who’s in front of him or what schools are rumored to have interest, he instead studies his peers at every position, reading scouting reports and absorbing film to get a solid understanding of those likely to become his friends and foes at the next level. All other elements of the process—contact with college coaches, scheduled visits, etc.—are controlled by his father.

“You want to feel good and be proud of the program and all it has to offer, not just on the court but off it,” Greg Anthony—who helped shepherd UNLV to a National Championship in 1990—said. “That stuff is really important because that becomes your family. And that’s gonna be a part of your family your entire life. So all that stuff will play a role and we’ll look more at it as he develops more.”

Thanks to his dad, Anthony can forget about college recruitment and zoom in on all the ways he can improve as a person, player, and student. Anthony enjoys playing hide-and-seek with his four-year-old brother, and sometimes wakes up at 3:00 AM to play video games for an hour or two before his day begins. His favorite, he says, is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. “I beat that game like three times already,” he adds.

There are few distractions in his life, and his family, which constantly demands humility, help prevent his ego from creeping in and becoming an antagonistic force. He feels no pressure outside that which he sets on his own shoulders. He doesn’t care about the simmering belief that he can be one of the most exciting guards to ever emerge from New York City, and comparisons to his dad don’t stress him out in the slightest bit.

“He is my dad and I’m his son,” he says. “There’s really been no disadvantages for me. Everything’s been an advantage.”

Ray Lego

Anthony hears his name whispered when he walks down the hall at school, receives complimentary DM’s from fans all over the globe (most recently from someone in New Zealand), was once recognized while on vacation in the Bahamas. Spike Lee, a family friend, is in his cell phone. The taste of celebrity is nice, but Anthony’s self-awareness and head-down concentration keep his priorities glued in place.

“[Popularity] is not something you can fall into,” he says. “I didn’t make it yet, so I can’t get accustomed to that.”

Though he may very well find himself shaking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s hand on draft day in the not-too-distant future, right now Anthony is driven less by NBA dreams than he is by a pair of crushing defeats he suffered in recent months. In early spring, Anthony’s high-school team lost in the Catholic High School Athletic Association championship by two points, with Anthony missing what would’ve been a game-tying bucket in the final seconds.

A few months later at Peach Jam—a Nike sponsored AAU tournament that pits the nation’s best programs against one another—Anthony led all scorers in an event that also featured Duke commit and future NBA lottery pick Marvin Bagley Jr., but his PSA Cardinals failed to make it out of pool play, losing in the final seconds to a team that went on to win the whole thing. (“That’s gonna be in the back of my head until I win Peach Jam, which we’re gonna do next year,” Anthony says.)

“How he handled defeat was really telling,” Greg Anthony tells me. The elder Anthony then imparts some wisdom he’d gleaned from Pat Riley, his former coach whose legendary idioms have become gospel among basketball fans. “[Coach Riley] used to say there are two things in competition: There’s winning and misery. And you have to embrace both. And the guys that embrace the misery oftentimes are your best winners because they know what it’s like not to win, and they’re gonna do everything in their power to not feel that misery.

Ray Lego

Since Cole was a small child, the act of competition was a minute-by-minute way for him to validate his supremacy at everything, but especially the most mundane activities—whether it was dashing past his sister into the bathtub before she could climb in, seeing which of his siblings could eat dinner the fastest, or brush their teeth the quickest. When he was still tiny, a foot race against a nine-year-old first taught him to hate losing. Anthony came up short by an inch; he was inconsolable.

“We were thinking ‘Oh you did such a great job. What an effort,’ and he was just crying and crying, and we were like ‘Why are you crying? You did such a great job!'” McCrary remembers. “He said ‘My feet are supposed to be faster than his. I was supposed to win.’ He was three years old.”

Anthony was born in Portland, Oregon, while his father was a backup point guard for one of the best teams in Trail Blazers history, then moved to Manhattan when he was still a toddler. (Greg and Crystal divorced over ten years ago.) He could throw a wiffle ball before he could walk, and as he grew it became clear to his parents that their son had uncommon agility. Competitive juices around the game of basketball started to bubble up right before he entered the fourth grade, when Anthony would frequent local parks and look to prove himself in pickup games.

