#and also in a setting that has some low key horror baked into it so the timing was never right

[acryptidwearingacooltie]

D.A.N.M Polycule Holiday Headcanons

Huxley bakes cookies every year cause it reminds him of Christmas with his moms

Damian goes to see the lights every year when his mom has the time (she makes sure to take at least one night off to do it with him every year)

Gavin has no idea what the holidays are really about or what the traditions are but he loves doing and learning about the activities with everyone

Lasko was raised Jewish but hasn't really celebrated since he left home, and honestly low key resents the holiday at first because of what happened with his family. The rest of the group bought him a Menorah when they learned about this

The first time Hux invites everyone over to bake with him Lasko ends up crying cause he realizes what he's been missing out on all these years

The others hug and cuddle him until he feels better, somebody brings him a large cup of hot cocoa with lots of whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon it was Damian, to help make him feel better. The poor boy only cries harder.

Lasko stops crying because Damian said something meaning to be comforting and Gavin makes some innuendo about it and Damian loses his mind.

Freelancer teams up with Damian to make a wonderful Holiday dinner for everyone

Damian loves the Christmas horror movies, he watched Krampus multiple times the year it came out.

Huxley, Gavin, and Lasko set up a "blanket fort" which really ends up being a large pallet of blankets cause they couldn't find enough blankets to make a roof, and the whole group makes a cuddle puddle while watching Christmas movies and eating the fresh baked cookies

They watch Damian's pick first, the horror, and Lasko is hiding in Huxley's side the whole time

Then they watch a Halmark Romcom, Hux and Lasko's pick, Gavin has a field day with this cheesyness

And they finish the night with Jim Cary's The Grinch, Freelancer's pick

Gavin is really confused about the religious aspects of the holiday but damn does this boy have the Christmas spirit. After watching the shitty romcom he immediately suggests they all go caroling

He also insists they leave out milk and cookies for Santa , the others aren't sure if he thinks Santa is real or not but none of them wanna ruin it if he does so they don't say anything and make sure everybody gets a present from Santa under the tree just in case

Speaking of, their tree is fresh, insisted upon by Huxley, and they all went to the store and picked out some ornaments separately so the tree is a beautiful mishmash of all of their tastes

They all fall asleep cuddled up on the floor, with half finished hot cocoas and a huge plate of cookies obviously decorated by the 5 of them

#redacted asmr #d.a.m.n. #christmas #redacted asmr huxley #redacted asmr gavin #redacted asmr damien #redacted asmr freelancer #redacted asmr lasko #i love them so much #d.a.m.n.crew #they are so in love #d.a.m.n polycule #redactedverse

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

‘--Desmond,’ says Shaun slowly. ‘Have you listened to a single word I’ve said?’

‘Oh, definitely,’ replies Desmond mildly. He’s still looking at Shaun and not at the entryway of a very important building that Shaun has spent the last fifteen minutes explaining the importance of. ‘Every word: memorized, and filed away.’

Shaun stares back at him. ‘You need to work on your sense of humor,’ he finally says. ‘Come on, let’s go. I want to see the back rooms of this place before it gets dark.’

#i need some kind of AC tag that isn't like. the main tag. hmmmm #i'll figure it out tomorrow #you know when two people could be in love with each other but they're being walnuts about it #and also in a setting that has some low key horror baked into it so the timing was never right? #and also the world was. fucking. ending. that was. i want to ask the writers some questions about that one #that's them!! #that's what they are #syndicate's scenes re: desmond haunt me daily #shaun making....plans.....with desmond in ac3.............. #every single one of those conversations lives rent free in my head and the fact that the games will never give the #original plot closure.....truly wish i could break up with these games but im also the fool that just bought odyssey on sale so RIP #gabe plays AC

[anguisia]

📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂📂

✩  yukino aguria lore.   ╱  accepting ✩

1.   yukino keeps her hair short because her sister did so when they were children. she wanted to emanate her strength in some way. she wanted to look in the mirror & see a part of her, as she believed she never would again. 2.   however, yukino never wore ribbons like sorano. she never quite figured out how to keep them in her hair without falling off. so she used ribbons to accentuate the flowers she wears instead. 3.   as a child, yukino would pray to the gods every night. as an adult, she does not. 4.   yukino keeps her nails short simply because she hates the feeling of them extending past her fingertips. 5.   yukino summons each of her spirits at least once a month, even if they’re not needed. she does this to simply check up on them, express gratitude, connect with them, & ask if they’re still content with their contract.

6.   her favorite alcoholic drink is merlot, but she doesn't drink much. 7.   yukino wears skirts more often than pants, when not in uniform. they're usually longer than depicted in canon & more conservative. she simply finds them more comfortable. 8.   despite often dressing very ‘lady-like’, it doesn't stop her from exhibiting her martial art skills. she always wears biker shorts or spanx under her dresses or skirts for obvious reasons. 9.   yukino's favorite color is pale violet. 10.   yukino weight trains. just another practice to break the ‘celestial spirit mages are physically weak’ stigmas. 11.   in regards to muscle, she has most strength in her legs & thighs. her arm strength is above average, but a working progress. 12.   yukino collects tea. especially ones from outside of fiore. she hopes to have tea from each country on the continent someday. 13.   yukino wears very lite make-up. usually only concealer, mascara, & tinted lip balm. when she's feeling extra, she pops on some light pink blush. 14.   yukino is a pretty good cook. minerva often teaches her to prepare dishes. 15.   but she's an even better baker. 16.   speaking of baked goods, her favorite pastry would be lemon bars or lemon cakes. 17.   yukino prefers rose-gold or gold jewelry over silver. the silver tends to blend or clash with her hair color. 18.   yukino got her naval pierced with she was feeling rebellious at age 15, but it didn't last long. she stop wearing it after a few years. 19.   aside from her earlobes, yukino also has a tragus piecing. 20.   yukino is obsessed with hygiene. more specifically with her teeth. she's always brushing her teeth or carrying dental care items where ever she goes. 21.   a watch is her go to accessory. mostly because she's very neurotic & obsessed with keeping time. 22.   yukino seems like a morning person & she is, mind you. she wakes up early with little effort, but she actually prefers night time. 23.   yukino hates wearing gloves. she finds them restricting & they tend to get in the way if she's needing to pull out her spirit keys. 24.   continuing from the previous bullet, she likes to keep her hands bare because she relies a lot on physical touch during jobs. if she needs a certain spirit key quickly, without looking — she deciphers them based on the feel of them. 25.   yukino's favorite gems are pearls & for crystals, it’s celestite. 26.   yukino is very good at drawing. her tools of choice are graphite pencils & ink pens. she enjoys drawing intricate, detail oriented abstract designs. 27.   when it comes to her lifestyle, she's very minimalistic. for example: she could fit all her outfits in two suitcases. 28.   the only exception to the former bullet is that she loves shoes. she has too many shoes. it's her guilty pleasure. 29.   yukino’s shoe size is 6 in american sizes. tiny feet. 30.   horror movies are her favorite type of movies. 31.   yukino love macrame. she finds it calming & enjoys keeping her hands busy. she especially loves weaving dream catchers. 32.   yukino's favorite herb is cinnamon. 33.   yukino's favorite types of plants are philodendron. 34.   yukino's favorite flower is the white tiger lily. 35.   yukino love candles. she's a strong believer in aroma therapy. 36.   yukino loves collecting antiques & other unique items. things like china sets, refurbished clocks, old books, & other vintage decor. it's probably the only other thing she isn't so minimalist about. she's a grandma at heart & has no shame. 37.   yukino always reads before bed. she prefers nonfiction usually. 38.   when she does read fiction, she prefers horror novels & poetry. 39.   speaking of reading, yukino has immense interest in history & 'science'. she loves learning things for pleasure. 40.   yukino is also prone to migraines under stress. 41.   yukino's favorite animals are snakes and lizards. she will definitely have one or the other as a pet in the future. 42.   yukino suffers from low blood pressure. often feeling faint & unusually cold to the touch as a result. 43.   yukino is a very attentive friend. she’s the kind of person that would text back immediately and remember the smallest details someone mentions. 44.   her favorite season is winter. 45.   yukino is weird about strangers touching her. even on the shoulder or her hand, she tends to withdraw & politely ask them to stop. 46.   yukino knows the name of every known constellation in the galaxy. as a child, she used to make up names for certain star arrangements she loved. 47.   yukino very strict about herself getting 8-9 hours of sleep. 48.   assuming some popular modern day holidays exist in fairy tail, her favorite would be halloween, while new years is her second favorite. 49.   yukino's favorite coffee beverage is café con leche. 50.   yukino loves thunderstorms. loves them.

#prxestigiae #✩ ╱ hc. — ❛ through adversary to the stars. #ty for indulging me 8)

[isingonly4myangel]

You asked for prompts, so here is one: Hilda organizes a dance at the Academy of Unseen Arts to lift people’s spirits. Zelda begrudgingly attends. Everything is fine until a cheeky young warlock asks her to dance, and she has a flashback to being under Faustus’ spell.

Yikes, well this only took me more than a year to answer. Nothing like a mandatory quarantine to force you into working on pieces you haven’t touched in ages! Anyway, this is set after part 2, so we’re still in a sweet spot of potential before part 3 happened. First CAOS story, would love to hear people’s thoughts! 

Also, in case anyone is interested, the piece they dance to is “Melting Waltz” by Abel Korzeniowski. Yes, I like my horror tv shows :) 

Below the line, because Faustus Blackwood is an ass, and- ya know- trauma

The dance had been Hilda’s idea. Since the whole Satan fiasco, morale amongst the remainder of the coven had been low. Very low. Hilda, ever the caretaker, tried everything to lift people’s spirits. Once baked goods had failed, even with enchantment, she began to plan for the dance.

A week or two prior, Zelda had contacted the High Priests of two covens in New York City that had a reputation for being more liberal in their beliefs, to inform them of what had happened in Greendale. Both men had accepted her as the first High Priestess in history with relative ease, and though she was reluctant to show it, Zelda was delighted. So when creating a guest list, Hilda had written to them with a dual invitation for a face-to-face meeting as well as an evening of socialization with the Greendale coven.

Expecting the remaining members of the Greendale coven to be joined by a dozen or so members of the New York covens, Hilda spent days decorating and baking. Two days before the event, she and Zelda stood in the main hall at the Academy, making minor adjustments to decorations.

“What’ll we do about that… thing?” Hilda asked, gesturing to the statue in the centre of the space, now missing its head. It was one of only two tangible marks of Faustus Blackwood’s brief and twisted domain over the Church of Night, the other being his office within the building. Zelda had begun to clear it out the previous week, but had left almost as soon as she entered. She could not stand his lingering scent.

In response to Hilda’s question, the ginger-haired witch merely raised her left hand, palm facing the statue, and Hilda turned to look at Zelda as she felt her sister’s magic surge through the room. Slowly at first, but then with increasing speed, the neck of the statue began to melt. Dark grey droplets formed, dripping from the statue’s throat down to its shoulders. Before long, stone flowed as liquid, the statue becoming misshapen, drooping as it disintegrated.

Once the statue was no more than a large puddle of grey sludge, it suddenly errupted into flames. Zelda took a drag off the cigarette in its holder on her right hand, watching the remains of the statue evaporate.

“Well,” Hilda broke the silence as the last of the puddle burned away. “I suppose that’s that.” She began, somewhat awkwardly, to sneak out of the room around her sister. Zelda methodically exhaled a cloud of smoke before flicking the ashes of her cigarette in the swiftly shrinking puddle. Then the redhead turned on her heel and sauntered out, feeling somewhat lighter.

~~

The evening was lovely. The hall of the Academy was alive with light and sound. Candles on each wall and hovering overhead created a sophisticated and appropriately spooky embiance. Music reverberated softly through the space, somehow smoothly alternating between classical orchestrations, jazz band recordings, and modern pop songs for the younger generation.

Sabrina sat on the staircase surrounded by her schoolmates, the red silken fabric of her skirt draped over the stairs. Her mortal friends had joined the coven for the occasion, mingling with the Academy students around Sabrina. Hilda played hostess as she made her way in cheerful circles around the room to ensure that every guest was contented, the neckline of her blue dress cut just a little lower than previous dresses (at her sister’s encouragement). Zelda was every inch the High Priestess. Her fiery hair was pinned up, her dress a formal black, pointed at her shoulders and at the ends of her long sleeves, partially covering the backs of her hands. Her nails were a deep, blood red matching the jewels of her earrings and the color painting her lips. She stood in a cluster of warlocks, trading ideas on numerology, quietly pleased that things seemed to be going so well. Their guests appeared to be enjoying themselves, and Zelda felt respected, listened to, equal with the men she stood amongst. It made for a very welcome change.

The music shifted into a haunting waltz, a minor-keyed orchestration full of strings. The warlock on Zelda’s left extended an upturned hand to her, the gesture holding a certain air of ceremony. He made quite a picture with his gold suit jacket, along with gold rings on his fingers, eyes lined in the same color, and nails painted to match. So much gold laid against his dark skin created quite a striking effect. “Might I ask you for a dance, High Priestess?” he questioned with a charming smile. Zelda raised an eyebrow, almost as though she were evaluating him before replying.

“Very well,” she murmured after a moment’s pause, placing her hand in his outstretched one. He led her to the centre of the room where other dancing couples had begun to pick up the waltz tempo, and pulled her gracefully into a dance frame with a hand on her back, leaving her free hand to rest on his shoulder. As the music rose, he stepped forward and began to lead.

They were a very elegant pair, and other couples drifted to the outskirts of the dancing space to allow them more room. A number of conversations around the room fell silent as people turned to watch.

“You dance beautifully, High Priestess,” he spoke as she followed his change of direction with ease, flashing her that same lovely smile.

“Thank you, Brother Ethan. It was one of my favorite pastimes a century or two ago, I did quite a lot of it. All those marvelous European parties.”

“Oh I know just the ones, somehow the Europeans always throw superior parties. And so many handsome young men,” he added, a wry smile on his lips. Zelda gave a knowing laugh as he raised their connected arms for her to turn under, but as she spun- once, twice- the room seemed almost to tilt under her feet, and she heard the flutter of a skirt that she was not wearing, felt sharpened fingernails pricking the delicate skin of her waist. She was pulled back against the warlock, and she desperately tried to focus on his tightly curled hair, the feeling of the flat of his palm nearly between her shoulder blades, the gold edging his dark eyes, anything to remind her that this was not Faustus.

Breathe, she thought, forcing herself to keep with the rhythm of the music while everything in her screamed to run. Careful to keep her face frozen in a slight smile, she directed all of her attention to inhaling and exhaling evenly in time with the music, counting waltz time in her head. In 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Her feet followed his automatically, and she bit hard on the inside of her lip as he turned her again.

An eternity later, the music came to an end, and she returned his bow with a picture perfect curtsey. “You are truly lovely, Sister Zelda,” spoke her partner as they returned to the side of the room.

Zelda, Blackwood’s voice hissed in her mind, a cruel echo of Ethan’s friendly tone.

“Thank you for the dance, Brother Ethan,” she spoke, digging her fingernails into her palms to stop her hands from shaking. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some-something to attend to.” Without waiting for his response, she turned away from him and started across the room. She managed to keep a sensible- though swift- pace until she stepped into the empty corridor. Her strength disappeared and she broke into a run, undeterred by the height of her heels.

Swinging around the corner, she flung herself at the front doors and stumbled through them, the chilly evening air tearing into her lungs. She flew down the stone steps, no thought to where she was going, only wanting to get as far away as possible. Racing towards the railroad tracks, one foot caught behind her, and suddenly the ground rushed up to meet her, her palms skidding against rough soil and small stones tearing at the knees of her stockings. As she whipped her head around to look behind her, she saw her right shoe standing upright, its heel rooted in the earth. Her breath caught in her chest and a sob ripped from her lips, fingers digging into the dirt in an effort to find something- anything- to hold onto as memories that plagued her nightmares flooded her mind. She sank back on her knees, gasping air into her lungs while her tears left tiny dampened spots on the ground beneath her.

Every thought was disturbingly vivid- the overpowering scent of Faustus’s cologne, the sickly sweet taste of sugared tea, the sharp crack of the cat o’ nine tails against her back, pricks of pain as his sharpened fingernails tore at delicate flesh inside of her until there was blood on the sheets. The maddening knowledge that she was aware of every moment and yet powerless to stop anything.

A hand on her back startled her so that she recoiled from it with a strangled cry, her hip landing hard against the uneven earth. Half-expecting it to be Faustus standing above her, waiting to drag her back to the prison of the music box, she was somewhat bewildered to see Lilith looking down at her, an unfamiliar expression of pity on the face borrowed from Mary Wardwell. Zelda wiped furiously at her cheeks with the back of her hand in a futile attempt to compose herself.

“My Queen,” she spoke, her voice wavering. “What m-”

“I’m not here as your queen,” Lilith cut her off, kneeling beside her despite the dirt. “I could feel you. All the way down in Hell- your body, your magic in distress, your mind practically screaming. Zelda, what’s happened?”

“I-it felt… it felt like F-faustus, when he-he…” A sob bubbled up in her throat and she tried to swallow it, her head dropping in shame at such a display in front of the Queen of Hell. In front of Lilith.

Lilith reached out a gentle hand and placed it lightly against Zelda’s head, brushing fiery hair away from her face. The witch allowed it, leaning in almost imperceptibly to her touch. Wishing to spare her High Priestess any pain she could, the demoness pulsed her magic through her hand and nudged into Zelda’s mind, carefully touching on the recollections at the forefront of her memory. Brushing up against the thoughts, Lilith could see Zelda’s remembrance of the last few minutes in the hall, and of everything she suffered at Faustus’s hand. Her lips parted as she gasped in horror, tears burning in her own eyes to match the redhead’s.

“Oh, Zelda,” she breathed, leaning forward to touch her forehead lightly to the witch’s. “As I am Queen of Hell, I promise that no man will ever hurt you like that again. And when I find Faustus Blackwood, I will drag him screaming into the Pit and I will visit on him pain as he has never known before. He will pay for what he’s done, I promise you.” Lilith tilted her head up to press her lips against Zelda’s brow, sealing her vow with a kiss heated in Hellfire.

Hold me, she heard Zelda’s whispered thought as the witch bit her lip, trying fiercely to hold back tears. Lilith, please. Please hold me. The desperation in the redhead’s mind broke the demoness’s heart as it had not been broken in millennia. She gathered the other woman into an embrace, feeling Zelda’s arms wrap around her waist as she held her tightly. And as the witch sobbed against her chest, finally giving into tears, Lilith began to plot revenge against the man who had brought her High Priestess, trembling, to her knees.

What fun she would have with him. What fun.

#I was gonna end it differently #but I couldn't bring myself to just leave Zelda there #pardon the shameless madam spellman shipping #caos #chilling adventures of sabrina #Zelda spellman #aunt zelda #high priestess #madam satan #lilith #church of lilith #madam spellman #Blackwood sucks #zero spellw*od here #tw #trigger warning #writings

[nad-zeta]

Matchup!  (◕ᴗ◕✿)

Hi :3 Can I request an Ikesen matchup??♥️🍡

I’m ~164cm,straight, slightly chubby and have long straight brown hair and I have darn brown eyes c:. I’m also a Scorpio, ENTJ or ENFJ and I’m like kinda Slytherin or Ravenclaw.

I’m hardworking, competitive, and ambitious. I’m also quite observant, independent and mature. I would consider myself an ambivert? Cause sometimes I would be really sociable and talkative but sometimes I just want to stay in bed and read a book c:. I’m always cheerful and optimistic and I already look at things positively (like a half full kind of thing). I also can’t hide my emotions well and I’ve been told that how I feel is always written on my face. I also hate people beating around the bush or sugar coating something, I prefer the truth hence me always being blunt. But when I get serious I tend to be scary? Like I wouldn’t tolerate anymore bs and I would be extremely blunt and set things straight. People tell me the difference is like night and day. Idk but I know I’m just weird :p

I also have a really weird taste in food, like I can eat a lot of spice and I tend to try weird food combinations even if there is a risk it won’t be nice. And I cook a lot! I also have a sweet tooth so I would always bake different kinds of pastries and sweets.

I really enjoy music, especially singing and playing the guitar! I also like reading (especially fantasy and mythology), drawing in an anime style or creating rotoscope animation and taking notes. I also really like kpop but I’ve been into Japanese music recently. I think I do quite well in school where I always get a 3.5 GPA and above in my subjects (I’m a science stream student so I take bio, chem, math). I really like romance and comedy and I really really REALLY HATE horror movies.

In terms of my emotions I tend to express it when I need to but there are cases where I conceal it and try to smile so that I wouldn’t bother them but at a certain point I’ll just suddenly burst into tears, this usually happens when I’m stressed. But when someone needs help, I would always be there and give a solution first then comforting them later.

So yeah, that’s all :3 I’m sorry it’s kinda messy and long but there’s no rush ‼️ Take care ♥️🍉‼️ And THANK YOU 💖🌸🍥

Hi hi, love! ❤🌻Thank you so much for the request! Sorry for taking soooo freaken long with this!😱❤🌻 Hehehe hope you are keeping safe and well and I hope you enjoy this dear! @aashleymayyy​ 🌻❤🌼

So I match you with………….. Ieyasu

When you arrived in Azuchi, it was as if a hurricane arrived with you. You were cheery and upbeat, quickly making friends with everyone, well all but Ieyasu. You reminded him waaaay too much of Mitsunari, and for that reason, he stayed far away from you. He didn’t need another beam of sunshine shining down on him with their endless optimism and positivity, or so he thought.

The day started out like any other and you were working hard around the castle as per usual. The maid loved working with you as you seemed to introduce them to new improved was of cleaning plus, your hard work motivated them to work even harder, so that work would get done pretty quickly every day. 

You made your way to the castle Archive as you have hundreds of times before. You low key was hoping to see Mitsunari there, to discuss the new book you had been reading. You were so lost in thought as you walked through the hallway that you bumped straight into Ieyasu. The pair of you went tumbling down onto the floor, with him having broken your fall, as you were now on top of the prickly porcupine. This was the first time you had ever seen his eyes, big vibrant green eyes widened when he realized that the two of you were nose to nose. You couldn’t hide the blush spreading over your face. Even though Ieyasu avoided you like the plague, you couldn’t help but be attracted to him, there was just something about him that had you captivated. 

