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sunnyie-eve · 2 years

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33 | Three Favorite Movies... Go

Series: Trouble In Hawkins (Steve Harrington x Henderson! Billy Hargrove x Henderson!)

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: Language, Fluff

October 1985

Today the Byers are moving away and El is going too, Joyce wanted to get away from everything bad. I understood why she wanted to because Will has been through hell here, Bob and Hopper both died here. I've spent a lot of my time helping with the kids packing up their things. "Turn around, look at what you see, see her face, The mirror of your dreams. Rhythms that keep their secrets, will unfold behind the clouds." Lucas and Max sing together annoying Dustin as we all fix boxes. "Wait, did we get that verse right? It's 'unfold behind the clouds'?" Max asks making me crack up because they have been teasing him about it for months.

"Yeah, but you're butchering it, so could you please stop?" Dustin asks as I carry a box setting it down behind them. "So join in, Dusty-bun." Lucas blows a kiss towards Dustin. "Yeah, come on, Dusty-bun, why don't you join us?" Max smiles at him. "You guys are so funny, you should be on Carson," Dustin says with an annoyed face. "Can't we just hear your rendition?" I ask him bending down between Max and Lucas. "No." He simply says. "Please just one verse." She begs him. "No. No way. It's reserved for Suzie's ears and Suzie's ears alone." Dustin raises his voice.

The three of us look at each other thinking the same thing. "Turn around, Look at what you see, In their face, The mirror of your dreams." We sing as Dustin flips us off. "Shut up, you guys." He shouts at us. "Rhymes that keep their secrets." We continue. "Stop! You guys, please, shut up." He shouts more. "Come on Dusty-bun," Lucas says and I stand up. "Fine, I'm done." I put my hands up. "Thank you, Sky." He smiles at me. "Of course, Dusty-bun." His face falls as I pick up the box leaving the room.

It was finally time for them to get going and we all hugged. "I'm sorry, I haven't been around to hang out with you." Jonathan hugs me goodbye. "It's okay, you have your own life too." I hug him tightly before Will comes to hug me crying. "I'm going to miss having you around, Sky." I hug him tight. "I'm going to miss you too Will. Have fun and make some new friends too." I let go of him and El walks up to me. I grab her and pull her close rocking our hug. "Sky, you're like the big sister I've always wanted and I'm going to miss you a lot." She cries hugging me tightly. "And you're the little sister I've always wanted but nope I got stuck with Dustin. El, don't worry. Your powers will come back at some point. Probably when you least expect it. God am I going to miss you." I squeeze her in my arms before letting her go.

We all watch them drive off from the house and my ride arrives. "I gonna go, the three of us are going to go try to get a new job." I hug the kids then Nancy. "If you need a girl to talk to, you know my number and where I live. Plus it would be nice to hang out together." She nods her head. "And Max remember, if you want girl time... you're welcome over any time." I smile walking to Steve's car getting in the backseat. "I was going to get out so you can have the front seat." Robin turns to look at me. "I'm good back here. Plus Steve always makes you sit in the back." I smile leaning forward to rub his shoulders. "Sorry, I want to hold my girlfriend's hand." He says driving off.

We finally get to the Family video and get out of the car. "You put your mom down as a reference?" Robin asked looking at the papers and I laugh getting out. "Yeah. Why not? She's like, super well-respected." He looks at her as he puts his arm out so I can grab on to him. I let go of him as he goes to hold the door open for us. "You are such a Dingus," Robin says entering with me behind her giggling. "You're not wrong there." I turn around to look at him. "Wha-." He follows behind us.

"Hey, Hey Keith." I smile at him walking up the counter. "Hey Sky, What can I help you with?" He asks and Robin puts the papers on the counter sliding them to him on the other side of Steve. "Just wanting a job." I smile at him. "Uh, just to be clear, we weren't fired, you know. The mall burned down and, like, killed a bunch of people." Robin tells him. "Thanks for sharing. Didn't know." He says not really caring. That was the Keith I knew. "Three favorite movies. Go." He points at her. "Uh... The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children Of Paradise." She finishes and he nods his head. "You already got the job but still three. Go." Keith smiles pointing at me. "A Nightmare on Elm Street, Uh... Star Trek the wrath of Khan, and Poltergeist." I smile pointing back at him.

"You, go." He now points at Steve who gets tense. "Favorite movies?" He repeats the question and I look at him. "Did I stutter?" Keith asked him. "Uh... Animal house for sure. Umm..." He tries to take long. "Eyes on me, Harrington." Keith snaps his fingers pointing to his eyes. "Yeah. Uh... Star Wars." He says. "A new hope?" Keith adds. "A new what-now?" Steve gets confused and I squeeze his arm. "Which Star Wars?" Keith asks annoyed now. "The one with the teddy bears. Duh." He says then makes sounds and I let go of his arm shaking my head. "No? Uh... Oh, the one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with the DeLorean and Alex P. Keaton, and he's trying to bang his mom." Steve chuckles and the rest of us are just wowed with how stupid he was. "The time... Yeah, those are my top three. Classics." He finally shuts up.

"Girls start Monday. You start never." Keith points to him. "Will you just, um... Will you give us a minute?" Robin asks Steve. "Why?" Steve asks and I grab his arm, "Steve." I lay my head on his shoulder and he backs away with me. "Do you never pay attention to movie nights and what we watch? Those a could have helped you." I hold his hands as he looks at the floor. "I was just under pressure." He looks up at me and I wrap my arms around his waist looking up at him. "Just stay here and don't do anything stupid. I'm going to talk to Keith with Robin. Plus since I'm nice to him, I also know how to get to him." I let go of him and walk over to the other two.

"A total chick magnet," Robin says as I walk up to them and I wanted to laugh since he's been terrible at that at the mall. "Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me how?" He asks her. "Uh, Earth to Keith. The ladies will come in just to see him. They will come in droves." She exaggerates trying to sell it. "Droves, Keith." I jump in glaring at Robin. She goes on more and I had to turn around to keep my laugher in before turning back around calm. "What's in it for you? You got a thing for him?" He asks her and she looks over at me.

"Goddamnit. This is- Hm." Steve runs into the cardboard cut out and I shake my head. "We're just, um... We're just friends but them." She says as I walk away going over to him. "You Dingus, what did I tell you?" As he still messed with the cardboard cut out. "Fast Times. Fast Times. Ever heard of it? Top three for me, Keith." He smiles at them as I take it from him putting it back. "You kill me." I smile at him and he pulls me into his arms. "It's a good movie." He says walking us towards them and Robin smiles at him.

"Fine, you start with the girls Monday," Keith says and I run around the counter to hug him. "Thank you, Keith. You won't regret hiring him. I promise." He smiles hugging me back. "I only did for two reasons; You because your nice to me and for what Robin said." He says making me laugh. "I believe you." I let go of him and go back to the other two, and Steve wraps his arms around my shoulders from behind me.

We leave the Family Video with a few movies for me and Robin to watch tonight since she was spending the night at my place. When Steve drops us off he holds me back as Robin went into the house. "What?" I ask as he holds me into his chest. "I love you." He kisses my nose. "I love you too... Why are you acting weird?" I giggle putting my hands on his chest looking up. "When did you and Keith start talking?" He asks making me roll my eyes. "Steve, really? Last year when I would go to the arcade with the kids. I had no one to talk to and Keith wasn't that bad. He's nice and actually funny, and you got nothing to worry about bec-"

I didn't get a chance to finish what I was saying as Steve brought his lips down to mine. It was a soft kiss that lasted just a few seconds before he tried to pull away, but I put my hand around the back of his head and pressed my lips to his once more. He placed his hands on my waist while I combed my fingers through his hair, making him moan. When I finally broke the kiss, I looked up at him and smiled. "I hate you." I play with the ends of his hair. "No, you don't." He leans down to kiss me again but is stopped.

"I really don't need to see that again." I turn to see Max holding her skateboard. "I'm sorry, Max. What are you doing here?" I ask walking over to her. "I was wondering if we can have a girls' night?" She looks a little upset and I know it's because El is gone. "Yeah, Robin is staying the night too. So we're having a girls' night then." I pull her into my side shaking her. "I gotta get going, Steve. Girls night." I wrap my arms around his neck giving him a small sweet kiss. "You girls have fun. Huh, maybe Dustin wants a guys' night then? DUSTIN!" Steve yells and Dustin runs out of the house with a bag. "Thank you! I didn't want to be stuck in the same house as them!" He hops into the car. "Well, that was easy." He laughs kissing me one more time before we go our separate ways.

"Robin, Max is staying tonight too." I close the door and see Robin getting water. "Cool." She smiles and we start to talk about what to do. Since mom was out with a few friends out of town, we had the whole house to ourselves. We had music blasting through the house as we were in the kitchen trying to bake a cake, brownie, and cookies. "Crack that whip!" Max sings dancing mixing the batter. "Give the past the slip!" Robin sings checking the cookies. "Step on a crack, break your momma's back." I sing walking towards the door as someone started knocking.

"Oh hello Nancy, Come on in." I open the door all the way for her to come in. "What you girls up to?" Nancy asked and I noticed she was holding a bag. "Girls night and I see you have a bag." She smiles, "I may have heard that you were having one since Mike was told by Steve. They're having a guy's night at his house." She laughs tossing her bag on the couch. "Well welcome to the party. We're trying to bake right now." I laugh as we walk back into the kitchen. "Hey, Nancy!" Both Max and Robin wave at her.

"TAKE ON ME! TAKE ON ME! TAKE ME ON! TAKE ON ME! I'LL BE GONE. IN A DAY OR TWO!" We scream the lyrics dancing together as we wait for the timer to go off. The song ended and I ran to the closet in the hallway to get blankets and pillow down. "Need help?" Max asks behind me and I throw things at her. "That answers your question?" I laugh and she kicks my butt. While the other two were still in the kitchen, Max and I made the living room better for us tonight.

It's early morning, the sun comes out Last night was shaking and pretty loud My cat is purring, it scratches my skin So what is wrong with another sin? The bitch is hungry, she needs to tell So give her inches and feed her well More days to come, new places to go I've got to leave, it's time for a show Here I am Rock you like a hurricane Here I am Rock you like a hurricane

The song starts to play and Max holds onto my arm. "You know, I still act like I'm fine when I'm not." I look down at her. "Me too, Max. Three months later and I still can't fully get over it." I pull her into a hug and we just stay in it for a few minutes till we were both singing along to the song.

As the timer went off Max and I ran to the kitchen but I had to run back to pick up the phone. "Hello?" I ask as the song changes to What I Like About You. "How are you girls doing?" Steve asks and I hear the boys yelling in the background. "Just finished baking and about to make popcorn and watch movies. What you animals up to?" I lean against the wall moving my hips to the song. "I have no clue, to be honest. We are so unorganized; one minute we are talking about movie plots then the next they start to yell about a game. I'm trying to get them to watch a damn movie." He whines into the phone.

"SKY, IT'S GIRLS' NIGHT! GET OFF THE PHONE WITH DINGUS!" Robin yells making Steve curse at her on the phone. "STEVE, IT'S GUYS' NIGHT! GET OFF THE PHONE WITH MY SISTER!" I hear Dustin yell at him. "We better get off. Love you!" We both say at the same time then hang up.

"So Skylar, from Max not too long ago said you and Dingus were kissing up a storm outside." Robin smiles at me laying on her stomach facing me. "Wait, you and Steve are together? When did that happen?" Nancy sat up hitting me with her pillow. "You didn't know? They got together two months ago." Max laughs jumping onto my back wrapping her arms around me. "No, I just remembered them being best friends. Man, I'm sorry. I've been a bad friend that I don't even pay attention anymore. But I'm happy for you, Sky. I think you two belong together way more than we did. I see how happy you two are together." Nancy says smiling at me. "Thank you." I smile back at her.

"Sky, isn't this one of Billy's shirts?" Max gets off my back looking at it. "Yeah, I always sleep in this one." I look back at her and she nods her head. "How did you get Billy's stuff?" Nancy asked me but Max answers for me. "She came over and got a few of his things the next day." She held on to my arm smiling at me. "How are you doing? With everything?" Nancy asks getting serious.

"I'm not going to say I'm perfectly fine because then I would be lying. I'm alright, of course, it's hard losing someone close to you and you know you're never going to see them again. I just have to remember I can't just stop living my life wishing and wanting him to come back. Billy doesn't want me to do that, he wanted me to move on with my life... And even though I miss him deeply, I'm happy with my life at the moment. I have a wonderful boyfriend I never thought I would get with. Someone who ignored me most of my life or made fun of me, then slowly became friends with then best friends with. Never thought I would ever develop feelings for Steve fucking Harrington." I say making the girls laugh.

#stranger things #steve harrington #stranger things 2 #stranger things 3 #dustin henderson #el #max mayfield #steve harrington x henderson #robin buckley #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #will byers #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler

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hotgrrlbummer · 3 years

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the concept of hannibal lecter is so funny. like imagine you find out your friend carson, who always hosted this lavish and elaborate bonfire parties, briefly trained to be a firefighter but quit, has a collection of cool looking lighters and constantly makes puns about burning people/things is the serial arsonist whose been terrorizing the area. what would you even do

#nbc hannibal #arson cw #commit arson #be gay do arson #taken a bit too literally by carson i guess #this post was brought to you by #me looking for words that rhyme with carson #chaoscore

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jeannereames · 4 years

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Hello, this might seem like an odd or unrelated question but, in these uncertain times, do you have any tips for new writers of aspiring historians? I've been feeling awfully discoursged with my writing and the fact that I missed a whole semester of school over the virus.

Let me divide my advice into that for students and for writers.

First, writers, the advice I have now is the same as at any other juncture. Write. Even if you don’t feel like it. Don’t worry if it’s any good. Just write.

One of the earliest lessons I was taught by successful writers, and have only had confirmed in the years since (including by my own experience) is, “Write every day. Even if it’s just 2 pages. Write everyday.” (Or almost every day.)

Writing, like exercise, is a habit. At first, most of what you write on demand may be utter shite. But the more you practice, the better you’ll get at turning out moderately readable prose on demand. There will be times you’re more inspired, or less, but practice really does improve skill.

Find a writing group. Listen to their critique. Don’t get defensive. Unless you’re spectacularly talented, you probably are that bad. LOL. (I was.) There are tricks to good prose. Learn them. Read your stuff out loud, to hear how it falls on the ear. Read A LOT. I mean A LOT. Good stuff. Study what they’re doing. My teachers were Iris Murduch, Toni Morrison, Graham Greene, John Irving, Flannery O’Connor…. Find a writer whose work picks you up and throws you down again, a little bit broken and a little bit more whole. Figure out how she or he did that.

But don’t neglect the nuts-and-bolts, stuff like, “Passive voice is a Bad Thing,” “Said-bookisms suck,” “Don’t over-choreograph,” and “Just use the character’s name, not eleventy-two synonyms.” And especially “’Emerald orbs’ should never be used to describe someone’s eyes,” or the offending writer should be taken out and shot. ;)

I’m not a big fan of books on the writing craft, but I do recommend Dwight V. Swain’s Tricks and Techniques of the Selling Writer, rev. ed. Some of it is quite dated, but most of it isn’t. Scene and Sequel is still A Thing. It works.

Not everyone can be Carson McCullers to pen classics at 22/23/24 (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Reflections in a Golden Eye). But she really only wrote about 4 major novels (in part due to very poor health).

There are writers out there who can count published novels in double-digits. What’s the difference? They sit down and write. It’s not always a classic. In fact, it’s rarely a classic. But it can still be a perfectly good yarn that takes someone out of herself for a little while.

Long ago, I met author Lawrence Dorr, and when introduced, rather shyly said, “I’m not a real writer, but I want to be someday.” Meaning I wasn’t published yet. (I was about 19 at the time.) Dorr just looked at me and asked, “Do you write?” “Yes.” “Then you’re a writer. A writer writes. A writer can’t not write.”

As you can see, I never forgot that exchange.

Dorr was positive inspiration. Harry Crews was negative. That SOB would make me so mad, I once chucked a typewriter out the sliding glass door of a second-story apartment. Broke the door and typewriter both, and I had to pay the apartment complex for it. The upside was I bought an Atari with a word processor. And I got better. Unfortunately it was usually after Crews had posted our grades. But I did learn a few things from the misogynistic bastard–including the trick that there is no muse and writer’s block is just an excuse. “Write, godfuckingdammit,” he’d say. “Two pages a day. Write two fucking pages a day.” (He was my professor before he sobered up so he was still a roaring pain the arse.)