He’d patiently wait for his turn on the sideline, eager to square off against kids that were five or six years older. At first they were amused: Look at you, little guy, little Cole. Anthony’s response was fiery: I’m not little. Stop calling me little Cole!

“He has dog in him, as they say,” McCrary laughs. (The one trait Anthony admires most in an NBA point guard is Russell Westbrook’s tenacity.)

Shortly after, he joined his first AAU team. At that age, Anthony’s talent level didn’t stand out relative to his peers, but he played with irrepressible emotion and a level of aggression that bled over from his desire to win at anything and everything.

“I used to call him the Charles Oakley of fouls, because when he fouled somebody, he fouled them,” Billy Council, the team’s coach, says. “So if you had beat Cole to a spot or you beat him to the basket, you best believe he was gonna chase you down and foul you hard so you won’t do it again.”

Ray Lego

Though his passion shined under Council, Anthony truly came into his own in the fifth grade, when Steve Harris—an established figure in New York’s AAU scene who also mentored NBA All-Star Kemba Walker—became his coach. After Anthony’s first game with his new coach, Harris, going off a gut feeling, told his newest player he could be the best kid in the country as early as next year—course-altering words that awoke a confidence inside Anthony that he didn’t know was there.

“He looked at me like I was crazy,” Harris says. “The next year he was the best kid in his class.”

That team utilized Cole at every position, in every role imaginable: On the wing, down low, at the high post. 25-point performances were the norm; he was the hub of their entire system. In one game against the top team in his region, Anthony’s squad entered as a 25-point underdog. Harris remembers how worried he was before the opening tip, until Anthony walked by and looked up at him, as if to say, Coach, keep your head up. We got this. We’re gonna beat them. We’re gonna run them out the gym.

In the end, Anthony’s team won by 25.

“When he steps on the court, you can see his whole facial expression change,” Harris says. “Like, he’s a lion. I see my prey, I’m going to kill it. I’m going to eat today…I talk about it with my kids to this day: ‘You gotta be strong-willed like Cole.’ That’s what separates him.”

As Anthony was about to start his freshman year at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, he decided to switch over to the PSA Cardinals, an AAU club that competes in the Nike-sponsored Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL). The move allowed him to cut his teeth beside and against some of the best players in the country.

During that first year he was one of the youngest players in AAU’s oldest age group, on a team that featured several NBA prospects slated to play for Division-I schools this winter, including Mohammad Bomba at the University of Texas and Brandon Randolph at the University of Arizona.

Anthony still started every game while averaging double figures in points, then blossomed into the tip of PSA Cardinals’ spear this past spring. Not only did he become the first sophomore point guard to be named Defensive Player of the Year in the EYBL, but he also grew to embrace the expanded leadership role his coaches and father have urged him to accept. He’s conscious of how his body language affects those around him, and understands that each teammate is wired differently.

“I think his ultimate strength now is he’s learned how to lead individually, where he can understand and define different guy’s trigger points,” Williams says. “He knows one guy needs to be yelled at where another guy needs to be coddled; another guy needs a phone call. So he’s been able to expand his knowledge of leadership.”

Ray Lego

Anthony’s living room is spacious enough to fit several couches and a glass coffee table that’s neatly concealed by enormous books on Michelangelo, Diego Rivera, and The Image of the Black in Western Art. He lives with two siblings, his mom and stepfather Ray, an investment banker at Citigroup who played basketball at Harvard. Between towering windows that overlook Central Park, the walls are adorned with paintings by William Johnson and Norman Lewis that make the room feel like it belongs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A black baseball bat autographed by Derek Jeter rests in a glass case on a mantel above the fireplace.

“Cole is a child of privilege,” McCrary says. “What we constantly remind him is ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ This could all be taken away in any number of ways.”

Given his surroundings, it’d be so understandable for Anthony to behave as if the entire world revolved around him. But his support system is wound by unbreakable cable. Everyone around him is there for a reason.

“It’s pretty unique,” Williams says. “It’s holistic. His situation is so pinpoint that no one gets into the other person’s lane. So like his dad has a role, his mom has a role, his step-dad has a role, AAU has a role, he has a role, even high school for a certain amount of time has their role, and then no one steps on each other’s toes but everyone is connected.”

Ray Lego

Impending fame separates Anthony from a vast majority of people his age. But he has also grasped his own good fortune. He has a selfless streak.

