#setting: early october 1996. same as part one as it's a continuation of that night // i think i said this all in the tags of the first part

[arklay]

seeing stars.

pairing: diana x albert wesker words: 7.0k warnings: migraine, nausea and vertigo, brief mentions of food and alcohol, internalised ableism [read on ao3] — [part one]

A long exhale sounded from the en suite bathroom. It wasn’t one of relief. No, it was strained, wavering as it left parted lips – the evidence of a day riddled with nothing but stress.

Wesker slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the mirror from how he had hung his head, his hands resting on either side of the basin. The figure behind his reflection caught his eye instantly – dark hair a stark contrast to the white doorframe its lovely owner was leaning against. She was simply watching him with this faint, barely-there frown strewn about her features.

Despite being rather annoyed at Diana for sneaking up on him, or more so at himself for not noticing she had done so, he was glad she had kicked off her heels under the dining table. The last thing he needed right now was the shrill clicking of those awful things on the tile floor.

His head already felt like it had been put in a vise and someone was turning the handle; he didn’t need more noise to aggravate it.

“Where are your glasses?” Diana asked, and Wesker could only wonder if he’d imagined the worry clinging to the edge of her voice.

Could she tell he was in pain? That his sunglasses weren’t just some fashion statement people liked to tease him for? Had she put two and two together so easily when most were too dense to?

Wesker’s eyes darted up to lock on to hers in the mirror, though for only a split second, before he looked down again with a small huff. “I don’t know.”

He’d truly had a shocking day. It had been one thing after another, and at some point he had taken his glasses off to rub his eyes then forgot to put them back on. It wasn’t like him to misplace his belongings, and certainly not his shades, of all things, but the stressors piling up ensured the whereabouts of where he’d set them down slipped his mind faster than he thought possible.

It had all started with that pig, Brian Irons. The initial cause of his foul mood. That poor excuse of a man had proven himself to be a thorn in Wesker’s side time and time again; the police chief thought he could undermine those ensuring his unsavoury past was kept under wraps, but Wesker wasn’t going to stand for such insolent behaviour. He made sure to discuss the issue with William during his visit to the NEST around lunchtime, calling for a shorter leash.

However, the day only seemed to continue to go downhill once he’d returned to the station.

The problem wasn’t simply the piles of reports taking up space on his desk; the image of Diana wouldn’t leave his mind. He shouldn’t have stopped by her lab with coffee and spoken to her at all. He needed his focus to be solely on his work. The way she could capture his attention was quite bothersome, really. And that prompted a rather foolish decision on his part – a phone call with plans for dinner.

It didn’t end there. The newest S.T.A.R.S. recruits were a headache in and of themselves, yet getting a call from Sherry’s school the moment he left work had been the icing on the cake. She hadn’t been picked up hours beforehand, and being the next emergency contact, Wesker was informed of such incompetence.

William’s obsession with the G-Virus was getting out of hand. He’d always been more preoccupied with his work than the people around him, but forgetting to pick Sherry up from school was something else. Something Wesker didn’t quite like.

Not to mention it completely ruined his plans for the night.

With a suppressed clearing of her throat, Diana pulled him back to the present. She pushed herself off of the doorframe and made her way closer towards him. “Would you like me to look for them?”

Wesker shook his head and immediately regretted it; the sudden movement made him wince as a short wave of splitting pain made itself known right behind his left eye, causing him to grip the edge of the counter until his knuckles went white. The pain wasn’t unbearable yet, and he was glad his typical nausea seemed to be at bay, but he had no clue how long that would last. Not long, if he had to guess, given his luck with the rest of the day’s events.

Taking a deep breath through his nose and out through his mouth, he steadied himself. With each count, he found it easier to tolerate the ache, though it didn’t subside in the slightest. It would have to do though; he needed to get through his nighttime routine.

He reached over and slowly pulled his toothbrush out of its holder, making sure to not move more than what was necessary.

“No.”

Wesker glanced up at the mirror again with one of his brows quirked in genuine confusion, and he watched as Diana’s reflection inched closer. Then her hands were covering his. Why he found himself frozen at her touch was beyond him, but her soft fingers pressing against his skin was a welcome sensation.

She only pried the toothbrush and paste out of his grasp, far more gently than she needed to, then she placed them back to where they belonged.

“You are obviously unwell. You don’t need to brush your teeth when you feel like this,” she said, voice soft and oddly soothing, as opposed to the hammering against his skull.

Diana took Wesker’s hands in her own again, and her thumbs brushed along the raised veins on the backs of them in slow circles. It wasn’t just comforting to him, it was familiar, intimate, and the point at which he’d begun to embrace her touch rather than shun his craving for it was lost on him.

Her eyes finally landed on his own and she directed a small nod towards the door, making him aware of what she was about to do next. Then she took a step back. Then another. And she carefully pulled him along with her, guiding him towards his bedroom without so much as a word from him. Wesker couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. He didn’t know what to say, what to do, and with how tired he was, he could only let her take the lead. She seemed to have her mind set on making sure he would rest, and that made his chest feel much too tight.

It was almost as if she cared.

The trip to the foot of his bed felt much longer than usual. Diana’s cautious approach made sure of that. He was not intoxicated; she didn’t need to hold his hands and ensure he put one foot in front of the other. And yet she did. He felt like an absolute fool, but he still let her pull him along, regardless.

Once there, Diana sat him down on the edge before she quickly knelt down in front of him, tucking her legs beneath herself as she did so. Her attention went straight towards his boots and deft hands worked to untie their laces.

Wesker couldn’t quite wrap his head around her behaviour. He wasn't sure what to think. On any other day, he would’ve thought her kneeling between his legs quite amusing, especially with how she kept roughly pushing her stubborn tresses that kept falling in front of her face back behind her ears. But his head hurt far too much, and there was just this horrible warmth searing through his chest and up his neck, settling across his cheeks and threatening to join the burning at his temple.

The question in her eyes whenever she’d glance up at him certainly wasn’t helping either. It was almost wary, as though looking for permission to continue. Or perhaps assurance.

Her fingers wrapped around his ankle, carefully grasping it as she pulled off his boot. That made him feel far too odd, but she only repeated the action with its counterpart. He was thankful for the way she placed them next to one another by his bed though, all nice and neat, instead of simply tossing them to the side like anyone else would.

Diana pushed herself up off of the floor using her palms and moved to stand between his legs. Soft hands reached forward to cradle his face, the cool pads of her thumbs brushing along the high points of his cheeks. But she was only looking into his eyes, searching for… something.

He wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, to be completely honest. However, the repetitive movement along his cheekbones was calming, almost strangely so, and he hated that his eyes threatened to flutter shut and his hands itched to reach out and hold onto her sides – perhaps even pull her closer, if he dared.

How could she draw such a reaction from him? Especially given the circumstances.

The last thing Wesker needed was for her to look at him like he was some injured animal; he didn’t want her pity. It was enough that he let her drag him out of the bathroom when he was in the middle of carrying out his routines, as though he was caught in some sort of trance. But to look at him in such a way, to help him undress… It was ridiculous. He didn’t need to be fussed over.

Wesker reached up and closed his hands around her wrists. His grip was tight, though not enough to hurt her – merely cautionary, much like the glare he sent her way. Astute as she was, he had no doubt she would get the message.

Diana’s fingers fell away from his cheeks, curling in on themselves, but she didn’t move to break the distance between them. She only continued to hold his gaze, eyes still scanning his own in search of some answers, even as he loosened his hold on her wrists.

It had been wishful thinking, anyhow; he should’ve known she’d remain defiant.

Wesker pulled her hands further away from his face while he slowly rose to his feet. Then he let go, making them drop to her sides in a rather lifeless fashion. He didn’t miss the question in her eyes, or the way a crease formed between her brows, but he simply focused on manoeuvring around her towards his dresser – unsuccessfully at that, as his side brushed against hers with how he staggered.

Movement made the pain behind his eye considerably worse. The familiar sensation of tiny knives stabbing, leaving puncture wounds in their wake to obscure his vision, made it incredibly hard to keep his eyes open any longer. Wesker took a deep breath to try and steady himself, keeping as still as could be so as to not cause himself more pain. If only for a moment of relief.

One of his hands settled on the surface of the dresser while the other moved to open a drawer. He hoped Diana didn’t see how he fumbled with the pull handle. He wasn’t even sure why that bothered him. But he moved to correct his error far too quickly, causing him to lose balance slightly.

The sight of plain black, white and grey t-shirts folded up and sorted by tone brought some level of structure back to the chaos that had been Wesker’s day, and it pleased him more than it probably should have. The shirts were simply for when he was too cold to sleep shirtless – he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them casually, otherwise – and he removed one from its designated place for himself, and one for Diana.

The next drawer he opened contained his pyjama pants, all monochromatic and devoid of patterns, akin to his shirts. Just the way he liked. There were a couple of blue pairs though. Not like that mattered; he chose black, as usual.

A tired sigh left him then.

“Diana.” The sound of her footsteps crossing the distance between them seemed to reach him later than when they’d occurred, because she was already standing at his side. Wesker simply handed her the t-shirt he’d chosen for her, then he spoke again without looking her way, “Would you like pants?”

Diana chuckled at that, and the corner of his lips twitched. He treasured that sound. Well and truly treasured it.

“I doubt anything will fit me,” she whispered, the smile in her voice telling him she was trying to subdue her laugh.

“You have long legs.”

She let out a low, sweet hum at his dry response and positioned herself behind him, lifting her chin to rest it on his shoulder as she watched his hands comb through the pairs of pants in the drawer below. It was clear to Diana that he wouldn’t find anything that would fit her, considering she was barely two thirds the width of him, but she let him figure that out for himself. Instead, her hands ran down his sides and towards his hips. She stood on tiptoe to press a lingering kiss to his cheek while one of her hands travelled between them.

“Doesn’t change that you have more hips than I do,” Diana said between another kiss, tone playful, while her hand squeezed a handful of his firm backside.

Wesker reached behind himself and swatted her hand away, but he couldn’t stop the slight chuckle that bubbled up in his throat before it escaped him – one that mirrored her own. Her arms changing position, wrapping around his waist with her chin settling against his shoulder once more, was not what he expected in response, however. The feeling that brought up inside of him was not something he wished to confront tonight.

He needed to place more distance between them.

“Drawstrings.” Wesker held up a pair of pants that could be tightened at the waist, negating her claims that there couldn’t possibly be anything of his that may stay up for her.

Diana held back another sigh as she loosened her arms and plucked the pants from his grasp. Their short moment of joking around certainly didn’t last long, but she wasn’t sure why she even expected it to. It wasn’t the time or place, but she simply didn’t know how to deal with the situation at hand; it was always difficult for her to navigate when someone wasn’t feeling well.

On the other hand, Wesker was none the wiser to Diana’s inner turmoil. He only withdrew from her slack embrace and returned to where he’d been sitting at the end of the bed earlier, entirely focused on ridding himself of the rest of his work clothes. Without her interference.

Nothing seemed to be in his favour today though, because the moment his hips met the bed the entire room began to spin. It wasn’t like he had sat down too fast – or maybe he had finally lost his bearings – but the way the room was warping around him with stars dancing across his vision caused him to squeeze his eyes shut. His teeth ground together of their own accord and he cursed himself for it as that only amplified the pain at his temple.

All Wesker could do was turn his attention towards the buttons of his shirt, trying to ground himself as best he could by focusing on the feeling of one beneath his fingertips. The way the edges pressed against his skin as he pushed the button through its assigned opening felt so much sharper than usual. And it didn’t help that he fumbled on the first go.

“Let me help you.”

The almost desperate plea from the voice across the room couldn’t have come from Diana. Surely. Not even the distinct accent and low, gravelly quality of it could convince him; she had never done such a thing, never sounded like that, even when he’d reduced her to ruins in bed.

The Diana he knew wasn’t so willing to offer assistance.

Wesker scoffed, perhaps a bit too harsh judging by the frown he received, and only roughly unfastened the next button on his shirt. “I do not need your help.”

Oh, how he wished that were true.

The bile burning the back of his throat begged to differ. And it was getting increasingly difficult to just keep his eyes open, like his lids were being weighed down by some invisible force.

The soft sound of a zipper made Wesker glance over to where Diana stood, only to watch as her skirt pooled around her feet. His hands paused what they were doing as his eyes lazily wandered over her, mesmerised by the way she was carefully rolling her tights down her long legs. It wasn’t until she moved on to her shirt and made quick work of the overpriced garment that he shook himself free of her spell. To say she was stunning was frustratingly accurate.

She stripped down to nothing but her panties before pulling his massive t-shirt over her tiny frame, adjusting her hair the minute it was over her head. That shouldn’t have made him smile to himself. The thought that she was cute shouldn’t have even crossed his mind in the first place.

It wasn’t that long ago when he’d considered her vain for constantly worrying about her appearance, and the first time she had worn one of his shirts he had thought she looked absolutely ridiculous – comical, even. It was only endearing now. He chose not to look too close into that change, convincing himself that the pain he was in was simply making him delirious.

Fuck, he just wanted to go to sleep. There was nothing in the world he wanted more than to close this day and reset in the morning.

Despite struggling with each one, Wesker managed to finish undoing the buttons of his shirt and he weakly shrugged it off of his shoulders. It went no further than that, however, even with another attempt. The motion only made his stomach lurch, like waves roiling at sea.

A defeated sigh left him at that, but he was too tired to fight it. He must have made for a pathetic sight, one he wished there was no one present to witness.

That would’ve been grand, if he was so fortunate. Diana was standing in front of him again after dropping the pants in her grasp and crossing the distance in only a few quick strides. Before he could protest once more, she reached forward and laid her hands flat against his shoulders; cold fingers dipped beneath material, causing a shiver to run through his entire body, before she gently pushed the sleeves down his arms. It was unnecessary, but Diana held his forearm as she pulled the sleeve off by grasping the cuff, making sure to not turn his shirt inside-out.

He’d kiss her for that if his head didn’t feel like it was going to explode at any minute.

As soon as she freed him of his undershirt with the same meticulous care, Diana returned to what she had started earlier, before Wesker had stopped her. This time around he wasn’t nearly as tense when she took his face in her hands. In fact, it was the most at ease he had felt all day.

The chill of her palms provided some relief to the burning beneath his skin and the stabbing behind his eye. Even if it was only for a moment – until his cheeks warmed her hands and ripped that pleasant sensation away from him.

The only difference from when they’d found themselves in this position earlier was that Diana now leaned down to place a brief kiss on his lips. Wesker expected some level of warmth in her gaze once she pulled away, but he was only met with the look someone would have when scolding a child who had just hurt themselves on the playground.

If she was insinuating that he was being childish, they’d have a whole other problem on their hands.

Diana readjusted her hold to cradle his face in a more secure manner, fingers pressing firm against his skin. “I know you don’t want my help, but I will not see you make yourself sick because you are too stubborn to let someone look after you.”

Wesker glared up at her. Well, he hoped it was a glare, because whatever left him was all that he could muster in his state. From the way one of Diana’s brows raised, he sure did something, even if he had no idea if it was what he had intended.

They simply looked into one another’s eyes, holding the steady gaze for far too long – a familiar occurrence that usually took place when she challenged him. He supposed it was the other way around this time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her help, it was that he didn’t want anyone’s. He thought himself above that, and he had managed being in this position countless times before. Even if on some of those days he had gone to sleep without being able to change his clothes.

Perhaps he needed some help.

“Fine.” Wesker relented with a long blink, and allowed himself to settle against her touch and relax some more.

That earned him a faint smile from Diana before she leaned in again. His eyes fluttered shut out of habit, but her lips didn’t connect with his own. Instead, they landed on his forehead, and his moment of ease faded away instantly, his hands balling into fists at his sides the longer she lingered there.