He also insisted that when we want to tie up things neatly, throw a monkey-wrench in it. And to write our demons. Nobody wants to read a story in which nobody bleeds (even if figuratively).

I realize all that probably gives away my age, Ha. My first attempt at a novel was written in longhand, then the second was typed on this sucker, and yes I still have it (typewriter, not the novel, thank god; it was terrible):

Second, students, I am so sorry that you’ve got to worry about losing your job, and maybe your place to live and your car, and still be expected to do homework and attend lectures online that’s only half an education, if that Will we still be doing this come fall? I don’t know. I hope not, but I fear Covid19 will come roaring back, like the Spanish Flu.

But the world is also a lot different place with much greater understandings of viruses, which is why historians (unlike political scientists and sociologists) rarely try prognostication. History never repeats, even if it sometimes rhymes. If there is any good news in looking back at the Spanish Flu, it’s that after the second wave hit, the US (at least) recovered relatively quickly, especially compared to the ‘29 stock market crash a decade later that set off the Great Depression. The good news out of the Depression was FDR’s ability to shove through the New Deal, which resulted in social safety nets like social security, unemployment benefits, the FDIC, and prepaid hospital insurance (the precursor to the eventual Medicare/Medicaid of the ‘60s).

The unhappy news is that US has a bad habit of not fixing its problems till things break spectacularly…like the Civil War (and the trashfire that Reconstruction became), or the Great Depression, or the violence of the Civil Rights Movement.

Also, don’t forget–historians need records. So write what you see around you. What’s it like to be living right now, at this juncture in history? What does it feel like to be young and looking out at a world on fire?

There you combine both writing with history. Maybe you’ll write your own The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

#There is no muse #The Craft of Writing #Writers write #history and crisis #asks #the writing life

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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TV Premiere Dates: 2020 Calendar

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Wondering when your favorite shows are coming back and what new series you can look forward to? We’ve got you covered with the Den of Geek 2020 TV Premiere Dates Calendar, where we keep track of TV series premiere dates, return dates, and more for the year and beyond.

We’ll continue to update this page weekly on Fridays as networks announce dates. A lot of these shows we’ll be watching or covering, so be sure to follow along with us!

Please note that all times are EST.

DATESHOWNETWORKFriday, December 18El CidAmazon Friday, December 18A Creepshow Holiday SpecialShudderFriday, December 18Home for ChristmasNetflixFriday, December 18Sweet HomeNetflixTuesday, December 22Rhyme Time Town SingalongsNetflixWednesday, December 23A House Divided UMCThursday, December 24Shadow LinesSundance NowFriday, December 25BridgertonNetflixFriday, December 25Disney Gallery: The MandalorianDisney+Saturday, December 26LetterkennyHuluSaturday, December 26Fast & Furious Spy RacersNetflixSaturday, December 26Go! Go! Cory CarsonNetflixSunday, December 27Shameless: Hall of Shame (9:00 p.m.)ShowtimeWednesday, December 30Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy: Chapter 2: EarthriseNetflixWednesday, December 30Equinox NetflixWednesday, December 30Vikings AmazonThursday, December 31Chilling Adventures of SabrinaNetflixThursday, December 31Cleaning UpSundance NowFriday, January 1Insomnia CrackleFriday, January 1MonarcaNetflixFriday, January 1Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks (8:00 p.m.)BBC AmericaSunday, January 3Elizabeth Is Missing (9:00 p.m.) | US PremierePBSSunday, January 3The Watch (8:00 p.m.)BBC AmericaSunday, January 3Call Me Kat (8:00 p.m.)FOXSunday, January 3Last Man Standing (8:30 p.m.)FOXSunday, January 3The Rookie (10:00 p.m.)ABCMonday, January 430 Coins (9:00 p.m.)HBOTuesday, January 5Gabby’s Dollhouse NetflixTuesday, January 5History of Swear WordsNetflixTuesday, January 5Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (8:00 p.m.)NBCTuesday, January 5This Is Us (9:00 p.m.)NBCWednesday, January 6Chicago Med (8:00 p.m.)NBCWednesday, January 6Chicago Fire (9:00 p.m.)NBCWednesday, January 6Chicago P.D. (10:00 p.m.)NBCThursday, January 7CoyoteCBS All-AccessThursday, January 7Mr. Mayor (8:00 p.m.)NBCThursday, January 7Law & Order: SVU (9:00 p.m.)NBCFriday, January 8Cobra KaiNetflixFriday, January 8LupinNetflixFriday, January 8The Idhun ChroniclesNetflixFriday, January 8Marvel Studios: LegendsDisney+Friday, January 8Dickinson Apple TV+Friday, January 8Whose Line Is It Anyway? (8:00 p.m.)CWSaturday, January 9A Discovery of WitchesShudderSunday, January 10American Gods (8:00 p.m.)StarzSunday, January 10All Creatures Great and Small (9:00 p.m.)PBSMonday, January 11Finding JoyAcorn TVMonday, January 11The Good Doctor (10:00 p.m.)ABCTuesday, January 12Two Sentence Horror Stories (8:00 p.m.)CWTuesday, January 12The Resident (8:00 p.m.)FOXTuesday, January 12Prodigal Son (9:00 p.m.)FOXTuesday, January 12Trickster (9:00 p.m.)CWWednesday, January 13Everyone Is Doing Great HuluWednesday, January 13The Goldbergs (8:00 p.m.)ABCWednesday, January 13American Housewife (8:30 p.m.)ABCWednesday, January 13The Conners (9:00 p.m.)ABCWednesday, January 13Call Your Mother (9:30 p.m.)ABCThursday, January 14Search PartyHBO MaxThursday, January 14Superstore (8:30 p.m.)NBCFriday, January 15Carmen SandiegoNetflixFriday, January 15DisenchantmentNetflixFriday, January 15ServantApple TV+Friday, January 15EndlingsHuluFriday, January 15WandaVision Disney+Friday, January 15Bunk’d (7:30 p.m.)Disney ChannelFriday, January 15Secrets of Sulphur Springs (8:00 p.m.)Disney ChannelSunday, January 17Batwoman (8:00 p.m.)CWSunday, January 17Miss Scarlet & The Duke (8:00 p.m.)PBSMonday, January 18All American (8:00 p.m.)CWMonday, January 189-1-1 (8:00 p.m.)FOXMonday, January 189-1-1 Lone Star (9:00 p.m.)FOXTuesday, January 19Hello NinjaNetflixWednesday, January 20Daughter From Another MotherNetflixWednesday, January 20Riverdale (8:00 p.m.)CWWednesday, January 20Nancy Drew (9:00 p.m.)CWWednesday, January 20For Life (10:00 p.m.)ABCThursday, January 21Call My Agent!NetflixThursday, January 21grown-ish (8:00 p.m.)FreeformThursday, January 21Walker (8:00 p.m.)CWThursday, January 21Legacies (9:00 p.m.)CWFriday, January 223 CaminosAmazonFriday, January 22The SisterHuluFriday, January 22Losing Alice Apple TV+Friday, January 22Fate: The Winx SagaNetflixFriday, January 22Jurassic World: Camp CretaceousNetflixFriday, January 22The Blacklist (8:00 p.m.)NBCSunday, January 24Bridge and TunnelEpixSunday, January 24Charmed (9:00 p.m.)CWSunday, January 24Euphoria (9:00 p.m.)HBOMonday, January 25Snowpiercer (9:00 p.m.)TNTTuesday, January 26Go Dog GoNetflixTuesday, January 26black-ish (9:00 p.m.)ABCTuesday, January 26mixed-ish (9:30 p.m.)ABCTuesday, January 26Big Sky (10:00 p.m.)ABCWednesday, January 27Resident Alien (10:00 p.m.)SyFySunday, January 31The Long Song (10:00 p.m.)PBSWednesday, February 3Firefly LaneNetflixThursday, February 4Impractical Jokers (10:00 p.m.)truTVFriday, February 5The Snoopy ShowApple TV+Sunday, February 7The Equalizer(10:00 p.m.)CBSMonday, February 8Black Lightning (9:00 p.m.)CWThursday, February 11Clarice (10:00 p.m.)CBSSunday, February 14The Great North (8:30 p.m.)FOXFriday, February 19For All MankindApple TV+Friday, February 19Tribes of EuropaNetflixSunday, February 21When Calls the Heart (9:00 p.m.)HallmarkTuesday, February 23The Flash (8:00 p.m.)CWTuesday, February 23Superman & Lois (9:00 p.m.)CWWednesday, February 24Snowfall (10:00 p.m.)FXSunday, February 28The Walking Dead (9:00 p.m.)AMCThursday, March 4Station 19 (8:00 p.m.)ABCThursday, March 4Grey’s Anatomy (9:00 p.m.)ABCThursday, March 4A Million Little Things (10:00 p.m.)ABCFriday, March 19The Falcon and the Winter SoldierDisney+

If we’ve forgotten a show, feel free to drop a reminder in the comment section below!

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sherrybaby14 · 7 years

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The Past Gives A Present

This is for @multi-villain-imagines challenge

I took the prompt: Catching up: We all have that one person, from the past we rather not meet again. But what happens if we do?

I did not go very heavy on the AU, really the only thing different is Negan’s past and we are in A/B/O territory.

Words: 3k Part 1 of 2 Warnings: Swearing, abuse, A/B/O Tags: @thecynicalnerd @marauderice @mac5323 @idonthavehusbandsihavelovers @negan--is--god @kellyn1604 @i-am-negan-trash @roschelesworld @taintedgenre @screeching-pterodactyl-fangirl @purplemuse89 @blondesouthsquad @enchantingoblivion @jmackie1983 @jasoncrouse @theonethatgotaway213 @negans-network

A/N: I really wanted to do this in one! But I felt like this was a good place to stop. I’ve never seen Uncaged, but felt like this prompt fit what I know about the movie and I’ve always wanted to write a story on this Gif:

“This better be good.” Negan held Lucille over his shoulder as he followed Simon through the Sanctuary.

“I don’t know if it’s good.” Simon shrugged. “I told you it was weird. Some guy showed up at the gate demanding to speak to who was in charge.”

“And you don’t recognize him?” Negan glanced behind as his number two shook his head. “And you didn’t kill him?”

“He doesn’t seem dangerous.” Simon stepped in front of Negan and pushed the door open. “He’s a Beta and you said all new recruits are filtered through you now, but I don’t think he wants to stay.”

“You know the rules, you know where the Sanctuary is, you either assimilate or we decimate.” Negan grinned at his rhyme.

It was a pity the guy was a Beta. Alphas were harder to keep in line, but once they settled they were a hell of a lot better warriors. Negan needed his army large and strong if the Saviors were going to keep on saving.

They strode in silence towards the fence. Negan wished he grabbed a pair of sunglasses as the sun blinded him.

“Well boys, who do we have here?” Negan twirled Lucille in front of him.

“Sharkey?”

The name made Negan freeze.

“Sharkey is that you?” The man at the gate walked towards Negan, his guards letting him go by.

“Holy fuck of fucks, Reggie?” Negan opened his arms and gave his old friend a hug.

“What’s it been 20 years?” Reggie pulled back.

“At least?” Negan thought he would never see anyone from that part of his life again. “What are you doing on the east coast?”

“What am I doing? What the hell are you doing Sharkey? This place is gigantic! And you’re in charge?” Reggie laughed. “I got to say you always did know how to keep the whores in line better than anyone.”

Negan gave a nervous laugh and looked around, the only one in earshot was Simon who gave him an accusatory smile.

“It’s Negan now.”

“I’ll call you whatever the fuck you like man.” Reggie pointed towards the main building. “You have to have a sweet set up here. Bet you have tons of food, guns, women?”

“You always did go straight for the grift Reggie.” Negan scratched his head, the excitement of seeing someone from his old-old life fading. “Whatever con your planning, don’t bother. We may go way back but that doesn’t mean I won’t bash your brains in to protect my people.”

“Your people?” Reggie laughed. “I remember one time that hoe Janice started talking back and you…”

“That’s not my game anymore.” Negan held his hand out, silencing the man. “I didn’t enjoy it back then and I certainly wouldn’t enjoy it now. Let’s skip the trip down memory lane. How the fuck did you find this place and why the hell are you here?”

“Spotted a car, followed it. These colonies are popping up all over the place.” Reggie brushed his shoulders. “I’m still in sales baby.”

“If you came here trying to push drugs maybe I will have to bash your head in.” Negan was losing his patience.

“Hell no! Who the fuck wants to get high in this bullshit life?” Reggie held up both his hands. “The dead walking around trying to eat you? The last thing anyone wants is a bump.”

“Well then what are you selling?” Negan put Lucille back over his shoulder, really tempted to swing her just to shut Reggie up.

“Something you are going to go crazy for.” Reggie grinned.

Negan was about to say fuck it and hit him, when the next word slipped from his mouth and changed everything. ~~~

It was dark and hot in the trailer. So hot. You crumpled on the ground, not even with enough energy to lift your head. If they didn’t give you water soon you were going to die, but after the last week that didn’t sound like such a bad option.

“Holy shit does it reek.” The back of the trailer opened and you struggled to open your eyes.

“We have to keep them surrounded by garbage.” You cringed at your captor’s voice. “The damn things smell so sweet they attract Walkers, probably why so few of them are alive.”

“Shit are you sure she’s alive?” The strange voice was almost booming.

“Yeah. Meg here is just taking a nap.” Reggie grabbed your head and tilted your neck. A bottle was brought to your lips and warm water filled your mouth.

Any inclination to avoid the water vanished and you started chugging, knowing it was the only sip he was going to give you for at least another day, probably more.

“When I first picked her up she was a real fighter.” Arms went under your legs and you were hoisted in the air. “I don’t like to waste supplies on the merchandise either.”

“How long has she been in here?”

Your skin was on fire and even through shut eyes the sun felt like flames. You leaned into Reggie for protection from the rays.

“Grabbed Meg up about a week ago.” Reggie dropped his arm and your legs fell.

You were too tired to support yourself and collapsed on the dirt floor.

“Jesus Christ Reggie.” A hand bent down and touched your forehead. “She’s burning up.”

You winced away, fell backwards, then turned and curled into a ball.

“Maybe her heat is coming on? Good for you Mr. Alpha.” Reggie’s voice was like nails on a chalk board.

The man was a moron if he thought this was a heat fever.

“More like she’s about to die.” There was anger in his voice.

“You want her or not?” Now Reggie sounded annoyed. “Because we’d like to sell her before she dies. If you’re not interested, we will get another buyer.”

“Simon, pick her up and take her straight to Carson. The rest of you start unloading Reggie’s supplies.” Hands were under you lifting you into the air again.

They didn’t feel like Reggie’s, but you were too out of it to care at the moment, wanting nothing more than sleep.

“Remember we get fifteen guns, fifteen boxes of ammo, two month’s supply of food and three month’s supply of water.” Reggie’s voice trailed off as you were carried away. ~~~ “Ughh.” Your body was stiff, but your head no longer felt heavy. You shifted in the bed and turned to your side.

“You’re awake.” A chair rolled across the room. Your eyes shot open. You were in a strange looking room, cabinets and medical supplies. It was not your attic, but more importantly it wasn’t the back of Reggie’s trailer. Before you sat up all the way a man in scrubs was in front of your face, flashing a light before your eyes. You smacked his hands and sat up in the bed, pulling your legs to your chest in the process.

“Sorry.” The man held his hands in surrender. “I’m not familiar with Omegas. Was I overstepping? I know you can be a nervous bunch.”

Frustration rolled through you.

“How would you act if you were kidnapped and held in darkness without any food or water?” You sneered at the man, unable to understand the stereotypes. “Where the fuck am I?”

The last thing you remembered was wanting to die on the floor of the trailer.

“Fair enough.” He dropped his hands. “My name is Dr. Carson. You’re Meg?”

You shook your head in disbelief and leaned it down on your knee.

“That’s what Reggie called all of us. As in Omega. Get it?” If it was just the Doctor getting out of this place might not be so hard.

“Oh.” He shrugged. “You came in with a bacterial infection. I put you on antibiotics. Your fever broke about twelve hours ago. I think you should follow up with pills for a few days.”

“Suppressants?” Your ears perked up at the mention of pills.

“That is something you will have to take up with Negan.” The doc shook his head.

“Who the hell is Neg?”

“NO.”

Your head snapped to the voice in the doorway. An Alpha looked down at you before walking the rest of the way into the room. His eyes alone were enough to give away his makeup and you looked away, not wanting your biology to kick in.