None of you made an attempt to move, both of you blushing furiously, when all of a sudden Masamune appeared out of nowhere and started teasing the two of you, “Wow Ieyasu if I knew you would move this quick to win the lass’ affections, I would have pounced long ago, oooh well I guess I will just have to steal her away from you then,” he said with a wink. You didn’t think it was possible to go any redder. You looked back at Ieyasu apologetically, and as you moved to get up, you lost your balance spraining your ankle. 

Ieyasu simply let out a long sigh, “geeez first you pushing me down on the ground and now you go around hurting yourself, just how clumsy can one person be.” Before you could quip back, he picked you up and carried you to his manor. He couldn’t help but give a slither of a smile, as one look at your face gave away your every thought. He gently placed you down on his futon and started gathering up herbs to make you a salve for your ankle, to soothe the pain and swelling. As he was treating your injury, your eyes drifted out to his garden, and you couldn’t help but break out into a big smile at the sight of a baby fawn nibbling on the grass outside. You then stuck up a conversation with the porcupine, asking him all about the deer prancing around outside. 

After he patched you up, he put on some tea, and the two of you continued to chat over tea. At first talking to Yasu was like talking to a brick wall, but soon he started opening up a little, which made you beam in delight.

The next day you decided to cook something for Yasu as a thank you for patching you up and as an apology for falling on him. Your ankle was feeling good as new when you woke up that morning, so you decided to do your chores and then get cooking. You found Masamune finishing up in the kitchen and decided to ask his advice on the best dish would be to make the resident hedgehog. 

You basically skipped your way over to Ieyasu’s manor carrying an array of spicy foods. When Masamune revealed that Ieyasu liked spicy foods you were over the moon, it was not common to find a fellow spice lover. Ieyasu’s maids let you in and led you to his room, you gave a small knock and then entered in. At the sight of you, he rolled his eyes, “don’t tell me you hurt yourself again, also didn’t I tell you to rest your ankle today,” he said in a cold tone although, the look of concern in his eyes definitely didn’t escape your observations. Ignoring the blunt tone you sat down in front of him and presented him with the thank you/apology gift. His eyes widened slightly in shock; he didn’t expect you to come all this way to give him a gift. 

He grumbled a thank you and put on some tea. The two of you sat and sipped on tea, enjoying the spicy food together. As you sat and ate, you spotted an array of mythological fantasy books on Ieyasu;s bookcase. You were buzzing in excitement. Ieyasu simply blushed and looked away, reading fantasy books was a bit of a guilty pleasure for him, “you can come over and borrow them sometime if you like them that much, but you better not tell the others or else.” 

In the weeks to follow you spent more and more time at Ieyasu’s manor, it was just so quiet and peaceful there, and his room always radiated a warm, comforting aura. Often you would sit quietly in his room and read his collection of books. This had become such a regular occurrence that you have even claimed a spot in his room as your own, it was the spot on a comfy yellow chair in front of a big window overlooking the garden. 

When Ieyasu needed a break, he would make the two of you some tea or the two of you would go out to a teahouse for some sweets and tea. Through all this time spent together, you got to know Yasu a bit better.

You loved his blunt, truthful personality. He would say things as they are, without sugar-coating it. Yes, he was contrary, but you had soon come to find out that it was just his defence mechanism, and thanks to your observational skills, you could easily decipher what he was thinking. 

Ieyasu loved that that expressive face of yours. He loved the way your thoughts and emotions flickered across your face like lighting. What did Ieyasu also find incredibly amusing during your time together, well that would be your weird food combinations. 

Often after spending the day reading at his manor, it would get too late to go back to the castle, so Ieyasu set up a room just for you. Which meant the two of you would have dinner together. You loved to cook so even when you would have your meals at the castle you would always insist on cooking your own foods. Ieyasu, after writing his last report, would find you in his kitchen cooking up some weird creation. He usually can’t help the small smile forming on his lips as he watched you. Most days he would sit on the counter top or simply pull up a chair and watch you cook keeping you company. He would always laugh when a weird combination would fail, and you would pull the funniest of faces at the vile taste. 

Ieyasu loved your cooking and would always eat up everything with that faint smile on his face. If it truly was a flop, he would laugh and let you know his honest opinion, causing both of you to laugh and then cook up a different dish together. Speaking of cooking Ieyasu always has something sweet on hand when he knows you are coming over for a visit or to read. He has come to realize you have a sweet tooth and will be sure to present you with different sweets or pastries during each your visits. Even though he doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, he will always indulge in the delicious pastries you make for him.

Truth is, the more this boy spent with you the more he fell utterly and entirely in love with you. He loved that you could relate to him with regards to being ambitious and competitive. 

Your optimism and warm, cheerful personality actually helped him to heal and grow from his past traumas. You had quickly become the bright light in his dark word, your endless amounts of optimism pulling him out of the pit of despair and back into the sunshine. You had shown him that there was strength in love and positivity, and lately, he had found himself smiling like a fool whenever you were around him.

He also loved that you, like him, was rather blunt, although it seemed that you were slightly blunter then him when it came to matters of the heart. Like one day, when you found out that the Oda forces were going off to war, you decided it was time to confess your feelings. Ieyasu came to your room the night before their departure. Honestly, things were getting awkward, so you spoke up, “Ieyasu can we please cut through the bs, I’m just gonna come right out and say it, I freaken love you and well if you don’t feel the same way that okay, but I just…” you didn’t even have time to finisher your sentence when you were suddenly pulled into his strong warm embrace, lips covering your own in a sweet kiss. “Geez with that scary, intimidating face from earlier I thought you were going to tell me you hate me or something,” he joked before pulling you back for another kiss. It was true whenever you would get serious your face would turn scary, not that Ieyasu minded all he cared about at that moment was having the love of his life in his arms.

Whenever Yasu would go off to war you would always sneak in a few small anime style doodles for him to find, to remind you just how much you loved and missed him. You would always be surprised when you would get clumsily drawn doodles back whenever a scout would deliver war reports and updates to the castle.

As the two of you continued into your relationship Yasu couldn’t help but fall more and more in love with you. He loved that you were mature and independent, always there to offer him real and proper solutions to problems before comforting. Even though Ieyasu was slightly shy when it came to his emotions, he instantly knew whenever you were faking a smile or upset. That fake smile could never fool him as he would gently pull you into his arms and in the sweetest of voices, ask you what was wrong. Of course, you would always burst out into tears, as you low key had a tendency to bottle things up. Yasu would simply be there, an ear to listen to your every problem, tenderly stroking your back as you spoke and giving you small sweet kisses as you would tell him you every burden.

With Yasu you can expect loads of sweet cute kisses on the nose and forehead. 

Often the two of you cuties are simply sitting together nestled in each other arms, each reading their own book. If the two of you aren’t enjoying a quiet evening in, you are laughing and cooking your new spicing creations together for dinner. 

Ieyasu can’t help but thank his lucky stars every night for having met you. Every night without fail as you gently drift to sleep in his arms, he will pull you close to his body and trail small kisses from your head, forehead, nose, eyelids, cheeks and finally lips while whispering in the most tender of voices how much he loves and adores you.

Other potential matches…………….. Shingen 

I hope you have the best day! Sending you lots of hugs! ❤🌻🦊

#matchups #matches #match ups #ikesen matchup #ikemen ieyasu #ieyasu tokugawa #ikesen ieyasu #ikemen sengoku ieyasu #ieyasu matchup #submission

[weederadvice9]

Teeth Whitening Cosmetic Treatment

Content

Deluxe Teeth Whitening In London At Harley Teeth Whitening

Discover An Enlighten Dental Professional.

We Offer 2 Types Of Teeth Whitening: Home Bleaching For Whiter Teeth Or In.

Dreaming Of A Whiter Smile?

" You can additionally take into consideration veneers if you have exceptionally dark teeth or enamel wear as well as there are brand-new treatments such as DMG symbol readily available for white spots of the teeth. " Whilst whitening the teeth you need to eat a whiter food diet regimen as this is when the pores of the teeth are most open. Alternatives include chicken, rice and fish as well as if you are vegetarian chickpeas, cauliflower and also celery are terrific choices. Gewurztraminer or clear spirits are acceptable and milklike tea and coffee can be intoxicated, yet stay clear of merlot and cigarette smoking, and takeaways with hefty fabricated food colourings throughout this period. For some individuals whitening may not be appropriate if they have a lot of tooth wear-- where the enamel of the teeth has actually been put on down leaving just the darker yellow looking dentine visible. Whitening will certainly not work and also can create sharp pain and level of sensitivity for the person.

Tooth whitening has actually certainly become popular throughout the years as even more products come to market. toothwhiteningpros is a laser teeth whitening greater-london-brent costing more than others, leading individuals to seek less costly choices yet without any much less a white smile. Its a proven, acknowledged oral whitening remedy with a strong history of successful outcomes.

We recognize that with time teeth may lose their illumination as well as brilliancy. We can help you return the shimmer to your smile by turning around the darkening process that coffee, tea, soft drinks as well as smoking can cause. Custom-made whitening trays are made to match the shape of your teeth which indicates that your gum tissues won't obtain harmed or burned when you whiten your teeth in the house. At home whitening kits permit you to lock in as well as enhance the brightness achieved with any one of our in surgery whitening systems.

High-end Teeth Whitening In London At Harley Teeth Whitening

I attempted whitening tooth pastes and also in your home sets from Amazon.com however nothing fairly cut it. The fit of the trays is inspected when you next browse through our method, throughout this see we will likewise show how to utilize the trays to use the teeth lightening gel. The laser light activates the hydrogen peroxide as well as assists it penetrate the surface of the tooth.

Ultraviolet LED Technology Market 2020 Top Trend, Size and Growth, Key Insights, Segmentation, Key Regions And Future Forecast Till 2025 - Factory Gate

Ultraviolet LED Technology Market 2020 Top Trend, Size and Growth, Key Insights, Segmentation, Key Regions And Future Forecast Till 2025.

Posted: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 10:59:00 GMT [source]

In one session your teeth can be from 7 to 10 tones whiter than they were when you came into the workplace. We are open offering remote triage and urgent oral treatment where ideal. Please telephone the surgical treatment if you need urgent oral care or suggestions and also you will be triaged by a dental expert and also given a visit if required. It is really essential that your dental expert isolates your gums and also lips with a safety product in order to avoid any possible damage and also burning of the soft cells.

Residence whitening supplies customised trays made on moulds of your teeth for you to lighten in your home; simple to utilize and with excellent results. Light-enhanced whitening is a two-hour consultation to 'kick-start' the process, and also customised home trays are consisted of to achieve and maintain the last shade selection. There are numerous methods to enhance your smile, yet laser whitening is possibly the fastest and also most dependable way to a brighter look. Since you understand the information of laser whitening, you can much better figure out if laser whitening is best for you. If you have teeth discoloring or an unevenly coloured smile after that call the Brite Dental team today as well as publication your appointment. The Brite Dental group is aware of the results of ageing and also rapid paced modern-day way of lives on our smiles.

teeth whitening east-sussex- toothwhiteningpros.co.uk ">

Can I brush my teeth after laser whitening?

After Laser Teeth Whitening If it would, then you should avoid it. For the first two days after your treatment, brush your teeth gently with white toothpaste that does not contain whitening ingredients or baking soda.

Discover An Enlighten Dental Practitioner.

TheZoomtreatment we utilize is taken into consideration as the leading power teeth whitening brand on the planet. Speak to our team right now to learn more about what our expert dental practitioners in Spalding can do for you. Our professionals can gladly clarify every part in more detail and go over the prices for any procedures you are thinking about having done. Nevertheless, therapy might not be as effective for some as it is for others. Your oral professional can identify if you are a sensible prospect for this procedure through a complete oral test, including a color assessment.

We Offer 2 Sorts Of Teeth Whitening: House Bleaching For Whiter Teeth Or In.

The whitening won't "discolor", yet your teeth will at some point come to be stained again, just as they did before being bleached.

Your dental expert takes an impression of your teeth in order to prepare precise whitening trays to suit the type and form of your teeth.

At Brite Dental, we provide a safe and effective teeth whitening treatment that will give your smile that brightening boost you have actually always desired.

For how long your teeth stay whiter as well as brighter after therapy is down to you.

These trays are used with the whitening gel supplied with your take residence whitening system.

These impressions are sent out to the internal dental laboratory where research models are made so that whitening trays can be built for your residence usage.

A study has shown that use of the UV light raises the efficiency of the gel by 26% or more, providing an average improvement of 8 tones. The gel will be requested 3 fifteen minute sessions for a complete time of 45 minutes, removing and also cleaning your teeth after each 15 minute cycle.

Lots of methods exist to attain white teeth, like cleaning or a whitening pen, strip or gel, laser and natural bleaching. Besides that, most of the tooth whitening products that are marketed for use at home can surpass what they are intended to do and also can even harm the enamel of your teeth. Laser teeth whitening creates no damage to the teeth and it is a safe and also feasible choice for people that may even have delicate teeth. Teeth whitening is a treatment that should constantly be executed under the guidance of a dental expert. Certainly, you might want to occasionally 'top-up' your teeth whitening with a night right here or there. After 1 hr you can anticipate your teeth to look a couple of shades brighter. We suggest you accomplish a brief spell of half an hour daily for 3 days of house teeth whitening complying with on from Zoom.

What are the side effects of laser teeth whitening?

While teeth whitening is considered safe, you may experience some side effects from treatments:Teeth sensitivity. Your teeth may become more sensitive following teeth whitening. Irritated gums. You may also experience gingival irritation.

It is for this reason that house whitening packages normally have a low concentration of peroxide to ensure that there is much less opportunity of any kind of damages taking place at home. Just recently, high strength home whitening packages that can be bought online as well as from specific shops have brought in media insurance coverage with horror tales of people with terribly burnt lips and periodontals. For greatly stained teeth a significant enhancement in their appearance can be accomplished by adhering to a treatment as easy as a scale and polish from our dental hygienist. in our viewpoint is among the most effective approaches to obtain your teeth bleached safely. The primary difficulty with laser whitening is the excess warmth frequently makes it unpleasant for people which is one of the factors we opt for ZOOM!.

Si Ferry: George Galloway's Queens gambit a fitting end to a year to forget - HeraldScotland

Si Ferry: George Galloway's Queens gambit a fitting end to a year to forget.

Posted: Sat, 02 Jan 2021 05:02:13 GMT [source]

At Lister House Dental Centre, we'll analyze the health and wellness of your teeth and gums fully as well as only suggest teeth whitening if you are a suitable candidate. Laser light activates and increases the oxidisation activity of the whitening gell, for optimum outcomes. Also old crowns as well as veneers can be restored to their previous brightness. First impressions count-- as well as absolutely nothing claims 'take a look at me' more than a smile full of pearly white teeth. However, regardless of just how much you cleanse your teeth or exactly how thoroughly, life tends to make them discoloured.

Professional-grade bleach is a lot more focused and a lot more powerful than business items. The reason your dental professional can lug highly concentrated solutions is because a detailed examination of teeth and also gums is executed prior to the treatment. In cases of extreme discolouration, we might recommend a rapid beginning with in-office whitening therapy adhered to up by a training course of residence whitening to get to deep-set spots. You will first of all be provided a whitening treatment to use in the house for two weeks. You will after that return to our oral surgery in Lewisham for a whitening session.

Desiring For A Whiter Smile?

Is laser teeth whitening better than gel?

“Laser teeth whitening in-clinic really just treats the surface of the teeth, so this will give great results but they will not last. Home whitening with the dental grade gel and trays alone will whiten the inside of the teeth, but not so much the surface.

The major downside vs an in-practice remedy, is the length of time it considers outcomes and the effectiveness of the treatment itself. If you actually are significant concerning the very best smile feasible, we advise a ZOOM treatment training course. The most affordable way to lighten your teeth in the house is with a service where the main ingredient is hydrogen peroxide. This represents a number of the major of mainstream options as well as is a tested, secure and efficient approach.

How Much Time Does Laser Teeth Whitening Last?

We typically recommend all patients who have in surgical treatment whitening to go with an at home set also. Teeth whitening will restore your all-natural tooth colour and also bleaching will certainly whiten them past your natural colour. The entire procedure usually takes about an hour throughout as well as the outcomes will astound you.

An instantaneous enhancement in the colour of teeth happens because of the laser. We provide a range of various methods to pay for your oral therapies. Yorkshire Laser & Aesthetics provide the most up to date in laser as well as progressed epilation therapies to eliminate string veins, spider veins, blood areas, damaged capilaries and skin tags. We welcome clients from Keighley, Skipton, Bradford and beyond. Tooth whitening is a treatment which can promptly enhance your smile leading to a gleaming smile. Take a primary step in really feeling great as well as looking wonderful with a brighter, whiter smile in just 1 hour! That elusive Hollywood smile that was when the protect of the rich as well as famous is now offered as well as budget-friendly to us all in just one treatment and with instant outcomes.

This extra action enables our dental expert to carefully monitor your colour. The procedure starts with a short preparation to cover your gum tissues, lips and also the skin around your lips, leaving just your teeth subjected to the laser light. Had my Zoom whitening done last week, I'm so satisfied with the results. At EGO Dental, our experts are widely skilled as well as perform all laser treatments based on the latest clinical techniques and also requirements.

From examination through to impressions as well as laser therapy, the entire process takes less than an hour, so you might conveniently obtain it done during a lunch break, which is fairly hassle-free. Currently it's time to add the bleach, which is a gel positioned on the teeth for numerous minutes, before the primary laser appears.

#teeth whitening #laser teeth whitening #best teeth whitening #teeth whitening UK #teeth whitening England #teeth whitening United Kingdom

[whitesilk40]

Laser Teeth Whitening In Spalding.

Content

Deluxe Teeth Whitening In London At Harley Teeth Whitening

Locate An Enlighten Dental Practitioner.

We Provide 2 Types Of Teeth Whitening: Residence Whitening For Whiter Teeth Or In.

Dreaming Of A Whiter Smile?

" You can also think about veneers if you have incredibly dark teeth or enamel wear and also there are new therapies such as DMG symbol available for white patches of the teeth. " Whilst whitening the teeth you should eat a whiter food diet regimen as this is when the pores of the teeth are most open. Alternatives include chicken, rice and also fish as well as if you are vegan chickpeas, cauliflower and celery are wonderful choices. Gewurztraminer or clear spirits are acceptable as well as milklike tea as well as coffee can be drunk, however stay clear of merlot and also cigarette smoking, and also takeaways with hefty man-made food colourings during this period. For some patients whitening might not be ideal if they have a great deal of tooth wear-- where the enamel of the teeth has been used down leaving just the darker yellow looking dentine noticeable. Whitening will not work as well as can trigger sharp pain and sensitivity for the client.

Tooth whitening has certainly become prominent for many years as more items pertain to market. Some remedies setting you back greater than others, leading individuals to try to find less expensive alternatives however without any less a white smile. Its a tested, acknowledged dental whitening service with a solid background of successful results.

We understand that with time teeth could shed their brightness as well as brilliancy. We can assist you return the glimmer to your smile by reversing the darkening procedure that coffee, tea, sodas and smoking cigarettes can cause. Personalized whitening trays are made to match the form of your teeth which suggests that your gum tissues won't get harmed or shed when you bleach your teeth in the house. At home whitening kits allow you to lock in and also boost the brightness achieved with any one of our in surgical treatment whitening systems.

Luxury Teeth Whitening In London At Harley Teeth Whitening

I attempted whitening tooth pastes and also in your home packages from Amazon but absolutely nothing quite cut it. The fit of the trays is inspected when you following browse through our technique, during this see we will likewise show just how to use the trays to use the teeth whitening gel. The laser light activates the hydrogen peroxide as well as assists it pass through the surface of the tooth.

Ultraviolet LED Technology Market 2020 Top Trend, Size and Growth, Key Insights, Segmentation, Key Regions And Future Forecast Till 2025 - Factory Gate

Ultraviolet LED Technology Market 2020 Top Trend, Size and Growth, Key Insights, Segmentation, Key Regions And Future Forecast Till 2025.

Posted: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 10:59:00 GMT [source]

In one session your teeth can be from 7 to 10 shades whiter than they were when you came into the workplace. We are open offering remote triage and also immediate oral care where proper. Please telephone the surgical procedure if you require immediate dental care or guidance as well as you will certainly be triaged by a dental professional and given a visit if necessary. It is very essential that your dental professional isolates your gums as well as lips with a protective product in order to avoid any potential damage as well as burning of the soft cells.

House whitening offers personalised trays made on moulds of your teeth for you to bleach in your home; simple to utilize as well as with great outcomes. Light-enhanced whitening is a two-hour consultation to 'kick-start' the process, and also tailor-maked home trays are included to achieve and also maintain the final shade choice. There are lots of ways to enhance your smile, however laser whitening is perhaps the fastest as well as most trustworthy means to a brighter appearance. Now that you know the information of laser whitening, you can better identify if laser whitening is ideal for you. If you have teeth discoloring or an unevenly coloured smile after that get in touch with the Brite Dental group today as well as publication your examination. The Brite Dental group understands the effects of ageing and rapid paced contemporary lifestyles on our smiles.

Can I brush my teeth after laser whitening?

After Laser Teeth Whitening If it would, then you should avoid it. For the first two days after your treatment, brush your teeth gently with white toothpaste that does not contain whitening ingredients or baking soda.

Find An Enlighten Dental Professional.

TheZoomtreatment we make use of is thought about as the leading power teeth whitening brand name in the world. Talk with our team right now for more information about what our professional dentists in Spalding can do for you. Our experts can gladly describe every component in additional detail and also discuss the prices for any type of procedures you are considering having actually done. Nonetheless, celebteethwhitening may not be as efficient for some as it is for others. Your dental professional can identify if you are a viable candidate for this procedure through an extensive oral test, including a shade evaluation.

teeth whitening thatcham Provide 2 Sorts Of Teeth Whitening: Home Whitening For Whiter Teeth Or In.

Your dental professional takes an impact of your teeth in order to prepare exact whitening trays to fit the kind as well as form of your teeth.

At teeth whitening nuneaton , we offer a risk-free and reliable teeth whitening therapy that will provide your smile that brightening boost you have actually constantly wanted.

The length of time your teeth stay whiter as well as brighter after treatment is to you.

Routine brows through to the dental hygienist will certainly likewise help lengthen your brilliant smile.

These trays are utilized with the whitening gel given with your take residence whitening system.

These perceptions are sent to the in-house oral laboratory where research designs are made so that whitening trays can be built for your residence use.

