#now this is what we call a 10/10 cb

[lol-jackles]

Hello, I’m sorry if this gets a bit long. I’ll try to edit it down once I’m done

So, I’m not saying this to downplay its importance to fans or Jared’s truly wanting to help people, but Jared was also very smart to come out with the Always Keep Fighting campaign, no? I could be talking out of my ass I this, because I wasn’t in the fandom at the time, but as well as being brave to share his anxiety/depression with fans, it also seems smart to share it on his own terms before it could be used against him. I think I’ve read on your blog that actors with MHI are often considered a liability to a production because if they “lose it” or walk off of the project, the higher ups are screwed. But, by Jared volunteering his personal information to the huge SPN fan base (and I assume some amount of press coverage), isn’t this a good way the give himself a bit of insurance? If his bosses are starting to think he looks expendable, they can’t now act on any desire to get rid of him without him or even his fans being able to turn around and call them out for discrimination.

I’m not saying these thoughts were the reason for AKF but do you think Jared had the foresight to sort of protect himself with the campaign as well, or was it all risk for him?.

I’m asking this because I read your recent response on possible reasons Jensen isn’t as sought after as Jared post SPN, despite being the clear favourite of some crew on the show.

Jared must have an amazing reputation to overcome the possible mental health stigma, and the fact that some SPN crew seem to blatantly favour Jensen (Wanek, Phil Segricia, Bib Singer, etc).

On a side note: who on the production crew do you think favoured, or even just backed Jared over Jensen? Or treated them equally even?

Okay, this was a lot. But I’d be interested in seeing your insight on any of this (I know you’ll pick what you would prefer to focus on) because from what I can tell, you really do have a pretty good read on what was likely going on behind the scenes.

I think you’re on the right track because it was also my first gut reaction the moment the Variety article came out. For Jared to come out when his career is still hot is pretty telling, normally actor don’t admit to mental illness until their career is drying up.  It’s one less thing he has to hide and therefore one less leverage others BTS can’t use against or hold over him.   

"I wasn’t in the fandom at the time"

During the early season there were rumors circulating that Jared was always late to the set. My first thought was, "They're setting him up to have a difficult reputation". It's producer tactic 101, put out fake news that the actor is a diva who is always late and if the actor doesn't toe the line, escalate it to "difficult actor" so that the studio is not the bad guy if the actor suddenly leaves. 7 years later we find out that Jared was looking to break his contract, so the producer(s) were preparing to make him the fall guy. Once Jared stayed on, the "late to the set" rumor immediately evaporated.

I bring this up because it ties into our speculation that Jared's decision to out himself for mental illness was at least partly motivated by removing a leverage against him BTS.

It was also the right time because he proved that as the principal lead of the longest continuous genre series in America, he's not a risk because filming schedule was never disrupted, which costs a lot of money. Even when he had a breakdown on set in season 3, he still finished out the season. His subsequent breakdown after season 10 could have derailed that, but he returned for season 11 and again lead the show through it's rating resurgence. Impressed, CBS arrived two years later at his doorstep with a holding deal.

"On a side note: who on the production crew do you think favoured, or even just backed Jared over Jensen?"

My immediate thought was Jeremy Carver. He was not in favor of the season 10 Dean-centric arc that Robert Singer and Jensen were angling for, and even tried to head off their campaign during Comic Con prior to season 9. His wife is currently the showrunner of Walker. There's also writer Adam Glass, I'm not sure why but he just vibed being all about Jared.

ETA: thanks to others' reminder, I would also add Sera Gamble. I can't believe I didn't immediatley thought of her as she's one of my favorite writers.

#jared padalecki

[svt-sunnie]

🌟 SUNNIE 🍓 started their LIVE: cb live 💕

streamed on: weverse date: 24.02.26 languages: kor. = “normal”, “chn = bold” warnings: implied breakups, mentioned drinking

“Hi, Carats! Welcome to the comeback live for my second mini album!” Sunnie greets. “It’s been a long time, right?” She says, looking down at the comments.

💎: Unnie we missed you!!!

“I missed you guys too… I've been really busy recently, and I just got back from fashion week.”

“I also had to dye my hair purple, but it's kind of fading now.. It reminds me of the purple hair I had during Mansae era.” Sunnie laughs

“I’ll start introducing the album now since it comes out in one hour!” She says as the staff signals her to hurry up.

Sunnie leaves the frame, then returns with a physical copy of ‘Good, Bad, Ugly.’ “Here’s the album Carats!” Sunnie exclaims while showing it off. “There are three album versions, ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly,’ but I only have ‘Bad’ right now.”

💎: what is the meaning of the album name?

“The meaning of the album is to show all the sides of a relationship with others and with yourself, the positive and the negative, which is where I came up with the name.” She explained.

“I need to speed this up, so I'll start introducing the tracks now!” She laughed as she put away the album. “There are eight tracks on the album and, Woozi and Bumzu Oppa helped me make most of them.”

“I wrote all of the songs based on different experiences I've had throughout my life and want to thank everyone who participated in creating them with me!”

“Okay, the first song is ‘DIZZY’, the album intro.” “It talks about how dizzy it feels to love someone when you aren’t sure how they feel about you,” Sunnie explains.

A 20-second snippet of ‘DIZZY’ plays on the speaker while Sunnie reads the comments.

💎: wahh, how is this only an intro?? isn't it good enough to be a full song?

“Originally, it was going to be a full song but honestly I never ended up finishing the full song so…” She shrugs.

“Next is the title track ‘Find Myself’ which I originally wrote in 2018 when I was struggling a lot with my identity in and outside of Seventeen but it never got fully written, so Woozi Oppa helped me rewrite the song.”

A 10-second snippet of Find Myself plays while Sunnies dances along.

“Since it's releasing soon, I won’t make any additional comments and just move on to the next song, which would be…” She pauses, “Oh, right! The song is ‘My Love,’ I wrote it when I had a lot of love in my heart and felt emotional, so I hope Carats can feel those same feelings!”

While the snippet plays she checks the comments again.

🐻‍❄️: introduce late night pls 🤲

“Since Hansol is getting impatient, we can move on to ‘LATE NIGHT.’ We were out together drinking and somehow ended up writing a song just about having late night conversations, kind of inspired by our actual conversations.”

🐻‍❄️: best song on the album imo

“Hansolie is so..” She trails off, shaking her head.

“Anyway! Next is the song ‘Good, Bad, Ugly’ is actually about the different parts of yourself instead of a relationship. You should always love yourself no matter what!”

After a moment of reading the comments she checked the time.

“Wow.. It’s already 20 minutes until the release..” She laughed. “Alright, this next song is called ‘Star,’ Junnie wrote it with me. It's just a beautiful song, and I feel like the meaning can be up for your own interpretations.” She said while smiling.

💎: I get so happy to hear you sing in chinese!!

“It makes me really happy too! I can definitely see myself making a full Chinese album one day.”

“The next song is ‘Our Street,” which I wrote after having a bad breakup a very long time ago and I never had a chance to release it until now, it's a really sad song but definitely my favorite.”

💎: it's so strange seeing an idol openly talk about their relationships ㅋㅋㅋ

Sunnie hummed in acknowledgment, “I’m almost 26, so I feel like I can talk about it now. Also, nothing that hasn't been said about me before, so why not just make music about it.” She said, shrugging.

“Wow, the last song already? The track is called ‘In My Dreams’ and I wrote it about unrequited love and wishing that they liked you back.”

After the snippet was done playing Sunnie started waving goodbye. “The album should be out in a couple of minutes now, please give the songs a lot of support!”

“Bye Carats!”

alternate title: yuming soft launcing for an hour straight

taglist: @seolboba @amnesixa @allthings-fandoms

#sunnie.live #kpop oc #seventeen 14th member #kpop added member #14th member of seventeen #kpop addition #fictional kpop oc

[apollos-boyfriend]

translation + transcript of bagi and cellbit's (and roier's) conversation - 10/18/23

note: i am not a fluent spanish speaker. i can understand it pretty well, but there may still be some issues with the translation of some of roier’s lines! i apologize in advance. this conversation starts at 03:31:45 of cellbit's vod, and goes until he teleports away from the two. (additional note: CB = census bureau)

R: Hello? Bagi?

B: Hello!

R: Hi Bagi, how are you?

B: Hi, Roier-in-law!

R: This is your house, right? This is your house. Hello, Bagi-in-law, how are you?

B: (laughing) I’m good, I’m good. How are you? R: I’m good! Very good. Bagi, can you follow me up to the second floor? There’s something I want to talk with you about. C’mon, up we go.

B: (crosstalk) Of course, of course.

R: Up, up. Up. In your room. 

C: What’s up?

B: (as Roier punches her in) Ouch, ouch! (laughs) Hi. 

