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tea-with-evan-and-me · 2 months

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man about town interview | spring/summer 2014

for the tweam! click through for my best attempt at deciphering this (maybe impossible to find?) throwback interview

‘’I don’t think I’m scary at all. It was kind of funny watching myself being scary. Because I’m not scary.’’ Says Evan Peters, the up-and-coming up-for-anything actor best known for his extreme roles on American Horror Story, the prestige television series that treats social taboos as map points. For three seasons, Peters has excelled at playing against his offbeat boyishness by amping up his young Malcolm McDowell intensity, with results that fall somewhere between ‘’teen dream in strangler’s gloves’’ and ‘’terrifying Michael Cera.’’ He most recently appeared in American Horror Story: Coven as Kyle Spencer, the good-natured university student who is decapitated and then reanimated with the body parts of his Kappa Lambda Gamma brothers as a temperamental Rocky Horror who beats his sexually abusive mother to death with a trophy.

Over a bold chai tea with stevia, at a restaurant in Venice, California, Peters is lighthearted and dryly humorous, like a young Michael Shannon, with whom he should costar in a successful disturbing family sitcom. He wears black jeans, a well-worn t-shirt under a plaid flannel, and a necklace with a toy dinosaur pendant. He drives a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that he correctly describes as ‘’vintage’’; says that he just feels like growing his longish blond hair into a ponytail, and has a red thumbs-up permanently inked onto the to pof his right hand, that was traced over a nightclub door stamp. At one point, he raises his forearm to show off a temporary tattoo that he received the night before at the castle park family entertainment center in Sherman oaks. ‘’This is a Belle tattoo. It’s not real,’’ he explains playfully of a small portrait of the beautiful young heroine from the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast. I tell him it’s very pretty. ‘’Thank you. She’s gorgeous,’’ he responds. I ask if Belle is his favorite Disney princess. ‘’Well, I picked her out. There was also Jasmine, Ariel and Cinderella. My other buddies got those.” ‘’What about Belle appeals to you?’’ ‘’She likes the Beast.’’ Peters says.

This summer, Peters appears as the teenage Mutant speeder Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class, which has proven to be an eventful ??? movie. In October 2012, director Matthew Vaughn – who relaunched the franchise with much needed style and a new cast of young, indie + credible actors – left the film to be replaced by original trilogy director Bryan Singer. As such, fans were already touched when Singer announced that he would retell ‘’Days of Future Past,’’ the seminal X-Men time-travel storyline from 1980, an ambitious plan turned wild when he revealed that both franchises would merge into one. Cut to the 2012 San diego Comic-Con whereby unthinkable feats of scheduling – the sprawling casts of the modern-day first series and the 60’s era prequel (that include expensive names like Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackmon, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Michael Fassbender, and so on). Convened with ??? new additions like Peters to unhinge popular culture. ‘’You think to yourself, ‘’wow, people really, really love this stuff.” And it makes you appreciate it more. It makes you work harder at it.’’ he says about the experience.

Peters’ role in the films is crucial but concise. ‘’It’s a huge, huge opportunity but I always make sure to tell people it’s just one scene. Easy, it's just one scene.’’ Peters says, as if talking down a rearing horse. Quicksilver has already been the subject of film industry chatter regarding lawful usage of the character, who is both the son of Magneto and a colleague of the Avengers, making him fair game for inclusion in both Days of Future Past and the 20n5 Avengers sequel (in which he will be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson of Kick-Ass). An Empire magazine Preview of Quicksilver’s costume design was greeted with comparison to Kid Vid, a ‘90’s cartoon form of the Burger King ‘’Kid’s Club,’’ and the news that Peters had been saddled with the Halle Berry “rough wig’’ role. But his fan’s enthusiasm for the project—in which desperate X-Men from a dystopias future try to stave off mutant genocide by altering the present day—is undimmed. ‘’I think it’s the best film of the francise yet,’’ proclaims Peters. ‘’It’s pretty dire. It’s a pretty epic situation. But there’s definitely some humor in there. Its’s just badass, man.’’

Quicksilver is a departure for Peters in some ways if not others. Both X-Men and Horror Story are tight productions that take extensive precautions to protect story lines. Peters says that he did not receive the full script for X-Men until arriving at the Montreal location days before shooting. Horror Story pages are often delivered the night before a scene. The short lead time can demand a ??? almost improvisational acting process. ‘’The minute we get the script, plans are cancelled, dinner is cancelled,’’ he says about working on Horror Story. ‘’Some of it you’re like, ‘Oh shit, I have to do that?’ Screaming and crying, realizing that my whole body is pieced together and I’m not myself? I’ll probably have to work on that.’’

Peters owes his career to television. ‘’I was watching a lot of TV and I kind of wanted to be on the TV and in movies. I love movies and TV,’’ he says, and cites inspirations like Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, George Clooney, JIM Carrey, Chris Farley, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, and the millennial teen comedies Even Stevens starring Shia Labeuof and So Little Time with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. ‘’That sort of stuff. I just really wanted to be a part of it and loved acting and performing.’’ He moved to Los Angeles with is mother when he was 15 years old, and steadily won work in television, on shows including Phil of the Future (2004) and One Tree Hill (2008), and in movies like the independent films Clipping Adam (2004), his first big break, and later Kick Ass (2010). Being cast as Tate Langdon in the first season of American Horror Story in 2011 was his tipping point, playing a Skull Boy-faced high school shooter in a latex catsuit who rapes his girlfriend’s mother to please a ghost. He has since become one of the five main players to appear in all three season of the series, sterling company that includes Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Frances Conroy.

Now the world gets to enjoy a lighter side of Peters, like when he appeared on a 2011 episode of the G4 networks Attack of the Show and blithely volunteered that he was working a a rap song called ‘’I’ll Tap That Fucking Ass.’’ He laughs off a request to recite a verse. ‘’I can’t. That never materialized. I tried but it was too much pressure. It was just a concept. I was just trying new ideas,’’ he says, and then volunteers a different musical direction. ‘’It’s called ‘Natch Snatch.’ Like all natural snatch. Big bush. Snatch. Cause it’s nice. You know, ‘girl, you’ve got that natch snatch.’ It’s another nice concept. Probably on the same album.’’ Peters laughs in agreement at the suggestion that he is a kook in the best sense of the word. ‘’I get called a weirdo sometimes,’’ he admits ‘’But it’s like, I don’t feel that weird. I don’t feel that different. I look at everybody else and I’m like, ‘’you’re a fucking weirdo, too. You like all of your shit. I like my shit.’’ Why does one have to be weird and one have to be normal? It doesn’t make any sense to me.’’ Meanwhile, he seems to be successfully negotiating his public and private persona. ‘’I’ll try to be myself as much as I can but you obviously can’t be who you are at home in your skivvies eating donuts. You can’t be that.’’ He explains, before confirming that guy exists, with his tongue sort-of-in-cheek. ‘’You bet he does. Yeah, definitely watching New Girl. Crying.’’ But while Peters seems fairly comfortable in the public eye, fame no longer interests him. The development is not unrelated to his intense, closely-watched relationship with fiancée and two-time costar Emma Roberts (on coven and in the 2013 ?? Adult World) ‘’When I was younger I was like, ‘’That would be awesome!’’ now I don’t particularly love it,’’ he says ‘’Emma gets paparazzi a lot, and because I’m with her we get paparazzi, so it’s kind of a weird thing that I don’t love. But it’s so small in the big picture of all the positives that come with this job that I can’t really complain about it.’’ he may be surprised by the attention he and Roberts receive, but he is hardly self-ptying. ‘’Honestly, it’s not that bad. If you don’t set up a Google alert on yourself and go out searching for it then you’re not going to see it. So I don’t see it.’’ Roberts has already endured the Hollywood learning curve that Peters is now experiencing. ‘’She gives me advice, like cut your hair. She likes my hair to look nice,’’ he says, and laughs. ‘’She’s been around and knows the ropes and how to play the game very well. And she has incredible social skills. She can talk to anyone and everyone loves talking to her. I’m not that good at that stuff so she kind of helps me out with that.’’ I wonder what guidance she offers him. ‘’You’ve just got to be personable and talk to people, even if you don’t want to. Put on a happy face and buck up. Grow a pair of balls. Don’t be a little wuss.’’ Petersa says, and laughs. ‘’I mean, she doesn’t say that, but you know what I mean.’’

Next for Peters is Lazarus, opposite Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover and Mark Duplass a 2015 feature from director David Gelb, known for the documentary Giro: Dreams of Sushi. Peters describes the project, about a team of brainiacs working magnanimously to reanimate the dead, as a “contained Sci-Fi horror thriller” as it mostly takes place in one laboratory setting. He plays the party animal scientist. Peters encouraging sidesteps the questions of his involvement in the next season of American Horror Story, to be set in 1950 and the present day, for which Jessica Lange is practicing a German accent. ‘’I don’t know what I’m allowed to say so I’m going to say no comment,’’ he says.

‘’At the end of the day it is acting. You want to go with the biggest, weirdest, boldest shit and see if you can actually do it and go there,’’ Peters concludes, ‘’I’m very curious about everything. I feel like I don’t know that much. I’m trying to learn it all and figure it all out.’’