You can also utilize your bespoke whitening trays for top-up therapies at Ringley Park.

A research study has shown that use the UV lamp increases the efficiency of the gel by 26% or even more, giving an ordinary improvement of 8 shades. The gel will certainly be gotten 3 fifteen min sessions for a complete time of 45 mins, removing and cleansing your teeth after each 15 minute cycle.

Lots of methods exist to accomplish white teeth, like brushing or a whitening pen, strip or gel, laser as well as all-natural lightening. Besides that, a lot of the tooth whitening products that are marketed for use in your home can surpass what they are meant to do as well as can even harm the enamel of your teeth. Laser teeth whitening creates no damage to the teeth and also it is a secure as well as viable option for people who may even have sensitive teeth. Teeth whitening is a procedure that ought to always be performed under the supervision of a dental expert. Naturally, you might desire to occasionally 'top-up' your teeth whitening with a night below or there. After 1 hour you can expect your teeth to look a couple of tones brighter. We advise you accomplish a brief spell of thirty minutes each day for 3 days of residence teeth whitening complying with on from Zoom.

What are the side effects of laser teeth whitening?

While teeth whitening is considered safe, you may experience some side effects from treatments:Teeth sensitivity. Your teeth may become more sensitive following teeth whitening. Irritated gums. You may also experience gingival irritation.

It is consequently that home whitening packages usually have a low focus of peroxide so that there is less opportunity of any kind of damage taking place in the house. Just recently, high stamina residence whitening packages that can be purchased online and from particular shops have actually brought in media coverage with horror stories of people with terribly burned lips and gums. For greatly tarnished teeth a significant renovation in their appearance can be achieved by adhering to a procedure as simple as a scale and also polish from our dental hygienist. in our viewpoint is one of the very best approaches to get your teeth bleached safely. The primary difficulty with laser whitening is the excess warm frequently makes it awkward for clients which is among the factors we opt for ZOOM!.

Si Ferry: George Galloway's Queens gambit a fitting end to a year to forget - HeraldScotland

Si Ferry: George Galloway's Queens gambit a fitting end to a year to forget.

Posted: Sat, 02 Jan 2021 05:02:13 GMT [source]

At Lister Home Dental Centre, we'll assess the wellness of your teeth and also gum tissues completely and only suggest teeth whitening if you are a suitable candidate. Laser light activates as well as increases the oxidisation activity of the whitening gell, for optimal outcomes. Even old crowns and veneers can be restored to their former brightness. Impressions matter-- and also nothing says 'take a look at me' more than a smile loaded with pearly white teeth. Regrettably, regardless of just how much you cleanse your teeth or exactly how meticulously, life has a tendency to make them discoloured.

Professional-grade bleach is extra concentrated as well as a lot more effective than commercial items. The factor your dentist can bring highly concentrated services is because a comprehensive exam of teeth and gum tissues is executed prior to the treatment. In situations of serious discolouration, we may suggest a fast beginning with in-office whitening therapy followed up by a training course of residence whitening to get to deep-set discolorations. You will to start with be provided a lightening treatment to use at home for 2 weeks. You will certainly then go back to our dental surgery in Lewisham for a bleaching session.

Desiring For A Whiter Smile?

The primary downside vs an in-practice option, is the length of time it takes for results and also the efficiency of the therapy itself. If you really are major regarding the most effective smile possible, we advise a ZOOM therapy program. One of the most economical means to lighten your teeth in your home is with a solution where the main ingredient is hydrogen peroxide. This represents much of the major of mainstream choices as well as is a tried and tested, safe as well as reliable technique.

We normally advise all individuals who have in surgical treatment whitening to go with an at home kit as well. Teeth whitening will restore your all-natural tooth colour and bleaching will lighten them beyond your natural colour. The entire treatment usually takes regarding a hr from beginning to end and the outcomes will astound you.

An instant enhancement in the colour of teeth occurs due to the laser. We provide a variety of various means to spend for your oral therapies. Yorkshire Laser & Aesthetic appeal provide the latest in laser and also progressed epilation therapies to remove thread capillaries, spider blood vessels, blood areas, damaged capilaries and also skin tags. We invite customers from Keighley, Skipton, Bradford and past. Tooth whitening is a procedure which can instantly boost your smile resulting in a shimmering smile. Take a first step in feeling good as well as looking fantastic with a brighter, whiter smile in simply 1 hour! That evasive Hollywood smile that was when the protect of the rich and well-known is currently offered as well as inexpensive to us all in simply one therapy as well as with immediate outcomes.

This additional action permits our dentist to closely monitor your colour. The treatment starts with a brief preparation to cover your gums, lips as well as the skin around your lips, leaving only your teeth exposed to the laser light. Had my Zoom whitening done last week, I'm so happy with the results. At EGO Oral, our specialists are hugely knowledgeable and also carry out all laser therapies based on the most recent scientific methods and also requirements.

From assessment through to impacts as well as laser therapy, the whole procedure takes less than an hour, so you might easily obtain it done throughout a lunch break, which is rather practical. Now it's time to include the bleach, which is a gel placed on the teeth for a number of mins, before the primary laser appears.

#teeth whitening #laser teeth whitening #best teeth whitening #teeth whitening UK #teeth whitening England #teeth whitening United Kingdom

[artycloudpop]

1hey are u bored at home, wanna chill and netflix....... but just can’t find some thing nice to watch? here’s a list of movies for u watch

A Ghost Story (2017)

Director David Lowery (Pete's Dragon) conceived this dazzling, dreamy meditation on the afterlife during the off-hours on a Disney blockbuster, making the revelations within even more awe-inspiring. After a fatal accident, a musician (Casey Affleck) finds himself as a sheet-draped spirit, wandering the halls of his former home, haunting/longing for his widowed wife (Rooney Mara). With stylistic quirks, enough winks to resist pretension (a scene where Mara devours a pie in one five-minute, uncut take is both tragic and cheeky), and a soundscape culled from the space-time continuum, A Ghost Story connects the dots between romantic love, the places we call home, and time -- a ghost's worst enemy.

Airplane! (1980)

This is one of the funniest movie of all time. Devised by the jokesters behind The Naked Gun, this disaster movie spoof stuffs every second of runtime with a physical gag (The nun slapping a hysterical woman!), dimwitted wordplay ("Don't call me, Shirley"), an uncomfortable moment of odd behavior ("Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), or some other asinine bit. The rare comedy that demands repeat viewings, just to catch every micro-sized joke and memorize every line.

A24

American Honey (2016)

Writer/director Andrea Arnold lets you sit shotgun for the travels of a group of wayward youth in American Honey, a seductive drama about a "mag crew" selling subscriptions and falling in and out of love with each other on the road. Seen through the eyes of Star, played by Sasha Lane, life on the Midwest highway proves to be directionless, filled with a stream of partying and steamy hookups in the backs of cars and on the side of the road, especially when she starts to develop feelings for Shia LaBeouf’s rebellious Jake. It’s an honest look at a group of disenfranchised young people who are often cast aside, and it’s blazing with energy. You’ll buy what they're selling.

Anna Karenina (2012)

Adapted by renowned playwright Tom Stoppard, this take on Leo Tolstoy's classic Russian novel is anything but stuffy, historical drama. Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander are all overflowing with passion and desire, heating up the chilly backdrop of St. Petersburg. But it's director Joe Wright's unique staging -- full of dance, lush costuming, fourth-wall-breaking antics, and other theatrical touches -- that reinvent the story for more daring audiences.

NETFLIX

Apostle (2018)

For his follow-up to his two action epics, The Raid and The Raid 2, director Gareth Evans dials back the hand-to-hand combat but still keeps a few buckets of blood handy in this grisly supernatural horror tale. Dan Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, an early 20th century opium addict traveling to a cloudy island controlled by a secretive cult that's fallen on hard times. The religious group is led by a bearded scold named Father Malcolm (Michael Sheen) who may or may not be leading his people astray. Beyond a few bursts of kinetic violence and some crank-filled torture sequences, Evans plays this story relatively down-the-middle, allowing the performances, the lofty themes, and the windswept vistas to do the talking. It's a cult movie that earns your devotion slowly, then all at once.

Back to the Future (1985)

Buckle into Doc's DeLorean and head to the 1950s by way of 1985 with the seminal time-travel series that made Michael J. Fox a household name. It's always a joy watching Marty McFly's race against the clock way-back-when to ensure history runs its course and he can get back to the present. Netflix also has follow-up Parts II and III, which all add up to a perfect rainy afternoon marathon.

NETFLIX

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coen brothers gave some big-name-director cred to Netflix by releasing their six-part Western anthology on the streaming service, and while it's not necessarily their best work, Buster Scruggs is clearly a cut above most Netflix originals. Featuring star turns from Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, and more, the film takes advantage of Netflix's willingness to experiment by composing a sort of death fugue that unfolds across the harsh realities of life in Manifest Destiny America. Not only does it revel in the massive, sweeping landscapes of the American West, but it's a thoughtful meditation on death that will reveal layer after layer long after you finish.

Barbershop (2002)

If you've been sleeping on the merits of the Barbershop movies, the good news is it's never too late to get caught up. Revisit the 2002 installment that started Ice Cube's smack-talking franchise so you can bask in Cedric the Entertainer's hilarious wisdom, enjoy Eve's acting debut, and admire this joyful ode to community.

NETFLIX

Barry (2016)

In 1981, Barack Obama touched down in New York City to begin work at Columbia University. As Barry imagines, just days after settling into his civics class, a white classmate confronts the Barry with an argument one will find in the future president's Twitter @-mentions: "Why does everything always got to be about slavery?" Exaltation is cinematic danger, especially when bringing the life of a then-sitting president to screen. Barry avoids hagiography by staying in the moment, weighing race issues of a modern age and quieting down for the audience to draw its own conclusions. Devon Terrell is key, steadying his character as smooth-operating, socially active, contemplative fellow stuck in an interracial divide. Barry could be any half-black, half-white kid from the '80s. But in this case, he's haunted by past, present, and future.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

You can't doubt the audacity of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Anomalisa), whose first produced screenplay hinged on attracting the title actor to a script that has office drones discovering a portal into his mind. John Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Cameron Diaz combine to create an atmosphere of desperate, egomaniacal darkness, and by the end you'll feel confused and maybe a little slimy about the times you've participated in celebrity gawking.

A24

The Blackcoat's Daughter (2017)

Two young women are left behind at school during break... and all sorts of hell breaks loose. This cool, stylish thriller goes off in some strange directions (and even offers a seemingly unrelated subplot about a mysterious hitchhiker) but it all pays off in the end, thanks in large part to the three leads -- Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton, and Kiernan Shipka -- and director Oz Perkins' artful approach to what could have been just another occult-based gore-fest.

Bloodsport (1988)

Jean-Claude Van Damme made a career out of good-not-great fluff. Universal Soldier is serviceable spectacle, Hard Target is a living cartoon, Lionheart is his half-baked take on On the Waterfront. Bloodsport, which owes everything to the legacy of Bruce Lee, edges out his Die Hard riff Sudden Death for his best effort, thanks to muscles-on-top-of-muscles-on-top-of-muscles fighting and Stan Bush's "Fight to Survive." Magic Mike has nothing on Van Damme's chiseled backside in Bloodsport, which flexes its way through a slow-motion karate-chop gauntlet. In his final face-off, Van Damme, blinded by arena dust, rage-screams his way to victory. The amount of adrenaline bursting out of Bloodsport demands a splash zone.

Blue Ruin (2013)

Before he went punk with 2016's siege thriller Green Room, director Jeremy Saulnier delivered this low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir. When Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) discovers that the man who killed his parents is being released from prison, he returns home to Virginia to claims his revenge and things quickly spin out of control. Like the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, this wise-ass morality tale will make you squirm.

WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMEN

Burning (2018)

Some mysteries simmer; this one smolders. In his adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, writer and director Lee Chang-dong includes many elements of the acclaimed author's slyly mischievous style -- cats, jazz, cooking, and an alienated male writer protagonist all pop up -- but he also invests the material with his own dark humor, stray references to contemporary news, and an unyielding sense of curiosity. We follow aimless aspiring novelist Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) as he reconnects with Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a young woman he grew up with, but the movie never lets you get too comfortable in one scene or setting. When Steven Yeun's Ben, a handsome rich guy with a beautiful apartment and a passion for burning down greenhouses, appears, the film shifts to an even more tremulous register. Can Ben be trusted? Yeun's performance is perfectly calibrated to entice and confuse, like he's a suave, pyromaniac version of Tyler Durden. Each frame keeps you guessing.

Cam (2018)

Unlike the Unfriended films or this summer's indie hit Searching, this web thriller from director Daniel Goldhaber and screenwriter Isa Mazzei isn't locked into the visual confines of a computer screen. Though there's plenty of online screen time, allowing for subtle bits of commentary and satire, the looser style allows the filmmakers to really explore the life and work conditions of their protagonist, rising cam girl Alice (Madeline Brewer). We meet her friends, her family, and her customers. That type of immersion in the granular details makes the scarier bits -- like an unnerving confrontation in the finale between Alice and her evil doppelganger -- pop even more.

THE ORCHARD

Creep (2014)

Patrick Brice's found-footage movie is a no-budget answer to a certain brand of horror, but saying more would give away its sinister turns. Just know that the man behind the camera answered a Craigslist ad to create a "day in the life" video diary for Josef (Mark Duplass), who really loves life. Creep proves that found footage, the indie world's no-budget genre solution, still has life, as long as you have a performer like Duplass willing to go all the way.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Armando Iannucci, the brilliant Veep creator, set his sights on Russia with this savage political satire. Based on a graphic novel, the film dramatizes the madcap, maniacal plots of the men jostling for power after their leader, Joseph Stalin, keels over. From there, backstabbing, furious insults, and general chaos unfolds. Anchored by performances from Shakespearean great Simon Russell Beale and American icon Steve Buscemi, it's a pleasure to see what the rest of the cast -- from Star Trek: Discovery's Jason Isaacs to Homeland's Rupert Friend -- do with Iannucci's eloquently brittle text.

Den of Thieves (2018)

If there's one thing you've probably heard about this often ridiculous bank robbery epic, it's that it steals shamelessly from Michael Mann's crime saga Heat. The broad plot elements are similar: There's a team of highly-efficient criminals led by a former Marine (Pablo Schreiber) and they must contend with a obsessive, possibly unhinged cop (Gerard Butler) over the movie's lengthy 140 minute runtime.  A screenwriter helming a feature for the first time, director Christian Gudegast is not in the same league as Mann as a filmmaker and Butler, sporting unflattering tattoos and a barrel-like gut, is hardly Al Pacino. But everyone is really going for it here, attempting to squeeze every ounce of Muscle Milk from the bottle.

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Divines (2016)

Thrillers don't come much more propulsive or elegant than Houda Benyamina's Divines, a heartwarming French drama about female friendship that spirals into a pulse-pounding crime saga. Rambunctious teenager Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and her best friend Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena) begin the film as low-level shoplifters and thieves, but once they fall into the orbit of a slightly older, seasoned drug dealer named Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda), they're on a Goodfellas-like trajectory. Benyamina offsets the violent, gritty genre elements with lyrical passages where Dounia watches her ballet-dancer crush rehearse his routines from afar, and kinetic scenes of the young girls goofing off on social media. It's a cautionary tale told with joy, empathy, and an eye for beauty.

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Eddie Murphy has been waiting years to get this movie about comedian and blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore made, and you can feel his joy in finally getting to play this role every second he's on screen. The film, directed by Hustle & Flow's Craig Brewer, charts how Moore rose from record store employee, to successful underground comedian, to making his now-cult classic feature Dolemite by sheer force of passion. It's thrilling (and hilarious) to watch Murphy adopt Moore's Dolemite persona, a swaggering pimp, but it's just as satisfying to see the former SNL star capture his character at his lowest points. He's surrounded by an ensemble that matches his infectious energy.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

As romanticized as adolescence can be, it’s hard being young. Following the high school experience of troubled, overdramatic Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), The Edge of Seventeen portrays the woes of adolescence with a tender, yet appropriately cheeky tone. As if junior year isn’t hellish enough, the universe essentially bursts into flames when Nadine finds out her best friend is dating her brother; their friendship begins to dissolve, and she finds the only return on young love is embarrassment and pain. That may all sound like a miserable premise for a young-adult movie, except it’s all painfully accurate, making it endearingly hilarious -- and there’s so much to love about Steinfeld’s self-aware performance.

FOCUS FEATURES

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Romance and love are nothing without the potential for loss and pain, but most of us would probably still consider cutting away all the worst memories of the latter. Given the option to eradicate memories of their busted relationship, Jim Carrey's Joel and Kate Winslet's Clementine go through with the procedure, only to find themselves unable to totally let go. Science fiction naturally lends itself to clockwork mechanisms, but director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman never lose the human touch as they toy with the kaleidoscope of their characters' hearts and minds.

The Evil Dead (1981)

Before Bruce Campbell's Ash was wielding his chainsaw-arm in Army of Darkness and on Starz's Ash Vs. Evil Dead, he was just a good looking guy hoping to spend a nice, quiet vacation in a cabin with some friends. Unfortunately, the book of the dead had other plans for him. With this low-budget horror classic, director Sam Raimi brings a surprising degree of technical ingenuity to bear on the splatter-film, sending his camera zooming around the woods with wonder and glee. While the sequels double-downed on laughs, the original Evil Dead still knows how to scare.

The Firm (1993)

The '90s were a golden era of sleek, movie-star-packed legal thrillers, and they don't get much better than director Sydney Pollack's The Firm. This John Grisham adaptation has a little bit of everything -- tax paperwork, sneering mobsters, and Garey Busey, for starters -- but there's one reason to watch this movie: the weirdness of Tom Cruise. He does a backflip in this movie. What else do you need to know?

A24

The Florida Project (2017)

Sean Baker's The Florida Project nuzzles into the swirling, sunny, strapped-for-cash populace of a mauve motel just within orbit of Walt Disney World. His eyes are Moonee, a 6-year-old who adventures through abandoned condos, along strip mall-encrusted highway, and across verdant fields of overgrown brush like Max in Where the Wild Things Are. But as gorgeous as the everything appears -- and The Florida Project looks stunning -- the world around here is falling apart, beginning with her mother, an ex-stripper turning to prostitution. The juxtaposition, and down-to-earth style, reconsiders modern America in the most electrifying way imaginable.

Frances Ha (2012)

Before winning hearts and Oscar nominations with her coming-of-age comedy Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig starred in the perfect companion film, about an aimless 27-year-old who hops from New York City to her hometown of Sacramento to Paris to Poughkeepsie and eventually back to New York in hopes of stumbling into the perfect job, the perfect relationship, and the perfect life. Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Meyerowitz Stories), and co-written by both, Frances Ha is a measured look at adult-ish life captured the kind of intoxicating black and white world we dream of living in.

NETFLIX

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Everyone's favorite disaster of a festival received not one, but two streaming documentaries in the same week. Netflix's version has rightly faced some criticism over its willingness to let marketing company Fuck Jerry off the hook (Jerry Media produced the doc), but that doesn't take away from the overall picture it portrays of the festival's haphazard planning and the addiction to grift from which Fyre's founder, Billy McFarland, apparently suffers. It's schadenfreude at its best.

Gerald's Game (2017)

Like his previous low-budget Netflix-released horror release, Hush, a captivity thriller about a deaf woman fighting off a masked intruder, Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation of Gerald's Game wrings big scares from a small location. Sticking close to the grisly plot details of King's seemingly "unfilmable" novel, the movie chronicles the painstaking struggles of Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino) after she finds herself handcuffed to a bed in an isolated vacation home when her husband, the titular Gerald, dies from a heart attack while enacting his kinky sexual fantasies. She's trapped -- and that's it. The premise is clearly challenging to sustain for a whole movie, but Flanagan and Gugino turn the potentially one-note set-up into a forceful, thoughtful meditation on trauma, memory, and resilience in the face of near-certain doom.

A24

Good Time (2017)

In this greasy, cruel thriller from Uncut Gems directors the Safdie brothers, Robert Pattinson stars as Connie, a bank robber who races through Queens to find enough money to bail out his mentally disabled brother, who's locked up for their last botched job. Each suffocating second of Good Time, blistered by the neon backgrounds of Queens, New York and propelled by warped heartbeat of Oneothrix Point Never's synth score, finds Connie evading authorities by tripping into an even stickier situation.

Green Room (2015)

Green Room is a throaty, thrashing, spit-slinging punk tune belted through an invasion-movie microphone at max volume. It's nasty -- and near-perfect. As a band of 20-something rockstars recklessly defend against a neo-Nazi battalion equipped with machetes, shotguns, and snarling guard dogs, the movie blossoms into a savage coming-of-age tale, an Almost Famous for John Carpenter nuts. Anyone looking for similar mayhem should check out director Jeremy Saulnier's previous movie, the low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir, Blue Ruin, also streaming on Netflix.

The Guest (2014)

After writer-director Adam Wingard notched a semi-sleeper horror hit with 2011's You're Next, he'd earned a certain degree of goodwill among genre faithful and, apparently, with studio brass. How else to explain distribution for his atypical thriller The Guest through Time Warner subsidiary Picturehouse? Headlined by soon-to-be megastar Dan Stevens and kindred flick It Follows' lead scream queen Maika Monroe, The Guest introduces itself as a subtextual impostor drama, abruptly spins through a blender of '80s teen tropes, and ultimately reveals its true identity as an expertly self-conscious straight-to-video shoot 'em up, before finally circling back on itself with a well-earned wink. To say anymore about the hell that Stevens' "David" unleashes on a small New Mexico town would not only spoil the fun, but possibly get you killed.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Quentin Tarantino has something to say about race, violence, and American life, and it's going to ruffle feathers. Like Django Unchained, the writer-director reflects modern times on the Old West, but with more scalpel-sliced dialogue, profane poetry, and gore. Stewed from bits of Agatha Christie, David Mamet, and Sam Peckinpah, The Hateful Eight traps a cast of blowhards (including Samuel L. Jackson as a Civil War veteran, Kurt Russell as a bounty hunter known as "The Hangman," and Jennifer Jason Leigh as a psychopathic gang member) in a blizzard-enveloped supply station. Tarantino ups the tension by shooting his suffocating space in "glorious 70mm." Treachery and moral compromise never looked so good.