“How’s the patient Carson?” Negan stood next to your bed.

“Should make a full recovery. Observation for the next few hours, antibiotics twice a day taken with food for the next ten days.” Carson placed a bottle in Negan’s hand.

“That’s good news.” Negan tucked the bottle into his pocket, you wouldn’t look up. “Why don’t you go and treat yourself to some extra dessert? They’re about to start dinner.”

The Doctor stood up. Now the only thing in your eyesight was an empty chair. Negan wasted no time sitting down. You kept your chin tucked, not wanting to deal with Alpha bullshit. The door to the room shut and you struggled not to bring your hands to your shoulders.

“What’s your name Doll?” He leaned forward, trying to get a look at your face.

“Fuck you.” He could look all he wanted, but you would not deal with the Alpha intimidation.

“Hmmm, your parents must have been strange to pick that one.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sandwich. Your stomach grumbled at the sight. “Alright if I use FU for short?”

He held the food out and you snatched it away. There was time for pride and a time for survival. You wasted no time taking a giant bite. As if the man had a magic bag he pulled out a bottle of water. You weren’t that thirsty, but grabbed it out of his hands too. Undoing the lid and taking a chug.

“Carson hooked you up to an IV. You’re filled with fluids, so take it easy.” You glanced at him to see a huge grin and your anger flared. “Maybe a thank you is in order?”

“Why would I thank someone who bought me like a piece of cattle?” You wiped your mouth, still not daring to glare at him.

“I didn’t buy anyone Doll, you fell into my lap from the sky.” Negan laughed.

Fifteen guns. Fifteen boxes of ammo. The memories of your sale came back. You had to grit your teeth to keep from throwing up in repulsion.

“Omegas are people too. We were making great progress before…”

“Before the world went to hell and all of your kind died?” Negan tried to turn his head, begging you to look at him. “Spare me on the Omega rights history. It’s a new world now. Tell me, are there any of your kind left?”

“I don’t know.” You shook your head. “I was alone. Reggie said there were three before me. He hunted them one at a time.”

“But your scent attracted the dead?” Negan sounded interested.

“Everything attracts the dead.” You couldn’t help but glare at the man. He did not try to hold your gaze and you relaxed a bit. “We don’t turn. We just die. I heard the government tried to round all the Omegas up for experiments. Find a cure.”

You took another swig of the water.

“But that’s a bunch of bullshit. There is no government. Nobody is trying to find a cure.” Once you broke eye contact with the man you realized he was using his Alpha presence on you, the fucker was just skilled enough to not make it so obvious.

“I would say you’re correct.” Negan laughed.

“Fuck you.” You turned your head to the wall and took another bite of your sandwich, vowing never to look into the man’s eyes again.

“Clever Omega.” Negan reached out and touched your leg, causing you to flinch.

“Asshole Alpha.” Your retort was the best you could come up with.

It did not have the affect you wanted as Negan burst out laughing and started to clap his hands.

“Aren’t Omegas damsels in distress?” He scratched his head. “You break the mold Doll.”

“Omegas are people, not a stereotype.” You took the last bite of the sandwich. “If you didn’t buy me, then let me go home.”

“Don’t bother. Never going to happen.” Negan reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle of pills. He set one on the bed. “If you don’t take that I will shove it down your throat FU.”

Long past wishing for death you didn’t hesitate to pop the pill.

“Come on.” Negan stood up. “I want to take you to your room while everyone is at dinner.”

Everyone. That could mean five or twenty people. You swung your legs over the bed and realized you were in scrubs.

“You were changed and bathed. You smelled like shit.” Negan didn’t look behind. “Don’t worry. Some Beta females. But babydoll, your scent is coming back full force. If I let you stay here any longer I’m going to end up killing some of my people. I don’t think either of us want that.”

Negan held open the door. You kept your head low and stepped into the hall. Your mouth fell open. Even the one hallway looked huge. Any ideas of twenty people vanished.

“This way.” Negan didn’t try to make eye contact as he moved through the hall. “Try and run. Someone will grab you and it will not be pleasant. You seem like a smart girl.”

His voice carried an equal balance of honesty and threat. You fought down the tiny sense of pride that came with an Alpha’s compliment and followed his footsteps. Of course you were barefoot, finding shoes would be a necessity.

“I’m going to have to sequester you for a while.” Negan stopped in front of an elevator and hit the button it came to life with a ding.

“What the…”. You lifted your head and noticed there was electricity everywhere. The last few days made you oblivious to the wonders going on around here.

“The Sanctuary is fully functional. We have gardens, clean drinking water, hot water, working showers, it’s the Ritz.” Negan stepped into the elevators as the door opened.

You walked inside, your head feeling heavy. You lifted a hand and braced yourself against the wall as the door shut, still feeling the after effects of the fever.

“I would have liked to let you recover longer, but the infirmary is no place for an unclaimed Omega.” Negan did not try and touch you.

“Unclaimed now?” You took a breath. “So you buy me and then plan to mate me? How does it feel to be a human trafficker?”

“I didn’t traffic anyone. And like I said, I didn’t buy you.” There was a hint of frustration in his voice.

“Hypocrite.” Your arm started to shake. “Tell yourself whatever you need to sleep at night.”

Negan ignored you and pulled out a key. He hit the top floor and turned the small object before the light came on. The two of you rode up in silence, your eyes getting heavier as you rose. When the ding came your feet moved, but you tripped and started to fall. Before the floor came arms were around you, cradling you in the air.

“Someday you will look back at this and realize how much shit I put up with for you.” Negan walked out, his footsteps echoing.

As weak as you felt you lifted your head. There were too many points to be made to ignore at the moment. “Try and mate me and I will claw your eyes out after I bite off your dick and shove it down your throat.” A small smile spread across your face.

“If only you had any idea how much you were turning me on FU.” Negan smiled. “But I’m not going to mate you. Not tonight. Not until you’re ready.”

“I will never be ready.” Now you smiled triumphantly.

“Alright. That is your choice.” Negan’s smile didn’t drop. “There are fourteen Alphas under me. When your heat hits you can decide. Take me, or I will toss you in a pit of them. See who survives.”

Fear hit your veins. After the past week you went through the stages of grief. Tonight you were more interested in defiance. But now you were afraid. “You’re a monster.” There was a sharpness in your voice even you didn’t expect.

“Maybe.” Negan was not phased. “Or Maybe my past caught up to me tonight and I’m trying to make it right.”

“By buying a woman and then threatening to rape her or have her gang raped?” You didn’t understand his logic, anymore than you understood why you weren’t fighting to get out of his arms.

“If it was rape I would take you right now. Lord knows I want to.” Negan chuckled. “Twenty year old me would have. He would have put a smart like yours in it’s place, but times change and people change. Everyone who arrives at the Sanctuary gets the same choice as you Doll, assimilate or decimate.” He stopped at set you down on a bed, before sitting on the edge. You lifted your head and tried to look around. It was a gigantic open space. Almost like an office building that never got around to putting the walls up. Then you looked down. It was a king sized bed, covered with pillows and a brand new fluffy blanket. There was no scent attached to anything up here.

“I’ll be back in the morning with some breakfast.” Negan stood up. He didn’t try and look at you. “Get some rest Omega.”

“Fuck you.” The pillows were so cuddly you couldn’t help but grab one.

“My apologies.” Negan laughed. “Get some rest Fuck You.”

A smile crossed your face. You didn’t want it too, but between the exhaustion and the comfort you cozied into the bed and let out a sigh of relief. At least you weren’t in that trailer any longer.

#negan x reader #negan fanfiction #a/b/o dynamics #a/b/o #mviwritingchallenge #negans thirst squad #negans-network

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villi-villain · 7 years

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Dancing With the Stars (Season 25) - Week 4 Recap

(If there are typos that I didn’t catch - I’m recovering from a back injury that affected the nerves in my hand so sometimes I can’t feel if my hand got the right key.)

Theme: Most Memorable Year

Frankie Muniz & Witney Carson (Quickstep) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Terrell Owens & Cheryl Burke (Viennese Waltz) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Nikki Bella & Artem Chigvintsev (Contemporary) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Nick Lachey & Peta Murgatroyd (Contemporary) - 8, 7, 7 (22) Lindsey Sterling & Mark Ballas (Viennese Waltz) - 9, 8, 9 (26) Derek Fisher & Sharna Burgess (Jazz) - 7, 8, 8 (23) Jordan Fisher & Lindsay Arnold (Contemporary) - 10, 9, 10 (29) Sasha Pieterse & Gleb Savchenko (Foxtrot) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Vanessa Lachey & Maks Chmerkovskiy (Rumba) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Drew Scott & Emma Slater (Jive) - 8, 8, 8 (24) Victoria Arlen & Val Chmerkovskiy (Foxtrot) - 9, 9, 9 (27)

Lowest Scoring Dance: Nick & Peta’s Contemporary Highest Scoring Dance: Jordan & Lindsay’s Contemporary Eliminated: Derek Fisher & Sharna Burgess

Favorite Outfit(s): I love how they put Mark in Lindsey's dads’ hat and scarf to make him resemble her dad, so Mark. Vanessa looked beautiful. Overscored: No one. Underscored: I’m surprised Vanessa & Maks didn’t get at least one 9. Least Favorite Dance: I liked all of them, BUT Sasha & Gleb have been forgetful this whole season (to me), so maybe them. Most Favorite Dance: Jordan & Lindsay’s Contemporary Favorite Song: “Don’t Stop Me Now” - Queen

Overall thoughts on the night: Since I haven’t done a recap at all this season, to the disappointment of all 3 of you that actually reads my recaps, I’ll share some of my thoughts on the couples as a whole. FRANKIE & WITNEY - even though they’re one of the better couples this season, going first tonight didn’t do him any favors (as they usually don’t). I’m glad they didn’t give them a low-ball score though. At first viewing of their quickstep, alerts from the wildfires going on in my area kept interrupting the performance, but it was a solid performance. TERRELL & CHERYL - okay, I’ve been waiting for my hand to get better so I can type things and so I can talk about the name-rhyming with these two. It is so absurdly funny to my mom and me for some reason that their names rhyme. Other than that, I definitely didn’t care much about Terrell after one of his packages (I think it was week 2, night 1) and still really don’t. However, his dance tonight was very beautiful and it’s nice to see the vulnerable side from him. NIKKI & ARTEM - like Terrell, I’ve been liking getting to see the vulnerable side of Nikki with her struggles and how it reflected in her contemporary, These two are one of my favorite couples and I love their relationship. LINDSEY & MARK - these two are definitely one of two couples (in my opinion) to watch and tonight proved it. Very touching story that I think many people can relate to. DEREK & SHARNA - let me start off by saying thank you to Sharna for choreographing a recognizable Jazz routine. Jazz on this show sometimes turns into a free-for-all (content-wise) or a hip hop routine. Derek’s story was so beautiful - how he took a break from basketball to take care of his daughter (with whom I share a name with). Sharna is one pro that knows how to tell her partner’s story. It’s such a shame and such bullshit that he was the one eliminated tonight. JORDAN & LINDSAY - ahhhhhhh my team! As someone who also was raised very close their their grandparents, this performance was very relatable and like Sharna, Lindsay knows how to convert a story into a dance. These two have a beautiful partnership and this may be Lindsay’s season. SASHA & GLEB - every single week, I find myself being torn with these two. I don’t know if it’s because I have no clue who she is or if it’s Gleb’s choreography, but they’re so forgettable to me and I hate it. Sasha can dance, but that’s about it. DREW & EMMA - gah this performance was so fun to watch! Unlike most, if not all, of these dances were more serious and “downers” (not in scoring or content, there was just a lot of tears flowin’) this dance was very upbeat and you couldn’t help but smile. I love that they had brought Drew’s brother join in the dance. However, I’m worried about how much further these two have on the show given Drew’s fanbase. VICTORIA & VAL - this girl’s story is so heartbreaking and amazing all at the same time. HOW THE HELL IS SHE DOING THIS? Val did a great job with the choreography for this number. Great song, great choreography, great performance.

So... I left the married couples for last because I have some words. I wish that Peta and Maks had sat this season out - they just got married two and a half months ago and I knew TPTB was going to do something like this. I feel that they didn’t really put much thought into which pros would be better for Nick and Vanessa, instead they put them with Maks and Peta just because they’re married. To me, it’s a gimmick. And now there’s rumors that Vanessa and Maks aren’t getting along and now I don’t know if they’re being genuine. Does anyone else feel that way? Let me know your thoughts. Anyway, NICK & PETA - if I were to say whether these two or Vanessa & Maks are having chemistry issues, it would be Nick & Peta. Something about them just fall flat to me. It was great that he chose to honor his marriage with Vanessa for his Most Memorable Year. I am still waiting for a Jessica-comment from Bruno, however. VANESSA & MAKS - they are by far the stronger couple, even if they are having problems. The story of her and Nick’s son was very heartbreaking and shows how far a mother would go to save her child. The song was beautiful and the fact that it was Nick’s song made it better. I really hope these two can get over their problem (if they have one) because Vanessa could go very far.

My Most Memorable Year would have to be 2012, the year that I came out to my family and friends. What would yours be? :)

Who I think should be eliminated next week: Nick Lachey & Peta Murgatroyd Who I think will be eliminated next week: Drew Scott & Emma Slater

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artificialqueens · 7 years

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Royals (A "The Selection" AU Fanfic) Chapter One - TheQuartzMermaid

AN: Chapter One is here! Thanks again to miss Tiffany for helping me out with this. True Miss Congeniality of this season.

Royals - Chapter One (or The one in which Adore signed up for The Selection)

Adore didn’t want to do this. She wasn’t the “princess type”. But an announcement was made, the letter arrived yesterday, her mom was beyond excited about it – and God, mom could be pretty convincing if she wanted. So now there she was, on a line with hundreds of other girls of Sonage, ready to sign in for The Selection. She could see those snob Twos spinning around with their fine clothing. Adore knew for a fact she wouldn’t be selected, but she would give all the money she got singing at parties to see those faces if an Eight girl was chosen. Even a Four would be fine. It would be priceless: a lower caste girl going to the palace and getting a chance to be Prince Casey’s wife and become a One, those bitches wouldn’t brag about their precious “higher positions” any longer.

“Hey, hummingbird”, a blonde girl called Adore from behind, getting a relieved smile from her. It was her friend from school, Rosalynne, a familiar face among heavily made up girls. “It’s nightingale, Rosie. When will you learn?” Both of the girls laughed, pissing off the Twos they loved to mock. “Both can sing, Adorms. So do you.”

“Shut up, you witch! You clearly know nothing about birds.” Adore joked, before taking a look at her friend’s outfit. “Nice dress”, she complimented. “Oh, this old thing? My mother wore this for King Laswell’s Selection twenty-five years ago. She wasn’t picked, but she insisted it would bring me luck. Terrible bridal rhyme.” Rosie was playing with her golden locks. Oh, she would make a pretty princess. “It better give you luck, I’d love to tell everyone I’m best friends with Princess Rosalynne. AND sing at the palace for Christmas and other holidays. You know, I’m Sonage’s nightingale.”

“As if she would make it into the palace”, a tall girl Adore assumed to be a Two said, voice filled with poison. “King Laswell would NEVER let someone below Three even get a chance. You guys are Fives, so…”

“It’s a lottery, Brenda”, Rosie looked right into the sassy girl’s eyes. “Any girl can be picked”, Adore added, a victorious smile on her face. “Queen Danica herself was a Four. She worked on a factory. Does your school not teach you history?”

Brenda opened her mouth several times, but she couldn’t say anything. Ten minutes later, she added an “if it’s a lottery, why do they want our photos?” Adore was somewhat surprised with the idea, but gladly her mind worked faster than the Two’s, and she said: “It’s because the cameras they have in Angeles are so sophisticated they can capture the evil in someone’s eyes. This is not a fairytale, evil queens are not allowed.” Brenda shut her mouth for good now.

***

Three days passed since Adore, Rosie and many other girls around Illéa returned the application forms to the State Providence Office of their provinces. Today was the day: they would find out who made it and who didn’t. Adore’s mom, Charlie, was already sitting in front of the TV when Carson Kressley - the Royal Announcer - appeared, smile shining brighter than Queen Danica’s crown. Adore could only roll her eyes at the scene.