C: What’s up?

B: Did you see how hard he hit me?

C: Yeah. Uh. How are you?

B: A little sad, to be honest. (pause) And you? How are you?

C: Tired. Uh, a lot’s been happening in such a short period of time, you know? Even before you got here. A lot of stuff. Uh. It’s comforting, being in here.

B: Yeah, it’s always been a really comforting place, actually. 

C: Do you remember everything?

B: I remember a few things. Things that someone helped me recall. I remember that we were really happy here. I remember that we did everything together. We were never apart, ever. And I remember that one day you disappeared. You vanished, you were kidnapped. We called the cops, but . . . after a few days, they stopped investigating your disappearance. And . . . they weren’t really keen on investigating. We really did live on this island, and there was this whole thing our parents always said about how this is the safest and most perfect place, but I started questioning that when you disappeared. 

C: I don’t remember any of that. And . . . despite being able to look at you and see my own face, I really don’t remember you. (pause) But . . . I know that the 15 years of pain that I went through . . . don’t negate the 15 years of your pain. 

B: I spoke a little bit with Badboyhalo yesterday about some things that you went through. I didn’t know things were so bad. I’m sorry. I just knew of the prison because I started investigating your case when I got a little older. I-I-I joined the police, after a while. We came to an agreement. And I was investigating your case, and I followed you for a few years. (raising voice) But when I finally reached the prison, you escaped from it! And . . . and then I spent a few more years looking for you after that, too, until I got here, somehow. 

C: Uh. I can’t feel anything but emptiness when we talk about this. And this island . . . it took away everything I had within me. And it gave me some of my most important things, too. When I got here, I was just an empty husk trying to find a purpose. And now I look to the future, and I see the person who saved me (looks to Roier), and the person who spent her entire life trying to save me (looks to Bagi). (pause) All that’s missing . . . is one. All that’s left is getting my son back. I’m tired-I’m tired of all of this. I-ever since I got here, I just wanted to leave. I just wanted freedom. But now . . . I just want my family. And I want a future. I don’t know what’s going to happen after what I did yesterday, after what we did yesterday, and I don’t think that I’m going to get away without facing consequences. But . . . I need to rest. And . . . 

R: Hi? We’re in a family meeting. Continue, continue. 

B: (laughs)

C: Who-

R: No, we’re busy, we’re-

CB: Good morning. What are you doing?

R: Ooh!

B: Jesus!

R: (screaming) What?

B: (shocked) You speak Portuguese now? Since when?

C: (reading) I need you to-uh. I need to go. 

R: No fucking way, man.

B: Well, we can continue this conversation later. I’m just really happy that you came to talk to me because I was feeling completely shattered.

C: Well.

CB: Enjoy the island!

B: No fucking way, no fucking way, no fucking way.

R: Don’t follow him, don’t follow him, don’t follow him, no.

B: Um. I know that you have your own stuff to do, but . . . whenever you want to talk, I literally spent my whole life waiting for this. I don’t mind waiting a few more days.

C: Okay. I’m . . . so tired. 

R: Do you want to go to bed?

C: I need to rest. But I need to . . . see what’s going to happen with this. Uh, I’ll see you guys when I wake up.

B: It’s okay. It’s okay.

R: Okay.

C: Take care of yourselves, okay?

R: Where are you going? To your castle?

C: I-I hope so. 

R: What do you mean, you hope so?

C: I need to go to the Federation offices.

R: You’re really going?

B: (crosstalk) Watch out for-watch out for that piece of shit bear, okay?

R: You’re really going?

C: I thought this would happen. Uh-

R: Well, kids, I’m very happy to see you fixing your relationship. I’m very happy that you’ve remembered you’re twins and that you’re together, okay? Because nothing will separate you two again. It’s nice that you’re together again. Okay? Don’t abandon each other, okay? Even if something happens, nothing’s going to tear you apart, okay?

C: Thank you, guapito. 

B: Thank you, guapito-no, no, not guapito 

R: (laughs)

C: No, no, it’s a nickname, you can use it, you can use it, it’s a nickname-

B: (crosstalk) Roier-in-law! He’s my Roier-in-law.

R: Roier-in-law, Roier-in-law. And my Bagi-in-law. Okay.

B: Roier-in-law, thank you so much.

R: Nah, nah, it was nothing. 

B: You’re the best in-law I’ve ever had! And the only one, actually. 

R: Obviously, obviously. You’re also the only one [I’ve had].

C: And . . . protect her, okay?

R: Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, and-

B: (interrupting) Hey! I don’t need to be protected! But if you disappear, you know that I’ll find you again, right?

C: (crosstalk) I just need to-

R: (crosstalk) Cellbit, if anything happens, send me-send me a message, okay?

C: Of course. I will. 

R: Okay, goodbye. Good luck!

C: Thank you.

#icarus speaks #qsmp translation #YIPEEEE my job is done for now #i don't have much want to transcribe his convo with the census bureau TEE BEE H #if people want me to. i might later. idk leave ur responses below or in my askbox or smth #go wild #anyways! this one took me about 30 mins

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #34: 1983

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: The Police, Michael Jackson, Irene Cara, Men at Work, Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler, Hall & Oates, Patti Austin and James Ingram, Michael Sembello, Eurythmics. End description]

More information about this blog here

Today's poll includes multiple songs off the soundtrack for the movie, Flashdance. We've seen songs from soundtracks featured on these polls, with You Light Up My Life and Evergreen coming to mind (plus songs from actual musicals). But instead of just diegetic ballads and showtunes, now we're seeing more songs marketing themselves around their connection to the films they were written for. As music videos are being shot more like movies and movies are being shot more like music videos, the meeting of these two worlds makes sense. Especially when music videos start to include actual clips from the movies, MTV was the place to get a wide audience for your music.

But not everyone could see the benefits right away. While MTV kicked off with a bang, their initial video rotation infamously featured no Black acts. The network's explanation was to insist that the exclusion wasn't based on race, but rather MTV's status as a "rock station".

1983 also marks the 25th anniversary of Motown Records and a television special (Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever) was broadcasted to mark the occasion. While the night is marked by more legends than I can list off, the notable performance for this blurb was Michael Jackson. After performing with the Jackson 5 for the first time since the 70's, Michael Jackson performed his new solo hit, Billie Jean. This number marks the public debut of the moonwalk, the musician's signature dance move that arguably cemented his status as a pop culture icon.

In hindsight, it feels ludicrous that an artist like Michael Jackson was initially unable to get on MTV. Fortunately, people at the time thought it was ludicrous as well. Both Rick James and David Bowie called out the network years before (with James being especially vocal in critiquing MTV for its exclusion of Black artists). But allegedly, Michael Jackson's record company found a way to get Billie Jean on the channel. To quote Walter Yetnikoff, the president of CBS Records at the time:

“I said to MTV, ‘I’m pulling everything we have off the air, all our product. I’m not going to give you any more videos. And I’m going to go public and fucking tell them about the fact you don’t want to play music by a black guy.’” (x)

Whether in response to Yetnikoff or not, Billie Jean aired on MTV March 10th, 1983, making it the first music video by a Black artist to be featured in heavy rotation on the channel. Later this year, the cinematic possibilities of the music video would be pushed further with the 13 minute video for Thriller. Michael was already a star without the push from MTV, and with how popular his videos were, it could be argued that MTV needed Michael as much if not more than he needed them. But while MTV's problems with race and representation were far from over, this moment helped pave the way for many other Black artists who will become iconic figures on the channel.

#billboard poll #billboard music #tumblr poll #1980s #1980s music #1983 #the police #michael jackson #irene cara #men at work #bonnie tyler #hall and oates #patti austin #james ingram #michael sembello #eurythmics

[sunshinereddie]

I had a fun idea I once again wanted to share with the people:

Post-Ch2 AU where rich and eds have been dating and living together for five years when they find out widowed and elderly Maggie Tozier can no longer comfortably live by herself so of course they immediately offer to have her come live with them

"It'll be just like a sitcom!" Richie promises. "New England widow moves to LA with her gay son and his lover. I'm getting CBS on the horn" Of course there's more routine doctors appointments than your typical sitcom but hijinks do in fact ensue

PLSSSS YES LJERHBFAJE

this works and it's amazing because eddie already loves maggie and maggie already loves eddie so it's perfect!!!

im imagining the sitcom already. richie thinks that his dear old mother from maine won't be able to handle the LA lifestyle but as soon as they pick her up from the airport she's like "alright get me down to a beach NOW and get a drink in my hand NOW"- true sitcom style of course. THERE'S JUST SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!!!!

i also feel like at this point if they've been together for so long, then they absolutely would have told maggie that they're dating, but im also imagining what if they actually DIDN'T tell her yet, and so they decide not to tell her right away, to let her get settled in and calmed down from the hustle and bustle of moving before telling her "actually we're not just really good friends who decided to become roommates after eddie's divorce",,,, eddie does NOT think it will work. he's like "and just how are we supposed to fool her, hm? how are we supposed to hide from her that we sleep together in the same room, richard." and richie just waves him off like "IT ADDS TO THE COMEDY"

only for maggie to offhandedly mention the fact that richie and eddie are such a cute couple like 10 minutes off the plane and richie's like "?????? WHAT"

and maggie just smiles at him sweetly and she's like "richie. come on, dear. i watched you two grow up together. i saw you two at thanksgiving last year. you're not very good at hiding it."

