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iffltd · 2 years

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celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Robert Altman’s original film adaptation of the novel MASH a story about three Army doctors (a coupla years late)

Frame 1

PAINLESS: Shame Henry wasn’t here. He’d a thought it was a real radio program.

BANDINI: I thought it was a radio program--

UGLY JOHN: We should send a letter of commendation--

PAINLESS: --to the Armed Forces Radio Network--

BANDINI: Yes. Wonderful. It was the most uplifting program I’ve ever heard.

PAINLESS: It was climactic.

Frames 2 - 6

TRAPPER JOHN (to the Korean mess servers): Morning, ladies.

DUKE (to Major Houlihan): Well hiya, Hot Lips.

She swirls on him, her breakfast sloshing onto Trapper.

TRAPPER JOHN: Oh my goodness, over my--

HAWKEYE (squeezing past her): I’m sorry to touch you but I--

She storms away,,,,,

TRAPPER JOHN (affects a “fey” tone): Well what’s the matter with her today?

HAWKEYE (similarly affected): I don’t know. It must be one of those ladies’ things.

As Hot Lips pushes past those in line, Hawkeye and Trapper continue their “fey” mockery....

TRAPPER JOHN: It’s not like her to act like this--

HAWKEYE: No. I mean she’s made such a--

TRAPPER JOHN: she’s a bitch.

Hot Lips struggles beyond agitated to get out of the Mess tent.

HAWKEYE (losing the affectation): I think she’s going to have a nervous breakdown.

TRAPPER JOHN (normal tone of voice): She can’t even get out of the door.

Frame 7- 8

HAWKEYE (sits across from Major Burns with his tray): Morning, Frank. Heard from your wife?

Hawkeye whistles his trill with a kind of breathless intensity.

Frame 9

Radar greets Colonel Blake as he returns, his jeep pulling to a stop and he climbs out....

RADAR: Morning Colonel. You forgot your briefcase.

HENRY (like almost always, vaguely distracted): Yes, I left it in the jeep.

RADAR (as he retrieves the briefcase): You left it there.

HENRY (as he accepts the briefcase from Radar): Yes, I forgot it.

As Leslie emerges from her tent....

HENRY: Morning, Captain.

LESLIE: Morning, sir.

HENRY: I hope you didn’t have to-- (hands the briefcase back to Radar) --here take care of this-- (back to Leslie) I hope you didn’t have to bother with those shirts. It wasn’t necessary.

LESLIE: Too late, sir. It’s a done thing.

HENRY: Well, thank-you.

Sgt. Vollmer rushes up to Colonel Blake, salutes him....

VOLLMER: Colonel, sir. How was your visit, sir?

HENRY: Great. The General wasn’t there.

VOLLMER: Listen, about last night sir, there was just nothing I could do about it. Sir.

HENRY: Nothing?

VOLLMER: Nothing.

HENRY: Well, it couldn’t have been helped.

VOLLMER: Thank you, sir.

As Leslie gives him a dirty look, Vollmer skee-daddles with his good luck....

Henry notices something in the Mess, turns there with Radar and Leslie....

HENRY: What’s that?

HENRY: Frank Burns and Hawkeye Pierce. Very encouraging.

HAWKEYE: A bunch of the boys asked me to ask you, Frank, what Hot Lips was like in the sack.

HAWKEYE: Y’know, was she--

FRANK: Mind your own business.

HAWKEYE: No, Frank. Y’know, is she better than self-abuse?

DUKE: What’s that all about? He gonna get some pointers or something?

TRAPPER JOHN: No, Hawkeye’s gonna sign him up to make a personal appearance tour in all the camps in Korea.

DUKE: ‘Sthat a fact....

HENRY: Wonder what they’re saying. Can you make it out?

HAWKEYE: Does that big ass a hers move around a lot Frank or does it just sort of lie there flaccid?

HAWKEYE: What would you say about that?

RADAR: Hawkeye’s questioning the Major on a point of anatomy.

HENRY: Very good -- exchanging ideas.

HAWKEYE: Would you say that she’s a moaner, Frank?

HENRY: What is Burns saying?

RADAR: Major Burns isn’t saying much of anything. sir. I think he’s formulating the answer.

HAWKEYE: Seriously, Frank.I mean, does she go UhhhUhhhhUhhh.... Or does she just lie there quiet and not do anything at all?

FRANK: Keep your filthy mouth to yourself!

HAWKEYE: Or does she go UH-UH-UH-UH--

Frank lunges across the table, throttles Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: GET HIM OFF ME! GET HIM OFF ME!

DUKE: What’s goin’ on, Frank? That lesson one?

HAWKEYE: FRANK BURNS HAS GONE NUTS!

HAWKEYE: I’m wearing glasses, for God’ssake!

TRAPPER JOHN: Watch out for goodies, Hawkeye -- that man’s a sex maniac. I don’t think Hot Lips satisfied him. Don’t let him kiss you, Hawkeye!

DUKE: Frank, we love ya!

OVER P.A.: Radio Tokyo PLAYS “Sometimes You Have to Say Sayonara”

DUKE: Colonel, fair’s fair. If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye can I go home?

SCORCH: Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: Yeah, be there in a minute.

SCORCH: Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: Shit.

HAWKEYE: Okay. Hey, Seidman, get another guy. We gotta take this into the O.R. just on the stretcher.

(to soldier whose neck bleeds like crazy)

Hold on. You’re gonna be just fine, fella.

(to Scorch)

Okay, I can’t move my hand. Come on.

TRAPPER JOHN (off-screen at another O.R. table to Hot Lips): Have you got the cutdowns, darling?

HAWKEYE (to soldier): You’re gonna go to sleep. You’re gonna be just fine.

TRAPPER JOHN: Hot Lips, let me have one of your sterile knives, please.

HAWKEYE (to Scorch): I’m gonna need two vascular clamps.

SCORCH: All right.

HAWKEYE: And an arterial suture. As soon as you give me the clamp, I want you to be ready to gown and glove me. All right?

HAWKEYE: Ready? Okay.

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Here we go. It’s gonna spurt a bit.

UGLY JOHN (works anesthestesia): You got it?

HAWKEYE: Aye, aye, baby.

HAWKEYE: Clamp.

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Okay. Gown.

As Scorch quickly fits him....

HAWKEYE: Gloves. Y’got that arterial suture ready?

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Okay.

(to Ugly John)

Ugly, move outta the way ‘cause I’m looking around over there.

(as he gets to work)

Baby, we’re gonna see some stitchin’ like you never saw before!

P.A. OVERLAPPING into next scene: Attention. Attention. This is from Colonel Blake’s office.

OVER P.A.: The American Medical association has just declared marijuana a dangerous drug. Despite claims by some physicians that it is no more dangerous than alcohol, that is no longer found to be the case.

LIEUTENANT DISH (to Trapper): Oh really? When did you get them. (with stethoscope) Let me try it on you.

Father Mulcahy ENTERS.

DUKE: Hey! Dago Reddo! Just in time for cocktails.

DAGO RED: No. No, I can’t, really. Hawkeye. Hawkeye? Can I speak to you?

HAWKEYE: Yeah, sure.

DAGO RED: No. Outside.

HAWKEYE: What?

DAGO RED: I have to talk to you outside.

HAWKEYE: You all right?

(a familiar little dog rushes up to him)

Hiya, pup-pup.

DAGO RED: Sorry to drag you away from the gang in there--

HAWKEYE: What?

DAGO RED: This will only take a moment. There’s a problem with Walt Waldowski.

HAWKEYE: Painless?

DAGO RED: Painless.

HAWKEYE: Y’got a toothache? He’s a good dentist.

Dago Red: No, no, no, it’s not my problem. See, it’s his problem.

HWKEYE: What do you mean? What is it?

DAGO RED: Well, what is it.... That’s-- It’s difficult to talk about, you see, because I learned about his problem in confession.

HAWKEYE: And you can’t....

DAGO RED: I can’t divulge--

HAWKEYE: Can you give me a hint?

DAGO RED: But I--

HAWKEYE: Just an idea--

DAGO RED: Well, no. But I can tell you how serious it is.

DAGO RED: He and the boys were playing poker and one of the boys turned to him and asked for a ruling on one of the hands and Walt said, he said, “What does it matter? It’s only a game.”

HAWKEYE: Painless said “what does it matter? It’s only a game”? Poker, only a game?

DAGO RED: Yeah.

Hawkeye whistles -- only this time with amazement.

DAGO RED: Yeah. That’s what I thought.

HAWKEYE: i guess I better go see a man about a tooth.

DAGO RED: Thank you. See I didn’t know what I--

HAWKEYE (as he leaves): C’mon pup-pup.

DAGO RED: You see there are some....

DAGO RED: There are some things absolution just....

#MASH #50th anniversary of original movie MASH #Robert Altman #Donald Sutherland #elliott gould #tom skerritt #sally kellerman #robert duvall #Gary Burghoff #Roger Bowen #Indus Arthur #David Arkin\#Rene Auberjonois #Jo Ann Pflug #Dawn Daemon

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weclassybouquetfun · 4 years

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"Your story is important. Don't go thinking otherwise. Don't let your story go untold. You are important. Your life has value. You live your life with your head held high and you tell your story." - Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope)

Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy (The Politician, Scream Queens, Glee) brings to Netflix a Hollywood revisionist tale that plays with the facts and lore of Hollywood to bring about a series about what the industry could be if only people were to screw their courage to the sticking place and more care was put into ones’ values than the bottom line.

When the project was first announced, it was dubbed Ryan Murphy’s Scotty Bowers project, with the assumption Murphy frequent collaborator Darren Criss would be playing Bower. Bowers - who passed away last year - was (in)famous for his autobiography “Full Service” and his documentary “Scotty Bowers and the Secret History of Hollywood” in which he told of his years as a prostitute turned pimp for the actors/actresses/execs from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

But if there is anyone close to playing Bowers in this series it’s Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story: Murder House) who plays failed actor turned gigolo and pimp Ernie West who employs a stable of men yearning to crack the industry as gigolos.

David Corenswet (The Politician) plays Jack Castello, a married former military vet who wants to be in the pictures, and turns to escorting to get those connections, Maude Apatow (daughter of Leslie Mann and Judd) as his pregnant wife who thinks her husband is just a gas jockey; Broadway actor Jeremy Pope plays Archie Coleman a gay screenwriter who turns to turning tricks for extra money, Jake Picking (Blockers) as Roy, another wannabe actor forms a relationship with Archie, Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) plays the real life talent agent Henry Willson (tremendous role for him) who takes on Roy and plans to turn him into a Hollywood legend; Darren Criss as Raymond Ainsley, a director who wants to elevate and uplift marginalized actors of colors as a way to address his biracial identity, and Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Raymond’s girlfriend, a black actress who wants to do more than play maids.

For the literalists this series is like murder. Murphy & Co. obliterates history in the same way Tarantino did in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Inglorious Basterds”. But I appreciated that, much like OUATIH, Murphy & Co. gave a happy ending to stories that far too often had none. I have read one review "Hollywood” is preachy and maudlin, but it’s a show that speaks to the dreams and dreamers of those who came to Tinseltown during he Golden Age of Film and those who still come to L.A with stars in their eyes in hopes of stardom. The series takes all the unseemly things we know about the industry and tries to right those wrongs. It even has charity for those who did the wrong (again, Henry Willson is such a great role for Jim Parsons!)

The series also stars Patti LuPone, Holland Taylor, Joe Mantello, Rob Reiner and Samara Weaving.

We are in the thick of Emmy voting season and everything is muted due to the lack of campaigning due to the pandemic; I really wish the cast had a chance to push this show.

TBT last year’s FYC events for Netflix and Amazon.

#hollywood #Neflix #darren criss #david corenswet #jeremy pope #ryan murphy #old hollywood #netflix #streaming #tv #television #patti lupone #dylan mcdermott #scott bowers #hollywood cast #richard madden #fysee #awards season #jharrel jerome

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the-citrus-scale · 4 years

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Funny Shows to Binge When You Just Need a Break

We’ve been binging a lot of TV lately, and a lot of it is heavy. Dickinson, Once Upon a Time, Outlander, Prodigal Son, See. Sometimes we just need a break from the doom and gloom and crazy family trees to just sit back and laugh. So here’s our list of favorite shows to turn on when we just need to relax before bed and not contemplate any gigantic plot twists while we fall asleep.

American Housewife: This show follows a family who rents a house in a wealthy neighborhood so that they kids can go to the best schools. While they all struggle to fit in, they also face problems any family faces, but with the added stress of seeing the families around them not really having the same problems. One of the kids also has anxiety and OCD that is well-represented, which is nice to see. It’s a little quirky, but in a wonderful way that you’re sure to enjoy.

The Big Bang Theory: This show recently finished its run, making it perfect for binging, especially if you haven’t seen it. The characters are endearing, the situations are hilarious, and there’s the occasional music number. What more could you want? There are twelve seasons, so this one will probably take you a while, meaning you won’t have to move on to anything else soon.