The pit in his stomach seemed to lessen when she withdrew and dropped to her knees again. But his head felt absurdly heavy without her hands holding it up. There was too much running through his mind, it was getting overwhelming. And it wasn’t just the hammering at the side of his skull. He wanted her but he tensed up at her touch, he needed her but he hated her assistance, he… He shouldn’t have invited her over tonight.

What had he been thinking?

Slender fingers curling into the waistband of his pants pulled Wesker from his thoughts, and he looked down at Diana, who had glanced up at the same time with that question in her eyes once more, asking if it was alright to continue. He simply nodded and she focused her attention back to what she was doing; he even lifted his hips to allow her to pull his pants off. Whenever she had dealt with the button and zipper eluded him.

He despised that – the feeling that he was no longer in control, losing his vigilance as the pain distracted him too much. It wasn’t just that though, the woman before him also played a part in causing his dazed state.

It was strange. Wesker couldn’t recall ever having a lover treat him like this. She wasn’t telling him that he was going to be okay, that she was there for him, or any of that superficial nonsense. She was just assisting him, doing whatever needed to be done so that he would be comfortable enough to hopefully get some sleep. It brought about another dreadful sensation to the mix already pestering him.

He lifted a hand and placed it over Diana’s when she reached for the t-shirt he had haphazardly dropped on the bed when the vertigo had hit him. She only looked down at his large hand enveloping hers for a moment, seeming to be the one stunned now. Then her eyes finally darted up to his face, and the steely determination in them from before melted away into that look that unsettled him far more.

“I’m being overbearing, aren’t I?” she asked, a slight trace of a chuckle clinging to the edge of it, as though she was almost embarrassed by her behaviour.

Wesker let out what was probably supposed to be a laugh in response, but little more than an exhale came out. “No.”

He paused as his next words died on his tongue. Or more accurately, they didn’t seem to want to leave his throat and even get that far. Diana was none the wiser and just rose to her feet, hand slipping free of his own and taking the t-shirt with it. Wesker chewed on the inside of his cheek for but a fraction of a second before he swallowed his pride.

A sharp inhale, then he lifted his head to look up at her. “Thank you.”

The genuine smile that crossed Diana’s face made him feel far too warm, like the sun was bearing down on his skin and reaching the deepest parts of him; it wasn’t quite a grin, teeth staying hidden, but the corners of her eyes crinkled and the indents on her cheeks deepened somewhat. She didn’t give him much of a chance to admire it though, too preoccupied with making sure she didn’t move him around too much as she carefully pulled the shirt over his head and helped each of his arms into the sleeves.

“I take it you have photophobia,” she said matter-of-factly. It was almost too clinical-sounding for Wesker’s liking, odd as that may seem. The term alone just left a bad taste in his mouth.

It was sort of his own fault, which he didn’t like owning up to. He’d always had trouble with his sensitivity to bright lights, but he was only meant to wear the tinted glasses Umbrella prescribed him when in the lab or outside. It had been the relief he felt without a migraine clawing at his senses that made him forget he was wearing them at all, and in turn, that developed into a habit of leaving them on for nearly all waking hours. His eyes adjusted to the conditions and it only worsened his sensitivity when he was without his sunglasses.

What he wouldn’t give to have his youthful eyes back.

When Wesker didn’t respond to her, Diana gently cupped his cheek. He tried to meet her gaze, but her eyes were focused just below, where her thumb was brushing across the dark circle marring his skin. Another thing he wished he could reverse time to prevent.

As useful as her help was, Wesker couldn’t understand why she was doing this, why she was being so… kind. So tender. She wasn’t a nurturer, or the type to worry about others. Maybe she did actually care for him, more than she let on. That didn’t feel right though – it just left him profoundly uncomfortable. His mind had to be playing tricks on him with how exhausted he was. That was the only reasonable explanation.

Diana’s thumb paused its repetitive motion and she simply held her hand in place. It was just for another second or two, but her touch lingered well after she departed, leaving a pleasant tingle across his skin.

The last obstacle in the way of Wesker being able to just collapse into bed and hope that his migraine was gone by the morning was the pair of pyjama pants Diana was bunching up so she could help him change into them easily. His tired limbs seemed to move on their own, slipping into each pant leg with little input from him, but the moment he lifted his hips as she tugged the fabric over them, another surge of intense pain hit him, causing him to keel over.

It felt as though his head was being split in two, torn apart from the inside out. He could have sworn the eye taking the brunt of the pressure was going to pop out of its socket at any minute. The only thing he could do was rest his head in his hands and endure it, pressing his thumbs down on the innermost part of his brows in hopes to alleviate some of the pain.

Diana shuffled closer and reached forward to place her hands on his thighs. They only ran up and down the sides of them in a gentle, reassuring motion while her mind scrambled to recall the locations of where she’d seen every thing that could possibly aid him in his house.

Her brain was being just as helpful as his was, because she drew a blank, too taken aback by the sight in front of her. The intimidating Albert Wesker slumped over in pain – that was something she thought she’d never see. He always seemed so… invincible. Nothing could tear down his powerful image and break through his composed demeanour this easily, and she couldn’t quite believe her eyes.

“Albert?” Diana’s voice was so soft he almost didn’t hear it, but his name always sounded so much nicer spilling from her lips compared to anyone else’s. “Do you need a bucket? Or…” She paused for a second then let out a frustrated huff. “Where do you keep your painkillers?”

“They don’t work,” Wesker grumbled.

Of course they don’t, she thought. That would’ve been too easy.

Or he was being overdramatic. So, she pressed on. “Not even a little bit?”

The crease between his brows only deepened, and he squeezed his eyes shut. So, that was a definitive no.

Diana pursed her lips as she tried to think of what else she could do for him. She wasn’t familiar with actually dealing with a migraine, even if she knew all of the treatments on paper; she was fortunate enough to never get them, and she couldn’t remember the last time someone around her had. She could list off every over-the-counter painkiller and triptan that was used to specifically target a migraine, but that would do her no good. She didn’t know what worked for him.

There had to be something though. Diana moved to stand and go take a look at what was in the medicine cabinet in his bathroom, but Wesker fumbled to take her hand in his own.

That made her freeze on the spot.

She had no doubt he was cursing himself for doing such a thing, for how it almost seemed to be a reflex more than a conscious decision. Or perhaps he just needed something solid to hold on to. Whichever it was, Diana didn’t care, so long as it helped. Even if the way he was gripping her hand hurt like hell; she’d been through far worse, so the possibility of a broken bone was something she would simply bear.

“Here,” she whispered while carefully pulling Wesker up to stand a moment after she did so herself. He stumbled on his feet when upright, but Diana was there – the pillar to hold him up and save him from toppling over.

The arm not reaching for his – right hand clasping his own – was wrapped around his back. It served to keep him stable as she slowly guided him over to what she had long since been acquainted with as his preferred side of the bed. This whole ordeal would’ve been much easier if he wasn’t leaning his entire body weight against her, but at least the trip wasn’t too lengthy.

Their hands only parted when Diana let go to lean forward and pull back the covers for him. Wesker really hoped she didn’t see how his fingers extended on instinct, as if to chase her touch. It was utterly pathetic. The urge to hold her was getting increasingly annoying, and he wished his body would just try to not embarrass him for once.

He couldn’t exactly exert much control over his innate reactions in his condition, but if Diana noticed, she didn’t say anything. That was one positive, he supposed.

And the fact that he managed to sit on the bed on his own without dragging her down with him. That probably would’ve earned him a bony shoulder digging into his chest, and that would just make matters worse.

Diana didn’t have to, but she went so far as to help him lie down as well. In a way that wouldn’t make his head feel as though someone had taken a hammer to it, that is. All slow movements and firm but gentle touches, manipulating his limbs for him as they felt too heavy for him to move on his own. And when she was done, one of her hands reached up to smooth back his hair.

That brought about that dreadful flutter in the pit of Wesker’s stomach. Or maybe that was the nausea. He couldn’t tell at this point.

Weary eyes tried their hardest to stay trained on the figure lingering in front of them. But they were unsuccessful. Wesker couldn’t keep them open any longer, not when everything was spinning around like this. He couldn’t even make out what the expression strewn about Diana’s features was.

It didn’t even matter, because her comforting touch left him before the sound of her feet padding across the floor reached his ears – quickly, like she was in some rush. Unnecessary, Wesker thought. He wasn’t exactly going anywhere, lying there in agony.

He didn’t think it would get this bad. It had been so long since he’d had a migraine like this. The nausea, visual disturbances, and all of that nonsense was typical for him, but the vertigo would come and go. Every time it showed itself he was caught off guard; there was no getting used to the feeling of his body swaying back and forth when he was lying perfectly still.

That wasn’t even the worst of his problems.

His mind decided it wanted to be louder than the rhythmic pulse behind his eye, yelling at him to the point where his thoughts felt like they were what was causing his pain by bouncing around and colliding with his skull.

Weak. Pitiful. Unacceptable. Over and over again.

How could he let someone see him like this?

Not just someone, but her, of all people. The woman who would roll her eyes when one of the researchers called off work, the one who boasted about never getting sick, the one who carried herself like nothing could strike her down. Just like he did. And yet here he was, reduced to rubble by a bit of pain.

That’s what was confusing Wesker. Why was Diana being so considerate of his plight? He had no doubt she’d rather be at the lab, or really anywhere else, doing something worthwhile instead of this. She should just leave, honestly. There was no reason for her to stick around; it wasn’t like she felt anything more for him beyond fellowship. Sherry was wrong in her assumption; Diana wasn’t his partner.

She may have been his, but he certainly wasn’t hers. No, she just enjoyed toying with him.

Now was not the time to fall into thinking about that rubbish again. He should’ve never asked her if she wished to stay the night. Or invited her over for dinner in the first place, for that matter.

“Alright.”

That pulled Wesker out of his head. It may have only been low, simply a hurried mumble under one’s breath, but that entrancing voice was unmistakable to him. His little pity party hadn’t lasted long – privacy breached once more as Diana returned from whatever she had been doing. He really did despise that she was witnessing him in this state; this wasn’t how he wished for her to find out he suffered from migraines.

With her hands full, Diana crossed his room with the stride of someone on a mission – full of purpose. First, she placed a glass of water down on his nightstand, then she used her now free hand to pull the bucket she’d found in the laundry out from under her other arm, where it was sitting awkwardly and digging into her side. 

Once she set it down beside the bed, she crouched in front of Wesker and placed the ice pack she’d wrapped in a tea towel in one of his hands, which he lifted to his forehead immediately. Diana had no idea if that would help him or not, actually. She preferred heat for pain relief; being sensitive to the cold always made her recovery with injuries from ballet growing up a horrid experience. Maybe she should have looked to see if he had a heat pack instead. That would help alleviate the tension in his neck and shoulders.

No. She had what she needed, she wasn’t going to run around and make an even bigger fuss. It would probably make him feel worse, anyhow.

The only thing left to do was close the curtains and block out any light that threatened to seep into his room, whether that be from the street lamps illuminating the suburb or the bright moon itself. The significance of his blackout curtains now made much more sense to her.

When she stood to round the bed, Diana had no idea why she took the hand by his hip in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze. Her thumb even brushed across the back of it for a second. There was just this odd need to show him that she was there, that she wasn’t going anywhere.

Even as she pulled the curtains shut, the thought didn’t leave her mind.

She wasn’t going anywhere.

Taking care to not make the mattress dip too much, Diana climbed into bed next to Wesker. The last thing she wished was for her getting comfortable to cause him any undue pain because it jostled him about. It was only then, when the covers brushed across her bare legs, that she realised she was only wearing his shirt – the pyjama pants he’d chosen for her long forgotten somewhere to the darkness.

Wesker decided to be rather ungrateful for her cautious approach, as he moved on his own. Diana couldn’t help how her eyes wandered over him, taking in every detail she could as he began to slowly roll over; his brows were knit together, deepening the lines between them, his lips were pulled down in a frown, and his eyes were screwed shut. It was rather obvious to her that he was trying to not bring up all of his dinner, and that sent her heart plummeting down into her stomach. What he was going through really sunk in then.

She wished she could just take the pain away, make it all disappear and guarantee it would never return.

It was an awful feeling, watching the man who had only ever given her these tiny glimpses of vulnerability do what looked to be such a practised motion, as though he had a tried-and-true method for dealing with his nausea for so long.

She felt helpless. But why did she even care? Countless lovers had come and gone, not ever leaving an imprint on her heart, but he seemed to tug at every string.

A loud thump, immediately followed by a rather feeble sound, pulled Diana from her thoughts. It wasn’t quite a groan, but not nearly a whimper either, and she never thought she’d hear such a sound come from Wesker.

While turning, the ice pack had fallen free of his weak grasp and landed on the floor, causing the disturbance. Diana opened her mouth to speak, to ask him if he wanted her to pick it up for him, but she didn’t get a chance; he curled up against her side all of a sudden, resting his head on her chest. That was something she wasn’t prepared for. He had never done that before, and she wouldn’t be surprised if he heard the way her heart sped up at the act.

Diana kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling, not daring to look down at him while her arm hesitated to wrap around his back. What was she even supposed to do? This was all new territory for her, for them, and… it was overwhelming. She didn’t know what to think; there was just this massive weight that had been dropped onto her chest. And it wasn’t Wesker, or the way he slung his arm over her waist.

It was that somehow, despite everything, he had managed to worm his way past all of her defences and make her actually care for him.

But friends do care for one another, yes? That is a fact. And it’s not like their dates meant anything; she had gone on many with casual partners in the past, and they were merely a formality. The longing she felt for him was nothing beyond physical.

The arm around her tightened its hold on her side, pulling her closer, and Diana looked down just in time to see a grimace twist Wesker’s features before he turned his head to rest his brow against her breastbone. Whatever he grumbled as he did so, Diana couldn’t quite make out what it was.

She chewed on her lip while bringing a hand up to the back of his head, gently cradling it and holding him close. She found herself hesitating again, unsure of the implications of her touch – how it could be perceived. But the urge grew too strong soon enough. Whatever was going on between them was just that, and she wasn’t going to complicate matters by overanalysing it.

Her fingers ran through his hair, pressing firm against his scalp in somewhat of a massage. Diana absolutely hated the feeling of pomade residue on her fingers, but seeing the way his shoulders relaxed eased her disgust, if only slightly. She’d just have to deal with the waxy feeling on her skin, she supposed. It was a selfish thought but she wished he’d at least managed to rinse out his hair. She knew he hated it as well, though; his routines were always so important to him.

Wesker let out a long exhale and Diana paused the motion, unsure if what she was doing was actually making matters worse. He didn’t say anything, but the way he held her closer while his legs tangled with her own made her stomach flip, as though she was the one who was going to be sick.

The arm around his back held him firm as she leaned in to press a kiss to the top of his head. She never wanted him to go through this again, and she would find a way to ensure that.

For now though, she made a note to have a look for his glasses first thing tomorrow, before he woke.

#writing. #pair: ewskers #oc: diana #setting: early october 1996. same as part one as it's a continuation of that night // i think i said this all in the tags of the first part #already but i wrote these two fics back in march last year and decided to rewrite them for myself cause my writing has changed and i wanted #them to flow a bit better even though nothing has actually changed in them !! very special fics for me as it shows another side of diana #that i don't really talk much about. i mean all my fics are special to me otherwise i wouldn't write them but you know what i'm saying !! #i wasn't sure if i was going to post this or not cause i'm not feeling great about sharing my writing much but i'm just doing so for myself #if you do read it i would love to hear thoughts for either chapter and of course rbs and kudos are always appreciate but no pressure ever ♡ #i'll stop rambling cause i talked about it all in last post in my talk tag but i haven't been on here a lot due to a lot of health reasons #and feeling very disconnected and overwhelmed from here so i'm still around on twitter and such but things have been really bad recently #and i thought it best to not vent on here a lot like i used to and just kind of take time for me. i miss interacting with everyone on here #though and i hope everyone is doing well !!