ANYWAYSS i'd pay to watch this sitcom. richie i'm calling CBS with you lets get this show on the road

#sunshinereddie asks #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #reddie

[ncisfranchise-source]

Brian Dietzen had a tall order when it came to the latest NCIS episode he cowrote with Scott Williams: the tribute to Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard and the actor who played him, the late David McCallum. But it’s one the two were more than ready to take on.

“When you lose someone very close, you can fall into just crying and mourning continually, and while we wanted to pay homage to him, we didn’t want that to be it,” Dietzen tells TV Insider ahead of the February 19 episode. “We wanted to celebrate the fun times as well, and we wanted to celebrate the amazing work that this great actor did on our show and also honor the character that he created. And I think both those people, the character and the actor, would love to see us continuing on and honoring him through continuing to do good work.”

The Season 21 premiere ended with Dietzen’s Dr. Jimmy Palmer calling Alden Parker (Gary Cole) to tell him of Ducky’s death. Now, the focus will turn to celebrating him—and solving the case he was working on before he died. Below, Dietzen talks about writing the episode and shares memories with McCallum, going back to their first scene together.

Talk about how you co-writing this episode came about because it is so fitting that you did so.

Brian Dietzen: We had the work stoppage this last year because of the [writers’ and actors] strikes, so we have a 10-episode order this season instead of our normal 22, sometimes 24 episodes. I’ve been cowriting with Scott Williams just about once a year, the last couple years, and so this year, I let my showrunners, David North and Steven Binder, know that I wasn’t going to request a script because we have a wonderful writing staff and I felt like, oh, there’s no need for me to step in there because we only have 10 episodes. Then David passed away, and I think that Scott really wanted to write his farewell episode and he thought it would be fitting if it would be a co-written with me. David and Steve said, that’s super appropriate. We all think that’s a really good thing, and you two obviously work well together, so go off and do your thing. I was really honored to be asked to do so, and I just wanted to make him proud.

What was your approach to this episode? Because you have to balance honoring David, honoring Ducky, but then also the case and the team’s grief.

Yeah, I think it’s really important that this remains an NCIS episode. It cannot just be some series of flashbacks to prior Ducky Mallard scenes. It was really important for us that we still have a case to solve. You’re living in a legacy of this person that you’ve lost, being Ducky, so we decided to craft a case where there would be something that would thematically link the case to the team’s loss, and those two don’t necessarily have to go hand in glove. They don’t have to be related. It’s not as though the case has to be related to Ducky in any way, but thematically speaking, it really should be.

Michael Yarish/CBS

What can you say about any characters returning or the acknowledgement of them and what Ducky meant to them?

What we tried to do with this episode was we tried honor the team that he worked with, and when I say the team, I mean the greater team, not just this team that we have right now that involves Parker, Torres [Wilmer Valderrama], Knight [Katrina Law], McGee [Sean Murray], Palmer, Kasie [Diona Reasonover], and Vance [Rocky Carroll]. The greater team is all of the different teams he’s worked with, many of which involved Gibbs [Mark Harmon], and then of course there’s Tony [Michael Weatherly] and Ziva [Cote de Pablo], and there’s Bishop [Emily Wickersham], Abby [Pauley Perrette], of course, and everyone in between.

And so when we wrote this thing, while it’s certainly not a show that’s just all about clips or anything like that, there are these remembrances of Ducky and we wanted to see him interacting with people that are on our current team and also people that are on our iterations of our team, too. I think we did a pretty good job with that, and I think that people like to see that they’re getting to see their Ducky many years past as well as the more recent.

What moments working with David came to mind while you were writing the episode then filming it?

Oh, about 6,000, if I’m being honest. I was going through, and I was looking up my first scene with him with a tape recorder at the end of Season 1. I was looking at “The Meat Puzzle” in Season 2. I was looking at “Detour,” a Steven Binder classic where we’re being chased through the woods directed by Mario Van Peebles. That was actually a really cool episode to look back on because David, if I look at it now, I thought, oh man, he was 80 years old, 81 years old when we shot that episode. And it’s Jimmy and Ducky running through a wooded forest at night in the snow, and obviously asking an 80-something-year old man to do that for continual night shoots, that’s not okay. So they ended up building a whole forest on our set and made it snow [and] we shot it during the day.

Monty Brinton/CBS

Some of those things hit me and memories hit me. And so as I’m watching all these old shows as we’re writing this new show, I can’t tell you how many just good times that we had together, and I don’t want to try to summarize it in just a couple of quotes here because it’s tough to summarize 20 years of friendship and 20 years of camaraderie and mentorship and great scenes together being shared. But what I will say is that the thing that I’ll always remember and that hit me so hard when I was watching all of these things is just what a terrific worker David McCallum was continually. He always showed up prepared. He knew his things. He did every scene with the absolute best of his ability. And that’s something that I watched him do for years and tried to adopt for myself as well. So yeah, it’s been an honor.

How do you remember Jimmy and Ducky’s relationship?

I see it as a partnership and somewhat of a mentorship. I remember there’s one point at which some writer on our staff years ago—I can’t remember who the person was exactly—started wanting to get into this, oh, he’s like a son to Ducky, this is like his father figure, and had some lines about that. And David said, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. They’re partners, and they’re work colleagues. The second we start getting into a hierarchy of, he’s my son or I’m his father sort of thing, there’ll be a power dynamic that I don’t want to explore too much. I want it to be that Jimmy can speak his mind when he needs to and so can Ducky.” And that’s the way he treated it. It was really about, we’re in this thing together.

I think that was what was really, really great about those two characters is that they both lifted each other up. Jimmy had this reverence for Ducky that was so easy to see, and Ducky, the moment that he found out that Jimmy had passed his medical examiner’s license test, he was a doctor, the first thing he says is “Dr. Palmer” with all this pride in his voice. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say it made me teary to think about because David treated me that way as well in my personal life. He was very kind, very proud when I started to take over more of the load of the M.E. at NCIS. He’d call me and say, “I love the scene you did. I love this and that. I’m so proud you’re doing this in my stead.” And so yeah, art imitated life here and there.

What do you recall about your first and last scenes together?

Our first scene together, I remember I booked this episode. It was a one day guest star, and so I was just going to go and do one scene for NCIS, and it was a spinoff of JAG, and I think I’d seen one episode of it at the time, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t know who David McCallum was, and I’d never seen The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. At the time, I’d never seen The Great Escape. So I was pretty uncultured. I walked in, and I did this scene with this really terrific actor. That’s all I knew. I just knew, well, he’s really good, he’s really fantastic. And so I went home and I looked up, who is this guy? What has he been in before? Only to find out that he was like one of film and TV’s Beatles from the 1960s. [Laughs] He was a living legend, and that was pretty great.

And what was wonderful is that we got along well and the producer at the time, Don Bellisario, saw, oh, those two work really well together. Let’s have Brian come back next week and then the next week and then the next week. It’s because the two of us worked well together and we worked well on our scenes that I got to keep working. So that was really, really wonderful.

I’ll say one of the last scenes that I remember doing with David in person—because over the last few years, David was shooting most of his scenes in New York and we would have him on a screen or an iPad or something like that—was Ducky and Jimmy at a diner just eating together. There was no case that we were talking about, there was no red herring or anything like that. It was just two guys sitting there talking about a girl that Jimmy likes, and it was a friend listening to another friend over a sandwich. I thought, looking back on it, that’s really wonderful. Because we did that so often within our autopsy scenes where the scene is about this body before us and all of the evidence that we have to deliver to the rest of the team, but the dialogue could be about just about anything. We could be joking about things. He could be going off on some diatribe about something that was seemingly unrelated but it really came through historically in this situation. And so yeah, it was a cool scene to go back and reflect on.