Bob’s Burgers: This is one of the many, and in our opinion, the best animated show available on Fox. The antics of Bob, Linda, and their kids are downright ridiculous and always awesome. The show is still airing, but is currently in its tenth season, so there’s plenty to catch up on.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: We just got into this one recently and it was everything we had been led to believe. There’s diversity in every way, including openly gay and bisexual characters, and even though it often tackles tough issues, it does so in a way that is both sensitive and light. There’s more to come, but there’s plenty of seasons to catch up on for the time being.

The Good Place: The concept of this show is kind of crazy, but it will quickly grow on you. We can’t say much because it would give it all away, but just trust us on this one. It’s currently in its fourth and last season, so there’s not much of it, but we’re looking forward to seeing how it ends. We also think that this one is very rewatchable. There’s always a little detail to catch that you missed the first time around.

Parks and Recreation: If you don’t fall in love with Leslie Knope immediately upon starting this show, we call shenanigans. While it’s been over for a while, the bonus is that you don’t have to wait for new episodes. You can watch all of it at once. Every moment is somehow better than the last, and all of the characters are just as great as Leslie. You’ll be rooting for all of them for sure.

Single Parents: While it’s a relatively new show, it found its stride quickly. Focusing particularly, as the title indicates, on issues faced by single parents, it will definitely hit home if you have children or know people who do. All of the characters are struggling to get by in different ways, but they always manage to find the silver lining of every cloud. It’s uplifting and funny at the same time.

Speechless: This show is about the trials a family faces raising their differently abled child. As people raising children with special needs, we can say that it is definitely accurate. The greatest thing about the show is that the actor portraying JJ DiMeo is actually differently abled. The only difference is that his character can’t speak, but he actually can. The saddest thing about Speechless, unfortunately, is that it was just canceled, but it is definitely still worth a watch, and we’re hoping we’ll see more shows like it soon.

Tell us what your favorite funny and light shows are to watch in the comments. We’d love to check out some more!

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booksandtea · 6 years

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Unnatural, Vol. 1 by Mirka Andolfo Series: Unnatural #1 Genre: Fantasy | Graphic Novel Length: 112 pages Publishes on 27th Novmeber 2018 by Image Comics Purchase: Amazon Mirka Andolfo: Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads eCopy received for review from publisher via Edelweiss+

Synopsis: Leslie J. Blair is a simple pig girl, she loves sushi and she is trapped in a job that she hates. She lives with Trish, her best friend. In her world, which is full of anthropomorphic creatures, with a totalitarian government that interferes in the personal lives of its citizens, up to the point of allowing only relationships between individuals of the same race. The transgressors are punished. They are accused of being… unnatural!Leslie dreams of something different for herself. But these dreams are becoming dangerous, especially because they feature a mysterious wolf. And, when she wakes up, she thinks that she is being watched… And, as if that were not enough, on the day of her twenty-fifth birthday, Leslie receive an email that she would never have wanted to receive. But she still does not know it’s just the beginning …The hit Italian comic, a fantasy, erotica, romantic suspense series by MIRKA ANDOLFO (Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, DC Comics Bombshells) will bring you in a colorful but terrible world, where personal freedoms are superfluous. Follow Leslie on a breathtaking plot, between thriller and fantasy with a touch of sensuality.

Collects issues #1-4

Why did I pick up Unnatural? CUTE GOTH PIG GIRL.

I didn’t even read the synopsis but I ended up being surprised by the route this graphic novel took and I really enjoyed it.

Surprised because the opening pages were uh, a nsfw sex scene! Which actually turned out to be Leslie – main characters – reocurring fantasy dream.

Wait, please don’t cut away because you’re like Lauren please? Stop with the NSFW graphic novels, I just need to acknowledge this fantasy she has as it plays into the main story later on. Just give me a chance.

So the start threw me off a bit but then as Leslie is walking to work I notice a few things in the background that caught my eye and made me question what was the setting like of her world, and a news show which give these “adverts” more context.

In short, the government don’t want same-sex or different-specied beings to be in relationships or recreate. Its very heavily policed; as well as there being propgoanda about it on the streets, theres children shows to “educate” them, and court cases are broadcast to remind people who they’ll be put into programmes to fix them or killed if its the second infraction.

Which means Leslie’s dreams are against the law.

Additionally married partners will get a much lower tax to further help encourage the society to stick to these rules.

But wait? Theres more.

When anyone hits 25 they’re automatically entered into a dating programme if they’ve yet to find a same species partner to encourage them to find the “perfect person” but with Leslies’ past dating attempts ending badly and leaving her unwanting to be forced into a relationship she does have doubts.

Oh and her dreams are getting more intense; more like memories than anything make believe.

So whilst she heads out onto her arranged date, her flatmate (Trish) decideds to do some reasearch into what he dreams could possibly be.

Trish

is another character who’s design I really liked, and we get to see how the two become friends in a flashback so I have a lot of respect for her. She’s very caring, smart, and her humour is very uplifting in this oppressed world.

Leslie got a little overwhelmed at her date though. Initially because he was HOT. (Her facial expression killed me)

Then later because she didn’t pick up on a few things the reader did.

I was particularly fond of the fact that even when drunk she took a step back and realised she needed to think about this situation properly, does it go against her own morals, is this too good to be true?

Is this too good to be true?

And then BAAM the main plot starts.

AND THIS IS WHY I NEED TO RECOMMEND IT, WHY I NEED TO KEEP READING IT.

A secret society needs Leslie so they can perform a ritual and they’ve infiltrated her life in ways she couldn’t consider. Her dreams are memories and theres a mysterious stranger who looks suspiciously familiar trying to keep her safe.

Damn.

The plot goes hard and her life really is in danger.

At this point I really don’t know what more I can say as it does become very plot driven for the last part of the graphic novel and I think its important to not spoil it too much, so I’m going to end on a very sweet scene and some images where we can admire Leslie’s design and aesthetics!

5 stars / 5 stars

If you enjoyed this post consider supporting Northern Plunder Ko-fi | Twitter | Book Club | RedBubble

ARC Graphic Novel Review: Unnatural, Vol. 1 by Mirka Andolfo Unnatural, Vol. 1 by Mirka Andolfo Series: Unnatural #1 Genre: Fantasy | Graphic Novel Length: 112 pages…

#ARC #Audience: Adult #Author: Mirka Andolfo #Book Review #Books for Review #Genre: Fantasy #Genre: LGBT #Genre: Mystery #Genre: Thriller #Graphic Novel #Illustrator: Mirka Andolfo #Publisher: Image Comics #Rating: 5 stars #Series: Unnatural

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jaceyneedsabetterusername · 6 years

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All I Need~ Part 9

Pairings: Josh Dun x Pregnant!Reader

Overview: You move to Columbus, Ohio to live with your brother after your ex-boyfriend becomes abusive after telling him of a surprise pregnancy. You become involved in the church and unknowingly befriend the Dun family. After finally meeting Josh, there’s a connection between the two of you that lands you in some complicated situations.

Warnings: None

Y/N = Your Name

Y/B/N = Your Brother’s Name

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

You’d had a countdown until you could go on maternity leave for weeks, which was a surprising perk to your job. Of course you knew that jobs were legally required to give maternity leave but it seemed strange that a comic book shop would have it. Honestly, you’d seen your job as more of a job for teenagers and not something that offered any sort of benefits but was greatly surprised that you still got the time off. Even with all the appreciation for their understanding of your situation, you knew you had to find a new job after the twins were born. Selling comic books just wasn’t the kind of work that would support a family a four. Sure, you had Josh’s income, but there was no way you’d leech off of his success like that, even if he was now one of the people caring for the family. You were determined to make your own living and mutually support your family. And that, you thought to yourself, would be so much easier when you weren’t constantly exhausted, sore, or somehow limited by being pregnant.

You loved being pregnant. There was something magical and uplifting about it but the definitely wasn’t to say that there wasn’t downfalls. Take right now, for example. You tried reorganizing the ever-messy piles of comic books when every ten or fifteen minutes, you were hit with a sharp cramping in your lower abdomen. Braxton-Hicks contractions, you’d read, were contractions that weren’t really signs of labor but rather were preparations for actual labor. They occurred prior to being full-term and were definitely painful but not a signal of labor. You’d just wished they’d wait till you were off work to hit.

When a particularly hard one hit, you stopped working and leaned over onto a sturdy shelf, breathing deep with a hand on your belly, “Just seven more weeks little guys.” You muttered. Once it passed, you stood upright and tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, glancing at the clock, “And just 2 more hours for you, Y/N.” You said to yourself.

Finally, 6 o’clock rolled around and you locked up the store and drove home. All you wanted to do was sit down in something comfy and eat ice cream and watch a funny movie. You were so sick and tired of always trying to be the super healthy mom. You worked out when you could and tried to eat healthy but gosh darnit you were gonna go home and eat some ice cream!

“Long day?” Y/B/N asked when you walked into the living room.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You asked with mock offense.”

He shrugged, “You look like crap.” He admitted bluntly.

“Wow, thanks. You know, I was gonna ask if you wanted ice cream but nevermind.” You kicked your shoes off and grabbed the pint of Ben and Jerry’s and you’d stashed in the freezer. You plopped down onto the couch next to Y/B/N and turned your favorite movie on. Y/B/N reached his hand out towards you expectantly, waiting for you to hand him the ice cream, but you just smacked his hand away, “Back off.” You hissed, waving your spoon threateningly at him. Suddenly, another deep pressure pressed into your lower back and you shifted uncomfortably.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concerned.

You sat there silently until the contraction passed, “Yeah, it’s just my stupid body is feeling the need to put me through this crap twice.”

He looked at you confused, “What?”

“Fake contractions. Not real labor just prep.” You summed up quickly, indulging in your ice cream.

You were woken up the next morning by another, stronger cramp. You shot upright and hissed in pain, trying to find a position that was more comfortable. Were these contractions supposed to last this long? After about 30 seconds, it passed and you climbed out of bed to start getting ready for church. You threw on some clothes and ate before meeting your brother in the car and driving towards the chapel.

Josh was waiting for you out front in a white button up and black jeans. You walked up to him and hugged him, “Good morning.” You smiled.

“Good morning to you too. How’s your day going so far?” He asked as you two began your walk into the church, scouting out a place to sit.

“Eh, it’s okay.” You hesitated.

He held your hand, “What’s wrong?” He asked.

Before you could say anything, the pastor was up at the front of the room, bringing the band up to start praise. As soon as you stood to start singing, another cramp hit. Your hand instinctively tightened around Josh’s as you tried to keep a neutral face through the pain. This wasn’t right. Braxton Hicks weren’t really supposed to hurt, just be uncomfortable. Josh looked at you, worried, “Are you okay?” He whispered. You didn’t say anything, just nodded. When it passed, you lessened your grip on his hand.

Within 20 minutes, another one hit and your grip tightened on his again. Josh glanced worriedly at you and he watched you breathe deeply. This one lasted for almost a minute. It went like this for the next hour. Every 20 minutes or so, another contraction. After the sermon, Josh escorted you outside to meet with the other church goers. You made eye contact with Mrs. Meidinger, the elderly woman who called you harlot on your first day at the church. When she saw the way Josh had his arm around you, she gave you another judgemental glare. The slut gets pregnant, leaves the father, and is onto the next poor boy to dump her bastard offspring on, the look seemed to say. You gave her a fake smile to which she turned ubruptly from. Just as you and Josh found a place to stand and wait for your brother and the rest of his family, another contraction hit. Josh sensed it and he looked at you sincerely, “Seriously, are you okay? Is something wrong?” He asked, looking you in the eye.

You sighed, “I think I’m gonna walk home. I feel like I might be having actual contractions but it’s too early. I need to call Dr. Leslie.” You leaned up on your tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, “I’ll call you later?”

“You are not walking home if you might be in labor!” He declared, looking at you like you were a lunatic for even suggesting it.

“It’s 5 minutes away, Josh. If I leave now I’ll probably be there before another one hits.” You defended.

He pulled his keys out of his pocket, “I’ll take you home. Just let me tell my parents real fast.”

You were home within ten minutes but by the time you reached the door, another contraction hit. “Are you supposed to be keeping track of the time between them or something? Or is that just a movie thing?” He asked.

You breathed out slowly and controlled until you felt comfortable enough to say something, “Yeah, I think they’re like… ten minutes? Maybe?” Josh opened the door for you and followed you inside. You found your way to the couch, grabbing the Steve Buscemi pillow and gripping it to your chest while you searched for Dr. Leslie’s number in your phone. When the phone began ringing, Josh came into the room with a glass of water for you and sat next to you.

“Hello! Dr. Marissa Leslie’s office. How can I help you?” A man said on the other end.

“Hi, um, is Dr. Leslie there?” You asked, hastily trying to talk to her before another contraction hit.

“I’m sorry, she’s with a patient right now. Is this an emergency?” He asked calmly.

You shook your head as you spoke, “No, I just had a question for her.”

He chirped helpfully on the other end, “I might be able to help with that. What’s the question?”

“I think I’m having contractions but I’m only 32 weeks along with twins and I don’t know what I should do. I don’t think they’re Braxton Hicks.” You explained, panicking slightly and shifting uncomfortably.

“Alright, how far apart are the contractions? And are they painful?” He asked.