“He’s definitely learned compassion and appreciates his life and his upbringing,” Greg Anthony said. “And that in order to truly be the kind of person he wants to be, you have to be someone who’s willing to be generous with your time, whether it be to teammates or friends or those less fortunate.”

Over the summer he was given free shoes, shorts, and t-shirts as a participant of adidas Nations. Instead of keeping the free goodies for himself, he gave everything to an 18-year-old assistant coach who’s headed to college in the fall. “It just shows that Cole is mentally mature, that materialistic objects don’t trigger him,” Williams said. “And that’s a little different for his age group. Most guys enjoy that stuff.”

Anthony’s munificence applies to people he doesn’t even know, a reflection of the belief his family has instilled in him: To whom much is given, much is expected.

“I joke with him, like, I see him on social media and he gives away his sneakers,” Council said. “If a kid wants his sneakers he’ll tell them to hit him in his DM’s. He’s got more sneakers than a sneaker store, and he’s just a good-hearted individual.”

Last year, Anthony took a self-imposed six-month break from social media. “I just felt like it was a distraction,” he said. With over 53,000 followers on instagram, Anthony has a link on his page to a GoFundMe he started to help those in the Houston area who were affected by Hurricane Harvey. It was an idea that started after a conversation with his sister and mom.

“I see a lot of people on Twitter, on Instagram, just say ‘oh pray for…’, alright thanks for that,” Anthony said. “It’s not really doing much. I wanted to actually go make a change. I know I’m not physically there, but see if I can do something that’ll physically help them.”

There’s no way of knowing what the future will hold for any person (let alone an athlete) as young as Anthony, no matter how dominant they are or how much better they project to be. Guarantees do not exist in the world of sports. But reasonable optimism surrounds Anthony, whose ascendance is only accelerating.

“If Cole didn’t make it to the NBA, I would say it’s gotta be a bunch of politics or he just simply didn’t want to be there,” Harris said.

Again, so much can go wrong between now and then. Immense odds are stacked against each and every individual who wants to earn millions of dollars playing a game. But Anthony’s foundation foreshadows a happy ending; it’s admirable how well he balances confidence and wariness as the stakes around him start to rise.

Back in the gym, Anthony and Sackmann are working on a few advanced separation moves. In one fluid motion, he stabs the ball into the court, sidesteps back and to the right, then, without losing his balance, rises up a few feet to stick a jump shot. He gets the ball back and does it again. And again. And again.

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda) syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda)

"Come on, Cole!" It's a sticky Saturday night in a rec center on the Upper West Side, and Cole Anthony, the most talented high-school basketball player in New York City—and arguably the preeminent point guard in the entire county—has just missed his third straight jump shot.

A handful of middle-school-aged boys are dribbling around below two hoops that flank Cole's basket. Each one pretends to ignore the sound, but not staring at its source —a blur of green shorts and white Nikes—would be impossible for anyone.

Anthony is as likely to toss a self-alley-oop off the backboard as he is to orchestrate a surgical half-court set. His game is capricious in the best possible way, with physical and mental characteristics that can't be learned studying film or living in a gym (both of which he does fastidiously). He's an immediate learner with a voracious appetite for information, and the older he gets—Anthony has played up a level in the AAU's 17-and-under division for the past couple years—the more complete his game looks.

He spins his head as if the question was "Would you like a piece of cake?" then trots to the corner and fires up another 10 minutes' worth of jumpers. Once that's over, Sackmann directs Anthony to stand about four feet behind the top of the arc. The postscript to this workout's postscript is for him to make 20 NBA-range threes.

"20 in a row?" A devilish grin slides across the high-school junior's face. He swishes eight before a misfire—short!—but eventually reclaims his rhythm. The ball doesn't hit the floor. Instead, it flies from Cole's fingertips through the nylon net to Sackmann's reach below the rim...then back to Cole. I think about how long we'd be in the gym if anyone else in it had to sink 20 shots standing about 24 feet from the rim. Anthony wraps it up in under a minute.

"He has a different mindset as far as his work ethic is concerned," Sackmann says a couple weeks later. "He's very receptive to criticism and he's willing to take everything in and try to work on his weaknesses to improve his craft. You don't see that from any high-school kid, let alone a top-10 kid. He's already a Division-I point guard."