#ncis #interview

[spiritsncrystals]

GX FAIRY TAIL/GUILD AU REVAMP POST

since my ass was bad at properly compiling this stuff and I'm interested in doing something with this au again sooo this post just serves as a reintroduction to the concept and with a list of the assigned Magic, there are a few characters i never really settled on their magic even now so if there are any exclusions that'll be why some also have a combination which I'd chalk up to it's an au I can mess around if I want. Anyways! THE CONCEPT/GENERAL OUTLINE: While i call it a fairy tail au it doesn't really follow the plot of fairy tail mostly just borrowing it's magic systems and world-building (not to bash on the plot it's more just a personal decision) hence the alternative name for this au just being the guild au instead of a school Duel Academia is a guild, instead of duellists they're magic wizards and so on and so forth the plot's similarities lean toward certain important gx events but play out a little differently. like you'd still have stuff like SOL and Haou but the way they happen changes. if anyone wants further clarification feel free to ask and i'll go in-depth in a separate post. with that ot of the way let's get to the magic assignments and with a small explanation to why if applicable

REQUIP MAGIC - JUDAI (and Haou too) - I Figured this was the best parallel for the Elemental HEROs what with the many combinations and whatnot considering there are SEVERAL different requip armours it felt right. I say Haou too for the obvious reasons as there's not really much reason to change it other than the sorts of armour used. DRAGON SLAYER MAGIC - MANJOUME (Lightning) RYO (METAL) FUBUKI (FIRE) - Manjoume might seem like a little bit of a weird decision but cmon he's Manjoume Thunder it'd be fun (also in the time between this new post and the old post we now have armoured thunder dragon lvl 10 so that's pretty cool incentive) Ryo seems the most self-explanatory what with the cybers. and foobs getting fire bc of red eyes ICE MAKER MAGIC - ASUKA - This takes more from her manga deck n all but there's also just the fun dynamic of Fubuki being fire and her being ice MEMORY MAKER MAGIC - MISAWA - you could argue about something else being more fitting but idk i kinda enjoy this for him SATAN SOUL - EDO - mostly because some of the Destiny HEROs have that demonic kind of appearance (Dogma, Bloo D, ect) and idk there's something fun to it as a ploy to E HEROs being the requips CELESTIAL GATE MAGIC - JOHAN - this just makes sense. 7 keys for each of the CB an extra special one for RD and you can even throw in Crystal Protector and Vanguard too for some fun dynamics

YUBEL: i had a lot of different ones down for yubel due to plot reasons for the original but mostly crash and black magic i'm still hoping for it to be an amalgamation of stuff but what hasn't been really landed on yet just like the kind of magic where they're powerful enough to decimate someone but yet still have some sort of believable innocence (since part of their plans in the au does involve them infiltrating the guild at some point) PEOPLE I HAVE IDEAS FOR BUT NOTHING SOLID YET: SAIOU - I would imagine it to be something similar to Kana's cards but with Tarot cards instead not exactly sure of the ins and outs yet KENZAN - something of a mix between beast soul and animal soul take overs?? just with a more reptilian focus bc gotta keep the Dino DNA in tact O'BRIEN - gun requip might be an option but just a hard maybe atm I'll write more on bits later down in separate posts but that's basically it for now again feel free to ask for more if there is anything od interest

#yugioh gx #ygo gx #gx #GX FT/GUILD AU #i'm not gonna tag everyone sooo yeah #if you looked hard enough you might find the old post?? #but for the most part all that needs to be known will be in the new stuff #hence the spankin new tag

[familyagrestefanblog]

The Zodiac Miraculous’ and a couple of their fittingly portrayed Chinese number meanings

You know what I find so cool about the zodiac miraculous' within the show? There are alot of explicit ways in which they are used appropriately to their Chinese numbers meaning. Let me give you a couple of examples without elaborating too deep with others and please remember that I’m not of any chinese/asian heriantage myself, so my knowledge is limited to the research I can make. As per usual, if I made any mistakes feel free to correct me:

(btw, in the original Miracle box layout the Zodiac miraculous were indeed in the right order, they were merely upside down. So 12 (Pig) was the first from the top and 1 (Mouse; I know normally it's a Rat but the show calls it Mouse so that's what I'm using too) was at the bottom. But that's something for a completely different post in the future)

The real life zodiac order is:

Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig

So for example the Rabbit is animal number 4 and in Chinese 4 is the number of bad luck, like 13 in the western world, because it sounds so much like the word for "death" (四, pinyin: sì; Cantonese Yale: sei). So fitting to that, not only is the Rabbit narratively directly linked to Chat Blanc and DEATH, it is also color-coded with the color white (and blue, which often comes alongside black and green - CN and CB, you get it). Which, as many probably already know, was/is the color of mourning in Chinese culture.

Or the Goat! The Goat is animal number 8 and that's the luckiest number in China! And therefore in the show the goats power is like a light version of the Lucky Charm and concealed in the only other miraculous jewelry that is a two-piece pair - like Ladybugs earrings!

Or the Rooster as well, animal number 10. As far as my research could get me chinese people don't talk too much about the number 10 in these regards because of its "intense" nature. Basically 10 symbolizes having reached your full potential, being at your very peak, but that also means that from this peak onwards there is nowhere to go but downhill. Like the rooster miraculous within the show. The rooster has the unlimited power of CHOOSING his power himself and yet he is highly limited by not getting to use it to fulfill a desire.

His power has the potential to be boundless, the very peak of the miraculous powers, and yet from this very peak the way he can actually manifeste his powers will inevitably always be significantly beneath the high point he and his powers stand for.

Then we have the Snake, miraculous number 6 which sounds like the manderin word for " “flowing, smooth, or frictionless" (溜, pinyin: liū) which culturally indicates a smooth process in life. Just like the Snakes powers, which benefit everyone but themselves since from an outsider perspective the Snake just uses his powers once and thats it, the situation is solved/where is it, while from the insider perspective we of course know that there is MUCH more effort involved than that.

6 stands for an easy flow in life, just like the Snakes powers look like for everyone on the outside and this interestingly also applies to Luka himself. He is very easy going on the outside and wants to make life easier for everyone through his patience and help and yet season 4 also showed that not only are there more complex emotions underneath, the way he uses his methods as Luka and Viperion don't automatically lead to morally flawless solutions or even anywhere close to the best ones ("Wishmaker" and "Ephemeral"). Lifes situation is just where it is now and he and therefore everyone else is going with the flow he created because no one but him is any wiser of what happened within his power usage or what he himself feels regarding certain things.

And the Mouse is number 1, which isn't too special of a number in China from what I can gather, but its meaning is culturally linked to being alone, but in first place and the winner. Just like the Mouse miraculous being portrayed as basically a lonely one person-army, for both its good and its bad implications:

Btw, 1 having the meaning of lonely also explains the Dog Miraculous, the 11th zodiac animal:

11th of November is the Single's day in Chinese culture, which is 1x4 (remember 4 being the unluckiest number?) and therefore connected directly to loneliness and bad luck especially in relationships. This perfectly corresponds with Sabrina and Félix using the Dog miraculous in their respective contexts.

Aaaaaaaand that's it for now! I have wanted to point this and more out for a LONG while already, but I'm still waiting for a specific official confirmation in Canon that the s4 finale has now validated me in 100% that I'm right. I have much more to say in season 5 when we finally HAVE IT, but at this point I guess there is no need to not talk about a couple of things while we wait for s5.

#ml spoilers #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #Miraculous powers #Powers of the miraculous #Chinese number meaning #Miracle box #Zodiac miraculous #Chinese number coding for the miraculous #ml analysis #Ml meta

[spyral-out-keep-going]

Saw a post about how even if kids weren’t online/social media then there’s nothing for them to do elsewhere because the outside spaces are not child- & especially not teen-friendly. And boy howdy did that unlock some memories for me. Please join me for a little walk down memory lane!

(I typed a LOT out - way more than I expected - so will be splitting some things up over multiple times and posts. This is going to be called “maybe my experiences were not universal?” series)

I am 42 years old. I grew up without cable tv or a computer in the house until I was maybe 15 I think? And before then I had to go to my friend’s house and use her dad’s AOL free trial discs to get into the chat rooms. (We were catfishing before we knew what that was. I don’t think we ever told the truth when asked for our a/s/l. ;) But I digress…) I lived “in the country” which meant outside a town that now has about 5500 people and back then it wasn’t even that high. My house (formerly a working family farm) was surrounded by fields, a diary farm across one of those fields, and the closest neighbor down the road was about 2 football fields away or 1/10 mile.

Please consider all of that and know I was a bona fide member of the “there’s nothing to doooo” club.

But

We found things to do

The library in town was the most frequent place we visited because it was 1) free and 2) had vhs movies and shows we didn’t get on our 6 channel tv. (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS…I’m missing something. I think there was also a religious (Christian) channel?? but you get the point.) Libraries rock and they offer even more programs and crafts these days to get people in the door. Please support your local library.