You felt another contraction tighten in your abdomen and you glanced at the clock, trying to talk through the pain, “Yes, definitely painful. And about 8 or 9 minutes apart now.”

“Alright ma’am, I think it would be best for you to go to the hospital. They can check to see if you are actually in labor and continue with further medical care if necessary.”

“Thank you.” You told him, hanging up.

Josh gave you a look, “Are we going?”

You looked at him nervously and nodded, “Yep.”

Josh jumped up right away, “I’ll pack up a bag with some clothes just in case. Do you want to change into something comfier?”

You nodded, pushing yourself up to stand before walking over to Josh and kissing him on the lips, “I love you so much.” You sighed.

He gave you a small smile, “I love you too.” You walked to you room and threw on a comfortable t-shirt. Josh came in and grabbed you a pair of sweats, extra shirt, spare underwear, and himself the spare clothes he kept at your apartment.

After a twenty minute drive and almost an hour wait in the waiting room, you were taken back into the maternity ward where a doctor came into check how much you dilated, “You’re already 4 cm dilated. We’re going to keep you for a few hours to keep track of your contractions and to track any further dilation. However, because your labor seems to be progressing rapidly, we’re going to start an IV and administer a medication that will speed up the development of your babies’ lungs.”

“O-ok. Thanks.” You stuttered as he left. When he did, you looked up at Josh who was sitting next to you, holding your hand, “It’s too early. What if they don’t make it?” You asked, terrified tears beginning to slip down your face.

Josh stood up quickly and held you as you cried into his chest, “Hey, don’t think like that. Right now, we’re at the best place we could possibly be. And the doctor is doing everything he can to make sure that the boys are as safe as possible.”

You calmed down a little, still holding his arm like it was a life line. He was right. Everything was going to be okay.

#all i need #josh dun #josh dun x reader #josh dun smut #josh dun fluff #twenty one pilots

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thefoolsloop · 7 years

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Wife, children, servants, all that could be found: SNM Shanghai, show no. 4

**(Spoilers for Sexy Witch loop - not for 1:1s, but for new content. This is good stuff, so don’t read until you’ve followed Sexy. I’m mentioning it now because it’s so intense and also because I’d be interested in other people’s reactions to the new material.

Spoilers also for Duncan loop, but not any 1:1s - which I didn’t get. I don’t even know if he does one. There’s one thing in the loop which is so special I won’t even hint what it is.)**

The pain has cleared by my second show of the day and, fortified by a tube of Pringles, I enter the McKinnon a second time.

My initial intention is to have another easy-going show but, on the way in, I immediately realise that because of the cast rotation this will be my last chance - perhaps ever in my life - to see Miranda’s Sexy Witch. Although I'm conscious that I’ve hogged her for much of my time in the show so far, I'm also conscious that I haven’t yet danced with her nor had the walkout. So, casting aside my reservations, I enable Selfish Mode and go straight for the ballroom on arrival.

She's not there. Bald (Fania) and Boy (Olly - by many people’s reckoning the best witch trio this show has ever seen) are there, going through their pre-party motions, but Sexy’s missing. I look around; surely she should be here? I mean, she does start top of the show here, right? I’ve seen this enough times by now to know the three witches are together, briefly teasing each other, then creating a circle and enchanting the ballroom floor before the guests arrive.

I keep looking round anxiously. I’m eager not to miss Miranda’s last Sexy, but I’m also concerned for her wellbeing - is she OK? Ages seem to pass (it was probably only a minute or so), then there’s a flash of green in the corner of my eye. Thank God, here she is, apparently unharmed. (I never do find out what the problem was, but luckily it doesn’t matter.)

The party begins, the guests streaming in from all corners - hooray, here’s Sam at last! - and as the music starts I’m reminded of just how much I adore this scene. In the McKittrick it’s almost the only moment of pure joy, where music, dance and atmosphere are upbeat and heart-lifting (and, yes, I’m aware of the undercurrents running through everything, but at least they’re not laid over with a brush); here in the McKinnon things are more balanced, but the good associations I have with it have been carried over from New York. Everyone is smiling, the dancing is ‘proper’ dancing, not the seriously impressive gymnastics or interpretative movement we see elsewhere. It’s such an uplifting sequence and you get to see it three times a show. I never quite got into the Hoedown in TDM, but I begin to understand why people fell in love with it. I feel the same about the ballroom party in SNM. It’s so wonderful I actually feel quite moved.

The party ends and the guests peel off with their followers. I attach myself to Miranda, but so does a Chinese woman in a white cardigan. She seems to know the loop as well as I do, and we’re unwilling companions throughout. At 1:1 time I hang back, since I’ve had the experience (I don’t see if cardigan woman gets it) and I keep my distance until the rave (except for the medicine shop dance, where there’s so much space for everyone to have a good view). While the lights are flashing I hang around in the corridor, then hurry in as soon as it stops and position myself deliberately for what’s to come (see below).

I’ve waxed lyrical about Miranda’s bar dance before and seeing it for a second time I’m reminded just what’s so incredible about it. Not only is her dancing extreme and breath-taking, but in those moments she seems the very incarnation of something other-worldly, something from the spirit world. While the little touches she’s added to it no longer have the element of surprise, this leaves me free to absorb the magnificence of the whole piece. Both powerful and vulnerable, Sexy in those moments becomes tortured and crazed, caught up in her own private bacchanal. And for whose benefit? We do not know.

Miranda lands in a crumpled heap, then scoots along the floor until she’s right at my feet. Dazed, she stretches out her hand to me and I help her up. Our eye contact lasts only a moment, but that’s long enough for an understanding to be shared. I knew you’d land there, my eyes say. Thank you, hers say, fleetingly. But Sexy is in no condition for niceties just now. Hecate approaches, caresses her. Is it a blessing or a curse? Is she congratulating her on a good job done with Macbeth, or is she reminding Sexy that she owns her? Or both? Or something else?

We’re in the high street now, where I get the same interaction I had at my first show. Again, I’ve hung back a little, but Miranda seems determined to treat me. Oh, well, far be it from me to be rude. I get a kiss for my trouble.

Almost all this time, the white cardigan has been at my side, clinging to Miranda like a leech. It’s hard to say whether she is just keen on the loop or whether she’s gunning for an interaction (if this were New York or London, I’d have no hesitation in guessing the latter, but as I said before they do things differently here).

(’Macduff’s Wife and Children Slain’ from Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, 1901)

**BIG SPOILER FOR THE LOOP APPROACHING - NOT AN INTERACTION OF ANY KIND, BUT SERIOUSLY I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON HERE**

Things progress to a scene I missed first time round (I think I was following the Bride). We follow her to the Macduffs’ rooms. Now we’re in the children’s bedroom. There is blood all over the bed. Sexy seems confused, anguished. She pokes at the bedclothes as if unable to work out what’s happened. She picks up a teddy bear and holds it out to us, but doesn’t say a word. Something has struck her on a deep emotional level. The death of children, yes - but why? Why her? What’s been done to Sexy’s storyline to connect it so strongly to Lady Macduff? She’s not celebrating here, as I would have expected, with Hecate’s destruction widening its net. And all this time, she’s being watched (as I discovered at my first show).

I’m genuinely at a loss to explain this scene, and would love to hear theories.

Sexy runs to Duncan’s suite, starts cleaning off the blood from the rave. She seems troubled now, something nagging at her thoughts. She grabs a damp cloth, hands it to me. “Get it off! Get it off!” she hisses, desperately. I dab uselessly at her forehead, her shoulders. She snatches it from me, gives me a massive kiss on the mask as a reward. Then she turns to the mirror and tidies herself up, so she’s presentable for Macbeth at the top of the loop.

**SPOILER ENDS**

Top of the loop, ‘Witches 1′, where the trio meet Macbeth for the first (second) time. At this point, the woman in the white cardigan turns, leans over to me, and says something in Chinese. What could it be? I shake my head, trying to indicate that I don’t understand. Is she asking how come I get all the interactions? Is she pointing out that I’ve trodden on her a few times and not apologised? Is she asking the time? I can’t do anything more to help her, so I turn away. She shouldn’t be talking anyway, I tell myself.

The loop continues round to just before the party. I briefly forget where to stand, and have to run around to where the curtain is, but Miranda takes me in her arms as if there were no one else in the room. We dance, and I recall my dance with Leslie, bird-light in my grasp, so wispy I feared to crush her. Miranda is different - solid, strong, indestructible. No one without substance could do the bar dance like that. I feel on much more equal terms with her; yet it still feels odd being in the man’s position but unable to lead. She gives me another kiss for my pains. I wouldn’t exactly call this painful.

The party commences again, and once again I feel a much bigger emotional response than ever before. So much joy, the music so wonderful, everyone smiling, the dancing perfect, the interaction between the characters fascinating. In fact, I don’t remember an ensemble scene in TDM which had so many layers, no, not even the Hoedown. It’s such a pleasure to watch, I feel a pricking sensation in my eyes. Can this really be described as a moving scene?

(Sam’s good-natured and sympathetic Duncan; photo from sleepnomore.cn)

Anyway, my attention is soon fixed on Sam, one of the reasons I flew all this way. I’ve seen him in only one production since TDM, and then all too briefly. Here he is, again rewarded with a principal role, as Duncan. But where I had expected a Duncan who radiates the commanding presence of Leland Stanford, Sam (like Fania) confounds preconceptions. While his Duncan is indeed a significant presence in the scene, Sam plays him as a pleasant, almost avuncular figure, not a patriarch. This is a Duncan looking forward to retirement - not because he is too old to manage the job, but because he has achieved everything he wants to. Perhaps he wants to enjoy spending time with the ladies, as his attention on Lady Macbeth suggests.

**(SMALL SPOILERS FOR DUNCAN LOOP, BUT NOT THE BEST BIT)**

As the party ends, Sam climbs the stairs, singing to himself. Is he drunk, or is something else going on? In his chamber, he feels unwell, stumbles. As he collapses on the bed, he goes into a Stanford-style seizure, of the sort Sam has practised frequently. But this time there’s no desperate grabbing of white masks, no: “Record! Be the camera!” Instead, we watch powerless as Macbeth comes and finishes him off. When Banquo, Malcolm and Macduff appear the tone changes from sinister to humane, compassionate and tender - particularly with the splendidly sincere combination of Omar and Ben in two of the parts.

Duncan is carried to the cemetery in a sombre procession, and left there. In New York he’d lie there for about ten minutes, while all but the most dogged (or tired) followers drift away. But not Sam. He does something so unexpected, so wonderful and so Sam that I simply can’t report it; it has to be experienced. (Fred’s Duncan does it too, but in a way that is less Sam. You’d know what I mean if you saw it.)

After this, I lose him for a little while, but manage to pick him up after the reset in time for the shaving scene. In the hands of Ben and Sam, this plays out with a strong emotional undercurrent, expressed only through gesture and expression. Malcolm, the dutiful (perhaps over-dutiful) son, wanting to please his father yet also unwittingly terrifying him; Duncan, the cautious father, increasingly unnerved by the razor until he can stand it no longer. Seeing Sam play vulnerable after his dominant Stanford is quite a novelty: yet he pulls it off with immense character and sympathy. One feels that this Duncan-Malcolm pairing have a real bond with each other.

**(SPOILERS END)**

Back to the ballroom - the last time I will see Miranda, Fania, Olly, Sam, Omar and Ben in these roles. Tears form in my eyes, not just because it’s the last time but because this scene is just so goddamn wonderful. What a privilege to watch these master performers do it; what a joy to be able to say I know them; what a pleasure just to get to watch this at all. And so perfectly done.

As in previous shows, I find myself drifting from loop to loop until eventually I find myself back in the rep bar. This time I’m near the door, so I’m seeing Miranda’s bar dance from the side, where it inevitably lacks the impact gained from seeing it front-on. No matter; her dedication and skill still shine through. I stick with her as best I can until the banquet. I’ve ticked almost all the boxes with her, but there’s still the walkout. I feel selfish for hogging all the interactions as if they were rightfully mine. But I also feel that my effort in flying the best part of 6,000 miles to see the show gives me a certain head start in claiming them.

As I enter the ballroom, a crowd has already gathered. This isn’t going to be easy. I stand opposite Miranda’s position while she mounts the stage. I’m probably three or four rows back at this point, too far for her reach. Then I remind myself that there’s less social prohibition in this country against slipping through to the front of a crowd. So, without shoving anyone, I glide my shoulders between people and end up just behind the front row.

The banquet unfolds its slow progress; I’ve seen it so many times I can pretty much detect the cues in the drone, anticipate the point at which the frozen tableau will start moving again. As Macbeth proceeds to climb onto the table, the other characters move away. Miranda comes round to the front of the platform. She will need a hand to get down. She reaches out in my direction, and between us we virtually slap away what seems like a dozen hands until she grasps mine. She positions herself in front of me and, arms outstretched, pushes everyone back until they’re at a distance where Macbeth’s feet won't decapitate them. Andrea is on the table now, his face a mass of blood, his face contorted in horror. BANG! A cry, both from Andrea and from the audience. The creaks echo round the chamber. “That certain night...”