[therecordconnection]

Creating Magic: Superpowers and Michael Jackson’s Music Videos

Introduction: It’s After Midnight (and Something Strange is Lurkin’ in the Dark)

It’s after midnight on the night of August 1st, 1981, and the world was introduced to a new television channel called MTV. The new independent channel, a platform dedicated to showcasing the still-new idea of “music videos”, began their first night with a confident and not-so-subtle video message: Playing the video for The Buggles’ hit single “Video Killed the Radio Star”. 

In the first few years of MTV’s existence, the channel that was dedicated to rock n’ roll was just a fledgling entity, grabbing any video they could get their hands on and looking for the one big thing that would propel them into the big time. 

Enter the King of Pop himself: Michael Jackson.

By the time MTV began life in ‘81, Jackson was already a superstar, both from his time with his brothers in The Jackson 5 (later The Jacksons in the mid-to-late ‘70s) as well as his successful 1979 album Off the Wall. But while the album was successful, Jackson had bigger plans for his 1982 follow-up, Thriller. He dreamed of an album where every song was a hit single and also had big ideas for the medium of music video, which was becoming the “new thing” in music at the time.

Though he made videos for Off the Wall songs “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, “Rock With You”, and  “She’s Out of My Life”, they are more archaic and more simple than the more complex special effects, plotlines, and dance routines that would dominate his peak success throughout the 80s. The videos for Thriller songs “Billie Jean” and the title track would go on to revolutionize music video, turning it from a hip, new trend into a bonafide art form. Jackson’s videos for these songs also showed the possibilities for music videos as excellent tools for promotion. In addition, Jackson’s success also broke the color barrier that plagued MTV’s early years. Not bad for the guy who even today still holds the title of “Best Selling Album of All Time”.

Jackson approached his music videos with the exact same level of perfectionism, detail, and precision as he did with his music. Even when working with famous directors such as John Landis (“Thriller”, “Black or White”), Martin Scorsese (“Bad”) and David Fincher (“Who is It”), he’s still in full control of everything that happens and is seen. Across his entire career, Jackson treated the creation of a music video to that of a short film production. A visually fascinating body of work, but strangely revealing of hidden desires and a unique look into Jackson’s mind and his worldview when you marathon them in the age of Youtube and streaming platform binge-watching.

He created realistic-yet-fantastical worlds where he’s not only viewed as a mysterious and almost mythical figure, but also shown using what can be commonly conceived of as superpowers, used as a means to not only add a fantastical element to his videos, but to live out subconscious fantasies that only the realm of film and music video allow. Some of these powers seen in his videos most likely reflected his subconscious; things that perhaps he wished he could’ve actually been able to do in his real life, especially given the trajectory of his career after the first round of child sexual abuse allegations on him in late 1993, which proceeded to play out like one of the wildest music videos and stories ever imagined. For Michael Jackson, the world of his music videos was the only place he ever had complete control over his life and narrative.

Examined here are five superpowers that make several appearances across Jackson’s videography, from 1979’s “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough” to the 1996 short film Michael Jackson’s Ghosts. These powers (along with a brief description) include:

1)  Summoning --  Jackson either summons music to begin playing or can summon dancers, seemingly at will.

2) Possession -- Jackson’s dancers often perform the same moves exactly as he does once he starts dancing, almost as if their moves are controlled by him.

3) Transformation -- Jackson starts as his ordinary self and morphs into something else. Usually tends to change into animals.Super Spinning

4) Super Spinning -- Energy builds up when he spins, which in turn causes things to happen. Such as: vanishing (detailed below), causing things to blow up, illusion creation, and more.

5) Vanishing -- The ability to (naturally) vanish into thin air. Usually done in conjunction with spinning.

Each of these five main powers are seen within the following videos made between 1979 and 1996: “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”, “Thriller”, “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Smooth Criminal”, Speed Demon, “Remember the Time”, and the short film Ghosts (which will be covered within its own section.) Without further ado, let’s get started.

“Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”: Setting the Stage and The First Appearance of Superpower Use

On October 10th, 1979, two months after Jackson released the Off the Wall album, he debuted his first music video as a solo artist for the single “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”. This first video’s premise is simple for it’s time, much simpler than the more grand concepts Jackson would imagine and bring to life as his solo career took off. In it, Jackson, dressed to the nines in a black and white tuxedo (that mimics the one worn on the album cover), sings and dances to the song while being chroma keyed over a background of abstract geometric figures. Again, nothing complicated, but after the 2:30 mark, something happens in the video that sets the stage for Jackson to push the envelope and the art of video creation for the rest of his career: He displays powers for the first time.

At the start of the video, only the bassline is heard while Jackson does a quick spoken word bit in the meek, high-pitched whimpering speaking voice he used for most of his public appearances. It is in this video that we see the first two instances of Jackson using superpowers of some kind: Summoning and Possession. For summoning, it comes in two flavors. The first has Jackson let out a now-classic “WOO!” after the beginning spoken-word bit and the music then begins in full swing (along with the background). This sets the stage for Jackson’s other videos that involve summoning music (which will be discussed in full shortly.) The other aspect of summoning comes into play around that 2:30 mark, where Jackson leans back and a clone of Jackson walks in from the left side. They fire off a few dance moves only to have a third Jackson walk in from the right. The three dance in sync before Jackson continues the video with just him. It’s the kind of shadow clone jutsu that would make Naruto proud. 

The other power shown here for the first time is Possession. Not only does Jackson summon multiple versions of himself here, but he also seems to command them to dance exactly as he does. The clones can’t possibly predict the steps he’s going to do ahead of time (even if they are him), so the only conclusion must be that Jackson uses mind control and possession in order to make his dancers do the right steps. Even in this first video, we can see the beginnings of a strange being tapping into his powers and learning how to use them. It makes sense when you consider Jackson was only twenty-one when making this video, which is generally accepted to be when the human mind reaches maturity. This video lays the groundwork for the rest of Jackson’s videography and allows for him to experiment further and turn music video creation into a bonafide art form. 

Now that we’ve laid a foundation, it’s time to begin discussing these powers in-depth.

Superpower #1: Summoning

After learning to summon clones of himself in the “Don’t Stop” video, Jackson takes this concept and applies it to his other videos, using the same two methods as previously detailed. In videos after, he occasionally summons music through some sort of action. “The Way You Make Me Feel” has him sing the first lines before letting out the same “WOO!” that brought the music to “Don’t Stop”. “Bad” has him shoot his hand up, snap, music starts. “Smooth Criminal” has him famously flip a quarter into the jukebox from across the speakeasy, causing the music to start. 

Most music videos of the 1980s had the music begin right as the video began. I mean, why not? That’s what we’re here for, right? Sure. But Jackson was different. In the world of his videos, the music doesn’t start until he commands it to. These videos all have one other thing in common: Jackson makes you wait for the song to start. The scene before the music begins usually involves the specific video’s characters at a standoff, with mostly silence as the only accompaniment. With this, Jackson allows himself to gain full control of his surroundings and put himself at the center of it all. Again, the music doesn’t start until he commands it. It’s one reason why his music videos became such an event. It wasn’t just that they were short films, he was creating a story, a world, and a specific reason for the music to be there. He made you wait for it. For example, “Bad”’s music video is a whopping eighteen minutes total in length; the song itself doesn’t begin until around the 9:40 mark. 

But what is a music video without a little choreography? The only thing Michael Jackson was known for more than music was his incredible dance ability (...and being the subject of many rumors we can neither confirm nor deny.) Every music video the man ever made had dancing in it to some degree, with longer videos like “Thriller”, “Bad”, and “Remember the Time” having a specific part dedicated to complex and dazzling choreography that would win any contest in the Step Up or Bring It On films. This is where the second part of that summoning power comes in.

In some of these dance sequences, Jackson often summons multiple dancers that will proceed to join him and repeat the same steps that he does (which we’ll talk a little more about during the “Possession” section.) In the video for “Thriller”, Jackson famously has zombies rise from their graves and join him while famed gothic horror actor Vincent Price scares you with a monologue. In “Bad”, as soon as Jackson dons the same black clothes and various chains and shiny buckles that grace the Bad album cover, he has dancers of the gang variety fall into the shot and join him. In “The Way You Make Me Feel”, his street friends that are watching the king work his charms on an attractive woman join him for a dance sequence near the end of the video. 

Granted, the logic of music videos dictates that asking questions like “How is this all happening?” or “Where do all those dancers come from?” are immediately refuted by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 answer, “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.” But where’s the fun in that? Being in full control of the worlds these music videos inhabit, Jackson clearly wills these dancers into existence, because who really wants to dance alone? Now, summoning is one thing, but how do these dancers and extras know how to do all of the same steps Jackson is doing? There can only be one answer...

Superpower #2: Possession

In addition to that, a quick, non-music video example provides us with an instance of Possession at work. The 1990 Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker contains a special move where Jackson takes as many enemies that are on screen and controls them, causing them to dance quick routines (usually recreating the iconic moves from “Thriller”) and then disappear from the screen. This move also costs a chunk of your health bar in order to use, which indicates that Jackson must be exerting some strange part of himself in order to make this happen. However, surely not as strange as the next power on our list...

When Jackson has these extra dancers with him, once he enters “Dancing Machine” mode, the others join him, all while repeating the same steps he does. During these segments, Jackson is always in the center of the shot, naturally, as he’s always the one leading. In the world these videos inhabit, how does he get these extra dancers to join him and do these moves so flawlessly?

Simple. He’s possessing them and causing them to perform these moves, whether they’re fully conscious of it or not. 

I mean, as we talked about with the video for “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”, there’s no way those clones could have possibly known what Jackson was going to do ahead of time... unless something or someone was guiding them. Perhaps a leader who already knows all the steps... once again, the artist retains full control of everything happening in these videos.

There are five videos where Jackson does dance routines with several other people: “Thriller”, “Beat It”, “Bad”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Remember the Time”. Of these, three of them (“Beat It”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Remember the Time”) involve Jackson doing dances with people who are either summoned or already on screen. There is no verbal communication or look exchanged at all. Jackson just starts moving and whoever is around joins in, whether they be gangsters in “Smooth Criminal” or the people of the Egyptian kingdom in “Remember the Time”.

But the video for “Beat It” perhaps provides the best example of Possession at work, especially since this example does not involve Jackson summoning anyone, he instead goes to others. In “Beat It”, Jackson makes his way from a small room, to a diner, and then finally to the scene of two rival gangs at a standoff, switchblades out. After this quick standoff, Jackson comes between the two gang leaders and proceeds to start bustin’ them sick moves. Both gang leaders quickly join him and then the rest of the gang members. The rest of the video is dedicated to all members dancing, proving that the answer to ending any conflict is by simply having Michael Jackson come in and command both sides to dance. 

In addition to that, a quick, non-music video example provides us with an instance of Possession at work. The 1990 Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker contains a special move where Jackson takes as many enemies that are on screen and controls them, causing them to dance quick routines (usually recreating the iconic moves from “Thriller”) and then disappear from the screen. This move also costs a chunk of your health bar in order to use, which indicates that Jackson must be exerting some strange part of himself in order to make this happen. However, surely not as strange as the next power on our list...

Superpower #3: Transformation

The first instance of Jackson transforming from human into something different was “Thriller”, which he does twice in the video. The first instance is during the movie that he and his girlfriend are watching before the song starts. He goes from normal human to werewolf. The second instance comes right after Vincent Price’s monologue in the song, when Jackson’s girlfriend turns around in horror to find that she’s surrounded by zombies... and Jackson is now one of them. Naturally, this terrifies her. She runs away, only for the zombies to follow her and eventually corner her. Just before they go in for the kill, she wakes up, alerting the viewer that everything that has just happened has been just a dream... or was it? “Thriller” famously ends with Jackson and his girlfriend walking out of her house, but not before he takes one more look at the camera, once again sporting the werewolf eyes.

Transformation appeared in no less than four of Jackson’s music videos: “Thriller”, “Bad”, “Speed Demon”, and “Black or White”. Most of these videos saw him transforming into some sort of animal, as evidenced by “Speed Demon” (a Claymation rabbit), and “Black or White” (a panther). 

This is the first of the powers that Jackson uses that reflects his actual life outside of his videos. Transforming from human into something different in his videos can be connected to his dislike and insecurities with his own appearance and the numerous plastic surgeries he had over the years. That’s even before bringing up the obvious fact that Jackson went from a dark-skinned black man in the late seventies to whiter-than-Mount-Rushmore-covered-in-sour-cream complexion time the early nineties rolled around.  

The first instance of Jackson transforming from human into something different was “Thriller”, which he does twice in the video. The first instance is during the movie that he and his girlfriend are watching before the song starts. He goes from normal human to werewolf. The second instance comes right after Vincent Price’s monologue in the song, when Jackson’s girlfriend turns around in horror to find that she’s surrounded by zombies... and Jackson is now one of them. Naturally, this terrifies her. She runs away, only for the zombies to follow her and eventually corner her. Just before they go in for the kill, she wakes up, alerting the viewer that everything that has just happened has been just a dream... or was it? “Thriller” famously ends with Jackson and his girlfriend walking out of her house, but not before he takes one more look at the camera, once again sporting the werewolf eyes.

“Thriller” is the video where transformation shows up the most, next to “Black or White”, as Jackson shows he can change back and forth from human and zombie when needed. Once he turns into a zombie, he engages in the iconic dance sequence with his fellow zombies. Then, he’s suddenly human again in order to sing the chorus to the song, then turns back into a zombie to deliver more scares before the nightmare ends. This ends up proving one thing: The zombies aren’t the ones that change and zombify him. Jackson can shapeshift at will. I mean, he pretty much has to, otherwise he would look out of place dancing with them. In the creation of these music videos, every choice was a deliberate one and Jackson was smart enough to know that music videos, much like any type of film, doesn’t need to conform to reality. 

Now, to add another example onto our pile, the video for “Speed Demon” begins with Jackson finding himself on a movie set (where everybody but him is played by Claymation figures for some reason) and running away from screaming fans who want a piece of the man (and perhaps an autograph.) You know, the usual stuff when you’re a huge mega-star. After a brief chase scene, Jackson finds himself inside a costume room and decides that a disguise is what he needs in order to slip out undetected. This of course is an obvious reference to Jackson’s own life: By the time the video was shot (1988) he often had to use disguises and masks in order to go anywhere without being mobbed by fans and admirers.

The disguise Jackson decides for “Speed Demon” is a motorcycle riding Claymation rabbit, the second time we’ve seen Jackson go from human to animal. It makes perfect sense for a song about riding fast and chasing the adrenaline rush that comes with riding at high speeds. After watching Jackson-as-rabbit ride through the mean streets of some unidentified city, he takes a rest at what looks like the same canyon area Wile-E-Coyote and Road Runner chase each other in.  He spins around fast (a separate power we’ll discuss shortly) and becomes human again... then the rabbit returns and he has a dance off with it where we find the rabbit has his own playbook of sick moves, providing the world with the second greatest team-up between a man and a rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? still being number one, coming out a year before this video premiered as part of the film Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.)

“Bad” is an interesting addition here, as it’s the only video that has a transformation of personality rather than an actual physical change. “Bad”’s music video tells the story of a young inner city youth named Darryl (played by Jackson himself) who is heading home after a term at a fictional prestigious high school (referred to as “Dustbury” and “Doomsbury” by Wesley Snipes’ character.) Once home, he begins clashing with his old friends after he shows discomfort with petty crime, with the friends believing that his going to school has turned him into a sissy who ain’t “bad” and “ain’t down with it”. All through the first half of the video, the cinematography is in black and white, with the transition to full color finally happening once Jackson appears in the same outfit he donned for the Bad album cover.