Two or three of the kids who were dribbling on the side have stuck around to watch Anthony wrap things up. Each has turned his basketball into a makeshift chair along the baseline, a few feet behind the net Cole's jumpers are eviscerating. Free front row seats to watch a teenager who's all-around flair and technical skill suggest he'll someday compete in the NBA's Slam Dunk and Three-Point contest.

Ray Lego

"I think he has a chance to be the prototype for how the point guard position is played at the highest level," says Greg Anthony, Cole's father and a former NBA player turned basketball analyst for Turner Sports. "He's what I call a natural basketball player. He's not methodical. He sees it before it happens and that's a special trait that all the great players have, is the ability to see things two, three steps ahead."

Anthony's days start at about 5:15 AM, when he arrives at a recreation center a couple blocks from his home. Andre Charles, an assistant coach from his PSA Cardinals AAU team will guide him through drills via FaceTime from Staten Island if he can't make it in person.

Anthony is 6'2" and is still growing. His primary goal heading into next season is to bulk up his trim frame, so before he ventures down to his building's basement for an hour-long calisthenics workout, he chases a peanut butter sandwich down with an Ensure. Before he leaves for school, Anthony will inhale a plate crammed with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

After school, he's back in the gym to hoist some more shots up, then home to focus on his academics—according to a mandate from his parents, if he doesn't maintain a B average, he can't set foot on the court—before he climbs into bed by 8:00 PM every night. The routine hardly sounds sustainable for anyone, let alone someone who celebrated their 17th birthday a few months ago, but in addition to his unparalleled talent and surreal athleticism, it's Anthony's innate drive and discipline that will soon allow him to play basketball at whichever college he wants.

Ray Lego

"He truly loves the game every bit as much, if not more, than I do. I think the better he's gotten, the more he's wanted to improve," Greg Anthony says. "It's been a fun journey to watch thus far."

Indeed, Cole's future feels filled with endless possibility. As he sees it, "[The NBA] is really not that far ahead. If I play my cards right, do what I need to do, I'll be in the NBA in probably three or four years? I've just got to keep my head on and stay focused."

On the court, Anthony is simultaneously cerebral, steady, and relentless. He anatomizes defenders with ease and can already attack in myriad ways from all three levels. Duck under a screen and he'll stick a pull-up jumper. If a defender steps up to take away the shot, Anthony, who first dunked when he was 14, will slip by and deliver a teeth-rattling finish. In June, he was named Co-Most Outstanding Player at the Pangos All-American Camp, an honor once awarded to James Harden, John Wall, and Harrison Barnes. The subsequent weeks were filled with impressive performances at an array of invite-only camps and tournaments.

"He's a top-five-in-the-country athlete," says Terrance Williams, Anthony's head coach on the PSA Cardinals. "But he doesn't rely on his athleticism."

Towards the end of the summer, Anthony had the opportunity to meet Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving while his family vacationed in the Hamptons. According to Anthony's mother Crystal McCrary, the four-time All-Star flipped the script and told Cole how much he loved his ability.

"He actually said he was a fan of my game," Anthony says. "It was awesome."

Ray Lego

Anthony is nestled near the top of just about every prospect list there is (For the Class of 2019, ESPN currently has him ranked sixth and Rivals.com has him fifth), but instead of worrying about who's in front of him or what schools are rumored to have interest, he instead studies his peers at every position, reading scouting reports and absorbing film to get a solid understanding of those likely to become his friends and foes at the next level. All other elements of the process—contact with college coaches, scheduled visits, etc.—are controlled by his father.

"You want to feel good and be proud of the program and all it has to offer, not just on the court but off it," Greg Anthony—who helped shepherd UNLV to a National Championship in 1990—said. "That stuff is really important because that becomes your family. And that's gonna be a part of your family your entire life. So all that stuff will play a role and we'll look more at it as he develops more."

Thanks to his dad, Anthony can forget about college recruitment and zoom in on all the ways he can improve as a person, player, and student. Anthony enjoys playing hide-and-seek with his four-year-old brother, and sometimes wakes up at 3:00 AM to play video games for an hour or two before his day begins. His favorite, he says, is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. "I beat that game like three times already," he adds.

