#Of course the guy who stole it from a group of progressive fans is putting it in Texas

[the-dragongirl]

Legends fans beware. The Texas event is NOT the Legends Con you knew and loved.

#star wars legends #star wars eu #LegendsCon #Legends Con #Of course the guy who stole it from a group of progressive fans is putting it in Texas #Why is it that dudes who are being reactionary always go to Texas?

[hlupdate]

A bathroom figures significantly in the origin stories of at least two classic One Direction songs. The first will be familiar to any fan: Songwriter and producer Savan Kotecha was sitting on the toilet in a London hotel room, when he heard his wife say, “I feel so ugly today.” The words that popped into his head would shape the chorus of One Direction’s unforgettable 2011 debut, “What Makes You Beautiful.”

The second takes place a few years later: Another hotel room in England — this one in Manchester — where songwriters and producers Julian Bunetta and John Ryan were throwing back Cucumber Collins cocktails and tinkering with a beat. Liam Payne was there, too. At one point, Payne got up to use the bathroom, and when he re-emerged, he was singing a melody. They taped it immediately. Most of it was mumbled — a temporary placeholder — but there was one phrase: “Better than words …” A few hours later, on the bus to another city, another show — Bunetta and Ryan can’t remember where — Payne asked, maybe having a laugh, “What if the rest of the song was just lyrics from other songs?”

“Songs in general, you’re just sort of waiting for an idea to bonk you on the head,” Ryan says from a Los Angeles studio, with Bunetta. “And if you’re sort of winking at it, laughing at it — we were probably joking, ‘What if [the next line was] “More than a feeling”? Well, that would actually be tight!’”

“Better Than Words,” closed One Direction’s third album, Midnight Memories. It was never a single, but became a fan-favorite live-show staple. It’s a midtempo headbanger that captures the essence of what One Direction is, and always was: One of the great rock & roll bands of the 21st century.

July 23rd marks One Direction’s 10th anniversary, the day Simon Cowell told Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson that they would progress on The X Factor as a group. Between that date and their last live performance (so far, one can hope) on December 31st, 2015, they released five albums, toured the world four times — twice playing stadiums — and left a trove of Top 10 hits for a devoted global fan base that came to life at the moment social media was redefining the contours of fandom. 

It’d been a decade since the heyday of ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys, and the churn of generations demanded a new boy band. One Direction’s songs were great and their charisma and chemistry undeniable, but what made them stick was a sound unlike anything else in pop — rooted in guitar rock at a time when that couldn’t have been more passé.

Kotecha, who met 1D on The X Factor and shepherded them through their first few years, is a devoted student of the history of boy bands. He first witnessed their power back in the Eighties, when New Kids on the Block helped his older sister through her teens. The common thread linking all great boy bands, from New Kids to BSB, he says, is, “When they’d break, they’d come out of nowhere, sounding like nothing that’s on the radio.”

In 2010, Kotecha remembers, “everybody was doing this sort of Rihanna dance pop.” But that just wasn’t a sound One Direction could pull off (the Wanted did it only once); and famously, they didn’t even dance. Instead, the reference points for 1D went all the way back to the source of contemporary boy bands.

“Me and Simon would talk about how [One Direction] was Beatlesque, Monkees-esque,” Kotecha continues. “They had such big personalities. I felt like a kid again when I was around them. And I felt like the only music you could really do that with is fun, poppy guitar songs. It would come out of left field and become something owned by the fans.”

To craft that sound on 1D’s first two albums, Up All Night and Take Me Home, Kotecha worked mostly with Swedish songwriters-producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub. They’d all studied at the Max Martin/Cheiron Studios school of pop craftsmanship, and Falk says they were confident they could crack the boy-band code once more with songs that recalled BSB and ‘NSync, but replaced the dated synths and pianos with guitars. 

The greatest thing popular music can do is make someone else think, “I can do that,” and One Direction’s music was designed with that intent. “The guitar riff had to be so simple that my friend’s 15-year-old daughter could play it and put a cover to YouTube,” Falk says. “If you listen to ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ or ‘One Thing,’ they have two-finger guitar riffs that everyone who can play a bit of guitar can learn. That was all on purpose.”

One Direction famously finished third on The X Factor, but Cowell immediately signed them to his label, Syco Music. They’d gone through one round of artist development boot camp on the show, and another followed on an X Factor live tour in spring 2011. They’d developed an onstage confidence, but the studio presented a new challenge. “We had to create who should do what in One Direction,” Falk says. To solve the puzzle the band’s five voices presented, they chose the kitchen sink method and everyone tried everything.

“They were searching for themselves,” Falk adds. “It was like, Harry, let’s just record him; he’s not afraid of anything. Liam’s the perfect song starter, and then you put Zayn on top with this high falsetto. Louis found his voice when we did ‘Change Your Mind.’ It was a long trial for everyone to find their strengths and weaknesses, but that was also the fun part.” Falk also gave Niall some of his first real guitar lessons; there’s video of them performing “One Thing” together, still blessedly up on YouTube.

“What Makes You Beautiful” was released September 11th, 2011 in the U.K. and debuted at Number One on the singles chart there — though the video had dropped a month prior. While One Direction’s immediate success in the U.K. and other parts of Europe wasn’t guaranteed, the home field odds were favorable. European markets have historically been kinder to boy bands than the U.S.; ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys found huge success abroad before they conquered home. To that end, neither Kotecha nor Falk were sure 1D would break in the U.S. Falk even says of conceiving the band’s sound, “We didn’t want it to sound too American, because this was not meant — for us, at least — to work in America. This was gonna work in the U.K. and maybe outside the U.K.”

Stoking anticipation for “What Makes You Beautiful” by releasing the video on YouTube before the single dropped, preceded the strategy Columbia Records (the band’s U.S. label) adopted for Up All Night. Between its November 2011 arrival in the U.K. and its U.S. release in March 2012, Columbia eschewed traditional radio strategies and built hype on social media. One Direction had been extremely online since their X Factor days, engaging with fans and spending their downtime making silly videos to share. One goofy tune, made with Kotecha, called “Vas Happenin’ Boys?” was an early viral hit.