#i did my best #i strained my eyes #typos are mine and i put question marks where i couldn't make out the words #evan peters #evanpeters #tate langdon #american horror story #kai anderson #kyle spencer #ahs

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blairelythere · 8 months

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Never seen ultraman

What should I watch first to see if I like it or not?

Ultraman is a tokusatsu series with a very large variety of tones and styles. Each season is distinctly different from the last, especially in the New Generation era. Some seasons are very serious and gritty, some are slice-of-life, and some are light plot/heavy action. It's up to you on what you'd prefer!

I want to preface with the three eras (and sub eras) of Ultraman, just so you're aware of these terms when they come up:

Showa (1966 - 1987)

Heisei (1996 - 2012)

-> Heisei Trilogy/Part 1 (1996-1999)

-> Heisei Part 2/Phase 2 (2000 - 2012)

New Generation (2013 - Present)

-> Reiwa (2019 - Present)

That being said, I give you 5 equally valid options to begin:

Option 1:

Ultraman (1966)

Start with where it all began!*

Ultraman (1966) is Japan's take on the Twilight Zone but with a superhero-esqe twist. If you enjoy older sci-fi like the early seasons of Doctor Who or the first Star Trek, you'll greatly appreciate the practical effects, deep but episodic plots, and the unique kaiju/seijin.

From there, watch in order of release and enjoy just how much the show evolves. All the highs and lows.

*(Side note - technically Ultra Q (1966) is the first show but does not feature Ultraman whatsoever. This show serves as a prequel to the idea of kaiju and seijin in the modern world. If you're a completionist, you can start here and be amazed at how there are *still* monsters and plots making reappearances from this show)

Option 2:

Ultraman Tiga (1996)

Ultraman Tiga is the beginning of the Heisei Era and is widely regarded as one of the best series in the entire franchise.

I have lots of love to give to Tiga specifically, and this post of mine explains why that is:

Option 3:

Ultraman Mebius (2006)

Ultraman Mebius is the 40th anniversary of the Ultra series and is a beautiful continuation and love-letter of the Showa Era timeline. It features returning cast members, monsters, and plotlines from Ultraman, Ultraseven, Jack, Ace, Taro, Leo, and 80 (which all take place on the same Earth).

This show is a perfect introductory piece to the series because it exposes you to such a large amount of lore from the past while recontextualizing it with modern effects, richer storytelling, and a more serious tone. Mebius has so much heart, happiness, and hopefulness. It's a very positive and "heroic" type show.

Option 4:

Ultraman Orb (2016)

Ultraman Orb is, even while nestled in the near-middle of the New Gen Era, a fantastic starting piece and my typical recommendation for starters. It's quite fun and light-hearted but has an intense emotional core surrounding lost love and a broken friendship. The action and special effects are top-notch, and the main villain is an ICONIC character who pops up many times in later shows.

This show introduces fusions, which become a frequent New Gen trend (Orb does it the best of all). Great choice if you're looking to get dropped somewhere not too confusing or plot-intensive yet still action-y and engaging.

Option 5:

Ultraman Blazar (2023)

Ultraman Blazar is the newest season of Ultraman and started airing back in July. As of writing this, we are currently at Episode 8.

Blazar is unique and inventive so far in both its plot and aesthetic. It has a semi-serious sci-fi/military feel mixed with amazing new kaiju and.... a really strange Ultra lol. Blazar is unlike most thus far. He's primitive and beastly, kinda like a caveman.

It may not be the most completely accurate representation of the series as a whole, but nothing beats the excitement of watching the newest season as it airs!! The Tsuburaya official YouTube channel simulcasts each new episode as it airs in Japan (with japanese or english audio and subs).

I wish you luck on your multiverse-spanning Ultraman adventures!

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any 💛💛💛

#askdemonium #ultraman #tokusatsu #ultraman blazar #infodump

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vro0m · 1 year

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Hey idk if you are still doing the whole "how lewis breaks his teammates" essay but if you are, I just want to say as someone who has been watching f1 since I was a kid and seen almost all of lewis career, mercedes is a huge factor in it (noticed how you mentioned button wasn't so affected by it and that comes down two reasons 1) pre-mercedes hamilton and 2) button being able to read his teammates very well and seeing how paranoid lewis was) but really the kind of toxic environment of mercedes to sacrifice anything including their drivers mental health for greatness is what makes lewis the way he is like he was quite young when he first got to mercedes and toto wolfe who has spoken about how he likes to psycho-analyse his drivers in the past saw what button saw, an extremely talented kid who was due to his past of racial abuse and bullying was paranoid and mistrusting as he saw enemies everywhere and him and the team used that to their advantage (merc have done their best to erase it but a lot of the first cracks from lewis and nicos relationship collapsing came from inside the merc team like them telling the drivers different things in the hopes of making them more competitive and better drivers which it did tbf, but then it spiraled and even merc couldn't control the monster they created but they still got the results they wanted in the end) merc took a different strategy but we still see how they shaped everything in regard to lewis and valterri as teammates in which they did offer better support to lewis (not because they realised it was the right thing to do but because after 2016 with nico it became evident that putting lewis in that extreme of a competition causes him to be more reckless as a driver and he is more successful if he is not in that situation) but they completely mentally destroyed bottas and sacrificed a lot of his potential as a driver in order to do that (again you have to remember that mercedes no.1 priority is and always have been to be the greatest and the idea of having a driver with the most wdc was mouthwatering to them and they would have it no matter what the cost) it is hard to say what with happen with lewis and george as the car wasn't good enough this season to warrant the usual merc mind games with their drivers but mercedes shaped lewis into the legend he is today but they also shaped him into the worst teammate (huge lewis fan but not so much of mercedes if that wasn't obvious haha)

Hey Anon!

First of all thanks for the interesting message. I sat on it for a few hours to think it through before I answered because there's a lot of things there, and a lot of things I hadn't considered before.

In short, I don't agree with you. But let's walk through it one thing at a time.

(Congrats, in the end you managed to make me practically write the entire essay but hey, I'll still do it better and more methodically someday.)

So yes, I said Jenson wasn't affected as much. I don't think it has anything to do with Lewis being "pre-mercedes" though. You know when in 2012, after getting beaten by him in quali in Belgium, Lewis posted sensitive telemetry on Twitter? He claimed Jenson had a new rear wing while he didn't himself and said he was losing 0.4 on the straights. (In 2016, Jenson claimed the data wasn't even from quali but from simulations.) Pre-Mercedes Lewis, if anything, was more unhinged, in my honest opinion. Already paranoid and playing mind games. Also way more immature. If it didn't affect Jenson, from my point of view, it's rather because

Jenson is remarkably (and unusually) well balanced mentally for a Formula 1 driver but even that is directly linked to

Lewis wasn't competitive while they were teammates.

The only year he was still in contention for the title in the last race while they were both at Mclaren was 2010, and it would have taken unprecedented circumstances for him to win it. Jenson wasn't threatened. The stakes were the lowest they've ever been in a situation including Lewis in F1.

Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I think Mercedes are good guys.

Lewis does sacrifice a lot for his career, but I don't believe it's something Mercedes created. He was willing to give a lot from the start, I believe in part because he feels indebted, notably to his dad and family, and also because he felt (at least at some point if not still) like he had a lot to prove as a Black man from a humble background. Also let's not forget his mental health wasn't good to begin with, that's not on Mercedes, as what I said about his time at McLaren showed. As far as I can tell, Lewis has always been fragile on that side, that's how it is, that's how it is for most of the drivers tbh, and that honestly kinda almost goes with the job profile. It's not even just F1 : competitive, professional sports are honestly terrible for the athletes' mental health. People are not built to withstand that kind of pressure and scrutiny and highs and lows. Also let's not forget that although he sacrifices a lot, he's been criticised for years by people claiming he has too many ventures and interests outside F1 and he's not focused enough. I obviously disagree that it's a problem, but he does indeed have a lot of other things aside from F1, so it's not like he's completely engulfed in it like some other drivers are or have been and he's devoting his entire time and life to it. As far as F1 drivers go, he's pretty much doing whatever the fuck he wants, actually.

I do think his work ethic and vision and need for grandeur and Toto's entered into some kind of resonance when they met and it intensified the whole thing a lot. (Btw let's not forget that in some ways, just like Lewis, Toto had things to prove as he also went through some hardships of his own and it also feeds into that resonance between them but that's not the subject.) I also do think winning raises expectations, yours and others. I do not buy into Lewis being or having been some kind of manipulated puppet at the end of Toto's arm. Lewis is far from stupid. Toto is a great entrepreneur who knows how to make money out of things and people and that's what he came to do, despite their current extremely exasperating "we are a family" communication campaign. Lewis knows that, he's not naive. Lewis is also a capitalist. Lewis is also in it in (non negligeable) part for the money. Lewis is great at negotiating his contracts and making as many bucks as he can out of this. He's not a victim being used, he's getting his good share out of the deal, both in fat checks and in titles. I know you didn't say that wasn't the case but I'm putting it out there as a way to balance the way I feel you painted their relationship in your ask, like Toto is this mastermind using his drivers, when in reality his drivers, and namely Lewis, are there for a reason and know what they're doing and getting out of it as well.