There are few distractions in his life, and his family, which constantly demands humility, help prevent his ego from creeping in and becoming an antagonistic force. He feels no pressure outside that which he sets on his own shoulders. He doesn't care about the simmering belief that he can be one of the most exciting guards to ever emerge from New York City, and comparisons to his dad don't stress him out in the slightest bit.

"He is my dad and I'm his son," he says. "There's really been no disadvantages for me. Everything's been an advantage."

Ray Lego

Anthony hears his name whispered when he walks down the hall at school, receives complimentary DM's from fans all over the globe (most recently from someone in New Zealand), was once recognized while on vacation in the Bahamas. Spike Lee, a family friend, is in his cell phone. The taste of celebrity is nice, but Anthony's self-awareness and head-down concentration keep his priorities glued in place.

"[Popularity] is not something you can fall into," he says. "I didn't make it yet, so I can't get accustomed to that."

Though he may very well find himself shaking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's hand on draft day in the not-too-distant future, right now Anthony is driven less by NBA dreams than he is by a pair of crushing defeats he suffered in recent months. In early spring, Anthony's high-school team lost in the Catholic High School Athletic Association championship by two points, with Anthony missing what would've been a game-tying bucket in the final seconds.

A few months later at Peach Jam—a Nike sponsored AAU tournament that pits the nation's best programs against one another—Anthony led all scorers in an event that also featured Duke commit and future NBA lottery pick Marvin Bagley Jr., but his PSA Cardinals failed to make it out of pool play, losing in the final seconds to a team that went on to win the whole thing. ("That's gonna be in the back of my head until I win Peach Jam, which we're gonna do next year," Anthony says.)

"How he handled defeat was really telling," Greg Anthony tells me. The elder Anthony then imparts some wisdom he'd gleaned from Pat Riley, his former coach whose legendary idioms have become gospel among basketball fans. "[Coach Riley] used to say there are two things in competition: There's winning and misery. And you have to embrace both. And the guys that embrace the misery oftentimes are your best winners because they know what it's like not to win, and they're gonna do everything in their power to not feel that misery.

Ray Lego

"We were thinking 'Oh you did such a great job. What an effort,' and he was just crying and crying, and we were like 'Why are you crying? You did such a great job!'" McCrary remembers. "He said 'My feet are supposed to be faster than his. I was supposed to win.' He was three years old."

He'd patiently wait for his turn on the sideline, eager to square off against kids that were five or six years older. At first they were amused: Look at you, little guy, little Cole. Anthony's response was fiery: I'm not little. Stop calling me little Cole!

"He has dog in him, as they say," McCrary laughs. (The one trait Anthony admires most in an NBA point guard is Russell Westbrook's tenacity.)

Shortly after, he joined his first AAU team. At that age, Anthony's talent level didn't stand out relative to his peers, but he played with irrepressible emotion and a level of aggression that bled over from his desire to win at anything and everything.

"I used to call him the Charles Oakley of fouls, because when he fouled somebody, he fouled them," Billy Council, the team's coach, says. "So if you had beat Cole to a spot or you beat him to the basket, you best believe he was gonna chase you down and foul you hard so you won't do it again."

Ray Lego

Though his passion shined under Council, Anthony truly came into his own in the fifth grade, when Steve Harris—an established figure in New York's AAU scene who also mentored NBA All-Star Kemba Walker—became his coach. After Anthony's first game with his new coach, Harris, going off a gut feeling, told his newest player he could be the best kid in the country as early as next year—course-altering words that awoke a confidence inside Anthony that he didn't know was there.

"He looked at me like I was crazy," Harris says. "The next year he was the best kid in his class."

That team utilized Cole at every position, in every role imaginable: On the wing, down low, at the high post. 25-point performances were the norm; he was the hub of their entire system. In one game against the top team in his region, Anthony's squad entered as a 25-point underdog. Harris remembers how worried he was before the opening tip, until Anthony walked by and looked up at him, as if to say, Coach, keep your head up. We got this. We're gonna beat them. We're gonna run them out the gym.

In the end, Anthony's team won by 25.

"When he steps on the court, you can see his whole facial expression change," Harris says. "Like, he's a lion. I see my prey, I'm going to kill it. I'm going to eat today...I talk about it with my kids to this day: 'You gotta be strong-willed like Cole.' That's what separates him."