“Today is the day everyone has been waiting for: we’re meeting our Selected Ladies, seeing their names and faces for the first time”, Carson announced happily to the cameras. Adore’s mom was lip-syncing to it. The girl fought the urge to laugh. “Your Majesty, King Laswell. You’ve already taken a look at the girls. What can you tell us about them?”

“You know, Carson, you were right there when we picked our Selected Girls. But I can say I’m satisfied with what we’ve got. These ladies are excellent, I believe it’s the most diverse group of Selected Illéa has ever seen”, the king replied, holding the queen’s hand. They seemed so happy together…

Adore wondered if this Selection thing really worked, looking the royal couple on TV. They had two children: Princess Agrippa, the oldest, was already married to some prince of Swendway; and Prince Casey, the heir to the crown, who was right there, by his parents’ side. “What ifs” started popping in her head. What if she was the Sonage Selected? What if the prince liked her? What if she became Princess Adore, then Queen Adore? Would Prince Casey let her keep her maiden name?

Forget it, stupid. Adore would never be a part of this. Never. Her mom forced her to apply – in fact, she filled out Adore’s form herself. She didn’t want to be a princess. She wasn’t going to become a One.

“I’m also very excited about meeting the Selected ladies, Carson”, Queen Danica’s voice woke Adore up. “I was a Selected before, and I can’t wait to see the competition from another point of view. And, of course, I want my son to find happiness like his father and I did”, the queen finished the sentence by placing a chaste kiss on the king’s lips.

“Bullshit. True royal bullshit”, Adore blurted the words, to Charlie’s discontent.

“Prince Casey, are you ready?” Carson turned to the younger member of the royal family, eyes lit with anticipation. The prince nodded. “Let’s meet our candidates! First up, Miss Linda Gardens of Angeles, Seven.”

A picture appeared on screen, smiley girl with flowers in her hair. The prince didn’t seem much impressed.

“Miss Yekaterina Zamolodchikova of Columbia, Three”, Carson announced, tongue twisting while trying to say that last name. The picture popped, she was beautiful and, by her name, must come from another country. The prince had a half-smile on his face, the queen seemed amused by the contestant. Adore almost laughed again, thinking about the hard time they would have trying to pronounce “Zamolodchikova”.

The list kept going. Linda was apparently the only Seven to make it, but she was not the only girl below Three. There were two or three Fours, one Five and two Sixes. “And last but not least, our girl from Sonage”, the conclusion tone on Carson’s voice grabbed Adore’s attention. Well, this and her mother’s whispers. “Please be Adore Delano, please be Adore Delano”, Charlie prayed in a low voice, almost like a kid.

Hey God, it’s me, Adore. I know I doubted Your existence before, but I do believe You can make miracles happen. Please, don’t let Carson Kressley call my name. Don’t let him call me. Please, don’t let it be me.

And it wasn’t her.

It was Miss Rosalynne Painter, Five.

#adore delano #katya zamolodchikova #adore x katya #royals #au #the selection au #cisgirl au #TheQuartzMermaid #tw cursing #rpdr fanfiction #lesbian au #charlie hides #royalty au

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spamzineglasgow · 4 years

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(REVIEW) Bitten Hair, by Tessa Berring

In this review, Nasim Luczaj teases at the tensile, playful and thingly poetics of Tessa Berring’s brilliant new collection, Bitten Hair (Blue Diode, 2019).

> I have been getting the taste for the life of a still house. By a still house, I mean a still life blown into more dimensions – into silence, walkthrough, hums, windows willed open, soon closed again. Poetry agitates the margins, Berring says in an interview. ‘The far edge of the page is where to lay your glove’, she says in a poem.

> The customary still life is often of fruit: the settled, the perishable. It tells us about how we are also so. ‘Sentences in vases (…) last around three days’. It’s hard to say if we outlive our sentences. Bitten Hair happily connects signs just by connection, as objects are brought together by a house. No discernible rhyme or reason. They lie in the same drawer, on the same tongue. A voice exclaims, lists, brings you to love it. The undulled, categorised as dull, flourishes. The world is more exciting because it is mundane. Sharp as a lucid dream we choose to pace ourselves in. The disarray of living is common to everyone, Berring says in an interview. ‘Things take place’, she says in a poem.

> Maybe it would be nice for objects to reshuffle at night, grow sudden legs and run all the way along the tabletop, along the other side, run onto the radiator. Maybe not. Working from home is very specific. ‘Call it another day, call it a pussy cat / call it a soft bound atlas / of the word’.

> I started reading Bitten Hair in a surgery waiting room. That’s also where the collection ends – though I didn’t get that far in one sitting – with a poem entitled ‘The Surgery is Filled with Female Poets’. Their voices chatter the way through waiting. At least some of them are waiting to lie and face an unknown with open legs, like I am. It was a really nice accident. Now what if I’d spent the day looking for an off-white bathmat and read Berring’s poem on making the same purchase? The particularity of what Berring brings in can be fun where it conjoins with the reader’s life, but more importantly, it settles them down in the world they are in, careful to hold on both to the vibrancy and the trivia. With poetry, we cushion the temperature of our experience, we affirm small cosmologies in which the elements are ready to tilt towards us, so far into us that they get to be something else in the process. In a difficult moment, we need it affirmed that there is space for detail, space for exaggeration, for heat, and also for coolness – promiscuity, ‘sexual langorousness’, crossings of hardness and softness. Berring’s poems don’t cushion; they give room for living. I go back home and exaggerate my condition just to heighten the enjoyment of reading all the rest in bed.

> Bitter Hair invites such an attitude. I exaggerate a small clinical experience and I exaggerate my love for mugs of the house and a shadow I see of a curtain knotted to let in more lit background for reflection, even exaggerate the extent of my exaggeration. Bitten Hair makes me feel wowed, simply, uncritically; wowed from the retina, the heart, the leg, the whole resonating body (and all hair on it, yet unparted). Bent a bit, as a bite bends, or as light urges a plant to bend.

> My general impression of lying with my legs open at the clinic was that of being a pair of antlers hung up from a wall turned ground, a pair mysteriously dabbled in, as if there were a mind left there. Now in Berring’s cosmology, legs are usually scissors. Funny, then, that hair appears always bitten not cut. They’re like the fixed adjectives of ancient Greek: that’s just what – in Bitten Hair – hair is, as some things are something or other for Homer[1]. The bittenness comes back, like a poohstick emerging from under a totally forgotten bridge, for you to feel oh yes, life is lots of losing, and again to lose yourself to the still life. The past tense like a poise of elbow, a particular way of resting one’s arm on what is very much the present. Things have already been said, been bitten, been done, but even so, when I asked myself: is there actually any past tense in this book, without looking, I thought no, absolutely none.

> A pair of scissors carries some sense that feels like a whole sense ready to cut other things whole. A woman’s weapon. You could say the poems womansplain. Remind you of a poise, a type of wisdom. On p. 24, we read:

I found a woman with abstract hands and yellow cheeks who said, ‘philosophy is no consolation for bitten hair’

A woman, abstract, found? A woman, as per, reminding us matter. The volume is concluded by ‘The Most Emotional Woman’ – a sequence of 16 poems, all of which begin with the line ‘I am a most emotional woman’. They are bitter play, ‘more / than a little comedy strip, but less / than a battlefield, where even / living things are not alive’. Some of them remind me of a friend, so I send a couple to him, and he replies: Bit morbid, followed by a kind of summary: I am an emotional human / I collect bits of rubbish / Then look at them in a white room. It makes me wonder what it would be like to read this whole collection not as a woman, at least not as a woman who would notice the ‘woman’ being tipped at ease into ‘human’; not as someone who reaches tenderly for rubbish and is almost always seated in a white room, finally of her own, eyeing all the womanhood, the rubbish, how much breathing can be done in these walls.

> There’s a worry there but do forget my doubts. Almost anyone can click with these poems. Bitten Hair is both utterly playful and ever so inhabitable – it’s like visiting one of those vibrant pretend houses with vibrant pretend cookers you buy for children so they can pretend to be adults, except this place is house-sized, fully furnished, comfortable. ‘Utopia is a tiny place / that closes, see it closes’, we read on a postcard enclosed with the book – an extra poem for us to furnish some surface with. A still to throw. I feel almost subjected to all the dazzling, quick-stroked still life, the play contained. There are so many clothes (‘wear lace if I have to’, ‘it’s good having jeans / all over my legs’), fruits (‘orange’, ‘persimmon’), paraphernalia (‘upright Madonnas’, ‘thigh-high statue of a hare / pointing a rifle at a yucca plant’, ‘(hair-dryer, hair-dryer)’, ‘vending machine’, ‘spatula’, ‘ghosts / on the handles of her saucepans’, ‘an upturned colander’, not to mention the elements on a list of objects towards the collection’s end: ‘exotic / objects like printed bed clothes / and soft men, coffee pots decorated / with green enamel sun-loungers, / the teeth from some sacrificial bull’.

> The voice comes fully furnished, but also with an assurance of space. Not once do I hit my funny bone. I don’t know Berring’s reasons for living in Scotland, but I’m here for the high ceilings (shoutout also to the plus-size puddles still hanging about on the occasional viciously sunny day, like those members of an afterparty who won’t leave and who, strewn across precious sofa space in semisleep, reflect what this world might actually be). Below this ceiling, I can wave my scissor legs. Inverted, lifted, drunk from, drunk on. ‘A foundation can give way at any / moment’, and doesn’t.

> Things don’t have to step out of themselves to matter. They are no servants to metaphor. They don’t stand for. They’re here for themselves, for an elation that can emerge from configuration, for the meeting points between them and what the voice is up to, down for, in the vain of Gertrude Stein or Ducks, Newburyport.

> There is something Steinian not only in terms of nouns but also in devotion to syntax for something like its own sake, for instance in the line: ‘being alive is / and tabby cats’. The lists of things and connections between them are quietly mystifying, as when you list to yourself what’s in the cupboard and string together a meal, making forgetful laps round your own kitchen to make it all work. The poem could be a timelapse of this. The motions are essential to the taste.

> There’s a cosmology to these objects, these actions. Philosophy is mentioned, questions are often asked, but only once do we move overtly into metaphysics, in the poem ‘Small Talk, Say, Flies’:

It’s basically that we don’t want it to end And we know we don’t want it to end

So we stand in our sewn clothes and laugh out loud About how near death is, how near nothing is

Despite waltzing on a stage in turquoise light Despite meat and anemones and gas-lit routes through a park

The little of life is fit in, rendered glad awareness – before it ceases or we cease. Each poem a swatch for some extravagant part of the house. The house is spacious and it’s yours.

[1] At least according to Anne Carson in Autobiography of Red.

Bitten Hair is now available to order from Blue Diode.

Text: Nasim Luczaj

Published: 26/5/20

#review #reviews #Nasim Luczaj #Tessa Berring #Blue Diode

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limejuicer1862 · 5 years

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F WORD WARNING

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Amanda Earl

is a Canadian poet, publisher, prose-writer, visual poet and editor who lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Her first and only poetry book so far is Kiki (Chaudiere Books, 2014). Amanda is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the fallen angel of AngelHousePress. Connect with Amanda on Twitter @KikiFolle or visit AmandaEarl.com for more information.

The Interview

1. What inspired you to write poetry?

I didn’t even realize I was writing poetry until my mid thirties. I scrawled on pads of paper from my parents’ workplaces, all kinds of confessional stuff and complaints and lists. I made notes on index cards about everyone I knew and filed them in a metal box. I just wrote. I didn’t label it. I heard nothing but poetry by men from early childhood and up, whether it was in school or recitations by my father: Shakespeare, Victorian morality poetry, Edward Leer. I liked the rhyming and the sound play, and the images, but I rarely related to it. I dismissed the thought of poetry from my head.

In my mid-thirties, I was going through a period of depression and searched the Internet for solace. I came across the poet Mary Oliver’s poem, Wild Geese, Lorna Crozier’s Carrots (https://jeveraspoetryanthology.weebly.com/carrots.html) poem and also Gwendolyn MacEwen’s fascinating and dark mythological poems. These excited me and made me realize that perhaps I was also writing what could be called poetry. I still wasn’t sure.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

My father, I suppose, but it didn’t feel like an introduction. He was always reciting poetry to me as a child.

3. How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?

More like the domineering presence. Since school curricula for literature were dominated by dead white men, I knew nothing about women poets until I found them in my Internet search in the 90s. I wish I’d known about Plath and Sexton in my teenage years; although what darkness I would have dredged up back then under their influences… When I first started to realize I was writing poetry, it took me some time to find out about poets like Anne Carson who is willing to step out of traditional form to make poetry out of the long lost fragments of Sappho, accordion books about grief, little chapbooks placed in a box so readers can rearrange at will. Or Caroline Bergvall and her mesmerizing engagements with Old Norse. There’s just so much possibility out there for poetry and yet quite often the same white men, dead or alive, have their work published again and again and win prizes and are taught as the poetry that matters.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

According to Mason Currey in his book, Daily Rituals: Women at Work, the photographer Diana Arbus ritual was sex. (https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-daily-routines-10-women-artists-joan-mitchell-diane-arbus?fbclid=IwAR2fXdj7OUukk2c_-RUU8mxIhor8FRPaSWU3yJ0_f_W0t_DzUR8LQ3y3ej0) I usually start my day off with a good wank and at least an hour of pervy chat with a few random strangers. I shivered this morning after a particularly good orgasm. After that I drink Irish Breakfast tea, burn some incense and write or go outside, if it’s not too hot or cold, and wander about until I have no choice but to write. I carry a red journal with me for snippets of overheard conversation, some weird sound play that comes to me, or a doodle. My red journals are smeared in paint and tea stains.

5. What motivates you to write?

1. Lorca’s concept of the duende (https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/LorcaDuende.php) Death is near. I don’t want to be immortal, I just want to continue the conversation. I’m influenced by ghosts, such as Oscar Wilde and Djuna Barnes, Leonora Carrington, Jean Cocteau and Beatrice Wood.

2. Alienation. In some ways I live the standard North American life, but in others I don’t. I write and publish others full-time. I don’t have a nine to five job. I don’t drive. I don’t own property. I live downtown. My husband and I are in a passionate and open marriage. I write to reach out to that one kindred misfit in hope that they feel less alone. The Tragically Hip song “It’s a good life if you don’t weaken,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwNVxvczgCs&feature=youtu.be) comes to mind. “Let’s get friendship right.”

6. What is your work ethic?

I follow three principles: whimsy, exploration and connection. I want to play; I want to learn new stuff and I want to write things that connect with those alienated by convention and the lonely. I punched a timecard as a late teen and I saw my parents punching those same damn cards. I loathe systems and routines and any attempts by external authorities to dictate my time, so I rebel against any system. I write because I breathe. It’s just part of me. Writing isn’t as tough as plumbing or surgery.

I serve the work rather than dictating what the work will be. I once spent three months learning about the sonnet because the manuscript I was working on had to be made up of sonnets, not because I wanted to but because the content required it somehow. I wrote three of the damn things and gave up. They were awful. That manuscript remains unpublished.

I try to remain grateful and humble to have the opportunity to write. Sometimes my work gets published, which is a huge honour. I try to be careful not to let my ego tell me how great I am, because I’m not. I’m just in the right place at the right time and have found the right publisher somehow. This happens rarely.

I try not to take up too much space and leave space for writers who do not have the benefits granted by white colonialist publishing policies and attitudes that continue to prevail. I try to promote and publish 2SLGBTQIA, BIPOC, and D/deaf and disabled writers and look for ways I can support them when I can. I don’t do this enough.

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I read the Exorcist, Mad Magazine, Archie Comics and Harlequin romance novels as a youngster. These works gave me a sense of irreverence that is important for my writing. In high school and university I studied French, German and Italian and finally got excited by literature. Dante made me fascinated with Heaven and Hell; Kafka made me fear insects; Baudelaire made me want to drink red wine. Rimbaud showed me that synaesthesisa, which I have, was not just something I experienced. Later I read Milton’s Paradise Lost. Early influencers of the long poem, I suppose, and the epic. I am writing an anti-epic these days. Red wine isn’t something I can stomach easily anymore. Now and then I’ll have a little Lagavulin in the tub.