Yes, Mercedes used Nico and Lewis' rivalry. Undeniably. Niki said it loud and proud, that putting two competitive drivers into the same team pushed them to be even better. However, you claim the issues between them first "came from the inside". I'm not saying it definitely isn't the case but unless you have some actual receipts for that I'll treat it as nothing more than a rumour. I don't think they needed to conspire to build that rivalry, the rivalry was already there in their karting days. They didn't need to feed the flames, the fire was burning. Of course they didn't do anything to tame it down because it was profitable indeed, until it wasn't, and then they did actually try to take measures. The rivalry spiralled because that's the only thing it could do.

Lewis and Valtteri are a different thing entirely from my point of view. For the record, I haven't watched 2017 and 2018 yet but I started watching in 2019 so I did see more than half of what happened there. I wouldn't put it past Lewis to have given Toto some kind of ultimatum after what happened with Nico in the form of you put me first or I'm out, or something to that extent. Or they decided to do it anyway without him asking because as you said, it was more profitable to preserve him rather than rattle him. Anyway, I don't think they voluntarily destroyed Valtteri.

I think Valtteri came into it thinking he could win and then realised he couldn't. Both because Lewis was clearly although implicitly their n°1 driver but also and mainly because beating Lewis when he's doing well (aka not as he was during his McLaren days) – as we saw with Nico like Anon pointed out the other day, as Valtteri said himself when he departed, as Kovalainen also talked about recently – is practically impossible. Literally. Of course some of it is incredibly hard work on his part, but the fact is, even when his rivals try to work as hard as he does, they fucking can't do it. Honestly, it's like Phelps webbed fingers or something, he's truly built different.

As for Lewis and George... Well yeah. There's potential for drama there. But again, I don't think it's due to Mercedes in particular, I truly don't believe they're voluntarily pitting their drivers against each other as you seem to claim. Generally speaking F1 drivers don't need that to be extremely bent on beating each other. Teams tend to rather have to tune it down than to feed it to protect their assets, including Mercedes. As we established, rivals crashing and burning, metaphorically and literally, is definitely not profitable. So if drama there is, I don't think it'll have been generated by the team. George is a young up and comer with loads to prove, tons of potential, who could get a whole career out of it in the most competitive team in history. Lewis is the best driver in the world, he's been robbed of the ultimate proof of that, and he's also nearing the end of his career and running out of time to get that ultimate proof, whatever he says and however much we don't want it to be true. There's plenty enough at stake there for the drama to spawn by itself without being manufactured by Mercedes.

Conclusion : Lewis is the worst teammate not because Mercedes made him that way but because he is genuinely unnaturally good.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #george russell #nico rosberg #jenson button #vro0m's race reviews #essay #valtteri bottas #vro0m's asks

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averyqueerchristmas · 1 year

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I've been putting together this list of Queer Holiday films for a while now and I'm honestly surprised at the amount I have found. Now I haven't seen most of these, a lot of these have Queer side characters and not main characters (I'll be sure to mention which ones are which). I currently have over 40 Holiday films that feature a Queer character, I'll obviously not be watching all of them this year but I'll watch a good bit of them and post my thoughts about the representation and how much said Queer character is actually shown in the movie and whether or not it should be on this list. (Apologies if any of these are wrong, again I haven't seen most of these). I’ll add to this list if I find more. Obviously the ones you don't want to pay for you can probably find *ahem* elsewhere..

Some Of My Best Friends Are... - 1971 (I believe this can be found on Youtube) - Gay, Lesbian (Main).

Home For The Holidays - 1995 (Redbox, Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

What's Cooking - 2000 (Tubi) - Lesbian, Gay (Main).

Holiday Heart - 2000 (Tubi) - Gay (Main).

8 Women - 2002 (DVD) - Lesbian, Bisexual (Main).

Tokyo Godfathers - 2003 (Tubi) - Trans (Main). (There is Transphobia in this but that doesn't put Hana down, she's great. In the Dubbed version she is voiced by a Trans Actress).

Rent - 2005 (HBO Max) - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual (Main).

Imagine Me & You - 2005 (AppleTV, Redbox , you have to pay) - Lesbian, Bisexual (Main).

The Family Stone - 2005 (Starz Subscription, Hulu Premium, Amazon Premium) - Gay (Main).

Regarding Billy - 2005 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

Breakfast With Scot - 2007 (Vudu, SlingTV , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

Make The Yuletide Gay - 2009 (Amazon Premium) - Gay (Main).

Everybody’s Fine - 2009 (PlutoTV) - Bisexual (Main).

Scrooge & Marley - 2012 (Vudu, Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

Red Lodge - 2013 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

Carol - 2015 (Tubi) - Lesbian (Main).

Tangerine - 2015 (Paramount+, Showtime Subscription) - Trans (Main).

Shared Rooms - 2016 (Tubi) - Gay (Main).

Anna And The Apocalypse - 2017 (Tubi) - Sapphic (Main-ish).

We Need A Little Christmas - 2017 (Youtube) - Lesbian (Main).

Lez Bomb - 2018 (Tubi) - Lesbian (Main).

Christmas Around The Corner - 2018 (Vudu, Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Side/Background).

Holiday Help Desk - 2018 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main).

Season Of Love - 2019 (Tellofilms , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main).

Let It Snow - 2019 (Netflix) - Lesbian (Main-ish).

Turkey Drop - 2019 (Youtube) - Lesbian (Main-ish).

The Postie - 2019 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main).

City Of Trees - 2019 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main).

Moonlit Winter - 2019 (Tubi) - Lesbian (Main).

Twinkle All The Way - 2019 (Amazon Premium) - Gay (Possibly Side but idk).

Ghosting: Spirit Of Christmas - 2019 (Hulu Premium) - Sapphic (Main).

I Hate New Year's - 2020 (Vudu, Amazon , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main?).

A New York Christmas Wedding - 2020 (Netflix) - Lesbian (Main).

Happiest Season - 2020 (Hulu) - Lesbian, Gay (Main).

Will You Merry Me? -2020 (Lesflicks , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Main).

The Christmas Lottery - 2020 (BET Subscription, Hulu Premium, Amazon Premium) - Lesbian (Main)

Dashing In December - 2020 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

The Christmas House - 2020 (Prime) - Gay (Main).

The Christmas Setup - 2020 (Hulu Premium, Amazon , you have to pay, if you’re in Canada this movie if free on CTV) - Gay (Main).

Friendsgiving - 2020 (Netflix) - Several Queer characters (Main).

Christmas With The Darlings - 2021 (Philo Subscription, FuboTV Subscription) - Lesbian (Side)

Christmas At The Ranch - 2021 (Tubi, Prime, Peacock) - Lesbian (Main).

The Syd Family Xmas Eve Game Night - 2021 (Apologies I don’t know where to find this, they have a website though) - Lesbian (Main).

Silent Night - 2021 (Amazon Premium) - Lesbian (Main-ish).

Christmas ...Again? - 2021 (Disney+) - Gay (Main-ish).

An Unexpected Christmas - 2021 (AppleTV, Amazon, Vudu , you have to pay) - Lesbian (Side).

A Picture Perfect Holiday - 2021 (Lifetime) - Lesbian (Side).

Christmas Is Canceled - 2021 (Amazon Subscription) - Sapphic (Side)

You Make It Feel Like Christmas - 2021 (Peacock Subscription) - Lesbian (Side).

Every time a Bell Rings - 2021 (Amazon Premium) - Lesbian (Main-ish).

Single All The Way - 2021 (Netflix) - Gay (Main).

The Christmas House 2 - 2021 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

Under The Christmas Tree - 2021 (Hulu) - Lesbian (Main).

A Jenkins Family Christmas - 2021 (BET, Hulu Premium, Amazon Premium, you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

The Bitch Who Stole Christmas - 2021 (Amazon , you have to pay) - Gay (Main).

The Holiday Sitter - 2022 (Hallmark) - Gay (Main). (Releases Dec.11)

Merry & Gay - 2022 (AppleTV) - Lesbian (Main).

Spoiler Alert - 2022 (In Theaters) - Gay (Main).

Looking For Her - 2022 (Tubi) - Lesbian (Main).

A Christmas To Treasure - 2022 (Lifetime) - Gay (Main).

The Christmas Clapback - 2022 (BET+) - Lesbian (Side-ish).

Something From Tiffany's - 2022 (Prime) - Lesbian (Side).

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lboogie1906 · 1 month

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Richard Kevin Sherman (born March 30, 1988) is a former football cornerback who played 11 seasons in the NFL. He played college football for the Stanford Cardinal, beginning his career as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback as a junior. He was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL draft. He was selected to the Pro Bowl five times and voted All-Pro five times, including three times to the first team, and led the NFL in interceptions in 2013, when he helped the Seahawks win their first Super Bowl. He is regarded as one of the greatest cornerbacks of all time.