The entire song was meant to re-invent Jackson’s image from a meek little dancing machine with a high-pitched and soft voice, to an edgy, tough guy dressed in black, adorned with chains, and bad to the bone. All of this was meant to answer the big money question, “Who’s bad?” This was, of course, done  in 1987, before Jackson had to spend most of the nineties and the aughts fighting heavy accusations of child sexual abuse and trying to convince people that he wasn’t bad at all.

Jackson showed the transformation power one more time in his music videos, which was 1991’s “Black or White”. In terms of the power being shown, Jackson doesn’t do it until close to the end. After the iconic sequence where other people sing the line “It’s black, it’s white” while seamlessly morphing/transitioning from one person to another person of a different race (an impressive visual effect for 1991.) The video “ends” with shots of the video set and everybody applauding and going for break. While this is happening, the camera cuts to a panther walking through the set undetected, heading for the downstairs area. Once downstairs, the panther morphs and reveals itself to be Michael himself. He then goes into a furious dance routine in a street setting and destroys a glass beer bottle, a building window, and a parked car labeled with incredibly racist words/phrases spray-painted on them. It’s worth noting that these messages are removed in most versions of the video widely available today, as the image below this paragraph will show. The video offered on Jackson’s official Youtube channel has the version with these racist phrases removed, meaning that the context for why he goes on this rampage and breaks stuff is also gone. Regardless, he tears off his shirt and screams with grand drama as the hotel neon sign falls. This is a very different kind of scene for Jackson, who rarely showed any kind of violence or anger in his videos. After his damage and rampage, he turns back into the panther, growls, and leaves the screen, bringing the video to a close.

These different transformations not only add a new and exciting element to Jackson’s videos, but also give us a fantastical look at his desire to be somebody (or in these cases, something,) that wasn’t him. A conflicting contradiction where he both wants to be the star and not be the star at the same time. These instances of changing into something else doesn’t seem odd in hindsight, given that Jackson was someone who went through an entire lifetime of literally changing the “Man in the Mirror”, to the point where it’s almost impossible to imagine what he could’ve seen when he looked at himself in the mirror. This superpower is a case of wondering and asking if it’s art imitating life or life imitating art. But we still have two more powers to cover...

Superpower #4: Super Spinning

If there’s one thing Michael Jackson was good at doing, it was being able to spin around fast and stop on a dime without any trouble. He did it all the time; on stage, on video, probably alone in his house too. Spinning isn’t a power that shows up a ton of times in his videography, but it’s still something that he does that causes odd things to happen.

The strangest example of him doing this comes in the “Smooth Criminal” video. There is a quick instance where Jackson jumps onto a table, spins around for a few seconds, and then snaps loudly. This then causes a skylight to blow up. I can only assume that energy builds up inside of Jackson when he spins around, which he can then use in order to strike things or cause things to happen. In “Speed Demon”, when doing the dance off with the Claymation rabbit, Jackson blows his mind and wins by spinning around so fast that he creates an aura of light as well as illusions of the other Claymation characters featured in the video before stopping on the tips of his toes.

The final time Jackson’s spinning does something in a music video is in “Remember the Time”. At the end of the video, Jackson is being chased by the king’s (played by Eddie Murphy) guards after serenading the queen and finds himself cornered. Left with no other options, Jackson spins himself into dust, causing him to disappear (which is the last power we’ll be talking about shortly.)

This is the most obvious use of superpowers since it was Jackson’s most well known move next to the moonwalk. It helped to add a special visual flair to videos and was a move that many young fans watching would probably want to try and imitate, especially if they found moonwalking too hard a task. (Personally I never wrapped my head, or feet, I guess, around how to do it...) It’s a cool move that made cool things happen. Sometimes, Jackson even used it in order to perform...

To return to the Moonwalker Genesis game again for a second, spinning is actually a special move Jackson can do in-game in order to defeat enemies. In fact, being able to spin around uninterrupted for a short period of time on-screen is what triggers Jackson to make enemies dance on screen (calling back to the power of Possession we discussed earlier.)

Superpower #5: Vanishing

Jackson has at least four videos where he performs the ability to vanish in thin air. The first video to showcase this ability was the video for “Billie Jean” in 1983. The video shows Jackson walking through a city street set. As he walks around he tosses a coin to a homeless person, takes a second to shine his shoes, and makes his way to an unnamed lover’s hotel room, with things lighting up and turning to gold while he does this. He is also being followed by a strange man in an overcoat in the video, obviously meant to represent a member of the paparazzi looking for an exclusive photo of Jackson that can be sold to tabloids. The vanishing act occurs when Jackson stops to shine his shoe and the paparazzo quickly flashes a photo. Hoping that he was successful and got a good shot of him, he looks at the photo to see that Jackson isn’t there. He has completely disappeared without a trace. This means either one of two things: 1) Jackson is a vampire (...could’ve been for all we know.) 2) He has the power to vanish before our very eyes.

He does it one more time in “Billie Jean”, near the end of the video. As he makes his way up the stairs of a motel, the paparazzo is slowly tailing him, still hoping to get a photo of the elusive artist. Jackson makes his way to a bed with an unknown woman sleeping in it. As the paparazzo gets ready to snap his photo, Jackson enters the bed (which proceeds to light up, same as everything else he’s touched.) However, as soon as Jackson is in the bed, he vanishes again, leaving an empty bed and a paparazzo who has just taken a photo of an unknown woman sleeping. He is taken away by police officers as the video plays back in reverse, with everything Jackson lit up previously disappearing.

We’ve already seen Michael spin himself into dust and vanishing in “Remember the Time”, so the only other example to name is in the video for “The Way You Make Me Feel”. The video takes place on a city street at night. Jackson is hanging out with some of his homies (as one does) while they ogle at an attractive woman in a little black dress walking by. Jackson calls out to her, she stops, and Jackson slowly makes his way over to her. His friends wait in anticipation to see if the king’s charms will get the woman on his side. He proceeds to start singing the line, “You knock me off of my feet now, baby” and summons the music, busting out a few moves in the process.

The vanishing act appears close to the end of the video. Jackson and his friends are seen doing a silhouetted synchronized dance in the street, you know, as we all do with our homies. The camera goes from the dancing set to showing the woman again, then pans back to reveal that Jackson has disappeared. His friends can be seen leaving the screen to the left and are hanging out on the edges of an alley, but Jackson is gone without a trace. He reappears at the very end and hugs the woman, ending the video.

Honestly, why he disappears only to reappear again is anybody’s guess. To give the end of the video an extra punch maybe? I don’t have a real answer for that one. But what I can say is that wanting the power to vanish whenever you want and be seen as an almost mythical creature is definitely a power Jackson would’ve found useful and probably wanted for most of his life. When you’re the biggest celebrity on the planet and everybody worships you and wants a piece of you, being able to simply vanish on the fly seems like a pretty attractive thing. Not to mention Jackson’s numerous controversies and bizarre behavior throughout the late eighties, the nineties, and even the aughts. A list that includes owning numerous odd animals (a monkey named Bubbles and a llama, in particular), building an entire small amusement park in his backyard, accusations of child molestation, and, lest we forget, dangling his infant son over a hotel balcony. Couple that with a dozen other rumors that tabloids may have made up and anybody in that position would want to be able to vanish without a trace.

So, we’ve covered all five of the man’s superpowers. That must mean we’re done, right? Not quite. There’s one more thing we have to cover...

Is It Scary?: Superpowers and Michael Jackson’s Ghosts

It’s October 1996, three years after Michael Jackson underwent his first round of child sexual abuse allegations as dentist Dr. Evan Chandler accused Jackson of “repeatedly committ[ing] sexual battery” against his then thirteen year old son, Jordan. 

In case a recap is needed, here it is: On August 24th, 1993, as the third leg of Jackson's Dangerous World Tour was getting started, news of these allegations broke to the public and in turn received worldwide media attention and coverage. As a result, Jackson canceled the remainder of the tour, citing health problems arising from the scandal. In January 1994, Jackson reached a financial settlement for $23 million with the Chandlers. In September of that year, the criminal investigation was closed after the Chandlers declined to cooperate, leaving the case without its main witness...

But the damage to Jackson’s reputation had already been done. It didn’t help that this wasn’t the first time the public had to be told about Jackson’s weird behavior, which, by 1993, had become excessively strange for reasons that have been mentioned previously. Several endorsements were lost and plans scrapped, such as PepsiCo dropping him after a nine year partnership, a recording of an HBO concert special, and is supposedly the reason why Jackson left during the making of the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (though there are conflicting sources citing different reasons as to why he left that project.) Regardless, the damage was done and as the nineties went on, Jackson only became more of a social pariah, with the 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I, having several songs related to and directly reference his battles with these allegations.

Which brings us to Michael Jackson’s Ghosts. A 1996 short film with a story written by Jackson, Stephen King, and Mick Garris. The film’s storyline is simple. It opens in the town of Normal Valley, where the mayor (played by Jackson himself) is leading a mob of local parents to the mansion of a man known only as The Maestro (also played by Jackson), who has been entertaining local children with magic tricks and ghost stories. The children assure the parents of the mob that the Maestro has done nothing wrong, but the mayor intends to banish him, believing him to be nothing more than a "freak".

Once inside the mansion, the maestro appears and challenges the mayor to a "scaring contest": the first one to become scared must leave and never return. He proceeds to perform magic tricks, does dance routines with a ghostly horde, and possesses the mayor, forcing him to dance. After the extravagant performance doesn't win him the contest, the maestro agrees to leave and crumbles to dust, only to return as an enormous demon when the mayor and the mob proceed to leave. The mayor, who is now terrified, leaps through the window, supposedly running away. The families all agree that they had fun and they allow the maestro to stay.

None of this is even remotely subtle and having even the most basic background knowledge of what was going on in Jackson’s life around this time would tell you which parts of the film are meant to represent things in real life. Despite all of this, the film does something that none of Jackson’s videos have ever done: make the use of superpowers look horrifying.

Before this film, Jackson’s use of superpowers in his videos were usually nothing more than light-hearted parlor tricks; feats meant to entertain and captivate an audience watching him on television. But here, every single power that’s been discussed previously is represented, but instead used to scare the audience. This is obviously intentional, as it plays up the public perception that Jackson was a freak of nature to a fantastical degree. It’s also the only way in 1996 that Jackson could have really said anything (besides the music found on HIStory) that gave any real insight into how he viewed the allegations that caused irreparable damage to his career. Ghosts basically has Jackson saying, “They want to see a freak? Fine. I’ll show them a freak.” Besides, in a music video, you can’t be interrupted by interviewers looking for a sensational headline or quote.

Two powers appear in this film that don’t deviate too much from what we’ve already seen. He still vanishes and he still summons the music and his crew of dancers (this time of the ghost variety.) The other three powers shown here, all with Jackson performing them with creepier connotations.

For starters, he transforms several times in this film. The first instance is when he stretches his skin and then removes it to fully reveal his own skull. He takes this a step further by later shedding his skin completely to dance as a (CGI) skeleton. The other instance of Transformation that’s shown is when he decides to honor the rules of the contest and leave the mansion. How does he do this? He turns himself into stone and smashes himself into dust. He’s turned into creepy things before, like a zombie and a werewolf in “Thriller”, but those were meant to be more Hammer horror fun ones. This time the maestro wants to actually scare you. It makes sense, given that Jackson’s career by this time was the lowest it had ever been. This wasn’t a superstar utilizing wild effects to astound you, this was an angry, disgraced man trying to freak you out and turn himself into exactly what the public and media saw him as.

The idea of Possession, as we’ve discussed previously, usually involves Jackson telepathically getting dancers and other people involved in whatever dance routine is on his mind. That trick is still here in the form of Jackson’s ghost dancers doing what he does, but this power also takes on a more grim use here. In an attempt to scare the mayor of Normal Valley, Jackson literally possesses the mayor by flying into his mouth, making him dance in front of his mob. There are a few shots where you can see an outline of him crawling around in his stomach. This is the only time Jackson has ever presented this power in a literal sense and it’s creepy and weird as hell. Every other time it was simply implied and just used as a fun way to get background characters like gangsters, street guys, and Egyptian guards to dance with him. This instance in Ghosts just removes all the light-hearted fun and makes it deadly.

The final power that has a different interpretation is Jackson’s super spinning. Normally, Jackson uses it in order to build up energy or create some kind of illusion. Here, it’s combined with Transformation in order to make him into something deadlier than how he usually appears. Here, Jackson spins in order to reform his skin when he’s done being a skeleton, but instead of turning back into his usual self, he returns as a giant with a grotesque face that looks only slightly less horrifying than the zombie face from “Thriller”, which may or may not have been a way of representing the media and public’s prattling and prodding of Jackson’s history with cosmetic surgery.

Overall, Ghosts isn’t just turning light-hearted fun into something macabre just for the sake of making an elaborate Halloween-themed music video, it’s an artist attempting to change a narrative that’s been placed on him... and it doesn’t work. As said previously, the damage was already done and making a video with an unbelievable story like this wasn’t really going to change the minds of people who already came to their conclusions. Jackson using horrifying powers to mess with a town mayor and get the townspeople on his side could only ever exist in a video like this; it can only exist in a world where the creator and storyteller remains in control of the narrative.

Conclusion: Creating Magic

For Michael Jackson, the bigger and crazier that things got in his life, the more difficult it was to keep control. When you reach the top, there’s only one way to go: down. The use of superpowers shown in his music videos start out as harmless fun, but eventually reveal themselves to be magical ways of escaping the real world and giving one the chance to live out fantasies that can only be dreamed about. We all sometimes wish we could just disappear on a whim. We all sometimes wish we could morph into something or someone different. We all sometimes wish we could be the center of attention. These wishes aren’t harmful, they’re normal fantasies. One of the reasons many fans constantly return to these music videos and remain such cultural touchstones---even in a present time where Jackson is more controversial than ever before---is because they inhabit a magical world where suspension of disbelief takes over and for just a few minutes you’re in a world where anything could happen. You can clone yourself, you can get others to dance with you without fear of embarrassment, you can spin yourself into dust, you can vanish, you can become a zombie or a werewolf or a panther or whatever you’d like. The possibilities remain endless.

But perhaps it’s worth it to let the man himself explain it. In an unauthorized interview done at Jackson’s home in the winter of 1983, he says, “I like creating magic”. He then gets asked what his idea of “magic” is. His response:

“When I explain ‘magic’ I mean wonderment, excitement, the unexpected, escapism, creating something that is so incredible. An illusion. To put people in a situation, no matter what it may be and give them totally the opposite or the unexpected, so much more than what they thought would happen. I mean, just blow their minds. I like creating magic, excellence. I love doing that. There’s nothing like it. I try to do it in everything I do.”

He succeeded. Much of the man’s life story remains shrouded in speculation, but the body of work that still stands is not. The intentions couldn’t be any clearer. The man set out to make something that nobody had ever seen; that nobody thought was possible before with music video. The darkest parts of his story will always be discussed, debated, and dissected. The lightest parts will always be these videos, these moments in time that defined a culture and not only helped turn MTV into an empire but also turned music video into a legitimate art form. For Michael Jackson, his creative use of on-screen abilities, visuals, and everything else in between, all came together harmoniously in order to shape the world he brought to life through his work. It was always meant to serve one purpose: To create magic.