Miranda’s hands have been gripping my shoulders. Now they release, and I turn towards her. She’s already slipped her hand into mine. We walk through the rooms, accomplices, partners, friends. Now and again we exchange a knowing look, she with an ambiguous smile on her face, me doing all the work with my eyes. Into the Manderley, where I receive yet another kiss. I’m never washing again.

After the show, I say hello to Sam in the bar. On seeing me, he glows with surprise and delight. You came all this way? But of course, Sam. Not long afterwards I find myself outside on the terrace of the cafe, where the cast have gathered to celebrate Garth Johnson’s birthday. I renew old acquaintances, make new ones. At last I get to talk to Miranda offstage, and it’s like the eighteen months since I last met her never happened. I meet so many new people, gather a mass of autographs in my TDM photo book (yes, I heaved it into my suitcase and took it all the way to China). There is no finer thing than creative people coming together to make something wonderful - except, perhaps, being accepted into the company of those people as if you were one of them. I’ll remember that evening for the rest of my life.

#Punchdrunk #Sleep No More #snm shanghai #miranda mac letten #sam booth #sexy witch #duncan

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lizacstuff · 7 years

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Hi Liza, I've had bouts of depression over the years and my love for CS has gotten me through many dark times (like my parents passing away on the same night). The thought that we might not have another season saddens me. CS and Jen/Colin bts are what bring me joy. I've never shipped a pairing like I do CS and they've set the bar so high I don't think anyone else will be able to compare. I just don't know how to say goodbye to them. Thanks for being here. I love your blog. You are a gift.

Thank you so much, and let me say how sorry I am for all the heartbreak you’ve experienced.

I’m glad you found solace in Captain Swan. They give me a great deal of joy too. It’s amazing how uplifting and restorative fiction can be.

I’m also sad at the thought of the show ending. However, the end of the show does not mean the end of Captain Swan. Captain Swan and the mass of creative works this fandom has produced will live on forever. We will always have (at least) the 6 seasons of Emma Swan and 5 seasons of Captain Swan to rewatch any time. So many great and beautiful moments to relive. And fandom will always be here. There will always be fan fiction you haven’t read, or want to reread, and I don’t know about you but I never get tired of looking at gifs and photos and art. My blog has over 32k posts on it and the vast majority of those are all Captain Swan related. A couple years down the road, I know I’m going to have a ball going through my tags and reminiscing.

The bar is high with CS. When it comes to shipping, they may never be surpassed. This is the holy grail of ships and has everything anyone could ask for. However there’s still a lot of incredible entertainment out there. New shows and movies and books and characters (and ships) to discover. Here’s a few TV recommendations, old and new: (most with a ship element)

Supergirl - I’m enjoying all the stories and characters in S2, but I love Kara and Mon-El. They are pure joy in ship form. Even when they fight they emit rays of sunshine and light. And when it’s angsty, that just means the explosion of rainbows and puppies in your heart will be even bigger at the end of the episode.

Lucifer - This show is entertaining as hell. Larger-than-life protagonist, nice chemistry between leads, fantastic supporting characters and an intriguing overarching plot.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Makes me grin like an idiot. I love every single character and I laugh out loud. Often.

Pitch - Delightful. The story is amazing and uplifting, but not schmaltzy and Ginny x Mike makes my heart squeeze.

Timeless - Twists, turns, a wonderful OT3 and a different adventure in a different time period every week.

Gilmore Girls - The feel good show to end all feel good shows. If your heart needs to smile, this is the ticket.

Parks and Recreation - If you haven't watched all seven seasons of this, go do it right now! Leslie Knope is the human personification of optimism, the show will make you laugh, and Ben x Leslie are nerds in love (and legitimate relationship goals.)

The West Wing - The home of my first OTP and one of the best television shows ever produced, bar none. I enjoy every regular character and pretty much every single scene is a gem. It’s especially uplifting in today’s political climate.

Sportsnight - Speaking of Aaron Sorkin (the creator of TWW) I bet you’ve never seen his first television series. This is a half-hour comedy, but one of the first single-camera sitcoms without a live audience. Dan, Casey, Dana (Josh Charles, Peter Kraus, Felicity Huffman)... good times. Man, I think it’s time for a rewatch.

Veronica Mars - This one is dark and twisty, but it’s not depressing because Veronica is indomitable and she almost always wins (plus she falls for the Obligatory Psychotic Jackass if that's your thing. It was mine.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - If you’ve never watched this gem, the time is now. The early season special effects will make you laugh or cringe (look at the puppet monster) but just concentrate on the witty dialogue and hell mouth teen angst.

Chuck - A spy show that is also bright and funny and romantic.

Alias - This show will keep you on the edge of your seat with shocking twists and turns. Plus kickass lady who wears lots of kickass disguises and falls for the cute guy, who also happens to be the only guy she can trust... or can she?

Agent Carter - Nostalgia and a brainy, brawny, brilliant broad. Oh Peggy, I miss you.

Friday Night Lights - Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. That tells you everything you need to know.

And there’s so many more... For laughs I also recommend 30 Rock, The Office, the first two season of The New Girl, the first three seasons of The Mindy Project, every episode of Friends ever, Will & Grace, Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Life in Pieces, The Nanny (I’m not kidding, this is one of the happiest, funniest shows ever, and totally shipable) so many more...

Thanks for stopping by, I know it’s tough thinking about a favorite show ending, but we’ll always have Captain Swan and there is so much more art out there to discover!

#asklizac #show recommendations #kind shipmates #Anonymous

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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15 Baby-Sitters Club Books the Netflix Show Needs to Adapt

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For readers of a certain age, at one point in our youth, there was absolutely nothing better than Ann M. Martin’s The Babysitters Club. The books followed the story of a group of preteen girls who start a babysitting business together and while there are plenty of tales of unruly kids and overbearing parents, at its heart, this is a series about the bonds of female friendship. The BSC is comprised of girls from a variety of backgrounds who all bring unique points-of-view to the group, but who support and uplift each other whenever possible. (It’s basically shine theory, before shine theory was cool.)

Martin’s series, which is comprised of over one hundred and thirty books, plus ancillary supersized “Super Special” or “Mystery” editions, represented a first exposure to feminism and diversity for many young readers, and it sounds like the upcoming TV series of the same name will embrace that same progressive and inclusive spirit. And with so many stories to pick from, the possibilities are fairly endless, from serious to silly and everything in between.

Here are fifteen of our picks for classic Babysitters Club stories we’d love to see play out onscreen.

Kristy’s Great Idea

There’s no way that the Babysitters Club Netflix series won’t adapt this story, but it still deserves a spot on this list because it’s the book that starts it all. Kristy’s Great Idea details Kristy Thomas’ brilliant notion to open a babysitting business and tells the story of how she brings a group of very different girls together to help her run it. It’s an adorable story of female entrepreneurism, and a great reminder that at the heart of this friendship tale is a pretty amazing fact: These girls open a wildly successful business! In the seventh grade! If Leslie Knope were a pre-teen girl, she would be Kristy, essentially.

And the novels never let you forget it either. From expanding so rapidly they have to tap associate sitters, to coming up with fun additional benefits for their charges (the Kid-Kit is really a pretty useful idea) and staging special parties and events, Kristy and her crew are constantly reevaluating how the club is working and whether they’re doing the best jobs they can be. How many of us wanted to start clubs of our own after this?

Editor’s note: This is adapted in the first season!

The Truth About Stacey

While this may be just the third installment in the Babysitters Club book series, it’s still one of its most memorable. This is the story that reveals cool former city girl Stacey McGill’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems – she has diabetes and often struggles with her treatment, largely thanks to her intense helicopter parents who keep dragging her to doctors in search of a miracle cure and don’t give her a voice in the health care decisions that impact her life.

Over the course of this particular story, we see Stacey claim some much-needed agency over her own health and future, but this is hardly the last time her diabetes comes up as a narrative issue in the series. From making distinct choices about what she eats to monitoring her health, her condition is a lived-in fact of her character. (There’s even a story later on – Stacey’s Emergency – in which she ends up in the hospital because of it and has to figure out how to adjust her treatment.)

Editor’s note: This is adapted in the first season!

The Ghost at Dawn’s House

As stories go, this particular The Babysitters Club installment isn’t exactly groundbreaking. There are no big social lessons involved and no one has a personal crisis or gets a boyfriend. But it is a story that feels made for a television series, a teen-sized adventure with a creepy flair.

The gist of it is basically what the title says: recent California transplant Dawn Schafer thinks the eighteenth-century house she and her family have moved into is haunted. She’s hearing weird noises and even discovers a secret passageway in one of the walls of her room. (Seriously, didn’t we all want to live this story as teens?) The story involves everything from a mysterious legend of a local missing historical figure to a sitting charge that keeps disappearing, and honestly if there’s a more perfect story for a Halloween episode, I don’t know what it is.

Logan Likes Mary Anne!

At its heart, The Babysitters Club is a story about the friendship between a diverse group of girls from a variety of backgrounds who all have different perspectives and experiences to share. But that doesn’t mean that boys aren’t—or shouldn’t be—involved. Nerdy Mary Anne Spier and sweet Logan Bruno are basically the OTP of The Babysitters Club, and this is the novel in which they first admit that they, you know, like like each other.

Naturally, when one of the gang gets a steady boyfriend that’s more serious than just another entry than Stacey’s myriad list of crushes, things change a bit. Yet, the story of Logan Likes Mary Anne! Is really a lesson in how your life can have room for many things in it at the same time. Mary Anne doesn’t push her friends away, they all go to the school dance together. Logan’s even allowed to become an associate member of the BSC that they assign jobs to in emergencies. And this book isn’t just about Mary Anne’s new boyfriend – it’s also a story about her experiencing growing up, and pushing back against her father’s need to keep her a child forever. (She doesn’t have to wear his chosen outfits or put her hair in braids anymore.) And she even gets a kitten! Everyone wins!

Jessi’s Secret Language

After Stacey McGill moves back to New York, The Babysitters Club series welcomes two new regular sitters to the team – Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey. Jessi’s the group’s first African American member and Jessi’s Secret Language is the first story that features her character as its lead. (It’s hard to overstate how impactful her character is either, as one of the few mainstream Black girls in YA literature at the time.) It’s occasionally an almost saccharinely sweet tale: Jessi becomes a regular babysitter for a client with a deaf child and subsequently ends up teaching her friends and half the school sign language. But it’s still an important one.

The Babysitters Club book series does a wonderful job telling stories about different kinds of families and children, even those with more specialized needs. Jessi’s love of sign language is both cool and admirable, but so is the series’ willingness to make space for a story about deaf kids. There’s also an interesting parallel here that it’s Jessi, who has barely been accepted by the community she and her family live in, who fights so hard to make sure another marginalized child feels welcome there as well.

Stacey’s Mistake

One of the best things about the Babysitters Club series is its realistic portrayal of how friendships can change over the course of our lives. Friends move. They come back. They become different people in the meantime. But it doesn’t mean the friendships have to end. It just means that sometimes, they have to change, too.

As the BSC’s resident New Yorker, Stacey’s one of the series’ characters who moves between homes the most often. (Dawn is the other, as we’ll get to elsewhere on this list.) But that doesn’t mean that she leaves her Stoneybrook friends behind. But the way they all relate to each other does necessarily have to adapt to their new circumstances and that can be challenging.

When the babysitters visit NYC, things get awkward fast. The Stoneybrook girls feel out of their element in the big city, Claudia gets jealous of Stacey’s NYC BFF Laine, and Stacey’s suddenly feeling embarrassed over things she used to love about her Connecticut friends. All eventually ends well – thanks to the magic of Broadway – but the fact that this series doesn’t pretend that being best friends doesn’t mean you don’t have to face problems is refreshing.

Dawn on the Coast

In the Babysitters Club book series, Dawn’s relationship to her California home and upbringing is constantly referenced, much like Stacey’s connection with New York. And, also like Stacey, Dawn visits her home state fairly regularly and gets involved in stories of her own while there. (She even moves back at one point, later on in the series.) Netflix should take advantage of this second local and show us some of the adventures she has while there. (A new setting, a new slate of characters – what’s not to love?)

In Dawn on the Coast, she’s particularly excited about her California trip because it’s her first one since her brother moved back across the country to live with their father. Dawn spends a wonderful week with her dad and brother, going to Disneyland and hanging out with her California BFF Sunny. And Sunny, as it turns out, has even opened her own version of the Babysitters Club called the We Love Kids Club. Everything’s so great, Dawn actually considers whether she should move home too. And she spends a couple of chapters weighing the pros and cons of this decision and trying to factor in both her own desires and what her family and friends expect from her. This one is another example of a BSC story that really represents what it’s like to be a child of divorce – which, let’s remember, was a much rarer thing back in the late 1980s.

Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

Another Babysitters Club installment that isn’t particularly groundbreaking in terms of its story, but one that features precisely the sort of adventure that would make for an ideal Netflix episode. When Mary Anne’s kitten Tigger goes missing, she’s frantic to find him and enlists the help of the BSC. The girls make posters even pool their cash to offer a reward for his safe return. But when a ransom note shows up – does that mean Tigger’s been cat-napped?