High Flying Bird (2019)

High Flying Bird is a basketball film that has little to do with the sport itself, instead focusing on the behind-the-scenes power dynamics that play out during an NBA lockout. At the center of the Steven Soderbergh movie -- shot on an iPhone, because that's what he does now -- is André Holland's Ray Burke, a sports agent trying to protect his client's interests while also disrupting a corrupt system. It's not an easy tightrope to walk, and, as you might expect, the conditions of the labor stoppage constantly change the playing field. With his iPhone mirroring the NBA's social media-heavy culture, and appearances from actual NBA stars lending the narrative heft, Soderbergh experiments with Netflix's carte blanche and produces a unique film that adds to the streaming service's growing list of original critical hits.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Hugo (2011)

Martin Scorsese hit pause on mob violence and Rolling Stones singles to deliver one of the greatest kid-centric films in eons. Following Hugo (Asa Butterfield) as he traces his own origin story through cryptic automaton clues and early 20th-century movie history, the grand vision wowed in 3-D and still packs a punch at home.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

A meditative horror flick that's more unsettling than outright frightening, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House follows the demise of Lily, a live-in nurse (Ruth Wilson) who's caring for an ailing horror author. As Lily discovers the truth about the writer's fiction and home, the lines between the physical realm and the afterlife blur. The movie's slow pacing and muted escalation might frustrate viewers craving showy jump-scares, but writer-director Oz Perkins is worth keeping tabs on. He brings a beautiful eeriness to every scene, and his story will captivate patient streamers. Fans should be sure to check out his directorial debut, The Blackcoat's Daughter.

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I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

In this maniacal mystery, Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), a nurse, and her rattail-sporting, weapon-obsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) hunt down a local burglar. Part Cormac McCarthy thriller, part wacky, Will Ferrell-esque comedy, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a cathartic neo-noir about everyday troubles. Director Macon Blair's not the first person to find existential enlightenment at the end of an amateur detective tale, but he might be the first to piece one together from cussing octogenarians, ninja stars, Google montages, gallons of Big Red soda, upper-deckers, friendly raccoons, exploding body parts, and the idiocy of humanity.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

With a bullwhip, a leather jacket, and an "only Harrison Ford can pull this off" fedora, director Steven Spielberg invented the modern Hollywood action film by doing what he does best: looking backward. As obsessed as his movie-brat pal and collaborator George Lucas with the action movie serials of their youth, the director mined James Bond, Humphrey Bogart, Westerns, and his hatred of Nazis to create an adventure classic. To watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now is to marvel at the ingenuity of specific sequences (the boulder! The truck scene! The face-melting!) and simply groove to the self-deprecating comic tone (snakes! Karen Allen! That swordsman Indy shoots!). The past has never felt so alive.

Inside Man (2006)

Denzel Washington is at his wily, sharp, and sharply dressed best as he teams up once again with Spike Lee for this wildly entertaining heist thriller. He's an NYPD hostage negotiator who discovers a whole bunch of drama when a crew of robbers (led by Clive Owen) takes a bank hostage during a 24-hour period. Jodie Foster also appears as an interested party with uncertain motivations. You'll have to figure out what's going on several times over before the truth outs.

DRAFTHOUSE FILMS

The Invitation (2015)

This slow-burn horror-thriller preys on your social anxiety. The film's first half-hour, which finds Quarry's Logan Marshall-Green arriving at his ex-wife's house to meet her new husband, plays like a Sundance dramedy about 30-something yuppies and their relationship woes. As the minutes go by, director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body) burrows deeper into the awkward dinner party, finding tension in unwelcome glances, miscommunication, and the possibility that Marshall-Green's character might be misreading a bizarre situation as a dangerous one. We won't spoil what happens, but let's just say this is a party you'll be telling your friends about.

Ip Man (2008)

There aren't many biopics that also pass for decent action movies. Somehow, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip made Ip Man (and three sequels!) based on the life of Chinese martial arts master Yip Kai-man, who famously trained Bruce Lee. What's their trick to keeping this series fresh? Play fast and loose with the facts, up the melodrama with each film, and, when in doubt, cast Mike Tyson as an evil property developer. The fights are incredible, and Yen's portrayal of the aging master still has the power to draw a few tears from even the most grizzled tough guy.

NETFLIX

The Irishman (2019)

Opening with a tracking shot through the halls of a drab nursing home, where we meet a feeble old man telling tall tales from his wheelchair, The Irishman delights in undercutting its own grandiosity. All the pageantry a $150 million check from Netflix can buy -- the digital de-aging effects, the massive crowd scenes, the shiny rings passed between men -- is on full display. Everything looks tremendous. But, like with 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street, the characters can't escape the fundamental spiritual emptiness of their pursuits. In telling the story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a World War II veteran and truck driver turned mob enforcer and friend to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Steven Zaillian construct an underworld-set counter-narrative of late 20th century American life. Even with a 209 minute runtime, every second counts.

It Comes at Night (2017)

In this post-apocalyptic nightmare-and-a-half, the horrors of humanity, the strain of chaotic emotions pent up in the name of survival, bleed out through wary eyes and weathered hands. The setup is blockbuster-sized -- reverts mankind to the days of the American frontier, every sole survivor fights to protect their families and themselves -- but the drama is mano-a-mano. Barricaded in a haunted-house-worthy cabin in the woods, Paul (Edgerton) takes in Will (Abbott) and his family, knowing full well they could threaten his family's existence. All the while, Paul's son, Trevor, battles bloody visions of (or induced by?) the contagion. Shults directs the hell out of every slow-push frame of this psychological thriller, and the less we know, the more confusion feels like a noose around our necks, the scarier his observations become.

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Jupiter Ascending is one of those "bad" movies that might genuinely be quite good. Yes, Channing Tatum is a man-wolf and Mila Kunis is the princess of space and bees don't sting space royalty and Eddie Redmayne hollers his little head off about "harvesting" people -- but what makes this movie great is how all of those things make total, absolute sense in the context of the story. The world the Wachowskis (yes, the Wachowskis!) created is so vibrant and strange and exciting, you almost can't help but get drawn in, even when Redmayne vamps so hard you're afraid he's about to pull a muscle. (And if you're a ballet fan, we have some good news for you.)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Perhaps the only movie that ever truly deserved a conversion to a theme-park ride, Steven Spielberg's thrilling adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel brought long-extinct creatures back to life in more ways than one. Benevolent Netflix gives us more than just the franchise starter, too: The Lost World and JP3 sequels are also available, so you can make a marathon of it.

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Killing Them Softly (2012)

Brad Pitt doesn't make conventional blockbusters anymore -- even World War Z had epidemic-movie ambitions -- so it's not surprising that this crime thriller is a little out there. Set during the financial crisis and presidential election of 2008, the film follows Pitt's hitman character as he makes sense of a poker heist gone wrong, leaving a trail of bodies and one-liners along the way. Mixed in with the carnage, you get lots of musings about the economy and American exceptionalism. It's not subtle -- there's a scene where Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn do heroin while the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" plays -- but, like a blunt object to the head, it gets the job done.

Lady Bird (2017)

The dizzying, frustrating, exhilarating rite of passage that is senior year of high school is the focus of actress Greta Gerwig's first directorial effort, the story of girl named Lady Bird (her given name, in that "it’s given to me, by me") who rebels against everyday Sacramento, California life to obtain whatever it is "freedom" turns out to be. Laurie Metcalf is an understated powerhouse as Lady Bird's mother, a constant source of contention who doggedly pushes her daughter to be successful in the face of the family's dwindling economic resources. It's a tragic note in total complement to Gerwig's hysterical love letter to home, high school, and the history of ourselves.

A24

The Lobster (2016)

Greek style master Yorgos Lanthimos' dystopian allegory against romance sees Colin Farrell forced to choose a partner in 45 days or he'll be turned into an animal of his choice, which is a lobster. Stuck in a group home with similarly unlucky singles, Farrell's David decides to bust out and join other renegades in a kind of anti-love terror cell that lives in the woods. It's part comedy of manners, part futuristic thriller, and it looks absolutely beautiful -- Lanthimos handles the bizarre premise with grace and a naturalistic eye that reminds the viewer that humans remain one of the most interesting animals to exist on this planet.

Mad Max (1979)

Before Tom Hardy was grunting his way through the desert and crushing tiny two-headed reptiles as Max Rockatansky, there was Mel Gibson. George Miller's 1979 original introduces the iconic character and paints the maximum force of his dystopian mythology in a somewhat more grounded light -- Australian police factions, communities, and glimmers of hope still in existence. Badass homemade vehicles and chase scenes abound in this taut, 88-minute romp. It's aged just fine.

Magic Mike (2012)

Steven Soderbergh's story of a Tampa exotic dancer with a heart of gold (Channing Tatum) has body-rolled its way to Netflix. Sexy dance routines aside, Mike's story is just gritty enough to be subversive. Did we mention Matthew McConaughey shows up in a pair of ass-less chaps?

The Master (2012)

Loosely inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard -- Dianetics buffs, we strongly recommend Alex Gibney's Going Clear documentary as a companion piece -- The Master boasts one of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s finest performances, as the enigmatic cult leader Lancaster Dodd. Joaquin Phoenix burns just as brightly as his emotionally stunted, loose-cannon protege Freddie Quell, who has a taste for homemade liquor. Paul Thomas Anderson’s cerebral epic lends itself to many different readings; it’s a cult story, it's a love story, it's a story about post-war disillusionment and the American dream, it's a story of individualism and the desire to belong. But the auteur's popping visuals and heady thematic currents will still sweep you away, even if you’re not quite sure where the tide is taking you.

NETFLIX

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

When Danny (Adam Sandler), Matthew (Ben Stiller) and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), three half-siblings from three different mothers, gather at their family brownstone in New York to tend to their ailing father (Dustin Hoffman), a lifetime of familial politics explode out of every minute of conversation. Their narcissistic sculptor dad didn't have time for Danny. Matthew was the golden child. Jean was weird… or maybe disturbed by memories no one ever knew. Expertly sketched by writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) this memoir-like portrait of lives half-lived is the kind of bittersweet, dimensional character comedy we're now used to seeing told in three seasons of prestige television. Baumbach gives us the whole package in two hours.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The legendary British comedy troupe took the legend of King Arthur and offered a characteristically irreverent take on it in their second feature film. It's rare for comedy to hold up this well, but the timelessness of lines like, "I fart in your general direction!" "It's just a flesh wound," and "Run away!" makes this a movie worth watching again and again.

A24

Moonlight (2016)

Chronicling the boyhood years, teenage stretch, and muted adult life of Chiron, a black gay man making it in Miami, this triptych altarpiece is at once hyper-specific and cosmically universal. Director Barry Jenkins roots each moment in the last; Chiron's desire for a lost lover can't burn in a diner booth over a bottle of wine without his beachside identity crisis years prior, blurred and violent, or encounters from deeper in his past, when glimpses of his mother's drug addiction, or the mentoring acts of her crack supplier, felt like secrets delivered in code. Panging colors, sounds, and the delicate movements of its perfect cast like the notes of a symphony, Moonlight is the real deal, a movie that will only grow and complicate as you wrestle with it.

Mudbound (2017)

The South's post-slavery existence is, for Hollywood, mostly uncharted territory. Rees rectifies the overlooked stretch of history with this novelistic drama about two Mississippi families working a rain-drenched farm in 1941. The white McAllans settle on a muddy patch of land to realize their dreams. The Jacksons, a family of black sharecroppers working the land, have their own hopes, which their neighbors manage to nurture and curtail. To capture a multitude of perspectives, Mudbound weaves together specific scenes of daily life, vivid and memory-like, with family member reflections, recorded in whispered voice-over. The epic patchwork stretches from the Jackson family dinner table, where the youngest daughter dreams of becoming a stenographer, to the vistas of Mississippi, where incoming storms threaten an essential batch of crops, to the battlefields of World War II Germany, a harrowing scene that will affect both families. Confronting race, class, war, and the possibility of unity, Mudbound spellbinding drama reckons with the past to understand the present.

NETFLIX

My Happy Family (2017)

At 52, Manana (Ia Shughliashvili) packs a bag and walks out on her husband, son, daughter, daughter's live-in boyfriend, and elderly mother and father, all of whom live together in a single apartment. The family is cantankerous and blustery, asking everything of Manana, who spends her days teaching better-behaved teenagers about literature. But as Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß's striking character study unfolds, the motivation behind Manana's departure is a deeper strain of frustration, despite what her brother, aunts, uncles, and anyone else who can cram themselves into the situation would like us to think. Anchored by Ia Shughliashvili's stunningly internal performance, and punctured by a dark sense of humor akin to Darren Aronofsky's mother! (which would have been the perfect alternate title), My Happy Family is both delicate and brutal in its portrayal of independence, and should get under the skin of anyone with their own family drama.

The Naked Gun (1988)

The short-lived Dragnet TV spoof Police Squad! found a second life as The Naked Gun action-comedy movie franchise, and the first installment goes all in on Airplane! co-star Leslie Nielsen's brand of straight-laced dementia. Trying to explain The Naked Gun only makes the stupid sound stupider, but keen viewers will find jokes on top of jokes on top of jokes. It's the kind of movie that can crack "nice beaver," then pass a stuffed beaver through the frame and actually get away with it. Nielsen has everything to do with it; his Frank Drebin continues the grand Inspector Clouseau tradition in oh-so-'80s style.

The Notebook (2004)

"If you’re a bird, I’m a bird." It's a simple statement and a declaration of devotion that captures the staying power of this Nicholas Sparks classic. The film made Ryan Gosling a certified heartthrob, charting his working class character Noah's lovelorn romance with Rachel McAdam's wealthy character Allie. The star-crossed lovers narrative is enough to make even the most cynical among us swoon, but given that their story is told through an elderly man reading (you guessed it!) a notebook to a woman with dementia, it hits all of the tragic romance benchmarks to make you melt. Noah's commitment to following his heart -- and that passionate kiss in the rain -- make this a love story for the ages.

NETFLIX

Okja (2017)

This wild ride, part action heist, part Miyazaki-like travelogue, and part scathing satire, is fueled by fairy tale whimsy -- but the Grimm kind, where there are smiles and spilled blood. Ahn Seo-hyun plays Mija, the young keeper of a "super-pig," bred by a food manufacturer to be the next step in human-consumption evolution. When the corporate overlords come for her roly-poly pal, Mija hightails it from the farm to the big city to break him out, crossing environmental terrorists, a zany Steve Irwin-type (Gyllenhaal), and the icy psychos at the top of the food chain (including Swinton's childlike CEO) along the way. Okja won't pluck your heartstrings like E.T., but there's grandeur in its frenzy, and the film's cross-species friendship will strike up every other emotion with its empathetic, eco-friendly, and eccentric observations.

On Body and Soul (2017)

This Hungarian film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it's easy to see why. The sparse love story begins when two slaughterhouse employees discover they have the same dream at night, in which they're both deer searching the winter forest for food. Endre, a longtime executive at the slaughterhouse, has a physically damaged arm, whereas Maria is a temporary replacement who seems to be on the autism spectrum. If the setup sounds a bit on-the-nose, the moving performances and the unflinching direction save On Body and Soul from turning into a Thomas Aquinas 101 class, resulting in the kind of bleak beauty you can find in a dead winter forest.

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The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Don't go into Orson Welles' final film expecting it to be an easy watch. The Other Side of the Wind, which follows fictional veteran Hollywood director Jake Hannaford (tooootally not modeled after Welles himself) and his protegé (also tooootally not a surrogate for Welles' own friend and mentee Peter Bogdanovich, who also plays the character) as they attend a party in celebration of Hannaford's latest film and are beset on all sides by Hannaford's friends, enemies, and everyone in between. The film, which Welles hoped would be his big comeback to Hollywood, was left famously unfinished for decades after his death in 1985. Thanks to Bogdanovich and producer Frank Marshall, it was finally completed in 2018, and the result is a vibrant and bizarre throwback to Welles' own experimental 1970s style, made even more resonant if you know how intertwined the movie is with its own backstory. If you want to dive even deeper, Netflix also released a documentary about the restoration and completion of the film, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, which delves into Welles' own complicated and tragic relationship with Hollywood and the craft of moviemaking.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Guillermo Del Toro’s dark odyssey Pan’s Labyrinth takes a fantasy setting to mirror the horrible political realities of the human realm. Set in 1940s Falangist Spain, the film documents the hero’s journey of a young girl and stepdaughter of a ruthless Spanish army officer as she seeks an escape from her war-occupied world. When a fairy informs her that her true destiny may be as the princess of the underworld, she seizes her chance. Like Alice in Wonderland if Alice had gone to Hell instead of down the rabbit hole, the Academy Award-winning film is a wondrous, frightening fairy tale where that depicts how perilous the human-created monster of war can be.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

This documentary-style film budgeted at a mere $15,000 made millions at the box office and went on to inspire a number of sequels, all because of how well its scrappiness lent to capturing what feels like a terrifying haunted reality. Centered on a young couple who is convinced an evil spirit is lurking in their home, the two attempt to capture its activity on camera, which, obviously, only makes their supernatural matters worse. It leans on found footage horror tropes made popular by The Blair Witch Project and as it tessellates between showing the viewer what’s captured on their camcorders and the characters’ perspectives, it’s easy to get lost in this disorienting supernatural thriller.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Poltergeist (1982)

If you saw Poltergeist growing up, chances are you’re probably equally as haunted by Heather O’Rourke as she is in the film, playing a little girl tormented by ghosts in her family home. This Steven Spielberg-penned, Tobe Hooper-directed (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) paranormal flick is a certified cult classic and one of the best horror films of all time, coming from a simple premise about a couple whose home is infested with spirits obsessed with reclaiming the space and kidnapping their daughter. Poltergeist made rearranged furniture freaky, and you may remember a particularly iconic scene with a fuzzed out vintage television set. It’s may be nearly 40 years old, but the creepiness holds up.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Taking Jane Austen's literary classic and tricking it out with gorgeous long takes, director Joe Wright turns this tale of manners into a visceral, luminescent portrait of passion and desire. While Succession's Matthew MacFadyen might not make you forget Colin Firth from 1995's BBC adaptation, Keira Knightley is a revelation as the tough, nervy Lizzie Bennett. With fun supporting turns from Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, and Judi Dench, it's a sumptuous period romance that transports you from the couch to the ballroom of your dreams -- without changing out of sweatpants.

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Private Life (2018)

Over a decade since the release of her last dark comedy, The Savages, writer and director Tamara Jenkins returned with a sprawling movie in the same vein: more hyper-verbal jerks you can't help but love. Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) are a Manhattan-dwelling couple who have spent the last few years attempting to have a baby with little success. When we meet them, they're already in the grips of fertility mania, willing to try almost anything to secure the offspring they think they desire. With all the details about injections, side effects, and pricey medical procedures, the movie functions as a taxonomy of modern pregnancy anxieties, and Hahn brings each part of the process to glorious life.

The Ritual (2018)

The Ritual, a horror film where a group of middle-aged men embark on a hiking trip in honor of a dead friend, understands the tension between natural beauty of the outdoors and the unsettling panic of the unknown. The group's de facto leader Luke (an understated Rafe Spall) attempts to keep the adventure from spiralling out of control, but the forest has other plans. (Maybe brush up on your Scandinavian mythology before viewing.) Like a backpacking variation on Neil Marshall's 2005 cave spelunking classic The Descent, The Ritual deftly explores inter-personal dynamics while delivering jolts of other-worldly terror. It'll have you rethinking that weekend getaway on your calendar.

NETFLIX

Roma (2018)

All those billions Netflix spent paid off in the form of several Oscar nominations for Roma, including one for Best Picture and a win for Best Director. Whether experienced in the hushed reverence of a theater, watched on the glowing screen of a laptop, or, as Netflix executive Ted Sarandos has suggested, binged on the perilous surface of a phone, Alfonso Cuarón's black-and-white passion project seeks to stun. A technical craftsman of the highest order, the Children of Men and Gravity director has an aesthetic that aims to overwhelm -- with the amount of extras, the sense of despair, and the constant whir of exhilaration -- and this autobiographical portrait of kind-hearted maid Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) caring for a family in the early 1970s has been staged on a staggering, mind-boggling scale.

Schindler's List (1993)

A passion project for Steven Spielberg, who shot it back-to-back with another masterpiece, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who reportedly saved over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. Frank, honest, and stark in its depiction of Nazi violence, the three-hour historical drama is a haunting reminder of the world's past, every frame a relic, every lost voice channeled through Itzhak Perlman's mourning violin.

A Serious Man (2009)

This dramedy from the Coen brothers stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics professor who just can't catch a break, whether it's with his wife, his boss, or his rabbi. (Seriously, if you're having a bad day, this airy flick gives you ample time to brood and then come to the realization that your life isn't as shitty as you think.) Meditating on the spiritual and the temporal, Gopnik's improbable run of bad luck is a smart modern retelling of the Book of Job, with more irony and fewer plagues and pestilences. But not much fewer.

WELL GO USA

Shadow (2019)

In Shadow, the visually stunning action epic from Hero and House of Flying Daggers wuxia master Zhang Yimou, parasols are more than helpful sun-blockers: They can be turned into deadly weapons, shooting boomerang-like blades of steel at oncoming attackers and transforming into protective sleds for traveling through the slick streets. These devices are one of many imaginative leaps made in telling this Shakespearean saga of palace intrigue, vengeance, and secret doppelgangers set in China's Three Kingdoms period. This is a martial arts epic where the dense plotting is as tricky as the often balletic fight scenes. If the battles in Game of Thrones left you frustrated, Shadow provides a thrilling alternative.

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Before checking out Spike Lee's Netflix original series of the same name, be sure to catch up with where it all began. Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) juggles three men during her sexual pinnacle, and it's all working out until they discover one another. She's Gotta Have It takes some dark turns, but each revelation speaks volumes about what real romantic independence is all about.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The late director Jonathan Demme's 1991 film is the touchstone for virtually every serial killer film and television show that came after. The iconic closeup shots of an icy, confident Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as he and FBI newbie Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) engage in their "quid pro quo" interrogation sessions create almost unbearable tension as Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) remains on the loose, killing more victims. Hopkins delivers the more memorable lines, and Buffalo Bill's dance is the stuff of nerve-wracking anxiety nightmares, but it's Foster's nuanced performance as a scared, determined, smart-yet-hesitant agent that sets Silence of the Lambs apart from the rest of the serial killer pack.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and David O. Russell’s first collaboration -- and the film that turned J-Law into a bona fide golden girl -- is a romantic comedy/dramedy/dance-flick that bounces across its tonal shifts. A love story between Pat (Cooper), a man struggling with bipolar disease and a history of violent outbursts, and Tiffany (Lawrence), a widow grappling with depression, who come together while rehearsing for an amateur dance competition, Silver Linings balances an emotionally realistic depiction of mental illness with some of the best twirls and dips this side of Step Up. Even if you're allergic to rom-coms, Lawrence and Cooper’s winning chemistry will win you over, as will this sweet little gem of a film: a feel-good, affecting love story that doesn’t feel contrived or treacly.