#original content #michael jackson #music video #mtv #1980s #off the wall #thriller #bad #music essay #music criticism

[idasessions]

Famous Muses & Groupies in Rock Music Pt. 21

MUSE: Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz)

Winona was born on October 29th, 1971 in Winona, MN to authors Michael D. Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer. Her godfather and close friend of Michael is radical psychologist Timothy Leary. When Winona was 7 years old, the Horowitz family moved into the Rainbow commune in Mendocino County, CA where the kids were home schooled and lived without electricity. In 1983, Winona began attending the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco two years after her parents relocated them to Petaluma, CA. While she was performing in local stage productions, Winona also would send video auditions and screen tests to Hollywood for potential movie roles. This led to her landing her first studio film, Lucas (1986) and very quickly Winona became a teen movie queen in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Heathers (1989) and Mermaids (1990). As an adult, she continued success with Night on Earth (1991), Reality Bites (1994), The Crucible (1996) and Girl, Interrupted (1999). She was nominated for an Academy Award twice: first for Best Supporting Actress with The Age of Innocence (1993) and second for Best Actress with Little Women (1994). Winona has also consistently been an icon to middle school goth girls all over the world because of her character Lydia Deetz in Tim Burton’s cult classic Beetlejuice (1988); and because of her real-life preference for dark make-up and black clothes. Her career quickly took a dive in 2000 when she had a string of flops released and developed an alleged pill addiction that caused her to have an unprofessional reputation on film sets. This then led to an infamous, bizarre shoplifting scandal in 2001. Since 2009, Winona successfully rebirthed her public image with supporting roles in Hollywood features like Star Trek (2009), Black Swan (2010), When Love is Not Enough (2010) and Turks & Caicos (2014); as well as prominent parts on the series “Show Me a Hero” (2015) and “Stranger Things” (2016- ).

Besides being one of the most recognizable starlets of the late 20th century, Winona also has a rep for dating quite a few musicians back in the day. Her most famous relationship was with fellow Burton collaborator Johnny Depp when they were in a highly publicized romance from 1989 to 1993. Their time together included co-starring in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) and then becoming engaged the same year. Winona also claims she lost her virginity to Johnny, and of course, after they broke up, Johnny famously changed his tattoo ‘Winona Forever’ to just ‘wino forever.’ After Johnny, Winona grew an association for courting and inspiring many dudes in the alt-rock scene. As her former friend Courtney Love once crudely put it: “You’re no one in rock music until you’ve feuded with me or fucked Winona Ryder.”

Winona’s first rock boyfriend was Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum from 1993-1996. The two were apparently very into each other and quickly moved in together after meeting on the set of MTV’s “Unplugged.” Dave had a cameo in Winona’s movie Reality Bites, while Winona appeared in Asylum’s music video for ‘Without a Trace.’ Even though they were a public item, Winona also described their relationship as more of a friends-with-benefits situation than a traditional romance in a 2002 interview with W magazine.

Her second rock beau was Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind very briefly in 1997, who suddenly left her for fellow Hollywood starlet Charlize Theron. Winona then dated movie star Matt Damon from December 1997 to summer 2000, and managed to be pretty lowkey with their relationship, so there aren’t any juicy stories on them surprisingly. During August 2000, Winona showed up at the Witnness Music Festival in County Mearth, Ireland as indie-alt star Beck’s plus-one. The couple had a brief hookup, with Winona rumored to being the basis on some of his 2002 album ‘Sea Change.’ (But Beck himself has said the album was about former girlfriend Leigh Limon.) In 2001, Winona began dating singer-songwriter Pete Yorn right after his first album ‘musicforthemorningafter’ debuted. Yet only a couple of months later Winona’s shoplifting incident occurred, and Pete bailed.

In 2003, Winona robbed the cradle a little bit when she had a passionate fling with 23-year-old Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst, who was 8 years younger than her. The pair was kind of a surprise when a year earlier Conor was quoted saying “I don’t think I would date Winona Ryder, she’s kind of old. I like Natalie Portman.” So maybe he was joking? Their courtship also included some paparazzi pics of the couple showing PDA. Blake Sennett of popular indie band Rilo Kiley ended up being Winona’s final musician boyfriend from 2007-2008. Like Conor, Blake was a bit younger and was rumored to be Winona’s second fiancé, but he denied it. Apparently Winona was very disappointed when he broke up with her. Since her rock love affairs, Winona also dated filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin and has been engaged and living with entrepreneur Scott Mackinlay Hahn since 2011.

Fun fact(s): The song ‘Rollerskate Skinny’ by Old 97s was written about Winona after lead singer Rhett Miller went on a date with her in 2000. Matthew Sweet’s track ‘Winona’ was also named after her.

#Winona Ryder #muses #Johnny Depp #conor oberst #blake sennett #beck #dave pirner #pete yorn #musesandgroupiesseries

[aion-rsa]

Best Movies Coming to Netflix in October 2021

https://ift.tt/3CTZWZs

You feel that? There’s a sudden coolness in the air, and the smell of freshly fallen leaves out your window. If you listen closely, you can even hear the delight of passerbys as they realize everything suddenly tastes like pumpkins. Yep, spooky season is almost here, and that goes for Netflix too.

Ironically, the most popular streaming service in the world has chosen to play a bit of a trick on those users wanting a lot of new horror content. While the streamer is providing new original horror films and television programming from its in-house productions, most of the films Netflix is adding for the month of October are not scary at all. Nonetheless, many of them are still a treat. So here are the best movies to expect on Netflix in October….

A Knight’s Tale (2001)

October 1

In the grand tradition of The Princess Bride and Stardust (although this came out before the latter), Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale is an anachronistic fairy tale that works better than it has any right to. It stars Heath Ledger in one of his early heartthrob roles as a squire who pretends he’s a knight to compete in jousting tournaments around England. However, in truth this is really a ‘90s sports movie with all the clichés and trappings that entails—a fact the movie wears on its green sleeves.

As a film which begins with Queen music playing in Ye Olde England as crowds clap in beat with Freddie Mercury’s vocals, the film is a balancing act that somehow looks effortless in no small part because of its winsome cast, including Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, and a scene-stealing Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, the famed poet and surprise wingman to Ledger’s Will Thatcher. And as Will, Ledger once again only hints at the deep reservoirs of talent and charisma we never saw fully realized.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

October 1

With the West Coast constantly on fire, the East Coast in danger of slipping beneath the Atlantic Ocean, and the rest of the country subject to extreme weather events on a constant basis, it’s a damn shame to realize that this powerful documentary—in which former Vice President Al Gore travels the country, speaking out about the dangers of climate change—is as necessary and vital as ever. It’s also jarring and depressing to understand that the United States still has not taken enough meaningful steps to stop this deepening crisis and even went backwards during the last four years.

Gore is much better here than he was on most of the 2000 campaign trail, weaving personal anecdotes and sentiments into the fascinating and sobering info dump that is the rest of the picture. If you haven’t seen it yet, An Inconvenient Truth (directed by Davis Guggenheim) is both moving and profound, and the kind of film one should share with one’s kids, if only out of respect for their future.

As Good as It Gets (1997)

October 1

Jack Nicholson won his third Academy Award (and second for Best Actor) while Helen Hunt won her first for Best Actress in this 1997 romantic comedy from director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a wealthy novelist with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose misanthropic behavior turns off everyone he meets. But Melvin finds love and a family of sorts when he gets involved in the lives of a single mom and waitress (Hunt) and a gay artist (Greg Kinnear) who help him accept changes in his carefully controlled world.

Nicholson and Hunt richly deserved their Oscars, while Kinnear showed surprising range and emotion as the tormented Simon. Together, the three are a joy to watch as they begin to know and help each other. As Good as It Gets may dip occasionally (even frequently) into sentimentality, but watching Hunt and Nicholson win their hard-fought personal victories makes up for it.

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

October 1

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central and its unwieldy title is not necessarily what you’d call a great movie. It’s not even a good one, per se. But this early Wayans Brothers success is a genuinely hilarious flick—especially for young men who came of age in the 1990s when every Friday night offered another cautionary tale of “inner city life” at the multiplex. Yes, Don’t Be a Menace takes the piss out of great films about a distinctly Black American experience, such as John Singleton’s raw Boyz N the Hood (1991), as well as more heavy handed also-rans based in similar themes.

But at the end of the day, this is just a clever spoof on a once ubiquitous genre with moments of genuine comical brilliance displayed by Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans. From their riff on strapping young Laurence Fishburne as a father in Boyz to Shawn’s warning of the dire risk to young Black actors posed by rappers getting all the best roles in Hollywood, there’s still a lot to giggle about at this movie, particularly if you’ve never seen it.

Desperado (1995)

October 1

Robert Rodriguez’s first Hollywood movie is as much a remake of his career-making indie, El Mariachi (1992), as it is a sequel to it. With Antonio Banderas stepping into the role of the mysterious guitar-toting gunslinger, and his mission of revenge more or less repeating itself, Desperado feels like the movie Rodriguez wanted to make the first time. And if so, fair enough, because both flicks are a blast.

Indeed, Desperado is as stylish a mid-‘90s shoot ‘em up as you’re ever going to come across. With all the visual tricks and impossible angles that became Rodriguez’s trademark, and with Banderas at his most broodingly pouty, it’s a hard-R actioner that subtly plays like a comedy. The film also includes Salma Hayek’s breakout performance, which still sizzles to the touch 25 years later. Throw in terrific character work in the margins by Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Joaquim de Almeida, Danny Trejo, and a cameoing Quentin Tarantino, and you have some fun Friday night fodder.

The DUFF (2015)

October 1

The teen rom-com heyday may have been in the 1990s and 2000s, but try telling that to Mae Whitman, who knocks it out of the park in 2015’s The DUFF, an adaptation of the 2010 novel of the same name. Whitman stars as Bianca, a high school senior who discovers she is viewed as “the DUFF,” aka the Designated Ugly Fat Friend by some of her (crueler) classmates. In an attempt to become cooler, Bianca makes a deal with her former childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell): she will help him pass science if he helps her un-DUFF. It’s a classic rom-com set-up, elevated by Whitman’s performance, her chemistry with co-star Amell, and the script’s savvy self-awareness.

Gladiator (2000)

October 1

When Gladiator was released, it came with some heavy cynicism from older critics who remembered the type of 1950s and ‘60s beefcake flicks it was emulating. What they didn’t get at the time—and which box office audiences and even Oscar voters eventually did—was Gladiator wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather this a gorgeous and finely crafted distillation of those genre trapping in peak condition for modern audiences.

Read more

Movies

Why Gladiator Continues to Echo Through Eternity

By David Crow

Movies

Antonio Banderas interview: The Expendables 3, Desperado

By Duncan Bowles

As the father of a murdered son, and husband to a murdered wife, Russell Crowe is magnetic as Maximus, the Gladiator who defied an emperor. And as that emperor, Joaquin Phoenix gives a curiously both sympathetic and repellent performance, which is far more fascinating than the one he did win an Oscar for nearly 20 years later. And like both performers, the whole cast and director Ridley Scott are in top form at telling this story. Their efforts flirt with the pomp and regality of opera, yet the spectacle is at times as lurid as professional wrestling. Frankly, 20 years later we wish they still made ‘em like this.

The Holiday (2006)

October may be a little early for a Christmas movie, but Nancy Meyer’s The Holiday is good enough to watch year round. The 2006 rom-com stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two women from different countries who decide to swap their homes for the holidays. Winslet’s Iris falls in love with tinseltown, and Diaz’s Amanda falls in love with Iris’ brother. With Jack Black and Jude Law as the film’s charming love interests, and bit parts for Kathryn Hahn and John Krasinski, The Holiday is the gift that keeps on giving. Fifteen years following its relatively lackluster box office debut, it remains a part of many people’s Christmas movie must-watch list. 

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

October 1

Most people remember Angelina Jolie‘s initial turn as Lara Croft fondly, but fewer talk about her follow-up feature appearance as the adventuring archaeologist in 2003’s Cradle of Life. The sequel didn’t do as well at the domestic box office as its predecessor, but it is arguably a more enjoyable film, pitting Jolie’s Croft against Ciaran Hinds’ Dr. Jonathan Reiss in a quest for Pandora’s Box (yes, literally) with a hunky Gerard Butler by her side. The pulpy plot is silly and fun, punctuated by some clever fight and action sequences from director Jan de Bont (Speed, Twister). From deep-sea diving to leaps from Shanghai skyscrapers, there’s never a dull moment with Lara Croft, and Jolie somehow makes it all work.

Léon: The Proessional (1994)

October 1

As the movie that made Natalie Portman a star, Léon or The Professional (depending on which continent you are on) has come under fair scrutiny in recent years for its intentionally bizarre and uncomfortable Bonnie & Clyde relationship between Jean Reno’s Léon, an immigrant who pays the bills by working as an assassin for the nice pizzeria proprietor down the street (the always fun Danny Aiello), and the little girl next door, Mathilda (Portman). Only 12-years-old, Portman’s precocious antiheroine clings to Léon for protection after a crooked cop (Gary Oldman) kills her family, and then pressures him to train her as an assassin so she can get revenge… all as she becomes infatuated with the grown man.

It’s a strange film that shouldn’t work, yet does thanks to a dreamlike atmosphere achieved by director Luc Besson at the height of his professional talent, and because of a genuinely superb cast. Despite being a killer, Reno brings such childlike innocence and obliviousness to his titular character that he may as well be a French Forrest Gump. Meanwhile Oldman hams it up to high heaven in one of his career best scenery-chews. Then there’s Portman who’s heartbreaking, tragic, and bleakly funny all before she was even a teenager. Somehow it’s an enchanting action movie fairy tale that works better than it has any right to.

Malcolm X (1992)

October 1

Denzel Washington didn’t win the Oscar for Malcom X but he should have. In fact, this absolute masterpiece deserved many more accolades and appreciation in its time. A passion project for writer-director Spike Lee, who had to campaign for the film after Norman Jewison had been hired to direct, Malcolm X is a breathtaking epic. It might run at a length of nearly three and a half hours, but Lee keeps the pace nimble and engrossing as we follow the man who’d become Malcolm X from the 1940s through his ascension in the Nation of Islam, and his eventual assassination after leaving the organization.

Read more

Movies

The Internal Debate Within the Writer of One Night in Miami and Soul

By David Crow

Movies

Robin Hood Movies Ranked

By David Crow

The film features perhaps the most riveting and relentless performance of Washington’s career as he channels the righteousness and anger, as well as the humility and anguish, of Malcolm. Washington and Lee’s portrait is that of a mythic figure, but also a fallible one who spends his whole life growing, learning, and affecting his world for the better. It’s one of the best American films produced in the 1990s.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

October 1

We’re aware that this Robin Hood movie has a checkered history. How could one not be when everyone recalls Kevin Costner’s “British” accent (or lack thereof)? Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is certainly a flawed jaunt into Sherwood Forrest… but honestly it’s still a very entertaining one that’s better than you remember.

Thanks in no small part to Alan Rickman’s tremendous turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the movie soars while the English thespian redefines the term scene-stealing in his every walk-on. It earned him a BAFTA for his troubles. Almost as important, and less often cited, is the dynamic, thrilling score by the late great Michael Kamen, which in addition to providing one of the best adventure themes of the 1990s also led to the creation of the biggest song of ‘91, Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You).” Throw in some fast-paced action filmed on actual English locations and a seriously merry acting ensemble—including Michael McShane as Friar Tuck, Nick Brimble as the best onscreen Little John, and Sean Connery’s iconic cameo as King Richard the Lionheart—and you have what’s still the best Robin Hood movie of the last 40 or so years, at least.

Step Brothers (2008)

October 1

An admittedly acquired taste, Step Brothers might just be Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s masterpiece. The pair began their professional collaboration on Saturday Night Live before graduating to their first zeitgeist-grabbing Anchorman in 2004, with Ferrell starring, McKay directing, and both co-writing. Step Brothers is their third of four films together, but it’s also the most pure: a distillation of their disdain for a certain type of toxic and anti-intellectual entitlement which sprang to the forefront of white American life in the 21st century.