“They instinctively had this — and it might just be a generational thing — they just knew how to speak to their fans,” Kotecha says. “And they did that by being themselves. That was a unique thing about these boys: When the cameras turned on, they didn’t change who they were.”

Social media was flooded with One Direction contests and petitions to bring the band to fans’ towns. Radio stations were inundated with calls to play “What Makes You Beautiful” long before it was even available. When it did finally arrive, Kotecha (who was in Sweden at the time) remembers staying up all night to watch it climb the iTunes chart with each refresh.

Take Me Home, was recorded primarily in Stockholm and London during and after their first world tour. The success of Up All Night had attracted an array of top songwriting talent — Ed Sheeran even penned two hopeless romantic sad lad tunes, “Little Things” and “Over Again” — but Kotecha, Falk and Yacoub grabbed the reins, collaborating on six of the album’s 13 tracks. In charting their course, Kotecha returned to his boy band history: “My theory was, you give them a similar sound on album two, and album three is when you start moving on.”

Still, there was the inherent pressure of the second album to contend with. The label wanted a “What Makes You Beautiful, Part 2,” and evidence that the 1D phenomenon wasn’t slowing down appeared outside the window of the Stockholm studio: so many fans, the street had to be shut down. Kotecha even remembers seeing police officers with missing person photos, combing through the girls camped outside, looking for teens to return to their parents.

At this pivotal moment, One Direction made it clear that they wanted a greater say in their artistic future. Kotecha admits he was wary at first, but the band was determined. To help manage the workload, Kotecha had brought in two young songwriters, Kristoffer Fogelmark and Albin Nedler, who’d arrived with a handful of ideas, including a chorus for a booming power ballad called “Last First Kiss.”

“We thought, while we’re busy recording vocals, whoever’s not busy can go write songs with these two guys, and then we’ll help shape them as much as we can,” Kotecha says. “And to our pleasant surprise, the songs were pretty damn good.”

At this pivotal moment, too, songwriters Julian Bunetta and John Ryan also met the band. Friends from the Berklee College of Music, Bunetta and Ryan had moved out to L.A. and cut a few tracks, but still had no hits to their name. They entered the Syco orbit after scoring work on the U.S. version of The X Factor, and were asked if they wanted to try writing a song for Take Me Home. “I was like, yeah definitely,” Bunetta says. “They sold five million albums? Hell yeah, I want to make some money.”

Working with Jamie Scott, who’d written two songs on Up All Night (“More Than This” and “Stole My Heart”), Bunetta and Ryan wrote “C’mon, C’mon” — a blinding hit of young love that rips down a dance pop speedway through a comically oversized wall of Marshall stacks. It earned them a trip to London. Bunetta admits to thinking the whole 1D thing was “a quick little fad” ahead of their first meeting with the band, but their charms were overwhelming. Everyone hit it off immediately.

“Niall showed me his ass,” Bunetta remembers of the day they recorded, “They Don’t Know About Us,” one of five songs they produced for Take Me Home (two are on the deluxe edition). “The first vocal take, he went in to sing, did a take, I was looking down at the computer screen and was like, ‘On this line, can you sing it this way?’ And I looked over and he was mooning me. I was like, ‘I love this guy!’”

Take Me Home dropped November 9th, just nine days short of Up All Night’s first anniversary. With only seven weeks left in 2012, it became the fourth best-selling album of the year globally, moving 4.4 million copies, per the IFPI; it fell short of Adele’s 21, Taylor Swift’s Red and 1D’s own Up All Night, which had several extra months to sell 4.5 million copies.

Kotecha, Falk and Yacoub’s tracks anchored the album. Songs like “Kiss You,” “Heart Attack” and “Live While We’re Young” were pristine pop rock that One Direction delivered with full delirium, vulnerability and possibility — the essence of the teen — in voices increasingly capable of navigating all the little nuances of that spectrum. And the songs 1D helped write (“Last First Kiss,” “Back for You” and “Summer Love”) remain among the LP’s best.

“You saw that they caught the bug and were really good at it,” Kotecha says of their songwriting. “And moving forward, you got the impression that that was the way for them.”

Like clockwork, the wheels began to churn for album three right after Take Me Home dropped. But unlike those first two records, carving out dedicated studio time for LP3 was going to be difficult — on February 23rd, 2013, One Direction would launch a world tour in London, the first of 123 concerts they’d play that year. They’d have to write and record on the road, and for Kotecha and Falk — both of whom had just had kids — that just wasn’t possible. 

But it was also time for a creative shift. Even Kotecha knew that from his boy band history: album three is, after all, when you start moving on. One Direction was ready, too. Kotecha credits Louis, the oldest member of the group, for “shepherding them into adulthood, away from the very pop-y stuff of the first two albums. He was leading the charge to make sure that they had a more mature sound. And at the time, being in it, it was a little difficult for me, Rami and Carl to grasp — but hindsight, that was the right thing to do.” 

“For three years, this was our schedule,” Bunetta says. “We did X Factor October, November, December. Took off January. February, flew to London. We’d gather ideas with the band, come up with sounds, hang out. Then back to L.A. for March, produce some stuff, then go out on the road with them in April. Get vocals, write a song or two, come back for May, work on the vocals, and produce the songs we wrote on the road. Back to London in June-ish. Back here for July, produce it up. Go back on tour in August, get last bits of vocals, mix in September, back to X Factor in October, album out in November, January off, start it all over again.”

That cycle began in early 2013 when Bunetta and Ryan flew to London for a session that lasted just over a week, but yielded the bulk of Midnight Memories. With songwriters Jamie Scott, Wayne Hector and Ed Drewett they wrote “Best Song Ever” and “You and I,” and, with One Direction, “Diana” and “Midnight Memories.” Bunetta and Ryan’s initial rapport with the band strengthened — they were a few years older, but as Bunetta jokes, “We act like we’re 19 all the time anyway.” Years ago, Bunetta posted an audio clip documenting the creation of “Midnight Memories” — the place-holder chorus was a full-throated, perfectly harmonized, “I love KFC!”