8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Nathanaël for Je Nathanaël, for working in the spaces between genres and writing so beautifully of the body. Sandra Ridley for her ability to write long, mesmerizing poems and read them as if they are incantations. Christine McNair for syntactic daggers, sounds that are bitten off, and charm. Anne Carson for her sense of play and versatility. Canisa Lubrin for Voodoo Hypothesis, which is the only book she’s written so far, and it’s brilliant. I am awed by the skill in these poems, not just on a poetic level (diction, imagery, lineation, structure, balance) but also by the power of one writer’s willingness and ability to so effectively dismantle and bring to light the ongoing effects of racism while offering in-depth and tangible illustrations of the othered. Alice Notley for the Descent of Alette, a most extraordinary long poem. rob mclennan for his prolific writing and quiet poetry and bizarre wee stories. Amber Dawn for brave femme truths and incorporating subjects that are traditionally taboo in mainstream CanLit, such as sex work. Joshua Whitehead for the sheer invention and brilliance of Full Metal Indigiqueer which takes down the literary canon so skillfully. The writers in the anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back Edited by Sandra Alland, Khairani Barokka & Daniel Sluman (http://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/stairs%20and%20whispers.html) for the versatility and beauty of their writing. It’s good writing and more people should be aware of it. Ian Martin for self-deprecating comedy. Erín Moure for Elisa Sampedrin. Lisa Robertson for the gift of the sentence. Gary Barwin for his whimsy and willingness to play in numerous genres and media.

I wish Djuna Barnes was here. I’m always looking for a modern-day equivalent. Nightwood was an exquisite and poetic novel.

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I don’t just write. I also play with paint, make visual poetry, which some might say is a form of writing, run two small presses, which do a bunch of things. I spend too much time on social media. I make countless lists. I watch a lot of films and tv. I listen to music. I wank. I fuck my husband. We cook glorious meals together. I go on long rambles and spend a lot of time in cafés. I cry and worry every day for the persecuted in this topsy turvy era where the Ogre in the House of White is making us all fear that the end of the world is close.

All these activities and emotions enter into my writing in some way.

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I don’t know. I focus less on being a writer and more on writing. Writer sounds like a title and titles have a bunch of preconceived expectations I can’t satisfy. Same with poet. I just write.

But I guess, I’d tell them to be gentle on themselves, surround themselves with books, art, film and whatever inspires them. Ignore prescriptive rules, such as write what you know. Heather O’Neill, a fiction writer I admire, once said that for her to write, she has to be angry about something. At least that’s what I remember her saying at an Ottawa International Writers Festival event.

For me, I have to feel emotion of some sort, whether it is anger, sadness, love… I guess I would say to the person who wants to write that they are going to have to make sure that they don’t numb themselves. It’s easy in this era to want to numb ourselves against all the pain and suffering and power games going on, but when we numb ourselves, we don’t feel and if we don’t feel, it’s hard to respond. Writing, whether it’s directly political or not, is a response to what’s around us. I think it takes a great deal of empathy to write. It takes close listening and close watching.

Find a mentor. I’ve been fortunate in that rob mclennan has been extremely supportive of my work. He’s been honest when the stuff is shite. I still remember taking my first of his poetry workshops in 2006 and him telling me I was writing zombie poems.

He’s published many of my chapbooks through above/ground press and my book, Kiki through Chaudiere Books. He always encourages me to write and he has introduced me to many of the poets I mention in my list of influences and more. He does this not only for me, but for numerous others. It’s amazing!

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I was fortunate to have received a grant from the City of Ottawa for Beast Body Epic, a long poem that I began a few years after a major health crisis in 2009 and have been tinkering with ever since. So I’m going to finish tinkering and submit the manuscript for the fourth time toward the end of the year.

I have a smaller manuscript called The Milk Creature and Mother Poetry, inspired by Diana di Prima, one of the women active in the Beat poetry scene.

I’m working on The Vispo Bible, a life’s work to translate every chapter, every book, every verse of the Bible into visual poetry. I began in 2015 and have completed about 300 pages so far.

In 2018, I began work on a novel. Its working title is The Nightmare Dolls’ Imperfect Reunion. It’s about women, health, ageing, friendship, gender, and it has a helluva soundtrack. (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5B1GAgN046EdtrBLXiNoni?si=NIbexI5mQqKnr54qfmJ7ZQ)

Amanda Earl is a Canadian poet, publisher, prose-writer, visual poet and editor who lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Her first and only poetry book so far is Kiki (Chaudiere Books, 2014). Amanda is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the fallen angel of AngelHousePress. Connect with Amanda on Twitter @KikiFolle or visit AmandaEarl.com for more information.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Amanda Earl F WORD WARNING Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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violetbeachpod · 6 years

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transcript: 11 - honeymoon phase

listen here

ROBIN:

Hey, everybody, uh. Robin here. Back at it again! Woo!

So. Personal updates. I got married. You were there, it was great, I have a wife now, it’s cool, it’s good. Uh. The cat is okay! He hurt his leg but he’s got a little cast, which is—very cute. It’s very cute and good and I want all of you to acknowledge that. I was away for a little bit, we went up to my dads’ place in Maine for the honeymoon, for, uh, isolation and distance from the weirder stuff in life, and what have you, so I haven’t actually listened to any of you folks’ tapes, except for, uh, Mae’s and Teresa’s? Sorry. Probably should’ve, uh. Done that. But I’m trying to maintain this good mood, and, uh, don’t wanna bum myself out. Not that you guys bum me out—you are. So wonderful. I care about you, I worry about you, but, uh. This whole—thing is scary as hell. Were that not clear.

But, I mean, I have updates. I don’t want to share them, because if my recollection is right, this is usually about when the happy lesbian starts dying, and, uh—that’s because of, like media traditions from the olden times, but, look, I don’t want to risk anything. I’m sharing because I feel obligated to. So. Hi. It’s me.

This is our calm before the storm, I think. Which shouldn’t feel as comforting as it does--it is the security of a basement right before a hurricane. Before, see, because your basement doesn’t feel safe during the storm itself. It feels like you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die and flood and--

But beforehand, you’re going over every single disaster movie you’ve ever seen, every safety PSA from when you were a kid, and you feel secure. And there’s something to be said about the contrast of comfort and fear; that even the slightest illusion of comfort is bliss in comparison to terror.

But, look. Listen. Metaphors and similes aside, something is about to happen. We all know this. We’re seeing a dip down in Weird Shit T-M, but we’re on edge for a reason.

And I know this, because I got a message yesterday. An email. Not from—none of you would pull this, basically. I got an email, and the address was—blurred out. Like, I hovered and everything, and I just—couldn’t read it.

And it just said, uh. It literally said SOMETHING’S COMING, in all caps. I don’t know why it got sent to me, or anything, but, uh. That sort of proves that something is coming, right? Because, uh, it’s right there. All caps, bolded, italicized, underlined. Not struck through, so, bam, that—

Also, the text is in red, and there’s one of those email platform exclusive emojis of a sun wearing sunglasses. So. Summer? Is when things are coming? Maybe? Who’s to say.

It’s, what, April—twenty-second? Yeah. That’s today. April twenty-second, one-oh-seven PM. So. Summer starts on June twenty-something-th. The twenty-first? Or. Second. Whichever. So I think, like, that’s when it’s gonna hit the fan. Solstices, and all. They’re important. Symbolically, temporally, and hey, if we’re not judging things symbolically and temporally first, what have we been doing in these last five months?

Do people still say that? Shit hits the fan? I haven’t heard it in years, but, uh, I’m not really good at paying attention to that sort of thing. Which is bad, considering, but.

You know.

Here’s what I know.

Something’s coming. We don’t know when, but we have guesses. I’m—I’m.

I’m not sure what to think. I’m not—afraid, but I’m definitely not comforted, either. Maybe anxious is the best word, but it still feels off.

Concerned? No, too emotional.

But something’s coming, and it’s not gonna be good.

Also, the email’s subject was “Just Checking In!!!!!!!!!!!?” with, like, twelve exclamation points and then a question mark. So that’s why I clicked. I don’t think it’s spam.

Uh. Ran into an old friend the other day! Well. Middle school bully turned high school acquaintance. Johnny Parsons? He goes by Jack now, because he started to think that the Johnny Carson thing was annoying. Which it was. But. Whatever. I don’t know why I’m calling him a friend. He was kind of terrible to me, and, like, he stopped but never made the time to apologize, so. Whatever. We weren’t close, during high school, but he was slightly more decent.

But I ran into him the other day. He, uh, said he saw wedding photos online, and, uh, that he was happy for me. But something about his eyes were off. That’s why I mention this encounter with standard Straight White Dude number four-hundred and twenty—that wasn’t intended to—whatever, but—like, you know the type. When I ran into him, this man, who was wearing the whole salmon-shorts-blue-button-up-boat-shoes number, which I didn’t even know had found its way into this town, but he—halfway through our greetings, he just—

Left. He was gone. Like, his body was still there, but it’s like when we found Teresa. Like—

So, he was different, for a moment. Eyes all dilated, glassy. And then, he was back. Pupils back to normal in a flash—like, a literal flash. And the conversation continued, like it was nothing. He didn’t say anything of it, so I didn’t comment. Don’t want to drag in that dude to our weird mystery adventures.

It wasn’t zoning out, before you ask. It was—Look, I know zoning out. It’s—basically what I do, lately. He was totally focused, which was—weird, for him. We had, like, one bonding moment, in high school, and it was when we both just completely blanked on all of the instructions at our ACT prep class and we were assigned to be partners.

But he was focused, and then a flash, and he was out, and then another, and he was back in it.

Weird, right?

That’s the ending to everything any of us say to each other, now. Weird, right, weird, right, weird, right. Ugh! I’m so sick of it, it’s so overplayed. None of us even like overplayed. We all try and push ourselves away from overplayed. Hating cliche is the glue that holds this group together.

Like, we’re gonna argue about what’s weird. Like, okay, so, whatever, everything’s weird. Everything that has happened to us in the past four months is weird! It’s beyond weird, and I am so sick of using that adjective!

We need a better word! I am so sick of just using the word weird and expecting it to be effective.

Semantics are weird.

Right?

That was—I’m kinda proud of that joke. I liked it a lot. I came up with it on the spot, and—It’s genuinely fun. I think.

Here are some suggestions for better words than weird. I’m pullin’ up the old thesaurus in my brain that I used to write bad poetry in high school—I’ve become a bit more Hemingway-esque, since then, but, like, in the brevity way, rather than the sexism thing. But. Here is a list of words that are better than weird. I hope that, for future reference, we can stick to them:

Bizarre. Far-out. Bizarr-o. Freaky. Eerie. Fun and funky. Fresh garbage. As if from a dream. Supernatural. Off color. Eccentric. Offbeat. Outlandish.

Wild and crazy? Out of this world.

Out of this world.

Can we bring that one back? I like it. And I think it suits the situation at hand.

Christ, what am I even doing? I sound like some terrible English teacher. Eugh.

Said is dead, weird is—feared?

Not quite. Let’s check out that rhyming dictionary—

[beat]

Okay, so it’s either feared or disappeared. Neither of which are too exciting, which is a bummer, I think. If there’s no opportunity for a fun rhyming phrase, there’s no need for anything to happen. And that’s just the facts, there. I am a writer. I have a MFA. I know these things. I know them.

Oh. Wow. Cool. Time stopped again.

Sorry, just gotta add that in, so you know Because, hey, it’s still one-oh-seven PM. Love that. That one hasn’t happened in a little bit, for me. Dunno about y’all—again, I have not listened to your tapes, and again, I am genuinely sorry for that. I will when the world is, like, a little less terrible and overwhelming, and also, when I’m not receiving emails from alternative-universe-folks.

Unless you guys are receiving those emails too, and I’m missing that by not listening. I think that stuff goes into the group chat. I didn’t put it in there, though, so, uh. Who’s to say? Not me, certainly. Never me. I don’t know, uh. Anything. Ever. At all.

That’s the nature of humanity, or something like that. Was it Tolstoy who said that? Or Plato?

Ugh. I’ll google it later. It’s just--

Here’s what I know about the nature of humanity, which is just about as much as anybody else.

It’s good. I genuinely believe that. If it wasn’t good, inherently, I don’t know what I’d do with myself. I think I’d rot, wilt, shrivel up.

And I’m usually close to wilting, anyway. That heavy weight in my chest makes me feel like wilting.

[music kicks up--a simple beat, synths, drums, piano. at the end of the world, says a muffled vocalist, it’s just you and me. you and me.]

I gave Teresa a haircut last night at three A.M. She knocked on our door and told us that she needed it that moment. Elaine offered, but then I mentioned her junior year high school roommate, whose hair she dyed, and she shut up right there.

We listened to shitty lo-fi hip-hop and it felt right, somehow, that moment. I’ve been--

I’ve been so close to wilting, but in that moment, three-forty-seven A.M., my friend and my wife and her bad music and our cat and a pair of clippers--

In that moment, I think I grew. Not in a--huge, development sense. I didn’t change. I just felt good, y’know? I felt like, for once, the world was okay.

And the weight was gone.

My point is--

My point is that, we have to be good, in spite of the--my brain is saying weird, and I’m refusing it. To each other. I’m not saying we have to, like, elf-on-the-shelf it. That’s weird. We have to be kind--and not just to each other. To these new people too. To salmon-shorts Jack’s alternate universe self. To Mae. To--to everybody that’s new. This is terrifying for them. We have to--

We have to be kind, we have to make sure that they don’t shrivel up. Because there’s nothing worse than that.

I’m so afraid of shrivelling up.

So, so afraid of it.

Elaine helps. The cat helps. You guys--you all help. I think everybody needs that. I think all of you need that.

If we love each other, and we love everything that we can bring ourselves to love, I think we can overpower the weird--fuck!

Time is moving again. Sometimes, and here’s my theory, just my good ol’ idea: to get time moving again, you have to wax poetic for eight hours, cuz then time gets bored and wants to make that clear to you. If you are pretentious enough about love and life and all of the other big meaningful things that are out there, you can literally control time?

How metal is that?

Do teens still say metal? I am so, so tragically unhip. I hope they do. I like that as a descriptor. I don’t think it’s a good replacement for weird, but I think that we should use it more often.

Okay, okay, so, signing off--yeah, yeah, signing off. Gotta do that. We all do that. I just waxed poetic! I could have used that for signing off, but no. Ugh.

Here’s what comes next:

[static]

[confused]

Here’s what comes next:

[static]

[insistent]

Here’s what comes next.

We need to--

[and the static picks up: long, resonant]

#transcript #season 2 #robin

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jenmedsbookreviews · 6 years

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So this is the blog post that isn’t meant to happen but I had a couple of hours in between events so here we are. What a week this has been, what a rare mood I’m in. Why it’s almost like being … contented I think is the word. After an all to brief round trip to Dublin on Monday to deliver a bit of training, I have finished off my week up in Dundee and Aberdeen combining necessary annual work trips with a touch of blogger heaven a.k.a. Granite Noir.Now I may at some stage regale you all with my tales of what I did and saw but then again I may not. I attended many panels (well a few) spoke to and hugged many authors (well a few) and got some signed books (less than a few). The panels I attended were fabulous and the authors and speakers highly engaging and entertaining including Thomas Enger, Mari Hannah, Sarah Ward, Val McDermid, Karen Sullivan, MJ Arlidge Stefan Ahnhem, Craig Sisterson, Johana Gustawsson, Clare Carson, James Oswald and Will Dean. I also attended a workshop on creating compelling characters with Melanie McGrath which was really informative and made you think about the importance of clarity and coherence in character. The weekend has been, in a word, awesome.

The weekend was made ever more special by my getting to spend time with some truly fabulous people, namely Alison Baillie, Sharon Bairden, and Mary Picken and to meet Claire MacLeary and Kate Noble. Yes … I finally got to meet The (Not So) Quiet Knitter. She is sooooo lovely (if a little shy) and actually very chatty.

As I write this I have two more events left, Words and Music with Thomas Enger and Noir at the Bar. I am looking forward to both of them but hoping I don’t have too late a night as I am due up at 05:00 to be in Portlethen by around 06:15. Then it is the small matter of the 8+ hour drive home with a small diversion to Airdrie. I am so lucky. Actually I am but don’t tell work that. They may think I want to be there …

The best news of the evening – Granite Noir will be back on 24th February 2019. Watch this space folks. And for those of you wanting a much better flavour of what this weekend has been all about then check out Granite Noir TV for some of the panels that were recorded over the weekend.

Signed book wise I was very restrained. Only the two. Killed by Thomas Enger and Eeny Meeny by MJ Arlidge. I still have some more to buy this coming week though as I attend the Orenda Roadshow in Warwick on Wednesday. Cannot wait. To those poor Orenda authors who have been at Granite Noir this weekend, I am not stalking you (much) I am acting as chauffeur for my sister. Honest.