The story is entertaining enough on its merits, and while they’re searching for Tigger, the babysitters get to both be sneaky and pull off a complicated scheme together to try and catch the potential cat-nappers in the act. (I was obsessed with Tigger when I was younger and so worried about whether he would turn out to be okay, so let me tell you all that Mary Anne gets her precious fur baby back just fine.)

But this book is also about Mary Anne’s often controlling nature – she recognizes that she’s being overprotective of the cat the way that her dad used to be over her – as well as the first problems in her relationship with her boyfriend Logan, who turns out to be involved in the story in an unexpected way. Actually, he’s kind of a jerk, here, which is a new and potentially troubling development, and lays the groundwork for the two to break up for a bit later on in the series.

Claudia and the Sad Goodbye

Claudia Kishi’s grandmother Mimi has been an important part of the Babysitters Club story since the series began. And, naturally, you can tell right away from the title and cover image that this is going to be the Mimi Dies book, and it is and it’s as heart-wrenching as you might expect.

Despite the fact that her grandmother’s health has been in decline for some time, Mimi’s passing still comes as a shock to Claudia. But the story’s presentation of grief is nuanced and well-rounded, showing how the death of their loved one impacts everyone in the Kishi family and not just Claudia herself. The whole thing is emotional, heartfelt and really honest about how difficult and confusing death can be, especially when you’re young. Claudia’s vacillating between various stages of mourning is so well done.

There’s even a sweet subplot involving Claudia and Mary Anne, perhaps the most polar opposite of our babysitting heroines, being paired together to start an art class for kids and helping a new kid named Corrie Addison, whose mother is always late to pick her up.

Dawn’s Wicked Stepsister

Blended families are a reality of many teenagers’ lives. And even if you get your dream – that one of your best friends becomes your stepsister – things can be a lot more difficult than you ever expected. When Dawn’s mom and Mary Anne’s dad get married, they think everything will be great. They’re finally sisters, they live together now, and even share a room. But unfortunately, things don’t go well at all. Dawn’s annoyed with all the changes the Spier family has brought into her home. The two girls have different study habits, can’t stand sharing a room, and are often at each other’s throats over small and stupid things.

Dawn’s Wicked Stepsister is such an entertaining tale precisely because it thoroughly allows both its leads to be generally terrible toward one another. Mary Anne’s constantly criticizing people, Dawn’s always annoyed, and it turns out that Mr. Spier and the Schafers are extremely opposites attract types. The solution to this madness is straight-up ridiculous and actually downright cruel in some ways, but it would make for an amazing Netflix installment. It involves Dawn faking that her room is haunted and scaring Mary Anne out of it and then just never telling her it wasn’t true. At least everyone learns to compromise by the end, I guess.

Kristy and the Secret of Susan

Yes, yes, Kristy and the Secret of Susan is another sort of message-based book, but it’s one that could be vastly improved through a proper television adaptation that delves into the complex issues that a YA book from the 1980s was deeply unaware of or simply ready to tackle. In the novel, Kristy gets a month-long sitting assignment for eight-year-old Susan, who usually attends a special school outside Stoneybrook because she’s autistic. While on the job, Kristy becomes convinced that she can not only help Susan make friends but that she can help Susan’s parents decide to keep her at home and send her to school with the “regular” kids. The bulk of this story is Kristy coming to understand that the specialized help for Susan’s condition is necessary, but basically, it’s also supposed to teach kids about being kind to those that are different from them.

The downside of course is that multiple important elements of this story feel extremely dated now. Author Ann M. Martin’s knowledge of autism is rudimentary at best and, of course, this book existed long before doctors had established anything like the spectrum as we understand it today. Kristy and the Secret of Susan represents a perfect opportunity for the Netflix series to take the bones of one of the series’ lesser stories and remake it for a modern audience.

Poor Mallory!

The Babysitters Club series was honestly so ahead of its time when it came to telling different kinds of realistic stories about its central group of characters. Poor Mallory! not only acknowledges that money is a thing that exists in this universe, but attempts to tackle the ways that not having any – or simply having less than your friends do – can present real and complex problems for our heroines.

When Mallory’s dad loses his job, it’s naturally a big deal in the Pike household. It’s sort of generally been implied that the family has been living pretty frugally already due to the fact that they have a lot of kids, and everyone does their best to pitch in when disaster strikes. The adorable ways the other Pike kids help out—Vanessa styles hair on the playground!—are charming, but the story doesn’t shy away from illustrating the ways in which their lives are negatively impacted by Mr. Pike’s job loss. From being made fun of by other kids to Mallory’s complicated feelings about working for the rich Delaney family, this BSC book is an honest look at how money impacts life.

Keep Out, Claudia!

Yes, this is The Babysitters Club faces racism book. But, honestly, is there a timelier moment for this story than right now? The club picks up a new client, the Lowells, and everything seems normal. Mary Anne has an easy time sitting for them, but when Claudia gets the same assignment things don’t go nearly so well. The kids are rude, and Mrs. Lowell barely acknowledges her. In fact, when she calls the club again, she specifically requests that anyone but Claudia watch her children.

It’s sort of heartbreaking watching Claudia think that she doesn’t dress conservatively enough for this family and try to figure out what she did wrong, when the reality of the situation is that they’re just incredibly, openly racist. (They won’t even allow Jessi into their house!) It’s a deeply uncomfortable installment of this normally fun and fluffy series, and exactly the kind of story that the Netflix could lend a bit more nuance and impact to.

In the book, the Lowells are racist to the point of caricature—at one point they even seem to dislike Catholics?—and while that may be an understandable teaching tool for young readers, a TV series would be able to tell a much better and more realistic version of this story. After all, a family simply refusing to allow a black teen into their home isn’t the sort of racism most viewers would encounter today. But there are still worthwhile discussions to be had within and about this story – is it the BSC’s job to teach their charges to be better people? To stand up for what’s right, even if it means speaking out against adults?

Baby Sitters On Board!

Each of the regular The Babysitters Club novels was centered around a particular character and followed her journey for the entirety of the book. But, for a treat, a few times a year “super special” editions of the novels were released. They were always quite a bit longer than a regular Babysitters Club book and featured stories that allowed all the girls to take part equally. (They even had alternating POV chapters from each of them.)

The first of these super specials is entitled Baby Sitters On Board and chronicles the entire group’s trip to Florida, which includes a cruise around the Bahamas and then three days at Disney World. Epic, right? Well, sort of.

The plots in this story are actually nothing special, but they’re still so much fun. Dawn and Kristy fight about how messy Kristy is. Mallory decides to spy on everyone and make observations because she just read Harriet the Spy. (We stan a relatable queen.) Claudia gets notes from a secret admirer. The kids they’re sitting for are kind of monsters, particularly Karen who lies all the time. Plus, they go to Disney World! It’s all just a ton of fun, and a nice change of pace from the traditional series formula. It has a great season-finale-of-the-TV-show feel.

Baby Sitters Summer Vacation

Another Super Special installment that would translate perfectly to the small screen is Babysitters Summer Vacation, an installment that sees all the girls and the regular kids they sit for spend a summer together at Camp Mohawk. The babysitters are counselors in training, the kids are campers and basically, it’s all supposed to be like regular sitting, just happening in the woods instead of their own neighborhood. Spoiler alert: It’s not. At all. But that’s what makes it fun.

In true Super Special style, this story involves the girls in lots of different sorts of adventures and summer camp hijinks from Stacey falling in poison ivy to Mary Anne attempting to sneak into the boys’ side of camp to Dawn and her campers getting lost in the woods. And, of course, there are new friends, new crushes and lots of babysitting. A truly charming and adorable story that’s just the right mix of fun and serious. Another perfect contender for a season finale.

Editor’s note: This is adapted in the first season!

The new Baby-Sitters Club TV series will be available in its entirety July 3rd on Netflix.

The post 15 Baby-Sitters Club Books the Netflix Show Needs to Adapt appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38kJljx

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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jessicakmatt · 4 years

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Sample and Hold: Vintage Keys, Electric Organs, and Funky Guitar

Sample and Hold: Vintage Keys, Electric Organs, and Funky Guitar: via LANDR Blog

Welcome to Sample and Hold, the series on the LANDR Blog where we highlight one unique crate-digging session and the digger’s gold we came back with using Selector—the world’s first AI sample recommendation tool.

Starter Loop: Melodic Piano from Lofi Hip Hop

I’ll start off this Sample and Hold session with a jazzy piano sample.

I’ve been looking through LANDR’s sample database to find some choice cuts for a recent article about the best hip hop samples when I came across this one.

This piano loop comes from Kits Kreme’s Lofi Hip Hop sample collection, and it definitely lives up to that lo-fi classification.

In the background of the sample, you can hear the hissing and crackling that come from the sound old vinyl and cassette tapes make.

I think this jazzy loop is ripe for chopping up and sampling with an MPC style groovebox.

You could easily throw a hip hop drum kit under this sample and create a funky lo-fi beat.

Selection 1: Final Stage from the Beautiful & Melodic Piano Pack

My first selection from the samples Selector returned based that vintage keys sample is this wistful sounding loop that appears to make use of an electric piano.

My best guess is that the instrument is based on a Rhodes piano, given the metallic-sounding tines in the loop.

It’s definitely a common trope to use the Rhodes to evoke melancholic feelings, you just need to know a few sad chord progressions to get the job done.

Another notable quality to this sample is the delay effect Equinox used to make the sound echo and give a spacey quality to the sample.

Delay is a pretty cool effect to use on a Rhodes sample because it can be used to accentuate the percussive sound of the tines being struck by making them echo in the background.

The echoing tines in this sample add an extra sparkle to the loop’s sound.

This sample is also another great example of a piano loop that could be chopped up into shorter samples a producer could use in a groovebox.

Selection 2: Dry Organ from Fancy French House Vol. 2

From the Rhodes sample, Selector gave me this dry organ loop from Engineering Samples.

Specifically, this sample sounds like an electric organ, not a pipe organ you’d hear in a church.

I guess Selector wants me to write about different types of vintage keyboards since this electric organ has a pretty old school sound.

Let’s talk about the most famous electric organ of all—the Hammond B3. It’s well known for its punchy, soaring sound that could add soul to any track.

Electric organs use a series of serrated metal tonewheels that rotate in the field of a pickup and produce an amplifiable sound.

Whenever one of the Hammond B3’s keys is depressed, nine specific pickups turn on and “listen” to their corresponding tone wheel.

The frequency each tonewheel creates when it rotates in their corresponding pickup’s field is used to emulate the sound of an organ’s pipes.

Of course, it took a lot of work to tune the tonewheels properly to get a sound that actually resembles an organ, but the result is pretty convincing.

Using pickups and electricity to generate sound opened up a lot more options for adding effects than old pipe organs did.

The Hammond made use of tonearm controllers that could be used to fade in or fade out frequencies and change the sound. This was a form of early additive synthesis!

Consider the tone in this sample, it appears to use focus on the higher frequencies that electric organs produce.

Another interesting thing about this sample is that you can hear a slight vibrato effect in the organ’s tone.

This is based on what the B3 model of the Hammond organ is most known for– the Leslie speaker.

Leslie speakers are where the original electric vibrato effect came from, but it uses a completely analog way of affecting an amplifier’s sound.

That’s because a Leslie speaker is literally a rotating speaker that uses the listener’s perspective and the doppler effect to add vibrato to an instrument’s tone.

See how changing rotation speed affects a Leslie speaker’s vibrato in this video.

Leslie speakers sound really good, they’re warm and add a very tangible sense of vibrato to an amplified instrument’s sound.

This sample uses a relatively slow vibrato, meaning that a Leslie speaker would have been rotated at a slower speed to generate this level of vibrato.

If you ever have a chance to try a Leslie speaker, crank up the vibrato speed and you’ll be amazed by just how much mechanically spinning the speaker can affect an amplifier’s sound.

Selection 3: Funky Guitar from Cozy Beats

To find something that goes with that funky organ sample, I’ll dig awhile to find a Selector result that complements it nicely.

Got it! I found this great rhythm guitar sample on page four.

While it’s in a minor key, it has a somewhat uplifting quality to hit.

It’s bittersweet and dreamy, like getting up late after a long night out.

This sample really complements the feelings evoked by the earlier samples in this Sample and Hold session.

It goes well with that organ sample or even the first piano loop I used to start this Sample and Hold session.

I liked it especially because of something interesting that happens right at the end.

You can hear that swooshing sound that’s produced when a vinyl slows to a stop on a turntable.

It’s a great set up for dropping into a bigger part of the track. Perhaps this guitar groove could make a good intro for my next track.

The post Sample and Hold: Vintage Keys, Electric Organs, and Funky Guitar appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/sample-and-hold-vintage-keys-electric-organ-funky-guitar/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/190681160659

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iffltd · 2 years

Photo

celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Robert Altman’s original film adaptation of the novel MASH a story about three Army doctors (a coupla years late)

Frame 1

PAINLESS: Shame Henry wasn’t here. He’d a thought it was a real radio program.

BANDINI: I thought it was a radio program--

UGLY JOHN: We should send a letter of commendation--

PAINLESS: --to the Armed Forces Radio Network--

BANDINI: Yes. Wonderful. It was the most uplifting program I’ve ever heard.