For the most part, Bunetta, Ryan and 1D doubled down on the rock sound their predecessors had forged, but there was one outlier from that week. A stunning bit of post-Mumford festival folk buoyed by a new kind of lyrical and vocal maturity called “Story of My Life.”

“This was a make or break moment for them,” Bunetta says. “They needed to grow up, or they were gonna go away — and they wanted to grow up. To get to the level they got to, you need more than just your fan base. That song extended far beyond their fan base and made people really pay attention.”

Production on Midnight Memories continued on the road, where, like so many bands before them, One Direction unlocked a new dimension to their music. Tour engineer Alex Oriet made it possible, Ryan says, building makeshift vocal booths in hotel rooms by flipping beds up against the walls. Writing and recording was crammed in whenever — 20 minutes before a show, or right after another two-hour performance.

“It preserved the excitement of the moment,” Bunetta says. “We were just there, doing it, marinating in it at all times. You’re capturing moments instead of trying to recreate them. A lot of times we’d write a song, sing it in the hotel, produce it, then fly back out to have them re-sing it — and so many times the demo vocals were better. They hadn’t memorized it yet. They were still in the mood. There was a performance there that you couldn’t recreate.” 

Midnight Memories arrived, per usual, in November 2013. And, per usual, it was a smash. The following year, 1D brought their songs to the environment they always deserved — stadiums around the world — and amid the biggest shows of their career, they worked on their aptly-titled fourth album Four. The 123 concerts 1D had played the year before had strengthened their combined vocal prowess in a way that opened up an array of new possibilities.

“We could use their voices on Four to make something sound more exciting and bigger, rather than having to add too many guitars, synths or drums,” Ryan says.

“They were so much more dynamic and subtle, too,” Bunetta adds. “I don’t think they could’ve pulled off a song like ‘Night Changes’ two albums prior; or the nuance to sing soft and emotionally on ‘Fireproof.’ It takes a lot of experience to deliver a restrained vocal that way.”

Musically, Four was 1D’s most expansive album yet — from the sky-high piano rock of “Steal My Girl” to the tender, tasteful groove of “Fireproof” — and it had the emotional range to match. Now in their early twenties, songs like “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” “No Control,” “Fool’s Gold” and “Clouds” redrew the dramas and euphorias of adolescence with the new weight, wit and wanton winks of impending adulthood. One Direction wasn’t growing up normally in any sense of the word, but they were becoming songwriters capable of drawing out the most relatable elements from their extraordinary circumstances — like on “Change Your Ticket,” where the turbulent love affairs of young jet-setters are distilled to the universal pang of a long goodbye. There were real relationships inspiring these stories, but now that One Direction was four years into being the biggest band on the planet, it was natural that the relationships within the band would make it into the music as well.

“I think that on Four,” Bunetta says with a slight pause, “there were some tensions going on. A lot of the songs were double — like somebody might be singing about their girlfriend, but there was another meaning that applied to the group as well.”

He continues: “It’s tough going through that age, having to spread your wings with so many eyeballs on you, so much money and no break. It was tough for them to carve out their individual manhood, space and point of view, while learning how to communicate with each other. Even more than relationship things that were going on, that was the bigger blanket that was in there every day, seeping into the songs.”

Bunetta remembers Zayn playing him “Pillowtalk” and a few other songs for the first time through a three a.m. fog of cigarette smoke in a hotel room in Japan.

“Fucking amazing,” he says. “They were fucking awesome. I know creatively he wasn’t getting what he needed from the way that the albums were being made on the road. He wanted to lock himself in the studio and take his time, be methodical. And that just wasn’t possible.”

A month or so later, and 16 shows into One Direction’s “On the Road Again” tour, Zayn left the band. Bunetta and Ryan agree it wasn’t out of the blue: “He was frustrated and wanted to do things outside of the band,” Bunetta says. “It’s a lot for a young kid, all those shows. We’d been with them for a bunch of years at this point — it was a matter of when. You just hoped that it would wait until the last album.”

Still, Bunetta compares the loss to having a finger lopped off, and he acknowledges that Harry, Niall, Liam and Louis struggled to find their bearings as One Direction continued with their stadium tour and next album, Made in the A.M. Just as band tensions bubbled beneath the songs on Four, Zayn’s departure left an imprint on Made in the A.M. Not with any overt malice, but a song like “Drag Me Down,” Bunetta says, reflects the effort to bounce back. Even Niall pushing his voice to the limits of his range on that song wouldn’t have been necessary if Zayn and his trusty falsetto were available.

But Made in the A.M. wasn’t beholden to this shake-up. Bunetta and Ryan cite “Olivia” as a defining track, one that captures just how far One Direction had come as songwriters: They’d written it in 45 minutes, after wasting a whole day trying to write something far worse.

“When you start as a songwriter, you write a bunch of shitty songs, you get better and you keep getting better,” Ryan says. “But then you can get finicky and you’re like, ‘Maybe I have to get smart with this lyric.’ By Made in the A.M. … they were coming into their own in the sense of picking up a guitar, messing around and feeling something, rather than being like, ‘How do I put this puzzle together?’”

After Zayn’s departure, Bunetta and Ryan said it became clear that Made in the A.M. would be One Direction’s last album before some break of indeterminate length. The album boasts the palpable tug of the end, but to One Direction’s credit, that finality is balanced by a strong sense of forever. It’s literally the last sentiment they leave their fans on album-closer “History,” singing, “Baby don’t you know, baby don’t you know/We can live forever.”