During his time as a member of the Seahawks, he was part of the “Legion of Boom”, the Seahawks’ starting secondary which contributed to Seattle having the best pass defense in the NFL in 2013. This unit helped the Seahawks win Super Bowl XLVIII; their 43–8 win over the Denver Broncos matched the third-largest margin of victory in the history of the Super Bowl. The Seahawks made it to Super Bowl XLIX the following season, losing in a close game against the New England Patriots. During his time with the Seahawks, they led the league in scoring defense for four straight years (2012-15) making them the first team to do so since the 1950s Cleveland Browns.

On June 14, 2022, it was announced he would become a pre-game and postgame analyst for Amazon.

He married Ashley Moss (2018) and they have two children.

He was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 15. He writes for The Players’ Tribune. He has his charity called Blanket Coverage – The Richard Sherman Family Foundation. In 2013, he started his charity to help children in low-income communities by providing them with school supplies and clothing. His foundation was formed to help children across the country achieve academic success.

He is interested in cryptocurrency and tech stocks and is an ambassador for the trivia app FleetWit. He is a co-owner of the Glacier Boyz for the Fan Controlled Football League. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #phibetasigma

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mariacallous · 1 year

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Twitter may be slowly decaying, but it still finds a way to generate a minor sex panic. The latest micro-iteration blazing through one corner of the pop culture sphere: Penn Badgley, best known for playing Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl and as the star of Netflix’s You, said that he no longer wished to act in sex scenes, citing fidelity to his wife. According to his podcast, Badgley asked You showrunner Sera Gamble for a reduction in intimate scenes in the show’s fourth season, which premiered last week; his character, the disarmingly bookish serial killer/love addict Joe Goldberg, still has sex in the new season but less so than in prior ones, and fully clothed.

Specific contractual clauses regarding intimacy on camera are not new – Julia Roberts is one of many actors who’ve said they’ll never do on-screen nudity, for example. And Badgley is certainly entitled to his own boundaries. (A new Variety story connects his reluctance to film intimate scenes to his feelings of discomfort as a child actor.) But a segment of the Twittersphere’s extension of his personal logic into an argument against sex on-screen in general, and the conflation the professional performance of intimacy with individual fidelity, feels disturbingly puritanical. Some have expressed distaste at any on-screen nudity, or asserted that most sex scenes are gratuitous, unnecessary and rife with issues of consent.

(Badgley, to be clear, only suggests an anti-sex scene argument beyond his own work: “That aspect of Hollywood has always been very disturbing to me – and that aspect of the job, that mercurial boundary – has always been something that I actually don’t want to play with at all,” he told Variety. But his claim to fidelity doesn’t feel too far removed spiritually from Christian actor Kirk Cameron insisting that he’ll only ever kiss his wife.)

This line of thinking is, to be clear, absurd, and admittedly much of the dreaded “sex scene discourse” is classic Twitter behavior, ie morality circle-jerking or over-dunking on easily dunkable takes. But it is concerning insomuch as it reaffirms Hollywood’s pivot away from sex on-screen and the sexlessness of culture in general – the gamified, optimization-driven, personal brand-laden, uncanny valley landscape of life online. The final CGI-constructed kiss at the end of the new Netflix romcom You People, Lindsay Lohan’s body double for the kiss in her comeback vehicle Falling for Christmas, the scolding attitude to eroticism on Twitter – it all feels apiece with the depressing decline of the Hollywood sex scene (and, as some have argued, the decline of young Americans having actual sex).

It feels a bit odd to defend the utility of the sex scene, because its importance to cinema (and my personal interest in movies and TV) seems so obvious – think the box office dominance of Fatal Attraction, the groundbreaking tent scene in Brokeback Mountain, even the car tryst in Titanic. But Hollywood has managed to get by with fewer and fewer of them: according to a 2019 report in Playboy by the Black List’s Kate Hagen using IMDb data, sex in cinema in the 2010s was at its lowest point (1.21%) since the 1960s, half a point (1.79% ) lower than in the 1990s, the heyday of the erotic thriller (and adult mid-budget films). (This is significant in relative terms, as four times as many movies were released in the 2010s as the 1990s.) That’s despite demonstrated interest for sex and pleasure on the big screen – see: the surprise success of the Magic Mike franchise, one of the very few to cater specifically to female desire, from 2012 through to this month’s Magic Mike’s Last Dance, or the blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey series.

There are economic as well as cultural reasons for this. With the rise of streaming services, studios have gravitated toward films with maximum audience potential, including children and international markets – the Middle East, China – with strict morality codes, especially around depictions of gay sex. (Hence completely desexed Marvel movies.) The death of the sex scene owes in large part to the decline of the adult mid-budget drama; it’s not just the absence of sex on the big screen, but “the absence of the general environment in which the sex scene would be warranted”, as New Yorker writer Doreen St Felix put it in a 2022 critical roundtable on the state of the sex scene. The widespread access to porn online, according the magazine’s Vinson Cunningham, raised the bar for a sex scene from titillation to plot. It wasn’t enough to make people horny; a sex scene had to move the story forward or serve a stylistic purpose.

Narrative momentum can in itself be a turn-on. As a teenager growing up online, I was significantly less interested in porn, which felt obviously fake, than in Youtube compilations and cuts of various sex scenes, which had the trappings of real characters, and thus real life. The scenes felt fascinating, shocking, spellbinding, adult. Maybe not actually realistic, but vibrant and vital, validation of my own capacity for eroticism. Sex is an essential part of humanity, sex scenes an essential reflection of the human experience.

The anti-sex scene scolds seem to have forgotten that, and instead conflated many legitimate concerns about filming intimacy with the act itself – the idea that the possibility of violated consent invalidates the entire enterprise. Of course sex scenes can be exploitative and violating, such as director Bernardo Bertolucci’s refusal to prepare Maria Schneider for the “butter rape” scene while filming Last Tango in Paris in 1972. Just last month, the stars of 1968’s Romeo and Juliet sued Paramount for sexual exploitation, alleging they were manipulated into nude shots as teenagers. Several Euphoria cast members have discussed working with writer and creator Sam Levinson to lessen their nudity on-screen, which can be screengrabbed and memed across the internet without context and out of one’s control.

It’s interesting to see a backlash to sex scenes just as Hollywood has reckoned with how to do them better and more ethically with the rise of intimacy coordinators along the #MeToo movement. An intimacy specialist worked on the Hulu show Normal People, for instance, to specifically make the sex, including a nine-minute scene which seamlessly simulates the entire act from start to finish, feel naturalistic, entrancing, good. Television generally has been better territory for the sex scene, more accurately and vibrantly reflecting desire and eroticism than most big-budget films. Sex in shows such as Euphoria, Bridgerton, Pose, Industry, Normal People, Conversations with Friends, Hulu’s erotic thriller-adjacent Tell Me Lies and, in a watershed way, Girls, is used for fun, for character development, for shock, for representation, for expressions of gender dynamics and power.

There are of course still films that play with sex and narrative in provocative ways – for self-actualization and revelation (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), to skewer the power dynamics in a relationship (recent Sundance breakout Fair Play), or to impart the horror of an actually exploitative relationship (the upcoming Palm Trees and Power Lines). But most of these films exist within the arthouse or are dumped on streaming services, not at the multiplex. Even Magic Mike’s Last Dance, while still a desire-forward romp, is relatively tame compared to prior installments.

Perhaps the most frustrating element of this particular anti-sex scene argument is its fixation on a justification for sex on-screen, as if people wanting to have sex or wanting to be turned on is not character-driven or important enough. To deny the power of sex on-screen is to deny one of the core reasons to watch anything in the first place: desire, a basic human impulse and a gift. Long live the sex scene.

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rcmndedlisten · 1 year

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...And then there are the albums that defy any distinct definition because they are outside of even unconventional boundaries. Experimental music can creak into corners ambient and electronic, or twist rock and contort pop into artful, avant patterns. There were many artists this year across the spectrum who molded the sonic canvas in challenging sound, color, light and matter itself in how their music entered our conscious. These were the best albums that tapped into other worlds even if they were created in our current physical...

Animal Collective - Time Skiffs [Domino Records]

Time Skiffs is a reminder of why we should never take a band like Animal Collective, as it’s a reunion of sorts with it being the first album since 2012′s Centipede Hz to feature all four members in the mix where their matured wilderness and nautical voyages have never felt as fit for a real chill as it has here as their hyper-color psychedelia reaches the closest they’ve come to jam band status without sacrificing their feral sides either.

Beach House - Once Twice Melody [Sub Pop]

Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally definitely have nailed down singularity with their style at this stage in their career, but their eighth studio album -- a double album opus at that -- is perhaps their most definitive sensation of instantaneous synesthesia and mind-and-physical-nature-altering music they’ve produced yet. Embellishing their dream-pop elixir with strings and psychedelic portals to worlds beyond worlds, Once Twice Melody is well worth its lengthy travel all while promising a kind of transcendence only the Baltimore duo hold the key to.

Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There [Ninja Tune]

As it turns out, we hardly knew Black Country, New Road at all upon last year’s breakthrough debut, for the first time. On the London septet’s sophomore effort Ants From Up There, the band – led by the fascinating, wild-eyed narrations of now-departed vocalist Isaac Wood – it’s their own uninhibited instrumental malleability that steeps their sound into a captivating post-rock theater which gives us something further to consider of a band who are intent on never sounding or looking the same as they did even just one year ago.

black midi - Hellfire [Rough Trade]

Chaos, chaos, and even more chaos, even when it sounds like all the calamity and human destruction in the fantastical tale have reached cease fire. That’s black midi’ Hellfire, the latest album from the London-based experimental art rockers, who on this turn go all in on a glory of their their most unhinged sonic facets that have been steadily climbing over the course of their first two albums in the form of precisely meticulated post-punk of their 2019 debut Schlagenheim and last year’s cosmically imploded jazzist traverse Cavalcade without losing their grip.

björk - fossora [One Little Independent Records]

björk’s fossora was inspired by fungi and a sound she earlier described as “biological techno”. That very much checks out, and as usual, reinvents genre, as the tenth studio album from the experimental art icon is the sound of nature burgeoning its way through the soil from its most microscopic spore, reaping and sewing with the seasons of birth, decay, and death where love, partnerships, motherhood and familial bonds eventually return their energy back to the soil.

Boy Harsher - The Runner (Original Soundtrack) [City Slang / Nude Club Records]

Boy Harsher don’t regard their original soundtrack to The Runner, a short, Lynchian horror film which they wrote and directed themselves, as a release separate from the rest of their discog. Rather, it’s a proper fifth full-length effort as well as a watershed moment for the Northampton electronic duo of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller in creating their most inviting release yet, with eight songs being scene-setting chapters building terror in the most cinematic sense through strobing lights and heavy fog as well as gleaming goth club and new wave bangers.

Carlos Truly - Not Mine [Bayonet Records]

Ava Luna guitarist Carlos Hernandez’ talents on his own merits are fully realized on Not Mine, his first solo album as Carlos Truly. Recorded alongside his brother Tony Seltzer, the album professes an nth degree of synesthesiac sophisticate taste to it in the way Hernandez sculpts wave forms of R&B, funky guitars, and experimental pop and jazz flourishes in relation to his world view onto the emotional, personal and creative connect. With his voice barely touching ground, the listen blends sense and memory into a warm air feeling.

Claire Rousay - everything perfect is already here [Shelter Press]

Claire Rousay collage of sound is the immersion of her own specific surroundings, temporal to that moment, but committed to tape to live on forth with we as listeners. The San Antonio-based field recordings specialist’s latest, everything perfect is already here, continues mining seconds passing by through an instrumental rendering with ornate contributions from violinist Alex Cunningham, electrician and violinist Mari Maurice, harpist Marilu Donovan, and pianist Theodore Cale Schafer in a delicate inversion into Rousay’s world where even in stillness, her music can adorn a space with a deeper meditation onto the self.

Guerilla Toss - Famously Alive [Sub Pop]

Noise, psychedelic powers, and flashes of pop have long permeated Guerilla Toss’ music over the years, so it’s a fitting irony that on Famously Alive, their first album for Sub Pop, they would find a sense of clarity and balance in it all, created across some of the most chaotic times of our modern existence. Their synesthesia explodes vividly, and the hooks stick like Gak to the ears, all while vocalist Kassie Carlson confronts existentialist dread head on with empowering messages of reclaiming ownership of one’s fate in anthem.

Healing Potpourri - Paradise [Run for Cover Records]

Simi Sohota has reengineered the power of the calm vibe with Healing Potpourri’s Paradise. A bouquet of chamber pop, yacht and kraut rock in a breeze sailing its way in from the cosmos, Sohota alongside producer and Stereolab collaborator Sean O’Hagan have created an album that indulges in soft rays of sunlight and sighed reflections on connections through organic highs and interstellar journeys of the self that see every color in this strange human experience.

The Mall - Time Vehicle Earth [Self-released]

With so much within the overlapping industrial, electronic, and punk realms having become blasé and a mere goth cosplay, hitting play on Time Vehicle Earth will have all your perceptions of reality rearranged and raged. The moniker of St. Louis artist Mark Plant and Spencer Bible is like the equivalent of staring deeper and deeper into the cosmic sights of James Webb Space Telescope and realizing that the further out we get, the less we know as Plant’s shouts echo through spiraling space-synth at a punk-fueled speed of light.

Moor Mother - Jazz Codes [ANTI- Records]

Prolific and faceted as always, be it in her own name and other projects like her free jazz ensemble Irreversible Entanglements or the avant rap-pop duo 700 Bliss, Moor Mother’s Camae Ayewa has taken less than a year to bring forth a bookend 2021 standout, Black Encyclopedia of Air, with Jazz Codes, an album which she goes even deeper into the ether with a seance of Black creativity’s most brilliant, unheralded minds lifting through her new age jazz conversations and electronic multiverses that rupture enlightenment throughout.

Palm - Nicks and Grazes [Saddle Creek Records]

Mashing together philosophy, color and synesthesia, rock noise and electronic devices, Palm come alive on their third full-length effort in their newfound freedom of approaching their art while becoming hyper-aware of the outside obstacles that brought the four-piece to this point. It’s pop extracted from every high and lull of emotion, but unlike one meant to imitate anything beyond the moment its consumed.

P.E. - The Leather Lemon [Wharf Cat Records]

The Leather Lemon reassembles sound through the pieces of the world we continue to pick up in its aftermath. For that, P.E. focus on their strongest pop points amid the asymmetry, filling deeper grooves where absent pockets once were with body contortion and skin-on-skin contact. The turbulence of these times still exists within the context of these songs, though this time around, the Brooklyn band are working with them to connect emotionally, sensually, and physically rather than add to the discord.

Rachika Nayar - Heaven Come Crashing [NNA Tapes]

A new galaxy just dropped, and it’s called Rachika Nayar’s Heaven Come Crashing. The Brooklyn-based guitar virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist’s sophomore follow-up expands the celestial atmospheres discovered on last year’s Our Hands Against the Dust in one of the most sensory-entrancing examples of modern guitar art in which Nayar synthesizes her instrument with ambient colors and haloing vocal accents by songwriter Maria B.C., blurring the space between emotive rock, ambient electronic and trancelike dance music –emotion in motion at a constant centripetal force.

The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention [XL Recordings]

A Light for Attracting Attention is clear evidence that the Smile are more than just a Radiohead side-project. Featuring Thom York and Johnny Greenwood alongside drummer Tom Skinner of the now-defunct Sons of Kemet, the trio have built their own new world of sound using places they’ve visited in their respective past lives, but at an alternate universe distance where its more experimental terrain of free jazz and electronic music allow them to continue to predict the future of art rock and our existence in an eerie spectral delight.

Sonic Youth - In/Out/In [Three Lobed Records]

Even in their post-mortem, Sonic Youth still remain among one of the most innovative sculptors in noise rock whose ideas remain unparralel in our current existence. A decade removed from their final bow, In/Out/In – a collection of several mostly instrumental tracks unearthed from their early Aughts era – moves seamlessly in its own distinct singular waveform despite being created in disconnect rendering Sonic Youth in their jammiest formation yet, with the static becoming a transfixing groove.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - lucky styles [Smoking Room]

lucky styles, the third full-length effort from They Are Gutting a Body of Water, realizes the Philly experimental band’s wildest yet appeasing impulses in one sitting within textures of static-washed shoegaze, electronic-speckled zone-outs, and noise-pop over dreamy overtures and post-hardcore aggression rendering something much more adventurous than what we perceive in our everyday waking life.

#best of 2022 #they are gutting a body of water #sonic youth #the smile #rachika nayar #p.e.#palm #moor mother #healing potpourri #guerilla toss #claire rousay #boy harsher #bjork #black midi #black country new road #beach house #animal collective #the mall #carlos truly

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michaelcosio · 1 month

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Picking a New Profession for Every Boring NBA Commentator

JESSE DORSEY

JUNE 12, 2012

The NBA, and basketball in general for that matter, is an incredibly fast-paced, yet methodical game that it's hard to really find a commentator that's worth much in terms of not over-doing it and not being so boring that it's hard to concentrate on anything but the squeaks of the shoes on the court.

The latter, unfortunately for the following people, is definitely worse than the former. At least with an over-excited commentator there are laughs to be had.

A boring commentator is just that, a guy (or girl) droning on-and-on about this and that with no regard to whether anybody cares about what he's saying.

That's why I've decided to take a look at the worst, most boring commentators and analysts around the NBA and reassign their lives.

We need to make sure that everyone is doing the job that's right for them, so it's time to give everyone who is in the wrong job their correct job.

Magic Johnson: Outlandish Baseball Owner

In case you've not heard due to having lived in a barn over the past few months, Magic Johnson has recently purchased, as a part of a group, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

What Magic Johnson needs to do before the people completely turn on his utterly dull, uninspired and completely useless role with the ESPN crew that bores the bejeezus out of us all season long is turn into the next Bill Veeck.

For those of you who don't know who Bill Veeck is, he's one of the most iconic figures in baseball history, pulling some of the best stunts imaginable to improve the way the fans watch the game.

Among other things, Veeck hired 3'7" Eddie Gaedel to play for his St. Louis Browns. The little man was only allowed one at-bat before the MLB outlawed his use, the man having a strike zone so small that it seemed impossible to pitch to him.