PAINLESS: It was climactic.

Frames 2 - 6

TRAPPER JOHN (to the Korean mess servers): Morning, ladies.

DUKE (to Major Houlihan): Well hiya, Hot Lips.

She swirls on him, her breakfast sloshing onto Trapper.

TRAPPER JOHN: Oh my goodness, over my--

HAWKEYE (squeezing past her): I’m sorry to touch you but I--

She storms away,,,,,

TRAPPER JOHN (affects a “fey” tone): Well what’s the matter with her today?

HAWKEYE (similarly affected): I don’t know. It must be one of those ladies’ things.

As Hot Lips pushes past those in line, Hawkeye and Trapper continue their “fey” mockery....

TRAPPER JOHN: It’s not like her to act like this--

HAWKEYE: No. I mean she’s made such a--

TRAPPER JOHN: she’s a bitch.

Hot Lips struggles beyond agitated to get out of the Mess tent.

HAWKEYE (losing the affectation): I think she’s going to have a nervous breakdown.

TRAPPER JOHN (normal tone of voice): She can’t even get out of the door.

Frame 7- 8

HAWKEYE (sits across from Major Burns with his tray): Morning, Frank. Heard from your wife?

Hawkeye whistles his trill with a kind of breathless intensity.

Frame 9

Radar greets Colonel Blake as he returns, his jeep pulling to a stop and he climbs out....

RADAR: Morning Colonel. You forgot your briefcase.

HENRY (like almost always, vaguely distracted): Yes, I left it in the jeep.

RADAR (as he retrieves the briefcase): You left it there.

HENRY (as he accepts the briefcase from Radar): Yes, I forgot it.

As Leslie emerges from her tent....

HENRY: Morning, Captain.

LESLIE: Morning, sir.

HENRY: I hope you didn’t have to-- (hands the briefcase back to Radar) --here take care of this-- (back to Leslie) I hope you didn’t have to bother with those shirts. It wasn’t necessary.

LESLIE: Too late, sir. It’s a done thing.

HENRY: Well, thank-you.

Sgt. Vollmer rushes up to Colonel Blake, salutes him....

VOLLMER: Colonel, sir. How was your visit, sir?

HENRY: Great. The General wasn’t there.

VOLLMER: Listen, about last night sir, there was just nothing I could do about it. Sir.

HENRY: Nothing?

VOLLMER: Nothing.

HENRY: Well, it couldn’t have been helped.

VOLLMER: Thank you, sir.

As Leslie gives him a dirty look, Vollmer skee-daddles with his good luck....

Henry notices something in the Mess, turns there with Radar and Leslie....

HENRY: What’s that?

HENRY: Frank Burns and Hawkeye Pierce. Very encouraging.

HAWKEYE: A bunch of the boys asked me to ask you, Frank, what Hot Lips was like in the sack.

HAWKEYE: Y’know, was she--

FRANK: Mind your own business.

HAWKEYE: No, Frank. Y’know, is she better than self-abuse?

DUKE: What’s that all about? He gonna get some pointers or something?

TRAPPER JOHN: No, Hawkeye’s gonna sign him up to make a personal appearance tour in all the camps in Korea.

DUKE: ‘Sthat a fact....

HENRY: Wonder what they’re saying. Can you make it out?

HAWKEYE: Does that big ass a hers move around a lot Frank or does it just sort of lie there flaccid?

HAWKEYE: What would you say about that?

RADAR: Hawkeye’s questioning the Major on a point of anatomy.

HENRY: Very good -- exchanging ideas.

HAWKEYE: Would you say that she’s a moaner, Frank?

HENRY: What is Burns saying?

RADAR: Major Burns isn’t saying much of anything. sir. I think he’s formulating the answer.

HAWKEYE: Seriously, Frank.I mean, does she go UhhhUhhhhUhhh.... Or does she just lie there quiet and not do anything at all?

FRANK: Keep your filthy mouth to yourself!

HAWKEYE: Or does she go UH-UH-UH-UH--

Frank lunges across the table, throttles Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: GET HIM OFF ME! GET HIM OFF ME!

DUKE: What’s goin’ on, Frank? That lesson one?

HAWKEYE: FRANK BURNS HAS GONE NUTS!

HAWKEYE: I’m wearing glasses, for God’ssake!

TRAPPER JOHN: Watch out for goodies, Hawkeye -- that man’s a sex maniac. I don’t think Hot Lips satisfied him. Don’t let him kiss you, Hawkeye!

DUKE: Frank, we love ya!

OVER P.A.: Radio Tokyo PLAYS “Sometimes You Have to Say Sayonara”

DUKE: Colonel, fair’s fair. If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye can I go home?

SCORCH: Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: Yeah, be there in a minute.

SCORCH: Hawkeye!

HAWKEYE: Shit.

HAWKEYE: Okay. Hey, Seidman, get another guy. We gotta take this into the O.R. just on the stretcher.

(to soldier whose neck bleeds like crazy)

Hold on. You’re gonna be just fine, fella.

(to Scorch)

Okay, I can’t move my hand. Come on.

TRAPPER JOHN (off-screen at another O.R. table to Hot Lips): Have you got the cutdowns, darling?

HAWKEYE (to soldier): You’re gonna go to sleep. You’re gonna be just fine.

TRAPPER JOHN: Hot Lips, let me have one of your sterile knives, please.

HAWKEYE (to Scorch): I’m gonna need two vascular clamps.

SCORCH: All right.

HAWKEYE: And an arterial suture. As soon as you give me the clamp, I want you to be ready to gown and glove me. All right?

HAWKEYE: Ready? Okay.

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Here we go. It’s gonna spurt a bit.

UGLY JOHN (works anesthestesia): You got it?

HAWKEYE: Aye, aye, baby.

HAWKEYE: Clamp.

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Okay. Gown.

As Scorch quickly fits him....

HAWKEYE: Gloves. Y’got that arterial suture ready?

SCORCH: Yeah.

HAWKEYE: Okay.

(to Ugly John)

Ugly, move outta the way ‘cause I’m looking around over there.

(as he gets to work)

Baby, we’re gonna see some stitchin’ like you never saw before!

P.A. OVERLAPPING into next scene: Attention. Attention. This is from Colonel Blake’s office.

LIEUTENANT DISH (to Trapper): Oh really? When did you get them. (with stethoscope) Let me try it on you.

Father Mulcahy ENTERS.

DUKE: Hey! Dago Reddo! Just in time for cocktails.

DAGO RED: No. No, I can’t, really. Hawkeye. Hawkeye? Can I speak to you?

HAWKEYE: Yeah, sure.

DAGO RED: No. Outside.

HAWKEYE: What?

DAGO RED: I have to talk to you outside.

HAWKEYE: You all right?

(a familiar little dog rushes up to him)

Hiya, pup-pup.

DAGO RED: Sorry to drag you away from the gang in there--

HAWKEYE: What?

DAGO RED: This will only take a moment. There’s a problem with Walt Waldowski.

HAWKEYE: Painless?

DAGO RED: Painless.

HAWKEYE: Y’got a toothache? He’s a good dentist.

Dago Red: No, no, no, it’s not my problem. See, it’s his problem.

HWKEYE: What do you mean? What is it?

DAGO RED: Well, what is it.... That’s-- It’s difficult to talk about, you see, because I learned about his problem in confession.

HAWKEYE: And you can’t....

DAGO RED: I can’t divulge--

HAWKEYE: Can you give me a hint?

DAGO RED: But I--

HAWKEYE: Just an idea--

DAGO RED: Well, no. But I can tell you how serious it is.

DAGO RED: He and the boys were playing poker and one of the boys turned to him and asked for a ruling on one of the hands and Walt said, he said, “What does it matter? It’s only a game.”

HAWKEYE: Painless said “what does it matter? It’s only a game”? Poker, only a game?

DAGO RED: Yeah.

Hawkeye whistles -- only this time with amazement.

DAGO RED: Yeah. That’s what I thought.

HAWKEYE: i guess I better go see a man about a tooth.

DAGO RED: Thank you. See I didn’t know what I--

HAWKEYE (as he leaves): C’mon pup-pup.

DAGO RED: You see there are some....

DAGO RED: There are some things absolution just....

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kansascityhappenings · 5 years

Text

#GarrettsSmileArmy: Metro family turns grief into positivity after loss

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Two metro women are on a mission to make your day. Their messages come from the heart, but not without their own heartache. They say a simple card can make all the difference.

“Dear reader, smile. You have found one of our smiles for Garrett cards,”Marsha Bailey read aloud from a worn piece of paper. “Garrett was my son. He battled depression and unfortunately lost his battle this past January.”

Garrett Thiesen’s mother, Bailey, and aunt, Leslie Jenkins, wish every day they could see him again.

“He could have talked to us about anything,” Bailey said. “Just tell us how bad you were hurting, or you could have talked to us about anything and we would have been there. We would have listened.”

“Everyday. You know, you think about him, and that’s why I started this whole thing,” Jenkins said. “It is therapeutic. I just don’t want any other family to go through this.”

Smiles for Garrett started as a simple idea. Jenkins saw a stack of cards at the store for a couple bucks and thought it would be a good way to share the love she wished Garrett knew at his lowest moment. She did a few, and then shared the idea with Bailey. They started making them together. Covering envelopes with encouraging words, happy stickers, and a semicolon, a symbol for suicide prevention.

“You’re not alone. You matter. You are loved and needed. If you know someone battling depression be there for them,” Bailey read.

Every time the women leave a note they hope it creates a new smile somewhere in the world, and maybe a few more.

“Restaurants, Walmart, anywhere I go I try to keep three or four cards around somewhere where people can find them and hopefully the right person finds them,” Bailey said. “We’ve even had people pass the card on which is awesome.”

As the smiles grew, so did their message. They gave cards to family members and friends who travel to leave them wherever they grow. People from across the country, in Texas and Nevada, circling back to say thank you. Some saying they were at a low point, but seeing the card reminded them to smile.

“He would be proud of us, I think,” Bailey said. “That we’re doing something positive, and not just depressed all the time. We’ve made something positive.”

The cards leading people to a Facebook group meant to be a constant reminder that you are worthy. Both women post encouraging messages daily meant to keep those smiles coming, and that you are worthy.

“Sometimes I post silly memes, or anything that will make someone laugh,” Jenkins said. “Inspirational, uplifting reminders that tomorrow is a new day. You’ve got this.”

“He would be proud of us, I think,” Bailey said. “That we’re doing something positive.”

The note ends asking the reader to share the love, and put a smile on someone else’s face.

“Just know that you have a purpose,” Bailey read. “Spread some kindness around, and always keep smiling.”

If you are interested in how to make your own smile cards, or see more of what the women are up to, visit their Facebook group Smiles For Garrett #GarrettsSmileArmy.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, we urge you to get help immediately.

Go to a hospital, call 911 or call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433).

Click on the boxes below for our FOX 4 You Matter reports and other helpful phone numbers and resources.

CLICK THIS BOX FOR FOX 4 STORIES ON MENTAL HEALTH.

CLICK THIS BOX FOR MORE MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/05/13/garrettssmilearmy-metro-family-turns-grief-into-positivity-after-loss/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/05/13/garrettssmilearmy-metro-family-turns-grief-into-positivity-after-loss/

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/the-31-best-dance-scenes-in-movies/

The 31 best dance scenes in movies

Updated 4 hours ago

What do dance scenes add to a movie? Unspeakable bliss, for starters. Dancing starts when dialogue fails. When lovers need to move beyond conversation, when conflicts boil past negotiation, when joy can’t be expressed in any other way than by leaping into the air on a trumpeter’s high note.

With the rise of movie musicals in the early part of the 20th century, dancing moved easily from stage to screen, becoming bigger, more potent, ever more spectacular — and a lasting love affair with the moviegoing public was born. It’s still going on: Witness the mainstream success of “La La Land,” a film in the golden age mold.

Taking stock of film’s dance treasury to pick the paragons was an irresistible challenge. In making my choices for the best dance scenes, I looked at several factors: mastery of technique, imaginative choreography, quality of the music — this is very important — and design and storytelling. I value authentic expression more than dance doubles and tricky editing. But, in the final analysis, transcendence won out. Does the dancing carry me away, give me chills, distill some truth about the human experience? Whether it’s a masterpiece of steps and skill, or an intentionally funny, hot mess, or a dreamscape that’s intriguingly weird — dancing that moves you is great dancing.

I also had to set some rules for this list: I considered specific dance scenes, not the quality of entire movies. I didn’t include documentaries or foreign films; no “Pina,” no “Mad Hot Ballroom.” With matchless artists in movement, music and choreography, the 1940s and ’50s dominate my choices, but even those aren’t exhaustive. I settled on the era’s best and moved on. I handicapped Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, limiting them to just one dance (it’s my No. 1, the best of the best) from all the jewels in their 10 films together, because if I didn’t, they’d eat the list. Our vast cinematic history is studded with marvelous dancing, but one has to draw the line somewhere.