In a way, Made in the A.M. is about One Direction as an entity. Not one that belonged to the group, but to everyone they spent five years making music for. Four years since their hiatus and 10 years since their formation, the fans remain One Direction’s defining legacy. Even as all five members have settled into solo careers, Ryan notes that baseless rumors of any kind of reunion — even a meager Zoom call — can still set the internet on fire. The old songs remain potent, too: Carl Falk says his nine-year-old son has taken to making TikToks to 1D tracks.

There are plenty of metrics to quantify One Direction’s reach, success and influence. The hard numbers — album sales and concert stubs — are staggering on their own, but the ineffable is always more fun. One Direction was such a good band that a fan, half-jokingly, but then kinda seriously, started a GoFundMe to buy out their contract and grant them full artistic freedom. One Direction was such a good band that songwriters like Kotecha and Falk — who would go on to make hits with Ariana Grande, the Weeknd and Nicki Minaj — still think about the songs they could’ve made with them. One Direction was such a good band that Mitski covered “Fireproof.”

But maybe it all comes down to the most ineffable thing of all: Chance. Kotecha compares success on talent shows like The X Factor to waking up one morning and being super cut — but now, to keep that figure, you have to work out at a 10, without having done the gradual work to reach that level. That’s the downfall for so many acts, but One Direction was not only able, but willing, to put in the work.

“They’re one of the only acts from those types of shows that managed to do it for such a long time,” Kotecha says. “Five years is a long time for a massive pop star to go nonstop. I know it was tiring, but they were fantastic sports about it. They appreciated and understood the opportunity they had — and, as you can see, they haven’t really stopped since. Most of them weren’t necessarily musicians before this happened, but they loved music, and they found a love of creating, writing and playing. To have these boys — that had been sort of randomly picked — to also have that? It will never be repeated.”

#harry styles #louis tomlinson #one direction #1d ten #220720

[pastthevaulteddoors]

Work in Progress Wednesday

This is more a summary, unclean vision of a story I thought up of. I'm not a huge mpreg fan, but I fell in love with a few Loki/Tony Stark get preggers due to MAGIC some years ago so that trope kind of stuck with me. Forgive me if it's not your thing.

The basic story; at a tense conference at Carp Tower, Lan Xichen offers to share his usual pavilion rooms with his brother and brother-in-law because of how packed the place is with unexpected guests.

Due to magic experimentation and an unexpected sexy times with Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao in the adjoining rooms, everyone is caught up in a pregancy spell of WWX's doing. That same night, unrest causes uproar inside Carp Tower and allies of WWX are forced to flee.

Things happen, Jin Guangyao gets separated and ends up in a fog that causes memory loss. He's found by an old farming couple, and they agree to take him on as a hired hand while he tries to piece together the mystery of his amnesia. They call him Li.

At the same time, he's very concerned that he's getting a belly rather quickly on a farmer's diet. Six months later, and he's convinced that whatever stole his memories also implanted a demon inside of him. He's looking for help get it out with cultivators in town when he hears of the famous WWX becoming pregnant as a man! He puts two and two together and realizes that he must have some connection to him, as the farmer's wife did joke about his symptoms being similar to when she had her children.

The following is my sorta written part I wanted to share. Enjoy!

A few days later, a small group of shadows drifted down from the skies into the village. And there Li saw the most beautiful man he’d ever seen; tall and dashing, eyes full of kindness in reserve yet brimmed with worry and hope. He, along with a few others, began to ask around for the famed Lanling advisor.

Li, however, was shy to approach. The thumping of his heart frightened him and he knew that his heart belonged to another (he merely didn’t know who that person was). Then he spotted a man in black with a wicked smile and a belly nearly as full as his own.

It was him! It was the famous demonic cultivator, Wei Wuxian. If the ebony flute and equally famed husband at his side didn’t give him away, then the rounded and full belly did! Everyone by now knew of his exploits.

He approached him as he (was forced to) rest on he porch of an inn. He looked bored and his lower lips protruded in a pout. He swung his flute around by the tassle as he watched the tiny town move about their daily lives.

Li didn’t dare rise up to the porch itself, and instead remained on the road. He offered a deep bow to Wei Wuxian, low and humbled. All he wanted to do was ask his advice about this strange growth in his stomach, he did not expect a loud cheer. Nor did he expect the overstuffed man to catipult himself over the porch railing and slam himself to Li’s side in an enthustiatic hug.

The following, babbling conversation ensues;

“You’re alive!”

“Y-yes, I am.”

“YOU’RE ALIVE!”

“You know me?”

“Yes, yes, I do! And you’re… pargarant? Pargerent!? Tweleve plus two weeks… PRAGRANT!!”

“Am… I don’t understand. Am I an experiment of yours?”

“What- no! No way! That means…” Wei Wuxian counts on his fingers. “You snuck into the pavilion the last night at Carp Tower, didn’t you? You dog!”

“I am not a dog!”

“Why didn’t you come find us? Everyone was worried sick about you.”

“I can’t. I couldn’t. I-“

Then a soft, deer-like tone sounds through the mess of conversation. “A-Yao,” it says sweetly, dearly, so full of enduring emotions that it makes Li’s heart ache from the purity of it all. Li turns to the beautiful sound and is captured by the deep hazel eyes of the tall man in white.

His eyes brim with happy tears, that hope spilling over like fountains in a garden. “A-Yao,” he says again, and Li knows that this must be home. He lets himself be swept away in another hug, and this one he returns. This stranger he does not know fills his heart with so many complex and happy emotions; his mind might not remember but his heart certainly does.

When they finally regain their composure, both are smiling widely, but then Li breaks the moment when he asks, “I’m sorry but, who are you?”

Lan Xichen’s face falls, even as he strokes Li’s cheek with his hands. “What do you mean?”

“The demon mist,” another voice calmly interrupts. It’s another tall, beautiful man in white. But certainly not as beautiful as the one in his arms.

“That’s right!” Wei Wuxain chimes in. “That distorts and wipes memories. Jin Guangyao must still be afflicted.”

“And pregnant,” Lan Wangji notes that huge belly.