Veeck went on to put together all kinds of promotions, giving away free balls, free pickles, free hot dogs, free lobsters, free ice cream, free pigs, chickens, eels and ducks.

Magic needs to turn himself into one of the most visible, entertaining baseball owners in all of the MLB.

Jon Barry: Basketball Camp with His Brothers

Jon Barry should be thankful that Magic Johnson sits next to him to be more boring than he is, but he's still an uninteresting, dull member of ESPN's NBA Countdown.

What Jon Barry needs to do is collect all of his basketball-playing family members, all of whom got a fraction of the talent that their father had, put them all in the same location and open up the Barry Brothers Basketball Camp.

Once the camp starts to take off, they can start putting together basketball training videos and cheesy commercials to go along with the videos, something that would benefit more people than forcing them to see Barry go on and on about nothing every time ESPN hosts a basketball game.

Shaquille O'Neal: Reality Show

Shaq is in the wrong situation for people to enjoy him on television. When Shaq is funny, it's spontaneous, unscripted and, above all, awkward. However, with him a part of Inside the NBA, he's got very few of those moments.

What we need is to get Shaq a reality show, either one where he just lives his day-to-day life as a giant doctor-policeman former basketball player, or one where they send him here and there to do this and that.

Giving Shaq a reality show not only gets the big mumbling, uninteresting man off our beloved Inside the NBA, it also puts him in a situation where he'll potentially thrive and have people reevaluate their opinions of him as a television personality.

Doris Burke: Craig Sager's Outfit Wrangler

Doris Burke is a maddeningly uninteresting commentator when she's on the microphone. In fact, the only time when she's remotely bearable is when she's the sideline reporter at games, which sucks because even the best sideline reporter is a useless part of a live sports broadcast.

So, in order to keep her somewhat involved in basketball, I'm making her the personal assistant to Craig Sager, who is a noticeably better (yet still useless) sideline reporter.

Her only job with Sager is going to be to keep notes on his outfits, make sure he doesn't wear the same color combinations too close to each other and, overall, make sure each outfit is more outlandish than the last.

Dave Pasch: Stick to His Day Job…Announcing Football

This photo is a worst nightmare of sorts. What we've got here is Dave Pasch, a boring, sometimes used play-by-play man for the NBA on ESPN working alongside Jon Barry, a color commentator with nothing to add and no insight to give.

Dave Pasch has been an interesting decision at times for the NBA game. What makes him a good football announcer, the somber tone, the drawn-out pauses to let the game take over rather than his words, is also what makes him a terrible basketball announcer. There's a certain rhythm that comes with commentating basketball that he just doesn't have.

So, all Pasch really needs to do is stick to his job commentating for the Arizona Cardinals and then doing college and Arena Football, the NFL and the Little League World Series, places where his pace is more fitting.

Matt Devlin: Branch Manager of a Paper Company

I hate to discredit Matt Devlin, because he seems like one of the nicest guys a person could ever encounter, but Devlin is awful as an NBA commentator.

If you're not the over-excited, constantly wound-up type then it's best to be somber and let the game flow through your lips and to the viewer. Don't try to do too much, but don't try to leave too much silence.

Devlin's problem is that he is too slow and methodical for the majority of the game, but then he tries to work himself up for the excitement in the final minutes of a game, leading to situations like this, when he had no idea that the game was over.

Aside from that, Devlin seems to have awkward in infinite supply. Devlin's well-meaning awkwardness always seem to throw off a Michael Scott vibe, making me think that he'd be a perfect manager for a company in paper sales.

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thehungrykat1 · 4 months

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Rustic Mornings by Isabelo Opens at Its New Location in Marikina

Marikina's culinary pride has just moved to a bigger and better location. Family traditions, celebrations, and great meals continue at the new Rustic Mornings by Isabelo which can now be found just a few steps away from its original spot in Marikina. Now we can all enjoy some of the best breakfast fare you can find in Metro Manila at its more spacious and refreshing new venue.

The Hungry Kat was proud to be one of the guests during the Grand Opening of Rustic Mornings by Isabelo last November 29, 2023. The ribbon cutting was led by Honorable Marjorie Ann Teodoro of Marikina City and Manuel Samson of Otto Shoes who owns the property. Together with their friends and families, sisters Portia Baluyot-Magsino and Lady Bess Howe are now opening this new chapter for Rustic Mornings.

Rustic Mornings by Isabelo is a cozy garden restaurant serving all-day breakfast, lunch, pastries and coffee enjoyed by families because of its unique charm and rustic homey ambiance. It has been regarded as one of the best restaurants in Marikina since it opened in 2012. For many residing in the East of Metro Manila, Rustic Mornings is so much more than somewhere to eat out. It is a fixture in their mental map of the city where friends and family get together to bond and enjoy good food.

I was quite impressed with the new location of Rustic Mornings which still retains its cheerful and homey ambiance. The restaurant is open 8:00am to 4:00pm Monday to Thursday and from 8:00am to 6:00pm on Friday to Sunday.

Isabelo means ”God Is Bountiful” and you can see this reflected in the gardens and design of the place. Dining at Rustic Mornings is like being in a room inside an extended family home. Once you enter the al fresco dining area, you will find yourself with a certain kind of recollection of home, with all its pockets of greens and beautiful mosaic walls.

Most of interiors and artwork were designed and inspired by Portia’s mother, Stephanie Baluyut, who was an artist and collector of these colorful trinkets and items which they proudly display all over Rustic Mornings. Mrs. Baluyot unfortunately passed away before they could open the new location but her memories and artwork will always be a part of its charm and history.

Rustic Mornings takes it further by introducing the Isabelo Events Hall which is perfect for special occasions. With a capacity for up to 120 guests, this spacious venue boasts a lofty ceiling adorned with foliage and stunning chandeliers, ideal for grand celebrations such as wedding receptions and birthdays. This space used to be part of a historical ruins in Marikina which has now been incorporated into the structure and design of the events hall.

Rustic Mornings by Isabelo was started by advertising executive turned chef and restaurateur Portia Baluyut-Magsino in 2009 as Isabelo Garden, a by-reservation only restaurant that initially had just one table. With no formal culinary training but a lifelong love for food and the creative process, Portia evolved her restaurant into Rustic Mornings in 2012. After more than a decade. Rustic Mornings continues to serve truly satisfying comfort food that doesn't just fill the stomach but also delights the senses.

We were ready to enjoy comfort food at its finest. Dining at Rustic Mornings always feels like a visit to a friend's house, especially with a brunch spread as bountiful as this. We were hosted by our Ninang Bess Howe who we consider not just a friend but part of our family.

At Rustic Morning, an array of beverages awaits to complement every meal or satiate any craving, ranging from heartwarming hot chocolate and robust coffee to refreshing fruit smoothies and indulgent milkshakes.

During this festive holiday season, Rustic Mornings is excited to present a selection of special offerings including Brunch Cocktails like the Rustic Sunshine (P390) and the Morning Mirage (P310). It's never too early for cocktails so this is definitely the best way to start the day.

There were two special holiday beverages on the menu so I wanted to try both. The Peppermint Hot Chocolate (P125) is a Christmas version of my favorite hot chocolate drink topped with a candy cane. There's also the Tipsy S'Mores Cocktail (P340) for those who want Christmas cocktail together with their brunch.

There are so many dishes to choose from inside Rustic Mornings' extensive menu. The Caesar Salad with Breaded Chicken and Herbed Croutons (P550) is a healthy way to start the morning.

They also have the Super Crispy Tacos which is actually a secret menu item. You won't find this on the menu but you should try it because only the regulars know about this.

The Buttered Chicken Roti (P550) is a flavorful Indian dish that can be enjoyed any time of the day. I would honestly be happy to eat this with rice since the buttered chicken is so good.

You can also choose one of the Group Platters which are good for two to three persons. The Brunch Platter (P1220) comes with a combination of pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, and hash browns for a very big breakfast.

Better yet, try their festive Christmas Breakfast Board (P1500) which is only available this holiday season. This gigantic platter comes with 8 mini Christmas pancakes, 6 bacon slices, a Nutella dip, butter cream with Christmas sprinkles, apple pie filling, kisses, mini candy canes, strawberries, mint leaves, grapes, and sliced bananas. This should be more than enough to make the entire table jolly.

They also have Rice Bowls for those who want bigger lunch servings. The Grilled Salmon Fillet (P600) was my choice with its tender salmon. You can also get the Filipino Favorites like the Ilocos Bagnet (P520) served with garlic rice and two eggs done your way.

We would like to congratulate Portia and Bess for Rustic Mornings' brand new location and for their successful grand opening event. Marikina really has a gem that has become a dining destination even for those living in neighboring cities. I'm planning to visit Rustic Mornings by Isabelo again soon to enjoy more of their heavenly pancakes and colorful brunch cocktails. See you there!