Most of our free time we were home or down at the neighbors. I had 2 little sisters and within a mile down the road there were 2 other families each with 2 girls in our age range. We lucked out there. We would walk or ride our bikes to visit each other. We played actual games and made up games. This is not comprehensive but is a very accurate list of what we got up to.

My family had a corn crib not in use for its actual purpose, so we got it as a play house and constructed many worlds to play in. Storylines spanning summers. War, historical drama, survival/kid horror, cops & robbers, romances with imaginary husbands & eventually kids, and I’m sure more I’m forgetting.

Our make believe games were not limited to the corn crib - we also recreated whole movies (Sound of Music was a recurring one) and sometimes just scenes in the neighbor girls’ basements.

Dance parties - sometimes with judges but mostly just to dance. We had to use the radio mostly (before we had our own tapes & eventually CDs) because our parents didn’t really trust us with their records. Probably for good reason.

#maybe my experiences were not universal? #more to come #I’m not saying this to wag my finger and “you kids these days #I realized I had it pretty good #but we were actually pretty weird kids #memories #we’re all a little weird here #it’s why I’m here

[blogger-yura]

Entry #49 Aug 14th '23

#YurasLife #MovieMonday #Horror #Psychological #Thriller #Mystery #Religion #Abortion #Tin&Tina

𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 - Tin&Tina (2023)

Title: Tin&Tina - Screentime: 119min - Director: Rubin Stein

Rotten Tomatoes

After a traumatic miscarriage, a young couple adopts two peculiar twins from a convent whose obsession with religion soon disturbs the family.

Film Affinity

Two very special twin siblings, after being orphaned and being welcomed in a convent where they receive a strict education, are adopted by a young couple.

Hello, hello, my pretty butterflies~! How are you guys doing? How did the weekend treat you all? Me... Well, the weekend brought a lot of new movies for me! And as always, I can't let slip the chance to share one of the many with you guys~. (　＾∀＾)

Have you heard of "Tin&Tina"? Apparently, the movie wasn't super successful when it was first released in Spanish theaters and festivals, but has been getting a lot of attention lately now that's been put up on streaming services.

Currently streaming on Netflix, tells the story of this spanish couple, Lola and Adolfo, that can't have kids, so they decide to adopt. For some –ironically– unholy reason they take home from a convent the most odd looking and behaving twins in existence– Tin and Tina who are fascinated with religion, god, the bible. As if them playing creepy music wasn't enough of a giveaway (*｀Д´)ノ！

Plot wise, the movie is just weird. It touches really sensitive topics, but never with enough depth. Other than religion, of course, since that's the main focus in the movie as the kids are literally obsessed and sadly lack the common sense to understand the bible. You have their tragic miscarriage. You have a bit of dysfunctional marriage, an absent husband, and even a bit too aggressive for my liking. ( I spent the whole movie telling Lola to get a divorce!) Of course, he doesn't believe anything his wife has to say, ever. Though I agree she had some untreated traumas that also built up a bit of paranoia on her side, we have overall a weird family dynamic.

Being based on a short film by the same director, I think the plot remained very consistent, at least. It becomes a bit confusing at times, but that, in my opinion, only helps build up the suspense and discomfort you feel watching the movie because you never know for sure what's going on. (* ﾟーﾟ)

I'm not sure how much budget they had, but production wise, I really like the whole aesthetic they had going. It's a movie based on the middle to late 80's, a place far away from the city, very rural. The coloring, the decoration, the little details like the shows that played on TV, the lightings, the music, the everything really. I found it very pleasant.

More than a horror, other than the one gore scene, I'd surely call it a thriller. It's very psychological, very unsettling when you put the scenario in context and you try to make sense of it all, but it's not scary in itself. It builds up tension successfully when needed. I wouldn't give it a 10/10, but I definitely enjoyed it and would watch it again in case I missed anything of relevance.

Would you watch a movie like this one? Is it down your alley at all? I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did, honestly. If you do watch it, let me know your thoughts on it! (＞∇＜)ﾉ

This is all for today, lovelies! I'll see you guys around soon~. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead! Stay hydrated, and make sure to look after yourself well. Until next time!

All the love, -Yura ♡

Personal score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

💗: @clubwnderland [💙] @jinju-oc @moonlightchn @kimheebby @nana-n-nono @coffeexdreamcb @silcntxnight @livealittleoc-cb @minsour-r @multi-esme @urtwice @san-cb @reve-rv @domrachaa @oppositesattraxt @lunaaofthemoon @badbf-cb @thepatchedpaw @domxbot @the-hellhounds @monsterhigh-cb @theinvitation-bot @hwangroyaltycb @welcometosector1 @multi-joong @vanilladaises-rp @beastfights-starting @halloween-idols @redlight-cb @yourmysticalgirls-cb @theonesxcb @hybridsheltercb @3rachabot @kardpackcb @beaconhillsxbot @yandereyeri @glamrockpop-cb @angelsxdemons-cb @screamcb

#yura types 🧡 #movie monday

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Manchester United 4-3 Liverpool (AET)

My heart. I can't. United are off to Wembley, and I'm off to hospital because I think i'm dying.

BRACE FOR A LOAD OF TWEET REFERENCES TOO.

United struck early at Old Trafford and it FELT like it would be our day. We were playing free flowing football, not that Liverpool weren't at the races, but we looked like a rival not an underdog.

Mainoo class, Rashford sharp, Garnacho drawing defenders, Hojlund holding up the ball, Bruno dictating play, McTominay... being saucey... and then bang he scores. SCENES.

This pressure lasted til around the 40th minute and then United fell apart and conceded 2. Classic.

Freddy here queries the focus, but as the image below shows, United without a proper no6 like Casemiro (because McSauce ain't that) are just two disconnected attack/defence units and it's pants.

Mainoo should be an 8. Bruno IS a 10. McTominay is a 10. Mount is an 8. Maybe Amrabat wouldn't have been the right choice, but he would have filled this pocket.

It's tricky for Ten Hag though. McTominay is an ENGINE and evidently committed, and scores important goals, even if he isn't an ideal fit. It's tricky to not pick deserving players.

The hope had faded at the end of the first half, and things were a bit sour. United looked knackered, were showing the cracks of this season all over again, and that frustration was coming out in the form of Captain Bruno's petulence.

I don't personally thing Erik Ten Hag wants United to be so disconnected. I just also think his team NEEDS a ball-playing CB (we only have Martinez) and a proper 6 (ageing Case, unfancied Amra). Two crucial positions to be filled, and that's ignoring the zero depth at CF and the issues form or injury issues at RW/LB.

Second half saw a second chance for United, and none other than substitute Antony scored the equaliser. What.

ETH went full Ranieri tinkerman mode too.

Antony LB, Bruno quarterback, Eriksen deep, Amad on, Mount on later... a full madness occurred and it was amazing.

Praise came through from the fans too - even amidst the tension. Onana had a very good game, Garnacho was everywhere, Mainoo so classy on the ball... hard to call out anyone being poor.

Then of course United conceded yet another deflected goal...

But before that 2-3 position, United COULD have won it at the death in normal time if Rashford had finished - and it wasn't his only missed chance.

The storyline loves a twist and turn though. 3-3 Rashford.

United are on adrenaline now. Buzzing. The Old Trafford atmosphere is fever pitch. Everyone's knackered, cramping, puffing like old dogs, but still both sides battled on. A proper cup showdown.

Fans on both sides were beginning to feel sick.

At 3 all, everyone feared the worst: penalties. You can't deny though that today's game was the pinnacle of a mad weekend of FA Cup football. City Newcastle aside, we had the shock turnaround of Coventry beating Wolves, Chelsea Leicester going the distance, and now United Liverpool. Sensational viewing.

As the end of extra time loomed, Liverpool's attack was broken down and the counter was on. Garnacho - who it felt like had sprinted all game long - and Amad alongside. Two kids against the world, tearing it down the pitch. Shit pass from Alejandro, recovered well by Amad, slight feint, step, weasels it past Kelleher and gently in off the inside of the right post like a snooker finish.

That's all in slow motion, but the crowd and the explosion of noise was like we'd just won at life. Volume. Kids crying with joy. Amad sent off for taking his shirt off to celebrate. Amad-ness. Amazing.

And lo, United did win 4-3 at the death at home to book a semi final at Wembley against Coventry. Not that lower teams have been easier (hi Newport) but I also have more faith in Chelsea of the 3 of us to hurt City.

So yeah, Klopp's hopes of a fairytale season ending are over. I love shit like that. Ruining the party is part of the fun of it all.

We're all knackered, but we're all buzzing. This weekend has been mint, and how often can you say that about a United game eh? Up the fucking reds, and on to Wembley!