All this travel has been both good and bad for reading and book buying. Aside from the two books above, I may have bought a couple of other titles and I might have received a teeny bit more book post … Book post wise I have received The Lost Girl by Carol Drinkwater and The Language of Secrets by Ausma Zehanat Khan so thank you to Penguin and No Exit Press for those.

Book purchase wise, clearly being at a literary festival has curtailed my spending. As a result I have only bought Letters To My Daughters by Emma Hannigan; Dark Pines by Will Dean (seemed rude not to); The Devil’s Dice by Roz Watkins; The Lincoln Rhyme Collection Books 1-4 and 5-8 by Jeffrey Deaver (possibly inspired by watching The Bone Collector the other evening – I do love Denzel …); Hold My Hand by MJ Ford; The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste; The Sweetheart Killer by Arlene Hunt; Lucky Ghost by Matthew Blakstad; Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan; In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward and Sewing the Shadows Together by Alison Baillie. Not a lot of books at all really.

Whoops. Reading wise it’s not been too bad I suppose. I’ve managed a few books and an audio book so I can’t really complain.

Books I have read

Silent Victim – Caroline Mitchell

Emma’s darkest secrets are buried in the past. But the truth can’t stay hidden for long.

Emma is a loving wife, a devoted mother…and an involuntary killer. For years she’s been hiding the dead body of the teacher who seduced her as a teen.

It’s a secret that might have stayed buried if only her life had been less perfect. A promotion for Emma’s husband, Alex, means they can finally move to a bigger home with their young son. But with a buyer lined up for their old house, Emma can’t leave without destroying every last trace of her final revenge…

Returning to the shallow grave in the garden, she finds it empty. The body is gone.

Panicked, Emma confesses to her husband. But this is only the beginning. Soon, Alex will discover things about her he’ll wish he’d learned sooner. And others he’ll long to forget.

A dark and tense thriller with a protagonist with a very terrible secret. I blasted through this in a day as it was the kind of read which just compelled you onwards. It is released on 1st March and you can order a copy here.

…

Bring Me Flowers – DK Hood

She didn’t know he was watching. Until it was too late.

She’d walked this path hundreds of times before, she knew every twist and turn. But today was different. She didn’t know someone was waiting for her, hidden away from view. She didn’t know this was the last time she’d walk this path.

Hidden deep in the forest, schoolgirl Felicity Parker is found carefully laid out on a rock with nothing but a freshly picked bunch of flowers next to her lifeless form. Detective Jenna Alton is called in to investigate the gruesome discovery.

With the body found just off a popular hiking route, Jenna believes the killer is a visitor to the town… until a second local girl is discovered.

Within days, Kate Bright, a school friend of Felicity’s, is found brutally murdered at the local swimming pool and once again, the killer has displayed his victim in a terrifying manner and left flowers at the scene.

The town is gripped with fear and Jenna and her deputy, David Kane, now know that the killer is living amongst them, and that he’s picking off school girls one by one. But they don’t know who is next on the list.

As the trail goes cold, Kane and Alton are forced to sit and wait for the killer to make his next move. But now he has a new victim in his sights, and he’s looking much closer to home …

If you love Robert Dugoni, Karin Slaughter and Rachel Abbott you’ll love this nail-biting thriller from D.K. Hood.

This is the second in the series and I think it will help readers to have consumed book one, but is not essential. Set in small town America there is a chilling and merciless killer on the loose in a story which will have you locking up your daughters. You can preorder a copy here.

…

The Visitor – KL Slater

He’ll make sure she never wants to leave…

Holly never thought she’d move back to her home town, but then something terrible happened. She doesn’t know if she can recover. But she knows she can never tell another soul.

People say her neighbour, David, is “different”. He doesn’t go out much, and never after dark. But in David Holly finds just what she needs: a friend. Someone who’s always there.

No one knows Holly’s secret, or where she lives. She has left the past behind. She is sure of it. So why does she feel as though she’s in terrible danger?

An absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller, from the bestselling author of Blink and The Mistake. Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train and The Couple Next Door.

A gripping thriller which has you wondering just which way is up. So many possible outcomes in this book and an undercurrent of unease which will have readers in a spin. You can preorder a copy here.

…

The Babysitter – Sheryl Browne

You trust her with your family. Would you trust her with your life?

Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?

As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.

But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants …

Mark is in a race against time to protect his family. But what will he find as he goes back to his family home?

A true cuckoo in the nest kind of thriller this may well have you losing your mind. Tense and occasionally skin crawling if you are a cat lover you may want to look away … You can preorder a copy here.

,,,

Anatomy of a Scandal – Sarah Vaughan

A high-profile marriage thrust into the spotlight. A wife, determined to keep her family safe, must face a prosecutor who believes justice has been a long time coming. A scandal that will rock Westminster. And the women caught at the heart of it.

Anatomy of a Scandal centres on a high-profile marriage that begins to unravel when the husband is accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is sure her husband, James, is innocent and desperately hopes to protect her precious family from the lies which might ruin them. Kate is the barrister who will prosecute the case – she is equally certain that James is guilty and determined he will pay for his crimes.

Oh my life this is such a brilliant book. I’ve had it on my biggest regrets pile for a while so the long drive up to Scotland gave me just the excuse I needed to ‘read’ it at long last. Clever, observant and so brilliantly topical this is a fabulous book which you can order here.

…

Blog has been busy enough, all things considered, and you can find the highlights below (or links to the posts even). I did take part in a Writing Challenge as part of Rachel Abbott’s blog tour so if you are really bored, do go and take a look. You’ll have a chance to vote on your favourite challenge entries soon so keep an eye on Rachel’s Twitter and Facebook feeds for more details.

Guest Post: CJ Harter author of Fitful Head

#BlogTour: The Little Cottage on the Hill by Emma Davies

#BlogTour: Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott

#BlogTour: #TheLastLaugh by Tracy Bloom

Review: Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer

Clearly as I am cutting back on the blogging this year, I have nothing in the diary for the week ahead. Well … apart from blog tours for SE Lynes’ The Pact; BK Duncan’s Found Drowned; Peter Ritchie’s Evidence of Death; Aidan Conway’s A Known Evil; Caroline Mitchell’s Silent Victim; DK Hood’s Bring Me Flowers and KL Slater’s The Visitor. It seems to be all about the initials this week. Do join me if you can.

I am looking forward to another brilliantly bookish week. See you all again soon…

Jen

Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 25/02/18 So this is the blog post that isn't meant to happen but I had a couple of hours in between events so here we are.

#Rewind Recap #Weekly Round UP

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airadam · 7 years

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Episode 95 : Record Store Way

"Studying my sickness like the Tuskegee Experiment."

- Ilajide

In a world with all kinds of options for DJs, there's a lot to be said for just two turntables, a mixer, and some crates!

This month's show has more new releases than the average episode, including some local heat. We also have a track from the late Guru (RIP always), and one or two of my headphone favourites finally coming out into the light!

Upcoming Manchester shows mentioned;

London Posse @ Rebellion, May 23rd

Kool G Rap @ Sound Control, June 21st

Twitter: @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Sean Price : Definition Of God

It's a shame to think that all the Sean Price tracks we'll ever hear are already out in the world somewhere. On this posthumously-released single from this March, Sean blasts the Stu Bangas instrumental with his trademark mixture of rapping dexterity and casual, disrespectful brutality. I know I'm not alone in looking forward to the "Imperius Rex" LP - this is is right up my alley!

Ilajide : Dance Of The Psudo

Ilajide is the man behind the boards for the brilliant Clear Soul Forces, but he's also putting out some very good solo material that's definitely worth your attention! This is a burner from "Five Week Heet III", one of the lead-ups to the "Heet Tape" album release.

Tribeca : Wheel Of Fortune

A favourite of mine for years which I finally got a legit copy of (from the "Subway Series Vol.1" compilation) thanks to the modern convenience of digital purchase! Self-produced as always, the Bronx MC and MPC-batterer tells a tale of a dice game gone very wrong over a fitting 70s sample and some punching drums & bass. I won't give the sample away - to be fair, it's not a hard one to discern - but I do like the way it's been used. Using a three-bar segment for the title breakdown is awkward for a DJ, but it does sound good :)

Rapsody : Kingship

Making a return visit to Rapsody's "She Got Game" mixtape for a short and sweet cut with the legendary DJ Premier. Rapsody has one of those bell-clear voices that works so well for an MC, and lyrics to go along with it. Apparently Premo once tried to give this beat to Ludacris, but it was a little too experimental for him to do anything with!

KING : Red Eye (DJ Spinna Blissed-Out Remix)

My man Agent J from Groovement was up on this three-woman group out of Los Angeles very early, but I'm just getting up to speed on their 2016 debut "We Are King" now. It's a high-quality, ambient-flavoured R&B album with its own kind of flavour, and hopefully it's just a taste of the things yet to come! The great DJ Spinna is on the remix here and gives them some extra bass and head-nod drums to take the original "Red Eye" to new heights.

A.D. Carson : Dissertation (Part I The Introduction)

This project has something of a unique origin, which alone was enough to catch my interest. A.D. Carson was a Ph.D candidate at Clemson University who turned in his dissertation for the Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design program in an unusual form - a full album. "Owning My Masters : The Rhetoric of Rhymes and Revolutions" is worth a listen on both its musical and academic merits, especially as a "name your price" Bandcamp release. Give a student a few dollars though! This track is a solid opener from the album, and A.D. makes excellent and appropriate use of a sample from "Malcolm X" after the hook.

Pro P : Concrete Jungle

Almost pure drums here from one of Manchester's busiest beatmakers, on this track from the first "Concrete Jungle" beat tape.

Ran Reed ft. Sadat X : The God's Power

Hailing from New Jersey, Ran Reed was one of those guys who put in mad independent work in the mid-90s, with underground 12" releases, guest appearances, and mixtape cuts. Only this year has he finally released his debut album, and while longtime collaborator Nick Wiz contributed several beats, Ran also self-produces many, including this one. A Sadat X guest appearance is always a win, and he provides a nicely contrasting vocal tone.

Children of Zeus : Don't Say A Word

They just keep on killing it. This is the B-side of the "I Can't Wait" 7" and it knocks! Konny Kon and Tyler have a great album in them, and I am 100% here for it whenever it arrives; in the meantime, just follow them and be ahead of the curve.

Raekwon : This Is What It Comes Too (sic)

I couldn't have you thinking that I didn't know which "to" to use :) This is the lead single from Rae's new album "The Wild" (big up Dan Lish on the cover art), the first to have no features from any Wu members whatsoever! Xtreme on the beat, working a classic old-school drum break, and the rhyming is prototypical Raekwon street talk.

Guru ft. Branford Marsalis : Transit Ride

RIP Guru! I definitely wanted to play some Guru this month and was pleased to find a track of his with the same drum break as the preceding cut. He was a pioneer in making links between the Hip-Hop nation and the world of jazz, and the first "Jazzmatazz" was a landmark. Here's another link - Guru and Premier actually lived in Branford Marsalis' house for a while back in the day! That sounds like it could have made for an amazing TV programme :)

Focus : (Entry no.3) CisumovneZ

Georgia's Focus is a beast on the boards. I could happily have played any number of tracks from the "aNALOG iN a dIGITAL wORLD 2" album, but went for this one. I love the manipulation and warping of the beat as the track progresses, with all kinds of stutters and stops - almost like a modern-day, digital version of the Latin Rascals.

Geechi Suede : London Luton

A number clearly inspired by the globetrotting adventures of Camp Lo's Geechi Suede, from the "Fishnet Skyscrapers" mixtape. This one was so long in coming after the release of the single "Ask About Me", I figured it had been shelved altogether - but it finally came out this month. This actual track was recorded/released in 2016 via the Brapp TV platform, and features the production of NYTELIFE, Rexx, and SaL GuoD (all the casing styles there). It's a suitably spacey background for Geechi's abstract freestyling!

Clear Soul Forces : Fan-Ta-Sa-Ro

So talented, it's a bit ridiculous. Detroit's Clear Soul Forces channel the spirit of their hometown heroes Slum Village on this track, as Slum listeners will recognise from the title and the hook. Ilajide supplies the beat, and this tune from their debut "Detroit Revolution(s)" gave just a taste of the great work to come.

J Chambers : Thought From New Mount Street 2

A brand new freestyle from a Manchester artist on the rise as he prepares to release his "Moment of Silence II : The Road to Perdition" mini-album. Gorgeous beat, dope rhymes - what more do you need?

Robert Glasper Experiment ft. Ledisi : Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.)

Needed something with a certain kind of flavour to follow up the J Chambers cut and I think I found it with this beautiful piece from Robert Glasper's first "Black Radio" album. Top-notch instrumentation as you might have expected, undergirding the vocals of the exceptionally talented singer/songwriter Ledisi. Oh yeah, she acts too :) This track got a Grammy nomination, and rightly so. The meaning of "F.T.B." is "off the record", according to Glasper, so take your own guess - but it was also the title of the song this is based on, from The Robert Glasper Trio's "In My Element" album.

Beatnuts : Gonna Fly (Inst)

From the old "Hydra Beats 5" collection of instrumentals (one of fourteen), just a head-nodder courtesy of Queens' own Beatnuts, some of the most dedicated diggers in the game.

Nas & DJ Shadow : Systematic

I did not see this collaboration coming! One of the greatest ever to pick up a mic, in combination with a legendary producer...on the soundtrack to the "Silicon Valley" TV series? You could have got great odds on that. The beat is funky at the core with the odd glitchy interjection and some synth bass and FX giving it a contemporary feel. Nas can be counted on to come through with the lyrics, and this track is no exception.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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thedawgsblog · 7 years

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TIME FOR THE DA TO “TAP OUT”

April 10, 2017, a day which will live in infamy in Stanislaus County judicial history. That is the day that Judge Zuniga made her ruling in the preliminary hearing. It was a day of surprises, disappointments and premonitions.

The morning started off with a warning from the judge for the gallery not to react when hearing the results of her decision. The gallery was full with 95% of the gallery in support of the innocent Carson 8. Those warning words did not bode well for the Carson 8 faithful.

The judge first dealt with Georgia Carson and Frank Carson’s stepdaughter Christina De Flippo who were dragged into the fray by overly zealous DA fladager whose sole intention was to disrupt the lives of innocent people in her attempt to subvert justice and cause as much misery, stress and financial loss as her wretched hands could squeeze out of them.

It is a terrible affront to taxpaying citizens and innocent persons to waste hard earned citizen’s taxes to try to destroy a person that is far more intellectually, professionally and knowledgeably gifted than herself. DA fladager brings shame and disrespect title of District Attorney. She has the attitude to destroy and damage anyone or anything that gets in the way of her getting on that pedestal that she hopes people will look up to. Not in this lifetime birgit!

She forgets history. Dictator Saddam Hussain had a huge statue of himself erected there in Baghdad. When the people of Iraq became tired of his egregious and dictatorial conduct, and with the help of others overthrew that dictator, they toppled his statue and hammered it into pieces. DA fladager will soon have to realize history will be repeating itself here in Stanislaus County very soon .

Right before the judge came to the bench, a parade of “investigators “came marching from the lobby down the aisle and inside the barrier that separates the gallery from the bench area. Why they were there is anybody’s guess. They should have been out working to solve crimes or to conjure up more false evidence to try to convict innocent persons. Another waste of taxpayer dollars. The only reason they could have been there is to gloat if any of the innocent Carson 8 were held to answer.

The whole shitamarie were there. Jon “don’t mention domestic violence around me cuz I got away with it “Evers, nummy rhymes with you know what Navarro, “Piltdown Man” Brody, “Lurch” Fingerfelt and of course don’t forget the leader of the rat pack, Capt. Crunch Bunch. I did not see “Jake from State Farm “Jacobson there. He must have been back in the DA’s office writing up another phony search warrant so that he and Capt. Crunch Bunch could go into a law-abiding citizens business and wave their guns around threatening people while looking for documents. Check out the terror attack on the office of AJ Pontillo.

Oh and we can’t forget the judges favorite bailiff, Timothy Luke Schwartz. Old Timothy is the center of and preparing to fight his own battle in federal court in Fresno for viciously assaulting an innocent citizen, Gene Forte in Patterson California. The whole incident was recorded on video and shows Timothy knocking a proned out face down citizen in the back of his head with his elbow pushing the innocent citizens face into the pavement. I will be keeping everyone advised as to the progress of that case as it continues. You can go to badgerflats.com to see what the system does to people fighting corruption in the government.