Rustic Mornings by Isabelo

#11 Isabelo Mendoza St. San Roque, Marikina City

8425-8610 / (0917) 7005810

www.rusticmornings.com

www.facebook.com/RusticMornings

#RusticMorningsbyIsabelo #RusticMornings #Brunch #Breakfast #Pancakes #Waffles #Marikina

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justinewt · 6 months

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Meet Nikki Clark - FTWD REWRITE OC

[FEAR THE WALKING DEAD-MASTERLIST]

Do not use my character without my consent thanks <3

warning: arts and pictures you’ll see are not mine (I found them on pinterest) and the actress used to portray Nicole is Linda Cardellini, from Freaks & Geeks 1999-2000, Nicole is a character 100% created by me, Andrea but the style of the bio has been inspired by a bio found on a TWD Amino and bios made by director Guillermo Del Toro. Also the quote is from the song Heathens by Twenty One Pilots <3

And PLEASE, you are all very beautiful as you are, DO NOT feel bad about my character’s body/weight/height/measurements or anything, keep in mind that she’s fictional and living in quite extreme condition (it’s a post-apocalyptic setting, most wouldn’t be in good healt condition regarding their weight etc)!! And you are all beautiful humans <3

AND Nikki has been through physical abuse so proceed with caution if this can trigger you, the abuse is not described in length but maybe some interactions or thoughts could trigger you, idk

Words: 3.3k (some flashbacks in the fic will refer to events mentioned in PERSONALITY and BACKGROUND but it's not big spoilers, unless you haven't seen the show)

NICOLE EMILY CLARK bio

INFORMATIONS

FULL NAME: Nicole Emily Clark (born Russel)

NICKAME: Nikki (she always wrote it this way everywhere, even when taking exams in school cause she liked it. She didn't like her name very much and with the outbreak, even less people actually called her Nicole. She liked to meet new people so she could tell them her name was Nikki.)

DATE OF BIRTH: 1991

AGE: 19 (Season 1-3//2010); 21 (Season 4//2012); 22 (Season 5//2013); 23 (Season 7//2014); 30 (Season 8//2021)

SEX: Female

ORIENTATION: Bi (but it's pretty irrelevant in the story)

NATIONALITY: American

ETHNICITY: Caucasian-American

ORIGINS: She’s of English, Scottish and Irish ancestry

OCCUPATION: Pre-Apocalypse: Former Student at Paul R. Williams High School; Volunteer Nurse; Former nursing school Alumni

Post-Apocalypse: Former Member of the Broke Jaw Ranch; //

FAMILY

PARENTS: Jean Russel and Harold Russel, deceased.

SIBLINGS: She has no biological sibling and was born an only child but she views Nick and Alicia as her siblings, tho she is closer to Nick.

RELATIVES: Unnamed relatives; Madison Clark (adoptive mother/legal guardian); The Clarks (adoptive family).

FRIENDS: Nick Clark, best friend (they knew each other since kindergarten and got into drugs together); Gloria (friends through Nick); Alicia Clark (good friends, not as close as she is with Nick tho)

PARTNERS: She never actually dated anyone before the outbreak (she was too busy dealing with her shit really)

PERSONALITY: In Nick's fashion, Nikki is a flawed teenager who suffered from heroin addiction. She suffered throughout her life and was made fearful, reserved and with an obsessive fear of abandonment by the two people who were supposed to care for her, until she was taken in by Madison. She and Nick were in their own bubble, one dealing with deep trauma and the other dealing with his father's distant anq rather neglectful behavior, which started to get worse after Nikki joined their family but Nick never blamed her. Their addiction often caused trouble for her newfound family, who suffered because of this, and their attempts to stop this further resulted in more failure and even though Nikki was the first to get cleaned, it bested her and she stole drugs before the outbreak, but this was the last time she ever took some, unlike Nick.

Unlike Nick, who can put his life on the line because of his addictive behavior, her more fearful persona led her to be more careful and quiet. She observes people and mentally assesses situation, making plans, or things like that, in her own head. She has trouble sharing her ideas with others, but she really doesn't speak much in general. She does things and moves around in silence, often taking people by surprise when they eventually notice her presence. She second guesses herself a lot and has very little trust in her own abilities which leads her to having a rather low self-esteem and confidence.

Like Nick, she is smart and the both of them are the first to understand that the infected aren't actually "infected" but rather dead. She is also, like him, quite selfless and always helps around. With her nurse training, she never thinks twice before offering medical help to people, no matter who they are; like at the military compound after Madison put a spoon in Troy's eye, leaving it bleeding and swollen. She treats him, though she, unsurprisingly, does so in silence, ignoring his stares and questions and barely talking to him. She wasn't afraid of him but rather felt somehow uncomfortable.

Something else she shares with Nick is that she can be impressionable and easily led by people with a stronger personality, such as Victor Strand, Celia Flores, Madison or even Nick himself, because if he led by someone else, she will most likely follow in his steps. As an example, after leaving Celia Flores' home, she is quite confused and lost and starts listening to Victor Strand. After they arrive at the Broke Jaw ranch, she starts disliking Jeremiah Otto because he reminds her of her father when he raises his voice. She gained a little in confidence at this time and since Madison wants to deal with Troy, she says he seems to like her and she will get close to him but really, though she didn't like him, she wasn't sure how to feel about him. With a dark charisma and a stronger and more unpredictable personality, Troy kept her on her toes. Maybe she, subconsciously, liked the instability of it all. She never knew if Troy was going to be normal or a total asshole.

After the dam incident, she almost drowned and it gave her PTSD. She became scared of having water up to her torso as well. The loss of Nick totally wrecked her and she felt as if she had lost her heart. She had a very hard time mourning the one she called her best friend and brother. She totally switched after that and became ruthless and cold towards most people and she would cry in private.

APPEARANCE: Nikki is a young woman of short height, standing at 5'3" (160 cm), an inch more with her shoes on, and has a quite petite figure, especially when she wears oversize clothes and her big khaki jacket that she's had since high school. Except in summer, she usually wears vintage looking sweaters with a t-shirt underneath and a pair of baggy jeans with black classic converse. In summer she switches her sweaters for a raglan shirt with black or red sleeves. She wears one as a pajama as well.

She experienced huge weight loss from her heroin addiction which landed her at the hospital as well as rehab, her face got sunken making her look a bit older than her age.

⚠WARNING - TONS OF SPOILERS AHEAD⚠

BACKGROUND: Nikki, of her full name Nicole Emily Russel was born in 1991, to Jean and Harold Russel in LA, California. Her family had been living in the States since the 60s and she was second generation to be born and raised there. She was born in a very pious and strict Christian household and had a complicated relationship with her parents growing up. Her father repeated learned behaviour from his own physically abusive father and would hit her quite often to “discipline” her, and her mother was very passive regarding those unjustified punishments, enabling him. In first year of primary school, Nikki met Nick Clark. The two got sat next to each other in class and almost immediately became friends. Because of that their mothers started talking as they would come to pick them up from school, joking about how similar their names were, Nicole and Nicholas, Nikki and Nick. Like they were two sides of the same coin. When her mother talked with Madison Clark, Nikki saw a completely different side of her, a façade really, that she put on to pretend that she was a nice, good person, and it gave her false hope that her mother was actually what she pretended but when they would get back home, the yelling and beatings would resume and her mother would sit by and do her thing, not caring about it.

For the longest time, Nikki thought she deserved all this and that it was a normal life. She had to keep it a secret because her father told her that if she told anyone, bad people would come and take her and lock her away forever. So, she spent years being terrified of being separated from her parents. It was her worst fear. She somehow managed to keep the various bruises on her body hidden because she would never go to the infirmary, and she would not take part in PE classes because her left leg had been fragilized after being broken. This time around, it had nothing to do with the abuse she was put through. There was a tree in the backyard of the house -which they had cut down after- and when she was around 6, the summer before she went back to school, she tried to climb it and fell. Because the year she met Nick, she had her leg in a cast, she needed assistance and the teacher had assigned him to help her around. That was the actual beginning of their friendship. He was the only one that she then allowed to get close to her because she was so shy and quiet around other people. She never spoke in class.

Her leg remained in a cast for two months and in October ’97, it was removed. During those past couple of months, her father barely laid a hand on her and she almost got used to it. She thought he had stopped being violent altogether because she was hurt and he cared for her but once it was taken off, he started hitting and spanking her again, only keeping himself from going too far because her mom told him they would have the social services on their ass if it got too obvious. At school, she was dispensed from physical activities as her leg was still healing but even 6 months later, in March ’98, she still had some troubles with her leg. Over time, the doctors saw that the leg remained fragilized though she was healing well and to prevent her bone from breaking again in the future, Nikki was told to avoid doing sports. Every time they did a sport that involved running, she couldn’t, the rest of the time, she carefully dressed to cover her body, even if she had no noticeable bruise. It became a reflex as she grew up. For the rest of their primary school years, no one never knew what she was going through. She only ever wore pants and long-sleeved t-shirt or jackets. Even Nick, for the longest time, never saw her arms or legs uncovered.