#manchester united #man u #man united #manchester reds #man utd #erik ten hag #marcus rashford #old trafford #liverpool #mo salah #antony #scott mctominay #amad diallo #kobbie mainoo #andre onana #bruno fernandes #diogo dalot #alejandro garnacho #luis diaz

[its-moopoint]

After 10 years shippers failed or refuse to understand that CB is the opposite of what they think and say of her. She's never been into fame, she's not desperate for fans especially the crazies and she's not into being incessantly talked about and wrongly linked to SH. If she was, she'd be on SM 24/7 with look at me posts. She most likely can't wait to rid herself of this side of OL fandom even if some of them will still continue to lie about her and pain a picture of a woman she never was.

Anonymous asked:

Cait will miss a lot after Outlander, for the audience's curiosity and their pursuit and talk about the striped sheets and their toast to the duo S&C.

She will lose what she calls madness, fame, and the genuine and natural passion of the OL fans.

Strange, this woman gave everything she could, what we know and what we do not know, of concessions to be the heroine of OL and fulfill her dream in the fourth decade of her life.

And when she arrived, she began to treat this audience as her enemy.

She tried to create an exaggerated aura that came from an industry full of abuses and abuses.

But she is always powerless against tptb, and her strength is directed only at the OL audience.

odessa-2:

Well said Anon. I agree with everything you stated. I agree that now the position that SC both find themselves in they are powerless against TPTB. Caitriona has always misplaced her anger towards her fans. Helping pitch one group of fans against the other. It's toxic behaviour which has really given me an insight into who she is. She is defensive because she knows she is taking everyone for a ride. So she lashes out (remember when she abruptly left her OL Twitter fan q&a and said that the cat vomited)? Remember her "I'm not married to Sam"? Remember every time she called shippers crazy and delusional? She's lashing out at the wrong people. I think she's frustrated and although very arrogant, I think there is an element of self hate stemming from what she's doing. Instead of hating the overlords for putting her in this position, she directs her cluster of issues towards those who thoroughly enjoy the Jamie and Claire love story and the intimacy associated with it as well as those who see through the veil. Classic deflection which allows her to be a perpetual victim in her mind.

Oh this one is beyond nuts, projecting on C all she wishes was the truth when it couldn't be further from. C can't stand SC shippers who mock her real husband, her real family and who live in a fantasy world with their delusion

[ausetkmt]

Former Memphis police officer on the SCORPION unit and the fired cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death - CBS News

Memphis police "permanently deactivate" SCORPION unit Memphis police "deactivate" SCORPION unit whose officers are charged in death of Tyre Nichols 03:51

A former veteran Memphis city police officer who knew those involved in Tyre Nichols' violent arrest spoke to CBS News about one of the five ex-officers charged in the case, and the so-called SCORPION unit those five were members of. 

He described the "proactive" approach of the ex-officer as someone who thought, if you didn't go after the bad guys aggressively you were not doing your job as a police officer.

"I never thought this would happen," the former officer told CBS News. The former officer, who recently left the department after 10 years, spoke only on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

He said he knew each of the charged ex-officers and worked closely at times with one of them, Demetrius Haley. The five were fired from their jobs and are facing charges of second-degree murder for the brutal beating of Nichols after a Jan. 7 traffic stop. 

Morale is very low at the Memphis Police Department right now, according to the former officer.

"This is not an indication of who the department is," he said. "We deal with very bad people. There are fights and foot chases but we all have an understanding when it's time to stop."

Tyre Nichols was arrested after Haley and and the four other officers — Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — stopped him for reckless driving. Video from the scene, released by the city on Friday, shows Nichols was severely beaten. He died three days later in the hospital.

The Director of Tennessee Bureau of Investigation David Rausch said he was "sickened" and "shocked,'' by the video footage he viewed of the beating. "Let me be clear: what happened here does not at all reflect proper policing. This was wrong. This was criminal.''

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy joined Rausch at the news conference Thursday to announce the charges against the five fired officers.

"We want justice for Tyre Nichols," Mulroy said. "…The world is watching us and we need to show the world what lessons we can learn from this tragedy."

In the interview with CBS News, the former Memphis police officer described 30-year-old Haley as "a young, athletic, confident guy." 

But he said Haley did butt heads with others in the department for, in Haley's view, their not being aggressive enough in pursuing criminals.

CBS News is attempting to reach a representative of Haley's for comment.

Haley, a former Shelby County Corrections Officer, was a member of the hand-picked SCORPION team, a specialized unit formed in 2021 to fight violent street crime. 

The name SCORPION stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. There are more than two dozen officers assigned to SCORPION teams. They  wear black hoodies and tactical black vests with "POLICE" emblazoned across the front and back, and drive dark colored Dodge Chargers marked with a SCORPION seal. 

The crime-suppression teams patrol in groups and at times use justified low-level traffic stops as a way to find violent criminals, drugs or weapons.

"You have to be a go-getter, for the most part," to join the SCORPION unit, the former officer told CBS News. "You have to be someone who wants to make a difference, who wants to catch the bad guy."

In a news bulletin published on Jan. 27, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said, "Since this event happened, the SCORPION Unit has been and remains inactive," though he didn't clarify when the unit was deactivated. Strickland also said that the city is "initiating an outside, independent review of the training, policies and operations of our specialized units." 

Memphis Police Director Cerelyn "CJ" Davis told CNN that investigators "have not been able to substantiate" the initial report of reckless driving that prompted Nichols' arrest. And Nichols family attorney Antonio Romanucci questioned the justification for the stop, saying on CNN, "we know that the saturation and suppression units do use pretext to stop in order to carry out this … wolf pack mentality of policing."

The former Memphis officer who spoke with CBS News said with a large number of officers retiring from the department, younger, less experienced members of the department were being tapped for the specialized SCORPION teams. They were not well-trained and not properly managed, he said, describing the training as consisting of three days of PowerPoint presentations, one day of criminal apprehension instruction and one day at the firing range.

The Memphis Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The officers charged in Nichols' death were hired from 2017 to 2020. They were 24 to 32 years old.

"You have to have crime suppression units,'' the former officer said. "You can't get crime down by only showing up at schools and talking to the kids and putting up posters."

He stressed that the department is made up of truly dedicated officers committed to their mission, committed to helping people.

"They still have to go out each day and get to work. They still have to fight crime."

#Tyre Nichols #Memphis #scorpion unit #Former Memphis police officer on the SCORPION unit and the fired cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death #cops killing citizens #police violence #Memphis Police Dep #abuse of power

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 29, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 29, 2023

In the final exchange of hostages taken by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel under the current truce, Hamas released 16 people—10 Israelis and four Thai nationals, along with two Russian-Israeli women in a separate release—while Israel released 30 people from its jails.

Negotiators from Qatar, Egypt, Israel, and the U.S. are rushing to try to get another truce in place, even as far-right Israeli leaders are pressuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart the assault on Hamas. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned today that unless he does, Ben-Gvir’s faction will leave the government coalition Netanyahu leads. “Stopping the war = breaking apart the government,” Ben-Gvir said. 

Losing that faction would not overturn the government, but it would weaken Netanyahu enough that he could have to call elections. Netanyahu, who remains under indictment for bribery and fraud, is eager to stay in power, but recent polls show his popularity is perilously low: only 27% of Israelis in one recent poll said they would vote for him. Two members of his staff told Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times he wants to avoid an election at all costs. 

Shortly after Ben-Gvir’s statement, Netanyahu said: “There is no situation in which we do not go back to fighting until the end.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel today with a different agenda than Netanyahu’s. “We'd like to see the pause extended because what it has enabled, first and foremost is hostages being released and being united with their families,” Blinken said. “It's also enabled us to surge humanitarian assistance into the people of Gaza who so desperately need it. So, its continuation, by definition means that more hostages would be coming home, more assistance would be getting in.”

The foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met today in Brussels, Belgium, where they met with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba as part of the NATO-Ukraine Council. Before the meeting, Kuleba noted that Ukraine is “pretty much becoming a de facto NATO army, in terms of our technical capacity, management approaches and principles of running an army."

A statement by the NATO-Ukraine Council agreed that it was deepening the NATO-Ukraine relationship, vowing that allies would “continue their support for as long as it takes” and declaring, “A strong, independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area.” In the statement, Ukraine also committed to reforming the government and security sector as it moves toward a future NATO membership. 

David Andelman, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and CBS News who now writes Andelman Unleashed, noted today in CNN that President Biden has brought a very clear-eyed set of principles to foreign affairs, making him “one of the rare presidents who has accomplished something quite extraordinary: He has carefully defined and quite successfully defended democracy and democratic values before a host of existential challenges.”