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1. ‘Swing Time’ (1936), ‘Never Gonna Dance’ scene

There are no greater dance musicals than the ones Fred and Ginger made together, because they accomplished so much, so beautifully. Their dances are artistic, emotional and inventive; the music is superb (Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin); the costuming and set design create a stylistic whole. And they aren’t mere interludes. What Astaire and Rogers communicate through dance deepens the story. To pick the pinnacle among their 10 films isn’t easy, but my choice is their final waltz in “Swing Time.” Why? Because we’ll think of Astaire and Rogers forever as a unit, falling in love on the dance floor, and this dance expresses something profound about their bond. It’s about the perils of breaking it. They begin by simply walking together; their mood is blue, but the sexual tension is red hot. Through a precise mirroring of movements, Rogers shows Astaire the kind of intimate soul mate he’ll lose if he doesn’t ‘fess up about his feelings. Astaire senses this and grows desperate. He spins her around dizzily, her dress whipping like a flag at sea. Then the cliffhanger: She whirls out the door, leaving him, and us, bereft – and dying to see how the movie ends.

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2. ‘Stormy Weather’ (1943), ‘Jumpin’ Jive’

Fayard and Harold Nicholas, aka the Nicholas Brothers, were a pair of miracles in tap shoes. They hoofed their way from the Cotton Club to Hollywood, where their fans included Astaire, Gene Kelly and other dance greats who marveled at their skill, daring and sheer brilliance. This scene is the consummate joy-fest: They dart through Cab Calloway’s orchestra, skate atop the drums and piano, and end it all by plunging down a flight of stairs, leapfrogging buoyantly over each other to land in the splits, and then springing up to do it all again. They shot it all in one take.

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3. ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ (1952), title number

Is there any more beloved dance scene on film than Gene Kelly’s inspired splashfest? This is the dance anthem for that inescapable experience of a thorough cosmic drenching. The answer: Enjoy it! Spin through puddles, gambol in the gutters, play a brass band in your head, and soak up every drop. Kelly was constantly experimenting, and although he whipped up more technically dazzling numbers in other movies, none is more uplifting or enduring than this one.

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4. ‘An American in Paris’ (1951), final ballet

Kelly lured Leslie Caron from France especially for this movie and its climactic, 17-minute dreamscape of a ballet. The scene took a month to film. Its lush, Technicolor intensity has never been matched, and the dancing, which sweeps through paintings come to life, Parisian flower markets and moonlit fountains, feels like the very embodiment of postwar optimism. But the chemistry between its stars, accompanied by Gershwin’s sexy jazz: explosif.

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5. ‘Ship Ahoy’ (1942), ‘I’ll Take Tallulah’

I once asked Fayard Nicholas (see No. 2) to name his favorite female dancer. His answer: Eleanor Powell. It’s easy to see why. Powell is arguably the greatest tap dancer on film, male or female, and in this number, she has the spotlight all to herself (after Bert Lahr serenades her). Three things distinguish this scene: Powell’s punchy, rascally athleticism, the musical star power of Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, and the imaginative way Powell taps around the poolside set. She trades drum licks with jazz virtuoso Buddy Rich, hops on tables, swan-dives into an ocean of men, swings on a rope, cartwheels and catches flying rings and, still spinning, seizes airborne drumsticks and rejoins Rich to hammer out a scintillating flourish.

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6. ‘Broadway Melody of 1940’ (1940), ‘Begin the Beguine’

Cole Porter, Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell: the holy trinity of tap. I love the full-body, freewheeling spirit of this amazing duet – it’s a marvel of precision, with hints of friendly competition. Astaire and Powell chase, tease and one-up each other, ending in a synchronized storm of turns that sends them spiraling around each other like crazy spinning nickels in a tilted universe. How can two humans move so fast, in perfect time, with such giddy ease?

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7. ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ (1954), ‘Barn Dance’

Michael Kidd’s exceptional choreography is full of earthy vigor and references to reels, logging and barn-raising. High-pitched and unusually athletic, the dancing moves from an outdoor stage to picnic tables to wood beams. There are backflips and diving somersaults, along with polka steps and lifts. The dancers include Tommy Rall, one of cinema’s greats, ballet star Jacques d’Amboise and Russ Tamblyn, the former gymnast about seven years shy of stardom as Riff in the movie of “West Side Story.”

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8. ‘Small Town Girl’ (1953), ‘I’ve Gotta Hear That Beat’

Ann Miller was considered the queen of Hollywood tap dancers: She was tall, gorgeous and insanely fast. Her taps were like machine-gun fire. This scene, directed by Busby Berkeley and choreographed by Willie Covan, is her most famous. Miller, sequined and sparkly, whirls through an assortment of disembodied musical instruments; violins and trumpets in the hands of unseen players pop up through the floor. Spinning madly, she somehow avoids ricocheting off the trombones. It’s a tribute to Miller as the consummate musician – her tapping is a symphony unto itself – and the scene’s ingenious design, while visually striking, allows nothing to distract from her brilliance.

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9. ‘West Side Story’ (1961), ‘America’

Rita Moreno and George Chakiris are a combustible couple, taunting and teasing each other through Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s music. But once they start dancing, their sexual energy could light up the city. Great dance fills this entire movie, but this scene stands out for the neat layering of Latin motifs – bullfighting, flamenco, mambo – and the exuberant staging of a gender war. There’s also well-earned fury: In lyrics and physical expression, the characters directly engage with the clash of cultures and racism that will undo them all.

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10. ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977), ‘More Than a Woman’

This is not the trickiest dance from a technical point of view. You and I could pick it up in a snap. (Simple is good.) But John Travolta turns it into erotic gold. This scene rates among the greats for the spell it casts, far surpassing its modest mechanics. Plenty of other movies’ dance scenes are more complicated, more expertly executed, but this one is unusually immersive — I’m swept into a fever dream of feeling. Strutting like a show pony in his polyester suit and platform shoes, Travolta communicates the intent behind his smoothly syncopated steps and slow dips with co-star Karen Lynn Gorney; they’re a disco-driven lead-in to lovemaking. The dynamic tension is perfect – he revels in his own charisma, she looks at him in misty disbelief, like he’s her fantasy come to life. (For many of us, he was.) Filming wasn’t easy. So much heat and smoke filled that Brooklyn nightclub that at one point, Travolta was on oxygen. Installing lights in the floor, to flash along with the Bee Gees’ music, cost a fortune. It was worth it.

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11. ‘All That Jazz’ (1979), ‘Take Off With Us’

Of course, Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical film contains his own snappy, sultry choreography. In this scene, cast members rehearse a flight-attendant-themed number for a Broadway show. What I love about it is not only the dancing — full of Fosse hallmarks, the tight little steps, the hats, the tense sexiness and exquisite control — but also the spot-on depiction of what rehearsals are like. The nearly naked performers sing and shimmy their hearts out, while the creative team watches impassively, smoking, frowning, scribbling criticisms. It’s show business, baby.

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12. ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ (1953), ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’

That hot-pink dress, that cherry-red backdrop, those long, long gloves. Marilyn Monroe is glamorous perfection in this scene, choreographed by the great Jack Cole. He brilliantly played up her strengths, focusing on those beautiful bare shoulders with a shimmy here, an arm extension there, a lot of shaking and — whoopee! — a well-timed gesture to her back porch. Restrained in vocabulary and uninhibited in style and spirit, this witty dance is an exuberant celebration of the female assets, performed by one of the most vibrant bodies in cinematic history.

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13. ‘The Band Wagon’ (1953), ‘Dancing in the Dark’

Cyd Charisse was tall for Fred Astaire, so she’s wearing flats here, the perfect footwear for a waltz of seduction that begins with these two extraordinary movers simply strolling through Central Park. Michael Kidd’s choreography is fascinating; it unspools in an expanding array of spirals, zigzagging lines and sharp changes of direction, sending the couple over benches, up steps and, finally, into a horse-drawn carriage. Astaire and Charisse sail through the complex geometry, each move flowing into the next, as though it were all just a walk in the park.

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14. ‘Sweet Charity’ (1969), ‘The Aloof, the Heavyweight, the Big Finish’

“We don’t dance,” snarls one of the partners-for-hire in this film’s sleazy ballroom. “We defend ourselves to music.” You feel that bite in an irresistible, decadent floor-show extravaganza of ’60s go-go, choreographed by Fosse, the master of sinister sexiness. The starring attractions: dancers Suzanne Charney and a young Ben Vereen. Also, loads of eyeliner, minidresses and those Fosse-licious broken-doll struts, isolated joints and hips, hips, hips.

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15. ‘The Red Shoes,’ (1948), ballet sequence

Within this masterful film, about the flaming passions of artists, lies a complete ballet that echoes the theme and foreshadows its tragic conclusion. The ballet tells the Hans Christian Andersen tale of enchanted shoes that dance their wearer to death; redhead ballerina Moira Shearer is their beguiling victim. Beautifully lighted and designed, this dark, wordless drama is by turns hallucinatory and Hitchcockian.

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16. ‘Dirty Dancing’ (1987), final dance

For many of us of a certain age, this is the defining movie dance scene, as Patrick Swayze struts onto that Borscht Belt stage, and Jennifer Grey melts in his arms. It’s a singularly potent concoction: Swayze’s erotic beauty, Grey’s coming-of-age right before our eyes, the lusty grace of their moves, the crowd’s collective swoon. Because it happens in a middle-class family setting, with actors who weren’t yet icons, we can see ourselves in them, and fly along with them, at least in our minds. It’s a vicarious rush.

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17. ‘Damn Yankees’ (1958), ‘Whatever Lola Wants’

Gwen Verdon as a leggy demon sent by Satan to seduce a ballplayer – OK, I’m in. Verdon, a singing, dancing, acting wizard of stage and screen, had a unique, commanding presence; although delicately built, she vibrated exactitude and authority. She’s funny, sexy and gleefully impish in this scene, choreographed by Fosse, who was soon to be her husband. Every step conveys that she’s a nonhuman in a new role and loving it. Verdon stays in this complicated character throughout her awkward-on-purpose striptease and a manic romp touched with flamenco, burlesque and quasi-Indian fillips. “I’m irresistible, you fool,” she taunts. Um, yes.

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18. ‘All of Me’ (1984), closing scene

In this sparkling screwball comedy, Lily Tomlin’s soul transmigrates into Steve Martin’s body. Result: a high-pitched tug of war – she controls one side of his body, he’s got the other. (We see Tomlin’s reflection whenever Martin passes a mirror.) This internal mayhem smoothly resolves in the end, when we see the two whirling in a let-it-all-hang-out dance of pure joy, captured in a mirror, that grows goofier and giddier, accompanied by a swinging rendition of the jazz standard of the title. Before, the body had been a prison for Martin and Tomlin; here it’s a vehicle of spectacular release, and the display of rapture between well-tuned spirits is utterly contagious.

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19. ‘Stepmom’ (1998), ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’

This makes me cry, because it captures the very essence of living, and love. Susan Sarandon, dying of cancer, carouses in her pajamas with her kids, belting out the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell anthem into a curling iron. They jump on the bed. They prance down the hallway. They give Death a big, fat, life-affirming kick in the caboose.

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20. ‘La La Land’ (2016), opening sequence

The dance numbers in this loving nod to Hollywood’s musical history are so physically rapturous and vicariously thrilling that they almost lift you out of your seat. Attitude adjustment starts with the opening sequence, which turns a traffic jam on an L.A. highway into a full-throttle celebration of life, as folks sing, spin and stomp on the roofs of their cars, while a BMX biker and a freewheeling skateboarder surf the concrete barriers.

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21. ‘White Nights’ (1985), the duet

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, two of the greatest male dancers of the late 20th century, united on the dance floor: How can you beat that? This scene offers a side-by-side view of their styles – the tapper’s heavy-hitting power and connection to the floor, the ballet maestro’s elegance, airborne ease and elasticity. Watch how Baryshnikov sinks into his knees, while the lankier Hines stays more upright. In other ways, though, Hines is looser and jazzier, while Baryshnikov is knife-sharp.

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22. ‘You Got Served’ (2004), dance battle

Dance contests come and go, but this one boasts muscular grace, jaw-dropping execution and incomparable street style. The most spectacular street moves require immense (that is, male) upper-body strength — the head-spinning and upside-down windmilling — and we get to revel in that here. But the ladies also have their moments to shine. Although the editing tends to get in the way of the best view of the dancing, the displays of raw, rhythmic power matched with impeccable precision and daring don’t get much better than this.

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23. ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ (2012), dance rehearsal

Cute couple awkwardly learns to dance with the help of their cool friend. Bradley Cooper is the odd man out in this threesome, while Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Tucker offer up the dancing thrills. OK, so they’re modest — this is not showstopping material — but it’s so adorable. Tucker knows just how to womp up Lawrence’s uncooperative hips: “Girl, you gotta move your junk.”

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24. ‘Center Stage’ (2000), ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’

Tutus and motorcycles: a match made in dance heaven. These white-frocked ballerinas are dutifully dull until Ethan Stiefel roars onstage on his bike. At the time, Stiefel was a star at American Ballet Theatre, and this scene offers a terrific look at his virtuosic technique (those pirouettes, those airy leaps – pure gold), as well as his heartthrob appeal. Accompanied by Michael Jackson’s bouncy pop song, this is simply tremendous fun. Classical ballet steps, beautifully performed, get funkified.