Sin City (2005)

Frank Miller enlisted Robert Rodriguez as co-director to translate the former's wildly popular series of the same name to the big screen, and with some added directorial work from Quentin Tarantino, the result became a watershed moment in the visual history of film. The signature black-and-white palette with splashes of color provided a grim backdrop to the sensational violence of the miniaturized plotlines -- this is perhaps the movie that feels more like a comic than any other movie you'll ever see.

Sinister (2012)

Horror-movie lesson #32: If you move into a creepy new house, do not read the dusty book, listen to the decaying cassette tapes, or watch the Super 8 reels you find in the attic -- they will inevitably lead to your demise. In Sinister, a true-crime author (played by Ethan Hawke) makes the final mistake, losing his mind to home movies haunted by the "Bughuul."

NETFLIX

Small Crimes (2017)

It's always a little discombobulating to see your favorite Game of Thrones actors in movies that don't call on them to fight dragons, swing swords, or at least wear some armor. But that shouldn't stop you from checking out Small Crimes, a carefully paced thriller starring the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. As Joe Denton, a crooked cop turned ex-con, Coster-Waldau plays yet another character with a twisted moral compass, but here he's not part of some mythical narrative. He's just another conniving, scheming dirtbag in director E.L. Katz's Coen brothers-like moral universe. While some of the plot details are confusing -- Katz and co-writer Macon Blair skimp on the exposition so much that some of the dialogue can feel incomprehensible -- the mood of Midwestern dread and Coster-Waldau's patient, lived-in performance make this one worth checking out. Despite the lack of dragons.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Did people go overboard in praising Snowpiercer when it came out? Maybe. But it's important to remember that the movie arrived in the sweaty dog days of summer, hitting critics and sci-fi lovers like a welcome blast of icy water from a hose. The film's simple, almost video game-like plot -- get to the front of the train, or die trying -- allowed visionary South Korean director Bong Joon-ho to fill the screen with excitement, absurdity, and radical politics. Chris Evans never looked more alive, Tilda Swinton never stole more scenes, and mainstream blockbuster filmmaking never felt so tepid in comparison. Come on, ride the train!

The Social Network (2010)

After making films like Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, and Zodiac, director David Fincher left behind the world of scumbags and crime for a fantastical, historical epic in 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Social Network was another swerve, but yielded his greatest film. There's no murder on screen, but Fincher treats Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg like a dorky, socially awkward mob boss operating on an operatic scale. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's rapid-fire, screwball-like dialogue burns with a moral indignation that Fincher's watchful, steady-handed camera chills with an icy distance. It's the rare biopic that's not begging you to smash the "like" button.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

In this shrewd twist on the superhero genre, the audience's familiarity with the origin story of your friendly neighborhood web-slinger -- the character has already starred in three different blockbuster franchises, in addition to countless comics and cartoon TV adaptations -- is used as an asset instead of a liability. The relatively straight-forward coming-of-age tale of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teenager who takes on the powers and responsibilities of Spider-Man following the death of Peter Parker, gets a remix built around an increasingly absurd parallel dimension plotline that introduces a cast of other Spider-Heroes like Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glen), and, most ridiculously, Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a talking pig in a Spider-Suit. The convoluted set-up is mostly an excuse to cram the movie with rapid-fire jokes, comic book allusions, and dream-like imagery that puts the rubbery CGI of most contemporary animated films to shame.

Spotlight (2015)

Tom McCarthy stretches the drama taut as he renders Boston Globe's 2000 Catholic Church sex scandal investigation into a Hollywood vehicle. McCarthy's notable cast members crank like gears as they uncover evidence and reflect on a horrifying discovery of which they shoulder partial blame. Spotlight was the cardigan of 2015's Oscar nominees, but even cardigans look sharp when Mark Ruffalo is involved.

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

No movie captures the prolonged pain of divorce quite like Noah Baumbach's brutal Brooklyn-based comedy The Squid and the Whale. While the performances from Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as bitter writers going through a separation are top-notch, the film truly belongs to the kids, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, who you watch struggle in the face of their parents' mounting immaturity and pettiness. That Baumbach is able to wring big, cathartic laughs from such emotionally raw material is a testament to his gifts as a writer -- and an observer of human cruelty.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Starship Troopers (1997)

Paul Verhoeven is undoubtedly the master of the sly sci-fi satire. With RoboCop, he laid waste to the police state with wicked, trigger-happy glee. He took on evil corporations with Total Recall. And with Starship Troopers, a bouncy, bloody war picture, he skewered the chest-thumping theatrics of pro-military propaganda, offering up a pitch-perfect parody of the post-9/11 Bush presidency years before troops set foot in Iraq or Afghanistan. Come for the exploding alien guts, but stay for the winking comedy -- or stay for both! Bug guts have their charms, too.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

You might think a movie that opens with a suicidal man riding a farting corpse like a Jet Ski wears thin after the fourth or fifth flatulence gag. You would be wrong. Brimming with imagination and expression, the directorial debut of Adult Swim auteurs "The Daniels" wields sophomoric humor to speak to friendship. As Radcliffe's dead body springs back to life -- through karate-chopping, water-vomiting, and wind-breaking -- he becomes the id to Dano's struggling everyman, who is also lost in the woods. If your childhood backyard adventures took the shape of The Revenant, it would look something like Swiss Army Man, and be pure bliss.

NETFLIX

Tallulah (2016)

From Orange Is the New Black writer Sian Heder, Tallulah follows the title character (played by Ellen Page) after she inadvertently "kidnaps" a toddler from an alcoholic rich woman and passes the child off as her own to appeal to her run-out boyfriend's mother (Allison Janney). A messy knot of familial woes and wayward instincts, Heder's directorial debut achieves the same kind of balancing act as her hit Netflix series -- frank social drama with just the right amount of humorous hijinks. As Tallulah grows into a mother figure, her on-the-lam parenting course only makes her more and more of a criminal in the eyes of... just about everyone. You want to root for her, but that would be too easy.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Travis Bickle (a young Bobby De Niro) comes back from the Vietnam War and, having some trouble acclimating to daily life, slowly unravels while fending off brutal insomnia by picking up work as a... taxi driver... in New York City. Eventually he snaps, shaves his hair into a mohawk and goes on a murderous rampage while still managing to squeeze in one of the most New York lines ever captured on film ("You talkin' to me?"). It's not exactly a heartwarmer -- Jodie Foster plays a 12-year-old prostitute -- but Martin Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver is a movie in the cinematic canon that you'd be legitimately missing out on if you didn't watch it.

FOCUS FEATURES

The Theory of Everything (2014)

In his Oscar-winning performance, Eddie Redmayne portrays famed physicist Stephen Hawking -- though The Theory of Everything is less of a biopic than it is a beautiful, sweet film about his lifelong relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Covering his days as a young cosmology student ahead of his diagnosis of ALS at 21, through his struggle with the illness and rise as a theoretical scientist, this film illustrates the trying romance through it all. While it may be written in the cosmos, this James Marsh-directed film that weaves in and out of love will have you experience everything there is to feel.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Paul Thomas Anderson found modern American greed in the pages of Upton Sinclair's depression-era novel, Oil!. Daniel Day-Lewis found the role of a lifetime behind the bushy mustache of Daniel Plainview, thunderous entrepreneur. Paul Dano found his milkshake drunk up. Their discoveries are our reward -- There Will Be Blood is a stark vision of tycoon terror.

Time to Hunt (2020)

Unrelenting in its pursuit of scenarios where guys point big guns at each other in sparsely lit empty hallways, the South Korean thriller Time to Hunt knows exactly what stylistic register it's playing in. A group of four friends, including Parasite and Train to Busan break-out Choi Woo-shik, knock over a gambling house, stealing a hefty bag of money and a set of even more valuable hard-drives, and then find themselves targeted by a ruthless contract killer (Park Hae-soo) who moves like the T-1000 and shoots like a henchmen in a Michael Mann movie. There are dystopian elements to the world -- protests play out in the streets, the police wage a tech-savvy war on citizens, automatic rifles are readily available to all potential buyers -- but they all serve the simmering tension and elevate the pounding set-pieces instead of feeling like unnecessary allegorical padding. Even with its long runtime, this movie moves.

STUDIOCANAL

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

If a season of 24 took place in the smoky, well-tailored underground of British intelligence crica 1973, it might look a little like this precision-made John le Carré adaptation from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. Even if you can't follow terse and tightly-woven mystery, the search for Soviet mole led by retired operative George Smiley (Gary Oldman), the ice-cold frames and stellar cast will suck you into the intrigue. It's very possible Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch are reading pages of the British phone book, but egad, it's absorbing. A movie that rewards your full concentration.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

Of all the entries in the rom-com revival, this one is heavier on the rom than the com. But even though it won't make your sides hurt, it will make your heart flutter. The plot is ripe with high school movie hijinks that arise when the love letters of Lara Jean Covey (the wonderful Lana Condor) accidentally get mailed to her crushes, namely the contractual faux relationship she starts with heartthrob Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). Like its heroine, it's big-hearted but skeptical in all the right places.

Total Recall (1990)

Skip the completely forgettable Colin Farrell remake from 2012. This Arnold Schwarzenegger-powered, action-filled sci-fi movie is the one to go with. Working from a short story by writer Philip K. Dick, director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) uses a brain-teasing premise -- you can buy "fake" vacation memories from a mysterious company called Rekall -- to stage one of his hyper-violent, winkingly absurd cartoons. The bizarre images of life on Mars and silly one-liners from Arnold fly so fast that you'll begin to think the whole movie was designed to be implanted in your mind.

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Tramps (2017)

There are heists pulled off by slick gentlemen in suits, then there are heists pulled off by two wayward 20-somethings rambling along on a steamy, summer day in New York City. This dog-day crime-romance stages the latter, pairing a lanky Russian kid (Callum Tanner) who ditches his fast-food register job for a one-off thieving gig, with his driver, an aloof strip club waitress (Grace Van Patten) looking for the cash to restart her life. When a briefcase handoff goes awry, the pair head upstate to track down the missing package, where train rides and curbside walks force them to open up. With a laid-back, '70s soul, Tramps is the rare doe-eyed relationship movie where playing third-wheel is a joy.

Uncut Gems (2019)

In Uncut Gems, the immersive crime film from sibling director duo Josh and Benny Safdie, gambling is a matter of faith. Whether he's placing a bet on the Boston Celtics, attempting to rig an auction, or outrunning debt-collecting goons at his daughter's high school play, the movie's jeweler protagonist Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) believes in his ability to beat the odds. Does that mean he always succeeds? No, that would be absurd, undercutting the character's Job-like status, which Sandler imbues with an endearing weariness that holds the story together. But every financial setback, emotional humbling, and spiritual humiliation he suffers gets interpreted by Howard as a sign that his circumstances might be turning around. After all, a big score could be right around the corner.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2018)

Nightcrawler filmmaker Dan Gilroy teams up with Jake Gyllenhaal again to create another piece of cinematic art, this time a satirical horror film about the exclusive, over-the-top LA art scene. The movie centers around a greedy group of art buyers who come into the possession of stolen paintings that, unbeknownst to them, turn out to be haunted, making their luxurious lives of wheeling and dealing overpriced paintings a living hell. Also featuring the likes of John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Billy Magnussen, and others, Velvet Buzzsaw looks like Netflix’s next great original.

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Oscar-baiting, musician biopics became so cookie-cutter by the mid-'00s that it was easy for John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and writer-director Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) to knot them all together for the ultimate spoof. Dewey Cox is part Johnny Cash, part Bob Dylan, part Ray Charles, part John Lennon, part anyone-you-can-think-of, rising with hit singles, rubbing shoulders with greats of many eras, stumbling with eight-too-many drug addictions, then rising once again. When it comes to relentless wisecracking, Walk Hard is like a Greatest Hits compilation -- every second is gold.

The Witch (2015)

The Witch delivers everything we don't see in horror today. The backdrop, a farm in 17th-century New England, is pure misty, macabre mood. The circumstance, a Puritanical family making it on the fringe of society because they're too religious, bubbles with terror. And the question, whether devil-worshipping is hocus pocus or true black magic, keeps each character on their toes, and begging God for answers. The Witch tests its audience with its (nearly impenetrable) old English dialogue and the (anxiety-inducing) trials of early American life, but the payoff will keep your mind racing, and your face hiding under the covers, for days.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Before taking us to space with Gravity, director Alfonso Cuarón steamed up screens with this provocative, comedic drama about two teenage boys (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) road-trippin' it with an older woman. Like a sunbaked Jules and Jim, the movie makes nimble use of its central love triangle, setting up conflicts between the characters as they move through the complicated political and social realities of Mexican life. It's a confident, relaxed film that's got an equal amount of brains and sex appeal. Watch this one with a friend -- or two.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher's period drama is for obsessives. In telling the story of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who captured the public imagination by sending letters and puzzles to the Bay Area press, the famously meticulous director zeroes in on the cops, journalists, and amateur code-breakers who made identifying the criminal their life's work. With Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist-turned-gumshoe Robert Graysmith at the center, and Robert Downey Jr.'s barfly reporter Paul Avery stumbling around the margins, the film stretches across time and space, becoming a rich study of how people search for meaning in life. Zodiac is a procedural thriller that makes digging through old manilla folders feel like a cosmic quest.

13th (2016)

Selma director Ava DuVernay snuck away from the Hollywood spotlight to direct this sweeping documentary on the state of race in America. DuVernay's focus is the country's growing incarceration rates and an imbalance in the way black men and women are sentenced based on their crimes. Throughout the exploration, 13th dives into post-Emancipation migration, systemic racism that built in the early 20th century, and moments of modern political history that continue to spin a broken gear in our well-oiled national machine. You'll be blown away by what DuVernay uncovers in her interview-heavy research.

20th Century Women (2016)

If there's such thing as an epistolary movie, 20th Century Women is it. Touring 1970s Santa Barbara through a living flipbook, Mike Mills's semi-autobiographical film transcends documentation with a cast of wayward souls and Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), an impressionable young teenager. Annette Bening plays his mother, and the matriarch of a ragtag family, who gather together for safety, dance to music when the moment strikes, and teach Jamie the important lesson of What Women Want, which ranges from feminist theory to love-making techniques. The kid soaks it up like a sponge. Through Mills's caring direction, and characters we feel extending infinitely through past and present, so do we.

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The internal battle of forced monotony: Week 13, Spain

The negative emotions associated with isolation have reared their ugly heads this week. Amid tales of homemade ramen, torrential rain and a new film we’re working on, this post also reflects on the less positive moods that lockdown has gifted us.

Life feels more surreal as each week passes. The end of our sixth week in lockdown also marks a quarter of a year since we set off from England in our freshly converted campervan. When I frame it like that, our overland adventure to date both stretches back into eternity and only feels like a couple of days ago. Little did we know that ‘life on the road’ would entail confinement indoors and restrictions on all kinds of activities, like going to a cafe, seeing friends, making videos and driving through Europe.

There’s certainly something deep within me that is inherently optimistic. Even though if I was realistic about it, I knew that the ‘State of Alarm’ here in Spain would likely extend beyond the date of 26th April (which had already been extended twice), I had sort of psyched myself up towards regaining some of our freedom on that date. So when one morning this week, I flicked my phone onto the website for EL Pais (a major Spanish newspaper) and Pedro Sánchez had announced he was set to ask congress for another extension until the 9th May, my heart sank.

If there’s one thing I’ve wanted this weekly blog to be, it’s authentic. I’ve wanted to use it as a record of where I’ve been - not only geographically, but emotionally, and that means reflecting on the lows as well as the highs.

It’s hard putting into words the feeling of being so helpless in your own life - the feeling I’m experiencing now in lockdown. I guess one way that this helplessness has taken effect is in my increased empathy and consideration for people who live much larger parts of their lives facing uncertainty and helplessness - whether that be living under an unstable dictatorship, drought and famine, civil war or poverty. It’s not that I’ve only just started caring about these people, but in experiencing a fraction of the emotions that they must be going through, my sympathy deepens into something much more.

I’m so used to being in control. I trust that I will wake up tomorrow and night will turn to day; that I will put my keys in the ignition and the van will start; that I will be safe from persecution and oppression and that I will be able to access food and water. Even the element of my life which is the most uncertain as we undertake this overland adventure, which is money, is usually tempered by the knowledge that George and I have the skills and resources to find work, even if it has to be something we don’t particularly like. And yet now, life has thrown us a curveball. Coronavirus has left us spinning out of control.

Not feeling in control of my life has sapped my motivation. I still manage to get out of bed, and get various things done for our film channel Broaden or just general life admin, and I still eat well and exercise where possible. But things have lost their shiny glow, and I lose the energy to focus on a task for long.

It’s not like every waking moment I’ve spent has been devoid of positive energy. Back at the start of the week we ventured out to the supermarket on foot which was a welcome change of scene, I sat out in the sun and bleached my hair with lemon juice, and George learnt to eat crisps in a handstand. We laugh, we have fun and we create little activities like this to pass the time. But somehow, even investing in positivity like this can be tiring. You spend one day trying really hard to be grateful for what you’ve got in this time of crisis, and focus on celebrating the silver linings of copious free time, only to wake up the next day with your energy reserves run dry. Is anyone feeling this too? I know I’m not alone. 

(images, left to right) Bleaching my hair with lemon juice, filming snippets for our upcoming ‘Place Portraits’ video and learning to eat crisps in a handstand.

Meanwhile, frontline workers continue to fight for us all. To save our lives.

The juxtaposition of the chilling images we see on the news about Covid-19 against the confines of the little cottage we’re currently staying in is bizarre. Each day I read new statistics about people dying, articles about PPE shortages and quotes from global health authorities telling us the worst is yet to come.The boredom and helplessness I’m feeling shrink in comparison to the intensity of this global pandemic. My emotions seem petty and mundane, perhaps even pathetic. And yet, something tells me these emotions are still legitimate. That all of our emotions are legitimate, as we each attempt to process the situation and what it could mean for the future.

The future is no longer a thing which feels predictable. We have stepped over the cliff edge, and as each day that the pandemic unfolds, we are in new territory. Of course, one of the opportunities presented by such an enormous global event is the chance to reassess how we live on this planet, redefining the new ‘normal’. 

I have always been interested in the study of the future, and using different approaches to imagine how it may play out. And yet whilst there are opportunities amid the crisis, right now, I’m terrified by what I see. Yes, there are clues and behaviour changes that we can use to project future scenarios, but most of what is in front of us is completely unknown. We don’t know how long we have to work from home, furlough our staff, keep our children educated and occupied indoors or talk to loved ones through a screen. We don’t know what horrors tomorrow’s headlines will bring.

It feels like the world is staring into a dark abyss, reaching out for something to hold onto.

From a selfish perspective, not having any control over the future is a huge spanner in the works. Driving across Europe in a van and working as freelance videographers is the least ‘essential activity’ there could be, and we are conscious that governments have much more to focus on than two British travellers running out of money and desperate to continue their adventure. But it’s still so disheartening to be at the whim of something, something bigger and greater than you, particularly in light of the arduous year we spent preparing for this trip. There have certainly been a few tears here this week, and waves of the same emotions I felt when building the van and knowing there was a chance we would have to give up.

The weather really hasn’t helped lift the mood either. This region of Spain faced endless days of torrential rain this week which rendered the garden inundated and the road flooded. We couldn’t even get out to the supermarket and even worse, a leak developed in the roof of our van! It all felt rather doom and gloom.

(images, left to right) Torrential rain turned the road into a river, the point where we had to reverse all the way back home and couldn’t get to the supermarket, and a neighbouring lane which is closed off by Police.

One of the other realisations that brought me crashing down this week was sussing out that we’ll still be in lockdown for George’s thirtieth birthday. He’s not even someone who cares much for birthdays, but it had always been such an important milestone in my head and I was really looking forward to doing something nice together - going to a restaurant or watching live music or mooching around a city. Hilariously, back when we left Sydney we made a plan with our friends to have a reunion for George’s 30th… in Goa, India! It’s actually quite amusing to see how monumentally wrong we were in predicting the future, as we are thousands of miles off India right now.

All that said, George has been a cornerstone. Not just to comfort me about his birthday, but to be there through this all. We sort of balance one another out, ready with a positive mindset and hug when the other one is feeling super low.

If there’s one thing life in lockdown has strengthened, it’s our relationship.

On a lighter note, George embarked on a grand mission to make the best homemade ramen on Sunday. It all started with the broth, inspired by a zany French chef he follows on YouTube, and by mid-morning the cottage was filled with the smell of this incredible broth combining vegetable peelings with burnt garlic, ginger, miso paste and soy. What started as a broth-making test unfolded across the day, and saw him make handmade noodles, a sticky garlic and sesame sauce, soy soaked eggs and grilled tomatoes. Needless to say, watching George’s ramen odyssey was definitely the most entertainment I had all day!

(images, left to right) George’s homemade noodles (as food stocks were running low), the finished ramen, and the delicious oily and fatty broth in progress.

The two of us have also been working on a new video that will be released on the Broaden YouTube this Saturday (25th April). It’s a far cry from ‘The Hundred Miler’, but hopefully will be well-received nonetheless. It’s called ‘Place Portraits’, and we filmed it back in Paris, in the first week on the road back when temperatures lingered around zero degrees. Whilst we haven’t been as excited about making videos as we usually would be, I continue to be grateful to have a creative focus amid the pandemic, and being stuck inside is forcing me to get inventive with ideas for upcoming projects.

I also love seeing things that people have baked, sung, written, built and performed across the world each day online. The internet can be an incredible place.

As I write this, I reflect on a rocky week battling the internal voices and contradictory emotions of lockdown.

It’s a strangely tiring combination: of not knowing what the future looks like and trying to make sense of a world devoid of human contact or normal routines. Each day, let alone this whole week, has been filled with so many highs and lows that by the evening, I’m left feeling exhausted and churned up inside. 