It’s at that the Lan Xichen moves his hands to Li’s belly. His touch is far too familiar to be one of simple friendship. They must have been very close. Then, he suddenly gives a sharp look to the couple.

“What?” Wei Wuxian shrugs innocently, even as he takes a half step behind his husband. “We told you guys we were trying for a baby. How was I supposed to know you two would get wrapped up in that magic circle.”

Lan Xichen shakes his head. “Perhaps we should reconvene inside where there are fewer prying ears and eyes.” He then smiles once more to Li and it again makes his heart swell with joy. “I hope my brother-in-law was not too crude before I arrived.” He moved to escort Li inside when he stopped dead.

“Brother-in-law?” Li asks, astonished, eyes wide. He then glances to Wei Wuxian, then the stern man in white beside him. Of course, he heard of his famously disowned husband, Lan Wangji, who is brother to… “You’re Sect Leader Lan?!” he belts out before he can stop himself. When his mind catches up to this, of standing before one of the major sect leaders, he bows suddenly and low. “I apologize for causing you any troubles.”

#work in progress wednesday #work in progress #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #xiyao #wangxian #lan xichen #jin guangyao #lan wangji #wei wuxian #mpreg

[benscursedkid]

9, 10, and 12 for Olivia asks, please?

thank you for asking! hope this doesn’t disappoint!

***long post ahead, still no computer :((

9. What was her relationship with Jacob?

Well, I like to see my Jacob as not having had any romantic feelings for either Duncan or Olivia. He liked to call them his platonic soulmates. The three of them were truly best friends and they all made a good team. They were a well oiled trio and each of them cared for each other.

Really, to put it simply, they were best friends. The boys always went to her when they needed advice and Jacob was very fond of her. He saw her as a bit of a sisterly figure for him and actually reminded him a lot of his own. They’re also housemates, so they would always lounge together in the common room when they had down time and Duncan happened to be busy. They didn’t really bother anyone seeing as Jacob was well-liked among his peers during his school years and Olivia was a very polite person. But they were known to goof off and mess around every so often. The professors hated having both of them in the same class, let alone the ones they shared with Duncan. It was practically impossible getting them to focus some days. They were the jokesters of their little group and were very comfortable with one another. They’re the type of friends who people would probably think are dating... and then get disgusted when they realize they give people that impression. Jacob is rather tall, especially compared to her, and always liked to tease her by hanging off of her or draping his long limbs across her lap or shoulders. They love to get lost in their own world together, as Duncan really isn’t one to indulge in his imagination and could spend hours having existential thoughts and bouncing what if questions off each other. But they’re also quick to console and reassure one another when one of them is down and very protective of each other. Very caring and loyal friends, but first years might not always get that impression as half the time they’re just teasing each other and trying to have the last word.

However, this Olivia was absolutely the type to tell it like it is. She’s not one for sugar-coating things and she values honesty in others so she likes to give it in return. She definitely got onto him when he started behaving erratically and didn’t give him any excuses. Honestly, I really don’t think I can stress enough just how close they were and how much they meant to one another. He would do just about anything for her and she’d gladly do the same.

10. What was her relationship with Duncan?

So, I decided to take the teeniest, tiniest page out of JK’s book— I know, I know, but hear me out —and considered adding a bit of a romance into this trio. And while Jacob Roberts would make a good match with both Duncan and Olivia, I didn’t really want him to have feelings for either of them. Now, I’m personally not a Romione fan, but I do rather like the trope. I am weak for f2l, so...

I can see them starting out as friends at first. Where Olivia and Jacob almost never shut up when they’re together, Duncan and Olivia are either perfectly content just sitting in silence and enjoying each other’s company or bickering like an old married couple and will not stop until one has gotten through to the other. But they never push or disrespect each other’s boundaries and make sure not to say anything that might offend the other. And if they do think they’ve crossed a line, they’re quick to apologize and make it up to them. But they like debating with each other as they typically have different opinions on most things. They learn and challenge each other while also being able to remain who they are. Olivia is able to help him step out of his comfort zone without pushing him past his limits and is respectful of his boundaries. Duncan is good at listening when she has things she wants to say and ideas she wants to share, even if he doesn’t quite understand, and can also bring her back to reality if she starts to wander too far. Things start out really casual and it’s comfortable for them.

Though, after spending all that time together, Olivia comes to admire his ambition and dedication, and surprising loyalty to her and Jacob. She begins to appreciate the little moments when he can relax and forget about the vaults and when he feels comfortable enough to crack jokes. She also loves to shamelessly flirt with him, just to see him stutter, all blushy and cute. And she absolutely loves when she catches him humming as he studies or when he’s making a potion or doing research. Her favorite moments to admire him are when he’s completely unaware and just content to be himself. He’s rather grumpy and introverted normally so she loves it when he doesn’t feel the need to keep himself guarded. He’s interesting and I think that’s what drew her attention initially. And while those feelings were repicrocated, they spent so many years too afraid to admit it and just continued to dance around each other, avoiding possible rejection. In the end, they didn’t get anything more than one kiss before he died and she went missing. It was one of their biggest regrets and they can both attest to that.