Embodying that man-child selfishness is Ferrell as Brennan and John C. Reilly as Dale, two 40-year-old men who still live at home with their single parents. That nightmarish scenario turns out to be an aphrodisiac for Dale’s Dad and Brennan’s Mom (Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen), which forces these two petulant avatars of their age into sleeping under the same roof. Demented chaos ensues in a film where McKay, Ferrell, and Reilly are at last free from being forced to redeem the assholes they’re mocking.

Titanic (1997)

October 1

Beset by production problems and massive cost overruns, James Cameron’s epic retelling of the doomed 1912 maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic is undeniable populist entertainment, blending melodramatic romance with disaster movie dread and scale. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio—in star-making performances—play a fictional couple who meet and fall in love on the voyage, escaping their class boundaries to spend just a precious few days together. And then that iceberg gets in the way.

The romance may test some viewers’ patience for the first half of this three-hour movie, but Cameron brings all his considerable skills to bear in its second half, making us see and feel each agonizing moment as the massive ocean liner goes down and takes 1,500 souls with it. Titanic is still one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and there’s a reason for that: it’s an old-fashioned (except for the visual effects) Hollywood spectacle.

Zodiac (2007)

October 1

If you haven’t seen director David Fincher’s all-time masterpiece yet, what have you been waiting for? Fincher and his tremendous cast, including future Avengers Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr., plus Jake Gyllenhaal, Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny, and more, trace in methodical fashion the long and fruitless search for Northern California’s infamous Zodiac Killer. Ruffalo’s detective and Gyllenhaal’s newspaper cartoonist take the search personally, too, becoming more obsessed the further their target seems to slip away.

Read more

Culture

David Fincher’s Zodiac: The Movie That Never Ended

By Don Kaye

Culture

Zodiac Killer Code Cracked After 51 Years

By Tony Sokol

Fincher’s film is suffused with an eerie, mounting sense of dread that is compounded by the fact that it never truly pays off—aside from hearing his (unconfirmed) voice on the phone at one point, there’s never a real confrontation with the Zodiac, nor any sense of closure for anyone. The feeling that time, age, and death eventually wash away everything, even the best efforts of decent people to trap a monster, is perhaps the true horror at the heart of Zodiac, which may still be the best film of its decade.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Best Movies Coming to Netflix in October 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2ZOYTfn

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[oceanlyricss]

Eagles

With five number one singles, 14 Top 40 hits, and four number one albums, the Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of those albums -- Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California -- ranked among the ten best-selling albums ever, and the popularity of 2007's Long Road Out of Eden proved the Eagles' staying power in the new millennium. Though most of its members came from outside California, the group was closely identified with a country- and folk-tinged sound that initially found favor in Los Angeles during the late '60s, as championed by such bands as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco (both of which contributed members to the Eagles). But the band also drew upon traditional rock & roll styles and, in its later work, helped define the broadly popular rock sound that became known as classic rock. As a result, the Eagles achieved a perennial appeal among generations of music fans who continued to buy their records many years after they had split up and helped inspire the first of the Eagles' reunions in the mid-'90s. The band was formed by four Los Angeles-based musicians who had migrated to the West Coast from other parts of the country. Singer/bassist Randy Meisner (born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, on March 8, 1946) moved to L.A. in 1964 as part of a band originally called the Soul Survivors (not to be confused with the East Coast-based Soul Survivors, who scored a Top Five hit with "Expressway to Your Heart" in 1967) and later renamed the Poor. He became a founding member of Poco in 1968, but left the band prior to the release of its debut album in order to join the Stone Canyon Band, the backup group for Rick Nelson. Meanwhile, singer/guitarist/banjoist/mandolinist Bernie Leadon (born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 19, 1947) arrived in L.A. in 1967 as a member of Hearts and Flowers, later joining Dillard & Clark and then the Flying Burrito Brothers. Singer/drummer Don Henley (born in Gilmer, Texas, on July 22, 1947) moved to L.A. in June 1970 with his band Shiloh, which made one self-titled album for Amos Records before breaking up. Finally, Glenn Frey (born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 6, 1948) performed in his hometown and served as a backup musician for Bob Seger before moving to L.A. in the summer of 1968. He formed the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, and the two musicians signed to Amos Records, which released their self-titled album in 1969. Linda RonstadtIn the spring of 1971, Frey and Henley were hired to play in Linda Ronstadt's backup band. Meisner and Leadon also played backup for Ronstadt during her summer tour, though the four only did one gig together: a July show at Disneyland. They did, however, all appear on Ronstadt's next album, Linda Ronstadt. In September 1971, Frey, Henley, Leadon, and Meisner signed with manager David Geffen, agreeing to record for his soon-to-be-launched label, Asylum Records; soon after, they adopted the name the Eagles. In February 1972, they flew to England and spent two weeks recording their debut album, Eagles, with producer Glyn Johns. It was released in June, reaching the Top 20 and going gold in a little over a year and a half on the strength of two Top Ten hits -- "Take It Easy" and "Witchy Woman" -- and one Top 20 hit, "Peaceful Easy Feeling." DesperadoThe Eagles toured as an opening act throughout 1972 and into early 1973, when they returned to England to record their second LP, Desperado, a concept album about outlaws. Produced by Glyn Johns and released in April 1973, it reached the Top 40 and went gold in a little less than a year and a half, spawning the Top 40 single "Tequila Sunrise" in the process. The title track, though never released as a single, became one of the band's better-known songs and was included on the Eagles' first hits collection. On the BorderAfter touring to support Desperado's release, the Eagles again convened a recording session with Glyn Johns for their third album. Their desire to make harder rock music clashed with Johns' sense of them as a country-rock band, however, and they split from the producer after recording two tracks, "You Never Cry Like a Lover" and "The Best of My Love." After an early 1974 tour opened by singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, the band decided to hire Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk, who handled the rest of the sessions for On the Border. Szymczyk brought in a session guitarist, Don Felder (born in Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 1947), an old friend of Bernie Leadon's who so impressed the rest of the band that he was recruited to join the group. On the Border was released in March 1974. It went gold and reached the Top Ten in June, the Eagles' fastest-selling album yet. The first single, "Already Gone," reached the Top 20 the same month. But the most successful song on the LP -- the one that broke them through to a much larger audience -- was "The Best of My Love," which was released as a single in November. It hit number one on the easy listening charts in February 1975 and topped the pop charts a month later. One of These NightsThe Eagles' fourth album, One of These Nights, was an out-of-the-box smash. Released in June 1975, it went gold the same month and hit number one in July. Moreover, it featured three singles that hit the Top Five: the chart-topping title song, "Lyin' Eyes," and "Take It to the Limit." "Lyin' Eyes" won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, and the Eagles also earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year (One of These Nights) and Record of the Year ("Lyin' Eyes"). The group went on a headlining world tour, beginning with the U.S. and expanding into Europe. But on December 20, 1975, it was announced that Bernie Leadon had quit the band, and Joe Walsh (born in Wichita, Kansas, on November 20, 1947) was brought in as his replacement. He immediately joined the tour, which continued to the Far East in early 1976. ThrillerThe Eagles' extensive touring kept them out of the studio, and with no immediate plans for a new album; they agreed to release a compilation, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), in February 1976. The album's success proved to be surprisingly meteoric. It topped the charts and became a phenomenal success, eventually selling upwards of 25,000,000 copies and dueling with Michael Jackson's Thriller for the title of the best-selling album of all time in the U.S. It took the Eagles 18 months to follow One of These Nights with their fifth album, Hotel California. Released in December 1976, the record was certified platinum in one week, hit number one in January 1977, and eventually sold over 10,000,000 copies. The singles "New Kid in Town" and "Hotel California" hit number one, and "Life in the Fast Lane" made the Top 20. Meanwhile, "Hotel California" won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and was nominated for Song of the Year; the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year and for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus. The Eagles embarked on a world tour in March 1977 that began with a month in the U.S., followed by a month in Europe and the Far East, then returned to the U.S. in May for stadium dates. At the end of the tour in September, Randy Meisner left the band; he was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit (born in Sacramento, California, November 20, 1947), formerly of Poco, in which he had also replaced Meisner. The Long RunThe Eagles began working on a new album in March 1978 and took nearly a year and a half to complete it. The Long Run was released in September 1979. It hit number one and was certified platinum after four months, eventually earning multi-platinum certifications. "Heartache Tonight," its leadoff single, hit number one, and "I Can't Tell You Why" and "The Long Run" became Top Ten hits. "Heartache Tonight" won the 1979 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The Eagles toured the U.S. in 1980, and at a weeklong series of shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, they recorded Eagles Live. (Also included were some tracks recorded in 1976.) Released in November 1980, the double LP (since reissued as a single CD) reached the Top Five and went multi-platinum, with the single "Seven Bridges Road" reaching the Top 40. Hell Freezes OverThe Eagles were inactive after the end of their 1980 tour, but their breakup was not officially announced until May 1982. All five released solo recordings. (Walsh, of course, maintained a solo career before, during, and after the Eagles.) During the rest of the '80s, the bandmembers received several lucrative offers to reunite, but they declined. In 1990, Frey and Henley began writing together again, and they performed along with Schmit and Walsh at benefit concerts that spring. A full-scale reunion was rumored, but did not take place. Four years later, however, the Eagles did reunite. In the spring of 1994, they taped an MTV concert special and then launched a tour that ended up running through August 1996. The MTV show aired in October, followed in November by an audio version of it, the album Hell Freezes Over, which topped the charts and became a multi-million seller, spawning the Top 40 pop hit "Get Over It" and the number one adult contemporary hit "Love Will Keep Us Alive." The Very Best of the Eagles The Eagles next appeared together in January 1998 for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, when the five present members performed alongside past members Leadon and Meisner. On December 31, 1999, they played a millennium concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that was recorded and included on the box set retrospective Selected Works: 1972-1999 in November 2000. All was not well within the band, however, and Felder was expelled from the lineup in February 2001. A protracted legal battle ensued as the Eagles soldiered on as a quartet, releasing The Very Best of the Eagles in 2003 and achieving minor success with the single "Hole in the World." Felder's case was settled out of court in 2007; that same year, the Eagles returned with the band's seventh studio album, Long Road Out of Eden, a double-disc album that quickly went multi-platinum. In 2013, the band made the documentary History of the Eagles, and toured behind it until mid-2015. Six months later, Glenn Frey became ill and passed away on January 18, 2016. He was 67. Just over a year after Frey's death, the Eagles were revived with Glenn's son Deacon taking his place; Vince Gill also joined on guitars and vocals. The group played the Classic West and Classic East festivals in July of 2017, then set out on the road in 2018. At the end of the year, the group's entire discography was boxed up as the Legacy set. Source Read the full article

#bernieleadon #eagles #hotelcalifornia #randymeisner #ricknelson #rockband #TheEagles

[rickhorrow]

15 + 5 + 5 To Watch : 42219

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 22 with Jacob Aere

Networks have unveiled their plans for this week’s NFL Draft, which begins April 25. Disney’s presentation of the event will feature over a thousand production elements, with over 600 player highlights, and 57 cameras covering the action. ESPN’s traditional draft telecast, presented for the fourth year by Courtyard, features host Trey Wingo, NFL Draft analysts Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay, and many others. Meanwhile, ABC’s differentiated coverage will focus on the journey of NFL Draft prospects, and feature “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts, host Rece Davis, and ESPN’s “GameDay” crew: Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, David Pollack, Tom Rinaldi, Maria Taylor, and Chris “The Bear” Fallica. Meanwhile, NFL Media will deliver more than 76 live hours of Draft Week coverage, including a record 23 draft war room cameras. Before the first round on Thursday, NFL Draft Red Carpet airs with NFL Network's Melissa Stark and Michael Irvin interviews prospects as they arrive. By harnessing everything from hardcore sports to lifestyle coverage, both the Disney family of networks and the NFL itself demonstrate their awareness that the Draft is now must-see TV and the NFL is now a 52-week sport.

Peyton’s Places, a 30-episode documentary series hosted by legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, will air on ESPN+. Manning will host the football-themed series, revisiting seminal moments in NFL history. In the series, the two-time Super Bowl champ with the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos interviews former NFL players, coaches, and other key figures about football history and its cultural impact. Slated to debut July 15 exclusively on ESPN+, the series will be presented in five chapters, each comprising six episodes. In addition, ESPN and/or ABC will air special compilations, recapping each part after the full episodes debut on ESPN+.  The series is part of ESPN’s celebration of the NFL’s 100th season, produced by NFL Films in collaboration with ESPN+. While not specifically tied to the NFL Draft, the announcement of the new Manning-led series has particular significance before this year’s Draft in Nashville. Manning was selected by the Colts with the first overall pick of the 1998 NFL Draft…out of Tennessee.

Russell Wilson and the Seahawks have reached an agreement on a 4-year, $140 million extension that includes a $65 million signing bonus, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Wilson's extension is the richest ever in terms of average annual value ($35 million per season), surpassing Aaron Rodgers ($33.5 million). His $65 million signing bonus is also a new record, topping the $57.5 million Rodgers got last summer. Wilson, who is coming off arguably the best season of his career, was set to make $17 million in 2019, the final season of the four-year, $87.6 million extension he signed in 2015. As noted by Axios Sports, with their franchise quarterback taken care of, the Seahawks will now turn their attention to potential extensions for All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and top pass-rusher Frank Clark. The last few weeks have been full of rumors that "Russell Wilson wants to play for the Giants" and "Russell Wilson and his wife, Ciara, prefer New York." In hindsight, that was all nonsense – and it’s par for the rumor mill that always accompanies the NFL Draft run up.

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber has announced that the league will expand to 30 teams in the coming years, up from the previous expansion target of 28. In 2006, MLS had 11 teams. This season, there are 24, with another three on the way: Inter Miami CF (2020), Nashville SC (2020), and Austin FC (2021). Garber also anticipates selecting the 28th and 29th expansion teams in the coming months with no timetable set for the 30th team. Sacramento and St. Louis appear to be the frontrunners for slots No. 28 and 29, as they've both been asked to make formal presentations to the MLS Expansion Committee. The MLS Board of Governors also set the expansion fee for those two spots at $200 million apiece. Other cities whose expansion hopes may now be reignited include Charlotte, Detroit, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Raleigh, and San Diego, according to Sports Illustrated. Pro soccer is thriving in the U.S. and Canada, and expansion during the last decade has been a key driver of MLS' growth. Investors continue to be enthralled. So why not keep it going?

Even though NBA viewership was down 8% during the regular season, marketers have lined up to take part in NBA post-season action. Strong demand has already gobbled up between 85%-95% of the ad inventory on ESPN, ABC, and Turner’s TNT, with percentage rate increases over last year in the high single digits. Regular-season ratings have minimal impact on the post-season because the NBA Playoffs involve marquee teams with stars playing head-to-head every night. Moreover, numerous postseason superstars have huge social media followings that help draw viewers – particularly younger ones. Perhaps with that in mind, Adidas Basketball and Marvel have unveiled a campaign for a new limited-edition "Heroes Among Us" shoe collection featuring five current and former NBA and WNBA players. Players featured include the Rockets’ James Harden (Iron Man), the Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard (Black Panther), the Wizards’ John Wall (Captain America), former NBAer Tracy McGrady (Nick Fury), and the WNBA Sparks’ Candace Parker (Captain Marvel). The shoe line will be available at retail April 26, as the playoffs tip off their second round.

The Indiana Pacers have agreed to a deal keeping them in Indianapolis for the next 25 years. The agreement includes $295 million in public subsidies for renovation and expansion of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Pacers’ home arena. A further $360 million will be used for capital improvements, comprising $270 million from state and CIB sources, and $65 million from private investment. As part of the deal, the city of Indianapolis will also contribute $25 million for public infrastructure needs. Approved by the House of Representatives, the greenlighted bill now goes to the Senate to be voted on and secure final approval. Construction will be completed in three phases. Phase one will focus on interior renovations, scheduled for February-October, 2020. While this won’t disrupt Pacers’ home games, the WNBA Indiana Fever, who play their games during the summer, must play home games during the 2020 and 2021 seasons at another venue. Herbert Simon, the team's 84-year-old owner, has said he wants to keep the Pacers in Indiana and that his son, Steve Simon, will take over the franchise, which has been in their family since 1983.