But we made it. We made it another week in lockdown and I’m so glad I have this blog as a place to reflect. I hope it’s also a place where my honesty (and in this week’s post, my negativity) makes you not feel so alone in your emotions.

As if she knew I needed her right now, Mother Nature has finally blessed us with glorious sunshine and I can already feel my mood lifting. Perhaps the pain associated with this period is also signifying something else: growth. As we face this together, and all of the ugly emotions that come along with it, we learn more about ourselves and human nature, and in doing so, we grow. 

p.s. apologies if this week’s post was all doom and gloom! If it was, may I redirect you to last week’s ‘photo essay’ as a soothing antidote.

#traveldiaries #life in lockdown #covid-19 #estado de alarma #coronavirus #BryonyandGeorge #suzithevan #digitalnomads #vanliving

[sugakookiesbutbadass]

💜 Soft Bias Tag 💜

i was tagged by the two lovelys at @bts-soccer-moms​ to do the most adorable tag ever ~ tysm this was so much fun!! 

1. Who is my bias?

my favourite muscle bunny jeon jungkook, kookie, nochu, love of my life

2. What made you notice them?

“Dope” was my first bts mv and i swear it was legitimately love at first sight (that police uniform got me whipped from the start but shhh) i’ve never chosen a bias that quick in my life tbh i didn’t even know what a bias was back then and i already knew it was going to be him (cheesy i know) also when i started watching more bts content i fell for his honey vocals, his big sparkly eyes, his cute bunny smile, and he’s just my ideal boy you know? he’s beautiful and talented what more can i say?

3. What’s your favourite thing about them?

i know everyone says this about their bias but honestly can you blame us? of course the answer is everything! i love everything about him, his passion and ambition for music, his big heart and love for his hyungs, his cute mannerisms, his will to strive to become the best at whatever he sets his mind to, he’s not only beautiful on the outside but he’s infinitely beautiful on the inside 

4. Who would initiate skinship more?

i think at the beginning probably me? mostly because he's such a shy shy boy but also i think once he's more comfortable it will be pretty balanced between us

5. Who would hog the blankets more?

either neither of us or him bc i'm literally a human heater so i don't really need to hog the blankets that much plus if he just cuddles up to me he wouldn't need to hog them anyways  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6. Who would be more clingy?

i don't think either of us are that noticeably clingy but if it's just us and not in public then perhaps me? 

7. Who would say “I love you” first?

hmmm is it cheesy if i say we happened to say it at the same moment bc it finally felt right? lolol but idk i think maybe he would to say it first cuz it takes me a while to finally admit things so yeah

8. Who easily be more flustered?

oh man i think we both tie in this one but i’d like to think that i can hide it better than him, i mean have you seen the stuttering mess kookie is when his hyungs catch him off guard poor bun bun

9. What cuddling position would you two have?

please refer to this taekook moment as a point of reference

10. Which colours remind you of him?

two colours come to mind:

~ golden honey yellow: he's not the golden maknae for nothing, also like i've said before, his honey vocals make me melt every time and he's also the sweetest boy so of course he reminds me of honey plus he looks so precious whenever he wears yellow

~ a deep bold red: it reminds me of the fire and raw passion in his eyes as he performs, the energy he exerts when he dances, and just that alluring presence he holds when he knows he's owning the stage

tldr: kookie is 💛✨🍯 and jungkook is ❤️🔥🎤

11. What season would you like to spend with them?

summer! i want to have all the fun in the world with him without any worries or cares in the back of our minds, i want to have cute amusement park dates, ice cream at the park dates, bowling alley and arcade dates, everything and anything, we could go out to the pier, stargaze, the whole shabang 

12. Who would bake the cookies and who would steal the batter?

based on the cooking run bts episodes, i think he'd be better in the kitchen than me tbh and i'm not much of a baker but i will help if i see someone else baking but also low key so that i can sneak a bite or two

13. Which one of you would make bad puns and how would the other react?

i think both of us would crack a pun every now and then and the other person would just sigh and roll their eyes but also quietly chuckle and note to themselves to one up the other person in the future 

14. Who would want to adopt 50 cats and dogs?

i think we would alternate between one of us being like "you know what sounds like a good idea? adopting a dog. right now. let's do it." and the other one being the Reasonable One™ but then eventually one day we both end up being the one wanting the dog and attempting to enable the other and so we end up getting a cute dog child and we live happily ever after the end

15. Which one of you would nearly burn the kitchen down trying to microwave a pop tart and who would come to the rescue?

well considering kookie had said before that he has One Fear which happens to be microwaves so i'm gonna say it's him. it will be like:

him: "kirstyyyy can you make me a pop tart?"

me: "sorry kookie i'm a bit busy at the moment, can you try making it yourself?"

*smoke detector goes off in the distance* 

me: *cleans up the mess and makes him a new one* 

me: "you're an idiot" 

him: "yeah but i'm your idiot" 😉 

me: “ugh you're lucky i still think you're cute” 🙄 

him: “heheh sorry ily” 😙

16. Who likes to lean over trail railings and who pulls them back?

i think we'd both have our moments for this because we both have no fear of heights and have moments where #dangerismymiddlename but then again we are also promoters of safety so yeah 

17. What would watching a horror movie with them be like?

it would consist of a lot of fun banter and teasing towards whoever jumps or get scared :P i really enjoy watching horror films with company because i love commentating (especially for dumb horror films where i get to yell at the characters for making dumbass decisions) but i also get a laugh whenever someone (including myself) gets a big scare so yeah, i think it would be fun to have a horror movie marathon with kookie during spooky season or something

18. Who would be the cheesy flirt and who would be the smooth flirt?

i think kookie can be 50/50 i mean have you seen this boy's duality? his dorky offstage personality vs his sensual onstage presence gives me whiplash.. me on the other hand, i think my cheesiness will outweigh my smoothness like 75/25 

19. Who would be more competitive?

we will make everything a competition, but like in a fun healthy way like "i bet i can beat you in this track in mario kart" "iS tHaT A cHaLLeNgE??!?" and whoever wins gets like a little prize each time (can be anything from food to a peck on the cheek to getting the better controller next time to picking the next movie etc.) like just simple silly competitions to keep it interesting (no sore losers or egotistic winners in this house, it's all just fun and games) and ooo bonus: we can keep a little chart over like the month or maybe the year like a "jungkook vs kirsty" and the overall winner gets a grand prize of whatever they want 

20. Who would have to be given constant reminders (to eat, sleep, drink water, etc.)

him. we all know that he works his hardest and tries to push himself past his limits so i think he would need someone to gently remind him to take care of himself from time to time :’( 

21. Who sends memes and who sends cute “i miss you” texts at 3 am?

we're talking about your resident meme king and queen here so what do you think? but then again we both have our soft hours so i think it will be a fair mix of both. something like 

"i miss you"

"you meme a lot to me" 

and that’s it!! this was honestly so much fun to do and i’m now feeling softer than usual for my bunny rip gonna go watch some cute compilations or something ok byeee

i tag: @wen-jun-bae, @blueberry-child, @taeyongskookie, @cyphersnamjoon, @mysticalj, @jinstaej, @min-baby-boy-yoongi, @majinstic, @madpanda69, @kochiniseokjinnie, @im-captain-of-this-ship,  @kawaii-ing, @chiantae, @dailygifihope, and anyone else who wants to do this :) 

#soft bias tag #soft bias #jungkook #bts #jungkook bias #get to know me #personal #tag #tags #ask me stuff :)

[elizadoolittlethings]

Mark Gatiss: I learnt my entire moral code from Doctor Who - radiotimes

The writer of Who episode Sleep No More speaks passionately about how Third Doctor Jon Pertwee guided his childhood, and why shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who should be cherished for much more than just audience ratings

Mark Gatiss urgently wants to get something off his chest. He’s a polite, affable man, but there’s a furious fire burning in his breast – about ratings. “The ratings system is insane and iniquitous. I’ve seen grown men crying because their show got 6.3 million [viewers] instead of a hoped-for 6.5. They make a difference to a person’s career.”

His scorn has been stirred by the muffled bells ringing quite audibly during this current series of Doctor Who. (He’s written Saturday’s episode starring his old League of Gentlemen mate Reece Shearsmith.)

In September, mirrors were turned to walls and curtains were drawn as observers sorrowfully/gleefully announced that so-called “overnight” ratings saw Doctor Who slump to a “ten-year low” (against The X Factor and Rugby World Cup on ITV) with fewer than five million viewers.

But Gatiss, stage, film and TV actor, documentary-maker, author and co-creator with his great friend Steven Moffat of the stratospherically successful reimagined Sherlock, is having none of it.

“These overnight figures are based on a system of 5,000 set-top boxes, which is essentially a Gallup poll and we all know how accurate they are. If they provided a thumbnail sketch of what people are watching, fine, but people’s careers and projects rise and fall with them. This is nuts. Everybody watches television in a different way from the way they did four, five years ago. Yet the people who make a fuss about overnights are the same people who go home and watch TV in an entirely different way.

“That’s the modern world we live in and I’m not being defensive, but when you add everything together – timeshifting, plus iPlayer – [Doctor Who’s] ratings are the same as they ever were. But there is no capital in saying ‘Doctor Who’s ratings remain roughly the same’, so people make a story out of it.”

‘Bake Off will never be watched again – Doctor Who will be watched in 100 years’ time’

The Great British Bake Off final was recently handed the most-watched show of the year crown with more than 15m viewers, but Gatiss won’t roll over: “There’s a huge difference between the temporary popularity of a game show or factual entertainment show and something that has a proper legacy. Those episodes of Bake Off or The X Factor, and their virtues are manifest, will never be watched again. Yet Doctor Who will be watched in 50 years’ time, 100 years’ time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I love things to be popular, I want things to be watched, but this sort of scrutiny is deadly.”

Gatiss is so angry because he loves, and has always loved, television. Growing up happily in County Durham, he was obsessed by Doctor Who, horror films and horror stories. They provided a refuge from hated PE lessons. In his recent Who Do You Think You Are?, where he found he’s descended from Irish royalty, he held up his career as “a long revenge against PE… children who are not necessarily sporty should take a bit of heart.”

“Television was a huge friend to me. Anything supernatural I would just hunt out, and I loved all of those great big dramas like Poldark and The Duchess of Duke Street, and that Brian Clemens series Thriller. As a kid I really wanted to be in something like The Six Wives of Henry VIII [BBC’s 1970 historical blockbuster with Keith Michell as the axe-happy monarch].”

Though Gatiss satisfied that particular Tudor ambition when he appeared in Wolf Hall as master of the dark arts Stephen Gardiner.

Dodging the eye of their PE teacher, Gatiss and a friend would walk around the football pitch talking about horror. He even made “a small living from writing unbelievably gruesome stories about murdering all the teachers we hated”.

“I learnt my entire moral code from Jon Pertwee”

Bloody tales about javelins being inserted into brains were favourites. “I used to dream of not having to go outside in the cold to play football and instead sitting in the library. I think you can do that now, so maybe the pendulum has swung too far the other way.”

Of course, Doctor Who was little Mark Gatiss’s favourite TV show – and it should still be on at teatime, he insists, not nomadically some time after 8pm: “Put it on at a proper time, put it on where it should be, when Pointless Celebrities is on. That’s where it belongs, otherwise you are almost perversely cutting off your key audience, which is children.”

This is particularly important for Gatiss: “I learnt my entire moral code from Jon Pertwee [the Doctor, 1970–74], and also what TV still should be about, which is a very Reithian thing. I learnt so much from TV in the best kind of osmotic way. I absorbed morality, I absorbed a kind of scepticism and enjoyment of story, and oddness, and narrative. These days it’s so hard to get those things through; it’s almost become a dirty word to say ‘culture’. Education should be so much more than getting a good job.”

I first met Mark Gatiss in 2000 in a chilly disused hospital in Manchester when he and his friends Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson were filming series two of The League of Gentlemen, the one where an epidemic of nosebleeds strikes down the grotesque population of that weird northern town, Royston Vasey.

The four of them became friends and performers after meeting on a drama course at Bretton Hall, then a part of Leeds University. “We had a totally shared sensibility. Sometimes people talk about the League as if we spotted a gap in the market and filled it. But basically it was just what made us laugh, horror tinged with all of those things we loved, like Rising Damp, Porridge, Mike Leigh films and Alan Bennett, who is an absolute copper-bottomed god.

“After my Desert Island Discs I got a postcard from him. I was so touched. He said he was in a real hole and stuck on something and I’d said something about him on the show and he told me it completely bucked him up. I thought… if I’ve done that for Alan Bennett…” Of course, he doesn’t have to end that thought.

Sherlock Christmas special will be modern and period

Gatiss, who’s 49 and lives in north London with his husband, actor Ian Hallard, is currently writing scripts for the new series of Sherlock, in which he also stars as Sherlock’s ascetic brother Mycroft – but anticipation for the Christmas special, The Abominable Bride, is heady.

“It’s a Sherlock ghost story for Christmas, but that’s all I’m going to tell you.” Unless the trailers are particularly obtuse, it’s set in the Victorian era. Why take Sherlock back to his original chronological habitat? “Steven [Moffat] and I realised that now, and at no other time, we would have the chance to do what Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce did [in the Sherlock films, 1939–46], which was modern and period.”

Gatiss and Moffat’s shared love of Doyle’s books and the Rathbone/Bruce canon sparked many meandering “wouldn’t it be nice if” conversations between the two before the decision to go ahead with a modern Sherlock was made.

“We confessed that the modern-day-set Rathbones were our favourites of all, which was heretical. We talked and I said, ‘Isn’t it funny that in A Study in Scarlet Dr Watson is invalided home from war service in Afghanistan and we were going through another Afghan war. We looked at each other and the light bulb went on.”

Benedict Cumberbatch, whose star has rocketed to the highest reaches of the heavens, was their only choice. Casting Watson took a bit longer. “We saw about half a dozen people but as soon as Benedict and Martin [Freeman] were together, Steven leant over to me and said, ‘There’s the show.’ ”

#MG #radiotimes #mark gatiss #i learnt my moral code from doctor who

[calliopesquill]

A Year in the Life: Chapter 5

Guess what! I decided to post before midnight tonight lol 

You all are seriously amazing, you know that? The responses I have been getting for these last chapters have been incredible and I can't thank you enough.

Special thanks to all of you who left me such wonderful comments. It really makes my day every time I get one and there are a few these last couple weeks that almost made me cry. So really, thank you. 

With that said, on to chapter 5!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 5: La Familia Rivera

         Nell needed to start setting alarms when she worked. She’d gotten so buried in her novel planning and concept sketches that it was three in the afternoon before she finally surfaced, and that only happened because her stomach had let out a growl loud enough to wake the dead. She pushed herself away from the table with a groan, letting out a muttered curse as she stretched, her back protesting at the hunched position she’d been in for the last three hours. It was definitely time for a break.

         She shuffled across the kitchen to her fridge, only to find it almost totally empty. Right… I was supposed to go grocery shopping this morning.

         She sighed, shutting the fridge again. Better to do that now, and maybe grab an early supper on the way. She was too hungry to cook. But first she should probably get dressed. Her style may be casual, but it definitely wasn’t “leave the house in pajamas” casual. Nell traded her pajamas for a pair of comfortable flower-printed shorts and a white tee shirt, twisting her hair up in a messy bun as she stepped into her pink ballet flats. After a quick double-check that both her keys and wallet were still in her purse, she was out the door.

         As she walked, she went over what she’d come up with for her new novel so far. It would be narrated by the guitar itself, a twist that she would not be revealing until near the end. She didn’t have much for her protagonist yet, but was toying with the idea of him stealing the guitar for himself at first, so the story could be something of a redemption arc for him as well. There would be no familial connection between the hero and the guitar’s original owner, however. She wanted to tell her own story, not just re-tell something that had already happened.

         She was contemplating the design of her main character when she was nearly knocked off her feet by a small, bony form. The dog continued on past her to dance around the feet of an old woman in a blue button-down dress.

         “ ¡Oye! ” The woman protested, shifting the grocery bags she carried to one arm so she could shoo the dog away. “ ¡Abajo! Abajo, perro tonto. ¡No saltar! ”

         The dog, completely ignoring her commands to get down, jumped at her again, knocking her bags from her hands in its attempts to smother her with affection. It only backed away when it saw her reaching for the sandal on her foot, electing instead to plop down next to her and begin chewing on its own leg.

         Muttering to herself, the woman began to pick up her spilled groceries, letting out a muttered oath when she saw the strap on one of the bags had snapped. She looked up when she saw a second set of hands gathering up the spilled fruit and reached for her sandal again, prepared to fight off any tonto stupid enough to try to steal from her. But instead of running off they pulled a folded-up cloth bag from inside their purse and began putting the spilled food inside to make it easier to carry.

         Nell stood, brushing off the road dust, and offered the woman a hand to help her up. “ ¿Estás bien? ” She asked, picking up the bag of groceries she’d helped pick up.

         “ Si, gracias ,” the woman answered, then shot a fond but vaguely frustrated look towards the dog that still sat at their feet. “No thanks to you, silly dog.”

         “Is he yours?”

         “He thinks he is,” the woman shrugged. “He comes to the house sometimes, looking for food. He is very fond of my grandson.” Now that she could actually get a good look at the person who had helped her, she recognized the young woman who often sat in the plaza. “You are one of Coro’s tenants, si? The artist.”

         “My name’s Nell,” she said with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you. Did you want some help getting these back home?”

         “Ah, I will be fine,” the woman said, waving her off. “As long as someone --” Here she shot another look at the dog, who gave her a harmless doggy smile. “--does not jump on me again.”

         “Aw, you won’t jump again, will you?” Nell asked the dog, giving him a scratch behind the ears. The dog gave a small huff, leaning into her hand as his skinny tail beat a tattoo against the ground. “Cuz you are a good boy.”

         The dog barked the affirmative.

         “You are a nice girl,” the woman decided. “My grandson, he says very good things about you.”

         “Your grandson?”

         “ Si. My Miguelito. He talks to you sometimes when you draw at the plaza.”

         “Oh, you’re Miguel’s abuelita !” Now it all made sense. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last. And that must mean that this handsome boy here is Dante.”

         Elena snorted. ‘Handsome’ was not exactly the word that she would have chosen. What he was was dumb as a bag of rocks, but he was sweet-natured and very dedicated to her grandson, and the rest of the family by extension, so she’d developed a soft spot for the silly thing. “You are very good with dogs,”  she noted, seeing Dante roll over so Nell could scratch his belly.

         “I always wanted one growing up,” Nell confessed as she gave in to his desire for pets. “But my dad was allergic to the hair. Couldn’t handle cats either, so I never had a chance to have a pet growing up. And then after I moved out on my own I couldn’t really afford one so… “ She shrugged.

         “This one seems to like you,” Elena said with a small nod. “He is very foolish, but he knows good people. You will come for dinner.”

         “Thank you. I -- wait, what? Oh, no, you don’t have to. That’s very generous but --”

         But Elena overrode her protests. “Nonsense. You will come tonight and meet the family.”

         “I --- okay.” What else could she say? “Is there anything you’d like me to bring? I could make dessert.”

         “No, no. I have all that I need. You will come tonight for six and we will have a nice dinner.”

         “Ah�� Okay. Thank you.”

         Despite protests, Nell insisted on escorting her home anyway, telling her to keep the cloth bag that the extra groceries had been carried in as Elena’s other one was broken. The moment the door had closed Nell dashed off down the street to the grocery store.

         She ended up making chocolate chip cookies, though she’d had to borrow a pair of baking trays and a serving platter from Tia Caro. She had been told not to bring anything but she had been strictly mother-trained not to arrive empty-handed when it came to dinner invitations. As the cookies cooled, Nell traded her shorts and tee-shirt for a casual emerald green maxi dress topped with a candy pink knit bolero sweater. Mindful that she was visiting a family of shoemakers, she paired her outfit with a pretty pair of black and gold strappy sandals. Her hair she tied back in a low, looped ponytail that would keep the curls out of her face, but would not give her a headache as the night went on.

         She walked carefully towards the Rivera home, praying that she wouldn’t trip and spill all of the cookies before she got there. It might have been early October but to Nell it still felt like mid-summer. The leaves would have just started to change color back home and the neighborhood kids would all be in a tizzy picking their Halloween costumes. She smiled fondly at the thought. Halloween had always been her favorite holiday, though more for the costumes and the candy than the spook-factor. Funny enough, Nell could not handle horror movies or haunted houses at all. Her friends had tricked her into watching A Haunting in Connecticut one night and she barely slept for a week.

         She’d be missing Halloween this year, but would be trading it out for her first experience with Dia de los Muertos. Already people had begun decorating, draping colorful cut-paper banners between the buildings. There were areas of Santa Cecilia where the little flags were always present, but there were always more come fall. It was a little early for people to be putting out the elaborate calaveras figures that were also used to decorate, but Nell did spot one or two between her place and the Rivera’s.

         Thankfully she made it to the house without incident and knocked on the front door at promptly five minutes to six.

         The woman who answered the door was just shorter than she was, dressed in a cheerful yellow blouse and a bright pink skirt. Her hair was dark and straight, tied back in a low, loose braid. She had a youthful face, with smile lines just appearing around her eyes  -- some of which, Nell guessed, could be attributed to the toddler at her hip.

         She smiled when she saw her. “Ah, you must be Nell. Mama told us you would be joining us for dinner. Please, come in.” She nudged the door open with her foot, stepping back so Nell could follow her into the courtyard.

         “ Gracias, Señora Rivera. ”

         “Please, call me Luisa,” the woman insisted, resettling her daughter on her hip as she closed the gate. “And this one here is my youngest, Soccoro. Miguel has told us so much about you. He says you are an artist.”

         Nell nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

         “Miguel really likes your books. He wanted to bring them home from the library so he could show his prima Rosa but they did not have them, so he has been showing her on the computer during their lunch hour. She really likes your heroine.”

         “I’m glad they’re enjoying it so far,” Nell smiled. “I had a lot of fun writing it.”

         “It shows. Ah, but you must be tired of carrying that tray. Come, I will show you to the kitchen. Mama should be just about done with dinner.”

         “She told me not to bring anything but I wanted to contribute somehow,” Nell admitted, following Luisa through the courtyard. “I’m better with desserts than actual meals, so I figured chocolate chip cookies would be a good option.”

         Luisa chuckled. “We will have to hide those from Miguel until after dinner. And this one too,” she added as little Soccoro reached for the tray.