Prior to continuing my commentary, I feel it necessary once again to post my disclaimer so here it is:

“As a disclaimer for this commentary, I wish to go on record as I have in numerous other commentaries that have been posted. I spent 27 years in law enforcement and fully support all legitimate, ethical and unbiased law enforcement in our country, state, county and city where dedicated men and women who put their lives on the line 24 hours a day to protect us. The three keywords in my commentary are “legitimate”, “ethical” and “unbiased”. This description covers 98% of our law enforcement personnel in the United States”.

Those three qualities do not exist in the case of the Carson 8. This case is rife with liars including both current and pending felony dirtbags and law enforcement officers. Mishandled and tampered with evidence, blatant Brady violations, promises made to dirtbags for help in their case if they will testify a certain way in the Carson case, paying a glorified cell phone salesman over $350,000 for alleged expert testimony which was completely disintegrated by the defense attorneys.

A deputy district attorney (ferreira) who tells the court that no deals were made to any of her criminal witnesses for help in their cases for their testimony. Then Deputy Public Defender Ben Rosenstein comes in and testifies that on the contrary, deals were made for two of the criminal witnesses he represents. That makes ferreira a big fat lying deputy DA. No surprises here folks! And no sanctions either. What’s up with that. Read further and you may be enlightened.

This is a shameful, unethical and sick personal vendetta against Frank Carson, et al, by a DA with the prowess of Algonquin J. Calhoun (Google him) whose motto is “If you can’t beat him, book him”. If you don’t have Google, Calhoun “is best known as the shyster lawyer Algonquin J. Calhoun in the Amos ‘N’ Andy Show”. I certainly hope that the Amos and Andy show will not sue me for defamation of character by comparing fladager to attorney Calhoun who actually had some measure of legal prowess that fladager does not possess. But I do believe they went to the same law school.

For the record at this point, DA fladager has never once shown her charming face inside of this preliminary hearing. She has preferred to throw Ferreira under the bus!!!!!!!

While the judge was delivering her verdicts, I noticed Piltdown Man Brody who always slouches down in his seat, looking around with just his head showing looking like an imbecilic bobble head going back and forth and up and down. Kind of creepy looking. And why is a state employee here today anyway? He doesn’t realize how really entertaining it is to watch him.

Because I am a “go for the throat” kind of guy, even though that would be hard to imagine from my commentaries, I am not going to go into elaborate detail regarding all that was said in the hearing. You can read detailed reports of the hearing at DAWGONNIT.COM. I will be taking bits and pieces of Marty and Tom’s commentaries with their permission to comment on. Please remember that my unbiased fair and balanced comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the ideology of those who print them or read them. So here goes…

All comments used from other sources will be italicized and underlined to delineate them from my comments.

Judge Zuniga now goes into her rulings. Things go well for Georgia DeFelippo and Christina DeFelippo. She finds no evidence at all for a homicide with Georgia DeFelippo. She finds no evidence for obstruction of justice for Georgia DeFelippo or Christina DeFelippo. She sees nothing that would indicate that either of them were involved with a conspiracy to obstruct justice. She states that there is no evidence to show that Christina was an accessory, or knew anything about a felony being committed. Marlisa Ferreira spouts out that she had argued for accessory for Georgia DeFelippo, and Judge Zuniga states that there is no evidence that shows that Georgia knew a felony had been committed.

The judge summarily dismissed the charges against Georgia Carson and Christina DeFilippo and exonerated their bail. Charges which should have never been brought in the first place but the demented DA tried to snare as many people as she thought she could into her vindictive web of deception. As the plethora of civil suits commence for this malicious prosecution, that will be the death knoll for this DA. Perhaps she could move to Podunk County, Kentucky, run for DA taking her investigator minions with her to persecute the moonshiners. She would have to be careful because moonshiners have been known to pick off them “revennewers”.

The judge admitted having a hard time ruling on Walter Wells, and stated that she had spent the most time looking at his situation. I noticed on the bench she was still having that conflict of her ruling. She had stopped and paused several times and she was referring to Walter Wells and deciding what she was going to do as she was still not sure.

If somebody is that conflicted in a ruling of this magnitude, there is something fundamentally wrong with what they are doing. That indicates to me that it probably did not rise to the level of probable cause, but the judge ruled that she be held anyway. MC.

We now go into Walter Wells. Judge Zuniga states that she struggled with this ruling. She starts out by stating that Marlisa Ferreira has taken homicide off the charges for Walter Wells. Judge Zuniga now starts speaking about obstruction of justice, and overt act #12. She states that there is no evidence of this. She now goes into the phone records, and states that the phone records are troubling for both the defense and the prosecution Based on the phone records, Judge Zuniga found enough evidence to hold Walter Wells over for count 2 of obstruction of justice. Marlisa Ferreira reminds the judge that she had asked for a charge of accessory, and Judge Zuniga states that there is sufficient evidence to hold Walter Wells over for a charge of accessory. Judge Zuniga states that there is insufficient evidence to hold Walter Wells over for a charge of murder. TJ.

The judge held Walter Wells to answer for obstruction of justice based on the fact that his cell phone pinged in the same area as Kory Kaufman’s cell phone after he disappeared. Of course, that means that thousands of other people’s cell phones pinged in the same area as Kory Kaufman’s cell phone and they are potential suspects. Could you be one of them? With fladager’s vindictive nature of throwing bull crap against the wall to see what sticks, you may be next.

More shoddy and discredited by defense attorneys information provided by slick cell phone salesman jungle jim cook and his monkey boy son Cheeta who was also sitting in court sucking up the taxpayer dollars so that he and dad could go on that world cruise at the expense of the gullible taxpayers in Stanislaus County. Gullible because the taxpayers have not made demands to the board of supervisors to remove fladager from office before her malicious nature costs Stanislaus County tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits. She is a definite financial liability for Stanislaus County.

Now we get to Frank Carson. Judge Zuniga states that the evidence shows that Frank Carson set this whole process into motion. She rules that Frank Carson, Baljit Athwal, and Daljit Atwal have to be held over for murder, and obstruction of justice. Judge Zuniga states that there is insufficient evidence to prove the special circumstance of lying in wait. She states that this would require a specific intent to kill, and that there is no evidence to show that Baljit Athwal intended to kill Korey Kauffman. She states that there is no evidence to show that a gun or a knife was present. TJ.

Of course there were no special circumstances. There were no other circumstances either. This whole case is based on believing that a drug addicted scumbag lowlife would even know the truth if it kicked him in the rectum. Obviously he would not since this is where his head is located. Woody was so afraid of being charged with murder and the death penalty that he would say anything that the prosecutor wants him to just save his rectum. That is as clean as I can make it folks.

This led to some conversation about the defendants being released on December 22, and I remember at the time the judge stated that she was releasing them to “save the integrity of the process.” But on Monday the judge made it very interesting, it’s on the record, that she had released those defendants from custody to save the District Attorney’s Office from losing this case.

Thinking about that comment, and it is resonating with me for some time, I am aghast that a Superior Court judge, who has been on the bench for a long period of time, would think that she has the responsibility of saving the district attorney’s case for them. I personally do not feel that is her job. Her job is to be an unbiased arbitrator of the facts of the case, and that thought process is in part why this preliminary hearing took 18 months to complete.

Judge Zuniga, A former prosecuter, bent over backwards for this District Attorney’s Office in this case repeatedly, even at times helping Marlisa Ferreira with her questioning of witnesses, and the proper way to ask a question. MC.

…Judge Zuniga states that she let the defendants out on their own recognizance to save the prosecution from having the case tossed out due to all the late discovery. Judge Zuniga states that the special circumstances of lying in wait have been tossed out. Judge Zuniga now states that she is not going to set bail for the defendants, and put them back into custody. TJ.

This statement by the judge about saving the DAs case on the surface appears to prejudice the defendants. It would seem evident to even the most uninformed observer that that statement means that instead of following the law and throwing out the DAs phony case on the first occasion of the DA failing to provide discovery in a timely manner, the judge stopped being an unbiased and neutral tribunal and aided and abetted the persecution in continuing this farcical and egregious miscarriage of justice to continue.

To the readers of my commentaries, I am not an attorney, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Now you might have to go back a ways to remember that commercial. And I am not an attorney but I feel that a terrible judicial error was made when the judge failed to throw this thing out. It almost takes on the appearance of that old saying, “Give em a fair trial and hang em”. We know that the judge was a former prosecutor and apparently once that mentality gets in your blood it’s hard to get it out. A person should know their role and stick to it.

Judge Zuniga now takes up the perjury charge against Frank Carson. This involves a Form 700 that had some financial information that was missing on it. Frank had filled this form out when he ran for DA. She states that Frank Carson had filed an amended Form 700, but that she sees this amended form as not being done in good faith. TJ.

Ms. Ferreira, this count is so misjoined. You can’t do anything about it now, but it really is. It’s misjoined. It’s got nothing to do with the homicide. There isn’t — the evidence that is used for the homicide is not going to be also used to prove this count. It is really misjoined.

The additional charge that Frank Carson was held to answer on was a perjury charge that had to do with an IRS matter completely separate and unrelated to this case. The judge tells Ferreira on numerous occasions that the charge is misjoined several times to make her point.

Legal Definition of misjoinder: an incorrect joinder of claims or parties in a legal action; also : an impermissible joinder of criminal charges or defendants. (Emphasis mine) The DA rat pack knew exactly what they were doing when they dredged up this charge which had nothing to do with the case. The DA rat pack is scratching, digging and grasping at any straw they can to try to get people held to answer. It appears that when the DA uses lowlife dirtbags as their All-Star witnesses, they take on the same persona as the trash they deal with. It’s called the Stockholm Syndrome.

Definition of Stockholm Syndrome: the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize with his or her captor. In this case, instead of a hostage, it is the constant close association of scuzball dirt bag prevaricating witnesses that the prosecution takes on the persona of. Just saying…

In case some of you started reading this in the middle, I feel it necessary to again host my disclaimer lest you think I am anti law and order which I am not:

HOPE YOU ALL AREN’T GETTING BORED. I’M JUST GETTING WARMED UP!!!

It seems as though we are at the end, but Marlisa Ferreira spouts out that she wants the judge to remand the defendants to custody. TJ.

Ferreira says “Judge, I’d like to address the custodial status of defendants Baljit and Daljit –

Judge says: Ms. Ferreira, my releasing the defendants who have been charged with homicide and special circ., if you look at the law, that’s not allowed. And releasing them on their OR –the action I took was to save this case — and it’s in the record — from a dismissal by a reviewing court because of your office’s failure to supply discovery, because I knew you were going to be asking me this. I am not going to set bail on them, but you can make your record.

Ferreira now ranting and saying judge by virtue of the fact that the Court has issued holding orders now on murder, it’s our position that, in fact, the defendants should be remanded and that the Court should post bail on the charges as they’re set.

The judge retorts I set bail; I don’t post it.

Ferreira says set bail. Excuse me. COME ON FERRIERA “TAP OUT”!!!!

So now we have this champion caliber DA who is confused about who sets bail and who posts bail. Could it be that Ferreira may be looking ahead and considering how much her bail will be and who will post it. Just saying…

So the judge then refuses to remand the defendants and require them to post bail stating that they are already on OR and know all the parameters of being on OR. We need a new supply of crying towels for the Dist. Atty. side of the courtroom.

Now, Ferreira begins sniveling again stating we would ask, then, at this time that the continued release on OR, given the Court’s holding order, that the Court impose GPS trackers on the remaining defendants who are held on murder due to the fact that, when you released them on their OR, you made a specific order, and that was that they would not communicate or contact each other.

The judge responds I am not going to have them have GPS. COME ON FERRIERA “TAP OUT”!!!!

The judge’s parting words to Ferrera, which should dishearten the Ferrera fan base were “You know, Ms. Ferreira, there are so many problems in this case. You have lots of problems in this case”. COME ON FERRIERA “TAP OUT”!!!!

Court reconvenes on April 24, 2017 at 9:30 AM for the arraignments of the defendants held to answer. DA fladager can cut to the chase and just dismiss the charges on all of the defendants on April 24th. But she will hold out to the bitter end like General George Custer which also proved futile. 0h, by the way, did you know that Custer wore Arrow shirts!

Well now that the Carson case is on hold until next Monday, I noticed an interesting article in the Bee on April 14, 2017. It read: “District Attorney Birgit Fladager will have competition in 2018 election”. YA THINK? This latest declared candidate is just the first one. How many more will declare is anybody’s guess.

This young attorney compared to fladager, Patrick Kolasinski looks like a clean-cut young attorney. There is no question that any attorney, including Algonquin J Calhoun would make a far superior DA then fladager. Remember old Algonquin?

I am going to take a few quotes out of the Bee article and designate them with italics and underlining so that I have not accused of plagiarizing the Bee.

“I have been watching the management side fall apart and watching prosecutors resign in frustration,” Kolasinski said Thursday.

Truer words were never spoken Patrick!!!!!!! fladager can be compared to Humpty Dumpty and his fall. And no kings horses or no kings men will ever put her back together again either. She has been sitting in that penthouse at the top of the DA’s office for far too long. Well we all know that she has never been sitting in Department 26 during the Carson 8 preliminary hearing. Lack of intestinal fortitude or as we commoners call it “Guts”. But we already knew that.

Fladager, who’s had a contentious third term as district attorney, said she will “absolutely” ask Stanislaus County voters for a fourth term next year.

Really birgit, really????????????????? You have to be bullpooping us. When is the last time you ever read something positive about you in the Bee and I have certainly never seen any positive comments about you in the comments section of the Bee. There is dumb and dumber which usually refers to two people. But in this case they both refer to one person. YOU!!!! Maybe you will come to your nonsenses and decide not to run. Maybe a better term would be 15 to 20 if you get my drift! COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

“I very much enjoy the job,” Fladager said. “We have a great office. We have been able to make tremendous strides in bringing the office into the modern age.”

Stand far enough back people, the bullpoop is flying. Don’t get it on you because the stink stays there. She very much enjoys the job. It is such a pleasant change from her prior job of tearing the wings off of butterflies. Don’t know if she could decide which job she enjoys the most. Her most recent job has been to try to prosecute innocent people that attorney Frank Carson defended in which the juries either acquitted the defendants or there was a hung jury. Then her job became spewing hatred and vindictiveness against a defense attorney she cannot beat in court. COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

We have a great office. Really, birgit, really???????????? Well when delusional people keep saying the same things over and over to themselves, kind of like insanity, they begin to believe it. If a great office is where the employees are afraid for their jobs if they happen to disagree with the boss on something, the office is only great for the boss. COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

Brought the office into the modern age? Really, birgit, really???????????? The only thing modern about the office is your sixth floor private penthouse. From there you can look down on the masses as if you were a drone. Delusional, delusional, delusional!! COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

“There is no accounting of the staff time spent on court cases and the total cost of cases”, Kolasinski said. The challenger proposes to track the time of district attorney employees, including investigators and prosecutors, at least to provide cost accounting for certain types of prosecutions.

Patrick, Patrick! We have been trying for over a year and a half to make the District Attorney’s Office account for and show all of the expenditures into how much money has been wasted in the Carson 8 prosecution and several others such as AJ Pontillo’s case and Mayor Carmen Sabatino’s case. The District Attorney’s Office refuses to provide the information and says there is no way that they can actually give a breakdown of all of the expenses of these prosecutions. Obviously another ton of FLADAGER’S BULLPOOP!

An administrator who is honest, forthright and not afraid of the answers of such an investigation would have no problem having an audit done. That type of administrator is not present in the District Attorney’s Office. Another reason to give birgit and many of her minions of swift boot in the derriere and send them on their way somewhere else. Possibly in a sheep shearing factory where they can pull the wool over somebody else’s eyes. COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

According to his website, better accounting would offer a clearer picture of how to allocate the office’s limited resources to protect the community.

Patrick, Patrick! Truer words were never spoken. Under fladager’s tenure, accountability is like a four letter word. Not allowed to be spoken in the office and employees are not allowed to even have that thought in their head with this administration. Only problem with sticking your head in the sand is that another part of your anatomy is showing. That ain’t pleasant.

In December, the judge in the Korey Kauffman murder case lambasted the DA’s office for serious shortcomings in sharing evidence in the discovery process, creating an opening for anyone who runs against Fladager next year. Judge Barbara Zuniga said she had never seen a district attorney’s office make so many mistakes in discovery.