After winning his fifth green jacket on Sunday, Tiger Woods learned last Monday that he would also be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Trump announced in a tweet that he had spoken to Woods and would be presenting him with the prestigious honor. The honor is not one to be taken lightly. Woods will become just the fourth golfer to receive the medal, joining Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Charlie Sifford. While Nicklaus and Palmer were given the medal by President George W. Bush during his presidency, Sifford, who was a mentor to Woods, was honored five years ago by President Barack Obama. When Sifford was awarded the medal, Woods tweeted his congratulations. Woods will be the fourth athlete to receive the award during President Trump’s time in office, joining Babe Ruth, Roger Staubach, and Alan Page.  

Tiger Woods’ comeback Masters win delivered $22.5 million in exposure to Nike, according to sponsorship analytics firm Apex Marketing Group. As Tiger made his final round charge towards the title, he is estimated to have generated more than $23.6 million in total exposure for his sponsors. While AT&T, Gillette, and Tag Heuer left Woods as he suffered image issues related to marriage infidelity, substance abuse, and injury, that opened the door to new partners such as Monster Energy – Woods’ golf bag sponsor – which saw $960,000 in exposure during his final round at Augusta. CBS News noted Nike's stock price rose 2% after The Masters began and "continued to edge up Monday" following Woods' victory, adding more than $2 billion to Nike's market value. The "Tiger effect" was also "enough to boost the stock prices of other golf brands." Callaway Golf "spiked as much" as 4% from the start of The Masters through Monday. Acushnet Holdings, which owns Titleist, "jumped nearly" 5% in the same period. However, not even Tiger trying to chase down Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 major wins can change golf’s trajectory – more than ever, it is a game for the aging and not the more desirable demographic, the young.

It’s never too early to get in the Games. NBCUniversal has teamed with the Olympic organizing committee LA 2028 to offer brands advertising opportunities ahead of the 2028 Olympics, to be held in Los Angeles – the first Summer Games to be held in the U.S. since 1996. A sales team is being built by NBCU and LA2028 (plus the USOC) that will begin presenting opportunities for brands to associate themselves with four sets of games crowned by the 2028 Summer Games in L.A. With the first summer games in the U.S. in more than three decades set to arrive in 2028, this partnership marks a new type of opportunity for marketers to get involved in the Olympics — which is shaping up to make an unrivaled economic and cultural impact. “At no other time in Olympic and Paralympic history have the stakes been higher…We are at an inflection point in the sports, lifestyle and live event business that demands a complete reimagining of the model and approach to embracing and involving marketers,” said LA2028 Chair Casey Wasserman. The move is highly unusual, as normally the Olympic organizing committees and broadcast partners pursue sponsorship deals independently.

MLB is bringing the 2026 All-Star Game to Philadelphia, as part of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred last week said the league’s typical process of awarding All-Star games “went out the window” with the move to award the 2026 game to the Phillies. Manfred has sought to make competitive bidding and sequential awarding of All-Star Games key tenets of his tenure since his 2014 election. However, during an event at Independence Mall last week to announce the selection, Manfred said the move to tie the 2026 game to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was a personal decision that followed more than two years of repeated requests from Phillies Chair and close friend Dave Montgomery. Said Manfred, “Dave never asked for a favor for the Phillies or for himself. But two years ago, he began asking for this game and to announce it soon.” Fittingly, awarding the 2026 MLB All-Star Game to Philadelphia mirrors the 1976 event that was played at Veterans Stadium, and tied into America’s bicentennial.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has put forward the idea of adding mid-season tournaments to the league and shortening the number of games played each season. Currently, NBA teams each play in an 82-game regular season, with games lasting 48 minutes. For Silver, player welfare is reportedly at the heart of the proposed reforms. But to counteract the reduced revenues a shortened schedule will bring, Silver has suggested adding all-new mid-season tournaments to maintain income. While acknowledging these changes will do away with more than 50 years of American basketball tradition in the U.S., Silver believes they are necessary for the NBA to stay relevant as fans’ viewing habits change in an increasingly competitive market. It is has been rumored that seasons could be scaled back to 70 games per team, with the NBA exploring the possibility of the mid-season tournaments being hosted in Europe and Asia. The two continents have been earmarked by the league for brand growth. Considering that ever-older NBA players have so many miles on their bodies – just look at the just-retired 40 year old Dirk Nowitzki – Silver is right to begin reimagining the schedule.

Despite some shockers in the first round that left busted brackets in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Bracket Challenge presented by Jägermeister, the NHL is now offering – for the first time ever – a fresh start with the Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Chance Bracket. At the conclusion of the First Round and before the start of the Second Round, fans will be able to submit a new bracket at NHL.com/Bracket with their predictions for the remainder of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hockey fans submitted more than 1.42 million brackets in the initial 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Bracket Challenge. Following upsets that knocked the Lightning and Penguins out of the Playoffs, the NHL is offering fans who participated in the playoff bracket challenge a second chance. The Lightning were projected as champions by 48.62% of the brackets, and the Penguins were selected by 51.3%. Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs are probably hoping that their fan Drake doesn’t make the trip to Boston for their Game 7 showdown with the Bruins on Tuesday. The so-called “Drake Curse” has been exhaustively noted – when the rapper roots for someone, they lose.

London is set to lose the ATP Finals after 2020 with the ATP reportedly favoring moving the season-ending men’s tennis tournament to Turin in Italy. According to the Daily Telegraph, barring a last-minute change of heart, next year’s ATP Finals will be the last staged at the O2 Arena, which has hosted the men’s tennis finale since 2009. The ATP has undergone a nine-month bid process for a new five-year hosting deal, and in December narrowed its shortlist down to London, Manchester, Turin, Singapore, and Tokyo. The Telegraph report claims that ATP executives are likely to rule out a fourth extension to its hosting agreement for the O2. Italy’s bid is apparently unlikely to sell as many tickets as the event at the O2, but Italian media reports have said that Turin’s mayor, Chiara Appendino, is willing to put up an annual guarantee of $17 million in order to secure the tournament hosting rights. The ATP Finals has been a major success in London, drawing more than 250,000 people each year and accounting for 15% of the governing body’s revenues, which amounted to $144 million for the last financial year.

Spending on over-the-top (OTT) technology in sports will hit $6.8 billion by 2021, according to a new report by Deltatre. The analysis reveals that sports operators worldwide are now spending 15% of total budgets on OTT technology, and by 2021, more than $6.8 billion will be invested in the sector. Other key findings in the report reveal that 2/3 of consumers are not willing to spend more than $39 per month on sports content – with the remaining third prepared to pay more. Additionally, the analysis from Deltatre, a Bruin Sports Capital portfolio company, offers good news for global sports operators investing in fan engagement functionality, as doing so delivers a 24% uplift in subscriber acquisition. 72% of those surveyed in the report cite personalization and a tailored user experience as the most important feature offered by OTT sports services. Almost the same number of consumers, 71%, want deeper immersion and a desire to feel closer to the action through the more advanced functionality that OTT can provide. OTT metrics have changed. It's no longer just about streaming games. Encouraging viewers to come back day after day is the gold standard, even when there’s no live competition taking place.

Port of Oakland says A's waterfront ballpark would pose safety risks. The Port of Oakland’s maritime industry is "raising red flags" over the A’s waterfront ballpark plan, claiming that the 34,000-seat venue and housing project "would pose both a safety risk to ships and a threat to the port’s future as a major, regional economic engine," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The A’s counter that the project "wouldn’t endanger any port jobs or adversely impact the port’s shipping business." The commission "finds itself having to balance the needs and future of the third-largest port on the West Coast with the desire" of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and the A’s to "create a new neighborhood" along the waterfront. Unlike the Giants’ Oracle Park, which "sits on a relatively quiet stretch of waterfront," the A’s ballpark "would be perched right on the edge of the port’s Inner Harbor turning basin." The basin is a "key waterway where each week bar pilots turn around an average of 25 ships" after the vessels "unload and load cargo at two nearby terminals." The pilots are very concerned about the ballpark’s lights, which they claim can act like a car’s high beams and interfere with a navigator’s vision.

Top Five Tech

Gen.G Esports announces a $46 million round of funding including Will Smith. According to Esports Insider, other new partners include Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda's Dreamers Fund, Los Angeles Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong, former Chairman of U.S. Investments Alibaba Group Michael Zeisser, and MasterClass Co-Founder and CEO David Rogier. Two-time NBA Champion and current Gen.G Player Management Advisor Chris Bosh will continue to lead the team’s creative and commercial endeavors while the new capital will go towards supporting the ongoing expansion of Gen.G’s global footprint, which already includes teams in the world’s top esports leagues across the U.S., China, and Korea. The new money will also contribute to the development of Gen.G’s youth esports academy program and the launch of Gen.G’s Los Angeles headquarters, opening in July, 2019. Honda’s presence will help build esports in Japan and other nations with budding esports communities, while Smith’s investment adds to the list of big-name U.S. esports investors.

Barstool Sports drives to make a splash in golf with “Barstool Classic.” According to Golfweek, the multi-month tournament will begin with eight qualifying events in major markets, including Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, leading up to one championship event. The tournament features teams of two playing at 50% handicap in four-ball format. The winning team gets $10,000 and a trophy for their efforts. The tournament kicks off June 3 in in Milton, Massachusetts, and then takes place on August 26 in Pound Ridge, New York with two additional events to be scheduled in the New York and Philadelphia areas, in addition to the championship. Barstool’s media presence has been built behind loyal fans. And golf is an area that Barstool President Dave Portnoy knows is a hot topic among their fan base, and subscribers can’t get enough of that content. In the week after Tiger Woods’ comeback Masters’ win, Barstool is choosing the right time to capitalize on America’s newfound passion for golf.

NHL stars are creating video diary series for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. According to Adweek, one player on each of the 16 teams participating in the NHL postseason is taking part in a video diary series called Cup Confidential, in which they will talk about their team’s performance, the atmosphere in the arena, pregame rituals, fans, home lives, and other topics across the NHL’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter channels. Players who are part of Cup Confidential include Tyler Ennis of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames, and Matt Hendricks of the Winnipeg Jets. While there have been big upsets of late including the Tampa Bay Lightning's 0-4 defeat, the video diaries have been a key part of the NHL’s strong social media push during its playoffs.

Golf hits a hole-in-one with 1 billion minutes of streamed coverage with Tiger Woods’ Masters victory. CBS Sports and The Masters live streaming coverage drew record viewership online, with more than 1 billion minutes of coverage streamed as Woods secured his first major victory since 2008. Over the tournament’s duration, an average audience of 447,000 per minute watched the live stream from Augusta. According to SportsPro, an average of 10.8 million viewers tuned in to watch CBS Sports’ coverage of the final round on Sunday, registering the tournament’s most-watched morning golf broadcast in 32 years. 18.3 million viewers tuned into the final day at its peak between 2:15 pm and 2:30 pm when Woods sealed his fifth green jacket. The final day of play drew a combined 37.2 million viewers, setting the highest Sunday coverage for a Masters since 2013; the final round replay also drew an average of 4.5 million viewers.

Twitch was a preferred streaming destination for Generation Adidas Cup. As part of the MLS agreement, Twitch streamed video coverage of 66 matches from the elite youth tournament to a global audience live from Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas April 13-20. According to MLS, the league also showcased off-field programming through player engagement seminars and coaching symposium talks in addition to streaming live matches. The games at the Cup hosted matches across both U-17 and U-15 divisions. Generation Adidas Cup is the latest MLS event to integrate Twitch as a featured distribution platform, joining eMLS Cup on March 30 in Boston. Reaching into youth sports may be the next big marketing key for a progressively more crowded sports OTT and streaming field.

Power of Sports Five

A Bay Area high schooler creates a charity to help sports communities around the world. Shevali Kadakia suffered a concussion at age 15 that put her on the sidelines, unable to play soccer or basketball for a long period of time. She realized that she had accumulated a surplus of uniforms during her time playing sports over the years, and that those jerseys could be put to good use. After visiting the impoverished neighborhood of Cite Soleil in the Port-au-Prince section of Haiti, she decided to not only start donating her old jerseys, but also to start a charity. According to KRON 4, the non-profit SKCharities has been contacting colleges all across the U.S. asking athletics departments to donate old uniforms with many happy to help. The nonprofit also organizes free introductory basketball and soccer camps for children and has helped over 4,000 kids worldwide to date.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer ramps up his charity efforts with $690 donated for every strikeout he tallies on the season. Although somewhat rambunctious in nature, Bauer has a heart of gold. Last season, he started his 69 Days of Giving campaign. He donated $420.69 to different organizations for 68 days in a row, and $69,420.69 on the 69th day to Max Hayes High School, an inner-city Cleveland school focused on STEM courses. According to Yahoo! Sports, this season he has added his strikeout donations, where for every punch out he records, he will donate $10 to 69 different organizations.  Already, Bauer has generated $22,800 in 2019 with the money dedicated to providing kids with after-school opportunities. A self-described nerd as a kid, Bauer wants to ensure STEM education gets its fair share of help and has taken to his active Twitter page to let his fans have a say in the charities he will support. An MLB All-Star in 2018, Bauer is poised to make a big splash on the mound as well as in philanthropy this season.

Sports anti-racism charity joins government board to fight anti-Semitism. Action Against Discrimination (AAD) is joining the U.K. government’s new working board to tackle racism and anti-Semitism in sport. According to Jewish News, the group, which is set up by U.K. Sports Minister Mims Davies, is reviewing soccer’s current sanctioning regime to create a closer partnership between soccer authorities and the police to better identify offenders at matches. Tackling hate in sport is a large issue that continues to permeate UEFA, MLB, the NHL, and the NBA. By teaming up with governments, more direct action will be committed in the U.K. toward changing the status quo of waving aside offensive and derogatory language in professional sport.

The world gets a helping hand with a MLS and Adidas Earth Day celebration. According to Hypebeast, Major League Soccer‘s social responsibility platform will run its fourth annual Greener Goals Week of Service through Earth Day. MLS Works’ Green Goals initiative explores ways to reduce the soccer body’s greenhouse gas footprint while raising awareness about environmental issues throughout the sports community. MLS has also worked with Adidas and others to create special limited edition eco-friendly kits from recycled marine plastic uniforms with all 24 clubs sporting these outfits during their games on Earth Day weekend, which took place April 19-21. Additionally, MLS clubs and staff will also be volunteering and partnering up with local charities to give back to the community. Overall, the new environment-friendly jerseys encourage soccer fans to decrease single-use plastic usage, raise awareness for plastic pollution, and generally connect sports fans with eco-friendly practices.

Oakland Raiders cornerback Gareon Conley is hosting a charity event for vulnerable youth in sport. The 1st Annual Conley Island Best In America Charity Golf Tournament in Columbus, Ohio will raise money for LiFEsports, a charity at Conley’s alma mater, Ohio State University. LiFEsports serves over 1,000 Central Ohio youth from socially vulnerable circumstances through its summer camp, year-round clinics, and Youth Leadership Academy. The program mentors and teaches social skills and valuable life lessons to the youth who need it the most. According to 247 Sports, LIFEsports was in such high demand last year that they couldn't accommodate all of the children that they needed to help, so Conley is using golf and some of his star-powered friends including current and former NFL players Eli Apple, running back Beanie Wells, linebacker Darron Lee, and cornerback Shawn Springs to bring in donations for kids who can use a helping hand through the power of sport. Whether wanting to participate or simply watch, this charity event combines golf and football to gives back to kids who could be future stars in their own rights, so long as they can receive a little help to even the playing field.