12. What was her role in the trio?

Personally: Olivia is a very good mediator. Her personality is a good middle ground between the boys. Jacob Roberts is a very independent, head-in-the-clouds kinda guy. He knows when to stop and think things through, but he can get pretty distracted and side tracked sometimes. While that normally isn’t a problem with the vaults, because he’s so committed to this search, often times the opposite becomes true. He’s been known to get tunnel vision and overwork himself and his friends if left alone long enough, especially when they’ve hit a snag. Duncan, on the other hand, is normally very single-minded and logical and for a wizard he’s very much in the mindset of “seeing is believing”. He sticks mostly to facts and what he knows to be true. But he can, every now and again, get frustrated if it takes him a while to make progress in their search. And, really, this usually isn’t much of a problem between them, as their strengths and weaknesses balance each other out without clashing. However, there are a select few times where they catch each other at the wrong moment— while Duncan is frustrated and in need of a break and Jacob is persistent and tries to push him a little harder than what’s probably necessary —and Olivia is needed to calm them down. She’s whimsical, free spirited, and ambitious enough to understand where Jacob is coming from in these situations, but also responsible, open-minded, and generally practical in her thinking to be able to consider Duncan’s view and his feelings on the matter. But when she gets into an argument with one of them, she usually just adheres to the “if you don’t have anything nice to say” policy and takes time for herself to calm down. It typically doesn’t take long for Jacob or Duncan to come to their senses and reach out to her first and when that happens she is quick to follow with her own apology. Even so, while Jacob is the mood maker of their trio, Olivia is good at indulging him and his ideas and thus breaking Duncan a bit out of his shell, while also not pushing him past his limit and taking time to do things that the other boy enjoys as well and grounding Jacob when the need arises.

Business: When it comes to their search for the vaults, everyone has their own jobs, but sometimes they can overlap. Duncan, for example, does most of the “super secret work”. If they need something to get in the vault, to use against whatever is inside it, or getting out, he’s your guy. He is adept at potions and fairly competent in other areas such as Charms, and Tranfiguration. However, while he scores very well in the class, he lacks a bit of field experience when it comes to DADA. But he is eager to get better and he tries his best to be a Jack of all Trades and serves them well as their strategist. Jacob, does a lot of the research. If there’s a clue to be deciphered, something missing in their puzzle, information that needs to be discovered, he is all over it. His ability to consider every possible scenario, even the unlikely ones while still having the common sense to know when he’s heading down a dead end makes him very efficient. Him and Olivia also will team up from time to time to do reconnaissance or to talk outsiders or people who are getting too close to their secret activites down and dissuading a potential liability. Despite his generally whimsical personality, he’s extremely good at reading people and controlling a situation when it gets out of hand; doesn’t buckle under pressure and he’s a good duelist. Olivia, also happens to be very skilled in martial magic, but she tends to do better when dealing with multiple people while Jacob is more efficient in one on one combat. Olivia works as the trio’s collector. If Duncan needs a material he doesn’t have on hand? Olivia can steal it from Snape and face the possible consequences. If that’s for whatever reason not an option, she’s the one making the trip to Knockturn Alley to apprehend it. Someone stole something or happened across one of their clues? She’s on it and it’ll be on your desk within the hour. She’s a fairly pleasant person and while Jacob is naturally friendly and charming, he can be a bit loud sometimes so they send in Olivia instead, just in case.

^Of course this all changes when R gets involved. Suddenly everyone is more on edge and prone to start fights and much quicker to snap or accuse. Normally they are able to recognize their mistakes and rectify the situation, but sometimes it takes Jacob longer now that his sister’s life is on the line. And without his friend, Duncan gets moodier and more stubborn when giving out his apologies. Olivia also gets frustrated with them faster and will sometimes refuse to help them compromise if it takes too long. She’ll leave them to their own devices and be done with it, wait for them to own up themselves. And Jacob, for his part, slowly begins to act irrationally, even for him, the longer R is around and the more involved they become. He’ll hide his research from them, over analyze Duncan’s work and sometimes redo it (even if it ends up worse), and do recon without Olivia. He eventually even ends up doing her job himself altogether. He becomes more mistrustful and paranoid of betrayal and of their work being revealed. He suddenly becomes insanely and scarily perceptive. He studies them and their tells, their habits and what makes them tick– what makes everyone tick for that matter. He loses his trust in his professors, his peers, and eventually them as well. It takes both of them a while to admit it to themselves, but one day they wake up and realize that they don’t recognize who he is anymore and they’re not sure he even knows who he’s become and that just breaks her heart. He was her best friend.

And that was her last thought of him before she disappeared.

#hphm #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery #olivia #olivia green asks #olivia asks #olivia green #duncan ashe #duncan #jacob roberts #hphm jacob #duncan x olivia #duncan ashe x olivia green

[barrydeutsch]

It’s Gross to Use Otto Warmbier’s Tragedy to talk about White Male Privilege

Otto Warmbier was a 22-year-old American who, early in 2016 was convicted by a North Korean court of stealing a poster. He was put in a North Korean prison, until he was returned to the US in a coma on June 13th of this year. Warmbier died without waking up on June 19th.

A few progressives have responded by saying… Well, I’ll let Affinity Magazine’s (now deleted) tweet speak for itself.

The comedian Larry Wilmore (who I’m usually a fan of) also criticized Warmbier harshly about a year ago, making fun of Warmbier for crying as he begged for mercy:

Look frat bros dudes, if your hazing includes international crimes, you’ve got to read the fine print on your American frat bro warranty. It’s all the way at the bottom so it’s easy to miss, but it says: “Frat bro privilege not valid in totalitarian dystopias.” Listen, Otto Von Crybaby, if you’re so anxious to go to a country with an unpredictable megalomaniac in charge, just wait a year and you’ll live in one! It’s coming, you guys! You know that shit is coming! Make America Great! It is catchy. I’m going to cry. Okay, to get a better sense of Otto, let’s talk with some of his fraternity brothers. So, please welcome Preston and Hawes. So guys, is it upsetting to see your frat brother begging for mercy in North Korea?

Do I have to explain how repulsive that is?

(Wilmore apologized a couple of days ago.)

The writer La Sha wrote the HuffPost article “North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal.”

It’s important to note that La Sha’s article was written before Warmbier’s coma and subsequent death. Also, the article’s approach is all over the place; for a few paragraphs, it verges on satire, demonstrating what it would sound like if people responded to Warmbier’s case the way many whites respond to police shootings of Black people. But that satiric tone, if it was intended at all, is ambiguous and not maintained. Both the introductory paragraphs and the conclusion seem very much in earnest.