The judge has never seen a District Attorney’s Office make so many mistakes in discovery. Well Your Honor, you have never presided over any other cases in Stanislaus County or you would know that refusing to provide discovery in a timely manner is a favorite attribute of fladager’s way of doing business. There have been many. Here is just the latest one:

April 12, 2017 – Mesiti, 49, has been in jail since June 2011 and chose to act as his own attorney in October 2015. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Mesiti.

On Tuesday afternoon, the judge was forced to delay the trial again because a prosecution investigator discovered photos collected as evidence that had not been provided to the defense. The prosecution handed over those photos to the defense last month.

Reeves wanted to give the defense time to review those photos and conduct any needed further investigation, so she decided to reschedule the April 10 trial. Now, the trial is scheduled to begin July 10 with jury selection.

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article144225714.html#storylink=cpy

So now Judge Zuniga get this! Mesiti, 49, has been in jail since June 2011 and now almost 7 years later, Mr. Mesiti is getting some more discovery from the District Attorney’s Office. Would anyone care to bet whether or not Capt. Crunch Bunch has his fingerprints on this case? Your Honor, this is just business as usual in fladager’s house. So if you are going to try any more criminal cases here in Stanislaus County, GET USED TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

Kolasinski said “it’s unacceptable the office lacks a system for tracking the volumes of evidence gathered in criminal investigations”.

Patrick, Patrick! You catch on fast and I think that says it all!

Fladager disagreed, saying, “He does not know much about our office.” She said the DA’s office has been converting to a paperless system and has been providing discovery to defense attorneys electronically.

Disagreed? Really birgit, really????????????????? Who woulda thunk that you would ever disagree with someone pointing out egregious flaws in the way you administer your office. Providing discovery electronically? Really birgit, really????????????????? Well maybe you better make sure that your server is working properly. Maybe the photos that had not been provided to Mr.Mesiti for almost 7 years were in an investigators garage or sitting along with the missing game camera from the Frank Carson case. Accountability at the DA’s office, fa gedda bout it.

The district attorney was challenged by Frank Carson, a leading defense attorney who’s a defendant in the Kauffman case, in a bitterly contested campaign in 2014. Carson assailed the incumbent for approving what he claimed were excessive wiretaps for criminal investigations.

Ah yes. Wiretaps! The favorite toy of fladager and some and only some, of her radically overzealous get anybody that disagrees with us concrete cowboys. And we know who you cowboys are. When fladager’s excessive and vindictive use of wiretaps was exposed, I don’t remember the full numbers, but I believe fladager and her cowboys had something like fourteen wiretaps and other very large real District Attorney’s Offices had three or four. Again I don’t remember the exact numbers but they are out there. Did someone mention Gestapo or KGB around here?

Fladager oversees an office with an $18.7 million budget last year and 120 employees. She acknowledged there has been turnover among prosecutors but said that is common for district attorney offices.

An $18.7 million budget. Really birgit, really????????????????? And how many millions of dollars in last year’s budget and years before that were urinated away with malicious prosecutions which resulted in acquittals or hung juries. Mostly acquittals! But when you are tucked away in your sixth floor penthouse you are far removed from the huddled masses with our pitchforks and torches. But remember, even the Frankenstein monster was eventually destroyed.

Turnover is common for District Attorney’s Offices. Really birgit, really????????????????? If you were to compare the per capita turnover rates in other District Attorney’s Offices, I’m sure that they Stanislaus County district attorney’s office would take the cake. However with birgit’s Marie Antoinette attitude, “Let them eat cake”, it is just business as usual.

“We have been through a tremendous economic hardship as a result of the downturn and county fiscal impacts,” Fladager said. “We have lost folks to larger counties because they pay more.”

Sorry fladager but excuses are like armpits. We all have at least two when they all stink. You forgot to use as an excuse that many leave your office because of your Stalinistic method of keeping your employees in line. It’s my way or the highway fladager. We don’t need experienced deputy district attorneys in Stanislaus County, just bring them in directly out of law school and indoctrinate them. We can stamp them out like gingerbread cookies.

“I am looking forward to running for a fourth term,” Fladager said. “I will address any issues as they arise and look forward to being elected for a fourth term and serving the citizens of this county.”

What a crock birgit!!!! It’s time to call out the poop police. As was stated before a term of 10 to 20 would be real nice.

I will address any issues as they arise. Really birgit, really????????????????? You have failed miserably to address current issues that are glaringly real. Why would anyone believe that you would all of a sudden hold yourself accountable?

A person cannot change who they are (their character), no matter how hard they try. This idiom comes from the Old Testament.

Jeremiah 13: 23 Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? or a leopard take away his spots? Nor can you who are so used to doing evil now start being good.

24 Because you have put me out of your mind and put your trust in false gods, I will scatter you as chaff is scattered by the fierce winds off the desert.

25 This then is your allotment, that which is due you, which I have measured out especially for you.

26 I myself will expose you to utter shame.

COME ON FLADAGER “TAP OUT”!!!!

THE END FOR NOW!!!!

WARREN YATES COMMENTARY……. TIME FOR THE DA TO "TAP OUT" April 10, 2017, a day which will live in infamy in Stanislaus County judicial history.

#Frank carson #Stanislaus County

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oselatra · 7 years

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Farther down the road

Director John Miller-Stephany’s first season at the helm looks promising.

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre is stable enough to have built a new Education Annex and recruited John Miller-Stephany as its newest director. It didn't get there by ignoring its audience. Leaders like Bob Hupp and founder Cliff Fannin Baker seem to have sensed that the Little Rock audience is not a homogenous thing — that the same polished performance from Ethan Paulini in "Elf" in 2014 sent the crowd around me into wave after wave of uproarious laughter while I sat, eyes cut sideways, wondering if seasonal depression could be triggered by 90 minutes of exposure to punchlines like "Elfish Presley." They've known when they could push the envelope a little and when they needed to bring in the high kicks and the schmaltz, and they didn't underestimate how many different types of experiences audiences were looking for, programming "Angels in America" in the same season with "Little Shop of Horrors" and putting a production of Matthew Lopez' "The Whipping Man" next to "Mary Poppins."

The Rep's 2017-18 season, starting in August, is the first to be programmed by Miller-Stephany, and after a review of his selections, it's safe to say that there is something for everyone who believes that theater has a power — that spectacular theater shouldn't merely provide us with a break from the socio-politically charged environs of the newsfeed, but should fire off our synapses so that we return to the real world around us with an ever-so-slightly modified lens. That's a pretty tall order, but this season is absolutely up to the task, whether that comes by way of Carson McCullers or ABBA.

The season opens with "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," to be performed Aug. 23-Sept. 10. Carson McCullers' debut novel, which she described in a letter to a publisher as the story of "five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves," has been the subject of paintings, a movie and, in 2005, a play. Citing a longtime fondness for Southern writers, Miller-Stephany said he was "particularly thrilled to have The Rep produce the area premiere of Rebecca Gilman's brilliant adaptation of Carson McCullers' stirring masterwork."

Next up, there's "The School for Lies," David Ives' snarky rewrite of Moliere's "The Misanthrope," which was already pretty snarky to begin with. It's performed completely in rhymed couplets, and that will either soothe the bite of scripted vulgarities like "fecophile" or drive the nail of insult in even harder. Think: French aristocracy gets smack-talked, rap battle-style, but with words like "clitoris" and "LOL." "The School for Lies" runs Oct. 11-29.

Springtime is a favorite season for premiering new compositions, perhaps because the holiday that precedes it tends to be bubbling over with rewrites, sequels and 150 competing interpretations of Handel's "Messiah," and we're ready for something new and fresh when the thaw sets in. (Or, in 2017's case, the unsettling arrival of February mosquitoes.) In a refreshing move, lyricist Maggie-Kate Coleman, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher ("Tuesdays with Morrie," "Compleat Female Stage Beauty") and composer Andrew Cooke (on staff at The Rep's Education Department) have created a new chamber musical based on O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," to premiere Nov. 29-Dec. 24. "This beloved and ageless Christmas story has been copied, adapted and parodied countless times since it first appeared in print in 1905," Miller-Stephany said. "Although there are a number of stage versions available for licensing, my colleagues and I are eager to create a brand-new musical specifically for The Rep's loyal holiday audience."

And, if you're a David Sedaris fan, it's a good year to be in Little Rock. In addition to the humorist's appearance at the Robinson Center April 21, The Rep has added Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries" as a second holiday production, to be performed in the company's Black Box Theater Dec. 6-24, concurrently with "The Gift of the Magi." Curtain times for the two productions are staggered in case you want to make it a double feature.

The Rep begins 2018 with "The Call," a drama from Tanya Barfield that Miller-Stephany said "urges audience members to thoughtfully examine their established positions — both at home and as citizens of the world." The drama explores the complexities of infertility and adoption, the plurality of black identities and first-world ideas of how to define a family, and it will probably ask more questions of the audience than it will answer for them. It's exciting — and maybe even crucial — that this play is being put on in a red state where the words "family planning" can prompt kneejerk reactions on either side of the political spectrum, and where conversations about nonconventional approaches to parenthood can be stigmatized or hushed altogether. "The Call" runs Jan. 24-Feb. 11.

Joe Strummer, Brian Eno and Madonna have all confessed to a love for ABBA, and you can add Miller-Stephany to that list. "I love ABBA's music," he said, "and every once in a while, it's important to just let go and have fun." To that end, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' politely libertine jukebox musical "Mamma Mia!" runs March 14-April 8, 2018. It's a confection of a pop piece that probably doesn't require Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried to delight, especially with "Dancing Queen" and "Lay All Your Love on Me" in the mix. Don't fight it; you're gonna go, and you're probably gonna love it.

The Rep performed Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winner "Art" in its 2001-02 season, and Reza's "God of Carnage" rounds out the 2017-18 season with a dark depiction of conflict resolution-gone-wrong, two couples wrestling with the socially tense aftermath of a playground scuffle between their two children. Miller-Stephany called it a "laugh-out-loud comedy of adults behaving badly," saying, "Perhaps civilization is truly only skin deep." Cliff Fannin Baker, who might very well know what Little Rock audiences yearn for better than anyone else, directs.

Single tickets for shows at The Rep range from $30 to $65, and season subscriptions begin at $132. Tickets for the 2017-18 season, or for the two remaining productions in the current season — "Jar the Floor" and "Godspell" — are available by calling The Rep's Box Office at 501-378-0405 or by visiting TheRep.org.

Farther down the road

#Farther down the road

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limejuicer1862 · 5 years

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

Sharon Coleman

Sharon Coleman’s a fifth-generation Northern Californian. She writes for Poetry Flash, co-curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She’s the author of a chapbook Half Circle and a book of micro-fiction, Paris Blinks. Her recent publications appear in Your Impossible Voice, White Stag, Ambush Review.

She’s been nominated twice for a Pushcart and once for a micro award for blink fiction.

She’s taught composition, poetry writing, creative writing, and college success at Berkeley City College for 15 years and directs their art and literary journal, Milvia Street.

She was a finalist for the Luso-American Fellowship for the Disquiet Literary Conference in Lisbon.

https://bccvoice.net/2016/12/07/sharon-coleman/

The Interview

1. What inspired you to write poetry?

I simply gravitated to it. As a young person, I loved the rhythms and sounds, compactness and surprise. My older siblings and I used to make up all kinds of things to describe our world and make fun of it in the way that many children do until language is more about conforming than inventing. I read a lot of novels as a teen but ultimately found writing fiction a bit boring and predictable, though I’ve more recently picked it up again. There are interesting experiments in fiction to explore and I don’t think that every story has already been told. But I still gravitate to poetry and then creative nonfiction (a popular second love for poets.)

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

I was first introduced through children’s books, most of which are written poetically. One such book was Spooky Rhymes and Riddles published by Scholastic. My older sister used to read that book to me with a different voice for the various poems and characters before I went to sleep. In high school, I was introduced to e.e. cummings and Edgar Allen Poe by my freshman English instructor, who had us memorize a poem and present it in front of the class. I began writing poetry throughout high school on my own.

Poetry also entered my dreams: during an afternoon nap, I dreamed of reading a long poem I had written and woke up remembering only the last line, “When my shadows get up and go good-bye.” It was clear that my poetic task would be to re-create the entire poem in my waking life.

3. How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?

Older poets have never had a “dominating” presence for me. Most of the older poets I know and have known have been very encouraging, suggesting books to read and places to send work and other advice. I’ve learned a lot about our local Bay Area poetry history through them. I have become very aware of the dominating arrogance of some poets in academia, of some in-crowd poets outside academia, of careerists, of the poetry industry, of prizes and awards. But I’ve become more acutely aware of how poets who have had an upward battle against sexism and racism and the old guard in the 60s and 70s can replicate similar barriers against the next generation. Our poetry scenes are still marked, even structured, by tokenism and compartmentalisation. I just read a book of poetry by a young white male (nominated for an award and published by Princeton Press) that contains a poem condoning base sexual harassment of women—and those that nominated it either simply didn’t notice or didn’t care. Or maybe because they nominated an otherwise diverse collection of books and authors, they felt this was ok. Fifty years later, it’s still an upward battle.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I wish I had a daily writing routine. I’ve tried to develop one, but I have too much other work teaching. Mine is a weekly writing routine in which ideas marinate over the week, and Friday or Saturday evenings, I either write a new poem or do a deep revision for my Sunday workshop. I carry a small notebook for ideas that come to me at any time of day.

5. What motivates you to write?

The desire to put into tangible form the insolite of experience. This is a term used by surrealists to express the manifestation of the mystery of the subconscious and of the collective unconscious in daily life. It means being poetically attentive to one’s surroundings at all times, which because I work, I cannot always do, but I try to. I write for coming generations to know what it means to live in this place and time, filtered through my historical perspective. I write to complete projects, to have a book or other publication, to physically hand over to another to experience.

6. What is your work ethic?

I try to not replicate the subtle linguistic constructions of racism, sexism, ethno-centrism, ableism, etc. that linger in our language even when we take a stance against them. This requires never-ending interrogation, learning, deep listening. As George Oppen said, words are never wholly transparent, and this is the heartlessness of words.

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I began reading George Orwell when I was about thirteen, beginning with 1984. My writing engages the political on different fronts. From James Baldwin and Carson McCullers, I look for the psychological depths that form and are formed by social hierarchies. From Hunter S. Thompson, I learned to keep far away from highly entitled drug enthusiasts.

8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

There are so many writers today whom I highly admire, most come from demographics that have not had much voice in the literary world. They have a strong understanding of many elements that have made them who they are and have deep multicultural understanding of our communities. I admire writers who don’t stay in one aesthetic or genre, who explore form as much as meaning. In the 90s, there was a huge divide between experimental and more traditional poets. This was not about thinking but rather about waging war. Today on the West Coast, the divide has been crossed many times and is dissolving; on the East Coast, the divide is stronger. In the 90s, I just followed my own way and was not popular on either side, being too narrative for the experimental poets and too elliptical for the traditional ones. I admire the many other poets who have forged their own poetics through these two camps like Brian Teare, John Isles, Mk Chavez, James Cagney, and many others.

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I write for mental clarity, to somehow put into words the almost inexpressible. I write to explore language(s) and their unexpected capacities. I write for historical understanding. I write for the personal pride of seeing published pieces I’ve worked hard on and believe in. I also do other things that are very fulfilling.

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Read. Write. Learn craft, process, and technique. Really learn craft, process, and technique. Never stop exploring craft, process, and technique. Find or create literary communities. Give to those communities.

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I am currently finishing a book-length poetic sequence set in the house in which I grew up, the drama within the family, the transformation of the landscape and people of the area. When I was about six, my family moved into a wreck of a house in an otherwise idyllic suburban neighbourhood in a city south of San Francisco. It had been the farmhands’ house when the area had been a dairy farm. And another house had been added to it, forming a two-story house. One of my sisters said it had the “public uglies.” Yet it provided all four siblings with their own small room, and my parents fixed it up very well. Later, my father was told this was the dairy farm he had work at when he was eighteen. The place had changed so much that he didn’t recognize it.

The series is written in ten to eleven sections of four to seven poems. Each poem is nine lines, justified both right and left and with many caesura or spaces within the line. The narratives are multiple and fragmented and flow according to association, braiding in and out of each other. This series has been an exciting and painstaking exploration of form. I am very thankful to my writing group, the Green Heart Collective, for being the literary midwives of this project. Here is an early version of series’ beginning: http://www.yourimpossiblevoice.com/spinning-vinyl/

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Sharon Coleman Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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