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25. ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ (1963), ‘Got a Lotta Livin to Do’

Ann-Margret’s “torrid dancing almost replaces the central heating in the theater,” Life magazine declared in its cover story about “Bye Bye Birdie” and its young heroine. This is the movie that made her a star. She’s also a sensational dancer, in a vamped-up display of seduction aided by belly-baring ruffles and the sexiest pink capris you’ve ever seen. With all of her slinky allure, she also twists, hully-gullies and Watusis with the ensemble to the soundtrack’s brisk jazz. This frisky production is a great mood-booster.

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26. ‘White Chicks’ (2004), dance-off

The premise: Two African-American FBI agents — Keenan Ivory Wayans and Shawn Wayans —disguise themselves as white women to lure a kidnapper out of hiding. It sounds so wrong, but it’s so funny, especially when miniskirted squads of frenemies shake off their frustrations on the dance floor. The undercover agents jump into the mix, in their low-rise jeans and pastel leathers (the girl clothes are craptastically horrendous). They’ve done such a good job of being female, and now their true, testosterone-fueled selves come out in aggressive, head-spinning moves that are just plain out of reach for most of us ladies. That should blow their cover. No one seems to notice this.

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27. ‘House Party’ (1990), dance scene

Teens want to hang out together, have fun and party — this hasn’t changed since forever — but it’s the partying here that’s extraordinary. We see it on their terms, in the close, crowded quarters of a living room, with just enough space for explosive moves, sassy personal expression, all kinds of style and exhilarating, good-natured fun. It’s an instantly immersive experience; you feel like you’re on the dance floor with them, bopping along as hip-hop duo Kid n Play show off their swiveling, sliding, twisting footwork.

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28. ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994), twist contest

“I wanna dance, I wanna win, I want that trophy. So dance good.” A menacing Uma Thurman and a game John Travolta shed their shoes for an intense go-go scene that comes out of nowhere, in the middle of a bloody crime film. Director Quentin Tarantino has said he was inspired by New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard, known to drop an incongruous dance into his work. Note how the actors draw our focus to their fingers and toes. Of course, we’re also thinking back on the younger, disco-dancing Travolta, so the scene is poignant as well as darkly funny. And very, very odd.

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29. ‘The Cotton Club’ (1984), ‘Crazy Rhythm’

Brothers Maurice and Gregory Hines were estranged for 10 years in real life, and this scene re-creates the emotional reunion on the dance floor of the siblings who had been childhood tap partners. Francis Ford Coppola’s film brought veteran hoofers such as Charles “Honi” Coles back to the spotlight, and these scenes are priceless. But the Hines duet is infused with palpable warmth and bone-deep sympathy.

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30. ‘A Chorus Line’ (1985), ‘Next’

In some ways, the dancing life is like the military, especially here. This film about Broadway opens with auditions, where the dance captain is a drill sergeant and the chorines are uber-disciplined grunts firing off a battery of moves. A lot of movie dancing shows us the slippery ease and glory of moving to music, but here we see the opposite: the punishing work, humiliations and stoicism behind it. And after all that, the four cruelest words a dancer will ever hear: “Thank you very much.”

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31. ‘Pennies From Heaven’ (1981), ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’

Talk about nerve: In this tribute to Depression-era musicals, Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters take on one of Astaire and Rogers’s greatest numbers. And they do it justice. They’re a well-matched pair —Martin, light-footed and quick; Peters, all soft edges. The black-and-white design, complete with a tuxedoed ensemble, is timeless.

Sarah L. Kaufman is The Washington Post’s dance critic.

Source: https://triblive.com/aande/adminpage/14292371-74/the-31-best-dance-scenes-in-movies

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ionecoffman · 6 years

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Marijuana for Moms

Many a meme has been made about “wine moms”—mothers who joke online about their love for a relaxing glass of cabernet, or three. But a new drug is gaining popularity with the playgroup circuit. As it becomes more socially acceptable, more moms are using marijuana and its various incarnations to deal with everything from the daily aches and stresses of motherhood, to postpartum depression and anxiety, to menstrual cramps. And forget the simple bongs and pipes of the past; as the industry expands, it’s creating a whole new world of sprays, drinks, drops, and oils. The needs of this market of marijuana-friendly mothers have inspired a new crop of cannabis products.

In her recent High Times article, Jessica Delfino discusses the changing social attitudes toward motherhood and marijuana: “Mothers and women who use medical marijuana…are often put into a position in which they feel they have to explain themselves and what their condition is, and then steel themselves for the judgment that will inevitably follow,” she writes.

But also, Delfino tells me: “I think cannabis use in moms is becoming more widespread because it’s becoming more legal, and so people feel more willing and able to discuss it.”

Adam Grossman, the CEO of the cannabis company Papa and Barkley, has also noticed a burgeoning interest in marijuana from moms. “In the last month alone, we have seen the emergence of cannabis-and-parenthood workshops, new ‘parenting and cannabis’ publications like Splimm, and Facebook groups," he says. “More and more parents are starting to have the conversation about cannabis and breastfeeding, cannabis and pregnancy, and cannabis and parenting.”

But according to those in the pot industry, one new product in particular is spreading fast in mom circles: sublingual spray, a convenient, THC-infused ingestible liquid.

Once you spritz the liquid under your tongue, it activates quickly (within 60 seconds), it’s hard to overdo, and the high doesn't last very long, says Leslie Siu, the CMO and cofounder of cannabis company Mother and Clone. “After a minute you’ll start to feel this uplifting euphoric feeling, almost like a gentle rush,” Siu says of her sublingual nano-sprays. (Nano-sprays are a form of microdosing—Mother and Clone bottles deliver a metered dose of the drug.) By the five-minute mark, she says, you’ll know just how strong the effects will be for the next hour and you can decide to re-up and spray some more—in the industry this is called “stacking.”

Siu was moved to start Mother and Clone after she experienced postpartum depression. “Everything felt dark,” she recalls of that first “ominous” year after having her daughter Veda. Siu started searching for ways to ease the overwhelming, stressful feelings she was having. “Then a few things happened that got me back on track,” Siu says. "Time, therapy, running, and weed.”

Siu wanted to create a cannabis product that would be easy and safe for mothers in similar situations to use, and she landed on sublingual sprays. Because it’s easier to control the dose with sublingual spray, Siu says that it’s ideal for parents (her products also have child-resistant bottles). The sprays can also help with sleep, she says. “A lot of [postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety] sufferers develop terrible insomnia even if the baby starts to sleep through the night.”

Although they are ingestible, sublingual sprays are a gentler and more predictable experience than edibles. Edibles are more potent, and factors such as meal size and metabolism can make dosing with them unpredictable. A public-education campaign in Colorado (where Mother and Clone is based, and marijuana is legal) from the Marijuana Policy Project has a slogan for edibles: Start low and go slow.

When someone eats a brownie, candy, or other edible laced with marijuana, the cannabis is metabolized in the liver. Enzymes in the liver turn the active compound in cannabis, delta-9-THC, into the more psychedelic compound 11-hydroxy-THC. With sublingual spray, 11-hydroxy-THC is not a factor; you're only ingesting delta-9-THC because the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream under the tongue and doesn’t get processed by the liver. “This is more like a Xanax,” explains Siu. “It leaves you very clearheaded, you’re able to stay productive, and you don’t feel guilty or irresponsible around your kids.”

Siu says she doesn’t think it’s possible to go overboard with her sprays. “I took 30 times the recommended dose as an experiment once,” she says, “and it still only lasted just over an hour and I didn’t feel paranoid or weirded out.” Uma Dhanabalan, a physician and cannabis-therapeutics specialist, agrees that it’s difficult to take too much sublingual spray. Since you can feel the effects immediately, it’s easy to tell when you’ve had enough. “The worst thing that can happen is you may feel overwhelmed,” she says. “Nausea, vomiting, paranoia, anxiety. These are symptoms of overconsumption. You cannot die.”

Dhanabalan says she can see the appeal of sublingual sprays as a delivery system for new moms. “Because it’s discreet, and they can use it without anybody knowing.”

Other marijuana products gaining popularity in parent circles, sources say, are drops, drinks, and tinctures made with very low levels of THC, or none at all.

Papa and Barkley sells cannabidiol (CBD) tinctures, which, like sublingual sprays, can be a way to get controlled pain relief. CBD is a compound found in cannabis, and when isolated—as it is in Grossman’s products—it’s more predictable than smoking or edibles. Ingestible tinctures take effect in 15 to 20 minutes and can be mixed into foods like smoothies, or taken under the tongue. Grossman says a number of his clients who are mothers are drawn to cannabis because of its reputation for combating nausea and depression.

Carrie Hoffman, a mother and jewelry designer in Los Angeles, uses CBD products to help with the pain of breast cancer, and the stresses of being a single mom to a toddler. “By using it, I was able to reduce all the other drugs they gave me for nausea and pain,” she explains.

Another Los Angeles mom, Lauren Steil, even uses cannabis for breastfeeding-related ailments. “I felt mastitis coming on, so I just nursed a lot and rubbed some CBD pain relief oil onto my breast and it was all clear the next day,” she says.

Moms are finding that cannabis products can help with a range of issues that may crop up after having children. “I’ve been microdosing CBD capsules made from whole-flower cannabis (no hemp) for about two months and it’s really helped my osteoarthritis, as well as sleep and anxiety,” says Brandi Emma, a singer-songwriter and new mother.

As mom-conducive products have sprung up, so too have education and advocacy initiatives begun to see parents as part of their clientele.

Kristie Amobi is the founder of the cannabis-education company Rebalan, which advocates for the benefits of low dosing (using cannabis products with no more than 5 milligrams of THC per dose). “In my own experience of educating women—and moms—on this topic, I have been surprised by how many people are really having a hard time,” she says of the prevalence of stress and anxiety. “There’s no magic bullet, but I’m confident there is a place for cannabis in low doses to help people manage stress, especially when compared to the side effects of using alcohol and other prescription medications.”

“This industry is changing and growing at such a rapid pace,” says Royya Sardari, a Los Angeles mother who cohosted a “cannabis cabaret” last year to celebrate the substance and provide pot education. What happened at the themed event? Live music, a burlesque performance, photography, and cannabis treats, among other things. “[You] partake of course, and leave feeling good about your decision to use cannabis,” says Sardari, who opened her studio space to Katie Partlow of the cannabis-friendly events company Little Face. Partlow’s legendary parties (Rolling Stone dubbed one the “best pot party in California”) will soon get a maternal spin—she’s planning a “mommy’s marijuana picnic” for May. The event will be geared toward the needs and interests of mothers, both those who already partake, and those who are interested in learning more about cannabis. Says Sardari, “I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of moms that still aren’t super cannabis savvy.”

Part of that may be because cannabis research isn’t yet super mom savvy. Psychiatrists and physicians are generally hesitant to recommend marijuana products to breastfeeding mothers due to lack of research. The InfantRisk Center—which provides research-based information on medication, pregnancy, and breastfeeding—warns that studies have shown that cannabis exposure via breast milk or in utero may cause long-term changes in the child’s mental health and behavior. However, the center also notes on its site: “We do not know much about the transfer of the active ingredient in marijuana into human milk, nor how much gets to a breastfeeding infant.” The InfantRiskCenter, which is affiliated with Texas Tech University, is currently working on a study to find out more, according to a post on their site. Marijuana is legal in 29 states for medical purposes (and in nine states and Washington D.C. for recreational use), but whether postpartum depression is recognized as a valid medical reason to use cannabis products depends on different factors: the state laws, your doctor, etc. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also discourages the use of marijuana while pregnant or breastfeeding, due to insufficient data. However, what has traditionally been looked at is the THC in marijuana, which gets you high. New cannabis products often feature CBD, which doesn’t have the same effects. (Even still, Grossman says he doesn’t encourage nursing mothers to use his tinctures.) Not enough is known about products featuring CBD and how they relate to breastfeeding at this point.

Nehama Dresner, a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, does not recommend using marijuana products to treat postpartum depression. “It may be calming, but that is the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a problem—like having a cocktail to manage anxiety,” she says. Dresner notes that there are no double-blind placebo-controlled studies showing marijuana’s efficacy in treating depression. “But there is evidence that regular marijuana use increases the risk of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.”

Dresner also worries that using marijuana to cope may delay or prevent a pregnant woman or new mother from seeking treatment for anxiety or depression. She notes that though there is a greater sense of safety around marijuana due to recent decriminalization and legalization, she does not recommend it in pregnancy or breastfeeding. “Occasional use in the postpartum period under supervision may be considered on a case-by-case basis,” she says—for instance, with a patient who has already been using cannabis for medical reasons.

Though medical professionals don’t recommend that pregnant or nursing mothers use marijuana products, cannabis use for everyday stresses and pains is growing. It’s little wonder that business is booming for companies creating products designed for gentle highs and relaxation. Or that playgroups are trading their wineglasses for vape pens, sublingual sprays, and CBD tinctures.

Article source here:The Atlantic

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