All these views fall somewhere on the spectrum from wrong to disgusting. Here’s why:

1) It’s blame-the-victim. Placing the blame on a victim when what happened to them is grossly disproportionate for whatever they allegedly did wrong is, well, wrong. And it blames the wrong person.

The reason I object to people saying “well, rape is horrible, but she shouldn’t have gotten drunk” when a woman is raped is not that I think it’s never a mistake to get drunk. (For example, if she had gotten drunk, slipped in a puddle, and thereby gotten mud on her favorite shirt, I probably would think it’s her own fault for getting so drunk.) My objection is, first of all, that it’s unreasonable to say “well, she shouldn’t have gotten drunk” regarding a rape victim, because the harms she suffered is so grossly disproportionate to anything she did wrong, that bringing it up that way is frankly indecent. And, secondly, it fails to put the blame where it belongs – on the rapist.

That the person acknowledged “rape is horrible” in passing on route to their main point doesn’t change any of that.

The logic in this case seems similar to me. Even if Otto Warmbier did steal a poster, what happened to him was so vastly disproportionate that blaming Warmbier himself becomes indecent. And La Sha’s passing acknowledgement that the punishment was wrong doesn’t make it okay.

2) All of these people take it as fact that Otto Warmbier stole a poster. But we don’t know if that’s true. The face of the man in the video is impossible to make out. Human Rights Watch called his trial a “kangaroo court.” And it’s safe to assume that Warmbier’s “confession” was coerced.

This is not a trivial point. When we accept without question North Korea’s version of events, we are (effectively if unintentionally) taking the side of the oppressor against the victim.

3) Using “privilege” to explain one individual act (that may not even have happened) is the wrong way to think of privilege.

Privilege is a useful way of talking about aggregate disparities between groups of people. We can say, for instance, that employers favoring thin job applicants over fat job applicants (because they assume fat job applicants are lazy) is an example of thin privilege. But we shouldn’t point to a single instance of a thin person being hired and say that it’s an example of thin privilege.

We don’t know that. Even if thin privilege didn’t exist, some thin people would still get hired. Similarly, if even white male privilege didn’t exist, some 22-year-olds would still make foolish mistakes.

Privilege is a little like global warming in this way. We can say for certain that extreme weather events are happening because of global warming. But that doesn’t mean we can point to any one storm and say “this was caused by global warming.” Global warming tells us what’s happening in the aggregate, but it doesn’t establish causation for any single event.

Even if Otto Warmbier stole a poster – and I feel compelled to repeat, we don’t know that he did – we can’t know what caused him to be do that. It could be white male privilege, but it could also be any of dozens of other factors that make up any individual’s personality. Privilege is real and important, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all explanation of any time a privileged person acts badly.

4) It’s not always wrong to politicize tragedies. Sometimes a tragedy suggests policy actions we can take to make future tragedies less likely, and in that case not talking about the steps we could take might be irresponsible. (Questions of time and place still apply, of course). Are there policy options that would make it harder for firms to promise American tourists that visiting Korea is safe (as the tour firm that took Warmbier promised)? If so, now might be a fruitful time to push for that change.

Similarly, BLM activists are 100% right to use each new police shooting as an occasion to push for change.

But it doesn’t follow that every tragedy should immediately be politicized. When we consider responding to a tragedy with politics, we should ask ourselves: Is what I’m saying related directly to a policy change that could have prevented this tragedy? Am I discussing this in a way that disparages the victims? Is talking about this in this way showing a lack of compassion for the victim and their family? Will this actually help in any significant way?

I assume that La Sha, Wilmore, and Affinity Mag failed to ask these questions. They considered only one factor. That’s rigid one-note thinking; that’s doctrinaire politics taking precedence over compassion. And yes, it’s wrong.

I have no interest in being part of a political movement that blames the victim of an authoritative regime; that laughs at the suffering of torture victims; that can’t imagine any priorities other than their own political narratives could ever be relevant. But that’s what our movement would be if Affinity Magazine’s attitude, as displayed in that tweet, becomes the norm.

#politics #social justice #argument #north korea #otto warmbier #larry wilmore

[celticnoise]

CQN today marks the 53rd anniversary of Celtic’s historic European Cup triumph in Lisbon with EXCLUSIVE extracts from Bertie Auld’s autobiography, ‘A Bhoy Called Bertie,’ co-authored by Alex Gordon.

Here is part two  of the inimitable Hoops legend’s take on the achievement by Jock Stein’s great team that unforgettable day on May 25 1967.

WHEN we took centre stage in the European Cup on a still evening in Glasgow on 28 September, 1966 we could only guess about what lay in store. The European Cup had been won by only four teams – Real Madrid, who had succeeded six times, Benfica and Inter Milan twice and AC Milan once.

These were giants of European football. It seemed you had to come from an exotic part of Europe to lift that trophy. Glasgow didn’t seem to fit the bill! In fact, we were the first team from Northern Europe to gatecrash that particular party. So, what on earth were these upstarts from Scotland doing mixing with the hoi poloi of football? We were about to provide an answer, of course.

Big TG had the distinction of scoring Celtic’s first goal among the European elite when he rocketed in a thirty-yarder in the sixty-fourth minute after the Swiss had proved to be an extremely competent group of players. Big Jock, who was to celebrate his forty-fourth birthday four days later, had told us to keep calm at half-time. ‘Keep moving the ball around,’ he urged. ‘Try to get round the flanks.’ And so on. We had started the season in whirlwind fashion and were used to being in command by the time the interval arrived. Previously, we had taken eight off St.Mirren and blasted in six against Clyde in League Cup-ties. The three league games before Zurich had seen three successes – Clyde (3-0), Rangers (2-0) and Dundee (2-1). We were flying, but Zurich were doing their utmost to bring us back to earth.

TG came up with his wonder strike after the hour mark and their keeper, Steffan Iten, probably did himself a massive favour by getting out of the road of yet another piledriver. Five minutes later we doubled our advantage and felt a lot more at ease. Luggy broke up an attack, passed to Jose, Joe McBride, and he touched it onto me. I feigned to go one way and then backheeled it into the tracks of Jose. He was a guy who never had to be asked twice to have a go at goal and he swept it into the net. It got a slight touch off a defender, but it looked good enough to reach its destination, anyway.