In the Middle East he has defended Israel, which The Economist’s Democracy Index identifies as the only democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, while also trying to restrain the Israeli government and to get humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, all while (so far) keeping Iran and Hezbollah from spreading the conflict. Andelman also called out that Biden avoided the direct conflict with Russia that Russia's president Vladimir Putin so clearly wanted, supporting Ukraine but delaying its admission to NATO and ratcheting up military aid slowly enough that the U.S. did not get directly involved.

Biden is defending democracy where it has a foothold and can survive and then prosper, Andelman says, noting that he had little interest in continuing to send U.S. troops to Afghanistan, where it seemed clear democracy “never really took root.” Andelman writes, “Its ill-conceived and improbable ‘elections’ were little more than window dressing on a deeply flawed and corrupt kleptocracy that America had been backing with the bodies of thousands of its troops.”

Defending democracy “is something that makes [Biden] tick,” Andelman writes, “and remain appealing to others, as I’ve seen in so many parts of the world.” 

The administration has also been crystal clear that its approach to governance at home is also designed to protect democracy by demonstrating that a democracy can do more for people than an authoritarian government, but in a speech at a campaign reception in Houston, Texas, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that voters somehow don’t seem to understand that transformation. 

Even as former president Trump threatened to use the government to silence press outlets he doesn't like, Harris noted the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure and clean energy, allowing the U.S. to be a global leader in new technologies; the cap of insulin at $35; rural broadband and the clean-up of lead pipes; and pointed out that all of the things the Democrats have accomplished are “incredibly popular with the American people.” The challenge, she noted, is getting people to understand these transformations, and which party is responsible for them. 

“[T]here’s a duality to the nature of democracies,” Harris said. “On the one hand, …it is very much about strength—the strength that it gives individuals in terms of the protection of their rights and freedoms and liberties. When a democracy is intact, it is very strong in its capacity to lift the people up.” But, she added, “It is also very fragile. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it.”

Today the Democrats’ economic program got another boost with the news that the economy grew faster in the third quarter than previously reported, coming in at a blistering 5.2%, and that a record 200.4 million shoppers visited stores and websites on the five days after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping period. That number reflects people’s confidence in their own finances, but also that the economy appears to be cooling and there are therefore bargains to be had.  

A new analysis by the Treasury Department shows that the Inflation Reduction Act, which puts money into climate change technologies, is delivering investment to communities that have benefited least from the economic growth of the past few decades. Today, President Joe Biden presented his case for his economic policy directly to one such community in the Colorado district of MAGA Republican mouthpiece Representative Lauren Boebert.

Biden visited CS Wind, the largest wind tower manufacturer in the world, which is expanding its operations in Pueblo, Colorado, thanks to the IRA. Boebert voted against the IRA, calling it “dangerous for America” and saying it was her “easiest no vote yet.” But the new $200 million expansion will create 850 new jobs, and CS Wind has already hired 500 new employees. And a solar project in the district will bring both power and as many as 250 jobs.

The White House listed the many projects underway in the district thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including nearly $30.2 million to redesign and revitalize streets and $160 million for a 103-mile pipeline that will bring clean water from Pueblo to 50,000 people in southeastern Colorado. Boebert called the law “garbage” and “wasteful” and said it was “punishment for rural America.” 

“President Biden made a commitment to be a President for all Americans, regardless of political party, and he’s kept that promise,” the White House said. “The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to deliver for workers and families in Colorado’s third congressional district and across the country—even if self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Boebert put politics ahead of jobs and opportunities created by Bidenomics.“

Biden was even blunter. After listing the benefits the new laws have brought to Boebert’s district, he said: “She, along with every single Republican colleague, voted against the law that made these investments in jobs possible…. And then she voted to repeal key parts of this law, and she called this law a massive failure. You all know you’re part of a massive failure? Tell that to the 850 Coloradans who got new jobs.… It all sounds like a massive failure in thinking by the congresswoman and her colleagues.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Mike Luckovich #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #Biden Administration #Israel-Hamas war #Bipartisan Infrastructure law #defending democracy

[thegaslightbrigade]

Peter Graves May Have Set Mark For Gray Hair Vogue Sarasota Journal - Monday, March 1, 1971 by Joyce Haber

Image sourced from [Here]. Shout-out to @chiickies for putting me onto this fansite! Transcription of the above image below the "Read More".

When Peter Graves was in Louisville last year for the Kentucky Derby, two of his women-fans came up to him and asked what he used on his hair to make it silver. “Nothing,” Peter answered. “It’s natural.” “Come on,” said one of the ladies. “You don’t have to play that game with us.” As the suave, decisive, unruffled and prematurely-gray chief of the impossible missions force, the only game Graves actually plays is on CBS’ suspenseful, Emmy-award winning series, “Mission: Impossible” which is in its fifth season. This year, he took the Golden Globe Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best actor in a dramatic series for his portrayal of Jim Phelps. But the lady was wrong. Peter Graves is, for the most part, precisely what he seems. His hair, for example, began going gray when Peter was in his mid-20s. “I woke up one morning,” he says, “and there was this patch of gray right there.”

As we sat in Hollywood’s famous restaurant, Scandia, which boasts, among other things, a superb array of dishes ranging from Caesar salad to smorgasbord, Graves touched his left temple and laughed. “I thought ‘Oops’ - and it just continued. When I started going gray over-all. I appeared on a big TV star’s variety show. He started kidding me about it right on the air - as did everybody. Next day he came and apologized. ‘I’ve been gray myself for 15 years,’ he admitted, ‘But I touch it up.’” If gray is in now in Hollywood, as it seems to be, Peter started the trend. I noticed that actor George Kennedy, at the Golden Globes Awards, was completely silver-polled. He used to be very blond. But gray wasn’t always in, not even for Graves. Only three years ago, when Universal cast him opposite Doris Day in “The Ballad of Josie,” director Andrew McLaglen took him aside. “Listen,” he said, “no big star has ever been gray,” and; against the star’s protests McLaglen took Peter to makeup, where they “put on something from a bottle called Frivolous Fawn.” Andy McLaglen took one look and said, “OK, you win. We go back to gray.” The late Martin Melcher, Doris Day’s husband and manager, took a look at Graves’ first day rushes, gray and all, and asked him, “How come you aren’t a big star?” Quipped Graves: “Because I’m not married to Martin Melcher.”

But Melcher was wrong (Miss Day hadn’t started her TV series at that point). In terms of audience, Graves was even then a big star. “More people have seen me on TV in two nights,” he once put it, “than the total number of people who have paid to see ‘Gone With the Wind’ for 30-odd years.” Graves recalls a conversation with Joel McCrea in which the movie actor referred to Graves’ brother, Jim Arness, the seemingly eternal star of “Gunsmoke”. He commented on what a great job Jim had done and talked about how many years he’d lasted. He said when he was in studios seven years was the average endurance of a star, not the big ones - the Gables, the Bogarts - but take Dana Andrews.

"I’d guess,” says Peter, “if you look back, he was a star for only seven years.“ “In a sense, the stars today are on TV, because that is the medium. Movie stars, as we knew them, no longer exist, but I think they can again. For the past 10 years, everything has been anti-hero, but I sense a change. The heroes of the ‘60s were the John Kennedys or the John Glenns. People now want a hero they can identify with or admire. Once the motion pictures straighten themselves out, the first girl to make three good pictures in a row will be a star.” Graves, who once made a movie with Gary Cooper (“The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell,” 1955), was impressed with the late great star’s reply when someone asked him to what he owed his success: “Good parts in good pictures,” said the man who was spare with words, on-screen and off. “No truer words were ever spoken,” says Peter. “You can do bad parts in good pictures or good parts in bad pictures and maybe get a little personal satisfaction. But the key to it all is good parts in good pictures.”

It occurred to me then that for Graves, the “good part” might as well be the one that reflects his own self. He sat, the debonair man of 6 foot 3 inches, conservatively dressed in a Madison Avenue-gray worsted suit, a Rep tie that evoked the Brooks Bros. (logo [illegible] and all), a pale blue shirt that duplicated the costume-requirements of the early days of color TV. “Do you know what parts are right for you?” I asked. “Well, I think so. I doubt very much that I’d remove all my clothing and simulate any sex act on screen,” said Peter soberly. “I think that kind of appearance on screen is strictly faddistic and confined to its time. It fascinates me that the Readers Digest has had one article an issue for the past 40 years on sex education. I don’t know if that means that everyone is uncertain about sex.” “I think the general public’s attitude, particularly in the United States, has changed greatly vis-a-vis sex. I think whatever the Puritan ethic was that dictated restrictions on sex is being broken down. I think that’s a good thing, particularly concerning the teaching of the young. I think the pornographic movies do appeal to the prurient in us.” “People do want to read about sex in the Readers Digest. But they also want to see it on the screen, but pornography on the screen can be faddish, because the screen belongs first of all to the writer. When writers write good stories, people will go to look at them.” “Watching the sex act may turn you on for a while, but it’s got to get tiring. Pornographic films cater to the basic instinct, but not to all that instinct implies - which is love. I think that’s the reason for the high success of ‘Love Story.’ It’s about two people who go to bed together, yes - but mostly they’re in love.” Graves learned about love, and the Puritan ethic, as the son of a traveling salesman for a surgical supply company. He was born Peter Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis. “I think we were born 6 feet tall and then started to grow from there,” he says.