         No sooner had she said that than Miguel burst from his room, still dressed in the white button-down shirt and navy pants of his school uniform. “Mama I’m done my -- hey! Nell! What are you doing here?”

         “ Ay! Manners mijo.  Your abuelita met your friend this afternoon and invited her over for dinner.”

         Miguel cocked his head curiously. “How did you meet abuelita?

         “A certain affectionate xolo decided that the best time to give her kisses was when she was carrying groceries,” Nell told him. “I just happened to be nearby and helped her pick them up.”

         He laughed. “Dante is still working on his timing. Are those cookies for us?”

         “After dinner, mijo ,” Luisa told him. “Your abuelita should be almost ready, so why don’t you get out of your school clothes and you can help set the table.”

         “Okay Mama.”

         Abuelita Elena was the undisputed head of the Rivera family. She was a life-long shoemaker but it was in the kitchen where she truly reigned supreme. Everything was timed to the minute on an internal clock born of practice and instinct. Nell, who could not put a perfectly-timed meal on the table if her life depended on it, wanted to applaud. Elena seemed to know everything that was going on in her kitchen at all times and even though her back was turned, she was instantly aware of other people entering her domain.

         “Ah, Luisa! You are just in time,” she said, not even turning around as she plated up a tray of ribs in a spicy-smelling sauce. “And you have brought Penelope with you. Good. I like it when people are on time.”

         “I’m obsessively prompt,” Nell smiled. “And please, call me Nell. I brought some dessert for later. Is there somewhere I can put it where little cookie-monsters won’t be able to help themselves before dinner?”

         Elena gave a short snort of laughter. “Anyone in my house knows there will be no desserts until after their dinner. For now you can put them on top of the fridge.”

         Not for the first time Nell was grateful for her height, as she barely had to stand on tiptoe to set the tray atop the fridge. As with many homes it was a local showcase of family achievements; well-graded assignments and art projects from the varying Rivera cousins covered the door, fixed with colorful magnets. As she turned away she could see Elena glancing at her sandals out of the corner of her eye.

         “Your shoes. They are pretty, but they were not made for you. They are too flat. You move like a dancer, but in those things you walk like a duck.”

         Nell let out a snort of laughter. “I was a dancer, from about the age of four. Quit after I finished university because I moved out and couldn’t pay for lessons anymore. Took three years as an adult to train myself out of that turn-out so I could walk with my feet parallel again.” She still caught herself standing in ballet-third when she wasn’t paying attention. “I have a hard time finding sandals a lot of the time because most of them come in four styles: cute but flat as cardboard so zero arch-support at all, cute but with massive heels and can only be worn for like an hour before you want to die, cute but eat your feet and leave raw patches and blisters, and comfortable but really ugly. There is no place for ugly shoes in my wardrobe.”

         Elena nodded in approval of the sentiment. There was no place in the world for ugly shoes at all in her opinion. Cheap shoes were an insult to her craft. No Rivera would be seen wearing cheap, poorly-constructed shoes, and if she had her way then no friend of the Riveras would either. “Come, you take that plate there and help me set the table and we will talk about shoes that you can wear for the rest of your life.”

         “I -- okay.” What else could she do? She didn’t want to come out and say that custom-made shoes were not a luxury that she could afford right now. Most of what she had had gone into this trip, and though her book sales and commissions were keeping her afloat, they didn’t leave much room for luxuries. She took the plate and followed Elena into the chaos that is the dining room.

         Seeing the number of people gathered, Nell stopped short and stared. When Elena invited her to dinner she didn’t think it would be with the whole family. It looked like half of Santa Cecilia had managed to fit itself around the table.

         “Come, come. Put that plate down right here. Si, right next to the tamales. Manny, Benny, stop teasing your prima Rosa and come sit down. Abel, you shuffle down and make room for our guest. Todos, esto es Penelope. Penelope, mi familia.”

         “Ah...hi everyone.” Nell set the plate down and gave a shy wave. “Please, call me Nell.” Should she start wearing a sign? She really felt like she should start wearing a sign. Something simple like ‘ Please do not call me Penelope until I am over the age of 65. Thank you.’

         A seat was left for her between Elena and a woman who introduced herself as Miguel’s Tia Gloria. She then introduced Nell to her twin boys, Benny and Manny, who were a couple of years into elementary school. They weren’t particularly interested in introductions, and were much more focused in which of them could stuff the most food in their mouth at one time.

         Miguel’s father Enrique, a tall man with a dark moustache, passed a platter of food to his wife before turning to Nell. “So, Miguel says you’re an artist.”

         The question was offered casually but Nell had the distinct impression that what she was being asked was actually something very different. “Yes, sir. I write graphic novels -- comic books -- but I take other commissions as well. I’m setting my next series in a place similar to Santa Cecilia so I’m living here for a few months as I work on it because I want to get an authentic feel for the culture and the lifestyle and the architecture. I spend a lot of time doing reference sketches in Mariachi Plaza. It’s got really great atmosphere and that’s something I really wanted to capture. Then that one over there --” She nodded at Miguel. “--got curious one day and decided he wanted to know who the weird turista was who kept writing everything down in a giant notebook.”

         “You should see her sketchbook. It’s really good,” Miguel told them. “She was drawing the bell tower yesterday and it was just with pencils and it was perfect! It looked like one of those old-timey pictures.”

         “We read your comic at lunch sometimes,” added Rosa, who sat a few seats down from her cousin. “We just got to the part where Polaris and Astra start working together.”

         “Have you gotten to the mirror incident yet?” Nell asked.

         Rosa shook her head. “Not yet.”

         “Let me know when you get there. That was one of my favourite chapters in the whole series.”

         The conversation flowed freely throughout dinner, catching up with the goings-on at school. Abel was taking some online CAD courses for the business, and there was some discussion between the other family members on designs and techniques that they were experimenting with. Miguel mentioned briefly how he’d started reading Dante’s Inferno , which had the entire family in stitches when Benny and Manny asked how the little doggy wrote a book. Nell also got a more in-depth history of the business itself.

         “I think it’s really admirable what Imelda did,” Nell said honestly. “Running a business is really difficult, and at the time, being a female entrepreneur would have been that much more challenging. Never mind being a single parent on top of that. So that she created such a successful business that has stayed in the family for so long is really incredible. Add the complication of foreign investment and multinational companies with giant factories, it must be challenging sometimes to stay competitive.”

         “ Si , it is sometimes,” Miguel’s father answered with a shrug. “Much of our business is local. Most people here, they would rather be able to see and feel the thing that they are buying, so that is a benefit to us.”

         “We did get that magazine placement a couple of years ago,” Gloria added. “That telenovela star. What was her name? She mentioned us in an interview and wore a pair of our boots for a photo shoot.”

         “There is always a market for quality custom work,” Elena nodded. “Work that lasts. That is a legacy worth protecting. Would you like some more tamales?”

         Nell leaned back in her chair and shook her head. “No, gracias. They are delicious but I am stuffed.”

         “No, no, there is plenty of room left. You are so skinny! Have another.”

         “You know, I think I’ve heard that from everyone at Tia Caro’s building,” Nell laughed as she accepted one more tamale. “I think she might have decided to adopt me. Ten bucks says she must be half-way through the paperwork by now.”

         Elena gave a nod of approval. “Caro is a good woman. She takes care of her familia. ” It didn’t matter if they were related by blood or simply lived in her building. All were considered family. And that, to Elena was the most important thing.

         How anyone at that table had any room for cookies after that meal, Nell had no idea. But somehow they did, and managed to empty the tray in record time.

         “Have you figured out the plot yet for your new comic?” Miguel asked as he and Rosa started clearing up the dishes.

         “Part of it,” Nell answered. “I was working on some of the background and lore this morning. The story is going to center around a cursed guitar.”

         Miguel paused, setting down the plates that he had been stacking, memories of her inquiries about is own guitar immediately springing to mind. “How did it get cursed?”

         She hesitated for a moment. As much as she really wanted to be able to use this idea for her books, she worried it might hit a little too close for Miguel. She would leave it for him to decide if he was comfortable with her continuing, or if he wanted her to write something different.  So she gave a cursory explanation of the concept of the tsukumogami and how the guitar had developed a spirit of its own. “And what the guitar wants is to finally see justice done for its murdered owner, and to be played again by someone who is worthy.”

         “Cool!” Rosa declared. “Who killed him?”

         “No spoilers,” Nell grinned at her. “But if you guys want I can show you some of the concept art I’ve got later.”

         Miguel hesitated, not entirely sure how he felt about the idea. On the one hand, it was a little weird knowing that part of his family’s history, even a small part, was going to be used in a book. But if there was anyone that he trusted to do it respectfully, it was Nell. He’d caught the look she gave him when she explained her idea and knew that she would not proceed with it without his go-ahead. And aside from that… a graphic novel series about a sentient guitar would be really, really cool.

         He flashed a crooked, one-dimpled smile and nodded. “Can’t wait!”

         When Miguel met with Nell that night, he knew that he was right to trust her. What she had planned did briefly allude to the history of Hector and Ernesto, but not in any way that would be recognizable to anyone but him.

         In her story, the guitar was a family heirloom. The father was a brilliant musician with a poet’s heart. He and his wife had two sons. The eldest son was bold and adventurous and loved music too, though more for the attention that his talent brought him than for the music itself. The younger brother was just like his father, who loved the music for its own sake. And when the father died, it was the younger son that he gave the guitar to. But the older brother was a jealous sort, always seeing himself as second place, even though he was the oldest. He was determined to be liked, and cultivated a fine and charming manner in order to endear himself to those around him, but he could never match the simple sincerity of his younger brother. They were both talented, but when they performed together it was easy to see whose heart was really in the music. They travelled together, performed together, and all that time the older brother’s jealousy festered within him. Until one night, after a particularly bad fight and a few too many drinks, he smothered his brother in his sleep.

         The death was mourned as a tragedy, a sudden failure of the heart in a time where forensic evidence and investigation barely existed. Nobody even considered the possibility of murder.

         The older brother inherited the guitar by default, and did become a fairly well renowned musician on his own. He would never admit that the guitar that had become his trademark never sang as beautifully for him as it did for his father and brother. He performed until his death in 1931, when an earthquake caused the roof of the theater he was rehearsing in to collapse on top of him, burying him alive.

         The guitar was salvaged from the wreckage without a scratch on it and was held in private collections until the mid-1990’s, when it was installed as part of a music history exhibit in a local museum. Stories say that sometimes, late at night, you can still hear the sad melody it plays, mourning its lost musico.

         “You gotta write that,” Miguel insisted after hearing what she’d planned. “What happens next? Is that it?”

         Nell laughed. “Nah, that’s more of the backstory that sets up the main plot. The main character is a paranormal investigator who heard the stories of the ghostly music, so he breaks into the museum at night. Next thing he knows he’s seeing ghosts everywhere, and the guitar quite literally seems to have a mind of its own and won’t leave him be.”

         Miguel snickered. This was going to be fun.

         “For real, though. You’re okay with me writing this? If you’re not comfortable with it, you’ve got to tell me. There’s no time-limit so I have all the time in the world to think up something else.”

         He shook his head. “No, I like it. It’s different. And I like the guitar being the narrator. That’s kinda cool.”

         Nell sighed with relief. “Okay. Okay. Cool. But like, if you ever change your mind, let me know.”

         “I will,” Miguel promised.

         They walked for a while longer, taking in the quiet, their path taking them past the painted gate of the Rivera house. Dante trotted companionably at their side. They’d discovered when they met up that night that the little xolo could indeed see them when they were projecting, and after spending several minutes jumping all over them, he designated himself their official companion for the evening.

         “So what did you and abuelita talk about when you were touring the shop?”

         “Ah, not much. Got a little more on the history of the business. Some of the process. Your abuelita is really determined to get me into a decent pair of shoes.” Nell chuckled.

         Miguel snickered. “Fifty pesos says you’re in a pair if Rivera shoes by Christmas.”

         “You’re on. And I’ll put my winnings towards buying my pretty new Rivera shoes after New Years.”          

         “Hey!” He laughed. “That’s cheating.”

         “You set the rules, not me.” She reminded him. For a moment she was silent, then she spoke again. “Your abuelita is really proud of you, you know. Your whole family is. You can see it in their faces when they hear you play. I’m glad I got to meet them tonight.”

         “They really like you,” Miguel told her. “And Tia Gloria really wants your cookie recipe. Benny and Manny would have eaten all of them if they could have.”

         Nell laughed. “I’m glad I passed inspection. They were definitely a little concerned about me at first, not that I blame them.”

         “What? Why?”

         “Because it’s one thing for their fourteen year old to have adult friends among the local musicians, but it’s a little different when he’s suddenly friends with a random tourist eleven years his senior.”

         She had a point. And it wasn’t like either of them could explain the particular circumstances behind them becoming friends to begin with, not without earning themselves a happy little trip to the hospital in the city for a psych evaluation.

         What Nell didn’t tell him was how worried his family had been for him over the past few months. They’d known he wasn’t sleeping well, but as he refused to tell them what was going on there was nothing they could do. He’d been doing so much better since summer ended. He no longer came to the breakfast table with tired eyes, dragging his feet -- or at least, no more than any other young teenager. A question had been left unspoken of whether he had told Nell about what had been bothering him, to which she’d had to claim complete ignorance.  

         “Side note: I don’t know how the hell you survived that music ban,” Nell confessed, shaking her head. “I’d have completely lost my mind.” Music had always in some way been on the periphery of her life. She couldn’t imagine being cut off from it.

         “I felt like I was some days,” he laughed. “And I was raised into it. Mama had to give it up when she married Papa and I don’t know how she did it.”

         “People will do a lot for love. If it meant being with your Dad, it was probably a sacrifice she was willing to make.”

         Miguel nodded. He’d almost made the same one before Hector and Mama Imelda had sent him back. To be able to return home and have a chance to save Hector, he’d have given up music without a moment’s regret. “Could you do it?”

         “Give up music for someone?” Nell asked. “Don’t know. There’s never been someone that mattered enough that I would consider it. If it was the right person, I think I could. But then if it was the right person, I wouldn’t have to.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And there ends chapter 5! We met the Riveras, Nell finally got her plot sorted out, and we got to see Dante!

Next chapter will be the start of Dia de los Muertos, so buckle up buttercups because it's going to be a wild ride.

#coco #pixar coco #coco fanfiction #coco 2017 #miguel rivera #a year in the life

[nixonsmoviereviews]

"Tomie: Another Face"- A trio of low-budget shorts that lack bite and induce more unintentional giggles than gasps.

Originally conceived of as a trio of short films for television before being compiled together for its eventual DVD release, "Tomie: Another Face" is an odd chapter in the saga of that lovable and seemingly unkillable demon girl. Released in between the first two installments of the cinematic franchise, it's debatable whether or not "Another Face" even exists within the same continuity and canon as its bigger- budget brethren. With a distinct lack of funding, cheap video cinematography and some truly baffling moments peppered in... it's sort-of the black sheep of creator Junji Ito's "Tomie" media franchise. An awkward foot-note that might be worth checking out for the biggest of fans of the series, but ultimately will be far too odd and unappealing for pretty much anyone else. "Another Face" is comprised of three short stories, dealing with the vile Tomie as she destroys the lives of the men around her in different times and settings. The first story involves a high school romance gone drastically sour, the second revolves around a photographer who finds new passion with Tomie as his muse and the third tale regards Tomie sending her boyfriend to kill a mysterious man who is seemingly stalking her. This very same man acts as the bridge between the three stories with brief appearances in all three, and he holds the key to the backstory of the nefarious and devilish force that goes by the name "Tomie Kawakami." I suppose I should make it clear that while not really a fan of the series, I do have a certain begrudging respect for it. It's a franchise with a fiercely loyal and sizable fan-base the world over. And as a fan of horror, it's one series I've made an attempt to track down and view with an open mind, having thus far sat through most of the entries save for the final few. After all... there's gotta be something to it with nine films released so far over the past twenty years. And yet, even after seeing most of them, I don't quite get the appeal. Sure, some entries are better than others... I actually quite liked "Tomie: Replay", after all. But I just don't think the series has objectively risen above the level of mediocrity. And "Another Face" is definitely one of the weakest installments yet. To be fair, there is a certain kitschy appeal to the structure of the final release. By giving the viewer three stories that are connected by a few recurring characters, it breaks up the monotony that plagued some of the lesser films of the series, and it keeps the pacing brisk and flowing. The performances are nothing special, but the actors typically get the job done, and there's a few cool moments here and there that will put a big-ole smile on the face of series fans. But it's to the service of such cheap filmmaking and lazy storytelling, I just couldn't get into this one at all. Maybe it's unfair, but "Another Face" really suffers for its low budget and it creates a certain aesthetic distance between the story and the viewer. And that's coming from someone who has seen and indeed enjoyed his fair share of cheap "shot on video" releases. Heck, I adored "1-Ichi" and that looked like it was filmed on a $200 handy-cam! Here, it feels like director Toshirō Inomata just threw up his hands and opted not to even try to make the most of his limited resources. The cinematography and editing is incredibly amateurish, looking more akin to a first-year film student's work than an adaptation of a major property. And the overall structure and pacing is messy and lacks coherent flow. To top it off, the film also makes some baffling and frankly unintentionally amusing choices in how it presents key scenes, completely betraying any potential impact they might have had. It has all the subtlety of a brick to the face and trades in quiet moments for loud jumps and poorly-framed beats of action too often. I'm not ashamed to admit I had at least two laugh-out-loud moments in each of the three stories. And none of those times were the laughs intentional. There's no way you can see a man in a comical film-noir trench-coat with an eyepatch and a ridiculously giant knife standing all of three feet away from someone he's "spying" on and not break out laughing. It's like they somehow created a self-parody by accident. "Tomie: Another Face" is most certainly the weakest of the early entries in the series. A mish-mash of three half-baked short stories that lack any bite and cause more unintentional giggles than intentional gasps... all while being assembled half-heartedly in a dirt-cheap production to boot! It barely musters up a dreadful 3 out of 10 for me. It's one that even fans of the series could probably skip...

#imdb #movie #film #review #japan #japanese #junji ito #tomie

[wiremagazine]

HOME CHEF SEASON SENSATIONS

By Michael W. Sasser

Let's face it, the holiday season isn't the easiest time for healthy eating. Obviously the dinners out, family meals and parties make eating outside of one's home precarious. But if you consider all the take-home platters you're offered, all the easy meals of high-fat, high-carb, home dining isn't always all that safe for us either. To some degree, without being a hermit or one of those annoying people who can flat refuse a Christmas cookie at the office, it's hard to get away from the holiday food trap.

Now, I am no professional chef nor dietitian, but I have had the blessing to have spent much of my life eating in the great restaurants and great food cities of the U.S. and the world. I picked up a few things from those years. Older now, eating healthy is critical. What I've really learned is that tasty and easy doesn't have to be unhealthy – even during the holiday season.

Years ago, every Thanksgiving I hosted an alternative dinner. It was for those friends who didn't observe the tradition, who just enjoyed the vibe or who, frankly, didn't like the usual holiday fare. There were curries and rice tables, tandoori, and usually a variety of vegetables one wouldn't see on the usual Thanksgiving table. I know it has its fans, but there was no green bean casserole or anything similar from a can cream soup base. I grew up in the 1970s and my mother traumatized me early when it came to anything with those components.

Today, whether cooking just for my partner and I, a small dinner party at home, or bringing something to a potluck, I don't stray that far from tradition unless I know it will be well received. Also, I wouldn't want to detract from those at a social occasion who enjoy the holiday standards. Instead, it is on the periphery, where some innovation is often welcomed anywhere (and, in fact, constitute the favorites at my hosted events). That means fun with vegetables and, in this column, I thought I would share two of my all-time, holiday season favorites that can elevate any meal, while bringing distinct taste, and which aren't waist-watching horrors.

Pumpkin-chili bisque offers a different way to celebrate the pumpkin, a fall and holiday favorite. Instead of a sweet dessert, it lets you cook off any meal occasion with a balance of sweet and savory to tease taste buds and set up the next course. Roasted Brussels sprouts – the kind without bacon – bring varied texture and savory flavor (and fragrance!) to any meal, and will absolutely cure that friend of yours who thinks he hates Brussels sprouts!

For me, trying to appease an elevated palate while avoiding the nutrition pitfalls we read about all the time is an ongoing and fluid process. I wouldn't take a holiday meal and convert it for guests to tofurkey. But transitioning a few side dishes introduces some flourishes without offending anyone. Well, hopefully. Some people might like tofurkey. I'm not really sure what it is.

You should have no problem identifying and using the ingredients in the recipes herein. I bet you'll enjoy them as well.

Pumpkin-chili bisque

This is a fall/winter staple for me because it can taste decadent but pack a nutritional wallop via the savory side of pumpkin. You can take a product in pumpkin that often contributes to the final, unhealthy course of a holiday meal and make it a starter guests talk about for years. I think that's where I first ran into bisque like this, but I honestly can't remember. So, the title alone might fool you into thinking this is too persnickety a dish or too weird of a combination for your tastes, but don't skip ahead. This thick, entrée soup is nutritious, delicious and also quite easy.

1 can packed pumpkin with no added taste

Approx. 42 ounces chicken or vegetable broth

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 jalapeño peppers, spines and seeds removed, chopped

Approx. 1/8 tsp nutmeg

Approx. 1/8 tsp cinnamon

A pinch of red chili pepper flakes

1/8 tsp dry thyme

(optional) 1/3 cup half and half

Salt and pepper (to taste)

I consider this a base recipe, from which I've gone on to make uncommon, varied entrées. You have to play with it to find your own favorite dish, but the base soup is just good. Brown the onion, garlic and jalapeño over medium heat, add the spices, pepper flakes and then the pumpkin. After mixing, add broth and continue adding by the ladle to about the consistency of a medium thick soup. 

Reduce heat to low, cover, stir every two minutes until all of the bisque reaches what you find to be your desirable consistency (about 10 mins). Add half and half if you like with heat off and mix final product together. One simple finish is a little sour cream, particularly if you like yours spicy, with pepitas, fresh corn, fresh cilantro or mint. Complete with some good croutons and it's still not a horrible way to enjoy the tastes of the season in a less obvious way. Note: the bisque will continue to thicken, so keep any extra broth on hand to thin out for reheating or for the next day. It reconstitutes beautifully.