And TG stole the thunder again in the second leg a fortnight later at the Hardturm Stadium when he walloped in two – one from the penalty spot – and Stevie added another. One thing I recall about that evening was the fact that Big Jock was convinced we would find it easier to play them on their own ground. They needed three goals to progress and had to give it a go. That would leave spaces for us to exploit. He was spot-on again.

Next up were the French champions Nantes and this time we played the first leg away from home in their Malakoff Stadium on 30 November. The French, in typical Gallic fashion, fancied themselves and they had some excellent players, notably their main midfield man Robert Herbin, who had captained his country during the World Cup Finals in England the previous year. Robert who? I had him in my pocket in both legs, which we won 3-1 away with goals from Jose, Lemon and Stevie. They had actually taken the lead through Magny in the 20th minute before we decided to put the tie to bed. Jinky gave Europe an advance warning of his glittering array of skills with a marvellous performance.

It was also 3-1 in the second leg at rain-lashed Parkhead where Jinky was once again simply unstoppable. He got the opener in the thirteenth minute, but all credit to the French as they refused to roll over and they levelled through Georgin. It was 1-1 at half-time and Nantes might have thought they were on the verge of pulling off a shock. No chance. Jinky meandred down the right wing, sent over an inviting cross and Stevie met it perfectly to send a header spinning into the net. It was deja vu all over again for the French when Jinky staged a repeat performance with Lemon this time finishing it off.

I have to admit I didn’t know an awful lot about our next opponents, Yugoslavia’s Vojvodina Novi Sad. Their country was enjoying something of a rennaisance and their international side had only lost 2-0 in a replay to Italy in Rome in the old European Nations Cup, now the European Championship, the previous year. Partizan Belgrade also reached the European Cup Final in 1966 before losing 2-1 to Real Madrid in Bussels. Dinamo Zagreb were to win the Inter-Cities’ Fairs Cup, now the UEFA Cup, in 1967, beating Leeds United 2-0 on aggregate over the two legs. We also realised that Vojvodina had seen off the much-vaunted Atletico Madrid, who had overwhelmed their city rivals Real to with the Spanish title, in the previous round.

These days, at the flick of a switch, you can find out what is going on all over the world and watch players and teams in foreign leagues and have a good idea what they are all about. However, in 1967, that was not the case. You had to take the word of your boss and Jock let us all know that this was an exceptionally well-equipped team with quality players who were very comfortable on the ball. They also had a goalkeeper called Ilija Pantelic who was rated as the best in the world at the time. So, we had a fair idea what to expect when we took the field at their stadium on a cold evening on 1 March, 1967. The pitch was rock solid and hardly conducive to football artistry. They were a good side alright, but we were holding out with only 20 minutes to play and they looked just a little bit despondent. They had tried all sorts of ways to get through our rearguard, but we were holding firm. A draw looked on the cards.

Then, horror of horrors! TG, so often the hero, was a bit wayward with a passback that dropped between Chopper and Luggy. Djordic, a speedy little attacker, nipped in, squared it across to Stanic who sent the ball wide of our exposed and helpless goalkeeper. Faither was well known for his infectious sense of humour. It deserted him at that moment, though. The Slavs celebrated like they had won the cup already.

They arrived in Glasgow a week later and one thing I detected was that Jock and his Vojvodina counterpart, Vujadin Boskov, were never going to be big buddies. Boskov, who would later manage Real Madrid, was a cocksure character, that’s for sure, and he had Big Jock sucking out his fillings when he said, ‘We expect to win in Glasgow. Why not? We are the better team.’ Oh, Really? Wrong thing to say, comrade!

Unfortunately, I had to sit this one out through injury and Charlie Gallagher took my place in the middle of the park. What a game he had, too. I’m not the greatest spectator you are ever likely to meet and it was murder sitting up in that stand watching this encounter unravel. The fans, and I make no apologies for repeating myself, were magnificent yet again. The encouragement they gave the side that night was simply awesome. But it didn’t appear to be knocking the Slavs out of their stride. They were a solid, compact unit and extremely well-drilled. I was talking to my big chum TG before the match and he was desperate to atone for his mistake in the first game. ‘I’ve got to score, Bertie,’ he said. ‘I don’t want the blame for us going out of the European Cup.’

TG didn’t score, but he did the next best thing – he set up the equaliser just before the hour mark with another assault down the left wing as he had been doing all night. Yogi, at outside-left, played his part by dragging a defender inside and that allowed our full-back to hit the line and fire over a cross. Pantelic made to grab the ball, but he reckoned without the bravery of Stevie who launched himself at TG’s effort to deflect it into the net. The place was in uproar. Jose and I were dancing up in the stand and the fans, all 69,374 of them, were delirious with delight. If they were overjoyed then, it was nothing to the state they were in just before the final whistle.

My replacement Charlie went over to take a corner-kick on the right wing as Caesar trotted into the packed penalty area. There was the usual jostling as players tried to block our skipper. They were wasting their time. Charlie flighted over as sweet a cross as you will ever see and Caesar, with his usual impeccable timing, soared high to meet it perfectly and arc a lovely header into the roof of the net.

That was the signal for bedlam. The old Parkhead roof must have been close to being blown off such was the racket – and that was just Jose and me! Do you know how long there was to go – TWO SECONDS! Vojvodina just had time to kick off and the referee blew for the end of the game. If Caesar hadn’t scored it would have gone to a replay because extra-time had not been introduced at the time. I believe it would have been in Rotterdam a couple of days later and anything could have happened against this gifted bunch. More and more I was becoming convinced our name was on the trophy.

Now there was just the little matter of taking care of Dukla Prague in the semi-final.

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#CelticNoise #Celtic #CelticFC #CelticQuickNews