[markwatkinsconsumerguide]

Consumer Guide / No.72 / Broadcaster & entrepreneur, Steve Crozier with Mark Watkins.  

MW : Tell me about your background, and what did you want to do?

SC : I was born in Hertfordshire, England, and as a young child spent many summers with my grandparents in Henley, on the banks of the Thames. 

When I was six, I remember my grandad always turning on the valve wireless to listen to the BBC Home service at 6pm, accompanied by a bottle of cider.

I remember hearing Frederic Mullaly read the bulletin, and was awestruck by his voice, and the power of disseminating world events.

After the news ended, Frederic would get into his car and drive from Broadcasting House to his home in Henley - very near to my grandparent’s riverside bungalow - and drink sherry with my grandpa and grandma! 

I’d sit on the floor, just awestruck! That's when I knew what I wanted to do!

MW : How did you get into broadcasting? 

SC : Via the back door of sales. At first, I didn’t make the cut for Reading’s Radio 210; at that time, in the mid 70s, I was in TV (ad) sales in London - which was well paid. Besides, that’s where I lived and I wasn’t experienced enough to work at LBC, or Capital Radio. I had my eyes firmly on the Reading ILR franchise which was awarded to Kennet Ltd (who then became Radio 210). 

I made a tape at Roger Squires and mailed it to Kennets’ address, and made an appointment to meet with Neil ffrench Blake, who was Programme controller. We met in the Albermarle pub in Mayfair, London, and he referred me to Michael Moore, at The Sun, who was assembling 210’s sales department. News International, who owned The Sun, was part funding 210. Michael was a Murdoch Star, he hired me. 

This new team started work about six months before launch in the Filberts building in Calcot row, which was the then HQ, while the ambulance shed next door was being attached and adapted for radio, and studio use. There were three of us: David Oldroyd from the local newspaper, Linda Brookes from Capital Radio and myself. We had a large area map on an easel into which we pushed glass top pins. It was like a War Room from an old movie! 

As sales got underway, it was obvious that the actual radio spots had to be produced, so I moved to a production managers position, and we made hundreds of spots.

One week before our launch deadline, Neil ffrench Blake offered me an on-air job; Saturdays, 10am to 2pm. There was no shortage of live guests, and one of my first was David Cassidy! So, dear reader THAT’S how I got into radio!

MW : As a teenager, what records do you remember buying/collecting?

SC: As a teenager, I remember amongst the first records records I bought were Sgt Pepper, The Beatles White album, and some misc singles. They were expensive when ones only income was a newspaper round, and some occasional gardening work! An album was three pounds ten shillings, and a single was ten shillings or more.

MW : OK, let’s tune to 210...

SC : In the early days of 210, there was a huge shift in music tastes. Disco was giving way to mega rock bands (Eagles, Fleetwood Mac) and soul, R&B and funk were massive too. Soon, in the late 70’s Punk was to explode... actually, programmers and top-level DJ/ presenters (Bob Harris) hadn’t a good grasp of what was actually happening! Bob actually got into a fight with Sid Vicious at a club in London, and  “called it a day” with Whistle Test. 

Tastes and audiences were changing.

At 210, there was a calm sea of music policy, enforced by Neil. The 210 Top 40 was a slow moving list, not sales based, but tailored to fit a certain pre-determined ‘sound’ like many of the programmers in the States.

DJ tastes were being eroded.

During my time at 210, us youngsters were always on the lookout to expand. Mike Read, Steve Wright, myself and others picked up a lot of outside gigs, mostly local disco work. 

Thanks to my documentary and talk experience I got more varied offers such as British Forces Broadcasting which paid very well (I subbed for Tommy Vance) and then BOOM!

I successfully applied to audition for Esther Rantzens’  ‘That’s Life’. What a step up that would be...

MW : ...‘That’s Life’ ?

SC :  ...every couple of years or so, Esther’s reporter sidekicks would cycle-out, and replacements had to be found. To start the audition process, I spent a few weeks at BBC West London, picking out useable stories and building them into TV-worthy items. (The actual show was on summer break.) This culminated in a full TV studio recording WITH audience. Just like the real thing. There were about eight finalists (four pairs), and it was quite nerve wracking. 

Sadly, I didn’t get the part; as seemed usual at the time, existing BBC reporters got the jobs... us outsiders were window dressing for this process, but it was super fun, a great experience. As a result, I became friends with the team, and often went up to TV centre to sit in on the tapings.

MW :  Capital Radio 194 went to air the same year as LBC in 1973, but it was Capital Radio 604 in South Africa that you later joined. How did you get involved, and how did the two “ Capitals” compare? 

SC : In late 1978, a revolutionary radio station was being formed in London and Cape Town called Capital Radio. It had nothing to do whatsoever with either the South African government, or 194. Rather, it was to be based in an ‘Independent’ African State, called the Transkei. The aim was to broadcast uncensored news and music from the ‘Homeland’ of Transkei, south, and into South Africa, which was ruled by apartheid, and white supremacy. 

604′s mission was to broadcast actual, real news, and play rock and pop which hadn’t been rejected by the SA government censors. Its transmitter was the “‘loudest” in the Southern Hemisphere, but the antenna system was misaligned, resulting in a poor AM signal to the intended audience. Short-wave and FM functioned to a point in Cape Town and to and extent, Johannesburg. 

I was chosen to ship out to Port St. Johns, Transkei, and helped set up the broadcasting side. The main studio and staff base was located in a sleepy former fishing town called Port St. Johns, on the Indian Ocean. It was Paradise! It was also the first time I’d earned a five figure, untaxed salary! No outgoing except for high quality wine and spirits!

http://www.capital604.com/

MW : LBC celebrates its 45th anniversary this year - let’s look back at your time there...

SC : LBC is a book in itself! Suffice it to say that I joined as a jobbing freelance, doing late -night shifts and news, and then rapidly to traffic analyst (reporter) at Scotland Yard. This taught me London geography, almost like a black-cab driver. We then brought traffic in-house, when we added a small ‘plane sponsored by the Evening Standard, to view traffic congestion. As far as weekday presentation was concerned, I was usually co-anchoring with Philip Hodson, David Loyn etc.

My primary arc at LBC was news reading for Independent Radio News (IRN) and, for eight of my eleven years, I ran the syndicated travel programme ‘Time Off’. This was a way for us to showcase the many, varied press trip offers the station received. We were blessed with a huge audience, plus the central ability to satellite-out the components of the show, and also the entire one hour reel. 

In the late eighties, when a lot of people went freelance (off staff) we worked through our own companies/ entities and I turned ‘Time Off’ into a cash machine, selling the sponsorships myself.

http://www.geofflumley.org.uk/lbc261/

MW : Melody Radio launched with the slogan 'At last - radio without the speakers' - as a launch presenter, what was it like?

SC : In 1990, Peter Black invited me to join Lord Hanson’s Melody Radio, which I did for four years. (A TV comedian at the time called it “Quiet FM”, orr was that Radio Two?!)

Nothing much happened here...apart from having the luxury of an actual producer for each show, including Roskos’ old producer Aidan Day, who was now scheduling easy listening!!

In 2005 off I went again... another adventure; this time to Nairobi and back to my TV roots to help redesign the Kenya Television Network (KTN) I was MD and CEO, and the re-shaping was drastic. In my early days there I bought first series of ‘ER’, ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’, ‘Days Of Our Lives’ etc... paying the super cheap “Third World” rate card price. And boy did we milk it until the reels had to be returned!

PC’s and WIndows ‘95 had just come out, so we were all good! Such systems, good sales and top TV presenters, staff, and shows took us rapidly to the most watched in the land. We also had exclusive use of CNN International for news inserts and over-night programming. I was also tasked with designing two FM stations for Nairobi (population 6.5 million) which were up and running after I left.

MW : What constitutes your life now?

SC : I met my Colorado born wife-to-be in Nairobi - who was on a sabbatical from Southern California, and a career in law.

In May 1996 we were married in Manhattan Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, and soon moved to Santa Barbara where she continued a successful career in Law, and is now the Assistant City Attorney. 

We have a daughter, now at Berkeley, and I continue with my own media and web projects and a movie and TV project in development.

© Mark Watkins / October 2018

[anthonycharlestabone]

Having trouble viewing? View in Browser Friday, October 13, 2017 TOP OF THE MORNING It's Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 - Friday the 13th. Welcome to Fox News First, your first stop for today's news. To get your early morning news emailed directly to your inbox, click here. Here's your Fox News First 5 - the first five things you need to know today: President Trump targets two hallmarks of the Obama era: He'll likely decertify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and halt ObamaCare subsidies to health insurers The Weinstein Company feels backlash from the Hollywood sex scandal Death toll mounts: California wildfires have killed at least 31 people this week The Las Vegas massacre timeline is disputed once again Let's dive deeper into these stories ...  THE LEAD STORY: President Trump will outline a new strategy on Iran designed to block "all paths to a nuclear weapon." ... In a rebuke of the 2015 agreement from the Obama era, Trump was expected to declare today that a nuclear Iran is not in America's national security interest. Trump will outline specific faults he finds in the 2015 accord but will also focus on an array of Iran's troubling non-nuclear activities. Those include Tehran's ballistic missile program, support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and other groups that destabilize the region. Tune in to Fox News for live coverage and analysis of Trump's speech at 12:45 p.m. ET and throughout the day. From Fox News Opinion: The conservative case to keep the Iran deal Iran threatens 'crushing' response Iran's secret sites linked to nuclear weapons development revealed Fox News' full coverage: Iran BLOW TO OBAMACARE: President Trump plans to halt federal subsidies to insurers under the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare ... This is Trump's bid to ultimately "repeal and replace" President Obama's signature legislation. Trump's decision was expected to rattle already unsteady insurance marketplaces. The president has previously threatened to end the payments, which help reduce health insurance copays and deductibles for people with modest incomes, but the plan remains under a legal cloud. Will there be blowback? Almost certainly. Trump's move will likely trigger lawsuits from state attorneys general, who contend the subsidies to insurers are fully authorized by federal law, and the president's position is reckless. Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, has already called the decision “sabotage,” and promised a lawsuit. Trump's executive order on health care: What you should know From Fox News Opinion: Trump's right: Less regulation and more incentives are the right path for health care reform WEINSTEIN STIGMA: Talent agencies have reportedly started refusing to work with the Weinstein Company in wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal ... Deadline.com reports that these agencies are worried the Weinstein Company is a tarnished brand -- and would remain so even under a different name – because clients don't want Harvey Weinstein profiting in any way from ongoing and future projects. In addition, In The Heights book writer Quiara Alegria Hudes and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda want the Weinstein Company to give up the movie rights to the pre-"Hamilton" musical. More disclosures: Weinstein scandal prompts flood of abuse accusations Oliver Stone implicated: An ex-Playboy playmate accuses the filmmaker of grabbing her breast  Amazon boss Roy Price suspended Looking ahead - Bravery (and introspection) is what Hollywood needs now SCORCHED EARTH: Raging wildfires across Northern California have now killed at least 31 people, marking the deadliest week of blazes in state history ...  The fires, many of them in wine country, broke out almost simultaneously Sunday night and now cover more than 300 square miles, an area as large as New York City. State officials have not yet officially said what caused the blazes, which have destroyed at least 3,500 homes and businesses. Downed power lines and blown transformers are one theory. Dispatch audio obtained by KTVU Fox 2 News reveals firefighters in Napa and Sonoma counties called in more than a dozen reports of downed power lines, live wires, and blown transformers late Sunday in the first hours of the wildfire outbreak. CARNAGE AND CONFUSION: Amid timeline discrepancies, investigators in Las Vegas still have not determined the motive for the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history ... MGM Resorts International said Thursday that shots were fired into a music festival crowd "at the same time as, or within 40 seconds after" a security guard first reported by hotel dispatch radio that shots were fired. The casino company says Las Vegas police accounts are inaccurate. Police have said the shooter, Stephen Paddock, fired a barrage into the hallway toward the guard and a casino maintenance worker, and fired assault-style weapons out the casino windows for about 10 minutes before killing himself with a gunshot to the head. Tucker: Conspiracy theories fill the Vegas information void Timeline change raises questions about hotel security, police response Fox News' Full Coverage: Las Vegas Massacre   ABOUT LAST NIGHT HOLLYWOOD QUID PRO QUO: "If you make me feel good, I'll make you rich and famous ... It was straight up prostitution." – Singer Joy Villa, on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," recalling her own encounter with sexual harassment early in her career, when she met privately with an entertainment executive. WATCH THE HARVEY CLAUSE: "He has to pay the company back what it paid the victim... and pay a fine ... The company structured a contract that essentially allowed for sexual harassment if you're willing to pay a monetary price." – Harvey Levin, TMZ founder and host of OBJECTified, on "The Story with Martha MacCallum," detailing how Harvey Weinstein's contract allowed continued employment in wake of sexual harassment suits. WATCH   MINDING YOUR BUSINESS White House steps up review of Federal Reserve chairman candidates. Source: Disney to cut about 200 jobs at its TV networks. Uber set to appeal London license loss. BASF to buy seeds, herbicide businesses from Bayer for $7 billion.   NEW IN FOX NEWS OPINION Eagle Scout: RIP, Boy Scouts of America. You were great for 100 years. Tomi Lahren: Hollywood liberals are anti-Trump, not pro-woman. Is Harvard racist? If you’re Asian-American, their admission policies just might be. NFL and its owners salute one flag: The dollar.   HOLLYWOOD SQUARED Jeopardy! champion's 12-day winning streak comes to an end. Demi Lovato reveals she's open to dating men and women. OBJECTified preview: Tyler Perry on prized possessions. The untold story of Steve McQueen's spiritual journey.   DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS? Yellowstone supervolcano could blow faster than thought, destroy all of mankind. California fires: How the smoke can affect the taste of wine. Energy drinks cost new father part of his skull, brain. 3,200-year-old stone inscription tells of Trojan prince, sea people.   STAY TUNED On Fox News: Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Attorney General Jeff Sessions discusses the measures he's taking against for sanctuary cities and why he believes there's a "crisis" in the surge of asylum claims. Plus, former Iran hostage Don Cooke gives insight on U.S. attempts to bring Caitlan Coleman and her family home from Afghanistan, where they were held captive since 2012. Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. ET: A reporter will give the inside story on how NBC tried to cover up the Harvey Weinstein sex harassment scandal.   On Fox Business: Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross explains his request for an additional $3.3 billion from Congress to complete the 2020 census; Sen. Rand Paul takes on President Trump's executive action on health care. Varney & Co., 9 a.m. ET: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady talks tax reform chances. Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Noon ET: Former Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, dissects President Trump's new strategy on Iran.  Lou Dobbs Tonight, 7 p.m. ET: John Hannah, senior counselor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, gives his take on Trump's new approach to Iran   On Fox News Radio: The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET to 12 noon ET: Former Deputy Campaign Manager David Bossie looks back on White House Chief of Staff John Kelly taking on rumors directly with the White House press corps; Former State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf breaks down Trump's Iran strategy. The Tom Shillue Show, 3 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET: Rep. Steve King discusses Trump's latest action on health care and how the White House should address "Dreamers."   #OnThisDay 2010: Rescuers in Chile use a missile-like escape capsule to rescue 33 men, one-by-one,  who were trapped for 69 days in a collapsed mine a half-mile underground. 1999: The JonBenet Ramsey grand jury is dismissed after 13 months of work, with prosecutors saying there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the 1996 slaying. 1962: Edward Albee's four-character drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway. 1775: U.S. Navy has its origins as the Continental Congress orders the construction of a naval fleet.   Thank you for joining us on Fox News First! Enjoy your Friday and weekend! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Monday morning. Unsubscribe ©2017 Fox News Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10036. Privacy Policy.