Roasted Brussels sprouts

If it weren't for avocado, crab, neither of which shows up in this absurdly easy recipe, this might be my all-time favorite vegetable dish. For me, it isn't just a holiday or winter dish. It shows up at dinner parties whenever fresh Brussels sprouts are available. The fresh is key. Many people still associate this veggie with a stinky, wet mess our moms used to make. This recipe I learned from an amazing Miami Beach home cook, Jamie Kaufman, who is sadly no longer with us. This is just one of her dishes that helps keep her memory alive to those who knew her for years. Cooked properly, they are taste sensations waiting to wow. Many people who roast their sprouts use bacon for flavor and the requisite fat in the dish. I prefer the combination of olive oil and garlic to do the trick – as does my doctor!

Approx. 16 large Brussels sprouts, trimmed of imperfect exterior leaves, washed and with an "x" engraved in their stems

Olive oil to coat

Approx. 8 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, add prepared and dried off Brussels sprouts. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper and minced garlic, stirring constantly to distribute marinade.

Pour vegetables and remaining marinade into roasting pan. A disposable pan with high edges will make for easiest clean-up. Try to keep plenty of room between each sprout to help caramelizing. Place the roasting pan into the pre-heated oven.

You should open the oven quickly and use a potholder and grasp and slightly shake the pan after about 15 minutes, and then again after half an hour. Total cook time usually runs to about 45 minutes, but can vary based on your oven and the size of your sprouts. What you're looking for is browned slightly crispy exterior leaves and you know they are ready.

Sometimes I will finish with some Parmesan cheese, other times they seem perfect as is. Instead of a smelly boiled green, you have fragranced your home with garlic and olive oil and you have veggies that are crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside.

It's easy, it's really one mixing bowl and a disposable, and you will definitely elevate an occasion's taste – and nutrition – level.

Three other tips:

Sweet potatoes prepared in a savory fashion – either baked like any other potato or use half and half with white potatoes in the mashed variety – add an interesting flavor and the superior nutritional value of the sweet variety.

Another option to gloppy veggie casserole: spaghetti squash. Simply with olive oil and Parmesan cheese, you have a healthy side dish that evokes the season.

Grains-grains-grains. Healthier grains are so much more common today that you can often find quinoa in a convenience store. Take advantage of their healthiness, prevalence and flexibility in any number of savory or sweet dishes.

Author/writer Michael W. Sasser has written on food and dining in South Florida and abroad for hundreds of publications, ranging from Where Miami and the Sun-Sentinel Group to Frommer's Fodor's, Time Out, Fresh Guides, Black Book NY and more.

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 49.2017

#wire magazine #wiremag.com #wire #miami beach #miami #south beach #sobe #fort lauderdale #wynwood #wilton manors #gay #lgbt #glbt #dining delicious

[mikeyd1986]

MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 70, September 2017

On Monday morning, I had my last Healthy Cooking on a Budget class for the term at Balla Balla Community Centre in Cranbourne East. It was a small class again with only the 6 of us but I was more than happy about that. Generally, the larger the group, the more anxious I tend to get. Today I worked with Di and Rhonda who were both easy to get along with. It kind of felt like I was cooking in the kitchen at Grandma’s house. That’s the vibe I got from them.

Today we ended up making a pumpkin, sweet potato and sage cannelloni, which is essentially these thick tubes of pasta filled with mashed up vegetables (pumpkin, sweet potato, red onion, herbs) and covered with pasta sauce and grated cheese. We also made a panna cotta which is an Italian dessert of thickened cream with gelatin and molded. And finally we roasted a whole cauliflower in the oven and added cherry tomatoes and bay leaves.

This course has been really beneficial for me in improving my cooking skills and techniques with chopping and slicing vegetables, frying, roasting and baking as well as learning basic hygiene and working with other people in the community. It has taken me a few weeks to few comfortable and not worry so much about making mistakes or being uncertain of what I’m doing. Jodie is an incredibly patient and helpful cooking teacher which is what I needed.  http://www.ballaballa.com.au/progra...

On Monday night, I attended an RPM class at YMCA Casey ARC in Narre Warren. My thighs, calves, hips, glutes and groin were feeling particularly tight and sore today so this class was much needed. It didn’t take long before I could feel my knees burning either but I pushed as hard as I could on the pedals and switched up the resistance when needed. Listening to your body is really important in classes like these. Being a group class, nobody is going to criticize you if something is too much and you need to back off a little.

Tonight’s class was facilitated by instructor Claire who I’ve had in my previous RPM class. She mixed up tracks from release 60 and 76 including Rihanna’s Diamonds (Bimbo Jones vocal edit), One Republic’s If I Lose Myself, Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic and Tikki Taane’s Get Up Stand Up. The sprint sections were easily the toughest for me as my legs weren’t used to cycling that fast but thankfully there were plenty of recovery breaks and easy ride sections in between to balance things out. http://w3.lesmills.com/israel/en/cl...

On Tuesday morning, I went to a Pilates Mat class at YMCA Casey RACE in Cranbourne East. Funnily enough, it’s my first time setting foot inside the group fitness room at Casey RACE since becoming a member last year. The walls are all brightly coloured with motivational quotes (I may not be the strongest. I may not be the fastest. But I am trying my hardest), fitness related words and images of people exercising. It’s a very warm and inviting environment to be in which is exactly what I need.

Today I was thinking about how there’s been a major shift in gender stereotypes when it comes to particular exercises. For example, yoga and pilates are both female dominated whilst boxing and weight lifting are both male dominated. But in the past 5-10 years or so, those stereotypes have been broken and now it’s socially acceptable to participate in any sport or recreational activity regardless of whether you’re male or female. It’s never bothered me that much that most of my yoga and pilates classes are 95% female as I’ve always had a dominant feminine side and really it shouldn’t matter.

This morning’s class was instructed by Anita who I’ve also had previously at Casey Arc. I pretty much knew what to expect. Her classes are tough but in a good way...she really works your core muscles. We did a lot of poses and movements using the chi ball including single leg raises and lowers, mermaid, table top, arm and leg balance and wide legged forward stretch. The idea is to be as slow and controlled with your movements as possible. Whilst core strength exercises are really challenging for me, I feel like I’m steadily improving the more I do pilates classes. https://www.pilates.com/BBAPP/V/pil...

On Tuesday night, I went to a Body Combat class at YMCA Casey ARC in Narre Warren. It’s unusual for me to do two group fitness classes in one day but today I felt particularly tired and unmotivated. My plans got cancelled and I needed a backup plan. It’s been a little while since I last saw my fitness instructor Cinamon Guerin but it felt really good to be back.

Tonight’s class was mainly composed of tracks from the new release, number 73, with a mixture of side punches, high knees, jab boxes, uppercuts, side and front kicks. The most challenging parts for me was the push-up and plank with side steps sequence (power training 2) and the dynamic lunges (combat 3) but I just did the best I could. Sometimes I have to force myself to slow down in order to improve and work on my technique more or just because the fatigue is kicking in. But I also feel good after a combat class because I know that I gave it my all. https://www.siphilp.com/les-mills-b...

On Wednesday morning, I had my Strength Training session at Breakaway Fitness in Berwick. I found myself holding back at the start of the session which was a sign that I had a lot of personal stuff to get off my chest. It takes a great deal of courage to be open and honest with people but I feel like I trust my personal trainer Luke Davey enough to go there. I mostly talked about the effect and addictive nature of social media...comparing myself to others, social isolation, jealousy, feeling inferior and boring, being mentally drained. When my plans get cancelled and I’m stuck at home, that’s when I struggle the most with my mental health.

WARM-UP...Today I started my session with the flowing yoga sequence. I tried to remember the sequence without Luke helping me and I did it. It’s one of those things where I’m used to having a visual reference such as an instructor demonstrating the movement and so I can get easily confused and forgetful doing it by myself. I then did five minutes on the balance board and could see a significant improvement with finding the even weight through my feet. I also did 3 rounds of 15 glute bridges with a 10-15kg dumbbell.

DEVELOPMENT...Today I worked on my back squats, doing 4 rounds of 3 reps at 68kg with the last round being maximum reps. I was feeling pretty good today. The biggest challenge for me was keeping my squat depth consistently low and keeping my chest lifted. But otherwise, I was really pleased with my efforts today. I managed to get 16 reps in my last round which was really big for me. I noticed that I do begin to feel nauseous and a bit light headed when I’ve pushed myself to my limits but I stuck it out with the help of Luke.

WORKOUT...Today’s workout consisted of doing 3 rounds of the following: 200m run, 15 wall balls, 10 burpee box jumps and 20 kettle bell snatches. I still hate running even though I’ve had a few months of experience at it now but I’m learning to get that technique right. I was fighting with my inner critic a lot here as I felt like a “slow runner”. I reminded myself not too be so worried about how fast I was running. Keeping a good pace is key. And really I’m not a marathon runner or a sprint athlete but I do want to get improve in this area of fitness. 

My wall balls were much better than my last workout. I was catching the ball higher and into my chest and I was also focusing more on keeping a rhythm going with the squats, throws and catches. The burpee box jumps were a little challenging in the physical sense. The more fatigued I got, the harder it was for me to get up. But I gave myself a second to prepare myself for the jumps. The anxiety of tripping of the box is still there but it’s effect is nowhere near as strong as it used to be. So now I’m feeling much more confident about it. 

The kettle bell snatches were a brand new movement for me so I really needed to cut myself some slack. I found it hard working out how much power I needed in the swing and when exactly I need to snatch my arm up over my head. But I did my best and just did what I could. I was fairly slow doing them but again I reminded myself that it’s not a race, take your time and focus on getting that technique right. https://www.facebook.com/breakawayf...

On Wednesday night, I went out to see the IT movie at Village Cinemas Fountain Gate. Based on Stephen King’s classic 1986 novel, the film is set in Derry, Maine in 1989. The main storyline focuses on the friendships between a group of “loser” high school kids which range in personality and stereotypes. After an intense prologue involving Bill’s brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott), a sail boat and a sewer drain, we’re introduced to each of the kids in the “Losers Club”.

We have Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) who has an uncontrollable stutter. Beverly (Sophia Lillis) who is the high school sweetheart, has some disturbing Daddy issues and is a victim of sexual assault. Mike (Chosen Jacobs) who is forced to work in a sheep slaughterhouse. Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) who has asthma and has to take regular medication for his condition as a hypochondriac. Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) who is overweight, gets bullied constantly and starts off with no friends. And Henry (Nicholas Hamilton) who is the leader of a bully gang.

Derry has a dark and sinister history for children who go missing every 27 years and now it’s starting to happen again. All fingers point towards an evil clown named Pennywise The Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard) who hunts each of the kids down one by one with many temptations and disguises. Eventually the kids discover that working together as a team and being able to face their individual fears is the key to defeating Pennywise aka IT.

This is a horror movie with a lot of depth and substance. It is really well balanced with funny moments between the kids, references to classic 80’s music and movies, some romantic elements and of course plenty of creepy scares. I honestly believe that Stephen King would be proud of this adaptation. It far surpasses the original 1990 TV mini-series in terms of character development, pacing and horror elements. And the fact that the credits have “IT Chapter One” hints that there may be a sequel in the works that would focus on the kids as adults, 30 years later. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484...

On Thursday morning, I went to the morning melodies social function held at the Trios Sports Club in Cranbourne. It’s been a really emotional time for me, dealing with the burden of financial debt and have multiple expenses due all at once next week. I was on the verge of losing the plot in front of Mum. But thankfully this function really did take my mind off things for a while, Sometimes all you need is a laugh to forget about your own problems.

Today’s performance was by a Mauritian musician named Marcel who played a mixture of Caribbean, classical, reggae, blues and ragtime music and wore Mexican-styled outfit with puffy sleeves and a tied crop top (Don’t ask :P). The thing that really impressed me with most was his diversity of musical styles and languages from Italian and French to Mexican and also being talented enough to play guitar, saxophone, violin and a clarinet.

He played many classic songs from artists including UB40 (Kingston Town, Red Red Wine, I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You), Louis Armstrong (What A Wonderful World), Luis Demetrio (Sway) and Giuseppe Verdi (La Traviata aka The Drinking Song).  

On Friday morning, I had my second Strength Training session with Luke Davey at Breakaway Fitness in Berwick. Today I had two choices: I could either put on a fake smile and pretend that everything was okay. Or I could unload everything that’s bothering me onto Luke. I wisely chose the latter. Unfortunately, the down side of that is my tendency to get easily frustrated, really hard on myself and be on the verge of another emotional breakdown.

Part of me worried that Luke wouldn’t be able to handle my shit anymore but honestly it was so liberating to just open up to him and let all that negative stuff inside go. He’s stuck it out with me this long. Again it was just my fear and anxiety playing tricks on me but today it was just more intense than usual. I could have thrown in the towel before the end of the session but I was determined to stick it out, emotional wreck or not.

WARM-UP...Today’s warmup started off okay. I had to do three rounds of the following exercises: 20 scorpion stretches, 15 pull aparts and 20 walking lunges. By the second round, the fatigue was hitting hard and I was struggling heaps during the lunges. Why was I finding this so damn difficult? Yep there goes the inner critic again. I was already in a pool of sweat before I even started my deadlifts. This wasn’t a good sign.

DEVELOPMENT...Today I did 4 sets of 3 deadlifts at 89kg with a last round of maximum reps. It was pretty clear that my levels of frustration were beginning to rise rapidly. Even putting the plates on the bar was a challenge for me in this state. Luke was doing his best to get me to calm down and relax, to get out of my own head. But it was just too difficult for me today. Even at 60kg, I was having a tougher time than usual. I thought “Oh shit! Am I going to have to pull the pin on deadlifts today?”

But somehow I stuck it out. Lifting 89kg today took an enormous amount of energy for me today and this is where I was getting really hard on me. Whilst Luke was trying hard to reassure me about it, it didn’t make me feel much better considering I’ve lifted 105kg in the past. But I just did the best I could. During my maximum reps set, I was starting to feel nauseous and getting up to 6 reps seemed impossible but somehow I managed to pull 8 reps out of the bag. After that, I was physically and mentally done.  

[rachelmorris305]

A Long Townhouse Sets the Right Flow for Modern Living (Part 2)

While renovating their Brooklyn brownstone, Nazli and Larry discovered the merits of a dark, painted pantry and that heated floors were indeed worth fighting for

We’re back again this week with Part 2 of Nazli and Larry’s historic Brooklyn brownstone renovation in Bedford-Stuyvesant. If you missed it—check out Part I where Nazli walked us through their planning process and showed off the foyer and guest suite. Here, she shows off the rest of the parlor floor, including the kitchen, the dining room, and the powder room. Nazli explains the challenge of merging modern and traditional within the confines of a townhouse’s long and narrow configuration. Read on for her thoughts on powder rooms (wackiness is key), decorative mantels (rather pointless), and coming to terms with the budget required to achieve the renovation you want (very tough).

Guest post by Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowner Nazli

  Front parlor/foyer entry

I think the biggest challenge to any renovation is…the renovators obviously. There will always be a push and pull between the architect, the contractor, and the owners. And most of the time, that will yield a better product than any single entity could have envisioned (but not always). I think our Sweeten architect was fantastic in coming up with some great solutions to space challenges–especially on the parlor floor, where I insisted we needed a half-bath that was nowhere near the kitchen (because, gross), a hall closet, and a kitchen pantry. She really provided a lot of help in making sure the house was up to code and that the spaces flowed. Our contractor (and my husband’s best friend), did an awesome job of value engineering so we could get the most bang for our buck. The decorating of the spaces was left mostly to me and it was interesting trying to figure out my own taste.

We, like all imperfect clients, wanted this Brooklyn brownstone renovated on a contractor’s-grade budget. Obviously, we were being silly and went way over budget (and right at what our contractor told us it would cost; we were just deeply in denial about the cost of construction in NYC). The mechanicals in a home are so expensive that basically most of the money was gone before we made a single design choice. And for me, I care deeply about the fixtures, finishes, and materials and I wasn’t about to cheap out on the things we had to see and use every day. So just be honest with yourself about what you want and what you’re willing to pay or give up for it.

Standing in front parlor looking through the kitchen into the dining room

I was most excited about the kitchen—if that hasn’t already been made clear. I love throwing huge parties and dinners, and I like to spend my alone time cooking. It’s also a natural gathering spot, so it was exciting to think about getting the most out of the space. Turns out the space configuration of a Brooklyn brownstone made it hard to do that, but it still served us well—I am super happy with a long island (11 feet long!), a BlueStar stove, and the different stations for cooking, eating, making coffee, or baking.

The kitchen is my happy spot and I’ve spent years thinking about what makes a good kitchen. Is this ideal space planning? Nope. Is this my idea of a good time? For sure. The challenge was how to devise an open-plan area that was going to take up so much of the parlor floor without making it feel like a separate room. My solution was to forgo upper cabinets so there’s a clear line of vision from the front of the room all the way to the dining room. This created a storage challenge for me, of course, which we solved with a kitchen pantry. I wanted the pantry to be open so that I could see and access all my ingredients easily, but I also didn’t want a lot of visual clutter. I painted the cabinets and shelves a deep gray (same color as the island cabinets), which makes the whole space disappear once I turn out the light. I found a piece of scrap marble at the stone yard which I used for the kitchen backsplash and the countertops along the back wall closest to the pantry. Marble is expensive and hard to maintain, so my thought was to use it in low-use areas to give the look and feel of the material throughout the kitchen without spending that much. For the island and other countertop, I used poured concrete, which is a material I love. Surprisingly, it’s also pretty delicate, but it’s subtle and earthy and I like how it ages. The kitchen is, again, more traditional than I would have preferred, but I think the concrete and the open shelving give it a more modern touch. Also, I fought to get a second sink in the kitchen and am so happy I won that battle. It’s handy to set up a water station so people can grab water or rinse out cups without interrupting my cooking space.

I can’t say enough about how much I love these herringbone walnut floors. We splurged on these floors and went with the less costly white oak for the upstairs floors because…well, just look at them. My original vision was to have the tile floor in the kitchen, but it made more sense to continue the wood on the whole parlor floor and save the tile for the back extension. We mocked up the island with plywood and adjusted it until I was happy with the dimensions—how it felt to go from sink to stove, or how easy it was to take food out of the fridge and place it on the counter. That kind of stuff is important to me, and this was the first time I really got to design my own kitchen for myself. Everything is a bit taller and it suits me just great.

A note on accessibility: I’ve had friends and families with different mobility and impairment issues—whether wheelchair-bound, deaf, or arthritic—and time spent with them has made me very conscious of what it means to design well for many. A landmarked Brooklyn brownstone is a nightmare for anyone with a wheelchair, a walker, or a stroller, and I also saw firsthand some of the challenges that my design choices presented. The first set of cabinet pulls in the kitchen were a lovely set of straight, minimalist tab pulls. I loved that they gave the kitchen a more modern look. Cue my mother and mother-in-law coming over all the time and struggling with the pulls. They couldn’t grasp the straight pull with their arthritic fingers. I switched them out right away for pulls with a fully curved handle. Now they can just stick their finger under the pull, and a small motion opens the drawers. People keep talking about their “forever homes,” but really think about how you, your guests, and your children will have to adapt to the spaces as everyone starts to get older.

Dining room/bar

On the other end of our Brooklyn brownstone, and connected to the kitchen, is the dining room and bar. We love this room. We really felt like this room, a back extension added in the 1910s, was the reason we bought this place. Then we sadly rebuilt the entire room, but somehow, it’s still our favorite space in the house. So that was a great surprise—buying a house because of one room and then recreating it and still having that be the best spot in the house. It’s our dining room and bar, but we also have space under the dining bench to store all of Nacho’s gear so that he can draw and play at the table while I am cooking.

From being in other friends’ homes, I knew that extensions were always freezing cold and hard to heat. All I wanted was Moroccan tile for this room (in fact, for the whole house, but we just didn’t have the budget for that). Everyone fought me on adding radiant heating to the subfloor, but it’s by far the warmest room during the winter. Larry and I often come home and lie down on the floor and accidentally fall asleep! During the summer, this is the room we hang out in while kids run in and out of the house to the backyard. The best surprise? That giant Tiffany stained-glass window, which was hidden by a crappy 1970’s bookcase on the inside and vinyl siding on the outside. As soon as we bought the house, we ripped down the bookcase hoping we’d find a window, and lo and behold, we did. It was in near perfect condition. We completely sealed it with clear glass on the outside to avoid damage and heat loss, as we did with all the other stained glass details around the parlor floor. There was a large fireplace in this room, but I couldn’t figure out how to fit the mantel and Larry’s bar, and after much cajoling, I finally convinced Larry to agree to rip out the fireplace. The mantel has a new home in the living room, where the original had been removed previously. I will say, to the horror of preservationists everywhere, that I wish we didn’t have our mantels—they don’t work, they take up too much space, and they create artificial focal points in every room. Maybe if they were marble, I’d appreciate them more. It’s form without function, which I have no love for.

The powder room was a tough one to figure out. I hate the idea of guests having to go upstairs to use the bathroom, and with a small child, it’s great to have a bathroom on every floor. I think powder rooms should be wacky. This one is tiny, so doing a fun wallpaper or paint color was relatively cheap. I love the electric Cole & Sons Palms wallpaper—it adds a touch of fun to an otherwise formal dining room. I also love the pop of color from the door to the powder room. We hated having the stained glass window facing a dull orange wall because it cast a weird orangey glow into the room. Rather than fight it, though, we decided to paint the door an amped up version of that wall to tie the colors together in a fun way.

Thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous parlor floor spaces with us, Nazli and Larry! We can’t wait to see the rest of the home next week.

KITCHEN RESOURCES: Cabinets: custom. Cabinet pulls: Rejuvenation. Knobs: myknobs.com. Sink: Kohler. Fridge: Gaggenau. Range: BlueStar. Dishwasher: Bosch. Poured concrete countertops: Oso Industries. Marble countertops: PR Stone. Chelsea Gray paint color: Benjamin Moore.

DINING ROOM/BAR RESOURCES: Tiles: Cle Tile. Sconces: Rejuvenation. Abyss trim color: Benjamin Moore.

POWDER ROOM RESOURCES: Sink: Duravit. Faucet, toilet paper holder, hooks, and soap dispenser: Grohe. Wallpaper: Cole & Sons.

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Jerry and Janet gut renovated a historic Brooklyn brownstone with an exterior that was in desperate need of a facelift and a virtually unsalvageable interior. The results are a perfect marriage of modern and traditional.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, and scope, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.

A post from originally from Sweeten