His brother, Jim, is three years older and three inches taller than Peter. “My dad’s not particularly tall, only 5 feet, 11 inches," but his mother was almost 6 feet and straight as a ramrod - "a German woman who used to scare the hell out of me.” During high school, Peter took up the clarinet and the saxophone. At 15, he became the youngest member of the musicians’ union, playing with local dance bands for spending money. He once turned down a request to play with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, then on tour in nearby South Dakota. “I was at school, so there was no chance.” He’d joined the staff of radio station WMIN as an announcer at the age of 16. Upon graduation he enlisted in the Air Corps. After his discharge two years later, he wanted to go to the Julliard School of Music, but finally entered the University of Minnesota instead. Peter majored in drama, which led him west to Hollywood. His brother, Jim, already was here, but he’d had no degree of success. “He was a disaster case,” says Peter. “I came out with a friend from school, (director) Jack Smight. I remember we told the porter on the train we were going to be actors, and he said ‘Don’t. They’re all going the other way - to New York.’ “Jim met us at the station and said, ‘Go back.’ We wouldn’t, so he checked me into the Hollywood YMCA, which is a far cry from Hotel Bel-Air, I’ll tell you. Jim gave me a copy of the Hollywood Reporter and said, ‘Go.’” “We went, making the usual rounds of agents, but the going was rough.”

His college sweetheart, Joan Endress, followed him from Minnesota, and after he landed a job in a feature, “Rogue River”, with Rory Calhoun, Joan and Peter were married. Joan worked for some time as a doctor’s receptionist to keep them afloat in those difficult days when TV was just starting and giving the movie industry problems. Peter had taken a name from his mother’s side, Graves, because his brother was using their simplified family name, Arness. Peter’s first big break came with Billy Wilder’s movie, “Stalag 17”; “Paramount had seen me in a couple of Westerns, and said ‘No, Graves looks like an all-American. We need someone who looks like a German spy.’ My agent, Paul Kohner, persisted. He knew Billy Wilder. We went to Wilder’s house on afternoon and he kept walking around and looking at me like and going like this-“ Peter spread his hands on either side of his face, imitating the director’s gesture that simulates what you see through a camera lens - the frame. Wilder gave him a screen test and the part. But after the movie, at option time, “Paramount said, ‘Forget it. We’re only going to make two pictures a year. Not only that, but you’re a German spy. We’re looking for an all-American boy.’”

A new producer, Howard Koch (“Odd Couple”) used Peter in several films. With “Beneath the 12 Mile Reef” at Fox, that studio took an option for a contract. “I thought that was it. We were shooting in Florida and they kept saying, ‘Darryl Zanuck likes you.’ Pretty soon came word that Zanuck did like me, but he was dropping me because Fox was only going to make one picture in the next year.” The picture was “The Egyptian,” an extravagant project intended for Marlon Brando, who dropped out. Zanuck wanted to test his then-girlfriend Bella Daryl, for a role. He asked Graves to test with her. “It was massive,” he recalls. “Full wardrobes. Huge sets. We rehearsed for two weeks in Michael Curtiz’s office. Leon Samroy (a very top cinematographer) shot it. Well, anyway, Bella got the part but I didn’t.” (Edmund Purdom starred in the film.) Peter’s one try at Broadway was unsuccessful: He played in Paul Gregory’s “The Captains and the Kings,” which got “so-so notices,” and folded after 10 performances. Graves really found his legs, so to speak, in TV. Paramount’s “Mission” is his fourth series. The others were “Fury,” “Whiplash” and “Court Martial.”

Joan and Peter live with their three daughters in a house in Santa Monica, Calif., which Peter says is haunted. It was built by a German couple called Von Lichtenberg. “There was some sort of tragedy. I’ve never seen the ghost, but I’ve heard it. We have a cukoo clock that hasn’t worked for 20 years. Occasionally it strikes.” Although he works for the American Cancer Society, he hasn’t given up smoking: “I enjoy it, and I haven’t gotten to the point where it’s affected me. I resent the label on cigarets. If they’re going to warn you why don’t they put the same sign at the entrance to every freeway, or on every banana that’s sold? You can slip on the peel, you know.” The only “romantic lead” Graves ever wanted to play is the starring role in a remake of “Dodsworth”: “That story could be updated to now and would make a great picture. But I think Sam Goldwyn still owns it.”

On the other hand, with his conservatism, it’s unlikely the man who is as he seems would back a film. “You cannot simplify human intelligence, emotion, and growth. To watch the frills and foibles of a human psyche is fascinating. All of which adds up to the fact that I might not put a dime of my own in a movie right now.” With “Mission” and Graves both near-institutions, it’s not very likely he’ll ever have to.

#peter graves #old hollywood #mission: impossible #mission: impossible (tv) #mission: impossible (1966) #interview #transcript #feel free to add tags- I'm not sure what else I should include lol

[ncisfranchise-source]

You can’t go wrong with a classic. For the shortened 21st season of NCIS that premieres February 12, “All we wanted to do was get back to doing what we do best, which is tell really great stories,” says David J. North, a longtime NCIS writer who has joined Steven D. Binder as co-showrunner. With only 10 episodes, due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, each hour is a stand-alone story with smaller character arcs.

The opener picks up with the vengeful Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), last seen in the cliffhanger finale promising to pull the trigger on a man from his childhood who’d devastated his family.

“Torres does something to the mystery man, Maurice Riva [Al Sapienza, who played Mikey Palmice on The Sopranos], that threatens to end his career as an NCIS agent,” North reveals. “The team rallies around Torres, but it may be too late to save his badge—and his freedom. The evidence is so overwhelming against Nick that the team is left to wonder [how well they know him].”

CBS

Despite that foundation-rocking incident, the agents pull together in the second episode (February 19) to tackle a case that their late colleague, Dr. Ducky Mallard, was working on in secret to clear someone’s name. This is the first season without the beloved medical examiner turned NCIS historian, played for 20 years by David McCallum, who died in September 2023.

“The case was important to Dr. Mallard. In [investigating it], they’re going to relive their memories of a coworker and a man who meant so very much to them,” North says. These recollections make the grieving crew ask, “What would Ducky do?” and the answers lead to a solution. The episode was co-written by Brian Dietzen, who plays Dr. Jimmy Palmer, Ducky’s longtime assistant and now chief medical examiner himself. “Brian shed tears writing it; the cast and crew shed tears shooting it,” North says.

Emotions also run high for Jimmy in a later episode when his girlfriend Jessica Knight’s (Katrina Law) critical but loving dad, an NCIS agent in the Far East Field Office, comes to visit.

“Like most dads and daughters, Knight and her father share a loving but complicated relationship. His sudden appearance will dredge up some unresolved arguments. He’s the reason she wanted to be an agent, but she feels like she can’t get out of her dad’s shadow,” North says. “It will force Knight to confront delicate questions about her life choices, including how Jimmy fits into her future.” Jimmy will also be disappointed in the greeting he receives from Papa Knight, whom he is meeting for the first time. It’s going to be a hurdle for the bullpen couple. Notes North, “As much as we love [Knight and Palmer] together, relationships are hard.”

Luckily, NCIS always throws some quirky humor into the mix. In the third episode of the season (February 26), team leader Alden Parker (Gary Cole) institutes a “Walk a Mile in Someone’s Shoes Day” at work. “Where Mark [Harmon as Gibbs] was the father figure, Gary is more the crazy uncle,” says North.

To better understand the inner workings of NCIS, the agents switch places with colleagues we don’t usually see on the show, like folks in maintenance and accounting. The results are initially funny, but the agents learn some new lifesaving skills. Reveals North, “Kasie [Diona Reasonover] is sitting in with dispatch when she gets a call that’s going to send the team on a manhunt.” In another episode, Parker, who has posed as a lawyer and a psychiatrist in past cases, will face his toughest acting job yet. “He’s going to be forced to go in undercover as a surgeon, kind of like Leo DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can,” North spills.

This season also brings the 1,000th episode of the franchise on April 15. (The landmark number refers to all the NCISes combined.) “It’s going to be huge to try and embrace the entire NCIS universe,” North suggests. “One of our most beloved characters will be in grave danger.” We’ll be right there with the team we’ve missed so much as they fight to save someone who feels like our own family.

#ncis #interview