During that first year he was one of the youngest players in AAU's oldest age group, on a team that featured several NBA prospects slated to play for Division-I schools this winter, including Mohammad Bomba at the University of Texas and Brandon Randolph at the University of Arizona.

Anthony still started every game while averaging double figures in points, then blossomed into the tip of PSA Cardinals' spear this past spring. Not only did he become the first sophomore point guard to be named Defensive Player of the Year in the EYBL, but he also grew to embrace the expanded leadership role his coaches and father have urged him to accept. He's conscious of how his body language affects those around him, and understands that each teammate is wired differently.

"I think his ultimate strength now is he's learned how to lead individually, where he can understand and define different guy's trigger points," Williams says. "He knows one guy needs to be yelled at where another guy needs to be coddled; another guy needs a phone call. So he's been able to expand his knowledge of leadership."

Ray Lego

Anthony's living room is spacious enough to fit several couches and a glass coffee table that's neatly concealed by enormous books on Michelangelo, Diego Rivera, and The Image of the Black in Western Art. He lives with two siblings, his mom and stepfather Ray, an investment banker at Citigroup who played basketball at Harvard. Between towering windows that overlook Central Park, the walls are adorned with paintings by William Johnson and Norman Lewis that make the room feel like it belongs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A black baseball bat autographed by Derek Jeter rests in a glass case on a mantel above the fireplace.

"Cole is a child of privilege," McCrary says. "What we constantly remind him is 'There but for the grace of God go I.' This could all be taken away in any number of ways."

Given his surroundings, it'd be so understandable for Anthony to behave as if the entire world revolved around him. But his support system is wound by unbreakable cable. Everyone around him is there for a reason.

"It's pretty unique," Williams says. "It's holistic. His situation is so pinpoint that no one gets into the other person's lane. So like his dad has a role, his mom has a role, his step-dad has a role, AAU has a role, he has a role, even high school for a certain amount of time has their role, and then no one steps on each other's toes but everyone is connected."

Ray Lego

Impending fame separates Anthony from a vast majority of people his age. But he has also grasped his own good fortune. He has a selfless streak.

"He's definitely learned compassion and appreciates his life and his upbringing," Greg Anthony said. "And that in order to truly be the kind of person he wants to be, you have to be someone who's willing to be generous with your time, whether it be to teammates or friends or those less fortunate."

Over the summer he was given free shoes, shorts, and t-shirts as a participant of adidas Nations. Instead of keeping the free goodies for himself, he gave everything to an 18-year-old assistant coach who's headed to college in the fall. "It just shows that Cole is mentally mature, that materialistic objects don't trigger him," Williams said. "And that's a little different for his age group. Most guys enjoy that stuff."

Anthony's munificence applies to people he doesn't even know, a reflection of the belief his family has instilled in him: To whom much is given, much is expected.

"I joke with him, like, I see him on social media and he gives away his sneakers," Council said. "If a kid wants his sneakers he'll tell them to hit him in his DM's. He's got more sneakers than a sneaker store, and he's just a good-hearted individual."

Last year, Anthony took a self-imposed six-month break from social media. "I just felt like it was a distraction," he said. With over 53,000 followers on instagram, Anthony has a link on his page to a GoFundMe he started to help those in the Houston area who were affected by Hurricane Harvey. It was an idea that started after a conversation with his sister and mom.

"I see a lot of people on Twitter, on Instagram, just say 'oh pray for…', alright thanks for that," Anthony said. "It's not really doing much. I wanted to actually go make a change. I know I'm not physically there, but see if I can do something that'll physically help them."

There's no way of knowing what the future will hold for any person (let alone an athlete) as young as Anthony, no matter how dominant they are or how much better they project to be. Guarantees do not exist in the world of sports. But reasonable optimism surrounds Anthony, whose ascendance is only accelerating.

"If Cole didn't make it to the NBA, I would say it's gotta be a bunch of politics or he just simply didn't want to be there," Harris said.

Again, so much can go wrong between now and then. Immense odds are stacked against each and every individual who wants to earn millions of dollars playing a game. But Anthony's foundation foreshadows a happy ending; it's admirable how well he balances confidence and wariness as the stakes around him start to rise.

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda) published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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