By the time they turned 14, Nick’s relationship got complicated with his father. That’s when Nikki started rebelling, when she was 13, and she ran away one night, she managed to make her way to Nick’s house and climbed to his window. She ran away that night specifically because in the evening prior, she got into a huge fight with her father, and he gave her a black eye and busted lip. At first, he didn’t realize she was hurt because she wasn’t saying anything and it was dark but when he turned on his light, he was appalled and shocked. She tried to play it off saying she was assaulted by some guy on the street and ran off, but he wouldn’t believe her. He kept trying to find out what happened and she wouldn't tell him, she would just ask him to help her, and he did, but she didn’t want his mom to know, saying that things would get more complicated. He tried to go get stuff to tend to her face, but he accidentally made some noise and Madison woke up. She saw her son with his hands full of compresses and other things and she came into his room but by then, Nikki had heard them talk and got scared. She climbed back out the window and ran off. She didn’t know where to go. She was completely lost and had no idea what to do. If she went back, Madison could help but she was terrified to be taken away from her parents, and if she went back to them instead, she was terrified of what might be done to her for running away and telling people about what was happening.

She was even more scared of staying on the streets and eventually went back to her parents, in hope that they didn’t realize she had run off in the first place. She found the window still up and when she got in, she saw the door was still locked. She couldn’t sleep that night, but she was so exhausted that she fell asleep without even realizing. She woke up when she heard a key turn inside her door’s lock and her mother came into the room, her phone in her hand. Nick and Madison had been trying to call her the whole night and asked her what this was about. Nikki pretended she had no idea and asked if she could get her phone back, but her mom refused, telling her that she was going away to Christian camp for the holidays, without her phone. That morning, Madison and Nick showed up at their house, asking about Nikki. Madison had understood something was off and she was careful with her tone and words but still, Jean didn't let them in, saying Nikki was still asleep, when in reality, she was simply locked up in her room. She eventually closed the door on them and they slowly walked back to their car when Nick casually went around the house and saw Nikki's silhouette behind a thin curtain at a window on the second floor. He could tell she saw him because she walked away to hide.

Nick went back to his mom and urged her to call the police. He told her what he saw and as he had already told her about the injuries she had last night, she dialed 911 and called for a wellness check on Nikki, saying they had suspicion of child abuse. She pressed them to come quickly and said she feared for the 13-year-old's life as she thought her parents might try to take her away today. She couldn't give them many information on the situation as she had no idea what really went down in that house but she knew for a fact it was bad. Nick was walking back and forth, worried sick for his best friend and he and his mom stayed in front of the house until the police came, in case the Russels tried to leave. After a few minutes, a car finally arrived and Nick instantly walked up to the two officers that got out. He was frantic and they told him to calm down as they walked up to the door and knocked. Jean opened. Her husband was actually not there because he was at work. They talked with her for a moment, asking about Nikki, telling her they needed to see her but Jean, with this warm smile assured everything was fine. They insisted but she argued back. At some point, Nick was so done waiting he abruptly slipped inside the house and ran up the stairs. Jean yelled at him but it gave the opportunity for the two officers to finally enter as Nick was upstairs, ramming Nikki's door after he found it locked.

He called for the officers who ran up to join him and they ordered Jean to unlock the door while Nick tried to talk to the girl inside but she was curled up in a corner of the room, frightened by all the noise and fearing her mother would get mad at her if she spoke. Jean eventually gave them the key, quite reluctant to do so and they opened. Nick went up to her and hugged her. She started crying and was then taken to the station where they called CPS on the Russels. Because of the black eye and busted lip, they radioed for a medic unit to come meet them at the station. They had to leave because Jean was being hysterical and demanding to take back her child, saying this was all nonsense. Madison and Nick insisted to come along to provide Nikki with support while things were being dealt with and the officers let them. They sat with her and Nick looked like he was glued to her, holding her against him the whole time. He felt as if he had failed her by letting this go on for so long. The medics arrived, took Nikki's vitals and tried to ask her a couple questions but her lips were sealed.

From Nick's statement, who was the first to see Nikki last night -Madison was told after, she didn't see her right away, it could only be considered hearsay-, she already had the injuries then but when Nikki was asked about it, she mumbled, bit her lips and didn't really say much. She was taken to the hospital to be checked by a doctor when she finally said her father had done this to her. Her claims were backed by the police report that the officers filed after conducting the wellness check and photographs were taken before treating her. When CPS finally responded to the report filed by the police, they spoke with them, as they were the ones who called and then interviewed everyone involved, starting with Nikki who they had to really put at ease for her to speak. Given the emergency of the situation, Nikki was not brought back to her house and as she had been already removed from her house, they sought a court order. With an emergency guardianship ruling, Madison was allowed to take Nikki with her while CPS conducted their investigations on the Russels. Madison almost immidietaly registered the Clarks as foster carers, to make sure she wouldn't be moved to another family. In the weeks and months that followed, there was a number of court audiences and Nikki's parents lost custody and their parental rights were terminated. Madison and her then husband were deemed the best to take care of her from now on and became her legal guardians, though Madison really embodied that role, her husband not so much.

There were regular visit from CPS workers assigned to the case to assess how the Clarks were adjusting to the changes and if Nikki was well. She was sharing Nick's room and his bed had been switched to a bunk one. They were long term best friends and had always been like siblings so they were really happy about the situation. Madison eventually started to think of adopting Nikki and she spoke to ther latter about becoming a Clark too. A court date was eventually set to finalize the adoption and within the year, Nicole Russel became Nicole Clark. By then, Nikki's parents had been sentenced to prison for child abuse. Her father, who struck her was sentenced to 6 years in prison and her mother, who let this happen and would lock her in her room, removing all means of communication with the outside world every night, was sentenced to 2 years in prison. They were also forbidden to go anywhere near their child.

After what happened, she had become even quieter. She was there for Nick as his relationship with his own father got difficult and they both eventually began hanging out at the abandoned church where they would shoot up, both falling into addiction, at just 13 years old. The next five years proved draining for everyone. When they were 14, Madison found out about Nick's addiction and he covered for Nikki and for a while, they only knew about his addiction but after he went to rehab for the first time, it became obvious that she suffered the same affliction and thought it best to send her to a different rehab facility than Nick. Nikki didn’t like it but unlike Nick, she didn’t complain about it. He was upset about it and criticized his mother for separating them, but she stood her grounds. To her, not being around each other for a time could only help them. Of course, when they would get out, they would genuinely try not to do drugs again, but the addiction would prove stronger than their willpower each time. From then on and for the rest of their high school years, they were in and out of rehab. They somehow managed to graduate despite everything, which led them to miss school quite often and she went to rehab for the umpteenth time. She was accepted to nursing school and by the time the first semester ended, she was expelled for stealing drugs from the infirmary. She had no prospect of any kind of a future so she found a job at a gas station and not long after, the outbreak happened. She was at work the day things went down.

[FEAR THE WALKING DEAD-MASTERLIST]

#oc #original character #ftwd #ftwd spoilers #ftwd oc #ftwdedit #fear the walking dead #fear the walking dead oc #fear the walking dead fanfic #oc bio #oc biography #ftwd fic #ftwd fanfic #ftwd fanfiction #fanfiction #series rewrite #ftwd rewrite #madison clark #nick clark

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olko71 · 9 months

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Rail fares in England to rise below inflation again in 2024

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Regulated train fares in England will again rise below the rate of inflation next year, the government has said.

The move is meant to help people with the soaring cost of living and follows a similar intervention in 2023.

Any rises will once more be delayed until March 2024, rather than kicking in in January as was normal pre-Covid.

However, one campaign group said fares should be frozen “in recognition of the burden high fares place on rail passengers”.

Regulated fares cover about 45% of fares, including season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys and anytime tickets around major cities.

Before the Covid pandemic, they were increased in January each year, based on the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation from the previous July. The normal formula is RPI plus 1%.

RPI in June was 10.7% and is expected to be around 9% in July, with the figure due to be published this Wednesday.

It is not known what next year’s increase will be, but this year the government increased national rail fares by 5.9%, which was well below July 2022’s RPI figure of 12.3%.

That increase was still the largest since 2012, according to regulator the Office of Rail and Road.

At the time Labour called the rise a “sick joke for millions reliant on crumbling services”.

The government’s latest intervention comes as UK inflation – the rate at which prices rise – remains high although is starting to ease.

Millions are still struggling with higher prices for food and services at time when interest rates are also rising to tackle the problem, making it more expensive to borrow money.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman said the government would “continue to protect passengers from cost of living pressures”.

‘Patchy performance’

Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, which represents passengers, said: “Nobody likes their fare going up, but after a year where many journeys have been blighted by disruption due to industrial action and patchy performance, passengers will be relieved to hear that fares will be capped below the Retail Prices Index and any increases will be delayed until March next year.”

But Paul Tuohy, boss of pressure group Campaign for Better Transport, said the government should “freeze rail fares – as they have done with fuel duty – until the long-promised ticketing reform takes place”.

The DfT promised in 2021 to simplify the entire ticketing system, reducing the vast number of fares available which can make it difficult for travellers to decide which is best for them.

Reforms so far have included a trial of “single leg pricing” and the introduction of flexi-season tickets. But the pressure group says overhauling the ticketing system has yet to take place.

Since last summer rail passengers have faced disruption due to a wave of strikes, with further industrial action planned on Saturday 26 August and Saturday 2 September.

Workers are demanding pay rises that reflect the soaring cost of living, while also trying to stop job cuts and changes to working conditions.

The Scottish and Welsh governments have not announced their policies regarding rail fare rises next year.